[Okay, I'm back from vacation, and Lordy, are these summaries ever behind... I may start feeding in more current ones while I catch up with the backlog. This one's a light one.]
Shuttle management investigates after anonymous letter, signed "Thiokol engineer", alleges company coverup of problems with the SRB nozzle bearing. The allegations tentatively appear unfounded.
More on the Aug 30 Zenit failure: apparently the second stage blew up during or following second-stage ignition. This is significant because it means this failure does not affect the Energia strap-ons, which use only the first stage.
Full-page ad, facing one of the late-breaking-news columns, from OSC and Hercules: they got the National Medal of Technology from the White House for Pegasus.
New Ariane manifest calls for a total of 8 launches in 1991 and 9 in 1992.
As per Augustine, Lenoir's job is being split into two, development and operations (he will stay with the latter).
MM and the USAF looking at alternate Titan boosters in the wake of the failure of the new Hercules Titan SRB. MM is talking to UTC and Thiokol about solids and Aerojet about liquids, plus "other options" in house.
Soviet aerospace industry is hitting problems, as its most qualified people leave in search of better pay and working conditions. Baikonur in particular is a lousy place to live.
Discovery lands at Edwards after unsettled weather blocks the first planned night landing at KSC. Deployment of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite went reasonably well, after problems getting it to talk to the TDRS system before release were found to be procedural errors and not hardware failures. The separation maneuver after release was scaled down, giving a lower separation rate, to give Goddard controllers more time before losing the ability to relay through Discovery. Otherwise the mission went smoothly, except for a small maneuver during Day 4 to maintain adequate distance from an old Soviet rocket stage that passed nearby.
"Breakthrough ideas are not | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology from teams." -- Hans von Ohain | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry