Discovery STS-29 – Got a Perfect View

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While the two new projects would receive a significant amount of money to get started on their ambitious ways, and although there is a rise in mission operations and data analysis costs of $44.7 million within the Space Exploration funding plan, the $56-million reduction of Galileo development costs and the elimination of $43.1 million in costs once Magellan is launched lowers the overall planetary funding requirement to $396.9 million.

Space Applications, the final area of cost reductions, which includes Earth Sciences, Materials Processing, Space Communications and Information Systems, would be funded at $21.7 million less than in FY 1989. Every major category within the Space Applications funding arena will receive substantial funding increases with the exception of Space Communications which will be cut back to just $18.6 million in FY 1990 from its 1989 level of $92.2 million.

It appears as though the bottom line for the FY 1990 budget is making a statement for NASA. Only one percent of NASA’s budget request is going for new starts. Any major new programs in space must await completion of the Space Station, the budget philosophy implies. From America’s permanent place in space, NASA hopes to begin its major thrust into the solar system beginning less than a decade from today. This tactic may be a gamble, but one the agency is willing to take. (Countdown, April 1989)

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March 31: QUAYLE LAUNCHES NATIONAL SPACE COUNCIL WITH JSC VISIT
Vice President Dan Quayle visited JSC March 31 in his first official act as head of the newly re-established National Space Council. “I couldn’t think of a better place to begin than in the President’s hometown,” Quayle told reporters outside the Space station mockup in Building 9B. “I don’t profess to be an expert on space, but I can promise that I will be,” he said. Quayle was escorted by JSC Director Aaron Cohen and NASA Administrator James Fletcher as he toured the center. He also met privately with Rear Admiral Richard Truly, Associate Administrator for Spaceflight, and attended a round of management briefings.

James Odom, Associate Administrator for Space station and Dr. Lennard Fisk, Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, briefed the Vice President on the Space Station Freedom program and space science plans, respectively. The STS-30 crew also met Quayle and discussed its upcoming mission. Director of Mission Operations Gene Kranz escorted Quayle on a tour of the Mission Control Center and Flight Control Room 1. “I sat in the flight director’s seat,” Quayle told JSC employees later in the day. “And I want to tell you – we’re in good shape.”

Quayle dropped in on the lunch crowd in Building 11 cafeteria to grab a chopped barbecue sandwich and French fries. “President Bush told me three things I was going to love about Houston,” Quayle said, “the weather, the barbecue and the Johnson Space Center.” Quayle paused for a short press conference in Building 9B before touring the Space Station mockup with Clarke Covington, technical assistant to the director, as a guide. He spent several minutes with Dr. Carolyn Huntoon, Director of Space and Life Sciences, touring exhibits set up outside the mockup covering subjects ranging from orbital debris to studies of space adaptation syndrome to lunar bases. He was given several samples of candy packaged for spaceflight as souvenirs.

Quayle restated his commitment to the United States’ leadership role in space exploration and mentioned his recent pivotal work in obtaining emergency funding to keep the Landsat satellites operating. “Without my involvement, Landsat would’ve been shut down,” he said. He emphasized the 22-percent increase in NASA’s budget proposed by President Bush as an indication of the high regard the current administration has for the space program. “It would be nice to have more money, of course. But in these days of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, when all federal agencies are in constraints, a 22-percent increase shows definite positive support,” Quayle said. The Vice President said he will be involved in formulating policy regarding the privatization of space, and he emphasized the need for educational opportunities to ensure an abundant supply of qualified scientists and aerospace engineers. NASA will continue to be provided with “the best and brightest” in the years to come, he said.

During a series of demonstrations of space suits by astronauts Jim Bagian and Jerry Ross and engineer Susan Schentrup in Building 9A, Quayle was briefed by Henry Pohl, Director of Engineering. He then toured the Full Fuselage Trainer. Following his 9A and 9B visit, Quayle gave his 20-minute address to employees, who formed a line that twisted out of sight behind Building 1 as they entered Teague auditorium. The crowd of more than 800 constantly interrupted Quayle’s remarks with applause, and he was met with a standing ovation as he took stage. Quayle introduced himself as a native of Indiana.

“Back home, we Hoosiers were raised on the words ‘Gentlemen, start your engines,’” he said. “But the worlds has been raised on some more important words – ‘This is Mission Control, Houston.’ And after being here today, I can say those words stand for efficiency, dedication and success,” he said. Quayle said his three children, aged 14, 12 and 10, had uncharacteristically volunteered to accompany him on his trip. He was later presented with toy models of the shuttle to take back to them, as well as a full-size American flag flown on STS-29 presented by Fletcher.

“The future of the space program is more in your hands than in mine,” Quayle told employees. “And with people like yourselves, America will continue to lead the world in space exploration.” (JSC Space News Roundup, April 7. 1989)

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Happy Easter at KFC Headquarters – The Results of the STS-29 “Eggs-periment”

FIRST SPACE CHICK NAMED “KENTUCKY”
The world's first space chick spent Easter weekend being observed by scientists as part of an experiment aboard shuttle Discovery, an official for sponsor Kentucky Fried Chicken said Saturday. The 41.8 gram male chick, named Kentucky, broke through its shell at 8:29 Friday night at KFC headquarters less than a week after the historic five-day flight, said KFC Vice President Gregg Reynolds."All the chickens in the experiment appear to be normal through visual examination, but without further analysis any pertinent differences between space bound chickens and those on Earth are yet to be determined," Reynolds said. "They will live out their normal lifespan and will be observed throughout that period," he said. "The first space chicken, Kentucky, will be donated to the Louisville Zoo to be put on display later this year."

The chicks were part of an experiment conceived by Purdue University senior John Vellinger, sponsored by KFC and intended to measure the effects of embryo development. When space shuttle Discovery was launched March 13 it carried an incubator designed by Vellinger containing 32 chicken eggs, the KFC official said. A similar incubator with a control group of 321 eggs was kept on the ground during the mission. "The two groups of eggs and the chickens which emerged from those eggs will be studied at Purdue by Vellinger, who will graduate in December, and a team of scientific advisors from Tulane, Boston University and Purdue," Reynolds said. "Eventually, the team will issue a paper assessing the results of the pioneering effort." Vellinger's first experiment was lost aboard the ill-fated flight of the shuttle Challenger. (Deseret News, March 26, 1989)

SPACE CHICKS “LOOK HEALTHY”
Alan Silverman (VOA / Washington): One of the scientific experiments carried on the flight of Discovery earlier this month was the chicken embryo development in space project of John Vellinger, who is a senior in mechanical engineering at Purdue University. But he first developed this project when h was in high school in his hometown of Lafayette, Indiana. Right now he is at the headquarters of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Louisville, Kentucky, working on that experiment. John, just to back up a bit, it carried 32 fertilized chicken eggs into earth orbit… What did you do when you got those eggs back?

John Vellinger (KFC HQ / Louisville): Well, the hardware performed beautifully. None of the eggs were broken; none of the shells were cracked. The hardware provided the ideal temperatures and the ideal humidity. So the eggs were all in ideal condition when the Space Shuttle landed out at Edwards Air Force Base. And immediately upon landing, we examined half of the eggs right there at Edwards Air Force Base. And the remaining half we flew back to Kentucky Fried Chicken, to their corporate headquarters.

Silverman: Now, when we say Kentucky Fried Chicken, I should mention that that is your corporate sponsor.

Vellinger: Yes. We brought the chickens back here to be hatched at their corporate headquarters to be able to see what was going to happen when the actual chicken hatched out. And we monitored as far as the actual hatch of the first-ever space chicks here from their corporate headquarters.

Silverman: Now that happened. I understand the first one hatched on Saturday, and a couple of others have hatched since then. Were you there when it happened, when the beak broke through the shell?

Vellinger: It was really dramatic, because on Friday I had to go visit the President at the White House, and they had a press conference honoring the astronauts and presenting the student experimenters like myself. And then I flew back to Kentucky Fried Chicken in Louisville, Kentucky. And that evening I saw the first-ever space chick hatch right before my very own eyes.

Silverman: Whow. Now, what did it look like? Was there any difference that you could tell? This is a chicken that spent about a third of its embryonic development period - a third of the time it would normally spend in the egg – it spent in the microgravity of earth orbit…

Vellinger: The chicken hatched out perfectly normal. It looks healthy. Now, as far as any kind of difference – either good or bad – is concerned, it’s too early to tell. We’ve already started studying them. We’ve already put them through a series of tests to look at their reflexes, see what kind of head motions they show. And we will continue this type of study for a period of about a year, trying to monitor, to see if there is any kind of difference of that chicken that was in that space environment for five or six days.

Silverman: You also had a control group of identical eggs that were kept here on Earth, that were subjected to some of the same temperature and humidity requirements as the orbiting eggs.

Vellinger: The exciting thing about it is that we were able to subject the control incubator to a launch profile. We put the control incubator on a vibration table to simulate the actual launch conditions. So that control group of eggs supposedly has seen the same conditions as the incubator that went up into space – except that weightless environment. So if there is any difference between the two sets of eggs, between the two types of chickens that hatch, and between the two that we actually examine, it will be because of that weightless environment.

Silverman: But you say at this point you can’t tell any difference? They seem to be identical?

Vellinger: At this point in time, you know, they look healthy. Now, when there is any kind of differences, it’s hard to tell. I think we need some time to really study them and make scientific conclusions.

Silverman: The other eggs, the ones which you examined the embryos rather than letting them hatch… I know that part of you project was trying to determine how bone calcification occurs, or how it would occur in space. And also whether there is any difference in the embryonic development. I remember you explaining that the hen in the barnyard turns the egg, because the effect of gravity on the yoke would pull it down to one side of the egg. And the hen is counteracting that, even though she may not know she’s doing that. Did you see any difference in the development of the embryos?
 
Vellinger: We had two sets of embryos, two different age groups that went up into space. We candled the eggs, and all of the older ones were alive immediately upon landing. The younger ones didn’t look quite as good. I think, there again, time will tell. I think there’s going to some really exciting things that will come from this. But my scientific support team, they don’t know which eggs went up into space, and they don’t know which ones did not. They’ve asked me not to really reveal much information about it. Is there really any kind of differences? I know of some differences that actually occurred with the ones that actually went up into space from the ones that stayed on the ground control. What I’d like to say is that there’s going to be some exciting conclusions from this experiment. But actually getting into specifics it’s really to early to tell. I think it would not be in the best interest of the project, because we want to really keep the scientific data that comes from this project as valid as possible. So we’re trying to keep our scientists blind. But I think we will see some dramatic differences. And I think it will be exciting to see the results of this project.

Silverman: You say it’ll be about a year before you’ll be able to fully analyze and fully check out the chickens which hatched. What about flying this again? For instance there are shuttle flights planned for 1990 and 1991 that would last longer – ten or more days in orbit.

Vellinger: And I think the ideal situation would be to have the actual hen lay the egg up in space and have the chicken being born up in space. This experiment certainly would give us some really good data as to can an embryo develop up in space. And I think it hopefully will lead to further experiments of longer duration.

Silverman: John Vellinger, mechanical engineering student at Purdue University and designer of the chicks in space student experiment carried into orbit aboard the shuttle Discovery earlier this month. – Incidentally, at a Tuesday news conference Discovery pilot John Blaha said all of the embryos in the younger group of fertilized eggs had died during the spaceflight. According to John Vellinger that is not exactly the case. And he expects to know much more by this weekend, when the eggs reach the end of their 21-day incubation period.

(Alan Silverman, VOA Morning, March 30, 1989)

EGG EXPERIMENT PROMPTS QUESTIONS
A student's experiment on the effects weightlessness might have on fertilized chicken eggs in space has raised new scientific questions after eight of the embryos died. The experiment sent 32 developing chicken embryos aloft in the space shuttle Discovery, which was launched March 13 on a successful five-day mission. The embryos were divided into two lots: Half were fertilized nine days before launching and the others two days before launching. A control group of developing eggs was kept on Earth for comparison. Conceived nine years ago by John Vellinger, now a senior at Purdue University, the project was designed to study the effects of weightlessness in space. In conjunction with an experiment involving plant growth, the eggs were studied to determine whether cell division is affected by a lack of gravity.

After the shuttle returned to Earth, eight of the older group of eggs were opened and determined to have been developing normally. The remaining eight hatched on March 24 and 25, following a normal 21-day incubation period. Those chicks are being monitored by Mr. Vellinger and a group of scientific advisers. But the first eight embryos that were checked in the second group were dead. When they stopped developing is not known. The remaining eight embryos are in incubation and are scheduled to hatch on Saturday. Indications are that while some of this younger group may still survive, others are not expected to hatch.

''What looked like a very simple experiment may turn out to have generated thousands of questions,'' Col. John E. Blaha of the Air Force, the Discovery's pilot, said Tuesday at a news conference. ''It's certainly a great mystery as to why this happened.'' Dr. James P. Bagian, a mission specialist on the shuttle flight, said, ''Maybe gravity plays up to now an unknown role but a very essential role in that the older ones, at nine days, are past that crucial gate, if you will, and they are developing normally.'' The failure of the younger embryos to develop notwithstanding, Mr. Vellinger said ''this experiment is far from being a failure.''

''We've established an excellent pilot study to give us valuable baseline data to what occurs in space,'' he said. ''This experiment means a first step. Can man live, work, and possibly have children in space?'' (The New York Times, March 31, 1989)

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SECOND GENERATION OF “SPACE CHICKS” HATCHES
The second generation of "space chicks" in an experiment involving Purdue University and Kentucky Fried Chicken finished hatching Tuesday morning (Oct. 24). The experiment may help determine, among other things, the potential for human reproduction in space. The chicks, which began hatching Monday (Oct. 23), are offspring of now-mature chickens that either were embryos when they rode the space shuttle Discovery this past March or were embryos that remained on Earth as a control group.

A total of 47 eggs were put in the incubator, with 28 hatching. Purdue Professor Patricia Hester, who monitors the birds' development, said this 60 percent hatch-rate is normal considering the young age of the hens (25 weeks) when the eggs were laid, and that the eggs were smaller. She added that the chicks are doing fine. Some of the 28 chicks that hatched are from space parents, Hester said, but declined to say exactly how many. Three more hatches are planned in the next three months, and Hester said she wanted to wait until all the data on those hatches are in to comment on the reproductive capability of the space parents.

"We're still collecting data," said Hester, professor of animal sciences. "Three more hatches will give us a good idea whether space travel affected the hens' reproductive capability." John Vellinger, the Purdue student who designed the experiment, said the newborn chicks look like "little bumblebees."

"Seeing this second generation of space chicks brought back memories of when the first space chick hatched last March," said Vellinger, a senior in mechanical engineering. "The second generation, like their parents, appears to be normal at this point in time."

The shuttle carried on board two different groups of embryos: 16 two-day-old eggs and 16 nine-day-old eggs. Identical groups of eggs remained on Earth as controls. Half of the eggs in each of the four groups were opened and examined immediately after the shuttle landed, which left a total of 32 chickens to incubate until hatching.

The entire nine-day-old group hatched (16 of them). The only two-day-olds that hatched (eight of them) were those that had remained on Earth and, except for zero gravity, had been subjected to the same conditions of acceleration, vibration, temperature and humidity as were their space counterparts.

A total of 21 parents are left from the experimental and control groups. Three died during the maturing process, which, Hester says, is not uncommon. The parents and their offspring live at the Baker-Purdue Animal Sciences Center about 10 miles north of Lafayette, Ind. Vellinger and Purdue Professor Ronald Hullinger, his adviser on the project, are trying to determine when the two-day-old embryos that went into space died. They are studying X-rays of the embryos' bone formation and such things as distance from the crown of the head to where the tail attaches on the rump, length of the toes and of the bones in the wings, and size of the head and beak.

"These are all indices of embryo age, and we hope they will overlap, which will tell us the age at which the chicks stopped developing," said Hullinger, professor of veterinary embryology. "We can examine an embryo any time after conception and know how its development should look." The results of the analysis should shed light on the potential for human reproduction in space. Hullinger and Vellinger expect to complete the analysis by the end of the year. "We can't say yet whether people will have trouble developing in space," Hullinger said. "The evidence so far suggests, given the deaths of the two-day-old embryos, that mammals might have a problem developing in space."

Hester; Ken Wolber, Purdue poultry farm manager; and Patrick Sharp, Purdue veterinary medical student, have conducted scores of tests on the parents to find out whether space travel had any effect on them. The tests include perching ability, reproductive capability, daily weight gain and various blood tests. Hester and Professor Tim Jones of the University of Nebraska's School of Dentistry also did tests on inner-ear equilibrium. Hester said she hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary among the space hens and roosters.

"We really won't know for sure until we analyze the computer data, but just glancing at it, we don't see any differences that could be attributed to space travel," she said.

Some of the same tests conducted on the parents will be repeated with the second-generation space chickens. Unless something unexpected shows up in those tests, the experiment with the second generation will conclude when those chickens reach market weight (four pounds) at seven weeks. "If zoos are interested in taking the second-generation chicks, we'll be more than happy to donate them," Hester said. "We're not going to keep them for further testing unless we really see something out of the ordinary."

Sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp., the experiment should provide insight not only on the potential for human reproduction in space but on the problems of bone-mass loss and motion sickness among astronauts, and chickens' potential as a food source in space. Researchers from Boston University, Tulane University, University of Illinois and University of Massachusetts also are involved in the project. (Purdue News, Oct. 24, 1989)

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Avian Embryogenesis in Microgravity aboard Shuttle STS-29;
Effect on Shell Mineral Content and Post-hatch

(Acta Vet. BRNO, Suppl. 6, 62, 1993: S 43-8 47)

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April 1: THE LAST OF ITS KIND
The last launch of an Ariane 2 rocket takes place at Kourou, French Guiana, as the V30 launch vehicle lifts the Swedish Tele-X satellite to orbit, which will provide telecommunications and direct TV broadcasting capabilities across Scandinavia.


April 3: PCG EXPERIMENTER “NOT REAL HAPPY”
An incredible bid of bad luck for an important experiment which flew aboard the Space Shuttle last month: The protein crystals which were grown in space onboard Discovery, were destroyed by an accident at the Birmingham, Alabama, airport. The crystal-making experiment was removed from Discovery right after its March 18 landing at Edwards Air Force Base, then flown to the University of Alabama, at Birmingham, where the precious crystals, to be used in medical research, were unpacked, than put in a shipping container – actually a Styrofoam ice chest – to be sent back to the project’s chief experimenter at the University of California. But the chest was tipped over as it was passed through an X-ray security machine at the Birmingham airport. And when they opened it up they found that the crystals had been completely destroyed. The chief experimenter, Alexander McPherson, at the University of California was rather stoic. He said, “That’s the way it goes in science.”  But he added, “I’m not real happy.” (Alan Silverman, VOA Morning, April 4, 1989)


April 5: WHEN THE WOLF IS AT THE DOOR…
In his final speech as NASA Administrator, Dr. James C Fletcher on Wednesday (Apr. 5) called Space Station Freedom “a tempting target” for budget-cutters and warned that significant reductions in the program would have dire consequences for the nation’s future in space. “It’s time this fact is understood,” Dr Fletcher said at the Fifth National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. “If cut significantly, Space Station Freedom will be cancelled and we will deliver a clear message to our children and the rest of the world: The United States intends to leave the business of space exploration to others.” The symposium is sponsored by the U.S. Space Foundation.

Fletcher acknowledged he’s been accused of “crying wolf” about NASA budget cuts. But “when the wolf is at the door, as he has been for the last three years,” he said, “it’s prudent to sound an alarm.” Reflecting on his service as NASA administrator, Fletcher said he would be “returning to private life with the deep satisfaction of having participated in a truly extraordinary reversal of our national fortunes.” He was named to the position – his second appointment as head of NASA – four months after the Challenger accident. “We have weathered severe setbacks. Chastened by the hard lessons of the crisis, we have recovered and returned to the task ahead,” he said. “Today, NASA is a strong and flexible instrument of national policy, an instrument I confidently hand over to my successor.”

Fletcher called NASA a small agency with enormous strength rooted in the active good will and support of the American public. “The promise of America’s future is in our hands. There is no end to tomorrow if only we, the people, hold fast to our vision of greatness. The Moon and Mars and the secrets of the stars are ours for the taking – if we dare. – If we do not dare, then tomorrow offers only a drab horizon to our heirs, a gray horizon close to our feet and far from our hearts.” (JSC News Roundup, April 7, 1989)


April 6: FULL-DURATION TEST-FIRING OF ADVANCED SSME A SUCCESS
A full-duration night firing test of a Space Shuttle Main engine today is deemed a success by Marshall Space Flight Center’s John McCarty. “It was a good test all around,” McCarty says.

The test, originally scheduled for March 17, was postponed March 16 after a small crack was found in a facility oxygen system vent and pressurization line during final preparations for the test. Today’s test was the longest firing of a SSME at Marshall since testing began in the Center’s Technology Test Bed (TTB) facility in October 1988. This firing initiates the Advanced Engine Characterization test series in the TTB. The test engine is configured with an enlarged throat main combustion chamber and with the combustion stability aids removed.

“In this nine-test series, one of the prime objectives is to evaluate the enlarged throat main engine combustion chamber performance and characterize the systems effects. We also want to evaluate engine combustion stability without main injector stability aids (baffles of acoustic cavities),” said Steve Richards, technical assistant to the Marshall Center Propulsion Laboratory director, back in March. “We are going to check the stability by detonating explosive charges within the combustion chamber during the engine start transient period and verify that no combustion instabilities are triggered in an engine that contains no stability aids. These detonations will occur approximately 3.05 and 3.85 seconds after engine start,” he said.

Four tests have previously been conducted in the test bed, which is a modified Saturn IC test stand. Those tests verified the facilities capability to hotfire a liquid oxygen/hydrogen engine. This included verifying procedures and demonstrating crew readiness to support the technology tests which commenced with today’s firing. (Countdown, April and June, 1989 – edited)

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April 11: MIR SPACE STATION WILL SOON BE UNMANNED
The Soviet Mir space station will be unmanned for the first time in three years after April 27 when its three cosmonauts return to Earth, the Soviet news agency announced Wednesday. The TASS dispatch - on the eve the 28th anniversary of the flight of the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin - confirmed a United Press International report Friday that the three-man Mir crew was unlikely to be immediately replaced after their mission ends."The space flight of Soviet cosmonauts Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Valery Polyakov is drawing to a close," TASS said. "The cosmonauts will return to Earth April 27, while Mir will continue its flight unmanned." (Deseret News, April 12, 1989)

Soviet space officials say the Mir space station will be mothballed for “several months” due t delays in equipment preparation for the station’s expansion. Deputy Flight Director Victor Blagnov says, “This is because without the two modules, which will make it possible to conduct wide-ranging research, including studies in the interest of the Soviet economy, there is little sense in keeping cosmonauts on the space station any further. (Countdown, June 1989)

MIR EXPANSION DELAYED
Launch of the first “building block module” to expand the Mir space station has been postponed from April to sometime in late 1989, Soviet space officials recently announced. The module, the first of two originally scheduled for 1989, will contain a large airlock for future extravehicular activities, utilizing the new larger Soviet spacesuits. It will also contain complementary basis systems for the Mir station: stabilization gyroscopes, two large solar arrays, toilets with a shower and the “Electron” system to obtain oxygen from water electrolysis. The first module will reportedly carry a multispectral MKF-6MA camera developed by Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany.

The second module, the launch of which will probably be slipped into 1990, will be a technological laboratory which is reportedly to be used to start the industrial production of new materials under microgravity conditions. The products to be grown are expected to be high-quality semiconductors for microelectronics. (Countdown, April 1989)

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April 12: RICHARD TRULY NAMED TO HEAD NASA
The nation's space agency will be led for the first time by "a hero of its own making," President Bush said in announcing he will nominate astronaut Richard Truly as administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The nomination, which had been expected, must be confirmed by the Senate.  Truly, 51, has been an astronaut since 1969, was pilot of the second shuttle flight in 1981 and commander of the eighth in 1983 and has been Associate NASA Administrator for Spaceflight since 1986. Truly succeeds James C. Fletcher , a former NASA administrator who resumed the position after the Challenger disaster in January 1986. Fletcher retired this month.

"This marks the first time in its distinguished history that NASA will be led by a hero of its own making, an astronaut who has been to space, a man who has uniquely experienced NASA’s tremendous teamwork and achievement," Bush told members of Congress and others in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Wednesday. Truly left the astronaut corps in 1983 to become the first Commander of the Naval Space Command, and served in that position until becoming NASA Associate Administrator. “I am fully mindful that because Dick Truly is an active duty naval officer that I will need the assent and cooperation of the Congress to make this appointment,” the President added. “I would like to say thanks in advance to the Congressional leaders here today for their willingness to assist in moving this important nomination forward.”

“Let me first just thank you for the faith you show in me to take over from a person of Jim Fletcher’s caliber in running NASA,” Truly told Bush in accepting the nomination. “NASA is premier in aeronautics, space science and exploration and taking men an women to space to do important jobs for our country and I really look forward to – with your leadership – working with the Vice President and the Space Council and contributing what I can,” he said.

“I would be remiss indeed if I did not thank Dr. Fletcher once again for an outstanding job as NASA administrator,” Bush said, “he has been an inspiration for all of us.” President Bush also announced that he plans to nominate James R. Thompson Jr., Director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to succeed Dale D. Myers as deputy administrator. Before his spaceflights, Truly was pilot for one of the two-man crews that conducted landing tests with the Space Shuttle Enterprise when it was hauled aloft on the back of a 747 jumbo jet. After the Challenger disaster Jan. 28, 1986, Truly was in charge of the recovery team and of redesigning the shuttle's boosters and overhauling the shuttle safety program. (Deseret News, April 13, 1989, and JSC Space News Roundup, April 14, 1989)

TRULY A GOOD CHOICE FOR NEW NASA CHIEF
In nominating Rear Admiral Richard Truly to take over as chief of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, President Bush has picked one of the most qualified people possible for the job - and the first astronaut to ever head the space agency. Truly will replace James C. Fletcher, who retired as NASA administrator last month after more than two years on the job. Fletcher, former president of the University of Utah, also headed NASA from 1971 to 1977 and was called back to rebuild the agency after the Challenger disaster in 1986.Truly was part of that rebuilding project. A former astronaut who had flown two shuttle missions, he was recalled from the Navy in 1986 to become NASA's associate administrator for space flight and headed the recovery team and the redesign of the shuttle's booster rockets.

The 51-year-old Truly has a reputation as a cool and competent pilot, engineer and administrator who never loses his composure. Despite his years as a hot-shot carrier pilot, he is known as a careful astronaut who doesn't take chances. He has had 17 years of experience with NASA. In his new position, Truly will be in charge of more than shuttle flights. He will direct the development of NASA's space station, oversee a variety of scientific and technical space experiments, and plan for possible landings on the moon and Mars in the 21st century. He will also have to convince Congress to provide the money for all these things.

Truly already is on the job preparing for a flight of the shuttle Atlantis later this month. Atlantis will launch a radar-mapping device known as Magellan, which will hurtle toward Venus and go into orbit around that cloud-covered planet in mid-1990. Magellan will spend eight months mapping the surface of Venus. While dealing with Congress may turn out to be his most frustrating job, Truly has some things going for him. He is extremely popular and well-respected on Capitol Hill. The post as NASA chief requires Senate approval, but no difficulty is expected in gaining confirmation. To accommodate Truly, Congress already has agreed to waive a requirement that the head of NASA be a civilian. The space agency still appears to be in very good hands. (Deseret News, April 14, 1989)

Top Johnson Space Center officials voiced elation Wednesday (April 12) at the news one of their former JSC colleagues will soon be steering a course for the agency, but said they are not expecting any favoritism. “This is the kind of news that bodes well for NASA,” said JSC Director Aaron Cohen. “Admiral Truly has proven capability that will allow him to do a great job. He has the best interests of the space program, the agency and its employees at heart, and I know he will be a strong administrator. He has the experience, the technical background and the credibility and respect in Washington that such a tough job demands. Cohen said he worked closely with Truly during the Return-to-Flight effort, and that experience built a sense of mutual trust and respect between them. That relationship should help ensure good communication between top JSC and Headquarters managers, he said. “After these past few grueling years, I feel I know Dick Truly well, and I look forward to working under his leadership,” Cohen said.

“I think it’s outstanding,” said Astronaut Office chief Dan Brandenstein, who made his first spaceflight with Truly aboard Challenger in 1983. “He was an outstanding Commander on STS-8 and has done a tremendous job at Code M during the recovery period and Return-to-Flight, and I think he’ll be an outstanding administrator.”

Flight Crew Operations Director Don Puddy was truly’s assistant in Washington for a year starting in 1986, and worked with him as a flight director during the Space Shuttle Approach and landing Test program. Truly’s close ties to JSC will not engender any special dispensation for Flight Crew Operations, he predicted. “He has such a sense of fair play that he won’t be showing any favoritism,” Puddy said. “At the same time, he knows Flight Crew Operations and will be easy to interface with.” Puddy said Truly has done an excellent job of working with the mixed fleet concept of launch vehicles, making sure America never again finds itself without the means of getting into space. “I’m overjoyed,” Puddy said. “I think the agency is back on its feet. We’ve started walking and need to learn to jog and he’s an excellent individual to help us learn to do that. I can’t think of anyone with a better grasp of the technical aspects of agency programs. He has the ability to rapidly gain the respect of anyone he interfaces with. There’s no one inside or outside the agency who can do a better job.” (JSC Space News Roundup, April 14, 1989)

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April 14: DALE MYERS ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
Dale Myers, the acting NASA Administrator since James Fletcher resigned April 8, has announced his plans to resign effective May 13. The announcement followed President Bush’s nomination of Rear Admiral Richard H. Truly to be the new NASA Administrator and J.R. Thompson to be Deputy Administrator. Commenting on the President’s move, Myers said, “I am delighted by President Bush’s nomination of Dick Truly to be the next Administrator of NASA. During the past three years I have come to know Admiral Truly and his capabilities well. His experience and accomplishments demonstrate that he is well qualified to lead America’s civil space program into a period of scientific, commercial and exploratory activities.”

Myers continued, “The new Administrator will be inheriting an organization of people who demonstrated anew their ability and determination by the way they recovered from the Challenger disaster and returned the nation to spaceflight. – In nominating J.R. Thompson, who currently heads our Marshall Space Flight Center, to be the agency’s Deputy Administrator, the President has created a superb team to guide NASA into the future. All of my colleagues are delighted with these nominations,” Myers said.

Dale Myres served as NASA Deputy Administrator from October 6, 1986, when he was called back to NASA by President Reagan. He served as the Associate Administrator for manned Spaceflight from 1970 to 1974, and as undersecretary, U.S. Department of Energy from 1977 to 1979. From 1974 to 1977 he was vice president, Rockwell International, and president, North American Aircraft, El Segundo, California. (JSC Space News Roundup, April 21, 1989)


April 17: SHUTTLE-C MOCKUP UNVEILED
Larry Russel, Manager of the Shuttle-C program at Marshall Space Flight Center, unveils a full-size mockup of the craft to begin the drive to sell the unmanned cargo ship to Congress. (Countdown, June 1989)

After the 1986 Challenger accident, NASA set the maximum launch rate from the existing shuttle facilities at 14 per year. In the months immediately preceding and following the Return-to-Flight of STS-26 it became apparent that this was probably unachievable using the established flows for an orbiter. After reviewing the flow schedules and determining that little could be done to speed up the process without compromising safety, NASA decided that launching a different, unmanned vehicle (Shuttle-C) could increase the launch rate up to the allowable 14 per year without affecting the primary orbiter launch flows. (Dennis R. Jenkins, Space Shuttle, 2001)

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April 18: “FREEDOM” ONE OF BUSH’S HIGHEST PRIORITIES
President Bush’s top budget adviser, Office of Management and Budget Director Richard G. Darman, sends the House Appropriations Committee leaders Jamie Whitten (D-Miss.) and Silvio Conte (R-Mass.) an OMB position paper telling them that cutting NASA’s Space Station program budget would be “unacceptable.” The paper also says, “The Space Station is one of the highest priorities of the President.”

Earlier this month Reps. Conte and Bill Green (R-N.Y.) suggested that money already approved for the Space Station be used to finance a $2.2 billion supplemental spending measure. The two Republicans suggested the use of the $515 million approved in 1988, but not yet released to NASA, to help ease a 1.1 percent across-the-board cut of a number of domestic programs.

Meanwhile, Marty Kress, space subcommittee director for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said, “There’s an agreement on the table right now that would freeze NASA’s budget at FY 1989 levels, with only an inflation factor increase.” If the plan is adopted, the Space Station will be in very serious danger. Former NASA administrator James Fletcher has stated that “the Space Station is no longer a deferrable or stretchable project.” He added, “The Space Station is absolutely necessary if we are going to go on to explore the solar system with humans.” (Countdown, June 1989 - edited)


April 21: THIOKOL WINS BID AS ASRM SUBCONTRACTOR
Morton Thiokol will become surprisingly - a major subcontractor in the $1.1 billion, seven-year project to build a new generation of boosters for the space shuttle, NASA announced Friday. The new Advanced Solid Rocket Motors - which NASA says is needed to carry heavier payloads necessary to build the space station and launch missions toward Mars - will replace the boosters now made by Morton Thiokol in Brigham City, and will be built at a government-owned plant in Yellow Creek, Miss. NASA announced Friday that Lockheed Missile Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., will become the main contractor to design, build and operate that plant - but Morton Thiokol is among six major contractors who will participate in the project. NASA officials, however, could not provide details of exactly what type of work Morton Thiokol will perform nor how much money it may mean for the Brigham City operations. Morton Thiokol chose not to bid to become the main contractor itself for the new boosters, focusing its attention instead on the redesign of the present motors - required after the 1986 Challenger disaster. Morton Thiokol will continue to build the present boosters through the mid-1990s.

Last month, NASA's independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said NASA would be wiser to continue to use the present boosters than to build new ones. The panel said the new Mississippi boosters could take years and billions of dollars to achieve the reliability of the Morton Thiokol boosters. But NASA officials said they had debated the issue at length already, and determined the new boosters are needed. The good news for Morton Thiokol on Friday was bad news for Hercules in Magna. Hercules had teamed with Atlantic Research, Martin Marietta's Michaud unit and Bechtel as the major bidding group against Lockheed for the $1.1 billion contract. Hercules' director of public affairs, Jack DeMann, said Hercules and its bidding partner, Atlantic Research Corp., Gainesville, Va., naturally are disappointed and will seek a meeting as soon as possible with NASA to find out why they lost.

Even if Hercules and Atlantic had won the contract, most of the jobs would have been created outside Utah, because NASA decided after the Challenger disaster to construct its own plant in Mississippi rather than have the new boosters built at a contractor site, DeMann noted. The Hercules spokesman said he doesn't know yet whether his company will be able to get any of the subcontracts for the advanced solid rocket motor boosters. But Thiokol will be a major subcontractor for the winning Lockheed-Aerojet contractors. "We've been selected as a subcontractor to the Lockheed-Aerojet team for nozzle production - nozzle fabrication," said Rocky Raab, Thiokol manager of external affairs. "We will also be responsible for engineering test-firings and the initial training of manufacturing and test personnel for those firings." He said the dollar value of the subcontract and the number of jobs it will produce are not clear yet, but the majority of the work will be done outside Utah.

Thiokol announced last June it would not bid on the overall booster contract. But Raab said that several weeks after the announcement, Lockheed and Aerojet approached the company about being a subcontractor, and Thiokol submitted a proposal. Raab said the dollar value of the proposal is considered proprietary information until after Hercules and Aerojet finish negotiating with NASA and then with the subcontractors.

NASA said Friday the first contract with Lockheed will be to design, develop, test, evaluate and build 12 advanced solid rocket motors, and to construct the Mississippi plant. It will also include an option for production of up to an additional 88 advanced motors. Lockheed's prime subcontractor is Aerojet Space Booster Co. of Sacramento, Calif. Other subcontractors include Morton Thiokol, Brigham City; Aerojet Solid Propulsion Co., Sacramento; Babcock and Wilcox, Barberton, Ohio; Lockheed Austin Division, Austin, Texas; and Rust International. Besides building the main facility in Yellow Creek, NASA said additional facilities for the booster are planned at the John C. Stennis Space Center near St. Louis, Miss., for ground testing. NASA said schedules call for the delivery of the first advanced boosters in 1994. It plans to phase them in over a three-year period, when the new boosters will be tested during six different missions. (Deseret News, April 21, 1989)

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April 25: SPACE FUNDING BATTLE IN CONGRESS RAGES ON
Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney announces that the National Aerospace Plane Project, a joint endeavor of the Air Force and NASA, will suffer drastic funding cutbacks of about 67 percent from $300 million to $100 million in 1990.

A House appropriations subcommittee opens funding hearings, talking about cutting $575 million from the NASA budget, with $400 million coming out of the Space Station Freedom funding. The subcommittee asks NASA what effect a $400 million cut would have. NASA’s acting Administrator Dale D. Myers says any significant cut will cause an expensive delay. “The fact is that slips in schedule increase costs,” Myers says.

A bipartisan group of House members urges the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee to set aside $7.2 billion for space, science, housing, veterans programs and environmental programs. This would provide the money needed for the Space Station Freedom. The group also complains that lumping so many types of programs into the appropriations bill could lead to some “deplorable choices.” Another group of House legislators join forces to object to a proposed 1990 budget resolution pending in the Senate that could be “disastrous” for the Space Station and other projects.

Rep. Jack Bruecher (R-Mo.), who serves on the House Budget Committee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, says, “There’s going to have to be a war between the Space Station and the Superconducting Super Collider,” to see which will receive the funding it needs for construction. (Countdown, June 1989 – edited)


April 27: THREE SOVIET COSMONAUTS RETURN – LEAVING MIR SPACE STATION EMPTY
Soviet cosmonauts Valery Polyakov, Alexander Volkov and Sergei Krikalev cosmonauts returned to Earth Thursday from the Mir space station, leaving no one aboard the orbiting craft until at least August, the official news agency TASS said. This is only the second time the space station has been left unattended since it was launched more than three years ago. Officials said leaving the Mir unmanned will save money at a time when the Soviet Union faces a $160 billion budget deficit. The Soyuz TM-7 capsule touched down 90 miles northeast of Dzeskazgan in the Kazakh S.S.R. at 6:59 a.m. Moscow Time. (Deseret News, April 27, 1989 and Countdown, June 1989 – edited)

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Soviets play it slow

(By Donald Andrew Gardner, Countdown, July 1989)

First came the tragic losses of the Phobos Mars-moon probes, then the mothballing of the Mir space station. Now, the Soviets are faced with delays in their shuttle program. Have the Soviets reached their peak in space? Don’t bet your last ruble on it.

On May 2 of this year, the Soviet Union’s chief test pilot Igor Volk announced that the Buran program (Buran is now being used generically to refer to the Soviet shuttle program) will not see its second flight until 1991. According to Volk, a manned flight of Buran will not take place until at least 1992 because of problems with the craft’s landing gear and automatic pilot system. Volk has identified these problems as the major reason for concern among Soviet test pilots, saying the automatic system does not provide adequate safety for the crew. Volk, who is slotted to fly the Soviets first manned shuttle flight, says he prefers a system where landing can be controlled from  aboard the shuttle, like the American shuttle. Apparently the Soviet engineers are taking Volk’s advice and looking into the design requirements for such a modification, but the changes will take time. And right now, time is one thing the Soviets have plenty of.

With the Soviet Union’s return to Earth of three cosmonauts April 27, the Mir space station’s cramped quarters are cramped no more. The country’s manned space program is taking a well-deserved breather. The flying space facility, permanently manned since 1987, has been placed in space dry dock until mid-August, when a crew will be lifted to Mir to prepare the station for two expansion modules. Mir had been occupied for so long that it has become almost routine to hear that another crew has been launched to the station. The return of the cosmonauts was quite unexpected, especially since the Soviets had been planning a communications linkup with the STS-30 crew aboard the U.S. shuttle and were scheduled to carry the first of six protein crystal growth experiments for Space Industries Inc., of Houston, in June. The sudden action had space analysts around the world questioning the Soviet’s determination to remain active in the space business.

Much of the speculation to this point indicated that the Soviets were beginning to feel the pressures presented by Mikhail Gorbachev’s Glasnost policy. The country’s press had placed the Soviet space program under extreme scrutiny for the first time and its readers began questioning the $300 billion a year that is spent on the combined military-civilian space program budget. The Soviet press began an unprecedented attack against the government’s $160 billion deficit, prompting experts to say the space slow down is a means of redirecting money to where it is more urgently needed. The Soviets are currently experiencing widespread shortages of food and other consumer goods, and the government has already announced that a number of plants designed to produce military hardware are being converted to help ease the need for consumer products.

Victor Blagov, the Mir space station flight director, says the temporary shutdown of Mir is a money-saving move and not a retreat from space. In April he said, “By this action, we are of course economizing some sum which can be used for other purposes.” Although he did not say how much the three-month mothballing of Mir will save, he did indicate the money will be used for domestic needs.

On April 13, TASS, the official news agency of the Soviet Union, said the shutdown was due to a delay in the preparation of the next two equipment modules to be launched to Mir. The modules will practically double the station’s size and expand its abilities in space research. Space experts say preparation of the new modules is not the likely cause for the shutdown, because delays of this type had already been figured into the Soviet launch schedule.

The apparent difference in explanations from TASS and space officials led to widespread speculation about why the station was mothballed, including reports that the Soviet Union is attempting to influence the U.S. Congress by making it appear there is nothing to be gained from a permanently manned space station, and thereby affecting the budgeting of NASA’s international Freedom Space Station. The reasoning behind this assumption is that the Soviets are attempting to hold on to the one area in which they have a very distinct lead, manned space. Although the theory has a slight taste of the Cold War anti-Soviet rhetoric, many space officials say the move will definitely affect Freedom, whether it was intended to or not.

In a Florida Today article concerning the shutdown, David Webb, a resident scholar with the Astronaut Memorial Foundation, acknowledges that NASA expects the move to make it harder to convince the Congress to provide $2.1 billion for Freedom in 1990. Soviet space policy expert James Oberg says the shutdown will hurt Freedom’s chances. According to Oberg, “They’ll (Space Station opposition) be saying ‘the Russians found it was useless, that it cost a lot, that they’re throwing in the towel,’ even though that’s not the case.”

Another explanation of the Mir shutdown is that the Soviets have hit the limits of their technology and cannot accomplish anything else at this time with the space station’s limited resources and testing facilities. After the second Phobos probe was lost, Soviet space program opposition was screaming technological incompetency. The recent human errors which doomed the two Phobos probes brought to the surface questions regarding the training the Soviet Union utilizes in conjunction with its technology. Now, with Mir shut down, some are saying failures in electrical power systems aboard the station caused the closing. All of these separate occurrences have been wedges underneath the “lack of technology” banner and become powerful ammunition for Soviet space opponents.

When the Soviets launched and safely returned the unmanned Buran shuttle in 1988, they provided to the world that they had made huge technological leaps over the past few years. So it seems unlikely that the shutdown is the result of a technology dry spell. As for the systems problems aboard Mir, Blagov admits that there has been some difficulty with the station’s power systems, but the degradation is within expected limits and is not a major contributing factor in the shutdown.

With Mir closed down, regardless of the reason or reasons why, the country’s future in space remains a question. Those predicting doom for the Soviets must keep in mind the shutdown of Mir, the centerpiece of the Soviet program, is a voluntary action unlike the 32-month delay the U.S. program suffered after the Challenger accident. The Soviets have one luxury that the U.S. did not have in 1986 – a versatile launch fleet. Although their station is dormant, the remainder of their program can still function as though nothing has happened. When Mir is revived, the Soviets will be able to pick up right where they left off. They will not have a massive backlog of satellites and experiments to catch up on. As Blagov has said, the time spent while Mir is mothballed will give scientists an opportunity to catch up on the data the station has provided since its launch February 20, 1986. Blagov points out that the station will continue monitoring the earth and providing data while it is unmanned.

The down time may be used to train cosmonauts on a number of repairs which will likely be necessary due to the station’s weakened power system. In 1988, the cosmonauts had a problem trying to repair the British/Dutch X-ray telescope because they had not been thoroughly trained on the ground to work such a repair. The time spent preparing the cosmonauts for the addition of the new solar panels to be launched in August will be vital to the continuation of the Mir program.

In the meantime, the Soviets have also begun a campaign to attract foreign customers to the pride of their launch fleet, the Energia. At a space conference held this spring in Washington, D.C., Boris Gubanov, the chief designer of Energia, made it crystal clear that the Soviets are eager to sell payload space aboard the Energia. This move is probably as much the result of the Soviet need for Western dollars as it is the result of Glasnost, but whatever the reason behind the move, the capabilities of the launch vehicle make the offer one worth consideration by the U.S. as an alternative to the Shuttle-C program. Gubanov points out that, although the Shuttle-C and the Energia cargo pod can carry 155,000 pounds, the Energia can be upgraded to launch 440,000 pounds, and is already a flight-ready system.

Although the Soviets have not come right out and discussed the possibility of launching the Space Station Freedom for the U.S., they have indicated that NASA can avoid the trouble of about twenty shuttle launches to construct the international station by enlisting the aid of Energia. At the Washington conference, the Soviets, in a general offer not specifically aimed at NASA, even guaranteed the security of any foreign spacecraft and said they would waive customs inspections for anyone concerned about the possibility of technology transfer. Gubanov is quoted as saying, “I hope there are some in this hall who want to buy one launch, maybe two launches of Energia.”

Finances are obviously taking on a larger significance in the Soviet space program, as in the Soviet society in general. Will the budgetary backing for the U.S.S.R. space program become as dismal as their economy appears? Their exuberance in space may have outpaced their resources, but that is no reason to expect them not to put the “permanent” back into their space station program. The financial situation may chill the program down, but it will be a cold day on the Sun when the Soviets give up their dreams of space. (Countdown, July 1989 - edited)

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NASA tackles the ’89 challenge

With STS-29, NASA was facing its first scheduling pressure cooker since flights resumed. For the first time since Challenger, two shuttles were being processed at the same time, Discovery at Pad 39B for STS-29, while Atlantis was being stacked in the assembly building for the high-priority Magellan mission. For the first time since Challenger, Houston controllers would be running simulations of one flight while another was flying. The Magellan mission would be conducting practice runs in the third-floor control room of Mission Control, while STS-29 was being flown from the second-floor room.

As 1989 opened, NASA was trying to gear up from the tentative test flights of 1988 into an operational mode. As the year swung through its first 70 days, the launching fields of Florida were ripe – ripe for a potential slip in the shuttle schedule. It all started on December 1, 1988, when a Boeing technician stumbled into the IUS that was being prepared for the STS-29 mission. After that a series of unrelated technical problems threatened to cascade into a major launch delay. And when Discovery finally was ready on March 13, 1989, it was time for weather to play its hand.

The scenario seemed to be replaying the old “operational” days before Challenger. In such a replay, more weather problems – or other glitches – would occur. Discovery would have run out of time - a humiliating roll back from the pad would have occurred. The schedule would have been disrupted, and the year would have been off to a messy start. But in 1989, perfect choreography by the launch team preserved the launch schedule. “It’s going to be a great year,” Shuttle chief Dick Truly predicted before the launch. The same words once were said about 1986. This time, you can believe it. (Dixon P. Otto, “CapCom” Editorial, Countdown, April 1989 – edited)

DEAR EDITOR…
I don’t think it serves any useful purpose to use pejorative terms such as “humiliating roll back” and “messy” scheduling when describing the launch delays of STS-29 (CapCom, April 1989). It reminds me too much of the ridicule and name-calling from the press that went on during the many delays before STS 51-L. Was the outside pressure a factor in the decision to overrule launch constraints? We’ll never know. But why is it “humiliating” to delay a flight for safety considerations? When the launch schedule gets shifted around because there are too many factors keeping a particular mission on the ground, why is it a “messy start?”

Now that we’re on orbit again, let’s not revert to the pre-Challenger “Launch of Bust” mentality. Yes, we want to be in space, but it’s not a damn dog-sled race. I’d like to see the press becoming more responsible in their reporting of launch delays and Countdown would be a great place to start. NASA deserves some credit for learning from their mistakes.

– Peg Taylor, Berkeley, California (Countdown, “Air to ground”, June 1989)

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And that’s all I can tell you about Discovery’s eighth journey into space and several other events that happened on the ground and in space during the same time period. For high-resolution STS-29 photos go to L2:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=13209.0

As we all know – every shuttle launch presented new challenges to the launch team, and Atlantis STS-30 was no exception. Again there were exciting days ahead, before Magellan could set sail from the Cape. That’s the story I’ll tell you in the upcoming thread

Atlantis STS-30 – One Touch of Venus

And because at the same time another intrepid “Voyager”, who had set sail from Florida twelve years earlier, was approaching the final port relatively close to home –   before embarking on a long journey to distant shores, never to return – in the STS-30 thread you’ll really get an out-of-this-world perspective on the events of 1989… and our interplanetary trip will continue in the new STS-34 thread which will follow later this year.