[Okay, I'm back from assorted vacations and things...]
Recent Magellan radar images dash hopes that apparent surface changes seen near Stowe might be real; images taken in June from the same angle as the earliest images show no changes. The apparent changes must have been due to the difference in viewing angles from the first pass to the second, although there is some puzzlement about what sort of terrain could do this.
UARS is operational again. It is impossible to switch between the A and B drive systems for its solar array, but there appears to be no problem in running the A system in opposite directions for successive yaw maneuvers; the only impact is that the maneuvers will now take a full orbit each rather than a few minutes each. All instruments are operating again.
Rome Laboratory at Griffiss AFB, with SDIO funding, is examining ways of cleaning optics in orbit. Two promising methods have been identified: a liquid spray, which turns into gas plus snowflakes en route, and a low-energy ion beam that destroys organic films. Both have been tested in vacuum chambers, and the jet spray is slated for a space test in 1994.
Successful test of a new multi-mode seeker intended to improve Patriot's antimissile capability. [I tend to think of antimissile stuff as being marginally space-related, hence the mention here.]
France signs agreement with Russia for four future flights of French cosmonauts, roughly two years apart, details to be worked out.
Congress hits X-30 hard... House zeros NASA's X-30 budget for FY1993, Senate Appropriations subcommittee does same, full Senate Apps. committee expected to follow suit. This puts the funding onus on DoD, an idea that the House favors and the Senate opposes.
Senate Armed Services Committee quashes 1996 target for initial ground- based missile-interceptor deployment, replacing it with a "goal" of 2002 while clearly stating that field testing of interceptor prototypes is not yet authorized.
NASA [finally] starts to put some effort into ongoing quality control, starting a database on past performance of contractors. Goldin says, "NASA had a culture where if you launched it and everything worked, all was forgiven. Let me assure you the new NASA is not going to accept it." Also planned are precautions against "buy-in" tactics where contractors underbid to win a contract and then crank up the price, a shift of emphasis from telling contractors what to do to telling them what the results should be, and streamlining of the "mid-range" ($25k-500k) contracts so that a $100k contract will no longer need almost as much red tape as a $100M contract.
The Cour des Comptes, a French analog of the GAO, says the French TDF broadcastsat project is a commercial and technical failure that has cost the taxpayers Fr3.3G (circa $660M). The two satellites have both had serious technical problems, and the number of receivers is far below that of the commercial Astra project based in Luxembourg. The court's major criticism is of inept management of the TDF project.
Space station survives a House floor battle, again, with opponents basically fighting a rearguard action against apparent defeat. Critics still say it is too much money for not enough return, but it has built up a lot of momentum at a time when things are tough for the aerospace business otherwise. Congressman David Obey, a station opponent, notes that an absolute majority of congressmen have station contracts in their districts now.
Senate committee markup of FY93 DoD budget trims SDI to $4.3G, the same number proposed by the House, and kills NASP. Vote expected in August.
Inmarsat talks about introducing a global paging service that could reach airline passengers in flight. Various airlines are exploring uses of satellite communications for other purposes, e.g. a United effort to revise transoceanic flight routes in real time as weather information is updated, with transmission of proposed changes to traffic controllers by satellite data link. The biggest obstacle to such concepts is getting the traffic-control agencies connected to satellite communications.
There is nothing wrong with making | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry