1986

From The Space Library

Johnson Space Center Press Releases. (1MB PDF)

The Space Shuttle Challenger accident and the subsequent investigation and recovery activities headed the list of prominent events for NASA. Some major accomplishments, however, are worthy of note: Voyager 2 encountered the planet Uranus in January, continued with its journey and was expected to reach Neptune by 1989. A new baseline configuration was drafted for the Space Station-a major milestone for development. NASA and the Department of Defense initiated a joint Aero-Space Plane research pro-gram concerning vehicles capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, single-stage operations to orbital speeds, and sustained hypersonic cruise within the atmosphere using air breathing propulsion. NASA signed an agreement with the 3M Company for conducting 62 materials processing experiments aboard the Space Shuttle, and Dr. James C. Fletcher, for the second time, became Administrator of NASA.

Two books concerning NASA endeavors were published in 1986. Joseph P. Allen's Entering Space deals with an astronaut's journey into the last frontier, and William E. Burrows' Deep Black looks into space espionage and national security. (NASA Release 86-177)