henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (05/01/89)
Aerospace plane project expects to declassify a lot of engine info as part of upcoming security review. Discovery [this is old news, obviously] will use one or more wastewater dumps to study dispersal of the clouds of ice crystals that result. Previous missions have flown through their own ice clouds several times. Theater military commanders express strong support for the new Asat program. Mark Albrecht, Senate staff member with defense background, named as staff head of National Space Council. There is concern that the Council will not have enough funding to operate effectively; OMB has granted only $150k this year. Employees at Italian Space Agency threaten strike over vagueness of employment terms and inability to get answers; "no one wants to make decisions". This is on top of controversy caused by a call for new astronaut candidates only weeks before final selection of an Italian payload specialist for the tethered-satellite shuttle mission in 1991; the announcement was extremely vague. SDI prepares to launch the Delta Star mission, which will use various sensors to observe sounding-rocket and satellite launches to gain more information about rocket plumes and the Earth background. At least one shuttle mission will be included in the list of "targets". Delta Star is also notable for going from drawing pad to launch in one year. General Dynamics arranges with European insurers to provide liability insurance for 15 Atlas launches. USAF Weapons Lab to build large high-resolution telescope for optical tracking and optical compensation research. Two other telescopes, already part of the "Starfire" optical range, will move to the same site near Albuquerque. The main telescope will be a 3.5m reflector, with mirror spin-cast by U of Arizona. U of A is happy about this because USAF financial support will permit improving facilities and speeding up delivery of other mirrors meant for astronomical telescopes. -- Mars in 1980s: USSR, 2 tries, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 2 failures; USA, 0 tries. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu