Fiscal Year 1997 Activities a Aeronautics

and

Space Report

of the

President

Fiscal Year

1997

Activities

National Aeronautics

and Space Administration

Washington, DC 20546
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

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Table of Contents

National Aeronautics and Space Administration . . . . . . . . 1

Department of Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Federal Aviation Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Department of Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Department of Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Department of the Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Department of Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Federal Communications Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

National Science Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Smithsonian Institution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Department of State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Arms Control and Disarmament Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

U.S. Information Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

A-1 U.S. Government Spacecraft Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

A-2 World Record of Space Launches Successful in 

Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

B Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles, 

October 1, 1996-September 30, 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

C U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights, 

1961-September 30, 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

D U.S. Space Launch Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

E-1A Space Activities of the U.S. Government— 

Historical Budget Summaries in Real Year Dollars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

E-1B Space Activities of the U.S. Government— 

Historical Budget Summaries in Inflation-Adjusted Dollars . . . . . . . . . . 62

E-2 Federal Space Activities Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

E-3 Federal Aeronautics Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

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Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

d

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of

1958 directed the annual Aeronautics and

Space Report to include a "comprehensive

description of the programmed activities and the

accomplishments of all agencies of the United

States in the field of aeronautics and space

activities during the preceding calendar year."

In recent years, the reports have been prepared

on a fiscal year (FY) basis, consistent with the

budgetary period now used in programs of the

Federal Government. This year's report covers

activities that took place from October 1, 1996,

through September 30, 1997.
National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

NASA

During FY 1997, NASA’s Space Shuttle program met or exceeded its goals of

safety, on-time performance, and cost reduction. NASA successfully

launched eight Space Shuttle missions, including three flights that docked

with the Russian space station Mir. The first mission of the year, STS-80, carried a

crew of five, including veteran astronaut Dr. Story Musgrave, who accomplished two

noteworthy milestones: tying John Young’s record of six space flights for any astronaut or cosmonaut, and at age 61, becoming the oldest person to fly in space. On

February 13, 1997, the Shuttle caught up with and retrieved the Hubble Space

Telescope (HST) for its second scheduled servicing mission. On six other Shuttle

flights, astronauts successfully deployed various space science and microgravity science experiments. 

During FY 1997, Shuttle personnel initiated technology upgrade studies on: more

powerful and durable fuel cells, more robust thermal protection material; nontoxic

fuels for orbital maneuvering and reaction control systems; electric or nontoxically

fueled auxiliary power units; more efficient and higher capacity water cooling units;

and more efficient processes and techniques for revitalizing the vehicle cabin atmosphere. These studies were all designed with the goals of improved safety and cost

efficiency. Shuttle managers also made significant progress in the certification of the

new Super Light Weight Tank during FY 1997. 

Phase 1 of the International Space Station (ISS) program, the joint U.S. and

Russian effort to expand cooperation in human space flight, continued with three

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

STS-82 Onboard View—

1

Astronaut Mark C. Lee, on the

end of the Remote Manipulator

System (RMS) arm, photographs a bit of patchwork on

the worn insulation material of

the Hubble Space Telescope

(HST).
successful Shuttle-Mir docked missions and two long-duration stays on Mir by U.S.

astronauts. At the end of FY 1997, technicians had built more than 220,000 pounds

of flight hardware, and the ISS program had passed the 60-percent completion milestone. Technicians also transferred major flight elements such as Node 1 and the first

two pressurized mating adapters to the Kennedy Space Center for final test and integration in preparation for launch.

Regarding the international agreements governing ISS participation, the 15 participating nations reached ad referendum agreement on the Space Station

Intergovernmental Agreement in December 1996, which provides the legal framework for international cooperation. Negotiators also finalized the four bilateral

Memoranda of Agreement between NASA and each of the space agencies of Russia,

Europe, Japan, and Canada. In addition, NASA personnel negotiated implementing

arrangements with Europe and Japan to allow their space agencies to offset the cost

of the launch of their ISS elements on the Shuttle through the provision of hardware

and other services to NASA. Finally, NASA conducted negotiations with the

Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) for the provision of flight hardware by AEB in return

for access to ISS utilization.

There were 23 successful U.S. Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) launches in FY

1997. Of those, 4 were NASA-managed missions, 2 were NASA-funded/FAAlicensed missions, 5 were DoD-managed missions, and 12 were FAA-licensed

commercial launches. There were two launch vehicle failures—a NASA-managed

Pegasus mission and a U.S. Air Force-managed Delta mission. As a result of the

Pegasus failure, NASA and the Orbital Sciences Corporation completed a detailed

assessment of the Pegasus launch system and began seeking areas of mutual cooperation for improving the systems reliability for both Government and commercial use. 

In the area of space communications, NASA networks provided support for

numerous NASA flight missions. NASA’s Mission Control and Data Systems team

provided operation of 15 onorbit science missions, including launch and mission support for the Advanced

Composition Explorer and

the HST servicing mission.

In FY 1997, NASA released

2

STS-84 Onboard View—Crew members from Mir-23

and STS-84 assemble for a group portrait onboard the

Spacehab Double Module, as they tie a record (10) for

number of persons aboard a single orbiting spacecraft at

one time. They are (from left front) Jerry M. Linenger, Vasili

V. Tsibliyev, Charles J. Precourt, Aleksandr I. Lazutkin, and

C. Michael Foale. In the back row (from left) are Edward T.

Lu, Eileen M. Collins, Jean-François Clervoy, Elena V.

Kondakova, and Carlos I. Noriega.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
a Request for Proposal for the consolidated space operations contract to outsource

NASA’s space operations under a single contract. NASA awarded Phase 1 contracts

to develop competing architectures to two industry teams. NASA continued to work

with DoD and other agencies to study advanced future communications systems.

NASA personnel also made significant improvements to NASA’s mission control and

data systems as well as ground networks, which contributed to several successful

launches as well as significantly reduced operations staff for several orbiting missions.

On July 4, 1997, NASA successfully landed the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft and

its Sojourner rover on Mars, garnering worldwide interest, as attested to by the almost

1 billion “hits” at the Pathfinder site on the World Wide Web. Also related to Mars,

the discovery by scientists on the Mars Global Surveyor team that Mars has a planetwide magnetic field added to our growing understanding. 

Other space science missions yielded fascinating data as well. The Near Earth

Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft made a flyby of Mathilde, which was the

closest encounter with an asteroid. The Advanced Composition Explorer began its

journey to understand the stream of accelerated particles that constantly bombard

Earth. Galileo data indicated that Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, has a metallic core and

layered internal structure similar to Earth’s, while the heavily cratered moon,

Callisto, is a mixture of metallic rock and ice with no identifiable central core.

Scientists using the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft discovered jet

streams of hot, electrically charged gas flowing beneath the surface of the Sun, which

may help explain the famous sunspot cycle that can affect Earth with power and communications disruptions. After the second servicing mission of HST, the Hubble

provided scientists with dramatic views of a group of baby Sun-like stars surrounding

their “mother star,” detected a titanic shock wave smashing into unseen gas around a

supernova, and found a disk at the heart of a galactic collision.

Several significant Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) science accomplishments

also took place during FY 1997. In land-use/land-cover change, MTPE personnel

produced the first global land-cover maps from satellite data. In seasonal-to-interannual climate prediction, MTPE personnel made breakthroughs in observing and

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

The Sojourner 3

rover and undeployed ramps

onboard the Mars

Pathfinder spacecraft can be seen

in this image

taken by the

Imager for Mars

Pathfinder on 

July 4, 1997.
understanding the processes that control the initiation of El Niño. In the natural

hazards area, MTPE scientists learned to use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data

to distinguish human-induced changes in surface topography, such as subsidence

caused by aquifer depletion, from natural tectonic deformation. In long-term climate, MTPE researchers detected a lengthening of the growing season by a week

over a 10-year period in some northern latitude regions. MTPE personnel continued

to monitor vigilantly atmospheric ozone. 

In flight and ground systems, MTPE technicians completed instrument integration for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and delivered the satellite to Japan

prior to launch on November 27, 1997. MTPE managers selected the first two Earth

System Science Pathfinder missions to infuse new science elements into MTPE: the

Vegetation Canopy Lidar for launch in 2000 and the Gravity Recovery And Climate

Experiment (GRACE) in 2001. MTPE also flew several successful experiments,

including the Shuttle Laser Altimeter and the German CRISTA-SPAS suite of

experiments, on STS-85 in August 1997. 

In programmatic terms, MTPE’s greatest accomplishment during FY 1997 was the

first MTPE Biennial Review, which helped define a new paradigm for missions following the Earth Observing System (EOS) first series with reduced costs and

development times. Another major accomplishment was the integration of the

Stennis Space Center’s Commercial Remote Sensing Program into MTPE.

In FY 1997, the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications

(OLMSA) conducted research on the Space Shuttle, Mir, and ground-based and

suborbital facilities. Through three Mir missions and the stays of astronauts John

Blaha, Jerry Linenger, and Michael Foale, OLMSA continued preparation for

living and working on the ISS. OLMSA’s Advanced Human Support Technology

program conducted several closed-chamber life support tests at NASA’s Johnson

Space Center. Phase III tests initiated in FY 1997 represented the American record

for longest duration closed-chamber tests with human beings. The Microgravity

Science Laboratory mission (STS-94 in July 1997) supported several research disciplines, including biotechnology, fluid physics, and materials science, such as

combustion research in laminar soot processes. The combustion flight hardware

performed flawlessly and gave scientists important new data toward developing

methods of controlling pollutant soot emissions. In the field of commercial

research, protein crystal growth on STS-86 yielded high-quality crystals; research

in agriculture, forest products, and plant-based pharmaceuticals was conducted on

STS-94; a commercial research bioprocessing apparatus was tested on Mir; and

technicians prepared a commercial research plant unit for a Mir mission in FY

1998. These last two efforts are precursors to commercial research hardware development for the ISS. 

Programmatically, OLMSA realigned its activities into five research programs

and three operational functions to reflect streamlined operations at Headquarters and

a shift of responsibilities to designated NASA Lead Centers. OLMSA managers also

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 4
helped form several new research centers: the National Space Biomedical Research

Institute, three NASA Centers of Research and Training, and a Commercial

Research Center in Informatics at Yale University School of Medicine.

NASA’s Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology Enterprise established three pillars for success: Global Civil Aviation, Revolutionary Technology

Leaps, and Access to Space. Within these three pillars, managers defined 10 goals to

improve safety, reduce pollution, increase efficiency, and promote new technologies.

During FY 1997, the aeronautics program achieved several major technical milestones. In the High Speed Research program, personnel successfully fabricated

advanced bonding panels and, on the propulsion side, selected and completed testing

on an advanced inlet concept. In the Advanced Subsonic Technology program,

NASA researchers developed the Taxi Navigation and Situational Awareness tool,

improving aircraft taxi time and safety in low visibility and night time. In the

research and technology base, NASA personnel successfully flew a solar-powered,

remotely piloted experimental aircraft to a record 71,300-foot altitude. 

During FY 1997, the space transportation technology program achieved several

major technical milestones. In the X-33 flight demonstrator effort, researchers completed the hotfire ground test phase of the Linear Aerospace SR-71 Experiment and

completed the first piece of X-33 flight hardware, the liquid oxygen tank. The X-34

flight demonstrator program completed wind tunnel testing of a scale model of the

vehicle for low-speed flight characteristics. The Bantam Low Cost Booster

Technologies program successfully demonstrated a new low-cost engine thrust

chamber assembly at flight pressure. 

NASA continued to emphasize safety as its number one priority. NASA’s Office

of Safety and Mission Assurance continued to provide safety oversight and risk

analysis for Space Shuttle launches, spacecraft launches, the Shuttle-Mir program,

and the phase-in of the Shuttle flight operations contract. NASA’s ISS Independent

Assessment Activity investigated technical and managerial issues and provided

practical recommendations to the ISS program to improve safety and performance.

NASA instituted a new top-level management policy, providing a functional

overview of all safety and mission success policy expectations. NASA also developed assurance guidelines for common spacecraft devices and ELV’s and streamlined

mission assurance guidelines specifically for the New Millennium program. Finally,

NASA made progress in its efforts to implement ISO 9001 as its baseline quality

management standard, continuing training and establishing an Agencywide contract for ISO 9001 third-party certification.

NASA’s programs continued their trend toward increasing international participation with spacefaring nations around the world. During the past year, NASA

signed new agreements with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan,

and Russia. Agreements concluded during this period included arrangements for the

flight of NASA instruments on foreign spacecraft, the flight of foreign instruments

on NASA missions, provisions for a new airborne observatory, and operations

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities 5
support agreements for such activities as overseas Shuttle emergency landing sites

and spacecraft tracking, aeronautics cooperation, and data exchange. 

NASA supported United Nations activities, including the annual meeting of the

Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its subcommittees, the Third

Conference of the Americas, and the U.N. Second Regional Conference on Space

Technology and Development in Africa. Finally, NASA cosponsored a U.S.-

Argentina Joint Conference on Space, Science, and Technology for Society in

September 1997 to review past and ongoing cooperation as well as identify opportunities for future cooperation. 

Internationally, NASA and NOAA officials signed a Memorandum of

Agreement permitting the use of NASA’s Russia-to-U.S.-communications circuits in

support of the U.S.-Russia Commission on Economics and Technological

Cooperation, known more widely as the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. NASA

representatives also held meetings with colleagues from Japan, the European Space

Agency (ESA), and Brazil to foster joint development and use of communications

networks. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 6
Department of Defense 

DoD

During the past four decades, U.S. national security space systems (that is, the

constellations of communications, surveillance, reconnaissance, navigation, and weather satellites) have played an increasingly important role in

support of the DoD’s overall warfighting capability. During FY 1997, DoD’s evolving

space capabilities continued to support our national security objectives. In terms of

direct support to military operations, DoD’s space systems played a crucial role as a

force multiplier everywhere U.S. forces were employed, particularly in Bosnia.

During FY 1997, the Military Satellite Communications (MilSatCom) architecture was completed. The MilSatCom architecture was designed to provide

medium-data-rate-protected EHF communications, an overall capacity increase,

channel-use improvements, and the introduction of a Global Broadcast Service.

In the area of surveillance and warning, DoD continued to develop the SpaceBased Infrared System. This is a multimission, multi-orbit infrared detection system

to support missile warning and missile defense applications.

DoD emphasized work on navigation warfare to protect location information for

friendly forces while preventing its use by an adversary. The first Block IIR satellite

launch occurred in FY 1997. In addition, because GPS is an important national

resource for both civil and military users, DoD and DoT signed an agreement to identify and plan for a second civil GPS signal.

In the meteorological area, DoD continued to cooperate with its domestic and

international partners. In particular, DoD reached agreement with NASA and

EUMETSAT on the use of American and European weather satellites to provide

high-quality, global weather data to both military and civil users.

DoD initiated an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program and offered two

Engineering and Manufacturing Development contracts to the major launch companies. DoD, DoT, and NASA signed an memorandum of agreement that provides

for increased access of civil and commercial launch system operators to Federal

launch facilities and encourages investment by these non-Federal sectors in launch

systems, infrastructure, and facilities. These and other initiatives were designed to

strengthen the U.S. industrial base and foster its participation in the expanding

global launch market.

In terms of fostering commercial space capabilities, DoD increased its planning

to leverage the growing number of commercial space systems for national security

purposes. This included the use of commercial launch service and vehicles, as well as

communications spacecraft. DoD continued to emphasize dual-use technologies,

commercial off-the-shelf products, and flexible manufacturing processes; it is deemphasizing military unique specifications and standards.

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities 7
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) continued to contribute substantially to the expanding flow of vital information to the warfighter, its national

customers, and to a growing set of “nontraditional” users, such as civil, environmental, and diplomatic customers. In July 1997, the NRO established a National User

Exchange Group to improve national customer understanding of and influence on

overhead reconnaissance operations, ongoing acquisitions, and long-term development efforts. In partnership with the newly established National Imagery and

Mapping Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Security

Agency, the NRO activated a 24-hour situational awareness watch center in October

1996. This center began providing near-real-time status information on NRO satellites to both national and military customers.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 8
Federal Aviation

Administration

FAA

The FAA continued a dynamic research and development program in support

of its mission to ensure the safe and efficient use of the Nation’s airspace, to

foster civil aeronautics and air commerce in the United States and abroad,

and to support the requirement of national defense. During FY 1997, the agency

made great strides in developing an architecture to guide the modernization of the

National Airspace System (NAS). The FAA released a draft architecture in October

1996, which will serve as a comprehensive plan to modernize the NAS infrastructure

in a way that benefits NAS users and service providers. 

A partnership of the FAA, NASA, DoD, and the aviation industry made substantial progress in moving the NAS toward free flight, a concept that could

ultimately allow pilots to choose their own routes, speeds, and altitudes during flight.

This free flight concept could improve safety, save time and fuel, and be a more efficient use of airspace and our natural environment. In April 1997, the FAA released

the Air Traffic Services Concept of Operations, reflecting the user-desired capabilities

supporting free flight. In addition, this Government/industry partnership began intensive planning of Flight 2000, a validation and demonstration of these concepts and

technologies in the Hawaii and Alaska airspace slated to begin in 2000. In July 1997,

the FAA released the Flight 2000 Initial Program Plan, outlining increased safety, services, low-cost avionics, streamlined certification processes, and risk reduction. 

During the fiscal year, the FAA continued research activities in numerous

areas of aviation safety, including structural integrity, nondestructive inspection,

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

View of the soft ground arrestor

9

system being installed at New

York’s John F. Kennedy

International Airport.
flight loads, and crashworthiness. In the airports technology area, the FAA teamed

with the Boeing Company to begin construction of the National Airport

Pavement Test Facility, located at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center

in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In response to a number of aircraft accidents attributed to the presence of ice on critical aircraft surfaces, the FAA joined with the

U.S. Air Force to develop an aircraft-mounted system to monitor the condition of

the wing. FAA engineers made significant progress in improving the performance

of aircraft interior materials during fire, developing new standards for lavatory fire

extinguishers, developing new materials with increased fire resistance, and providing fire test support to the National Transportation Safety Board in the

investigation of the May 1996 ValuJet accident. The FAA also cosponsored a joint

DOD-FAA-NASA conference on continued airworthiness of aircraft structures,

held in July 1997. In September 1997, the FAA announced the selection of a team

of universities to serve as the new FAA air transportation center of excellence for

airworthiness assurance. 

The FAA continued to acquire new automation systems for the NAS. During

1997, the agency made hardware infrastructure improvements, installing state-of-theart computers at five en route centers to replace failing display channels well ahead

of schedule. In addition, the agency deployed the final 6 voice switching and control

systems, bringing to 21 the number of systems in operation at en route centers. The

FAA also completed and certified the first software improvements to these state-ofthe-art digital switching systems. The agency deployed to all 21 en route centers a

system that provides emergency access to radios in the event of failure of the primary

system, reducing the probability of total communications loss to aircraft operating

under air traffic control. 

In FY 1997, the micro en route automated radar terminal system became fully operational at the Anchorage, Honolulu, and Guam offshore facilities. The agency also

completed a test to reduce the vertical separation standards from 2,000 to 1,000 feet

over North Atlantic airspace while maintaining strong safety standards and then implemented the new standards at

the New York oceanic center.

Ground-to-ground data link

communications via the air

traffic services interfacility

communications system also

became operational at the

New York facility during the

year, enabling a more efficient

transfer of aircraft navigation

information and providing

more timely position and performance data to controllers. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

10

In 1996, the FAA’s Aviation

Security Research and

Development Division and the

United Kingdon’s Civil Aviation

Authority collaborated to study

blast effects on commercial

wide-body aircraft and

potential mitigation methods

by exploding a pressurized

Boeing 747-100 at

Bruntingthorpe Airfield,

Leicestershire, England.
During the year, a more effective aviation forecast system, providing a national

gridded data base of weather information, began operating at the Aviation Weather

Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Also, a deicing decisionmaking system began formal

evaluation at New York’s LaGuardia and Chicago’s O’Hare Airports. In addition, the

agency commissioned 79 more automated surface observing systems, providing automated weather observing and reporting capabilities at 188 airports. The FAA also

completed the first phase of development and deployment of a new state-of-the-art

automated weather and radar processor system that collects, processes, and disseminates hazardous weather warnings and advisory information to air traffic controllers,

traffic managers, meteorologists, and other users. 

On October 30, 1996, the Secretary of Transportation announced the creation of

an FAA security equipment integrated product team to acquire advanced security

equipment. Based on the recommendations of the White House Commission on

Aviation Safety and Security, this team purchased trace detection equipment to be

used to screen carryon and checked bags. The FAA began deploying 57 CTX-5000’s,

the only FAA-certified explosives-detection system, to all major airports. The FAA

awarded grants to the CTX-5000 manufacturer, InVision, and to L-3

Communications to develop second-generation computed tomography systems. 

The FAA and its research partners continued to test hardened containers for use

in aircraft cargo holds. On May 17, 1997, the FAA, in conjunction with the Civil

Aviation Authority in the United Kingdom, conducted a blast test on a Boeing 747,

detonating four simultaneous explosions in the four quarters of the 747 cargo bay

under pressurized conditions. The test met all technical objectives and indicated no

appreciable damage to the airframe. In addition, the FAA, in conjunction with the

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, acquired a fuselage facsimile of

hardened armor plating that can be configured to the exact parameters of an aircraft

cargo compartment for repeated tests. The FAA began using this unit to validate

vulnerability estimates, compare the effects of various types of explosives, and test

and validate new aircraft-hardening concepts including containers. 

During FY 1997, FAA researchers used human-factors-workload-baseline studies to examine the implications of airway facilities consolidation. Human factors

specialists also completed a study to evaluate the performance impact of digital

ground-to-air communications technology known as “vocoders,” establishing clear

controller preferences between alternative “vocoder” instruments and showing

that air traffic controllers could use “vocoders” effectively. Researchers supported

the deployment and evaluation of the Systematic Air Traffic Operations Research

Initiative tool to four en route centers to help assess controller operations and

deployed the first user-tailored version of the Automated Performance

Measurement System to an air carrier for operational tests. This system provides

the ability to analyze routine operations for safety trends and tendencies, providing the airlines and the FAA an accurate insight into the details of daily air-carrier

line operations. 

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

11
In general aviation, human factors researchers concluded several studies of aeronautical decisionmaking and produced a training videotape, instructing general

aviation pilots on ways to set their personal minimums and create a personal checklist to improve safety. Using the Civil Aeromedical Institute’s simulators, human

factors specialists conducted research on Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation display formatting, the effects of grouping air traffic control message units in

air/ground communications, and the baselining of pilot performance to assess the

effects of free flight options. 

The FAA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health began

a 5-year study to address inflight disease transmission issues. Researchers also completed an initial evaluation of inflight medical events in the domestic air-carrier

population and developed new DNA probes that permit the identification of

microbes in postaccident human samples. FAA studies indicate that current projections for pilots dying in aviation accidents indicate a positive blood alcohol level

(greater than or equal to 0.04 percent) in about 9 percent of the accident cases, an

indication of over-the-counter drugs in 21 percent of the cases, and prescription drugs

in 16 percent of the cases. Researchers also discovered controlled dangerous substances (e.g., schedule I: LSD and heroin; and schedule II: morphine, codeine, and

cocaine in 7 percent of the cases; and schedule III: paregoric and schedule IV: phenobarbital and valium in 4 percent of the cases). 

During the fiscal year, FAA’s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space

Transportation issued five launch licenses, including one to Lockheed Martin for the

first commercial launch to the Moon, as well as one license to operate a launch site

(Spaceport Florida). The FAA issued 10 license amendments primarily addressing

financial responsibility requirements. In addition to other routine inspections, the

agency monitored 14 licensed commercial launches, including the first licensed

launch from a foreign country when Orbital Sciences Corporation conducted a

launch from Spain using its Pegasus launch vehicle. The agency also entered into a

Memorandum of Agreement with DoD and NASA, to define the roles and responsibilities of each agency with respect to spaceports and commercial users of Federal

services and facilities. The FAA also compiled and published projections on the lowEarth orbit commercial market. 

On March 19, 1997, the FAA published in the Federal Register a Notice of

Proposed Rulemaking on the licensing of commercial launches conducted from

Federal launch sites and has been working on a final draft of this rule based on public

comments. During the fiscal year, the agency made significant progress in developing

the technical safety requirements to be used in the licensing regulations on launches

from non-Federal ranges. In addition, it developed and validated the technical

requirements for assessing the suitability of launch sites. The agency also began developing standards and criteria for the operation of reusable launch vehicles under FAA’s

licensing process. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

12
Department of Commerce 

DoC

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) new generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)

spacecraft continued to provide two-satellite operational environmental

monitoring throughout FY 1997. GOES-10 was launched April 25, 1997. NOAA’s

Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) program, which also

consists of two primary satellites, NOAA-12 and 14 (with three older spacecraft serving as backup), covered the globe at least twice daily, monitoring weather, forest fires,

volcanoes, and other environmental dangers. NOAA moved forward with DoD and

NASA on plans to converge into a single system the civilian POES program with the

DoD’s polar Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Toward this end,

NOAA completed a refurbishment of its satellite control center at Suitland,

Maryland, which will allow for single-entity control of POES and DMSP operations. 

NOAA continued generating satellite remote-imaging data products from its own

and DoD satellites, providing innovative access to these data online. Of note were four

new GOES products (moisture soundings, high-density winds, derived product

imagery, and daily snow cover products) and one POES product (an experimental

drought index product). The four GOES products will be operationally implemented

for use by the National Weather Service. The Department of Agriculture found the

drought index extremely useful in monitoring agricultural production in critical

regions of the world. NOAA also continued to promote the President’s 1994 policy to

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

GOES-10 launch. 13
foster growth of the commercial remote-sensing industry, by issuing another license

(bringing the total to 12) to operate private remote-sensing systems and by approving

two other associated foreign agreements and amendments. 

In the area of satellite-aided search and rescue, NOAA continued to operate the

U.S. Cospas-Sarsat Mission Control Center, which receives alert data from U.S. and

Russian satellites and provides the information to the appropriate U.S. or foreign

rescue coordination center. In FY 1997, NOAA continued its work with NASA to

integrate French and Canadian Sarsat instrumentation on the current series of POES

satellites. NOAA also participated in a productive international demonstration and

evaluation of the use of geostationary satellites, such as NOAA’s GOES satellites, as

a potential enhancement to the international Cospas-Sarsat program.

On the international front, NOAA personnel negotiated with the European

Union (EU) for the Exploration of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) for a

joint polar satellite system, taking into account, on the U.S. side, the converged civilmilitary U.S. system. This agreement was expected to be signed in FY 1998. On

March 31, 1997, NOAA, NASA, and Japan’s National Space Development Agency

(NASDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Japan’s Advanced Earth

Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II) program. NOAA, together with NASA, worked

to further develop the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) with international space and Earth observing agencies, hosting the first meeting of the IGOS

Strategic Implementation Team in February 1997, at which senior officials commissioned the development of six prototype projects to test the IGOS concept. 

DoC’s Office of Air and Space Commercialization (OASC) ensured that

U.S. commercial space interests were represented in the formulation of space-related

Government policies and agreements. OASC personnel represented DoC in discussions with the governments of Japan, Russia, and the European Community regarding

the harmonization and integration of the GPS for worldwide civil and scientific

applications. DoC focused on the potential international GPS market and advocated

the removal of potential nontariff trade barriers to maintain continuous growth in

the GPS market. OASC participated, as senior representatives of DoC, in the annual

consultations led by the U.S. Trade Representative under the bilateral commercial

space launch trade agreements with the governments of China, Russia, and Ukraine. 

The International Trade Administration (ITA)’s Office of Aerospace (OA)

also contributed to the annual consultations of the commercial space launch agreements that the United States has signed with Russia, China and Ukraine. The OA

participated in discussions with the EU under a 1992 agreement on Trade in Large

Civil Aircraft and with a World Trade Organization Subgroup, the GATT Aircraft

Committee. The OA also provided support for U.S.-Japanese, U.S.-Russian, and

U.S.-European discussions on the worldwide use of GPS. To promote the export of

U.S. aerospace products, OA sponsored the partially privatized U.S. National

Pavilion at the Paris Air Show. OA also sponsored six aerospace product literature

centers at major international aerospace exhibitions and air shows. OA also worked

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

14
with ITA’s Advocacy Center on numerous international aerospace competitions,

including helicopters, commercial transport aircraft, and space launch vehicles. OA

participated in the aerospace-related subgroups of the U.S.-Russia Business

Development Committee and U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and

Trade. In addition, OA worked with the Trade Development Agency to conduct

reverse trade missions to the United States from Spain and Argentina.

ITA’s Office of Telecommunications (OT) participated in negotiations with the

government of Argentina on satellite services. OT also provided sector expertise to

ITA’s Advocacy Center for several major satellite companies. OT commissioned a

study on commercial applications of GPS and the international competitiveness of

the U.S. industry. OT provided business counseling services to numerous satellite

companies seeking to do business abroad. 

As the lead advisory agency for Federal Government telecommunications issues,

the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) undertook a number of policy initiatives regarding satellites and other space-based

communications systems. Specifically, NTIA provided policy guidance on the

restructuring of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization

(INTELSAT) and the International Mobile Satellite Organization (INMARSAT).

While the Federal Communications Commission continued to regulate the electromagnetic spectrum for commercial users, NTIA managed the Federal Government’s

use of the spectrum and helped clear unexpected regulatory hurdles. NTIA engineers

were instrumental in developing a national plan to augment the navigation signals of

GPS for the benefit of a wide variety of civilian and commercial users.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology performed a wide variety of

research in support of aeronautics and space activities during FY 1997. The institute

received funding from NASA Headquarters and seven NASA Centers for 43 projects, totaling $4.4 million in research and development activities.

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

15

Department of Energy 

DoE

I

n FY 1997, DoE completed the fabrication and testing of three general purpose

heat source radioisotope thermoelectric generators (GPHS-RTG) and 157 lightweight radioisotope heater units (LWRHU) for NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn.

DoE provided launch support for NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission, which contained

three DoE LWRHU’s. DoE continued studies of advanced converter technologies to

provide high-efficiency, lightweight power systems for future NASA missions. 

When Mars Pathfinder crash-landed on Mars in July 1997, the impact was cushioned by air bags designed at DoE’s Sandia National Laboratories. The work was part

of a joint effort between Sandia and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to improve the feasibility of air bags for planetary probes. Sandia’s nuclear weapon parachute

technology served as the basis for proposing air bag configurations that had to be light

enough to fit aboard Pathfinder, yet strong enough to withstand high vertical velocities, impacts, and horizontal wind velocities expected at the Martian surface. 

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

17

Department of the Interior 

DoI

I

n terrestrial studies and applications, DoI increased the deployment and use of

GPS receivers because of the growing demand for real-time positioning in wildland areas that are out of reach of traditional differential methods. The Bureau of

Indian Affairs (BIA) increased its use of GPS technology to satisfy field-mapping

requirements and expanded GPS training programs for bureau and tribal personnel.

The use of GPS technology also proliferated throughout the National Park Service

(NPS) for natural resource, cultural resource, and park maintenance applications.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) continued to use GPS to position offshore oil and gas platforms and wells. Office of Surface Mining inspectors used GPS

technology to determine the premining status and condition of surface resources, to

prepare reclamation plans and contracts, to determine reclaimed acreage, to confirm

that lands have been adequately restored upon reclamation, and to locate features

that require regular inspection. 

The BIA extensively used Landsat and Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre

(SPOT) satellite imagery, as well as aerial photography from the National Aerial

Photography Program (NAPP) and commercial sources, to generate image maps,

inventory natural resources, conduct environmental assessments, and support other

Geographic Information System (GIS) analyses. The MMS used remotely sensed

data from several sources as part of environmental studies. The NPS used Landsat and

SPOT data to map and monitor land cover, vegetation, and other specific features in

many parks from Alaska to Florida.

The Bureau of Reclamation used high-spatial-resolution panchromatic imagery

from the Indian Remote Sensing satellite (IRS-1C) and multispectral Landsat

Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery for agricultural monitoring projects in the

Colorado, Columbia, and Yellowstone River basins. The bureau also used Landsat

TM imagery to map wildland vegetation in several Western States.

The Bureau of Land Management routinely used remote-sensing technology in

all regions. An important application was the “routes of travel” inventory mandated

by Presidential Executive Order for the 1.5-million-acre West Mojave Planning Unit

in southern California. Data from SPOT satellites, NAPP aerial photography, digital

orthophotography, digital cartographic data, GPS, and National Technical Means

were integrated to build a comprehensive route inventory data base.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation System

(EROS) Data Center continued to prepare for the upcoming Earth Observing System

(EOS) AM-1 and Landsat 7 missions by installing the antenna system for direct

reception of Landsat 7 data and the computer systems that will process, archive, and

distribute EOS and Landsat 7 data and products. The center has also collected,

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

19
processed, and archived more than 160,000 daily Advanced Very High Resolution

Radiometer (AVHRR) observations since 1992 for the Global Land 1-km AVHRR

Pathfinder Project, in cooperation with NASA, NOAA, and several international

partners. The EROS Data Center created two major global land data sets and made

them available over the Internet—the first global digital topography and land cover

data sets covering Earth’s entire land surface at 1-km resolution. Global change

researchers now have a significantly better representation of Earth’s land surface and

land cover that will improve the results of Global Circulation Models and other computer-based models of Earth processes. 

The USGS continued to use Landsat TM/Multispectral Scanner (MSS), SPOT,

AVHRR, and radar data for a wide variety of mapping and research applications,

including Statewide vegetation mapping through partnerships in the Gap Analysis

Program; habitat and land-use mapping; fire fuels mapping; sea-surface temperature

measurement; snow hydrology; fisheries monitoring; contaminants analysis; wetlands

restoration; and the documention of both short- and long-term trends or changes in

wildlife habitats. The USGS analyzed imaging spectroscopy data over the Leadville,

Colorado, superfund site and mapped key minerals that generate acid mine drainage.

By using this new technology, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accelerated the cleanup by 2.5 years and saved over $2 million in site-assessment costs. 

The Multi-Resolution Land Characterization project (a joint activity of USGS,

EPA, NASA, NOAA, and other agencies) released high-resolution land-cover data

sets derived from Landsat data for Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North

Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The USGS participated actively with NASA in planning for the Shuttle Radar

Topography Mission. USGS investigators also worked with NASA personnel at the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the New Millennium program, which will

demonstrate advanced technologies for use in the next generation of spacecraft missions, such as LightSAR.

In the area of space science, the USGS played a major role in the success of

NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission, including support in site selection and certification

and in postlanding publicity. USGS scientists provided basemaps and images for

detailed scientific analyses of the landing site, and they studied the light and color

properties of Mars and the planet’s geologic and geomorphic surface processes. The

USGS was also involved in the Mars Orbital Camera and the Thermal Emission

Spectrometer teams of NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor mission. USGS investigators

also worked with JPL colleagues to support the new astrobiology initiative that will

precisely define this evolving discipline and to develop strategies to support the Mars

surface sample return missions of the next decade.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

20
Department of Agriculture 

USDA

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Remote Sensing and Modeling

Laboratory evaluated procedures to map crop conditions and worked to

develop a sensor to measure crop residue cover. The ARS Hydrology

Laboratory conducted the Southern Great Plains Hydrology Experiment to design

and develop a system to measure global surface soil moisture and its influence on the

atmosphere. It also conducted an experiment at the Jornada Experimental Range and

the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico to determine the effect of

scale on landscape measurements of heat and energy fluxes. The ARS Conservation

Laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, used remote sensing to derive information from the

spectral properties of vegetation canopies. The Remote Sensing Research Unit

(RSRU) at Weslaco, Texas, continued work on a Cooperative Research and

Development Agreement to design and calibrate a digital video imaging system to

assess natural resources. Working with EPA, RSRU continued to evaluate a digital

imaging video system to aid farmers. 

The Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) satellite remote-sensing program

remained a critical element in USDA’s analysis of global agricultural production and

crop conditions by providing timely, accurate, and unbiased estimates of global area,

yield, and production. Satellite-derived early warning of unusual crop conditions and

production enabled more rapid and precise determinations of global supply conditions. FAS used NOAA, AVHRR, Landsat, IRS, and SPOT imagery, crop models,

weather data, attaché reports, field travel, and ancillary data to forecast foreign grain,

oilseed, and cotton production. FAS remote sensing supported Department of State

assessments of food needs in the former Soviet Union, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and

North Korea. Also, FAS prepared detailed analyses of the U.S. northern Great Plains

snowpack/flooding, El Niño, and flooding in Eastern Europe. 

The Farm Service Agency (FSA), which funded the FAS analysis of imagery,

received timely reports on U.S. crop conditions from FAS. These imagery-based

reports, combined with weather data, crop model results, and GIS products, made

possible the development of accurate and timely projections and comprehensive

evaluations of crop disaster situations. FSA continued to be a partner in the National

Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) and National Digital Orthophoto Program

(NDOP). FSA also fielded geometric, distortion-free photographs created from

Russian KVR-1000 imagery of Hawaii. 

The Forest Service used a wide range of remotely sensed data to manage the

191 million acres of land in the National Forest System. To improve forest management planning, the Forest Service, with NASA’s support, collected

high-altitude aerial photography over the two largest national forests in the United

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

21
States—the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in Alaska. To improve wildland

fire management, the Forest Service also worked with NASA by participating in an

interagency workshop on monitoring wildland fires from space. 

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) used remote-sensing data

to construct area frames for statistical sampling, to estimate crop area, to create cropspecific land-cover data layers for GIS, and to assess crop conditions. For area frame

construction, NASS combined digital Landsat and SPOT data with USGS digital

line-graph data, enabling the user to assign each piece of land in a State to a category, based on the percentage of cultivation or other variables. NASS personnel

implemented new remote-sensing-based area frames and samples for Delaware,

Maryland, and New Jersey. The remote-sensing acreage estimation project analyzed

Landsat data of the 1996 crop season in Arkansas and then collected 1997 crop

season data for Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota. End-of-season TM

analysis produced crop acreage estimates for major crops at State and county levels

plus a crop-specific categorization usable for digital GIS analysis. In addition to conventional survey data, vegetation condition images based on AVHRR data helped

assess crop conditions.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) continued its partnership

with Federal and State agencies in sharing costs to develop 1-meter digital orthophotography coverage through the NDOP. At the end of FY 1997, 67 percent of the

Nation’s digital orthophotography maps were either complete or in progress. NRCS

continued to use digital orthophotography coverage as a basemap for all GIS and program mapping activities. NRCS cooperated with DoD on the purchase of GPS precise

positioning service receivers and increased its use of GPS in daily field operations.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

22
Federal Communications

Commission 

FCC

The FCC authorized the construction, launch, and operation of numerous

fixed-satellite service satellites in FY 1997. In accordance with FCC authorization, PanAmSat launched PAS-8 in May 1997 and PAS-9 in August 1997.

The FCC authorized the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the

General Electric Corporation to deploy two hybrid C/Ku-band satellites in 1998. The

FCC also authorized GE Americom to launch GE-3, which was deployed on

September 4, 1997. The FCC authorized Comsat to participate in the launch of three

INTELSAT-8 series satellites. 

In accordance with its FCC license, Iridium launched 34 of the 66 low-Earth

orbit satellites that will comprise its full constellation. It is anticipated that this

system will be the first in a new generation of nongeostationary satellite systems providing mobile services.

In March 1997, the FCC authorized Teledesic to construct, launch, and operate a constellation of 840 nongeostationary satellites to provide fixed-satellite

service in the Ka-band. In May 1997, the FCC adopted an orbital assignment plan

for geostationary fixed-satellite service systems proposed in the Ka-band and

awarded 13 system licenses. 

The FCC awarded the first two licenses for the satellite Digital Audio Radio

Service through the auction process. Licenses went to Satellite CD Radio and

American Mobile Radio Corporation. This mobile service will operate in the S-band

and is expected to provide Nationwide radio programming with compact disk quality. Through the auction process, the FCC awarded licenses to Echostar and MCI to

provide digital broadcast satellite service. 

The FCC authorized Mobile Communications Holdings, Inc., and Constellation

Communications, Inc., to provide mobile satellite service in the L-band. Mobile

Communications Holdings was authorized to operate a constellation of 16 nongeostationary satellites, while Constellation was authorized to operate a constellation of

46 satellites. 

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

23

National Science Foundation 

NSF

NSF-sponsored research projects continued to contribute new knowledge

about the origins, composition, and dynamics of the universe. Astronomers

at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas recently arrived

at a new estimate of the age of the Milky Way galaxy that is independent of both stellar evolutionary or cosmological models. By measuring the abundance of thorium in

emissions from an extremely old star, these scientists have estimated the age of the

galaxy as 17, plus or minus 4 billion years. 

Scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico, at the

California Institute of Technology, and in Italy made the first measurements of the

size and expansion of the mysterious, intense “fireball” resulting from a particular

cosmic gamma-ray burst. The radio observations have revealed a size of the fireball,

unobtainable by any other technique, thereby enabling astronomers to learn about

inner workings of such objects. 

NSF-supported scientists used the Very Large Baseline Array telescope to image

a light-year-sized radio jet in a relatively nearby spiral galaxy called NGC 4151,

located approximately 43 million light-years from Earth. This galaxy is believed to

contain a black hole with a mass that is millions of times greater than the mass of

the Sun. 

In response to the intriguing but controversial announcement that a team of scientists had discovered evidence of ancient life in a meteorite from Mars discovered

in Antarctica in 1984, NSF and NASA developed a cooperative research program to

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

This schematic diagram of GPS 25

meteorology shows GPS signals passing from GPS

satellites, orbiting at heights of

~20,000 km, through the intervening Earth’s atmosphere to

ground-based receivers and to

a low-Earth orbit satellite. 
investigate and shed light on this interpretation. NSF, NASA, and the Smithsonian

Institution continued to manage Antarctic meteorites cooperatively. 

NSF-sponsored studies also contributed to new understandings of the Earth.

Researchers at the University of Illinois used a high-power lidar instrument in conjunction with the large, steerable optical telescope at Kirtland Air Force Base in New

Mexico to make more sensitive measurements in the middle atmosphere of vertical

heat fluxes, cooling rates, and particle movements associated with the dissipation of

pressure waves that originated in the lower atmosphere. In the past year, the spectra

of wave-induced perturbations in temperature, winds, and density have been measured simultaneously and compared with the predictions of the leading

wave-dissipation paradigms. In addition to examining relationships between horizontal winds and pressure waves in new ways, the researchers are analyzing in

unprecedented detail the characteristics of distinctive wave perturbations in temperature, winds, and density in the middle atmosphere, which is very sensitive to global

change effects. 

Arctic noctilucent clouds over Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland, have been studied

using simultaneous backscatter lidar and ultraviolet spectrograph measurements. The

combined measurements provide unique information about the sizes and density of

the particles that make up these high-altitude clouds and also about the processes

that disperse them.

Images from the first radar survey of Antarctica, using the Canadian Space

Agency’s Radarsat satellite, provided exciting new images of NSF’s South Pole

Station and of several segments of the Antarctic coastline. These images show some

of the large glaciers that drain the vast ice sheet over Antarctica. In addition, NASA

and NSF established a ground station at McMurdo Sound to acquire ozone data from

the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe.

NSF researchers successfully completed the GPS-Meteorological (GPS-MET)

proof-of-concept experiment. GPS-MET used a low-Earth-orbiting satellite that

measured the way signals from GPS satellites bent as they passed at oblique angles

through various layers of Earth’s atmosphere. By analyzing these signals, scientists

improved their capabilities for estimating ionospheric electron density, atmospheric

density, pressure, temperature, and moisture profiles in the atmosphere to support

weather research and prediction, climate research and climate-change detection, and

ionospheric physics research. 

NSF also continued to upgrade its facilities for space research. Most notably, in

June 1997, a 5-year, $27 million upgrade to the world’s most sensitive radio/radar

telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was completed with joint support

from NSF and NASA.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

26
Smithsonian

Institution

The Smithsonian Institution contributed to the national space program

through the research of staff scientists at the Smithsonian Astrophysical

Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at the Center for

Planetary Studies based at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Based on observations of x-ray binary stars made with the Japanese-NASA Advanced

Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics, SAO scientists and their colleagues were

able to confirm the existence of a previously theoretical phenomenon known as an

“event horizon,” the one-way membrane surrounding a black hole, and the place at

which all forms of matter and energy, including light, begin to fall into this gravitational trap, never to escape. Two SAO scientists used HST’s Fine Object Camera to

obtain ultraviolet and optical images of the giant star Mira A and its hot companion,

representing both the first ultraviolet images of the two objects, as well as the first separate spectra of the two stars ever obtained. The unique images suggest that material

from Mira’s extended atmosphere is being drawn onto the smaller companion.

A balloon-borne Far Infrared Spectrometer 2 (FIRS-2), designed and built at

SAO, made its 10th successful probe of Earth’s stratosphere on April 30, 1997, during

a 5-hour flight over Alaska. The FIRS-2 instrument measured high-altitude gases

vital to understanding atmospheric photochemistry, especially ozone depletion and

the greenhouse effect. This flight was a part of the international validation campaign

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

On April 30, 1997, the SAO’s 27

Far Infrared Spectrometer 2

(FIRS-2) balloon-borne measurement system was flown

successfully into Earth’s stratosphere above the Arctic. FIRS-2

was launched from Ft.

Wainright, Alaska (near

Fairbanks), at 7:15 a.m., on a

gondola supplied by NASA’s

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 
for the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite, launched by the National Space

Development Agency of Japan.

The SAO-designed Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer on board the ESANASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory measured particle velocity distributions

in the inner solar corona. Scientists were surprised at how different these distributions were from their expectations and plan to use these data to help unravel the

complicated processes that determine the acceleration of the solar wind. 

Using a new quick and efficient method, SAO scientists demonstrated how finding elusive brown dwarf stars could become easier. The astronomers took pictures of

Gliese 229, a reported brown dwarf system, with an infrared camera at NASA’s Near

Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. They first observed the system through a filter

that favored methane absorption and then through another filter that excluded it.

Comparing the various filtered images helped subtract out objects that are not truly

brown dwarfs. This method, in addition to requiring very little telescope time, may

reduce the number of false alarms in searches for brown dwarfs. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

28
Department of State 

DoS

Working closely with NASA, DoS completed negotiations with Russia,

Europe, Japan, and Canada on a multilateral agreement integrating

Russia into the ISS partnership. DoS also consulted with Japan,

Canada, and Russia on issues related to GPS. DoD took the lead on an interagency

process to prepare for participation by the United States in a major United Nations

conference on “Space Benefits for Humanity” in the 21st century, known as

“Unispace III,” which will be held in Vienna, Austria, in 1999. DoS was instrumental in organizing the first U.S.-Argentina Joint Conference on Space, Science and

Technology for Society, which was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September

22–23, 1997. In addition, DoS served as the lead agency for U.S. delegations to meetings of the INTELSAT and INMARSAT member countries and provided relevant

policy guidance to Comsat, the U.S. signatory organization. DoS officials also promoted access to overseas markets for commercial satellite companies and worked to

resolve complex problems of orbit and spectrum availability.

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

29 The International Space Station

(ISS) presents the opportunity

for several nations to work

together toward a 

singular goal.

Arms Control and

Disarmament Agency 

ACDA

During FY 1997, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) supported missile nonproliferation efforts and worked to prevent the

acquisition of offensive ballistic missile programs by other countries, particularly in South Asia and the Korean Peninsula. ACDA personnel worked on

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) issues related to the use of excess ballistic missiles.

ACDA worked to strengthen and expand the scope of the 29-nation Missile

Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which is intended to prevent the proliferation

of missiles, space launch vehicles, and other remotely piloted (unmanned) aerial

vehicles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction. ACDA participated in

discussions on outreach programs for key transshipment countries and the preparation of an international MTCR handbook to detail the items controlled by the

MTCR Equipment and Technology Annex. ACDA participated in negotiations

involving the international use of GPS and helped craft technical safeguards agreements governing the control of technology involved in launching U.S. satellites

abroad. ACDA also supported the vigorous implementation of U.S. sanctions legislation against entities in North Korea, among others.

ACDA worked on the development of U.S. policy related to the use of U.S. ballistic missiles made excess under the START I and START II treaties. The United

States intends to retain such missiles for U.S. Government use or eliminate them.

The United States has encouraged other governments with excess ballistic missiles to

adopt a similar policy. Additionally, the START I parties, since confirming in the fall

of 1995 that all space launch vehicles that use the first stage of an intercontinental

ballistic missile (ICBM) or a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) are

accountable as ICBM’s or SLBM’s of that type under the Treaty, have exchanged

policy commitments not to construct silo launchers of ICBM’s at space launch facilities located outside of their national territory. This commitment will support

nonproliferation efforts. 

ACDA continued to be an active member of several interagency committees

concerned with missile-related issues. At the policy level, these include various committees chaired by the National Security Council, such as the Interagency Working

Group on Nonproliferation and Export Controls and the Interagency Working

Group on Arms Control. ACDA participated in the Missile Trade Analysis Group,

which reviewed intelligence related to international transfers of missile-related items,

and in the Missile Technology Export Control Group, which reviews export license

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

31
applications subject to missile proliferation controls. ACDA actively supported the

efforts of the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq to destroy or remove from

Iraq any materials, equipment, and facilities related to missiles with a range greater

than 150 kilometers. ACDA also participated in the Weapons and Space Systems

Intelligence Committee to ensure that U.S. policy initiatives were based on accurate

intelligence assessments.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

32
U.S. Information Agency 

USIA

As part of its mission to bring significant American achievement to foreign

audiences, USIA presented NASA’s activities in a variety of formats and

languages. It provided regular coverage of NASA-related events in its news

services, the print-based Washington File, the Voice of America’s (VOA) news

broadcasts, and WORLDNET Television’s Newsfile. Other feature stories and thematic programs, often presented in local languages, carried accounts of NASA’s work

and related topics to all regions of the world. For instance, the Ukrainian-language

program “Window on America,” a joint VOA and WORLDNET project, offered

approximately 30 stories on NASA, with special emphasis on the Mars probe and

Space Shuttle missions, especially those dealing with the Mir space station.

NASA officials and astronauts made themselves available for a number of USIA

programs. VOA’s “Talk to America,” an international call-in show heard around the

world, featured several NASA representatives, including Dr. Robert Parker, Director

of Space Operations, and Stephen Garber, from the NASA History Office, discussing

the space program. Other cooperative programs involved visits by astronauts and

NASA scientists to Mali, Slovenia, and Chile. 

Two other USIA-sponsored astronaut visits were prominent. One was Winston

Scott’s trip to five cities in South Africa in November 1996. Scott discussed U.S.

accomplishments in space technology, promoted science education, and presented a

South African flag, flown in space on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, to the deputy

president as a symbol of the close relationship between South Africa and the United

States. In addition, USIA arranged an August 1997 visit to Peruvian-born astronaut

Carlos Noriega’s native country, during which he met with Peruvian President

Alberto Fujimori and taped 13 antidrug abuse television spots. 

USIA’s World Wide Web site carried extensive information on NASA activities.

Its international home page carried the daily Washington File news service with regular NASA coverage. In addition, the site maintained links to NASA’s home page

and its daily space photograph.

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

33

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

35

Appendices
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

36 APPENDIX A-1

U.S. Government Spacecraft Record

(Includes spacecraft from cooperating countries launched by U.S. launch vehicles.) 

Calendar Earth Orbita Earth Escapea

Year Success Failure Success Failure

1957 0 1 0 0

1958 5 8 0 4

1959 9 9 1 2

1960 16 12 1 2

1961 35 12 0 2

1962 55 12 4 1

1963 62 11 0 0

1964 69 8 4 0

1965 93 7 4 1

1966 94 12 7 1 b

1967 78 4 10 0

1968 61 15 3 0

1969 58 1 8 1

1970 36 1 3 0

1971 45 2 8 1

1972 33 2 8 0

1973 23 2 3 0

1974 27 2 1 0

1975 30 4 4 0

1976 33 0 1 0

1977 27 2 2 0

1978 34 2 7 0

1979 18 0 0 0

1980 16 4 0 0

1981 20 1 0 0

1982 21 0 0 0

1983 31 0 0 0

1984 35 3 0 0

1985 37 1 0 0

1986 11 4 0 0

1987 9 1 0 0

1988 16 1 0 0

1989 24 0 2 0

1990 40 0 1 0

1991 32 c 0 00

1992 26 c 0 10

1993 28 c 1 10

1994 31 c 1 10

1995 24 c, d 2 1 0 

1996 30 1 3 0

1997 (through September 30, 1997) 15 e 0 00

TOTAL 1,387 149 89 15

a. The criterion of success or failure used is attainment of Earth orbit or Earth escape rather than judgment of mission success. “Escape”

flights include all that were intended to go to at least an altitude equal to lunar distance from Earth.

b. This Earth-escape failure did attain Earth orbit and, therefore, is included in the Earth-orbit success totals.

c. This excludes commercial satellites. It counts separately spacecraft launched by the same launch vehicle.

d. This counts the five orbital debris radar calibration spheres that were launched from STS-63 as one set of spacecraft.

e. This includes the SSTI-Lewis spacecraft that began spinning out of control shortly after it achieved Earth orbit.
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

37 APPENDIX A-2

World Record of Space Launches Successful

in Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond

(Enumerates launches rather than spacecraft; some launches orbited multiple spacecraft.)

People’s European

Calendar United USSR/ Republic United Space

Year States CIS Francea Italya Japan of China Australia Kingdom Agency India Israel

1957 2

1958 5 1

1959 10 3

1960 16 3

1961 29 6

1962 52 20

1963 38 17

1964 57 30

1965 63 48 1

1966 73 44 1

1967 57 66 2 1 1

1968 45 74

1969 40 70

1970 28 81 2 1 b 1 1

1971 30 83 1 2 b 21 1

1972 30 74 1 1

1973 23 86

1974 22 81 2 b 1

1975 27 89 3123

1976 26 99 1 2

1977 24 98 2

1978 32 88 3 1

1979 16 87 2 1

1980 13 89 2 1

1981 18 98 3 1 2 1

1982 18 101 1 1

1983 22 98 3 1 2 1

1984 22 97 3 3 4

1985 17 98 2 1 3

1986 6 91 2 2 2

1987 8 95 3 2 2

1988 12 90 2 4 7

1989 17 74 2 7 1

1990 27 75 3 5 5 1

1991 20 c 62 2 1 9 1

1992 31 c 55 2 3 7 b 2

1993 24 c 45 1 1 7 b 

1994 26 c 49 2 5 6 b 2

1995 27 c 33 b 1 2 b 12 b 1

1996 32 c 25 1 3 d 10 1

1997 25 18 1 4 7 1

(through September 30, 1997)

TOTAL 1,108 2,543 10 8 51 46 1 1 93 10 3

a. Since 1979, all launches for ESA member countries have been joint and are listed under ESA.

b. Includes foreign launches of U.S. spacecraft.

c. This includes commercial expendable launches and launches of the Space Shuttle, but because this table records launches rather than spacecraft, it does not include separate spacecraft released from the Shuttle.

d. This includes the launch of ChinaSat 7, even though a third stage rocket failure led to a virtually useless orbit for this communications satellite.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

38 APPENDIX B

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 1996–September 30, 1997

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

Nov. 7, 1996 Remote-sensing mission of Martian Martian orbit

Mars Global Surveyor atmosphere and soil composition.

62A

Delta II

Nov. 19, 1996 Deploy ORFEUS-SPAS and 358 km Set record for longest 

Space Shuttle Columbia WSF-3 payloads. 347 km Space Shuttle flight.

STS-80 1 hour 32 min

65A 28.4°

Space Shuttle

347 km

Nov. 20, 1996 Astronomy telescope. Orbital parameters U.S.-German telescope retrieved 

ORFEUS-SPAS similar to STS-80 after several days.

65B

Space Shuttle 

Nov. 23, 1996 Wake Shield Facility-3, Orbital parameters Retrieved on November 26, 1996.

WSF-3 a microgravity module. similar to STS-80

65C

Space Shuttle

Nov. 21, 1996 European communications spacecraft. Geosynchronous

Hot Bird 2

67A

Atlas*

Dec. 4, 1996 Planetary spacecraft with rover 

Mars Pathfinder to explore Martian surface.

68A

Delta II

Dec. 18, 1996 Communications satellite. Geosynchronous

Inmarsat 3

70A

Atlas*

Dec. 20, 1996 Military spacecraft. Orbital parameters 

USA 129 unavailable

72A

Titan IV

Jan. 12, 1997 Fifth Shuttle mission to Mir. 392 km Jerry Linenger replaced John Blaha 

Space Shuttle Atlantis 380 km as U.S. resident on Mir. 

(STS-81) 1 hour 32 minutes

1A 51.6°

Space Shuttle
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

39 APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 1996–September 30, 1997

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

Feb. 11, 1997 Second servicing mission of the 574 km

Space Shuttle Discovery Hubble Space Telescope. 475 km

(STS-82) 1 hour 35 minutes

4A 28.5°

Space Shuttle

Feb. 17, 1997 Japanese communications spacecraft. 94,203 km

JCSAT 14,250 km

7A 42 hours 14 minutes

Centaur* 6.3°

Feb. 24, 1997 Military spacecraft. Orbital parameters 

USA 130 unavailable

8A

Titan IVB

Mar. 8, 1997 Communications spacecraft. Geosynchronous

Tempo 2

11A

Atlas IIA*

Apr. 4, 1997 Military spacecraft. 854 km

DMSP F14 (USA 131) 843 km

12A 1 hour 42 minutes

Titan II 98.9°

Apr. 4, 1997 Deployment of a Spacelab module 303 km A Shuttle fuel cell malfunction 

Space Shuttle Columbia configured as the first Microgravity 298 km necessitated an early termination 

(STS-83) Science Laboratory. 1 hour 31 minutes of the mission. Reflown as 

13A 28.4° STS-94.

Space Shuttle

Apr. 21, 1997 Spanish microgravity 581 km

Minisat 1 research spacecraft. 562 km

18A 1 hour 36 minutes

Pegasus XL* 150.9°

Apr. 25, 1997 Meteorological spacecraft. Geosynchronous Will remain passively stored until 

GOES-10 GOES-8 or GOES-9 becomes 

19A inoperational.

Atlas-Centaur

May 5, 1997 Communications spacecraft. 642 km

Iridium 4-8 629 km

20A-E 1 hour 37 minutes

Delta II* 86.3°

May 15, 1997 Sixth Shuttle mission to Mir. Michael Foale replaced Jerry 

Space Shuttle Atlantis Linenger on Mir. 

(STS-84)

23A

Space Shuttle 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

40 APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 1996–September 30, 1997

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

May 20, 1997 Norwegian communications spacecraft. Geosynchronous

Thor 2A

25A

Delta II*

July 1, 1997 Reflight of STS-83 and 299 km Mission proceeded successfully.

Space Shuttle Columbia Microgravity Science Laboratory. 294 km

(STS-94) 1 hour 31 minutes

32A 28.5°

Space Shuttle

July 9, 1997 Communications satellite. 645 km

Iridium 15, 17, 635 km

18, 20, and 21 1 hour 37 minutes

34A-E 86.4°

Delta II*

July 23, 1997 Global Positioning System 20,224 km

Navstar 43 (USA 132) (GPS) satellite. 19,903 km

35A 11 hours 53 minutes

Delta II 54.9°

July 28, 1997 Japanese communications satellite. Geosynchronous

Superbird C

36A

Atlas IIAS*

Aug. 1, 1997 Ocean monitoring satellite. 319 km Formerly known as Seastar.

Orbview 2 297 km

37A 1 hour 31 minutes

Pegasus XL* 90.7°

Aug. 7, 1997 Deploy CRISTA-SPAS-2 infrared 309 km The crew also successfully 

Space Shuttle Discovery radiation monitor and the Hitchiker 298 km performed the Japanese 

(STS-85) package of four experiments on 1 hour 30 minutes Manipulator Flight Demonstration 

39A ultraviolet radiation. 57.0° of a robotic arm.

Space Shuttle

Aug. 7, 1997 German scientific spacecraft. Orbital parameters Retrieved by Shuttle crew after 

CRISTA-SPAS-2 similar to STS-85 9 days of free flight.

39B

Space Shuttle

Aug. 21, 1997 Communications satellites. 525 km

Iridium 26-22 505 km

43A-E 1 hour 35 minutes

Delta II* 95.0°

Aug. 23, 1997 Environmental monitoring satellite. 299.5 km A few days after launch, Lewis

SSTI-Lewis 283.2 km began spinning uncontrollably 

44A 1 hour 31 minutes and with diminishing solar power.

LMLV-1* 97.6°
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

41 APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 1996–September 30, 1997

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

Aug. 25, 1997 Space physics scientific spacecraft. 1,256,768 km

Advanced Composition 179 km

Explorer (ACE) 1,398 hours

45A 28.7°

Delta II

Aug. 29, 1997 Military arms control spacecraft. 833 km

FORTE 799 km

47A 1 hour 41 minutes

Pegasus XL 70.0°

Sep. 4, 1997 Communications satellite. Geosynchronous

GE-3

50A

Atlas IIAS*

Sep. 25, 1997 Seventh Shuttle mission to Mir. 392 km David Wolf replaced 

Space Shuttle Atlantis 370 km Michael Foale on Mir. 

(STS-86) 1 hour 32 minutes

55A 1 hour 32 minutes

Space Shuttle 51.6°

Sep. 26, 1997 Communications satellites. 559 km

Iridium 34, 35, 542 km

36, 37, and 19 1 hour 36 minutes

56A-E 86.7°

Delta II*

*Commercial launch licensed as such by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

42 APPENDIX C

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Vostok 1 Apr. 12, 1961 Yury A. Gagarin 0:1:48 First human flight.

Mercury-Redstone 3 May 5, 1961 Alan B. Shepard, Jr. 0:0:15 First U.S. flight; suborbital.

Mercury-Redstone 4 July 21, 1961 Virgil I. Grissom 0:0:16 Suborbital; capsule sank after landing; 

astronaut safe.

Vostok 2 Aug. 6, 1961 German S. Titov 1:1:18 First flight exceeding 24 hrs.

Mercury-Atlas 6 Feb. 20, 1962 John H. Glenn, Jr. 0:4:55 First American to orbit.

Mercury-Atlas 7 May 24, 1962 M. Scott Carpenter 0:4:56 Landed 400 km beyond target.

Vostok 3 Aug. 11, 1962 Andriyan G. Nikolayev 3:22:25 First dual mission (with Vostok 4).

Vostok 4 Aug. 12, 1962 Pavel R. Popovich 2:22:59 Came within 6 km of Vostok 3.

Mercury-Atlas 8 Oct. 3, 1962 Walter M. Schirra, Jr. 0:9:13 Landed 8 km from target.

Mercury-Atlas 9 May 15, 1963 L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. 1:10:20 First U.S. flight exceeding 24 hrs.

Vostok 5 June 14, 1963 Valery F. Bykovskiy 4:23:6 Second dual mission (withVostok 6).

Vostok 6 June 16, 1963 Valentina V. Tereshkova 2:22:50 First woman in space; within 5 km of Vostok 5.

Voskhod 1 Oct. 12, 1964 Vladimir M. Komarov 1:0:17 First three-person crew.

Konstantin P. Feoktistov

Boris G. Yegorov

Voskhod 2 Mar. 18, 1965 Pavel I. Belyayev 1:2:2 First extravehicular activity (EVA), by Leonov, 

10 min.

Aleksey A. Leonov

Gemini 3 Mar. 23, 1965 Virgil I. Grissom 0:4:53 First U.S. two-person flight; first manual 

John W. Young maneuvers in orbit.

Gemini 4 June 3, 1965 James A. McDivitt 4:1:56 21-min. EVA (White).

Edward H. White, II

Gemini 5 Aug. 21, 1965 L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. 7:22:55 Longest duration human flight to date.

Charles Conrad, Jr.

Gemini 7 Dec. 4, 1965 Frank Borman 13:18:35 Longest human flight to date.

James A. Lovell, Jr.

Gemini 6-A Dec. 15, 1965 Walter M. Schirra, Jr. 1:1:51 Rendezvous within 30 cm of Gemini 7.

Thomas P. Stafford

Gemini 8 Mar. 16, 1966 Neil A. Armstrong 0:10:41 First docking of two orbiting spacecraft

David R. Scott (Gemini 8 with Agena target rocket).

Gemini 9-A June 3, 1966 Thomas P. Stafford 3:0:21 EVA; rendezvous.

Eugene A. Cernan

Gemini 10 July 18, 1966 John W. Young 2:22:47 First dual rendezvous (Gemini 10 with 

Michael Collins Agena 10, then Agena 8).

Gemini 11 Sep. 12, 1966 Charles Conrad, Jr. 2:23:17 First initial-orbit docking; first tethered flight; 

Richard F. Gordon, Jr. highest Earth-orbit altitude (1,372 km.).

Gemini 12 Nov. 11, 1966 James A. Lovell, Jr. 3:22:35 Longest EVA to date (Aldrin, 5 hrs.).

Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.

Soyuz 1 Apr. 23, 1967 Vladimir M. Komarov 1:2:37 Cosmonaut killed in reentry accident.

Apollo 7 Oct. 11, 1968 Walter M. Schirra, Jr. 10:20:9 First U.S. three-person mission.

Donn F. Eisele

R. Walter Cunningham

Soyuz 3 Oct. 26, 1968 Georgiy T. Beregovoy 3:22:51 Maneuvered near uncrewed Soyuz 2.

Apollo 8 Dec. 21, 1968 Frank Borman 6:3:1 First human orbit(s) of Moon; first human 

James A. Lovell, Jr. departure from Earth’s sphere of influence; 

William A. Anders highest speed attained in human flight to date.

Soyuz 4 Jan. 14, 1969 Vladimir A. Shatalov 2:23:23 Soyuz 4 and 5 docked and transferred two 

Soyuz 5 Jan. 15, 1969 Boris V. Volynov 3:0:56 cosmonauts from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4.

Aleksey A. Yeliseyev

Yevgeniy V. Khrunov

Apollo 9 Mar. 3, 1969 James A. McDivitt 10:1:1 Successfully simulated in Earth orbit operation 

David R. Scott of lunar module to landing and takeoff from 

Russell L. Schweickart lunar surface and rejoining with command 
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

43 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Apollo 10 May 18, 1969 Thomas P. Stafford 8:0:3 Successfully demonstrated complete system, 

John W. Young including lunar module to 14,300 m from the 

Eugene A. Cernan lunar surface.

Apollo 11 July 16, 1969 Neil A. Armstrong 8:3:9 First human landing on lunar surface and safe 

Michael Collins return to Earth. First return of rock and soil 

Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. samples to Earth and human deployment of 

experiments on lunar surface.

Soyuz 6 Oct. 11, 1969 Georgiy Shonin 4:22:42 Soyuz 6, 7, and 8 operated as a group flight 

Valery N. Kubasovf without actually docking. Each conducted 

certain experiments,

Soyuz 7 Oct. 12, 1969 A. V. Filipchenko 4:22:41 including welding and Earth and celestial 

Viktor N. Gorbatko observation.

Vladislav N. Volkov

Soyuz 8 Oct. 13, 1969 Vladimir A. Shatalov 4:22:50

Aleksey S. Yeliseyev

Apollo 12 Nov. 14, 1969 Charles Conrad, Jr. 10:4:36 Second human lunar landing explored surface of 

Richard F. Gordon, Jr. Moon and retrieved parts of Surveyor 3 

Alan L. Bean spacecraft, which landed in Ocean of Storms 

on Apr. 19, 1967.

Apollo 13 Apr. 11, 1970 James A. Lovell, Jr. 5:22:55 Mission aborted; explosion in service module. 

Fred W. Haise, Jr. Ship circled Moon, with crew using LM as 

John L. Swigert, Jr. “lifeboat” until just before reentry. 

Soyuz 9 June 1, 1970 Andriyan G. Nikolayev 17:16:59 Longest human spaceflight to date.

Vitaliy I. Sevastyanov

Apollo 14 Jan. 31, 1971 Alan B. Shepard, Jr. 9:0:2 Third human lunar landing. Mission demon

Stuart A. Roosa strated pinpoint landing capability and 

Edgar D. Mitchell continued human exploration.

Soyuz 10 Apr. 22, 1971 Vladimir A. Shatalov 1:23:46 Docked with Salyut 1, but crew did not board 

Aleksey S. Yeliseyev space station launched Apr. 19. Crew 

Nikolay N. Rukavishnikov recovered Apr. 24, 1971.

Soyuz 11 June 6, 1971 Georgiy T. Dobrovolskiy 23:18:22 Docked with Salyut 1, and Soyuz 11 crew 

Vladislav N. Volkov occupied space station for 22 days. Crew 

Viktor I. Patsayev perished in final phase of Soyuz 11 capsule 

recovery on June 30, 1971.

Apollo 15 July 26, 1971 David R. Scott 12:7:12 Fourth human lunar landing and first Apollo “J” 

Alfred M. Worden series mission, which carried Lunar Roving 

James B. Irwin Vehicle. Worden’s inflight EVA of 38 min., 

12 sec. was performed during return trip.

Apollo 16 Apr. 16, 1972 John W. Young 11:1:51 Fifth human lunar landing, with roving vehicle.

Charles M. Duke, Jr.

Thomas K. Mattingly II

Apollo 17 Dec. 7, 1972 Eugene A. Cernan 12:13:52 Sixth and final Apollo human lunar landing, 

Harrison H. Schmitt again with roving vehicle.

Ronald E. Evans

Skylab 2 May 25, 1973 Charles Conrad, Jr. 28:0:50 Docked with Skylab 1 (launched uncrewed May 

Joseph P. Kerwin 14) for 28 days. Repaired damaged station.

Paul J. Weitz

Skylab 3 July 28, 1973 Alan L. Bean 59:11:9 Docked with Skylab 1 for more than 59 days.

Jack R. Lousma

Owen K. Garriott

Soyuz 12 Sep. 27, 1973 Vasiliy G. Lazarev 1:23:16 Checkout of improved Soyuz.

Oleg G. Makarov
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

44 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Skylab 4 Nov. 16, 1973 Gerald P. Carr 84:1:16 Docked with Skylab 1 in long-duration mission; 

Edward G. Gibson last of Skylab program.

William R. Pogue

Soyuz 13 Dec. 18, 1973 Petr I. Klimuk 7:20:55 Astrophysical, biological, and Earth resources 

Valentin V. Lebedev experiments.

Soyuz 14 July 3, 1974 Pavel R. Popovich 15:17:30 Docked with Salyut 3 and Soyuz 14 crew 

Yury P. Artyukhin occupied space station.

Soyuz 15 Aug. 26, 1974 Gennady V. Sarafanov 2:0:12 Rendezvoused but did not dock with Salyut 3.

Lev S. Demin

Soyuz 16 Dec. 2, 1974 Anatoly V. Filipchenko 5:22:24 Test of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) 

Nikolay N. Rukavishnikov configuration.

Soyuz 17 Jan. 10, 1975 Aleksay A. Gubarev 29:13:20 Docked with Salyut 4 and occupied station.

Georgiy M. Grechko

Anomaly (Soyuz 18A) Apr. 5, 1975 Vasiliy G. Lazarev 0:0:20 Soyuz stages failed to separate; crew recovered 

Oleg G. Makarov after abort.

Soyuz 18 May 24, 1975 Petr I. Klimuk 62:23:20 Docked with Salyut 4 and occupied station.

Vitaliy I. Sevastyanov

Soyuz 19 July 15, 1975 Aleksey A. Leonov 5:22:31 Target for Apollo in docking and joint 

Valery N. Kubasov experiments of ASTP mission.

Apollo July 15, 1975 Thomas P. Stafford 9:1:28 Docked with Soyuz 19 in joint (ASTP) 

Donald K. Slayton experiments of ASTP mission.

Vance D. Brand

Soyuz 21 July 6, 1976 Boris V. Volynov 48:1:32 Docked with Salyut 5 and occupied station.

Vitaliy M. Zholobov

Soyuz 22 Sep. 15, 1976 Valery F. Bykovskiy 7:21:54 Earth resources study with multispectral camera 

Vladimir V. Aksenov system.

Soyuz 23 Oct. 14, 1976 Vyacheslav D. Zudov 2:0:6 Failed to dock with Salyut 5.

Valery I. Rozhdestvenskiy

Soyuz 24 Feb. 7, 1977 Viktor V. Gorbatko 17:17:23 Docked with Salyut 5 and occupied station.

Yury N. Glazkov

Soyuz 25 Oct. 9, 1977 Vladimir V. Kovalenok 2:0:46 Failed to achieve hard dock with Salyut 6 

Valery V. Ryumin station.

Soyuz 26 Dec. 10, 1977 Yury V. Romanenko 37:10:6 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in 

Georgiy M. Grechko Soyuz 27; crew duration 96 days, 10 hrs.

Soyuz 27 Jan. 10, 1978 Vladimir A. Dzhanibekov 64:22:53 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in 

Oleg G. Makarov Soyuz 26; crew duration 5 days, 22 hrs., 59 min.

Soyuz 28 Mar. 2, 1978 Aleksey A. Gubarev 7:22:17 Docked with Salyut 6. Remek was first Czech 

Vladimir Remek cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 29 June 15, 1978 Vladimir V. Kovalenok 9:15:23 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 31; 

Aleksandr S. Ivanchenkov crew duration 139 days, 14 hrs., 48 min.

Soyuz 30 June 27, 1978 Petr I. Klimuk 7:22:4 Docked with Salyut 6. Hermaszewski was first 

Miroslaw Hermaszewski Polish cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 31 Aug. 26, 1978 Valery F. Bykovskiy 67:20:14 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 29; 

Sigmund Jaehn crew duration 7 days, 20 hrs., 49 min. 

Jaehn was first German Democratic Republic 

cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 32 Feb. 25, 1979 Vladimir A. Lyakhov 108:4:24 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 34; 

Valery V. Ryumin crew duration 175 days, 36 min.

Nikolay N. Rukavishnikov

Soyuz 33 Apr. 10, 1979 Georgi I. Ivanov 1:23:1 Failed to achieve docking with Salyut 6 station. 

Ivanov was first Bulgarian cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 34 June 6, 1979 (unmanned at launch) 7:18:17 Docked with Salyut 6, later served as ferry for 

Soyuz 32 crew while Soyuz 32 returned 

without a crew.
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

45 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Soyuz 35 Apr. 9, 1980 Leonid I. Popov 55:1:29 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 37. 

Valery V. Ryumin Crew duration 184 days, 20 hrs., 12 min.

Soyuz 36 May 26, 1980 Valery N. Kubasov 65:20:54 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 35. 

Bertalan Farkas Crew duration 7 days, 20 hrs., 46 min. 

Farkas was first Hungarian to orbit.

Soyuz T-2 June 5, 1980 Yury V. Malyshev 3:22:21 Docked with Salyut 6. First crewed flight of newVladimir V. Aksenov generation ferry.

Soyuz 37 July 23, 1980 Viktor V. Gorbatko 79:15:17 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 36. 

Pham Tuan Crew duration 7 days, 20 hrs., 42 min. 

Pham was first Vietnamese to orbit.

Soyuz 38 Sep. 18, 1980 Yury V. Romanenko 7:20:43 Docked with Salyut 6. Tamayo was first Cuban 

Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez to orbit.

Soyuz T-3 Nov. 27, 1980 Leonid D. Kizim 12:19:8 Docked with Salyut 6. First three-person flight 

Oleg G. Makarov in Soviet program since 1971.

Gennady M. Strekalov

Soyuz T-4 Mar. 12, 1981 Vladimir V. Kovalenok 74:18:38 Docked with Salyut 6.

Viktor P. Savinykh

Soyuz 39 Mar. 22, 1981 Vladimir A. Dzhanibekov 7:20:43 Docked with Salyut 6. Gurragcha first Mongolian 

Jugderdemidiyn Gurragcha cosmonaut to orbit.

Space Shuttle Apr .12, 1981 John W. Young 2:6:21 First flight of Space Shuttle; tested spacecraft in 

Columbia (STS-1) orbit. First landing of airplane-like craft from

Robert L. Crippen orbit for reuse.

Soyuz 40 May 14, 1981 Leonid I. Popov 7:20:41 Docked with Salyut 6. Prunariu first Romanian

cosmonaut 

Dumitru Prunariu to orbit.

Space Shuttle Nov. 12, 1981 Joe H. Engle 2:6:13 Second flight of Space Shuttle; first scientific 

Columbia (STS-2) Richard H. Truly payload (OSTA 1). Tested remote manipulator 

arm. Returned for reuse.

Space Shuttle Mar. 22, 1982 Jack R. Lousma 8:4:49 Third flight of Space Shuttle; second scientific 

Columbia (STS-3) C. Gordon Fullerton payload (OSS 1). Second test of remote 

manipulator arm. Flight extended 1 day 

because of flooding at primary landing site; 

alternate landing site used. Returned for reuse.

Soyuz T-5 May 13, 1982 Anatoly Berezovoy 211:9:5 Docked with Salyut 7. Crew duration of 211 days. 

Valentin Lebedev Crew returned in Soyuz T-7.

Soyuz T-6 June 24, 1982 Vladimir Dzhanibekov 7:21:51 Docked with Salyut 7. Chrétien first French 

Aleksandr Ivanchenkov cosmonaut to orbit.

Jean-Loup Chrétien

Space Shuttle June 27, 1982 Thomas K. Mattingly II 7:1:9 Fourth flight of Space Shuttle; first DoD payload; 

Columbia (STS-4) Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr. additional scientific payloads. Returned July 4. 

Completed testing program. Returned for reuse.

Soyuz T-7 Aug. 19, 1982 Leonid Popov 7:21:52 Docked with Salyut 7. Savitskaya second woman

Aleksandr Serebrov to orbit. Crew returned in Soyuz T-5.

Svetlana Savitskaya

Space Shuttle Nov. 11, 1982 Vance D. Brand 5:2:14 Fifth flight of Space Shuttle; first operational 

Columbia (STS-5) Robert F. Overmyer flight; launched two commercial satellites 

Joseph P. Allen (SBS 3 and Anik C-3); first flight with four 

William B. Lenoir crew members. EVA test canceled when 

spacesuits malfunctioned.

Space Shuttle Apr. 4, 1983 Paul J. Weitz 5:0:24 Sixth flight of Space Shuttle; launched TDRS-1.

Challenger (STS-6) Karol J. Bobko

Donald H. Peterson

Story Musgrave
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

46 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Soyuz T-8 Apr. 20, 1983 Vladimir Titov 2:0:18 Failed to achieve docking with Salyut 7 station.

Gennady Strekalov

Aleksandr Serebrov

Space Shuttle June 18, 1983 Robert L. Crippen 6:2:24 Seventh flight of Space Shuttle; launched two 

Challenger (STS-7) Frederick H. Hauck commercial satellites (Anik C-2 and Palapa 

John M. Fabian B-1); also launched and retrieved SPAS 01; 

Sally K. Ride first flight with five crew members, including 

Norman T. Thagard first woman U.S. astronaut.

Soyuz T-9 June 28, 1983 ladimir Lyakhov 149:9:46 Docked with Salyut 7 station.

Aleksandr Aleksandrov

Space Shuttle Aug. 30, 1983 Richard H. Truly 6:1:9 Eighth flight of Space Shuttle; launched one 

Challenger (STS-8) Daniel C. Brandenstein commercial satellite (Insat 1-B); first flight of 

Dale A. Gardner U.S. black astronaut.

Guion S. Bluford, Jr.

William E. Thornton

Space Shuttle Nov. 28, 1983 John W. Young 10:7:47 Ninth flight of Space Shuttle; first flight of 

Columbia (STS-9) Brewster W. Shaw Spacelab 1; first flight of six crew members, 

Owen K. Garriott one of whom was West German; first non-U.S. 

Robert A. R. Parker astronaut to fly in U.S. space program 

Byron K. Lichtenberg (Merbold).

Ulf Merbold

Space Shuttle Feb. 3, 1984 Vance D. Brand 7:23:16 Tenth flight of Space Shuttle; two communicaChallenger Robert L. Gibson tion satellites failed to achieve orbit; first 

(STS 41-B) Bruce McCandless use of Manned Maneuvering Unit in space.

Ronald E. McNair

Roben L. Stewart

Soyuz T-10 Feb. 8, 1984 Leonid Kizim 62:22:43 Docked with Salyut 7 station. Crew set space 

Vladimir Solovev duration record of 237 days. Crew returned

Oleg Atkov in Soyuz T-11.

Soyuz T-11 Apr. 3, 1984 Yury Malyshev 181:21:48 Docked with Salyut 7 station. Sharma first 

Gennady Strekalov Indian in space. Crew returned in 

Rakesh Sharma Soyuz T-10.

Space Shuttle Apr. 6, 1984 Robert L. Crippen 6:23:41 Eleventh flight of Space Shuttle; deployment of 

Challenger Frances R. Scobee Long-Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF-1) 

(STS 41-C) Terry J. Hart for later retrieval; Solar Maximum Satellite 

George D. Nelson retrieved, repaired, and redeployed.

James D. van Hoften

Soyuz T-12 July 17, 1984 Vladimir Dzhanibekov 11:19:14 Docked with Salyut 7 station. First female EVA.

Svetlana Savistskaya

Igor Volk

Space Shuttle Aug. 30, 1984 Henry W. Hartsfield 6:0:56 Twelfth flight of Space Shuttle. First flight of 

Discovery Michael L. Coats U.S. nonastronaut.

(STS 41-D) Richard M. Mullane

Steven A. Hawley

Judith A. Resnick

Charles D. Walker

Space Shuttle Oct. 5, 1984 Robert L. Crippen 8:5:24 Thirteenth flight of Space Shuttle; first with 

Challenger Jon A. McBride seven crew members, including first flight 

(STS 41-G) Kathryn D. Sullivan of two U.S. women and one Canadian 

Sally K. Ride (Garneau).

David Leestma

Paul D. Scully-Power

Marc Garneau
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

47 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle Nov. 8, 1984 Frederick H. Hauck 7:23:45 Fourteenth flight of Space Shuttle; first retrieval 

Discovery David M. Walker and return of two disabled communications 

(STS 51-A) Joseph P. Allen satellites (Westar 6, Palapa B2) to Earth.

Anna L. Fisher

Dale A. Gardner

Space Shuttle Jan. 24, 1985 Thomas K. Mattingly 3:1:33 Fifteenth STS flight. Dedicated DoD mission.

Discovery Loren J. Shriver

(STS 51-C) Ellison S. Onizuka

James F. Buchli

Gary E. Payton

Space Shuttle Apr. 12, 1985 Karol J. Bobko 6:23:55 Sixteenth STS flight. Two communications 

Discovery Donald E. Williams satellites. First U.S. Senator in space (Garn).

(STS 51-D) M. Rhea Seddon

S. David Griggs

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

Charles D. Walker

E. J. Garn

Space Shuttle Apr. 29, 1985 Robert F. Overmyer 7:0:9 Seventeenth STS flight. Spacelab-3 in cargo bay 

Challenger Frederick D. Gregory of Shuttle. 

(STS 51-B) Don L. Lind

Norman E. Thagard

William E. Thornton

Lodewijk van den Berg

Taylor Wang

Soyuz T-13 June 5, 1985 Vladimir Dzhanibekov 112:3:12 Repair of Salyut-7. Dzhanibekov returned to 

Viktor Savinykh Earth with Grechko on Soyuz T-13 spacecraft, 

Sept. 26, 1985.

Space Shuttle June 17, 1985 Daniel C. Brandenstein 7:1:39 Eighteenth STS flight. Three communications 

Discovery John O. Creighton satellites. One reusable payload, Spartan-1. 

(STS 51-G) Shannon W. Lucid First U.S. flight with French and Saudi 

John M. Fabian Arabian crew members.

Steven R. Nagel

Patrick Baudry

Prince Sultan Salman Al-Saud

Space Shuttle July 29, 1985 Charles G. Fullerton 7:22:45 Nineteenth STS flight. Spacelab-2 in cargo bay.

Challenger Roy D. Bridges

(STS 51-F) Karl C. Henize

Anthony W. England

F. Story Musgrave

Loren W. Acton

John-David F. Bartoe

Space Shuttle Aug. 27, 1985 Joe H. Engle 7:2:18 Twentieth STS flight. Launched three communi

Discovery Richard O. Covey cations satellites. Repaired Syncom IV-3.

(STS 51-I) James D. van Hoften

William F. Fisher

John M. Lounge

Soyuz T-14 Sep. 17, 1985 Vladimir Vasyutin 64:21:52 Docked with Salyut 7 station. Viktor Savinykh, 

Georgiy Grechko Aleksandr Volkov, and Vladimir Vasyutin 

Aleksandr Volkov returned to Earth Nov. 21, 1985, when 

Vasyutin became ill.

Space Shuttle Oct. 3, 1985 Karol J. Bobko 4:1:45 Twenty-first STS flight. Dedicated DoD mission.

Atlantis Ronald J. Grabe

(STS 51-J) Robert A. Stewart

David C. Hilmers

William A. Pailes
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

48 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle Oct. 30, 1985 Henry W. Hartsfield 7:0:45 Twenty-second STS flight. Dedicated German 

Challenger Steven R. Nagel Spacelab D-1 in shuttle cargo bay. 

(STS 61-A) Bonnie J. Dunbar

James F. Buchli

Guion S. Bluford, Jr.

Ernst Messerschmid

Reinhard Furrer (FRG)

Wubbo J. Ockels (ESA)

Space Shuttle Nov. 27, 1985 Brewster H. Shaw 6:22:54 Twenty-third STS flight. Launched three com

Atlantis Bryan D. O’Connor munications satellites. First flight of Mexican 

(STS 61-B) Mary L. Cleve astronaut (Neri Vela).

Sherwood C. Spring

Jerry L. Ross

Rudolfo Neri Vela

Charles D. Walker

Space Shuttle Jan. 12, 1986 Robert L. Gibson 6:2:4 Twenty-fourth STS flight. Launched one com

Columbia Charles F. Bolden Jr. munications satellite. First member of U.S. 

(STS 61-C) Franklin Chang-Diaz House of Representatives in space (Bill

Steve A. Hawley Nelson).

George D. Nelson

Roger Cenker

Bill Nelson

Soyuz T-15 Mar. 13, 1986 Leonid Kizim 125:1:1 Docked with Mir space station on May 5/6

Vladimir Solovyov transferred to Salyut 7 complex. On June 25/26 

transferred from Salyut 7 back to Mir.

Soyuz TM-2 Feb. 5, 1987 Yury Romanenko 174:3:26 Docked with Mir space station. Romanenko 

Aleksandr Laveykin established long-distance stay in space record 

of 326 days.

Soyuz TM-3 July 22, 1987 Aleksandr Viktorenko 160:7:16 Docked with Mir space station. Aleksandr 

Aleksandr Aleksandrov Aleksandrov remained in Mir 160 days, 

Mohammed Faris returned with Yury Romanenko. Viktorenko 

and Faris returned in Soyuz TM-2, July 30, 

with Aleksandr Laveykin who experienced 

medical problems. Faris first Syrian in space.

Soyuz TM-4 Dec. 21, 1987 Vladimir Titov 180:5 Docked with Mir space station. Crew of Yury 

Musa Manarov Romanenko, Aleksandr Aleksandrov, and 

Anatoly Levchenko Anatoly Levchenko returned Dec. 29 in

Soyuz TM-3.

Soyuz TM-5 June 7, 1988 Viktor Savinykh 9:20:13 Docked with Mir space station; Aleksandrov first 

Anatoly Solovyev Bulgarian in space. Crew returned Jun. 17 in 

Aleksandur Aleksandrov Soyuz TM-4.

Soyuz TM-6 Aug. 29, 1988 Vladimir Lyakhov 8:19:27 Docked with Mir space station; Mohmand first 

Valery Polyakov Afghanistani in space. Crew returned Sept. 7,

Abdul Mohmand in Soyuz TM-5.

Space Shuttle Sep. 29, 1988 Frederick H. Hauck 4:1 Twenty-sixth STS flight. Launched TDRS-3.

Discovery (STS-26) Richard O. Covey

John M. Lounge

David C. Hilmers

George D. Nelson

Soyuz TM-7 Nov. 26, 1988 Aleksandr Volkov 151:11 Docked with Mir space station. Soyuz TM-6 

Sergey Krikalev returned with Chrétien, Vladimir Titov, 

Jean-Loup Chrétien and Musa Manarov. Titov and Manarov 

completed 366-day mission Dec. 21. Crew of

Krikalev, Volkov, and Valery Polyakov 

returned Apr. 27, 1989, in Soyuz TM-7.
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

49 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1988 Robert “Hoot” Gibson 4:9:6 Twenty-seventh STS flight. Dedicated DoD 

Atlantis (STS-27) Guy S. Gardner mission.

Richard M. Mullane

Jerry L. Ross

William M. Shepherd

Space Shuttle Mar. 13, 1989 Michael L. Coats 4:23:39 Twenty-eighth STS flight. Launched TDRS-4. 

Discovery (STS-29) John E. Blaha

James P. Bagian

James F. Buchli

Robert C. Springer

Space Shuttle May 4, 1989 David M. Walker 4:0:57 Twenty-ninth STS flight. Venus orbiter 

Atlantis (STS-30) Ronald J. Grabe Magellan launched.

Nomman E. Thagard

Mary L. Cleave

Mark C. Lee

Space Shuttle Aug. 8, 1989 Brewster H. Shaw 5:1 Thirtieth STS flight. Dedicated DoD mission.

Columbia (STS-28) Richard N. Richards

James C. Adamson

David C. Leestma

Mark N. Brown

Soyuz TM-8 Sep. 5, 1989 Aleksandr Viktorenko 166:6 Docked with Mir space station. Crew of 

Aleksandr Serebrov Viktorenko and Serebrov returned in 

Soyuz TM-8, Feb. 9, 1990.

Space Shuttle Oct. 18, 1989 Donald E. Williams 4:23:39 Thirty-first STS flight. Launched Jupiter probe 

Atlantis (STS-34) Michael J. McCulley and orbiter Galileo. 

Shannon W. Lucid

Franklin R. Chang-Diaz 

Ellen S. Baker

Space Shuttle Nov. 23, 1989 Frederick D. Gregory 5:0:7 Thirty-second STS flight. Dedicated DoD 

Discovery (STS-33) John E. Blaha mission.

Kathryn C. Thornton 

F. Story Musgrave 

Manley L. “Sonny” Carter

Space Shuttle Jan. 9, 1990 Daniel C. Brandenstein 10:21 Thirty-third STS flight. Launched Syncom IV-5 

Columbia (STS-32) James D. Wetherbee and retrieved LDEF.

Bonnie J. Dunbar

Marsha S. Ivins

G. David Low

Soyuz TM-9 Feb. 11, 1990 Anatoly Solovyov 178:22:19 Docked with Mir space station. Crew returned 

Aleksandr Balandin Aug. 9, 1990, in Soyuz TM-9.

Space Shuttle Feb. 28, 1990 John O. Creighton 4:10:19 Thirty-fourth STS flight. Dedicated DoD 

Atlantis (STS-36) John H. Casper mission. 

David C. Hilmers

Richard H. Mullane

Pierre J. Thuot

Space Shuttle Apr. 24, 1990 Loren J. Shriver 5:1:16 Thirty-fifth STS flight. Launched Hubble Space 

Discovery (STS-31) Charles F. Bolden, Jr. Telescope (HST). 

Steven A. Hawley

Bruce McCandless II

Kathryn D. Sullivan

Soyuz TM-10 Aug. 1, 1990 Gennady Manakov 130:20:36 Docked with Mir space station. Crew returned 

Gennady Strekalov Dec. 10, 1990, with Toyohiro Akiyama, 

Japanese cosmonaut and journalist in space.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

50 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle Oct. 6, 1990 Richard N. Richards 4:2:10 Thirty-sixth STS flight. Ulysses spacecraft to 

Discovery (STS-41) Robert D. Cabana investigate interstellar space and the Sun. 

Bruce E. Melnick

William M. Shepherd

Thomas D. Akers

Space Shuttle Nov. 15, 1990 Richard O. Covey 4:21:55 Thirty-seventh STS flight. Dedicated DoD 

Atlantis (STS-38) Frank L. Culbertson, Jr. mission.

Charles “Sam” Gemar

Robert C. Springer

Carl J. Meade

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1990 Vance D. Brand 8:23:5 Thirty-eighth STS flight. Astro-1 in cargo bay.

Columbia (STS-35) Guy S. Gardner

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

John M. “Mike” Lounge

Robert A. R. Parker

Soyuz TM-11 Dec. 2, 1990 Viktor Afanasyev 175:01:52 Docked with Mir space station. Toyohiro 

Musa Manarov Akiyama returned Dec. 10, 1990, with 

Toyohiro Akiyama previous Mir crew of Gennady Manakov 

and Gennady Strekalov.

Space Shuttle Apr. 5, 1991 Steven R. Nagel 6:0:32 Thirty-ninth STS flight. Launched Gamma Ray 

Atlantis (STS-37) Kenneth D. Cameron Observatory to measure celestial gamma-rays.

Linda Godwin

Jerry L. Ross

Jay Apt

Space Shuttle Apr. 28, 1991 Michael L. Coats 8:7:22 Fortieth STS flight. Dedicated DoD mission.

Discovery (STS-39) Blaine Hammond, Jr.

Gregory L. Harbaugh

Donald R. McMonagle

Guion S. Bluford, Jr.

Lacy Veach

Richard J. Hieb

Soyuz TM-12 May 18, 1991 Anatoly Artsebarskiy 144:15:22 Docked with Mir space station. Helen Sharman 

Sergei Krikalev first from United Kingdom to fly in space. 

Helen Sharman Crew of Viktor Afanasyev, Musa Manarov, 

and Helen Sharman returned May 20, 1991. 

Artsebarskiy and Krikalevremained on board 

Mir, with Artsebarskiy returning Oct. 10, 1991, 

and Krikalev doing so Mar. 25, 1992.

Space Shuttle June 5, 1991 Bryan D. O’Conner 9:2:15 Forty-first STS flight. Carried Spacelab Life 

Columbia (STS-40) Sidney M. Gutierrez Sciences (SLS-1) in cargo bay.

James P. Bagian

Tamara E. Jernigan

M. Rhea Seddon

Francis A. “Drew” Gaffney

Millie Hughes-Fulford

Space Shuttle Aug. 2, 1991 John E. Blaha 8:21:21 Forty-second STS flight. Launched fourth 

Atlantis (STS-43) Michael A. Baker Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 

Shannon W. Lucid (TDRS-5).

G. David Low

James C. Adamson

Space Shuttle Sep. 12, 1991 John Creighton 5:8:28 Forty-third STS flight. Launched Upper 

Discovery (STS-48) Kenneth Reightler, Jr. Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).

Charles D. Gemar

James F. Buchli

Mark N. Brown
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

51 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Soyuz TM-13 Oct. 2, 1991 Aleksandr Volkov 90:16:00 Docked with Mir space station. Crew returned 

Toktar Aubakirov Oct. 10, 1991, with Anatoly Artsebarsky

(Kazakh Republic) in the TM-12 spacecraft.

Franz Viehboeck (Austria)

Space Shuttle Nov. 24, 1991 Frederick D. Gregory 6:22:51 Forty-fourth STS flight. Launched Defense 

Atlantis (STS-44) Tom Henricks Support Program (DSP) satellite.

Jim Voss

Story Musgrave

Mario Runco, Jr.

Tom Hennen

Space Shuttle Jan. 22, 1992 Ronald J. Grabe 8:1:12 Forty-fifth STS flight. Carried International 

Discovery (STS-42) Stephen S. Oswald Microgravity Laboratory-1 in cargo bay.

Norman E. Thagard

David C. Hilmers

William F. Readdy

Roberta L. Bondar

Ulf Merbold (ESA)

Soyuz TM-14 Mar. 17, 1992 Alexandr Viktorenko 145:15:11 First manned CIS space mission. Docked with 

Alexandr Kaleri Mir space station Mar. 19. The TM-13 

Klaus-Dietrich Flade capsule with Flade, Aleksandr Volkov, and 

(Germany) Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth Mar. 25. 

Krikalev had been in space 313 days.

Viktorenko and Kaleri remained on the 

Mir space station.

Space Shuttle Mar . 24, 1992 Charles F. Bolden 9:0:10 Forty-sixth STS flight. Carried Atmospheric 

Atlantis (STS-45) Brian Duffy Laboratory for Applications and Science 

Kathryn D. Sullivan (ATLAS-1).

David C. Leestma

Michael Foale

Dirk D. Frimout

Byron K. Lichtenberg

Space Shuttle May 7, 1992 Daniel C. Brandenstein 8:16:17 Forty-seventh STS flight. Reboosted a crippled 

Endeavour (STS-49) Kevin P. Chilton INTELSAT VI communications satellite.

Richard J. Hieb

Bruce E. Melnick

Pierre J. Thuot

Kathryn C. Thornton

Thomas D. Akers

Space Shuttle June 25, 1992 Richard N. Richards 13:19:30 Forty-eighth STS flight. Carried U.S. 

Columbia (STS-50) Kenneth D. Bowersox Microgravity Laboratory-1.

Bonnie Dunbar

Ellen Baker

Carl Meade

Soyuz TM-15 July 27, 1992 Anatoly Solovyov 189:17:43 Docked with Mir space station Jul. 29. Tognini 

Sergei Avdeyev returned to Earth in TM-14 capsule with 

Michel Tognini (France) Alexandr Viktorenko and Alexandr Kaleri. 

Solovyov and Avdeyev spent over six months 

in the Mir orbital complex and returned to 

Earth in the descent vehicle of the TM-15 

spacecraft on Feb. 1, 1993. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

52 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle Jul. 31, 1992 Loren J. Shriver 7:23:16 Forty-ninth STS flight. Deployed Tethered 

Atlantis (STS-46) Andrew M. Allen Satellite System-1 and Eureka-1.

Claude Nicollier (ESA)

Marsha S. Ivins

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

Franklin R. Chang-Diaz

Franco Malerba (Italy)

Space Shuttle Sep. 12, 1992 Robert L. Gibson 7:22:30 Fiftieth STS flight. Carried Spacelab J. Jemison 

Endeavour (STS-47) Curtis L. Brown, Jr. first African American woman to fly in

Mark C. Lee space. Mohri first Japanese to fly on NASA 

Jerome Apt spacecraft. Lee and Davis first married couple 

N. Jan Davis in space together.

Mae C. Jemison

Mamoru Mohri 

Space Shuttle Oct. 22, 1992 James D. Wetherbee 9:20:57 Fifty-first STS flight. Studied influence of 

Columbia (STS-52) Michael A. Baker gravity on basic fluid and solidification 

William M. Shepherd processes using U.S. Microgravity 

Tamara E. Jernigan Payload-1 in an international mission. 

Charles L. Veach Deployed second Laser Geodynamics Satellite 

Steven G. MacLean and Canadian Target Assembly.

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1992 David M. Walker 7:7:19 Fifty-second STS flight. Deployed the last major 

Discovery (STS-53) Robert D. Cabana DoD classified payload planned for Shuttle 

Guion S. Bluford, Jr. (DoD 1) with ten different secondary payloads.

James S. Voss

Michael Richard Clifford

Space Shuttle Jan. 13, 1993 John H. Casper 6:23:39 Fifty-third STS flight. Deployed Tracking and 

Endeavour (STS-54) Donald R. McMonagle Data Relay Satellite-6. Operated Diffused 

Gregory J. Harbaugh X-ray Spectrometer Hitchhiker experiment to 

Mario Runco, Jr. collect data on stars and galactic gases.

Susan J. Helms

Soyuz TM-16 Jan. 24, 1993 Gennady Manakov 179:0:44 Docked with Mir space station Jan. 26. On 

Aleksandr Poleshchuk July 22, 1993, the TM-16 descent cabin 

landed back on Earth with Manakov, 

Poleschuk, and French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre 

Haignere from Soyuz TM-17 on board.

Space Shuttle Apr. 8, 1993 Kenneth D. Cameron 9:6:9 Fifty-fourth STS flight. Completed second flight 

Discovery (STS-56) Stephen S. Oswald of Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications 

C. Michael Foale and Science and deployed SPARTAN-201.

Kenneth D. Cockerell

Ellen Ochoa

Space Shuttle Apr. 26, 1993 Steven R. Nagel 9:23:39 Fifty-fifth STS flight. Completed second 

Columbia (STS-55) Terence T. Henricks German microgravity research program in 

Jerry L. Ross Spacelab D-2.

Charles J. Precourt

Bernard A. Harris, Jr.

Ulrich Walter (Germany)

Hans W. Schlegel (Germany)

Space Shuttle June 21, 1993 Ronald J. Grabe 9:23:46 Fifty-sixth STS flight. Carried Spacelab com

Endeavour (STS-57) Brian J. Duffy mercial payload module and retrieved 

G. David Low European Retrievable Carrier in orbit since

Nancy J. Sherlock August 1992.

Peter J. K. Wisoff

Janice E. Voss
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

53 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Soyuz TM-17 July 1, 1993 Vasiliy Tsibliyev 196:17:45 Docked with Mir space station July 3. Haignere 

Aleksandr Serebrov returned to Earth with Soyuz TM-16. Serebrov

Jean-Pierre Haignere and Tsibliyev landed in TM-17 spacecraft on

Jan. 14, 1994.

Space Shuttle Sep. 12, 1993 Frank L. Culbertson, Jr. 9:20:11 Fifty-seventh STS flight. Deployed ACTS 

Discovery (STS-51) William F. Readdy satellite to serve as testbed for new 

James H. Newman communications satellite technology and 

Daniel W. Bursch U.S./German ORFEUS-SPAS.

Carl E. Walz

Space Shuttle Oct. 18, 1993 John E. Blaha 14:0:29 Fifty-eighth STS flight. Carried Spacelab Life 

Columbia (STS-58) Richard A. Searfoss Sciences-2 payload to determine the effects 

Shannon W. Lucid of microgravity on M. Rhea Seddon 

David A. Wolf human and animal subjects.

William S. McArthur

Martin J. Fettman

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1993 Richard O. Covey 10:19:58 Fifty-ninth STS flight. Restored planned 

Endeavour (STS-61) Kenneth D. Bowersox scientific capabilitities and reliability of the

Tom Akers Hubble Space Telescope.

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

Kathryn C. Thornton

Claude Nicollier

F. Story Musgrave

Soyuz TM-18 Jan. 8, 1994 Viktor Afanasyev 182:0:27 Docked with Mir space station Jan. 10. 

Yuri Usachev Afanasyev and Usachev landed in the TM-18

Valery Polyakov spacecraft on July 9, 1994. Polyakov remained

aboard Mir in the attempt to establish a new

record for endurance in space.

Space Shuttle Feb. 3, 1994 Charles F. Bolden, Jr. 8:7:9 Sixtieth STS flight. Carried the Wake Shield 

Discovery (STS-60) Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr. Facility to generate new semi-conductor 

N. Jan Davis films for advanced electronics. Also carried 

Ronald M. Sega SPACEHAB. Krikalev’s presence signified a

Franklin R. Chang-Diaz new era in cooperation in space between

Sergei K. Krikalev (Russia) Russia and the United States.

Space Shuttle Mar. 9, 1994 John H. Casper 13:23:17 Sixty-first STS flight. Carried U.S. Microgravity 

Columbia (STS-62) Andrew M. Allen Payload-2 to conduct experiments in materials

Pierre J. Thuot processing, biotechnology, and other areas.

Charles D. Gemar

Marsha S. Ivins

Space Shuttle Apr. 9, 1994 Sidney M. Gutierrez 11:5:50 Sixty-second STS flight. Carried the Space 

Endeavour (STS-59) Kevin P. Chilton Radar Laboratory-1 to gather data on the 

Jerome Apt Earth and the effects humans have on its

Michael R. Clifford carbon, water, and energy cycles.

Linda M. Godwin

Thomas D. Jones

Soyuz TM-19 July 1, 1994 Yuri I. Malenchenko 125:22:53 Docked with Mir space station July 3. Both 

Talgat A. Musabayev Malenchenko and Musabayev returned to 

Earth with the Soyuz TM-19 spacecraft, 

landing in Kazakhstan on Nov. 4 together 

with Ulf Merbold of Germany, who went up

aboard Soyuz TM-20 on Oct 3, 1994. 

Merbold gathered biological samples on the 

effects of weightlessness on the human body

body in the first of two ESA missions to Mir 

to prepare for the International Space 

Station.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

54 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle July 8, 1994 Robert D. Cabana 14:17:55 Sixty-third STS flight. Carried International 

Columbia (STS-65) James D. Halsell, Jr. Microgravity Laboratory-2 to conduct research

Richard J. Hieb into the behavior of materials and life in near 

Carl E. Walz weightlessness.

Leroy Chiao

Donald A. Thomas

Chiaki Naito-Mukai (Japan)

Space Shuttle Sep. 9, 1994 Richard N. Richards 10:22:50 Sixty-fourth STS flight. Used LIDAR In-Space 

Discovery (STS-64) L. Blaine Hammond, Jr. Technology Experiment to perform atmos

J. M. Linenger pheric research. Included the first untethered 

Susan J. Helms spacewalk by astronauts in over 10 years.

Carl J. Meade

Mark C. Lee

Space Shuttle Sep. 30, 1994 Michael A. Baker 11:5:36 Sixty-fifth STS flight. Used Space Radar 

Endeavour (STS-68) Terrence W. Wilcutt Laboratory-2 to provide scientists with data to

Thomas D. Jones help distinguish human-induced environmental

Steven L. Smith change from other natural forms of change.

Daniel W. Bursch

Peter J. K. Wisoff

Soyuz TM-20 Oct. 3, 1994 Alexsandr Viktorenko * Soyuz TM-19 returned to Earth on Nov. 4, 1994, 

Yelena Kondakova with Yuri Malenchenko, Talgat Musabayev, 

Ulf Merbold (ESA) and Ulf Merbold. Valeriy Polyakov remained

aboard Mir.

Space Shuttle Nov. 3, 1994 Donald R. McMonagle 10:22:34 Sixty-sixth STS flight. Three main payloads: the

Atlantis (STS-66) Curtis L. Brown, Jr. third Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications 

Ellen Ochoa and Science (ATLAS-3), the first Cryogenic 

Joseph R. Tanner Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the 

Jean-Francois Clervoy (ESA) Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTAScott E. Parazynski SPAS-1), and the Shuttle Solar Backscatter

Ultraviolet (SSBUV) spectrometer. Astronauts

also conducted protein crystal growth

experiments.

Space Shuttle Feb. 3, 1995 James D. Wetherbee 8:6:28 Sixty-seventh STS flight. Primary objective: first 

Discovery (STS-63) Eileen M. Collins close encounter in nearly 20 years between 

Bernard A. Harris, Jr. American and Russian spacecraft as a prelude 

C. Michael Foale to establishment of International Space 

Janice E. Voss Station. (Shuttle flew close by to Mir.) Main 

Vladimir G. Titov (Russia) Payloads: Spacehab 3 experiments and Shuttle

Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for

Astronomy (SPARTAN) 204, Solid Surface

Combustion Experiment (SSCE), and Air 

Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) Calibration 

Test. Also launched very small Orbital Debris 

Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS).

Space Shuttle Mar. 2, 1995 Stephen S. Oswald 16:15:8 Sixty-eighth STS flight. Longest Shuttle mission 

Endeavour (STS-67) William G. Gregory to date. Primary payload was a trio of ultraJohn M. Grunsfeld violet telescopes called Astro-2.

Wendy B. Lawrence

Tamara E. Jernigan

Ronald A. Parise

Samuel T. Durrance
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

55 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Soyuz TM-21 Mar. 14, 1995 Vladimir Dezhurov * Thagard was the first American astronaut to fly 

Gennadi Strekalov on a Russian rocket and to stay on the Mir 

Norman Thagard (U.S.) space station. Soyuz TM-20 returned to Earth

on Mar. 22, 1995, with Valeriy Polyakov, 

Alexsandr Viktorenko, and Yelena 

Kondakova. Polyakov set world record by 

remaining in space for 438 days.

Space Shuttle June 27, 1995 Robert L. Gibson 9:19:22 Sixty-ninth STS flight and one hundredth U.S. 

Atlantis (STS-71) Charles J. Precourt human spaceflight. Docked with Mir space 

Ellen S. Baker station. Brought up Mir 19 crew (Anatoly Y.

Gregory Harbaugh Solovyev and Nikolai M. Budarin). Returned 

Bonnie J. Dunbar to Earth with Mir 18 crew (Vladimir N. 

Dezhurov, Gennady M. Strekalov, and 

Norman Thagard). Thagard set an American 

record by remaining in space for 115 days.

Space Shuttle July 13, 1995 Terence Henricks 8:22:20 Seventieth STS flight. Deployed Tracking and 

Discovery (STS-70) Kevin R. Kregel Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). Also conducted 

Nancy J. Currie various biomedical experiments.

Donald A. Thomas

Mary Ellen Weber

Soyuz TM-22 Sep. 3, 1995 Yuri Gidzenko * Soyuz TM-21 returned to Earth on Sep. 11, 1995, 

Sergei Avdeev with Mir 19 crew (Anatoliy Solovyev and 

Thomas Reiter (ESA) Nikolay Budarin).

Space Shuttle Sep. 7, 1995 David M. Walker 10:20:28 Seventy-first STS flight. Deployed Wake Shield 

Endeavour (STS-69) Kenneth D. Cockrell Facility (WSF-2) and SPARTAN 201-03.

James S. Voss

James H. Newman

Michael L. Gernhardt

Space Shuttle Oct. 20, 1995 Kenneth D. Bowersox 15:21:52 Seventy-second STS flight. Carried out microColumbia (STS-73) Kent V. Rominger gravity experiments with the U.S. 

Catherine G. Coleman Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) 

Michael Lopez-Alegria payload.

Kathryn C. Thornton

Fred W. Leslie

Albert Sacco, Jr.

Space Shuttle Nov. 12, 1995 Kenneth D. Cameron 8:4:31 Seventy-third STS flight. Docked with Mir 

Atlantis (STS-74) James D. Halsell, Jr. space station as part of International Space 

Chris A. Hadfield (CSA) Station (ISS) Phase I efforts.

Jerry L. Ross

William S. McArthur, Jr.

Space Shuttle Jan. 11, 1996 Brian Duffy 8:22:1 Seventy-fourth STS flight. Deployed OAST 

Endeavour (STS-72) Brent W. Jett, Jr. Flyer. Retrieved previously launched 

Leroy Chiao Japanese Space Flyer Unit satellite. Crew 

Winston E. Scott performed spacewalks to build experience 

Koichi Wakata (Japan) for ISS construction.

Daniel T. Barry

Soyuz TM-23 Feb. 21, 1996 Yuri Onufrienko * Soyuz TM-22 returned to Earth on Feb. 29, 1996, 

Yuri Usachyou with Mir 20 crew (Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei 

Avdeev, and Thomas Reiter).
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

56 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle Feb. 22, 1996 Andrew M. Allen 13:16:14 Seventy-fifth STS flight. Deployed Tethered 

Columbia (STS-75) Scott J. Horowitz Satellite System, U.S. Microgravity Payload 

Jeffrey A. Hoffman (USMP-3), and protein crystal growth 

Maurizio Cheli (ESA) experiments.

Claude Nicollier (ESA)

Franklin R. Chang-Diaz

Umberto Guidoni (ESA)

Space Shuttle Mar. 22, 1996 Kevin P. Chilton 9:5:16 Seventy-sixth STS flight. Docked with Mir 

Atlantis (STS-76) Richard A. Searfoss space station and left astronaut Shannon 

Linda M. Godwin Lucid aboard Mir. Also carried SPACEHAB 

Michael R. Clifford module.

Ronald M. Sega

Shannon W. Lucid**

Space Shuttle May 19, 1996 John H. Casper 10:2:30 Seventy-seventh STS flight. Deployed 

Endeavour (STS-77) Curtis L. Brown SPARTAN/Inflatable Antenna Experiment, 

Andrew S. W. Thomas SPACEHAB, and PAMS-STU payloads.

Daniel W. Bursch

Mario Runco, Jr.

Marc Garneau (CSA)

Space Shuttle June 20, 1996 Terrence T. Henricks 16:21:48 Seventy-eighth STS flight. Set Shuttle record

Columbia (STS-78) Kevin Kregel for then-longest flight. Carried Life and 

Richard M. Linnehan Microgravity Sciences Spacelab. 

Susan J. Helms

Charles E. Brady, Jr.

Jean-Jacques Favier (CSA)

Robert B. Thirsk (ESA)

Soyuz TM-24 Aug. 17, 1996 Claudie Andre-Deshays (ESA) * Soyuz TM-23 returned to Earth on Sep. 2, 1996,

Valery Korzun with Claudie Andre-Deshays, Yuri 

Alexander Kaleri Onufrienko, and Yuri Usachev.

Space Shuttle Sep. 16, 1996 William F. Readdy 10:3:19 Seventy-ninth STS flight. Docked with Mir 

Atlantis (STS-79) Terrence W. Wilcutt space station. Picked up astronaut Shannon 

Jerome Apt Lucid and dropped off astronaut John Blaha.

Thomas D. Akers

Carl E. Walz

John E. Blaha**

Shannon W. Lucid***

Space Shuttle Nov. 19, 1996 Kenneth D. Cockrell 17:15:53 Set record for longest Shuttle flight. At age 61, 

Columbia (STS-80) Kent V. Rominger Musgrave became oldest person to fly in 

Tamara E. Jernigan space. He also tied record for most space 

Thomas David Jones flights (six) by a single person. Crew 

F. Story Musgrave successfully deployed ORFEUS-SPAS II 

ultraviolet observatory and Wake Shield 

Facility payloads.

Space Shuttle Jan. 12, 1997 Michael A. Baker 10:4:56 Fifth Shuttle mission to Mir. Jerry Linenger 

Atlantis (STS-81) Brent W. Jett replaced John Blaha as U.S. resident on Mir. 

Peter J.K. “Jeff” Wisoff

John M. Grunsfeld

Marsha S.Ivins

Jerry M. Linenger**

John E. Blaha***
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

57 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 1997

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Soyuz TM-25 Feb. 10, 1997 Vasily Tsibliyev * Soyuz TM-24 returned to Earth on March 2, 

Aleksandr Lazutkin 1997, with Reinhold Ewald, Valery Korzun, 

Reinhold Ewald and Alexandr Kaleri.

Space Shuttle Feb. 11, 1997 Kenneth D. Bowersox 9:23:36 Crew successfully performed second servicing 

Discovery (STS-82) Scott J. Horowitz mission of the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Joseph R. Tanner

Steven A. Hawley

Gregory J. Harbaugh

Mark C. Lee

Steven L. Smith

Space Shuttle Apr. 4, 1997 James D. Halsell, Jr. 3:23:34 Crew deployed a Spacelab module configured as 

Columbia (STS-83) Susan L. Still the first Microgravity Science Laboratory. 

Janice Voss Shuttle fuel cell malfunction necessitated an 

Michael L. Gernhardt early termination of the mission.

Donald A. Thomas

Roger K. Crouch

Gregory T. Linteris

Space Shuttle May 15, 1997 Charles J. Precourt 9:5:21 Sixth Shuttle mission to Mir. Michael Foale 

Atlantis (STS-84) Eileen Marie Collins replaced Jerry Linenger on Mir. 

Jean-François Clervoy

Carlos I. Noriega

Edward Tsang Lu

Elena V. Kondakova 

Michael Foale**

Jerry M. Linenger***

Space Shuttle July 1, 1997 James D. Halsell, Jr. 15:16:45 Reflight of STS-83 and the same payload, the 

Columbia (STS-94) Susan L. Still Microgravity Science Laboratory. Mission 

Janice Voss proceeded successfully.

Michael L. Gernhardt

Donald A. Thomas

Roger K. Crouch

Gregory T. Linteris

Soyuz TM-26 Aug. 5, 1997 Anatoly Solovyev * Soyuz TM-25 returned to Earth on August 14, 

Pavel Vinogradov 1997, with Vasily Tsibliev and Alesandr 

Lazutkin.

Space Shuttle Aug. 7, 1997 Curtis L. Brown, Jr. 11:20:27 Crew successfully deployed two payloads: 

Discovery (STS-85) Kent V. Rominger CRISTA-SPAS-2 on infrared radiation and 

N. Jan Davis an international Hitchhiker package of four 

Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. experiments on ultraviolet radiation. The 

Stephen K. Robinson crew also successfully performed the Japanese 

Bjarni V. Tryggvason Manipulator Flight Demonstration of a 

robotic arm.

Space Shuttle Sep. 25, 1997 James D. Wetherbee 10:19:21 Seventh Shuttle docking with Mir. David Wolf 

Atlantis (STS-86) Michael J. Bloomfield replaced Michael Foale on Mir. Parazynski 

Scott E. Parazynski and Titov performed a spacewalk to retrieve 

Vladimir Titov four Mir Environmental Effects Payload 

Jean-Loup Chretien experiments from the exterior of the docking 

Wendy B. Lawrence module and left a solar array cover cap for 

David A. Wolf** possible future repair of the damaged Spektr

C. Michael Foale*** module. 

* Mir crew members stayed for various and overlapping lengths of time.

** Flew up on Space Shuttle; remained in space aboard Russian Mir space station.

*** Returned to Earth via Space Shuttle from Russian Mir space station.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

58 APPENDIX D

(Continued)

U.S. Space Launch Vehicles

Max. Payload (kg)d

Max. Dia Geosynch. SunStages: Thrust x Height 185-km Transfer Synch. First

Vehicle Engine/Motor Propellanta (kilonewtons)b, c (m) Orbit Orbit Orbite Launchf

Pegasus 6.71x15.5h 380 — 210 1990

280e

1. Orion 50S Solid 484.9 1.28x8.88

2. Orion 50 Solid 118.2 1.28x2.66

3. Orion 38 Solid 31.9 0.97x1.34

Pegasus XL 6.71x16.93 460 — 335 1994g

1. Orion 50S-XL Solid 743.3 1.28x10.29 350e

2. Orion 50-XL Solid 201.5 1.28x3.58

3. Orion 38 Solid 31.9 0.97x1.34

Taurus 2.34x28.3 1,400 255 1,020 Not

0. Castor 120 Solid 1,687.7 2.34x11.86 1,080e scheduled

1. Orion 50S Solid 580.5 1.28x8.88

2. Orion 50 Solid 138.6 1.28x2.66

3. Orion 38 Solid 31.9 0.97x1.34

Delta II 2.44x29.70 5,089 1,842i 3,175 1990,

(7920, 7925) 3,890e Delta-7925

1. RS-270/A LOX/RP-1 1,043.0 (SL) 3.05x38.1 [1960, Delta]

Hercules GEM (9) Solid 487.6 (SL) 1.01x12.95

2. AJ10-118K N204/A-50 42.4 2.44x5.97

3. Star 48Bj Solid 66.4 1.25x2.04

Atlas E 3.05x28.1 820e — 910k 1968, Atlas F

1,860e, k [1958,

1. Atlas: MA-3 LOX/RP-1 1,739.5 (SL) 3.05x21.3 Atlas LV-3A]

Atlas I 4.2x43.9 — 2,255 — 1990, I [1966,

Atlas Centaur]

1. Atlas: MA-5 LOX/RP-1 1,952.0 (SL) 3.05x22.16 

2. Centaur I: LOX/LH2 73.4/ 3.05x9.14

RL10A-3-3A (2) engine

Atlas II 4.2x47.5 6,580 2,810 4,300 1991, II [1966,

5,510e Atlas Centaur]

1. Atlas: MA-5A LOX/RP-1 2,110.0 (SL) 3.05x24.9

2. Centaur II: LOX/LH2 73.4/engine 3.05x10.05

RL10A-3-3A (2)

Atlas IIA 4.2x47.5 6,828 3,062 4,750 1992, Atlas

6,170e IIA [1966,

1. Atlas: MA-5A LOX/RP-1 2,110.0 (SL) 3.05x24.9 Atlas Centaur]

2. Centaur II: LOX/LH2 92.53/engine 3.05x10.05

RL10A-4 (2)

Atlas IIAS 4.2x47.5 8,640 3,606 5,800 1993, IIAS

7,300e [1966,

1. Atlas: MA-5A LOX/RP-1 2,110.0 (SL) 3.05x24.9 Atlas Centaur]

Castor IVA (4)j Solid 433.6 (SL) 1.01X11.16

2. Centaur II: LOX/LH2 92.53/engine 3.05x10.05

RL10A-4 (2)
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

59 APPENDIX D

(Continued)

U.S. Space Launch Vehicles

Max. Payload (kg)d

Max. Dia Geosynch. SunStages: Thrust x Height 185-km Transfer Synch. First

Vehicle Engine/Motor Propellanta (kilonewtons)b, c (m) Orbit Orbit Orbite Launchf

Titan II 3.05x42.9 1,905e — — 1988,

1. LR-87-AJ-5 (2) N204/A-50 1,045.0 3.05x21.5 Titan II SLV

2. LR-91-AJ-5 N204/A-50 440.0 3.05x12.2 [1964, Titan II 

Gemini]

Titan III 3.05x47.3 14,515 5,000l — 1989, 

0. Titan III SRM (2) Solid 6,210.0 3.11x27.6 Titan III 

(5-1/2 segments) [1964,

1. LR87-AJ-11 (2) N204/A-50 1,214.5 3.05x24.0 Titan IIIA]

2. LR91-AJ-11 N204/A-50 462.8 3.05x10.0

Titan IV 3.05x62.2 17,700 6,350m — 1989,

0. Titan IV SRM (2) Solid 7,000.0 3.11x34.1 14,110e Titan IV

(7 segments)

1. LR87-AJ-11 (2) N204/A-50 1,214.5 3.05x26.4

2. LR91-AJ-11 N204/A-50 462.8 3.05x10.0

Titan IV/ 4.3x62.2 — 5,760a — 1994, 

0. Titan IV SRM (2) Solid 7,000.0 3.11x34.1 Titan IV

(7 segments) Centaur

1. LR87-AJ-11 (2) N204/A-50 1,214.5/engine 3.05x26.4

2. LR91-AJ-11(1) N204/A-50 462.5 3.05x10.0

3. Centaur:

RL-10A-3-3A LOX/LH2 73.4 4.3x9.0

4. SRMU

(3 segments) 7690 3.3x34.3

Space Shuttlen 23.79x56.14h 24,900o 5,900p — 1981,

1. SRB: Solid 11,790.0 (SL) 3.70x45.46 Columbia

Shuttle SRB (2)

2. Orbiter/ET: LOX/LH2 1,668.7 (SL) 8.41x47.00 (ET)

SSME (3) 23.79x37.24h (orbiter)

3. Orbiter/OMS: N204/MMH 26.7 23.79x37.24h

OMS engines (2)
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

60 APPENDIX D

(Continued)

U.S. Space Launch Vehicles

NOTES:

a. Propellant abbreviations used are as follows:

A-50 = Aerozine 50 (50% Monomethyl Hydrazine, 

50% Unsymmetrical Dimethyl Hydrazine)

RP-1 = Rocket Propellant 1 (kerosene) 

Solid = Solid Propellant (any type)

LH2 = Liquid Hydrogen

LOX = Liquid Oxygen

MMH = Monomethyl Hydrazine

N204 = Nitrogen Tetroxide

b. Thrust at vacuum except where indicated at sea level (SL).

c. Thrust per engine. Multiply by number of engines for

thrust per stage.

d. Inclination of 28.5 ̊ except where indicated.

e. Polar launch from Vandenberg AFB, CA.

f. First successful orbital launch [ditto of initial version].

g. First launch was a failure

h. Diameter dimension represents vehicle wing span.

NOTE: Data should not be used for detailed NASA mission planning without concurrence of the 

Director of Space Transportation System Support Programs.

i. Applies to Delta II-7925 version only.

j. Two Castor IVA motors ignited at lift-off. Two Castor IVA

motors ignited at approximately 57 seconds into flight.

k. With TE-M-364-4 upper stage.

l. With Transfer Orbit Stage.

m. With appropriate upper stage.

n. Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters fire in parallel with the 

Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), which are mounted on 

the aft end of the Shuttle Orbiter Vehicle and burn fuel, and

oxidizer from the External Tank. The boosters stage first, with 

SSME’s continuing to fire. The External Tank stages next, just 

before the orbiter attains orbit. The Orbiter Maneuvering 

Subsystem is then used to maneuver or change the orbit of the 

Orbiter Vehicle.

o. 204-km circular orbit.

p. With Inertial Upper Stage or Transfer Orbit Stage.
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

61 APPENDIX E-1A

(Continued)

Space Activities of the U.S. Government

HISTORICAL BUDGET SUMMARY—BUDGET AUTHORITY

(in millions of real-year dollars)

NASA NASA Total

FY Total Spaceb DoD Otherc DoE DoC DoI USDA NSFa DoT EPAd Space

1959 331 261 490 34 34 785

1960 524 462 561 43 43 0.1 1,066

1961 964 926 814 69 68 1 1,809

1962 1,825 1,797 1,298 200 148 51 1 3,295

1963 3,673 3,626 1,550 259 214 43 2 5,435

1964 5,100 5,016 1,599 216 210 3 3 6,831

1965 5,250 5,138 1,574 244 229 12 3 6,956

1966 5,175 5,065 1,689 217 187 27 3 6,971

1967 4,966 4,830 1,664 216 184 29 3 6,710

1968 4,587 4,430 1,922 177 145 28 0.2 1 3 6,529

1969 3,991 3,822 2,013 141 118 20 0.2 1 2 5,976

1970 3,746 3,547 1,678 115 1038112 5,340

1971 3,311 3,101 1,512 127 95 27212 4,740

1972 3,307 3,071 1,407 97 55 31623 4,575

1973 3,406 3,093 1,623 109 54 40 10 2 3 4,825

1974 3,037 2,759 1,766 116 42 60932 4,641

1975 3,229 2,915 1,892 106 30 64822 4,913

1976 3,550 3,225 1,983 111 23 72 10 4 2 5,319

TQ* 932 849 460 32 5 22 3 1 1 1,341

1977 3,818 3,440 2,412 131 22 91 10 6 2 5,983

1978 4,060 3,623 2,738 157 34 103 10 8 2 6,518

1979 4,596 4,030 3,036 177 59 98 10 8 2 7,243

1980 5,240 4,680 3,848 233 40 93 12 14 74 8,761

1981 5,518 4,992 4,828 233 41 87 12 16 77 10,053

1982 6,044 5,528 6,679 311 61 145 12 15 78 12,518

1983 6,875 6,328 9,019 325 39 178 5 20 83 15,672

1984 7,458 6,858 10,195 392 34 236 3 19 100 17,445

1985 7,573 6,925 12,768 580 34 423 2 15 106 20,273

1986 7,807 7,165 14,126 473 35 309 2 23 104 21,764

1987 10,923 9,809 16,287 462 48 278 8 19 108 1 26,558

1988 9,062 8,322 17,679 737 241 352 14 18 111 1 26,738

1989 10,969 10,097 17,906 560 97 301 17 21 116 3 5 28,563

1990 12,324 11,460 15,616 512 79 243 31 25 125 4 5 27,588

1991 14,016 13,046 14,181 697 251 251 29 26 131 4 5 27,924

1992 14,317 13,199 15,023 769 223 327 34 29 145 4 7 28,991

1993 14,310 13,064 14,106 698 165 324 33 25 139 4 8 27,868

1994 14,570 13,022 13,166 601 74 312 31 31 140 5 8 26,789

1995 13,854 12,543 10,644 629 60 352 31 32 141 6 7 23,816

1996 13,884 12,569 11,514 750 46 472 36 37 147 6 6 24,833

1997 13,709 12,457 11,727 727 35 448 42 39 151 6 6 24,911

* Transition Quarter

a. NSF has recalculated its space expenditures since 1980, making them significantly higher than reported in previous years.

b. Includes $2.1 billion for replacement of Space Shuttle Challenger.

c. “Other” column is the total of the non-NASA, non-DoD budget authority figures that appear in succeeding columns. The total is

sometimes different from the sum of the individual figures because of rounding. The “Total Space” column does not include the

“NASA Total” column because it includes budget authority for aeronautics as well as in space.

d. EPA has recalculated its aeronautics and space expenditures since 1989, making them significantly higher than reported in previous

years.

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

62 APPENDIX E-1B

(Continued)

Space Activities of the U.S. Government

BUDGET AUTHORITY IN MILLIONS OF EQUIVALENT FY 1997 DOLLARS

(adjusted for inflation)

Inflation NASA NASA Total

FY Factors Total Space DoD Other DoE DoC DoI USDA NSF DoT EPA Space

1959 4.8506 1,606 1,266 2,377 165 165 3,808

1960 4.7579 2,493 2,198 2,669 205 205 0.5 5,072

1961 4.7149 4,545 4,366 3,838 325 321 5 8,529

1962 4.6469 8,481 8,350 6,032 929 688 237 5 15,311

1963 4.5942 16,875 16,659 7,121 1,190 983 198 9 24,970

1964 4.5409 23,159 22,777 7,261 981 954 14 14 31,019

1965 4.4796 23,518 23,016 7,051 1,093 1,026 54 13 31,160

1966 4.4057 22,800 22,315 7,441 956 824 119 13 30,712

1967 4.3070 21,388 20,803 7,167 930 792 125 13 28,900

1968 4.1756 19,154 18,498 8,026 740 605 117 0.8 4 13 27,263

1969 4.0223 16,053 15,373 8,097 568 475 80 0.8 4 8 24,038

1970 3.8525 14,431 13,665 6,464 443 397 31448 20,572

1971 3.6594 12,116 11,348 5,533 465 348 99747 17,346

1972 3.4803 11,510 10,688 4,897 338 191 108 21 7 10 15,923

1973 3.3220 11,315 10,275 5,392 362 179 133 33 7 10 16,029

1974 3.1821 9,664 8,779 5,620 369 134 191 29 10 6 14,768

1975 2.9674 9,582 8,650 5,614 315 89 190 24 6 6 14,579

1976 2.6904 9,551 8,677 5,335 299 62 194 27 11 5 14,310

TQ 2.5092 2,339 2,130 1,154 80 13 55833 3,365

1977 2.4307 9,280 8,362 5,863 318 53 221 24 15 5 14,543

1978 2.3318 9,467 8,448 6,385 366 79 240 23 19 5 15,199

1979 2.1783 10,012 8,779 6,613 386 129 213 22 17 4 15,778

1980 2.0119 10,542 9,416 7,742 469 80 187 24 28 149 17,626

1981 1.8476 10,195 9,223 8,920 430 76 161 22 30 142 18,574

1982 1.6819 10,166 9,298 11,234 523 103 244 20 25 131 21,054

1983 1.5709 10,800 9,941 14,168 511 61 280 8 31 130 24,620

1984 1.5016 11,199 10,298 15,309 589 51 354 5 29 150 26,195

1985 1.4457 10,948 10,011 18,459 839 49 612 3 22 153 29,309

1986 1.3976 10,911 10,013 19,742 661 49 432 3 32 145 30,416

1987 1.3589 14,843 13,329 22,132 628 65 378 11 26 147 1 36,089

1988 1.3207 11,968 10,991 23,349 973 318 465 18 24 147 1 35,313

1989 1.2764 14,001 12,888 22,855 715 124 384 22 27 148 4 6 36,457

1990 1.2246 15,092 14,034 19,123 627 97 298 38 31 153 5 6 33,784

1991 1.1758 16,480 15,340 16,674 820 295 295 34 31 154 5 6 32,833

1992 1.1274 16,141 14,880 16,937 867 251 369 38 33 163 5 8 32,684

1993 1.0984 15,718 14,349 15,494 767 181 356 36 27 153 4 9 30,610

1994 1.0725 15,626 13,966 14,120 645 79 335 33 33 150 5 9 28,731

1995 1.0456 14,486 13,115 11,130 657 63 368 32 33 147 6 7 24,902

1996 1.0220 14,190 12,846 11,768 767 47 482 37 38 150 6 6 25,380

1997 1.0000 13,709 12,457 11,727 727 35 448 42 39 151 6 6 24,911

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget
Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

63 APPENDIX E-2

(Continued)

Federal Space Activities Budget

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal Agencies Budget Authority Budget Outlays

1995 1996 1997 1995 1996 1997

actual actual est. actual actual est.

NASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,543 12,569 12,457 12,593 12,694 13,055

Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,644 11,514 11,727 11,494 11,353 11,959

Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 46 35 70 46 37

Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 472 448 330 354 336

Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 36 42 31 36 42

Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 37 39 32 37 39

Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6 6 5 6 6

EPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 6 7 7 6

NSF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 147 151 138 142 146

TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23,816 24,833 24,911 24,700 24,675 25,626

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

64 APPENDIX E-3

(Continued)

Federal Aeronautics Budget

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal Agencies Budget Authority Budget Outlays

1995 1996 1997 1995 1996 1997

actual actual est. actual actual est.

NASAa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,310 1,315 1,252 1,143 1,187 1,302

Defenseb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,196 6,792 6,323 7,132 6,974 6,600

Transportationc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,212 2,052 2,146 2,870 2,676 2,528

TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,718 10,159 9,721 11,145 10,837 10,430

a. Research, Development, Construction of Facilities, Research and Program Management

b. Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation of aircraft and related equipment.

c. Federal Aviation Administration: Research, Engineering, and Development; Facilities, Engineering, and Development

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget.
Glossary

ACDA Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

ACE Advanced Composition Explorer

ACTS Advanced Communications Technology Satellite

ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (Japan)

AEB Brazilian space agency

AFB Air Force Base

AGRE Active Geophysical Rocket Experiment

AMOS Air Force Maui Optical Site

ARS Agricultural Research Service (USDA)

ASTP Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

ATLAS Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science

AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AXAF Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility

BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs (DoI)

Black hole A completely collapsed, massive dead star whose gravitational field is

so powerful that no radiation can escape from it; because of this property, its

existence must be inferred rather than recorded from radiation emissions

BMDO Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (formerly SDIO)

CIA Central Intelligence Agency

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

65
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States

Corona The outer atmosphere of the Sun, extending about a million miles above

the surface

Cosmic rays Not forms of energy, such as x-rays or gamma rays, but particles of

matter

COSPAR Congress for Space Research

Cospas Russian acronym meaning Space System for Search of Vessels in Distress

CRISTA-SPAS Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the

Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite

DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program—DoD’s polar orbiting weather

satellite system

DoC Department of Commerce

DoD Department of Defense

DoE Department of Energy

DoI Department of the Interior

DoS Department of State

DoT Department of Transportation

DSP Defense Support Program

El Niño A warm inshore current annually flowing south along the coast of

Ecuador around the end of December and extending about every 7 to 10 years

down the coast of Peru

ELV Expendable Launch Vehicle

EOS Earth Observing System—a series of satellites, part of NASA’s Mission to

Planet Earth, being designed for launch at the end of the 1990’s to gather data

on global change

EOSDIS EOS Data and Information System

EPA Environmental Protection Agency 

EROS Earth Resources Observation System (USGS)

ESA European Space Agency

EU European Union

EUMETSAT European Union for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites

EVA Extravehicular activity

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FAS Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA)

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FIRS-2 Far Infrared Spectrometer 2

Fly-by-light The use of light signals to connect the pilot’s control devices with the

aircraft control surfaces, or the use of light (fiber optic) control connections

with no mechanical backup linkages and providing the pilot direct control of

aircraft motion rather than control surface position

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Fly-by-wire The use of electrical signals to connect the pilot’s control devices

with the aircraft control surfaces, or the use of electrical control connections

with no mechanical backup linkages and providing the pilot direct control of

aircraft motion rather than control surface position

Free flight A concept being developed by the FAA and the aviation community

in which pilots could ultimately choose their own routes, speeds, and altitudes in

flight, thus improving safety, while saving fuel, time, and natural resources

FSA Farm Service Agency (USDA)

FY Fiscal year

Gamma rays The shortest of electromagnetic radiations, emitted by some radioactive substances

GATT General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade

GE General Electric Company

Geostationary Traveling around Earth’s equator at an altitude of at least 35,000

kilometers and at a speed matching that of Earth’s rotation, thereby maintaining

a constant relation to points on Earth

Geosynchronous geostationary

GIS Geographic Information System

GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GPHS General purpose heat source

GPS Global Positioning System

GPS-MET GPS-Meteorological (experiment)

GRACE Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment

Heliosphere The region of the Sun’s influence, including the Sun and the interplanetary medium

HST Hubble Space Telescope

Hypersonic Faster than Mach 4 and faster than “high speed”

Hyperspectral An instrument capability using many very narrow spectral frequency bands (300 or more), enabling a satellite-based passive sensor to

discriminate specific features or phenomena on the body being observed (e.g.,

Earth)

ICBM Intercontinental ballistic missile

IGOS Integrated Global Observing Strategy

INMARSAT International Mobile (formerly Maritime) Satellite Organization

Integrated modular

avionics Aircraft-unique avionics cabinet that replaces multiple black boxes with

shared common equipment and generic software

INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite (Organization)

Interferometry The production and measurement of interference from two or

more coherent wave trains emitted from the same source

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Internet An international computer network that began about 1970 as the NSF

Net; very slowly it became a collection of more than 40,000 independently managed computer networks worldwide that have adopted common protocols to

permit the exchange of electronic information

Ionosphere That region of Earth’s atmosphere so named because of the presence

of ionized atoms in layers that reflect radio waves and shortwave transmissions

IRS Indian Remote Sensing (satellite)

ISO International Organization for Standardization

ISS International Space Station

ITA International Trade Administration

IVA Intravehicular vehicle

JCSAT Japanese Communications Satellite

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)

K-band Radio frequencies in the 20-gigahertz range

Ka-band Radio frequencies in the 30-gigahertz range

Km kilometer

Ku-band Radio frequencies in the 11–12 gigahertz range

Landsat Land [remote sensing] Satellite; also known as ERTS, a series of satellites

designed to collect information about the Earth’s natural resources

Laser Light amplified by simulated emission of radiation—a device that produces

an intense beam of light that may be strong enough to vaporize the hardest and

most heat-resistant materials, first constructed in 1960

LDEF Long-Duration Exposure Facility

LH2 Liquid hydrogen

LOX Liquid oxygen

LWRHU Lightweight radioisotope heater unit

M Meter

M Mach number—a relative number named after Austrian physicist Ernst Mach

(1838–1916) and indicating speed with respect to that of sound in a given

medium; in dry air at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and at sea level, for example, Mach

1 equals approximately 741 mph or 1,192 kilometers per hour

Mach See M 

Magnetosphere The region of Earth’s atmosphere in which ionized gas plays an

important role in the atmospheric dynamics and where, consequently, the geomagnetic field also exerts an important influence; other magnetic planets, such

as Jupiter, have magnetospheres that are similar in many respects to Earth’s

MMH Monomethyl hydrazine

MMS Minerals Management Service (DoI)

MSS Multispectral Scanner (Landsat instrument)

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MSTI Miniature Sensor Technology Integration

MSX Midcourse Space Experiment (BMDO)

MTCR Missile Technology Control Regime

MTPE Mission to Planet Earth—a program developed by NASA and the world

scientific community to provide scientists with data that will allow them to

understand the planet as a total system and to measure the effects of the human

population on it

NAPP National Aerial Photography Program

NAS National Airspace System (FAA)

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASDA National Space Development Agency (of Japan)

NASS National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA)

NDOP National Digital Orthophoto Program

NEAR Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous

Neutron star Any of a class of extremely dense, compact stars thought to be composed primarily of neutrons; see pulsar

NIMA National Imagery and Mapping Agency

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (DoC); also the designation of that administration’s Sun-synchronous satellites in polar orbit

nominal Functioning as designed

NPS National Park Service (DoI)

NRCS National Resources Conservation Service (USDA)

NRO National Reconnaissance Office (DoD)

NSF National Science Foundation

NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration (DoC); the

Federal Government’s radio spectrum manager, which coordinates the use of

low-Earth orbit (100 to 350 nautical miles above Earth) satellite networks, such

as those for Landsat, Navstar GPS, the Space Shuttle, and TIROS, with other

countries of the world

OA Office of Aerospace (DoC-ITA)

OASC Office of Air and Space Commercialization (DoC)

OAST Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (NASA)

ODERACS Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres

OLMSA Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (NASA)

order of

magnitude An amount equal to 10 times a given value; thus if some quantity was

10 times as great as another quantity, it would be an order of magnitude greater;

if 100 times as great, it would be larger by two orders of magnitude

ORFEUS-SPAS Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet

Spectrograph-Shuttle Pallet Satellite

OT Office of Telecommunications (DoC-ITA)

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69
PAMS-STU Passive Aerodynamically stabilized Magnetically Damped SatelliteSatellite Test Unit

PAS PanAmSat

Photogrammetry The science or art of obtaining reliable measurements by means

of photography

POES Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (program)

Pulsar A pulsating radio star, which is thought to be a rapidly spinning neutron

star; the latter is formed when the core of a violently exploding star called a

supernova collapses inward and becomes compressed together; pulsars emit

extremely regular pulses of radio waves

Quasar A class of rare cosmic objects of extreme luminosity and strong radio emission; many investigators attribute their high-energy generation to gas spiraling at

high velocity into a massive black hole

Ramjet A jet engine with no mechanical compressor, consisting of specially

shaped tubes or ducts open at both ends, the air necessary for combustion being

shoved into the duct and compressed by the forward motion of the engine

RP-1 Rocket Propellant 1 (kerosene)

RSRU Remote Sensing Research Unit (USDA)

RTG Radioisotope thermoelectric generator

SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar

Scramjet Supersonic-combustion ramjet

SLBM Submarine-launched ballistic missile

Solar wind A stream of particles accelerated by the heat of the solar corona (outer

region of the Sun) to velocities great enough to permit them to escape from the

Sun’s gravitational field

SPACEHAB Commercial module for housing Shuttle experiments

SPARTAN Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy

SPAS Shuttle Pallet Satellite

SPOT Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (French satellite for the observation

of the Earth)

SRB Solid Rocket Booster

SSBUV Shuttle Solar Atmosphere Backscatter Ultraviolet (spectrometer)

SSCE Solid Surface Combustion Experiment

SSME Space Shuttle Main Engine

START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

STS Space Transportation System

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TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

TM Thematic Mapper (Landsat instrument)

UARS Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

U.N. United Nations

U.S. United States

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

USGS U.S. Geological Survey (DoI)

USIA U.S. Information Agency

USML U.S. Microgravity Laboratory

USMP U.S. Microgravity Payload

VHF Very High Frequency; any radio frequency between 30 and 300 megacycles

per second

VOA Voice of America

Wind shear Variation of wind speed and wind direction with respect to a horizontal or vertical plane; powerful but invisible downdrafts called microbursts focus

intense amounts of vertical energy in a narrow funnel that can force an aircraft

to the ground nose first if the aircraft is caught underneath

WSF Wake Shield Facility

X-rays Radiations of very short wavelengths, beyond the ultraviolet in the spectrum

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

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A

Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)

spacecraft, 2–3

Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II

(ADEOS-II) program, 14, 28

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

(AVHRR), 20–22

Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and

Astrophysics, 27

Advanced Subsonic Technology aeronautics

program, 5

Aeronautics and Space Transportation

Technology enterprise, NASA, 5

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) (USDA),

21

Agriculture, U.S. Department of, 13, 21–22

Air Force, U.S., 2, 10

American Mobil Radio Corporation, 23

American Telephone and Telegraph Company,

23

Antarctica, 25–26

Arecibo Observatory, 26

Argentina, 5, 15, 29

Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

(ACDA), 31–32

Asia, 31

Austria, 29

Aviation Weather Center, 11

B

Bantam Low Cost Booster Technologies

program, 5

Blaha, John, 4

Boeing Company, 10

Bosnia-Herzegovina, 21

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) (DoI), 19

Brazil, 5–6

Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), 2

Bruntingthorpe Airfield, England, 10

Bureau of Land Management (DoI), 19

Bureau of Reclamation (DoI), 19 C

California Institute of Technology, 25; see also

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Callisto moon, see Jupiter

Canada, 2, 5, 29

Canadian Space Agency, 26

Cassini spacecraft, 17

Center for Planetary Studies (Smithsonian

Institution), 27

Chile, 33

China, 14–15

Civil Aeromedical Institute, 12

Civil Aviation Authority, United Kingdom,

10–11

Clervoy, Jean-François, 2

Collins, Eileen M., 2

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

73

Index
Commerce, U.S. Department of (DoC), 13–16

Commercial Remote Sensing Program, 4

Commission on Aviation Safety and Security,

White House, 11

Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, see

United Nations

Comsat, 29

Constellation Communications, Inc., 23

Cospas-Sarsat program, 14

CRISTA-SPAS, 4

CTX explosive detection system, 11 D

Defense, U.S. Department of (DoD), 2–3, 7–10,

22, 29

Defense Intelligence Agency, 8

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program

(DMSP), 13

Delta launch vehicle, 2 E

Earth Observing System (EOS), 4, 19

Earth Resources Observation System (EROS),

19–20

Earth Science System Pathfinder spacecraft, 4

Echostar, 23

El Niño, 4, 21

Energy, U.S. Department of (DoE), 17

EUMETSAT, 7, 14

Europa moon, see Jupiter

Europe, 2, 21, 29

European Union (EU), 14

European Space Agency (ESA), 6, 28

Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, 7

Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV), 2, 5 F

Far Infrared Spectrometer-2 (FIRS-2), 27

Farm Service Agency (FSA) (USDA), 21

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 2, 9–12

Federal Communications Commission (FCC),

15, 23

Foale, C. Michael, 2, 4

Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) (USDA), 21

Former Soviet Union, 21

Forest Service (USDA), 21–22

France, 5

Fujimori, Alberto, 33 G

Galileo spacecraft, 3

Gap Analysis Program, 20

Garber, Stephen, 33

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT), 14 

General Electric Corporation, 23

General purpose heat source radioisotope

thermoelectric generator (GPHS-RTG), 17

Geographic Information System (GIS), 19, 22

Germany, 5

Global Broadcast Service, 7

Geostationary Operational Environmental

Satellite (GOES), 13–14

Global Positioning System (GPS), 7, 12, 15, 19,

22, 25, 29, 31; and GPS-Meteorological

(GPS-MET) experiment, 26

Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, 6

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

(GRACE), 4

Greenland, 26

Guam, 10 H

High Speed Research aeronautics program, 5

Honolulu, HI, 10

Hubble Space Telescope (HST), 1, 3, 27

Hughes, William J. Technical Center, 10 I

Indian Remote Sensing (IRS-1C) satellite, 19, 21

Informatics, Commercial Research Center in, 5

Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS), 14

Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), 31

Interior, U.S. Department of (DoI), 19–20

International Mobile Satellite Organization

(INMARSAT), 15, 29

International Space Station (ISS), 1–2, 4, 29

International Telecommunications Satellite

Organization (INTELSAT), 15, 29

International Trade Administration (ITA)

(DoC), 14–15

InVision Corporation, 11

Iridium, 23

ISO 9001, 5 J

Japan, 2, 4–5, 14, 27–29

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 17, 20, 27

Johnson Space Center (JSC) (NASA), 4

Jupiter, 3; and Callisto moon, 3; and Europa

moon, 3

K

Kennedy International Airport, 9

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) (NASA), 2

Kirtland Air Force Base, 26

Kondakova, Elena V., 2

Korean Peninsula, 31

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74
L

L-3 Corporation, 11

LaGuardia airport, 11

Landsat, 19-20, 22; and Thematic Mapper,

19–20, 22

Lazutkin, Aleksandr I., 2

Lee, Mark, C., 1

Leicestershire, England, 10

LightSAR next generation spacecraft missions, 20

Lightweight radioisotope heater unit

(LWRHU), 17

Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications

(OLMSA), NASA Office of, 4

Linenger, Jerry M., 2, 4

Lockheed Martin, 12

Lu, Edward T., 2 M

Mali, 33

Mars, 3, 25

Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, 3, 20

Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, 3, 17, 20, 33; and

Sojourner rover, 3

Mathilde asteroid, 3

MCI Corporation, 23

Microgravity Science Laboratory, 4

Military Satellite Communications

(MilSatCom) architecture, 7

Milky Way galaxy, 25

Minerals Management Service (MMS) (DoI),

19

Mir space station, 1–2, 4, 33; see also Space

Shuttle

Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR),

31

Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE), 3–4

Mobile Communications Holdings, Inc., 23

Moon, 12

Musgrave, Story, 1 N

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA), 1–7, 9–10, 14–15, 20–21, 25–29,

32–33

National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP),

19, 21

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)

(USDA), 22

National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian

Institution), 27

National Airport Pavement Test Facility, 10

National Airspace System (NAS), 9–10

National Digital Orthophoto Program (NDOP),

21–22

National Imagery and Mapping Agency, 8

National Institute of Standards and Technology

(DoC), 15

National Institute for Occupational Safety and

Health, 12

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) (DoC), 6, 13–14,

20–21

National Park Service (NPS) (DoI), 19

National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 25

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), 8

National Science Foundation (NSF), 25–26

National Security Agency, 8

National Security Council, 31

National Space Biomedical Research Institute,

4–5

National Space Development Agency

(NASDA) (of Japan), 14, 28

National Telecommunications and Information

Administration (NTIA) (DoC), 15

National Transportation Safety Board, 10

National Weather Service, 13

Natural Resources Conservation Service

(NRCS) (USDA), 22

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)

spacecraft, 3

Near Infrared Telescope Facility, 28

New Mexico Institute of Mining and

Technology, 11

New Millenium spacecraft program, 5, 20

NGC 4151 galaxy, 25

NOAA-12 spacecraft, 13

NOAA-14 spacecraft, 13

Noriega, Carlos I., 2, 33

North Korea, 21, 31 O

Office of Aerospace (OA) (DoC), 14–15

Office of Air and Space Commercialization

(OASC) (DoC), 14

O’Hare airport, 11

Orbital Sciences Corporation, 2, 12 P

PanAmSat, 23

Paris Air Show, 14

Parker, Robert, 33

Pegasus launch vehicle, 2, 12

Peru, 33

Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental

Satellite (POES), 13

Precourt, Charles J., 2

Puerto Rico, 26

Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

75
R

Radarsat satellite, 26

Remote Manipulator System (RMS), 1

Remote Sensing Research Unit (RSRU)

(USDA), 21

Russia, 2, 5–6, 14–15, 29 S

Safety and Mission Assurance, NASA Office

of, 5

Sandia National Laboratory (DoE), 17

Satellite CD Radio, 23

Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT),

19–22

Saturn, 17

Scott, Winston, 33

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO),

27–28

Smithsonian Institution, 26–28

Sojourner rover, see Mars Pathfinder spacecraft

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

spacecraft, 3, 28

South Africa, 33

South Pole, 26

Space-Based Infrared System, 7

Spacehab Double Module, 2

Spaceport Florida, 12

Space Shuttle, 1–2, 5, 33; and the Shuttle Laser

Altimeter, 4; and the Shuttle-Mir program, 2,

5, 33; and the Super Light Weight Tank, 1

Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement, 2

Spain, 12, 15

SR-71 Linear Aerospace rocket program, 5

State, Department of (DoS), 21, 29

Stennis Space Center, 4

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), 31

Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM),

31

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), 4 T

Taxi Navigation and Situational Awareness

tool, 5

Teledesic, 23

Thematic Mapper TM, see Landsat

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth

Probe, 26

Trade Development Agency, U.S., 15

Trade Representative, U.S., 14

Transportation, U.S. Department of (DoT), 7

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), 4

Tsibliyev, Vasili V., 2

U

Ukraine, 14

United Kingdom, 10

United Nations, 6, 29; and Committee on

Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, 6

United Nations Special Commission on Iraq, 32

University of Illinois, 26

University of Oklahoma, 25

University of Texas, 25

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (DoI), 19–20,

22

U.S. Information Agency (USIA), 33 V

ValuJet accident, 10

Vegetation Canopy Lidar, 4

Very Large Baseline Array telescope, 25

Voice of America (VOA), 33 W

Washington File, 33

Weapons and Space Systems Intelligence

Committee, 32

WORLDNET television, 33

World Trade Organization (WTO), 14

World Wide Web, 3, 33

X-Y-Z

X-33 program, 5

X-34 program, 5

Yale University School of Medicine, 5

Young, John, 1

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Fiscal Year 1997 Activities

77