Aug 2 1993
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Grumman Corporation was under criminal investigation for allegedly overcharging NASA by as much as $8 million; the probe threatened the company's eligibility for new Federal contracts. (WSJ, Aug 2/93; AP, Aug 8/93; UPI, Aug 8/93; W Times, Aug 3/93; NY Times, Aug 3/93)
Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin's shuffling of top Space Station officials had led to internal friction between NASA and officials at the Reston, Virginia program office for the Space Station. NASA's international partners in the Space Station were also reportedly concerned that they were not fully involved in key decisions involving the Station. (Av Wk, Aug 2/93)
Joseph R. Cipriano, associate director of the department's Energy Research Office, recommended that the department fire the project manager for the $11 billion Super Conducting Super Collider, slash President Clinton's budget request, and "take a year... to fix problems." In a memo, Cipriano noted that morale was very' low, confidence in existing management was practically non-existent, and cost and schedule trends were worsening at an alarming rate. A nonprofit group of research universities, Universities Research Association, Inc., was under contract to build the instrument. (W Post, Aug 2/93)
The Hooker Telescope on Mt. Wilson in California, which once ranked as the world's biggest, was written off as an astronomical anachronism eight years ago. However, using the latest electronic sensors and image-enhancers, scientists and philanthropists led by Robert Jastrow of the Mt. Wilson Institute and the founder of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Flight, were reported to be working to salvage the Hooker Telescope. Jastrow had raised $250,000 for repairs and was seeking another $250,000 to make the telescope useful into the 21st century. (LA Times, Aug 2/93)
A Titan 4 rocket carrying an expensive military spy satellite system exploded minutes after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This, the first failure of the four-year-old Titan 4 program, was a $2-billion accident, said John Pike, director of the space policy project at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, a liberal group that researches classified aerospace projects. Pike consistently has criticized U.S. spy satellites. The accident wiped out most of the savings Congress took from the intelligence budget during the year. (RTW, Aug 2/93; AP, Aug 3/93; USA Today, Aug 3/93, Aug 4/93; LA Times, Aug 3/93; W Times, Aug 3/93; NY Times, Aug 3/93, Aug 4/93; W Post, Aug 3/93, Aug 4/93)
August marked the 10th anniversary of the first use of NASA's Tracking Data and Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The system consists of several satellites plus a ground station at White Sands, New Mexico. (Onset Magazine, Aug 2/93)
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