Nov 20 1991
From The Space Library
On the night of November 19, NASA delayed the launch of Atlantis for at least five days because of the malfunction of a navigation unit in the satellite rocket that provided liftoff. (P 1nq, Nov 20/91; NY Times, Nov 20/91; W Post, Nov 20/91; USA Today, Nov 20/91; LA Times, Nov 20/91; AP, Nov 20/91; UPI, Nov 20/91)
A mysterious object was scheduled to fly near Earth in December. Scientists do not know whether it is a new type of asteroid or a 20-year-old Apollo rocket that shot past the moon and was returning home. Subsequently, it was reported to be a tiny asteroid in circular Earth orbit. However, further reporting by another team of observers indicated it was more probably a cartwheeling rocket carcass. (W Times, Nov 20/91; NY Times, Nov 20/91; USA Today, Nov 21/91; P Inq, Dec 1/91; W Post, Dec 9/91)
A U.N.-sponsored study, the committee for which was co-chaired by Robert Watson, a NASA scientist, provided the first evidence of a summertime thinning of the Earth's protective ozone layer over parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including the United States. The findings were based on both ground and satellite data, according to Watson in a briefing. Evidence showed three percent of the summertime ozone layer and six percent of the winter-time ozone layer were lost over the middle-latitude regions during the 1980s; similar results were expected for the 1990s.
In connection with the ozone depletion, chemist Jim Anderson of Harvard University, together with some 120 scientists from six universities, NASA, and two national laboratories, was preparing to launch a $10 million research expedition of 50 airplane flights over the Arctic. Scientists also proposed planes spraying 50,000 tons of propane or ethane high over the South Pole as a possible way to neutralize the Antarctic ozone hole. (UPI, Nov 20/91; P Inq, Nov 22/91; W Post, Nov 25/91; NY Times, Nov 26/91)
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