Jan 6 1987
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite would be launched on a Delta expendable launch vehicle in early 1989 rather than on the Space Shuttle in July 1988, as originally planned. The change in schedule was caused by the backlog of science payloads awaiting launch on the Space Shuttle as a result of the Challenger accident. Designed to study the "Big Bang", COBE would be launched into a 560-statute-mile, sun-synchronous orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Because of the switch from the Shuttle to Delta, COBE would be reduced in weight from 10,500 pounds to 5,000 pounds and in size from 15 feet to 8 feet in diameter. Scaling down the spacecraft would also require that COBE be redesigned. (NASA Release 87-1)
President Ronald Reagan's proposed fiscal year 1987 budget called for a 12.7 percent increase in NASA funding. The intent of the increase in the NASA budget was to resume the Space Shuttle flights, which had been suspended after the Challenger disaster. The President's budget also called for nearly $767 million for work on the crew-tended Space Shuttle. No funds were included for the untended rockets program, despite recommendations by several expert panels that NASA was overdependent on the Space Shuttle. (NY Times, Jan 6/87)
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