[Aviation Week & Space Technology subscription address is 1221 Ave. of the Americas, New York NY 10020 USA. Rates depend on whether you're "qualified" or not, which basically means whether you look at the ads for cruise missiles out of curiosity, or out of genuine commercial or military interest. Best write for a "qualification card" and try to get the cheap rate. US rate is $72 qualified, higher for unqualified. It's weekly, it's thicker than Time or Newsweek, and most of it has nothing to do with space, so consider whether the price is worth it to you.]
NASA's new Moon/Mars head, Michael Griffin, is making waves, shedding most of the old "exploration" brass and talking about moving quickly to *launch*, rather than study, relatively cheap high-visibility mission(s) to demonstrate that Moon/Mars exploration can get results without spending billions a year.
UARS results start to come in; the WINDII instrument (a joint Canada-France effort) is getting measurements of atmospheric density at 80km, almost impossible by any other means.
Inmarsat officials say they are serious about considering Proton launches for Inmarsat birds. They think the US will lift its paranoid restrictions on shipping "munitions", e.g. satellites, to the USSR for launch, possibly in time for Inmarsat's third generation (slated to go up starting 1994).
OSC sounding-rocket launch for SDIO is successful Oct 14. [Good news, since OSC has had some embarrassing sounding-rocket failures of late.]
USAF weather-satellite mosaic image of North America at night, showing major urban growth in some areas since a similar 1984 mosaic.
Truly asks Quayle to put White House support behind NASP.
Shuttle officials aim at 15% cost reduction in operations over the next five years, eliminating unnecessary test procedures and trimming manpower, subject to safety constraints.
Three industry teams prepare for battle over Thaad, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense system, aimed at producing a portable missile battery that can intercept incoming tactical missiles much higher up and farther away than Patriot. The current notion is truck-based, but the Navy is interested in guiding the missiles with Aegis radars and perhaps even basing the missiles on ships, and the USAF has not entirely ruled out the idea of aircraft-carried Thaad missiles. The program is seen as having wide political support, since the Gulf War woke people up to the need.
NASA awards the final contract for Hubble's spectacles, COSTAR, to Ball Corp.
First HST image of Jupiter, a pretty good one.
ESA moves an Ariane 5 launch table with two mockup SRBs into position on the pad at Kourou for fit checks.
Fuss within the Soviet space program over the Energia Design Bureau's proposal for a huge (18 tons) Clarke-orbit communications platform. Supporters say it will help modernize the USSR's antiquated communications network, doing the work of dozens of smaller satellites. Opponents say it is a make-work project to justify continuance of the Energia booster. The opponents seem to have a case -- Energia's projection of satellite lifetime is rather long for Soviet spacecraft, and Energia has never built any major comsat. General opinion is that this (and other projects) are "totally unrealistic planning and marketing" by officials scrambling to keep their own little empires afloat.
SVR4: proving that quantity is | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology not a substitute for quality. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry