Jan 28 1992
From The Space Library
In an article in the January 16 issue of the journal Nature, Dr. Chris Argyrou Hajivassiliou of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cambridge, England, proved through statistical analysis that the scattering of radio waves caused by turbulent interstellar electrically charged gases, or plasma, is present in areas of the galaxy where it had not been previously proven to exist. The findings are considered evidence that the solar system is encapsulated in an envelope of these gases, probably the relic of the explosion of a nearby massive star tens of millions of years ago. In his article, Dr. Hajivassiliou said that he hoped scientists would be able to use his findings to identify any black hole left by that explosion. (NY Times, Jan 28/92)
George C. Patterson Jr., 67, a retired NASA official who worked for the Agency for 30 years before retiring in 1987 as a flight mission simulation coordinator, died of emphysema January 26 at Holy Cross Hospital, Kensington, Maryland. (W Post, Jan 28/92)
Scientists from University of Washington in Seattle, writing in Science magazine, said that the sulfuric haze that causes acid rain might also be protecting the Northern Hemisphere by countering the warming brought on by the greenhouse effect. (P Inq, Jan 28/92)
As part of the 1993 budget, President Bush approved the cancellation of two major NASA projects-a scientific mission to rendezvous with an asteroid and a program to build more powerful Space Shuttle boosters. Under the budget plan, the White House cancelled the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM), a $3 billion program to develop new and more powerful boosters for the Space Shuttle, as well as the Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby mission, a $700 million spacecraft slated for launch in the late 1990s. The 1993 Bush plan allocated a $700 million increase over the 1992 $14.3 billion NASA budget. (Space News, Jan 28/92)
Final preparations were made for the launching of Earthwinds, a balloon whose three-member crew hoped to be the first to circumnavigate the world in a single balloon flight. Larry Newman, the captain of the Earthwinds and a former crew member of both the transatlantic balloon flight in 1978 and the transpacific flight in 1981, predicted a successful voyage of some 22,000 miles at an altitude of about 35,000 feet. Included in the crew, was to be Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dzhanibekov, chief of astronaut training in the Russian air force. The balloon, which is higher than the Statue of Liberty, would carry scientific experiments built in the former Soviet Union and NASA. (NY Times, Jan 29/92)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
