SP-4027 

ASTRONAUTICS AND 

AERONAUTICS, 1986-1990 

A Chronology 

by Ihor Y. Gawdiak, Ram6n J. Mir6, and Sam Stueland 

THE NASA HISTORY SERIES 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

NASA History Office 

Office of Policy and Plans 

Washington, DC 1997 
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

Gawdiak, Ihor, 1935- 

Astronautics and aeronautics, 1986-1990 : a chronology I by Ihor Y. 

Gawdiak, Ramon J. Mir6, and Sam Strueland. 

p. cm. - (NASA history series) 

Includes index. 

1. Astronautics-Chronology. 2. Aeronautics-Chronology. 

I. Mir6, Ram6n, 1968- . 11. Strueland, Sam, 1955- . 111. Title. 

IV. Series. 

TL788.5.G38 1997 97-202 15 

629.1 ' 094~21 CIP 

For sale by the US. Government printing office 

Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328 

ISBN 0-16-049134-7 
Preface 

This chronology of events in aeronautics, aviation, space science, and space 

exploration was prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of 

Congress for the History Division of the National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA). It covers the years 1986-1990 and continues the 

series of annual chronologies published by NASA. 

The present volume returns to the format used in the Astronautics and 

Aeronautics, 1979-1984: A Chronology volume. It also integrates in a single 

table the information presented in two or three previous publications. 

Ihor Y. Gawdiak 

Ram6n J. Mir6 

Sam Stueland 

May 1997 

... 

111 

Contents 

... Preface .................................................. III 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1986 .............................. 3 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1987 ............................. 93 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1988 ............................ 147 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1989 ............................ 203 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1990 ............................ 243 

Appendix A 

Satellites. Space Probes. and Human Space Flights ............ 293 

Appendix B 

Abbreviations of References .............................. 333 

Index ................................................... 337 

The NASA History Series ................................... 363 

About the Compilers ....................................... ??? 

V 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1986 

January 

January 2: A Reuters report said that Arabsat-1, the Arab world’s fist communication satellite, built for the Arab League by a French-led consortium 

and launched in February 1985 by a European Aryan rocket, failed to operate 

in orbit because of technical errors. The report also noted that Iraqi Director 

General Ali Mashat, the man in charge of the project, was fired last month by 

a committee of six Arab League communications ministers. (C Trib, Jan 2/86) 

Having examined NASA’s 1986 schedule of launches, missions into space, 

and other space science events, U.S. media predicted that 1986 would “open 

an extensive new chapter in space exploration,” and would rival the era of 

space exploration “that began with Galileo’s first peak through a telescope 400 

years ago.” Predicting 1986 to be “a banner year,” the Christian Science 

Monitor pictured an expanding role for the United States in space exploration 

because the year promised to put NASA on the cutting edge. Although the Los 

Angeles Times predicted “a year of spectaculars,’’ it warned that no new starts 

for planetary missions beyond 1986 were on the horizon. The Times also noted 

that the projected $8 billion orbiting Space Station would likely take a big bite 

out of NASA funds and that increased military applications equated to less 

sharing of knowledge with the public. (CSM, Jan 2/86; LA Times, Jan 218) 

January 3: The steering problem that halted the Shuttle Columbia’s launch in 

December of 1985 was traced to a tiny electrical component that led ground 

computers astray. (W Times, Jan 3/86; NY Times, Jan 3/86) 

The Federal Aviation Administration has become increasingly concerned 

with the problem of inadequate airline maintenance. Because they maintain a 

17-hour-per-day schedule and are involved in repeated takeoffs and landings, 

commercial jetliners are prone to numerous mechanical breakdowns. 

Although “modern jets are designed to fly despite even serious defects” and 

although U.S. carriers employ an army of airline mechanics repairing planes 

in between scheduled flights, several U.S. carriers were fined by the Federal 

Aviation Administration last summer for a “series of maintenance-related 

transgressions.” The National Transportation Safety Board was considering 

whether a crash of a Midwest Express Airline jet in September 1985, in which 

31 people were killed, was caused by poor maintenance. Some air-safety 

experts expressed fear that airline companies had become too cost conscious 

about safety; still, maintenance error ranked third behind pilot error and bad 

weather as a cause of fatal airline crashes. (WSJ, Jan 3/86) 

3 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1986 

January 6: NASA renamed two planetary missions scheduled for flight in 

1988 and 1990. The mission to map the planet Venus, previously known as 

Venus Radar Mapper and scheduled for launch from the Space Shuttle in April 

1988 and arrival at Venus in July 1989, was renamed Magellan. The Magellan 

spacecraft, attached to a Centaur-G upper stage, would map the entire surface 

of the planet Venus for the first time, using a synthetic-aperture radar instrument. The spacecraft would orbit the planet about once every three hours, 

coming as close as 250 kilometers from the surface. 

The mission to map the planet Mars, previously known as the Mars 

Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter and scheduled for launch from the Space 

Shuttle in August 1990 and arrival at Mars in August 1999, was renamed Mars 

Observer. The Observer spacecraft, adapted from an existing production-line 

type of Earth-orbital spacecraft to reduce costs, would map the planet Mars to 

determine the global elemental and mineralogical character of its surface and 

to investigate the Martian climate, both present and past. The Magellan and 

Mars Observer projects were managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 

Pasadena, California, for NASA‘s Office of Space Science and Applications. 

(NASA Release 86-1) 

NASA announced that the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope and the 

launch of the first Earth Observation Mission have been switched. Under the 

new schedule, the Space Telescope would be launched on October 27, 1986, 

and the Earth Observation Mission would lift off on August 18, 1986. The 

change was made to provide additional time for delivery of the Space 

Telescope from the West Coast to Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The Space 

Telescope would be deployed into orbit from Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was 

expected to see 7 times farther and 10 times more clearly than any telescope 

on Earth. (NASA Release 86-2) 

USA Today reported that 40-year-old Karen Kofoed, a reporter for the 

Camden Courier-Post, was the first journalist to apply to be part of a crew 

aboard a Space Shuttle into space. As of January 6, only 20 of the 4000 

reporters who requested applications had submitted the completed forms, 

which were due by January 15. The contest for the first journalist in space was 

administered for NASA by the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass 

Communications at the University of South Carolina. (USA Today, Jan 6/86) 

A number of American space scientists expressed disappointment because 

no U.S. spacecraft would fly by Halley’s Comet as it swings by Earth for the 

first time since 1910 and for the thirtieth time since 240 B.C. The scientists 

ascribed U.S. failure to have a mission to the comet to a “combination of over 

expectations, missed signals, poor planning, a streak of bad luck, and politics 

and infighting in the science community.” 

4 
JANUARY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

In the meantime, the European Space Agency’s spacecraft Giotto, the 

Soviet Union’s twin Vega spacecraft, and two Japanese spacecraft would each 

probe Halley’s Comet. Particularly galling to American space scientists was 

the knowledge that none of these spacecraft could carry out their mission without U.S. help, as each was guided by the U.S. Deep Space Network to reach 

the comet. The most sophisticated mission would be by the spacecraft Giotto. 

After a 60,000 mile voyage through Halley’s “dusty tail,” it would pass “within 300 miles of the coma, which with the nucleus forms the comet’s head.” The 

twin Soviet spacecraft were launched in December 1984 into a Venus orbit, 

from which they landed probes on the planet and used that planet’s gravity to 

fly toward Halley’s comet. One craft was expected to stay about 6,000 miles 

from the nucleus, while the other would move closer. Japan’s spacecraft would 

come only within 120,000 miles of Halley’s comet. (W Post, Jan 6/86) 

For the third time in 19 days, launching of the Space Shuttle Columbia was 

again scrubbed. This time a malfunction with Columbia’s computer control 

failed to close an oxygen valve. Engineers were successful in closing the 

valve under manual control, but the additional time it was open resulted in 

1,500 gallons to 3,000 gallons of oxygen entering the fuel lines to the main 

engine, lowering temperatures to an unacceptable level. With 15 flights slated for 1886, another attempt was immediately planned for January 7. 

The chief goal of the mission was to carry a $50 million communications 

satellite, Satcom, for RCA. When an RCA engineer announced that 8:47 p.m. 

was the cut off point for a launch that would later deliver the satellite at an 

optimum time, the mission was canceled. Scheduled to ride into space with 

NASA’s astronauts and engineers was Florida’s Democratic Congressman 

Bill Nelson, chairman of the House subcommittee on space science and applications that oversees NASA’s budget. (W Times, Jan 7/86; W Post, Jan 7/86; 

P Inq, Jan 7/86; C Trib, Jan 7/86; W Times, Jan 7/86; B Sun, Jan 7/86) 

January 7: The scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia was again 

scrubbed-this time because of inclement weather at landing sights in Spain 

and the Sahara Desert. The weather situations in these distant areas were of 

concern to engineers at the Kennedy Space Center because the sites provided 

emergency landing in the event of an engine failure during the first few minutes of flight. This fifth delay, four in three weeks, raised questions concerning the NASA’s ability to launch 15 scheduled Shuttle flights during 1986. 

(W Post, Jan 8/86; W Times, Jan 8/86; USA Today, Jan 8/86; P Inq, Jan 8/86) 

* The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates the Nation’s weather satellites, announced that its polar orbiting satellite, 

NOAA-8, was apparently lost. NOM was informed by the Air Force that its 

tracking instruments detected “what appeared to be pieces of the satellite” in the 

vicinity of NOAA-8 orbit. (NY Times, Jan 7/86) 

5 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1986 

Dr. William R. Graham, who was appointed Acting Administrator of 

NASA on January 3, 1986, stated in his first interview that he was the “acting 

administrator in every sense of the word“ and that he felt very comfortable in 

his new position. He apparently made that statement to put to rest suggestions 

that the Agency would really be run by NASA Associate Administrator Philip 

E. Culberston while Graham learned the ropes. Graham was promoted to his 

new position, from the post of Deputy Administrator of NASA, when NASA 

Administrator James E. Beggs took a leave of absence to prepare his defense 

for a trial. Beggs had been charged with defrauding the Federal Government 

when he served as a top executive of General Dynamics Corporation. 

NASA’s acting administrator received his master’s and doctoral degrees in 

engineering from Stanford University. He began his professional career at the 

Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico and then moved to the Rand 

Corporation in California. In 197 1, he founded R&D Associates-a think tank 

in Marina Del Rey, California. He was a consultant to the Secretwy of 

Defense and had served on an advisory committee on undersea warfare and 

human assisted strategic Air Force systems and on nuclear weapons panels. 

Prior to his appointment as Deputy Administrator of NASA in November 

1985, Graham headed, for three years, President Reagan’s advisory committee on arms control and disarmament. 

The then 48-year-old native Texan expressed great optimism in his assessment of the future of NASA and of space exploration in general. He said that 

“the Agency in the coming decade would broaden mankind’s understanding 

of Earth’s environment, expand the reach of manned exploration, and extend 

scientific vision to the far edges of the universe.” Stating that space exploration was limited only by “imagination,” Graham promised to vigorously 

pursue President Reagan’s mandate to make space more accessible to the ordinary citizen and free enterprise. (W Times, Jan 6/86; 7/86) 

January 8: For the sixth time, launching of the Shuttle Challenger was 

scrubbed, this time because of a stuck fuel valve in one of the main engines. 

(CSM, Jan 9/86; W Times, Jan 9/86; NY Times, Jan 9/86; P Inq, Jan 9/86) 

January 9: NASA reported that scientists observed Halley ’s comet from a 

University of Arizona telescope aboard NASA’s Kuiper Airborne 

Observatory, a modified C-141 aircraft operated by NASA’s Ames Research 

Center in Mountain View, California. It was the first direct confirmation of 

water in a comet, and the discovery lent new support to astronomers’ widely 

held theory that comets are “dirty snowballs” composed primarily of frozen 

water. The theory was conceived by Dr. Michael Mumma, head of the 

Planetary Systems Branch, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, 

Maryland, who, together with Dr. Harold Weaver, an associate research sci6 
JANUARY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AWD AERONAUTICS 

entist at the Center for Astrophysical Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, 

developed a theoretical model leading to this discovery. (NASA Release 86- 

4; W Post, Jan 10186; B Sun, Jan 10186; NY Times, Jan 10186) 

January 10: The cause of the faulty engine valve that was responsible for Shuttle 

Columbia’s sixth delay was discovered to be a 5-inch thermometer that was broken during fuel loading. After engineers removed the thermometer, they were 

hopeful for a launch later in the day, but feared that overcast weather might cause 

yet another delay. (W Times, Jan 10186; W Post, Jan 10186; B Sun, Jan 10186) 

January 12: Columbia, flight STS 61-C, was successfully launched from Cape 

Canaveral, Florida, after a Space Shuttle record of seven postponements. The 

crew completed their mission of launching RCA’s $50 million satellite into 

orbit, for which NASA received $14.2 million from the corporation. 

Ironically, after a 25-day delay in getting off the ground, the Space Shuttle 

was told to come down a day early. NASA engineers feared that bad weather 

might hamper the original landing date. Already behind schedule, NASA wanted extra time to prepare the Shuttle for the next flight in March and its mission 

of observing Halley’s Comet. The needed orbit for studying the comet would 

leave little room for delays of this launch. Most of Columbia’s experiments 

were completed, but a camera device for photographing Halley’s comet failed 

to work because a light intensifier had been inadvertently left on during the 

ship’s seven launch delays. It was not until January 18, after a two-day delay 

because of poor weather, that Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base in 

California. Engineers had hoped to land the craft at the Kennedy Space Center 

in Florida, from where it was scheduled to be launched on March 6. Therefore, 

an estimated five days were scheduled to be cut from its preparation time so 

that the critical date for observing Halley’s Comet could be met. (NY Times, 

Jan 13/86; Jan 14/86; Jan 15/86; Jan 24/86; USA Today, Jan 13/86; Jan 15/86; 

W Times, Jan 13/86; CSM, Jan 13/86; Jan 21/86; P Znq, Jan 13/86; B Sun, Jan 

13/86; W Post, Jan 13/86; Jan 15/86; Jan 16/86; C Trib, Jan 13/86) 

January 14: NASA and SPACEHAB signed a memorandum of understanding 

(MOU) to establish cooperation for the latter’s efforts to develop and market 

payload bay habitable modules, truncated metal cylinders that would be additions to the orbiter’s crew department and connected by tunnel adapters. 

These modules, designed to increase the pressurized volume of the Space 

Shuttle, would serve as additional living and work space for the astronauts by 

providing an additional 1,000 cubic feet. 

Another MOU, signed by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), 

was intended to give NASA access to Synthetic Aperture Radar data from the 

first European Remote Sensing Satellite for Government research purposes at 

7 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1986 

the Fairbanks, Alaska, station that NASA was developing in connection with its 

Navy Remote Ocean Sensing Satellite System Scatterometer (NROSS). The data 

received from the ERS-1 satellite, engineers hoped, would enhance NASA-supported polar ice research, NROSS, the Topography Experiment for Ocean 

Circulation and Shuttle Imaging Radar-C. NASA was then to exchange its 

Scatterometer and radar imagery for other ERS-1 data of interest. The ERS-1 

was scheduled for launch in 1989. (NASARelease 86-6; 86-7; B Sun, Jan 17/86) 

January 16: The Voyager 2 Spacecraft discovered six new moons orbiting the 

planet Uranus, ranging in diameter from 20 to 30 miles. The moons were named 

1986U1 in succession to 1986U6, denoting the year in which they were discovered, the planet they orbit and the order in which they were discovered. The 

first of these moons was found on January 8, 1986. (NASA Release 86-8; 

W Post, Jan 9/86; CSM, Jan 9/86; Ny Times, Jan 9/86; P Inq, Jan 17/86; B Sun) 

* Lasers on board weather satellites (LIDAR), said Wayne Baker of the 

Goddard Space Flight Center’s Laboratory, promised more accurate forecasting. In the past, satellite data offered only marginal improvements over traditional methods arid even deteriorations for some predictions. With the addition of a laser, however, scientists would have access to wind measurement 

throughout the atmosphere, keys to following the weather that were before 

limited to ground stations and weather balloons. (CSM, Jan 16/86) 

January 21: The first Soviet Space Shuttle, expected to be launched in 1986, 

would likely look very similar to U.S. orbiters, said scientists. Photographs of 

a scale model Soviet space plane that splashed down in the Indian Ocean 

revealed a miniature American Shuttle. Plans for the plane were easy for scientists to obtain as the program was never top secret and sources noted that 

the Soviets had often copied Western aircraft in the past. 

On a similar note, a report concerning the secretive launch from, presumably, the Soviet Union in the summer of 1985 concluded that an antisatellite 

weapon had gone up. Radar tracked debris that had orbited the Earth before 

burning up in the atmosphere, and researchers quickly deduced that the metallic scrap had come from a satellite on which the weapon was tested. The illegal launches were the first such unannounced flights by the Soviet Union 

since testing of orbital thermonuclear weapons. (W Times, Jan 21/86; WSJ, 

Jan 21/86) 

January 23: Voyager 2 gathered a variety of technical information and sent back 

photographs of the planet Uranus, giving scientists their greatest knowledge yet 

of the distant planet. Among the discoveries were additional moons (bringing the 

total to 14), wind and clouds in the atmosphere, a brown, smog-like haze (probably caused by methane gas), and the existence of a magnetic field. (NASA 

8 
DATE ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Release 85-165; CSM, Jan 22/86; Jan 23/86; Jan 24/86; P Inq, Jan 22/86; 

Jan 23/86; Jan 24/86; W Post, Jan 23/86; Jan 24/86; USA Today, Jan 22/86; 

NY Times, Jan 23/86; Jan 24/86; B Sun, Jan 24/86; C Trib, Jan 24/86) 

January 26: For the second time in two days, launch of the Shuttle Challenger 

at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was postponed because of bad weather. 

Meanwhile, NASA began conducting tests at Edwards Air Force Base in 

California to determine the effect of rain on insulating tiles and readied a 

sophisticated instrument landing system, hoping to minimize the weather factor in launches and landings for future orbiter flights at Kennedy Space Center 

in Florida. (W Times, Jan 27/86; USA Today, Jan 27/86; P Inq, Jan 27/86; 

C Trib, Jan 27/86; B Sun, Jan 27/86) 

January 28: Only 74 seconds after liftoff, the Space Shuttle Challenger, flight 

STS 51-L, exploded at about 10 miles above the Earth, killing all seven crew 

members. It was the worst accident in the history of space exploration and the 

first time American fatalities occurred during space flight. Slow motion film of 

the launch revealed a thin flame between the left booster rocket and the Shuttle’s 

main fuel tank, causing engineers to speculate that hydrogen from a ruptured 

tank ignited upon contact with air heated by the rocket motors or directly by the 

motors themselves. It was hoped that investigation of the debris that fell into the 

Atlantic Ocean could lend a better understanding of the accident. All crew tended spaceflight was halted until a thorough investigation was completed, stunting the ambitious space program that promised to bring the richest lode of scientific data ever imagined. (W Post, Jan 29/86; W Times, Jan 29/86; NY Times, 

Jan 29/86; B Sun, Jan 29/86; P Inq, Jan 29/86; C Trib, Jan 29/86) 

9 

February 

February 2: Initial investigation, and tape review of the Challenger accident, 

pointed to the right solid fuel rocket booster and showed a leak near one of its 

seams. An apparent rupture between two sections of the rocket emitted flames 

that soon found their way to the external fuel tank, igniting the volatile contents. 

Meanwhile, salvage operations recovered two large objects believed to be 

part of the Shuttle from the ocean floor, but most of the craft was still unaccounted for. NASA planned to bring in a recovery vessel equipped with a 

remote-controlled robot and cameras. (WSJ, Feb 3/86; NY Times, Feb 3/86; 

W Post, Feb 3/86) 

February 3: President Ronald Reagan issued an executive order through his 

press secretary that established a commission to investigate the Challenger 

accident. According to the order, the ad hoc commission would review the circumstances surrounding the accident, develop recommendations for corrective or other action based on the findings, and submit a final report to the president and to the NASA Administrator. (The White House Executive Order 

Establishing the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger 

Accident, Feb 3/86) 

February 5: Further investigation into the Challenger accident opened a number of theories into the booster rocket’s failure. One pointed to bad fuel segments, perhaps caused by cold temperatures. “Propellants can crack the way 

you crack a cookie. When they crack.. .it allows you new sites where gases can 

be generated,” opined Herman Krier from the University of Illinois. Another 

theory suggested that improper handling had produced hairline cracks while 

fuel segments were cast or during launch preparation, or that installation of 

badly joined seams between the fuel segments caused uneven burning. It was 

noted that workers ignored standard operating procedures. A third theory looked 

into the possibility that a solid-rocket booster nozzle had burned through, as had 

nearly happened on a previous flight. Still another theory cited cold weather or 

vibrations resulting from launch as a possible culprit for a failure in the suspected seam that joined two fuel segments. Other theories speculated that the 

external tank experienced overheating, leading to expansion of its contents and 

rupture of the tank, or even direct bum-through from the 5,900 degrees of 

exhaust leaving the rocket booster or that there might have been a pre-existing 

hole in the tank. However the hydrogen came to leak, it was ignited by the heated air surrounding it or by the thin flame from the solid rocket. 

11 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1986 

NASA Engineers thought, in that point in the investigation, that cold 

weather had no adverse affect on either the solid fuel or the seals, but were 

concerned with the possibility of leakage between segments of the rocket 

motors because deterioration of these seals had been noted on previous 

flights. Back up seals, they added, performed adequately. (P Znq, Feb 5/86; 

Feb 10186; W Times, Feb 5/86; Feb 6/86; Feb 7/86; CSM, Feb 5/86; C Trib, 

Feb 5/86; Feb 6/86; Feb 7/86; NY Times, Feb 5/86; Feb 7/86; Feb 9/86; 

B Sun, Feb 6/86; Feb 7/86; WSJ, Feb 6/86) 

The President’s Space Shuttle Commission gathered in private before 

beginning its formal investigation into the disaster. Headed by former 

Secretary of State William P. Rogers, the Commission planned to weigh all of 

the evidence and make a recommendation, with assistance from NASA, after 

120 days. (USA Today, Feb 5/86) 

February 6: The President’s Commission began probing into the Space Shuttle 

Challenger accident as it took statements from NASA officials Dr. William R. 

Graham, Acting Administrator; Jesse Moore, Associate Administrator; Arnold 

D. Aldrich, Space Shuttle Manager; Judson A. Lovingood, Deputy Manager; 

and Robert B. Sieck, Director, Shuttle Operations. As several possible reasons 

into the cause of the accident were explored, Moore emphasized that space 

flight would always be dangerous. (NY Times, Feb 7/86) 

February 7: The White House accelerated its search for a permanent head of 

NASA to replace James M. Beggs, indicted in December on fraud charges 

unrelated to the agency. Beggs was on an unpaid leave of absence during the 

time of the Challenger accident; Deputy Administrator William R. Graham 

was Acting Administrator. Beggs was later acquitted of all wrong doing and 

the Justice Department apologized for the erroneous charges. (W Post, Feb 

7/86; Bus Wk, Feb 17/86) 

February 10: NASA reported that the United States and the United Kingdom 

had recently agreed to cooperate in the development of technology for an 

advanced short takeoff and vertical landing (ASTOVL) aircraft. The 

ASTOVL aircraft would have the advantages of an advanced supersonic fighter aircraft, but with the added capability of landing vertically. The cooperative 

research program would investigate four propulsion concepts: vectored thrust, 

ejector augmenter, tandem fan, and remote augmented lift system. The memorandum of understanding was signed by William R. Graham, NASA Acting 

Administrator, and Donald A. Hicks, Under Secretary for Research and 

Engineering, Department of Defense, for the United States, and by Sir David 

Perry, Chief of Defense Equipment Collaboration, for the United Kingdom. 

(NASA Release 86-10) 

12 
FEBRUARY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA announced that it had postponed three launches: the Ulysses mission to investigate the poles of the sun; the Galieo mission to orbit Jupiter and 

send a probe into the planet; and the Astro-1 mission, an ultraviolet astronomy laboratory mounted in the Shuttle’s payload bay that was to examine 

quasars, “hot” stars, galaxy centers, and Halley’s Comet. The Ulysses and 

Galileo missions were scheduled for launch from a Shuttle in May, but both 

launches were dependent on certain relative positions of Jupiter and Earth, 

occurring only once every 13 months. The Astro-1 had to be launched in the 

March-April timeframe in order to observe Halley’s Comet, and with that 

opportunity gone no new date was requested. The delays were caused by the 

January Space Shuttle accident. (NASA Release 86-11; NY Times, Feb 11/86) 

Advisors at NASA determined that future dependance on the Shuttle for all 

space operations would be contradictory to a reliable space transportation program. After several days of interviews, a 13-member panel, comprised of aviation and aerospace veterans, concluded that expendable launch vehicles 

should have greater consideration because the Shuttle was a research vehicle. 

(W Post, Feb 11/86) 

The Presidential Commission questioned NASA scientists regarding faulty 

O-rings as a cause of the Challenger accident. The panel learned that these seals 

could indeed malfunction in cold weather and also that erosion (not the result 

of cold weather) had occurred in 6 of 171 seals on previous flights. Morton 

Thiokol, the firm responsible for manufacturing the O-rings, had raised concerns about launching the Shuttle in cold weather, but NASA engineers concluded that the backup ring would function if the primary seal failed. Released 

NASA documents also showed concern expressed by engineers, who, three 

years prior to the accident, concluded that the mechanism for sealing segments 

of the solid rocket booster could fail and result in “loss of mission, vehicle, and 

crew.” One risk analysis received by NASA from an outside agency estimated 

the chances for an accident involving the boosters as 1 in 35. 

NASA’s safety advisory board stated in their 1985 annual report that 18 

Shuttle flights per year were “very optimistic” because these launches were 

anything but routine. However, “the requirement to launch has not been a prerequisite,” said acting NASA Administrator Dr. William R. Graham, “The 

prerequisite has been safety.” (Official Transcript Proceedings Before the 

Presidential Commission on Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, Feb 1 1/86; 

P Znq, Feb 12/86; Feb 13/86; B Sun, Feb 12/86; Feb 13/86; CSM, Feb 12/86; 

Feb 13/86; C Trib, Feb 12/86; Feb 14/86; Feb 13/86; WSJ, Feb 12/86; 

USA Today, Feb 12/86; Feb 13/86; IVY Times, Feb 13/86; W Post, Feb 13/86) 

February 12: Dr. William R. Graham, NASA’s Acting Administrator, 

affirmed plans to continue NASA’s Teacher in Space Program, administered 

13 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRAURY 1986 

by NASA’s Educational Affairs Division under the direction of Robert Brown. 

The reason given: NASA’s continuing goals were to “increase the prestige of 

the teaching profession, to increase the awareness in the education community of the impact of technology and science on this country’s future, and to use 

space as a catalyst to enhance all subject areas and grade levels of our education systems.” (NASA Release 86-12; USA Today, Feb 14/86; Ny Times, Feb 

14/86; W Post, Feb 14/86) 

February 13: NASA released footage of the Challenger just seconds after 

ignition, showing a puff of black smoke coming from the right solid rocket 

booster near a joint between two segments. The tape lent more weight to the 

theory that the accident had resulted from a faulty seal in the motor. (W Post, 

Feb 14/86; WSJ, Feb 14/86; W Times, Feb 14/86; NY Times, Feb 14/86; B Sun, 

Feb 14/86; USA Today, Feb 14/86) 

February 17: Forty miles off the Florida coast and at a depth of 1,200 feet, a 

four-man submarine recovered debris and took photographs of what engineers 

hoped was Challenger’s right booster rocket. As the investigation moved further ahead, the Presidential Commission looking into the accident asked 

NASA to remove Erom its own investigation any officials involved in the decision to launch the Shuttle. (B Sun, Feb 18/86; NY Times, Feb 18/86; W Post, 

Feb 18/86; P Inq, Feb 18/86; W Times, Feb 17/86) 

NASA Requested $45 million for fiscal year 1987 to accelerate research for its 

next generation spacecraft, a hypersonic transatmospheric vehicle, or “space 

plane”, capable of Mach 25 (about 17,000 mph). Able to fly into orbit, reenter the 

atmosphere and achieve orbit again while being completely reusable, the craft 

would have both commercial and military applications. (W Times, Feb 17/86) 

February 19: Boeing Aerospace was selected to supply NASA with Shuttle 

upper stages to place two Tracking and Data Relay Satellites into geosynchronous Earth orbits. Engineering support and integration of the upper stages 

with the satellites were also to be provided. The contract was expected to run 

from March 1986 through April 1990 at a price of approximately $93 million. 

(NASA Release 86- 14) 

The Presidential Commission’s investigation of the Challenger accident, said 

the Chicago Tribune, had nearly concluded that cold weather led to reduced elasticity of the rubber seal in the rocket booster and the subsequent leak of gasses. 

Engineers from Morton Thiokol, the rocket booster manufacturer, objected to the 

cold weather launch, but officials higher up in that company gave NASA the goahead. (Ny Times, Feb 20186; G Trib, Feb 20186; W Post, Feb 20186) 

14 
FEBRUARY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

February 20: Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, commander of the Naval Space 

Command and former NASA astronaut, was appointed Associate Adrninistrator for Space Flight. The new position called for Truly to head the Space 

Shuttle program and to direct NASA’s Design and Data Analysis Task Force, 

which reviewed the Shuttle Challenger’s January accident. He succeeded Jesse 

W. Moore in both of these roles. (NASA Release 86-15; WSJ, Feb 20186; 

Ny Times, Feb 20186; W Times, Feb 21/86; B Sun, Feb 21/86) 

* The Soviet Union launched what it said was a “third generation” Space 

Station named Mir, the Russian word for peace. The Mir was larger than their 

Salyut-7 Space Station and had six docking ports for habitable modules. With 

the addition of Salyut laboratories, Russia would have an orbiting complex 

large enough for permanent crew habitation. (B Sun, Feb 21/86; W Times, Feb 

21/86; W Times, Mar 4/86; CSM, Mar 7/86) 

February 22: Thomas L. Moser, Director for Engineering at NASA’s Johnson 

Space Center, was appointed as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight 

to investigate the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. (NASA Release 86-16) 

February 24: A NASA study found that the part of the booster rocket that was 

suspect in the Challenger accident had reached a temperature of only about 29 

degrees Fahrenheit at the time of liftoff, 9 degrees cooler than the surrounding air. Both NASA and Morton Thiokol engineers, the study noted, had 

knowledge of the ring’s susceptibility to damage in 50-degree temperatures. 

A member of the President’s Commission pointed out that NASA officials 

should have been aware of this as earlier temperatures were in the 20s and the 

O-rings would not heat up quickly. (W Post, Feb 24/86) 

February 25: James M. Beggs resigned as NASA’s Administrator. Candidates 

President Ronald Reagan was considering for the job included James C. 

Fletcher, Thomas 0. Paine, James A. Abrahamson, Frank Borman, Harrison 

Schmitt, and Lew Allen. (hT Times, Feb 25186; WSJ, Feb 26/86) 

Engineers from Morton Thiokol gave testimony before the President’s 

Commission that the decision to launch the ill-fated Shuttle was a management initiative, and they suggest that those people had ignored O-ring safety 

data. The engineers testified that their decision-making process was reversed 

as the burden of proof shifted and was now on them to show that the launch 

would be unsafe. Contrary to what a number of engineers stated to the 

Cdhmnission, one management official testified that there was no undue pressure from NASA to go ahead with the launch and that management’s decision 

was based solely on available data. (B Sun, Feb 26/86; NY Times, Feb 26/86; 

W Post, Feb 26/86; W Times, Feb 26/86) 

15 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1986 

NASA’s acting administrator Dr. William R. Graham announced that he 

would not hesitate to make substantial changes wherever they might be warranted in the organization. Graham said, “That goes not only for the [launch] 

decision-making process, but also for engineering, design, vehicle certification and qualification.” (W Times, Feb 26/86) 

February 26: As further testimony was heard by the President’s Commission, 

NASA manager Larry Mulloy stated that objections made by Morton Thiokol 

engineers to halt liftoff seemed illogical, but added that had he known that all 

of the company’s engineers held the opinion, he might have changed his mind. 

Other testimony given by NASA officials conceded that they argued against 

the idea of cold weather being detrimental to a launch, but had little data to 

demonstrate this, and insisted that this opposition in no way pressured Morton 

Thiokol management to reverse the recommendation of its engineers. 

(Official Transcript Proceedings Before the Presidential Commission On 

Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, Feb 26/86; NY Times, Feb 27/86; C Trib, 

Feb 27/86; LA Times, Feb 27/86; W Post, Feb 27/86; P Inq, Feb 27/86; 

W Times, Feb 27/86; WSJ, Feb 27/86) 

* The Challenger accident forced NASA to reconsider expendable launch 

vehicles as a means for putting satellites into space. Believed to have been 

rendered obsolete by the Shuttle, these rockets were once again deemed necessary for meeting the growing schedule of launches. The change of position 

notwithstanding, NASA and the Department of Defense appeared ready to 

request another orbiter. (B Sun, Feb 27/68) 

February 27: The United States Space Foundation outlined plans to provide 

a focal point that would raise funds for a replacement of the Space Shuttle 

Challenger. The Challenger 7 Fund reached out to individuals and organizations for contributions while hoping that Congress would authorize the 

replacement. (NASA Release 86-18) 

Top officials at Rockwell International, builder of NASA’s orbiters and 

closely tied to the Shuttle program, testified that they believed cold weather 

had made launch of the Challenger unsafe. The President’s panel concluded 

that NASA’s launch decision process was flawed because criteria for approval 

should not have been changed at the last minute. The New York Times concluded, “The picture emerging from the inquiry into the loss of the Space 

Shuttle is one of chronic failure in the space agency and its contractors to 

communicate life-and-death problems up the chain of command.” (W Post, 

Feb 28/86; NY Times, Feb 28/86; C Trib, Feb 28/86; WSJ, Feb 28/86) 

February 28: The Inter-Agency Consultative Group (IACG) on Halley’s Comet 

encounter was scheduled to meet March 4-9 in Moscow and March 12-14 in 

16 
FEBRUARY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany. Formed in 1981, the IACG comprised representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the 

Soviet Union’s Intercosmos Council, Japan’s Institute for Space and 

Astronautical Studies (ISAS), and the International Halley Watch. 

ESA’s Giotto, the Intercosmos Council’s VEGA 1 and 2, and the ISAS 

Suisei (Comet) and Sakigake (Pioneer) spacecraft were launched in the previous 15 months to observe the Comet’s passage around the Sun. NASA’s 

Launching of a Spartan UV telescope and an Astro UV telescope to observe 

the Comet from Earth orbit was terminated because of the Challenger accident. But NASA’s Pioneer-Venus spacecraft (launched in May 1978) had 

already completed five of its seven planned weeks of viewing the Comet, and 

the International Cometary Explorer spacecraft (launched in August 1978) 

was scheduled to monitor Halley’s solar wind upstream. (NASA Release 86- 

19; P Inq, Feb 28/86; Ny Times, Mar 4/86) 

17 

March 

March I: James R. Thompson, of Princeton University's Plasma Physics Lab, 

nationally recognized propulsion expert, and former NASA propulsion engineer, was named vice chairman of the NASA task force inquiring into the 

Challenger accident. His appointment was in support of the Commission 

assigned by President Ronald Reagan to perform the investigation of the 

Challenger accident. (NASA Release 86-20) 

March 3: NASA announced a comprehensive project to evaluate the implications of the Challenger accident on the space program. Because the Ulysses 

and Galileo missions had been postponed, NASA announced that the Shuttle 

Discovery would be modified so that it could launch spacecraft with a Centaur 

upper stage rocket. The Challenger accident left only the Shuttle Atlantis with 

the capability for carrying Centaur payloads. 

These decisions were made by the Acting NASA Administrator, Dr. 

William R. Graham, on the recommendation of the Headquarters Replanning 

Task Force, headed by Dr. Raymond S. Colladay, set up to study program 

alternatives in the wake of the accident. Other matters considered by the task 

force included: (1) the requirements for all aspects for an orbiter to replace the 

Challenger as well as the lost Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) launch vehicle and 

its support structure attached to a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) 

lost with the Shuttle; (2) new launch schedules for the remaining three 

Shuttles; (3) an additional launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base; (4) the 

role of expendable launch vehicles for commercial use; (5) the retention of 

ground communications because only one TDRS, instead of two, was in orbit 

to link spacecraft to earth because of the accident; (6) and identification of 

monetary losses other than those from the destroyed equipment. 

In the meantime, customers who had hoped to launch their satellites from the 

Space Shuttle were being forced to examine other alternatives. With launch 

schedules certain to fall far behind and military and scientific communities 

getting first priority, commercial interests would have to either put their 

projects on the back burner or use NASA's rival, the European Space Agency's 

Arianespace company, for more expensive launches. With NASA's 

announcement that its Shuttle program would be put on hold for 12-18 months, 

Shuttldinked businesses were searching for other options as well. (NASA 

Release 86-22; C Trib, Mar 3/86; B Sun, Mar 4/86; USA Today, Mar 4/86) 

19 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1986 

A lightweight transmitter for sending messages to weather satellites was 

placed on polar bears and caribou in the spring of 1985, and had so far functioned very well, said biologist Steven Amstrup. Because of the satellite’s 

ability to track these animals, biologists could determine whether the animals 

were walking, running, sleeping, or foraging for food. (B Sun, Mar 3/86) 

* A device conceived by Donald Young of NASA’s Ames Research Center, 

Mountain View, California, for aiding scientists in treating bone loss resulting 

from extended space flights, spawned hope among the medical community. 

The vibrating analyzer is placed in the center of a limb and the ratio of force 

applied to the bone and the bone’s displacement indicate the stiffness of the 

bone. The device, it was thought, would offer earlier detection of osteoporosis and take guess work out of cast removal. (WSJ, Mar 3/86) 

March 4: NASA’s chief engineer said that cutbacks in the safety program over 

the previous three years had put the Agency “in a dangerous situation.” Loss of 

personnel and transfer of safety responsibility to field offices and contractors 

contributed to NASA’s inability to catch the seal problem. He reasoned that 

“there are only so many problems [one person] can look at, and in my opinion 

the solid rocket booster was a relatively easy thing to do. But it really wasn’t 

getting the amount of attention from here it should have.” (W Times, Mar 5/86) 

March 5: NASA and the Nuclear Safety Review Panel differed in their estimates of the reliability of booster rockets before the January 28 accident. The 

interagency panel’s estimate of failure was 1 in 1,000 launches as compared 

to NASA’s 1 in 100,000 firings. The panel was created because 19 missions 

carrying potentially hazardous plutonium power sources (were an accident to 

occur within the Earth’s atmosphere) involved the Shuttle. Two other nuclear 

powered satellites were scheduled for launches from the Shuttle later in 1986. 

(WSJ, Mar 5/86; C Trib, Mar 6/86) 

Aerojet Solid Propulsion Company, an unsuccessful bidder on Shuttle 

boosters, released documents it had sent to NASA some 13 years earlier stating that the multi-segment booster that relied on O-ring seals were “burdened 

with design features that can detract from safe, efficient, and reliable operation.” According to officials involved in the decision to choose the Utah based 

Thiokol design, the least expensive bid; the fact that Senator Frank Moss, then 

chairman of the committee that controlled NASA’s budget came from Utah; 

and that then NASA Administrator Dr. James Fletcher was former president 

of the University of Utah were all salient factors. NASA calculations, however, also pointed out that Thiokol needed minimal up front Government cash 

and deferred major costs to the latest possible date, and that Aerojet required 

a good deal more money to get started. All three factors were important to the 

early days of the program’s budget constraints. (B Sun, Mar 5/86) 

20 
MARCH 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

March 6: Several of the more than 30 U.S. scientists serving as coinvestigators on the European Space Agency’s Giotto mission were members of the 

television team scheduled to analyze and televise images of Halley’s Comet 

from the spacecraft on March 13. Launched in July 1985, the Giotto was one 

of five spacecraft (others were the Soviet Union’s Vega 1 and 2 and Japan’s 

Suisei and Sakigake) headed for an encounter with the comet. In position 300 

miles from Comet Halley’s nucleus, the Giotto promised to obtain the highest 

resolution imaging. (NASA Release 86-23) 

Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, Associate Administrator for Space Flight, 

announced assignments to the NASA 51-L Data and Design Analysis Task 

Force. The task force was to collect and analyze information to support a thorough review of all aspects and potential causes of the Challenger accident. 

(NASA Release 86-24) 

0 NASA announced that U.S. scientists would have the opportunity to participate with the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan 

in the High Energy Solar Physics program. The goal of the mission was to better understand high energy phenomena on the Sun through x-ray and gamma 

ray observation instruments carried on a spacecraft. (NASA Release 86-25) 

NASA officials provided investigators with new evidence challenging the 

theory that the Challenger accident was triggered by failed rocket seals caused 

by cold weather. They presented pre-launch photographs showing a flaw in 

the suspected O-ring on the right side booster, a possible correlation to the fact 

that workers assembling the booster were hampered with a misshaped rocket 

segment. New tests on the O-rings conducted at Morton Thiokol’s plant 

demonstrated that they sealed properly to temperatures at 10 degrees below 

zero. Also, the Challenger, according to meteorologist Irving P. Krick, sustained wind shear of 125 to 150 miles per hour just prior to the accident, 

which would have been similar to “flying into a tornado.” (W Post, Mar 7/86) 

The Soviet Union’s Vega I spacecraft sent back pictures of Halley’s Comet 

as it passed within 5,500 miles of its nucleus. The photographs, displayed on 

screens at a Soviet Space Center, were viewed by scientists from around the 

world and brought the scientific community together behind the Iron Curtain. 

A host of new data such as the possibility that the Comet contains two nuclei, 

that the core is three or four miles across, and evidence bolstering the idea that 

the Comet is leftover debris from the solar system’s creation some 4.6 billion 

years ago was revealed. The presentation also gave American scientists a 

chance to study Halley’s Comet; the United States launched no spacecraft for 

that purpose. The Soviet’s second probe, Vega 11, passed 5,125 miles from the 

comet’s core on March 9. (FBZS, Tass (Eng trans), Mar 7/86; NY Times, Mar 

7/86; W Post, Mar 7/86; W Times, Mar 7/86; B Sun, Mar 7/86; C Trib, Mar 

7/86; Mar 10176; CSM, Mar 7/86; March 10/86) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1986 

March 8: The Japanese spacecraft, Suisei, passed within 94,000 miles of 

Comet Halley’s nucleus on this date. Although the pass was far more distant 

than passes by the Soviet’s two Vega spacecraft, or the European Space 

Agency’s Giotto, Japanese scientists were immensely pleased with the data. 

(NY Times, Mar 17/86) 

March 9: NASA announced that it had located both the Shuttle’s crew compartment and the remains of some crew members, in 100 feet of water, about 

25 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Sonar first detected the object 

on the night of March 7 and subsequent dives confirmed it to be the module. 

About 10 percent of the wreckage had been recovered to this date, but the suspected right solid rocket booster still lay on the ocean’s floor. Although little 

insight into the cause of the accident was expected, recovery of the data tapes, 

officials speculated, could shed some light. (USA Today, Mar 10/86; P Znq, 

Mar 10/86; B Sun, Mar 10/86; NY Times, Mar 10/86; W Post, Mar 10/86; 

W Times, Mar 10/86) 

March 11 : Dr. William R. Graham told a congressional committee that the suspected O-rings in the Challenger accident should be modified or redesigned. 

The manufacturer of the rocket boosters had submitted 43 possible modifications to NASA since February, and changes to the fleet, said Graham, would 

cost about $350 million. This was the first time any official from NASA had 

indicated a need for improving the seals since the January 28 accident. 

The acting administrator also noted that recovery from the accident could 

cost the Nation $3.2 billion and replacing the Challenger would run another 

$2.8 billion. Not replacing the Shuttle, he warned, would restrict the fleet to 

military use and service flights. (Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Space 

Science Applications, Mar 11/90; P lnq, Mar 12/86; W Post, Mar 12/86; 

USA Toduy, Mar 12/86; W Times, Mar 12/86) 

March 12: Bernard M. Oliver, Chief of the Search for Extraterrestrial 

Intelligence (SETI) program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain 

View, California, received the National Medal of Science from President 

Ronald Reagan. The award recognized his accomplishments while working 

for Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he helped establish standards for television transmission, worked on automatic radar tracking, and advocated 

pulse-code modulation for the telephone system; and his accomplishments at 

Hewlett-Packard, where he developed the first hand-held calculator with scientific functions and SETI, a program designed to search the stars for radio 

signals. (NASA Release 86-27) 

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost $5 billion to 

both replace the Challenger Shuttle and build more expendable launch vehicles 

LL 
MARCH 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

for carrying payloads into space, NASA had planned to make all of its satellite 

launches from an orbiter, but changed its position after the Challenger accident. 

The shift was welcome news to the rocket industry, even though the companies 

would need two years to get ready for launch inasmuch as the rocket program, 

with no crew assistance, had been all but replaced in the United States by the 

Shuttle program. (NY Times, Mar 13/86; W Post, Mar 13/86) 

NASA and Morton Thiokol found new evidence suggesting that the putty 

used in joints of the solid rockets to protect the O-rings could have stiffened 

from the cold and prevented the O-ring from sealing. They also noted that the 

putty could have cracked and exposed the O-ring to hot gases. Adequate data 

measuring the effect of cold on the putty did not exist. Dr. William Graham 

notified the Presidential Commission of these findings. (WSJ, Mar 13/86) 

Salvage crews reported that they might have located a key part of the booster 

rocket, suspected in the January 28 accident, 32 miles offshore at a depth of 650 

feet. Embedded fdy into the ocean’s floor, the estimated 400-500 pound debris 

located near other wreckage was positively identified as parts from the right 

booster rocket. As engineers examined their most recent discovery, other teams 

recovered still more of the crew’s cabin as well as additional remains and personal affects. (W Times, Mar 13/86; NY Times, Mar 13/86; B Sun, Mar 13/86) 

* The former Soviet Union launched two veteran cosmonauts into orbit, 

scheduled to arrive at the Mir Space Station after two days. The launch, contrary to former Soviet practice, was both announced and televised. The 

launch, said James Oberg, author of several books about the Soviet space program, was done “with great propaganda benefit.” In an effort to demonstrate 

their achievements, he stated further, “They have a greater self-confidence in 

their program [and] it helps concentrate world attention on the benign part of 

their space program.” U.S. experts acknowledged that Soviet Space Station 

technology was years ahead of us and that the mission might well begin man’s 

permanent occupation of space. (FBZS, Tass (Eng trans), Mar 12/86; B Sun, 

Mar 14/86; P Inq, Mar 14/86; W Times, Mar 14/86; NY Times, Mar 14/86; 

W Post, Mar 14/86; C Trib, Mar 14/86) 

The European Space Agency’s spacecraft Giotto encountered Halley’s Comet 

as it passed within 335 miles of the body’s nucleus. The craft transmitted pictures 

of the comet every four seconds up until two seconds and 930 miles away, when 

its camera was damaged by dust particles traveling 50 times the speed of a bullet. 

These were the closest pictures by far taken of the Comet. Multinational scientists 

at the West German control center were jubilant about data gathered by sophisticated instruments. The mission was the most spectacular taken on by the 

European Space Agency, and the international cooperation among scientists was 

lauded by the media. (B Sun, Mar 14/86; NY Times, Mar 14/86; W Post, Mar 

14/86; W Times, Mar 14/86) 

23 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1986 

March 14: Dr. Albert Boggess was awarded the Herschel Medal, by the 

Council of the Royal Astronomical Society of the United Kingdom, for his 

contribution to the success of the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IW). The 

IUE satellite was designated to study Comet Halley’s evolution as it 

approached and receded from the Sun. Boggess was named co-recipient of the 

award with University of London Professor R. Wilson. (NASA Release 86-28) 

March 16: This date marked the 60th anniversary of liquid-fueled rocket flight. 

In 1926, Dr. Robert H. Goddard assembled and launched a gasoline propelled 

rocket from his aunt’s farm in Worcester, Massachusetts. In commemoration of 

the event, NASA planned to launch a full-scale replica of the rocket from the 

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. (NASA Release 86-26) 

A 3,500-pound piece of debris that was determined to be a rocket booster, 

but not identified as from the left or right side, was recovered 28 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 400 feet of water. The massive operation 

was resumed after a two-day halt from storms and rough seas. Other salvage 

teams also continued their efforts to recover the rest of the crew’s compartment 

and remains. (W Post, Mar 17/86; P Znq, Mar 17/86; NY Times, Mar 18/86) 

March 18: NASA’s orbiting telescope, International Ultraviolet Explorer, 

observed Halley ’s Comet as it encountered European (Giotto), Soviet (Vega 

2), and Japanese (Suisei) spacecraft. The September 1985 to March 1986 

observations of the Comet were made with hopes of granting scientists a better understanding into its long-term behavior. The telescope measured the 

Comet’s water ejection rate, and its carbon, sulfur, and oxygen content, as 

well as its variation of visual brightness. The advantage of observations from 

a telescope as opposed to those from a spacecraft, said IUE telescope operations manager George Sonneborn, was the much wider angle of view it 

offered. (NASA Release 86-29) 

NASA and the Science and Technology Agency of Japan announced an 

agreement reached on the hardware that Japan will carry into Phase B Space 

Station definition and preliminary design. According to the agreement, the 

preliminary design activities were to include: (1) a pressurized module to provide shirtsleeve work space for station crews; (2) an exposed work deck; (3) 

a scientific/equipment airlock; (4) a local remote manipulator arm; (5) and an 

experiment logistics model. The multipurpose laboratory called for accommodation of general scientific and technology development research, including microgravity research, as well as control panels for operating the Space 

Station’s mobil remote manipulator system and attached payloads. 

(NASA Release 86-3 1) 

24 
MARCH 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA released a list containing 748 critical parts of the Space Shuttle that 

could lead to disaster if they did not function properly. AU of these components 

lacked a backup system and were therefore placed in the “Criticality 1” category. Unlike the fuselage or heat-shielding tiles, for example, 617 of the critical 

parts could be covered by backup equipment, but engineers waived the measure 

as they felt confident that failure of them was unlikely. Arnold D. Aldrich, 

Manager, National Space Transportation System, said, “We are reviewing in 

detail all the items on the Critical Items list.” (Nat Sp Trans Sys: Critical Items 

List; W Post, Mar 18/86; W Times, Mar 18/86; B Sun, Mar 18/86) 

March 18: James R. Thompson, vice-chairman of the NASA task force investigating the Challenger accident, announced that the cause of the disaster would 

be pinpointed within a month. Although the right booster rocket, which would 

be a tremendous help, was still unrecovered, and tapes from the crew compartment shed no light, Thompson noted that photographic evidence and other data 

already available would eventually yield the answer. He also stated that April 

18 was the deadline given by President Ronald Reagan’s panel for overall 

investigation, with whom, he added, NASA investigators were working harmoniously. (USA Today, Mar 19/86; W Post, Mar 19/86; NY Times, Mar 19/86; 

P Inq, Mar 19/86; C Trib, Mar 20/86) 

March 19: East Coast winter storms in the form of cyclones were studied by 

scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. 

Concentrating their efforts on costal regions of North and South Carolina, 

where these storms develop and move northward, NASA scientists analyzed 

the upper atmosphere conditions using moisture and wind sounding balloons 

and the Nimbus 7 satellite to collect data. 

Another criterion for understanding these storms was the analysis of the 

transfer of moisture from the ocean into the atmosphere. NASA flew its fourengine Electra aircraft, outfitted with a combined laser/telescope (Lidar), to 

detect salt spray and aerosols as it fired a lazar beam that allowed the telescope to measure rising moisture and convection patterns. NASA’s ER-2 aircraft was used in higher altitudes for the same purpose; it carried microwave 

radio-meters able to detect water vapor and cloud liquid water content. 

(NASA Release 86-30) 

NASA scheduled five expendable laclnches in 1986 from Cape Canaveral, 

Florida, employing Delta rockets, used in joint management with the 

McDonnell Douglas launch team, and Atlas Centaur rockets, jointly managed 

launches with General Dynamics Convair. Of the five satellites, two were for 

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Geosynchronous 

Operational Environmental Satellites were designed for weather forecasting 

and collecting data on various environmental effects. The other three were for 

25 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1986 

the Department of Defense. Two Fleet Satellite Communication satellites 

would provide secure communications between land-based facilities and 

ships, submarines, and aircraft, and one other was for support of the Strategic 

Defense Initiative. (NASA Release 86-32) 

MQ~c~ 20: The U.S. Government considered plans for replacing the 

Challenger by allowing private investors to raise the money and lease the new 

Shuttle to NASA, stretching out payments for perhaps 15 years. The plan 

called for NASA to order a replacement shuttle from Rockwell, but Willard 

Rockwell’s new firm, Astrotech, would buy it. Furthermore, investors would 

be reimbursed by NASA for any accident loss, and Astrotech would market 

the launches to commercial customers. (WSJ, Mar 20186; W Post; Mar 30186; 

B Sun, Apr 1/86) 

Debris brought to shore on March 19 was determined to be part of the right 

booster rocket from the Challenger accident. The white outer skin of the 

pieces were discolored from excessive heat, and the suspected O-ring, officials 

said, may lie inside of one 4-foot-by-5-foot piece of wreckage. (W Times, Mar 

21/86; USA Today, Mar 21/86) 

March 21 : Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced Canada’s 

decision to proceed with Space Station participation when he visited with 

President Ronald Reagan. Canada agreed to perform preliminary design of a 

Mobile Servicing Center during Phase B of the Space Station definition and 

preliminary design study that would consist of a base structure with accommodations for payloads, orbital replacement units, utilities and thermal control. It would function as a multipurpose structure equipped with manipulator 

arms that would be used to help assemble and maintain the Space Station, as 

well as help keep instruments and experiments mounted on the Station’s 

framework. (NASA Release 86-33) 

NASA officials concluded, and reported to the President’s Commission, 

that the O-rings in Challenger’s right solid-rocket motor were indeed the cause 

of the January 28 accident. They were still unable to cite a reason for failure 

of the seals, but hoped that tests over the next 10 days would give some clue. 

NASA also noted that the putty used to protect these seals might shed some 

light. (WSJ, Mar 24/86; CSM, Mar 24/86) 

March 24: NASA planned to shift its original plan of carrying a mixture of 

scientific, military, and commercial payloads and give greater emphasis to the 

military when Shuttle flights resumed. The military, they added, always had 

top priority and five to seven of the flights slated for next year were devoted 

to them. (Ny Times, Mar 24/86) 

26 
MARCH 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

* A Presidential panel report was to be released April 11, but details that 

aimed at mining the Moon and asteroids and establishing human presence on 

Mars were disclosed in Aviation Week & Space Technology, a trade magazine. 

The plan, which assumed that the Space Station would be completed by 1994, 

called for establishing a lunar base after the year 2000 for mining and production of rocket fuel, expanded searches for potentially useful asteroids, and 

a “network of spaceports between Earth, the Moon, and Mars and a Martian 

colony by the year 2027.” (W Post, Mar 24/86; Ny Times, Mar 25/86; 

CSM, May 23/86; P Inq, May 23/86) 

March 25: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, selected the RCA Corporation and Orbital Sciences for negotiations leading to the 

award of contracts to build a spacecraft and upper stage booster for the Mars 

Observer Mission scheduled for launch in August 1990. The first in a series 

of proposed planetary observer programs, the Mars Observer would study the 

climate, atmosphere, and surface, using eight science instruments while in 

orbit around the planet a full Martian year, 687 Earth days. (NASA Release 

86-34; WSJ, Mar 26/86) 

Speaking to NASA employees, Shuttle Director Richard H. Truly 

announced that the Shuttle Program would resume in about one year, after an 

intense safety program to include reassessment of Shuttle management structure, redesign of the solid rocket boosters, reassessment of methods for aborting Shuttle flights, and recertification of all critical Shuttle parts. He noted 

that “the business of flying in space is a bold business,” and added, “We cannot print enough money to make it totally risk-free. But we certainly are going 

to correct any mistakes we have made. . .and we’re going to get going ahead 

just as soon as we can.” 

When the Shuttle Program resumes, he continued, the first Shuttle would 

be launched from Florida, not have a guest astronaut, the payload would be a 

familiar one, and the Shuttle would land at the better landing strip at Edwards 

Air Force Base, in California. (USA Today, Mar 26/68; W Post, Mar 26/86; 

WSJ, Mar 26/86; Ny Times, Mar 26/86; W Times, Mar 26/86) 

March 26: An official from the Pentagon warned members of Congress that a 

one-year delay in the Shuttle launches would create a backlog of 10 military 

missions and a 2-year delay would raise that number to 21. He and others 

viewed this as a “national emergency.” The Air Force Undersecretary further 

pointed out a need for a replacement Shuttle and 10 additional expendable 

launch vehicles. Congressional committees, however, had not yet decided 

how the cost, if approved, would be shared by the Air Force and NASA. 

(B Sun, Mar 27/86; W Times, Mar 27/86) 

21 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1986 

March 28: James E. Kingsbury, director of the Science and Engineering 

Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, 

was named to manage an ad hoc group formed to requalify the motor of the 

Space Shuttle's solid rocket booster for flight. The booster rockets, said 

NASA, could be ready in one year. Kingsbury said that all of the current hardware could be modified and re-used, a comment that surprised outside engineers. (NASA Release 86-36; W Post, Mar 28/86; NY Times, Mar 28/86; 

NY Times, Mar 30/86) 

28 
April 

April I: A student photography experiment, “CAN DO,” from the Charleston 

County School District, South Carolina, scheduled to fly on the Space Shuttle 

Columbia March 6 was rescheduled for April 5-24. The goal of the experiment was to observe Comet Halley from NASA’s high-flying Kuiper Airborne 

Observatory aircraft, a converted C-141. The aircraft was scheduled for several high-altitude flights over New Zealand, a part of the southern hemisphere 

where the Comet would be most visible. 

Students from other schools, both in the United States and abroad, were to 

participate in the program by photographing the Comet from the ground and 

comparing their pictures with those taken in flight. The pictures taken at 

ground level would assist professional astronomers because most large observatory telescopes are not designed to view large objects, and resolving the fine 

detail in Comet Halley’s tail could be enhanced with the much wider overall 

view from a standard camera lens. (NASA Release 86-35) 

* A section of debris recovered from the Atlantic Ocean in March was found 

to be the part of the right booster rocket suspected as the cause of the 

Challenger accident. Although the piece was a section opposite the flame seen 

coming from a joint in the rocket, it contained part of the joint. Recovery of 

the section could both aid investigators and assist engineers in their redesign. 

(B Sun, Apr 2/86; W Post, Apr 2/86; NY Times, Apr 2/86) 

April 2: In a data gathering activity in support of the Challenger accident 

investigation, destacking of solid rocket motors to gather information and 

assess the pre-flight conditions in and around the field joints was scheduled 

for early April. Inspections would focus on the field joint O-rings, putty used 

in the joints, rocket motor case ovality or “roundness,” with any assembly 

damage, clevis gap-opening resulting from stacking, and the degree of propellant slumping that occurred as a result of vertical stacking. Any relevant 

data from the destacking inspections that might be useful to the investigation 

was to be assembled by the NASA 51-L Data and Design Analysis Task Force 

and provided to the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger 

Accident. (NASA Release 86-37) 

* NASA and the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, Inc. announced plans to 

build a memorial at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, dedicated to astronauts who lost their lives while flying, training, or awaiting assignment to fly 

for the space agency. The memorial would honor the 1986 Space Shuttle 

29 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1986 

Challenger crew-Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald 

McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory Jarvis; the 1967 

Apollo crew-Virgil Grissom, Edward H. White 11, and Roger Chaffee; 

Charles Bassett and Elliott See, killed in 1966, Theodore Freeman killed in 

1964, and Clifton Williams killed in 1967-all killed in T-38 trainer aircraft 

accidents; and Edward Givens, killed in 1967 in an automobile accident. 

(NASA Release 86-38) 

April 3: The Presidential Commission investigating the Challenger accident 

recommended major changes in the Shuttle Program. Recommended changes 

included an injection system for astronauts, even though the Commission concluded that such a system would not have saved lives in the January 28 accident; and an independent safety board with power to postpone any flight in 

which potential hazards were recognized. Other problems pointed out by 

astronauts and NASA officials who testified were a faulty brake design, a 

rough and narrow runway at Kennedy Space Center that became more treacherous with Florida’s unpredictable weather, a lack of spare parts, and 

deficiencies in spacecraft simulators. 

NASA manager Arnold Aldrich also testified before the Commission and 

said that major flaws existed in the Shuttle Program. He was referring to communication problems that kept him uninformed about numerous matters, the 

most important of which were issues raised about the safety of seals in the rocket boosters. (W Post, Apr 4/85; Ny Times, Apr 4/86; Apr 7/86; USA Today, Apr 

4/86; P Inq, Apr 4/86; WSJ, Apr 4/86; W Times, Apr 4/86; G Trib, Apr 4/86) 

The Wall Street Journal reported that a Reagan administration interagency 

group would soon recommend that NASA discontinue commercial and foreign 

launches. NASA objected to the idea because of the likely permanent loss of 

the business to foreign competitors. The group also recommended a replacement for the Shuttle Challenger and a greater supply of expendable launch 

vehicles, but did not suggest how these costs could be met. (WSJ, Apr 3/86) 

April 4: Space Shuttle Columbia was scheduled to be ferried atop a modified 

Boeing 747 and transported to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California where 

it was expected to remain until early November. Testing would closely parallel 

that done at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, in preparation for the fist 

West Coast Space Shuttle launch. Upon arrival, Columbia would be moved to 

the launch pad and mated with a set of solid rocket boosters and an external tank 

for integrated vehicle testing, including the loading of cryogenic propellants in 

a “wet” countdown demonstration test. Prior to the move, processing at KSC 

would include installation of the main engine, auxiliary power units, and orbital 

maneuvering system pods, in parallel with structural inspections, approved 

modifications, and ferry flight preparation. (NASA Release 86-40) 

30 
APRIL 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

April 7: NASA and the Pentagon announced the award of $500 million in contracts to seven different defense contractors for research into the development 

of the aerospace plane, seen by many as a successor to the Shuttle. The craft 

was envisioned as one that could take off and land like an airplane, but have 

the added capability of achieving orbit where it could then travel at 25 times 

the speed of sound. (WSJ, Apr 8/86; USA Today, Apr 8/86; W Post, Apr 8/86) 

* The Soviet Union invited foreign correspondents into its mission control 

center for a conference concerning orbiting cosmonauts and a live television 

interview with them. The Soviet Union set still another precedent when it 

allowed coverage of its space program by a large group of foreign press. The 

invitation followed a pattern of a more open Russian space agency, the televising of the recent liftoff of the cosmonauts on March 13, and the opening of 

the Soviet Space Research Institute to foreign visitors when the Vega spacecraft approached Halley’s Comet were also first time events. (W Post, Apr 

8/86; W Times, Apr 8/86) 

April 8: James R. Thompson, vice chairman of the NASA task force investigating the Challenger accident, said that NASA officials could be “walking on the 

edge of a cliff“ if they did not correct flaws in the solid rocket booster. Previous 

problems, he noted, simply were not taken seriously enough; he then added that 

NASA could say conclusively that the right solid rocket booster had caused the 

Shuttle accident. The task force, said Thompson, focused on four factors of the 

joint in the booster rocket: the tendency of the joints to rotate during liftoff; the 

impact of sub-freezing temperatures on the O-rings; defects in the putty used to 

protect them; and slight damage to the O-rings during assembly. James 

Kingsbury, director of Science and Engineering Directorate disagreed with 

Thompson’s findings because the rockets had performed well on 24 previous 

flights. (USA Today, Apr 9/86; W Post, Apr 9/86; P Inq, Apr 9/86) 

April 9: NASA’s Task Force on the Scientific Uses of the Space Station, established in March 1984 and chaired by Stanford University Professor Peter M. 

Banks, released its second major report for planning the scientific utility of 

the Space Station. The report pointed out that space-based scientific progress 

had been slower than planned because of short time in orbit, rigid time lines, 

long periods between flights, and that the Space Station had the obvious 

potential of overcoming these difficulties, 

The two major conclusions reached noted that Space Station facilities must be 

operated with the goal of producing outstanding scientific results; and that the 

station would be judged with respect to cost and research capability and the 

need for well-equipped, permanently habitable laboratories able to support a 

broad range of fundamental research in space. 

31 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APF3L 1986 

The task force recommended that the Space Station emulate the adaptive 

science methodology used in terrestrial laboratories, introduce “telescience” 

(the ability to conduct research remotely), review safety standards to achieve 

a reasonable state of personal and system security, work with a crew size of 

10, and develop “space mail” for delivering small samples of materials to 

ground laboratories. Other recommendations: (1) Attached payloads are an 

important part of the core Space Station, and NASA needs a more productive 

plan for converting observation experiments developed for Spacelab to Space 

Station; (2) free-flying platforms are essential for conducting many important 

scientific endeavors for the Space Station era (i.e., several platforms operating in different orbits); (3) NASA should enhance biological research activities in the pre-initial orbit configuration period using Spacelabs and other 

attached payloads on the Space Shuttle to gain experience for conducting biological science research programs; (4) development of a human-tended mode 

of scientific activity aboard a Space Station would be of little value and a need 

exists for a truly long-tern, human capability; (5) it is essential that NASA 

look ahead to the activities that are anticipated over the 25-30 year life span 

of the core facility and its associated elements; (6) the Space Station will facilitate development of a new type of research termed “science in space”; (7) the 

science operations of the Space Station should be separated from the operational management of the overall facilities; and (8) NASA must be prepared 

to change many of its nationally oriented selection, funding, and management 

procedures because of the important hardware and scientific contributions 

that will be made by international partners. (Written Statement to the 

Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications, Committee on Science and 

Technology from Peter M. Banks, Apr 9/90; NASA Release 86-43) 

Evidence revealed the Challenger crew cabin did not explode with the midair accident, but remained intact until it struck the water. The cabin, said engineers, was seven times stronger than other parts of the Shuttle because it had 

to maintain an Earth-like atmosphere while in space. All seven astronauts, 

however, were probably killed instantly by shock from the initial blast, sudden depressurization of the cabin, or the tumbling nine-mile descent. (W Post, 

Apr 10186; Ny Times, Apr 10186; W Times, Apr 10186; CSM, Apr 10186; 

USA Today, Apr 10186; C Trib, Apr 10186) 

April 14: The United States planned to resume its efforts to put nuclear reactors into space. The move would renew a program abandoned 10 years prior 

to this date, but now deemed necessary for President Ronald Reagan’s 

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), “Star Wars.” Even without SDI, said Air 

Force officials, reactors would be needed for the next generation of spacebased weapons; NASA could use such reactors to power Space Stations, lunar 

bases, interplanetary explorers, and satellite traffic control. The United States 

has mainly relied on solar energy for its space activities, but SDI would 

32 
APRIL 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

require more power than the panels could give. The Soviet Union never abandoned its plan for space reactors and sent up 20 nuclear-powered satellites, 

one of which crashed and spread radioactive debris over northwest Canada. 

(W Post, Apr 14/86) 

* NASA officials announced that the redesign of booster rocket seals would 

render them fail-safe. The new design would not use putty to protect the seals 

from heat; would include an outside cover to protect the seals from rain and 

ice, with a possible heating element built in, use a clip to prevent rotation; and 

provide a backup seal for each joint of the booster. (P Znq, Apr 14/86) 

* Rocket debris recovered on April 13,40 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, 

Florida, in 560 feet of water was determined by the President’s Commission 

to be the part of the right booster thought to be responsible for the Challenger 

accident. In the area where photographs had shown a plume of flame was a 

one-foot by two-foot hole, lending concrete evidence to the theory that the oring and/or the putty used to protect it had failed to do its job of sealing two 

of the rocket’s four segments. (C Trib, Apr 15/86; W Post, Apr 15/86; 

W Times, Apr 15/86; Ny Times, Apr 15/86; B Sun, Apr 15/86) 

April 17: A House panel, the Science and Technology Committee’s subcommittee on space science and applications, approved a $7.6 billion NASA budget request. The authorization bill still needed review by the full Committee 

before being sent to the House floor. No funds were allotted for a new Shuttle, 

but supporters in Congress hoped that NASA would request a supplemental 

$500 million as first payment for “Challenger 11.” The physics and astronomy 

portion of NASA’s budget, including $27.9 million for the Hubble Space 

Telescope, had not yet been reviewed. (B Sun, Apr 18/86) 

April 18: An advanced reconnaissance satellite, believed to be a KH-11 photographic reconnaissance satellite, was lost as the Titan rocket carrying it exploded seconds after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. With only 

one HK- 11 in orbit, officials were concerned that verification of arms control 

treaties would be hampered and that it would be more difficult for the Soviet 

Union and the United States to sign the treaties. Older satellites dropped film 

after photographing, but the KH-11 beamed pictures to ground stations and 

could maneuver about while in orbit. An HK-11 was lost in August 1985 when 

another Titan rocket failed. Assistant Secretary of Defense Donald Latham, estimated that it would be six or seven months before the Department of Defense 

could launch another satellite. Outside experts believed that the government 

might approve an emergency Shuttle launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base 

because the only other reconnaissance satellite remaining on the ground was an 

HK-12, believed too big for an expendable rocket. (NY Times, Apr 20186; Apr 

22/86; CSM, Apr 21/86; USA Today, Apr 21/86; W Post, Apr 22/86) 

33 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1986 

April 19: Recovery operations for the Space Shuttle Challenger crew cabin 

were completed. Scattered debris and the remains of all seven crew members 

were located in an effort that was hampered by heavy seas, high winds, and 

reduced underwater visibility. Final forensic work and future planning in 

accordance with family requests were expected to finish shortly thereafter. 

(NASA Release 86-46; C Trib, Apr 21/86; Ny Times, Apr 21/86) 

April 21: Astronaut Robert E Overmyer announced that he planned to leave 

NASA, on June 1, and retire from the Marine Corps. His past accomplishments include piloting the November 1982 Columbia mission and serving as 

commander of the April 1985 Challenger flight. Colonel Overmyer joined 

NASA in September 1969. (NASA Release 86-48) 

April 25: NASA announced that 25 industry/university consortiums submitted proposals for high technology research in the microgravity environment of 

space. Proposed areas included semiconductor crystal growth, remote sensing, communication technology, biotechnology, and space services. The proposals all have commercial potential or could contribute to possible commercial ventures. (NASA Release 86-49) 

* NASA scheduled two scientific experiment rocket launchings for early May, 

a Black Brant X and a Taurus-Nike-Tomahawk, to create artificial clouds along 

the East Coast that would be visible from Canada to Florida and as far west as 

Ohio. The objective of the experiment was to investigate Nobel prize winner 

Dr. Hannes Alfven's proposed Critical Velocity Effect Theory, which has been 

used to explain details in the early formation of the solar system. In 1954, 

Alfven proposed that if an element in a nearly neutral plasma became ionized 

when it attained a flow velocity that matched its ionization potential, several 

facets of the structure of the solar system could be explained, including differing chemical compositions of the planets and the regularity of their orbits. 

Although Alfven's critical velocity effect has been studied in the laboratory, the 

phenomena required investigation in a space plasma. 

The experiment was scheduled for dawn, when the Earth's surface would 

still be dark but when there would be sunlight at the experiment's altitude so 

ionized cloud chemicals could be visible to the naked eye. The three-stage, 

solid-propellant rockets would release barium and strontium at the apogee altitude of 267 miles. When the releases occurred, ground observers could see, if 

the experiment was successful, a cloud split into two well-delineated jets of gas 

in the fist few minutes. The experimmts were part of NASA's sounding rocket program, which included launching approximately 40 to 45 sounding rockets a year from various worldwide locations. (NASA Release 86-51) 

34 
APRIL 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA disclaimed an April 23-24 two-part article in the New York Times 

that accused the organization of ignoring audits and safety standards, with particular emphasis on the Space Shuttle program. According to NASA, some of 

the examples mentioned in the article “are related to activities of several years 

ago and have since been corrected or are being corrected.” Moreover, “NASA 

has always considered audits to be a necessary management tool to be used in 

conjunction with other management processes.. .during the existence of NASA 

prior to and since the Inspector General Act, management has used its own 

internal audits to uncover and correct deficiencies and to strengthen internal 

controls.” In addition, NASA has been responsive to external audit reports 

through tighter management. “Indeed,” said NASA, “$749.3 million in savings, cost avoidances, and cost recoveries were realized from 1978-1985 

because of internal and external audits.” NASA also noted that many of the 

audit reports dealt with research and development projects into which new 

technologies had to be figured, making for an uncertain budget environment. 

Other allegations: Various violations of law and Federal codes have 

occurred within NASA, the Agency predicted that Shuttle cargo would cost 

around $100 per pound but actual cost was closer to $5264 per pound; the 

Shuttle was not equipped with the amount of hardware for test purposes that 

was available to the Apollo program; in financing a Government guaranteed 

loan for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System program (TDRSS), 

NASA wasted $1 billion; NASA lost $2.4 million of equipment in 1983. 

In defense, NASA noted that the original estimate for Shuttle cargo was 

$160 per pound and the most recent was $615 per pound-besides, cost per 

pound was only a partial indicator of the Shuttle’s utility; the Shuttle program 

did not parallel the Apollo program in regard to safety test hardware, but 

introduced longer periods of testing, not substandard safety precautions; the 

$1 billion said to have been wasted in the TDRSS program was in fact attributable primarily to significant interest cost increases; the lost equipment was 

a 1950’s state-of-the-art computer that by 1983 was so obsolete that no one 

else would take it-hence the machine was dismantled and disposed of; ties 

to graft at NASA have to do with individual misconduct, such as that by Lewis 

Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center officials, who were prosecuted in Federal court, indicating that the internal NASA investigation process 

was working well. (NASA Release 86-52) 

A statement by Shuttle Director Richard H. Truly noted that the remains of 

the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger were soon to be transferred, but no 

positive determination of the cause of the accident had yet been made. The 

three approaches pursued were the examination of remains, direct examination of the wreckage, and analysis of photography and radar to determine 

forces imposed on the vehicle. An examination of the remains revealed no 

35 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1986 

new information, and the wreckage examination was hampered by the amount 

of damage done at water impact. Photo and radar analysis, he hoped, would 

lead to a determination of the magnitude and the direction of the forces 

imposed on the cabin during and after breakup. (NASA Release 86-53) 

April 29: NASA announced the termination of a contract with TRW to design 

a baseline hybrid power system for the Phase B Space Station electrical power 

system. TRW expressed their wish not to pursue the project, but remained a 

major contributor to three other work packages. (NASA Release 86-55) 

Unpublished test results done for the Presidential Commission studying the 

Challenger accident showed that cold weather on the morning of the 

Challenger launch made failure inevitable. Other findings by the commission 

concluded that a second joint on the right-hand booster rocket ruptured seconds after the Challenger breakup, suggesting that the joint was unduly fragile; reusable booster rockets ballooned about two-hundredths of an inch after 

each previous flight, and segments of the ill-fated rocket did not match well; 

a breach of the bottom of the external tank led to a structural failure but the 

nose cone of the booster rocket crashing into the fuel tank was not responsible for the final breakup; and the Shuttle did not explode, but rather a hydrogen-oxygen flash fire caused it simply to fall apart. (NY Times, Apr 30186) 

April 30: By a vote of 15-1, a Senate panel approved President Ronald 

Reagan’s nomination of Dr. James C. Fletcher to head NASA. The lone negative vote came from Albert Gore, who expressed concerns about Fletcher’s 

judgment because he had drastically underestimated the price of a Shuttle 

fleet in the 1970s. (B Sun, May 1/86; W Times, May 1/86; W Post, May 1/86; 

NY Times, May 1/86) 

36 
May 1: Launching of a Delta rocket carrying a weather satellite was postponed because of a quarter cup of leaking rocket fuel. The delay, said officials, would be from 1 to 10 days, depending on the extent of the problem. 

This was to be the fist NASA launch since the Shuttle accident. (NY Times, 

May 2/86; W Post, May 2/86; P Inq, May 2/86; B Sun, May 2/86) 

May 3: Another NASA launch ended in failure as a $30 million Delta rocket 

carrying a $55.7 million weather satellite was destroyed shortly after liftoff 

from Cape Canaveral, Florida. An order to destruct by remote control came 

when the rocket's main engine failed and it tumbled off course. This was the 

first mishap for the Delta rocket, praised as NASA's most dependable launch 

vehicle, in nine years and 43 consecutive launches. The four most used vehicles for launching satellites (the Delta, Titan 3D and Atlas Centaur rockets and 

the Space Shuttle) were all put on hold, grounding the agency for an undetermined amount of time. A short circuit was the leading suspect the Delta loss. 

(W Times, May 5/86; May 6/86; W Post, May 5/86; May 6/86; WSJ, May 

5/86; May 6/86; NY Times, May 5/86; May 6/86) 

May 6: Soviet cosmonauts made a historic trip between Space Stations as they 

traveled 1,800 miles in their Sops T-15 transport module from the recently 

launched Mir to the Salyut-7 station. The mission was broadcast on state television. (FBIS, Tass (Eng trans), May 6/86; B Sun, May 7/86; NY Times, May 8/86) 

May 9: Shuttle Director Richard H. Truly announced that John W. Thomas, 

Spacelab Program Officer Manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center, 

Huntsville, Alabama, was to assume management responsibility for the Solid 

Rocket Motor redesign team at the Marshall Space Flight Center on May 12, 

1986. The Space Shuttle Challenger accident investigation uncovered several 

deficiencies in the design of the solid rocket motor joint. An independent 

group of senior experts would also be involved in all phases of the program; 

they would report to NASA Administrators and review and integrate the findings and recommendations of the Presidential Commission on the Space 

Shuttle Challenger Accident. (NASA Release 86-58) 

May 12: Dr. James C. Fletcher became NASA's administrator for the second 

time. His first term in this position ran from April 1971 to May 1977. During 

the interim, he held the WilliamKWhitfordProfessorship of Energy Resources 

and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh and headed his own consulting firm. Past achievements include positions as research physicist with the 

31 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1986 

United States Navy Bureau of Ordinance, research associate at Harvard 

University, instructor at Princeton University, positions in the private sector 

with Hughes Aircraft Company, Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation and Space 

Electronics Corporation, and president of Space General Corporation. He also 

developed patents in sonar devices and missile guidance systems and has been 

associated with the President’s Science Advisory Committee. 

After being sworn in, Fletcher announced that Space Shuttle flight would 

not resume for another 12 to 18 months and promised to fully review NASA’s 

quality control program and decision-making process. He also noted that the 

70 percent reduction in quality control staff for which NASA was recently 

criticized was “misleading” because “in-house” work such as the Moonlaunched Saturn rockets were no longer a responsibility. A full Senate 

approved his nomination on May 6. (NASA Release 86-60; B Sun, May 

13/86; W Post, May 13/86; WSJ, May 13/86; NY Times, May 13/86) 

Air Force Secretary Edward Aldridge restated at a conference of the 

Aviation Space Writers that the USAF would like to purchase a new rocket 

that could lift medium weight satellites. The rockets, which the service calls 

“medium lift vehicles,” were needed to launch 12 NAVSTAR navigation 

satellites scheduled for Shuttle flights. He also informed the conference of an 

interest in larger rockets, “complementary expendable launch vehicles,” (an 

updated Titan rocket) for putting the Pentagon’s heaviest satellites into orbit. 

(B Sun, May 14/86; NY Times, May 13/86; May 20186) 

May 13: NASA considered both a crew-tended station and one that would be 

permanently tended. The Phase B study period for the Space Station identified and evaluated alternative systems, components and philosophies that 

would result in a configuration responsive to the needs of potential users, be 

cost-effective to operate and maintain, and flexible in terms of growth, size, 

and capabilities. A crew-tended station could have people aboard only when a 

Shuttle orbiter docked to it; the orbiter would provide the habitable facilities. 

While Congress directed NASA to examine an option “which phases in 

permanent crew features of the Station,” NASA pointed out that the “phased 

approach would force postponement of experiments important to advancement of manned spaceflight and would increase the total cost of developing 

the permanently manned Space Station.” NASA went on to argue that the 

savings achieved by the phased approach would be offset by the cost of operating the Station in a crew-tended mode for several years and by the cost of 

maintaining the industrial base during the delay period before resuming 

assembly of the permanently tended station. Savings of the crew-tended phase 

were estimated at $284 million in 1984 dollars and total cost prior to permanently crew-tended capability at $1 billion. (NASA Release 86-59) 

38 
MAY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

* NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher appeared before a House 

Appropriations subcommittee and announced that he had created an independent panel to review NASA’s management practices, especially the decisionmaking process on the morning of the January 28 Challenger accident. The 

review would require about six to eight months to complete. He also said that 

Shuttle flights would likely resume by July 1987, with an optimum of seven 

launches in the first year, and that funding for a replacement Shuttle was his 

“highest priority.” 

Also present was Deputy Administrator William R. Graham, who told members of Congress that NASA Inspector General Bill Colvin would investigate 

the transfer of two Morton Thiokol engineers, Allan McDonald and Roger 

Boisjoly. The two men had vehemently objected to the Challenger launch on the 

morning prior to its deadly flight and later detailed their scenarios before 

Congress. He was particularly concerned that NASA engineers might somehow 

be involved with the reassignments. The subcommittee advised NASA to 

reevaluate its relationship with the rocket booster manufacturer and threatened 

to severely reduce NASA’s budget for new space programs if the agency did not 

undergo some drastic changes. (Department of Housing and Urban 

Development - Independent Agencies Appropriations for 1987, May 13/86; 

W Times, May 14/86; W Post, May 14/86; WSJ, May 14/86; Ny Times, May 

14/86; P Inq, May 14/86; C Trib, May 14/86; B Sun, May 14/86) 

May 14: After more than a year of study by NASA centers and contract teams, 

Dr. James C. Fletcher announced a baseline configuration for the permanently crew-tended Space Station that would guide preliminary design activities 

for the remaining eight months of the Phase B studies. The contract called for 

development of the Space Station to begin in October 1986, ending with a 

permanently tended habitable station in 1994. A total of 14 Space Shuttle 

flights were thought to be required for assembly. 

Major features of the design included two vertical keels 361 feet long and 

connected by upper and lower horizontal booms 146 feet long (the Space 

Station measured 503 feet at its widest point); two 44.5-foot long, 13.8-foot 

interior diameter U.S. supplied modules, with external interconnects for laboratory functions and crew quarters for eight members and two smaller logistics modules to alternate between the ground and the station; modules located 

near the station’s center of gravity to provide the best possible microgravity 

environment for experiments, with raft patterns having four nodes and two 

tunnels to serve as module interconnects; internal module pressure of 14.7 per 

square inch and 80/20 nitrogen/oxygen mixture ratio to approximate sea level 

Earth atmospheric conditions, with a closed loop environmental control and 

life support system where oxygen and water could be recycled and nitrogen 

and food could be resupplied; hybrid solar power system with 75 kilowatts of 

39 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1986 

power, where 25 kilowatts would be provided by photovoltaic system and the 

remaining 50 by the solar dynamics system; five locations on the structure for 

placing attached payloads and a facility for servicing free flying spacecraft and 

platforms with a telerobotic senricer; polar platform with useful payload on 

single Shuttle launch and a co-orbiting platform to support astrophysics and 

materials processing; gaseous hydrogedoxygen propulsion system for altitude 

control (assembly would be at 220 nautical miles and operational altitude at 250 

nautical miles minimum); metric as standard unit of measurement; and inclusion 

of international elements into the overall design, including the Canadian Mobile 

Servicing Center and hardware provided by Japan and the European Space 

Agency. (NASA Release 86-61; NYTimes, May 15/86; W Times, May 15/86) 

May 15: NASA and Boeing Aerospace Company entered into an agreement 

concerning materials processing experiments. Crystals of a size and quality 

impossible to create on Earth would be attempted aboard three Space Shuttle 

flights. Working with the University of Alabama, Boeing agreed to fund the 

experiments, including a chemical vapor transport crystal growth furnace 

installed in the galley area. These crystals were expected to be of the type 

valuable in the commercial production of semiconductor and electro-optic 

devices. The experiments would underscore NASA’s commitment to the 

development of commercial endeavors in space, and would continue with the 

Space Station. (NASA Release 86-62) 

Space agency officials announced that it would cost $625 million to get the 

remaining Shuttle fleet off the ground. The money would go to salvage and 

investigation costs ($43 million), spare parts ($46 million), and corrective 

actions ($537 million). The corrective actions included redesign of the solidfuel rocket booster, changes in the main engine, and changes in steering, braking and other systems, but not escape options for the crew. The Senate 

Appropriations Committee trimmed the request to $526 million because, it 

was reasoned, the agency could not spend all of its money before the fiscal 

year ended on September 30. 

Other officials from NASA met with President Ronald Reagan to discuss 

the Nation’s launch capability and requested $2.8 billion to replace the 

Challenger. The request, which was part of a $5 billion to $8 billion total that 

included expendable launch vehicles, violated the deficit reduction GrammRudman law. Chief of Staff Donald Reagan questioned the need for a new 

Shuttle that might be outdated within 10 years. President Reagan queried, 

“Should we be buying the technology of the ‘70s for use in the O OS?" In grappling with the NASA budget, the President considered a recommendation to 

bar all commercial and foreign launches from the Shuttle. (W Times, May 

16/86; W Post, May 16/86; WSJ, May 16/86) 
MAY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

May 18: An Energy Department analysis released to Representative Edward 

Markey stated that radioactive releases resulting from a Space Shuttle accident 

carrying a plutonium-powered satellite could cause 367 cancer cases and contaminate 367 square miles of land. The former estimate hinged on people staying in 

the launch site area for more than a year. (WPost, May 19/86; C Trib, May 19/86) 

May 20: Two papers delivered by Dr. Allan Harris and Dr. Eugene Shoemaker 

to the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore dealt with the possibilities 

and consequences of a comet, asteroid, or large meteoroid striking the Earth. 

Chances of the first two bodies striking us in the next 100 years, the paper 

determined, were only 1 in 1000. An encounter with the third, however, would 

be more likely (this occurs about once every two decades) and although the 

meteoroid would explode in the atmosphere, less advanced nations might mistake the explosion for a nuclear attack. Asteroids and comets are still monitored, notwithstanding the low odds of a collision. Asteroids lend themselves 

to search methods because they follow an Earth-like orbit, but the latter have 

an elliptical orbit difficult to track. 

Also presented to the Baltimore meeting were the results of the findings of 

a joint U.S./Brazilian atmospheric study conducted in July and August 1985 

by NASA and the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais. Analysis of the 

study concluded that gases from the rain forests in the Amazon Basin in Brazil 

set off a chain of chemical reactions that eventually impact global air quality 

and the Earth’s radiation budget. Trace gases in the troposphere resulting from 

biological activity in forest soil and vegetation were measured with instruments aboard NASA’s Electra aircraft. (NASA Release 86-63; 86-64) 

* The Pentagon considered waiting until 1991 before a Shuttle would be 

launched for the first time from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. 

Temporarily closing the $2.8 billion facility would save $400 million a year 

in maintenance. The major advantage, however, given the increased number 

of launches per year, is that using only Cape Canaveral in Florida would save 

time because moving a Shuttle between the two coasts is time consuming. 

Only launches from Vandenberg, however, could safely put the Air Force’s 

highly classified satellites into polar orbit. (NY Times, May 21/86) 

* Representative Edward P. Bolland, chairman of the House Appropriations 

Subcommittee, advised NASA that it needed to make some difficult choices 

in its big-ticket items. The Congressman specifically asked Administrator Dr. 

James C. Fletcher how he would choose between a new Shuttle and the Space 

Station, to which he responded that the two projects were inseparable. 

Fletcher further pointed out that a fourth Shuttle was necessary because another accident would leave the Nation with only two, crippling the space program. The subcommittee, said Bolland, was most concerned about the cost of 

the Space Station. (B Sun, May 21/86) 

41 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1986 

May 21: Ground testing of auxiliary thrusters designed to allow the Space 

Station to maintain a proper orbit and altitude demonstrated that the thrusters 

can operate for long periods of time with no hardware degradation. Fueled by 

water broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, the thrusters ran for as long as 

22,000 seconds, and, with a target of 10 years of Space Station life, the goal was 

for them to run 40,000 to 60,000 seconds. Bell Aerospace Textron and Aerojet 

Techsystem Corporation conducted the tests for NASA. (NASA Release 86-65) 

May 22: Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher said at a Board of Governors 

meeting that he expected President Ronald Reagan’s approval for a replacement Shuttle. He reiterated what he told the President earlier and averred, “We 

need a fourth orbiter right away, as soon as we can build it.” Fletcher also 

warned that if it were not built and if we do not begin operating the Space 

Station by 1994, “that could be very dire, indeed, for the future of American 

science and technology and the American economy.” (Remarks prepared for 

Delivery: Aerospace Industries Association of America, Board of Governors 

Meeting, Williamsburg, Virginia, May 22/86; P Znq, May 23/86; W Times, 

May 23/86; B Sun, May 23/86) 

May 27: Dr. James C. Fletcher said that a redesigned space vehicle (the aerospace plane) would take 10 years longer to build than a replacement for the 

Challenger. He also relayed the information that 44 potentially flawed parts, 

not including the O-rings, were discovered in the shuttle and would have to be 

attended to before it could again fly. (MY Times, May 28/86; W Post, May 

28/86; WSJ, May 238186) 

May 29: NASA announced that TRW, Inc. was awarded a contract to replace 

the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) lost in the Challenger accident. 

Plans called for a replacement spacecraft and follow-on satellites to keep the 

TDRS system operational through the end of the century. As of this date, one 

TDRS was in geosynchronous orbit near Brazil over the Atlantic Ocean. 

(NASA Release 86-70; WSJ, May 30186) 

May 31 : Another setback for Western launch capability occurred as an Ariane 

rocket was destroyed by ground controllers 4 minutes and 36 seconds after 

liftoff in French Guiana, when its third stage failed to ignite. Also lost was an 

Intelsat V communications satellite; it was the third time failure in the rockets had occurred for that reason. Arianespace, a French company that sold 

space on the rocket, was in fierce competition with NASA for multimilliondollar commercial contracts, but ceded its monopoly when forced to postpone 

future flights while the accident was being investigated. With the grounding 

of the U.S. space program, western nations were left with the Ariane rocket as 

the only means to place commercial satellites into space. (LA Herald, Jun 

1/86; CSM, Jun 16/86) 

42 
June 

June 2: Researchers at the Construction Technology Laboratory found that concrete made from lunar soil, which contains no organic substances, was five percent stronger than high-strength Earth concrete. Because NASA planners anticipated a return to the Moon in the 21st century to establish a permanent lunar 

base, the concept of lunar building materials was a valuable asset when the cost 

of otherwise transporting them was considered. (NASA Release 86-68) 

* Satellite remote sensing technology, NASA-developed software for processing satellite imagery, was used by scientists and medical researchers at 

NASA's National Space Technology Laboratories in conjunction with nuclear 

magnetic resonance (NMR) for enhancement of disease diagnosis. NMR, sensitive to soft tissue and superior to x-rays and CAT Scans, is a technology that 

has been around since the 1940s, but previously had not been used as a diagnostic tool. (NASA Release 86-69) 

The Presidential Commission investigating the Challenger accident 

released its report, two hundred pages, plus appendices, that recommended 

reorganization of NASA's management structure. Other changes cited by the 

Commission included more rigid quality control, reorganization of the lines 

of communication in the NASA chain of command, a larger role for NASA 

astronauts in Shuttle matters, and a Shuttle escape system. By the time these 

conclusions were announced, the report had been sent to the printers; 'it was 

scheduled to be on President Ronald Reagan's desk by June 9. (Report of the 

Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident; W Post, 

Jun 3/86; Jun 10186; B Sun, Jun 3/86; Jun 10186; NY Times, Jun 4/86; Jun 

10186; WSJ, Jun 4186; Jun 10186) 

June 3: NASA announced the seven winners of the sixth annual Space Science 

Student Involvement Program (SSIP) and the winner of the SSIP Student 

Newspaper Competition. SSIP, a joint venture of NASA and the National 

Science Teachers Association, and the corresponding newspaper competition 

were both aimed at the secondary school level. (NASA Release 86-71) 

Preliminary investigation into the Titan rocket lost on April 18 found that the 

insulation between its solid-fuel and the outer casing of the solid rocket booster 

might have peeled, allowing flames to bum through its casing. Although made by 

United Technologies, the design was identical to that used in the boosters made 

by Morton Thiokol for the Space Shuttles and raised the question as to whether 

solid-fuel booster rockets-in lieu of liquid-propellant rockets were suitable for 

human space flight. (NY Times, June 4/86) 

43 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1986 

June 4: NASA located a video tape concerning the Shuttle mission 51-E 

Flight Readiness Review (FRR) that contained two-and-one-half minutes of 

discussion on previous O-ring erosion. Because there was no requirement to 

record audio or video of FRR’s, no cataloging of the tape was made. The 

Presidential Commission was provided with the tape but informed NASA that 

no new information was on it. (NASA 86-77) 

June 5: Two near-Earth asteroids, composed of nickel and iron and could provide future space mining, were discovered shortly before this date by NASA’s 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. About one mile in diameter, each, one asteroid is 

inside and one is outside of Earth’s orbit. (NASA Release 86-73) 

Two hundred fifty-eight members of Congress signed a letter addressed to 

NASA urging them to find a second supplier for its Space Shuttle booster 

rockets. Congress, described as further tightening the rein on NASA, believed 

that competition for the sole provider, Morton Thiokol, would equate to savings. Aerojet General said it was ready to build a seamless booster, a safer 

design. Congress also wanted NASA to eliminate some of the rules that 

favored Thiokol, such as requiring any second manufacturer to purchase nozzles for the rocket from them. (W Times, Jun 6/86; WSJ, Jun 6/86; P Znq, Jun 

6/86; B Sun, Jun 6/86) 

Investigation into the Delta rocket crash May 3 indicated that the accident 

could have been a result of a faulty hardware-assembly program in the engine 

compartment. A short circuit was most likely the cause, said Lawrence Ross, 

Chairman of the Delta review board, but sabotage was not ruled out. 

(B Sun, Jun 6/86) 

June 9: Following the release of the Presidential Commission’s report, NASA 

Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher announced that he would adopt most of 

the recommendations. He stated, “The whole agency needs a major reexamination.” He further said that he still expected the Shuttle fleet to resume operation by July 1987, that the President will opt for a replacement Shuttle, and 

that he remained committed to the Teacher in Space Program. Congress, however, pointed out that fiscal restraints would render it nearly impossible to 

make all the Committee’s suggested repairs while building a new orbiter and 

pursuing the Space Station and the aerospace plane. (NASA Release: 

Statement of Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, Jun 9/86; W Post, 

.Tun 10/86; NY Times, Jun 10/86) 

June 10: Hearings before the House of Representatives investigating the 

Challenger accident began on this date. Testimonies were given by William P. 

Rogers, Dr. James C. Fletcher, various NASA personnel, various personnel 

from Morton Thiokol, Inc., and various personnel from the military and 

44 
JUNE 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

industry. The hearings were to take place June 10,11,12,17,18, and 25,1986 

and July 15, 16,23, and 24, 1986. (Investigation into the Challenger Accident: 

Hearings before the Committee on Science and Technology House of 

Representatives, 1986) 

June 11: NASA installed a super computer known as the Cray X-MP for use 

in key NASA research projects and for sharing with other NASA Centers, 

industries, and universities. The computer made possible the analysis of problems previously thought impossible to solve. A solution that might take one 

hour on the Cray X-MP, for example, would take 200 hours on a popular business mainframe computer. NASA noted that the research underway at Lewis’s 

Structural Mechanics Branch would have been prohibitively expensive and 

time consuming without the super computer. (NASA Release 86-74) 

* NASA officials said that resuming Space Shuttle flight by July 1987 would be 

impossible if all of the conclusions reached by the Presidential Commission were 

followed. The report called for correction of the Shuttle’s braking system, development of an escape system, and review of more than 700 critical components; 

however, the biggest obstacle lay in the redesigning and testing of the booster 

rockets. The Commission recommended a costly and time consuming full-scale, 

vertical test for the new rockets. NASA had relied on a less expensive, scaled 

down, horizontal test for new designs in the past and made no commitment for 

following this advice. The added preparation time would most adversely affect the 

Air Force, who earlier had warned that even a 1-year delay would produce a backlog of 40 payloads by 1992; some of their satellites could not fit aboard any 

untended launch vehicle then in use. Some former commercial customers had 

negotiated flights with the French Ariane rocket program, but because they were 

also grounded, China and Japan were being sought for launches. 

President Ronald Reagan, in the meantime, had called for a replacement 

orbiter, but had not yet revealed how it would be funded. (hT Times, Jun 12/86) 

Astronaut Owen K. Garriott planned to leave both NASA and govement 

service during the current week. His past achievements include a 2-month 

stay in space aboard Skylab and the 10-day Spacelab 1 mission aboard the 

Space Shuttle Columbia. (NASA Release 86-75) 

June 12: Senior officials at the White House found it increasingly difficult to 

go ahead with President Ronald Reagan’s call for another Space Shuttle. The 

President’s remarks, they inferred, did not constitute any commitment. 

Meanwhile, members of the House committee, delving further into the 

Challenger accident, questioned Shuttle Director Richard H. Truly in regards 

to the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, Alabama, which was 

45 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1986 

in charge of the booster rocket. Representative James H. Scheuer believed that 

information regarding the faulty booster was known not only at the MSFC but 

by officials at NASA Headquarters. (W Post, June 13/86; WSJ, June 13/86) 

The Soviet Union said that it was prepared to fill the void left by the United 

States and Europe for commercial space launches. Moscow revealed this fact 

in an announcement that also called for a World Space Organization. The 

Organization would oversee joint space projects that the Soviets hoped would 

unfold in the future. (C Trib, Jun 13/86; CSM, Jun 16/86) 

June 13: In a move that would greatly reduce the chances for resuming Shuttle 

flights by July 1987, President Ronald Reagan urged NASAAdministrator Dr. 

James C. Fletcher to comply with all of the recommendations put forth by the 

Challenger commission. President Reagan also ordered Fletcher to report back 

to him after 30 days with details on how and when the findings would be 

implemented. Also, the two reportedly discussed approval of Federal funds for 

a replacement orbiter and the President’s final decision was expected to follow 

after a few days. (Letter from President Reagan to James Fletcher, Jun 13/86; 

W Post, Jun 14/86; WSJ, Jun 16/86; W Times, Jun 16/86) 

June 15: The Peoples Republic of China moved to fill the void left by the 

United States and Europe for commercial space launchings as it negotiated 

with two U.S. firms. Hughes Aircraft Company expressed an interest in working with China to establish a launch base in the Hawaiian islands. Peking, at 

the same time, announced an agreement it had made with the U.S. company 

Teresat, Inc., for putting two of their satellites into orbit in 1987 and 1989 at a 

price ranging from $20 million to $25 million, about 15 percent less than what 

Ariane and the Space Shuttle charged. Teresat, however, would first need to 

locate an insurer for launches and secure approval from the State Department. 

China claimed its program was capable of 10 to 12 launches per year. (W Post, 

Jun 16/86; CSM, Jun 16/86; WSJ, Jun 17/86; C Trib, Jun 17/86) 

June 17: Astronaut James Van Hoften announced his resignation from NASA to 

enter private industry. His past achievements include two Space Shuttle flights 

and the position of Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of 

Houston. He was the fifth astronaut to leave NASA since the January 28 accident. (NASA Release 86-78; USA Today, Jun 18/86; LA Times, Jul29/86) 

The $3 billion launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was 

deemed unsafe according to a Senate report released on this date. The salient 

feature cited was the closed exhaust ducts that could fill with hydrogen gas in 

the event that a Shuttle’s main engines were shut down to abort liftoff or at the 

end of a flight-readiness test-firing. The report also noted that fog, high winds, 

and cool temperatures were common to the area and that the proximity of the 

46 
JUNE 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

launch pad to the control center put support personnel at risk. Because the 

Department of Defense required the California site to achieve polar orbit for 

reconnaissance satellites, it was recommended that they adopt the “new” Titan 

missiles. (W Times, Jun 18/86; LA Times, Jun 18/86; Jul9/86) 

June 18: Allan McDonald, in charge of the booster rocket redesign task force, told 

members of Congress that the new booster joints would fall into the “criticality1R’ category, meaning that they would have a backup. No specific design had yet 

been chosen, and the engineer stated, “We’re looking at some designs with O-rings 

and some without. We’re looking at various seating concepts.” McDonald was 

taken off Morton Thiokol’s solid rocket team after testifying before the Rogers 

Commission concerning his objection to launching the Challenger in cold weather, but was reassigned to head the task force after complaints from Congress. 

(USA Today, Jun 19/86; W Tiies, Jun 19/86; NY Times, Jun 19/86) 

June 19: Lawrence F. Herbolsheimer was appointed Deputy Assistant 

Administrator for the Office of Commercial Programs, where he would be 

responsible for advancing the interests and participation of the private sector 

in the U.S. Space Program. He previously had co-founded businesses in the 

private sector and had served at the White House. (NASA Release 86-79) 

* NASA announced that it would terminate further development of the 

$1 billion Centaur Upper Stage for launching other spacecraft on board a 

Space Shuttle. The Shuttle 51-L accident prompted major safety reviews and 

safety criteria, which the Centaur, even after modifications, could not meet. 

Under Richard H. Truly’s direction, NASA initiated efforts to examine alternatives for those national security missions that had planned to use Centaur. 

Because the Ulysses and Galileo missions were dependant on such a launch, 

other options for launching them from the Shuttle with a Titan rocket were 

being considered. (NASA Release 86-80, W Times, Jun 20186; W Post, Jun 

20186; WSJ, Jun 20186; IVY Times, Jun 20186; CSM, Jun 23/86) 

June 24: Following a speech in Washington, Air Force Secretary Edward 

Aldridge told reporters that the Space Shuttle would not fly again until early 

1988. The Air Force, he said, would use the expendable launch vehicles being 

developed as often as possible and that NASA’s goal was to have military and 

non-military payloads on a 50-50 schedule. For reasons of security, Aldridge 

had hoped President Ronald Reagan would authorize funds for a new orbiter, 

but sources revealed that the President would hold back any decisions concerning the space program until after NASA began implementing some of the 

recommendations from the Rogers Commission. (W Post, Jun 24/86; 

W Times, Jun 24/86; IVY Times, Jun 24/86) 

47 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1986 

June 25: TRW, Inc. was selected by NASA for negotiations leading to the 

award of a contract for design and delivery of the Orbital Maneuvering 

Vehicle (OMV), a reusable, remotely operated propulsion vehicle for hauling 

satellites from one orbit to another. The OMV’s primary uses would be spacecraft delivery, retrieval, boost, deboost, and close proximity visual observation beyond the operating range of a Space Shuttle. The OMV, “space tug,” 

was also to be made to adapt for use in Space Station activities. (NASA 

Release 86-81; WSJ, Jun 26/86; LA Times, Jun 27/86) 

The fust flight of an aircraft with both a digital jet engine control system and 

a mated digital flight control system took place at NASA’s Ames-Dryden Flight 

Research Facility with a modified F-15. The integration of engine and flight 

control (Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control) between the system’s 

computers could increase performance 2 to 10 percent. (NASA Release 86-82) 

June 26: NASA officials confiied that the Agency had considered reproduction 

of the Delta rocket and was ordering at least one from McDonnell Douglas for 

launching an Indonesian communications satellite early in 1987. Officials at the 

corporation assured NASA that the grounded Delta rocket could be ready for 

launch in a few months because problems were worked out and the production 

line for the rocket was partially restarted. (W Post, Jun 27/86; WSJ, Jun 27/86) 

Three government agencies-the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-proposed a long-term 

plan for the study of human effect on the Earth’s environment. The project envisioned cooperation from other scientifically advanced nations and would use the 

disciplines of geology, meteorology, oceanography, forestry, agriculture, and 

computer and satellite technologies to study the Earth as an integrated system. 

NSF director, Erich Bloch, noted that “for the first time in history we have the 

capability to observe the entire Earth from the outer reaches of its atmosphere to 

its molten inner core.” NASA’s Earth System Sciences Committee predicted that 

the program, enlisting satellites from countries around the globe, would be in full 

swing by the middle 1990s. (B Sun, Jun 27/86; CSM, Jun 30/86) 

For the fist time since the January 28 accident, the Space Shuttle’s main 

engine underwent a 1-1/2 second test for ignition. It was an uneventful, successful run, and NASA officials offered it as a signal that the program was gearing up for a targeted July 1987 mission. (B Sun, Jun 27/86; C Trib, Jun 27/86) 

June 30: Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, announced that Andrew 

J. Stofan had been appointed Associate Administrator for the Space Station. 

He also announced a number of organizational and management structural 

changes for the program and transfer of its supervision from the Johnson 

48 
JUNE 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Space Center, Houston, Texas, to Washington, D.C. The changes followed recommendations from a committee headed by former Apollo Program Manager 

Samuel C. Phillips that were consistent with findings from the Rogers 

Commission, which investigated the Challenger accident. Phillips examined 

the Space Station program from both a technical and management perspective 

and Dr. Fletcher, in turn, made changes that assured the flow of important 

information to proper decision-making levels. Another result was the procurement of a versatile computer-based information network to link NASA and 

contractor facilities and to provide engineering services. (NASA Release 86- 

84; W Post, Jul 1/86; Ny Times, Jul 1/86; W Times, Jul 1/86; C Trib, Jul2/86) 

49 

July 

July 1 : A1 Louviere, who headed a team of engineers at the Johnson Space 

Center, Houston, Texas, recommended to Shuttle Program Director Arnold 

Aldrich that an escape system be built into orbiters. Equipped with pressure 

suits and an oxygen supply, astronauts could bail out of the aircraft while it 

was in gliding flight below 100,000 feet. Although no specific plan was given, 

Louviere stressed the fact that no escape system could have saved the 

Challenger crew. (P Znq, Jul2186) 

July 2: The Delta 178 rocket accident that occurred on May 3, 1986, was 

caused by mechanical damage to wiring caused by vibration during flight. 

The rocket’s first failure-after 43 flights since 1977-was attributed to a 

design change, a shift from polyvinylchloride (PVC) insulated wiring to 

Teflon insulated. Unlike PVC, which is over-wrapped for greater abrasion 

protection, Teflon wiring bundles are over-wrapped in only a very limited 

number of locations; the abrasion resistance of mechanical damping was not 

adequately considered when making the change. The investigating board recommended a review of the booster electrical control system and possible 

design changes, verification of the quality of all connectors, and a reemphasis 

on highly attentive, quality workmanship. 

Another study released concerned the Titan 34-D mishap of April 18; it 

determined the cause of the accident to be insulation inside one of the two 

solid rockets being pulled away and allowing “burn through”. Neither accident was deemed the result of any major design flaw and, subsequent to minor 

modifications, the United States planned to resume untended rocket launches. 

The investigating board also observed potential problems resulting from 

high-humidity conditions for vehicles stored at the Kennedy Space Center, to 

instrument limitations, and lack of protection from contamination of the 

Rocketdyne engine relay box. These problems were not directly connected 

with the Delta 178 rocket accident or the Titan 34-D mishap. (NASA Release 

86-85; W Post, Jul3/86; WSJ, Jul3/86; NY Times, Jul3/86; B Sun; Jul 3/86) 

July 3: NASA issued a request for proposals to various contractors for a satellite 

for use in a joint venture with the French Space Agency, Centre National d’Etudes 

Spatiales, in the Topex/poseidon oceanographic mission. The satellite would map 

the circulation of the world’s oceans by using a precise radar altimeter to measure 

height variations on the sea surface. Contingent upon congressional approval of 

funds, a launch of the satellite in late 1991 was planned. (NASA Release 86-86) 

51 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1986 

July 7: A full-scale Spacehab module mockup intended to double the pressurized volume of the Space Shuttle mid-deck was delivered to NASA's Ames 

Research Center by Spacehab, Inc. The mockup was intended as a test bed for 

artificial intelligence, robotics systems, and human performance. Spacehab 

planned to build three of the modules over the next three years. 

Another corporation, Sverdrup Technology, was chosen for a $45 million 

support services contract in which they would provide test complex services 

for Space Shuttle main engines and engineering and laboratory and data work 

for NASA and 18 other Government agencies. NASA also planned a program 

that would develop software tools for writing computer programs in ADA, a 

language used by the Department of Defense for mission-critical computers. 

The project was expected to run for three or four years and cost $200 million. 

(Def News, Jul7/86) 

July 8: In a response to the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle 

Challenger Accident, Dr. James C. Fletcher announced the establishment of 

the Office of Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance and the appointment 

of George A. Rodney, from Martin Marietta Corporation, to head the office as 

Associate Administrator. Objectives of the office were to ensure a program 

that monitored equipment status and designed validation problem analysis 

and system acceptability in Agencywide plans and programs. Rodney's 

responsibilities were to have oversight of safety, reliability, and quality assurance functions related to all NASA activities. (NASA Release 86-87; W Post, 

Jul9/86; W Times, Jul9186; B Sun, July 9/86; P Inq, Jul6l86) 

July 10: With a request for proposals issued to approximately 250 fis, 

NASA planned to implement a Technical and Management Information 

System (TMIS) to support overall functions of the Space Station, including 

design, development, and operation. The TMIS would link the various NASA 

centers involved with the program and would automate the generation and 

interchange of documents, correspondence, schedules, engineering data and 

drawing, budget data, and other management information. Carried out in 

implements, the first would be operational less than one year after the contract 

award date. (NASA Release 86-88) 

Richard G. Smith, Director of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, announced 

his retirement. He plans to join the private sector with General Space Corporation. 

His achievements span 35 years in the space program and include work with the 

rocket research and development team at Redstone Arsenal, management of the 

Saturn Rocket program at Marshall Space Flight Center, Deputy Director of the 

Marshall Space Flight Center, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space 

Transportation Systems at NASA Headquarters, Director of the Skylab Task 

Force, and he is the recipient of awards for his contributions to Apollo, Skylab, 

and Space Shuttle programs. 

52 
JULY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Smith had earlier warned that investigation into the challenger accident would 

result in a mass exodus from NASA and later added that the investigation damaged the reputations of many officials. (NASA Release 86-89; W Times, Jull1/86; 

W Post, Jul 11/86; Ny Times, Jul 11/86; LA Times, Jul 11/86) 

July 14: NASA planned for a display of current and future technologies at the 

34th Annual EAA International Fly-In Convention and Sport Aviation 

Exhibition, with an exhibit entitled “21st Century Aviation,” August 1-8 in 

Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Featured would be hypersonic cruise vehicles and high 

altitude aircraft that could fly from the U.S. West Coast to Tokyo five times 

faster than subsonic flyers and have the capability of taking payloads and passengers to Earth orbit. In addition, NASA also planned advanced cockpit displays in which aircraft controls reacted to voice commands, and presentations 

of a supercomputer capable of one billion computations per second, rotocraft 

research and potential applications, aeronautical art, and the Search and 

Rescue Satellite (SARSAT) system. The latter display was intended to show 

how using a satellite saves time in rescuing air and maritime casualties. 

(NASA Release 86-90) 

In response to a recent order, NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher 

handed President Ronald Reagan a 50-page report that outlined the agency’s 

plans for implementing the Rogers Commission’s recommendations. Among 

the items detailed were booster redesign, changes in NASA’s management, 

review of “critical items” whose failure would lead to vehicle loss, establishment of a safety organization, improved communications, landing safety, 

launch abort and crew escape, flight rate, and maintenance safeguards. 

Fletcher also submitted a companion letter urging the President to authorize 

funds for replacement of the Challenger. Because of the requirements for getting the Shuttle flying again, NASA confirmed the aircraft would be grounded until at least early 1988. (Actions to Implement the Recommendations of 

the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, Jul 

14/86; NY Times, Jul 15/86; W Post, Jul 15/86; B Sun, Jul 15/86; W Times, Jul 

15/86; P Inq, Jul 15/86; C Trib, Jul 15/86) 

July 16: Lawrence B. Mulloy, a manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center, 

Huntsville, Alabama, in charge of the solid rocket motors that were held 

responsible for the Challenger accident, announced his retirement after more 

than 30 years of Government service. He was among those who opted for 

liftoff of the ill-fated Shuttle and was repeatedly faulted for this judgement 

by William P. Rogers, chairman of the commission investigating the accident. He was the third Marshall manager to retire since the accident, following William R. Lucas and George B. Hardy. (W Post, Jul 17/86; P Znq, Jul 

17/86; B Sun, Jul 17/86) 

53 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1986 

July 17: NASA got back tapes from IBM that were recovered from the 

Atlantic Ocean six weeks after the Space Shuttle accident and revealed that 

the Challenger crew had no knowledge of events leading to the catastrophe. 

IBM engineers, who were simultaneously researching tape restoration, were 

called upon and after isolating the computer zeros and ones, NASA engineers 

began the job of translating the data into a facsimile of human voice. (W Post, 

Jul 18/86; NY Times, Jul 18/86; B Sun, Jul 18/86) 

July 18: Shuttle director Richard H. Truly announced NASA’s interest in an 

improved, second-generation solid rocket motor design for study by the 

National Space Transportation System program manager. Among the requested changes were asbestos-free insulation, alternate case and propellant design, 

and modified burn rate for improved performance. Outside geometry and 

interfaces with other Space Shuttle elements would not be affected. He added, 

however, that the tentative schedule for launching a Shuttle in early 1988 

would not be contingent upon this newly designed booster rocket. (NASA 

Release 86-94; NY Times, Jul21/86) 

July 21: Conrail, created by Congress from six bankrupt northeastern railroads, argued against a measure proposed by Senator John Danforth that 

would take $450 million from the Govenunent-owned railroad and transfer 

the funds to NASA. If passed, the plan would help compensate for the House 

and Senate Armed Services Committee’s move to cut $566 million from the 

Air Force budget that was earmarked for NASA and military use of the 

Shuttle. (W Post, Jul22/86) 

July 22: Testing of recently installed weather protection structures was scheduled for August 19 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Space Shuttle 

Atlantis. The $3.3 million system of sliding and folding doors and seals would 

cover previously exposed, lower portions of the orbiter and greatly reduce risk 

to the heat protection tiles, subject to damage from heavy rains, hail, and 

wind-blown debris. (NASA Release 86-95) 

Thomas Paine, Laurel Wilkening, George Field, Jack Kerrebrock, Kathryn 

Sullivan, and Carl Sagan testified before Congress concerning Paine’s report, 

“Pioneering the Space Frontier.” (Hearing before the Committee on Science 

and Technology, July 22/86) 

July 23: The National Scientific Balloon Facility found a promising new 

material in a flight test series of high altitude balloons. The balloon film, 

developed by Raven Industries, was 0.0008 inches thick; two successful 

flights carried one 3,000-pound payload to an altitude of 130,000 feet and 

another 4,300-pound payload to 120,000 feet. At that time, the NASA balloon 

program provided support for approximately 50 flights-per-year for studies 

54 
1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

primarily in high energy astrophysics, astronomy, and upper atmospheric 

research. Because of its weight-carrying capacity and flight duration, the balloon was also important in infrared astronomy research and in cosmic and 

gamma ray investigations. (NASA Release 86-96) 

NASA announced another test of a Space Shuttle engine to take place later 

in that week. The purpose was to collect additional data to be added to the 

previous test of the same engine, that ran for 250 seconds, at the National 

Space Technology Laboratory. (NASA Release 86-97) 

NASA officials announced that the launch of an Atlas-Centaur rocket 

scheduled to carry a Navy communications satellite into orbit on August 28 

was postponed indefinitely. The flight was originally set for May 22, but the 

Delta rocket accident canceled that liftoff. The Atlas was the only remaining 

U.S. rocket system that had not been grounded; the delay resulted from the 

discovery by engineers of problems with some of the rocket’s electrical parts. 

(W Post, Jul24186) 

July 24: Dr. James C. Fletcher released to members of Congress a statement 

indicating that employment at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, 

Texas, would increase from 12,600 to 14,000 employees during Space Station 

development, with a potential for another 1,000 jobs should JSC take on additional Space Station tasks. “Another way to look at this,” he warned “is that 

without the Space Station program, JSC’s employment level likely will not 

grow significantly over the next few years.” 

The projected increase notwithstanding, officials at the JSC were concerned with their status because of the recent decision to move the habitation 

module’s development to the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville 

Alabama. They were assured, however, that the move had to do with coordinating the habitation module and the module structure and that “the Johnson 

Space Center’s role as NASA’s preeminent center of excellence in manned 

spacecraft systems is not changing.” (NASA Release 86-98; NY Times, Jul 

26/86; W Post, Jul26186) 

July 25: Because of NASA‘s expertise in microelectronics and other miniaturized instruments, its technology was studied for use in controlling hydrocephalus, an impairment characterized by an accumulation of fluids in the 

brain that can lead to mental disorders. The microprocessor-controlled cerebrospinal fluid outflow regulating system would replace an implanted shunt 

that diverts fluid from the brain to other parts of the body. Because the shunt 

is not always successful and often needs repair, this new technology, which 

can be reprogrammed to meet changing needs, offered hope for improvement 

and stability. (NASA Release 86-99) 

55 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1986 

July 28: Following a review of the wreckage and all other available data from 

the Challenger flight, copies of the final report on the investigation into the 

cause of death of the crew were released. Although NASA was unable to 

arrive at a positive determination, it seemed possible, after examining the 

transcripts from internal communication, that the crew was unaware of the 

events immediately preceding the breakup of the orbiter. 

Release of the Challenger tapes to the news media, however, revealed that 

some members of the crew may have been aware of the accident. Seconds 

before the crash, pilot Michael Smith uttered the phrase “Oh-oh’’ and subsequent to that other evidence revealed that a few astronauts attempted to use 

emergency air supply. The exact cause of death was never determined, but 

sources agreed that it was doubtful that the initial blast was sufficient to cause 

death or injury and whether any of the crew were able to maintain consciousness until the cabin struck the ocean’s surface could not be determined. 

(NASA Release 86-100; W Post, Jul29/86; W Times, Jul29/86; NY Times, Jul 

29/86; WSJ, Aug 5/86) 

July 29: Administration sources said that President Ronald Reagan might 

delay funding for a new orbiter until 1987. Because budget restraints made 

any commitment to a replacement impossible, many advisors were in favor of 

producing expendable launch vehicles for private satellites. (W Post, Jul 

30186; P Inq, Jul30/86; WSJ, Jul 3 1/86) 

July 31: NASA announced four teams to establish centers for the Commercial 

Development of Space. The centers, joint undertakings of academic, industry, 

and government teams, were (1) University of Wisconsin, Space Automation 

and Robotics and Dr. John Ballinger; (2) Ohio State University, Real Time 

Satellite Mapping and Ivan Mueller; (3) University of Houston, Molecular 

Beam Epitaxy and C.W. Chu; and (4) Clarkson University, Commercial 

Crystal Growth in Space and William Wilcox. Criteria for selection were 

based on new and unique research leading to commercial activity, management teams capable of directing commercial research, and available nonNASA resources to help operate the center. (NASA Release 86-102) 

Dr. James C. Fletcher acknowledged that NASA did not sufficiently consult 

Congress on decisions pertaining to Space Station management prior to the June 

30 announcement and said he would postpone plans for moving Space Station 

management from Houston to the Washington, D.C. headquarters. Because 

“considerable misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the intent of the decision on the Space Station work package realignment has resulted,” said Fletcher 

“I intend to conduct a thorough review of all aspects of Space Station design, 

work package assignments and functions, and conduct extensive conversations 

with members of Congress.” (NASA Release 86-103; USA Today, Aug 1/86) 

56 
JULY 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

White House officials announced that top members of President Ronald 

Reagan’s cabinet were in favor of halting commercial launches aboard the 

Space Shuttle, a move that would cost NASA $850 million in revenue. White 

House spokesman Larry Speaks argued that eliminating the launches would 

stimulate the private aerospace industry, reluctant to compete with NASA in 

the past, to quickly fill the void. Another reason for the reduced number of 

launches, he noted, was the increasing backlog of scientific and military payloads. Focus on those two types of missions exclusively would ease the immediate need for a fourth shuttle. 

At the same time, Air Force Secretary Edward Aldridge said that he intended to ask Congress for $2.6 billion in order to acquire a fleet of rockets that 

would reduce both the backlog of 21 payloads and the Pentagon’s dependance 

on the Space Shuttle. He added that no Space Shuttles would be launched 

from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base until 1992, a saving to tax payers of $1 billion. (W Times, Aug 1/86; WSJ, Aug 1/86; W Post, Aug 1/86; 

B Sun, Aug 1/86; NY Times, Aug 1/86; WSJ, Aug 5/86) 

57 

August 

August I: The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona 

and NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, planned a Planet 

Mercury Conference for early August. More than 10 years had elapsed since 

the last conference and a significant amount of data had developed during the 

interim. Scheduled topics included Mercury’s role in helping scientists understand the origin of planets, Mercury as an end-member planet, ground-based 

and Earth-orbital observations of Mercury, and possible spacecraft missions 

to the planet. (NASA Release) 

In Space Station Phase B Program Level Agreement, NASA and the ESA 

announced agreement on hardware elements for a preliminary design of a permanently attached pressurized laboratory module and a polar orbiting platform, 

the latter for conducting Earth observations. Under the agreement, ESA would 

conduct research on a preliminary design of a man-tended free-flyer (pressurized 

module and resource module) for international utilization, primarily in the fields 

of material and life sciences and fluid physics, that would require both a longduration and undisturbed microgravity environment. (NASA Release 86- 104) 

August 5: Preliminary data from NASA’s Earth Radiation Budget Experiment 

(ERBE), a three-satellite project that began in October 1984, indicated that 

clouds reflect more heat than they retain and appear to cool Earth’s climate, 

possibly offsetting the “greenhouse effect”. Incomplete coverage and sporadic 

observations have limited decades of study on global heat flows done with 

sounding rockets, balloons, and satellites. In a broader attempt, the ERBE 

instruments measured the average monthly heat budget on regional, zonal, 

and global scales; tracked the seasonal movement of heat from the tropics to 

the poles; and determined the average daily variation in heat on a 620-mile 

regional monthly scale. An ERBE package contained two radiometer instruments. One, a scanner, was used for narrow field-of-view scanning with shortwave measurements of reflected solar energy and long-wave measurements of 

Earth-emitted energy. The other, a non-scanner, was used for wide field-ofview of the entire disc of the Earth, a 10-degree region of Earth, and the total 

output of the sun’s radiant energy. (NASA Release 86-105) 

* NASA announced that James R. Thompson would be appointed Director of 

the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in late September. 

He had been Deputy Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory 

since 1983 and previous to that had spent 23 years at Marshall, where he managed development of the Space Shuttle’s main engines, worked in the Skylab 

59 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1986 

Program, and was Associate Director of Engineering for the Center. He was 

also NASA’s manager for the Challenger investigation (NASA Release 86- 

106; Ny Times, Aug 6/86) 

Dr. James C. Fletcher appeared before a Senate subcommittee and testified 

that the $7.7 billion budget for NASA was “barely adequate” and could further delay Shuttle flights while possibly stripping the private sector of some 

25,000 jobs. He also said that the currently designed Space Station was 

intended to be built using four Shuttles. With only three Shuttles, the Station 

would need to go back to the drawing board. The Senate appeared to be looking at a civilian sponsored space program for commercial launches as a way 

to reduce costs. (W Post, Aug 6/86; B Sun, Aug 6/86) 

* Documents released by the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger 

accident revealed that the Space Shuttle Columbia had narrowly avoided a 

severe mishap on January 6 when it came within 31 seconds of launch after 

18,000 pounds of liquid oxygen had been inadvertently drained from its external tank. The mistake would have left the ship without enough fuel to obtain 

orbit; the error was blamed on fatigue among the ground crew, who were pursuing a rigid schedule. (M Times, Aug 6/86; W Post, Aug 6/86; W Times, Aug 

6/86; B Sun, Aug 6/86) 

August 7: NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute announced that 

U.S. amateur astronomers would be given a small amount of observing time 

with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Amateur astronomers have made 

significant contributions to astronomy, and, at this point, there are at least a 

quarter million of these astronomers. With a 94-112-inch mirror, the HST 

would be the largest astronomical telescope ever placed in space; it serves as 

an example of international cooperation between NASA and the European 

Space Agency. (NASA Release 86-108) 

In a White House meeting President Ronald Reagan indicated that he would 

allow NASA to honor only some of its higher priority contracts for commercial and foreign satellite launches from the Space Shuttle. Regarding a new 

orbiter, Chief of Staff Donald Regan has reversed his stance and now favors 

the replacement. Regan changed his mind, he stated, because he believed that 

NASA would not just correct its major faults, but would bring the Shuttle up 

to date with current technology. In a related matter, the Senate agreed to reimburse NASA with $56.3 million for military launches, a move protested by 

Senator Sam Nu, who claimed that the money would come at the expense of 

intelligence activities. (M Times, Aug 8/86; W Post, Aug 8/86) 

August 11: As of this date, two companies (Boeing Aerospace Operations and 

McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company) had submitted proposals for the 

60 
AUGUST 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Payload Ground Operations Contract, a three-year cost-plus-award-fee contract with optional extensions of up to 15 years. The selected contractor would 

be responsible for preparing all payload for launch aboard Space Shuttles and 

expendable launch vehicles, as well as operations, maintenance, and engineering of the related processing facilities. The contract would consolidate 

work that was performed under separate, on-site contracts involving about 

900 people. Space Station components requiring launch from the Kennedy 

Space Center and preparation of NASA payloads at the Vandenberg Launch 

Site in California were to be included. (NASA Release 86-109) 

August 12: NASA chose a new design for its solid rocket motors, a major step 

for returning the Shuttle fleet to flight. Each joint would be sealed by three orings constructed from a more resilient material than that used originally, and 

would seal at all times, not just from pressure produced by expanding gas 

inside the rocket. Other changes included a metal clip meant to force the joint 

to remain sealed, interlocking insulation to prevent hot gases from directly 

contacting the O-rings, and a bolt assembly between the rocket nozzle and the 

engine for providing an additional seal at the nozzle joint. Hundreds of tests 

for the new design were scheduled for the coming fall. (NY Times, Aug 12/86; 

Aug 13/86; W Times, Aug 12/86; W Post, Aug 13/86; C Trib, Aug 13/86) 

August 13: Pratt & Whitney was selected by NASA for negotiations leading 

to a contract award for the design, development, test, flight certification, and 

production verification of alternate high-pressure fuel and oxidizer turbopumps. With a proposed cost of about $182 million and a period of performance of five to six years, the turbopumps were intended to be interchangeable with the Space Shuttle’s main engine turbopumps, provide extended life 

capability, and enhance safety margins. (NASA Release 86-1 12) 

August 14: Members of a House Space Subcommittee endorsed NASA‘s $7.7 

billion budget and authorized funds for a new shuttle and President Ronald 

Reagan ordered that a replacement orbiter be built. The craft would take about 

seven years to construct, according to administration officials. The money for 

the project, earmarked to come from other space programs, would be allotted 

annually. The first payment was to be $200 million, and the rate of progress for 

building it depended on future financing. The President also restated his hopes 

for private industry to develop a capacity for launching commercial satellites. 

(W Times, Aug 14/86; Aug 15/86; B Sun. Aug 14/86; Aug 15/86; NY Times, 

Aug 15/86; C Trib, Aug 15/86; W Post, Aug 15/86; CSM, Aug 18/86) 

August 15: In a statement released by the White House Press Secretary, 

President Ronald Reagan announced “two steps that will ensure America’s 

leadership in space exploration and utilization.” His first target was the building of a fourth Space Shuttle beginning in fiscal year 1987, deemed necessary 

61 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1986 

for accomplishments in space (especially the Space Station). He also 

announced that NASA would ease out of the business of launching commercial satellites by allowing the private sector to assume the responsibility, 

which, he said, would eventually be done “better and cheaper.” NASA, he 

stressed, should focus solely on the exploration of space. (The White House, 

Office of the Press Secretary, Statement by the President, Aug 15/86) 

August 18: A Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope for studying gamma ray sources 

in the universe was the basis for a $93,000 contract awarded to Martin 

Marietta. By housing the telescope inside of a Space Shuttle external liquid 

hydrogen tank, which is normally discarded just before the Shuttle achieves 

orbit, Martin Marietta deemed it possible that the unit could also be set into 

orbit. Telescope components would be carried in the cargo bay and assembled 

inside the emptied tank by astronauts, who could enter via an existing 36-inch 

aft manhole port or through tank modifications. The satellite could then be 

pressurized to provide the needed environment for gamma ray detection technique; the rays would be converted to positrons and electrons that travel the 

length of the telescope emitting light. Gamma ray astronomy is essential to 

understanding the evolution of stars and the universe and the physical processes occurring in pulsars, quasars, and black holes. (NASA Release 86-1 11) 

* Astronaut Sally K. Ride was named Special Assistant to the Administrator for 

strategic planning, where she would be responsible for reviewing NASA‘s goals 

and objectives for near-to-long-term planning. Ride was a mission specialist on 

two Space Shuttle flights and a member of the Presidential Commission on the 

Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. (NASA Release 86-1 14) 

* Elizabeth Dole predicted that U.S. rocket companies would begin launching 

private satellites by 1989 and capture 50 percent of the international market. Her 

announcement came after President Ronald Reagan’s confirmation that NASA 

would no longer handle the business. Representatives from General Dynamics 

Corporation and Transpace Carriers, Inc. expressed hope that they would soon 

announce launch contracts. Some satellite officials, however, were less enthusiastic because NASA had the go-ahead to launch at least some of the 44 commercial satellites, leaving the agency with limited but palpable competition. In a 

related matter, NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher said that a large portion of future flights would be devoted to scientific missions and that he expected a commercial launching industry to supplement the Shuttle. (W Post, Aug 

19/86; W Times, Aug 19/86; IVY Times, Aug 19/86; CSM, Aug 26/86) 

August 19: The X-Wing Rotor Systems Research Aircraft, which combines the 

hover characteristics and vertical lift of conventional helicopters and the high 

cruise speed of fixed-wing aircraft, was formally viewed. Engineers and developers did not foresee the aircraft as a replacement for either fixed or rotary winged 

aircraft, but one that would serve unique purposes. (NASARelease 86-113) 

62 
AUGUST 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

* Martin Marietta announced plans to enter the private launching business 

with its Titan class rockets. The Titan was the largest of all U.S. expendable 

rockets, and spokesman Jack Boyd said that he hoped to market the launch for 

dual payloads. The corporation had previously submitted a formal request to 

the Air Force for use of its launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

(W Post, Aug 20186; LA Times, Aug 20186) 

August 20: NASA announced that it would cease implementation of work 

package realignment for a period of up to 90 days while two teams composed 

of NASA personnel, Phase B contractors, and representatives from user groups 

and international partners reviewed Space Station design and work package 

assignments and functions. The task force, headed by W. Ray Hook, Manager, 

Space Station Office, would critically examine all aspects of the current Space 

Station baseline configuration in terms of the amount of extravehicular activity required for assembly and maintenance, launch capacity of the Shuttle fleet, 

assembly sequence of the baseline configuration, resultant impact to the utilization of the station, potential impact on international partners, and overall 

technical performance and integrity of the Station. The Executive Technical 

Committee, headed by NASA Associate Administrator Andrew J. Stofan, 

would approve the assumptions, engineering, and technical constraints identified by the task force and oversee their activities. (NASA Release 86-116) 

* NASA announced that Lieutenant General Forrest S. McCartney, on assignment from the Air Force, would take over as Director of the Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida, beginning October 1. McCartney succeeded Richard Smith, 

who retired on July 3 1. The press opined that the move would give the military 

greater control of the space program. McCartney’s past Air Force assignments 

include positions as satellite controller, as project officer in the Titan 3 program, 

in the Directorate of Space at USAF Headquarters, as monitor for satellite communications programs, and director of range engineering at USAF Eastern Test 

Range. (NASA Release 86-117; W Post, Aug 21/86; NY Times, Aug 21/86) 

August 25: For the fourteenth time since August 1985, the launch of a weather 

satellite that the Air Force had hoped to put into orbit was again postponed, this 

time because of a leak of liquid oxygen. Past delays were caused by technical 

problems with the Atlas-E booster rocket and its payload and scheduling conflicts. The satellite was next intended to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force 

Base in California on August 30. (LA Times, Aug 26/86; NY Times, Aug 26/86) 

August 27: A NASA Aries sounding rocket was destroyed by a range safety 

officer at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, 50 seconds after liftoff at 

an altitude of 77,000 feet, when a problem in the vehicle’s guidance system 

was discovered. The rocket carried a 2,300 pound x-ray telescope, designed 

to study distant stellar objects emitting soft x-rays, jointly developed by 

63 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1986 

Dr. Gordon Garmire of Pennsylvania State University and Drs. R. Novick and 

William Hain-Min Ku of Columbia University. (NASA Release 86-119; 

W Post, Aug 28/86) 

The Official Flight Kit and Personal Preference Kits that were recovered 

during the mission 5 1-L (Challenger) salvage operation were returned to the 

institutions, organizations, and families of the crew they were flown for. In 

addition, NASA planned to present to each state and territory one 5 1-L crew 

patch, one U.S. flag, and the respective state or territory flag with the request 

that these items, which were flown, be displayed appropriately in memorial to 

the crew. (NASA Release 86-120; B Sun, Aug 28/86) 

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics announced that 

NASA’s budget should be doubled to ensure that the United States retains its 

lead in space programs. The Institute described the budget as “no growth” and 

said that it would “insure that the U.S. becomes and remains a second-class 

power in space.” The report called attention to advancements made by the 

Soviet Union, Western Europe, and Japan, and also recommended attempting 

to develop a greater student interest in space science. (B Sun, Aug 28/86; 

W Times, Aug 28/86; CSM, Aug 28/86; P Inq, Aug 28/86) 

August 28: The U.S. Marine Corps salvage operation for the 51-L Space 

Shuttle accident, which involved the Freedom Star, the Liberty Star, and the 

Independence vessels, came to an end after a seven-month effort. It was the 

largest ocean recovery operation in history and at its peak involved 22 ships 

and 6,000 personnel, as well as numerous aircraft. The search yielded 45 percent of the Challenger, 50 percent of the external tank and solid rocket boosters, 95 percent of the Spartan-Halley spacecraft, 35 percent of the Tracking 

and Data Relay Satellite, and 90 percent of the Inertial Upper Stage. (NASA 

Release 86-121; C Trib, Aug 29/86; B Sun, Aug 29/86; W Times, Aug 29/86; 

W Post, Aug 31/86) 

The Air Force was forced to destroy an unarmed Minuteman 3 ICBM over 

the Pacific Ocean after an undisclosed problem developed during its 30- 

minute test flight. Since February 1995, ten successful minuteman test 

launches had been done when another rocket had to be destroyed. (Ny Times, 

Aug 29/85; P Inq, Aug 29/86) 

August 29: The UNISTICK control system, used in NASA’s lunar rover vehicle 

during the Apollo moon landings, was utilized as a hand-operated device for 

steering, acceleration, and brake control in vehicles for handicapped drivers. The 

joystick type system was developed by the Johnson Engineering Corporation, 

which had made plans for commercial production. (NASA Release 86-123) 

64 
AUGUST 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

August 31: The Peoples Republic of China announced that it was nearing 

human space flight and was in the process of choosing astronauts for its 

planned Space Shuttle. It had built and was using an extensive training center 

and had solved many of the problems space has to offer, such as maintaining 

life support. No date was given as to when a craft would be built. (W Post, 

Sep 1/86; W Times, Sep 1/86) 

NASA said it had canceled 18 Space Shuttle missions over. a 5-year period 

for Spacelab because of the Challenger accident. The agency further stated 

that it planned to release a list of other scrubbed missions. (W Post, Sep 1/86) 

65 

September 

September 3: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher said that the Nation 

was in need on a fifth orbiter, the funding for which would need to come from 

private financing. The claim by NASA's advisory council that the United 

States was approaching second-class status in space, he acknowledged, was 

"on track". Fletcher made a formal request on September 9, the same day that 

President Ronald Reagan petitioned Congress for the initial $272 million 

needed to begin work on a fourth Shuttle. (USA Today, Sep 4/86; NY Times, 

Sep 9/86; B Sun, Sep 10186) 

Because of the Challenger accident and the absence of any Shuttle activity, NASA was expected to announce layoffs at its Kennedy Space Center in 

Florida, where 800 to 1,000 employees would lose their jobs. For the same 

reason, Martin Marietta said that 700 to 800 of its workers would be laid off, 

by October 3, from its plant that produced Shuttle fuel tanks. (W Post, Sep 

4/86; NY Times, Sep 5/86) 

September 4: Martin Marietta Corporation announced that it had signed an 

agreement to launch a communications satellite for Federal Express from 

Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1989. Because the Titan 3 rocket to be used could 

deliver payloads up to 32,000 pounds, the corporation was searching for 

another customer to join the launch. Reagan administration officials were 

quick to point to the agreement as the birth of the private rocket industry. 

(W Post, Sep 5/86; P Inq, Sep 6/86; LA Times, Sep 5/86) 

September 5: NASA and the American Institute of Aeronautics and 

Astronautics planned a symposium on Quality and Productivity for 

December. The event would focus on strategies for revitalizing organizations 

and provide a forum for discussing issues involved in increasing national 

quality and productivity. The symposium would bring together over 900 key 

executives from industry, government, and academia. (NASA anno) 

* NASA launched its first successful rocket since the Challenger accident, a 

Delta rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Carrying two payloads 

for the Strategic Defense Program, one satellite would attempt to track down 

and intercept the other. McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company, manufacturer of the rocket, viewed the event as a stepping stone that might lead to 

the company's entry into commercial launches. NASA had two more Delta 

rockets in its inventory, one committed to a U.S. Government weather 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1986 

satellite identical to the one lost in May and the other to an Indonesian weather 

satellite. (NASA Release 86-32; WSJ, Sep 8/86, P Inq, Sep 6/86; Ny Times, Sep 

6/86; Sep 8/86; W Post, Sep 6/86; C Trib, Sep 6/86; LA Times, Sep 6/86] 

NASA extended a $1.32 billion contract to Lockheed Space Operations 

Company for processing services at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 

contracted price, however, did not reflect the schedule changes brought on by 

the Challenger accident; the changes would be handled through contract 

amendments. NASA also awarded contracts at $500,000 million each to five 

different firms for the study of designs for second generation solid rocket 

boosters. The companies were required only to submit concepts for a newly 

designed rocket. (LA Times, Sep 6/86; WSJ, Sep 8/86) 

0 NASA cleared a site at Wallops Island, Virginia, for use by Space Services, 

Inc., a new rocket company, to launch its Conestoga rocket. The company 

planned to put cremated remains of 10,000 people on a satellite that was to 

orbit the Earth. (P Znq, Sep 9/86) 

September 8: Boeing Aerospace Company was selected for a one-year contract with two one-year options, valued at $1 million annually, to encourage 

U.S. firms, with private investment, to join with NASA to explore the application and utilization of new and innovative technologies for the mutual benefit of both parties. Issac T. Gillam, NASAAssistant Administrator, Office of 

Commercial Programs, noted, “Use of the microgravity environment of 

spaceflight for research leading to commercial development, production, and 

application of technologies and materials needed on Earth is a key to the 

Nation’s future in the world economic market.” Boeing, familiar with the 

needs and procedures of both the firm and NASA, would provide the technical and business services necessary to help commercial users prepare proposals to NASA and act as an intermediary. (NASA Release 86-127) 

September 9: The first conference on control/structures interaction technology for large, flexible spacecraft, sponsored by NASA and the Department of 

Defense, was scheduled for November 18-20,1986. (NASA anno) 

NASA announced the formation of an operations task force for the Space 

Station, co-chaired by Carl B. Shelly and Dr. Peter T. Lyman. The task force 

was to explore alternative approaches to operating and managing a deployed 

Space Station that had to integrate a diverse set of U.S. and International hardware elements to accommodate a wide range of tended and untended user 

activities and to recommend an effective concept for operating the system. 

(NASA Release 86-129) 

68 
SEPTEMBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS ANI) AERONAUTICS 

September 10: Astronaut Frederick H. Hauck, former Navy Captain, was 

appointed Acting Associate Administrator for External Relations. He was 

commander of STS-5 1A and pilot for STS-7, as well as a member of the support crew for STS-1 and re-entry capsule communicator on the support crew 

for STS-2. In mid-October, Kenneth S. Pedersen would become the Deputy 

Associate Administrator, upon his return from Georgetown University. Since 

1979, he had been Director, International Affairs Division and Assistant 

Associate Administrator for External Affairs. Hauck's duties included policy 

level management and direction and coordination of the Agency's relationships with public and private organizations. (NASA Release 86-130) 

September 11 : COSPAS/SARSAT, an international search and rescue system, 

was scheduled to monitor the around-the-world, non-stop and unrefueled 

flight of the Rutan Voyager airplane. The SARSAT system uses four satellites, 

three from the Soviet Union and one from the United States, to locate downed 

aircraft and ships at sea by picking up their emergency signals. The Rutan 

Voyager aircraft, designed by aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan and piloted by 

his brother Dick and Jeana Yeager, carried a l-1/2-pound prototype beacon 

that could transmit on a 406 Mhz frequency for location determination and a 

121.5 Mhz frequency on which rescue workers could hone in. The signals 

could also be recorded by a satellite if the aircraft was not in immediate range 

of a ground station. Since the initiation of the program in September 1982, 

606 lives had been saved, by September 1986, in 25 1 emergencies worldwide. 

(NASA Release 86-132) 

September 15: Fairchild Space Company proposed a lightweight refueling 

device to be attached to the Space Shuttle's bay that could service satellites 

with the fuel required for keeping them in orbit. The refueling device would 

extend the maximum life span for a satellite about 15 years. Fairchild was in 

a race with Rockwell International and Martin Marietta for the lightest weight 

and best functioning design; submission of the designs to NASA was to be no 

later than November 7. (W Post, Sep 15/86) 

September 16: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, 

California, studied a program that would send a nuclear-powered spacecraft 

hurling into deep space uaveling 225,000 miles per hour. The mission, said 

JPL Director Lew Allen, could be launched by 2005. The craft was expected 

to travel 1,000 astronomical units-1,000 times the distance between the 

Earth and Sun-sending back data for more than 50 years. The Voyagers 1 

and 2 spacecraft were expected to eventually reach deep space, but their slow 

rates of speed, about 36,000 miles per hour, would put any data gathering 

activity too far in the future. (LA Times, Sep 16/86) 

69 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1986 

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a plan for a new orbiter 

that diverted $2.9 billion in defense funds for a reserve to be used by NASA. 

The proposal asked the Navy to reduce production of the F/A18 fighter and 

delay construction of a Trident submarine, the Air Force to delay construction 

of the C17 transport plane, the Army to buy fewer M1 tanks, and defense contractors to shoulder the burden of the cost of tools in its manufacturing. 

Although the plan called for NASA to oversee construction, the Air Force 

would launch and operate the new Shuttle. (W Post, Sep 11/86; Sep 12/86; 

WSJ, Sep 11/86; LA Times, Sep 17/86) 

September 17: NASA had another successful launch; a 25-year-old rebuilt 

Atlas-E rocket, a one-time ICBM, carried a National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration weather satellite, NOAA-10, into orbit from Vandenberg Air 

Force Base in California. NOAA Director Larry Heacock said that the polar 

orbiting satellite would render “half of our satellite program restored to full 

working capability.” (Public Affairs Plan For NOAA-G Launch; C Trib, Sep 

18/86; W Post, Sep 18/86; W Times, Sep 18/86; NY Times, Sep 18/86) 

September 22: Six days after launch and 24 hours after being put into operation, the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking satellite (SARSAT) 

picked up its fist distress signal from 4 downed Canadians in a remote area of 

Ontario. Rescue workers were easily able to locate the downed Cessna, and all 

four Canadians were taken to safety. Canada, France, the United States, and the 

former Soviet Union all shared in the search and rescue program known as 

COSPAS/SARSAT aboard the NOAA-10 satellite. (NASA Release 86-144) 

September 25: NASA announced to Congress plans for modifying the Space 

Station that Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher predicted would be finished 

by 1994. The new design cut the amount of space walks during construction 

in half, increased the amount of living and laboratory space, and kept all 

human aspects concerning the project at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, 

Texas. The Space Station, according to plans for assembly, would need 17 

Space Shuttle flights between 1993 and 1994. 

In the meantime, Congress approved legislation, based on a June 4 recommendation, that would require NASA to seek additional manufacturers for 

solid rocket boosters. The House also voted to authorize spending whatever 

money would be needed to begin construction of a new orbiter in fiscal year 

1987. (P Inq, Sep 26/86; WSJ, Sep 26/86; W Post, Sep 26/86; W Times, Sep 

26/86; NY Times, Sep 26/86) 

September 26: NASA‘s Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, awarded 

a $6.6 million, four-year contract to General Electric for definition, modification, and test of propulsion systems for supersonic short takeoff and vertical 

70 
SEPTEMBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

landing technology development. In support of next century military aircraft, 

design and modification of a GE F-110 engine would focus on a fan air 601- 

lection and valving system by taking compressed air from the engine and redirecting it to vertical lift producing devices. (NASA Release 86-136) 

September 29: Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Space Industries 

Company announced their partnership to build a $250 million, permanently 

orbiting space facility for scientists to perform research. The 14.5-foot-diameter 35-foot-long cylinder would provide a “shirt sleeve” workplace that 

would benefit a host of industries. (P Inq, Sep 30/86) 

September 30: NASA released transcriptions of the pre-launch intercom tape 

of the 51-L, Space Shuttle Challenger, for public consumption. The tape was 

about an hour long, beginning when the crew first entered the craft to two 

minutes and five seconds before lift-off. It contained nothing that was relevant 

to the accident and was not provided to the Presidential Commission in support of the investigation. Because the intercom channel provides a private 

mechanism for exchanging spontaneous comments and recording information 

of a personal nature, NASA had not released these transcripts previously. 

Because of media inquiries, however, the pre-launch tape was transcribed. 

(NASA Release 86-135; 86-137; 51-L Transcript Folder; NY Times, Oct 1/86) 

October 

October I: The European Space Agency announced that it planned to fly four 

missions relating to the Space Station project. The maiden flight for the 

Spaceplane Hermes, said Director General Dr. Reimer Lust, would be launched 

between 1996 and 1998, by a new Ariane 5 rocket. (NY Times, Oct 6/86) 

October 2: NASA announced that Aaron Cohen would be appointed as 

Director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, Texas, and that Jesse 

W. Moore, in response to his own request, would be reassigned from that position to be Special Assistant to the General Manager, NASA Headquarters. 

Since 1962 Cohen had served NASA first in the Apollo Program, then in the 

Space Shuttle Orbiter project as Director of the Engineering and Development 

Directorate, and then as overall Director of Research and Engineering at the 

JSC. Moore came to NASA in 1978 as Deputy Director of the Solar Terrestrial 

Division, Office of Space Science. From there he was appointed Director 

of the Space Flight Division; Director, Earth and Planetary Exploration 

Division; and Deputy Associate Administrator and acting Associate 

Administrator for Space Flight. (NASA Release 86-138; NY Times, Oct 3/86) 

A decision was reached by NASA to test the new booster rocket design for 

the Shuttle fleet by firing the rockets horizontally, and not vertically as the 

Rogers Commission had suggested. A NASA spokesman called this method of 

testing “the most demanding” and the one that “best satisfies the Commission’s 

intent.” (NY Times, Oct 3/86; W Post, Oct 3/86; P Inq, Oct 3/86) 

* The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Successfully tested a new space radioastronomy technique, Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), that combined data from radio telescopes on the ground with data from an antenna on 

NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. The result was a better 

resolution of three quasars (among the most distant objects known and designated 1730-130, 1741-038, and 1510-089) than what ground-based radio 

studies at the same wavelength could provide. It was the first time an orbiting 

satellite had been used as a radio telescope. (NASA Release 86-140; W Post, 

Oct 3/86; LA Times, Oct 3/86) 

October 3: NASA opted to use the deactivated Minuteman facilities at Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, for long-term storage of debris recovered 

from the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. Large concrete covers were to be 

placed over the tubes for a weather tight seal, concluding NASA’s primary 

activities related to the analysis and disposition of recovered hardware. 

(NASA Release 86-141) 

13 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1986 

NASA announced a seven-year schedule of tasks for the Shuttle fleet, and 

that Shuttles would resume flying in early 1988. The schedule reflected 

President Ronald Reagan’s directive to phase out commercial and foreign 

launches, inasmuch as 24 of the 44 contracts had been voided. This left only 

12 percent of the Shuttle missions devoted to commercial and foreign launches. An increase to 41 percent of the payloads, as opposed to 31 percent, would 

be given to Department of Defense missions. The remaining 47 percent of the 

schedule was reserved for the space agency’s own missions, 33 percent for 

scientific studies and other needs, and 14 percent for the Space Station. The 

first year, said NASA, would see only five flights; that number would, it was 

hoped, increase to 16 flights per year by the 1990s. (WSJ, Oct 6/86; W Post, 

Oct 4/86; P Inq, Oct 4/86; B Sun, Oct 4/86; Ny Ernes, Oct 4/86) 

October 7: A House Science and Technology Committee issued a report stating that Congress and the White House shared the blame for the launch schedule pressure that led to the January 28 Challenger accident. The report agreed 

with many of the findings laid out by the Rogers Commission, but differed by 

stating that the accident was not a result of poor communication through 

NASA management, but “poor technical decision-making [by them] over several years.” The report concluded that NASA’s management lacked the expertise needed to operate the Space Shuttle and warned the Agency not to succumb to similar pressure concerning future flights. 

The National Research Council, in an independent study requested by 

Congress, urged NASA on October 9 to limit its Shuttle flights in the 1990s 

to 11 or 13, not the 16 annual flights proposed by NASA Administrator Dr. 

James C. Fletcher. (Investigation of the Challenger Accident: Report of the 

Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives, Oct 29/68; 

W Post, Oct 8/86; Oct 10/86; W Times, Oct 8/86; NY Times, Oct 8/86) 

October 9: NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration signed a memorandum of agreement for a five-year, $24 million research project to study 

wind shear detection and avoidance that would cover technology assessment, 

present position sensor integration, hazard characterization, pilot factors in 

wind shear, and effects of heavy rain. For pilot training, an environment was 

created that could mirror wind shear in a flight situation, thus providing a safe 

simulation for training. 

Microburst is the most dangerous type of wind shear for study. It is a small, 

intense down-draft, often accompanied by heavy rain, which, upon striking the 

ground, spreads out into a circular vortex radiating an all directions and leaving 

little time for reaction by a pilot. Between 1965 and 1985, there were at least 26 

accidents and 3 incidents involving 626 fatalities and 235 injuries where wind 

shear was a direct cause or contributing factor. (NASA Release 86-143) 

14 
OCTOBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

October 12: NASA scientists were searching for ways to clean up the orbiting 

debris left from nuclear powered satellites and wreckage from anti-satellite 

weapons testing. Considering the high speed of orbiting craft, scientists reported that even a fleck of paint could be dangerous, the probable culprit that 

caused a cracked windshield in the seventh U.S. Shuttle flight. Because slightly larger objects could result in catastrophic damage, the planned Space Station 

sacrificed some valuable weight to armor crew quarters. (W Times, Oct 13/86) 

October 13: A panel of scientists and engineers, established at the behest of 

the Rogers Commission, endorsed NASA's redesign of the Shuttle's solid 

rocket, but urged the Agency to increase its test schedule and to consider alternative designs. NASA's efforts had been limited by confiiing any redesign to 

plans that incorporated the rocket segments already ordered before the 

Challenger accident. Because the chosen design could prove inadequate and 

because NASA would begin investigating second generation booster rockets, 

all alternative design changes, the panel concluded, were in need of study. 

(P Znq, Oct 14/86; W Post, Oct 14/86; NY Times, Oct 14/86) 

October 14: NASA announced that it would allow private contracts for 

McDonnell Douglas, builders of the Delta rocket, and General Dynamics 

Corporation, builders of the Atlas Centaur, to market their products. The two 

companies were also granted the use of NASA launch facilities, with the 

agreement to reimburse for any costs incurred. Talks with Transpace, a competitor who had hoped to market the Delta rocket, were ended. (W Post, Oct 

15/86; W Times, Oct 15/86; WSJ, Oct 15/86) 

October 15: A balloon launched from the National Scientific Balloon Facility 

carried a telescope camera 22 miles up to study gamma rays from stars, black 

holes, and other sources. It was considered the highest resolution telescope for 

that purpose. (W Times, Oct 16/86) 

October 16: NASA planned to proceed with construction of a second horizontal test stand for redesign and recertification of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket 

Motor (SRM) at the Morton Thiokol, Inc., Wasatch facility in Utah. The newer 

test stand would more closely simulate the stresses on the SRM during an actual launch and ascent. (NASA Release 86-146; W Times, Oct 17/86) 

Communications Satellite Corporation announced that it had found a way 

to double the life of an orbiting satellite by reducing fuel consumption. 

Satellites in a geosynchronous orbit appear stationary over the Earth, allowing ground stations to communicate. Because of gravitational forces, most 

coming from the moon, satellites tend to drift north or south to a degree where 

communication can be lost. To compensate for the drift, rockets are fired to 

bring a satellite back to its original orbit. Most of a satellite's fuel is spent 

15 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1986 

firing its rockets. The new approach, elements of which are used by the military, allows the satellite to drift and be tilted by its rockets so that the antenna’s “footprint” can be located. Ground stations receiving messages needed to 

undergo some modifications as well, however. (W Post, Oct 17/86; WSJ, Oct 

17/86; NY Times, Oct 17/86) 

October 17: Using data collected between June 1978 and summer 1986, from 

NASA’s costal zone color scanner on board the Nimbus-7 satellite, scientists 

from many international institutions completed a computer-generated color 

image that shows the distribution of microscopic plant life, phytoplankton, in 

surface waters over the North Atlantic Ocean. This image was generated by 

measuring sunlight reflected from the sea surface at five wavelengths to determine ocean color. The most striking feature of the study for understanding 

man’s role in carbon dioxide and other important cycles is the “spring bloom,” 

high phytoplankton concentration extending across the Atlantic and into the 

North Sea. (NASA Release 86-147) 

October 19: NASA released studies done by Donald Heath, a scientist at the 

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, which reveal that the 

Earth’s ozone layer is thinning at a much higher rate than previously thought, 

about three percent between 1978 and 1984. This data was gleaned from a 

satellite orbiting 570 miles above the Earth. (C Trib, Oct 20/86; B Sun, Oct 

20/86) 

October 20: Dr. Dale D. Myers became Deputy Administrator for NASA; he 

succeeded Dr. William R. Graham who left NASA to become Director of the 

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Myers had served as an at-large member to the NASA Advisory 

Council and before that as president and chief operating officer for Jacobs 

Engineering Group. Other achievements include positions as Undersecretary 

for the U.S. Department of Energy, vice-president of Rockwell International, 

president of North American Aircraft, Associate Administrator for Manned 

Space Flight, NASA, and vice-president/program manager for both 

the Apollo Command/Service Module Program and the Space Shuttle Program at Rockwell International. (NASA Release 86-149) 

October 21: Several senior staff changes were made at the Johnson Space 

Center, Houston, Texas, to include: Robert C. Goetz, from Deputy Center 

Director to Technical Assistant to the Center Director; Clifford E. 

Charlesworth, from Director of Space Operations to Special Assistant to the 

Director; Henry 0. Pohl, from Division Chief to Director of Engineering; 

William R. Kelly, from Director of Center Support to Director, 

Administration; Dr. Wayne R. Young was named Deputy Director for 

Administration; Paul J. Weitz, from Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office to 

Technical Assistant to the Center Director. (NASA Release 86-151) 

16 
OCTOBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

* Thomas L. Moser was named Director of the Space Station Program Office 

in Washington, D.C., a position created to conduct a long-range assessment of 

overall NASA capabilities and requirements. Moser began his career with 

NASA in 1963 as a mechanical systems design and analysis engineer, and 

served further as a structural subsystem manager for the Apollo command 

module; project manager for the Shuttle Structures and Mechanics Division; 

head of structural design and manager for the orbiter structure and thermal 

protection system; technical assistant to the director and deputy manager for 

the Orbiter Project Office; Director of Engineering at the Johnson Space 

Center, Houston, Texas; and Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight 

at NASA headquarters. (NASA Release 86-152) 

October 22: The Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, announced 

plans to build, and open by 1989, a $40 million visitor's center near its complex. The center would include a large geodesic dome, two high-tech movie 

theaters, a simulated lunar landscape, a Mission Control Center simulation, 

and an exhibit hall featuring past achievements. (LA Times, Oct 23/86) 

October 23: Joseph E Sutter was appointed chairman of the NASAAerospace 

Safety Advisory Panel, an advisory group to the NASA Administrator. Sutter, 

in 1986, had a 41-year career with the Boeing Company as an aerodynamicist, 

received numerous awards for development of jet-powered airliners, and was 

nominated to receive the Wright Memorial Trophy, to be presented in 

Washington, D.C. He had also been appointed to the Presidentiaal Commission 

on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. (NASA Release 86-154) 

October 27: NASA engineers settled on a design for the Shuttle's new booster rockets, and beginning in early 1987, four full-scale tests were planned. 

John Thomas, manager of the booster design project at Marshall Space Flight 

Center, Huntsville, Alabama, predicted that the tests would run smoothly and 

that Shuttle flight would resume in February 1988. (C Trib, Oct 28/86) 

October 28: In conjunction with its 1986 Small Business Innovation Research 

Program, NASA announced the selection of 172 research proposals from 144 

small firms for Phase I Award Negotiations. Selected from 1628 proposals, 

about one-half of the six-month, fixed-price contract efforts would be eligible 

for Phase 11 follow-on contracts of up to two years. This program was 

designed to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector and 

strengthen small business participation. (NASA Release 86- 155) 

October 30: A study by NASA scientist Linwood B. Callis concluded that the 

recently discovered thinning ozone layer might have been a result of increased 

sunspot activity. Other scientists, however, were hesitant to accept the theory and 

remained steadfast in their belief that manmade chemicals were responsible for 

the depletion. (LA Times, Oct 30/86; C Trib, Oct 31/86) 

77 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1986 

October 31: Parallel contracts for the Advanced Stirling Conversion System 

were awarded by NASA's Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, to 

Mechanical Technical, Inc. and Stirling Technology Company, for $253,385 

and $246,576, respectively. Research was to be funded by the Department of 

Energy, as ground application took precedence over any potential space uses. 

The system would include a free-piston Stirling engine, a liquid-metal heat 

pipe receiver, and a means to provide power to a utility grid. The external 

combustion engine has only two moving parts and works by heating air, or 

another gas, in a cylinder, with a power source at one end, such as focused 

solar energy, which expands the gas and moves the piston. Electric power to 

the utility grid would be transferred from the engine directly, via a linear alternator, or indirectly with hydraulic output to a ground-based fluid pump coupled to a generator. (NASA Release 86-156) 

NASA announced plans for extending operations to five of its ground 

tracking stations located at Ascension Island in the southeast Atlantic, 

Santiago (Chili), Guam, Hawaii, and western Australia. Closing dates for 

these stations was moved up and was conditional on the February 1988 launch 

by the Space Shuttle of a second Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS); 

a TDRS was destroyed during the Challenger accident. Two TDRS's could 

provide 85 percent coverage of an orbiting spacecraft, compared with the 50 

percent coverage provided by ground stations. (NASA Release 86- 157) 

78 
November 

November 3: Several engineers at NASA recently questioned the proposal to 

add 100 bolts to a critical joint between the exhaust nozzle and the solid fuel 

segments in the Shuttle booster rockets. The purpose of the fasteners was to 

prevent further leakage of hot gases. Many engineers, however, saw these 

holes as another way for the gasses to escape because they were to be placed 

between inner and outer O-rings. (B Sun, Nov 3/86; W Times, Nov 3/86) 

November 4: NASA officials announced that James Kingsbury, engineering 

chief at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, would retire at 

the end of November. He was one of the high ranking officials who had 

worked on Challenger’s fatal rocket boosters. (USA Today, Nov 5/86) 

November 5: In a part of NASA’s strategy to return the Space Shuttle safely 

to flight, Dale D. Myers, Deputy Administrator, announced the new management and operations structure for the National Space Transportation System 

(NSTS or Space Shuttle program). The changes were aimed at establishing 

clear lines of communication in the information transfer and decision making 

processes. The management change, which also moved control of the operation to Washington, D.C., was directed by Shuttle Director Richard H. Truly 

and followed recommendations made by the House of Representatives 

Committee on Science and Technology and the Presidential Commission on 

the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. 

As part of the restructuring, Amold D. Aldrich, who joined NASA in 1959, 

was named Director, NSTS, and Richard H. Kohrs and Robert L. Crippen were 

named his deputies. Truly stated that “the formation of this program management organization is one of the most positive steps NASA has taken in the last 

several months to strengthen the Shuttle program and return to flight status.” 

(NASA Release 86-159; W Post, Nov 6/86; IVY Times, Nov 6/86) 

The United States and the European Space Agency were pursuing an agreement aimed at preventing Japan from dominating small satellite launches in 

the same way it had taken over the small car industry. The United States 

hoped to reach assent with the European Space Agency concerning employment schedules, insurance standards and rates, Government subsidies for 

research and development, and the leasing costs of Government-owned 

launch facilities to private fiis. (W Times, Nov 6/86) 

79 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTTCS NOVEMBER 1986 

November 7: NASA's Ames Research Center dedicated the $2.3 million, 21,336- 

square-foot Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, a new research facility designed to 

stimulate basic knowledge of aerodynamic flows. The Laboratory could support 

multiple, simultaneous small-scale wind tunnel research while having full access 

to supercomputer resources. The laboratory would concentrate on vortex flows, 

a major factor in maneuverability and reduced drag by aerodynamic means, for 

applications ranging from developing fuel-efficient aircraft to low-speed 

research on the National Aero-Space Plane. (NASA Release 86-158) 

November 8: United Technologies Corporation proposed implementing the 

launch propulsion and guidance system used in NASA's Space Shuttle for an 

untended space vehicle. The guidance system, they averred, would allow 

untended rockets to deliver much heavier payloads at a cheaper cost than the 

Shuttle. Operation, they claimed, would begin about three years after NASA 

approved the plan. (AP, Nov 8/86) 

November 10: Negotiators concluded an agreement between the United States 

and the Soviet Union for cooperation in scientific exploration, primarily focusing on Mars research, said officials from NASA. The agreement, said other 

sources, made no commitment to a specific joint mission and could be signed 

at the upcoming summit meeting. (LA Times, Nov 11/86; CSM, Nov 11/86) 

NASAAdministrator Dr. James C. Fletcher would likely seek to continue the 

$10 billion budget afforded to fiscal year 1987, a 40 percent increase from fiscal year 1986. FIetcher, according to NASA officials, planned to meet with 

President Rdnald Reagan and argue that the Challenger accident was a result of 

years of underfunding. The increased funds could support the Civil Space 

Technology Initiative for promoting space research and technology; the Global 

Geoscience System, a solar terrestrial satellite new start; High Alpha, a military 

aeronautics research program; and the X-ray Astrophysics Facility, advanced 

technology development. The increased NASA budget resulted from a $2.4 billion decrease in the Department of Defense budget. (AvWk, Nov 10,436) 

Technology developed by NASA for delivering a culture medium into the 

Martian soil was modified and implanted into a diabetic patient to serve as an 

insulin pump. Although other insulin pump implants have been used in the 

past, the space-age pump not only had a longer life, but also was programmable after being implanted. (C Trib, Nov 20/89) 

November I1 : A week-long exercise to upgrade the Search and Rescue Satellite 

System got underway at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 

expanding coverage to the Southern Hemisphere. (LA Times, Nov 12/86) 

80 
NOVEMBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

November 13: Martin Marietta, in competition for a contract to build the 

Space Station, unveiled a full-scale model depicting its plans at Marshall 

Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. The intended crew module has 

eight sleeping quarters, each with a video recorder and a computer giving 

crew members direct access to home and the Space Station’s main computer. 

(C Trib, Nov 14/86) 

0 A $13 million Air Force satellite that had served as a museum piece at the 

Smithsonian Institution was renamed Polar BEAR and lifted into polar orbit 

aboard a Scout rocket, NASA’s smallest booster. The satellite’s mission was to 

photograph the Northern Lights and sample electrical particles and the magnetic field in order to design better communications. (NY Times, Nov 15/86) 

The third stage of a French Ariane rocket that had been launched nine 

months earlier blew up on this date. U.S. officials asked Arianespace to look 

into the matter in order to prevent a recurrence because orbiting debris posed 

an increased danger to other satellites. (W Times, Dec 2/86; W Post, Dec 2/86) 

November 14: President Ronald Reagan vetoed a NASA authorization bill on 

the grounds that the bill’s attempt to create a National Space Council (NSC) 

interfered with Presidential decision-making power. Establishment of the 

NSC, he said, would duplicate other interagencies while creating “unacceptable interference with my discretion and flexibility.” The move did not affect 

NASA’s budget. (Memorandum Withholding Approval of H.R. 5495, Nov 

14/86; P Inq, Nov 15/86; NY Times, Nov 15/86) 

November 18: For the first time since the Challenger accident, astronauts 

boarded a Space Shuttle; they took part in a mock countdown at Cape 

Canaveral, Florida, on the Atlantis. Computers halted the drill 25 seconds 

short of simulated engine firing, but officials deemed the test successful. 

(W Post, Nov 19/86; NY Times, Nov 19/86) 

November 21: Leaders from the 11-member-nation European Space Agency 

(ESA) met with NASA officials to discuss their $2 billion contribution to the 

Space Station project and to seek a greater management role and benefits from 

it. One European official noted, “NASA must realize that ESA is a mature 

space agency that can manage manned space flight alone if necessary.” 

