Jan 26 1993
From The Space Library
Daniel J. Jones, 80, a senior aeronautical engineer who retired in 1973 after 20 years with the Army Material Command, died January 23 after a heart attack. He served in the Navy from 1941 to 1953, and had tours of duty with the naval Aviation Engineering Division in the South Pacific during World War II and with the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington during the Korean War. (W Post, Jan 26/93)
Rockwell International Corporation Chairman and CEO Donald R. Beall presented the Chairman's Team Award to National Aerospace Plane engineers in recognition of the Engine Flowpath Team's significant contributions to hypersonic propulsion development in the United States. The team was composed of 11 engineers from General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell's Rocketdyne and North American Aircraft businesses, and NASA's Langley Research Center. (Antelope Valley Press, Jan 26/93)
Rockwell International Corporation, based in Seal Beach, California, announced that it had agreed to pay $225 million for Sundstrand Corporation's Data Control subsidiary. Rockwell would merge the subsidiary, which makes flight-control systems and instruments, into its Collins avionics division, which makes communications, navigation, flight control, and position location gear. (WSJ, Jan 26/93)
Loral Corporation's Loral Vought Systems unit announced that Japan had agreed to buy a multiple-launch rocket system. The four-year contract was for $250 million. The agreement included 1,300 tactical and practice rockets, 47 launcher trainer pods, and 36 launchers for the ground-to-ground defense system. (WSJ, Jan 26/93)
A White House panel recently called for the American space program to cut back its program significantly. The panel's report, issued on December 17, said that duplication among agencies had to be eliminated and cold-war secrecy reduced. The panel added that the United States should seek to make international cooperation an essential component of its space exploration strategy. (NY Times, Jan 26/93)
At a recent meeting in St. Louis, astrophysicists discussed the mystery of blasts of gamma rays that appear every few days from somewhere, but never from the same place. After reviewing new satellite observations and discussing various theories, experts could not even determine where the gamma ray bursters, as they are called, were coming from.
Speculation continued, however. A survey by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, an orbiting telescope launched in April 1991, revealed that the distribution of the bursters seemed to suggest extragalactic origins. Hence scientists had focused on conceiving what kind of violent forces could produce high-energy gamma rays that could be detected by Earth-orbiting spacecraft. Several scientists proposed that the bursts involved catastrophic encounters of ultra dense neutron stars with each other or with black holes. Astrophysicists conceded that there might be no single source or explanation for the bursters; it was possible that the flashes were related to some physical process still unknown. (NY Times, Jan 26/93)
House of Representatives freshmen, one-third of the 110 new House members, want to serve on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Twenty new members won seats on the committee. The main draw appeared to be the potential for scientific research and applied technology to save or create jobs in their districts. Committee members could promote technology programs without earmarking Federal funds for specific areas. (W Post, Jan 26/93)
After a two-day trip, a Soyuz rocket docked with the Mir Space Station, using an apparatus designed to link the orbiter with a U.S. Shuttle. On board were two Russian cosmonauts. They were scheduled to replace the two cosmonauts who have been on Mir for the past six months. James Oberg, an expert on former Soviet science and technology, said that "the success of this test clears some worries about the hardware functioning properly." (B Sun, Jan 27/93; UPI, Jan 26/93)
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