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#160 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:16
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#161 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:17
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#162 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:18
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#163 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:20
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#164 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:20
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#165 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:22
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#166 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:23
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#167 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:25
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August 22: KSC PREPARING TO FIND BACKUPS FOR RESERVISTS
Kennedy Space Center is reviewing its civil service and NASA contractor workforce to identify reservists in key positions, according to Karl Kristofferson. “If someone gets called up, we’re trying to find out who would back them up,” Kristofferson said, adding that two percent of NASA’s civil-service workforce at KSC is on active reserve. Figures for NASA contractors at KSC were not available, he said. (Mercedes, Florida Today, Aug. 23, 1990)
August 24: SADDAM’S “SHAMEFUL THEATHER”
Iraq is indefinitely detaining about 100 American diplomats and dependents who fled to Baghdad from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, officials in Washington said Friday. So far, Iraq has not linked closing the embassy to permitting the Americans in Baghdad to leave Iraq, one U.S. official said. But others said their plight obviously was tied to the dispute over the embassy, which the Iraqis ordered closed Friday. Appeals through the night to the Iraqi government in Washington and in Baghdad failed to break the deadlock, the officials said, and one denounced the holdup as "contrary to explicit commitments."
Diplomats from a number of other governments who also fled to Baghdad from Kuwait City are stranded in the Iraqi capital, too, the official said."We have been working all night, here and in Baghdad, to pressure the Iraqi government to rescind the order," an official said, adding he did not expect a prompt resolution of the dispute. The 100 Americans, including nearly 30 children, made the trip from Kuwait in a 33-car caravan, arriving in Baghdad after traveling nearly 20 hours. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had promised them safe passage even though 2,500 private U.S. citizens in Kuwait and more than 500 in Iraq are being refused permission to leave. About 4,000 Britons are among the 21,000 Westerners stranded in Iraq and Kuwait.
The fleeing Americans left behind about a dozen U.S. diplomats headed by Ambassador Nathaniel Howell to keep the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait City open despite an order by Saddam that it close by midnight local time. Iraqi troops surrounded at least seven embassies in Kuwait City Friday morning – the British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish, Romanian and Hungarian.
On Thursday, Saddam appeared on television with British children and other captives, ruffling the hair of a small boy, smiling and joking - but making it plain their fate depends on how the Persian Gulf confrontation goes. He told about 20 adults and children they were "guests" being held "to prevent the scourge of war."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher denounced the TV display as "shameful theater," and Britain termed the 30-minute show "a repulsive charade." Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, among millions who watched Saddam toy with a small boy identified only as Stuart, declared: "This is quite sickening." Pictures of Saddam with the children prompted banner headlines in British newspapers, which have dubbed the Iraqi leader "The Butcher of Baghdad." "A Caress of Evil" shrieked Today. "Clutch of the Devil" said the Daily Star.
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
- Iran said for the first time Friday that it will enforce the international trade embargo designed to punish Iraq for invading and annexing Kuwait, Tehran radio reported. The broadcast quoted Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying: "We respect, and will abide by the Security Council decision."
- About 70 ships from 11 nations are being deployed to the Persian Gulf or other Middle Eastern waters in response to the Iraq crisis, with more than half of them flying the American flag. The U.S. Navy has 37 ships either in the gulf or en route, an unofficial count showed. Among them were four aircraft carrier battle groups and the battleship Wisconsin.
- Kuwait's government-in-exile said it is ready to bankroll most if not all of the $28 million a day cost of the massive American air, land and sea operation to counter the Iraqi occupation of the emirate. Kuwait is estimated to have at least $100 billion in various offshore holdings purchased with oil profits. The capital has been frozen to prevent Iraq from seizing it, but analysts believe the emir could underwrite the entire U.S. military effort just with interest earned on his capital. The Emir of the conquered nation and his Cabinet are now based at a five-star hotel in the Saudi hill resort of Taif, from where they are organizing armed and passive resistance against Baghdad's 170,000-strong occupation force.
- Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, shunned for years by Western leaders because of his wartime past, arrived in Jordan Friday en route to Iraq for talks with Saddam about freeing foreign hostages. Waldheim was to meet Jordan's King Hussein, then fly to Baghdad on Saturday, his office said. Waldheim would be the first Western leader to meet the Iraqi President face-to-face since Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait August 2.
(Associated Press, Deseret News, Aug. 24, 1990 – edited)
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#168 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:27
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#169 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:28
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“Operation Desert Shield” Affects Space Community
“I’m off to fight for democracy and to keep the oil prices down.”
- Message left by JSC’s directives officer Valerie Burnham on her answering machine at home
Five Johnson Space Center employees were called to military duty during the last week of August 1990 as a result of President Bush’s decision to activate the country’s reserves in response to the Persian Gulf crisis. About a hundred more civil servants are members of the armed forces reserves and subject to being called up if their service branches so desire. So far, JSC reservists have been called up by the Air Force, Army and Coast Guard. Eight astronauts, including STS-35 Mission Specialist Mike Lounge, are in the reserves but are not expected to be called.
Valerie Burnham, JSC’s directives officer, was one of the first to be notified. The Coast Guard called her and told her she had to report to her duty station in Port Arthur. “I’m a little nervous,” said the yeoman second class who doubts she will be shipped overseas. In the reserves since 1985, she said it is the first time she’s been called into active duty. She did serve seven years in the Army before joining the reserves.
“Even though it’s stressful, this is one of the things that happen when you’re a reservist,” she said. “It’s part of the job. Of course, if I were going to Saudi Arabia, I might not be saving this…” Burnham said the stress comes from being temporarily uprooted, getting her JSC work in order before she left and canceling a planned vacation to South Padre Island for which she was the trip leader. Because she deals with paperwork as a Coast Guard yeoman, she also knows that it will take some time before her military paycheck catches up with her.
Meanwhile, events in the Persian Gulf region have also impacted the crews who provide rescue support for Space Shuttle launches. The primary teams have been deployed in the Middle East and backup crews have been readied. “There was already someone standing by ready to jump in line and perform the task for us,” said Air Force Colonel Dave Phillips, Director of the Department of Defense’ Shuttle Support Office at Patrick Air Force Base. “We have a commitment from all of the commanders and the organizations concerned that they are ready to support this mission.”
The Shuttle Support Office draws on National Guard, reserves and active duty personnel nationwide. “We have trained more people than we really need so that we always have a backup. We are able to mix and match and get the required number without continually overtaxing any one unit.” Phillips added that medical personnel are the most scarce now, but even if the situation in the Middle East worsened, the DOD would still be able to attend to any injured astronauts. (Kelly Humphries, JSC Space News Roundup, Aug. 31, 1990: Banke, Florida Today, Aug. 30, 1990 – edited)
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#170 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:30
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August 30: IRAQ THREATENS TO “RAIN” BOMBS ON ISRAEL AND SAUDI ARABIA
Iraq said today it would rain bombs and missiles on Israel and Saudi Arabia if war broke out. The official Iraqi News Agency quoted the country's Air Force commander as saying, "We don't say that our air or missile force can reach the White House. If war breaks out it will direct crushing blows to the dens of the Israelis who have and are still playing a malicious role in pushing matters to war. The dens of treason in the (Saudi) kingdom of evil will not be safe from destruction."
The news agency, which did not name the commander, said he was responding to remarks by a Saudi commander that forces massed in the kingdom could strike deadly blows against Iraq. Responding to the Iraqi threat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said in a statement: "Israel has repeatedly proven that it knows how to defend itself and if attacked any aggressor will live to regret his actions."
Shamir warned Wednesday, August 29, that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might attack the Jewish state in order to portray the Persian Gulf crisis as an Arab-Israeli conflict. Since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, Israel has said that it would be drawn in only if attacked by Iraq or if Iraqi troops entered Jordan, the state separating them. (Combined Reuters, AP, Deseret News, Aug. 31, 1990 – edited)
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#171 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:31
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#172 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:32
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#173 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:34
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#174 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:35
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#175 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:36
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August 30: FLIGHT V38 ANOTHER ARIANE SUCCESS
Arianespace successfully lofted their 38th mission at 10:46 p.m. EDT from the ELA-2 launch complex in Kourou, French Guiana. The mission’s payload included two satellites, the Eutelsat II-F1 for European Telecommunications Organization and the Skynet 4C for the British Ministry of Defense. The satellites were placed in a Ariane 44LP launch vehicle with two solid and two liquid propellant strap-on boosters. (Countdown, November 1990 – edited)
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#176 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:37
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#177 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:38
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#178 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:39
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August 31: COLUMBIA AND ATLANTIS LEAKS ARE ALIKE, “SURPRISED” LENOIR REVEALS
The hydrogen leaks found on both Columbia and Atlantis are alike, NASA officials revealed, reversing previous theories that they were unrelated. The leaks have now been traced to seals that control the flow of propellants from the external fuel tank to the orbiter’s main engines. “We’ve surprised ourselves as we seem to do every time we do another test in the hydrogen world,” said William Lenoir, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Spaceflight. Because the leaks both originated from the same type of fuel line seal, Lenoir expressed confidence that engineers now understand the problem. NASA suspects that over 100 tiny glass beads found to have contaminated Columbia’s fuel line damaged her seals; investigators are looking for similar contamination in Atlantis’ seals. (Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991; Countdown, October 1990 – edited)
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#179 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:41
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CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS: September 1990
September 1: SAUDI ARABIA FORBIDS OFFENSIVE ATTACKS
Saudi Arabia's defense minister said today that foreign troops in the kingdom would not be allowed to initiate attacks unless Iraqi forces cross into Saudi territory. "The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not a theater for any action that is not defensive for Saudi Arabia," Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz told a news conference. His comments appeared to rule out the use of Saudi Arabia as a base for possible efforts to strike inside Iraq or drive out occupation forces in Kuwait.
U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of American forces, said Friday, August 31, there would be no war unless Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made the "awfully stupid mistake" of attacking Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials say more than 100,000 troops, including those aboard dozens of ships in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, are in the region or on the way. The deployment could go as high as 250,000. The U.S.-led multinational force is facing more than 200,000 Iraqi troops poised along the Saudi borders with Iraq and Kuwait.
Prince Sultan, who met with reporters after delivering a speech to Saudi military cadets, said "any peaceful solution would have in mind the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait." He was vague when asked how an Iraqi withdrawal could be achieved without military action. But he said Saudi Arabia will not initiate hostilities against other Arab state. "War should always be a last resort," said Prince Sultan, who spoke through an interpreter. The prince, a younger brother of King Fahd, condemned Iraq for placing foreigners at strategic sites to serve as human shields against attack. (Deseret News, Sep. 2, 1990 – edited)
September 4: SAUDI U.S. SHIP SEIZES IRAQI FREIGHTER
A U.S. warship in the Gulf of Oman seized an Iraqi freighter carrying tea from Sri Lanka today, American officials said, and scores of Westerners arrived in Amman, Jordan, aboard two Iraqi Airways jet-liners. The first flight brought 170 foreigners, mostly Arabs and Asians. A second plane, which landed two hours later, had 135 West Germans, plus some New Zealanders, Irish citizens and some other Westerners, according to airport officials.A British Embassy official said 45 Britons were expected on a third flight. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said there would also be a number of Americans on the plane, but he was not sure how many.
In the Soviet Union, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze proposed an international conference on the gulf crisis that would also take up the Arab-Israeli conflict and the civil war in Lebanon. In a major foreign policy address, Shevardnadze said Sunday's superpower summit in Helsinki would mark "a major milestone on the road toward resolving the crisis.”
In another development, Iraq suggested setting up an international "people's court" to try President Bush for defiling Islam and for human rights violations. The Iraqi News Agency said today the idea was discussed by Iraq's union for lawyers and human rights association. More than 300 Britons left Kuwait City by bus today to journey to Baghdad in search of exit visas and a way home, while thousands of refugees remained stranded in dismal conditions along the Iraqi-Jordanian border as "hostages of the desert."
The Iraqi freighter stopped by the American warship was ordered to go to the Omani port of Muscat, where it was being held in the first seizure in the U.S. naval interception program that began August 16 to enforce a U.N. embargo against Iraqi goods. No violence was reported during the seizure, the defense sources said in Washington. "The ship was ordered to divert. It did not divert. It was then boarded and now has diverted. We don't have information now on where it's being diverted to," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.
The New York Times reported today the United States has secretly deployed combat aircraft in several Persian Gulf nations to help defend Saudi Arabia, a chief supplier of oil to the United States, against Iraqi forces near the kingdom's border. "Every one of the gulf states is taking stuff," an unidentified U.S. official said, referring to the stationing of combat aircraft in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.
Only a handful of the deployments had been publicly disclosed because of the gulf nations' continuing sensitivities about inviting in the U.S. military.
The Times said the arrangements were quietly worked out by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia and the gulf nations. U.S. officials said they had to turn to the gulf states for airfields because Saudi installations are jammed with transport and combat planes, the newspaper reported. Dispersing U.S. aircraft throughout Saudi Arabia and the gulf region also makes them less vulnerable to an Iraqi attack, officials told the Times. (Deseret News/UPI, Sep. 4, 1990 – edited)