Although the statement appeared to be a threat to withdraw, Richard Barnes, 

NASA Director of International Affairs, saw no intent on the part of Europe 

to pull out. Leaders from both sides, however, agreed to a joint statement saying, “While recognizing that differences currently exist, Professor Luest and 

Dr. Fletcher jointly concluded that these differences are not irreconcilable.” 

(Ny Times, Nov 22/86; AvWk, Nov 24/86) 

81 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1986 

November 24: The results of a study conducted by Geologists Dr. Matthew 

Golombek and Dr. Laurie Brown suggested that the northwest Mojave Desert 

had shifted about 25 degrees clockwise because of periodic, violent earthquakes some 16 to 20 million years ago. Golombek reported that “results of 

magnetic studies of volcanic rocks taken from 19 sites suggested that the 

movement was caused by shear (the Earth’s tectonic plates sliding past or over 

one another) from the Pacific Plate sliding along the fault past the North 

American Plate.” Magnetic minerals had once lined up parallel with the 

Earth’s magnetic field to the North, but the study found minerals now pointing 25 degrees to the east, and it was determined that tectonic movement had 

rotated the rocks. (NASA Release 86-160; LA Times, Nov 30/86) 

November 26: NASA selected the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), a launch vehicle that fits in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle, to carry three probes for 

planetary missions. Despite earlier plans for alternative launch vehicles following cancellation of the ShuttleKentaur Upper Stage and the Challenger 

accident, NASA felt an urgent need to reestablish its planetary program. The 

probes scheduled for launch in 1989 and 1990 included the Galileo, a joint 

mission with Germany that would circle Jupiter and measure electromagnetic 

fields and plasma particles; the Magellan, which would orbit and map Venus 

using radar; and the Ulysses, a joint mission with the European Space Agency 

designed to orbit and study the poles of the sun. These three were the first missions for orbit around bodies other than Earth that would employ the IUS. 

The IUS boosters were manufactured by Boeing to launch three scientific missions. They were to have launched the General Dynamics hydrogen-fueled 

Centaur rockets, but the highly volatile boosters, thought possibly unsafe for 

human space flight, were grounded after the Challenger accident. Because of its 

less powerful rocket, the Galileo needed to slingshot Venus in order to reach 

Jupiter, as opposed to flying directly to the planet. The added time for the mission 

was expected to run $50 million. (NASA Release 86-161; NY Times, Nov 27/86) 

November 28: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, 

awarded an $8.9 million five-year contract to Calspan Corporation for operation of the Marshall Problem Assessment Center and the Safety Issue 

Assessment Center. Under the contract, Calspan would receive problem 

reports and safety issues from the contractors of Marshall’s numerous projects, check the accuracy and completeness of the reports, track the closeout 

of proposed corrective actions, perform trend analysis and special study into 

causes of problems and safety issues, and appraise Marshall management on 

a daily basis. (NASA Release 86-163) 

* Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, announced four key 

appointments in the Science and Engineering Directorate, in an effort to meet 

82 
NOVEMBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the goal of getting the Space Shuttle back to full operation. Dr. Judson A. 

Lovingood was named Associate Director for Propulsion Systems, with 

responsibility for propulsion projects for the Space Shuttle Main Engine, 

Solid Rocket Booster, External Tank, Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle and upper 

stages. E. Ray Tanner was named Associate Director for Space Systems, with 

responsibility for assuring engineering adequacy of the Space Station, Hubble 

Space Telescope, Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility, and Marshall 

Center-assigned payloads and Spacelab payload integration. John P. 

McCartney was named Director, Propulsion Laboratory to oversee research 

and development, engineering, and technical direction of propulsion systems 

design, and analysis related to launch and space vehicles. Dr. George E 

McDonough was named Director, Structures and Dynamics Laboratory with 

responsibility for research and development in structural design and analysis 

of launch and space vehicles, analysis dynamics behavior, specification of 

dynamics-related design criteria, and analysis of atmospheric and environmental processes. (NASA Release 86-164) 

A Tracking and Data Relay Satellite lost transmitting capability on an Sband single-access antenna, SA-1, which provided voice and data links to low 

Earth-orbiting satellites, including the Shuttle. Services were switched to the 

remaining antenna, SA-2, and little or no data loss to customers occurred. 

(NASA Release 86-175) 

November 30: Astronaut Joe H. Engle retired from the United States Air Force 

as a colonel and resigned from NASA. After coming to NASA in 1966, he 

commanded Columbia and Discovery flights and was named Deputy 

Associate Administrator, in March 1982, for the Office of Space Flight. 

(NASA Release 86- 166; W Post, Dec 3/86) 

83 

December 

December 2: The Soviet Union recently had their version of the Space Shuttle 

on a launch pad for tests. Photos of the incident were taken by a U.S. satellite, 

and Government officials predicted that the country would begin human space 

flight in 1988. (B Sun, Dec 2/86; W Post, Dec 2/86) 

Western European officials announced that the grounded Ariane rocket would 

not be ready to fly in February as was earlier hoped, adding to the strains fed by 

the West’s inability to launch. Modifications were recently approved for the rocket’s faulty third stage; no new flight date was given. (NY Times, Dec 3/86) 

December 3: McDonnell Douglas Astronautics was selected for negotiations 

leading to the award of a three-year contract, with another three-year option, 

and a six-year price tag of $327 million, to perform Payload Ground Operations 

for Kennedy Space Center activities, both in Florida and elsewhere inside and 

outside the United States. The work was being done by five different contractors, and NASA hoped to obtain a single, long-term contract. Responsibilities 

included payload/cargo processing and integration, Spacelab operations and 

integration, support to experimental integration activities, payload/cargo deintegration, NASANandenberg payload operations, payload related facilities, 

systems and ground equipment operations, maintenance and sustaining engineering, customer accommodation and launch-site support functions, and payload related support operations and services. (NASA Release 86-167) 

NASA participated in a study of controlled California forest fires in the San 

Gabriel mountains. The data focused on the global effects of fire on atmospheric quality, air and water pollution, erosion, soil depletion, and species 

extinction, as well as how a fire could be handled more effectively. Scientists 

hoped to learn more about the effects of fire on different biogenic gases, such 

as nitrogen oxide and methane hydrocarbons, and how changes in these gases 

affect the atmosphere, the climate, and the biosphere. For its aerial study, 

NASA flew a U-2 aircraft at 60,000 feet. A similar study on the effects of a 

nuclear winter was scheduled. (NASA Release 86-134; W Post, Dec 4/86) 

December 4: Remote sensing via satellite, combined with a computer technology that could provide a simulation of the properties and processes in the 

soil, related Dr. Elissa Levine, would allow short-term prediction of changes 

that occur in soils over a period of time and the ability of the soil to support 

different types of plant life. Advancing her theory at an annual meeting in 

New Orleans, Levine noted, “We can obtain critical environmental data which 

85 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1986 

will help us understand how changes brought about by both nature and 

humankind will affect the total ecosystem over time.” (NASARelease 86-170) 

The sixth FLTSATCOM communications satellite, F-7, was launched by an 

Atlas-Centaur rocket fired from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Department of 

Defense added this satellite to their communications network among naval 

aircraft, ships, submarines, ground stations, Strategic Air Command elements, 

and Presidential command networks. With this addition, the network could 

provide 23 high frequency communication channels and one super high frequency channel with an experimental Extra High Frequency package. The 

rocket had been grounded since May because of previous NASA rocket failures, beginning in January with the Challenger explosion, and had experienced eight delays before becoming NASA’s third successful major flight of 

the year. (NASA Release 86- 165; W Post, Dec 5/86) 

A joint venture of Hughes Aircraft and RCA, the Earth Observation Satellite 

Company said that the Reagan administration was withholding funds for the 

Landsat program it managed. The $65 million not released was earmarked for 

new satellites, receiving stations, and support operations. The Landsat satellite 

was launched in 1972 as a data gathering operation for the government and 

public, but its monopoly for providing detailed services to companies and private individuals was broken by the French satellite, SPOT. Elimination of the 

program, warned a representative from the company, “would destroy the first 

U.S. attempt to commercialize space.” (W Post, Dec 5/86) 

December 7: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher, responding to negotiations with the White House budget office earlier in the week, warned that 

the planned $8 billion Space Station and a new replacement Shuttle were in 

jeopardy of not meeting scheduled completions. He stated that the 35 percent 

increased budget for fiscal year 1987 was earmarked only for costs resulting 

from the Challenger crash and could not be benchmarked for future budgets. 

The strict budget, he added, could afford no new projects. 

In a separate statement, Fletcher agreed to remove himself from any future 

Shuttle booster rocket contracts. Senators called for an investigation of the 

contract awarded to Morton Thiokol in 1973, a decision in which Fletcher had 

considerable influence. (W Times, Dec 8/86; NY Times, Dec 8/86) 

December 8: NASA looked ahead to the launching of four new generation 

space observatories that promised a new era for astronomy. The Gamma Ray 

Observatory, providing a greater wavelength range, could determine if arriving gamma radiation originated in quasars and pulsars or from other sources. 

The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility would study highly energetic 

environments found in nearly every object in the universe, including stars, 

86 
DECEMBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

planets, neutron stars, black holes, quasars, and cores of active galaxies. The 

Space Infrared Telescope Facility could span the infrared part of the spectrum 

with a 1000-fold increase in sensitivity, enabling it to search for planets 

around stars. The Hubble Space Telescope, penetrating the universe in visible 

and ultraviolet light, was predicted to expand the observable universe by hundreds of times, see objects with ten times the clarity of ground observatories, 

and detect objects 1,000 times dimmer than those observed by previous spacecraft. (NASA Release 86-168) 

- NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, developed an airborne sensing device, an infrared radiometer, for measuring ocean surface temperatures and charting temperature and wind maps. Tested over southern 

California’s ocean aboard the Goodyear blimp Columbia, the new instrument 

was unique in that it could distinguish water temperature from the temperature 

of the air immediately above it. Researchers expected that the device could greatly enhance satellite capability to monitor ocean weather. (NASARelease 86-169) 

0 Because the ocean surface mirrors the ocean floor as gravity pulls water 

down into depressions and forces it up around the mountains (looking north 

from Puerto Rico, for example, the ocean surface drops nearly 60 feet), scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, employed 

satellites to map the ocean’s floor. Data taken from altimeters on the 

Geodynamic Experimental Ocean Satellite and the Sea Satellite were used to 

generate a computer image of the ocean surface, reflecting the Earth’s structure underneath the water. The data, said Dr. James Marsh, also increased 

knowledge of circulation and current systems. (NASA Release 86-172) 

December 9: Forty-nine research proposals from 45 small, high technology 

U.S. firms, totaling about $23 million, were selected for immediate negotiation of Phase I1 contract awards. These proposals were chosen from 100 

submitted to the Small Business Innovation Research program, a program 

designed to strengthen the role of small business participation in Federal 

research and development and contribute to the growth and strength of the 

private sector. (NASA Release 86-174) 

NASA signed an agreement with the Miesota Mining and Manufacturing 

Company (3M) allowing the company to fly 62 materials processing experiments aboard future Shuttle flights. The microgravity experiments in organic 

and polymer science were to be conducted on a space-available basis, and 

NASA would have use of 3M’s experiment equipment for scientific investigations. (UPI, Dec 9/86) 

December 12: NASA scientists halted design of additional shielding for two 

nuclear powered satellites. The shield, they ascertained, would help only dur81 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1986 

ing the first two minutes of launch and would actually become a detriment 

after that. The Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel would not give 

launch approval for the scientific missions until 1999, but NASA officials saw 

a good chance for approval of launching the radioisotope thermoelectric generator powered satellites from the Space Shuttle. (AvWk, Dec 15/86) 

December 16: NASA's Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility in Edwards, 

California, modified an F- 15 jet engine to increase its thrust by 10 percent and 

fuel savings by 5 to 7 percent. The modification grew out of NASA's Highly 

Integrated Digital Electronic Control program (HIDEC), which lessened 

unneeded engine stall margins (the amount that engine operating pressure 

must be reduced to avoid staIl). The typical 25 percent stall margin allows for 

a contingency of any of the worst flight conditions and robs 15 percent of an 

engine's usable power. The HIDEC created engine and flight control systems 

that communicate with each other; thus the engine adjusts itself according to 

actual flight, not assumed constants. (NASA Release 86-176) 

General Samuel Phillips presented the Report of the NASA Management 

Study Group, for which he was Project Director, to Administrator Dr. James C. 

Fletcher. The report conducted an assessment of NASA practices in long-range 

and strategic planning, managing NASA programs, human resources and procurement, maintaining budget, financial and program control, and dealing with 

external affairs. The report went on to assess the effectiveness of NASA's organization and to make recommendations to improve agency practices and organization. (Report of the NASA Management Study Group, Dec 16/86) 

December 18: Senator Albert Gore made public his order for a congressional 

investigation into whether NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher had 

violated conflict-of-interest rules when he awarded Morton Thiokol the 

Shuttle booster contract in 1973. Dr. Fletcher denied the charges, but said he 

would seriously consider removing himself from future booster rocket contract decisions. (NY Times, Dec 19/86) 

December 19: The Pentagon, which had previously voiced objection to the 

Space Station, asked for a postponement in negotiations between NASA and 

foreign participants because the Department of Defense (DoD) hoped to use 

the orbiting laboratory for some of its Strategic Defense Initiative experiments. The DoD envisioned only a very limited need for the facility, but other 

countries would no doubt vehemently object because the project was intended only for peaceful purposes. (WSJ, Dec 22/86; Ny Times, Dec 20/86) 

December 23: Analysis conducted by the Office of Space Station in the areas 

of Space Station management, use of expendable launch vehicles, and cost 

impacts resulting from design changes was accepted by NASA. Changes 

88 
DECEMBER 1986 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

included replacing the nodes and tunnels that connected pressurized modules 

with larger resource nodes, revising the assembly sequence to provide early 

scientific return and reduce extravehicular activity, achieving an initial power 

level of 37.5 kilowatts, achieving permanent human capability, and placing 

fixed servicing capabilities closer to the modules. Realignment of certain 

work package responsibilities was also recommended; the total cost increase 

would be around $49 million. (NASA Release 86-180; 86-181) 

December 27: NASA ruled out a recommendation to supplement its Shuttle 

flights with untended launch vehicles for building the Space Station. The 

combination would accelerate assembly by up to nine months, said Space 

Station manager John Dunning, but the time savings would be offset by a 10 

to 40 percent increase in potentially dangerous space walks. Using expendable launch vehicles, he went on, would also require an orbital maneuvering 

rocket to keep the parts in place. (AJY Times, Dec 28/86) 

December 31: Astronaut Paul J. Weitz was named deputy director of the 

Johnson Space Center (JCS), Houston, Texas. Past achievements include participation in the first astronaut visit to the Skylab, serving as commander of 

the sixth Space Shuttle mission, and serving as technical assistant to the JSC 

Director. (NASA Release 86-183) 

NASA extended a one-year, $129.3 million contract to EG&G Florida, Inc. 

for base operation services, bringing the total to $565.3 million. The extension 

called for EG&G to provide institutional and technical support services at the 

Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. (NASA Release 86-184) 

The Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, selected Computer 

Sciences Corporation for negotiations leading to a 10-year, $99 million contract to operate its computer facility. The company would provide the personnel, equipment, and supplies necessary to carry out duties at the Slidell 

Computer Complex. (NASA Release 86- 185) 

During 1986: The Space Shuttle Challenger accident and the subsequent 

investigation and recovery activities headed the list of prominent events for 

NASA. Some major accomplishments, however, are worthy of note: Voyager 

2 encountered the planet Uranus in January, continued with its journey and 

was expected to reach Neptune by 1989. A new baseline configuration was 

drafted for the Space Station-a major milestone for development. NASA and 

the Department of Defense initiated a joint Aero-Space Plane research program concerning vehicles capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, singlestage operations to orbital speeds, and sustained hypersonic cruise within the 

atmosphere using air breathing propulsion. NASA signed an agreement with 

the 3M Company for conducting 62 materials processing experiments aboard 

89 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1986 

the Space Shuttle, and Dr. James C. Fletcher, for the second time, became 

Administrator of NASA. 

Two books concerning NASA endeavors were published in 1986. Joseph 

P. Allen’s Entering Space deals with an astronaut’s journey into the last frontier, and William E. Burrows’ Deep Black looks into space espionage and 

national security. (NASA Release 86- 177) 

90 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1987 

January 

January 5: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Director Lew Allen announced 

that Richard P. Laeser had been appointed to manage JPL‘s new support office 

in Washington, D.C., for NASA’s Space Station Program. Laesar, who until 

his new appointment had been the manager of the Voyager mission to outer 

planets, would also serve as Director of the Office of Requisitions and 

Assessments for the Space Station. 

Norman R. Haynes was appointed the new manager of the Voyager mission. 

He formerly was manager of JPL‘s Systems Division. (Star-News, Jan 5/87) 

January 6: NASA announced that the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) 

satellite would be launched on a Delta expendable launch vehicle in early 

1989 rather than on the Space Shuttle in July 1988, as originally planned. The 

change in schedule was caused by the backlog of science payloads awaiting 

launch on the Space Shuttle as a result of the Challenger accident. Designed 

to study the “Big Bang”, COBE would be launched into a 560-statute-mile, 

sun-synchronous orbit from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. 

Because of the switch from the Shuttle to Delta, COBE would be reduced in 

weight from 10,500 pounds to 5,000 pounds and in size from 15 feet to 8 feet 

in diameter. Scaling down the spacecraft would also require that COBE be 

redesigned. (NASA Release 87-1) 

President Ronald Reagan’s proposed fiscal year 1987 budget called for a 

12.7 percent increase in NASA funding. The intent of the increase in the 

NASA budget was to resume the Space Shuttle flights, which had been suspended after the Challenger disaster. The President’s budget also called for 

nearly $767 million for work on the crew-tended Space Shuttle. No funds 

were included for the untended rockets program, despite recommendations by 

several expert panels that NASA was overdependent on the Space Shuttle. 

(NY Times, Jan 6/87) 

January 9: NASA named the five astronauts selected as the crew of the first 

U.S. space flight since the Challenger accident. Frederick H. Hauck was 

selected to command the crew, which would include Air Force Colonel 

Richard 0. Covey, the pilot; and mission specialists John M. Lounge, George 

D. Nelson, and Marine Major David C. Hilmers. For the first time, the crew 

would be astronauts who had flown on Shuttle missions. Frederick H. Hauck, 

named acting Associate Administrator of NASA Headquarters Ofice of 

93 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1987 

External Affairs in August 1986, led the successful 1984 Shuttle recovery 

mission that returned two broken communications satellites to Earth. 

(Star-News, Jan 10/87) 

January 12: Representative Edward Boland (Democrat-Massachusetts) and 

Senator Jake Gam (Republican-Utah), who hold leadership positions on 

House and Senate appropriations panels with NASA oversight, recommended 

that NASA change the Space Shuttle program launch schedule. The two members of Congress asked NASA to move the ESA Ulysses mission, scheduled 

for launch sometime in 1989-90, to a Titan 4 launch in 1991. This change 

would permit U.S. planetary satellites Galileo, Magellan, and the Mars 

Observer to be launched in the 1989-90 period. NASA officials agreed to give 

serious consideration to the change, but expressed fear that another delay in 

the Ulysses launch, originally scheduled for 1983, might damage NASA's 

relationship with the ESA. (AvWk, Jan 12/87) 

January 14: A National Research Council panel, set up to monitor the Shuttle 

redesign, informed Administrator James C. Fletcher that NASA would not be 

able to make safety changes in time to meet the February 1988 target date for 

the resumption of Shuttle flights. The panel, headed by retired Air Force 

General Alton D. Slay, praised NASA's top-to-bottom review of hundreds of 

items and procedures that could cause another disaster. It added, however, that 

several analyses of possible equipment failure and of items considered critical to safety would not be completed until the summer of 1987. The panel recommended that NASA rank the most critical safety items, based on the likelihood of their failure, and that it closely link the engineering changes and the 

hazard analyses. (NY Times, Jan 15/87; W Post, Jan 16/87; UPI, Jan 16/87) 

January 15: Dr. Lew Allen, Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

(JPL), announced that construction of JPL's new Microdevices Laboratory 

would start January 21, 1987. On the same day, NASA Administrator Dr. 

James C. Fletcher and Dr. Marvin Goldberger, President of the California 

Institute of Technology, signed a memorandum of understanding for a Center 

for Space Microelectronics Technology to be established at JPL. The Center 

would be the successor to the Advanced Microelectronics Program established at JPL in 1983 and headed by Dr. Carl Kukkonen. The Center for Space 

Microelectronics Technology will be governed by a Board of Governors 

chaired by Dr. Lew Allen. Dr. Carl Kukkonen was named Center Director. 

(NASA Release 87-3; Star-News, Jan 20187; The Foothill Leader, Jan 21/87) 

January 16: NASA announced plans to launch two around-the-world balloon 

flights to examine newly discovered high energy x-ray microflares and flare 

plasmas being emitted by the Sun. The helium-filled, 28 rnillion-cubic-footvolume balloons are expected to be launched from Alice Springs, Australia, 

94 
JANUARY 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

during January and February 1987. Taller than the Washington Monument, 

and carrying payloads weighing 3,000 pounds, the balloons are expected to 

reach an altitude of 130,000 feet. They would circle the Earth in 12 to 18 days 

and return to their launch site. (NASA Release 87-4) 

January 20: NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Flight, Rear Admiral 

Richard H. Truly, announced that more than 400 modifications were planned 

for the Space Shuttle program. Speaking at a news conference called to discuss NASA’s recovery from the effects of the Challenger accident, which 

killed all seven Shuttle crew members, Truly emphasized the Agency’s commitment to “a true enhancement to safety.” Included among the safety modifications listed were better brakes, more efficient engines, and eventually an 

escape system for the Shuttle crew. However, it was pointed out that the 

escape system probably would not be ready for the next planned Shuttle flight 

in February 1988. (UPI, Jan 20187; LA Times, Jan 21/87; NY Times, Jan 21/87; 

P Znq, Jan 21/87; W Post, Jan 21/87) 

January 21: The Air Force announced that it would purchase 20 rockets from the 

McDonnell Douglas Corporation for launching navigational satellites. Modeled 

on the existing rockets used by NASA, the Delta 2 medium rocket boosters 

would also be used commercially for launching communications satellites. (UPI, 

Jan 21/87; USA Today, Jan 22/87; NY Times, Jan 22/87; W Post, 22/87) 

January 22: A number of senators expressed reservations that Morton Thiokol, 

Inc. remained the sole maker of NASA’s Shuttle booster rocket. Members of the 

Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space complained during the 

hearing that, despite the fact that Congress had instructed NASA to employ other 

industries to redesign Shuttle rockets, the Agency appeared locked into using 

rockets designed by Morton Thiokol, Inc. (M Times, Jan 23/87; WSJ, Jan 23/87) 

January 28: The first anniversary of the Challenger disaster was remembered 

by the Nation with a series of memorial services and ceremonies. Speaking at 

a Challenger accident commemoration, NASA Administrator Dr. James C. 

Fletcher stated that the terrible tragedy only reaffirmed NASA’s “commitment 

to move the Nation forward into a new era of space flight, one more stable, 

more reliable and safer than before.” The Challenger crew, he added, “would 

be pleased to know that the NASA family and the Nation are carrying on in 

that spirit.” President Ronald Reagan, in a satellite message to NASA Centers, 

also saluted the seven “magnificent” Challenger astronauts. (NY Times, Jan 

29/87; W Post, Jan 29/87; W Times, Jan 29/87) 

January 29: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and General Kabbaj, 

the Inspector of the Royal Moroccan Air Force, signed an agreement permitting the United States the use of Morocco’s Ben Guerir Air Force Base for 

95 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAU’IlCS JANUARY 1987 

emergency landing of the Space Shuttle. The facility would be ready for such 

an emergency in February 1988. (NASA Release 87-6) 

NASA announced that its numerical aerodynamic simulation (NAS) computer system would become operational in early March. Considered the most 

powerful computing system in the world, the NAS would help ensure continued national preeminence in aeronautical research. According to NASA, the 

research programs in which NAS would play a crucial role include work on 

the National Aero-Space Plane Program and a joint Department of 

DefensemASA program in aerospace vehicle technologies and capabilities, 

including horizontal takeoff and landing. Development of new technology 

and validation program in this field might make possible a wide variety of 

operational aerospace vehicles, ranging from space launch vehicles to longrange air defense interceptors and hypersonic transports. 

NASA emphasized that NAS is not a set of computer hardware, but an 

evolving capability. It is to be an array of 250 off-site scientists and engineers 

at 27 locations, accessing the system via satellite or high speed terrestrial 

lines. It is to be driven by the Cray 2 supercomputer, which has an enormous 

256-million-word internal memory, 16 times larger than those of previous 

computers. (NASA Release 87-7) 

* China signed a contract with Teresat, Inc. of New York to launch its first 

satellite for an American fm. The contract called for a Teresat Westar-VIS 

satellite to be launched into orbit aboard a Chinese-made rocket in the first 

half of 1988. (LA Times, Jan 29/87). 

During January: The American journal Aviation Week & Space Technology 

reported two serious Soviet setbacks in space that were not acknowledged by 

Soviet authorities. The magazine claimed that on January 29 the Soviets 

deliberately destroyed a Cosmos 1,8 13 military reconnaissance satellite they 

had launched on January 15, 1987. When the satellite malfunctioned upon 

reentry, its self-destruction system was activated to prevent it from striking a 

populated area or from falling into western hands. 

Also according to this source, a Soviet SL- 12 Proton booster rocket failed 

during launching on January 30, 1987. Its fourth and uppermost stage failed 

to ignite and the debris from the rocket and communications satellite it carried fell out of orbit a day later. (C Trib, Feb 7/87; NY Times, Feb 7/87) 

96 
February 

February 3: NASA issued a request for proposal to U.S. industry for a program 

support contractor to assist the NASA Space Station Program Office, in 

Washington, D.C., with development of the Space Station. (NASA Release 87-8) 

NASA officials declared that Space Station deployment, scheduled for 1994, 

could be delayed up to two years or the Station could be scaled down. NASA 

Administrator James C. Fletcher said that the cost of the Space Station, once 

estimated at $8 billion, was now estimated at between $13 and $14.5 billion. 

Fletcher, who said that the United States was lagging behind the Soviet Union 

in human space flight, predicted that a U.S. crew-tended Space Station would 

help the country catch up to the Soviets. Testifying before the Senate Commerce 

Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, Dr. Fletcher stressed that the 

Space Station program retained high priority with the Reagan administration. 

(LA Times, Feb 4/87; USA Today, Feb 4/87; NY Times, Feb 518) 

February 4: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) selected the Bendix 

Field Engineering Corporation, in Columbia, Maryland, for negotiations on a 

contract for continuation of maintenance and operations of the NASA Deep 

Space Network (DSN). The DSN provides tracking and data acquisition for 

planetary space flight missions and for NASA's crew-tended and untended 

space programs. The five-year contract, with an option €or an additional five 

years, was expected to begin April 2, 1987. (NASA Release 87-9) 

February 5: Jesse W. Moore resigned from NASA, effective February 8, 

1987. Moore joined NASA in 1966. Among the varied positions he held 

included Deputy Director of the Solar Terrestrial Division, Office of Space 

Science (1978-1979); Director of Space Flight Division (1979-1981); 

Director of the Earth and Planetary Exploration Division (1981-1983); Acting 

Associate Administrator of Space Flight (April 1984-August 1984); and 

Associate Administrator of Space Flight (August 1984-January 1986). He 

was named Director of the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas, in 

January 1986, and in October 1986 he moved to Headquarters as a Special 

Assistant to the Associate Administrator for Policy and Planning. (NASA 

Release 87-10; NY Times, Feb 6/87; W Post, Feb 6/87) 

NASA announced the realignment of external communications functions 

within the Office of External Relations and the new Office of 

Communications. Both would be headed by an associate administrator. The 

91 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1987 

realignment was in response to a NASA management study conducted by 

General Samuel C. Phillips. (NASA Release 87-1 1) 

February 6: Two Soviet astronauts were launched aboard the new space vehicle, Soyuz TM-2, toward a rendezvous with the orbiting Mir space station. 

This was the fist crew-tended Soviet space launch since July 1986 and only 

the second launch in the Russian human space program to be shown live on 

Soviet television. Western experts speculated that the two astronauts would 

aim for a long duration flight of at least six months. Mission commander Yuri 

Romanenko and flight engineer Alexander Laveikin were expected to begin 

link up operations with the Mir space station on February 7. (AT Times, Feb 

6/87; W Post, Feb 6/87; P Inq, Feb 6/87; C Trib, Feb 7/87) 

February 8: The Christian Science Monitor cited Soviet news agency TASS 

as reporting that the two Soviet cosmonauts aboard Soyuz TM-2 had successfully linked up with the Soviet space station Mir. (CSM, Feb 9/87) 

February 11 : The Air Force, after two consecutive failures in 18 months, successfully launched a Titan 3B rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 

California. The launch placed a classified payload into a polar orbit around the 

Earth. Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge hailed the launch as “the first 

major step” in the recovery of the American space program after the 

Challenger accident in January 1986. (LA Times, Feb 13/87; Ny Times, Feb 

13/87; W Post, Feb 13/87) 

February 12: The United States and potential foreign partners agreed to 

resume negotiations aimed at building a Space Station in the 1990s. After a 

two-day meeting between representatives from the United States, Canada, 

Japan, and the 11-nation European Space Agency, agreement was reached that 

the project would remain a civilian endeavor. NASA negotiators emphasized, 

however, that they saw no conflict between the “peaceful purposes” of Space 

Station and potential use by the Pentagon for “nonaggressive” activities. 

(M Times, Feb 13/87; USA Today, Feb 13/87) 

February 17: NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA) announced that a Geostationary Operational 

Environmental Satellite (GOES-H) would be launched sometime after 

February 23,1987. The satellite would provide cloud cover images and atmospheric temperature profiles, collect space environment data, and conduct an 

experiment for detecting emergency distress signals on the ground from a 

geosynchronous orbit. (NASA Release 87- 14) 

February 19: Astronomer Carl Sagan told the Senate Commerce committee 

that a U.S. Mars mission would be the best cure for USA’s “sagging” space 

98 
FEBRUARY 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

program. According to Sagan, some 20,000 U.S. scientists have written to 

Congress urging a Mars mission. He recommended that NASA consider a 

possible joint mission with the Soviet Union, which had stepped up efforts to 

land on Mars. (NY Times, Feb 20187; USA Today, Feb 20187) 

February 20: Robert Love11 and Fred Flatow, NASA search and rescue mission managers, were awarded the Yuri Gagarin medal by a space delegation 

from the Soviet Union. The awards were in recognition of their outstanding 

contribution to COSPAS/SARSAT, an international search and rescue program that uses satellites to locate people in distress. (NASA Release 87-17) 

February 24: Dr. Leonard A. Fisk, Vice President for Research and Financial 

Affairs at the University of New Hampshire, was named NASA Associate 

Administrator for Space Science and Applications, effective April 6, 1987. He 

replaced Dr. Burton I. Edelson. (NASA Release 87- 18) 

NASA announced that Morton Thiokol, Inc., the builder of the booster 

rocket that caused the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, voluntarily accepted a $10 million reduction in fees and agreed to take no profit from $409 million worth of work required to fix future rockets. The company also agreed to 

replace the rockets lost in the accident. The agreement between Thiokol and 

NASA negated any lawsuits growing out of the January 28, 1986, accident 

that destroyed the Shuttle and killed the crew of seven. (C Trib, Feb 25/87; 

W Post, Feb 25/87; B Sun, Feb 25/87; WSJ, Feb 25/87) 

February 25: A Soviet space vehicle, Progress-27, launched in January 1987 

to bring supplies to the Mir space station, disintegrated as it reentered the 

Earth’s upper atmosphere. (P Znq, Feb 27/87) 

February 26: NASA launched a GOES-7 weather satellite aboard a Delta 

rocket. The satellite was first placed into an elliptical orbit. Ground command 

was expected to arrest the satellite in a stationary orbit 22,400 miles above the 

Atlantic Ocean by firing a booster rocket. GOES-7 joined the already orbiting 

GOES-6 weather satellite to provide weather information and patterns in an 

area stretching from the eastern Atlantic to the mid-Pacific Ocean. (B Sun, Feb 

27/87; P Inq, Feb 27/87; W Times, Feb 27/87) 

February 27: NASA reported that an 18-inch telescope, aboard a nine-yearold orbiting International Ultraviolet Explorer (NE) satellite, was monitoring 

the intense emissions of ultraviolet radiation from recently discovered supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbor galaxy of our own Milky 

Way. (NASA Release 87-20) 

99 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1987 

During February: NASA's latest space technology led to new discoveries 

about ancient civilizations. Using Earth Observation Satellite and Earth 

Resources Observation Systems imagery and the Landsat 5 satellite, which has 

an advanced multispectral sensor Thematic Mapper, NASA's Ames Research 

Center scientists made first attempts to study Maya civilization settlement patterns, environmental settings, and natural resource use. (NASA Release 87-15) 

100 
March 

March 1 : NASA and the ESA announced solicitation of scientific investigation from the United States, European Space Agency member states, and 

Canada, for two missions. The four spacecraft CLUSTER mission would 

study basic plasma processes in the Earth's magnetosphere. The Solar and 

Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission consisted of a spacecraft studying 

solar processes and solar-terrestrial relationships. (NASA Release 87-22) 

March 4: NASA declared the Pioneer 9 spacecraft officially dead after a final 

attempt to contact it failed. The last signal was received on May 18,1983. Pioneer 

9 had orbited the Sun for 18 years. (NASA Release 87-23; W Times, Mar 5/87) 

March 5: Willis H. Shapley was selected for NASA's newly established position of Associate Deputy Administrator (Policy), effective March 9, 1987. 

Shapley held the third ranking position, created in response to the reorganization recommended by the NASA Management Study Group. 

Shapley began Government service in 1942 with the Bureau of the Budget, 

Executive Office of the President, where he specialized in research and 

development, national defense, and space programs. From 1965 to 1975, he 

was NASA's Associate Deputy Administrator. In July 1975 he was the senior 

NASA representative in the Soviet Union during the joint US-USSR ApolloSoyuz space mission. Shapley retired from NASA in 1975 to become a 

consultant to a number of private institutions and Government agencies, 

including NASA. (NASA Release 87-24) 

NASA announced that beginning March 14, 1987, the Pioneer 12 spacecraft, orbiting Planet Venus, would study the newly discovered Comet Wilson. 

The Comet was to be tracked by controllers at NASA's Ames Research 

Center, Mountain View, California, from March 14-21, and again from March 

3 1 to April 30. (NASA Release 87-25) 

March 6: James Elliott, a spokesman for NASA's Goddard Space Flight 

Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, announced that a NASA rocket exploded about 

20 seconds after launch from Poker Flats, Alaska. The small rocket, carrying 

an upper-atmosphere plasma experiment, detonated when its second stage 

malfunctioned. (W Post, Mar 8/87) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1981 

March 9: NASA announced that its Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation 

(NAS) supercomputer system, the world’s most advanced, had become fully 

operational. The NAS system will make possible a wide range of aerospace 

vehicle technologies and capabilities and will ensure the Nation’s preeminence in aeronautical research. By the end of 1987, the operational system 

was expected to be capable of a billion calculations per second, and within a 

decade its capability should reach 10 billion calculations per second. The 

90,000-square-foot NAS building, located at NASA’s Ames Research Center, 

Mountain View, California, and containing a 15,000-square-foot central computer room was equipped with an array of systems for the optimal functioning of the computers. (NASA Release 87-21; NY Times, Mar 10/87; CSM, 

Mar 10/87; SF Chron, Mar 10187) 

* NASAAdministrator Dr. James C. Fletcher announced that he would retain 

and strengthen the existing Space Shuttle processing arrangement at the 

Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, with Lockheed Space Operations 

Company, Titusville, Florida. The decision was recommended by a senior 

review group set up to study the ground processing of Shuttle flight hardware. 

The group was chaired by Roy S. Estess, Deputy Director, National Space 

Technology Laboratories, Mississippi, and included representatives from 

NASA Headquarters and from each field center. (NASA Release 87-26) 

Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that the Space Goals Task 

Force of the NASA Advisory Council recommended a crew- tended mission 

to Mars. The task force, headed by former Apollo 11 astronaut Michael 

Collins, stressed that the development and operation of a U.S./international 

Space Station was a prerequisite for exploration of Mars and beyond. It also 

stressed that NASA needed to resume Shuttle flights as soon as possible and 

develop expendable launch vehicles. 

The task force listed the following major steps required for a successful 

Mars mission: an aggressive exploration of Mars to support a longer-term, 

crew-tended mission to Mars, buildup of the technological base needed to 

support that mission to Mars, establishment of a realistic schedule for the project, and an assessment of whether another crewed mission to the Moon was 

needed to precede a Mars mission. (AvWk, Mar 9/87; NY Times, Mar 18/87) 

March IO: NASA announced formation of a group of scientists to examine 

potential Space Station activities, with the aim of reducing the time between 

experiment concept development and publishable results. Chaired by Dr. 

David C. Black, NASA Headquarters Space Station chief scientist, the group 

was made up of scientists and researchers from NASA, the National Science 

Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, universities, and the private 

sector. (NASA Release 87-27) 

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MARCH 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

March 11: NASA selected General Electric Company, Space Systems 

Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Harris Corporation, Government 

Communication Systems Division, Melbourne, Florida, to negotiate contracts 

for Phase I system design studies of the second Tracking and Data Relay 

Satellite System (TDRSS) ground terminal. (NASA Release 87-29) 

March 12: The NASAAdvisory Council recommended that the space agency 

acquire a diversified fleet of expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) to preserve the 

Space Shuttle for missions requiring unique capabilities. (NASA Release 87-30) 

A spokesman at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that NASA’s 

Deep Space Network station near Canberra, Australia, configured with 

Australia’s Parkes Radio Observatory, was observing radio wave emissions 

from Supernova 1987a, first detected by astronomers in the large Magellanic 

cloud on February 24, 1987. (NASA Release 87-31) 

March 13: NASA announced that its fiscal year 1988 budget request did not 

include funding for the launching of the Mars Observer mission in 1990. Under 

pressure from the scientific community, NASA considered spending about $130 

million for the launching of the Mars Observer from an Air Force Titan rocket. 

The Agency said it planned to launch the spacecraft in 1992 from the Space 

Shuttle. (NASA Release 87-32; LA Times, Mar 14/87; NY Times, Mar 15/87) 

* NASA scientists successfully ordered the Voyager 2 space probe, which 

was some 2 billion miles away from Earth, to fie its thrusters changing the 

spacecraft’s course for its 1989 encounter with the planet Neptune. The course 

was altered so that Voyager 2, launched on August 20, 1977, would avoid the 

debris that might be orbiting the planet. The spacecraft was expected to arrive 

on August 24, 1989, within 3,100 miles of cloud tops above Neptune’s north 

pole and was expected to pass within 25,000 miles of Neptune’s moon Triton. 

(B Sun, Mar 14/87; P Znq, Mar 15/87) 

March 14: Pioneer 12, which had been orbiting the planet Venus, was directed, by controllers at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, 

California, to begin tracking the newly discovered Comet Wilson. This would 

be the fourth time that Pioneer 2, orbiting Venus since 1986, interrupted 

observations of the planet to study a comet passing Venus on its way to the 

Sun. (LA Times, Mar 15/87) 

March 17: NASA began a three-day ground system test of the scientific 

instruments to be carried on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The five scientific instruments to be carried aboard the HST were the wide-field and planetary camera, the high resolution spectrograph, the faint object spectrograph, 

the high speed photometer, and a faint object camera. (NASA Release 87-35) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AM) AERONAUTICS MARCH 1987 

NASA announced that it was studying four major initiatives to help determine the next major goal in space. The initiatives emerged from proposals by 

NASA’s Strategic Planning Group and by a group headed by astronaut Dr. 

Sally Ride. The four initiatives were a considerably expanded study of Earth 

systems, an enhanced program of solar system exploration, establishment of 

a permanent scientific base on the moon, and human exploration of Mars preceded by untended missions. At the same time, the independent NASA 

Advisory Council recommended that exploration of Mars be the Nation’s primary goal in space. (NASA Release 87-36) 

March 18: NASA announced that it would begin, in late March, a new aircraft 

flight research program at Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, in Edwards, 

California. The aim of the program was the study of super maneuverability 

and prevention of dangerous spins and related crashes. (NASA Release 87-37) 

NASA announced that scientists and researchers from the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory, Pasadena, California, would conduct, on March 23-26, the first in 

a series of tests related to development of the mobile satellite communications 

system. The test in Erie, Colorado, would be part of the Mobile Satellite 

Experiment program. (NASA Release 87-38) 

March 19: NASA selected Computer Sciences Corporation, Silver Spring, 

Maryland, to negotiate a contract for systems, engineering, and support services. The services provided by the contract would be in support of the 

Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate, Goddard Space Flight 

Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. (NASA Release 87-39) 

March 20: NASA announced that it would launch a seventh Department of 

Defense Fleet Satellite Communications spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral Air 

Force Station, in Florida, no earlier than March 26,1987. (NASARelease 87-40) 

NASA launched a Palapa-B2P, an Indonesian communications satellite, on 

a Delta 182 from Launch Complex 17B, Eastern Space and Missile Center, 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida. The satellite, intended to serve 

Indonesia’s 13,677 islands, was placed into an elliptical orbit ranging from 

about 115 miles to 23,000 miles above the Earth. The Palapa-B2P satellite, 

built by Hughes Aircraft Company, was to be used as a backup for a failing 

relay station already in orbit. (NY Times, Mar 21/87; B Sun, Mar 21/87; P Inq, 

Mar 21/87; Ny Times, Mar 22/87) 

March 23: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and Chairman of 

France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales Jacques-Louis Lions signed a 

memorandum of understanding for a joint satellite oceanographic mission. 

The mission, called TOPEXPOSEIDON, which would chart ocean topogra104 
MARCH 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

phy and observe ocean circulation on a global scale, was scheduled for a late 

199 1 launch. The TOPEXJF’OSEIDON mission would be part of the intemational World Climate Research Program. (NASA Release 87-41) 

March 26: NASA selected Lockheed Engineering and Management Services 

Company to negotiate an engineering support contract for Johnson Space 

Center, Houston, Texas. The contract would consolidate work currently performed by Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, and Northrop 

Services, Inc. (NASA Release 87-42; WSJ, Mar 27/87; H Chron, Mar 27/87) 

An Atlas-Centaur rocket, launched during a driving thunderstorm from Cape 

Canaveral, Florida, veered out of control 52 seconds after liftoff and was blown 

up by NASA safety officials. The launch was NASA’s third major mission in 

1987. Investigators trying to determine the cause of the accident said that data 

radioed to the ground from the rocket seconds before it careened off-course, 

which indicated a major electrical disturbance aboard. Investigators speculated 

that lightning, prevalent in the area at the time, may have caused the failure. 

(W Post, Mar 27/87; W Post, Mar 3 1/87; W Times, Mar 3 1/87) 

March 27: NASA announced that Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, 

and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, were studying concepts for designing and building a robot space vehicle for Mars exploration 

and sample-return mission. If approved, the robotic space vehicle mission 

would be launched in 1998 and return with martian samples in 2001. The mission would precede human exploration of Mars. (NASA Release 87-44) 

* Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, NASA Associate Administrator for Space 

Flight, announced the composition of the Atlas Centaur 67 Investigation 

Board. The Board, chaired by Jon R. Busse, Director, Office of Flight 

Assurance, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, would investigate the loss of the Atlas Centaur 67 mission on March 26, 1987 and recommend corrective action. The mission vehicle was destroyed 51 seconds 

after an apparently normal liftoff. (NASA Release 87-45) 

March 31 : The Soviet Union launched a 20-ton, self-contained astrophysical 

observatory whose mission was to dock with the orbiting Mir Space Station. 

Viktor Blagov, the deputy mission director, said that the observatory would 

“open a new chapter” in human space flight and would become a key building block of a permanently habitable scientific space complex. When docked 

with the Mir Space Station, the 19-foot-long observatory, with a 13.6 foot 

diameter, would double the working space available and would create a sort 

of a “high rise” structure in space. (P Inq, Apr 1/87; W Times, Apr 1/87) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1981 

During March: India failed to launch an augmented satellite launch vehicle, 

developed by the Indian Space Research Organization, when the vehicle malfunctioned and fell into the Indian Ocean. The launch from Sriharikota, India, 

was the fist of four such planned launches, and was to have placed a stretched 

Rohini series scientific satellite into a low-Earth orbit. (AvWk, Mar 30/87) 

106 
April 

April I : NASA selected five American principal investigators and five Italian 

scientists for a joint US.-Italian Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1) project. 

The TSS-1, a deplorable subsatellite to be “tethered” to the Space Shuttle via 

a retractable cable, was expected to lift aboard Columbia in the fall of 1990. 

(NASA Release 87-46) 

NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher announced NASA planned to develop an advanced solid rocket motor for the Space Shuttle 

(NASA Release 87-47) 

April 3: NASA announced that Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Director Dr. 

Lew Allen selected a Virginia site for a Space Station Program office. The 

110,000 square feet of leased space in Reston, Virginia, would house NASA’s 

Space Station Program director and some 400 JPL and NASA personnel. 

Initial occupancy was planned for summer 1987. (NASA Release 87-49) 

* NASA announced that it was proceeding toward design and development 

of a Space Station that would establish a permanent U.S. human presence in 

space by the mid-1990’s. It would seek proposals from industry for a phased 

development of the Space Station, including estimates for an enhancedcapability Space Station configuration. 

NASA reported that the first phase of the Space Station development, the 

revised baseline configuration, which would provide an initial, permanently 

habitable research capability by 1996, had been approved by the President. It 

would include a laboratory and habitation modules, four resource nodes, a 

polar orbiting platform, and experiment provisions outside of the pressurized 

modules. (NASA Release 87-50; LA Times, Apr 4/87) 

NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and European Space Agency 

(ESA) Director General Reimar Luest announced that the Space Shuttle 

would be used for the launch of the joint NASAESA Ulysses mission to the 

Sun in October 1990. At the same time, they announced that the launch, also 

from the Space Shuttle, of the Galileo mission to Jupiter had been moved up 

to October/November 1989. Since the distance to the Sun is considerably 

shorter than to Jupiter, the Ulysses spacecraft would begin to transmit data in 

1994, a year earlier than the Galileo spacecraft. (NASA Release 87-5 1) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1987 

April 6: NASA selected Boeing Computer Services Company, Seattle, 

Washington, for negotiating a technical and management information system 

contract in support of the Space Station program. (NASA Release 87-52) 

April 9: NASA’s Office of Space Science and Applications, at Headquarters 

in Washington, D.C., selected 29 life sciences investigators for space flight 

study. According to Dr. Arnauld E. Nicogossian, Director of NASA’s Life 

Sciences Division, the first phase of the study, the definition phase, which is 

expected to begin in the early fall of 1987 and last less than a year, would be 

followed by selection of investigators for actual flights aboard the Space 

Shuttle. Chosen investigators could participate in future Space Shuttle missions anytime between 1991 and 1994, or even later. (NASA Release 87-54) 

Despite the efforts of Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Aleksander 

Laveikin, who had tended the space station since February 7, 1987, the first 

attempts to dock the Soviet Union’s Kvant space module with the space station Mir failed. The Kvant, a self-contained astronomical observatory, was to 

be the first experimental module to link with Mir. (NY Times, Apr 10/87; 

W Times, Apr 9/87) 

April 10: NASA signed an agreement with the General Dynamics Space 

Systems Division, San Diego, California, granting authority to use NASAcontrolled facilities and capabilities for commercial manufacture and launch 

of the Atlas/Centaur vehicle. This was the first instance of the U.S. 

Government transferring commercial operations of an expendable launch 

vehicle to the private sector. The agreement reflected NASA’s endorsement of 

U.S. policy calling for the development of private sector launch capabilities. 

(NASA Release 87-55) 

April 13: Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Aleksander Laveikin left 

their space station and successfully tightened the seal between the research 

module Kvant and the space station. Kvant had failed to dock on two previous tries. (NY Times, Apr 13/87) 

April 15: John W. Young, chief of the astronaut office since January 1974, was 

appointed as Special Assistant to the Director for Engineering, Operations, 

and Safety at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, Texas. Young was 

expected primarily to advise the Director and other senior managers at JSC on 

issues affecting the safe return to flight of the Space Shuttle. According to JSC 

Director Aaron Cohen, “John Young’s acceptance of this new responsibility 

will strengthen the link between operational and engineering elements at the 

Johnson Space Center.” (NASA Release 87-58) 

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APRIL 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The United States and the Soviet Union signed an accord on cooperation in 

space exploration. The accord culminated a three- day visit to Moscow by 

Secretary of State George P, Shultz. The accord formalized the ongoing 

exchange of information between NASA and the Soviet Academy of 

Sciences. It provided for no dramatic joint venture in space. Rather it called 

for coordination of projects in solar-system exploration, space astronomy and 

astrophysics, earth sciences, solar-terrestrial physics and space biology, and 

medicine. (hT Times, Apr 16/87; P Inq, Apr 16/87) 

April 20: NASA announced plans for three balloon flights to study ray radiation 

produced by Supernova 1987a. The Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops 

Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, which manages NASA's balloon program, would provide launch services and helium. The first launch, from Alice 

Springs, Australia, was to take place no earlier than May 7, 1987, and the third 

balloon was to be launched within a month's time. (NASA Release 87-60) 

April 22: An international panel of scientists selected three experiments submitted by NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, for the 

Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby mission to be launched in early 1990's. 

The cometary ice and dust experiment (CIDEX) was designed to capture and 

analyze dust, ices, and gases evolved from the comet as the coma and tail 

develop during its pass around the sun. The thermal infrared radiometer 

experiment (TIREX) would measure the thermal emission and the scattering 

of solar radiation from the comet. The third experiment would consist of an 

interdisciplinary scientist for exobiology, the study of chemical processes and 

physical events leading to emergence of life in the universe. The CIDEX mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 

California. (NASA Release 87-63) 

April 24: NASA reported that two techniques were being used to monitor the 

Supernova SN 1987a. In the first case, the Supernova was observed by NASA's 

Deep Space Network (DSN) located at Tidbinbilla, Australia, and connected by 

microwave with Australia's CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope 200 miles away. 

Dr. Robert Preston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates 

the DSN for NASA, said that the second technique, called Very Long Baseline 

Interferometry, consisted of an even wider network of four antennas: 

Tidbinbilla, Parkes, a Landsat ground station in central Australia; and a 26- 

meter dish at Hobart on Tasmania, an island southeast of Australia. 

The supernova, an exploding star whose emissions were just arriving on 

Earth at the time of this report, was detected in the neighboring Large 

Magellanic Cloud galaxy. It was about 163,000 light years from the Earth. 

Supernova 1987a was the first such detectable star explosion close to our own 

galaxy since 1604. (NASA Release 87-64) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1981 

NASA issued Requests for Proposals to U.S. industry for a detailed design 

and constmction of a permanently habitable Space Station. The two options 

proposals were due by July 21, 1987. Option one was for a phased program 

calling for a permanently tended Space Station to be operational by 1996. 

Option two was the enhanced-capability Space Station configuration. 

(NASA Release 87-65; LA Times, Apr 25/87; Ny Times, Apr 25/87) 

April 27: NASA announced that its scientists had joined with scientists from 

the Brazilian Institute for Space Research and from U.S. and Brazilian universities and institutes to conduct a 45-day study of tropospheric (part of the 

atmosphere closest to Earth) chemistry in the atmosphere over the Amazon 

River Basin tropical rain forest during the wet season. NASA's program of 

global tropospheric experiments to study the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere 

and its interaction with land and oceans began in the 1980's. NASA used the 

Space Shuttle in 1981 and 1984 to measure tropospheric carbon monoxide 

with a gas filter radiometer. In July and August 1985, NASA's Amazon 

boundary layer experiment (ABLE) documented the importance of biosphereatmosphere interactions in determining chemical processes in the troposphere 

over undisturbed rain forests. The second ABLE experiment, begun in midApril 1987, was to study how tropical forests affect the gas exchange, chemistry, and budgets of several key gases in the troposphere. 

A NASA Electra aircraft, stationed in Manasus, Brazil, in the center of the 

Amazon River Basin, was expected to measure atmospheric trace gases and 

aerosols during a series of flights. The results from the experiments aboard the 

Electra aircraft and from several investigations carried out at ground sites 

would be evaluated by the team of scientists late in 1987. 

NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications in Washington, D.C., was 

responsible for the tropospheric chemistry program. Langley's Atmospheric 

Sciences Division, with logistical support from the Bionetics Corporation in 

Hampton, Virginia, managed the ABLE project.(Nasa Release 87-66) 

NASA announced that within hours of its discovery on February 24,1987, 

NASA scientists were monitoring the Supernova 1987a with the Earth-orbiting 

International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Solar Max Mission (SMM) 

spacecraft. Subsequently, as previously announced, NASA began monitoring 

the supernova with a network of ground antennas. The major supernova science program mounted by NASA and the intense, worldwide scientific interest in the supernova resulted from the fact that the discovery of Supernova 

1987a provided scientists the opportunity to study not only the death of the 

star, but also the resutant rebirth of matter. The explosion, shock waves, and 

tremendous energies of Supernova 1987a were expected to provide direct evidence of the creation of heavy elements such as silicon and nickel. 

110 
APRIL 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

This marks the first time a supernova has been so close to the Earth and so 

bright since the 1604 sup a, when the telescope had not yet been discovered. The advantageous circumstances allowed scientists to study the supernova in all radiation wavelengths from nearly the moment of its explosion. 

Scientists expected that the array of instruments and the variety of NASA's 

methods of monitoring the supernova would not only yield a new understanding of the chemistry and physics of the comet, but also potentially would 

provide a better understanding of the creation of matter. 

The supernova program was expected to extend at least over the next 2-112 

years. It would consist of multiple, continuous satellite observations, balloon 

and sounding rocket missions, aircraft flights, and radio observations. A special computer communications network would allow scientists from NASA, 

American and foreign universities, and other international scientific organizations to analyze the great amount of data generated by the program. 

In addition to the IUE and SMM spacecraft, managed and operated by 

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a Japanese 

Ginga (Astro-C) satellite was used to monitor the Supernova 1987a. The IUE 

satellite provided data from ultraviolet observations and monitored the overall brightness of the supernova. It also was expected to help define exactly 

which star in the Large Magellanic Cloud exploded creating the supernova. 

The SMM satellite, a sun-observing instrument, was used to monitor the 

expected gamma ray emissions from the supernova. The Japanese Ginga 

(Astro-C) satellite was used to monitor the supernova for x-ray emissions. 

NASA's Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), a C-141 jet transport stationed in New Zealand, was also used in supernova observations to 

measure infrared energy. It was expected to be involved in a number of flights 

through the spring of 1989, using new and increasingly more sophisticated 

instruments. (NASA Release 87-67) 

April 31: Martin Marietta Corporation of Bethesda, Maryland, formed a new 

organization, the Martin Marietta Commercial Titan Systems, to sell commercial rockets. The new organization, to be headed by Richard E. Bracken, 

former head of Space Launch Systems at Martin Marietta in Denver, would 

sell a modified version of the Air Force Titan 3 rocket to owners of commercial satellites. (W Post, May 4/87) 

During April: NASA and the Israel Space Agency signed an agreement allowing for the first Israeli space experiment on a future Space Shuttle flight. 

(NASA Release 87-57; Science, vol. 236, May 1/87) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1987 

’Ityo top U.S. scientists, serving in advisory positions to NASA, resigned 

following their criticism of NASA policy and the space station. On April 10, 

1987, Thomas Donahue, Chairman of the Space Science Board, National 

Academy of Sciences, resigned after sending a letter to some members of 

Congress calling for NASA to place higher priority on expendable launch 

vehicles for space science missions than on an as yet “poorly defined space 

station.” Donahue was reinstated on April 15, 1987, after resolving his disagreement with Frank Press, head of the National Academy of Sciences. 

The other scientist to resign was Peter Banks, Chairman of NASA’s Task 

Force on the Scientific Uses of the Space Station. Banks resigned on April 13, 

1987, after he criticized the Space Station planning, saying that the schedule 

for operations should be accelerated and a heavy-lift launch vehicle should be 

used. (AvWk, Apr 20187) 

112 
May 6: NASA Assistant Administrator for Commercial Programs Isaac T. 

Gillam named 28 teams that have submitted proposals to establish Centers for 

the Commercial Development of Space. The objective of the Centers would 

be to stimulate research in the microgravity environment of space. This 

research was expected to lead the development of new products that have 

commercial value. The proposed research fields include space power, space 

propulsion, remote sensing, communication technology, and bioscience. The 

overwhelming majority of the proposals came from American universities. 

(NASA Release 87-69) 

May 7: NASA announced that it, together with the Universities Space 

Research Association, in Columbia, Maryland, and the University of 

Maryland, College Park, Maryland, would establish a Center for Excellence 

in Space Data and Information Sciences at NASA's Goddard Space Flight 

Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, beginning October 1, 1987. The new research 

facility would serve as the nerve center for a network of researchers from 

leading universities and from industry computer science departments. The 

emphasis would be on research in areas of potential long-term application to 

NASA programs in the Space Station era. (NASA Release 87-70) 

May 8: NASA announced that it had established a team to review launch decision processes used for NASA expendable launch vehicles and the Space Shuttle. 

The purpose of the review, which was to be completed by July 3, 1987, was to 

ensure consistent approaches and risk evaluations for all NASA launches. Joseph 

B. Mahon, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight, and Robert L. 

Crippen, Deputy Director of the National Space Transportation System 

Operations, were selected as cochairmen of the team. (NASA Release 87-71) 

May 10: Former astronaut Donald K. Slayton, President of Space Services, 

said that his company would be the first private U.S. company to launch satellites into orbit. According to Slayton, the first of five precision navigationlocation Star Find satellites would be launched from NASA's Wallops Island 

in Virginia in 1988. Space Services would use its Conestoga I1 rocket system 

to launch the 300-pound satellite into a geostationary orbit 22,000 miles 

above the Earth. (W Post, May 11/87; W Times, May 11/87) 

May 11: NASA released the findings of the Accident Investigation Board, 

which had looked into loss of the Atladcentaur-67 on March 26,1987. In a 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTTCS MAY 1987 

report to Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, NASA Associate Administrator for 

Space Flight, Jon R. Busse, Chairman of the Accident Investigation Board, 

blamed the accident on an electrical transient, caused by a single-triggered 

lightning flash. Furthermore, the Board found that the launch was made “in 

violation of the established criteria used to avoid potential electrical hazards.” 

The Board made recommendations concerning weather criteria, the launch 

decision process, and future launch vehicle. (NASA Release 87-72) 

May 15: The Soviet Union launched a giant new rocket booster more powerful 

than the American Space Shuttle. According to the Soviet Tass News Agency, 

the first two stages of the rocket, launched from the Baikonur test site in Central 

Asia, fired correctly but a mock satellite failed to enter orbit and landed in the 

Pacific Ocean. Tass described the untended Energia launch vehicle as a “twostage multipurpose launch vehicle” capable of putting into orbit more than 100 

tons of payload, which is 75 tons more than what the U.S. Space Shuttle could 

cany. (LA Times, May 17/87; C Trib, May 18/87; W Times, May 18/87) 

In an effort to reduce reliance on the U.S. Space Shuttle, NASA would rely 

more heavily on untended rockets, declared Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA 

Administrator. He said that the primary goal was to “accelerate the deployment of the Nation’s backlog of space-science missions.” NASA hoped to 

launch as many as five satellites and space probes by untended rockets by 

1992. (WSJ, May 18/87) 

May 19: Officials from NASA and the Lockheed-Georgia Company, Marietta, 

Georgia, announced that flight testing had begun on a new, highly fuel-efficient, 

“propfan” engine. Aircraft equipped with the propfan propulsion system, which 

was developed as a result of a $56-million NASA sponsored research program, 

was expected to be 15-30 percent more fuel efficient than the most advanced 

turbofan-powered aircraft flying in the 1990’s. (NASA Release 87-73) 

The Soviet Union launched another cargo ship with supplies for the space 

station Mir. According to Tass, the cargo ship Progress 30, the third supply 

ship launched since cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Laveikin 

had occupied the space station in February 1987, was functioning normally 

after the launch. (LA Times, May 20187) 

May 20: NASA announced that the first post-Challenger Space Shuttle launch 

had again been rescheduled, this tirne for June 1988. The four-month delay was 

caused by the need to perform further tests on the liquid-fuel main engines and 

because of needed redesigning and testing of the Shuttle’s rocket boosters. 

The postponement caused a decrease in the number of crew-tended flights 

planned for 1988 and 1989. NASA said that three Space Shuttles, instead of 

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MAY 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the five originally planned, would be flown in 1988 and seven, instead of the 

ten planned, would be flown in 1989. The reductions in Space Shuttle launches, NASA believed, would further slow U.S. efforts to regain primacy in 

space exploration and utilization. (LA Times, May 21/87; NY Times, May 

21/87; B Sun, May 21/87; W Post, May 21/87) 

May 26: NASA announced that astronaut Dr. Sally K. Ride would leave the 

agency in Fall 1987. Dr. Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, 

would assume the position of Science Fellow at the Stanford University 

Center for International Security and Arms Control in Palo Alto, California. 

(NASA Release 87-84; B Sun, May 27/87; NY Times, May 27/87; W Post, 

May 27/87; W Times, May 27/87) 

May 27: The first full-scale test of the redesigned Space Shuttle booster since 

the Challenger accident was labeled a spectacular success by all who watched 

it. The firing of the l26-foot Shuttle booster in Utah's Wasatch Mountains, 

witnessed by 300 officials from NASA and Morton Thiokol, Inc., the company that designed the booster rocket, was the first of six full-scale tests. Also 

present at this test were the five astronauts scheduled to fly the Space Shuttle 

in June 1988. (B Sun, May 28/87; NY Times, May 28/87; W Post, May 28/87) 

May 28: NASA issued a request to the U.S. aerospace industry for system studies and design concepts of liquid-fueled rocket boosters. The request for proposals resurrects the original concept for liquid-fueled rockets for the Space Shuttle 

that NASA had rejected. The request for studies was part of NASA's efforts to 

find an alternative to the hard-to-control solid-fuel boosters. Four NASA 

Centers-Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama; Johnson Space 

Center, Houston, Texas; Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida; and 

Langley Research Center, Hampton, Viiginia-would be involved in this project. 

(NASA Release 87-85; H Chron, May 29/87; H Post, May 29/87) 

May 29: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher announced the promotion of Dr. John M. Klineberg, Deputy Director of Lewis Research Center, 

Cleveland, Ohio, since July 1979, to Director of the Center, effective immediately. Dr. Klineberg went to Lewis from NASA Headquarters, where he had 

served as Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and Space 

Technology. An internationally recognized expert in the field of transonic 

flow, he first joined NASA in 1970 at the Ames Research Center, Mountain 

View, California. (NASA Release 87-86) 

115 

June 

June I: NASA announced the creation of an Office of Exploration, responsible 

for coordinating the Agency’s missions to “expand the human presence beyond 

the Earth.” Dr. Sally K. Ride, who had been in charge of a NASA study group 

to determine U.S. goals in space, was named the Acting Assistant Administrator 

until mid-August 1987. (NASA Release 87-87; H Post, June 2/87) 

June 3: An Information Science Division was established at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center, Mountain View, California, to conduct research in artificial 

intelligence for applications to space exploration. It was expected that artificial intelligence would be used to develop automated systems for all phases 

of space missions, from launch to mission control and for onboard operations. 

Artificial intelligence technology would also be used to advance spacecraft 

performance and safety, and would free astronauts from routine chores. 

Research in artificial intelligence and the development of automated system 

would be a joint effort between the Information Science Division, other NASA 

Centers, private industry, and academic institutions. (NASA Release 87-89) 

NASA announced that Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, 

had invited industry to develop advanced solid rocket motor designs. The preliminary designs called for both a segmented motor design and a monolithic 

motor design. Requests for these designs, called Phase B studies, followed completion of “Phase A” conceptual studies of alternative solid rocket motor designs. 

Those designs were done by five aerospace firms. (NASA Release 87-90) 

June 5: NASA announced that 5 civilians and 10 military officers were selected as new astronaut candidates for the Space Shuttle program. Of the 15, 7 

were chosen as pilot astronaut candidates and 8 as mission specialist candidates. The elite group also included the first Black woman, Dr. Mae C. 

Jemison, to be chosen for the program. (NASA Release 87-93; Ny Times, June 

6/87; LA Times, June 6/87; H Chron, June 6/87) 

June 8: According to a news release from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight 

Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA would manage a major international 

experiment on the use of satellites to study our environment. The experiment, 

part of the International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project, would 

employ over 100 scientists from more than 25 institutions to study the interaction between the land system and climate system. Over 25 ground mea117 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS .TUNE 1987 

surement stations would be set up on the Konza Prairie in Kansas for the 

experiment. Six research planes and five Earth-orbiting satellites would also 

be used. (NASA Release 87-95) 

June 10: NASA announced that lightning had destroyed an Orion rocket scheduled for launch. The intense storm at the Wallops Flight Center, Wallops Island, 

Virginia, also destroyed the scientific experiment payload. (NASA Release 87- 

97; NY Times, June 11/87; W Post, June 11/87; H Chron, June 11/87) 

June 12: In a major organizational shift, NASA announced the adoption of new 

post-Challenger era commercial activity policies. The released decision memoranda, covering the new policies, were signed by Deputy Administrator Dale D. 

Myers. The new policies resulted from the report of the Commercialization of 

Space Review Task Force and covered such general activities as joint endeavor 

agreements, microgravity research, secondary payloads on the Space Shuttle, 

expendable launch vehicles, and commercial activities. 

According to the new policies, the Office of Commercial Programs would 

henceforth determine, in coordination with concerned Headquarters offices, 

whether NASA should participate in any proposed joint program. 

Responsibility for programs utilizing the microgravity environment was 

transferred from the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology to the 

Office of Space Science and Applications. Secondary payload space would be 

carefully allocated by the Deputy Administrator and implemented by the 

Office of Space Flight to accomplish specific NASA objectives. To encourage 

and facilitate as much as possible the private domestic access to space, 

NASA's Office of Space Flight would contract private industry for launch of 

Expendable Launch Vehicles. Finally, the Office of Commercial Programs 

would, to the fullest extent possible, facilitate the utilization of space for commercial purposes. (NASA Decision Memorandum on Commercialization 

Policy, June 12/87; NASA Decision Memorandum on Responsibility for 

Programs Utilizing the Microgravity Environment, June 12/87; NASA 

Decision Memorandum on Secondary STS Payloads, June 12/87; NASA 

Decision Memorandum on Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELV's) Policy, June 

12/87; NASA Decision Memorandum on Commercialization Policy, June 

12/87; LA Times, June 13/87) 

June 17: NASA announced reopening, after major modifications, the wind tunnel at Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California. Constructed in 1944, 

the 40-by-80-foot wind tunnel was used for full-scale testing of civilian and 

military aircraft. Modifications to the tunnel included increasing power from 

six 6,000-horsepower electric motors generating airspeeds of up to 

230 mph to six 22,500-horsepower motors generating top airspeeds of 345 mph. 

118 
JUNE 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The modified 40-by-80-foot wind tunnel represented the first phase of the 

creation of the National Full-scale Aerodynamics Complex, which included 

the Outdoor Aerodynamics Research Facility, at the Ames Research Center, 

Mountain View, California. The second phase, including the new “straight 

through” leg with its 80-by-120-foot test section, was expected to be completed in late 1987. (NASA Release 87-98) 

NASA announced two new management appointments effective June 22, 

1987. Dr. Noel W. Hinners, Director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, 

Greenbelt, Maryland, was appointed to the newly created position of NASA 

Associate Deputy Administrator (Institution). The position was created on recommendations of the NASA Management Study Group to provide focus on 

institutional management matters. NASA appointed Dr. John W. Townsend, Jr. 

to replace Dr. Hmers as Director of Goddard. 

Dr. Hinners joined NASA in 1972 as director of Lunar Programs, in the 

Office of Space Science. From 1974 until 1979 he served as NASAAssociate 

Administrator for Space Science. From 1979 to 1982, Dr. Hinners was 

Director of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum. In 

1982, he was appointed Director of Goddard Space Flight Center. 

Dr. Townsend, a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, was 

transferred with his branch and the Vanguard Project to NASA in 1958 and 

became chief of the space science division. He became Assistant Director in 

1959 and Deputy Director in 1965 of Space Science and Satellite Applications 

at Goddard Space Flight Center. In 1968 he was appointed Deputy Director of 

the Environmental Science Service Administration (ESSA), Department of 

Commerce. He became the Associate Administrator of ESSA, when ESSA 

became part of NASA in 1970. (NASA Release 87-99) 

0 Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, NASA Associate Administrator for Space 

Flight, announced that the next Space Shuttle orbiter would be assembled in 

Palmdale, California. He gave costs and schedule factors as the reasons why this site was chosen over Cdifonia’s Vandenberg AirForce Base 

(NASA Release 87-100; H Chron, June 18/87) 

June 22: NASA announced that on June 15, 1987, Dr. John-David E Bartoe 

began a 2-year appointment as Chief Scientist of the Space Station program, 

advising the Associate Administrator on program plans, policies, and userrelated requirements. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Bartoe served with the 

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in a variety of positions, most recently 

as Head of the Solar Spectroscopy section, Space Science Division. He 

expected to return to the NRL at the end of the Chief Scientist appointment. 

(NASA Release 87-103) 

119 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1987 

June 29: NASA announced selection of the Astronautics Division of the 

Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, in Sunnyvale, California, for the 

design, development and implementation of the Software Support Environment 

(SSE) for the Space Station. The SSE contract was to be managed by the Space 

Station Program Office in Reston, Virginia. (NASA Release 87-107) 

June 30: A report sent to President Ronald Reagan by NASA Administrator 

Dr. James C. Fletcher stated that the fist post-Challenger Space Shuttle would 

have an escape hatch. But a decision on the rocket assist system necessary to 

eject the crew safely in emergency had not yet been made. The escape hatch 

was one of many significant changes made in the Shuttle Discovery, scheduled for launch in June 1988. Twenty-one major changes were made in the 

Shuttle’s main engines alone, in order to increase operating life, safety, and 

reliability. These and other changes listed in the NASA report to the White 

House reflected recommendations made by the Rogers Commission, following their investigation of the Challenger accident. (C Trib, July 2/87; 

LA Times, July 1/87; NY Times, July 1/87) 

During June: General Dynamics Corporation said that it would build 18 rockets over the next five years to launch communications satellites. According to 

a company spokesman, General Dynamics would spend $100 million to start 

production of the Atlas-Centaur rocket. General Dynamics became the third 

U.S. company, together with McDonnell Douglas Corporation and Martin 

Marietta Corporation, to attempt to move into launch vehicles production 

after the Challenger accident. (WSJ, June 16/87) 

120 
July 

July 2: NASA granted the Space Station Program Support Division, of 

Grumman Aerospace Corporation in Bethpage, New York, a contract to provide systems engineering and integration for the Space Station. The contract 

also called for Grumman to provide a broad base of management support to 

the Space Station Program Office in the areas of program control and management; information systems; operations; program requirements and assessment; and safety, reliability, and quality assurance. (NASA Release 87-110; 

WSJ, July 3/87; B Sun, July 3/87) 

July 13: NASA’s last Atlas-Centaur rocket was extensively damaged in a 

launch pad accident. A $4-million fuel tank was destroyed when it was hit by 

a work platform. Four General Dynamics Space Division workers were treated for minor injuries. The launch of a military satellite, scheduled for liftoff 

aboard the Atlas-Centaur rocket in the fall of 1987, was grounded indefinitely. (LA Times, July 14/87) 

July 15: NASA announced that it would showcase exhibits and models of its 

advanced fuel-saving propeller system called “propfan” at the 35th Annual 

Experiment Aircraft Association International Fly-In Convention and Sport 

Aviation Exhibition, July 3 l-August 7, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Propfan 

engines have revolutionary propellers with thin, highly swept blades. They 

burn 30 percent less fuel than advanced turbofan engines under the same conditions. NASA also was expected to exhibit its “Cockpit of the Future,” in 

which pilots would use color-coded graphic displays and computers to monitor flight path and speed, wind and weather conditions, time-critical alerts, 

and traffic conditions and obstacles. Other displays would feature innovations 

in wing design; new composite materials to make lighter aircraft; new deicing techniques and other safety improvements; a video presentation of 

NASA’s Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) supercomputer system; 

and models of Langley’s National Transonic Facility, the largest cryogenic 

wind tunnel in the world, and the Ames Vertical Motion Simulator used to 

investigate landing, takeoff and other handling qualities, and to develop controls for short takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft. (NASA Release 87-1 11) 

0 NASA named a board to investigate the July 13, 1987, Atlas Centaur 68 

accident which resulted in extensive damage to the vehicle. James B. Odom, 

Director of the Science and Engineering irectorate, Marshall Space night 

Center, Huntsville, Alabama, was appointed Chairman of the Board. The 

121 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1987 

Board was expected to report the results of its investigation to Rear Admiral 

Richard H. Truly, Associate Administrator for Space Flight, by August 14, 

1987. (NASA Release 87-112; LA Times, July 14/87; NY Times, July 14/87) 

July 16: NASA announced that it had chosen the final design for the Space 

Shuttle’s new rockets. Also, the Agency declared it had resolved the problem 

of Challenger’s leaking seals. Hot gasses escaped during launch and the seals 

failed to close properly because of cold weather. John Thomas, Manager of 

the rockets design team at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, 

Alabama, stated that henceforth the O-ring seals would be heated in cold 

weather rather than constructed of new materials. He also said that the new 

design would contain three O-ring seals instead of two. Thomas emphasized 

that up to eight more test firings of the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket motor 

were planned before flights resume. (NY Times, July 17/87; W Post, July 

17/87; W Times, July 17/87) 

July 21: Pilots from NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the US. Navy, and the 

Grumman Aerospace Corporation completed the first phase of experimental 

flying of the forward-swept-wing X-29 aircraft. During the tests, the X-29, 

with its three-surface pitch control system, reached an altitude of 50,200 feet 

and speeds of about 1.5 times the speed of sound. 

After a total of 104 flights, the pilots began the second phase of the flight 

research program at NASA’s Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility in 

Edwards, California. During this phase, further flights would test the forward 

swept wing structure divergence tendencies and the overall aerodynamic performance of the wings and canards. Researchers would also investigate the 

aircraft’s control system and handling qualities, as well as maneuvering characteristics applicable to military use. (NASA Release 87-1 13) 

July 22: The Soviet Union launched into orbit a Soyuz TM-3 with two Soviet 

cosmonauts and a Syrian space traveler aboard. The liftoff from Baikonur 

Cosmodrome, in Soviet Kazakhstan, was the Soviet Union’s third crew-tended space launch since the U.S. Space Shuttle explosion on January 28, 1986. 

The Soyuz TM-3, piloted by Alexander Viktorenko and Alexander Alexandrov, 

was scheduled to dock with the Soviet Mir space station after two days of 

orbiting around the Earth. The Syrian space traveler, Lieutenant Colonel 

Mohammed Faris, was the second Arzb in space. The first was the Saudi Prince 

Sultan bin Salman, a nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd. Prince Sultan bin 

Salman was a payload specialist aboard the U.S. Shuttle Discovery in 1985. 

(H Chron, July 22/87) 

July 28: NASA selected seven new Centers for the Commercial Development of 

Space (CCDS). The Centers would conduct research leading to the development 

122 
JULY 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

of new technologies that co 

bined industry and universit 

Tennessee Space Institut 

Tullahoma, Tennessee; Auburn UniversityXenter for the Commercial 

Development of Space Power, Auburn, Alabama; Environmental Research 

Institute of Michigan-Center for the Commercial Development of 

Autonomous and Man-Controlled Robotic Sensing System in Space, AM 

Arbor, Michigan; Pennsylvania State University-Center for Secretion 

Research, University Park, Pennsylvania; University of Colorado-Center for 

Bioserve Space Technologies, Boulder, Colorado; Case Western Reserve 

University-Center on Materials for Space Structures, Cleveland, Ohio; and 

Texas A&M Research Foundation-Center for Commercial Development of 

Space Power, College Station, Texas. (NASA Release 87-1 15) 

NASA announced an international joint effort to investigate ozone depletion 

over the Antarctic. NASA was to be joined in this effort by other Federal science agencies; the Chemical Manufacturers Association; scientists from 

Harvard University, the University of Denver, and the University of 

Washington; and the governments of Argentina, Chile, France, Great Britain, 

and New Zealand. A specially equipped ER-2 plane and a modified DC-8 airliner were to make a number of flights through the ozone hole between August 

17 and September 29, 1987, to see whether man-made chemicals, nature, or 

both are destroying the ozone. The findings will be examined by an international panel of policy makers meeting in Montreal, Canada, in September 

1987. (NY Times, July 30187; W Post, July 29/87; W Times, July 29/87) 

July 29: Top astronaut John W. Young told the Orlando Sentinel that he had 

been forced to resign as chief of NASA's astronaut office. Young claimed that 

his reassignment to a new post, as special assistant to the director for Shuttle 

engineering and safety, stemmed from his frequent criticism of NASA safety 

policies after the Challenger disaster. (LA Times, July 30187) 

July 30: Astronaut John A. McBride was named acting Assistant 

Administrator for Congressional Relations, effective September 1, 1987. He 

would replace John F. Murphy, who was appointed Chief of the Office of 

External Affairs at NASA's Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, 

California. (NASA Release 87-1 16) 

July 31 : Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, Associate Administrator for Space Flight, 

announced NASA had completed negotiations with Rockwell International to 

build a replacement Space Shuttle orbiter. The new orbiter would contain existing 

structural spares, but would also feature the latest technology evolving from the 

current rem-to-flight activities. The new Space Shuttle orbiter was expected to 

be ready for use within 45 months. (NASA Release 87-117) 

123 
ASTRONAII??CS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1987 

NASA said it had completed negotiations with Rockwell International 

Corporation for a new Space Shuttle. The new space vehicle, to replace the 

Challenger lost in the 1986 accident, was expected to be delivered in April 

1991. The cost of the new Space Shuttle was estimated at $1.3 billion. (C Trib, 

Aug 2/87; H Post, Aug 1/87; LA Times, Aug 1/87; B Sun, Aug 1/87) 

124 
August 

August 3: Five NASA and U.S. Air Force pilots completed the first phase of 

research flying of the Advanced Fighter Technology Integration F- 1 11 aircraft 

at NASA's Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility in Edwards, California. 

During the first phase of research flying, the aircraft's wing was modified so 

that it could fly with optimum wing curvature at subsonic, transonic, and 

supersonic speeds. The MAW system was operated only manually, and the 

pilot selected the aircraft's wing curvature. The aircraft, with its distinct 

Mission Adaptive Wing (MAW), entered the second phase of research flying 

where the computers were modified so the wing curvature could adjust automatically. (NASA Release 87-118; Def News, Aug 24/87) 

August 5: NASA announced plans to study the feasibility of building an untended rocket to carry heavy materials for use in Space Station construction. The 

proposed concept calls for a space freighter capable of carrying more than three 

times as much cargo as the Space Shuttle. The vehicle would use the same type 

of solid fuel boosters as the Space Shuttle. NASA surmised that such a vehicle, 

whose estimated costs were put at $1.5 billion, could be delivered in 1993. (H 

Chron, Aug 6/87; H Post, Aug 6/81; W Times, Aug 6/87; USA Today, Aug 6/87) 

August 7: Five aerospace firms were awarded contracts by NASA's Marshall 

Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, to develop preliminary advanced 

solid rocket motor designs for the Space Shuttle. The five firms receiving the 

awards were Aerojet Solid Propulsion Company, Sacramento, California; 

Atlantic Research Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia; Hercules Aerospace 

Company's Aerospace division of Salt Lake city, Utah; Morton Thiokol Inc., 

Brigham City, Utah, and United Technologies Chemical System Division, San 

Jose, California. The results of the preliminary studies would determine 

whether NASA will pursue the design, development, test and production of an 

advanced motor for Shuttle flights in fiscal year 1989. (NASARelease 87-120) 

August IO: NASA announced that Dr. Noel Hinners would replace Dr. Frank 

McDonald as Chief Scientist, effective August 24, 1987. At the same time, Dr. 

Hinners would retain his position as NASA's Associate Deputy Administrator 

(Institutions). NASA also announced Dr. Frank McDonald would return to 

the Goddard Space Flight Center as Associate DirectorfChief Scientist. 

(NASA Release 87-121) 

125 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1987 

* The 10-ton Soviet satellite Cosmos-1871 plunged harmlessly into the Pacific 

Ocean west of Hawaii. Soviet news agency Tass reported that the satellite, 

launched into a polar orbit on August 1, 1987, carried scientific equipment for 

space exploration. (B Sun, Aug 11/87; W Post, Aug 11/87; W Times, Aug 10187) 

The Transportation Department announced that it has granted approval for 

Martin Marietta Corporation to launch private communications satellites. 

Within hours of the announcement, Martin Marietta signed an agreement with 

the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization to launch two 

Intelsat-6 satellites into orbit on Martin Marietta’s Titan 3 rockets. Launchings 

were scheduled for 1989 and 1990. The agreement between two private companies to launch private communications satellites was the fiist instance of the 

implementation of the Reagan administration’s space commercialization policy. 

(B Sun, Aug 11/87; W Times, Aug 11/87) 

American and Soviet scientists agreed to joint effort in a wide range of space 

research. Their first joint project called for a launch of a Soviet “space zoo” 

satellite containing monkeys, rats, fish, and other living organisms. The 

14-day flight of this satellite was to provide Soviet and American scientists an 

opportunity to study the impact of weightlessness on the vital functions of animals. Some 26 other experiments were approved by working groups from the 

United States and the Soviet Union meeting for a week-long scientific conference in Moscow. The joint project was the first to be conducted under the terms 

of a five-year space cooperation agreement signed on April 15,1987, by Soviet 

Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and U.S. Secretary of State George 

P. Shultz. (C Trib, Aug 11/87; LA Times, Aug 11/87; P Inq, Aug 11/87) 

August 17: NASA released a long awaited report of a task force, headed by 

Dr. Sally K. Ride, set up to assess NASA’s future space policy in the wake of 

the Challenger disaster. The 63-page report, delivered to NASA Administrator 

Dr. James C. Fletcher the preceding week, urged that the United States build 

a permanent outpost on the Moon as the fiist step toward the ultimate goal of 

“exploring, prospecting, and settling Mars.” Ride emphasized, however, that 

while settling Mars should be “our eventual goal,” it should not be “our next 

goal.” She recommended a strategy of “natural progression which leads step 

by step, in orderly, unhurried way, inexorably toward Mars.” (LA Times, Aug 

18/87; NY Times, Aug 18/87; W Post, Aug 18/87; W Times, Aug 18/87) 

Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 

California, reported that the untended spacecraft Voyager 2 was on course for 

a rendezvous in two years with the planet Neptune. Launched on August 20, 

1977, Voyager 2, travelling at a speed of 41,600 miles-per-hour, was 642 million miles away from its target. It was expected to come within 3,000 miles of 

Neptune on August 24,1989. (NY Times, Aug 18/87) 

126 
AUGUST 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

August 18: NASA announced that Morton Thiokol Space Division, a NASA 

contractor, would test fire the first redesigned Space Shuttle solid rocket 

motor on August 27, 1987. The 126-foot-long, 1.2-million-pound development motor (DM-8) would be fitted with 250 instruments to measure 

acceleration, pressure, deflection, thrust, strain, temperature, and electrical 

properties. (NASA Release 87-125) 

August 19: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher announced that Isaac 

T. Gillam, NASA Assistant Administrator for Commercial Programs, would 

retire effective September 1,1987, and that Lawrence Herbolsheimer, Deputy 

Assistant Administrator in the Office of Commercial Programs, would serve 

as the Acting Assistant Administrator. 

Gillam had served in a number of positions at NASA. In June 1978 he was 

appointed director of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, 

California. Prior to that appointment, he was Dryden’s Deputy Director and 

Director of Shuttle Operations. He subsequently served at NASA 

Headquarters as Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator and then moved 

on to head the Office of Commercial Programs. (NASA Release 87-126) 

August 26: A solid rocket motor intended for use in NASA’s Delta launch 

vehicle failed during a test at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. 

The Castor IVA booster rocket escaped from the test stand five seconds into 

the test. A review team was established to determine the cause of the failure 

and to assess the impact on the Delta flight program. (NASA Release 87-128) 

August 27: NASA and the Department of Defense announced that the conceptual design phase of the National Aero-Space Plane Program was finished. 

The program would now move to the subsystem fabrication and test portion 

of the program. This phase of the engine technology development would 

demonstrate the ability of airbreathing engines to power a horizontal takeoff 

and landing vehicle. It would demonstrate that the X-30 flight vehicle was 

capable of sustained hypersonic flight or direct, single stage, ascent into orbit. 

The development of this technology would create an entirely new family of 

operational aerospace vehicles. (NASA Release 87- 129) 

NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher issued a statement in response 

to Senator William Proxmire’s request in Congress to abolish the Space Station 

program. Dr. Fletcher pointed out that the Space Station proposal has been 

repeatedly debated in Congress and each time has received bipartisan congressional support. He stressed that by abolishing the Space Shuttle program, 

the United States would abdicate its position as a world leader in space. He also 

emphasized that a Space Station would lead to new scientific and technological advances and would “provide infrastructure for future exploration of the 

127 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1987 

solar system by manned spacecraft.” (Statement by Dr. James C. Fletcher in 

Response to Senator Proxmire’s Statement Asking for Abolishment of the 

Space Station, August 27, 1987) 

August 30: NASA successfully test fiied a redesigned shuttle booster in 

Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. NASA officials, very pleased with the test firing, 

cautioned, however, that the complete success of the firing cannot be fully 

determined until engineers have taken the hardware apart and fully analyzed 

it. They added that, at any rate, this was just the first step and much work 

remained if the Shuttle was to make its flight date in June 1988. The 14-story 

test booster, built by Morton Thiokol, Inc. and known as “DM-8”, was loaded 

with 1.1 million pounds of propellent. (B Sun, Aug 31/87; NY Times, Aug 

31/87; WSJ, Aug 31/87; W Post, Aug 31/87) 

During August: Data collected by the Giotto spacecraft, which flew by the 

Halley comet in March 1986, suggested that tiny chains of formaldehyde 

chemicals, contained in the comet’s gassy halo, may be older than the solar 

system. (LA Times, Aug 9/87) 

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, awarded a 

2.6 million contract to the city’s Wyle Laboratories’ Scientific Services & 

Systems Group to design and develop the multiple experiment processing furnace. The furnace, for processing metals and alloys in space, was to be 

carried aboard the Space Shuttle where astronauts would carry out their 

experiments. (DefNews, Aug 10187) 

128 
September 

September I: United States and Australia signed a 10-year agreement permitting NASA to launch scientific sounding rockets from Woomera, Australia. 

The first project under the new agreement would consist of five or six launches of Black Brant IX’s and Nike-Black Brant V’s to study Supernova 1987a 

during NovemberDecernber 1987. (NASA Release 87-132) 

September 2: NASA announced that the three Space Shuttle main engines are 

undergoing acceptance testing at its National Space Technology Laboratories 

in Mississippi. The Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International performed 

the tests. The engines tested were to be used in the next Shuttle mission, 

STS-26, scheduled for launch in June 1988. The tests were to be completed in 

December 1987. (NASA Release 87-130; CSM, Sept 5/87) 

September 4: McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company of Houston, Texas, 

was awarded NASA’s applications and analysis support contract for Johnson 

Space Center’s (JSC) Mission Support Directorate, in Houston, Texas. The 

JSC Mission Support Directorate is responsible for space mission planning. 

The new contract consolidated five different existing support contracts covering a wide range of computer software development and software performance analysis. (NASA Release 87-131; The Citizen, Sept 6/87) 

September 14: NASA agreed with most of the findings and recommendations 

listed in the report by the National Research Council Committee on Space 

Station. Agency officials disagreed, however, with the findings that the 

deployment of the Space Station with the current Space Transportation 

System was risky. NASA also found the Committee’s cost estimate for backup hardware and test program enhancements to be too high. (NASA Release 

87-135; NY Times, Sept 15/87; LA Times, Sept 15/87; H Post, Sept 15/87) 

Officials at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, reported 

that NASA scientific satellites, the International Sun-Earth Explorers ISEE- 1 

and ISEE-2, were expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere two minutes apart 

on September 26,1987. They were expected to create fireballs as they burned 

in the atmosphere over Brazil. The two orbiting spacecraft, launched on a single Delta rocket on October 22, 1977, for nearly 10 years studied fluctuations 

in plasma waves, the magnetic field, proton and electron density, cosmic rays, 

gamma ray bursts, and the solar wind in the near-Earth environment. 

(NASA Release 87- 137) 

129 
ASTRONAUTICS AM) AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1987 

September 15: Two firms, General Dynamics, San Diego, California, and 

Martin Marietta, New Orleans, Louisiana, were chosen by NASA for liquidfueled rocket booster design studies. The liquid-fueled rocket boosters could be 

used on the Space Shuttle and future launch vehicles. (NASA Release 87-138; 

H Chron, Sept 17/87) 

NASA selected five crew members for STS-27, a Department of Defense 

Space Shuttle mission. The five crew members, scheduled for launch on 

Atlantis in early fall 1988, included Robert L. Gibson (Cdr., USN), 

Commander; Guy S. Gardner (Lt. Col., USAF), Pilot; and Mission Specialists 

Richard M. Mullane (Col., USAF), Jerry L. Ross (Lt. Col., USAF), and 

William M. Shepherd, (Cdr., USN). (NASA Release 87-139; LA Times, Sept 

16/87; USA Today, Sept 16/87) 

A 15-story high Ariane 3 rocket, carrying two communications satellites, was 

launched into an Earth orbit from Kourou, French Guiana. The successful 

launch marked the reentry of Western Europe into the commercial utilization of 

space after a 16-month hiatus. (L4 Times, Sept 16/87; NY Times, Sept 16/87) 

September 17: Dr. Robert Watson, NASA Chief Scientist for the Airborne 

Antarctic Ozone project, reported that, midpoint of the project, both aircraft 

involved were performing very well and that mission scientists were very 

pleased with the quality of data being returned by the instruments. The 

Antarctic Ozone Project employed two NASA aircraft, a modified flying laboratory DC-8, and an advanced high-altitude ER-2. The goal of the project 

was to study the cause and nature of the ozone layer depletion. (Untitled 

release from NASA Headquarters, Sept 17, 1987; NY Times, Sept 22/87) 

September 18: The Boeing Commercial Airplane Company was selected by 

NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, for major aeronautical 

flight experiments. NASA tasked Boeing with providing data on the aerodynamic and operational effectiveness of a hybrid system to achieve laminar air 

flow control at flight conditions, particularly at high subsonic speeds. The 

tests were to be conducted on both commercial and military transport airplanes. (NASA Release 87-140; Def News, Oct 12/87) 

September 25: NASA announced that researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

in Pasadena, California, had successfully tested a passenger vehicle satellite antenna. The newly developed antenna, designed to be mounted on the roof of a 

passenger vehicle, was expected to play an important role in NASA's mobile satellite experiment program. This program and other technologies were expected to 

lead eventually toward a mobile satellite communications system. The first success 

in the program was achieved when researchers, using an antenna on moving 

passenger vehicle, were able to track an in-orbit satellite. (NASA Release 87-143) 

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SEPTEMBER 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

* General Dynamic Corporation announced it had been awarded a contract to 

launch between one and three European satellites by the European 

Telecommunications Satellite Organization (EUTELSAT). The 26-nation 

European consortium selected General Dynamic's Atlas-Centaur rockets for 

the launching of its satellites because of their cost and reliability. The agreement called for a launch of a EUTELSAT-2 communications satellite in early 

1990 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with options for two additional launches. 

(LA Times, Sept 26/87) 

September 29: NASA announced that secondary payloads for the next Space 

Shuttle mission would include five microgravity experiments, life sciences, 

atmospheric science and infrared communications experiments, as well as two 

student experiments. (NASA Release 87-144) 

* More than 50 NASA-sponsored scientists were involved in 27 U.S./ 

U.S.S.R. joint experiments aboard a Soviet Union Cosmos 1887 launched on 

this date. This mission represented the latest of the 16 agreed-upon collaborative projects under the U.S./U.S.S.R. Space Agreement signed in April 1987. 

(NASA Release 87-146; 0 Sen Star, Sept 29/87) 

September 30: NASA Deputy Administrator Dale D. Myers announced that 

James T. Rose had been selected as Assistant Administrator for Commercial 

Programs, effective October 5, 1987. He would be responsible for NASA's 

commercial programs, the use of space by the U.S. private sector, the use of 

NASA technology by private industry, and NASA's support of innovative 

research by small business firms. 

James T. Rose joined NASA in 1957 as a research engineer for the 

Vanguard Program experiments. In 1962, he became head of the Manned 

Spacecraft Center's Mission Planning Office for the Gemini flights. From 

1964 to 1974, Rose held a series of key positions at the McDonnell Douglas 

Astronautics Company. He returned to NASA in 1974 as Director, Space 

Shuttle Engineering, in the Office of Space Flight. From 1976 to 1986, he was 

Director of McDonnell Douglas' Space Manufacturing Initiatives. In June 

1987, he again returned to NASA to become the Director of Space in NASA's 

Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology. (NASA Release 87-145; 

Huntsville Times, Oct 1/87) 

September 31 : Martin Marietta Corporation announced that its Denver-based 

Space Systems group was one of the companies awarded two NASA contracts 

to study and design spacecraft for a mission to Mars. A contract to study the 

techniques of a robotic rover to traverse the Martian surface was awarded by 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA awarded a similar contract to the 

FMC Corporation of Santa Clara, California. 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEJTEMBER 1987 

The second contract was awarded by NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), 

Houston, Texas. It called on Martin Marietta to study braking methods that 

would allow a spacecraft to orbit Mars, enter its atmosphere, and descend to the 

surface of the planet. The Lockheed Missiles and Space Company of Sunnyvale, 

California, was the other company awarded this study contract by the JSC. 

Martin Marietta was the company that designed, built, and tested the twin 

Viking spacecraft that landed on the surface of Mars in 1976 and 1977. 

(AvWk, Oct 26/87; B Sun, Oct 1/87, Rocky Mountain News, Oct 1/87) 

132 
October 

October 1 : A NASA report, titled “Space Science Operations Management 

Concepts Study,” was submitted to the House Committee on Science, Space, 

and Technology. The report, prepared by a 60-member study team of personnel from NASA Headquarters, field centers, other Federal agencies, and university officials, examined options for the management of Space Station 

science. (NASA Note to Editors, Oct 1/1987) 

October 2: NASA and the U.S. Air Force signed a pricing agreement, establishing reimbursement policies for Department of Defense (DoD) flights on 

the Space Shuttle and NASA flights on DoD-procured expendable launch 

vehicles. (NASA Release 87-147) 

October 3: Soviet and Japanese scientists confiied the first positive detection of x-rays from an exploding supernova. Soviet scientists, using x-ray telescopes aboard the Soviet astrophysics module Kvant, made the detection on 

August 10, 1987. Japanese scientists, using smaller x-ray instruments aboard 

their Ginga satellite, first observed the x-rays from the supernova on August 

15, 1987. (W Post, Oct 4/87) 

October 5: NASA awarded a contract to the Computer Sciences Corporation, 

El Segundo, California, for operations support to the Mission Support 

Directorate of Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. Under the contract, Computer Sciences Corporation would provide maintenance, operations, 

and sustaining engineering of institutional ADP facilities, networks and work 

stations, and user support. About 30 percent of the work would be performed 

by two Computer Sciences Corporation subcontractors, International Business 

Machines Corporation and Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation, 

a unit of Ford Motor Company. (NASA Release 87-148; WSJ, Oct 7/87) 

October 6: NASA and West Germany signed a cooperative Earth observation 

agreement. Under the agreement, West Germany, together with Italy, was to 

provide an X-band synthetic aperture radar (X-SAR) to fly with the space-borne 

imaging radar-c (SIR-C) on the Space Shuttle. The SIR-C will allow the 

Shuttle-borne imaging radar mission to view a site from different angles and at 

different radar frequencies. An advanced X-SAR was expected to combine later 

with the NASA Earth Observation System to fly on a NASA polar platform, 

providing a third frequency to the combined mission. (NASA Release 87-149) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1987 

October 7: NASA and the Pentagon awarded contracts to McDonnell Douglas 

Corporation, General Dynamics Corporation, and Rockwell International for 

developing the airframe of an aircraft capable of working both as a space 

vehicle and a hypersonic airplane. After completion of the designs by the 

three companies, one is to be chosen in 1990 to build two research aircraft. 

(B Sun, Oct 8/87; H Post, Oct 8/87) 

October 8: Because of complications encountered in the nozzle fabrication 

process, NASA moved the test of the flight configuration of the redesigned 

Space Shuttle solid rocket motor (SRM) to middle or late December 1987. 

(NASA Release 87-151) 

October 12: A Soviet space capsule landed in eastern Siberia, thousands of 

miles from its designated landing site in Central Asia. The capsule, a biosatellite Cosmos 1887, which carried two monkeys, rats, amphibians, fish, and 

insects, was launched into orbit September 29, 1987. The planned 2-week fly 

in space, of the capsule, was almost aborted when one of the monkeys freed 

his left hand on the fifth day of the mission. (B Sun, Oct 13/87; Ny Times, 

Oct 13/87; P Znq, Oct 13/87) 

October 19: General Dynamics Space system Division was awarded a contract by NASA and the Department of Commerce for expendable launch vehicle transportation services for meteorological spacecraft GOES (geostationary 

operational environmental satellites). The GOES spacecraft provided nearly 

continuous, high-resolution visual and infrared imaging of weather systems 

over large areas of the Earth. (NASA Release 87- 156) 

October 22: NASA announced that in the next three years it would reduce 

Shuttle use by launching only 19 space flights. During the same time, it would 

launch 49 satellites on untended rockets. About 30 non-military payloads 

originally planned to be carried into orbit by the Shuttle through 1995, will 

now be carried on untended rockets. 

NASA said that it would launch five science missions in 1989, some with 

international cooperation. Four of these missions-the Magellan, to map 

Venus; the Hubble Space Telescope, in cooperation with the European Space 

Agency; and the ASTRO-1 ultraviolet observatory and Galileo, in cooperation 

with Germany to make a comprehensive survey of Jupiter and its moonswould fly on the Shuttle. A fifth mission, the Cosmic Background Explorer 

(COBE) to investigate cosmic background noise, was to launch on a Delta. 

Another scheduled Shuttle launch was the cooperative ESADIASA Ulysses 

mission to observe the polar region of the Sun. 

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OCTOBER 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

From 1990 through 1995, NASA expected to accelerate deployment of 

other space science missions by fully utilizing expendable launch vehicles. For 

example, NASA anticipated Delta launches of a Roentgen Satellite in February 

1990 and the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer in August 1991. (NASA Release 

87-158; LA Times, Oct 23/87; NY Times, Oct 23/87; W Times, Oct 23/87) 

* Martin Marietta Manned Space Systems, New Orleans, Louisiana; 

Rockwell International Space Transportation Systems Division, Downey, 

California; and United Technologies Corporation, USBI Booster Production 

Company, Inc., Huntsville, Alabama; were selected for contracts to perform 

definition studies for a proposed untended launch vehicle. The new vehicle, 

called Shuttle-C, would supplement the orbiter with an untended cargo element. (NASA Release 87-159) 

October 26: A military satellite was lifted into orbit by a Titan 34D, the 

Nation’s largest untended booster rocket. The launch from California’s 

Vandenberg Air Force Base was the first successful launch of a Titan 34D 

rocket since February 1985. (C Trib, Oct 28/87; LA Times, Oct 27/87; 

W Times, Oct 28/87) 

October 28: William V. Boynton, an Arizona University scientist charged 

with developing a comet penetrator-lander for NASA, announced that a prototype prober was successfully tested at the Sandia National Laboratory in 

Albuquerque, New Mexico. The comet penetrator, an integral part of NASA’s 

Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby mission, is an instrument-bearing missile 

designed to pierce a comet’s surface to a depth of 3 feet or more. 

(NASA Release 87-161) 

October 30: NASA’s Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology selected 

five proposals for the development of space flight technology experiments as 

part of its Industry/University In-Space Technology program. (NASA Release 

87-164) 

President Ronald Reagan signed into law a $9.6 billion authorization 

bill that provided NASA full funding to begin work on the Space Station. 

(W Post, Oct 31/87) 

135 

November 

November 2: Officials at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, 

California, reported that NASA’s C-141 Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne 

Observatory would leave on October 3 1, 1987, for New Zealand on a monthlong mission to study the supernova SN-1987a. Scientists aboard the Kuiper 

would make eight research flights to study the supernova, located 170,000 

light years away. Supernova SN-1987a is the closest supernova to Earth since 

the invention of a telescope some 400 years ago. (NASA Release 87-162; 

AvWk, Nov. 9/87) 

November 3: NASA Assistant Administrator for Commercial Programs James 

T. Rose announced new program initiatives to encourage and expand commercial space activity. Rose told some 270 executives from across the country, meeting for a three-day workshop in Nashville, Tennessee, that the new 

programs will build on earlier NASA commercial development policies. 

According to Rose, the agency already had awarded $50,000 grants to 206 

small businesses for feasibility studies in this area. One of the program initiatives announced by Rose called for 28 percent space allocation for commercial secondary payloads aboard the Space Shuttle. (NASA Release 871165; 

NY Times, Nov 5/87; Tennessean, Nov 4/87; W Times, Nov 5/87) 

November 6: Appearing before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, NASA 

Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher said that building the Space Station was 

critical to the United States regaining initiative in space. “It is no longer a question of whether we should have long-term goals in space,” Fletcher said. “The 

question is can we afford not to lead.” (LA Times, Nov 7/87) 

November 9: NASA announced that the allowable end-of-mission landing 

weight for Space Shuttle orbiters would be increased from 2 11,000 to 230,000 

pounds. The increase means that roughly 19,000 pounds more payload can be 

carried aloft. The new capability was made possible by structural analysis and 

additional review of forces encountered by the orbiter during maneuvers 

shortly before landing. NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Rear 

Admiral Richard H. Truly said that this new capability would add considerable flexibility and efficiency to NASA’s Space Transportation System. 

(NASA Release 87-168; AvWk, Nov 9/87; W Post, Nov 10187) 

After a lengthy debate, the European Space Agency decided to fund an 

independent space program that would give it “full autonomy in space.” Only 

137 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1987 

Great Britain, which has been pushing for cuts in the space exploration program, refused to go along. The decision was reached during the meeting in the 

Hague of ministers from the 13 member states, with France and Germany 

being the primary proponents of the new policy in space exploration. 

The long-range plan adapted by the ministers included a $3.7 billion 

“Columbus” project calling for a crew-tended space module to be connected 

to the proposed U.S.-international Space Station; a free-flying human-tended 

Station to orbit near it; and a polar Earth-observation platform. The plan also 

called for about $4.4 billion for the “Hermes” miniature Space Shuttle, a 

reusable spacecraft with an ejectable cockpit for a crew of three, and $3.5 billion for the “Ariane” 5 rocket, which would be used to boost the Hermes into 

space. (LA Times, Nov 10/87; NY Times, Nov 10/87; W Post, Nov 13/87) 

November 12: NASA announced that two Shuttle crew escape systems would 

be tested in November at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, 

California, using dummies and Navy volunteers. NASA is to make a decision 

early in 1988 on which-if either-of the two systems would be installed 

aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. 

One of the escape systems involved the installation of two-foot-long tractor rockets that would extract the astronauts through an open hatch. The other 

system consisted of a telescoping slide pole that would extend through the 

hatch for the crew members to slide down, away from the disabled spacecraft. 

The crew would be connected to the rocket or the slide pole with a lanyard. 

Neither system would be of use in a Challenger-type explosion that 

occurred without warning. But either could function in the event of a main 

engine failure aborting the mission during launch. Both systems require the 

Shuttle to be equipped with a hatch that can be blown off the spacecraft in an 

emergency. (NASA Release 87-170; H Chron, Nov 13/87; H Post, Nov 13/87; 

NY Times, Nov 14/87) 

November 13: The X-Wing, a NASA experimental aircraft, made its first brief 

venture into the air, lifting 25 feet off the runway for about 16 seconds. The 

X-Wing concept uses a four-bladed rotor system for vertical takeoff and landing. The first major test flight was expected to follow in about two weeks. 

(NASA Release 87-172; Antelope Valley Press, Nov 19/87) 

November 15: The Pentagon released a Defense Intelligence Agency study 

which claimed that the Soviet Union had spent $80 billion on military space 

programs during the last decade. As a result, the Soviet Union was dramatically expanding its ability to boost payloads into space. The study said the 

Soviet Union operated about 50 types of space systems for military and civil138 
NOVEMBER 1987 AS'IRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

1987 

ted St 

November 23: The National Research Council recommended, in its fifth interim report to NASA, additional testing of NASA's new solid rocket motor 

before resuming Shuttle launches, r that the scheduled June 1988 

launch could be postponed. The aintained, however, that the 

planned June 1988 launch date could still be met by concentrating on the more 

extensive tests and deferring some less critical ones. (B Sun, Nov 24/87; 

NY Times, Nov 24/87; W Post, Nov 24/87) 

November 24: NASA released a report, requested by the U.S. Congress, on 

the extended-duration Space Shuttle orbiter. The report examined key aspects 

of a program that would allow the Space Shuttle to perform Earth-orbital missions for as long as 16 days. An extended-duration orbiter, according to the 

report, would be of great benefit for space science and technology. It also 

could prove useful in developing experiments and crew procedures in preparation for the Space Station era. (NASA Release 87-174) 

November 28: The Air Force placed a military satellite, launched aboard a 

Titan 34D rocket, into orbit 23,000 miles above the Earth. According to a 

spokesman from the Federation of American Scientists, the satellite was a 

DSP-SR, one of a series of Defense Support Program satellites providing 

early warning of a hostile missile attack. (NY Times, Nov 30/87; P Znq, 

Nov 30/87; W Post, Nov 30187; W Times, Nov 30/87) 

During November: Martin Marietta signed an agreement with the British 

Ministry of Defense to launch a British Skynet 4 satellite aboard its Tim 

rocket in 1989. The agreement was yet another step in the U.S. effort to shift 

the launching of communications satellites from NASA to private companies. 

(W Post, Nov 9/87) 

A General Accounting Office report found no evidence that NASA 

Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher, or other space agency officials, had violated conflict-of-interest regulations in 1973, when they chose Morton 

Thiokol, fnc. to produce the solid-fuel booster rockets for the Space Shuttle. 

The investigation, carried out by the General Accounting Office, was requested last December by Senator Albert Gore Jr., Democrat of Tennessee. 

(NY Times, Nov 5/87; W Post, Nov 5/87) 

NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Station, Andrew J. Stofan, selected Grumman Space Systems; Bethpage, New York, and Martin Marietta 

Astronautics Group; Denver, Colorado, as contractors for definition and 

139 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOtlEMBER 1987 

preliminary designs studies of the Space Station Flight Telerobotic Servicer 

(FTS). The FTS is a space robot that will assist crews in the assembly, maintenance, and serving of the Space Station and visiting spacecraft. 

(NASA Release 87-176; P Znq, Nov 27/87) 

A team of British and American astronomers discovered two quasars much 

fuaher away from Earth than any previously known. The discovery of the two 

celestial objects, one that is 12 billion light years away, suggests the outer limits 

of the observable universe are still unknown. The new findings were largely a 

result of improved methods for reading photographic plates exposed by the latest telescopes. (LA Times, Dec 7/87; Ny Times, Dec 3/87; W Times, Dec 3/87) 

140 
December 

December 2: NASA announced that the long-delayed mission to Jupiter, originally scheduled for 1982, would be launched in 1989. The 5,870-pound 

untended Galileo spacecraft was to be launched from the Shuttle Discovery. 

After the Challenger accident, NASA decided to use less powerful rockets 

than the originally planned Centaur rockets, which are fueled with volative 

hydrogen. The substitution required an “audacious” rerouting of the spacecraft in order to use the gravitational force of Venus and Earth to propel 

Galileo toward Jupiter. 

The Galileo mission was expected to reach Jupiter in 1995. Upon reaching 

Jupiter, the spacecraft was to release a 737-pound probe that would penetrate the 

atmosphere of the giant gaseous planet. In addition, the spacecraft was to spend 

two years orbiting Jupiter and making flybys of its four largest moons. 

(CSM, Dec 3/87; LA Times, Dec 3/87; USA Today, Dec 3/87; W Post, Dec 3/87) 

December 10: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and Canadian 

Science Minister Frank Oberle approved the agreement on Canadian participation in the U.S. Space Station program. The terms of the preliminary agreement were spelled out in a memorandum of understanding worked out by 

negotiators from NASA and the Canadian Ministry of State for Science and 

Technology. The agreement called for cooperation between the two nations in 

the detailed design, development, operation, and use of the Space Station. The 

agreement would then be submitted for approval to the governments of the 

two countries. (NASA Release 87-182; NY Times, Dec 12/87) 

December 11: The world’s two largest wind tunnels became fully operational 

at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. The two tunnels, the upgraded 40-by-80 foot wind tunnel and the new, open circuit, 80- 

by-120 foot wind tunnel, are housed in the National Full-scale Aerodynamics 

Complex. Both tunnels are used for full-scale and large-scale testing of 

advanced aircraft. They offer new capability for testing of rotorcraft and vertical and short-takeoff and landing aircraft (V/STOL). (NASA Release 87- 

180; P Znq, Dec 12/87) 

December 12: A Soviet rocket burned like a huge fiiball as it reentered the 

Earth’s atmosphere, lighting up the skies over a broad area of the West and 

Midwest. The rocket was used in the launching of Soviet communications satellite Raduga 21 on December 10, 1987. (C Trib, Dec 14/87; LA Times, Dec 14/87) 

141 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1987 

December 16: NASA scientists announced that they have direct proof that 

exploding stars produce most of the 90-odd chemical elements heavier than 

hydrogen and helium. These elements are part of the composition of planets and 

moons in the solar system and also are found in plants and animals on Earth. 

The findings came from observations and analysis of the gamma-ray emissions 

from radioactive cobalt produced in the Supernova 1987a explosion. The observations were conducted by the Solar Maximum Mission satellite, which had 

been studying the Supernova since August 1987, and two balloon-borne experiments flown in October and November from Alice Springs, Australia, as part 

of NASA’s Fall Supernova Observations Campaign. (NASA Release 87-185; 

H Post, Dec 20187; NY Times, Dec 17/87; P Inq, Dec 20187; W Post, Dec 17/87) 

A spokesman for Pentagon’s Strategic Defense Initiative Organization 

(SDIO) stated that research and an experiment conducted by SDIO demonstrated for the first time that lasers and other high-powered electrical devices can be 

operated in space without heavy insulation to prevent short circuits. The experiment involved the launching of a 60-foot rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia, 

on December 13, 1987. Extending from the nose cone of the rocket were two 

probes about 39 inches apart. These probes were alternatively charged with high 

amounts of electrical power, up to 44,000 volts. Although there was no insulation between them, no arcing of the electrical charge between the two probes 

occurred, as it would commonly occur on Earth. The experiment confirmed that 

space is a good insulator in and of itself. (NY Times, Dec 17/87) 

December 18: NASA officials, who met in Moscow with their Soviet counterparts December 7-13 to discuss cooperation in space, said the Soviet Union 

planned to launch a spacecraft to Mars in 1992. In addition, the Soviets asked 

the United States to modify an American spacecraft to help relay data from 

another Soviet mission to Mars set for launching in 1994. (CSM, Dec 21/87; 

H Post, Dec 20187; NY Times, Dec 19/87) 

December 19: An apparent technical problem forced the cancellation of the 

test firing of the redesigned 126-foot-long, 1 .2-million-pound Space Shuttle 

solid rocket motor, Development Motor-9 (DM-9), to be used in the first postChallenger flight. The failed test took place at Morton Thiokol’s Wasatch 

Facility near Brigham City, Utah. The test was canceled one second before 

ignition. This was the second of at least five full-scale tests planned to check 

the operation of the booster’s redesigned O-ring joints. The first fullduration test firing of a redesigned motor took place on August 30, 1987. 

(NASA Release 87-183; P Znq, Dec 20187; W Post, Dec 20187) 

December 21: The Soviet Union launched a Soyuz TM-4 from Baikonur 

Space Center in Soviet Central Asia. The spacecraft, scheduled to dock with 

the Soviet space station Mir on December 23, 1987, carried three Soviet 

142 
DECEMBER 1987 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

cosmonauts: mission commander Vladimir Titov, flight engineer Musakhi 

Manarov, and research scientist Anatoly Levchenko. They were expected to 

work together with the crew already aboard Mir for about a week, then 

Levchenko would return to Earth with YUri Romanenko, who had been in the 

space station for 322 days. The new crew aboard Mir was expected to remain for 

a year, breaking Romanenko’s record. (B Sun, Dec 22/87, Dec 29/87; CSM, 

Dec 30/87; LA Times, Dec 26/87; NY Times, Dec 22/87, Dec 27/87, Dec 29/87; 

P Inq, Dec 22/87, Dec 25/87, Dec 30187; W Post, Dec 25/87, Dec 30/87) 

* 

December 23: NASA awarded contracts to the four aerospace firms it had 

selected on December 1, 1987, to design, develop, test, evaluate, and deliver 

the components and systems comprising the proposed crew-tended Space 

Station, planned for orbit in the mid-1990s. The contracts issued covered 

Phase I, the already approved elements of the Space Station program. Phase 

I1 would cover any potentially needed enhancements of the Space Station’s 

capabilities. The four companies selected, each to perform a unique but interdependent portion of the total program, were Boeing Aerospace Company, 

Huntsville, Alabama; McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company, with locations in Huntington Beach, California and Houston, Texas; General Electric 

Company, Astro-Space Division, with locations in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania 

and East Windsor, New Jersey; and Rocketdyne Division, Rockwell 

International, Canoga Park, California. (NASA Release 87- 177; NASA 

Release 87-187; C Trib, Dec 2/87; LA Times, Dec 2/87; NY Times, Dec 2/87; 

WSJ, Dec 2/87; W Post, Dec 2/87) 

* NASA announced the retirement of Philip E. Culbertson, Associate 

Administrator for Policy and Planning. Culbertson planned to leave NASA in 

mid-January to become President of the Lew Evans Foundation. (NASA 

Release 87- 188) 

NASA announced that White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, was designated an alternate end-of-mission landing site for Space Shuttle missions 

STS-26 through STS-28. The new site was to be used for a Shuttle landing 

when conditions at Edwards Air Force Base in California precluded landing. 

(NASA Release 87- 189) 

Carver Kennedy, Vice President for Space Services at Morton Thiokol, Inc., 

said that engineers successfully test-fired the company’s redesigned Space 

Shuttle booster rocket, planned for use when NASA resumed Shuttle flights in 

June 1988. (WSJ, Dec 24/87; W Post, Dec 24/87; W Times, Dec 24/87) 

December 29: NASA announced that a more detailed examination of the 

results of the December 23 cold weather test-fig of the redesigned booster 

rocket revealed that an outer ring which anchors the booster’s nozzle came 

143 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1987 

apart during the test. The nozzle steers the Space Shuttle during the first two 

minutes of flight. The setback forced NASA to cancel the June 2,1987 launch 

of the Space Shuttle. NASA officials said they were confident the launch 

would be delayed about three months, since the critical elements of the booster rocket, the redesigned field joints, functioned perfectly during the test. 

(B Sun, Dec 30187; NY Times, Dec 30187; WSJ, Dec 30187; W Post, 

Dec 30187; W Times, Dec 30187) 

A Soyuz TM-3, carrying Colonel Yuri V. Romanenko and two fellow 

Soviet cosmonauts, Aleksander P. Aleksandrov and Anatoly Levchenko, parachuted to Earth about 50 miles from the town of Arkalyk in Soviet 

Kazakhstan. The three returned from the Soviet space station Mir, where 

Romanenko had set a new record of 326 days in orbit. (NY Times, Dec 30187) 

The motor section of an MX missile containing nearly 100,000 pounds of 

rocket propellent exploded at a Morton Thiokol, Inc. plant killing five workers. The explosion at the company’s Wasatch Operations plant, 25 miles west 

of Brigham City, Utah, was the fourth major accident at the plant. The cause 

of the explosion was not immediately known. Morton Thiokol also was the 

manufacturer of the Space Shuttle’s booster rocket. (NY Times, Dec 30187, 

31/87; P Znq, Dec 30187; W Post, Dec 30187) 

December 30: Two teams of NASA specialists began an inquiry as to why the 

test-firing of the reconstructed Shuttle booster rocket on December 23 failed. 

The same day, Congressman Manuel Lujan, Jr. of New Mexico urged NASA 

to find a second company, in addition to Morton Thiokol, Inc., to build the 

booster rocket. (B Sun, Dec 3 1/87; H Post, Dec 3 1/87; USA Today, Dec 3 1/87; 

W Post, Dec 31/87; W Times, Dec 31/87) 

The Soviet newspaper Sovietskaya Rossiya reported that two Soviet cosmonauts grew taller while in space. According to the paper, cosmonaut Yuri 

Romanenko grew four-tenths of an inch taller during his record ten and a half 

months in space, and his crewmate Alexander Alexandrov grew six-tenths 

of an inch. The gain in height was because of lack of gravity in space. 

(NY Times, Dec 31/87) 

During December: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher reviewed 

Agency activities during 1987 and declared that “NASA is on the road to 

recovery.” He believed, “the United States can maintain a leadership role in 

space,.but only if the Nation stays truly committed to the space program.” 

(NASA Release 87-184) 

Industry officials said that the U.S. aerospace industry recorded the most 

profitable year in its history in 1987. (P Znq, Dec 17/87) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1988 

January 

January 4: NASA released a proposal to select a prime contractor for a longduration, human-tended scientific satellite called the Advanced X-Ray 

Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). The third of NASA’s four proposed orbiting 

“great observatories”, AXAF would study high-energy emissions associated 

with quasars, spinning neutron stars, and black holes, providing valuable information about these phenomena and serving as an important new tool for basic 

research in plasma physics. AXAF would also provide data on the various 

forms of “dark matter” in the universe, which may help determine whether the 

universe is an open or closed loop. AXAF could be scheduled for launch as 

early as 1995. The orbiting observatory would be 14 feet in diameter, 45 feet 

long, and would weigh 12-15 tons. It would be placed into a circular orbit 320 

miles above the Earth, and would operate for about 15 years. Maintenance of 

AXAF would be accomplished by crews of either the Space Shuttle or the U.S. 

Space Station. (NASA Release 88-1) 

January 4: Engineers at Morton Thiokol’s Wasatch facility in Utah concluded that a design flaw had led to the failure of a previously untested Space 

Shuttle booster part during a full-scale test firing December 23. NASA officials delayed the flight schedule after they discovered that a portion of the 

booster’s nozzle assembly, which guides the vehicle, had fallen apart during 

testing, a month earlier. 

Engineers finished taking the booster motor apart and recovered all six 

missing pieces of the failed nozzle part. Known as the outer boot ring, the 

failed part anchored the booster’s nozzle to a flexible rubbery “boot” that 

allowed the nozzle to swivel. One purpose of the boot ring was to shield the 

metal and rubber bearing at the core of the swivel mechanism from the intense 

heat of the rocket gases. During the test firing, the booster’s nozzle was deliberately moved to the maximum seven degrees-some three degrees beyond 

what would be required during a normal Shuttle flight. NASA was looking 

into the possibility that the extreme steering might have caused the boot ring 

to come apart or delaminate. 

A group of officials at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, developers of the original design test requirements for an extreme swiveling of the 

nozzle, studied whether the maneuver should be repeated in future tests of 

whatever design is adopted, or whether a less severe maneuver would be an 

adequate test under the more stringent, post-Challenger standards. The test 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1988 

failure would probably force a delay of 6 to 10 weeks in the resumption of 

Space Shuttle flights, delaying the STS-26 flight of Discovery to no earlier 

than August 1988. (NASA Release 87-190; UPI, Jan 4/88; W Post, Jan 5/88; 

hT Times, Jan 6/88) 

January 11: Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and 

Astronautics supported Aerospace Sciences Conference, Ross M. Jones, an 

engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, presented a proposal to launch very small, low-cost scientific probes to various 

destinations in the solar system by using Earth-orbiting electromagnetic 

launchers or railguns. Electromagnetic launchers, which produce strong electromagnetic forces that accelerate projectiles to extremely high velocities, were 

being developed by the U.S. military for use both on the ground and in space. 

(NASA Release 88-4; M News, Jan 11/88; W Times, Jan 11/88; LA Times, 

Jan 11/88; LA Star News, Jan 12/88) 

January 13: President Ronald Reagan signed a report to Congress creating a 

joint Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA program for the development 

of the Advanced Launch System (ALS). The ALS was intended to provide a 

launch system that would meet long-term national launch needs; would be 

flexible, robust, reliable, and responsive; and would drastically cut costs in all 

elements of the space launch system. The management plan created a joint program office headed by an Air Force program manager and a NASA deputy program manager. DoD would manage the systems engineering and integration, 

vehicle, logistics, and payload module. NASA would manage liquid engine 

systems and focused technology efforts. DoD would accept full funding 

responsibility for the program, with any unique civil requirements not 

addressed by the ALS baseline being funded by NASA. (NASA Release 88-5) 

January 15: NASA announced that Dr. Raymond S. Colladay, Associate 

Administrator for the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, would 

leave the Agency to serve as Director of the Defense Advanced Research 

Projects Agency, effective February 1, 1988. (NASA Release 88-6) 

January 22: EG&G Florida, Inc. was awarded a $635,529 contract to make 

modifications to the Space Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF). This work would 

include grinding a 3,500-foot section at each end of the runway to smooth the 

surface texture, removing cross grooves and adding longitudinal “corduroy 

grooving.” Additionally, existing landing zone light fEtures were to be modified 

and markings on the entire runway and overruns repainted. These modifications 

were intended to enhance landing safety by reducing Space Shuttle orbiter tire 

wear during landing operations. The SLF is 15,000 feet long and 300 feet wide, 

with a 1,000-foot paved safety overrun at each end. Work was scheduled to begin 

January 26 and be completed by mid-March 1988. (NASA Release 88-10) 

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JANUARY 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

January 26: An engineer who, only hours before the Space Shuttle Challenger 

blew up, warned NASA that it was dangerous to launch the spacecraft in cold 

weather was named a winner of the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility 

Award. Roger M. Boisjoly, a former engineer for Morton Thiokol, Inc.-the 

manufacturer of the Space Shuttle solid rocket motor blamed for the 

Challenger accident that killed seven crew members-was honored by the 

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for attempting to halt the launch and for his attempts to have the flawed rocket 

redesigned. The AAAS, in an announcement, cited Boisjoly “for his exemplary and repeated efforts to fulfill his professional responsibilities as an engineer by alerting others to life threatening design problems on the Challenger 

Space Shuttle and for steadfastly recommending against the tragic launch.” 

Boisjoly was to receive the AAAS award during February 14 ceremonies in 

Boston. (LA Star News, Jan 27/88) 

January 26: This date marked a decade of continuous operation of the 

International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE). The IUE is credited with some of the 

most important advances in modem astronomy, including the discovery of 

galactic halos, monitoring volcanic activities on Io, beaming the first images 

ever recorded of Halley’s comet from space, and monitoring the intense emissions of ultraviolet radiation from Supernova 1987A. The IUE was a joint 

effort of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the British Science 

and Engineering Research Council (SERC). Goddard scientists, engineers, 

and technicians designed, integrated, and tested the IUE. An ESA team built 

the solar array and the ground facilities near Madrid. SERC, in collaboration 

with the University College, London, provided four TV camera detectors for 

transforming the spectral displays into video signals. (NASA Release 88-9) 

January 27: NASA announced August 4, 1988, as the target for launch of the 

next Space Shuttle mission, STS-26. This new launch target was selected following a major program assessment, subsequent to the most recent full-scale 

firing of the redesigned solid rocket motor (SRM) in December 1987, which 

revealed a design defect in the outer boot ring of the SRM case-to-nozzle 

joint. As a result of the assessment, NASA officials determined that the SRMs 

that would boost the orbiter Discovery on STS-26 would use an alternative 

outer boot ring configuration tested successfully during the Development 

Motor-8 firing in August 1987. 

Rollout of Discovery to Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39B was 

scheduled for May 13, and a flight readiness firing of Discovery’s main 

engines and liquid propulsion system was to take place on June 13 

(NASA Release 88-11; Ny Times, Jan 28/88; W Post, Jan 28/88; USA Today, 

Jan 28/88; LA Times, Jan 28/88; P Inq, Jan 28/88) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1988 

January 27: The Washington Post reported that the Martin Marietta Corporation 

agreed to launch communications satellites for the General Electric Corporation 

(G.E.) on untended Titan rockets during the next several years. According to the 

news account, the agreement to launch 15 satellites would establish Martin 

Marietta as the dominant company, developed in the two years since the January 

28, 1986, explosion of the Challenger, in the domestic rocket business. The 

ageeement was expected to bring in revenues between $750 million and 

$1 billion for Martin Marietta through the early part of the next decade, one 

senior company official told the Post. Analysts told the newspaper that the G.E. 

agreement would make Martin Marietta dominant over two U.S. rivals in the 

commercial satellite launching business-McDonneLl Douglas Corporation, 

manufacturer of the Delta rocket, and General Dynamics Corporation, manufacturer of the Atlas Centaur rocket. (UPZ, Jan 27/88.) 

January 27: A United Nations (U.N.) report warned of an alarming increase in 

the amount of space debris in low-Earth orbit since the first orbital launch in 

1957. The report, prepared by Siegfried J. Bauer, Chairman of a U.N. panel on 

“Potentially Environmentally Detrimental Activities in Space,” declared that 

“action on an international scale is obviously needed to deal with the global 

issue of space debris.” Bauer, a professor at the Institute for Meteorology and 

Geophysics of the University of Graz, Austria, said most damage in space collisions until now had been caused by debris from “normal” activities in space. 

However, as a result of the first U.S. anti-satellite weapon tests, part of the 

Strategic Defense Initiative program, “there are already signs of ‘willful’ fragmentation and production of space debris,” he said. 

Bauer said that in the 30 years of the Space Age, since the first Soviet Sputnik 

of October 4, 1957, about 18,000 man-made objects had been projected into 

space. About 7,000 of them, larger than 8 inches-the visibility limit of radarremain in “near-Earth space.” Of these, 23 percent are satellite payloads, 10 percent are burned-out rocket stages, and 62 percent are various fragments. Only 5 

percent are “active” satellites. Some 50 objects “appear to contain radioactive 

material.” Besides the larger fragments, there are at least 2,000 objects ranging in 

size from 4 to 8 inches and about 50,000 in the range of 112 inch to 4 inches. 

Below that, there are “millions to billions of metal and paint chips in the millimeter and submillimeter range” which pose greater danger than would appear 

from their size. Bauer claimed that a half-millimeter metal chip moving at 18,500 

miles per hour “could easily penetrate a space suit and even kill an astronaut.” 

Most space junk is concentrated between 220 and 800 miles above Earth, “exactly where most of the satellites, the Space Shuttle and space stations operate.” 

Bauer said that at this point “the possibility of a collision with space debris 

is still very small, but is not completely negligible, particularly compared to 

the hazard from extraterrestrial material such as micrometeorites.” Bauer list150 
JANUARY 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ed several examples of damage to satellites caused by m 

(UPI, Jan 27/88) 

January 28: NASAAdministrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and Hiroyuki Osawa, 

President of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), 

recently signed an agreement to allow NASA to directly receive data from 

Japan’s Earth Resources Satellite (ERS-1). The agreement would allow 

NASA to have access to real-time data from Japan’s ERS- 1 synthetic aperture 

radar and optical sensor. NASA would receive the data at a ground station at 

the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Data from the ground station would be 

provided to NASDA. Japan’s ERS-1 was scheduled to be launched by 

NASDA on the H-1 launch vehicle in early 1992. (NASA Release 88-12) 

* NASA commemorated the second anniversary of the Space Shuttle 

Challenger accident. At the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, workers 

preparing to resume Shuttle flights paused to pay silent tribute to the 

Challenger crew by halting all activity at 11:38 a.m., the time of the 

Challenger liftoff from launch Pad 39-B on January 28, 1986. Flags around 

KSC and at NASA Centers throughout the country were lowered to half staff 

while workers stood silent for 73 seconds, the length of the fatal Challenger 

flight. Just before the ceremony, KSC Director Forrest S. McCartney spoke 

to workers over a television circuit and loudspeakers saying: “As we make 

preparations to return the Space Shuttles to flight this year, it is appropriate to 

remember the men and women of the Challenger crew.” (UPI, Jan 28/88; 

LA Times, Jan 29/88; C Trib, Jan 29/88) 

January 29: It was announced in a recent NASA press briefing that there had 

been a total of 230 reported “close calls” since the Challenger accident. A 

“close call” was defined by NASA as an incident in which there is no injury, 

no damage, and no impact on schedule, but which possesses the potential for 

a more serious mishap. (NASA Release 1-29-88) 

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, 

Maryland, successfully launched a rocket experiment aimed at simulating the 

effect of small comets entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Following two aborted attempts, the Environmental Reactions Induced by Comets (ERIC) experiment payload was launched from GSFC’s Wallops Flight Test Facility, 

Wallops Island, Viginia, by a two-stage suborbital Terrier-Black Brant VC 

rocket. At the 186-mile (300 kilometer) apogee of suborbital trajectory, the 

payload released a combination of water, carbon dioxide, and ice crystals into 

the upper atmosphere, simulating the release of gases that would result from 

the impact of a small comet with the Earth‘s atmosphere. The gas release was 

synchronized with the passage of NASA’s Dynamic Explorer (DE) satellite 

over Wallops Island. The satellite photographed the atmosphere over Wallops 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1988 

in ultraviolet (W) light in order to detect ionospheric depletion resulting 

from the release of the gases. The purpose of the experiment was to test the 

hypothesis that the phenomenon of ionospheric depletion-a sudden appearance of small holes in the Earths ionosphere-is caused by the impact of 

small, undetected comets. The principal investigator for the project, Dr. 

Michael Mendillo, declared the experiment a success and noted, based on preliminary data, that the hole in the ionosphere “seemed to last longer than we 

had anticipated.” (GSFC Release 88-5; UPZ, Jan 29/88) 

January 30: This date marked the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of 

Explorer 1, the first satellite put into orbit by the United States. The launch of 

the 3 1-pound satellite aboard a modified Army Jupiter-C booster marked 

America‘s entry into a space race with the Soviet Union following their launch 

of two Sputnik satellites. In addition, Explorer 1 discovered the Van Allen 

radiation belts that surround the Earth. (UPZ, Jan 30/88) 

152 
February 

February 2: A DMSP F-9 meteorological observation satellite was successfully launched at 9:53 p.m. aboard an Atlas-E rocket from Vandenberg Air Force 

Base Space Launch Complex-3 in California. The 1,650-pound Department 

of Defense (DoD) satellite was placed in a near-polar orbit. (W Times, Feb 4/88; 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President: 1988, 17 1) 

February 3: An experimental jetliner being developed by McDonnell Douglas 

Corporation debuted in a one-hour flight from the Douglas Aircraft Facility in 

Long Beach, California. The aircraft, with one unducted fan (UDF) engine 

and one ordinary jet engine, was a forerunner of the planned MD-91 and MD92 passenger jets that McDonnell Douglas was actively marketing to airlines. 

The UDF engine, developed by GE, had demonstrated significant reductions 

in fuel consumption over conventional jet engines. McDonnell Douglas’ MD91 and MD-92 airliners were being developed to meet the expected demand 

among airlines for alternative, fuel-efficient aircraft during the latter 1990s. 

“This is as big a jump in technology as going from propellers to jets,” said 

Walt Orlowski, program manager for the experimental aircraft. “We are at the 

forefront of aviation technology.” (LA Times, Feb 3/88) 

February 6: A Trident 1 missile exploded 18 seconds after a training test 

launch from the nuclear submarine Simdn Bolivar. A brief statement issued by 

the Navy said the first stage fired as planned but suffered a malfunction 

shortly after breaching the ocean surface 50 miles off Cape Canaveral, Florida, 

in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the third failure for the Trident series of submarine-launched ballistic missiles since August. The Navy planned to conduct 

an investigation of the test failure. (W Post, Feb 7/88; W Times, Feb 8/88) 

February 8: A NASA Delta 181 launch vehicle carrying a major Strategic 

Defense Initiative (SDI) experimental payload was launched at 5:07 p.m. EST 

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The 6,000 pound payload, 

the heaviest ever carried by a Delta rocket, consisted of a main orbiting sensor platform and fifteen subsatellites released from the main spacecraft during 

the first 4 hours of the 12-hour experiment. The goal of the $250 million exercise was to test the ability of an orbiting sensor platform to detect and track 

the various components of Soviet Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) 

in flight. Four of the subsatellites were small solid-fuel rockets whose exhaust 

plumes simulated the exhaust from the upper stages of Soviet ICBMs, whereas other test objects simulated real and “dummy” Soviet warhead reentry 

153 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1988 

vehicles. During the mission, the main satellite and subsatellites were monitored by over 100 radar tracking stations, which simulated the ground-based 

component of an antimissile defense system. In addition, the exercise also 

included the detection, by sensors on the satellite, of a @foot sounding rocket launched from Kauai, Hawaii. The experiment was declared a success 

despite the failure of an infrared sensor. The Delta launch, originally scheduled for February 4, was delayed five days because of an apparent valve malfunction on the Delta. Data gathered by the satellite during the 12-hour exercise wouId be transmitted to Earth over a 10-day period. (SSR 1988 008A-D; 

UPI, Feb 9/88; M Times, Feb 9/88; W Post, Feb 9/88; W Times, Feb 9/88; 

USA Today, Feb 9/88) 

NASA announced that Andrew J. Stofan, Associate Administrator for the 

Space Station, would retire from the Agency on April 1. Stofan’s career with 

NASA spanned nearly 30 years. He had directed the Space Station program 

since June 1986. During his tenure, the program underwent a major cost 

review which culminated in an Administration-approved plan to develop the 

Space Station in two phases. Stofan also oversaw the establishment of the 

Space Station program office in Reston, Virginia.(NASA Release 88-16) 

February 11 : The White House officially unveiled a comprehensive “Space 

Policy and Commercial Space Initiative to Begin the Next Century,” intended to assure U.S. space leadership into the 21st century. The release of the 

space policy had been delayed for several days because of a dispute among 

NASA, the President’s Economic Policy Council, and Congress over aspects 

of the commercial space initiative. The most controversial component of the 

initiative was the proposed Industrial Space Facility (ISF), an orbiting, 

Shuttle-tended materials processing laboratory that would be jointly used by 

NASA and by private companies. The ISF was being promoted by some members of Congress and the Economic Policy Council as an interim step toward 

the permanently crew-tended Space Station. NASA Administrator Dr. James 

C. Fletcher submitted a “minority report” to the president opposing the policy Council’s recommendation that NASA immediately commit to leasing the 

ISF from Space Industries, Inc., a commercial space venture. In response to 

the Administrator’s concerns, the commercial space policy statement recommended competitive bidding to build the ISF and a reconfiguration of the 

facility as a crew-tended laboratory. 

A draft of the 39-page commercial space initiative included a report by the 

National Security Council on national security implications of commercializing space, and legislative and administrative proposals by President Ronald 

Reagan’s Economic Policy Council on how to promote commercialization of 

space. Among other key proposals were the promotion of a private launch 

vehicle industry and the establishment of limits on the amount of third-party 

liability insurance coverage commercial space projects would have to carry. 

154 
FEBRUARY 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

President Reagan also announced a program to develop the technologies 

needed to conduct human-assisted exploration of the solar system, including 

a mission to Mars. The program, labeled Project Pathfinder, would allot 

NASA $100 million in fiscal year 1989 to begin developing technologies for 

tended missions to the Moon and Mars. (Presidential Directive on National 

Space Policy: Fact Sheet, Feb 11/88; WH Release, Feb 11/88; NY Times, Jan 

24/88; W Times, Jan 27/88; AvWk, Feb 1/88) 

February 15: NASA successfully launched the first of three suborbital rocket 

experiments to study Supernova 1987A. The rocket, launched from the 

Woomera, Australia Range, carried an x-ray spectrometer that observed x-ray 

emissions in the 0.3-7 keV band. Two additional rocket experiments were 

scheduled for launch during a window lasting until March 20. An earlier 

series of sounding rocket observations of Supernova 1987A were conducted 

from Woomera during November and December 1987. Both campaigns used 

Black Brant IX two-stage, solid-fuel rockets. (LRC Release 88-7) 

February 24: A segment of a Space Shuttle solid rocket motor was test fired 

at Morton Thiokol's Wasatch facility in Utah in a test of the solid rocket motor 

nozzle joint. The overall test objective was to evaluate performance of the 

redesigned solid rocket motor case-to-nozzle joint that had an insulation adhesive defect and damaged O-ring in order to determine the fail-safe performance of the redesigned joint. The redesigned case-to-nozzle joint included 

100 added radial bolts, adhesively bonded insulation surfaces, and an added 

"wiper" O-ring designed to keep the adhesive on the insulation surfaces during assembly. The test was part of the Shuttle motor redesign program. 

(NASA Release 88-23) 

NASA announced that it would lease to the US. Government unassigned 

space aboard a commercially developed space facility. The leasing agreement 

would apply for five years beginning at the end of fiscal year 1993. At least 

30 percent of the facility would be available for commercial use. 

The facility would be deployed, checked out, and serviced periodically on 

orbit by Space Shuttle crews. It would provide a crew-tended, shirtsleeve 

workspace and would also be able to operate in an untended, free-flying 

mode, providing a microgravity environment for periods of four to six 

months. NASA would initiate an open competition to be managed by the 

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. (NASA Release 88-25) 

February 26: NASA announced the appointment of Manuel (Manny) Peralta 

as Associate Administrator for Management, effective February 28. He had 

been acting in this post since April 28, 1987, replacing June Gibbs Brown, 

nominated by the President to become Inspector General for the Department 

155 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1988 

of Defense. Prior to joining NASA, Peralta had over 30 years of industry 

experience in business, engineering, and project management, most recently 

as a senior executive with Exxon, responsible for implementation of worldwide capital projects and the European Engineering Office. (NASA Release 

87-26 and Key Personnel Change Announcement, Feb 25/88) 

February 29: NASA announced plans to acquire a Boeing 747-100 jetliner to 

serve as a second Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) for the space transportation system. A letter contract was signed with Boeing Military @lane 

Company, a division of the Boeing Company, Seattle, to reserve the aircraft for 

NASA use. The additional SCA would provide increased ferrying capability and 

eliminate a potential single-point failure in the space transportation system. 

The 231-foot long aircraft would be modified to carry Shuttle orbiter vehicles from landing sites to orbiter processing facilities at the Kennedy Space 

Center, Florida. The 747-100, which is nearly identical to the original SCA, 

was selected to minimize costs associated with modifications and operation. 

(NASA Release 88-28; JSC Release 88-005) 

During February: Aviation Week Space Technology reported that the Soviet 

Union was assessing a major expansion of its untended Mars balloon/rover 

mission planned for 1994. Soviet officials were evaluating the possibility of 

significantly increasing the payload capability of its dual Mars orbiterflander 

spacecraft by using aerobraking instead of rocket propulsion to enter Martian 

orbit. Aerobraking would enable the Soviets to dispense with rockets needed 

to decelerate the spacecraft sufficiently to enter Martian orbit, thereby making 

available an additional 3,300 pounds of payload capacity. 

An approved aerobraking maneuver would give the Soviets several new 

features to the balloon/rover mission, including: a 1 10-pound subsatellite that 

would be released into Martian orbit to provide Mars gravity data; 10 “meteorbeacons” dropped on the surface that would return data on temperature, 

pressure, and wind velocity; two penetrators that would dive as deep as 16 

feet into Mars’ surface to return data on chemical composition, soil temperature, and water vapor content; a high resolution orbiter imaging system; and 

two Earth-return vehicles, which would serve as test vehicles for a future 

automated soil sample return mission. (AvWk, Feb 29/88) 

Using NASA’s new supercomputer at the Numerical Aerodynamics 

Simulation Facility, Dr. Kozo Fujii, a research fellow at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center, Mountain View, California, developed a computer model 

that simulates the air-flow field physics associated with vortex breakdown and 

provides new insights into its causes. Vortex breakdown is a complex phenomenon that can cause loss of lift and control for high-performance aircraft. 

156 
FEBRUARY 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Understanding and eventually controlling vortex breakdown would improve 

maneuverability and safety for high-performance aircraft. (NASA Release 88-13) 

157 

March 

March I : NASA announced that an international team of researchers, coordinated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, was using 

satellites to study how the Earths tectonic plates move in the Caribbean Sea 

and Central and South America. The experiment, spanning several years, 

would allow researchers to chart the motions of dozens of land sites in 16 

countries using signals from orbiting navigation satellites. Research teams 

carreied electronic receivers designed to pick up signals from seven NAVSTAR satellites operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, as part of the 

Global Positioning System (GPS) program. By locating receiver equipment 

at established survey markers in South America and the Caribbean, and collecting GPS data from up to four GPS satellites passing overhead, researchers 

calculated the location of receiving sites on the ground and are planned to 

compare measurements over time to determine tectonic displacement. 

The plates studied included the Caribbean plate, in portions of the southern 

Caribbean Sea; the Cocos plate, in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of 

Central America; the Nazca plate, off the west coast of South America; and the 

South American plate, upon which lies most of the South American continent. 

The research was funded by NASA’s Office of Space Science and 

Applications, Earth Science and Applications Division. (NASA Release 88-30) 

March 3: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher appeared before the House 

Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications on the agency’% proposed 1989 

budget. He stressed that 1989 would be a crucial year for NASA, a year that 

would “make or break” the Nation’s space program. The proposed budget included funds to increase the rate of Shuttle flights in 1989 in order to “fly off’ the 

backlog of vital defense and science missions. A build up of funding for Space 

Station hardware development was also requested. Dr. Fletcher testified that the 

requested additional funds for the Space Station were the minimum necessary to 

avoid the disbandment of development teams and the indefinite deferral or cancellation of that program. He also warned that if funds for advanced technology 

were not approved, the necessary technological foundation for future achievements would not be built, and the goal of long-term U.S. space leadership would 

“become an idle dream.” (1989 NASA Authorization Hearings Before the House 

Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications, Mar 3/88; NASA Release 88- 

31; AP, Mar 22/88; W Times, Mar 23/88; LATimes, Mar 23/88) 

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ASTRoNAuncs AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1988 

* NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher announced that James B. Odom 

was the new Associate Administrator for Space Station, NASA Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. He replaced Andrew J. Stofan, who recently announced he 

was leaving the Agency on April 1. Odom joined the U.S. Army's rocket 

research and development team at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, in 1956, as a 

systems engineer. He transferred to the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1959, 

where he held various engineering and technical management positions, including that of Chief of the Engineering and Test Operations Branch for the second 

stage of the Saturn V launch 3 vehicle. He was appointed Manager of the 

External Tank Project in the Space Shuttle Projects Office in 1972 and became 

Deputy Manager for Production and Logistics in the Shuttle Projects Office in 

1982. He was appointed Manager of the Space Telescope Office in 1983. Odom 

is the recipient of numerous service awards. (NASA Release 88-32) 

March 7: In response to a civil suit brought under the Freedom of Information 

Act by the Associated Press and six other news organizations, the Justice 

Department disclosed documentation showing that the Federal Government 

and Morton Thiokol paid $7,735,000 in cash and annuities to settle all claims 

with the families of four of the crew members who died in the explosion of 

the Shuttle Challenger. Thiokol, maker of the faulty booster rocket blamed for 

the January 28, 1986, explosion, paid $4,641,000. The Government's share of 

the settlement was $3,094,000. The settlements were reached on December 

29, 1986, with the immediate survivors of the spacecraft crew members, 

Francis R. Scobee, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Sharon Christa 

McAuliffe. Settlements had been reached among Thiokol and two other families-those of Judith Resnik and Ronald E. McNair-with no Government 

contribution. A claim by the widow of Michael J. Smith against Thiokol was 

still pending in Federal court. The Federal Government maintained that it cannot be held liable for the deaths of civilian and military government erriployees who die on duty. (UPI, Mar 8/88; NY Times, Mar 8/88; W Post, Mar 8/88; 

WSJ, Mar 8/88; USA Today, Mar 8/88; LA Times, Mar 8/88; W Times, Mar 

8/88; C Trib, Mar 8/88; P Znq, Mar 8/88; AP, Mar 13/88) 

March 8: NASA announced that preparations were under way to bring on line 

two new Space Shuttle abort-landing sites in northwestern Africa. These sites 

would be used as contingency landing facilities in the event of a transatlantic 

abort during the launch of STS-26 and subsequent missions. The new sites 

would be located at Ben Guerir (40 miles north of Marrakech), Morocco, and 

Banjul, The Gambia. 

With the addition of these new sites, and the continued use of sites at 

Zaragoza Air Base and Moron Air Base in Spain, the total number of transatlantic abort sites came to four. The Ben Guerir, Banjul, and Moron sites would 

be staffed with 30 to 40 NASA and contractor personnel during the launch of 

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MARCH 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

STS-26. Robert Fleming, program manager for the contingency landing site 

program at Kennedy Space Center, said, “These sites must be operational and 

all requirements met in time for the next mission. We hope we never have to 

use them. But they will be ready.” (NASA Release 88-34) 

March 10: NASA announced it was designing a sophisticated radar receiving 

system to help image and track Arctic ice flows and study the remote areas of 

Alaska and its surrounding seas. The overall system, including a 10-meter 

receiving antenna called the Alaska SAR Facility, was to be located at the 

University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF), managed by the university 

Geophysical Institute, and implemented by NASA’s Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory (JPL). The system initially was to receive signals from three satellites carrying synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which penetrates thick cloud 

cover and produces data for high resolution images. 

The facility was scheduled to be fully operational in time for the April 

1990 launch of the ESA satellite E-ERS 1. The facility was to receive data 

from Japan’s J-ERS 1 satellite and the Canadian-led multinational Radarsat 

satellite. NASA had assembled an ad hoc team of investigators, cochaired by 

project scientists from JPL and the University of Alaska, to assist in facility 

development. (NASA Release 88-35) 

* NASA announced that George W.S. Abbey was to be the new Deputy 

Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, 

effective immediately. Abbey had been Special Assistant to the Director, 

Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, since November 1987. He began his 

NASA career in 1967 as Technical Assistant to the Manager of the Apollo 

Spacecraft Program. He became technical assistant to the Center Director in 

1969, Director of Flight Operations in 1976, and Director of the Flight Crew 

Operations Directorate in 1983. He is a recipient of numerous honors and service awards. (NASA Release 88-36) 

March 11: A European Space Agency (ESA) Ariane 3 launch vehicle was successfully launched from Kourou Launch Center in French Guiana carrying 

two communications satellite payloads, including a U.S. satellite. The launching had been scheduled for December but was delayed for extra tests after 

abnormalities were detected in the oxygen and liquid hydrogen third-stage 

engine. Twenty minutes after launch, the Ariane 3 released the French 

Telecom 1C and GTEs Spacenet III Geostar RO1 communications satellites 

for auto-boost into geostationary orbit, 22,554 miles above the Equator. The 

spacenet satellite was expected to begin its boost toward geostationary orbit 

at 87 degrees west longitude on Wednesday. (FBIS-WEU-88-049, Mar 14/88; 

SSR 1988 018A-D; Ny Times, Mar 13/88; W Post, Mar 12/88; LA Times, 

Mar 12/88; C Trib, Mar 13/88) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCCH 1988 

March 12: NASA's C-141 Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) 

departed NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, for 

Guam to study the Sun's atmosphere during the total solar eclipse of March 

17-18. A team of seven scientists aboard KAO was to make a flight through 

the shadow of the Moon as it moves across the Pacific Ocean. The scientists 

were interested in the few seconds at the beginning and end of the solar 

eclipse when the Sun would be almost completely covered by the Moon and 

when the edge of the solar disk would begin to reappear from behind the 

Moon. The Kuiper would intercept the path of the eclipse about 600 miles 

northwest of Guam. The Kuiper, a modified Lockheed C-141 jet transport aircraft, is fitted with a 36-inch diameter telescope and flies at 41,000 to 45,000 

feet. Measurements of the solar atmosphere would be made at the far-infrared 

wavelengths of 30,50, 100,200,400, and 800 micrometers, representing the 

first attempt to simultaneously record these wavelengths from the Sun on such 

a narrowly defined spatial scale. (NASA Release 88-37; ARC Release 88-08> 

March 15: A report released by an international panel of over 100 scientists 

assembled by NASA showed that the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer over the 

Northern Hemisphere had increased at a much faster rate than previously 

believed. The report, prepared over 17 months, provided definitive evidence 

showing that the ozone layer, which shields life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, had been depleted by an average of about 2.3 percent, since 1969 

over most of the United States, and by as much as 5 percent over the South Pole. 

The observed ozone loss was at least twice as large as scientists had predicted and 

was attributed primarily to the continued release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). 

The NASA study group reexamined years of ground-based and satellite 

observations of the atmosphere in order to remove the normal biennial fluctuations of many atmospheric characteristics and the effects of the 11-year 

solar cycle. The ground-based observations were limited to mid-latitudes in 

the Northern Hemisphere because there were few stations elsewhere in the 

world. This was the first effort by scientists to separate the effects of solar and 

biennial fluctuations from the monthly data at different latitudes. The release 

of the study results followed ratification by the U.S. Congress of the Montreal 

Protocol, an agreement endorsed by 46 countries, which calls for a 50 percent 

reduction in emissions of CFCs by the end of the century. (UPZ, Mar 15/88; 

NY Times, Mar 16/88; W Post, Mar 16/88; W Times, Mar 16/88; USA Today, 

Mar 16/88; WSJ, Mar 16/88; CSM, Mar 16/88; B Sun, Mar 16/88; P Inq, Mar 

16/88; C Trib, Mar 16/88; LA Times, Mar 21/88) 

March 15: NASA issued an updated fleet manifest reflecting current planning 

for primary payloads for Space Shuttle missions and expendable launch vehicles through fiscal year 1993. Two interplanetary missions were planned for 

launch in 1989: Magellan, a mission to map Venus; and Galileo, a cooperative 

162 
MARCH 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

project with Germany to survey Jupiter and its moons. The Hubble Space 

Telescope also maintained the flight assignment date of June 1989. Astro-1, a 

Spacelab mission designed to study the universe in the ultraviolet spectrum, was 

being reconfigured to enhance the study of Supernova 1987a and was slated to 

fly on STS-35 in November 1989. Two additional Spacelab missions were 

assigned flights for September 1990-a Spacelab Life Sciences mission in 

March and the first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science 

(ATLAS-1) mission. The Gamma Ray Observatory was moved forward in the 

projected schedule for a March 1990 launch, and the Ulysses mission to study 

the Sun and its environment remained at the projected October 1990 launch date. 

Another important addition to the manifest was a mission to retrieve the 

Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) in July 1989. The manifest was also 

designed to support the commercial space initiative included in the National 

Space Policy. In addition to the Shuttle launches, 35 launch vehicle launches 

were planned through fiscal year 1993. (Payload Flight Assignments-NASA 

Mixed Fleet, Mar/88; NASA Release 88-38) 

March 16: Congress ordered a temporary halt to NASA's efforts to lease a commercial crew-tended space laboratory, citing several irregularities in NASA's 

handling of the procurement process and questioning the space agency's abrupt 

reversal of its prior opposition to the facility. The chairmen of the House appropriations subcommittee for NASA, Representative Edward Boland, and the 

Chairman of the House authorization subcommittee for NASA, Representative 

Bill Nelson, agreed to freeze funding for the facility until these issues could be 

addressed. Several ranking members of the House and Senate had written 

NASA to complain that the Agency was moving ahead with a contract without 

congressional authorization. (H Post, Mar 24/88; AvWk, Mar 28/88) 

* Morton Thiokol, Inc. was fined by Utah state officials for six safety violations in connection with a December 29, 1987, fie that killed five workers 

and destroyed a missile casting building at Thiokol's Wasatch facility near 

Salt Lake City. The Utah Occupational and Safety Health Division sought 

fines of $3 1,700 against Thiokol, citing violations of safety rules related to 

protection of workers, deviations from approved procedures, and failure to 

take precautions against static electricity buildup in a rocket-casting facility. 

An Air Force investigation into the immediate cause of the fire, which 

occurred during the casting of solid rocket propellant into the metal casing of 

an MX missile segment, was pending. (UPI, Mar 16/88; W Post, Mar 17/88; 

NY Times, Mar 17/88; WSJ, Mar 17/88; W Times, Mar 17/88) 

March 16: NASA began flight tests of a new design of low-noise, energy efficient aircraft propellers. The tests, undertaken jointly by NASA and Lockheed 

Corporation as part of the Propfan Test Assessment (PTA) program, were to 

163 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1988 

determine whether large, unducted propellers with a radically swept design are a 

feasible alternative to higher-cost turbofan (conventional jet) propulsion systems. 

Researchers estimated that a thoroughly reworked version of the old propeller aircraft would save airlines 15 to 30 percent a year in fuel costs, compared with the most advanced turbofan-powered aircraft flying in the 1990s, 

and still fly as fast as conventional airliners. (NASA Release 88-40) 

The Soviet Space Research Institute and the Soviet government agreed to 

place aboard a spacecraft, destined for the Martian moon Phobos, a plaque 

commemorating discovery of the Moon and its sister moon Deimos in 1877 

by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory. The 

Soviet Phobos mission, due for launch in July 1988, involved two Soviet 

spacecraft. They would reach the vicinity of Mars in early 1989 and be placed 

in elliptical orbits around the planet. Both would approach Phobos in 

sequence and release landing probes. (NASA Release 88-41) 

March 18: NASA concluded negotiations with the ESA on a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cooperation in the design, development, 

operation, and use of the permanently crew-tended civil international Space 

Station complex. Under the terms of the new MOU, ESA would provide the 

Columbus laboratory module to the international Space Station complex. This 

permanently attached, pressurized module would support approximately 40 

single equipped racks for payloads and storage. ESA would also provide an 

untended, free-flying polar platform for Earth observation experiments, complementing the polar platform under development by the United States. As a 

third element, ESA would provide a man-tended free flyer (MTFF) designed 

to accommodate long-duration microgravity applications in the fields of fluid 

physics, life, and material sciences. (NASA Release 88-44) 

March 22: NASA unveiled plans for an ambitious program to study the Earth 

as a single ecological system, the Los Angeles Times reported. Called the 

Earth Observing System, the U.S. portion of the multinational project would 

cost well above $2 billion and would use a wide range of orbiting laboratories, including free flying platforms and facilities aboard the international 

space station. The heart of the program would include four platforms-two 

from the United States, one from Europe, and one from Japan-that would be 

launched into polar orbit around the Earth by the participating countries. The 

program, which was still in the planning stage, was described by NASA science division spokesman Charles Redmond as “a critical element in NASA’s 

strategic plan.” (LA Times, Mar 23 1‘88) 

March 25: The San Marco D/L spacecraft was successfully launched on a 

U.S. Scout launch vehicle from the San Marco Equatorial Range in Kenya. 

164 
MARCH 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The launch, originally planned for March 18, had been delayed to permit replacement of a yaw rate gyro in the Scout. Five scientific instruments-three from the 

United States, one from the Federal Republic of Germany, and one from Italywere carried on the spacecraft to study Earth‘s lower atmosphere. (SSR 1988 

026B; NASA DAR, Mar 3/88; NASA Release Mar 2/88; LRC Release 88-8,88- 

84 

March 30: NASA and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) 

invited America’s students to participate in a national competition to name 

NASA3 replacement Space Shuttle orbiter. NASA specified that the name 

chosen not only should identify an American spacecraft but also should capture the spirit of America’s mission in space. In honor of the seven crew members lost in the Challenger accident, the name “Challenger” has been retired. 

House Joint Resolution 559, introduced March 10, 1986, by Congressman 

Tom Lewis (R-Florida), called for the name of the replacement orbiter to be 

selected from suggestions submitted by students. On October 30, 1987, 

Congress authorized the NASA Administrator to select a name for the new 

orbiter “from among suggestions submitted by students in elementary and 

secondary schools.” The new orbiter, designated OV- 105, under construction 

by Rockwell International in California, was scheduled for completion in 

April 1991. (NASA Release 88-46). 

During March: The Air Force and NASA debated possible new destruct 

guidelines covering when a malfunctioning Shuttle and crew would have to 

be blown up to prevent greater loss of life on the ground. In the wake of the 

Challenger accident, the debate over new Shuttle range safety guidelines 

focused on increasing public safety while at the same time giving the crew of 

a malfunctioning Shuttle as long as possible to overcome the problem and “fly 

it out” before a destruct order would have to be issued. As a result, the Air 

Force suggested barring all non-essential personnel-VIPs, journalists and 

spectators-from the Kennedy Space Center for future Shuttle launches. “It’s 

the kind of thing [where] you wish you could hide your head in the sand and 

pretend like it didn’t have to exist, that there was never going to be any problem,” said veteran Robert “Hoot” Gibson, Commander of the second postChallenger Shuttle flight. (UPZ, Mar 5/88, H Chron, Mar 6/88) 

165 

April 

April 2: NASA announced that it would remove and inspect the liquid oxygen 

turbopumps aboard the Shuttle Discovery, a move that was expected to delay 

Discovery's launch beyond the scheduled date of August 4. The pumps will be 

inspected to ensure that critical bolts in the devices are properly tightened and 

have not been stripped. Delays resulting from the inspection are expected to 

push back Discovery's launch date until late August. (UPI, Apr 2/88; W Post, 

Apr 3/88; USA Today, Apr 4/88; P Inq, Apr 4/88) 

April 5: NASA and the ESA announced the selection of scientific investigations to be conducted on two spacecraft as part of a joint NASA-ESA solar 

terrestrial research program. More than 130 U.S. scientists were scheduled to 

participate in the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and Cluster 

missions. Two spacecraft systems were to be built by ESA with instruments 

supplied by both ESA and NASA. The Cluster mission, involving a set of four 

satellites, was planned for launch on an ESA Ariane launch vehicle in 

December 1995. The Cluster would investigate the space plasma three-dimensional microphysics phenomena in Earths magnetic field environment, using 

four identical spacecraft in polar orbits. SOHO, planned for launch by NASA 

on the Shuttle or on an expendable launch vehicle in March 1995, would be 

placed at the Earth-Sun La Grangian point and investigate the physical 

processes that form and heat the solar corona and give rise to the solar wind. 

The SOHO and Cluster missions are an outgrowth of the International Solar 

Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) program, a major international program in solar and 

space physics organized in 1985 by NASA, the Japanese Institute for Space 

and Astronautical Science (ISAS), and ESA. (NASA Release 88-48) 

April 7: NASA selected a telescoping pole as the egress method for the Space 

Shuttle's new crew escape system. The escape system, to be carried on all future 

Shuttle flights, would provide crew escape capability from the orbiter during controlled, gliding flight following failures or difficulties during ascent or entry where 

landing at a suitable landing field could not be achieved. Tests conducted in 

February and March, using a fixed pole extending through a hatch-like opening in 

a C-141 aircraft, demonstrated that the pole would provide adequate orbiter clearance in an emergency egress situation. The telescoping pole system had been chosen over an alternative tractor rocket extraction system. (NASA Release 88-50; 

JSC Release 88-014; AP, Apr 8/88; Ny Times, Apr 8/88; W Post, Apr 8/88; 

USA Today, Apr 8/88; LA Times, C Trib, Apr 9/88; Apr 8/88; P Inq, Apr 8/88; 

H Post, Apr 8/88; H Chron, Apr 8/88) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1988 

April 11: Astronomers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa announced the 

discovery of the oldest and most distant galaxy ever seen. The galaxy, called 

0902+34, was estimated to be 10 times the size of the Milky Way and 12 billion light years from Earth. Measurements indicated that the galaxy was 

formed much earlier in the history of the universe than had been generally 

thought possible, requiring a revision of accepted theories on the distribution 

of matter in the early universe and the formation of galaxies. The galaxy was 

discovered by Dr. Simon J. Lilly, a staff astronomer at the University of 

Hawaii at Manoa. (NY Times, Apr 12/88; W Post, Apr 12/88; W Times, Apr 

12/88; P Znq, Apr 12/88) 

April 14: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher stated that the Moon, 

rather than Mars, may be the best initial destination for possible U.S./u.S.S.R. 

human-assisted missions. “Going to the Moon together would give the two 

leading spacefaring nations in the world an opportunity to build a stable base for 

further cooperation, which could, one day, lead to a cooperative mission to 

Mars,” he said. Speaking before the National Space Symposium in Colorado 

Springs, Colorado, Fletcher cited timing, cooperative experience, and technical 

readiness as three crucial factors favoring the Moon for an initial cooperative 

crew-tended mission. 

Dr. Fletcher described 1988 as “perhaps the most critical year in the history of the U.S. civil space program,” and he refuted the notion that American 

space leadership was lost. 

Dr. Fletcher said the Administration’s fiscal year 1989 budget request for 

NASA provided the resources to reestablish U.S. leadership in space. (Excerpts 

from Remarks Prepared for Delivery, National Space Symposium, U.S. Space 

Foundation, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Apr 14/88; NASA Release 88-52) 

April 18: NASA submitted to the Congress its acquisition plan for the Space 

Shuttle Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM). The plan contained NASA’s 

strategy for a full and open competition to introduce an ASRM into the Shuttle 

system. NASA contended that a new booster design would result in substantive 

improvements in flight safety, reliability, and performance over the current 

SRMs produced by contractor Morton Thiokol, Inc. 

The ASRM design considered by NASA would be an advanced version of the 

segmented boosters currently in use in the Shuttle program. The new boosters 

would have a more reliable field joint design and would be more powerful than 

the current SRMs, providing for a 12,OOO-pound increase in the Shuttle‘s payload 

capacity. Additionally, the ASRMs would preclude the necessity for throttling the 

Space Shuttle’s main engines during the period of maximum dynamic pressure, 

thereby reducing OT eliminating about 175 “criticality l/lr” failure modes for the 

Shuttle system. 

168 
APRIL 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

An important aspect of NASA’s ASRM acquisition plan was the proposal 

that the boosters be developed in a new Government-owned contractor operated (GOCO) facility and that the contract be subjected to competitive bidding. In 

response to protests by Morton Thiokol and the Utah congressional delegation, 

led by Senator Jake Gam, NASA altered the proposal to include the possibility 

of building the ASRM in a currently existing private facility. The overall cost to 

develop the ASRM was estimated at just under $1 billion, including modern 

tooling and equipment, plus $200-$300 million for construction of facilities. 

Under the current production schedule, the first ASRMs would be flight certified by 1993. Thiokol announced it would bid aggressively to build the ASRM 

at its existing facilities in Utah. (NASA Release 88-54; UPI, Apr 18/88; AP, Apr 

19/88; USA Today, Apr 19/88; W Times, Apr 19/88; NY Times, Apr 20188; 

W Post, Apr 20188; WSJ, Apr 20188; ) 

April 20: The third full-duration test firing of NASA’s redesigned Space 

Shuttle solid rocket motor was carried out at Morton Thiokol’s Wasatch 

Facility near Brigham City, Utah. The l26-foot long, 1.2 million-pound 

motor, designated Qualification Motor-6 (QM-6), underwent a full-duration 

horizontal test firing of two minutes. The test, tentatively labeled a success, 

was the third of five test firings to be carried out prior to the scheduled 

resumption of Shuttle flights in August 1988. (NASA Release 88-51; MSFC 

Releases 88-43, 88-44; AP, Apr 20188; UPI, Apr 20188; NY Times, Apr 21/88; 

W Post, Apr 21/88; USA Today, Apr 21/88; W Times, Apr 21/88) 

April 21: The Canadian government announced that it would become an 

active partner in the international Space Station Program and would provide 

equipment worth $1.2 billion to the project. Canada’s main equipment contribution to the Space Station would be a roving space robot that would serve as 

the “arms and legs” of the Station. The robot, which would be comparable to 

but more advanced than the “Canadarm” currently carried on U.S. Space 

Shuttles, would be a critical tool in Station construction and docking activities. In return for Canada‘s contribution, Canadian astronauts would be entitled to six-month tours of duty on the Station every two years. Canadian space 

officials announced plans to expand their astronaut corps in anticipation of the 

Canadian presence on the Space Station. (Tor Star, Apr 22/88) 

April 25: Two U.S. Navy navigation satellites were launched from 

Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, into a 600-mile circular polar orbit 

aboard a NASA Scout rocket. The two Oscar satellites were part of the U.S. 

Navy’s long-established, continuous all-weather global navigation system. 

Made available to non-Navy users in 1967, the spacecraft had since been 

adapted for diverse civilian uses such as commercial shipping, charting of offshore oil and mineral deposits, and land survey projects. The system provided position information within one-tenth of a nautical mile anywhere in the 

169 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1988 

world. This marked Scout's 100th flight and followed closely on the heels of the 

Scout San Marco D/L launch, which took place on March 25 from the San Marco 

Range platform in the Indian Ocean. (SSR 1988 033A-G, NASA Release 88-55) 

April 28: The fifth and final short-duration solid rocket motor Nozzle Joint 

Environment Simulator (NJES) firing test was carried out. The overall objective of the test, part of the Space Shuttle solid rocket motor redesign program, 

was to evaluate the fail-safe performance of the redesigned case-to-nozzle 

joint with verified defects. (NASA Release 88-56) 

170 
May 4: A series of powerful explosions destroyed the Pacific Engineering & 

Production Company oxidizer plant near Las Vegas, Nevada, killing two plant 

employees and injuring over 350 people. The plant was a major supplier of 

the ammonium perchlorate oxidizer used aboard the Space Shuttle’s solid 

rocket motors and other military and civilian boosters. The explosions produced flames that shot 100 feet into the air and created a 400 foot-wide crater 

at the facility site. Seismographs at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 200 

miles away in Pasadena, California, detected two of the blasts registered at 3.0 

and 3.5 on the Richter scale. The cause of the explosions was investigated. 

The destruction of the oxidizer plant raised concerns among NASA and contractor Morton Thiokol over the availability of solid fuel oxidizer beyond the 

next four Space Shuttle fights. Aprolonged interruption of Pacific Engineering’s 

production activities would also threaten the military’s missile production schedule. (UPI, May 5/88; AP, May 5/88; NY Times, May 5/88; W Post, May 5/88; 

WSJ, May 5/88; USA Today, May 5/88; W Times, May 5/88; B Sun, May 5/88) 

May 5: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher voiced alarm over the 

House of Representative’s resolution for fhding of NASA’s fiscal year 1989 

budget. Speaking in Washington before a symposium on “Science Education: 

A Challenge for Excellence in America’s Future,” Dr. Fletcher issued his toughest warning yet about the consequences of reducing the NASA funding levels 

proposed by the Administration. the Administrator warned that “the civil space 

program will be stopped in its tracks” if the House funding figure of $10.2 billion-cut by over $1 billion from the Administration proposal-were to be 

passed. More specifically, Dr. Fletcher predicted the reduced budget would kill 

the Space Station program and lead to the abrogation of several international 

commitments in space science and applications. (NASA Release 88-60). 

May 12: The Associated Press and United Press International news agencies 

reported that U.S. surveillance satellites had detected the explosion of a Soviet 

solid propellant plant 500 miles southwest of Moscow in the Ukraine. The 

Soviet Union confirmed that an explosion had occurred-killing three people 

and seriously injuring five others-but denied that rocket propellants had 

been involved in the blast. U.S. intelligence officials claimed that the explosion destroyed several buildings at the plant and put a halt to all solid propellant manufacturing activities at the facility, which was the only source of solid 

propellant for the SS24 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Two weeks 

171 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1988 

prior, a powerful series of explosions destroyed a solid propellant plant in 

Nevada, killing two plant employees and injuring hundreds of others. 

Pentagon officials estimated it would take at least six months for the Soviet 

facility to resume production of ICBM propellants. (AP, May 18/88; UPZ, 

May 18/88; W Post, May 18/88; WSJ, May 18/88; USA Today, May 18/88; 

W Times, May 18/88) 

May 13: NASA's Lewis Research Center and the NASAbndustry Advanced 

Turboprop Team were awarded the prestigious Collier Trophy at the annual 

Robert J. Collier Trophy Dinner hosted by the National Aviation Club. Lewis 

and the NASAbndustry Advanced Turboprop Team were honored for developing technology and testing advanced turboprop propulsion systems that 

offered dramatic reductions in fuel usage and operating costs for subsonic 

transport aircraft. (NASA Release 88-59) 

May 14: An untended Soviet spacecraft carrying fuel, food, equipment, and 

mail, docked with the Mir space station. Two Soviet cosmonauts, on a long 

duration mission, tended Mir. The cosmonauts, Vladimir Titov and Musa 

Manarov, arrived at the space station in December and were expected to stay 

in space for about a year, breaking the 325-day endurance record set the previous year by Yuri Romanenko. (FBIS-Sov-88-108, Jun 6/88; SSR 1988 038A; 

AP, May 14/88) 

May 17: A European Space Agency (ESA) Ariane 2 launch vehicle was successfully launched at 758 p.m. EDT from the Kourou Launch Center in 

French Guiana. The 162-foot, three-stage rocket successfully carried into 

orbit the 2,619-pound Intelsat 5 commercial communications satellite which 

would eventually propel itself into a 22,300-mile geosynchronous orbit. This 

was the 22nd launch of the Ariane series and the second Ariane 2 launch in 

1988. A total of eight Ariane 2 launches were scheduled for 1988. (SSR 1988 

040A; AP, May 18/88; UPI, May 18/88) 

May 19: Science magazine published findings from a recent Earth-based 

radar mapping of the planet Venus, conducted by Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

(JPL) scientists. Newly processed radar pictures of the surface of Venus 

showed what may be geologically recent volcanic activity and impact cratering, including possible volcanic mountains and broad lava flows and 

fields like those which make up the Hawaiian Islands. The JPL radar 

images, with a resolution of less than a mile, were the latest in a series of 

Earth-based radar scans of Venus conducted at the Goldstone, California, 

complex of NASA's Deep Space Network. The Magellan spacecraft was 

expected to make more detailed radar observations of Venus in 1990. 

(NASA Release 88-65; G Trib, May 21/88) 

172 
WAY 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

May 21: In an interview with the Washington Post, Soviet leader Mikhail 

Gorbachev announced he would ask President Ronald Reagan to approve a 

joint Soviet-U.S. untended flight to Mars during the upcoming summit meeting in Moscow. A Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman said Gorbachev‘s proposal for a Mars mission was recommended by Roald 2. Sagdeev, a Soviet 

space expert, as a symbol of superpower cooperation and a fruitful scientific 

and technological undertaking. “This is a field for cooperation that would be 

worthy of the Soviet and American people,” Gorbachev said. “And I will 

make that proposal to President Reagan.” (W Post, May 22/88; UPI, May 

22/88; LA Times, May 22/88; B Sun, May 23; C Trib, May 23/88) 

May 23: NASA and the Department of Commerce awarded the first U.S. 

Government contract for commercial launch transportation services to a private 

fm. The two agencies contracted General Dynamics Space Systems Division, San 

Diego, California, to provide expendable launch vehicle transportation services for 

the Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). This contract marked 

the first time a contractor assumed systems performance responsibility for overall 

program and subcontractor management, vehicle design, production, testing and 

vehicle-to-payload integration, mission integration, launch services, system effectiveness, overall launch vehicle performance, and mission success. 

In a related matter, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center recently entered into an 

agreement with General Dynamics that allowed the company to use NASA 

Launch Complex 36 and associated facilities for commercial launch operations of 

the Atlasfcentaur rocket. (NASA Release 88-66; UPI, May 23/88; AP, May 

24/88; B Sun, May 24/88; NY Times, May 25/88; C Trib, May 26/88) 

Negotiators from NASA and the government of Japan reached agreement in 

substance on the text of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cooperation in the detailed design, development, operation, and utilization of the permanently crew-tended civil Space Station. The Japanese Science and Technology 

Agency would serve as NASA’s counterpart in implementing this MOU. 

Under the terms of the new MOU, Japan would provide the Japanese 

Experiment Module (EM)-a permanently attached, pressurized laboratory 

module, which would include an exposed facility and an experiment logistics 

module. The pressurized portion of the EM would provide a shirt-sleeve 

environment for the Space Station crew to perform research activities. The 

EMS exposed facility would be used for scientific observations, Earth observation, communications, advanced technology development and other activities requiring direct exposure to space. The experiment logistics module, 

which would provide transportation and storage of logistics items, would be 

transported to the Station by the Space Shuttle. (NASA Release 88-70) 

173 

June 

June 6: Morton Thiokol announced that it would not bid on a $1.5 billion contract to build the proposed Space Shuttle Advanced Solid Rocket Motor 

(ASRM). Instead, Thiokol officials stated they would concentrate on building the 

current generation of redesigned solid rocket motors, currently undergoing Fmal 

testing prior to the resumption of Space Shuttle flights in September. (UPZ, Jun 

6/88; AP, Jun 6/88; NY Times, Jun 7/88; WSJ, Jun 7/88; LA Times, Jun 7/88) 

June 7: A Soviet Proton launch vehicle, carrying a Soyuz TM-5 spacecraft 

with a three-man Soviet-Bulgarian crew, took off from the Baikonur launch 

facility. The Soyuz TM-5 crew was to join a two-man crew aboard the Mir 

space station. The launch, which occurred at 10:04 a.m. EDT, was the first 

Soviet crew-tended launch in 1988. The Mir visit was to be a 10-day mission 

in which the visiting astronauts would perform over 40 experiments aboard 

the station. The two astronauts aboard Mir were to remain after the departure 

of their colleagues and continue a year-long endurance mission that was 

expected to break the record established by Yuri Romanenko in 1987. (FBISSOV-88-1 0, Jun 8/88; SSR 1988 048B; NY Times, Jun 8/88; B Sun, Jun 8/88) 

June 8: Negotiations were completed among the United States, Canada, 

Europe, and Japan on the framework for international cooperation in the 

Space Station program. 

Under the agreements, the United States would provide the overall Space 

Station framework operating subsystems, including life support and 75 kilowatts of power; laboratory and habitat modules; and a free-flying platform that 

would be placed in polar orbit for Earth observation. Canada would provide a 

Mobile Servicing System, which would be used in conjunction with the assembly, maintenance, and servicing of Space Station elements. Japan would provide the Japanese Experiment Module, a permanently attached pressurized laboratory module, which would include an exposed facility and an experiment 

logistics module. The European Space Agency would provide a pressurized 

laboratory module, which would be permanently attached to the crew-tended 

base; a free-flying polar platform to work together with the U.S. polar platform; and an astronaut-tended free flyer to be serviced at the crew-tended base. 

The United States anticipated spending approximately $16 billion (fiscal year 

1989 dollars) to develop Space Station hardware. The total foreign commitment 

to the Space Station was in excess of $7 billion. Furthermore, the partners would 

175 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1988 

cover more than 25 percent of the Space Station's expected annual operating 

costs throughout the 20-30 year life of the program. Signature of the agreements was expected later in the summer. (NASA Release 88-74) 

June 9: The first direct observation of an atmosphere on Pluto was made by 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) astronomers flying aboard 

NASA ARC'S Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO). A team of astronomers 

from MIT, including Edward Dunham, James Elliot, Amanda Bosh, Steve 

Slivan, and Leslie Young, made the observation during a temporary occultation of a star behind Pluto. The observations were made at 41,000 feet (12,300 

meters) altitude, approximately 500 miles south of Pago Pago, American 

Samoa, over the Southern Pacific Ocean. Information about the temperature, 

pressure, and extent of the atmosphere would be derived from the occultation 

data, obtained using a solid state video camera attached to KAO's 36 inch (92 

cm) telescope. The airborne observations lasted about 1.5 minutes, occurring 

shortly after midnight. (ARC Release 88-40) 

June 13: This date marked five years since the Pioneer 10 spacecraft had left the 

solar system on its trajectory toward interstellar space. Pioneer 10-the most 

distant human-made object in existence-was now 4,175,500,000 miles from 

the Sun, almost 45 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Radio signals, 

moving at the speed of light, took 12 hours and 26 minutes to travel from Earth 

to spacecraft and back, the longest time of any radio communication in history. 

The spacecraft, launched in 1972, continued to operate extremely well as 

it collected and transmitted data back to Earth. Its primary mission, originally scheduled for 21 months, was to assess the feasibility of passage through 

the Asteroid Belt and provide the first close-up examination of Jupiter and its 

moons. Pioneer 10 accomplished all of its original goals by December 1973. 

At that point, the mission was indefinitely extended. Scientists reprogrammed 

the probe to explore the Sun's atmosphere and to look for a tenth planet and 

gravity waves in the far outer solar system and beyond. 

Recent improvements in the NASA ground stations were expected to allow 

commlmications with Pioneer 10 to continue until the range approached six 

billion miles, more than twice the pre-launch estimates. Project Manager 

Richard 0. Fimmel expected that NASA would be able to track Pioneer 10 

until the power source limited communications, which was expected to occur 

toward the end of the 1990s. 

Both Pioneer 10 and its sister spacecraft, Pioneer 11, carried an easily 

interpreted graphic message in the event that they encountered any intelligent 

life forms on their journey. Scientists believed Pioneer 10 and 11 would travel among the stars virtually forever because the vacuum of interstellar space 

116 
JUNE 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

is so empty that the risk of any type of collision would be negligible. (ARC 

Release 88-36) 

June 14: The fourth full-duration test firing of NASA's redesigned Space 

Shuttle solid rocket motor was conducted at Morton Thiokol's Space 

Operations facility near Brigham City, Utah. The test was part of the Shuttle 

motor redesign program. The 126-foot-long, 1.2-million-pound motor, designated Qualification Motor-7 (QM-7), underwent a full-duration, horizontal test 

firing of two minutes. After a preliminary examination of the fired motor, 

NASA and Morton Thiokol officials declared the test an apparent success. The 

exercise involved the first use of a new test stand at Morton Thiokol. One 

remaining full-duration test, Production Verification Motor- 1 (PVM- 1), would 

be conducted in July, prior to the next Space Shuttle flight. (NASA Release 

88-7; NY Times, Jun 15/88) 

June 16: An advanced Navy navigation satellite, NOVA-11, was launched into 

polar orbit on a NASA Scout launch vehicle from Western Space and Missile 

Center (WSMC), California. This was the 111th flight of the 73-foot long, 

four-stage, solid propellant Scout launch vehicles. (SSR 1988 052C; NASA 

Release 88-75) 

June 26: This date marked the tenth anniversary of the launch of NASA's 

Seasat Satellite, which ushered in a new era in space research focusing on 

unsolved questions of the world's oceans and weather. Launched on June 26, 

1978, on an Atlas-Agena rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 

Seasat carried a payload of five scientific instruments unlike any package carried on previous remote-sensing satellites. 

Among the experimental instruments Seasat pioneered were a synthetic 

aperture radar, which provided highly detailed images of ocean and land surfaces; a radar scatterometer to measure near-surface wind speed and direction; 

a radar altimeter to measure the height of the ocean surface and waves; and a 

scanning multichannel microwave radiometer to measure surface temperature, 

wind speeds, and sea ice cover. The satellite also carried a passive visual and 

infrared radiometer to provide supporting data for the other four experiments. 

Seasat demonstrated how space sensors could be used in oceanography, 

serving as a protoype for a generation of international missions that could provide answers to some of the world's most baffling and threatening weather 

phenomena. (NASA Release 88-84) 

June 28: Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, NASA Associate Administrator for 

Space Flight, updated the target for the upcoming Space Shuttle launch to 

early September and indicated that he was very pleased with the progress of 

111 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1988 

preparations for STS-26. The new launch target was selected following a major 

review covering all aspects of the Shuttle program and Truly’s subsequent report 

to NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher. Truly said, “Hard work by a lot 

of people is paying off and the Shuttle program is coming along nicely.” 

Discovery was scheduled to be rolled out to the Kennedy Space Center 

Launch Pad 39B the first week of July. A flight readiness firing (FRF) of 

Discovery’s main engines and liquid propulsion system was targeted for late 

July. The final full-scale, full-duration test firing of the redesigned Shuttle 

solid rocket motor (SRM) prior to STS-26 was also planned for late July. 

(NASA Release 88-85) 

June 30: The NASA Administrator appointed Ivan Bekey to be Special 

Assistant for System Engineering and Planning Integration, Office of 

Exploration. Bekey would be responsible for overall systems engineering for 

Office of Exploration studies and formulation of top level architecture. In the 

previous year, he served as Director of Program Planning for the Office of 

Policy and Planning. For the preceding six years, he was the Director of 

Advanced Programs, Office of Space Flight. He was also NASA coordinator 

for the National Commission on Space. Bekey joined NASA in 1978. 

(NASA Special Announcement on 06-60-88) 

178 
July I: NASA officially transferred custody of Launch Complex 17 and East 

Coast Delta launch operations to the U.S. Air Force. Since 1960, NASA had 

conducted 143 Delta launches from the two-pad Complex, located at Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Under Air Force stewardship, Complex 

17 would continue to be used to launch Delta medium class vehicles. The Air 

Force had procured 20 new Delta 11s for Department of Defense payloads. 

The first launch was scheduled for later in 1988. In addition, at least eight 

commercial Delta 11s would be launched by McDonnell Douglas Astronautics 

Company, Huntington, Beach, California, from Complex 17 between 1989 

and 1992. (NASA Release 88-99) 

July I : NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, inaugurated its Mark I11 Hypercube parallel supercomputer, the result of a fiveyear research and development effort at the JPL Center for Space 

Microelectronics Technology and the California Institute of Technology 

(Caltech). The Mark I11 spearheaded the arrival of massively parallel supercomputing. Its first module, placed on-line at the Caltech computer network, 

contained 32 nodes, or processing units, which together had a peak speed of 

about 5 12 million floating point operations per second. Three more 32-node 

modules would be added during the next nine months to form a 128-node 

hypercube with a peak speed of 2 billion floating point operations per second. 

The Mark I1 Hypercube was being used for scientific, engineering, and 

defense research applications, including analysis of NASA multispectral 

space imaging data; analysis of NASA synthetic aperture radar images taken 

from the Space Shuttle; and simulation of the Strategic Defense System. 

(NASA Release 88-88) 

July 4: The fully assembled Space Shuttle Discovery vehicle was rolled out 

of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Launch 

Pad 39-B in preparation for mission STS-26, scheduled for late September. 

(UPI, Jul 4/88; NY Times, Jul 5/88; W Post, Jul 5/88; WSJ, Jul 5/88; W 

Times, Jul5/88; P Inq, Jul5/88) 

July 5: An ad hoc committee, assembled to review safety risk management in 

the National Space Transportation System program, completed its report, 

finding that there had been “a positive change in attitudes” by NASA and 

NASA contractors towards safety. The six-member committee, composed of 

179 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1988 

both Government and independent safety experts, found no significant system 

safety issues that would adversely impact the STS-26 launch. (NASA 

Release: 88-89) 

July 7: The Soviet Union successfully launched the Phobos 1 spacecraft to 

Mars aboard a 198-foot Proton launch vehicle from the Baikonur launch facility. Phobos 1 and Phobos 2, scheduled for launch the following week, would 

carry 100-pound landers designed to analyze Phobos, the larger of the two 

moons of Mars. The 17-mile-long, potato-shaped Phobos and its smaller 

moon Deimos were thought to be asteroids captured by the gravitational field 

of Mars. Tracking support for the Soviet missions would be provided by 

NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), whose primary mission would be to 

provide essential tracking data to permit landings on Phobos. The DSN would 

then shift to enabling a key scientific goal of the mission, to track Phobos very 

precisely. The 13,000-pound Phobos spacecraft would carry more than two 

dozen robotic instruments on their 200-day journey to Mars. (FBIS-Sov-88- 

131, Jul 8/88; SSR 1988 058A; NASA Release 88-87; UPZ, Jul 8/88; 

NY Times, Jul 8/88; W Post, Jul 8/88;) 

July 12: The Soviet Union successfully launched the Phobos 2 spacecraft to 

Mars aboard a 198-foot Proton launch vehicle from the Baikonur launch facility. The Phobos 2 launch occurred less than a week after the launch of its companion spacecraft, Phobos 1. (FBIS-Sov-88-134, Jul 13/88; SSR 1988 059A, 

W Post, Jul 13/88; W Times, Jul 13/88; LA Times, Jul 13/88; P Znnq, Jul 13/88; 

C Trib, Jul 13/88) 

NASA announced that a scientist at the Ames Research Center, Mountain 

View, California, had developed a new, ground breaking computational model 

that could accurately simulate the complex, fluctuating airflow within aircraft 

engine turbines and compressors. The new computational model, developed 

by NASA scientist, Man Rohan Rai, was expected to generate significant savings for the aircraft engine industry once it became ready for commercial 

applications. The model performed one of the most complex computer simulations ever undertaken and provided the most accurate calculation to date of 

air flow within turbines. Engine concepts and designs had been tested primarily by experimental methods, most often by building prototype engines 

and subjecting them to a battery of tests. Advanced computer techniques were 

far less expensive and much faster. Current computational work was performed on a Cray-2 supercomputer at the new Ames Numerical 

Aerodynamics Simulation Facility. (NASA Release 88-94; ARC Release 88- 

50; SF Chron, Jul 13/88; Bus Week, Jul25/88) 

July 13: In a setback for the Space Station program, the Senate approved a 

$10.1 billion appropriation for fiscal year 1989-$1.4 billion less than was 

180 
JULY 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

requested by NASA and the Reagan administration. The legislation provided 

only $200 million of the estimated $767.4 million NASA said it needed to 

continue basic work on the Space Station program. An earlier House appropriations bill approved $902 million of the $967 million requested for the 

Station. Senior Reagan administration officials warned that the final version 

of the bill would provoke a Presidential veto if it lacked sufficient funding to 

continue the Space Station program. (UPZ, Jul 13/88; WSJ, Jul 14/88; 

W Times, Jul 14/88; USA Today, Jul 14/88; LA Times, Jul 14/88) 

An Indian-built rocket carrying a weather satellite malfunctioned and 

plunged into the Indian Ocean shortly after it was launched from India’s 

Sriharikota Island launch facility. The five-stage, 80-foot rocket Augmented 

Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) apparently suffered a malfunction in the solid 

fueled first stage boosters. This was the second failure of the new rocket, 

which suffered a catastrophic malfunction during its first launch attempt in 

March 1987. The launch failure was interpreted by space experts as a major 

setback for India’s civilian space and ballistic missile development programs. 

(IVY Times, Jul 14/88; C Trib, Jul 14/88; P Znq, Jul 14/88; LA Times, Jul 14/88) 

July 13: The Administrator appointed Edward A. Frankle to be NASA general counsel. Frankle had been Deputy General Counsel since October 27,1985. 

He began his career at NASA in September 1982, as Chief Counsel of the 

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. (NASA Release 88-98) 

July 15: The launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery faced further delays as a 

result of the discovery of a fuel leak in a fuel line inside one of the Shuttle’s 

orbital maneuvering system (OMS) pods. NASA engineers determined that 

the small leak, which was detected during a test of the OMS fuel tanks, would 

have to be fixed prior to the launch of Discovery. The repair might delay the 

Shuttle launch by up to two months, depending on whether the spacecraft 

could be serviced at the launch pad or would have to be rolled back to the 

vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Center. NASA officials said the 

leak would not affect the scheduled test firing of the Shuttle main engines on 

July 28. (IVY Times, Jul 18/88; W Post, Jul 18/88; W Times, Jul 18/88; 

USA Today, Jul 18/88; P Inq, Jul 18/88) 

July 18: President Ronald Reagan christened the planned international Space 

Station “Freedom,” to symbolize the values shared by the U.S. and its allies. 

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the name “Freedom” was recommended by NASA officials and representatives of Canada, Japan, and the 

European Space Agency, project participants. (WH Release, Jul 18/88; UPZ, 

Jul 18/88; W Post, Jul 18/88; W Times, Jul 18/88) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1988 

July 20: NASA announced it would test-throughout the month-a new 

deep-space communications system with its Voyager 2 spacecraft, in preparation for the Voyager 2 fly-by of Neptune in August 1989. As part of the new 

system, NASA added the 27 telescopes from the National Radio Astronomy 

Observatory’s (NRAO) Very Large Array (VLA) facility to the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory‘s deep space network (DSN). This action more than doubled 

DSNs ability to capture the Voyager signal, which became extremely faint as 

it approached the vicinity of Neptune. Under an agreement between NASA 

and the National Science Foundation, NRAO sponsors, engineers installed 

new receivers and microwave horns, tuned to the Voyager X-Band radio frequency, on all the 82-foot dish antennas at the VLA. Special signal-processing and communication equipment was added so that the VLA would be 

linked by satellite to the DSN’s Deep Space Communication‘s Complex at 

Goldstone, California. (NASA Release 88- 102) 

July 21 : An ESA Ariane 3 rocket carrying two communications satellites was 

successfully launched from the Korou Launch Center in French Guiana. The 

Ariane 3, launched at 7: 12 p.m. EDT, carried two satellites belonging to India, 

and the European Telecommunications Satellite (Eutelsat), into polar orbit. 

(UPI, Jul22188; W Times, Jul22188) 

July 26: NASA announced selection of the Government sites to be used as 

production and testing facilities for the Agency‘s planned Space Shuttle 

Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM). The Tennessee Valley Authority 

property known as Yellow Creek, in northeastern Mississippi, was selected as 

the location of the ASRM production facility, while NASA‘s Stennis Space 

Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, was selected for ASRM testing. 

Maximum utilization also would be made of available manufacturing and 

computer capability at the Michoud Assembly Facility and the Slidell 

Computer Complex, both located in southeast Louisiana, to minimize total 

program costs. The planned ASRM, which would replace the current 

Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors in the mid-l990s, would incorporate substantive design changes to improve reliability and safety margins, as well as 

provide a significant added performance capability to the Space Shuttle. 

(NASA Release 88-104; MSFC Release 88-102; UPI, Jul27/88; W Post, Jul 

27/88; USA Today, Jul27188) 

During July: A team of NASA scientists from the Marshall Space Flight 

Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the Lockheed Company, and the University of 

Alabama in Huntsville, announced the discovery of a new high-temperature 

superconductor. According to a paper published in Applied Physics Letters, 

the scientists demonstrated that “samples of yttrium-barium-copper oxide, 

when mixed with silver oxide, heat treated, and exposed to -320 degrees 

Fahrenheit, can be suspended below a rare Earth magnet by the magnetic field 

182 
JULY 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

trapped in the sample.” Because superconducting material excludes a magnetic field, by floating a superconductor beneath a magnet, the two materials 

are firmly attracted to each other, but never touch. According to Palmer N. 

Peters, of Marshall’s Cryogenics Physics Office and a member of the scientific team, the implications of high temperature superconductors for space 

technology are numerous. “In space, with the elimination of the weight associated with gravity, it should be possible to develop low-vibration, low-friction couplings and bearings,” Peters said. “The importance of the discovery is 

that this new material not only has stronger suspension forces but exhibits 

other unusual magnetic properties: it has demonstrated a lower electrical 

resistance at normal temperatures, is easier to solder, and is less brittle than 

other high temperature superconducting materials.” (MSFC Release 88- 104) 

183 

August 

August 1: A Wet Countdown Demonstration Test (WCDT) of the Space 

Shuttle Discovery's External Tank (ET) was conducted following several 

unplanned holds as a result of problems with ground support equipment. The 

WCDDT, carried out with Discovery deployed for launch at the Kennedy 

Space Center's Launch Complex 39-B, consisted of loading the ET with liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen in mock preparation for a Shuttle launch. 

(NASA STS-26 Press Kit) 

August 2: NASA launched the first of three untended balloons that would search 

for cosmic rays, including those that could provide evidence of galaxies made 

of antimatter. The balloon flights were to be conducted throughout August from 

a launching site at Prince Albert Saskatchewan mort, Canada, as part of the 

NASA Balloon Program. Each of the balloons would carry one of three cosmic 

ray experiments: an extragalactic matter experiment that would search for heavy 

antinuclei; a scintillating optic fiber experiment; and a high energy spectrometer telescope. (NASA Release 88- 106; GSFC-WFF Release 88-25) 

August 3: NASA held dedication ceremonies for the newly renamed John C. 

Stennis Space Center-formerly the National Space Technology 

Laboratories-in Hancock County, Mississippi. The Center was named for 

Mississippi's retiring senator by an Executive order signed May 20, 1988, by 

President Ronald Reagan. (NASA Release 88-93) 

August 4: NASA appointed Gary L. Tesch to be NASA Deputy General 

Counsel. Tesch had been serving as Associate General Counsel (contracts) 

prior to this appointment. (NASA Release 88-109) 

August 8: Astronomers at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute, 

Baltimore, Maryland, and the University of California at Berkeley uncovered 

the most distant galaxy yet seen. Called 4C41.17, the newly discovered 

galaxy is located at an estimated distance of 15 billion light years-more than 

90 percent of the distance to the visible limits of the universe. The discovery 

was made by a team of American and European astronomers, using the Very 

Large Array (VLA) Radio Telescope Facility near Socorro, New Mexico, and 

was confirmed a galaxy using the 2.1 meter optical telescope at Kitt Peak 

National Observatory. Studying remote galaxies like 4C41.17 was expected to 

help forge a better understanding of how galaxies have evolved since the time 

of the Big Bang. This research was supported by NASA, the European Space 

185 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1988 

Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope 

project, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. (NASA Release 88- 11 1; 

P Inq, Aug 9/88; B Sun, Aug 9/88) 

August IO: After an aborted first attempt on August 4, a 22-second flight 

readiness firing (FRF) of the Space Shuttle Discovery's main engines was 

conducted on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 

39-B. The first FRF attempt had been halted inside the T-10 second mark 

because of a sluggish fuel bleed valve on the number 2 main engine. The 

faulty valve was replaced prior to the FRF. (AP, Aug 10/88; UPI, Aug 10188; 

NY Times, Aug 11/88; W Post, Aug 11/88; WSJ, Aug 11/88; CSM, Aug 11/88; 

W Times, Aug 11/88; B Sun, Aug 11/88; P Inq, Aug 11/88) 

August I1 : A Space Systems Development Agreement was signed by NASA 

and Spacehab, Inc., a private firm that was developing a Shuttle-based pressurized module for commercial applications. According to the agreement, 

NASA agreed to provide Shuttle payload bay space for Spacehab's middeck 

augmentation module on six Shuttle flights beginning in 1991. Spacehab 

would pay $28.2 million (adjusted for inflation) for standard services for each 

flight. The Spacehab module, to be constructed by McDonnell Douglas 

Astronautics Company, Huntsville, Alabama, would be a metal truncated 

cylinder measuring 10 feet in length by 13 feet in diameter, designed to fit in 

the Shuttle's cargo bay. Shuttle crew members would access the module 

through a tunnel from the Shuttle's middeck. The company would make available to customers a variety of locker and rack accommodations, with associated support and integration services. Spacehab was specifically identified in 

the President's Commercial Space Initiative, announced in February, in which 

the Reagan administration committed to make the best efforts to launch the 

commercial module in the early 1990s.(NASA Release 88-114) 

August 18: The fifth and final test of NASA's redesigned Space Shuttle solid 

rocket motor, prior to resumption of Shuttle flights, was conducted at Morton 

Thiokol's Space Operations facility near Brigham City, Utah. The 126-footlong, 1.2 million-pound motor, designated Production Verification Motor- 1 

(PVM-l), underwent a full duration, horizontal test firing of two minutes. The 

motor was extensively flawed to demonstrate the fail-safe characteristics of 

the redesign. (NASA Release 88-113; AP, Aug 18/88; UPI, Aug 18/88; 

h?Y Times, Aug 19/88; W Post, Aug 19/88; WSJ, Aug 19/88; USA Today, Aug 

19/88; W Times, Aug 19/88; B Sun, Aug 19/88 ) 

* NASA announced that TRW, Inc. had been selected for final negotiations 

leading to the award of contracts for extended definition and development of 

the space-based Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). The facility 

would be the third in NASA's series of space-based great observatories, fol186 
AUGUST 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

lowing the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gamma Ray Observatory into orbit 

in the mid-1990s. These observatories, as well as the Space Infrared Telescope 

Facility, would permit simultaneous, complementary observations of astrophysical phenomena over different wavelengths of the spectrum. The objective of 

this project would be to develop a high-quality, x-ray telescope to be used by 

the international scientific community, in conjunction with NASA, for an operational period of 15 years. The proposed cost of the contract was approximately $508 million. (NASARelease 88-118; MSFC Release 88-131) 

August 25: NASA launched two U.S. Navy navigational satellites aboard a 

Scout rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The two Oscar satellites, each weighing 141 pounds, were placed into a 600-nautical-mile circular 

polar orbit. The Oscars were part of the Navy's all-weather, global navigation 

system. The Stacked Oscars on Scout-4 (SOOS-4) mission marked the fourth 

and final Scout launch for 1988. (SSR 1988 074A-G; NASA Release 88-116) 

August 29: A Soviet Proton launch vehicle carrying a Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft, 

with three cosmonauts on board, was successfully launched from the 

Baikonur Cosmodrome. The three-man Soyuz crew, which included an 

Afghan and a Soviet physician, was scheduled to join a two-man crew aboard 

the Mir space station on the week-long mission. The physician, Valery 

Polyakov, was to remain aboard Mir after the departure of his Soyuz crewmates and continue monitoring the health of the Mir cosmonauts, who were 

in the eighth month of a record-breaking year-long endurance mission. (FBISSov-88-168, Aug 30/88; SSR 1988 075A; UPI, Aug 30188; W Post, Aug 

30188; CSM, Aug 30188; P Inq, Aug 30/88) 

August 30: NASA issued the newest update of its mixed-fleet manifest, 

reflecting current planning for primary payloads for Space Shuttle missions 

and expendable launch vehicles (launch vehicles) through fiscal year 1993. 

The manifest reflected changes made to accommodate a slower than expected resumption of Shuttle flights and the necessity of rescheduling to conserve 

the launch windows for three major planetary missions. Among the major 

changes made was a rescheduling of the Hubble Space Telescope launch from 

June 1989 to February 1990 and the transferral of a Department of Defense 

Shuttle mission to an expendable launch vehicle. (Payload Flight 

Assignments-NASA Mixed Fleet, Aug 1988; NASA Release 88-120) 

During August: A Cray Y-MP, the fastest supercomputer in the world, arrived 

at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, and underwent 

acceptance' tests in the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Facility. 

The NAS was established as a national facility available to leading U.S. 

research institutions through a national network. It had long-term support 

from Congress to use the fastest available computers to achieve rapid progress 

187 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1988 

in US. aerospace work and in other fields such as weather, astrophysics, and 

chemistry. 

Supercomputer systems were complementing and extending aerospace 

research being done in wind tunnels and high-velocity (4,000 to 15,000 mph) 

shock tunnels. The new Y-MP central processor would not only solve old 

problems four times as fast as existing systems, but also would be used to 

investigate flow phenomena that could not be investigated currently by wind 

tunnels or computers. Another important application of the NAS supercomputer system would be the modeling of airflows for hypersonic vehicles such 

as the National Aero-Space Plane and the Space Shuttle. 

Ames was the first customer to take delivery of this new supercomputer, 

expected to be fully operational by January 1989. (ARC Release 88-80) 

188 
September 

September I: The fifth firing in a series of Transient Pressure Test Articles 

(TPTA) was conducted in the East Test Area of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight 

Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The test, designated TPTA 1.3, was part of the 

Space Shuttle solid rocket motor redesign program. For this test, flaws were 

intentionally cut into both the test article’s field joints, the case-to-nozzle 

joint, and other components of the redesigned motor. Instrumentation on the 

motor recovered data to verify the structural performance, thermal response, 

and sealing capability of the redesigned field and case-to-nozzle joints. 

(MSFC Release on 08/30/88) 

September 2 : A classified Department of Defense payload was launched 

aboard a Titan 34D launch vehicle from launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral 

Air Force Station. Sources quoted by the Associated Press said the rocket 

failed to carry its payload into the correct orbit. The payload was widely 

believed to be a Vortex reconnaissance satellite. (SSR 1988 077A-C; UPI, Sep 

2/88; Reuter, Sep 2/88) 

September 5: A classified Department of Defense payload was successfully 

launched aboard a Titan 2 launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 

California. Civilian experts said they believed the rocket was carrying a cluster of Navy recon- naissance satellites known as “White Cloud.” The Titan 2 

launch followed an apparent failure of a Titan 34D rocket to launch a military 

reconnaissance satellite into proper orbit. (SSR 1988 078A-B; NY Times, Sep 

6/88; W Times, Sep 6/88; CSM, Sep 6/88) 

September 6: China successfully launched its first experimental weather satellite, the Wind and Cloud No. 1. The satellite was launched by a Long March 4 

launch vehicle from the Taiyuan launch facility in north-central China. (FBISCHI-88-90, Sep 16/88; SSR 1988 080A-B; AP, Sep 7/88; W Post, Sep 8/88) 

September 7: After a tense 24-hour delay of deorbit bum, a Soviet Soyuz 

TM-5 capsule carrying two cosmonauts landed safely in Soviet Central Asia. 

The Soyuz TM-5, returning to Earth from a week-long visit to the Mir space 

station, experienced premature shutdowns of its reentry motor during the first 

two deorbit bum attempts. The first shutdown had been caused by a malfunction in the automatic guidance system, whereas the second failure resulted 

from improper resetting of the flight computer. The problem was considered 

by some U.S. space experts as potentially life threatening because the Soyuz 

189 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1988 

was estimated to have only 24 to 48 hours of oxygen left and a limited amount 

of fuel with which to attempt a third deorbit bum. The mission had been noted 

for the participation of an Afghani cosmonaut and the transfer to the Mir space 

station of a physician crew member. (FBIS-SOV-88-175, Sep 9/88; AP, Sep 

7/88; NY Times, Sep 7/88; W Post, Sep 7/88; WSJ, Sep 7/88; W Times, Sep 

7/88; B Sun, Sep 7/88) 

NASA and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company, St. Louis, Missouri, 

announced the signing of an agreement providing for use of facilities at the 

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and technical support from the Goddard Space 

Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, in support of commercial launches. The 

umbrella agreement would enable McDonnell Douglas to gain access to 

NASA-managed launch support facilities when conducting commercial launches of the Delta rocket, expected to begin in 1989. (NASA Release 88-124) 

September 8: An ESA Ariane 3 launch vehicle carrying two U.S. communications satellites was launched from the Korou launch facility in French Guiana. 

The Ariane 3 was carrying the 1.3-ton G-STAR 111 and 1.2-ton SBS 5 

telecommunications satellites, both designed for television, telephone, and digital data transmission. Upon reaching low-Earth orbit, the G-STAR satellite 

failed to boost itself into its planned 23,000-mile geosynchronous orbit. (FBISLat-8-175, Sep 9/88; SSR 1998 081C-D; AP, Sep 7/88; Reuter, Sep 7/88; 

W Post, Sep 9/88; NY Times, Sep 15/88; WSJ, Sep 15/88; W Post, Sep 15/88) 

A guidance system malfunction caused the Soviet Mars observer spacecraft 

Phobos 1 to wobble out of control on its way toward Mars. The spacecraft 

stopped responding to commands from Soviet ground controllers and was 

rapidly losing power as it was unable to properly orient its solar panels toward 

the Sun. Phobos 2 continued to function normally. (UPI, Sep 9/88; Ny Times, 

Sep 9/88; W Times, Sep 9/88) 

September 10: An untended Soviet Progress-38 supply spacecraft, bound for the 

Mir space station, was launched from the Baikonur launch facility. The Tass 

News Agency reported the Progress-38 ferried “expendable materials and various 

loads” for use by the Mir three-man crew. (SSR 1988 083A, C Trib, Sep 11/88) 

September 12: NASA and the Air Force, responsible for range safety, mutually 

determined that the number of persons permitted access to the Kennedy Space 

Center, Florida, for the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-26, would be 

greatly reduced for safety reasons. Studies of the January 1986 Challenger accident, and the loss of an Air Force Titan 34D the following April, showed that the 

danger to persons on the ground, if an accident occurred, was much greater than 

previously thought. Under certain conditions, a solid rocket booster released from 

the vehicle as a result of an accident would follow an unknown ballistic 

190 
SEPTEMBER 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

tumble on course as previously thou 

oosters fragmented into thousands o 

ddition, 

and the 

explosive properties of unburned solid motor propellant were greater than 

originally determined in laboratory tests. Because of this new information, 

NASA and the Air Force determined that the prudent action would be to minimize the population at the close-in viewing areas. (NASA Release 88-125) 

September 16: NASA set a target launch date of September 29 for STS-26, the 

next Space Shuttle flight. The establishment of the launch date followed an 

updated assessment of the projected impact of Hurricane Gilbert on mission 

control and training facilities at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, 

Texas. In connection with the announcement, Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly, 

NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight, said, “NASA’s decision to 

set this launch date is based on over two years of persistence and dedication 

by NASA and contractor personnel, culminating in the STS-26 flight readiness review held at the Kennedy Space Center on September 13 and 14. I’m 

delighted to have reached this point and my hat is off to all members of the 

Shuttle team whose tireless efforts have brought us here to the brink of 

America’s return to manned spaceflight.” (NASA Release 88- 127) 

September 19: Israel launched its first orbital satellite aboard an Israeli-built 

rocket. The Horizon I experimental satellite was launched from an Israeli 

launch facility in the Negev desert aboard what U.S. experts believed was 

either a Jericho I1 or a Comet launch vehicle. The Horizon I was expected to 

have an operational lifetime of one month in low-Earth orbit. (SSR 1988 

087A-B; NY Times, Sep 20188; W Post, Sep 20188; W Times, Sep 20188; CSM, 

Sep 20188; B Sun, Sep 20188; LA Times, Sep 20/88) 

September 24: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s 

NOAA-11, meteorological weather satellite was launched aboard a U.S. Air 

Force Atlas-E launch vehicle from Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air 

Force Base, California. NOAA- 11, and its companion spacecraft, NOAA-9 

and NOAA-10, assist in global and local weather forecasting. In addition, the 

NOAA satellites are used for hurricane tracking and warning; global sea ice 

monitoring; various atmospheric studies; and for agricultural, commercial 

fishing, forestry, maritime, and other industrial uses. NOAA-11 was placed in 

a 540-mile Sun-synchronous, near polar orbit, where it would circle the Earth 

approximately every 102 minutes, observe a different portion of the Earth‘s 

surface on each orbit, and view the Earth’s entire surface and cloud cover once 

every 12 hours. (NASA Release 88-126; Aeronautics and Space Report ofthe 

President: 1988; SSR 1988 089A-C) 

September 29-October 3: U.S. crew-assisted space flight resumed after a hiatus of over two years with the successful launch of the Space Shuttle 

191 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1988 

Discovery on mission STS-26 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 

39-B in florida. The first Space Shuttle flight since the Challenger accident in 

January 1986, STS-26 followed a prolonged period of review and reassessment 

of the entire Shuttle program and redesign of the Shuttle’s solid rocket motors 

(SRMs), which had experienced a catastrophic failure on STS-25. STS-26 had 

as its primary payload the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-C (TDRS-C), 

which would significantly expand communications and data links between 

Earth and the orbiting Shuttles. In addition, Discovery carried the Orbiter 

Experiments Program Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System 

(OASIS), which would record environmental data in the orbiter payload bay 

during STS flight phases, as well as 11 secondary payloads. The STS-26 mission lasted four days and concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, 

California, on October 3. The five-man crew for STS-26 included Navy Captain 

Frederick H. Hauck (Commander), Air Force Colonel Richard 0. Covey (Pilot), 

and Mission Specialists John M. Lounge, Marine Lieutenant Colonel David C. 

Hilmers, and George D. Nelson. (NASA STS-26 Press Kit, SSR 1988 091A, 

UPI, Sep 29/88; AP, Sep 29/88; Reuter, Sep 29/88; NY Times, Sep 30188; W 

Post, Sep 30188; W Times, Sep 30188; USA Today, Sep 30188) 

192 
ctober 

October I : NASA marked its thirtieth anniversary with ceremonies at the Centers. 

(Aeronautics and Space Report of the President: 1988) 

October 17: A localized electrical fiie occurred onboard the Magellan spacecraft 

during a power systems check at the Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) Spacecraft 

Encapsulation Facility (SAEF-2). The fire, which occurred while a technician 

worked within the spacecraft, was quickly extinguished without injuries and with 

only minor damage to Magellan. The KSC fiie department also responded but 

was not required to enter the SAEF-2 clean room environment. The incident was 

being investigated by NASA. (NASA Releases 88-141 and 88-153). 

October 19: Dr. Noel W. Hinners was appointed Associate Deputy Administrator 

by NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher. Hinners had been serving as 

Associate Deputy Administrator. He joined NASA in 1972 as Deputy Director of 

Lunar Programs, Office of Space Science. From 1974 to 1979, he was NASA 

Associate Administrator for Space Science. He was Director of the National Air 

and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, prior to his 1982 appointment as 

Director of the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. (NASA 

Release 88-138) 

0 NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher received the International 

Technology Institute's (ITI) William F. Rockwell, Jr. Medal at the International 

Congress on Technology and Technology Exchange banquet, in Pittsburgh. The 

Rockwell Medal, awarded annually to a maximum of three individuals from different continents, recognizes contributions toward the generation, transfer, and 

application of technology for the betterment of mankind. (NASA Release 88-139) 

October 20: Two of the three cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station took a 

four-hour spacewalk to replace a faulty component on an x-ray telescope attached 

to the station. Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, on a year-long 

endurance mission aboard Mr, wore a new spacesuit design intended to increase 

flexibility. (C nib, Oct 21/88) 

October 25: NASA announced that it was rescheduling the launch of the Hubble 

Space Telescope from February 1990 to an earlier date of December 1989. The 

earlier date was made possible following reassessment of a variety of factors, 

including payload requirements and Space Shuttle orbiter assignments during the 

period. (NASA Release 88-143) 

193 

November 

November 1 : NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, 

issued a request for a proposal that would lead to the award of a prime contract for the design, development, testing and fabrication of Space Station 

Freedom's flight telerobotic servicer (FTS). The FTS would be a space robot 

with automated features that would assist crews in the assembly, maintenance, 

and servicing of the Freedom station and visiting spacecraft. Mandated by 

Congress, the FTS program would consist of a developmental flight test on 

the Space Shuttle in 1991, followed by a demonstration test flight of the prototype robot on the Space Shuttle in 1993. The FTS was scheduled to be 

launched on the second Space Station Freedom assembly flight. 

(NASA Release 88-150) 

NASA's Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, and the Department of 

Energy's Argon National Laboratory, Chicago, Illinois, signed an agreement 

to begin joint research in the development of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) materials and technology. The objective of this major research 

effort would be to exploit recent rapid advances in HTS technology for significant space and aeronautical applications. Research and technology development would be undertaken in those areas where HTS could be an enabling 

technology or substantially improve existing systems. 

Initially, research would concentrate on advanced studies and critical 

exploratory experiments to identify the most promising applications for further development. Among the first candidate applications would be superconducting magnetic energy storage, space electromagnetic propulsion, 

microwave power transmission, aeropropulsion, and electromagnetic launch 

systems. (NASA Release 88-149) 

November 2: The Space Shuttle Atlantis was rolled out to Launch Pad 39B for 

a scheduled launch in late November of STS-27, a classified Department of 

Defense mission. (NASA Release 88-17 1) 

November 6: A classified Department of Defense payload was successfully 

launched into orbit aboard a Titan 34D launch vehicle. (Aeronautics and 

Space Report of the President: 1988) 

November 10: NASA announced that it had negotiated a contract with 

Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division to consolidate 

195 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1988 

Space Shuttle orbiter logistics operations at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), 

Florida launch site. Under the contract, Rockwell’s orbiter logistics operations 

in Downey, California, would be transferred to existing Launch Support 

Operations activity at KSC. During this same period, Rockwell’s component 

overhaul and repair activities would move from its network of original Shuttle 

equipment manufacturers to the Rockwell Service Center at Cape Canaveral, 

Florida. The move would complete a consolidation begun in 1985. (NASA 

Release 88-156) 

November 11: Controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, 

California, directed the Voyager 2 spacecraft to fire its hydrazine thrusters for 

3 minutes and 29 seconds in order to steer the craft toward a fly-by of Neptune 

on August 28, 1989. The Voyager 2 trajectory would bring it to within 3,000 

miles of Neptune’s cloudtops. (Voyager 2 Neptune Encounter Press Kit; 

LA Times, Nov 14/88) 

November 14: NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher appointed Dr. 

Franklin D. Martin Assistant Administrator for the Office of Exploration. 

Martin had been serving as the Deputy Associate Administrator for the Space 

Station office since September 1986. From 1983 through 1986, Martin was 

Director of Sciences and of Space and Earth Sciences at NASA’s Goddard 

Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. From 1974 through 1983, he 

served in a variety of positions at NASA Headquarters, including manager of 

the advanced programs in astrophysics, solar terrestrial, and lunar divisions. 

(NASA Release 88-158) 

November 15: After several delays, the Soviet Union successfully completed 

an automated orbital flight test of the Space Shuttle Buran. The untended 

Soviet orbiter-which is almost identical in aerodynamic design and dimensions to the U.S. orbiters-was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in 

Central Asia. Buran was powered by a 198-foot Energia rocket with two strapon boosters in a configuration similar to that of the U.S. Space Shuttle. Unlike 

the Shuttle, however, the Soviet orbiter does not carry its own main engines, 

but relies almost entirely on the Energia’s engines for ascent to orbit. 

According to Soviet sources, the Soviet shuttle can be equipped with jet 

engines to assist landing-a capability the U.S. Shuttles lack. After completing two orbits, Buran landed successfully on a 2.7-mile runway at the 

Baikonur facility, ending the 3-112 hour mission. The Tass News Agency 

hailed the Buran mission as a “major success” and as a prelude to crew-tended Shuttle flights. In Washington, NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher 

congratulated the Soviet Union. (FBIS-SOV-88-222, Nov 17/88; SSR 1988 

100A, AP, Nov 15/88; UPI, Nov 15/88; Ny Times, Nov 16/88; WSJ, Nov 

16/88; W Post, Nov 16/88; LA Times, Nov 15/88; W Times, Nov 16/88; B Sun, 

Nov 16/88; P Znq, Nov 16/88; C Trib, Nov 15/88) 

196 
NOVEMBER 1988 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

In a major setback for the U.S. radio astronomy program, the National Radio 

Astronomy Observatory’s -0) 300-foot radiotelescope in Greenbank, 

West Virginia, unexpectedly collapsed, completely destroying the metallic 

antenna dish. The instrument, built in 1962, was one of the most powerful 

radiotelescopes in the world and had been responsible for several important 

discoveries, e.g. pulsars. The cause of the collapse was not known, but was not 

believed to be related to wind or other atmospheric conditions. The NRAO 

Assistant Director George Seielsand noted that the telescope structure, originally designed for a dish diameter of 140-feet, had been expanded to a diameter of 300 feet without a corresponding increase in material strength. No decision was announced on whether funds would be sought for a replacement 

radiotelescope. (iW Times, Nov 17/88; W Post, Nov 17/88; B Sun, Nov 17/88) 

November 21: NASA Administrator Dr. Fletcher appointed Kenneth S. 

Pedersen to be Associate Administrator for External Relations, effective immediately. Pedersen would be responsible for congressional, intergovernmental, 

international, and industry relations, educational activities and relations with 

educational institutions, and the NASA History Office. (NASA Release 88-160) 

November 23: NASA announced the selection of General Electric, Astro-Space 

Division, Princeton, New Jersey, for negotiations leading to the award of a costplus-award-fee contract for design, fabrication, instrument integration, and 

launch operation support of the Global Geospace Science (GGS) Wind and 

Polar missions. The two GGS laboratories, with their complement of scientific 

instruments, were to examine the flow of energy from the Sun through the 

Earths geospace environment. This project was to be part of the overall scientific investigations within the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics Program. 

The contract would provide for delivery of the Wind laboratory to Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, for launch readiness on December 30,1992, 

and delivery of the Polar laboratory to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for 

launch readiness on June 30,1993. Each laboratory would be launched on a government-furnished expendable launch vehicle. (NASA News, Nov 23/88) 

November 26: A Soyuz TM-7 spacecraft, carrying a joint Soviet-French crew, 

was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, 

for a month-long tour in the Mir space station. With French President FranGois 

Mitterand in attendance, the three-man crew, which included French astronaut 

Jean-Loup Chretien, lifted off from Baikonur on the second French-Soviet 

crew-tended mission. Chretien had also been aboard the first joint mission in 

July 1983. The three-man Soyuz crew planned to join the two-man crew, 

aboard Mir since January, to perform a series of scientific experiments. 

Additionally, Chretien was scheduled to become the first West European to 

perform a spacewalk. (FBIS-Sov-88-228; SSR 1988 104A; NY Times, Nov 

27/88; W Post, Nov 27/88; CSM, Nov 28/88) 

197 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1988 

* After 23 years in solar orbit, Pioneer 6, the oldest operating spacecraft, 

returned to the vicinity of its launch. The craft passed within 1.16 million 

m$es of the Earth, roughly five times the distance between the Earth and its 

Moon. This distance was the closest Pioneer 6 had ever approached Earth 

since launch from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida in 1965. With 

only five lunar distances separating them, Earth's gravitational pull was strong 

enough to haul the craft toward its own orbit, thereby increasing time in orbit 

for Pioneer 6 by six days (from 3 11 to 3 17 days) and 6 million miles. 

The spacecraft was designed to study the Sun's atmosphere, the heliosphere. After 23 years, two of Pioneer 6's original instruments were still transmitting information on the turbulence of the solar wind to scientists at 

NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California. Three sister 

probes followed Pioneer 6 into solar orbit. During the period from 1966 to 

1970, Pioneers 7, 8, and 9 were launched into coordinated orbits. With 

Pioneer 6, this spacecraft team formed a network of solar weather stations 

monitoring the heliosphere, triangulating information back to Earth from the 

far side of the Sun, and increasing understanding of solar effects on Earths 

magnetic field. (SSR 1965 105A; ARC Release 88-81) 

November 30: Thomas L. Moser was named Deputy Associate Administrator 

for Space Station by the head of the Space Station Office, James B. Odom. 

Moser had been serving as Director of the Space Station Freedom program in 

Reston, Virginia, since October 1986. (NASA Release 88-163) 

During November: NASA launched two heavy-lift balloons from Australia in 

November to continue scientific studies of Supernova 1987a. A 28.4 million 

cubic foot balloon was scheduled to carry a scientific experiment, weighing 

1,100 pounds, to measure gamma-ray and hard x-ray emissions. A second, 

29.47 million cubic foot balloon also was scheduled to cany a scientific 

experiment, weighing 3,700 pounds, that would measure gamma-ray emissions, but over a different energy band. These scientific missions were part of 

the overall NASA Balloon Program managed by the Wallops Flight Facility, 

Wallops Island, Virginia. (NASA Release 88-154; MSFC Release 88-160) 

NASA deployed the C-141 Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), to observe 

Supernova 1987a. KAO completed a five-week deployment to New Zealand to 

conduct high altitude observations of charged particle and heavy metals emissions 

produced in the explosion of the giant blue star, first detected in February 1987. 

The November 1988 mission found nickel, argon, and iron exploding outward at 

868 miles per second. Previous Kuiper observations of the expanding ejected 

cloud had greatly contributed to understanding how the explosion proceeds. KAO 

Supernova 1987a research was being conducted by the Astrophysics Branch, 

Space Science Division, Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California. 

(NASA Release 88-168; ARC Release 88-89). 

198 
December 

December 2-6: The Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched from Kennedy Space 

Center (KSC), Florida, on mission STS-27, a dedicated Department of Defense 

(DoD) mission. After a 24-hour launch delay because of strong winds at KSC, 

Atlantis lifted off on a four-day mission to deliver into orbit a classified DoD 

payload, reported by various media sources as being a Lacrosse radar reconnaissance satellite. Crew members for STS-27 were Robert L. Gibson, 

Commander; Guy S. Gardner, Pilot; and Richard M. Mullane, Jerry L. Ross and 

William M. Shepherd, Mission Specialists. Atlantis landed on December 6 at 

Edwards Air Force Base, California. (NASA Release 88-171; AP, Dec 2/88; 

UPI, Dec 2/88; NY Times, Dec 7/88; W Post, Dec 7/88; WSJ, Dec 7/88; 

W Times, Dec 7/88; B Sun, Dec 7/88; P Inq, Dec 7/88) 

December 5: The Pioneer Venus orbiter spacecraft marked 10 years of orbital 

observations of the cloud-draped planet. Ceremonies were held at NASA's 

Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, to celebrate Pioneer's 

accomplishments. December 9 would also mark 10 years since a companion 

spacecraft, Pioneer Venus 2, had entered the atmosphere of Venus along with 

four hard-impact probes it had released. Observations by Pioneer revealed a 

great deal about the atmospheric content of Venus, plate tectonics, volcanic 

activity, and the magnetic field. Pioneer had also observed five comets, 

including Halley. Pioneer, whose orbit was deteriorating, was scheduled to 

cease operating in August 1992 and be destroyed upon entering the lower 

atmosphere of Venus. (NASA Release 88-165) 

December 8: NASA and the Missiles Division of LTV Missiles and Electronic 

Group, Dallas, Texas, announced the signing of an agreement that would grant 

the firm exclusive rights to commercially produce and market the Scout 

launch vehicle. NASA considered the negotiation of the agreement as another important advance in establishing a strong U.S. commercial launch vehicle 

industry through the privatization of Government expendable rocket programs. (NASA Release 88-167) 

December 11 : The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched its 

first Ariane 4 booster from the Korou launch center in French Guiana. The 

Ariane 4, the latest and most powerful ESA-built booster, carried two 

European telecommunications satellites. The launch had been delayed by 24 

hours because of a faulty sensor on the rocket's third stage. (FBIS-Weu-88- 

238, Dec 11/88; SSR 1988 109C-D; NY Times, Dec 12/88) 

199 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1988 

December 21: Two Soviet cosmonauts and a French astronaut returned to 

Earth aboard a Soyuz TM-6 capsule, following the completion by the Soviets 

of a record breaking year-long endurance mission aboard the Mir space station. Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, launched into space on 

December 21, 1987, and French astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien, successfully 

landed their capsule in Kazakhstan. Titov and Manarov were to undergo 

extensive medical tests to determine the effects of prolonged weightlessness. 

(FBIS-Sov-88-245, Dec 21/88; Ny Times, Dec 22/88; W Post, Dec 22/88; 

WSJ, Dec 22/88; CSM, Dec 22/88; B Sun, Dec 22/88; P Znq, Dec 22/88) 

December 29: E. Ray Tanner was appointed Director of the Space Station 

Freedom Program Office, effective January 3, 1989. Tanner had been serving 

as Manager of the Space Station Projects Office, Marshall Space Flight 

Center, Huntsville, Alabama, since August 1988. Prior to that he was Deputy 

Director for Space Systems in the Science and Engineering Directorate. 

(NASA Release 88-175; MSFC Release 88-178) 

Margaret G. Finarelli was appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for 

External Relations, effective December 12. Finarelli had been serving as Director 

of the Policy Division in the Office of Space Station. (NASA Release 88-164) 

200 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1989 

January 

January 3: A NASA ER-2 high altitude aircraft flew the first of a dozen scientific missions over the arctic circle to document the depletion of the Earth‘s atmospheric ozone layer around the North Pole. The project, a joint U.S.-European 

effort, involved over 150 scientists engaged in research on ozone depletion caused 

by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other man-made chemicals. (AP, Jan 3/89; 

USA To*, Jan 4/89) 

January 5: Dr. C. Howard Robins, Jr. was named NASA Associate 

Administrator for Management, effective January 9. His primary responsibility was to help strengthen NASA’s core organizational and infrastructural 

capabilities. Robins, a 30-year NASA veteran, would replace Manuel Peralta, 

who left NASA to become president of the American National Standards 

Institute. (NASA Release 89-1, Jan 5/89; W Times, Jan 11/89) 

January II: A group of U.S. and Canadian astronomers announced that they 

had discovered evidence of vigorous activity in a white-dwarf star previously 

thought to be a stellar “corpse”. This new and unexpected behavior may offer 

astronomers new insight into how stars are born, evolve, and ultimately die. 

The white-dwarf star, catalogued as 0950+139, lies at the center of the faint 

nebula called EGB-6 and is located about 1500 light years from Earth in the 

direction of the constellation Leo. The findings were presented at the 173rd 

meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Boston, Massachusetts. 

(NASA Release 89-3, Jan 11/89) 

NASA issued a request for proposals to design and build a ground-based 

radar that would quantify and characterize debris orbiting between 180 to 360 

miles above Earth. The radar would have the capability of detecting debris as 

small as one centimeter in diameter, contrasted with the 10-centimeter capability of current radar systems. The data gathered by the orbital debris radar 

would be used in designing the permanently crew-tended Space Station 

Freedom, which would be built to withstand as much orbital debris damage as 

possible. (NASA Release 89-8, Jan 19/89; W Times, Jan 23/89; NY Times, 

Jan 24/89; P Znq, Jan 29/89) 

January 20: Morton Thiokol conducted a full-scale test firing of a Space 

Shuttle solid rocket motor (SRM), Qualification Motor 8 (QM-8), under conditions simulating a cold-weather launch. The QM-8 was the sixth and final 

test of the redesigned Space Shuttle SRMs. A major objective of the test was 

203 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1989 

to determine the performance of the SRM’s redesigned field joints under cold 

weather conditions. (LA Times, Jan 21/89, P Inq, Jan 21/89) 

January 21 : The National Weather Service’s Geostationary Operational 

Environmental Satellite-6 (GOES-6) ceased to function, creating a temporary 

gap in U.S. satellite weather coverage. The 6-year-old GOES-6, which had 

surpassed its expected operational lifetime by a year, was to be temporarily 

replaced by a similar satellite already in orbit. The GOES-7 satellite was to be 

shifted eastward to cover the entire United States until a permanent replacement, GOES-I, was launched in 1990. (UPI, Jan 23/89; W Post, Jan 23/89; 

W Times, Jan 23/89; Ny Times, Jan 24/89) 

January 27: A European Space Agency Ariane 2 launch vehicle was successfully launched from the Kourou launch center in French Guiana. The Ariane 2 

carried a two-ton Intelsat-V telecommunications satellite. (SSR 1989 006A-B; 

W Times, Jan 27/89) 

January 29: The Soviet Union‘s Phobos 2 Mars observer spacecraft entered 

into Martian orbit after firing its braking engine. In addition to various instruments for remote observation of Mars, Phobos 2 carried a lander module to be 

deposited on Mar’s moon Phobos in early April. Phobos 1 became inoperative 

in August 1988 after a flight command error disoriented the spacecraft and 

misdirected its solar power arrays. The schedule for Photos 2 was moved forward by several days because of electrical problems that might endanger the 

mission. (FBIS-SOV-89-018, Jan 30189; NY Times, Jan 30189; LA Times, 

Jan 30188; P Inq, Jan 30189) 

During January: Using data from the orbiting Infrared Astronomical Satellite 

(IFUS), astronomers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor discovered 

several dim galaxies in an area of the universe previously believed to be 

devoid of large celestial objects. The discovery of seven dim galaxies in the 

“Bootes Void” challenges accepted theories of the structure of the universe, 

which is believed to consist of filaments or “bubbles” of matter surrounding 

less dense areas of relatively empty space. The Michigan astronomers said 

they planned to continue studying IRAS’s infrared data in hopes of finding 

more dim galaxies. (W Post, Jan 16/89) 

204 
February 

February 8: Astronomers from the University of California at Berkeley 

announced the possible discovery of a newborn pulsar at the heart of stellar 

debris from Supernova 1987a. Apulsar is an extremely dense sphere of neutrons 

less than a few miles in diameter but with a magnetic field trillions of times 

more powerful than the Earths. The object at the heart of Supernova 1987a 

appeared to be spinning at a rate of 2,000 rotations per second. The observations 

were made by an international team of scientists working at the Cerro Tololo 

Inter-American observatory in Chile. The frequency of the light emitted by the 

object was found to vary in a regular pattern, suggesting that it was part of a 

binary system, with a smaller object rotating around a larger twin. The discovery was announced in a circular sent to members of the International 

Astronomical Union. (UPZ, Feb 8/89; NY Times, Feb 9/89; B Sun, Feb 10/89) 

February IO: The Soviet Union launched a cluster of six Cosmos satellites 

aboard a Cyclone launch vehicle, including an Antarctic observer spacecraft 

that was placed into near-polar orbit, the Tass News Agency reported. The 

Cosmos 2000 satellite was described as a photo-reconnaissance research 

satellite that would photograph unexplored regions of central Antarctica. 

(SSR 1989A-G; UPI, Feb 11/89) 

February 14: The Air Force successfully launched the first of its new Delta 2 

launch vehicles, carrying a $65 million NAVSTAR satellite into a preliminary 

elliptical orbit. The NAVSTAR, the first operational satellite of the Global 

Positioning System (GPS), subsequently boosted itself into an 11,000 mile 

circular orbit. The 21-satellite GPS network was expected to provide very precise positioning data for U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 

troops and vehicles throughout the world. The satellites would also broadcast 

precise positioning data to civilian users. (SSR 1989 013A; UPI, Feb 14/89; 

W Post, Feb 15/89; NY Times, Feb 15/89; LA Times, Feb 15/89; W Times, 

Feb 15/89; USA Today, Feb 15/89; P Znq, Feb 15/89; W Times, Feb 17/89) 

The U.S. Government released results of a six-month interagency study on 

orbital debris. The study, cochaired by NASA and the Department of Defense, 

cited satellite and rocket body fragmentation as the principal source of orbital 

debris and concluded that, left unchecked, the growth of debris could threaten 

the safe and reliable operation of crew-tended and untended spacecraft in the 

next century. (NASA Release 89-20, Feb 17/89) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1989 

February 21: In civil proceedings against Rockwell International Corporation in 

a Los Angeles Federal court, prosecutors recommended that a $5 million fine be 

levied against the company, after pleading guilty to overbilling the Government 

on a satellite navigation contract. Rockwell had entered a conditional guilty plea 

for overbilling the Air Force by nearly $450,000 on contracts for the $1.2 billion 

NAVSTAR satellite system. (UPI, Feb 21/89; LA Times, Feb 22/89) 

* The Tass News Agency reported that the Soviet Phobos 2 spacecraft had 

begun to transmit high quality closeup images of the Mars moon Phobos. 

Phobos 2 was expected to dispatch two small robot landers to the surface of 

Phobos. (FBIS-Sov-89-034; LA Times, Feb 23/89; W Post, Feb 27/89) 

February 27: Morton Thiokol announced that it would divide its operations 

into two companies: Morton International, Inc. and Thiokol Corporation. 

Morton International would include the company’s salt, specialty chemicals, 

and automotive airbag operations, whereas Thiokol would include aerospace 

operations. According to Chief Executive Officer Charles Locke, the decision 

to split the operating units was made “so that each can adopt strategies and 

pursue objectives appropriate to its specific businesses.’’ The restructuring 

was expected to be completed by July 1, pending stockholder approval and 

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) certification of the spinoff as tax-free. 

(WSJ, Feb 28/89; W Post, Feb 28/89; USA Today, Feb 28/89) 

206 
March 6: After several delays, an ESA Ariane 4 launch vehicle was successfully 

launched from the Kourou launch center in French Guiana. The 195-foot Ariane 

4 carried Japan's first commercial communications satellite and a European 

weather station into low Earth orbits, from where the two satellites would later 

boost themselves into 22,300-mile geosynchronous orbits. This was the third 

launch of the new Ariane 4 launch vehicle, one of the most powerful boosters 

available for commercial satellite launches. (SSR 1989 020A-D; UPI, Mar 6/89) 

March 13-19: The Space Shuttle Discovery was successfully launched from 

the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on mission STS-29, the main objective to 

deploy the final Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-4). Discovery carried a crew of five on a 5-day mission. Six hours into the mission, the 2.5 ton 

$100 million TDRS-4 was successfully deployed into low-Earth orbit where 

it subsequently boosted itself into a 22,300 mile geosynchronous orbit. 

Discovery also carried biological experiments that to conduct studies of the 

embryonic development of chickens and bone healing in rats in a microgravity environment. The STS-28 crew would also photograph and film environmentally damaged areas throughout the world for later scientific analysis. 

Discovery's launch had been delayed a month because of cracks found in the 

main engine turbopumps. Replacement occurred on the launch pad. During 

the mission, a hydrogen tank supplying the Shuttle's fuel cells was temporarily shut down because of erratic pressure readings. The problem, which 

caused a temporary electricity shortage aboard the Shuttle, was resolved the 

following day, allowing Discovery to stay in orbit for five days as planned. 

Discovery successfully landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on 

March 19. (NASA MORIFlight Operation Report, M-989-88-29; SSR 1989 

021A; AP, Mar 13-19/89; UPI, Mar 13-19/89; Ny Times, Mar 14-20189; 

WSJ, Mar 14-20189; W Post, Mar 14-20189; W Times, Mar 14-20189; 

USA Today, Mar 14-20189; P Znq, Mar 14-20189; B Sun, Mar 14-20189) 

March 14: NASAAdministrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and the Ambassador of 

Japan to the United States H.E. Nobuo Matsunaga signed a Memorandum of 

Understanding between NASA and the government of Japan on cooperation 

in the detailed design, development, operation, and utilization of the Space 

Station Freedom. The agreement was signed at NASA Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. Under the agreement, Japan would provide the Japanese 

Experiment Module (JEM) to the Freedom program. The EM, to be permanently attached to the Space Station base, would consist of a pressurized 

207 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1989 

laboratory module, at least two experiment logistics modules, and an exposed 

facility. (NASA Release 89-32, Mar 14/89) 

March 21 : NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher announced his resignation, effective April 8. Dr. Fletcher had served as NASA Administrator for 

a total of nine years, from April 1971 to May 1977, and again since May 1986, 

following the Challenger accident. Dr. Fletcher, who reluctantly agreed to 

return to the Agency at the request of President Ronald Reagan, supervised 

the adoption of a new management system that put greater emphasis on quality control and safety for the Shuttle program. During his second term, Dr. 

Fletcher had oversight of the redesign of the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters and successfully lobbied Congress for continuation of the Space Station 

program. In his resignation announcement, Dr. Fletcher said he now felt that 

he could “safely place the leadership of NASA in another‘s hands.” NASA 

Deputy Administrator Dale Myers served as Acting Administrator until a successor was named by President George Bush. (NASA Release 89-36, Mar 

21/89; AP, Mar 21/89; UPI, Mar 21/89; NY Times, Mar 22/89; WSJ, Mar 

22/89; USA Today, Mar 22/89; B Sun, Mar 22/89; LA Times, Mar 22/89) 

0 In its first underwater test firing, a Trident I1 missile exploded in flight four 

seconds after breaching the ocean surface near Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

Shortly after being fired from the submarine USS Tennessee, the Trident I1 

veered off course and self destructed. Neither the submarine nor its support 

ships were damaged. (NY Times, Mar 22/89; W Post, Mar 22/89; W Times, 

Mar 22/89; LA Times, Mar 22/89) 

March 23: Three-time spaceflight veteran Navy Captain Frederick Hauck, 

Commander of the first post-Challenger Shuttle mission, announced he would 

leave NASA on April 3 to join the Pentagon staff of the Chief of Naval 

Operations. (NASA Release 89-39, Mar 23/89) 

March 24: In a major test of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a Delta Star 

SDI test satellite was successfully launched aboard a Delta launch vehicle at 

45 1 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The three-ton satellite would be used to test remote sensing equipment used to detect rocket 

launches and laser beam emissions from Earth in conditions that would simulate the initial stages of a nuclear conflict. The three-ton satellite carried a laser 

. radar, seven video imaging cameras, and an infrared imager. The Delta Star 

was expected to carry out tests throughout the next six to nine months. (SSR 

1989 026A, NY Times, Mar 25/89; W Post, Mar 25/89; C Trib, Mar 25/89) 

March 27: Challenging earlier reports that a mysterious object at the heart of 

the remnants of Supernova 1987A is a rapidly spinning pulsar, scientists at 

Columbia University announced that the observed object was more likely to 

208 
MARCH 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

likely to emanate from a less dense neutron star that is vibrating at the 

observed frequency. The Columbia astronomers argued th 

ory not only explained the recent observations but also 

previous hypotheses on how neutron stars develop. (W Post, Mar 27/89) 

March 28: In a severe setback for the Soviet Union‘s planetary exploration 

program, Soviet ground controllers lost stable radio contact with the untended Phobos 2 Mars probe, the Tass news agency reported. Phobos 2 stopped 

responding to ground control commands shortly after the craft was ordered to 

perform a delicate maneuver around the Mars moon Phobos. The maneuver 

was an initial step toward landing a probe on the Martian moon. During its 

transit toward Mars, Phobos 2 had experienced a failure of its main radio 

transmitter, forcing ground controllers to rely on a low-power backup transmitter for all communications with the spacecraft. A companion spacecraft, 

Phobos 1, was also lost in September as a result of a ground control command 

error. The loss of communications with Phobos 2 was described by Western 

experts as having occurred at the “worst possible time” because few of the 

main mission objectives had yet been fulfilled. (FBIS-Sov-89-059, Mar 

29/89; UPI, Mar 28/89; AP, Mar 29/89; NY Times, Mar 29/89; W Post, Mar 

29/89; W Times, Mar 29/89; P Inq, Mar 29/89) 

March 29: The first commercial launch of a licensed private rocket was successfully carried out at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. A two-stage 

Starfire suborbital rocket built by Space Services, Inc. carried a canister of 

experiments on a 198-mile ballistic trajectory. The experiment canister, which 

carried several microgravity materials processing experiments, was retrieved 

intact at the conclusion of the 15-minute suborbital flight. Space Systems, Inc. 

had previously launched a test rocket carrying a dummy payload in 1982. 

(NY Times, Mar 30189; W Post, Mar 30189; WSJ, Mar 30189; W Times, Mar 

30189; B Sun, Mar 30189; P Inq, Mar 30189; C Trib, Mar 30189) 

March 29: NASA scientists reported that a group of eight newly fertilized 

chicken embryos carried aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS28 had failed to hatch upon re th, raising questions about the viability of animal reproduction in zero g . A group of 16 eggs fertilized nine 

days before launch were all successfully hatched. Of a third group of eight 

eggs scheduled to hatch Saturday, only a few embryos remained viable. 

Discovery astronaut James Bagian speculated that the results may indicate 

that gravity plays a previously unknown critical role during the process of cell 

209 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1989 

differentiation. Bagian suggested that, should the experiment demonstrate a 

relationship between gravity and embryogenesis, the results would have 

“great implications” for future long-duration space missions. (UPI, Mar 

29/89; W Post, Mar 30189; P Inq, Mar 30189; NY Times, Mar 31/89) 

March 30: NASAAdministrator Dr. James C. Fletcher named Dr. Robert Rosen 

as Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of Aeronautics and Space 

Technology (OAST), effective April 2. Rosen had served as Deputy Associate 

Administrator, OAST, since March 1986. (NASA Release 89-41, Mar 30189) 

210 
April 

April 2: An ESAAriane 2 launch vehicle was successfully launched from the 

Kourou launch facility in French Guiana. The Ariane 2 carried the TELE-X 

Nordic communications satellite into a preliminary elliptical orbit, from 

where it subsequently boosted itself into a 22,300-mile geosynchronous orbit. 

(FBIS-MU-89-062, Apr 3/89; SSR 1989 027A-B; UPI, Apr 1/89) 

April I1 : The National Research Council (NRC) recommended that NASA 

abandon plans to participate in development of a commercial orbiting space 

laboratory that had been promoted by the Reagan administration and some 

members of Congress. In recommending against the development of the 

Industrial Space Facility, the NRC argued that experiments foreseen for the 

space laboratory could be performed aboard the Space Shuttle and on Shuttlebased facilities during the period leading to the completion of Space Station 

Freedom. (NY Times, Apr 12/89; W Post, Apr 12/89) 

April 12: The Soviet Union announced that it would suspend occupation of 

the Mir Space Station for at least three months following the return to Earth 

of its current crew in late April. The reason given by the Soviets for the abandonment of the station, which had been continuously occupied since February 

1987, was a delay in the manufacture of additional pressurized modules to be 

attached to the facility. Western experts were interpreting the temporary shutdown of the station as a possible cost-cutting measure and another setback to 

the Soviet space program following the loss of its twin Mars probes during the 

last several months. Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine was also 

reporting that degradation of the station's solar power arrays was causing an 

electrical shortage. (M Times, Apr 13/89; W Post, Apr 13/89, 15/89; 

LA Times, Apr 12/89; UPI, Apr 14/89; W Times, Apr 14/89; P Inq, Apr 19/89) 

April 13: President George Bush announced the selection of Rear Admiral 

Richard H. Truly, a former astronaut and head of the Space Shuttle program, to 

succeed Dr. James C. Fletcher as NASA Administrator. The White House also 

announced that J.R. Thompson, Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center 

(MSFC), Huntsville, Alabama, would be appointed NASA Deputy Administrator. 

Truly, a veteran of two Shuttle flights, was named to head the Shuttle program by 

Administrator Fletcher following the 1986 Challenger accident. Truly was credited with helping to restore safety and reliability to Shuttle-related activities. (FBISSov-89-070, Apr 13/89; AP, Apr 12/89; UPI, Apr 12/89; 2alY Times, Apr 13/89; 

W Post, Apr 13/89; WSJ, Apr 13/89; USA Today, Apr 13/89; W Times, Apr 13/89) 

21 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1989 

Dale D. Myers, the acting NASA Administrator, announced his plans to 

resign effective May 13. Myers had served as the NASA Deputy 

Administrator from October 6, 1986, when he was recruited to return to 

NASA by President Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, Myers was instrumental in guiding NASA through the period of recovery following the 

Challenger accident of January 28, 1986. (NASA Release 89-49, Apr 13/89) 

April 16: The Soviet weekly magazine Ogonyok revealed additional details on 

the circumstances surrounding a mysterious launch pad explosion of a Soviet 

rocket in 1960 that killed dozens of workers and the commander of the Soviet 

Union's rocket forces. Ogonyok attributed the accident, which took place at a 

secret launch facility at Tura-Tam, near the Aral Sea, to a flouting of safety 

rules during a crash program to catch up with the United States in the development of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). The head of the Soviet 

Rocket Forces, Chief Artillery Marshal Mitrofan I. Nedelin, was killed along 

with dozens of workers and soldiers who were situated near the pad when the 

rocket exploded. (AP, Apr 17/89; B Sun, Apr 17/89; W Times, Apr 17/89; 

C Trib, Apr 17/89) 

April 19: Scientists at NASA's solar system exploration division announced 

that the Earth had experienced a "close call" in March with a newly discovered half-mile-wide asteroid. The asteroid, named 1989FC, passed within 

500,000 miles of Earth-about twice the distance to the Moon-on March 23. 

The asteroid was discovered by Henry Holt, an amateur astronomer working 

on a NASA asteroid hunting project. NASA scientists estimated that if the 

asteroid were ever to collide with the Earth, the collision would release energy equivalent to 20,000 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima 

and would leave a crater 10 miles wide and up to a mile deep. (NASA Release 

89-52, Apr 19/89; UPI, Apr 19/89; AP, Apr 20189; NY Times, Apr 20189; 

USA Today, Apr 20189; LA Times, Apr 20189; B Sun, Apr 20189) 

April 19: NASA rolled out a full-scale mockup of the proposed Shuttle-C, a 

new heavy lift launch vehicle based on Space Shuttle technology. The 115-foot 

mockup, constructed in a Hangar at the Marshall Space Flight Center, 

Huntsville, Alabama, was put on display in an effort to gain support for funding of the $1.5 billion Shuttle-C development program in the fiscal year 1991 

Federal budget. The Shuttle-C would be an untended launch vehicle that would 

fly "piggyback" on the standard Shuttle SRM and external tank assembly and 

would have a greater payload capacity than the current Shuttles. Shuttle-C 

could substitute for the crew-tended Shuttles in the launching of components 

for Space Station Freedom. (AP, Apr 18/89; LA Times, Apr 19;/89) 

April 20: President George Bush reestablished the National Space Council, an 

executive space policy advisory group to be chaired by the Vice President. 

212 
APRIL 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The Space Council was originally created by President John F. Kennedy and 

disbanded in 1973 by President Richard Nixon. President Bush restored the 

Space Council as an official forum for setting long-range policy for United 

States civil, military, and commercial space efforts. (WH Release, Apr 20189; 

UPI, May 12/89) 

0 NASA announced that Martin Marietta Corporation of Bethesda, 

Maryland, had won a $297 million contract to develop the Flight Telerobotic 

Servicer (FTS), a space robot that would help construct and maintain the 

Space Station Freedom. Development of the robot was expected to take nine 

years and would include flight testing of a prototype aboard the Space Shuttle. 

Once deployed during an early Space Station construction mission, the mobile 

robot would be controlled remotely by astronauts from within the station, 

thereby minimizing the amount of “spacewalk” activity that astronauts would 

need to perform. (W Times, Apr 21/89; B Sun, Apr 21/89) 

April 22: NASA announced that it had awarded a $1.1 billion contract to 

Lockheed Corporation of Calabasas, California and GenCorp, Inc. of 

Fairlawn, Ohio, for the development of the Space Shuttle advanced solid 

rocket motor (ASRM). The ASRM, which would replace the current Shuttle 

SRMs built by Morton Thiokol, would be a next-generation solid fuel propulsion system that would use an elongated single rocket casing instead of the 

current segmented case design. According to NASA, the new design would 

improve Shuttle safety and performance, allowing an additional 12,000- 

pound payload capacity aboard the orbiters. Lockheed and GenCorp would 

eventually replace Morton Thiokol as prime contractors for Shuttle solid rocket propulsion. A faulty field joint on one of Thiokol’s segmented boosters was 

blamed for the catastrophic explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 

1986. Under the terms of the seven-year contract, Lockheeds Missile System 

division and GenCorp‘s Aerojet Space Booster Company would design, 

develop, and test the new generation of motors, and produce enough for six 

Shuttle flights beginning as early as 1994. The contract also had an option, 

valued at approximately $1 billion, for NASA to purchase ASRMs for 40 

additional Shuttle flights and eight test firings. (NASA Release 89-57, Apr 

21189; UPI, Apr 22/89; NY Times, Apr 22/89; W Post, Apr 22/89; LA Times, 

Apr 22/89; WSJ, Apr 24/89) 

April 24: Six top-level NASA managers announced their resignations in order 

to avoid new conflict-of-interest restrictions on contract related work by former Federal employees. The new restrictions, effective May 16, 1989, would 

bar officials who have worked on procurement from assuming any private 

sector jobs involving the contracts for two years. Some of the resigning managers cited the failure of Congress to pass a pay raise for senior executive service (SES) personnel as a reason for leaving. The six NASA officials who 

213 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONALITICS APRIL 1989 

announced their resignations were Noel Hinners, Associate Deputy 

Administrator; James Odom, Director of the Space Station program; Jon 

McBride, an astronaut and chief of congressional relations; John Thomas, 

head of solid rocket booster redesign at the Marshall Space Flight Center 

(MSFC); Bill Sneed, MSFC policy chief; and James Downey, irector of 

MSFCs payload project office. (NASA Releases 89-60, 89-61, 89-62, Apr 

24/89; AP, Apr 24/89; UPI, Apr 24/89; WSJ, Apr 25/89; W Post, Apr 25/89; 

W Times, Apr 25/89) 

April 25: The Department of Defense (DoD) announced it would phase out its 

participation in the National Aerospace Plane program, reducing funding for 

the project by $200 million in fiscal year 1990 and obligating its remaining 

$100 million contribution to NASA. The National Aerospace Plane was proposed by President Reagan as a hypersonic vehicle that would be capable of 

taking off from conventional runways and subsequently boosting itself into 

low-Earth orbit. Total project development costs were estimated at $3.5 billion, of which 80 percent would come from the DoD and 20 percent would be 

provided by NASA. DoD and NASA had already invested $850 million to 

develop an X-30 experimental prototype vehicle. (UPI, Apr 25/89) 

April 27: Three Soviet cosmonauts who had been occupying the Mir Space 

Station returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz TM-7 capsule. The three cosmonauts 

landed safely in Soviet Central Asia near the city of Dzheskazgan. The departure of the Mir crew marked the first time that the station has been left untended since crew rotations began in February 1987. Soviet space program officials announced that two new experiment modules would be attached to the 

station in anticipation of the arrival in August of the next crew. (FBIS-Sov-89- 

080, Apr 27/89; UPI, Apr 27/89; P Inq, Apr 28/89; B Sun, Apr 28/89) 

April 28: A launch attempt of the Space Shuttle Atlantis was scrubbed 3 1 seconds before scheduled liftoff because of a power surge on a pump that recirculates liquid hydrogen fuel for one of the Shuttle main engines. Shuttle technicians were working to replace the pump and a leaky fuel line that was discovered after the scrub. A new launch attempt was expected to be made as early as 

Thursday. (UPI, Apr 29-30189; AP, Apr 30189; W Post, May 1/89; NY Times, 

May 1/89; USA Today, May 1/89; B Sun, May 1/89; P Inq, May 1/89) 

214 
May 4-8: The Space Shuttle Atlantis was successfully launched from the 

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on mission STS-30, whose main objective 

was to deploy the $550 million Magellan Venus radar mapper. Magellan, the 

first United States interplanetary mission to be launched in 11 years, was 

deployed from the cargo bay of Atlantis 6 hours after launch and was subsequently propelled toward the Sun and Venus by a solid fuel inertial upper 

stage (IUS). Following the IUS firing, ground controllers confirmed that the 

spacecraft was operating normally and was on a proper course toward Venus. 

Upon arriving at Venus in August 1990, the 7,700-pound Magellan would 

enter Venusian orbit for several months of extensive radar mapping of the 

planet’s cloud shrouded surface. Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base, 

California, on May 8. (NASA MOR, C-600-89-30, E-199-89-30; NASA 

PFOR, M-989-89-30; SSR 1989 033A-B; UPI, May 5/89; Ny Times, May 

5/89;W Post, May 5/89; WSJ, May 5/89; P Znq, May 5/89; B Sun, May 5/89; 

W Times, May 5/89; USA Today, May 5/89) 

May 9: The Department of Defense announced that it would terminate funding 

for development of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft beginning in Ey 1990. 

The V-22 Osprey had been under development by Boeing Helicopters and Bell 

Helicopter Textron, Inc. for the U.S. Marine Corps. (P Znq, May 10189) 

May 10: An Air Force Titan 34D launch vehicle was successfully launched 

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, carrying a secret military 

payload into orbit. The l6-story, $65 million Titan was believed to be carrying a pair of Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) satellites. 

(SSR 1989 035A-C; W Times, May 11/89; C Trib, May 11/89; B Sun, May 

11/89; P Znq, May 11/89) 

May 10: President George Bush chose the name “Endeavour” for the new 

Space Shuttle orbiter being built to replace the orbiter Challenger. The name 

“Endeavour” resulted from a nationwide orbiter-naming competition supported by educational projects created by student teams in elementary and secondary schools. Endeavour was the name of the first ship commanded by 

James Cook, a British explorer, navigator, and astronomer. Cook commanded 

the Endeavour on its maiden voyage to the South Pacific on an astronomical 

and mapping mission. The new orbiter, designated OV-105, was scheduled 

to be completed in 1991 and to fly its maiden voyage in March 1992. 

(NASA Release 89-70, May 10189) 

215 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1989 

May 11: An unarmed Air Force Midgetman missile went off course and was 

destroyed shortly after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The missile 

began to tumble 70 seconds into the flight during its second stage burn, causing 

the range safety officer to transmit a self-destruct command. The Midgetman, 

which was undergoing its first flight test, had been programmed to deliver a 

dummy warhead 4,600 miles over the Pacific Ocean to the Kwajalen Atoll test 

range. Despite the failure, the test was declared a partial success by the Air 

Force. (NY Times, May 12/89; WSJ, May 12/89; USA Today, May 12/89; 

W Times, May 12/89) 

May 12: Thomas L. Moser, acting Associate Administrator for the Space 

Station Freedom program, announced he was leaving NASA effective May 

13. Moser, appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for the Freedom program in December, had been serving as the acting Associate Administrator 

since April 30. (NASA Release 89-72, May 12/89) 

May 15: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that a NASA T38 jet trainer aircraft being flown by a Space Shuttle astronaut had experienced a near collision with a Pan American World Airways widebody jet 

about 30 miles West of Washington, DC. The pilots of the Airbus A-310 jetliner reported the two planes had come within 500 feet of each other while on 

perpendicular flight paths. The T-38 was flown by Navy Captain David M. 

Walker, Commander of the recently completed Space Shuttle mission STS28. The near collision occurred when Walker’s aircraft strayed below its 

assigned flight elevation. (AP, May 17/89; UPl, May 17/89; NY Times, May 

17/89; W Post, May 17/89; B Sun, May 17/89) 

May 16: Acting NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly announced the 

appointment of Samuel W. Keller as NASA Deputy Associate Administrator, 

the third-ranking position in the Agency. Keller had been Deputy Associate 

Administrator for Space Science and Applications since December 1977. 

(NASA Release 89-75, May 16/89; LA Times, May 17/89) 

May 18: Acting NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly announced the 

appointment of former Space Shuttle astronaut William B. Lenoir as 

Associate Administrator for Space Station. Lenoir replaced James B. Odom, 

who was retiring. Truly also announced the appointment of Richard Kohrs as 

Director, Space Station Freedom. (NASA Release 88-77, May 18/89; UPZ, 

May 18/89; AP, May 19/89; IVY Times, May 19/89; W Post, May 19/89; WSJ, 

May 19/89; LA Times, May 19/89; W Times, May 23/89) 

May 24: The Soviet Union successfully launched a COSMOS 2021 satellite. 

(AP, May 28/89; UPI, May 28/89) 

216 
MAY 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

May 31: The Soviet Union successfully launched a Proton launch vehicle carrying three satellites from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. The 

Proton was carrying the Cosmos 2,022, 2,023 and 2,024 satellites. The Tass 

News Agency reported that the third stage of the booster failed to bum up 

completely in the atmosphere and that unburned fragments may have fallen to 

Earth in the U.S.-Canadian border region near International Falls, Minnesota. 

(SSR 1989 039A-H; UPI, June 2/89; AP, June 2/89; LA Times, June 3/89) 

During May: Astronomers at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, published results of a study which confiied that Pluto is a planet and not an asteroid or a wayward natural satellite. William McKinnon, Associate Professor of 

Planetary Science at Washington University, asserted that his analysis of 

telescopic data and computer models showed that Pluto was formed independently in the outer solar system as a planet. (LA Times, May 29/89) 

217 

June 

June 1 : At the request of the National Space Council, President George Bush 

restored funding for continued operation of two Landsat satellites and the 

launching of a third. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

had earlier decided to deactivate the Landsats because of a shortfall of $5 million in fiscal year 1989 funding for the program. (WSJ, Jun 2/89) 

June 5: An ESA Ariane 4 launch vehicle was successfully launched from the 

Kourou launch facility in French Guiana, carrying two communications satellites. The 192-foot Ariane 4 was carrying a Superbird-A communications 

satellite owned by Japan and a West German DFS Kopernikus-1 television 

relay satellite. This was the 27th successful launch by Arianespace and the 

fourth successful launch of the new Ariane 4 launch vehicle. (FBIS-Weu-89- 

107; SSR 1989 041A-D; UPI, Jun 5/89; P Inq, Jun 6/89) 

June 8: This date marked the thirtieth anniversary of the first hypersonic flight of 

the X-15 experimental rocket plane. North American Aviation pilot A. Scott 

Crossfield was at the controls for the first flight. The X-15 research aircraft flew 

a total of 199 flights in what is widely regarded as one of the most successful aeronautical research programs ever conducted. (NASA Release 89-82, May 30189) 

June 9: Three-time space flight veteran George “Pinky” Nelson announced he 

would leave NASA on June 30 to accept academic and administrative positions 

at the University of Washington, Seattle. (NASA Release 89-89, Jun 9/89) 

June 10: After five cancelled launch attempts, an Air Force Delta 2 launch 

vehicle was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 

Florida, carrying a NAVSTAR navigation satellite. The NAVSTAR was the 

second of a planned network of satellites known as the Global Positioning 

System, which would allow military units to determine their position anywhere on Earth within 50 feet. (SSR 1989 043D, 044A; W Times, Jun 12/89) 

June 14: An Air Force Titan 4 launch vehicle was successfully launched from 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, carrying a classified military satellite. This was the first launch of the Titan 4, a new generation of heavy lift 

launch vehicles dedicated mainly to Department of Defense missions. The 

$220 million Titan 4 was believed to be carrying a $180 million advanced 

early warning satellite. (SSR 1989 046A-E Ny Times, Jun 15/89; WSJ, Jun 

15/89; W Post, Jun 15/89; USA Today, Jun 15/89; C Trib, Jun 15/89; 

LA Times, Jun 15/89; W Times, Jun 15/89) 

219 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1989 

A team of astronomers reported that they had discovered evidence of 

“brown dwarfs”, large celestial objects that are intermediate in size between 

planets and stars. The findings, presented at a meeting of the American 

Astronomical Society, showed evidence of at least nine brown dwarfs orbiting stars in the constellation Taurus. The observed objects were believed to be 

from 5 to 20 times the size of Jupiter. Evidence of brown dwarfs was expected to help account for some of the “missing” dark matter believed to exist in 

the universe. (W Post, Jun 15/89; P Inq, Jun 25/89) 

June 17: Space Shuttle astronaut David S. Griggs was killed while off duty 

when a single engine propeller plane he was flying crashed near a private 

airstrip in Arkansas. Griggs had been performing aerobatic maneuvers in a 

vintage ST-6 training plane when the craft struck the ground, killing the astronaut instantly. Griggs was a mission specialist aboard an April 1985 flight of 

the Space Shuttle Discovery and had been designated pilot for Discovery mission STS-33 in November. (AP, Jun 18/89; W Post, Jun 18/89; UPI, Jun 19/89; 

NY Times, Jun 19/89; P Inq, Jun 19/89) 

June 19: Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, 

California, announced that the Voyager 2 space probe had discovered a giant 

weather system on Neptune approximately 6,200 miles wide and comparable 

to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Voyager 2 made the discovery while at a distance 

of 58.98 million miles from Neptune, currently the most distant planet from 

the sun. Voyager 2 was scheduled to perform an extremely close flyby of 

Neptune on August 24, when it would approach to within 3,000 miles of the 

planet’s cloud tops. This would be the fourth and final planetary flyby by 

Voyager 2, which was launched in 1977 and had flown by Jupiter, Saturn, and 

Uranus. (Voyager Bulletin: Mission Status Report No. 91, Aug 17/89; 

AP, June 16/89; W Post, Jun 21/89) 

The first major private-sector launch of a satellite was delayed by several 

months as a result of a launch pad accident that damaged the satellite. A communications satellite owned by the government of India was seriously damaged when it was accidentally struck by a lift hook connected to a crane. The 

satellite was being prepared for launch at a McDonnell Douglas facility at 

Cape Canaveral, Florida. (W Post, Jun 27/89; 0 Sent Star, Jun 21/89) 

June 23: A Space Shuttle main engine shut down prematurely and suffered 

severe damage during a full-duration test f~g at the Stennis Space Center in 

Mississippi. NASA engineers said that a high speed liquid oxygen pump 

“came apart” during the test firing, causing a fire and structural damage to 

Rocketdyne engine No. 0212. This was the first serious malfunction of a main 

engine since 1985. (MSFC Release 89-125, Jun 26/89; UPI, Jun 23/89; 

NY Times, Jun 28/89; W Times, Jun 28/89) 

220 
JUNE 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

June 26: Planetary scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced 

that Earth-based radar observations of Saturn's moon Titan had shown that it 

is not entirely covered by an ocean of liquid ethane. Radar echoes bounced 

from Titan between June 3 and 6 showed the planet to have some dry land surfaces. Previous observations by the Voyager 2 space probe had shown that 

Titan had large oceans of liquid ethane and methane. (W Times, Jun 27/89) 

June 27: NASA director of the Space Station Freedom Program Office, Ray 

Tanner, announced his resignation from the space agency, citing new ethics 

rules on contract work by former Federal employees as the reason for his 

departure. Tanner was a 30-year NASA veteran. (Wash Tech, Ju1189) 

June 28: The Japanese Science and Technology Agency announced a IO-year 

plan to develop an untended space plane and a series of robots capable of 

assembling and repairing satellites in space. The Agency also said that Japan 

would begin preliminary research into a crew-tended space shuttle. (UPI, Jun 

28/89; W Times, Jun 30189) 

June 29: Great Britain and the Soviet Union signed an agreement to send a 

British astronaut to the Mir Space Station aboard a Soviet crew rotation flight 

in 1991. (USA Today, Jun 30189; W Times, Jun 30189; LA Times, Jun 30189) 

June 30: The National Space Council, chaired by Vice-president Dan Quayle, 

recommended to President George Bush that the National Aero-Space Plane 

program be maintained but that its activities be scaled down and focused on 

pure research. The new plan would cut spending for the program from $427 

million to $254 million in fiscal year 1990, with funding being split evenly 

between the Department of Defense and NASA. (AP, Jul 1/89; W Post, Jul 

1/89; NY Times, Jul2189; CSM, Jul 10189) 

22 1 

July 

July 5: Planetary scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) confmed that the Voyager 2 space probe had discovered a third moon orbiting 

Neptune. The moon, temporarily designated 1989 N1, was estimated to be 

between 125 and 400 miles in diameter and to be in a near-circular orbit 57,600 

miles above Neptune’s equator. Additionally, JPL announced that a pair of dark 

atmospheric bands had been discovered around Neptune’s south pole. The scientists compared the 2,700 mile-wide belts to jet streams on Earth and to the 

belts seen around Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The photograph showing the 

south pole bands also revealed evidence of comparable bands around Neptune’s 

north pole. Voyager 2 was scheduled to fly to within 3,000 miles of Neptune on 

August 24. (NASA Release 89-110, Jul 7/89; JPL Voyager Status Report, Jul 

7/89; AP, Jul5/89; W Post, Jul6/89; UPI, Jul7/89; IVY Ernes, Jul8/89; W Post, 

Jul8/89; LA Times, Jul8/89; C Trib, Jul8/89; P Inq, Jul8/89) 

July 6: NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly announced the appointment of 

Thomas J. Lee as Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, 

Alabama, effective immediately. Lee succeeded James R. Thompson Jr., 

selected by President George Bush to be NASA Deputy Administrator. 

(NASA Release 89-108, Jul6/89) 

July 7: The director of NASA’s Ames Research Center (ARC), William E 

Ballhaus Jr., resigned, citing “inadequate compensation for senior Federal executives and vague new post-government employment regulations” as reasons for 

his departure. Ballhaus had been a NASA engineer and manager for 18 years 

and was serving his second term as ARC director. (NASA Release 89-1 11, Jul 

7/89; AP, Jul7/89) 

July 10: The United States and West Germany signed an agreement to send two 

German astronauts and German scientific payloads on a future Space Shuttle 

mission. The German astronauts would fly aboard a 1992 Spacelab mission 

that would test materials processing techniques. Two Germans and a Dutch 

astronaut flew aboard a Shuttle Spacelab mission in November 1985. (NASA 

Release 89-113, Jul 10189; AP, Nov 10189; UPI, Nov 10/89; P Inq, Jul 12/89) 

July 12: An ESA Ariane 3 launch vehicle carrying an experimental communications satellite was successfully launched from the Kourou launch facility in 

French Guiana. The 161-foot Ariane 3 placed the European Olympus 1 satellite in 

a preliminaxy orbit from which it would boost itself into a 22,300-mile geosynchronous orbit over the equator. (SSR 1989 053A-C; UPI, Jul 12/89) 

223 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1989 

Robert 0. Aller, NASA’s Director of Space Operations, resigned to avoid 

falling under a new Government ethics regulation that restricts post-Federal 

employment on Government-related contracts. Aller became the ninth high 

level NASA official to resign in recent weeks and the third to cite publicly the 

new regulation as the cause for his departure. (AP, Jul 12/89; C Trib, Jul 

12/89; W Times, Jul 13/89; B Sun, Jul 13/89) 

July 16: Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., and 

Michael Collins participated in the first of several planned ceremonies at 

NASA facilities commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the first crewassisted lunar landing on July 20, 1969. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins gathered at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, with a crowd of 6,000 

NASA employees and their families to commemorate the launching of their 

Saturn V rocket from KSC on July 16, 1969. The ceremony included a playback of the final three minutes of the Apollo 11 countdown and statements by 

the former astronauts. Following the ceremony, the astronauts rode in a 20- 

mile motorcade to Cocoa Beach, where they attended a luncheon in their 

honor. (UPI, Jul 16/89; USA Today, Jul 17/89; B Sun, Jul 17/89) 

NASA announced the selection of three contractors to research possible 

propulsion systems for the proposed Advance Launch System (ALS). NASA’s 

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, selected Aerojet General 

Corporation, Sacramento, California; Pratt and Whitney Division of United 

Technologies Corporation, West Palm Beach, Florida; and Rocketdyne 

Division of Rockwell International, Canoga Park, California, to research ALS 

designs. The systems definition contract totaled $20 million. The ALS would 

be a next-generation launch system capable of transporting 150,000-pound 

payloads into low Earth orbit. (Deflvews, Jul 17/89) 

July 20: This date marked the twentieth anniversary of the first crew-assisted 

landing on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin 

E. Aldrin. Armstrong, Aldrin, and their crewmate, Michael Collins, commemorated the lunar landing with ceremonies at the National Air and Space 

Museum, Washington, D.C., and the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. 

During the Washington ceremony, attended by President George Bush and 

Vice President Dan Quayle, the President proposed a long range program of 

human-assisted space exploration, including a permanently habitable base on 

the Moon and a crew expedition to Mars, but did not establish a specific 

timetable. The President cited Space Station Freedom as an important stepping stone toward missions to the Moon and Mars. Speaking at the National 

Air and Space Museum, Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to step on the 

lunar surface, said “The Apollo program enjoyed a certain nobility of purpose-a program not to conquer enemies, but to conquer ignorance. A program not to exploit, but to explore. A program not to take from others, but to 

224 
JULY 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

give to all, to give new knowledge, to enlarge the human horizon.” (UPI, Jul 

20189; Ny Times, Jul21/89; W Post, Jul 21/89; WSJ, Jul 21/89; USA Today, 

Jul21/89; W Times, Jul21/89; P Inq, Jul21/89; B Sun, Jul21/89) 

225 

August 

August 2: A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) entitled 

“Round Trip to Orbit: Human Space night Alternatives” recommended construction of a fifth Space Shuttle orbiter or a Shuttle-derived launch vehicle in 

preparation for the Space Station assembly missions of the late 1990s. Citing 

estimates of Space Shuttle reliability of 97 to 99 percent, OTA warned that there 

was an 88 percent likelihood that another Shuttle orbiter would be lost before 

Space Station construction is completed. The OTA report stated: “Buying more 

orbiters would increase the resiliency of the Space Shuttle system ...[ and] its 

ability to recover rapidly from loss of another orbiter or any other event that 

delays launches. The Shuttle orbiter fleet is likely to continue to suffer occasional attrition.” (AP, Aug 2/89; UPI, Aug 2/89; W Post, Aug 3/89) 

August 3: Planetary scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 

California announced the discovery of three additional moons of Neptune, 

bringing the total number of Neptune’s known moons to six. The moons, designated 1989 N2, 1989 N3, and 1989 N4, ranged between 60 and 125 miles 

in diameter and were found to be in normal equatorial orbits in the direction 

of the planet’s rotation. Prior to Voyager’s observations, only two moons of 

Neptune had been observed. (NASA Release 89-128, Aug 3/89; NY Times, 

Aug 4/89; W Post, Aug 4/89; LA Times, Aug 4/89; 

August 8-13: The Space Shuttle Columbia was successfully launched from the 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on mission STS-28 to deploy a classified 

Department of Defense payload. This was the first launch of the Columbia 

orbiter in the three and a half years since the explosion of the Space Shuttle 

Challenger. Various media sources reported that Columbia had deployed an 

advanced military reconnaissance satellite and performed tests of Strategic 

Defense Initiative (SDI) hardware. Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force 

Base, California, on Sunday, August 13. (SSR 1989 061A; NASA PFOR, M989-89-28; NASA MOR, E-199-89-28; UPI, Aug 8/89; AP, Aug 8/89; 

NY Times, Aug 9/89; W Post, Aug 9/89; W Times, Aug 9/89; USA Today, Aug 

9/89; LA Times, Aug 9/89; C Trib, Aug 9/89; P Inq, Aug 9/89; B Sun, Aug 9/89) 

August 8: An ESA Ariane 4 launch vehicle carrying a communications satellite and an orbital observatory was successfully launched from the Kourou 

space center in French Guiana. The payload consisted of a West German TVSAT-2 communications satellite and the Hipparcos orbiting star mapper. 

(SSR 1989 062A-D; LA Times, Aug 9/89) 

221 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1989 

An attempted launch of a Japanese H-1 launch vehicle was aborted after 

one of the rocket’s main engines failed to ignite. (FBIS-Eas-89-15 1, Aug 8/89; 

WSJ, Aug 9/89; C Trib, Aug 9/89) 

August 11 : Planetary scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 

Pasadena, California announced the discovery of “ring arcs” orbiting 

Neptune. NASA scientists noted that, unlike the rings surrounding Saturn, 

Jupiter, and Uranus, Neptune‘s rings did not appear to completely surround 

the planet. (NASA Release 89-132, Aug 11/89; Ny Times, Aug 12/89; 

W Post, Aug 12/89; P Inq, Aug 12/89; C Trib, Aug 12/89; B Sun, Aug 12/89; 

WSJ, Aug 14/89) 

August 18: An Air Force Delta 2 launch vehicle carrying a NAVSTAR satellite 

was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 

The l26-foot Delta 2 placed the NAVSTAR navigation satellite in a preliinary orbit, from where it would boost itself into a 12,000-mile circular orbit. 

The NAVSTAR was the third of an eventual network of 21 satellites that would 

comprise the Global Positioning System, a highly accurate navigation system 

for military and commercial users. (SSR 1989 064A-C; AP, Aug 18/89; UPI, 

Aug 18/89; W Post, Aug 19/89; LA Times, Aug 19/89; W Times, Aug 21/89) 

August 22: While heading toward a close approach of Neptune, the Voyager 

2 space probe discovered the first complete ring around the planet. Scientists 

at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, had previously 

observed several ring arcs. The discovery of the complete ring around 

Neptune had been expected based on observations of rings on the other three 

large outer planets during previous Voyager planetary encounters. (NASA 

Release 89-132, Aug 11/89; Ny Times, Aug 23/89; W Post, Aug 23/89; WSJ, 

Aug 23/89; B Sun, Aug 23/89; UPI, Aug 23/89) 

August 25: After travelling 4.4 billion miles over twelve years, the Voyager 2 

space probe completed its fourth and final planetary encounter by passing 

Neptune at a distance of 3,042 miles. During the Neptune encounter, Voyager 2 

discovered six new moons of Neptune, a set of faint rings around the planet, auroral activity on Neptune and Triton, and a surprisingly dynamic atmosphere containing large storm systems. Additionally, Voyager 2 obtained closeup images of 

Neptune’s two largest moons, Triton and Nereid. Voyager 2 and its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, were launched in 1977 for planned encounters with Jupiter and 

Saturn. After its Saturn encounter, Voyager 1 was steered away from the plane of 

the solar system toward interstellar space, while the Voyager 2 mission was 

expanded to take advantage of a rare alignment of the large outer planets, which 

made possible a “grand tour” of the outer solar system. With its power supply and 

all major mechanical systems still operative, Voyager 2 encountered Uranus in 

1986, discovering rings and several new moons around the planet. 

228 
AUGUST 1989 ASTRONACTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Advances in radio receiving technology allowed continued communication 

with Voyager 2 despite the spacecraft’s extremely faint signal. At the conclusion 

of the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune, the craft would steer clear of the plane 

of the solar system and continue traveling into interstellar space. In anticipation of 

a possible retrieval of the craft by intelligent extraterrestrial beings, both Voyager 

spacecraft carried plaques bearing hieroglyphic messages that indicated their origins on Earth and contained images of a human male and female in a gesture of 

greeting. The spacecraft also carried a gold-plated phonographic record of sounds 

from Earth, including greetings in all of the world’s major languages and the 

sounds of several animal species. (NASA Headline News, Aug 28/89; Voyager 

BulletinlMission Status Report No. 96, Oct 4/89; NASA Voyager 2 Neptune 

Encounter Press Kit, AugJ89; UPI, Aug 25/89; NY Times, Aug 25/89; W Post, Aug 

25/89; WSJ, Aug 25/89; USA Today, Aug 25/89; W Times, Aug 25/89; P Inq, Aug 

25/89; CSM, Aug 25/89; B Sun, Aug 25/89) 

August 28: Astronomers at Cornell University announced the discovery of an 

apparent galaxy in the making, challenging conventional theory that galaxies 

formed only during the early history of the universe. The galaxy observed by 

Cornell astronomer Martha Haynes and Ricardo Giovanelli appeared to contain no fully developed stars and to consist of only protostellar material, mainly hydrogen. The observed galaxy, named UGC-7394, was 65 million light 

years distant. (UPI, Aug 29/89; WSJ, Aug 29/89; W Times, Aug 29/89; B Sun, 

Aug 29/89; C Trib, Aug 29/89) 

August 29: The Italian space agency announced that its star mapper satellite, 

Hipparcos 1, failed to boost itself into the proper orbit. Hipparcos 1 was 

launched aboard an Ariane 4 launch vehicle on August 8. The satellite’s designers said that they would seek funds from the European Space Agency to build 

and launch a replacement satellite. (SSR 1989 062 A-D, NY Times, Aug 30189) 

229 

September 

September 4: The last Titan 34D launch vehicle in the Air Force’s inventory 

was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force station in Florida, 

carrying a classified Department of Defense payload. This was the final 

launch of the Titan 3 series launch vehicles, which were being replaced by the 

more powerful Titan 4. (SSR 1989 069 A-D; UPI, Sep 4/89; NY Times, Sep 

5/89; W Post, Sep 5/89; USA Today, Sep 5/89; C Trib, Sep 5/89; LA Times, 

Sep 5/89; W Times, Sep 5/89) 

September 5: After an aborted attempt in August, an H-1 launch vehicle carrying a GMS-4 weather satellite was successfully launched by Japan’s 

National Space Development Agency. (FBIS-Eas-89-173, Sep 8/89; SSR 

1989 070 A-C; WSJ, Sep 7/89) 

September 6: Two Soviet astronauts were successfully launched aboard a Soyuz 

TM-8 capsule for a rendezvous with the Mir Space Station. The Soyuz TM-8 

capsule was launched aboard a Proton launch vehicle emblazoned with several 

commercial advertisements. Cosmonauts Alexander S. Viktorenko and 

Alexander A. Serebrov were scheduled to reoccupy the Mir station during a sixmonth tour and supervise the attachment of two new modules to the facility. Mir 

had been left unoccupied since April 27 because of funding constraints and 

delays in manufacturing of the new modules. (FBIS-Sov-89-171, Sep 6/89; SSR 

1989 071A; W Post, Sep 6/89; WSJ, Sep 6/89; C Trib, Sep 6/89; P Inq, Sep 6/89) 

September 7: NASA announced it had awarded Ford Aerospace a $500 million contract to modernize its Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space 

Center, Houston, Texas, and build a new control center for future Space 

Station operations. (NASA Release, Sep 7/89; Reuters, Sep 7/89; NY Times, 

Sep 7/89; W Post, Sep 7/89) 

September 8: Two Soviet cosmonauts successfully docked with the Mir Space 

Station and began activating the facility’s systems after a four-month hiatus. 

(FBIS-Sov-89-173, Sep 8/89; SSR 1989 071A, AP, Sep 8/89; UPI, Sep 8/89) 

September 12: Antinuclear activists in Florida protested the launch aboard the 

Space Shuttle Atlantis next month of the Galileo space probe, which would 

carry two plutonium-fueled radioisotope thermoelectric generators. The protesters claimed an accident aboard the Atlantis similar to the Challenger 

explosion could contaminate large parts of Florida and lead to hundreds of 

231 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPfEMBER 1989 

cancer-related deaths. NASA and the White House maintained that the 

chances of a plutonium leak in the event of an accident was negligible. Galileo 

was scheduled to reach Jupiter in late 1995. (AP, Sep 12/89; UPI, Sep 12/89; 

USA Today, Sep 13/89) 

September 24: The Space Shuttle Columbia was accidentally sprayed with 

water when an automatic sprinkler system went off unexpectedly inside the 

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Orbiter Processing Facility No. 2. KSC engineers examined the orbiter for damage and planned an investigation of the 

incident. (UPI, Sep 24/89; W Times, Sep 25/89; USA Today, Sep 25/89) 

September 25: A NASA Atlas-Centaur vehicle carrying a Navy communications satellite was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force 

Station, Florida. This was the last orbital launch of a launch vehicle by NASA, 

since responsibility for all future orbital launches was transferred to the private 

sector and the branches of the Defense Department. Since inception in 1958, 

NASA had launched over 400 untended orbital rockets. The Atlas-Centaur carried a Navy Fleet Satellite Communications F-8 (FLTSATCOM F-8) relay station into a preliminaq orbit on its way toward geosynchronous orbit. (NASA 

Release 89-145, Sep 18/89; NASA Release, Sep 25/89; NASA: Atladcentaur68 FLTSATCOM F-8 Launch Press Kit, Sepl89; AP, Sep 25/89; UPI, Sep 25/89; 

USA Today, Sep 25/89; NY Times, Sep 26/89; WSJ, Sep 26/89; 

LA Times, Sep 26/89; P Inq, Sep 26/89; B Sun, Sep 26/89; W Times, Sep 26/89) 

September 27: NASA announced it had granted a $1.3 billion extension of the 

contract to Lockheed Corporation, Calabasas, California, to continue Space 

Shuttle processing operations for three more years. (NASA Release, Sep 

27/89; AP, Sep 26/89; W Post, Sep 27/89) 

0 During a visit by Soviet journalists to the Plesetsk Space Center, the Soviet 

government revealed that a launch pad explosion of a Vostok rocket had killed 

50 people in 1980. The Soviet government also revealed that a Cosmos rocket had also exploded on the launch pad in 1973, killing nine technicians and 

soldiers. (FBIS-Sov-89-185, Sep 26/89; IVY Times, Sep 28/89; W Times, Sep 

28/89; P Inq, Sep 28/89) 

September 28: A coalition of three antinuclear groups filed suit in the 

Washington, D.C. Federal District Court to stop the launch of the nuclearpowered Galileo space probe aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The three 

groups contended that NASA and the Department of Energy had illegally 

delayed release of health and safety risk assessments of a potential accident 

involving Galileo's plutonium-fueled radioisotope thermal generators. The 

groups filing suit were the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Christic 

Institute, and the Foundation on Economic Trends. NASA and the Energy 

232 
SEPTEMBER 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Department denied the charges, and the space agency continued to carry on 

with preparations for the planned launch of Atlantis-Galileo on October 12. 

The suit was subsequently dismissed by the court during its preliminary hearing. (LA Times, Sep 28/89; Ny Times, Sep 29/89; W Post, Sep 29/89; 

W Times, Sep 29/89; B Sun, Sep 29/89; UPI, Sep 29/89) 

September 29: NASA named 18 astronauts to fly on future Space Shuttle missions, including the first African-American woman and the first member of 

the Coast Guard to fly aboard the Shuttle. Dr. Mae Jemison, a physician, 

would become the first African-American woman to fly in space. She was 

scheduled for the June 17, 1991, Spacelab mission aboard Discovery. 

(AP, Sep 9/89; UPI, Sep 29/89; USA Today, Oct 4/89; W Times, Oct 2/89) 

During September: The Soviet news magazine Izvestia published an article 

confirming that the Soviet Union had established a secret program in the 

1960s to beat the United States in landing astronauts on the Moon. The 

Izvestia article claimed that the Soviet Union had secretly conducted a crewassisted lunar landing program from 1961 to 1969 comparable to the Apollo 

program and had developed a booster-known as the Nl-comparable to the 

United States Saturn V. The Soviet lunar program was eventually abandoned 

after three attempts to launch the N1 failed; the United States successfully 

landed astronauts on the Moon in 1969. (FBIS-Sov-89-210, Nov 1/89; 

H Chron, Sep 17/89) 

233 

October 

October 2: Planetary scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 

Pasadena, California, announced that Voyager 2 photographs taken during the 

August encounter with Neptune had revealed the presence of an active volcano 

or geyser on Neptune’s moon, Triton. The photographs revealed a dark plume 

nearly 5 miles high and 90 miles in length emanating from the surface of 

Triton. Triton became only the third object in the solar system known to have 

active eruptions from its surface. (NASA Release 89-156, Oct 2/89; Voyager 

BulletinlMission Status Report No. 95, Oct 2/89; AP, Oct 3/89; UPI, Oct 3/89; 

NY Times, Oct 3/89; USA Today, Oct 3/89; P Inq, Oct 3/89; C Trib, Oct 3/89) 

October 5: The first attempt to launch a fully private funded rocket ended in 

failure when the 58-foot-tall “Koopman Express” sounding rocket caught fire 

while still on the launch pad. The rocket was to have flown on a 15-minute 

suborbital flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, during which it 

would have released a cloud of inert gas to test sensors on a military Delta 

Star satellite. The rocket was also scheduled to deploy an engineering model 

of a Parashield during reentry into the atmosphere. (NY Times, Oct 6/89; 

W Post, Oct 6/89; USA Today, Oct 6/89; W Times, Oct 6/89; B Sun, Oct 6/89) 

October 18-23: The Space Shuttle Atlantis was successfully launched from 

Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, on mission STS-34 to deploy the $1.4 

billion Galileo Jupiter space probe. The Atlantis launch had been delayed by 

a week because of problems with a computer, a main engine master control 

device, and, finally, rain. Shortly after reaching orbit, Atlantis released the 

Galileo probe and the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) from the cargo bay. The IUS 

subsequently fired Galileo on a trajectory toward Venus, in preparation for a 

gravity assist maneuver that would swing the spacecraft back toward Earth 

twice and onward to Jupiter. Galileo was scheduled to reach Jupiter in 

December 1995, whereupon it would begin orbiting the planet for 22 months 

of observations of the Jovian system. Approximately five months before 

reaching Jupiter, Galileo would release a 34-inch unpowered descent module 

that would enter the Jovian upper atmosphere and descend several hundred 

miles before being destroyed by extreme atmospheric pressure. The AtlantisGalileo mission had sparked protests and a law suit by anti-nuclear groups 

concerned over the danger of possible radioactive contamination from the 

probe’s radioisotope thermal generators in the event of a catastrophic accident. In anticipation of possible efforts to disrupt the launch, NASA increased 

security measures at KSC. In addition to launching Galileo, the STS-34 crew 

235 
ASTRONAUTICS AM) AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1989 

would conduct observations of the Earths ozone layer and perform several 

onboard medical, biological and materials processing experiments. The crew 

included Navy Captain Donald E. Williams (Commander), Navy Commander 

Michael J. McCulley (Pilot), and Mission Specialists Shannon Lucid, 

Franklin Chang-Dfaz, and Ellen S. Baker. The mission ended successfully on 

October 23 with Atlantis landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. 

Press Kit, Oct/89; NASA Facts: STS-34; GalileoKSC Release 79-89, Sep/89; 

SSR 1989 084 A-D; UPI, Oct 19/89; AP, Oct 19/89; NY Times, Oct 19/89; 

W Post, Oct 19/89; USA Today, Oct 19/89; WSJ, Oct 19/89; P Znq, Oct 19/89; 

W Times, Oct 19/89; B Sun, Oct 19/89) 

(NASA MOR E-829-34-89-01; NASA PFOR M-989-89-34; NASA STS-34 

October 19: Soviet and western planetary scientists announced results from the 

Phobos 2 mission to Mars and the moon Phobos. Despite the premature loss of 

spacecraft transmissions because of a computer error, scientists revealed that 

valuable data had been obtained from the two-month period preceding the loss 

of communications. The new findings showed that Mars has no magnetic field 

of its own and that incoming solar particles impact directly with the planet's 

ionosphere. Researchers hypothesized that the direct interaction between the 

solar wind and Mars' upper atmosphere may have been responsible for the 

depletion of the planet's original atmosphere, as ionospheric particles were 

gradually electrified by the incoming solar particles. The observations suggested that Mars may have had an atmosphere comparable to Earth's during the 

first billion years after planet formation, and that conditions for the appearance 

of life may have prevailed during that time. (NY Times, Oct 19/89) 

October 21 : An Air Force Delta 2 launch vehicle was successfully launched 

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, carrying the fourth NAVSTAR navigation satellite. The NAVSTAR would become part of an eventual 

21-satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation network. (SSR 1989 

085 A-C; NY Times, Oct 22/89; W Times, Oct 23/89) 

236 
November 

November 7: The European Space Agency announced the Hipparchos 1 star 

mapper satellite had been reprogrammed to function in its current orbit. 

Hipparchos became stranded in a lower than expected orbit after its orbital 

booster rocket failed to ignite in August. (P Inq, Nov 8/89) 

November 9: While on the way to a gravity assist flyby of Venus, the Galileo 

Jupiter space probe made the first course corrections by briefly firing its 

thrusters. This was the first of about 30 course corrections to be undertaken 

by Galileo during its five-year trip to Jupiter. (NASA STS-34 Press Kit, 

Oct/89; NASA Facts: STS-34 Galileo-KSC Release 79-89, Sep 89; W Times, 

Nov 10/89; P Inq, Nov 10/89; UPI, Nov 14/89) 

November 16: Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 

announced the discovery of the largest structure seen so far in the universe. The 

scientists claimed to have discovered a sheet of galaxies 500 million light-years 

long, 200 million light years wide, and about 15 million light years thick, which 

they are calling the “Great Wall”. The Great Wall, which is invisible to the naked 

eye, was estimated to be 200 million to 300 million light-years away from Earth 

and was expected to reveal new insights on the distribution of matter in the universe. (UPI, Nov 17/89; P Znq, Nov 17/89; B Sun, Nov 17/89) 

0 The Colorado-based Energetics Satellite Corporation announced that it had 

completed an agreement with the Soviet Union’s civilian space agency, 

Glavkosmos, to launch two U.S.-built commercial satellites on Soviet boosters. The contract provided for the launching of two geosynchronous satellites 

at a cost of $6.5 million each, with an option to add six more satellite launches in the future. The total potential value of the agreement was $54 million for 

the eight-satellite launch option. (W Post, Nov 16/89; NY Times, Nov 17/89) 

November 18: A NASA Delta launch vehicle was successfully launched on this 

date from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, carrying the $160 million 

Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite into a 570-mile polar orbit. 

Three instruments aboard COBE would record the background radiation left 

over from the “Big Bang” in unprecedented detail, allowing refinement of theories on the formation of galaxies and galactic clusters in the early universe. The 

Delta was the last launch vehicle in NASA’s inventory. Hereafter all future 

NASA untended launches would occur on commercial or military boosters. 

(NASA Release N89-74; NASA Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Press 

237 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1989 

Kit Release 89-172; SSR 1989 A-D; AP, Nov 18/89; UPI, Nov 18/89; 

LA Times, Nov 18/89; P Inq, Nov 19/89; C Trib, Nov 19/89; CSM, Nov 20189) 

November 19: A team of astronomers from the California Institute of 

Technology (Caltech) and Princeton University announced the discovery of 

the oldest and most distant object yet observed in the universe. The object was 

reported to be a quasar at a distance of 10 to 15 billion light-years from Earth, 

which may have formed when the universe was only about a billion years old. 

The discovery challenged conventional theories on the timetable for the formation of galaxies and galactic-sized bodies in the early universe. Previous 

observations had placed the age of most quasars at about 3 billion years after 

the Big Bang. The new observations were expected to produce major =visions in theories of how matter coalesced during the early universe. 

(NY Times, Nov 20189; W Post, Nov 20189; W Times, Nov 20189; P Inq, Nov 

20189; B Sun, Nov 20189) 

November 22-27: The Space Shuttle Discovery was successfully launched at 

night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on mission STS-33. Discovery 

carried a classified Department of Defense payload believed to be a $300 million surveillance satellite. The satellite was deployed from the Shuttle’s cargo 

bay on November 23, and was scheduled to boost itself into a geostationary 

orbit. Several experiments of Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) technology 

were also expected to be performed. Crew members for STS-33 were Air 

Force Colonel Frederick Gregory (Commander), Air Force Colonel John 

Blaha (Pilot), and Mission Specialists Navy Captain Manley L. Carter Jr., F. 

Story Musgrave, and Kathryn C. Thornton. Discovery landed at Edwards Air 

Force Base, California on November 27. (NASA Release 89-75, Nov 15/89; 

SSR 1989 090 A; AP, Nov 23/89; UPI, Nov 23/89; NY Times, Nov 23/89; 

W Post, Nov 23/89; WSJ, Nov 23/89; W Times, Nov 23/89; P Inq, Nov 23/89) 

November 26: The Soviet Union successfully launched an untended Proton 

launch vehicle carrying an attachment module bound for the Mir Space 

Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The pressurized module, known as the Kvant-2, contained additional crew living space as well as 

experiments and a “space motorcycle” intended for use in extravehicular 

spacewalks. (FBIS-Sov-89-226, Nov 27/89; SSR 1989 093 A; NY Times, Nov 

27/89; C Trib, Nov 27/89) 

238 
December 

December 2: The Solar Maximum (Solar Max) satellite tumbled out of orbit 

and reentered the Earth's atmosphere, spreading small amounts of debris over 

the Indian Ocean. The satellite had been launched in February 1980 to conduct gamma ray and ultraviolet observations of the Sun, the Earth's atmosphere, and deep space objects. In April 1984, Solar Max was retrieved by the 

Space Shuttle Challenger (Mission 41 -C) for in-orbit repairs and redeployment. Solar Max's orbit had been deteriorating faster than expected over the 

past several months because of unusually high solar activity, which caused the 

Earth's atmosphere to expand and increase the amount of aerodynamic drag 

experienced by the satellite. (SSR 1980 014 A; AP, Dec 2/89; UPI, Dec 2/89; 

NY Times, Dec 3/89; W Post, Dec 3/89; P Inq, Dec 3/89; B Sun, Dec 318) 

December 5: Iraq launched a three-stage rocket capable of putting a satellite 

into space on a suborbital trajectory from the A1 Anbar base in northern Iraq. 

The launch of the Iraqi rocket was confirmed by the U.S. and Israeli governments. (FBIS-Nes-89-235, Dec 8/89; UPI, Dec 9/89; NY Times, Dec 9/89) 

Planetary scientists working with data from a Voyager 2 encounter with 

Neptune announced that the spacecraft had recorded wind speeds on the planet 

of up to 1,500 miles per hour. These wind speeds exceeded those observed on 

Saturn and were believed to be the highest in the solar system. The scientists 

also reported the discovery of at least two additional volcanic plumes on 

Neptune's moon, Triton. (AP, Dec 6/89; C Trib, Dec 6/89; NY Times, Dec 7/89) 

December 11 : An Air Force Delta 2 launch vehicle was successfully launched 

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying a NAVSTAR navigation satellite. The NAVSTAR would be the fifth in an eventual network of 

21 military and commercial satellites that would comprise the Global 

Positioning System. (SSR 1989 097 A-C; AP, Dec 11/89; NY Times, Dec 

12/89; USA Today, Dec 12/89; W Times, Dec 12/89; C Trib, Dec 12/89) 

NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly named Dale L. Compton to be Director 

of the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, effective 

December 20. Compton, who succeeded William E Ballhaus, had been Acting 

Director since Ballhaus resigned on July 15. (NASARelease 89-182, Dec 11/89) 

December 13: Astronomers from the National Optical Astronomy 

Observatories, Tucson, Arizona, announced the discovery of the furthest 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1989 

known star in the Milky Way Galaxy. The star, which is believed to be 

160,000 light years from Earth, was accidentally discovered while the 

astronomers were conducting a survey of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. The 

discovery was expected to help determine the mass of the Milky Way and 

other similar galaxies. (NY Times, Dec 14/89; B Sun, Dec 14/89) 

December 17: Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

returned from a visit to the Soviet Union with photographs of a crew-assisted 

lunar landing vehicle that was to be used to land Soviet cosmonauts on the 

Moon in 1968. The Westerners were given the first concrete evidence of a 

Soviet lunar landing program when they were shown components of a lunar 

lander at the Moscow Aviation Institute and were allowed to take photographs. Soviet officials confirmed that a race to land astronauts on the Moon 

had indeed occurred during the 1960s but that the Soviets had fallen behind 

the United States as a result of several launch failures of their N1 rocket. At 

the time of the successful lunar mission of Apollo 11, the Soviet Union had 

denied having a crew-tended lunar landing program. (UPI, Dec 18/89; 

NY Times, Dec 18/89; USA Today, Dec 18/89; W Post, Dec 18/89; W Times, 

Dec 18/89; P Inq, Dec 18/89; C Trib, Dec 18/89; B Sun; Dec 18/89) 

December 20: An untended Soviet Progress M-2 module bound for the Mir 

Space Station was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 

Central Asia. In addition to ferrying supplies to the Mir crew, the Progress 

also carried a U.S. experiment designed to test crystal growth in weightlessness. (FBIS-Sov-89-243, Dec 20/89; SSR 1989 099 A; W Post, Dec 21/89; 

WSJ, Dec 21/89; P Inq, Dec 21/89; W Times, Dec 21/89; CSM, Dec 22/89) 

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January 

January I: The Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, awarded Rockwell 

International Corporation a five-year extension on the contract for systems integration. The $1.36 billion contract extensions were for flight and ground systems 

engineering maintenance and safety analysis, including configuration of the hardware required for each orbiter flight and Shuttle mission support from countdown 

to landing. (NASA Release C90-A, C90-B; WSJ, Jan 12/90) 

January 3: Technical assistant Edwin Sherry, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

in Pasadena, California, explained a minor problem that the Spacecraft Magellan 

had developed three days earlier and a little more than halfway into its journey to 

map Venus. A computer chip failure, caused either by electrical corrosion or an 

electrically charged particle spewed out by the sun, necessitated frequent commands from ground crews to keep Magellan moving in the right direction. The 

craft’s guidance system normally focused on two stars to ascertain and adjust its 

heading. Sherry explained that some difficulties with the vast array of electronics 

during flight were expected and that the mission was in no danger. Scientists 

hoped to send a new program aloft that would allow the ship’s computer to bypass 

the damaged chip. (AP, Jan 4/90) 

NASA released a request on this date to various companies for a proposal 

concerning design, management, building and testing of the Advanced 

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. The first ATDRSS was scheduled 

for delivery in 1987 and could replace one of the older TDRS systems in orbit. 

By 2001, “A four-satellite constellation of ATDRSS is expected to be in 

orbit,” said Thomas Underwood, Assistant Chief for the TDRS system at 

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. The ATDRSS promised 

to offer a much higher communication rate needed for Space Station Freedom 

missions. (NASA Release 90-2; C90-x) 

January 5: NASA Administrator Richard Truly named Thomas E. Utsman as 

Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight. He was to assist William 

Lenoir, Associate Administrator, in daily management of space flight programs. 

Utsman began at NASA in 1963 as a facilities design engineer in the Apollo program and later was named to head the Design Engineering Directorate’s Project 

Engineering Office. He also served as Deputy Director of Project Management, 

Associate Director of Design Engineering, Operations Management Director of 

Technical Support, Director of Shuttle Operations, and Director of Shuttle 

Management and Operations. 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1990 

Truly also named James A. Thomas as Deputy Director of the Kennedy Space 

Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Thomas joined NASA in 1962 and served as 

lead engineer for pre-launch testing and communications for the Apollo program. 

He worked on the initial Shuttle program and served as lead flight engineer, as 

chief Shuttle flight project engineer, in the Shuttle Engineering Directorate, and as 

Director of Shuttle Launch and Landing Operations. (NASA Release 90-3) 

January 8: NASA and Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science agreed 

to launch Japan’s Geotail spacecraft on a Delta II rocket from Kennedy Space 

Center, in Florida, in 1992. The craft was to study the stored energy in the geomagnetic tail of the Earth, a magnetic field drawn by the solar winds on the Earth’s 

night side and responsible for the Aurora Borealis. (NASA Release 90-4) 

January 9: NASA launched the first of 10 expected Shuttle flights in 1990 (flight 

STS-32) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a 10-day mission to orbit a Navy 

communications satellite and to retrieve another. The liftoff, originally scheduled 

for December 18, had been delayed three times because of problems with the renovated launch pad and once because of low clouds. The Navy satellite was 

deployed January 10. On January 12, the spacecraft closed in on and retrieved the 

Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), an 11-ton satellite, into the cargo bay, 

using a 50-foot robotic arm. 

The LDEF was sent up with Space Shuttle Challenger in April 1984 to provide 

vital information on the design of spacecraft and NASA’s Space Station, as well 

as other experiments. The orbiting laboratory was scheduled to be recovered 10 

months after its deployment, but the nearly five-year postponement caused by 

scheduling problems and the Challenger accident resulted in a decaying orbit that 

was expected to reach Earth’s atmosphere by March of 1990. The 57 experiments 

aboard the 30-foot-long cylindrical satellite included an array of potential space 

building materials being tested for reactions to radiation, extreme temperature 

changes, and collisions with space matter. Also tested for prolonged space exposure were optical fibers, pure crystals for use in electronics, and a student experiment involving tomato seeds. Interstellar gases and cosmic radiation were also 

trapped in an attempt to find clues into the formation of the Nzllky Way and the 

evolution of heavier elements. For the remainder of the mission, astronauts carried out other scientific and engineering work. 

Columbia landed on a concrete runway early in the morning on January 20 

at Edwards Air Force Base in California after a landing postponed for a day 

because of fog. The flight set a precedent both because of duration-11 

days-and because the aircraft was the heaviest Shuttle ever to land, a result 

of the captured cargo. The mission was without incident, save for a few minor 

problems involving a leaky dehumidifier, a smoke detector that went off 

unexplainably, a malfunction in one of the three Inertial Measurement Units 

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JANUARY 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

(critical for reentry, but the Shuttle can land with only one functioning unit), 

and a small engine used by the automatic pilot for maintaining flight path that 

fired for no reason. The retrieved satellite remained in the Shuttle cargo bay 

and was scheduled to be flown to Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a 

modified NASA jumbo jet later in the week. 

During re-entry, two NASA experiments measured the aerodynamic and 

thermodynamic characteristics of the orbiter. One of the experiments, a 

Shuttle Infrared Leeside Temperature Sensing experiment, involved an 

infrared camera used to collect imagery from the left wing, an area that 

reached 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, a higher than usual temperature, on the 

STS-28 flight. The second experiment involved the Shuttle Entry Air Data 

System, housed in Columbia’s nose cap to gather “air data” to determine the 

orbiter’s aerodynamic flight characteristics.(NY Times, Jan 10/90; Jan 11/90; 

Jan 13/90; Jan 21/90; W Post, Jan 10/90; Jan 11/90; Jan 13/90; Jan 21/90; 

C Trib, Jan 13/90; CSM, Jan 16/90; NASA Release 90-8) 

January 10: Vice President Dan Quayle, leader of the White House National 

Space Council, told scientists at the 175th meeting of the American Astronomical 

Society that “the rest of the world is catching up and may pass us by” because our 

space programs consume too much time and money. His eight-page speech was 

not lauded by the audience until he suggested greater emphasis on untended space 

flight; many scientists, dependant on Federal funding, view crew-assisted flights 

as a drain owtheir own projects. Quayle reiterated a commitment to balance tended and untended space exploration and called upon allied nations, most specxically Japan, and the business sector to share costs. 

The Vice President also asked the NASA to look “across the traditional divisions among civil, commercial, and national security activities,” which some 

NASA sources interpreted as a suggestion that outside agencies might assume a 

bigger role in the space program. In accord with Quayle’s comment concerning 

lengthy and costly space projects, John Pike, Associate Director for Space Policy 

at the Federation of American Scientists, brought up NASAplans for crew-assisted flights to the Moon and to Mars. The missions, he noted, would cost $15 to $20 

billion annually over 25 years while guaranteeing job security for NASA. 

(P Znq, Jan 11/90; W Post, Jan 11/90; NYTimes, Jan 11/90, W Times, Jan 11/90) 

January 13: NASA scientists reported to the American Astronomical Society preliminary information obtained from the Cosmic Background Explorer spacecraft, 

launched on November 18,1989, aboard a Delta rocket. The data gleaned by the 

Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer, the Differential Microwave 

Radiometer, and the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment supported the Big 

Bang theory, but at the same time minimized the belief that other releases of energy had subsequently occurred. Scientists reported that instruments aboard the craft 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1990 

performed with unprecedented precision. This precision was predicted to increase 

over the spacecraft’s estimated two more years of data gathering. (NASA Release 

90-5; P Znq, Jan 15/90) 

January 15: The White House began looking at other ideas for astronaut expeditions to the Moon and Mars besides those presented by NASA. The unprecedented move stemmed from NASA’s cost and time estimate, $400 billion over 30 

years for the project. A panel representing 54 aerospace companies had met in the 

previous week, and the National Research Council planned to review its own 

efforts to seek innovative ideas later in the week. NASA joined the search for 

sources of outside ideas as well. Arnold Aldrich, NASA Associate Director for 

Aeronautics, called the move ‘‘highly appropriate” and added, “A lot of our ideas 

are good, but we certainly haven’t covered the waterfront.” (NYTtmes, Jan 15/90) 

January 17: NASA selected 23 new astronaut candidates from a list of 1,945 

qualified applicants for one year of training and evaluation that was to begin 

in July 1990. Of 11 civilians and 12 military officers, 7 were selected as pilots 

and the other 16 as mission specialists. (NASA Release 90-7) 

January 19: NASA announced the selection of two payload specialists for the 

International Microgravity Laboratory mission aboard the Space Shuttle 

Columbia, scheduled for launch in December 1990. Dr. Roberta Bondar of the 

Canadian Space Agency and Dr. Ulf Merbold of the European Space Agency 

were to conduct the first of several microgravity investigations using the 

Spacelab Module. (NASA Release 90-9) 

January 21: The European Space Agency successfully sent up an Ariane 4 

rocket from its launch site in French Guiana and its payload, a SPOT 2 observation satellite and six smaller satellites, that included four tiny U.S. spacecraft 

for education and science. It was the first 1990 launch for ESA, the thirty-first 

since 1979. All seven satellites were successfully deployed. (UPZ, Jan 22/90) 

January 24: Four major U.S. defense contractors-General Dynamics 

Corporation, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, United Technologies Corporation, 

and Rockwell International Corporation-announced they would jointly develop 

the X-30 National Aerospace Plane. Until September 1989, industry had roughly 

matched Government investment in the project, $806.3 million since inception 

during the Reagan administration. “Fiscal realities,” said the Wall Street Journal, 

“spur the call for teamwork”. (W Post, Jan 24/90; WSJ, Jan 24/90) 

Japan launched a lunar probe from Uchinoura, on their southern coast, making it the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union, able to send 

up a moon probe. The flight schedule was to go into elliptical orbit around the 

Eaah until it came within 10,000 miles of the Moon, launch an instrument 

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JANUARY 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

package to orbit the moon, and send back data concerning temperatures and 

electrical fields. (WSJ, Jan 25/90; W Post, Jan 25/90; Ny Times, Jan 25/90) 

Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, issued a call for proposals for design of 

a Satellite Servicer System flight demonstrator to show the ability to maintain 

satellites in polar and high inclination orbits. The on-orbit flight demonstration 

would exercise rendezvous and docking, as well as orbital replacement unit 

exchange and fluid transfer. (NASA Release 90- 12) 

January 25: The projected cost for NASA’s Earth Observing System @OS) had 

soared from an estimated $12 billion to $30 billion dollars, Administration sources 

announced. It was the largest and most expensive project yet undertaken by 

NASA. President George Bush had asked the National Academy of Sciences to 

review the matter and recommend cost reductions. 

Lauded by environmental scientists and termed by former astronaut Sally Ride 

as a “mission to planet Earth,” the plan called for putting platforms, launched by 

Titan 4 rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, into polar orbit. 

Each platform would carry 10 sophisticated scientific instruments that could send 

10 trillion bytes of data daily. The fit EOS platform, said NASA, would not be 

in orbit until 1998. (LA Times, Jan 26/90) 

January 26: NASA granted a small Alexandria fm, Global Outpost, rights to 

find ways of using empty Space Shuttle fuel tanks, used to carry 500,000 gallons 

of liquid hydrogen and oxygen for Space Shuttle launch and initial insertion into 

orbit, as a platform for military, civilian, and commercial experiments. The agreement followed a June 1988 NASA announcement requesting commercial and academic uses for expended tanks. (W Times, Jan 29/90; NASA Release 90-14) 

January 28: President George Bush prepared to send a 1991 budget spending 

plan to Congress that proposed a 24 percent increase for NASA, bringing its fiscal year 1991 budget to $15.12 billion. The increased funds were earmarked for 

the Space Station, a satellite program to monitor Earth’s environment (EOS), 

and another for sending astronauts to the Moon and Mars. (WSJ, Jan 29/90) 

January 29: NASA announced a recently revised 1990 schedule for Space 

Shuttle launches that called for 9 flights instead of the previously announced 

10. The reason behind the shuffling hinged on a three-week delay to launch the 

Hubble Telescope, originally planned for deployment March 26, because of an 

unsatisfactory leak check of the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket booster. This delay 

threatened the high-priority Ulysses mission scheduled for October 5. The mission had to be sent up within an 18-day time period in order to slingshot Jupiter 

and head back toward the sun, where it would achieve polar orbit around the 

star. The new agenda for Shuttle launches and their payloads is as follows: 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1990 

Jan 9: Columbia; Navy communications satellite and retrieval of another. 

Feb 22: Atlantis; classified military satellite. 

* Apr 18: Discovery; the Hubble Telescope. 

May 9: Columbia; “astro” astronomy telescopes. 

Jul9: Atlantis; classified military cargo. 

Aug 29: Columbia; a Spacelab life sciences module. 

Oct 5: Discovery; the Ulysses probe. 

* Nov 1 : Atlantis; Gamma Ray Observatory. 

Dec 12: Columbia; a materials science laboratory. 

A military mission carrying a variety of infrared sensors for the Strategic 

Defense Initiative was reassigned for 1992. NASA planned for 64 Space 

Shuttle flights and 30 expendable launch vehicle missions through 

September 1995. (UPI, Jan 29/90; W Times, Jan 30190; NY Times, Feb 4/90; 

NASA Release 90- 15) 

January 30: The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico issued a report 

concerning an electric gun, the coil gun, that could thrust payloads into orbit. 

Hoping one day that the device would launch small satellites, Bill Cowan, 

director of the project, predicted that objects could be hurled into space at 2.8 

miles per second at one percent of the cost of conventional rockets. The gun 

accelerates projectiles by pulling them through successive, interacting magnetic fields created by electric currents passing through coils of wire. 

According to Cowan, obstacles such as damage to the payloads and launchers 

themselves and the heat generated by projectiles rapidly propelled through the 

atmosphere would eventually be overcome. (NY Times, Jan 30190) 

Astronauts who retrieved the Long Duration Exposure Facility in early January 

said, in a press briefing, that the satellite was in worse shape than engineers had 

expected after its nearly 6-year orbit. The conclusion was that materials used for 

the planned Space Station would require greater scrutiny. (W Times, Jan 3 1/90) 

January 31: Columbia’s flight in early January, NASA announced, was made 

with a flawed backup O-ring inspectors had overlooked. A disaster similar to the 

Challenger accident four years ago could have occurred if the primary seal had 

failed. Inspectors also missed inferior welds on a critical pump that supplied one 

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MARCH 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

of the Atlantis main engines with fuel. The problem was corrected while on 

the launch pad in preparation for the upcoming February 22 launch. (Or1 Sen, 

Feb 1/90; Fla Today, Feb 1/90) 

During January: NASA completed a facility to house the second ground station 

for its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system. Located at White Sands, 

New Mexico, near the existing terminal, the station was predicted to be fully operational by 1993. The equipment that the new terminal would house was to be technically superior to the communications network in the original building, but the 

two were to work together in a combination meant to reduce the likelihood for any 

loss of contact with the two TDRS satellites in orbit. (CSM, Jan 30/90) 

* NASA signed an agreement with the Maryland Department of Economic 

and Employment Development for technology sharing designed to increase 

commercial exploitation of space technology. The agreement, like the ones 

reached earlier with Virginia and West Virginia, would mainly involve supplying NASA research reports, sponsoring seminars and lectures, and making 

NASA laboratories available to the private sector. (W Post, Jan 5/90) 

249 

February 

February 1: NASA announced the appointments of Peter G. Smith to the 

position of Director, International Relations Division, and David L. 

Stottlemyer to the position of Director, Industry Relations Division. Smith, 

who would direct NASA's internal relations, worked with the Department of 

State before coming to NASA in 1979, where he was Chief of the 

International Program for Policy and Deputy Director of International 

Relations. Stottlemyer previously held a number of positions with the Foreign 

Service and the United Nations. (NASA Release 90-20) 

February 4: On this date, China put its fifth relay satellite into space on a 

Long March 3 rocket sent up from the Xichang center in western China and 

announced that it was ready to launch foreign satellites. China had scheduled 

launches for Hong Kong and Australian companies who wanted to send up 

three American-built satellites beginning in April of 1990. (Beijing Xinhua 

domestic service in Chinese, Feb 20/90; W Times, Feb 5/90) 

February 5: NASA selected 28 research proposals for negotiation of Phase II contract awards in their Small Business Innovation Research program. The awards 

were worth $13 million and part of an ongoing effort to stimulate technological 

innovation, increase the use of the small business sector, and increase the commercialization of federally funded research. (NASA Release 90-21) 

February 6: NASA Administrator Richard Truly addressed the House Science, 

Space, and Technology Committee and defended the projected 24 percent budget increase that President George Bush had proposed for the agency. Truly 

warned that any attempt to slash the budget would render the Space Station 

defunct, a project whose expected cost had risen from the original 1984 estimate 

of $8 billion to $20 billion, despite reduction in design. Also discussed was the 

status of the planned Shuttle-C, an crew-assisted heavy-lift cargo rocket that 

representatives claimed could be built by private industry. It was doubtful that 

the rocket could be ready in time to aid construction of the Space Station. 

William Lenoir, NASA Associate Administrator, said the new rocket was not 

necessary for building the Space Station, but would have other uses. 

In a related matter, Truly released to the White House and Congress his 

plan to increase NASA's budget by 60 percent over the next three years: $15 

billion in 1991, $17.6 billion in 1992, $19.3 billion in 1993. The increases, he 

said, were needed for the Space Station Freedom, the Earth Observing 

25 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1990 

System, and crew-assisted Moon and Mars explorations. (Hearings before the 

Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications, Feb 6,8,21,27/90; Sp News, 

Feb 15-11/90; H Chron, Feb 7/90; UPI, Feb 6/90) 

February IO: The Galileo spacecraft launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis 

on October 18, 1989, looped 10,000 miles above the planet Venus in what 

NASA engineers termed a “gravity assisted maneuver” that increased its speed 

by almost 5,000 mph for its trek to Jupiter. After taking 16 pictures of Venusian 

cloud and wind patterns while searching for lightning, the craft was scheduled 

to take more pictures of the planet during its return journey. The second set of 

photographs, which were to be coupled with sensors, were to detect dust, 

infrared and visible light, and electrically charged particles. Scientists determined that the spacecraft would be within range of the Earth and able to send 

back data, in October, using its small antenna. It was expected to reach Jupiter 

in December 1995. (P Inq, Feb 12/90; B Sun, Feb 11/90; NY Times, Feb 11/90) 

February 13: Scientists, after taking their first long look at the Long Duration 

Exposure Facility recovered by Space Shuttle Columbia in January, said the 

varied surfaces of the satellite showed signs of pits, scars, and discoloration 

in some areas while being strangely unscathed in others. The surfaces 

revealed no “showstoppers” however. The satellite was an experiment meant 

to test materials for use in building spacecraft and the Space Station. (W Post, 

Feb 13/86; NASA Release 90-23) 

The 12-year-old Voyager 1, into deep space and some 3.7 billion miles from 

Earth on this date, began taking 64 pictures of our solar system for a kind of “family portrait.” NASA considered having the pictures, which were too large for publication, displayed in a 100-foot exhibit produced by Los Angeles artist David 

Hochey. (USA Today, Feb 14/86, AP, Feb 14/86) 

Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, announced the selection of Teledyne Brown Engineering for negotiations leading to a $172 million contract for payload mission integration. Under the contract, the 

company would provide management, personnel, equipment, services, supplies, facilities, and materials for Shuttle/Spacelab missions. Spacelab, carried 

in the Shuttle’s cargo bay, converted the Shuttle into a versatile on-orbit 

research center. (NASA Release C90-f) 

February 14: A Delta rocket carried two satellites into space from Cape 

Canaveral, Florida, to test laser technology planned for the Strategic Defense 

Initiative program. One satellite, the Relay Mirror Experiment, was to reflect 

a beam fired from a mountain top in Hawaii back to another nearby point on 

Earth using a mirror. The other satellite, the Low Power Atmospheric 

Compensation, was to correct laser strike distortions caused by dust, moisture, 

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FEBRUARY 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAGTICS 

and gases. The media generally opined that success of the experiment might 

induce Congress not to slash the $4.5 billion that President George Bush had 

requested for further research into the project in budget year 1991. (W Times, 

Feb 15/90; Ny Times, Feb 15/90) 

February 18: For the first time, Soviet defense committee lawmakers visited the 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida as NASA prepared Shuttle Atlantis for a classified satellite launch that, said sources, was to take reconnaissance photographs 

and intercept military and diplomatic communications. The 12-day visit reflected 

a new openness in the Soviet Union, and the committee chairman, referring to the 

mission said, “We have no special secrets.. .I think you are wasting your money.” 

(W Post, Feb 19/90; NY Times, Feb 20190) 

February 19: Soviet cosmonauts ended a 22-week mission when their Soyus 

TM-8 capsule touched down on the Kazakhstan Steppe, southeast of Moscow. 

The fifth mission involving a crew living aboard the 20-ton Mir Space Station 

included dozens of scientific experiments and testing of a “space motorcycle,” 

a one-man vehicle designed for servicing satellites. (FBIS Moscow, Tass (Eng 

trans) Feb 19/90; NY Times, Feb 20190; P Znq, Feb 20190) 

February 20: NASA signed an agreement to support the University 

Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) study of the feasibility of 

using the Shuttle’s external tanks as research, storage, or manufacturing facilities. Space Shuttle fuel tanks were used to carry 500,000 gallons of liquid 

hydrogen and oxygen for launch and initial insertion into orbit. The agreement followed a June 1988 NASA announcement requesting commercial and 

academic uses for expended tanks. (NASA Release 90-26) 

* A German scientific satellite, ROSAT, scheduled for NASA launch on a 

Delta I1 rocket, in early summer, arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on this 

date from the Federal Republic of Germany aboard a 747 cargo plane. The 

spacecraft was to perform “all sky” surveys with two x-ray imaging telescopes, 

after which it would focus on detailed x-ray sources. (NASA Release 90-27) 

February 21 : Launching of the Shuttle Atlantis and deployment of a classified payload mission on February 22 were canceled because the mission 

Commander had a sore throat and headache, coupled with the prediction of 

wind and rain over Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the first time a NASA 

mission had been scrubbed because of crew illness. (IVY Times, Feb 22/90; 

Feb 23/90; W Post, Feb 22/90) 

Space Shuttle mission specialist Colonel Richard M. Mullane announced his 

retirement from NASA, effective July 1, 1990. He flew two Shuttle flights in 

1984 and 1988 and was scheduled to fly aboard the Atlantis later in February. 

(NASA Release 90-28) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1990 

February 22: An Ariane rocket carrying two American-built Japanese satellites exploded over the Atlantic Ocean shortly after liftoff from French 

Guiana; a fire in the rocket’s propulsion system was suspected to be the cause 

of the explosion. Ariane had a record of 17 successful flights previous to this 

accident; it held more than 50 percent of the international market for commercial launches. (The European Space Agency later admitted that a cloth 

inadvertently left in the rocket had caused the failure by blocking water supplies to one of its first stage engines.) (FBIS Paris AFP in English, Apr 13/90; 

W Times, Feb 23/90; NY Times, Feb 23/90) 

February 23: Pioneer 11, launched April 5, 1973, was 2.8 billion miles from 

Earth, passing the planet Neptune (Neptune and Pluto exchange outermost 

planet status because of Pluto’s eccentric orbit) to become the fourth spacecraft that had left the solar system. Its main mission was to glean data from 

Saturn and Jupiter, but scientists hoped that Pioneer 11 would send back information concerning solar winds until 1995. (C Trib, Feb 25/90; NY Times, Feb 

25/90; NASA Release 90-29) 

February 26: Space Shuttle pilot Donald E. Williams announced his retirement from NASA and the Navy, beginning March 1. He piloted two Shuttle 

missions, in April 1985 and October 1989, was Chief of the Astronaut Office 

Mission Support Branch, and Deputy Manager of Operations Integration. 

(NASA Release 90-3 1) 

February 27: NASA issued a request for proposals to the commercial launch 

industry for launch of up to 10 small Explorer-class spacecraft between 1993 

and 1998. The request called for furnishing the launch vehicle, facilities, personnel, and services necessary for the required orbit. (NASAAnno) 

February 28: After five delays because of the Shuttle Commander’s head 

cold, a faulty ground computer, and inclement weather, Atlantis (STS-36) lifted off under dark skies from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to deliver a 37,300- 

pound classified military satellite into orbit. The postponements tacked on an 

additional $2.7 million to the mission, but NASA Administrator Richard Truly 

reiterated NASA’s policy that meeting launch schedules was secondary to 

safety observation. The Space Shuttle deployed its $500 million military payload the following day at an orbit inclined 62 degrees north of the equator, 

allowing it to fly over every major populated and industrialized center in the 

Soviet Union. An even higher inclination orbit would have been preferred. A 

polar orbit was considered ideal for a recon- naissance satellite, but the 

Shuttle base at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, from where such an 

orbit could have been safely achieved, was not operational; the weight of the 

larger satellites required they be launched from the Space Shuttle. 

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FEBRUARY 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AEiRONAUTICS 

Atlantis landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base, California on March 4. 

No problems were reported during the brief 4-112 day mission, the Space 

Shuttle’s 34th mission and the 6th mission dedicated solely to the military. 

(W Post, Mar 1/90; Mar 2/90; Mar 5/90; Feb 28/90; NY Times, March 1/90; 

Mar 2/90; Mar 6/90; P Znq, Mar 5/90) 

* NASA Administrator Richard Truly announced the completion of the 

merger of the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology and the Office of 

Exploration; the two offices were merged into the Office of Aeronautics, 

Exploration, and Technology. Arnold D. Aldrich was named to head the new 

NASA office, which was intended to combine the analysis of exploration mission alternatives with innovative technologies, two closely related efforts that 

Truly felt should proceed under a strong central management. 

Truly also announced the establishment of the Office of Legislative 

Affairs, effective March 18, 1990. Headed by Martin P. Kress, this NASA 

office would be responsible for legislative matters and the coordination of 

budgetary and policy matters with Congress. (NASA Release 90-32; 90-33) 

During February: Daniel Brandenstein, NASA’s chief astronaut, returned from 

a tour of Soviet space facilities and said the original untended Russian shuttle, 

maiden voyage in 1988, would never fly again. He also reported that the 

Soviets planned to launch a second untended space shuttle in 1991 and automatically dock it with Mir. The station’s crew planned to run some tests. Again 

untended, it would undock and reenter the atmosphere. (UPZ, Feb 21/90) 

* A Chicago Tribune article reported on the progress of commercial space 

launch ventures that were born out of the Challenger disaster in 1986. 

McDonnell Douglas and Martin Marietta made their first successful launches 

of satellites in 1989, and Orbital Sciences and General Dynamics were 

expected to follow this year. Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested by 

the corporations, and a backlog of missions was seen until 1995 when Japan, 

Russia, and China were predicted to compete with U.S. and European systems. The threat of so much competition was unnerving for the industry, but 

the promise of U.S. military contracts offered enough compensation for the 

continuation of their projects. (C Trib, Feb 19/90) 

The Los Alamos National Laboratory urged NASA and the National Space 

Council to fund a multibillion dollar nuclear propulsion project that the group 

believed would reduce the Mars journey by half of the expected time. The proposed system would draw on a 1970s technology, Rover and Nerva programs, 

that circulated liquid hydrogen through a solid reactor core, thereby heating the 

hydrogen and creating thrust. The reactor engine could operate only in a vacuum, so testing it on Earth would prove difficult. The program, reported Space 

News, would likely receive substantial money. (Sp News, Feb 19-25/90) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1990 

In an unreleased report, NASA determined that the proposed untended 

Shuttle-C would prove too costly for use in building the Space Station. The 

original plan called for 18 Shuttle flights at a cost of $1.5 billion to erect the 

$25 billion station. Although using the Shuttle-C would reduce the number of 

required flights to 10 because of its more than doubled cargo space, the price 

tag would jump to $3.7 billion, not including the $2 billion needed to develop the vehicle. (Sp News, Feb 24-Mar 4/90) 

Three SR-71 Blackbird aircraft, reconnaissance planes being retired by the 

Air Force, were Scheduled to arrive in February at Edwards Air Force Base in 

California, for “flyable storage.” NASA hoped to use the high-speed aircraft, 

capable of Mach 3 at 80,000 feet, for tests relating to the Space Plane later in 

the year. (Daily News, Jan 30190; NASA Release 90-24) 

NASA reported on the completed computerized medical reference system, 

a project engendered by computer and medical experts at the University of 

Florida and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 1979 and known as the 

Clinical Practice Library of Medicine (CPLM). The system contains nearly all 

of the text and graphics of seven commonly used medical reference books that 

are considered essential for practicing medicine. Being lightweight as well as 

offering high speed access to references, the CPLM has great potential for 

both space travel and Earth uses alike. (NASA Release: 90-30a) 

256 
March 

March I : Telescopes for NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer spacecraft were 

delivered to the Goddard Space Flight Center for integration into a payload module scheduled for launch in August 1991. The science payload was designed, built, 

and tested at the University of California, Berkeley, to focus on the study of an 

unexplored portion of the electromagnetic spectrum called the extreme ultraviolet, between the x-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths. (NASA Release 90-34) 

March 2: The National Research Council reported that NASA plans for accomplishing President George Bush's mandate, crew-assisted missions to the Moon 

and Mars, should be viewed only as a springboard to further research. Among 

their recommendations were greater research into nuclear power for habitable 

bases and space flight, research into low and artificial gravity, and greater emphasis on planning the Space Station Freedom for essential research concerning 

weightlessness and habitable bases. Updating Space Shuttle technology to better 

comply with the needs of building the Space Station was recommended as well; 

it was noted that the orbiter would become obsolete after the year 2000 without 

these changes. (W Post, Mar 3/90; NY Times, Mar 5/90; Sp News, Mar 12-18/90) 

March 5: Japan successfully tested its pew H-2 rocket, which promised to lift 

large, sophisticated satellites. The rocket using an LE-7 engine, similar to the 

high-technology propulsion system used by the Space Shuttle, was slated for 

service in March 1992. (AP, Mar 6/90) 

March 6: Rockwell Space Operations was selected by NASA for a $814 million, 

10-year station operation support contract. The contract would provide support for 

mission, flight crew, and facility operations for the Space Station and other flight 

programs at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. (H Post, Mar 7/90) 

Victor L. Peterson was named Deputy Director of the Ames Research 

Center in California. Since joining NASA in 1956, Petersen held several positions at the center. (NASA Release 90-36) 

March 13: A House subcommittee approved a plan that authorized $1.1 billion to build the Shuttle-C. Representative Bill Nelson was chairman of the 

committee and a supporter of the crewless Shuttle. The Shuttle-C would carry 

100,000 pounds of cargo into space; an orbiter would have only a 50,000- 

pound capacity. (Sp News, Mar 19-25/90) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1990 

March 14: A satellite launched by Martin Marietta from Cape Canaveral, 

Florida, failed to reach a useful orbit because of a wiring problem that did not 

allow separation from the Titan 3 rocket’s second stage. Ground engineers 

successfully took the craft to a higher, but still useless, orbit, so that it would 

not be as likely to reenter the atmosphere. One plan offered by Orbital 

Sciences Corporation in Virginia was to attach a rocket to the satellite via the 

Space Shuttle so it could obtain the necessary 23,000 mile orbit. Martin 

Marietta, which had only two remaining contracts, believed it was in jeopardy 

of not getting any more contracts because of the incident. (WSJ, Mar 15/90; 

W Post, Mar 17/90; M Times, Mar 16/90) 

March 15: NASA’s Langley Research Center selected Ball Corporation for a 

$90 million contract to develop an atmospheric instrument for the proposed 

Earth Observing System. The instrument, Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere 

Using Far Infrared Emission, would be designed to study middle-atmosphere 

ozone distribution. (NASA Release, C90-i) 

March 18: The military reconnaissance satellite launched from Atlantis in 

February malfunctioned and was slowly spinning from orbit, said White 

House intelligence officials. The satellite, “vital for START (Strategic Arms 

Reduction Treaty) verification,” was expected to reach Earth’s atmosphere in 

April. (W Times, Mar 19/90; W Post, Mar 19/90) 

March 23: Shuttle program director Robert Crippen said that a Space Shuttle 

rescue of the errant satellite sent up earlier this month by Martin Marietta 

appeared possible. He could not say Whether the Intelsat communications 

satellite would be lifted into a higher orbit or if the Shuttle would bring it back 

to Earth, but noted that either approach would require about one year for planning. (W Post, March 24/90) 

March 25: A Delta 2 rocket carried a $654 million navigation satellite, NAVSTAR, into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This was 

the eighth launch of the Air Force’s Delta 2 rocket, designed for heavier 

payloads than the original Delta. It was number 7 of a planned 21 satellite 

constellations that were to help ground units, ships, and aircraft locate their 

precise positions. (UPI, Mar 26/90) 

March 29: NASA released a call for proposals to lease a commercially developed and owned space module, the Commercial Middeck Augmentation 

Module, which would ride in the payload bay of the Space Shuttle and add 

about 50 lockers to the orbiter’s capacity. The need for greater capacity resulted from NASA’s Commercial Development of Space Program, which was 

designed to enlarge research opportunities for private use by conducting 

experiments in materials processing, protein crystal growth, biotechnology, 

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MARCH 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

and fluid dynamics. (NASA Release 90-46; Sp News, Mar 12-18/90) 

During March: A NASA study released to the Senate disclosed that designs for 

the planned Space Station Freedom needed sigmfkant changes that would drive 

up the initial cost. The study found an elaborate program of preventative maintenance that would require about 2,200 hours each year for space walks by 

astronauts and begin before the station was even completed. Possible solutions 

included use of advanced robots for maintenance, newly designed spacesuits to 

ease space walks, and a redesign of Space Station parts that would make them 

easier to repair. (NY Times, Mar 19/90; Mar 20/90; Mar 28/90; Mar 29/90) 

NASA's 1991 budget would be cut by $1 billion dollars, wamed Congress. The 

Space Station, planned explorations of the Moon and Mars, and the Orbital 

Maneuvering Vehicle were slated to be trimmed. Money for the Earth 

Observation System was earmarked for an increase. (Sp News, Mar 26-Apr 1/90) 

0 The Jet Propulsion Laboratory began testing its prototype for the Planetary 

Rover Navigation Test Bed Vehicle, a self-navigating vehicle, about the 

size of a small car, for use in planned outposts on the Moon and Mars. 

(Daily News, Mar 13/90) 

Orbital Communications Corporation requested Federal approval for 

deploying a global satellite system for data transmission, 20 small satellites 

that would mostly be used for emergency services. Orbital planned to deploy 

them, beginning in April with its Pegasus rocket, launched from a B-52 aircraft. (W Times, Mar 6/90; NASA Release N90-18) 

0 NASA successfully tested its self-repairing flight control system on an F-15 

aircraft at Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base in 

California. The system detected damaged flight control components, such as 

ailerons, rudders, and elevators, and adjusted undamaged flight surfaces to compensate so the pilot could maintain good aircraft response. (NASA Release 90-43) 

A one-year analysis of the results from a study of the ozone above the Arctic 

performed in the winter of 1988-1989 by Airborne Arctic Stratospheric 

Expedition reported a possible 17 percent loss in March. The finding was a reversal of the on@ conclusion that said no ozone depletion similar to that found in 

the Antarctic was present. (NASA Release 90-41) 

259 

April 

April 2: President George Bush announced his plans for a cooperative effort 

with the Soviet Union in the human-assisted exploration of space, including 

voyages to the Moon and Mars. 

On a related note, Japan agreed to open its doors to foreign-made satellites 

by lifting its ban on government agencies and businesses that required them 

to buy only Japanese spacecraft. The Japanese law was created in order to 

help Japan’s fledgling space industry. (NY Times, Apr 3/90; Apr 4/90; 

W Times, Apr 4/90; WSJ, Apr 4/90) 

NASA and Rockwell International Corporation signed an agreement in 

which Rockwell would produce a cryogenic pallet aimed at extending orbiter 

flights from an average of 8 days to 16 days. The extended duration orbiter 

program involved a pallet holding spherical tanks of liquid hydrogen, liquid 

oxygen, valve panels, and avionics boxes for feeding additional cryogenic fluids to the orbiter’s electricity-generating fuel cells. (NASA Release 90-47) 

April 6: Orbital Sciences Corporation successfully launched its Pegasus rocket from a NASA B-52 aircraft to boost a 422-pound payload into polar orbit 

over the Pacific Ocean. The experimental rocket deployed a NASA scientific 

satellite and a Navy communications satellite, opening a new avenue for 

launching small payloads. The elimination of a costly ground booster, said 

company president David Thompson, provided a means by which payloads 

could be delivered inexpensively. (W Post, Apr 6/90; WSJ, Apr 6/90; 

Ny Times, Apr 6/90; LA Times, Apr 6/90] 

April 7: China launched a communications satellite, AsiaSat 1, from Sichuan 

Province for an Australian firm and became the First third-world country to 

enter the commercial satellite launching business. China promised to follow 

fair pricing practices after President George Bush lifted a sanction, brought on 

the country for human rights violations, that barred them from launching the 

U.S.-built satellite. The launch still drastically undercut U.S. and Ariane fees. 

(FBIS China, China Daily, Apr 7/90; CSM, Apr 9/90; W Post, Apr 8/90) 

April 9: NASA Administrator Richard Truly named Lawrence J. Ross as 

Director of the Lewis Research Center (LeRc), Cleveland, Ohio. 

Administrator Truly announced the planned retirement of Dr. John W. 

Townsend and named Dr. John Klineberg to replace him as the new Director 

26 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1990 

of the Goddard Space Flight Center. Sue Mathis Richards was also appointed 

Deputy Associate Administrator for communications. She had previously held 

several managerial positions in the private sector. Lawerence Ross, who 

joined NASA in 1963, has served mostly in an executive capacity, as Deputy 

Director of LeRC, as a design and test engineer, and has been given several 

special assignments. Klineberg joined NASA in 1970. After conducting 

research at the Ames Research Center, near San Francisco, California, he 

became Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and Space Technology 

and, later, Director of LeRc. Townsend began government service in 1947 and 

held several positions with NASA. (NASA Release 90-49; 90-50; 90-5 1; 90-55) 

April 10: Boeing Space Operations, Inc. was awarded a $35.9 million cost-plusaward-fee contract for program assurance engineering support at Ames Research 

Center in California. Under the contract, Boeing would provide reliability and 

quality assurance, system safety engineering, test engineering, management, institutional safety, and health and environmental services. (NASA Release C90-0) 

April 11: NASA unveiled its latest research laboratory at Ames Research 

Center in California. The Human Performance Research Laboratory was 

designed for study of prolonged space travel. Ground was also broken at the 

dedication for the new $8.6 million Automated Sciences Research Facility, 

designed to provide research and technology development in automation and 

artificial intelligence. (NASA Release 90-53) 

April 16: A panel of experts convened by the National Academy of Sciences 

opined against a U.S.N.S.S.R. joint mission to Mars. The reason they cited 

was the lack of any experience in cooperation between the two and instead 

suggested a “graceful path of coordinated but independent explorations.” 

(NY Times, Apr 17/90) 

April 19: NASA scientists Michael J. Rather and Robert T. Watson warned 

that current levels of ozone depletion could cause public health problems and 

threaten plant life regardless of what steps were taken to reduce it. Their study 

predicted that the salient depletion over the Arctic could drift southward, similar to the damaged ozone over Antarctica that periodically drifts over New 

Zealand and Australia. (P Inq, Apr 20/90) 

April 24: Space Shuttle Discovery, flight STS-3 1, was successfully launched 

from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with the $1.5 billion, 25,000-pound Hubble 

Space Telescope in its cargo bay. Seven years of delays, the latest occurring 

last April 10, when a power failure in the orbiter caused the mission to be 

scrubbed, preceded the event. The craft ascended to a 38 I-mile orbit, the highest altitude yet obtained by a Shuttle. On April 25 the Hubble telescopewhich had an expected 15-year duration-was deployed; the telescope was to 

262 
APRIL 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

probe the universe with 10 times the clarity ever before achieved. Discovery 

landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, on April 29, with a test of 

stronger, carbon brakes that would allow future landings at the Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida, reducing both time and money for NASA’s Shuttle launches. 

Scientists, however, could not receive data from the telescope immediately 

after it had been deployed because of an antenna entangled in a power cable. 

The entangled antenna could not rotate and relay information to a TDRS satellite. The low, 381-mile orbit prevented all data from reaching ground stations. 

The six- to eight-week chore of powering up and calibrating instruments on the 

telescope could not begin until the problem was resolved. Engineers zeroed in 

on and only partially resolved the next day. (B Sun, Apr 25/90; Apr 26/90; 

W Post, Apr 25/90; Apr 26/90; Apr 30190; May 1/90; NY Times, Apr 25/90; Apr 

26/90; Apr 30190; W Times, Apr 25/90; Apr 26/90; P lnq, Apr 25/90; Apr 26/90) 

During April: NASA began acting on some of the recommendations from its 

principal independent safety review organization, which had predicted that the 

approximately 100 flights planned by the agency would probably entail another Shuttle loss. Among the panel’s main engineering concerns were the Shuttle 

main engine, the redesigned solid rocket motor, orbiter structural loads, longterm orbiter maintenance, and human factors. NASA Associate Administrator 

William Lenoir explained that the safety panel acts as a “devil’s advocate” and 

noted that conclusions drawn by them were intentionally exaggerated. 

(AvWk, Apr 23/90; CSM, May 8/90) 

NASA tested two of its experimental aircraft at the Ames-Dryden Flight 

Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base in California. One of the aircraft, 

an F-l6XL, used an experimental wing surface for improving airflow at 

supersonic speeds. The second aircraft, an X-29, demonstrated an increase for 

high-angle-of-attack, the angle of an aircraft relative to its actual flight path. 

(NASA Release 90-52; 90-59) 

* Two NASA sounding rockets were scheduled for launch from the White Sands 

Missile Range in New Mexico to observe Cornet Austin. The two-stage, suborbital Black Brant IX rockets were set to carry a faint object telescope and a spectrograph (for observation in the far ultraviolet spectral range) for Johns Hopkins 

University and a far ultraviolet spectrometer for the University of Colorado. 

(NASA Release 90-57) 

263 

May 1 : NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, awarded 

Jackson and Tu11 of Washington, D.C. a $19 million contract to support the 

Applied Engineering Division in automation and robotics and thermal and 

data systems. The firm was selected under Section 8(a) of the Small Business 

Act; the potential for the contract over a five-year period was $63 million. 

(NASA Release C90-q) 

May 2: NASA named William W.L. Taylor of TRW Corporation as the Chief 

Scientist for the Space Station Freedom Program. Taylor, who was with 

NASA until 1978 when he joined TRW, was the third person chosen for the 

two-year assignment and the first from industry. (NASA Release 90-61) 

May 3: NASA was scheduled to launch two Multiple Access Communications 

Satellites (MACSATs) later in May aboard a Navy-owned Scout rocket. The 

MACSATs were designed for a global store-and-forward message relay. 

(NASA Release 90-64) 

May 4: Engineers at NASA ran tests of the Hubble Space Telescope to determine if vibrations were interfering with precise pointing at specific stars. The 

problem had been discovered two days earlier when sensors locked on to a 

“guide star” to orient the spacecraft. Engineers noticed a slight wobble, one 

six-hundredth of a degree up and down every minute, that interfered with both 

fine pointing mechanisms and star observations. (NY Times, May 5/90) 

May 8: The Hubble Telescope failed a test on this date as scientists attempted 

to direct it toward stars emanating a common brightness; the telescope was 

able to find none. It was later discovered that the problem originated from an 

error in the telescopes computer guidance system, and a new program with an 

updated star chart was sent up. (NY Times, May 10190; W Post, May 10190) 

May 14: Jerry Grey, Director of Science and Technology Policy for the American 

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, recommended that weapons designed 

for the Strategic Defense Initiative be developed to locate and destroy any asteroids that threaten Earth, views endorsed by Vice President Dan Quayle. Grey 

noted that 1,500 asteroids cross the Earth’s orbit every year, that the location of 

only 100 of them is known, and that the impact of even a relatively small asteroid 

could have a devastating effect. (P Inq, May 15/90; C Trib, May 17/90) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1990 

* Lockheed Corporation received a $971 million contract from NASA to 

oversee design and development of a new generation of rocket motors for the 

Space Shuttle. Twenty more powerful solid rocket motors were to begin lifting the Shuttle in 1995, according to the contract, and sources said that if 

NASA exercised the option to order 88 more, the contract would be worth 

$1.39 billion. (WSJ, May 15/90; NASA Release 90-68) 

May 15: NASA said that it would rescue the uninsured communications satellite that Martin Marietta Corporation boosted into a useless orbit last March 14. 

The cost was set at $1 million to either retrieve it or attach rockets, that would 

send it into a higher orbit, in 1991 or 1992. Intelsat said that it would consider 

the cost at its next board of governors meeting. (W Times, May 16/90) 

May 20: Ground controllers adjusted commands on the Hubble Space 

Telescope for focusing on stars. Although other problems existed-wobble 

from solar panels on the telescope and vibration as it went through space-the 

first pictures were taken and sent to Earth on this day. (AT Times, May 21/90; 

W Times, May 21/90; W Post, May 21/90) 

May 24: The Department of Defense and NASA announced the appointment 

of contractors to continue research and development on the National 

Aerospace Plane. General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas, United Technologies (Pratt & Whitney), and Rockwell International planned to 

jointly pursue hypersonic technologies. (NASA Release 90-7 1) 

May 31 : The Apollo 204 Capsule, which caught fire on the launch pad at Cape 

Canaveral, Florida, and claimed the lives of three astronauts on January 27, 

1967, remains at Langley Research Center in Virginia, where it has been 

stored since shortly after the accident. The capsule was slated to be entombed 

with the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger in an abandoned missile silo at 

Cape Canaveral, Florida. (NASA Release 90-76) 

266 
June 

June I: NASA launched a Delta rocket carrying a West German observatory 

into a 360-mile-high orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The observatory 

consisted of an x-ray telescope and a wide-field camera for detecting extreme 

ultraviolet light; scientists hoped the observatory would yield information 

about forces associated with the center of our galaxy, intergalactic gases, 

quasars, black holes, hot stars, and objects on the edge of the universe. The 

observatory was dubbed Rosat, after the German Scientist Wilhelm Roentgen 

who discovered x-rays in 1895, and promised to be 100 times more sensitive 

than even the Einstein x-ray Observatory launched in 1978. It was originally 

scheduled for launch aboard a Space Shuttle in 1987. (LA Times, Jun 2/90; 

NY Times, Jun 2/90; B Sun, Jun 2/90; P Inq, Jun 2/90) 

June 5: A letter from Lennard A. Fisk to Jacques Breton of the French space 

agency, the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, revealed NASA’s defunct plans 

for a U.S.-French experiment that was to fly aboard a 1994 Soviet mission to measure the mineral content of Mars. The constraints recently imposed on the two 

countries was the reason given for cancellation of the project. (W Post, Jun 18/90) 

June 6: A fuel leak that postponed Space Shuttle Columbia’s May 30 launch was 

located, and engineers decided the orbiter would have to return to the hanger for 

repairs. NASA officials were not sure when the craft would be launched but 

announced that only eight of the nine planned flights for the year would be flown. 

(NY Times, Jun 7/90; W Times, Jun 8/90) 

June 7: NASA canceled a contract with TRW Corporation for the Orbital 

Maneuvering Vehicle, also known as the Space Tug, a spacecraft intended to 

lift satellites (specifically the Hubble Space Telescope and a proposed X-ray 

telescope) into higher orbit. The reason given for the cancellation was recent 

budget pressure facing NASA. (WSJ, Jun 8/90; W Times, Jun 8/90; Sp News, 

Jun 11-17/90; NASA Release 90-78) 

0 NASA announced that Steven A Hawley had been named Associate Director 

at Ames Research Center, California. He was selected as an astronaut in 1978 and 

was the veteran of three Shuttle flights. (NASA Release 90-77) 

June 8: The Air Force launched a Titan 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral in 

Florida and put a classified payload into orbit. The Titan 4, manufactured by 

Martin Marietta Corporation, was designed to replace the Space Shuttle as the 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1990 

military’s principal means of reaching space. This was the second successful 

launch of the rocket, although the maiden voyage in 1989 almost resulted in 

a catastrophe because of a malfunctioning engine nozzle. (W Post, Jun 9/90; 

Ny Times, Jun 9/90) 

June 13: NASA said it had received the go ahead from Intelsat to rescue the 

Intelsat 6 satellite put into a low-orbit three months earlier. Plans called for 

lifting the satellite into a higher orbit sometime in 1992; sources said that the 

mission would probably be carried out during the inaugural flight of Shuttle 

Endeavor. (B Sun, Jun 14/90; W Times, Jun 14/90) 

June 14: NASA engineers revealed that problems with the Hubble Space 

Telescope were even more difficult to correct than first expected. The most vexing problem was a 20-minute vibration from the solar panels every 90 minutes as 

the craft passed from night to day. The onboard computer’s attempt to compensate for the vibration only made the problem worse. Another problem was the telescope’s frequent inability to lock onto the stars that it was commanded to seek. In 

addition, the reaction of the spacecraft to radiation over the South Atlantic, where 

the Van Allen belt dips closer than usual to the Earth, was more acute than expected; numerous data were lost and false computer signals were given. It was hoped 

that all three problems could be remedied via modifications to the telescope’s 

computer. (AT Times, Jun 15/90; P Znq, Jun 15/90; B Sun, Jun 15/90) 

NASA’s Office of Commercial Programs sponsored plans to develop a system 

for launching and recovering commercial spacebome experiments. Assisted by 

numerous universities, the Commercial Experiment Transporter would be 

launched on an expendable rocket and contain both a recovery system and a service module. The two would then separate so that the experiments aboard the 

recovery system could land in the United States while those not requiring recovery could remain in orbit. (NASA Release 90-83) 

June 21: Contel Federal Systems transferred title of the Tracking and Data 

Relay Satellite System to NASA, effective July 1, 1990. Contel transferred the 

system 42 months earlier than called for, saving the Government $16 million. 

(NASA Release 90-86) 

The Ames Research Center in California awarded a five-year, $32.8 million 

contract to Silicon Graphics for a work station to be used in the Ames 

Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Processing System Network. The work 

station would allow users to analyze and visualize their work in computational fluid dynamics and other large-scale scientific simulation and modeling 

applications. (NASA Release C90-w) 

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JUNE 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

June 23: Martin Marietta Corporation successfully launched a Titan 3 rocket 

from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on this date that carried a replacement satellite 

into orbit for the Intelsat 6 stranded in March. The new communications satellite 

was to join 14 others in September and would transmit 3 television channels and 

120,000 telephone calls simultaneously. (P Znq, Jun 24/90; W Post, Jun 24/90) 

June 27: NASA said that the Hubble Space Telescope, which had been plagued 

with problems, was discovered to have a flawed mirror, causing the $1.5 billion 

instrument to be “near sighted.” The mirrors, which were ground into the wrong 

shape, rendered useless the telescope’s most important scientific instrument, a 

widefield planetary camera designed to explore the farthest reaches of the universe. Engineers said that instruments scheduled to be attached to the telescope in 

1993, 1996, and 1997 could compensate for the flaw and added that these flight 

schedules might be advanced. Tests were not done on the effectiveness af the mirrors before the telescope was launched because engineers felt that the checks were 

cost prohibitive. (P Znq, Jun 28/90; NY Times, June 28/90; W Post, Jun 28/90) 

June 28: Ames Research Center in California awarded a cost-plus-award-fee 

$210.8 million contract for software support. Under the contract Sterling Federal 

Systems, Inc. would provide computational support for problem applications and 

systems programming, systems design and engineering, software management 

and maintenance, and modification of existing software. (NASA Release C90-y) 

June 29: A hydrogen leak similar to the one that scrubbed Columbia’s mission late in May was discovered in the Space Shuttle Atlantis as it was being 

readied on the launch pad. Engineers determined that Atlantis would need to 

return to the hanger where it could be separated from its external fuel tank for 

repairs. Officials said that the flight, originally scheduled for mid-July, would 

be delayed at least several weeks and noted that the entire fleet was grounded 

until the problem could be ascertained. Finding the cause of the leak had 

proven difficult. If the final analysis pointed to a design flaw, grounding might 

have been stretched to months or even years. (NASA Release 90-89; W Post, 

Jun 30190; NY Times, Jun 30190; WSJ, July 2/90; CSM, Jul 2/90) 

During June: NASA awarded a $1.3 million contract to Martin Marietta 

Corporation to study design concepts for a space based “service station.” The system would service satellites beyond the range of the Space Shuttle, provide them 

with fuel as well as replace certain components. (W Times, Jun 7/90) 

The Air Force and NASA entered their final stage of a $250 million, ten-year 

experiment for the X-29 program, scheduled to be completed in March 1991. The 

test plane was designed to be 30 percent unstable and was dependent upon a 

sophisticated flight control system to produce and maintain stability. Glenn Spacht 

of Grumman Corporation, developer of the X-29 and producer of the F- 14, said, 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1990 

‘When applied to the F-14, the plane will get better handling qualities, survivability, maneuverability, and antispin characteristics. . . .The F-14 can certainly 

reap the benefits of the X-29.” (DefNews, Jun 25/90) 

Scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 

California began extensive tests on its recently developed untended planetary 

rover. An unproven technology was needed for a vehicle on a distant planet controlled by ground crews on Earth inasmuch as round-trip communication would 

be anywhere from 8 minutes to 40 minutes. Computer Aided Remote Driving 

allowed vehicle planning and identification of a 10s-of-meters-long-obstacle-free 

path, with a three-dimensional display from stereo cameras aboard the vehicle. 

Semi-Autonomous Navigation allowed an operator to determine a nominal 

extended route tens of kilometers long. (NASA Release 90-85) 

270 
July 2: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, awarded a $42.6 million contract to Rockwell International for continued Space 

Shuttle systems engineering and integration services. The contract called for 

Shuttle launch and flight support, test verification, operations integration, 

flight evaluation, engineering analysis, and data systems operations, as well 

as special studies. (NASA Release C90-z) 

July 3: NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation signed a five-year agreement in 

support of the fm’s Pegasus and Taurus launch vehicle programs. As part of a 

continuing effort to foster a strong U.S. commercial launch industry, Orbital 

Sciences was given access to agency launch support property and services. Prior 

to this agreement, similar agreements were made with General Dynamics, 

McDonnell Douglas, Martin Marietta, and the LTV Corporation. (NASA Release 

90-92) 

July 5: The Hubble Space Telescope Optical Systems Board of Investigation 

created by NASA met for the first time in Washington, D.C., to hear presentations from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, Huntsville, and the 

Hughes Danbury Optical Systems, makers of the precision mirrors for the 

telescope. Members of the Board included Lennard A. Fisk, Associate 

Administrator for Space Science and Applications; Dr. Lew Allen, Director, 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Gary Tesch, Board Counsel. At the conclusion 

of the meeting, Dr. Allen said, “The board now has a good base of information from which to proceed with its investigation.” (NASA Anno) 

July 8: President George Bush said he would allow U.S. commercial satellites 

to be launched by Soviet rockets. The rockets would be fired from a projected site in Australia, an advantageous position for orbits, located just 12 

degrees south of the equator. (FBIS Sov, Jul9/90; NY Times, Jul9/90) 

July 9: Two Space Shuttle crew commanders were grounded by NASA for 

disciplinary reasons. Robert L. Gibson was grounded for one year after he 

flew a stunt plane, in a July 7 Texas air show, that collided with another plane 

and killed the second pilot. David M. Walker was grounded for 60 days 

because the T-38 jet aircraft he piloted in May 1989 nearly collided with a Pan 

Am Airbus 3 10 over Dulles Airport, according to the second pilot. (P Znq, Jul 

10190; W Times, Jul 10190; Ny Times, Jul 10190; NASA Release 90-96) 

27 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1990 

July 10: NASA’s Chief Scientist William Lenoir told a Senate committee that 

the Agency should have performed tests on the Hubble Space Telescope’s 

mirrors. He said that the problem could have been caught by simpler, less 

costly tests than the “end-to-end” test, rejected because of its high cost. 

(Hearing before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, Jul 

10/90; B Sun, Jul 11/90; W Post, Jul 11/90; NY Times, Jul 11/90) 

July 13: Engineers located two leaks in the Space Shuttle’s fuel line that they 

determined could easily be fixed and stated that flights would resume soon. 

The problems, said William Lenoir, NASA’s flight director, did not appear to 

be a result of any design flaw; he added that eight of the nine scheduled missions would likely be flown this year. 

In the meantime, investigators from a six-member board of investigation created by NASA July 2 were seeking to find what had gone wrong with the Hubble 

Space Telescope. Lew Allen, Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who headed the 

board, promised a congressional committee that they would pinpoint the problem 

and fix responsibility. The investigation, he said, would be “very embarrassing to 

someone or some group.” (W Post, Jul 14/90; NY Times, Jul 14/90) 

July 15: Recent grounding of the Space Shuttle fleet and problems with the 

Hubble Space Telescope had prompted President George Bush to consider 

appointing a panel composed of a group of experts outside of Government to 

review the space program, White House officials announced. Officials noted, 

however, that NASA made a good call when it grounded the Shuttle fleet and 

that no plans for changing its management had been formulated. Vice 

President Dan Quayle met with NASA Administrator Richard R. Truly on 

July and directed him to appoint the independent task force. (NY Times, Jul 

16/86; Jul 17/90; B Sun, Jul 16/86; Jul 17/90; NASAAnno) 

July 17: NASA scientists proposed almost a dozen plans for a temporary fix 

of the Hubble Space Telescope until 1993 Space Shuttle mission would install 

an optically corrected main camera. A brainstorming session included some 

“far fetched” ideas that involved Shuttle missions to the telescope. 

Elsewhere, NASA official William Lenoir reported that Space Shuttle flights 

might resume soon and that Atlantis could fly as early as August 10. He added that 

if the repairs could not be accomplished on the launch pad, then the orbiter would 

be taken into the hanger and rescheduled for launch sometime after the October 5 

liftoff of Discovery. (B Sun, Jul 18/90; W Post, JuI 18/90; NY ZTmes, Jul 18/90) 

July 20: A report released by NASA, concerning plans for the Space Station 

Freedom, said that 3,700 hours of maintenance would be required annually to 

keep it running. The final figure from the six-month study was up from the 

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SEFIEMJ3ER 1989 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

2,200 hours that a preliminary version had given in March and dwarfed the 

original goal of 130 hours. The most alarming statistic was that 6,200 hours 

of maintenance would be needed before the station could even be habitable. 

“The significance is that there’s no one up there to do this,” said Dr. William 

J. Fisher, an astronaut who headed the 12-member panel that did the estimate. 

(IVY Times, Jul21/90; W Post, Jul21/90; WSJ, Jul23/90) 

July 24: A NASA official announced that Mark Showalter, at the Ames 

Research Center in California, had discovered another moon orbiting Jupiter. 

He found it while doing analysis of images taken in 1980-1981 by Voyager 2. 

The smallest of the planet’s known satellites was dubbed 1981S13. (B Sun, Jul 

25/90; W Post, Jul25/90; NASA Release 90-103) 

An Ariane rocket carrying both a French and a German TV satellite was successfully launched from French Guiana. The rocket was identical to the one that 

exploded shortly after liftoff last February 22. (W Post, Jul25190; WSJ, Jul25190) 

July 25: The hydrogen leak that was detected in the Space Shuttle Atlantis 

reappeared, and engineers determined that the Shuttle would have to be taken 

off the launch pad and rolled back to the hanger for a closer look. Columbia, 

undergoing repairs for a similar leak, was expected to be on the launch pad 

early in August. The Atlantis liftoff with its classified military payload were 

rescheduled for November, bumping another launch into 1991 and reducing 

the projected number of flights in 1990 to seven. (P Znq, Jul26/90; NY Times, 

Jul26190; W Times, Jul26/90) 

After three delays, NASA and General Dynamics Corporation launched a 

Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, that carried a $189 million satellite to study the Earth’s magnetic and electrical fields. The Combined Release 

and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES), a joint effort by NASA and the 

Department of Defense, carried 24 canisters containing chemicals that were to 

be released in fall 1990 and become ionized by the sun’s rays. Visible clouds 

would then spread along magnetic field lines, allowing scientists to see how 

electrical fields interact with normally invisible charged particles. The 

CRRES releases were to be augmented by chemicals released from 10 sounding rockets launched from Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands. (P Znq, Jul 

26/90; NY Times, Jul26190; NASA Release 90-97; 90-98) 

The United States and the Soviet Union signed an agreement in which 

NASA’s Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) would fly on a Soviet 

Meteor-3 spacecraft sometime in 1991. A TOMS instrument had monitored 

ozone concentrations from a Nimbus-7 satellite since 1978, focusing on the 

southern hemisphere and the development of the Antarctic ozone hole. This 

satellite, however, had already performed well beyond its designed lifetime, 

213 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1990 

and the TOMSMeteor-3 mission was slated to replace it. Another TOMS 

satellite was scheduled to be aboard a U.S. spacecraft in 1993; two or three 

years subsequent to that mission another TOMS was scheduled for a Japanese 

ADEOS satellite. (NASA Release 90- 105) 

July 26: NASA and Japan’s Ministry of State for Science and Technology 

agreed on new areas of space cooperation during a meeting in Tokyo. 

NASA/Japan projects agreed upon were observation of the ozone layer from 

satellites, space environment monitoring (real-time solar wind data), Space 

Station solar terrestrial physics carried out from the Space Station Freedom, 

and space microgravity experiments aboard the Space Shuttle. Other areas 

discussed were the ongoing cooperation for building and utilization of the 

Space Station and joint projects in x-ray and infrared astronomy, cosmic ray 

research, the study of ocean dynamics, measurement of cloud height by satellite stereograph, reception of Japan’s first marine observation satellite data, 

and satellite measurements of tropical rainfall. (NASA Release 90- 106) 

July 31 : State officials said that the Soviet Union had requested use of facilities at 

Cape Canaveral, Florida, to launch their Proton rockets. The request followed 

their stated intentions of joining the commercial space race. University of Houston 

professor Peter Bishop explained that a launch pad closer to the equator meant less 

fuel would be needed for achieving proper orbit. (B Sun, Aug 1/86) 

During July: NASA and U.S. university scientists and Canadian researchers 

joined in a study of pollution at high northern latitudes resulting from the release 

of methane, an important greenhouse gas, from tundra, forests, and marshes. Both 

ground and air measurements were taken; NASA’s main sampling platform was 

a Lockheed Electra aircraft. Research began July 5 and was scheduled to conclude 

on August 20, 1990. (NASA Release 90-102) 

The Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, selected Stanford 

Telecom for negotiations leading to a five-year, $30 million contract to provide 

systems engineering support for the Advanced Tracking and Delta Relay Satellite 

and the Advanced Network Control Center. Also, Martin Marietta Corporation 

received a $326.8 million contract from the Air Force for modifications to space 

launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida. (NASA Release C90-aa) 

Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, devised 

a way to salvage the Japanese lunar mission that successfully orbited a probe 

around the Moon but did not send data back because of a failed transmitter. 

The mother ship that launched the probe was in an elliptical orbit around the 

Earth and could achieve lunar orbit by taking advantage of the “fuzzy boundary”. The “fuzzy boundary” is an area about one million miles from Earth 

where gravitational forces emanating from our planet and the Sun cancel each 

214 
JULY 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUnCS 

other out. The limited supply of fuel canied by the spacecraft was not sufficient 

to allow it to reach a lunar orbit by conventional means. Success with the plan, 

they determined, would mean an enormous fuel savings should lunar bases be 

built in the future. (LA Times, July 16/90) 

215 

August 

August 2: The Air Force launched a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, 

which successfully carried a NAVSTAR satellite into orbit. The navigation satellite was the eighth in a planned series of 21 that promised to give military units 

their locations to within 50 feet. (W Post, Aug 3/90) 

0 Officials announced that an advisory committee created by Vice President 

Dan Quayle and the National Space Council was set up to examine how to 

manage future efforts in space. The committee, made up of two former congressmen, a former astronaut, and several top industry executives, was to 

report to the National Space Council in about four months. Quayle said that 

he had urged the committee’s creation because of problems with the Hubble 

Space Telescope, grounding of the Shuttle fleet, and design flaws in the proposed Space Station. (NY Times, Aug 3/90) 

August 8: Government officials said that the mirrors attached to the Nation’s 

next generation of weather satellites used to reflect images from Earth’s 

atmosphere into internal sensors would warp from the Sun’s heat, according 

to recent tests. NASA formed a team of nine experts from Ford and ITT, makers of the spacecraft, to correct the problem in time to meet the 1992 launch 

date. A single Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite was in orbit 

at the time. Officials were worried that, if it failed, the Nation would have to 

rely on planes, radar units, and other satellites that were not capable of giving 

the comprehensive overview needed, for example, to follow storms. There 

were normally two satellites of this type in orbit, but one was destroyed in 

1986 when a Delta rocket malfunctioned. Solutions for the GOES-NEXT 

flawed mirrors ranged from repairing them, which would cause a six-month 

delay, to re-manufacturing, and causing a delay of more than one year. 

(NY Times, Aug 8/90; W Post, Aug 9/90; W Times, Aug 9/90) 

August 10: The $744 million Magellan spacecraft launched in May 1989 reached 

Venus and achieved polar orbit for a mission to map the entire planet. The radarproduced images promised to be 10 times more detailed than those from previous expeditions that had mapped only sections of Venus. Information from the 

mission could also provide a better understanding of predicted global warming, 

or the greenhouse effect, said NASA scientist Gentry Lee. (NY Times, Aug 11/90; 

W Post, Aug 11/90; LA Times, Aug 11/90; C Trib, Aug 11/90) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1990 

August 13: Surprised NASA scientists released a photograph taken August 3 by 

the Hubble Space Telescope that provided unexpected detail of a young star system known as 30 Doradus, 160,000 light years from Earth. After scientists corrected the flawed mirror problem with computer enhancement, the telescope 

revealed 60 of what were yet the youngest and heaviest stars known. The “star 

nursery,” was once thought to have only one large star; the most advanced telescope prior to the Hubble telescope had raised that number to 27. (W Post, Aug 

14/90; W Times, Aug 14/90; P Inq, Aug 14/90; NASA Release 90-111) 

August 16: Charles Pellerin, director of astrophysics for NASA, announced 

that problems with the Hubble Space Telescope mirrors could easily be fixed 

in a Space Shuttle mission scheduled for mid-1993. The mission would require 

replacing the telescope’s widefield planetary camera with one designed to correct the flawed mirrors. (P Inq, Aug 17/90; W Times, Aug 17/90) 

August 17: NASA scientists regained contact with Magellan after a 14-hour loss. 

The spacecraft went into a safe mode, in which it shut down many of its systems 

and pointed its solar panels toward the Sun because of navigation problems it 

falsely interpreted. The ship’s computer memory was sent back to Earth so scientists could determine the problem in Magellan’s program. Scientists were pleased, 

however, with the first set of pictures taken during Magellan’s test run over the 

planet. They, however, cautioned that Magellan’s mission to begin regular mapping by August 29 would likely be delayed. (W Times, Aug 20190; P Inq, Aug 

19/90; W Post, Aug 18/90; M Times, Aug 18/90; LA Times, Aug 18/90) 

August 18: A Delta rocket carried a British television broadcasting satellite, 

Marcopolo 2, and put it into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The only problem for the ninth U.S. commercial launch of a payload into orbit was a two-hour 

delay caused by thunderstorms in the area. (AP, Aug 18/90) 

August 20: NASA Administrator Richard R. Truly announced the establishment 

of a Space Commerce Steering Group, composed of NASA officials, that would 

provide an overview of commercial space technology applications. The goal of 

the Group was to provide coordination of potential commercial capabilities; 

NASA’s Office of Commercial Programs would remain the primary action agent. 

Truly maintained that NASA “must ensure that [its] technology is transferred to 

the private sector. The taxpayer’s investment in NASA is an investment in the 

international competitiveness of U.S. industry.” (NASA Release 90-1 12) 

August 21: Scientists at NASA said that the Magellan spacecraft seemed to 

be working. Engineers had received all of the data from the craft’s computer 

memory and were in the process of loading new programming. Officials said 

the navigation problem might have been caused by a series of rare events; 

they hoped it would be fully operational soon. (M Times, Aug 22/90; W Post, 

Aug 22/90; W Post, Aug 22/90) 

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AUGUST 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

A report from a panel convened by the National Research Council and released 

to the white House recommended smaller and simpler satellites to monitor the 

Earth’s climate, as opposed to the $30 billion, six large satellites being planned by 

NASA. The expense of the Earth Observing System (EOS) could take funds away 

from other important studies and future budgets. It could result in a delay in 

launching the EOS spacecraft, the report warned. Noting that at least one large 

platform was necessary for a number of scientific instruments to be grouped 

together, the panel recommended that three of the large satellites be replaced by 

smaller ones. (M Times, Aug 22/90; W Post, Aug 22/90) 

August 27: NASA responded to a request issued August 7 by the Office of 

Management and Budget asking for various Federal agencies to outline the 

effects of a $100 billion cut in the 1991 budget. The report submitted by 

NASA warned of a halt in Space Shuttle flights, suspended development of 

the Space Station, and delayed launch of the Mars Observer spacecraft. 

Although not expected, cuts across-the-board were a possible result of the 

Gramm-Rudman deficit control law. (Sp News, Sep 9-1 3/90) 

August 29: The fist scientific results from the Hubble Space Telescope confiied 

that it would reveal a more detailed view of the heavens than any ground telescope, in spite of its flawed mirror. The latest pictures showed the clearest view 

yet of a supernova discovered in 1987 and of densely packed stars in a distant 

galaxy that could be the result of a black hole. 

Meanwhile, scientists at NASA reported that the Magellan spacecraft was 

operating in another safe mode and communication with it had been off-andon. The navigation problem had been narrowed down but not pinpointed, and 

the mapping survey of Venus would be delayed two or three weeks. 

(M Times, Aug 30190; W Times, Aug 30190; NASA Release 90- 1 17; 90- 1 18) 

During August: Joseph B. Mahon, Deputy Associate Administrator, and astronaut Michael J. McCulley announced they would retire. Mahon had served with 

NASA for almost 30 years, managing and directing untended launch vehicles, 

Shuttle carrier systems, and spacelab operations. Captain McCulley, who 

planned to retire from the Navy, was to join Lockheed Space Operations 

Company and be involved with day-to-day processing of Space Shuttle vehicles. 

(NASARelease 90-116; 90-119) 

NASA announced the selection of Margaret G. Fmarelli as Acting Associate 

Administrator for External Relations, and the names of microgravity mission 

payload specialist candidates. Finarelli, who had been Deputy Associate 

Administrator since December 1988, would temporarily replace Kenneth S. 

Pedersen, who had taken a one-year teaching assignment with Georgetown 

University in Washington, D.C. Candidates for payload specialists for the 

219 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1990 

March 1992 STS-53 Space Shuttle mission were Lawrence J. DeLucas, Joseph 

Prahl, Albert Sacco, and Eugene H. Trinh. (NASA Release 90-107; 90-108) 

A Government industry board selected the gas generator power cycle engine, 

similar to the J-2 engine used on the Saturn moon rockets, for the rocket engine 

to be designed and built to power the NASWSAF Advanced Launch System. 

Chosen over the closed expander power cycle, the engine would power next century launch vehicles, capable of delivering a wide range of payloads into Earth 

orbit at a reduced cost. (NASA Release 90-113) 

- In a flight test that concluded in August, NASA, the Air Force, and Boeing 

Commercial Airline Group announced better-than-expected findings taken 

from the results of modifying a 22-foot section of a Boeing 757 wing. The 

design reduced drag in what could equate to 10 percent if the entire span of 

both wings had been modified. A one-percent reduction would have amounted to a $100 million annual savings in fuel costs for the U.S. airline industry. 

(NASA Release 90-115) 

280 
September 

September 5: Liftoff of the Space Shuttle Columbia was scrubbed for the third 

time, after a fuel leak was discovered. It was reportedly not in the same area 

as the leak that halted the mission last May. The second delay for liftoff 

occurred during the last week of August because of communication problems 

with the x-ray telescope in Columbia’s cargo bay. NASA engineers believed 

the problem lay in the fuel pumps feeding the Shuttle’s three main engines and 

began replacing them the next day. Agency officials said that the flight would 

be delayed at least 11 days. (W Times, Sep 6/90; Sep 1/90; W Post, Sep 6/90; 

Sep 7/90; NY Times, Sep 6/90; Sep 7/90) 

September 7: A Titan 4 rocket booster exploded at Edwards Air Force Base in 

California during tests, killing one worker and injuring nine others. The Air 

Force was further developing the rocket, which experts called problem 

plagued, hoping to replace the Space Shuttle for launching of heavy payloads. 

(C Trib, Sep 8/90; LA Times, Sep 9/90) 

September 13: NASA Administrator Richard Truly told a panel created by 

President George Bush that the Agency was facing serious problems, but not what 

most people believed them to be. The two obstacles standing in front of the 

Agency, he said, were “Governmentwide practices” that encumbered connections 

between programs and resources and the public’s misunderstanding of the proposed Space Station Freedom. The Space Station’s design flaws, he added, were 

either solved or close to a solution, “yet public understanding is to the contrary.” 

In a related matter, Federal Computer Week reported that NASA planned to 

spend $1.9 billion over the next five years on its seven centers of excellence in 

the area of high-performance computing. The Centers would focus on training 

college- and graduate-level students, thereby educating the next generation of 

scientists in the field. Truly, who spoke at a conference on supercomputing in 

September noted, “NASA needs high-performance computing. Some of our 

missions depend on it.” (W Post, Sep 14/90; Fed CoWk, Sep 10190) 

September 15: Magellan officially began its mission of mapping Venus on this 

date when it used radar to photograph the planet for the first time since radio 

contact was lost August 16. Computerized commands were radioed to the 

spacecraft, and confirmation that it had begun its 243-day chore was returned 

13 minutes later. Pictures revealing mountains, valleys, and a unique looking 

meteor crater were received by scientists two days later. (P Znq, Sep 16/90; 

Sep 18/90; W Post, Sep 25/90) 

28 I 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1990 

September 17: Liftoff of Columbia was again scrubbed because of another hydrogen leak. This time the suspect was gritty sandpaper residues from a mobile 

launch platform restordon. A postponement period for the launch was indefinite, 

but officials said that it would be delayed until after the October 5 Discoveq 

flight. (W Times, Sep 18/90; W Post, Sep 18/90; NY Times, Sep 18/90) 

September 18: The House voted to slash the Strategic Defense Initiative $4.7 

billion request to $2.3 billion. Representative Jon Kyl argued that the United 

Stated needed “Star Wars” to avoid “being held hostage by some tinhom dictator.” Representative Ronald Dellums retorted that only $143 million of the 

program’s budget was dedicated to destroying short-range missiles, those 

developed by Third World Nations. (P Znq, Sep 19/90) 

September 19: The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee recommended an increase of NASA’s budget from $12.3 billion to $17 billion for 

the next year, including the $2.9 billion earmarked for continued development 

of the Space Station. Committee members acknowledged that the final spending plan would probably be lower but wanted to show their support despite 

NASA’s recent problems. (P Zaq, Sep 20190) 

September 20: NASA took the Space Shuttle Columbia off its schedule for 

1990 launches, operating under the assumption that the orbiter was prone to 

fuel leaks. Stili unable to pinpoint the exact location of the last hydrogen leak, 

NASA hoped that the craft would be able to fly in early 1991. A team of nine 

engineers was working on the problem. (NY Times, Sep 21/90; W Post, Sep 

20190; C Trib, Sep 20190; NASA Release 90-127) 

September 27: The Federal Aviation Administration signed a memoranda of 

understanding with NASA to jointly research problems in aviation. Areas to be 

investigated were environmental compatibility, human factors, severe weather, 

integration of cockpit and air traffic operations, airworthiness, and noise. 

(NASA Release 90-131) 

September 28: The House passed a $44 billion, three-year spending authorization bill for NASA that included establishment of a Moon base and a 

crew-assisted expedition to Mars. The bill was to next go to a conference 

committee to work out differences with the Senate. (LA Times, Sep 29/90) 

During September: Astronaut Bruce McCandless retired from NASA and as 

Captain from the U.S. Navy. He helped develop the space agency’s Manned 

Maneuvering Unit, a jet-powered backpack he was the first to wear during a 

Space Shuttle Challenger mission in February 1984. (W Times, Sep 12/90) 

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SEPTEMBER 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The Langley Research Center in Virginia selected Mason and Hanger 

Services, Inc. for negotiation of a five-year, $97.9 million contract to support 

all aspects of supply, transportation and equipment management; general and 

specialized administrative services; different aspects of the security program; 

and support of the scientific and technical information program. 

The Television Development Division of NASA Headquarters awarded the 

Imaging Systems Laboratory of Florida Atlantic University a one- to five-year 

contract with a potential value of $3 million for research and development in 

advanced video systems for space and terrestrial applications. (NASA Release 

C90-CC; 90- 13 1A) 

A joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey team of American scientists planned to 

work with a Soviet Science team to study volcanoes along Russia’s Kamchatka 

Peninsula, part of the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire”. The study would mark the first time 

Western scientists had been allowed in the region. (NASA Release 90-124) 

The Air Force decided in September to convert the Space Launch 

Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for Space Shuttle 

liftoffs into a launch pad for its Titan 4 rockets. The launch pad had been idle 

since the Challenger accident in 1986. (NY Times, Sep 30/90) 

283 
October 

October I: The High Resolution Imager, an instrument for the study of cosmic 

x-rays aboard the German Roentgen Satellite launched last June, sent back its first 

light pictures to a ground station near Munich. The cooperative program between 

the United States, West Germany, and Great Britain, called ROSAT, excited several international scientists. The pictures sent back represented a neutron star 

3,000 light years from Earth, a supernova that occurred in this galaxy 320 years 

ago and 10,000 light years away, and a cluster of galaxies known as Abell2156. 

(NASA Release 90- 133) 

October 3: The Senate approved $13.4 billion for NASA’s 1991 budget. The bill 

drastically reduced the Moon and Mars initiative and cut $863.6 million from the 

planned Space Station. The measure was to go to a conference committee to iron 

out differences with the House appropriations bill before being sent to President 

George Bush. (WSJ, Oct 4/90) 

October 4: NASA scientists reported that despite its flaws, the Hubble Space 

Telescope was sending back some clear pictures, better than any a ground 

telescope could produce. The latest photographs of Jupiter and Pluto were better than any ever taken, but until the telescope’s “near sightedness” was corrected images of distant, faint objects would continue to be unclear. (W Post, 

Oct 5/90; NY Times, Oct 5/90) 

The official Soviet Tass News Agency reported that their most advanced rocket, a %nit booster, had blown up seconds after liftoff and destroyed much of the 

launch pad in the Kazakhstan Republic. The payload, said Western analysts, was 

likely a recon- naissance satellite. The rocket had earlier been promoted for sale 

in the West and had been used to fly some versions of the Soviet Space Shuttle. 

(W Post, Oct 12/90) 

October 6: Space Shuttle Discovery, flight STS-41, was launched from Cape 

Canaveral, Florida after a five-month dry spell; the fleet was grounded during 

much of this period because of hydrogen leaks. Ulysses, the craft’s 814-pound 

nuclear powered payload, was released later that afternoon, and a three-stage 

solid-fuel rocket began the craft on its long trip to Jupiter. Ulysses was to sling 

shot Jupiter in order to achieve polar orbit about 120 million miles from the sun 

in May 1994. In order to escape an Earth orbit, the $750 million joint mission 

between NASA and the European Space Agency reached 34,130 mph-the 

greatest velocity yet required by an interplanetary probe for the task. 

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OCTOBER 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The scientific mission also included a controlled fire to see how flames 

behave in weightlessness and release of the craft’s %foot robotic arm, which 

had a special material attached to estimate effects of deterioration on the 

Intelsat satellite, launched earlier this year into a low and useless orbit. 

Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 10, ending a four-day, practically flawless mission. (W Post, Oct 7/90; Oct 11/90; 

NY Times, Oct 7/90; Oct 11/90) 

October 11: The Office of Technology Assessment warned that Space debris 

could make space activity too risky in 20 to 30 years if the most traveled 

orbits continue to be littered. With the average collision velocity in low-Earth 

orbit 6.2 miles per second, an object having 1/35th the weight of an aspirin 

tablet has the impact of a .30-caliber bullet, they said. The Air Force tracks 

such debris to advise NASA before Shuttle missions, but no course change 

has ever been deemed necessary. (W Post, Oct 12/90; C Trib, Oct 14/90) 

* NASA scientists warned that examination of data from the ozone hole over 

the South Pole showed record depletion. They added that ozone levels 

throughout the Southern Hemisphere were as low as they had ever been. The 

ozone hole has been monitored since 1979 with the Total Ozone Mapping 

Spectrometer, an instrument on the Goddard-Managed NIMBUS-7 spacecraft. 

(C Trib, Oct 12/90; NASA Release 90-137) 

October 16: The Senate, in a rush to agree on the 1991 spending plan, compromised on a $1.9 billion allocation for NASA’s Space Station. Said Senator 

Barbara Mikulski, “The space program has been increased by 13 percent so 

it’s not as if we gouged them.” (W Post, Oct 17/90; AvWk, Oct 22/90) 

October 17: NASA released a photograph from the Cosmic Background 

Explorer (COBE) of the vast dust clouds that fill the Milky Way galaxy. 

Launched almost one year previously, the COBE was to study background 

radiation from the Big Bang believed to have created the universe. It found 

that the fireball was unexpectedly smooth, belying numerous theories. 

(W Post, Oct 18/90; NY Times, Oct 23/90; NASA Release 90-140) 

October 25: NASA announced the selection of 280 research proposals for 

immediate negotiation of Phase I contracts in their 1990 Small Business 

Innovation Research program (SBIR). SBIR had aimed at stimulating technological innovation in small business for the past eight years; the Phase I contracts normally would not exceed $50,000. (NASA Release 90-144) 

October 26: NASA considered a proposal for a major repair of the Hubble 

Space Telescope that would include the reinstating of full observation abilities. In addition to replacing the telescope’s main camera in 1993, as already 

285 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1990 

planned, astronauts would also replace another device with corrective optics for 

light that reached other important scientific instruments. The plan called for 

repairing or replacing the craft‘s solar panels as well, because their vibrations had 

interfered with many sensitive observations. (AT Times, Oct 27/90) 

October 30: NASA declared its Shuttle fleet “leak free” as Columbia passed 

a fueling test after two defective seals had been replaced and nuts and connectors in the engine compartment had been tightened. Space Shuttle Atlantis 

had passed its fuel test a week earlier and was scheduled for liftoff November 

9. (NY Times, Oct 3 1/90; W Post, Oct 3 1/90; NASA Release N90-86) 

* A Delta rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, successfully 

carrying an International Maritime Satellite Organization communications 

satellite into orbit. The satellite was intended to expand international telephone and facsimile services aboard ships, planes, trains, and other vehicles. 

(W Post, Oct 31/90) 

During October: Photographs sent back from the Magellan spacecraft since 

September 15 were 10 times sharper than any seen before. The images 

“revealed a whole new planet” and “almost everywhere you look on Venus 

you see volcanic features,” said scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 

California. (CSM, Oct 25/90) 

United States and Soviet space and aeronautics officials planned three separate meetings for October to visit U.S.S.R. space facilities. A U.S./u.S.S.R. 

Solar System Exploration Joint Working Group meeting was also planned for 

October in Virginia, where the group would visit NASA’s aeronautics centers. 

(NASA Release 90-138) 

* NASA selected ST Systems Corporation for negotiation to a five-year, $37 million contract for operation and analysis support for Goddard’s National Space 

Science Data Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA also awarded CBI Services, 

Inc. a $28.2 million contract for work on Ames Research Center’s 12-foot pressure wind tunnel. (NASA Release C90-dd; C 90-ee) 

* NASA announced in October that its expertise in structural mechanics, 

design optimization, and computer codes was finding application in orthopedic science in the custom design of prosthetic joint implants. Similar 

development of a computer code, said experts, would allow implants a life 

span increase from an average of 7 years to 20 years while providing less 

discomfort to the patient. (NASA Release 90-142) 

286 
November 

November 4: NASA officials announced that the Hubble Space Telescope for 

the first time had observed a faint object, a quasar billions of light years from 

Earth. Officials hoped that study of the image, known to astronomers as 

UM675, would give clues as to the chemicals present soon after the universe 

was born. (W Times, Nov 5/90) 

November 5: Arnold Aldrich, Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, 

Exploration and Technology, announced an organizational change at the AmesDryden Flight Research Center, Mountain View, California, designed to reinforce 

and strengthen national flight research capabilities at the Ames-Dryden Right 

Research Facility (DFRF), Edwards, California. Kenneth J. Szalai was chosen as 

the Ames Deputy Director, effective December 3, 1990. He was, however, located at Dryden and directed research and operations. Szalai previously served as 

Chief of the Research Engineering Division at Dryden. (NASA Release 90-149) 

November 7: NASA officials said that they had begun overhauling the design 

of their Space Station, a response to budget cuts passed by Congress and a 

directive to eliminate $6 billion from the Space Station plan over the next five 

years. William Lenoir, NASA’s associate administrator for space flight, said 

that the redesign would make the Space Station an orbiting laboratory merely 

visited by astronauts for scientific research. He added that it would not only be 

stripped of equipment for studying Earth and to make astronomical observations, but for servicing spacecraft on their way to the Moon and Mars. (WSJ, 

Nov 8/90; Nov 9/90; Nov 12/90; W Post, Nov 8/90; NY Times, Non 9/90) 

November 12: A Titan 4 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a 

classified payload outside experts believed was a $180 million advanced missile 

warning satellite. It was the third launch of the Titan 4 and followed a two-month 

delay caused by undisclosed technical problems. The satellite, they added, would 

likely observe Iraq. The Space Shuttle Atlantis, which occupied a nearby launch 

pad for liftoff on the November 15, also had a classified cargo aboard thought to 

be for the same purpose. (W Post, Nov 13/90; W Times, Nov 13/90) 

November 13: The Galileo spacecraft, launched from Space Shuttle Atlantis 

October 18, 1989, fired its thrusters so it could come closer to Earth and use 

our planet’s gravity to slingshot in December toward the sun for a 1995 rendezvous with Jupiter. The fly-by would mark the first time Earth had been 

approached by a spacecraft from Venus, or anywhere inside Earth’s orbit. The 

287 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1990 

craft was scheduled to study Earth during the maneuver, slingshot the sun and 

study our planet again on the return trip in 1992, and then study Jupiter’s 

atmosphere for two more years after reaching the planet. The loop around the 

solar system was necessary because the rocket that launched the craft was too 

weak to propel Galileo directly on its two-year trip to Jupiter. (Flu Today, Nov 

14/90; P Inq, Nov 14/90) 

NASA selected investigators and science teams from 11 U.S. universities, 3 

NASA centers, 3 other U.S. laboratories, and 13 foreign countries for the Saturn 

orbiter portion of the Cassini mission scheduled for launch in 1996. The mission 

would include 62 investigations for analysis of Saturn’s atmosphere, its ring particles, and moons within them. The orbiter would also send a probe to Saturn’s 

moon, Titan, and later map it. (NA§A Release 90-150) 

November 15: Space Shuttle Atlantis, flight STS-38, was launched from Cape 

Canaveral, Florida with a classified satellite, probably to be used for reconnaissance in the Persian Gulf region. The flight marked the last time a Shuttle 

would be assigned a secret and sole military payload because the Pentagon 

planned to use untended rockets for classified missions in the future. The 

satellite was deployed the following day. 

Atlantis touched down at Cape Canaveral on November 20 after a continuation of high winds and rains had prevented landing at Edwards Air Force 

Base in California the day before. NASA preferred using the seven-mile runway at Edwards, as opposed to the three-mile strip at Kennedy Space Center 

in Florida, which had not been used since 1985. Astronauts, however, said 

they felt no hesitation in using the Kennedy runway. This was only the sixth 

time the orbiter had used the runway and the first time since the Challenger 

accident. Two more military missions were planned for the Space Shuttle, but 

the payloads would be unclassified. (NY Times, Nov 16/90; Nov 21/90; 

W Post, Nov 16/90; Nov 21/90; NASA Anno) 

November 26: The Air Force launched a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral, 

Florida, that carried a $65 million NAVSTAR Global Positioning System satellite 

into orbit. The navigation satellite was 10th in a series of 21 that the United States 

hoped to have in orbit by 1992. (W Post, Nov 27/90; USA To+, Nov 27/90) 

0 NASA announced the selection of 84 proposals for Phase II contracts in 

NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program. Aiming to stimulate technological innovation from small business, the contracts were allowed to reach 

$500,000 over a two-year period. (NASA Release 90-152) 

November 27: The six-member Hubble Optical Systems Board of Investigation, 

formed by NASA and headed by Dr. Lew Allen of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

288 
NOVEMBER 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

at Pasadena, California, released its final report, cumulating a five-month study. 

The report stated that both NASA and the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, then known 

as Hughes Danbury Optical Systems, were responsible for the flawed mirror that 

prevented the Hubble Space Telescope from distinguishing very faint objects. 

Lower management at the Corporation discounted any information that conflicted with certified procedures for testing the mirror with newly designed equipment. Upper management at Perkin-Elmer and at NASA, the report went on, were 

left unaware of potential problems the mirror might have had in 1981. Dr. Allen 

and Leonard Fisk, NASA’s Chief Scientist, agreed that NASA management operated under different procedures then and would have caught the problem in 1990. 

(W Times, Nov 28/90; W Post, Nov 28/90) 

During November: NASA and the Technology Utilization Foundation held their 

fist “Technology 2000” conference in Washington, D.C., to encourage marketing 

of space technology. Among the innovations showcased were an implant device 

for releasing insulin in programmed doses; a light sensing instrument called the 

“Video Harp’’; a system to allow the hearing impaired to locate loud noises such 

as sirens; a digital audio signal processing system for fuller, more realistic sound 

called the “Convolvotron”; the model 700 Infrared Temperature Taking System; 

and the Intelligent Physics Tutor with step-by-step instructions to a student. Hightech gear only a few years away, said USA Today, included a space-age washer 

and dryer, refrigerator, and gloves. (USA Today, Nov 29/90) 

0 NASA’s Langley Research Center at Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia, and 

Honeywell’s Space System Group, successfully concluded a joint flight research 

project that involved study of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites for 

improved automated landing in spacecraft and aircraft. Fifteen GPS satellites 

were in orbit at the time of the test, and the group hoped to add nine more by 1993. 

Meanwhile, NASA and the Technical and Administrative Services 

Corporation signed a two-year agreement for the exchange of information associated with closed environment systems related to food production both on Earth 

and in space. The hydroponic technology sharing involved no exchange of funds. 

(NASA Release 90-155,90-148) 

NASA convened with the Space Activities Commission of Japan in November 

for the fourth annual meeting of the NASNSAC Cooperative Space Activities 

Planning Group in Arlington, Virginia. Discussions focused on a number of collaborative projects in the fields of astrophysics, solar system science, microgravity science, life science, and Earth observation. (NASA Release 90-156) 

Physicians at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, announced in 

November that they had instituted a new treatment, promethazine, for space 

motion sickness. Since NASA’s return to flight in September 1988, the medication had helped decrease the malady. (NASA Release 90-155) 

289 
December 

December 2: Space Shuttle Columbia (flight STS-35) was launched from Cape 

Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $150 million Astro-1 for a 10-day astronomy 

mission. The payload consisted of one x-ray telescope and three ultraviolet telescopes that would supplement and spot targets for the Hubble Space Telescope. 

The project originally had been scheduled for a May 30 liftoff, but subsequent 

hydrogen leaks grounded the entire fleet. The Astro-1 crew had the longest wait 

for this mission in Space Shuttle history. It was to have observed Halley’s Comet 

in 1986, but the mission was postponed after the Challenger accident. The x-ray 

telescope was controlled from Goddard and the three ultraviolet instruments from 

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. 

Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on December 

11, one day earlier than planned to avoid a rain forecast. The Astro-1 mission 

did not achieve all of its objectives because of a failed computer that overheated from lint in the cooling system. Because astronomers on board were 

forced to aim the telescopes manually at predetermined objects, only 135 of 

the slated 250 targets were observed. (NY Times, Dec 3/90; Dec 7/90; Dec 

12/90; W Post, Dec 3/90; Dec 7/90; Dec 12/90) 

* A Soviet rocket carrying a TM-11 space capsule was launched into orbit 

from Kazakhstan Republic in Central Asia on this date. Accompanying the two 

cosmonauts on board was a Japanese television reporter, making him the first 

journalist in space. Japan’s biggest private television company, TBS, as well as 

other Japanese companies, had their slogans emblazoned on the rocket 

(B Sun, Dec 3/90; LA Times, Dec 3/90) 

December 4: The Ulysses spacecraft launched from Space Shuttle Discovery 

and developed a problem on its trip to rendezvous with Jupiter in 1992, from 

which it would slingshot to achieve polar orbit around the sun. It was believed 

that the difficulty came from a 24-1!2-foot antenna boom meant to study radio 

signals in space and waves in the solar winds. Scientists ascertained that the 

boom was bent, perhaps from the sun’s rays, and was causing the craft to wobble. Because of the wobble, the main dish-shaped antenna would not be able 

to focus on Earth and relay data gleaned from the star. Scientists were confident that the problem would be solved before the craft’s 1994 mission began. 

(C Trib, Dec 15/90; NY Times, Dec 16/90) 

290 
DECEMBER 1990 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

December 8: The Galileo spacecraft came to within 590 miles of Earth and 

received a push from Earth’s gravity that increased its speed from 67,000 

m.p.h. to 78,000 m.p.h. This was the first of two gravity assisted passes by 

Earth that were planned for the craft, enabling it to reach Jupiter in December 

1995. It collected numerous data from Earth, as it would again on its second 

pass. (CSM, Dec 10/90; NY Times, Dec 9/90) 

December 10: A White House commission, formed in July as a result of the 

Hubble Space Telescope problem and temporary grounding of the Shuttle 

fleet, released its report concerning future space plans. The 12-member panel 

emphasized a new system of crewless launch vehicles for a number of NASA 

missions in order to reduce reliance on the Space Shuttle. It also recommended a greater pursuance of scientific study and less emphasis on the accomplishment of engineering feats for their own sake, that is, crew-assisted space 

flight. In addition, it recommended a gradual phasing out of the Space Shuttle; 

redesign of the Space Station to make it cheaper and simpler, with a focus on 

life in space; and restructuring of Agency management. 

William Lenoir, head of NASA’s space flight program, said that a heavy-lift 

rocket would take $10 billion to design and take 7 to 10 years to complete. He also 

said that new Space Station designs were underway, but would be similar to the 

original ones. (WSJ, Dec 7/90; Dec 11/90; NY Times, Dec 11/90; W Post, Dec 

11/90; H Post, Dec 14/90; NASARelease 90-161) 

December 20: The selection of 12 research projects, under the auspices of the 

Earth Observations Commercialization Applications Program, for developing private sector applications of space-based and airborne remote sensing technologies, 

were selected by NASA. The 12 projects would lead to 1-year funding contracts 

and would identify and research new commercial products and services that might 

be developed from existing technology. (NASA Release 90-164) 

December 26: NASA announced its Integrated System Preliminary Design 

Review for Space Station Freedom was completed. Preliminary figures for June 

1990 showed Freedom’s weight to be 143,000 pounds lighter than the allocated 

limit of 512,OOO’pounds and that the housekeeping power limit of 45 kilowatts 

was exceeded by 15 kilowatts. A summer-long resources scrub reduced weight 

estimates by 130,000 pounds and housekeeping power by 13 kilowatts. “What 

this means,” said Deputy Manager Marc Bensimon, “is that the design is malming and converging.” (NASA Release 90- 165) 

During December: NASA awarded contracts to Centennial Contractors, 

SPACEHAB, and Dyncorp. Centennial was given a one-year, $5 million contract for various minor constructions, modifications, and rehabilitation projects at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, SPACEHAB 

29 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1990 

received a five-year, $1 84,236,000 contract for providing commercial middeck augmentation module services: physical and operational integration of 

the module and the experiments; power, cooling, data management; and crew 

training in six Space Shuttle flights at six-month intervals. Dyncorp procured 

a $30 million contract for technical services that included operation and maintenance of radar, telecommunications, and optical services. (NASA Release 

C90-gg; 90-157; W Times, Dec 4/90) 

* Colonel Robert C. Springer retired from NASA and the Marine Corps. He was 

both an astronaut and a mission specialist and planned to work for Boeing 

Aerospace. (NASA Release 90- 159) 

During 1990: The year saw both major scientific achievements and several disappointments. The Hubble Space Telescope was successfully deployed from 

Space Shuttle Discovery in April but was discovered to have a spherical aberration that prevented the most distant observations for which it was designed. 

However, it began unprecedented scientific work in spectroscopy, photometry, 

astronomy, and ultraviolet wavelength imaging not possible from the ground. The 

telescope also sent back impressive photographs from Orion’s nebula and the 

giant Saturn storm by using computer image processing. 

The Magellan spacecraft began detailed mapping of Venus in August, the 

European Space Agency’s Ulysses spacecraft was launched in October by Space 

Shuttle Discovery to study the poles of the Sun, and the Galileo spacecraft made 

its first gravity-assisted pass of the Earth in December. Meanwhile, NASA 

Administrator Richard Truly launched an effort to collect the best ideas on how to 

return to the Moon and go to Mars. 

Six successful Shuttle missions were flown, a standdown of five months 

because of hydrogen leaks notwithstanding. Two Department of Defense payloads, a SYNCOM IV communications satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, and 

the Ulysses spacecraft were deployed, and the Long Duration Exposure Facility 

satellite was retrieved. The Astro-1 astronomy mission was also successfully completed, though not to every scientist’s satisfaction. (NASA Release, 90-160) 

292 
Appendix A 

SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND HUMAN SPACE 

FLIGHTS, 1986-1990 

293 

SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND HUMAN SPACE FLIGHTS, 1986 

APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (g) 

Jan. 12 

Space Shuttle 

Columbia 

3A 

(STSdlC) 

Jan. 12 

RCA Satcom K-1 

3B 

Jan. 28 

Space Shuttle 

Challenger 

(STS-5lL) 

Objective: To launch RCA Satcom 

K-1 and to conduct experiments. 

Spacecraft: Shuttle orbiter carrying satellite as well as experiments: Materials Science 

Laboratory-2 (MLS-2), Hitchhiker 

G-1 , Particle Analysis Cameras for 

the Shuttle (PACS), Capillary 

Pump Loop (CPL), Shuttle 

Environment Effects on Coated 

Mirrors (SEECM), 12 experiments 

flown on Get Away Special (GAS) 

Bridge Assembly, additional GAS 

experiment, and Infrared Imaging 

Experiment (IR-E). Middeck payloads: Initial Blood Storage 

Experiment (IBSE), Comet Halley 

Active Monitoring Program 

(CHAMF’), and 3 Space Science 

Student Involvement Program 

(SSIP) experiments. 

Weight: 12,708 lbs. 

Objective: To launch communications satellite. Spacecraft Boxshaped, 67x84~60 inch main 

structure, threeaxis stabilized, 

twin 280 square ft. solar panels 

deployed after launch. 

Weight at launch 15,929 Ibs. 

Objective: To deployhaunch 

TDRS-B/IUS (Tracking and Data 

Relay Satellite/Inertial Upper 

Stage), deploy/retrieve the SPARTAN-203RIalley (Shuttle Pointed 

Autonomous Research Tool for 

Astronomy), and to conduct 

experiments. Spacecraft: Shuttle 

orbiter carrying satellites and 

experiments. Payloads include: 

Hughes Aircraft Company Fluid 

Dynamics Experiment (FDE), 

composed of six experiments; second flight of the Comet Halley 

Active Monitoring Program 

(CHAMP); the Phase Padtioning 

Experiment (FPE) to dissolve two 

polymer solutions in water to 

350.0 

327.0 

91.3 

28.5 

35,794.0 

35,781.0 

1,436.2 

0.0 

N/A 

Twenty-fourth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS).Piloted 

by Robert L. “Hoot” 

Gibson and Charles F. 

Bolden, Jr. Mission 

specialists FranMin R. 

Chang-Diaz, Steven A. 

Hawley, and George D. 

“Pinky” Nelson. 

Payload specialists 

Robert J. Cenker 

(RCA) and Congressman C. William “Bill” 

Nelson, first member of 

U.S. House of Representatives in space. 

Columbia launched 

from KSC at 655 a.m. 

EST on Jan. 18. 

Mission duration: 

6 days, 2 hrs, 4 min. 

Second in series of 

satellites for RCA 

American Communications, Inc.Dep1oye.d 

from Columbia. 

Challenger failed 73 seconds into the mission 

291 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Quator (g) 

observe separation; six experiments for the Teacher in Space, 

including hydrophonics, magnetism, Newton’s laws, effervescence, 

chromatography, and simple 

machines; and three Shuttle 

Student Involvement Program 

(SSIP) experiments. 

Feb. 9 

Defense 

14A 

Atlas H 

Feb. 9 

Defense 

14E 

Feb. 9 

Defense 

14F 

Feb. 9 

Defense 

14H 

Mar. 13 

USSR 

SOYUZ T-15 

1986-022A 

Objective: Development of space Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Sept. 5 Objective: Development of space 719 

Defense flight techniques and technology. 212 

69A Spacecraft: Not announced. 93.9 

Delta 180 39.1 

Sept. 5 Objective: Development of space 611 

Defense flight techniques and technology. 223 

69B Spacerraft: Not announced. 92.9 

22.8 

Achieved orbit. 

Achieved orbit. 

Achieved orbit. 

Crew consisted of 

Leonid Kizim and 

Vladimir Solovyov. 

Docked with MIR space 

station on May 5-6 and 

transferred to Salyut 7 

complex. Transferred 

from Salyut 7 back to 

MIR on Jun. 25-26. 

Flight he: 125 days, 

1hr.lmin. 

Launched by NASA for 

DoDs Strategic Defense 

Initiative (SDI) space 

intercept and collision 

test. Destroyed. 

Strategic Defense 

Initiative (SDI) space 

intercept and collision 

test. Destroyed. 

298 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (g) 

Sept. 17 Objective: To launch spacecraft 823 

NOAA 10 into sun-synchronous orbit to 804 

73A accomplish operational mission 101.2 

Atlas E requirements. Spacecraft Launch 

configuration: 4.9m high, 1.9m in 

diameter. Weight: 1,712 kg. 

Nov. 14 

Polar Bear 

88A 

scout 

Objective: To place Air Force 

P87-1 satellite into 

tives. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Weight: 270 Ibs. 

orhit to achieve mission objec38.7 

,015 

960 

104.9 

89.6 

Dec. 5 Objective: To launch satellite into 36,024 

Fltsatcom 7 planned geostationary position. 35,551 

96A Spacecraft Hexagonal, composed 1,436.2 

Atlas-Centaur of payload and spacecraft module; 5.2 

22.7 ft high. Provides 1 EW and 

23 UHF communications channels. Weight at IiftoE 5,073 lbs. 

Weight in orbit: 2,488 lbs. 

Thud in advanced 

Tiros-N series. Funded 

by National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric 

Administration 

(NOAA) and launched 

by NASA. Also 

onboard Search and 

Rescue instruments. 

Launched by NASA for 

Au Force. Reconditioned satellite that 

hung for several years 

in National Air and 

Space Museum. 

Experiments to study 

radio interference 

caused by Aurora 

Borealis, or Northern 

Lights. 

Launched by NASA for 

Navy; to serve DoD. 

299 

SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND HUMAN SPACE FLIGHTS, 1987 

APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

~~ ~ 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (g) 

Feb. 5 

USSR 

SO~UZ TM-2 

1987-013A 

Feb. 12 

Defense 

15A 

Titan 3B 

Feb. 26 

GOES 7 

22A 

Delta 179 

Mar. 20 

Palapa B-2P 

29A 

Delta 182 

Objective: Development of spaceflight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: To launch satellite into 

planned geostationary position. 

Spacecraft: Cylindrical, 2.2m in 

diameter and 4.5m long from top 

of S-band omnidirectional antenna 

mast to bottom of apogee boost 

motor. Apogee boost motor ejected after synchronous orbit 

achieved. Weight at liftoff: 840 kg. 

Weight in geostationary position: 

456 kg. 

Objective: To launch communications satellite. Spacecraft: Drumshaped, telescoping cylinder, with 

antennas deployed 22.1 ft high, 

and 7 ft in diameter. Weight at 

liftoff: 7,515 lbs. Weight in geosynchronous orbit: 1,437 ibs. 

Not 

announced 

35,796 

35,783 

1,436.3 

0.1 

35,788 

35,788 

1,436.2 

0.0 

Crew consisted of 

Yuriy Romanenko and 

Aleksandr Laveykin. 

Docked with MIR 

space station. 

Romanenko established 

long-distance stay in 

space record of 326 

days. Flight time: 174 

days, 3 hrs, 26 min. 

Achieved orbit 

Eighth in series of 

operational environment monitoring satellites. Launched by 

NASA for National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

(NOAA). Turned over 

to NOAA Mar. 25 after 

successful apogee 

motor fie Feb. 27. 

Spacecraft joins GOES 

6 (WEST) as GOES 7 

(EAST) part of a twosatellite operational 

system. 

Fifth in series of 

Indonesian communications satellites. 

Launched by NASA for 

Republic of Indonesia. 

Will replace Palapa B2 

launched in Feb. 1984 

by orbiter Challenger, 

which malfunctioned. 

Palapa B-2P to join 

Palapa B1 orbited by 

Shuttle in Jun. 1983. 

Part of two-satellite 

system providing service to more than 

13,000 islands. 

303 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (9 

May 15 Objective: Development of space Not Achieved orbit. 

Defense flight techniques and technology. announced 

43A Spacecraft Not announced. 

Atlas H 

Jun. 20 

DMSP F 

53A 

Atlas E 

Objective: To launch meteorologi- 857 Third satellite in Block 

planned orbit Spacecraft: Same 101.9 used by National 

basic configuration as DMSP F-6. 98.8 Oceanic and AtmosWeight: 1,421 kg. pheric Administration 

-8 cal observation satellite into 835 5D-2 series. Data also 

(NOAA). 

Jul. 22 

Soyuz TM-3 

USSR 

1987-063A 

Sep. 16 

Defense 

80A 

scout 

Sep. 16 

Defense 

80B 

Oct. 26 

Defense 

90A 

Titan 34D 

Crew consisted of 

AleksandrViktorenko, 

Aleksandr Aleksandrov, 

and Mohammed Faris. 

Docked with Mir space 

station. Aleksandrov 

(first Bulgarian in 

space) remained in 

MIR 160 days; 

returned with Yuriy 

Romanenko. 

Vitorenko and Faris 

returned Jul. 30 in 

Soyu TM-2, with 

Aleksandr Laveykin, 

who experienced medical problems. Faris 

first Syrian in space. 

Flight time: 160 days, 7 

hrs, 16 min. 

Objective: To place satellite into 1,175 First of two Transit 

orbit to achieve Navy objectives. 1,017 satellites launched by 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 107.2 Scout vehicle. 

90.3 Launched by NASA for 

DoD. 

Objective: To place satellite into 1,181 Second of two Transit 

orbit to achieve Navy objectives. 1,014 satellites launched by 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 107.2 NASA for DoD on 

90.3 same Scout. 

Objective: Development of space Not Achieved orbit. 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

304 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (3 

Nov. 29 Objective: Development of space- Not Achieved orbit. 

Defense flight techniques and technology. announced 

97A Spacecraft Not announced. 

Titan 34D 

Dec. 21 

USSR 

SOYUZ TM-4 

1987- 104A 

Crew consisted of 

Vladimir Titov, Musa 

Manarov, and Anatoliy 

Levchenko. Docked 

with MIR space station. 

Crew of Yuriy 

Romanenko, Aleksandr 

Aleksandrov, and 

Anatoliy Levchenko 

returned Dec. 29 in 

Soyuz TM-3. At end of 

1987 still docked with 

MIR. Flight time: 180 

days, 5 hrs 

305 

SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND HUMAN SPACE FLIGHTS, 1988 

APPENDM A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (krn), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (9) 

Feb. 2 

6A 

Atlas E 

DMSP F-9 

Feb. 8 

8A 

Delta 181 

DoD-2 

Mar. 25 

San Marco D/L 

26A 

scout 

Apr. 25 

SOOS-3 

33D 

scout 

Apr. 25 

SOOS-3 

33E 

scout 

Jun. 7 

USSR 

SOYUZ TM-5 

1988-048A 

Objective: To launch meteorological observation satellite into planned orbit. Spacecraft Same basic 

configuration as DMSP F-6. 

Weight: 1,421 kg. 

Objective: To demonstrate effective ways to discriminate between 

decoys and reentry vehicles. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: To launch satellite into 

low-eaah orbit to explore relationship between solar activity and 

meteorological phenomena by 

studying dynamic processes 

occurring in tioposphere, stratosphere, and thermosphere. 

Spacecraft: Spherical, 96.5 cm in 

diameter with four canted 48 cm 

monopole antennas for telemetry 

and command. Weight: 237 kg. 

Objective: To place Navy satellite 

826 

815 

101.3 

98.7 

333 

223 

90.1 

28.6 

615 

263 

93.4 

3.0 

Not 

into orbit to achieve Navy objectives. Spacecraft Not announced. 

Weight: 141 lbs. 

announced 

Objective: To place Navy satellite 

into orbit to achieve Navy objectives. Spacecraft Not announced. 

Weight: 141 lbs. 

Not 

announced 

Achieved orbit. 

Launched by NASA for 

Strategic Defense 

Initiative (SDI). Successful test of technology. Reentered Mar. 1. 

Launched by NASA as 

joint research mission 

with Italian Space 

Commission. Launch 

took place from San 

Marino Range. Reentered over central 

Africa and was consumed Dec. 6. 

Launched by NASA for 

Navy. Stacked Oscar 

on Scout (SOOS) part 

of Navy’s long-established continuous allweather global navigation system. 

Second of two satellites 

launched by NASA for 

Navy. 

Crew consisted of 

Viktor Savinykh, 

Anatoly Solovyev, and 

Aleksandr Aleksandrov. 

Docked with Mir space 

station. Crew returned 

Jun. 17 in Soyuz TM-4. 

Flight time: 9 days, 20 

hrs, 13 min. 

309 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDE A 

~ ~ 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (.) 

Jun. 16 Objwtive: To place Navy satellie 1,199 Third in series of 

NOVA-II into orbit to achieve Navy objec- 1,150 improved Transit navi52A tives. Spacecraft Cylindrical main 108.9 gation satellites 

scout body, with four solar panels 90.0 launched by NASA for 

extending from main body; Navy. 

extendable boom from central part 

of satellite. Weight: 375.8 lbs. 

Aug. 25 Objective: To place Navy sate%@ 1,176 Launched by NASAfor 

SOOS-4 into orbit to achieve Navy objec- 1,032 Navy into polar orbit. 

74A tives. Spacecraft Not announced. 107.4 Stacked Oscar on Scout 

scout Weight: 141 lbs. 90.0 (SOOS). 

Aug. 25 Objective: To place Navy satellite 1,178 Second of two satellites 

SOOS-4 into orbit to achieve Navy objec- 1,032 launched by NASA for 

74B tives. Spacecraft: Not announced. 107.4 Navy. 

scout Weight: 141 lbs. 90.0 

Aug. 29 

USSR 

SOYUZ TM-6 

1988-075A 

Sep. 2 

DoD 

77A 

Titan 34D 

Sep. 5 

DoD 

78A 

Titan 2 

Crew consisted of 

Vladimir Lyakhov, 

Valeriy Polyakov, and 

Abdul Mohmad. 

Docked with MIR 

space station. Mohmad 

first Afghan in space. 

Crew returned Sep. 7 in 

Soyuz TM-5. Flight 

time: 8 days, 19 hrs, 27 

min. 

Not Achieved orbit. 

announced 

Not Achieved orbit. 

announced 

3 10 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (g) 

Sep. 24 Objective: To launch satellite into 863845 Fourth of advanced 

89A sun-synchronous orbit. 102.0 TIROS-N spacecraft. 

NOAA- 1 1 Spacecraft Launch consguration 98.9 Funded by National 

Atlas-E 491 cm high, 188 cm in diameter. Oceanic and AtmosWeight: 1,712 kg. Weight in orbit: pheric Administration 

1,038 kg. (NOAA) and launched 

by NASA. To replace 

NOAA-9 as afternoon 

satellite in NOAAs 

two-polar-satellite system. Also onboard 

Search and Rescue 

instruments. 

Sep. 29 

Space Shuttle Data Relay Satellite-C/lnertial 

Discovery Upper StageSpacecraft Shuttle 

(STS-26) 

91A experiments: Automated 

Objective: To deploy Tracking and 

orbiter carrying satellite as well as 

Directional Solidification Furnace 

(ADSF), Aggregation of Red 

Blood Cells (ARC), Earth Limb 

Radiance Experiment (ELRAD), , Isoelectric Focusing Experiment 

(IFE), Infrared Communication 

Flight Experiment (IRCFE), 

Mesoscale Lightning Experiment 

(MLE), Protein Crystal Growth 

(PCG), Phased Partitioning 

Experiment (PPE), and Physical 

Vapor Transport of Organic Solids 

(PVTOS). Additionally, 3 Shuttle 

Student Involvement Project 

(SSIP) experiments. 

Weight: 38,774 Ibs. 

336 Twenty-sixth flight of 

306 Space Transportation 

91.0 System (STS). First 

28.5 since Challenger accident of Jan. 28, 1986. 

Piloted by Frederick H. 

Hauck and Richard 0. 

Covey. Mission specialists John M. 

Lounge, David C. 

Hilmers, and George D. 

Nelson. Discovery 

launched from KSC at 

11:37 a.m. EDT. 

Satellite deployed and 

experiments conducted. 

Shuttle landed at 

Edwards AFB, CA, at 

12:37 p.m. EDT on 

Oct. 3. Mission duration: 4 days, l hr. 

311 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDM A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee 0, 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Eauator (9 

Sep. 29 Objective: To deliver TDRS 35,803 

TDRS 3 satellite to stationary geosynchro- 35,779 

91B nous orbit. Spacecraft: Three-axis 1436.3 

stabilized, momentum-biased 0.2 

configuration with two sun-onented solar panels attached. 

TDRS measures 57.2 ft tip-to-tip 

of deployed solar panels. TDRS 

composed of 3 modules: (1) 

equipment module houses attitude control, electrical power, 

propulsion, telemetry, tracking, 

and command subsystems; (2) 

payload module consists of processing and frequency-generation 

equipment; and (3) antenna module supports dual deployable and 

fixed antennas, multiple-access 

array, and remainder of telecommunications hardware. Weight at 

launch, including Inertial Upper 

State (IUS) booster: 37,699 lbs. 

Weight in orbit: 4,637 lbs. 

Nov. 6 

DoD 

99A 

Titan 34D 

Nov. 26 

USSR 

SOYUZ TM-7 

1988-104A 

Objective: Development of Not 

spaceflight techniques and tech- announced 

nology. Spacecraft Not 

announced. 

Third in series. 

Launched from Shuttle 

orbiter Discovery. 

Completes two-satellite 

constellation, located at 

171' W. Leased by 

NASA from Continental Telephone 

Company (CONTEL). 

Achieved orbit. 

Crew consisted of 

Aleksandr Volkov, 

Sergey Krkalev, and 

Jean-Loup Chretien. 

Docked with MIR 

space station. Volkov 

and Krikalev in orbit at 

end of 1988. Soyuz 

TM-6 returned with 

Chretien, Vladimir 

Titov, and Musa 

Manarov. Titov and 

Manarov completed 

366-day mission on 

Dec. 21. Flight time: 

151 days, 11 hrs. 

312 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (!-an), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (Q) 

Sep. 29 Objective: To deliver TDRS 35,803 

TDRS 3 satellite to stationary geosynchro- 35,779 

91B nous orbit. Spacecraft Three-axis 1436.3 

stabilized, momentum-biased 0.2 

configuration with two sun-oriented solar panels attached. 

TDRS measures 57.2 ft tip-to-tip 

of deployed solar panels. TDRS 

composed of 3 modules: (1) 

equipment module houses attitude control, electrical power, 

propulsion, telemetry, tracking, 

and command subsystems; (2) 

payload module consists of processing and frequency-generation 

equipment; and (3) antenna module supports dual deployable and 

fixed antennas, multiple-access 

array, and remainder of telecommunications hardware. Weight at 

launch, including Inertial Upper 

State (IUS) booster: 37,699 lbs. 

Weight in orbit: 4,637 lbs. 

Nov. 6 

DoD 

99A 

Titan 34D 

Nov. 26 

USSR 

SOYUZ TM-7 

1988- 104A 

Objective: Development of Not 

spaceflight techniques and tech- announced 

nology. Spacecraft: Not 

announced. 

Third in series. 

Launched from Shuttle 

orbiter Discovery. 

Completes two-satellite 

constellation, located at 

171' W. Leased by 

NASA from Continental Telephone 

Company (CONTEL). 

Achieved orbit. 

Crew consisted of 

Aleksandr Volkov, 

Sergey Krikalev, and 

Jean-Loup Chretien. 

Docked with MIR 

space station. Vokov 

and Krikalev in orbit at 

end of 1988. Soyuz 

TM-6 returned with 

Chretien, Vladimir 

Titov, and Musa 

Manarov. Titov and 

Manarov completed 

366-day mission on 

Dec. 21. Flight time: 

151 days, 11 hrs. 

313 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDJX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (9 

Dec. 2 Objective: To launch classified 453 Twenty-seventh flight 

Space Shuttle DoD Payload. Spacecraft: Shuttle 4.43 of Space Transportation 

Atlantis orbiter carrying DoD satellite. 93.6 System (STS). Piloted 

106A 57.0 by Robert "Hoot" 

Gibson and Guy 

Gardner. Mission specialists Mike Mullane, 

Jerry Ross, and Bill 

Shepherd. Atlantis 

launched from KSC at 

9:30 a.m. EST. Satellite 

deployed. Shuttle landed at Edwards AFB, 

CA, at 3:37 p.m. PST 

on Dec. 6. 

Mission duration: 4 

days, 9 hrs, 6 min. 

Dee. 2 

DoD 

106B 

Objective: Development of Not Achieved orbit. 

spaceflight techniques and tech- announced 

nology. Spacecraft: Not 

announced. 

314 
SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND HUMAN SPACE FLIGHTS, 1989 

APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Eauator (9 

Feb. 14 

GPS (Block IIR) 

13A announced. 

Delta II 

Objective: To launch spacecraft 

into orbit. Spacecraft Not 

Mar. 13 Objective: To deploy Tracking and 

Space Shuttle Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)-D. 

Discovery Spacecraft Shuttle orbiter cany- 

(STS-29) ing satellite as well as experi21A ments: Orbiter Experiments 

Autonomous Supporting 

Instrumentation System (OASISI), Space Station Heat Pipe 

Advanced Radiator Element 

(SHARE), Air Force Maui Optical 

Systems (AMOS) Calibration 

Test, Chromosome and Plant Cell 

Division in Space Experiment 

(CHROMEX), IMAX camera, 

Protein Crystal Growth (PGC), 

and two Shuttle Student 

Involvement Project (SSIP) experiments. Weight, including spclcecraft and experiments: 263,289 

lbs. 

20,346 

20,018 

718.0 

55.1 

337 

305 

91.0 

28.5 

First in series of Block 

II operational 

NAVSTAR Global 

Positioning Satellites 

(GPS) launched aboard 

newest Air Force 

expendable launch 

vehicle, Delta 11. 

Operational system to 

be composed of 21 

satellites in 6 orbital 

planes. 

Twenty-eighth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). Piloted 

by Michael L. Coats 

and John E. Blaha. 

Mission specialists 

James P. Bagian, James 

F. Buchli, and Robert 

C. Springer. Discovery 

launched from KSC at 

9:57 a.m. EST. Satellite 

successfully deployed 

and experiments conducted. Shuttle landed 

at Edwards AFB, CA, 

at 9:36 a.m. EST on 

Mar. 18. Mission duration: 4 days, 23 hrs, 39 

min. 

317 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Eauator P) 

Mar. 13 Objective: To deliver Tracking and 499 

21B lite into geosynchronous orbit. 94.5 

Spacecraft: Three-axis stabilized, 47.7 

TDRS 4 Data Relay System (TDRS) satel- 487 

momentum-biased configuration 

with two sun-oriented solar panels 

attached. TDRS measures 57.2 ft 

tip-to-tip of deployed solar panels. 

TDRS composed of 3 modules: 

(1) equipment module houses attitude control, electrical power, 

propulsion, telemetry, tracking, 

and command subsystems; (2) 

payload module consists of processing and frequency-generation 

equipment; and (3) antenna module supports dual deployable and 

fied antennas, multiple-access 

array, and remainder of telecommunications hardware. 

Weight at launch, including 

Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster: 43,212 Ibs 

Mar. 24 

USA 36 

26A 

Delta 

May 4 

Space Shuttle 

Atlantis 

33A 

(STS-30) 

Objective: DoD space test. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: To deploy Magellan 

spacecraft. Spacecraft Shuttle 

orbiter carrying satellite as well as 

experiments: Fluids Experiment 

Apparatus (FEA), Mesoscale 

Lightning Experiment (MLE), and 

Air Force Maui Optical Site 

(AMOS) Calibration Test. 

Weight, including spacecraft and 

experiments: 260,878 Ibs. 

Fourth in series. 

Launched from Shuttle 

Discovery. Spacecraft 

replaced partially 

degraded TDRS 1 at 

41' W, and TDRS 1 

moved to 79" W, serving temporarily as inorbit spare. Leased by 

NASA from 

Continental Telephone 

Company (CONTEL). 

499 USA 36 (also known as 

487 Delta 183), experimen94.5 tal missile-hunting 

47.7 satellite equipped with 

laser radar, 7 video 

imaging cameras, and 

infrared imager. 

Twenty-ninth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). Piloted 

by David M. Walker and 

Ronald J. Grabe. Mission specialists Noman 

E. Thagard, Mary L. 

Cleave, and Mark C. 

Lee. Atlantis launched at 

247 p.m. EDT after several countdown holds. 

Satellite deployed and 

experiments conducted. 

Shuttle landed at 

Edwards AFB, CA, at 

3:43 p.m. EDT on May 

8. Mission duration: 4 

days, 57 minutes. 

318 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (*) 

May 4 Objective: To deploy Magellan 33 1 

Space Shuttle spacecraft. Spacecraft Shuttle 297 

Atlantis orbiter carrying satellite as well as 90.8 

(STS-30) experiments: Fluids Experiment 28.9 

33A Apparatus (FEA), Mesoscale 

Lightning Experiment (MLE), and 

Air Force Maui Optical Site 

(AMOS) Calibration Test. Weight, 

including spacecraft and experiments: 260,878 lbs. 

May 4 

Magellan 

33B 

May 10 

USA 37 

35A 

Objective: To place satellite carry- Transing radar sensor into orbit around Venus traVenus to obtain data on planetary jectory. 

surface. Spacecraft: Three-axis 

stabilized. Length 6.4m; solar panels with span of 9.2 m. Composed 

of satellite structure, thermal control, power, attitude control, 

propulsion, command data and 

storage, and telecommunications 

subsystems. Weight, incuding 

spacecraft and Inertial Upper State 

(IUS) booster: 45,748 lbs. 

Twenty-ninth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). Piloted 

by David M. Walker 

and Ronald J. Grabe. 

Mission specialists 

Norman E. Thagard, 

Mary L. Cleave, and 

Mark C. Lee. Atlantis 

launched at 2:47 p.m. 

EDT after several 

countdown holds. 

Satellite deployed and 

experiments conducted. 

Shuttle landed at 

Edwards AFB, CA, at 

3:43 p.m. EDT on May 

8. Mission duration: 4 

days, 57 minutes. 

Launched from Shuttle 

Atlantis. Spacecraft 

placed on planned trajectory for rendezvous 

and orbit with Venus on 

Aug. 10, 1990. 

Objective: Not announced. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Not Achieved orbit. 

announced 

Jun. 10 Objective: To launch spacecraft 20,401 Second in series of 

GPS (Block IIR) into orbit. 19,962 Block I1 operational 

44A Spacecraft Not announced. 718.0 NAVSTAR Global 

Delta II 54.7 Positioning Satellites 

(GPS) launched by 

Delta 11. Completed 

system will have 21 

operational and three 

spare satellites. Also 

known as USA 38. 

3 19 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APP3ENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to 

Launch Vehicle Equator $) 

Jun. 14 Objective: To launch upgraded Not 

USA 39 

46A (DSP-1). Spacecraft Not 

Titan announced. 

Aug. 8 Objective: DoD mission 317 

Space Shuttle payload/cargo not announced. 314 

Columbia (STS-28) Spacecraft: Shuttle orbiter carry- 90.5 

61A ing classified DoD payload/cargo. 56.9 

Defense Support Program satellite announced 

Six Detailed Supplementary 

Objectives @SOs) completed, 

including those associated with 

Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) 

Medical Program. Weight: Not 

announced. 

Aug. 8 

USA 40 

61B 

Aug. 8 

USA 41 

61C 

Aug. 18 

GPS (Block IIR) 

64A 

Delta I1 

Sep. 4 

USA 43 

69A 

Titan 3 

Objective: Not announced. Not 

Spacecraft: Not announced. announced 

Objective: Not announced. Not 

Spacecraft: Not announced. announced 

Objective: To launch satellite into 20,252 

orbit. Spacecraft: Not announced. 20,111 

718.0 

55.0 

Objective: Not announced. Not 

Spacecraft Not announced. announced 

Remarks 

First launch of Titan 4 

expendable launch 

vehicle. 

Thirtieth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). Piloted 

by Brewster Shaw and 

Richard Richards. 

Mission specialists 

James Adamson, David 

Leestma, and Mark 

Brown. Columbia 

launched from KSC at 

8:37 a.m. EDT. Shuttle 

landed at Edwards 

AFB, CA, at 9:38 EDT 

on Aug. 13. Mission 

duration: 5 days, 1 

hour. 

Achieved orbit. 

Achieved orbit. 

Third in series of 21 

Block I1 operational 

NAVSTAR Global 

Positioning Satellites 

(GPS) launched aboard 

Delta II expendable 

launch vehicle. Also 

known as USA 42. 

Achieved orbit. 

320 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (") 

Sep. 4 Objective: Not announced. Not Achieved orbit. 

USA 43 Spacecraft Not announced. announced 

69A 

Titan 3 

Sep. 4 Objective: Not announced. Not Achieved orbit. 

USA 44 Spacecraft: Not announced. announced 

69B 

Sep. 5 

Soyuz TM-8 

USSR 

1989-071A 

Sep. 6 

USA 45 

72A 

Titan 2 

Sep. 25 

FltSatCom F-8 

77A 

Atlas Centaur 68 

Objective: Not announced. Not 

Spacecraft Not announced. announced 

Objective: To launch Navy corn- 35,799 

munications satellite into geosyn- 35,776 

chronous transfer orbit. 1,436.2 

Spacecraft Body 22.8 ft high and 4.8 

8 ft in diameter. Parabolic antenna 

16 ft in diameter with 80-inch 

solid center surrounded by wire 

mesh screen, 13.5-ft helical 

receiving antenna, 13 inches in 

diameter at base, mounted outside 

edge of transit antenna dish. Once 

in or bit, folded screen is 

deployed. Weight, going into orbit, 

with apogee kick motor: 5,100 lbs. 

Crew consisted of 

Aleksandr Viktorenko 

and Aleksandr 

Serebrov. Docked with 

MIR space station. 

Viktorenko and 

Serebrov returned Feb. 

9, 1990, in Soyuz TM8. Flight time: 166 

days, 6 hrs. 

Achieved orbit. 

Sixth, and last, in series 

of geosynchronous 

satellites. Launched by 

NASA/industry team 

for Navy. Last in 

NASA inventory of 

Atlas Centaur rockets. 

Part of worldwide 

Navy, Air Force, and 

DoD communications 

system. Also known as 

USA 46. 

321 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (") 

Oct. 18 Objective: To launch GaUeo 160 Thirty-fht flight of 

Space Shuttle spacecraft toward rendezvous with 160 Space Transportation 

Atlantis Jupiter. Spacecraft: Shuttle orbiter 90 System (STS). Piloted 

(STS-34) carrying spacecraft with Inertial 34.3 by Donald E. Williams 

84A Upper Stage (IUS) booster with and Michael J. 

additional experiments: Shuttle 

Solar Backscatter Ultra-Violet 

(SSBUV) Instrument, Growth 

Hormone Concentration and 

Distribution (GHCD) in Plants, 

Polymer Morphology (PM) 

Experiment, Mesoscale Lightning 

Experiment (MLE), Sensor 

Technology (STEX) Experiment, 

Air Force Maui Optical Site 

(AMOS) Calibration Test, IMAX 

camera, and 1 Shuttle Student 

Involvement Project (SSP). min. 

Weight, including space probe and 

experiments (not includmg 

Shuttle): 46,009 lbs. 

McCulley. Mission specialists Shannon W. 

Lucid, Franklin R. 

Chang-Diaz, and Ellen 

S. Baker. Atlantis 

launched from KSC at 

12:54 p.m. EDT. 

Shuttle landed at 

Edwards AFB, CA, at 

12:33 p.m. EDT on 

Oct. 23. Mission duration : 4 days, 23 hrs, 39 

Oct. 18 

Galileo 

84B 

Objective: To launch spacecraft Trans- Launched from Shuttle 

into trajectory toward Jupiter to Jupiter tra- Atlantis. Planned 

allow close-range studies over jectory. arrival at Jupiterin 

period of almost two years. December 1995. 

Spacecraft Composed of three 

segments: (1) probe, weighing 355 

kg (including 28 kg of scientific 

instruments), includes heat shield, 

2.5-m parachute, six instruments 

together with control and data system, radio-relay transmitter, and 

other supporting equipment; (2) 

spinning main section includes 

propulsionmodule, comunications antennas, main cornputen, 

and most support systems; and (3) 

fmal segment carries field and particle instruments. 

Weight of orbiter (second and 

third segments): 2,668 kg (inclnding 103 kg of science instruments 

and 935 kg of propellant). 

322 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (g) 

Oct. 21 Objective: To launch satellite into 20,283 Fourth in series of 

GPS (Block IIR) orbit. spacecraft: Not announced. 20,079 Block II operational 

85A 717.9 NAVSTAR Global 

Delta 11 54.7 Positioning Satellites 

(GPS). Also known as 

USA 47. 

Nov. 18 Objective: To launch satellite to 895 

COBE measure diffuse infrared radiation 886 

89A (cosmic background). Spacecraft: 102.8 

Delta 5920 Rotating three-axis stabilized, 99.0 

length 7.2 m (stowed) and 27.5 m 

with solar panels deployed in 

orbit. Carries Differential 

Microwave Radiometer (DMR), 

Far Infrared Absolute 

Spectrophotometer (FIRAS), and 

Diffuse Infrared Background 

Experiment (DIRBE). 

Weight: 2,206 kg. 

Cosmic Background 

Explorer (COBE) successfully launched 

using 184th, and last, 

NASA-owned Delta. 

COBE is 65th 

Explorer-class mission. 

Launched from 

Vandenberg AFB, CA. 

Mission life: one year 

planned, primary mission; one year planned, 

extended mission. 

Nov. 23 Objective: Not announced. Not Thirty-second flight of 

Space Shuttle Spacecraft: Shuttle orbiter cany- announced Space Transportation 

Discovery (STS-33) ing unannounced DoD satellite. System (STS). Piloted 

90A by Frederick D. 

Gregory and John E. 

Blaha. Mission specialists Kathryn C. 

Thomton, F. Story 

Musgrave, and Manely 

L. “Sonny” Carter. 

Discovery launched 

from KSC at 7:23 p.m. 

EST on Nov. 22. 

Shuttle landed at 

Edwards AFB, CA, at 

7:31 p.m. EST on Nov. 

27. Mission duration: 5 

days, 7 min. 

Nov. 23 Objective: Not announced. 

DoD Spacecraft Not announced. 

90B 

Dec. 11 

GPS (Block IIR) 

97A 

Delta II 

Objective: To launch satellite into 

orbit. Spacecraft Not announced. 

Fifth in series of Block 

11 operational Global 

Positioning Satellites 

(GPS) launched by Air 

Force Delta II. Also 

known as USA 49. 

323 

SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND HUMAN SPACE FLIGHTS, 1990 

APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (") 

Jan. 1 

Skynet 4A 

1A 

Titan 3 

Jan. 1 

JCSAT 2 

1B 

Jan. 9 

Space Shuttle 

Columbia 

2A 

(STS-32) 

Objective: To launch satellite. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Weight: 3,320 lbs. 

Objective: To launch satellite. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Weight: 14,700 lbs. 

Objective: To launch Syncom IV5, retrieve Long Duration 

Exposure Facility (LDEF), and 

conduct scientific and medical 

experiments while in weightless 

environment. Spacecraft Shuttle 

orbiter carrying satellite as well as 

middeck experiments: American 

Flight Echocardiograph (AFE), 

Characterization of Neurospora 

Circadian Rhythms (CNCR), 

Fluids Experiment Apparatus 

(FEA), LatitudeLongitude 

Locator (L3), Protein Crystal 

Growth (PCG), IMAX camera, 

Mesoscale Lightning Experiment 

(MLE), and Air Force Maui 

Optical Site (AMOS) Calibration 

Test. Weight of orbiter and cargo 

at SRB ignition: 256,670 lbs. 

35,782 

33,685 

1,382.5 

3.4 

7,191 

821 

180.1 

0.3 

342 

316 

90.8 

28.4 

Commercial launch by 

Ma~tin Marietta for 

British Ministry of 

Defence. 

Second satellite in dual 

payload Titan 3 launch. 

Satellite owned by 

Japanese Communications Satellite Co. 

Thirty-third flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). Piloted 

by Daniel C. 

Brandenstein and 

James D. Wetherbee. 

Mission specialists 

Bonnie J. Dunbar, 

Marsha S. Ivins, and G. 

David Low. Columbia 

launched from KSC at 

7:35 a.m. EST. After 

deploying Syncom IV5, Columbia crew 

retrieved Long 

Duration Exposure 

Facility (LDEF) 

(launched by STS41C 

in April 1984) at 10:16 

a.m. EST on Jan. 11. 

After detailed photographic survey, satellite 

berthed in cargo bay 

4.5 hrs later. Shuttle 

landed at Edwards 

AFB, CA, at 1:35 a.m. 

PST on Jan. 20. 

Landing delayed one 

day because of ground 

fog at landing site. 

Mission duration: 10 

days, 21 hrs, making 

this longest Shuttle 

flight to date. 

321 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (Q) 

Jan. 9 

Syncom IV-5 

(Leasat-5) 

2B 

Jan. 24 

SA 

USA-50 

Feb. 11 

USSR 

SOYUZ TM-9 

1990-014A 

Feb. 14 

15A 

Delta I1 

USA-5 1 

Feb. 14 

15B 

USA-52 

Objective: To launch satellite into 

transfer orbit. 

Spacecraft: Cylindrical, telescoping satellite, 15 ft long, 13 ft in 

diameter. Weight in cargo bay: 

17,000 lbs. Weight of satellite in 

orbit: 3,060 lbs. 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft. Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Weight: 20,275 lbs. 

36,363 

34,858 

1,427.1 

1.4 

20,088 

718.0 

54.6 

549 

532 

95.3 

43 

470 

464 

93.8 

43.1 

Fourth operational 

satellite in Leasat system. Launched from 

Shuttle Columbia for 

Navy. Replacement for 

FltSatCom spacecraft. 

Sixth navigation satellite in series. Global 

Positioning Satellite 

(GPS). 

Crew consisted of 

Anatoliy Solovyov and 

Aleksandr Balandm. 

Docked with MIR 

space station. Crew 

returned Aug. 9 in 

Soyuz TM-9. Flight 

time: 178 days, 22 hrs, 

19 min. 

Low-power 

Atmospheric 

Compensation 

Experiment (LACE) 

satellite. Part of Strategic 

Defense Initiative (SDI) 

Program. 

Relay Mirror 

Experiment (RNLE) 

satellite. Part of Strategic 

Defense Initiative (SDI) 

program testing. 

328 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (") 

Feb. 28 Objective: To launch DoD pay- 264 

Space Shuttle load. Spacecraft: Shuttle orbiter 248 

(STS-36) 61.9 

19A 

Atlantis carrying unannounced satellite. 89.4 

Feb. 28 Objective: Development of space- Not 

USA-53 flight techniques and technology. announced 

19B Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Mar. 14 Objective: To launch satellite into 

Intelsat 6 F-3 geosynchronous orbit 

21A Spacecraft Launch configuration 

Titan 3 17.5 ft (5.3 m) long, with diameter 

of 12 ft (3.6 m). Five antennas and 

2 cylindrical solar mys. In orbit, 

telescoping spacecraft is nearly 39 

ft (11.7 m) long. Weight at launch, 

including apogee kick stage: 

27,425 lbs (12,466 kg). 

Mar. 26 

25A 

Delta 111 

USA-54 

Apr. 5 

PEGSAT 

28A 

Pegasus 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft. Not announced. 

Objective: To launch satellite and 

test new launch delivery system. 

Spacecraft: Two barium canisters, 

50 inches (127 cm) high and 42 

inches (106 cm) wide. 

Weight: 272 lbs. 

338 

166 

89.3 

28.6 

20,207 

20,059 

716.0 

55.1 

682 

500 

96.4 

94.1 

Thirty-fourth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). Piloted 

by John 0. Creighton 

and John H. Casper. 

Mission specialists 

David C. Hihers, 

Richard M. Mullane, 

and Pierre J. Thout. 

Atlantis launched from 

KSC at 2:50 a.m. EST. 

Shuttle landed at 

Edwards AFB, CA, at 

10:08 a.m. PST on Mar. 

4. Mission duration: 4 

days, 10 hrs, 19 min. 

Classified payload 

launched by Shuttle 

Atlantis crew. 

Launch vehicle malfunctioned, stranding vehicle 

in useless orbit. Intelsat 

may request NASA to 

use Shuttle in rescue 

attempt. 

Seventh navigation 

satellite in series. 

Global Positioning 

Satellite (GPS). 

NASA-built small payload, to obtain environmental measurements of 

Pegasus launch vehicle 

for DARF'A, deploy 

Navy satellite, and conduct two NASA scientific chemical-release 

experiments over northcentral Canada. 

329 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (") 

Apr. 5 

28B 

USA-55 

Apr. 11 

31A 

Atlas E 

Apr. 11 

31B 

Apr. 11 

31C 

Apr. 13 

34A 

Delta 

Apr. 24 

Space Shuttle 

Discovery 

37A 

USA-56 

USA-57 

USA-58 

PALAPA-B2R 

(STS-31) 

Objective: To launch small experimental Navy satellite. 

Spacecraft Polygonal sphere. 

Weight: 150 Ibs. 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: To launch spacecraft 

into geosynchronous orbit. 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: To launch Hubble 

Space Telescope (HST) and conduct scientific and medical experiments while in weightless environment. Spacecraft Shuttle orbiter 

carrying satellite as well as experiments: Ascent Particle Monitor 

(APM), EMAX camera, 

Investigation into Polymer 

Membrane Processing 

[lPMP),Protein Crystal Growth 

(PCG), Radiation Monitoring 

Experiment @WE), Ion Arc (student experiment), and Air Force 

Maui Optical Site (AMOS) 

Calibration Test. Weight of orbiter 

and cargo at main engine cutoff: 

259,229 Ibs. 

673 

498 

96.3 

94.1 

Not 

announced 

Not 

announced 

Not 

announced 

37,785 

35,717 

1,485.1 

0.4 

619 

613 

96.8 

28.4 

Navy-designed Small 

Experimental 

Communications 

Satellite (SECS) 

deployed from Pegsat. 

First of triple payload 

launch. 

Second of triple payload 

launch. 

Third of triple payload 

launch. 

Indonesian communications satellite launched 

by United States. 

Thuty-fifth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). 

Piloted by Loren J. 

Shriver and Charles E 

Bolden, Jr. Mission specialists Steven A. 

Hawley, Bruce 

McCandless II, and 

Kathryn D. Sullivan. 

Discovery launched 

from KSC at 8:33 a.m. 

EDT. Shuttlelandd at 

Edwards AFB, CA, at 

6:49 a.m. PDT on Apr. 

29. Mission duration: 5 

days, 1 hr, 16 min. 

330 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to 

Launch Vehicle Equator p) 

Apr. 25 Objective: To perform variety of 620 

Hubble Space astronomical observations as long- 611 

Telescope term (15-year) international obser- 96.8 

37B vatory with many Werent scien- 28.4 

tific goals and observational 

modes. Spacecraft Cylindrical 

body made up of three major elements: (1) support systems module; (2) optical telescope assembly; and (3) scientific instruments. 

Electrical power provided by two 

solar arrays containing 48,000 

solar cells. Optical telescope 

assembly contains two mirrors: 

94-inch primary mirror located 

near center of Hubble Space 

Telescope (HST) and 13-inch secondary mirror located 16 ft in 

front of primary mirror. The two 

mirrors must remain in precise 

alignment for the images to be. in 

focus. HST scientific instruments 

are the WidefieldiPlanetary 

Camera, Goddard High Resolution 

Spectrograph, Faint Object 

Spectrograph, and High Speed 

Photometer. Weight at launch 

approximately 25,000 lbs 

(1 1,355.4 kg). 

May 9 

M- 1 

43A 

scout 

May 9 

43B 

M-2 

Objective: Development of space- 783 

flight techniques and technology. 64 1 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 96.8 

89.8 

Objective: Development of space- 782 

flight techniques and technology. 640 

Spacecraft Not announced. 98.6 

89.8 

Remarks 

Deployed by Shuttle 

orbiter Discovery. First 

images taken by 

Widefield/Planetary 

Camera released May 

20. Faint Object Camera 

(FOC) became first scientific instrument to 

complete its orbital verification activities, on 

Jun. 6. Spherical aberration in Hubble Space 

Telescope (HST) optical 

system announced publicly Jun. 27. Problem 

traced to spacing error 

in reflective null corrector, an optical reference 

device used in manufacture of primary mirror. 

WidefieldPlanetary 

Camera was directed to 

study developing storm 

on Saturn; images expected to be 3 to 10 

times better than those 

from Earth-based telescopes. 

First of dual Lightsat 

launch. 

Second of dual Lightsat 

launch. 

33 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Eauator (g) 

Jun. 1 

ROSAT 

49A 

Delta II 

Jun. 8 

50A 

Titan 4 

USA-59 

Jun. 8 

50B 

USA-60 

Jun. 8 

50C 

USA-61 

Jun. 8 

50D 

USA-62 

Jun. 12 

INSAT ID 

51A 

Delta 

Jun. 23 

Intelsat 6 F-4 

56A 

Titan 3 

Objective: To conduct an all-sky 

survey for six months, using imaging telescopes to measure positions of x-ray and extreme, ultraviolet (XW) sources, while obtaining fluxes and special information 

Spacecraft: Square-shaped central 

body containing scientific instruments, with three solar arrays. 

Launch configuration dimensions 

4.5 m x 2.2 m x 2.4 m. 

Instrumentation includes most 

powerful x-ray telescope ever 

built, with secondary telescope a 

WidefieldPlanetaq Camera. 

Weight at launch 2,424 kg. 

Obiective: Development of mace 

588 

567 

96.1 

52.9 

Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space- Not 

flight techniques and technology. _. announced 

Sp&ecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: To launch communications satellite into geosynchronous 

orbit. Spacecraft: Same basic configuration as INSAT 1B launched 

by Shuttle in 1983. 

Objective: To launch satellite into 

geosynchronous orbit. 

Spacecraft: Same as Intelsat 6 

launched Mar. 14. 

35,914 

35,767 

1,440.0 

0.2 

35,791 

35,785 

1,436.2 

0.0 

Roentgen Satellite 

(ROSAT) international 

cooperative satellite successfully launched from 

Cape Canaveral Air 

Force Station, FL. Joint 

mission with Federal 

Republic of Germany 

and United Kingdom. 

Two-phase schedule: (1) 

six-month survey to be 

conducted by German 

scientists; and (2) 12- 

month pointed phase, 

where telescopes are 

pointed at preselected 

individual x-ray sources. 

First of four satellites 

launched by single 

booster. 

Second of four satellites 

launched by single 

booster. 

Third of four satellites 

launched by single 

booster. 

Fourth of four satellites 

launched by single 

booster. 

Launched by United 

States for India to 

replace INSAT 1B. 

Completes INSAT 1 

series. 

Third in series of five 

Intelsat 6 satellites. 

Launched by Martin 

Marietta for Intelsat. 

Operational in early 

Sept. 

332 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (.) 

Jul. 25 

CRRES 

65A 

Atlas l/Centaur 69 

Aug. 1 

Soyuz TM-10 

USSR 

1990-067A 

Aug. 2 

68A 

Delta I1 

USA-63 

Aug. 18 

BSB-R2 

74A 

Delta 

Oct. 1 

USA-64 

88A 

Delta II 

Objective: To launch satellite into 

highly elliptical geosynchronous 

transfer orbit to enable performance of active chemical release 

experiments in ionosphere and 

magnetosphere. Spacecraft Octagonal satellite with two attached 

solar arrays and deployable magnetometer boom and 24 releasable 

canisters. Weight: 3,842 lbs. 

Objective: To place satellite into 

orbit to achieve Navy objectives. 

Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: To launch satellite. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: To place satellite into 

orbit to achieve Navy objectives. 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

33,612 

335 

591.9 

18.2 

20,665 

19,931 

722.7 

54.7 

35,859 

35,565 

1,432.2 

0.3 

20,378.0 

19,984.0 

717.9 

55.0 

Combined Release and 

Radiation Effects 

Satellite, joint 

NASNAir Force payload, launched atop first 

commercial Atlas 

launch vehicle. First 

canister released over 

South Pacifc Sept. 10. 

Crew consisted of 

Gennadiy Manakov and 

Gennadiy Strekalov. 

Docked with MIR space 

station. Crew returned 

Dec. 10 with Toyohiro 

Akiyama, Japanese 

astronaut. Flight time: 

130 days, 20 hrs, 36 

min. 

Eighth navigation satellite. Global Positioning 

Satellite (GPS). 

Launched for British 

Satellite Broadcasting. 

Ninth in series of Block 

II operational NAVSTAR Global 

Positioning Satellites 

(GPS) launched by Air 

Force expendable 

launch vehicle. 

Operational system to 

be composed of 24 

satellites in six orbital 

planes. 

333 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Eauator P) 

Oct. 6 

Ulysses 

90B 

Oct. 6 Objective: To launch Ulysses 303.0 

Space Shuttle spacecrafr toward rendezvous with 280.0 

Discovery (STS-41) the sun. To investigate interstellar 90.2 

90A space and the sun. Spacecraft: 28.4 

Shuttle orbiter canying spacerraft 

with Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) 

booster and Payload Assist 

Module (PAM-5) with additional 

experiments: Chromosome and 

Plant Cell Division in Space 

Experiment (CHROMEX-2), 

Solid Surface Combustion 

Experiment (SSCE), Shuttle Solar 

Backscatter Ultra-violet (SSBUV) 

Instrument, Intelsat Solar Array 

Coupon (ISAC) experiment, 

Physiological Systems Experiment 

(PSE), Investigations into Polymer 

Membrane Processing (IPMP), 

Voice Command System (VCS), 

and Radiation Monitoring 

Equipment-ID. Weight of experiments: 1,671 lbs. 

Thirty-sixth flight of 

Space Transportation 

System (STS). 

Piloted by Richard N. 

Richards and Robert D. 

Cabana. Mission specialists Bruce E. 

Melnick, William M. 

Shepherd, and Thomas 

D. Akers. Discovery 

launched from KSC at 

7:47 a.m. EDT. Shuttle 

landed at Edwards AFB, 

CA, at 957 a.m. EDT 

on Oct. 10. 

Mission duration: 4 

days, 2 hrs, 10 min, 54 

seconds. 

Objective: To investigate proper- Heliocenties of solar wind, structure of tric orbit. 

sun/wind interface, heliospheric 

magnetic field, solar radio bursts 

and plasma waves, solar x-rays, 

solar and galactic cosmic rays, 

and interstellar interplanetary 

neutral gas and dust. Spacecraft: 

Spin-stabilized main bus, 10.5 

x10.8x6.9 ft, 5.4 ft in diameter, 

parabolic high-gain antenna 

attached to main bus. After 

release from Shuttle payload 

bay, spacecraft will deploy 18.2 

ft radial boom, 238 ft dipole 

wire boom, and 26.2 ft agial 

boom. Booms serve as antennas 

for radio wave-plasma experiment. Power source is radioisotope thermoelectric generator 

(RTG) attached to main bus. 

Weight, including Inertial Upper 

Stage (IUS) booster and Payload 

Assist Module (PAM-5): 44,024 

lbs. 

Deployed by space 

Shuttle Discovery. 

Ulysses is a joint mission conducted by 

European Space Agency 

and NASA. Ulysses will 

encounter Jupiter in 

Feb. 1992, when spacecraft will receive gravity 

assisted velocity 

increase, enabling it to 

dive downward and 

away from ecliptic 

plane. Spacecraft will 

reach 70" south solar 

latitude in Jun. 1994. 

334 
APPENDIX A ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Launch Date (GMT), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (g) 

Nov. 13 

95A 

Titan 4 

USA-65 

Nov. 15 

Space Shuttle 

Atlantis 

97A 

(STS-38) 

Nov. 15 

97B 

USA-67 

Nov. 26 

103A 

Delta I1 

USA-66 

Dec. 1 

105A 

Atlas E 

USA-68 

Objective: Development of space- Not 

flighttechniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: To launch classified 221.0 

DoD payload. Spacecraft Shuttle 215.0 

orbiter canykg classified DoD 88.6 

payloadcatgo. Weight: Not 28.4 

announced. 

Objective: Development of space Not 

flight techniques and technology. announced 

Spacecraft Not announced. 

Objective: To place Navy satellite 

in orbit to achieve mission objectives. Spacecraft: Not announced. 

Objective: Development of space 

flight techniques and technology. 

Spacecraft Not announced 

20,279.0 

19,935.0 

714.8 

54.8 

845.0 

729.0 

100.6 

98.9 

Achieved orbit. 

Thirty-seventh flight of 

Space Transportation 

System. Piloted by 

Richard 0. Covey and 

Frank L. Culberston, Jr. 

Mission specialists 

Charles "Sam" Gemar, 

Robert C. Springer, and 

Carl J. Meade. Atlantis 

launched from KSC at 

6:48 p.m. EDT. Shuttle 

landed at KSC at 4:43 

p.m. EST on Nov. 20. 

First KSC Shuttle landing since 1985. Mission 

duration: 4 days, 21 hrs, 

and 55 min. 

Launched from Shuttle 

Atlantis. 

Tenth spacecraft in 

series of operational 

NAVSTAR Global 

Positioning Satellites 

(GPS). 

One in series of Defense 

Meteorological 

Satellites. 

335 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDM A 

Launch Date (Gh%T), Apogee and 

Spacecraft Name, Perigee (km), 

COSPAR Mission Objectives, Period (min.) 

Designation, Spacecraft Data Inclination to Remarks 

Launch Vehicle Equator (9 

Dec. 2 

USSR 

SOYUZ TM-11 

1990-107A 

Dec. 2 

Space Shuttle 

Columbia (STS-35) 

106A 

Objective: To cany ASTRO-1 

astrophysical observatory into 

orbit and return to Earth. 

Spacecraft Shuttle orbiter 

Columbia carrying ASTRO-1 to 

cargo bay. ASTRO-1 to provide 

around-the-clock observations and 

measurements of ultraviolet radiation from celestial objects. 

Instruments include the ultraviolet 

astronomy observatory (ASTRO), 

Broad Band X-Ray Telescope 

(BBm), Hopkins Ultraviolet 

Telescope (HUT), Wisconsin 

Ultraviolet Photopolarimeter 

Experiment (WIJPPE), and 

Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope 

(UIT). Weight: 27,454 Ibs. 

Crew consisted of 

Viktor Afanasyev and 

Musa Manarov. Docked 

with MIR space station. 

Toyohiro Akiyama 

returned Dec. 10 with 

previous MIR crew of 

Gennadiy Manakov and 

Gennadiy Strekalov. 

Flight time: 7 days, 21 

hrs, 55 min. 

363.0 Thuty-eighth flight of 

350.0 Space Transportation 

91.7 System (STS). Piloted 

28.5 by Vance D. Brand and 

Guy S. Gardner. 

Mission specialists 

Jeffrey A. Hoffman, 

John M. "Mike" 

Lounge, and Robert A. 

R. Parker. Payload specialists Samuel T. 

Durance and Ronald A. 

Parise. Columbia 

launched from KSC at 

1:49 a.m. EST. Shuttle 

landed at Edwards AFB, 

CA, at 12:54 a.m. EST 

on Dec. 1 1. Mission 

duration: 8 days, 23 hrs, 

5 min. 

336 
Appendix B 

ABBREVIATIONS OF REFERENCES 

331 

APPENDIX B ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Listed here are the abbreviations used for citing sources in the text. Not all the sources are listed, 

only those that are abbreviated. 

Aero Space Rep .................... .Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

AFP ............................. .Agence France Presse 

AP .............................. .Associated Press new service 

ARC Release ...................... .NASA Ames Research Center news release 

AvWk ............................ Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine 

B Sun ............................ .Baltimore Sun newspaper 

Bus Wk ........................... .Business Week magazine 

C Trib 

CSM ................ 

D News ........................... .Detroit News newspaper 

................. .Chicago Tribune newspaper 

Christian Science Monitor newspaper 

............. .Defense News 

................ .Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Chinese 

number 

FBIS-Eas ................. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Eastern 

Europe number 

FBIS-Lat ............. .... .Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Latin 

American number 

FBIS-Nes ......................... .Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Near East 

number 

FBIS-sov ...... ............. .Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Soviet 

............. .Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Western 

number 

FBIS- Weu 

Europe number 

Fla Today ......................... .Florida Today newspaper 

GSFC Release ......... 

H Chron .......................... .Houston Chronicle newspaper 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center news release 

H Post ............................ .Houston Post newspaper 

Htsvl Tms 

JPL Voyager Status Report ............ .NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Voyager Status 

............. .Huntsville Times newspaper 

Report 

release 

JSC Release .......... ......... .NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center news 

LA Herald 

LA Star News ...................... .Los Angeles Star News newsaper 

LA Times ....... 

............. .Los Angeles Herald-Examiner newspaper 

............. .Los Angeles Times newspaper 

339 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENJXX B 

LRC Release ....................... .Langley Research Center news release 

.... .Miami News newspaper 

MSFC Release . . .... .NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center 

news release 

NASA anno ....................... .NASA announcement 

NASA DAR ....................... .NASA Daily Activities Report 

NASAMOR ... . .NASA Headquarters Mission Operations Report, 

preliminary launch and postlaunch report series 

NASA Post-Flight Operations Report 

NASA Release ..................... .NASA Headquarters news release 

NASA spl anno ..................... .NASA special announcement 

Nat Sp Trans Sys .. .National Space Transportation Critical Items List 

NY Times ....................... .New York Times newspaper 

0 Sen Star ...................... .Orlando Sentinel Star newspaper 

P Inq .......................... .Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper 

.. .Reuters Press Agency 

SF Chron ........................ San Francisco Chronicle newspaper 

SP News .......................... Space Propulsion newsletter 

SSR ............................. .NASA Satellite Situation Report 

.. .Toronto Star newspaper 

. .United Press International news service 

USA Today ...................... .USA Today newspaper 

W Post ........................ Washington Post newspaper 

W Times ........................ .Washington Times newspaper 

WH Release . . .. .White House news release 

WSJ ............................. .Wall Street Journal newspaper 

340 
5 1-E Flight Readiness Review (FRR), 44 

5 1 -L Data and Design Analysis Task Force, 2 1, 29 

Abrahamson, James A., 15 

ADEOS, 274 

ADP, 133 

Advanced Fighter Technology Integration F-113 aircraft, 125 

Advanced Launch System (ALS), 148 

Advanced Microelectronics Program, 96 

advanced short takeoff and vertical landing (ASTOVL) aircraft, 12 

Advanced Stirling Conversion System, 78 

Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, 243 

Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), 147, 186 

Aero-Space Plane, 80, 89, 96, 127, 188,221 

Aerojet Solid Propulsion Company, 20, 125 

Aerojet TechSystem Corporation, 42 

aerospace plane, 3 1,42,44, 214, 246, 266 

Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, 77 

Air Force, 5-7,9, 19, 27, 30, 32, 33, 38,41,45-47, 54, 57, 63, 64,70, 73, 81, 83, 95- 

95,98, 103, 104, 111, 119, 122, 125, 133, 135, 139, 143, 148, 153, 163, 165, 

169. 177, 179, 187, 189-192, 199, 199,205-208,215,216,219,227,228,231, 

232, 235-239,244, 247, 254-256, 258, 259, 263, 267, 269, 274, 277, 280, 281, 

283,285,288,290 

Air Force Weapons Laboratory, 6 

Airborne Arctic Stratospheric Expedition, 259 

Alaska SAR Facility, 161 

Aldrich, Arnold D., 12, 25, 79, 255 

Aldridge, Edward, 38,47,57 

Aldrin, Edwin E. Jr., 224 

Alexandrov, Alexander, 122, 144 

Alice Springs, 96, 109, 142 

Allen, Joseph P., 90 

Allen, Lew, 15,69,95, 96, 107,271, 272, 288 

Aller, Robert O., 224 

Amazon Basin, 41 

American Geophysical Union, 41 

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 64,67, 148,265 

Ames Research Center, 6, 20,22, 52,80, 100-103, 109, 115, 117-119, 123, 137, 141, 

Airbus A-310,216 

34 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

156, 162, 180, 187,200, 199,223,239,257,262,267-269,273,286 

Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, 48, 88, 104, 122, 125,259,263, 287 

Amstrup, Steven, 20 

Antarctic Ozone Project, 130 

Apollo, 30,35,49, 52, 64, 73,76,77, 101, 102, 161, 224, 233,240,243,244, 266 

Apollo 204 Capsule, 266 

Apollo Command/Service Module Program, 76 

Arabsat- 1,3 

Ariane, 42,45,46, 73, 81,85, 130, 161, 167, 172, 182, 190, 199, 204,207,211, 219, 

223,227,229,246,254,261,273 

Ariane 3, 130,161,182,190,223 

Ariane 4, 199,207,219,227,229,246 

Arizona, University of, 135 

Armed Services Committee, 54 

Armstrong, Neil A., 224 

artificial clouds, 34 

Aryan rocket, 3 

Ascension Island, 78 

AsiaSat 1, 261 

Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communications, 4 

Asteroid Belt, 176 

asteroids, 27,41,44, 180, 265 

Astro UV telescope, 17 

astronauts, 5, 7, 29, 30,32,43, 51, 56, 62, 65, 81,95, 95, 98, 115, 117, 128, 138, 

Astrotech, 26 

ATDRSS, 243 

Atlantic Ocean, 9,29,42, 54, 76, 99, 153,254 

Atlantic Research Corporation of Alexandria, 125 

Atlantis, 4, 19,54, 81, 130, 197, 199,214,215, 231-233, 235,236,248, 249, 252- 

255,258,269,272,273,286,287,288 

Atlas Centaur, 25, 37,75, 105, 121, 150 

Atlas Centaur 67 Investigation Board, 105 

Atlas-Agena, 177 

Atlas-E, 63,70, 153, 191 

Atlas-E booster rocket, 63 

Atlas-E rocket, 70, 153 

Atmospheric Sciences Division, 110 

Auburn University, 123 

Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), 18 1 

Baikonur, 114, 122, 142, 175, 180, 187, 190, 198, 199,217,238,240 

Baker, Ellen S., 236 

ASTRO-1, 13, 134, 163,290,296 

169, 175,213,223,224,231,233,240,244,247,248,259,266,286-288 

ATLAS-1,163 

342 
EWEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Baker, Wayne, 8 

Bagian, James, 209 

Ballhaus, William E, Jr., 223 

Banks, Peter, 112 

Barnes, Richard, 81 

Bartoe, John-David, 119 

Bauer, Siegfried J., 150 

Bassett, Charles, 30 

Beggs, James M., 6, 12, 15 

Bell Aerospace Textron, 42 

Bell Telephone Laboratories, 22 

Bendix Field Engineering Corporation, 97 

Bensimon, Marc, 295 

Big Bang, 95, 185,237,238,245,285 

Bionetics Corporation, 110 

Bishop, Peter, 274 

Black Brant Ix's, 129 

Black Brant X, 34 

Black, David C., 102, 

Blagov, Vitor, 105 

Blaha, John, 238 

Bloch, Erich, 48 

Boeing 147, 102, 156 

Boeing Aerospace, 14,40,60, 68, 143, 296 

Boeing Aerospace Company, 40,68, 143 

Bogess, Albert, 24 

Boland, Edward P., 41,96, 163 

Bollinger, John, 56 

Bondar. Roberta, 246 

Borman, Frank, 15 

Bosh, Amanda, 176 

Boynton, William V., 135 

Bracken, Richard E., 11 1 

Brazil, 41,42, 110, 129 

British Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), 149 

Breton, Jacques, 267 

Brown, June Gibbs, 155 

Brown, Laurie, 82 

Brown, Robert, 14 

Buran, 198 

Burrows, William E., 90 

Bush, George, 208, 211, 212,215,219, 221,223, 224, 247, 251, 253, 257,261, 271, 

272,28 1,284 

Busse, Jon R., 105, 114 

343 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

C-143 aircraft, 6,29, 111, 137, 162, 167,200 

C-17 transport plane, 70 

Callis, Linwood B., 77 

Calspan Corporation, 82 

Canada, 26,33, 34,70,98, 101, 123, 169, 175, 181, 185 

Canadian Ministry of State for Science and Technology, 141 

Canadian Mobile Servicing Center, 40 

Cape Canaveral, 7,9,22, 24, 25, 33, 37,41, 63, 67, 73, 81, 86, 104, 105, 115, 131, 

254,258,262,266,267,269,273,274,277,278,284,286,287,288,290 

153, 179, 189, 198, 199, 208,215,219, 220, 228,231, 232, 236, 239, 244, 252- 

Case Western Reserve University, 123 

Castor IVA booster, 127 

CAT Scans, 43 

Centaur Upper Stage, 19,47, 82 

Centaur-G upper stage, 4 

Centennial Contractors, 295 

Center for Advanced Space Propulsion, 123 

Center for Astrophysical Sciences, 7 

Center for Commercial Development of Space Power, 123 

Center for Secretion Research, 123 

Center for Space Microelectronics Technology, 96, 179 

Center for the Commercial Development of Autonomous and Man-Controlled 

Robotic Sensing System in Space, 123 

Center on Materials for Space Structures, 123 

Centre National dEtudes Spatiales, 51, 104, 267 

Centre National dEtudes Spatiales Jacques-Louis Lions, 104 

cerebrospinal fluid, 55 

Chaffee, Roger, 30 

Challenger, 6,9, 11-17, 19, 21-23, 25, 26, 29-37, 39,40,42-47,49, 51-54, 56,60, 

62,64,65,67,68,71,73-75, 77-82, 86, 89, 95,95, 98,99, 114, 115, 118, 120, 

215,227,231,239,244,248,255,266,282,283,288,290 

122-124, 126, 138, 141, 142, 147, 149-151, 160, 165, 190, 192,208,211-213, 

Chang-Diaz, Franklin, 236 

Charlesworth, Clifford E., 76 

Chemical Manufacturers Association, 123 

China, 45,46,65,96, 138, 189,251,255,261 

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), 162, 203 

Chretien, Jean-Loup, 199, 1100 

Chu, C.W., 56 

Civil Space Technology Initiative, 80 

Clarkson University, 56 

Clinical Practice Library of Medicine (CPLM), 256 

CLUSTER, 101, 167, 189,205,240,284 

Cohen, Aaron, 73, 108 

344 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Colladay, Raymond S., 19, 148 

Collins, Michael, 102,224 

Columbia, MD, 3,7, 267 

Columbia University, 64, 208,209 

Colvin, Bill, 39 

Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES), 273 

Comet Austin, 263 

Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby, 109, 135 

Comet Wilson, 101, 103 

Cometary Ice and Dust Experiment (CIDEX), 109 

Commercial Crystal Growth in Space, 56 

Commercial Development of Space, 56, 113, 122, 123,258 

Commercial Experiment Transporter, 268 

Commercial Middeck Augmentation Module, 258, 296 

Committee on Science and Technology, 32,45,54,74,79 

Computer Aided Remote Driving, 270 

Computer Sciences Corporation, 89, 104, 133 

Compton, Dale L., 239 

Conestoga rocket, 68 

Congress, 16,27,33,38,39,44,47,54-57,67,70,74,96, 95,99, 112, 127, 139, 

148, 154, 162, 163, 165, 168, 187, 197, 197, 208, 211,213, 247, 251, 253, 255, 

259,287 

Congressional Budget Office, 22 

Conrail, 54 

Construction Technology Laboratory, 43 

Contel Federal Systems, 268 

control/structures interaction technology, 68 

Convolvotron, 289 

Cook, James, 215 

Cornell University, 229 

Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), 95, 134,237, 285 

Cosmonauts, 23,31,37,98, 108, 114, 122, 143, 144, 172, 187, 189, 197, 1100,214, 

Cosmos 2000,205 

COSMOS 2021,216 

Cosmos-1891, 126 

COSPAS/SARSAT, 69,70,99 

Council of the Royal Astronomical Society, 24 

Covey, Richard O., 95, 192 

Cowan, Bill, 248 

Cray X-MF', 45 

Cray Y-MP, 187 

Crew Escape, 53, 138, 167 

Crippen, Robert L., 79, 11 3 

231,240,253,290 

345 
ASTRONAWCS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Critical Velocity Effect Theory, 34 

Crossfield, A. Scott, 219 

Cryogenic Propellants, 30 

CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope, 109 

Culbertson, Philip E., 143 

Cyclone launch vehicle, 205 

Danforth, John, 54 

Data Relay Satellite-C (TDRS-C), 192 

Deep Black, 90 

Deep Space Network (DSN), 97, 109, 180, 182 

Defense Equipment Collaboration, 12 

Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS), 215 

Delta, 25, 37,44,48, 51, 55,67,75, 95, 95, 99, 104, 127, 129, 134, 135, 150, 153, 

154, 179, 190,205,208,219,228,235-237,239,244,245,252,253,258,267, 

273,274,277,278,286,288 

Delta Star, 208, 235 

Dellums, Ronald, 282 

DeLucas, Lawrence J., 280 

Department of Defense, 12, 16, 26,33,47, 52,68, 74, 80, 86, 88, 89,96, 104, 127, 

130, 133, 148, 153, 155, 159, 179, 187, 189, 197, 199,205,214,215,219,221, 

227,231,238,266,273,296 

Design and Data Analysis Task Force, 15 

Development Motor-9 (DM-9), 142 

Differential Microwave Radiometer, 245 

Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment, 245 

Discovery, 6, 7, 19, 23, 55, 83, 110, 120, 122, 138, 140, 141, 148, 149, 164, 167, 

168, 178, 179, 181-183, 185, 186, 190, 192,204,205,207,209,220,227-229, 

233,237-240,248,262,263,272,282,284,285,290,296 

DM-8, 127, 128 

Dole, Elizabeth, 62 

Donahue, Thomas, 112 

Downey, James, 214 

Dunham, Edward, 176 

Dunning, John, 89 

Dynamic Explorer (DE), 15 1 

Dyncorp, 295,296 

EAA International Fly-In Convention, 53 

Earth and Planetary Exploration Division, 73, 97 

Earth Observation Mission, 4 

Earth Observation Satellite Company, 86 

Earth Observations Commercialization Applications Program, 295 

Earth Observing System (EOS), 247,279 

DSP-5R, 139 

E-ERS 1, 161 

346 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Earth Radiation Budget Experiment, 59 

Earth Resources Satellite (ERS-l), 151 

Earth System Sciences Committee, 48 

Earth-return vehicles, 156 

Edleson, Burton I., 99 

Educational Affairs Division, 14 

Edwards Air Force Base, 7,9, 27, 143, 192, 199,207,215,227, 236,238, 244,255, 

EG&G Florida, Inc., 89, 148 

Electra, 25,41, 110, 274 

electro-optic devices, 40 

Elliot, James, 176 

Engle, Joe H., 83 

Entering Space, 90 

Environmental Reactions Induced by Comets (ERIC), 151 

Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, 123 

Environmental Science Service Administration (ESSA), 119 

ERS-1 satellite, 8 

ESA, 7, 17,59, 81,96,101, 107, 134, 149, 161, 164, 167, 172, 182, 190, 199,207, 

escape systems, 138 

Estess, Roy S., 102 

European Remote Sensing Satellite, 7 

European Space Agency, 5, 7, 17, 19, 21-23,40, 60,73,79, 81, 82,98, 101, 107, 

European Space Agency's Arianespace company, 19 

European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (EUTELSAT), 13 1 

Executive Technical Committee, 63 

External Fuel Tank, 11, 269 

Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, 135, 257 

Fairchild Space Company, 69 

Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer, 245 

Federal Aviation Administration, 3,74, 216,282 

Federal Express, 67 

Federal Republic of Germany, 17, 165,253 

Fmarelli, Margaret G., 279 

Fisk, Leonard A., 99 

Fisherr, William J., 273 

fixed-wing aircraft, 62 

Flatow, Fred, 99 

Fleet Satellite Communication, 26 

256,259,263,281,285,288,290 

EGB-6,203 

211,219,223,227,246 

134, 137, 149, 161, 172, 175, 181, 185, 199,204,229,237,246,254,284,296 

EUTELSAT-2, 13 1 

F-14,269,210 

341 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Fletcer, James, 20, 46 

Fletcher, James C., 15, 36,37, 39,41,42,44,46,48, 52, 53,55, 56, 60, 62,67,70, 

141, 144, 151, 154, 159, 160, 168, 171, 178,197, 198,207,208,210,211 

74, 80, 86, 88, 90, 96,95, 97, 102, 104, 107, 114, 115, 120, 126-128, 137, 139, 

Flexible Spacecraft, 68 

Flight Readiness Firing (FRF), 178, 186 

FLTSATCOM communications satellite, F-7, 86 

Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, 80 

Fly-In Convention and Sport Aviation Exhibition, 53, 121 

Forward-swept-wing X-29 aircraft, 122 

Free-flying platforms, 32 

Freeman, Theodore, 30 

Freedom program, 200, 1 100,207,2 16,22 1,265 

Freedom Star, 64 

French Guiana, 42, 130, 161, 172, 182, 190, 199,204, 207,211, 219, 223, 227, 246, 

254,273 

Fujii, Kozo, 156 

Gagarin, Yuri, 99 

Galileo, 3, 13, 19,47, 82,96, 107, 134, 141, 162,231-233, 235-237, 252, 287,288, 

295,296 

Gamma Ray Imaging Telescope, 62 

Gamma Ray Observatory, 86, 163, 187,248 

Gam, Jake, 96, 169 

Garriott, Owen K., 45 

GE F-112 engine, 71 

Gemini, 13 1 

GenCorp, Inc., 213 

General Dynamics Convair, 25 

General Dynamics Corporation, 6, 62, 75, 120, 134, 150,246, 273 

Geodynamic Experimental Ocean Satellite, 87 

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-H), 98 

Geosynchronous Earth Orbits, 14 

Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites, 25 

Geotail, 244 

Gibson, Robert “Hoot”, 165 

Gibson, Robert L., 130, 199,271 

Gillam, Isaac T., 113, 127 

Ginga (Astro-C), 11 1 

GiovaneUi, Ricardo, 229 

Giotto, 5, 17,21-24, 128 

Givens, Edward, 30 

Global Geoscience System, 80 

Global Geospace Science (GGS) Wind and Polar missions, 199 

G-STAR, 190 

348 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Global Outpost, 247 

Goldberger, Marvin, 96 

Goddard, Robert H., 24 

Goddard Space Flight Center, 6,8,24,25,76,87, 101, 104, 105, 109, 111, 113, 117, 

119, 125, 129, 151, 181, 190,197, 197,198,243,257,262,265,274,295 

GOES (geostationary operational environmental satellites), 134 

GOES-6,99,204 

GOES-7,99,204 

GOES-NEXT, 277 

Goetz, Robert C., 76 

Golombek, Matthew, 82 

Gorbachev, Mikhail, 173 

Gore, Albert, 36, 88, 139 

Graham, William R., 6, 12, 13, 16, 19, 22, 39, 76 

Gramm-Rudman Law, 40,279 

Great Wall, 237 

Gregory, Frederick, 238 

Grey, Jerry, 265 

Griggs, David S., 220 

Grissom, Virgil, 30 

Ground Tracking Stations, 78 

Gmmman Corporation, 269 

H-1, 151, 228, 231 

H-2,257 

Hain-Min Ku, William, 64 

Hall, Asaph, 164 

Halley's Comet, 4-7, 13, 16, 21,23, 24, 31, 149,290 

Harris, Allan, 41 

Hardy, George B., 53 

Hauck, Frederick H., 69,95, 192 

Harvard University, 38, 123 

Haynes, Martha, 229 

Haynes, Norman R., 95 

Headquarters Replanning Task Force, 19 

Heath, Donald, 76 

Herbolsheimer, Lawrence F., 47, 12 

Hercules Aerospace Company's Aerospace division of Salt Lake City, 125 

Hermes, 73, 138 

Herschel Medal, 24 

Hewlett-Packard, 22 

Hicks, Donald A., 12 

High Alpha, 80 

Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control, 48, 88 

Hilmers, David C., 95, 192 

349 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Hinners, Noel W., 119, 197,214 

Hipparcos 1,229 

Hook, W. Ray, 63 

Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope project, 186 

Horizon I, 191 

House Appropriations Subcommittee, 39,41, 163 

House Joint Resolution 559, 165 

House of Representatives, 44,45, 74,79 

House Science and Technology Committee, 74 

Hubble Optical Systems Board of Investigation, 288 

Hubble Space Telescope, 4,33,60, 83, 87, 103, 134, 163, 187, 197,262,265-269, 

Hughes Aircraft Company, 38,46, 104 

Hughes Danbury Optical Systems, 271,289 

Human Performance Research Laboratory, 262 

Human Space Flight Alternatives, 227 

IBM, 54 

Imaging Systems Laboratory of Florida Atlantic University, 283 

Industrial Space Facility (ISF), 154 

Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), 19,64,82,215,235 

Inspector General Act, 35 

Inspector of the Royal Moroccan Air Force, 95 

Institute for Space and Astronautical Studies (ISAS), 17 

Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, 41 

Integrated System Preliminary Design Review, 295 

Intelligent Physics Tutor, 289 

Intelsat 6, 126,268,269 

Intelsat V, 42 

Inter-Agency Consultative Group (IACG), 16 

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), 153, 212 

Intercosmos Council, 17 

International Cometary Explorer, 17 

International Halley Watch, 17 

International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project, 117 

International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP), 167 

International Sun-Earth Explorers ISEE- 1, 129 

International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, 126 

International Ultraviolet Explorer, 24, 99, 110, 149 

lraq, 239,287 

271, 272, 277-279, 284,285,287, 289-296 

ISEE-2, 129 

J-ERS 1, 161 

Jackson and Tull, 265 

Jacobs Engineering Group, 76 

Jemison, Mae, 233 

350 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Japan, 5, 17, 21,24,40,45,64,79,98, 151, 161, 164, 173, 175, 181,207,219, 221, 

Japanese Experiment Module (EM), 173,207 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4, 27,44,69,73, 87,95, 96, 97, 103105, 107, 109, 126, 

231,244-246,255,257,261,274,289,290 

130, 131, 148, 159, 161, 171, 172, 179, 182, 198, 220,221, 223, 227,228,235, 

243,259,270272,274,286,288 

Johns Hopkins University, 7,263 

Johnson Engineering Corporation, 64 

Johnson Space Center, 15,49, 51,55, 59, 70,73,76, 77,89, 105, 108, 115, 129, 132, 

Jones, Ross M., 148 

Jupiter-C, 152 

Keller, Samuel W., 216 

Kelly, William R., 76 

Kennedy, Carver, 143 

Kennedy Space Center, 4, 5,7,9,29,30, 51,52, 54, 61,63,67,68, 85, 89, 102, 115, 

133, 147, 161, 191,224,231,243,247,257,289 

149, 151, 156, 161, 165, 173, 178, 179, 181, 185, 186, 190-197, 198,200, 199, 

207,215,224,227,232,235,238,244,245,253,256,263,288 

Kerrebrock, Jack, 54 

Kingsbury, James E., 28, 31,79 

Klineberg, John M., 115 

Kofoed, Karen, 4 

Kohrs, Richard H., 79 

Koopman Express, 235 

Kopernikus, 219 

Kress, Martin P., 255 

Krick, Irving P., 21 

Kukkonen, Carl, 96 

Kuiper Airborne Observatory, 6, 29, 111, 137, 162, 176,200 

Kvant space module, 108 

Kvant-2, 238 

Kyl, Jon, 282 

Lacrosse radar reconnaissance satellite, 199 

Lamer, Richard P., 95 

Landing safety, 53, 148 

Landsat, 86, 100, 109,219 

Langley Research Center, 115, 130,258,266,283,289 

Large Magellanic Cloud, 99, 103, 109, 111 

Latham, Donald, 33 

Launch abort, 53 

Launch Complex 17B, 104 

Laveikin, Alexander, 98, 114 

LE-7 engine, 257 

KH-11,33 

351 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Lee, Gentry, 277 

Lenoir, William B., 216 

Levine, Elissa, 85 

Lew Evans Foundation, 143 

Lewis, Tom, 165 

Lewis Research Center, 35, 70, 78, 115, 172, 197, 261 

Liberty Star, 64 

LIDAR, 8 

Lilly, Simon J., 168 

Lockheed Corporation, 213 

Lockheed Space Operations Company, 68, 102,279 

Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), 163,244 

Lovell, Robert, 99 

Lounge, John M., 95, 192 

Louviere, AI, 5 1 

Lovingood, Judson A., 12,83 

Low Power Atmospheric Compensation, 252 

Lucas, William R., 53 

Lucis, Shannon, 236 

Lujan, Manuel, 144 

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, 59 

Lust, Reimer, 73 

Lyman, Peter T., 68 

Magellan, 4, 82,96, 134, 162, 172, 197, 215,243, 277-279,281, 286,296 

Magnetic field, 8, 81, 82, 129, 167, 182, 183, 200, 199,205, 236,244, 273 

Mahon, Joseph B., 113,279 

maintenance safeguards, 53 

Man-Tended Free Flyer (MTFF), 164 

Management Study Group, 88, 101, 119 

Manarov, Musakhi, 143 

Markey, Edward, 41 

Marine Corps, 34,64,215,296 

Mark III Hypercube parallel supercomputer, 179 

Mars, 4,27, 80,96, 98, 99, 102-105, 126, 131, 132, 142, 155, 156, 164, 168, 173, 

180, 190,204,206,209,211,224,236,245-247,252,255,257,259,261,262, 

267,279,282,284,287,296 

Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter, 4 

Mars Observer, 4, 27,96, 103, 190, 204,279 

Mars Observer Mission, 27, 103 

Marsh, James, 87 

Marshall Problem Assessment Center, 82 

Marshall Space Flight Center, 28, 35, 37,45,52,53, 55,59, 77, 79,81,82, 89, 115, 

117, 121, 122, 125,128,155, 160, 182, 189, 1100,211,212,214,223,224, 

252,271,290 

352 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Martin Marietta Corporation, 52,67, 111, 120, 126, 131, 150,213,266,267,269, 

274 

Mashat, Ali, 3 

Mason and Hanger Services, Inc., 283 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 176 

McAuliffe, Christa, 30, 160 

McBride, John A., 12 

McBride, Jon, 214 

McCandless, Bruce, 282 

McCartney, Forrest S., 63, 151 

McCartney, John P., 83 

McCulley, Michael J., 236, 279 

McDonald, Allan, 39,47 

McDonnell Douglas, 25, 48, 60, 67,75, 85, 95, 105, 120, 129, 131, 134, 143, 150, 

McDonnell Douglas' Space Manufacturing Initiatives, 13 1 

McKinnon, William, 2 17 

McNair, Ronald, 30 

153, 179, 186, 190,220,246,255,266,271 

MD-95, 153 

MD-96,153 

Mechanical Technical, Inc., 78 

Mercury Conference, 59 

Mendillo, Michael, 152 

Microburst, 74 

Microdevices Laboratory, 96 

microelectronics, 55, 96, 179 

microgravity, 24, 34, 39, 59, 68, 87, 113, 118, 131, 155, 164,207, 209, 246, 274, 

279,289 

microprocessor, 55 

Midgetman, 216 

Midwest Express Airline, 3 

Military, 3, 14, 19, 22, 26,27,44,47, 54, 57,60, 63, 71,76,80, 96, 117, 118, 121, 

122, 130, 134, 135, 138, 139, 148, 156, 160, 171, 189,213,215,219,227,228, 

235,237,239, 246-248,253-255,258,268,273,277,288 

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M), 87 

Minuteman 3 ICBM, 64 

Mir, 15, 23, 37, 98,99, 105, 108, 114, 122, 142-144, 172, 175, 187, 189, 190, 197, 

199, 1100,211,214,221,231,238,240,253,255 

Mission Adaptive Wing (MAW), 125 

Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate, 104 

Mitterand, FranGois, 199 

Mobile Remote Manipulator System, 24 

Mobile Servicing Center, 26,40 

Model 700 Infrared Temperature Taking System, 289 

353 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Molecular Beam Epitaxy, 56 

Moon, 27, 38,43, 64,75, 102-104, 126, 155, 162, 164, 168,200,204,206,209,212, 

221,223,224,233,235,236,239,240,245-247,252,257,259,261,273,274, 

280,282,284,287,296 

139, 142-144, 147, 149, 155, 160, 163, 168, 169, 171, 175, 177, 186,203,206, 

213 

Morton Thiokol, 13-16,21,23, 39,43,44,47,75, 86, 88, 95,99, 115, 125, 127, 128, 

Moser, Thomas L., 15, 77, 200, 216 

Moss, Frank, 20 

Mueller, Ivan, 56 

Mullane, Richard M., 130, 199, 253 

Mulloy, Larry, 16 

Mulroney, Brian, 26 

Multiple Access Communications Satellites (MACSATs), 265 

Mumma, Michael, 6 

Murphy, John E, 123 

Musgrave, F. Story, 238 

Myers, Dale D., 76,79, 118, 131,212 

NASADndustry Advanced Turboprop Team, 172 

National Aero-Space Plane, 80,96, 127, 188,221 

National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex, 119, 141 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 5,48,98, 173 

National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO), 182, 199 

National Science Foundation, 48, 102, 182, 186 

National Science Teachers Association, 43 

National Scientific Balloon Facility, 54, 75 

National Space Council (NSC), 81 

National Space Technology Laboratories, 43, 102, 129, 185 

National Transonic Facility, 121 

National Transportation Safety Board, 3 

Naval Space Command, 15 

NAVSTAR, 38, 159,205,206,219,228,236,239,258,277,288 

Navy Bureau of Ordinance, 38 

Navy Remote Ocean Sensing Satellite System Scatterometer (NROSS), 8 

Nedelin, Mitrofan I., 212 

Nelson, Bill, 5 

Nelson, George ‘‘Pinky’’, 2 19 

Neptune, 89, 103, 126, 182, 198, 220, 223, 227-229, 235,239,254 

New Zealand, 29, 111, 123, 137,200,262 

Nicogossian, Amauld E., 108 

Nike-Black Brant V, 129 

NIMBUS-7,76,273,285 

NOAA-10,70,191 

Nordic communications satellite, 21 1 

354 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

North American Aircraft, 76 

Northern Lights, 8 1 

Novick, R., 64 

Nozzle Joint Environment Simulator (NJES), 170 

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, 43 

Nuclear Reactors, 32 

Nuclear Safety Review Panel, 20, 88 

Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS), 96, 102, 121, 187 

Numerical Aerodynamics Simulation Facility, 156, 180 

Oberg, James, 23 

Oberle, Frank, 141 

Observer, 4, 27, 96, 103, 190, 204,205,279 

Odom, James B., 121, 160,200,216 

Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, 118, 131, 135, 148,210,255 

Office of Commercial Programs, 47,68, 118, 127,268,278 

Office of Exploration, 117, 178, 198, 255 

Office of Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance, 52 

Office of Space Science, 4,73,97, 108, 110, 118, 119, 159,197 

Office of Space Science and Applications, 4, 108, 110, 118, 159 

Office of Space Station, 88, 1100 

Official Flight Kit, 64 

Ohio State University, 56 

Oliver, Bernard M., 22 

Onizuka, Ellison, 30, 160 

Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS), 181 

Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV), 48, 83, 259,267 

Orbital Sciences, 27, 255, 258, 261, 271 

Orbiter Project Office, 77 

O-rings, 13, 15, 21-23, 26,29, 31,42, 47, 61,79 

Orion, 11 8,296 

Outdoor Aerodynamics Research Facility, 119 

Overmyer, Robert F., 34 

Owen K. Garriott, 45 

Ozone Layer, 76,77, 130, 162,203,236,274 

Pacific Engineering & Production Company, 171 

Pacific Ocean, 64,99, 114, 126, 159, 162, 176,216,261 

Paine, Thomas O., 15,54 

Palapa-B2P, 104 

Parkes Radio Observatory, 103 

Payload Ground Operations, 61,85 

Payload integration, 83, 173 

Payload/Cargo Processing, 85 

OV-107, 165,215 

355 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Payloads, 19,23,24,26,32,40,45,47,53,57,61,63,67,74,80,83,95,95, 118, 

131, 134, 137, 138, 150, 161, 162, 164, 179, 187, 192, 223, 224, 247,248, 258, 

261,280,281,288,296 

Pedersen, Kenneth S., 69, 199,279 

Pegasus, 259,261,271 

Pellerin, Charles, 278 

Pennsylvania State University, 64, 123 

Pentagon, 27, 31, 38,41,57, 88,98, 134, 138, 142, 172, 208, 288 

Peralta, Manuel, 155, 156,203 

Perkin-Elmer Corporation, 289 

Perry, Sir David, 12 

Peterson, Victor L., 257 

Phase B, 24, 26, 36,38, 39, 59, 63, 117 

Phase I, 77, 103, 143,285 

Phase 11,77, 87, 143, 251,288 

Phobos, 164, 180, 190,204,206,209,236 

Phillips, Samuel C., 49, 98 

Pike, John, 245 

Pioneer 10, 176 

Pioneer 11, 176,254 

Pioneer 9, 101 

Pioneer-Venus, 17 

Pioneering the Space Frontier, 54 

Planetary Rover Navigation Test Bed Vehicle, 259 

Planetary Systems Branch, 6 

Plasma Physics Laboratory, 19, 59 

Pluto, 176, 217,254, 284 

Plutonium, 20,41, 23 1, 232 

Pohl, Henry O., 76 

Polyakov, Valery, 187 

Polyvinylchloride, 5 1 

Prahl, Joseph, 280 

Prather, Michael J., 262 

Pratt & Whitney, 6 1, 266 

Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, 11, 29, 37,43, 

52,53, 62, 79 

Press, Frank, 112 

Preston, Robert, 109 

Princeton University, 19,38,238 

Production Verification Motor-1 (PVM-l), 177, 186 

Professorship of Energy Resources, 37 

Project Pathfinder, 155 

Propellant, 29, 34,43, 54, 163, 171, 172, 177, 191 

Propfan Test Assessment (PTA), 114, 121, 163 

356 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Proxmire, William, 127 

Pulse-Code Modulation, 22 

Putty, 23, 26,29, 31, 33 

Qualification Motor-6 (QM-6), 169 

Qualification Motor-7 (QM-7), 177 

Quayle, Dan, 22 1, 224, 245, 265, 272, 277 

Radar Tracking, 22, 154 

Rai, Man Rohan, 180 

Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, 38 

Rand Corporation, 6 

Raven Industries, 54 

RCA, 5,7,27,86 

Real Time Satellite Mapping, 56 

Reconnaissance Satellite, 33, 96, 189, 199, 227, 258 

Redmond, Charles, 164 

Relay Mirror Experiment, 252 

Remote Manipulator Arm, 24 

Remote Sensing, 7, 34,43, 85, 113, 208, 295 

Remote-Controlled Robot, 11 

Resnik, Judith, 30, 160 

Richards, Sue Mathis, 262 

Ride, Sally K., 62, 115, 117, 126 

Robins, Jr., C. Howard, 203 

Rocketdyne, 51, 129, 143,220,224 

Rockwell International, 16, 69, 76, 123, 124, 129, 134, 135, 143, 165, 197, 206, 224, 

Rockwell, Willard, 26 

Rodney, George A., 52 

Roentgen Satellite, 135,284 

Roentgen, Wilhelm, 267 

Rogers Commission, 47,49, 53, 73, 74, 120 

Rogers, William P., 12, 44, 53 

Romanenko,Yuri, 98, 108, 114, 143, 144, 172, 175 

ROSAT, 253,267,284 

Rose, James T., 131, 137 

Rosen, Robert, 210 

Ross, Jerry L., 130, 199 

Ross, Lawrence, 44 

Round Trip to Orbit, 227 

Rutan, Burt, 69 

Rutan Voyager, 69 

Sacco, Albert, 280 

Safety Advisory Board, 13 

QM-8,203 

243,246,261,266,271 

357 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Safety Issue Assessment Center, 82 

Sagan, Carl, 54,98 

Sakigake (Pioneer), 17 

Salyut-7 Space Station, 15 

Satcom, 5 

Saturn, 38,52, 160, 220,221, 223, 224, 228, 233,239, 254,280,288,296 

Schmitt, Harrison, 15 

Science and Engineering Directorate, 28, 31, 82, 1100 

Scobee, Francis R., 30, 160 

Scout, 81, 164, 165, 169, 170, 177, 187, 199,265 

Sea Satellite, 87 

Seals, 12, 13, 20-22,26, 30, 33, 54, 122,286 

Search and Rescue Satellite (SARSAT), 53 

Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking satellite (SARSAT), 70 

Search and Rescue Satellite System, 80 

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), 22 

See, Elliott, 30 

Semi-Autonomous Navigation, 270 

Semiconductor Crystal Growth, 34,40 

Senate Appropriations Committee, 40, 70 

Serebrov, Alexander A., 231 

Shapley, Willis H., 101 

Shelly, Carl B., 68 

Shepherd, William M., 130, 199 

Sherry, Edwin, 243 

Shoemaker, Eugene, 41 

Short-Takeoff and Landing Aircraft (V/STOL), 141 

Shuttle Imaging Radar-C, 8 

Shuttle-C, 135, 212,251, 256,257 

Sieck, Robert B., 12 

Silicon Graphics, 268 

Skylab Task Force, 52 

SL-12 Proton, 96 

Slay, Alton D., 96 

Slayton, Donald K., 113 

Slidell Computer Complex, 89, 182 

Slivan, Steve, 176 

Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR), 77, 87,251,285,288 

Smith, Michael, 30,56 

Smith, Peter G., 251 

Smith, Richard, 63 

Smith, Richard G., 52 

SN-l1007a, 137 

Sneed, Bill, 214 

358 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Software Support Environment, 120 

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), 101, 167 

Solar Max Mission (SMM), 110 

Solar Maximum (Solar Max), 239 

Solar Spectroscopy, 119 

Solar System Exploration Joint Working Group, 286 

Solid Fuel Rocket Booster, 11 

SolidRocketMotor, 11,37,54,75, 107, 117, 122, 125, 127, 134, 139, 142, 149, 

Sounding Rockets, 34,59, 129,263,273 

Soviet Space Research Institute, 31, 164 

Soviet Union, 5, 8, 15, 17,21-24, 31, 33,37,46, 64, 69, 70, 80, 85,96-99, 101, 105, 

155, 168-170, 175, 177, 178, 182, 186, 189,203,213,263 

108-109, 114, 122, 126, 131, 133-134, 138, 141-142, 144, 150, 152-153, 156, 

164, 171-173, 175, 180, 187, 189-190, 198,204,205,209,211-212,214,216- 

217, 221, 231-233,236-238, 240,246, 253-255, 261, 267, 271-274,283-284, 

286,290 

SOYUZ TM-8,23 1 

Space Automation and Robotics, 56 

Space General Corporation, 38 

Space Goals Task Force, 102 

Space Industries Company, 71 

Space Infrared Telescope Facility, 87, 187 

Space Policy and Commercial Space Initiative to Begin the Next Century, 154 

Space Science Board, National Academy of Sciences, 112 

Space Science Student Involvement Program (SSIP), 43 

Space Services, 34,68, 113, 143,209 

Space Shuttle Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM), 168, 175, 182,213 

Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), 156 

Space Shuttle Commission, 12 

Space Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), 148 

Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor (SRM), 75, 134,203 

Space Station, 3, 15, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 32, 36, 38-42, 44,48, 49, 52,55,56, 59-63, 

68, 70, 73-75, 77, 81, 83, 86, 88, 89, 95, 97-99, 102, 105, 107, 108, 110, 112- 

114, 119-122, 125, 127-129, 133, 135, 137-144,147, 154, 159, 160,164, 169, 

171-173, 175, 176, 180, 181, 187, 189, 190, 197, 197-200, 1100,203, 207,208, 

211,212,213, 214, 216,221, 224, 227, 231, 238, 240, 243,244, 247,248, 251- 

253,256,257,259,265,272,274,277,279,281,282,284,285,287,295 

Space Station Freedom Program, 200, 1100,216,221,265 

Space Systems Development Agreement, 186 

Space Telescope Science Institute, 60, 185, 186 

Space Tug, 48,267 

Space-borne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C), 133 

Spacecraft Encapsulation Facility (SAEF-2), 197 

SPACEHAB, 7,52, 186,295 

359 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Spacelab, 32, 37,45,65, 83, 85, 163, 223,233,246, 248, 252, 279 

Spacenet III Geostar R01, 161 

Spaceplane Hermes, 73 

Spain, 5, 160 

Spartan UV telescope, 17 

Spartan-Halley spacecraft, 64 

Speaks, Larry, 57 

Sport Aviation Exhibition, 53, 121 

SPOT, 86,220,246,290 

Springer, Robert C., 296 

SR-71 Blackbird, 256 

Sriharikota, 106, 181 

Stanford University, 6, 31, 115 

Star Find satellites, 11 3 

Star Wars, 32,282 

START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), 258 

Steering, 3,40, 64, 147,278 

Sterling Federal Systems, Inc., 269 

Stirling engine, 78 

Stirling Technology Company, 78 

Stofan,Andrew J., 48,63, 139, 154, 160 

Stottlemeyer, David L., 251 

Strategic Air Command, 86 

Strategic Defense Initiative, 26, 32, 88, 142, 150, 153, 208,227,238, 248, 252,265, 

Structural Mechanics Branch, 45 

ST-6,220 

282 

STS-26, 129, 143, 148, 149, 160, 161, 178-180, 185, 190-192 

STS-27, 130, 197, 199 

STS-28, 143,207,209,216,227,245 

STS-31,262 

STS-33,220,238 

STS-35, 163,290 

STS-38,288 

STS-51A, 69 

STS-7,69 

Student Newspaper Competition, 43 

Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications, 5, 32, 33, 159, 252 

Suisei (Comet), 17 

Sullivan, Kathryn, 54 

Sultan bin Salman, 122 

super computer, 45 

Superbud-A communications satellite, 219 

Supercomputer, 53, 80,96, 102, 121, 156, 179, 180, 187, 188 

360 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Sutter, Joseph F., 77 

Sverdrup Technology, 52 

SYNCOM IV, 296 

Synthetic Aperture Radar, 47, 133, 151, 161, 177, 179 

Szalai, Kenneth J., 287 

Tanner, E. Ray, 83, 1100 

Tanner, Ray, 83, 1100,221 

Taurus, 34,220,271 

Taurus-Nike-Tomahawk, 34 

Teacher in Space Program, 13,44 

Technology Utilization Foundation, 289 

Teflon, 51 

Telecom lC, 161 

Teledyne Brown Engineering, 252 

Teresat, Inc., 46, 96 

Tesch, Gary L., 185 

Texas A&M Research Foundation, 123 

Thermal Control, 26 

Thermal Infrared Radiometer Experiment (TIREX), 109 

Thomas, John W., 37,77, 122,214 

Thompson, James R., 19,25,31,59,223 

Titan, 33, 37, 38,43,47, 51, 63,67, 96, 98, 103, 111, 126, 135, 139, 150, 189, 190, 

Titov, Vladimir, 143, 172, 197, 1100 

T-38, 30,216, 271 

TELE-X, 211 

197,215,219,221,231,247,258,267,269,281,283,287,288 

TM-2,98 

TM-3, 122, 144 

TM-4, 142 

TM-7, 199,214 

TOMSMeteor-3,274 

TopexPoseidon, 51, 104, 105 

Topography Experiment for Ocean Circulation, 8 

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), 273,285 

Townsend, Jr., John W., 119 

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), 19,42, 78,249 

Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, 14 

Trinh, Eugene H., 280 

Transmitter, 20,209,274 

Transpace Carriers, Inc., 62,75 

Trident 1, 153 

Trident II, 208 

Trident submarine, 70 

Triton, 103,228,235,239 

361 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Truly, Richard H., 15,21, 27,35, 37,45,47,54,79,95, 105, 114, 119, 122, 123, 

TRW, 36,42,48, 186,265,267 

U.S. Deep Space Network, 5 

U.S. Department of Energy, 76 

US.-Italian Tethered Satellite System (TSS-I), 107 

Ulysses, 13, 19,47, 82, 96, 107, 134, 163, 247, 248, 284, 290,296 

UM675,287 

UNISTICK control system, 64 

United Kingdom, 12,24 

United Nations (U.N.), 150 

United Technologies, 43, 80, 125, 135,224, 246,266 

United Technologies Chemical System Division, 125 

University of Alabama, 40, 182 

University of Arizona, 6, 59 

University of Coloraddenter for Bioserve Space Technologies, 123 

University of Denver, 123 

University of Hawaii, 168 

University of Houston, 46, 56, 274 

University of Illinois, 11 

University of London, 24 

University of Maryland, 113 

University of New Hampshire, 99 

University of South Carolina, 4 

University of Tennessee, 123 

University of Utah, 20 

University of Washington, 123, 219 

University of Wisconsin, 56 

Uranus, 8,89,220,223,228 

Utah, 20,75,96, 115, 125, 128, 142, 144, 147, 155, 163, 169, 177, 186 

Utsman, Thomas E., 243 

Vandenberg Air Force Base, 19,30, 33,41,46, 57, 63,70, 98, 119, 135, 153, 169, 

Van Hoften, James, 46 

Vega, 5, 17,21, 22, 24, 31 

Venus, 4, 5, 17, 82, 101, 103, 134, 141, 162, 172, 199, 215, 235, 237, 243,252, 277, 

279,281,286,287,296 

Venus Radar Mapper, 4,215 

Vertical Lift, 62, 71 

Vertical Motion Simulator, 121 

Vertical Stacking, 29 

Very Large Array (VLA), 182, 185 

Very Long Baseline Interferometry, 73,109 

137, 177, 191,211,216,223,239 

UGC-7396,229 

177, 187, 189, 191,199,216,235,237,247,254,283 

362 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Vibrating Analyzer, 20 

Video Harp, 289 

Viktorenko, Alexander S., 122,231 

Vortex breakdown, 156, 157 

Voyager 2 Spacecraft, 8, 182, 198Wallops Island, 68, 109, 113, 118, 142, 151,200 

Watson, Robert T., 262 

Weather Satellite, 37,63,68,70,99, 181, 189, 191, 231 

Weaver, Harold, 6 

Weitz, Paul J., 76, 89 

Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 7 1 

Wet Countdown Demonstration Test (WCDT), 185 

White 11, Edward H., 30 

White House, 11, 12, 45,47,57, 60-62,74, 76, 86, 120, 154, 181,211,232,245, 

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 76 

White Sands Missile Range, 63, 209,263 

Whitford, William K., 37 

Wilcox, William, 56 

Wilkening, Laurel, 54 

Williams, Clifton, 30 

Williams, Donald E., 236, 254 

Wilson, R., 24 

Wind and Cloud No. 1, 189 

WindTunnels, 80, 118, 119, 121, 141, 286 

Wright Memorial Trophy, 77 

Wyle Laboratories’ Scientific Services & Systems Group, 128 

X-29 program, 269 

X-30 flight vehicle, 127 

X-30 National Aerospace Plane, 246 

X-band synthetic aperture radar (X-SAR), 133 

X-ray Astrophysics Facility, 80, 83, 86, 147, 186 

X-ray spectrometer, 155 

X-ray telescope, 63, 187, 197,267,281,290 

X-Wing Rotor Systems Research Aircraft, 62 

Yeager, Jeana, 69 

Young, Donald, 20 

Young, John W., 108, 123 

Young, Leslie, 176 

Young, Wayne R., 76 

Zaragoza Air Base, 160 

Zenit booster, 284 

246,25 1,258,272,279,295 

X-SAR, 133 

363 

About the Compilers 

Ihor Y. Gawdiak, a senior research analyst at the Library of Congress Federal 

Research Division, has done extensive research and written numerous government studies on Soviet and East European political and military topics. 

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, he has continued to research and write 

primarily on political and military developments in the Newly Independent 

States. He is the author of the “Nationalities and Religions” chapter in the 

Soviet Union: A Country Study and editor of Czechoslovakia: A Country 

Study, both published by the Department of the Army as part of its Country 

Studies/Area Handbook Program. In addition, he is the author of the NASA 

Historical Data Book, Volume n/: NASA Resources 1969-1978. He is also the 

editor of Ukraine: A Country Study and The Czech Republic: A Country Study, 

both of which are are scheduled for publication at a later date. Mr. Gawdiak 

received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in International Relations from Clark 

University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has completed all requirements 

and is working on his dissertation in the doctoral program in Russian History 

at the University of Maryland. 

Ramdn J. Mird was a Latin American research analyst at the Library of 

Congress Federal Research division from 1992 to 1996. He has a B.A. in 

Political Science from the University of Florida and an M.A. in Latin 

American Studies from Georgetown University. He resigned from the Library 

of Congress in 1996 to accept a fellowship for a doctoral program in Latin 

American Studies at Georgetown. 

Sam Stueland has been a research analyst at the Library of Congress Federal 

Research Division since 1992 where he has worked on a number of different 

projects. Prior to joining the Library of Congress, Mr. Stueland was a 

researcher at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of American History, 

Department of History of Science and Technology. He graduated Summa Cum 

Laude in American History from Gallaudet University in 1991. He has published articles in “Technology and Culture” and “Railroad History.” 

365 

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