May 20 1999
From The Space Library
President of the Aerospace Industries Association John W. Douglass testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space that the nation needed an "enlightened" national space program, combining "public and private investment in synergistic ways." Douglass stated that the government needed to "remove barriers to the growth of commercial space." He said that the most critical action needed for the industry's growth was renewal of the indemnification provisions of the Commercial Space Launch Act, because without such provisions, U.S. companies are unable to compete with the government-backed programs of foreign competitors. Douglass also testified that U.S. launch ranges lacked modern facilities, causing launch delays. Such delays "wreak havoc" in the commercial world, because launch sites require more time to reconfigure a launch than convenient for commercial enterprises. He cited the export licensing process as a serious problem, because it was causing the U.S. commercial space industry to lose market share in both satellite and launch services. Additionally, Douglass called the "dramatic drop" in funding for aerospace research and development over the last two decades a "serious structural roblem," which the United States should correct, to remain competitive in the world market.
U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Chairperson Fred Thompson (R-TN) announced the findings of a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into NASA's computer security. Thompson had requested the study, which found that government specialists were able to penetrate several mission-critical systems and could have stolen, modified, or destroyed system software and data. GAO had found that 135 of the 155 mission-critical systems reviewed did not meet all of NASA's requirements for risk assessment. Specifically, NASA had not conducted an Agency-wide review of information-technology security since 1991; 60 percent of reviewed systems had not been independently audited for security or weaknesses; NASA had no security training program; and NASA field centers did not report security incidents to a central location. GAO had also found that NASA had no policy for determining what type of information its staff could post on public Web sites, rendering it vulnerable to Internet attacks. NASA also had no policy for protecting mission-critical systems from well-known Internet threats.
The U.S. Air Force announced that Brigadier General Kevin P. Chilton would not replace Brigadier General F. Randall Starbuck as Commander of the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, but would lead the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, California. Starbuck was to remain in command of the 45th Space Wing indefinitely until the Air Force had chosen another successor. The change followed "the U.S. launch industry's worst string of accidents in more than a decade," including "three consecutive failures of Air Force Titan rockets" launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Air Force also reported that, earlier in May, a military navigation spacecraft had sustained US$51 million in damage during a thunderstorm. The Air Force announced that it had opened a formal investigation into that incident, in addition to the investigation President William J. Clinton had ordered into the string of launch failures. The President had appointed the CIA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and NASA to carry out that investigation.
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