Mar 13 2003
From The Space Library
The U.S. Air Force Space Command announced its planned elimination of 1,125 positions over the next seven years, as part of a service-wide, post-September 11 initiative to reduce staffing levels. The move would free it to “pour more resources into the Air Force's 'highest priority missions',” such as special operations and intelligence. The plan called for the elimination of 314 civilian and 442 military positions by October 2004, at both senior and lower levels. U.S. Air Force Major Sean McKenna, a Space Command spokesperson, commented that the reductions did not indicate that the Air Force had assigned lower priority to space. (Jeremy Singer, “Air Force Space Command To Cut Staff,” Space News, 13 March 2003.
NASA announced its selection of the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) project for the next mission of NASA's Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) program. The mission would study the causes of auroras. THEMIS comprised five small satellites with identical suites of electrical, magnetic, and particle detectors. With a launch date set for 2007, NASA would place the craft in carefully coordinated orbits, where they would line up along Earth's magnetic tail every four days, to track disturbances. THEMIS satellite data would combine with data gathered from a network of observatories across the Arctic Circle. NASA also announced that it had the opportunity to select an instrument for ESA's Extreme Universe Space Observatory mission aboard the ISS, which would observe the blue light generated when high-energy cosmic rays collide with Earth's atmosphere. (NASA, “NASA Selects Next Medium-Class Explorer Mission,” news release c03h, 20 March 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/mar/HP_news_c03h.html (accessed 25 August 2008).
NASA awarded a contract valued at up to US$238.7 million to the Physical Science Laboratory at New Mexico State University, to operate and maintain scientific balloon facilities and to provide engineering support for the NASA Scientific Balloon Program. The four-year contract with two three-year options had a baseline value of US$39.8 million. (NASA, “NASA Selects PSL for Balloon Program Support Contract,” news release c03-g, 14 March 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/mar/HP_news_c03g.html (accessed 25 August 2008).
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