Apr 24 1987
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA reported that two techniques were being used to monitor the Supernova SN 1987a. In the first case, the Supernova was observed by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) located at Tidbinbilla, Australia, and connected by microwave with Australia's CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope 200 miles away.
Dr. Robert Preston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates the DSN for NASA, said that the second technique, called Very Long Baseline Interferometry, consisted of an even wider network of four antennas: Tidbinbilla, Parkes, a Landsat ground station in central Australia; and a 26-meter dish at Hobart on Tasmania, an island southeast of Australia.
The supernova, an exploding star whose emissions were just arriving on Earth at the time of this report, was detected in the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. It was about 163,000 light years from the Earth. Supernova 1987a was the first such detectable star explosion close to our own galaxy since 1604, (NASA Release 87-64)
NASA issued Requests for Proposals to U.S. industry for a detailed design and construction of a permanently habitable Space Station. The two options proposals were due by July 21, 1987. Option one was for a phased program calling for a permanently tended Space Station to be operational by 1996. Option two was the enhanced-capability Space Station configuration. (NASA Release 87-65; LA Times, Apr 25/87; NY Times, Apr 25/87)
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