Sep 14 2000
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin and H. Fisk Johnson, President of the Wisconsin-based private venture-capital company Fisk Ventures Inc. (FVI), signed an agreement to "explore a new frontier in biotechnology." Johnson had approached NASA regarding its efforts to commercialize space activities, suggesting a partnership. NASA and FVI agreed to use NASA's bioreactor to develop commercial medical products. The bioreactor technology creates a near-weightless environment enabling cells to grow three-dimensionally. When raised in a traditional Petri dish, growing cells are flat. FVI had formed a joint venture with In Vitro Technologies Inc., called StelSys LLC, to focus on commercializing microgravity research in areas related to biological systems. StelSys paid NASA a US$ 100,000 licensing fee and a royalty of 5 percent of the company's profits, capped at US$2 million, for the rights to 13 patents for the bioreactor technology for five years. NASA planned to use the bioreactor on the ISS, and StelSys intended to use it to research infectious diseases and to develop a liver-assist device for patients in need of transplant surgery. Goldin remarked that the agreement was "a symbol of the success that can be achieved when government, private industry, and academia work together on the exploration of new frontiers for scientific, technological, and economic growth. '984
A GE-7 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for GE American Communications (GE Americom), launched from Korou, French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. The C-band satellite supplemented GE Americom's fleet of 12 satellites servicing the Americas, replacing the GE SATCOM C1 craft. A member of the A2100 family of satellites, the GE-7 joined four others the GE-1, GE-2, GE-3, and GE-4-to provide distribution of cable, broadcast television and radio, business television, and broadband data distribution across the contiguous United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. The GE-7 would provide "service to regional and national customers, in-orbit protection for many current cable and radio customers, plus critical telecommunications services delivered by AT&T Alascom.”
NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science [[Edward J. Weiler] appeared before the U.S. House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics to address the future of NASA's space science programs. Weiler discussed NASA's problems in the previous year, such as the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, explaining that, although NASA was developing a response to those losses, it would need more funding if it were to prevent similar failures in the future. House Subcommittee Chairperson Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) indicated that President William J. Clinton had proposed increasing the space science budget by US$200 million over each of the following four years. NASA's budget reauthorization bill for FY 2001 added an additional US$19 million in funding for space science programs.
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