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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from Dec 17 AW&ST
Message-ID: <1991Jan16.043500.14220@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Date: Wed, 16 Jan 1991 04:35:00 GMT

Soviets running pad tests on a smaller variant of Energia, with a smaller
core and only two strap-ons, giving a payload to orbit of 40 tons rather
than 100.

Toyohiro Akiyama returns from being the first journalist in space [probably
much to his relief -- he was spacesick and hadn't really kicked his tobacco
habit].  TBS has no complaints about in-flight support, although they are
still unhappy about financial haggling with the Soviets.

McDonnell Douglas contracts for three Delta launches, with options for 12
more, for NASA science payloads.  Also included are pad modifications at
Vandenberg.

Administration endorses Augustine Committee report, asking NASA to respond
in about a month with an initial plan to implement its recommendations.
The committee will reconvene later this year to assess progress.  NASA has
no quarrel with most of the report, but is concerned about the committee's
recommendation to terminate orbiter production.  [And rightly so -- it's a
thoroughly dumb idea, if the shuttle fleet is to continue to be a significant
part of NASA planning.]  There is also doubt on how to proceed on the
recommendation that NASA pursue a heavy expendable booster.

Columbia and Astro land at Edwards, after a threat of bad weather cut the
mission short by one day.  135 out of 200 planned observation targets
actually got looked at, with extensive use of on-board control and ground
control to work around failing electronics.  The astronomers are pleased
with the results despite the difficulties.

NASA is playing down the calls for a massive shakeup of the space station,
perhaps partly because it is not sure how to proceed.  One problem is that
the Augustine Committee said that Fred's primary mission should be life
sciences, while Congress tends to back microgravity materials work more
strongly, and NASA has been trying to avoid assigning priorities.  There
have been no serious design changes in recent weeks other than a decision
to split the US lab module and the living quarters into two smaller modules
each.  No decision has yet been made on the fate of the truss, which most
everyone except McDonnell Douglas has recommended killing.  Lenoir warns
contractors that it's going to hurt.

One contentious area of Fred is the perennial lifeboat question.  The
Augustine committee strongly recommended doing it, but NASA so far has
failed to convince Congress to fund it.

Another hot spot is that the committee recommended putting a single NASA
center in charge of each major project, and taken literally this would
mean scrapping the station's paperwork HQ in Reston.

A further touchy point is a strong recommendation that NASA separate
development from operations, under separate associate administrators.
Lenoir currently runs both.

Battle brewing over radio spectrum:  the space between 1435 and 1530 MHz
is currently allocated entirely to aircraft/missile flight-test telemetry,
but several groups proposing CD-quality audio broadcasting from satellites
would like pieces of it.  The aviation people are violently opposed, saying
the band is intensively used and should not be sacrificed to "yet another
entertainment and advertising vehicle".  The FCC has already shot down the
broadcasters' contention that the two groups could share the frequencies,
saying this shows "fundamental misconceptions regarding the way in which
flight test operations are conducted".

More Magellan pictures.  The planetary scientists are also starting to
analyze the data Galileo got during its Venus encounter, which finally
got sent to Earth in the last few weeks.  There are strong hints that
Venus is still volcanically active.  Magellan is still experiencing
occasional minor upsets, but on the whole, mapping is going well.

NASA medical researchers report that injections of promethazine appear
to be very effective against spacesickness.  Astronauts injected with
it after the onset of symptoms on their first day are generally free of
severe symptoms very quickly and completely well by the end of the
second day.  Previous orally-administered drugs, notably scopolamine,
have not worked well; it is now thought that absorption of oral drugs
is unpredictable and generally poor.

Energia NPO, the organization that designs and develops most of the
Soviet Union's major space hardware, has assumed management responsibility
for commercial sales of manned spaceflight.  Glavcosmos formerly did this.
-- 
If the Space Shuttle was the answer,   | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
what was the question?                 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry