Thailand picks Hughes to build its first domestic comsats.
Gamma Ray Observatory burst/transient experiment is seeing gamma ray bursts at a rate of about five a week, roughly three times the previous best results.
Senators Cohen and Warner propose a deal with the Soviets on ABM systems: US defers development of space-based interceptors in return for a consensus on permissibility of a ground-based limited defense system.
NRC Space Studies Board endorses the importance of life-sciences work on the space station as a step toward future long-duration missions, but notes the lack of a dedicated life-sciences lab in current plans.
OSC review group attempting to determine why the first Prospector suborbital microgravity flight went off course and had to be destroyed shortly after liftoff June 18. The payload module separated before the destruct signal but sank before it could be recovered.
Soviets provide detailed interface information for their Glonass navsats to the US's Airline Electronic Engineering Committee, the intent being a joint specification for combined Navstar/Glonass receivers.
Galileo's Gaspra flyby will be done without benefit of the high-gain antenna even if it is freed first, because encounter planning must be done well in advance and Oct 29th is getting close. The current theory about the antenna problem is a combination of galling between standoff pins on the antenna ribs and their holes in the central post, and thermal expansion and contraction. As the metal central post cooled and shrank, some of the pins on the graphite ribs became stuck. As a further complication, the attempt to open the antenna bent the stuck ribs and rotated the pins so they are now binding against the bottom of the holes rather than the top. This would explain why warming the antenna didn't free it; cooling it is what's wanted. That might suffice, and it will be tried. Engineers are also looking at other ways of jiggling the ribs.
Synthesis Group outlines four possible schemes for space exploration, all leading to manned Mars landings in 2014-2016. All call for heavylift launchers, limited in-orbit assembly, nuclear space propulsion, and using the Moon as a testbed for Mars. Nuclear propulsion and a 250T launcher are cited as absolutely crucial, with nuclear thermal suggested for the former and Saturn V technology (notably the F-1 engine) for the latter. "The US used to own those technologies." Various others were cited as significant, as was streamlined management: "The Space Exploration Initiative is so great in scope that it cannot be executed in a `business as usual' manner and have any chance for success." One technology the report is skeptical about is aerobraking at 13 km/s or more in the poorly-known Mars atmosphere.
Arthritic bureaucracies don't tame new | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology frontiers. -Paul A. Gigot, WSJ, on NASA | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry