Letter from Thomas F. Snyder, arguing that the GPS satellites could be made much more useful to aviation and other users if their semi-secret nuclear-explosion-detection piggyback payload were replaced by a digital store-and-forward communications system.
The first GOES-NEXT passes its thermal vacuum tests, earlier than expected. Its long-overdue launch is set for next year.
Lockheed wins contract for support services at KSC, replacing EG&G Florida. [This decision was challenged and the competition will be re-run.]
White House panel led by Aldridge urges development of son-of-NLS, now dubbed Spacelifter, to carry 20-50klb to low orbit at half current costs [originally ALS was going to be a tenth or less of current costs... we could get a factor of two just by streamlining operations on the existing boosters, I'd say...]. It should be available by 2000 and be man-rated so the shuttle can be phased out. The panel also urges naming of a "launch czar" to have authority over all civil and military launch capabilities, and immediate scrapping of ASRM.
The NASA management review team that hit Ames has concluded that the center is "high risk for hostile intelligence operations", while refusing to answer questions or go into detail. It says that while little formally classified information is handled at Ames, there is considerable carelessness in handling of proprietary information, and this has damaged prospects for cooperation with industry. The team does concede that the methods used in this investigation should not be used again.
Clementine 1, the SDIO/NASA sensor-test mission that will orbit the Moon and do an asteroid flyby, has passed its main design review, on schedule for Jan 1994 launch. The review was done by NRL, the spacecraft integrators. Total mission cost is $70-80M, including launch on a refurbished Titan II. Doing the sensor test as an Earth-orbit mission was investigated, but the total cost would have been higher due to the need to provide targets. There will be extensive use of relatively new technology, such as a complete inertial navigation system (gyros, accelerometers, and computer) weighing 600g. There was some attention to whether reliable hardware could be ready in time; the choice of a Titan rather than Pegasus launch was because there were worries about meeting schedules. Clementine will do global mapping of the Moon in multiple wavelengths plus laser altimetry, followed by a fast flyby of the near-Earth asteroid Geographos which should return several hundred images, some with a resolution of 1m or better. Studies for a followon mission are beginning.
US State Dept is pondering the United Arab Emirates' request to be allowed to buy a US spy satellite. So far, all they are asking for is to let Itek Optical study requirements and exchange data. (Itek has been in the spy-satellite business for a long time.) Currently it looks like the UAE request will be on hold until an interagency review of imaging- satellite policy is complete. Such inquiries have been seen before; none has ever been approved.
Hubble images of what is probably an accretion disk around a black hole at the core of galaxy NGC 4261. Astronomers hope that after the Hubble servicing mission in late 1993, they will be able to get spectrograms detailed enough to measure the black hole's mass by gas motions.
C++ is the best example of second-system| Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology effect since OS/360. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry