Letter from Marc Maderazzo, expressing grave doubts about Willits's idea of using ground-based laser power for the space station, including the observation that Willits doesn't count the cost of the laser stations in his cost estimates.
Letter from Bill Norton, on program management, citing the SSC and DC-X as examples: "...continued debate and challenges well into program execution are counterproductive..."
Mir crew rotation postponed from Nov to Jan to save money, reportedly.
Endeavour will be moved from pad A to pad B at KSC, since pad A can't be cleaned of sand in time to meet the Hubble-repair schedule.
Compromise DoD authorization includes $2.6G for BMDO, $802M for combined early-warning programs (with DoD told to sort out its priorities; the funding is $240M less than the sum of the requests for the individual programs), and reduction of NASP to a $40M technology program.
Orbital Sciences, Litton Itek, and GDE Systems combine to push a commercial imaging satellite, Eyeglass, with 1m resolution. This has added fuel to the debate over US government restrictions on commercial hi-res imaging satellites. A further complication is a proposal to open the CIA image archives for commercial purchases, opposed by commercial suppliers as unfair competition for a not-yet-established industry.
Euroconsult suggests that Russia will have trouble meeting its commitments in space and launch projects due to funding shortages and personnel losses.
Arianespace prepares to launch Solidaridad 1 [Mexican comsat] and Meteosat 6 [European weather satellite]. Once M6 is in position, ESA will move Meteosat 5 to a Western-Hemisphere position for loan to the US, replacing the aging Meteosat 3 in that role.
Meanwhile, GOES-I, the bird intended to resume US Clarke-orbit weather coverage, is in final tests.
Short editorial discussing reliability of the space-station partners. The sincerity of the Russians is not at issue, but their ability to deliver is. "Yet it is the US that is probably the more apt to renege on the deal..."
[Another light week.]
Belief is no substitute | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology for arithmetic. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry