NASDA and Rocket Systems Corp plan negotiations with Japan's fishermen's unions to try to widen the allowable launch windows at Tanegashima.
USAF and GD investigate the possibility of a minor hot-gas leak in the Feb 10 Atlas launch; some temperatures recorded in the engine section were higher than normal.
NASA seeking bids to modify VAB facilities for the ASRM, including alterations to High Bays 1 and 3 and the north door, and strengthening the 325-ton crane.
Consortium of Canadian phone companies, plus Spar, bids to buy the Canadian government's 53% share of Telesat Canada [which runs Canada's domestic satellites].
Muses-A is now in lunar orbit.
Japan's balloon-launched subscale spaceplane test is successful Feb 15.
Scramble to sort out NASA management after Truly's firing irritates ESA; "they've done it to us again". ESA sees, in particular, erosion of the space station's role in NASA plans, and are annoyed at not even being warned that changes were imminent.
SDIO looks at possibilities for missile-defence bases elsewhere than Grand Forks, the only base currently allowed under the ABM Treaty. Problem is, Grand Forks is simply the wrong location. SDIO thinks full limited-attack coverage of the US will require five bases (plus one each in Alaska and Hawaii), and Grand Forks is not in the right place for any of them. Congress is not ready for this... but SDIO has pulled a shrewd move in suggesting bases currently slated for closure, such as Loring AFB in Maine, as possible sites. SDIO needs decisions fast if it is to even come close to Congress's 1996 target date.
Truly appears before House subcommittee on space. He specifically asks that there be no questions about his departure, and this wish is (mostly) respected. He says NASA cannot continue all its current programs, let alone start new ones, without substantial further budget growth. Most existing programs, he says, are already at their minimum practical funding levels. Congress, on the other hand, would like to see some specific decisions from the administration on what programs are to be cut if budget growth does not continue... preferably not pet pork-barrel ones like ASRM, which are likely to get put back anyway.
Industry calls NASA's aeronautics-technology budget "woefully inadequate", and complains that projects like NASP are getting priority over things of much greater commercial relevance like new wind tunnels and transport- engine noise reduction.
Arianespace books first customer for its new modest-sized launch category, using the Spelda adaptor to carry one modest-sized bird underneath a larger one. It's Thaicom 1, formerly Thailandsat 1. There are some other reservations, but this is the first firm deal.
Arianespace prepares for first 1992 Ariane launch, postponed somewhat by problems with one of its payloads (Superbird B1 and Arabsat 1C, the latter having switched to Ariane from Long March).
Details of the Costar optics system that will be installed in Hubble, circa the end of 1993, to insert corrective mirrors into the paths of the three remaining axial instruments (Costar will replace the High- Speed Photometer). It's a tricky job, because there are tight size constraints at the business end, demanding requirements for stability and UV throughput (adding two extra mirrors to each light path will inevitably absorb some light), and the elaborate set of adjustable arms needed to provide for precise focusing for each separate light path. Costar will restore Hubble's imaging quality to about 80% of that originally intended, as opposed to perhaps 15% now. [A thought that occurred to me on this is that Costar looks to be custom-built for the current set of axial instruments to some extent. That's going to make life interesting when it comes time to exchange some of them for others, as is theoretically planned for late in the decade.]
ISDN, n: Incredibly Slow and Dumb | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology Networking | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry