Jun 24 1998
From The Space Library
U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) and ranking Representative George F. Brown Jr. (D-CA) submitted a letter to President William J. Clinton requesting that he supply a plan within 30 days, "detailing how the [a]dministration expects to resolve the dire problems surrounding the International Space Station." The two members of Congress asked President Clinton to intervene with President Boris N. Yeltsin to "ensure full Russian compliance with its stated commitments to the space station." In the aftermath of the announcement of the independent Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force's findings on the ISS, the members of Congress were attempting to rectify the inadequate budget submission. They asked the President to "direct the Office of Management and Budget to deliver a workable plan to Congress ... so that the relevant [c]ongressional committees can consider OMB numbers when crafting NASA appropriations and authorization bills."
At a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology, NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin defended NASA's purpose and role in the ISS project. Representative Nicholas V. Lampson (D-TX) advised Goldin that cost overruns and Russia's failure to meet its agreement had caused some lawmakers to propose cancelling the space station. Goldin responded that canceling the ISS would cancel human spaceflight, relegate the United States to second-class power status, and have international repercussions. Lawmakers at the hearing asked Goldin to furnish NASA's proposal to overcome the problems associated with the ISS, providing estimates of the amount necessary to complete the project. Goldin refused to give specifics until NASA had evaluated several plans and calculated the cost of the alternative plans, including contingency plans in the event Russia could not meet its commitment.
Controllers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) sent routine commands to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to maneuver the satellite. Instead of responding correctly, SOHO suddenly went into emergency Sun reacquisition mode (ESR), "activated when an anomaly occurs and the spacecraft loses its orientation toward the Sun." Consequently, NASA lost all communication with the satellite, along with the ability to track it. SOHO's mission was to track "major solar activity that may induce power outages and interfere with radio, TV, and other signals from space." The mission was particularly important because of the anticipated Solar Maximum, expected to occur during the year 2000. During the Solar Maximum, a phenomenon that peaks every 11 years, the Sun emits intense radiation capable of scrambling signals from communications satellites and causing power failures, as well as brilliant auroras. The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA had launched SOHO in December 1995, as a joint mission. In April 1998, the spacecraft had successfully completed its initial two-year mission to study the Sun's atmosphere, surface, and interior.
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