Mar 12 1986
From The Space Library
Bernard M. Oliver, Chief of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) program at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, received the National Medal of Science from President Ronald Reagan. The award recognized his accomplishments while working for Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he helped establish standards for television transmission, worked on automatic radar tracking, and advocated pulse-code modulation for the telephone system; and his accomplishments at Hewlett-Packard, where he developed the first hand-held calculator with scientific functions and SETI, a program designed to search the stars for radio signals. (NASA Release 86-27)
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost $5 billion to both replace the Challenger Shuttle and build more expendable launch vehicles for carrying payloads into space. NASA had planned to make all of its satellite launches from an orbiter, but changed its position after the Challenger accident. The shift was welcome news to the rocket industry, even though the companies would need two years to get ready for launch inasmuch as the rocket program, with no crew assistance, had been all but replaced in the United States by the Shuttle program. (NY Times, Mar 13/86; W Post, Mar 13/86)
NASA and Morton Thiokol found new evidence suggesting that the putty used in joints of the solid rockets to protect the o-rings could have stiffened from the cold and prevented the o-ring from sealing. They also noted that the putty could have cracked and exposed the o-ring to hot gases. Adequate data measuring the effect of cold on the putty did not exist. Dr. William Graham notified the Presidential Commission of these findings. (WSJ, Mar 13/86)
Salvage crews reported that they might have located a key part of the booster rocket, suspected in the January 28 accident, 32 miles offshore at a depth of 650 feet. Embedded fully into the ocean's floor, the estimated 400-500 pound debris located near other wreckage was positively identified as parts from the right booster rocket. As engineers examined their most recent discovery, other teams recovered still more of the crew's cabin as well as additional remains and person-al affects. (W Times, Mar 13/86; NY Times, Mar 13/86; B Sun, Mar 13/86)
The former Soviet Union launched two veteran cosmonauts into orbit, scheduled to arrive at the Mir Space Station after two days. The launch, contrary to former Soviet practice, was both announced and televised. The launch, said James Oberg, author of several books about the Soviet space program, was done "with great propaganda benefit." In an effort to demonstrate their achievements, he stated further, "They have a greater self-confidence in their program [and] it helps concentrate world attention on the benign part of their space program." U.S. experts acknowledged that Soviet Space Station technology was years ahead of us and that the mission might well begin man's permanent occupation of space. (FBIS, Tass (Eng trans), Mar 12/86; B Sun, Mar 14/86; P Inq, Mar 14/86; W Times, Mar 14/86; NY Times, Mar 14/86; W Post, Mar 14/86; C Trib, Mar 14/86)
The European Space Agency's spacecraft Giotto encountered Halley’s Comet as it passed within 335 miles of the body's nucleus. The craft transmitted pictures of the comet every four seconds up until two seconds and 930 miles away, when its camera was damaged by dust particles traveling 50 times the speed of a bullet. These were the closest pictures by far taken of the Comet. Multinational scientists at the West German control center were jubilant about data gathered by sophisticated instruments. The mission was the most spectacular taken on by the European Space Agency, and the international cooperation among scientists was lauded by the media. (B Sun, Mar 14/86; NY Times, Mar 14/86; W Post, Mar 14/86; W Times, Mar 14/86)
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