Oct 27 1999
From The Space Library
New York Governor George E. Pataki awarded NASA astronaut Eileen M. Collins of Elmira, New York, the state's highest award, the Jackie Robinson Empire State Freedom Medal, for her achievement as the first female Space Shuttle Commander. Collins had been Commander of the historic Mission STS-93. During that mission, she and her crew had deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the heaviest, largest, and most powerful x-ray telescope ever launched into space. Governor Pataki described Collins as "a bold pioneer of the reaches of space" and remarked that "her talent, intelligence and courage set an example that every woman and every man can hope to duplicate in their lives." Every year New York presents the Empire State Freedom Medal, established in 1997, to "those who best demonstrate the qualities of determination, dignity, fairness, and honor that were exemplified by Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball's color barrier.”
A Russian Proton rocket carrying a communications satellite manufactured by Lockheed Martin exploded 6 minutes after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the second failure of a Proton rocket in three months. The Russian Space Agency formed a commission to investigate the crash. Kazakhstan had temporarily banned Proton launches from Baikonur following a launch failure on 5 July, but Proton rockets had launched from the facility successfully on 6 and 26 September.
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