Rem@IMSSS (10/23/85)
According to an article in Science (journal of AAAS) earlier this month, the "Solwind" satellite shot down to test the anti-satellite weapon system wasn't really defunct as Casper Weinberger (Sec. of Defense) claimed, and the scientists who were processing data from it and have now lost the source of data are rather angry. The satellite had a device for taking pictures of the corona of the Sun, one of only two such devices in space, the other being on the Solar-Max which was recently repaired by the space shuttle. While the Solar-Max was out of commission prior to the repair, Solwind was the only such instrument. Furthermore, the device on he Solar-Max is inferior, giving little pieces of image that have to be patched together instead of a full image as Solwind gave before it was shot to bits. Furthermore, there was an advantage in having continuous longterm data from a consistent source rather than having to switch to a different instrument. Therefore a real loss occurred when Solwind was destroyed, and Casper Weinberger lied to us when he claimed tha ASAT test was conducted on a no-longer functional satellite. -------