Atlantis STS-38 – Roundtrip Ticket

• #180 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:43

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• #181 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:44

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• #182 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:47

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• #183 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:49
• September 8: KSC WATCHES INVESTIGATION INTO DEADLY ACCIDENT AT EDWARDS
  Yesterday a Titan IV booster segment was dropped at the Air Force Astronautics Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and ignited, killing one person and injuring nine others. The bottom segment was accidently dropped while being lifted by a crane to be moved to an outdoor test stand for further assembly. During the procedure, the segment fell 100 feet. The segment measures 88 feet tall and ten feet wide, the largest portion of the 430-ft. Titan IV.
  
  Alan Parrish, KCS Director of Safety, Reliability, Maintainability and Quality Assurance, said today that every effort is mad to ensure that the type of accident which occurred in California does not occur in the Vehicle Assembly Building or other areas of Launch Complex 39. Parrish said that a KSC representative might serve on the investigative board the Air Force is forming, or as an official observer.
  
  The Air Force has expressed interest in how KSC operates and maintains its cranes used to lift shuttle booster segments. NASA wants to learn more about the propellant used in the Titan IV segment that was destroyed. The space agency is interested because the propellant combination is similar to what will be used on the shuttle’s Advanced Solid Rocket Motor, said Parrish. (Countdown, October 1990; Banke, Florida Today, Sep. 9, 1990 – edited)
  
  
  September 8: THIOKOL IS HEALTHY, GAO REPORT SAYS
  Researchers from NASA, the military and Congress agree that Thiokol, Utah's rocket maker, is healthy and should survive - although they wondered about that last year, a new report says. Each agency had doubts when salt/chemical giant Morton Thiokol spun off its defense and space operations to form the new Thiokol last year, saying such government work – and motors that destroyed the Space Shuttle Challenger – held down its stock prices.
  
  A just released report by the U.S. General Accounting Office - a research arm of Congress - concludes now that the new Thiokol "should remain viable." It noted that separate studies by the Department of Defense and NASA reached the same conclusion. Rep. Roy Dyson, D-Maryland., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, ordered the GAO to study what effect the Morton Thiokol separation might have on the nation's defense production base and the health of the company.
  
  While the report said Congress should not worry about Thiokol's ability to handle space and defense contracts, it did issue one warning:
  
  "Thiokol Corp. has become an independent company and no longer has access to the former corporation's assets if it should encounter financial difficulties. This is a factor the government will likely have to consider when evaluating whether to continue with any of Thiokol's contracts or programs. The government may have to subsidize Thiokol if the company does have financial problems, or risk delays or non-performance on other vital government contracts," the study said.
  
  Much of the concern about Thiokol from government agencies came because of the large amount of debt assigned to it when Morton Thiokol split into two separate companies. Thiokol was assigned $220 million of the original corporation's long-term debt, while its sister, Morton International, was assigned just $44 million. The GAO concluded that split was fair because defense and space operations by Thiokol - including redesigning Space Shuttle rockets - created most of that debt. The study added that the company should easily be able to service that debt.
  
  "Air Force, NASA and Defense Logistics Agency officials have concluded that Thiokol's projected business base will be sufficient to ensure the company's viability. Thiokol is regarded as a viable entity by lenders and stock analysts as well," it said. Some of the reasons the study said Thiokol's future should be assured are:
  
  - The Air Force and NASA foresee no significant contract cutbacks at Thiokol despite plans for some overall defense restructuring and cutbacks.
  - "Purchases of Thiokol's Solid Rocket Motors are planned through 1995 and beyond.
  Thiokol also is the sole producer of the nozzles for the next-generation Advanced Solid Rocket Motor," the study said. The current motors are built in Utah, but the nozzles will be built in Louisiana.
  - "Thiokol's cash flow has increased considerably since the separation. With the projected sale and increased cash flow, Thiokol should be able to service its long-term debt," the study said.
  
  (Lee Davidson, Deseret News, Sep. 9, 1990 – edited)
  
  
  September 12: KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT – ATLANTIS STS-38
  Operations to replace the flash evaporator aboard Atlantis are continuing. Brazing operations are scheduled today. Tile repair continue and thermal control blankets are being installed on the forward bulkhead. (KSC Shuttle Status Report, Sep. 12, 1990)
  
  
  
• #184 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:51
• September 12: DID U.S. WARSHIPS CAUSE SADDAM TO FLINCH?
  The carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and guided-missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga, two of the first ships to bolster Operation Desert Shield, steamed into port today after a nervous tour in the Middle East. Top officers credited the Eisenhower's battle group with causing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to blink shortly after his country's August 2 invasion of Kuwait. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and several warships were rapidly moved from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea as part of the U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf. "We were really the only U.S. forces that were ready at that time to interdict a further Iraqi aggression into Saudi Arabia," Rear Admiral Thomas Lynch, commander of Cruiser-Destroyer Group 12 and Battle Force 6th Fleet told reporters aboard the Eisenhower. "I think it had to cause him (Saddam) to hesitate, to stutter, and I think when he did that, he lost the initiative," the officer said. (Deseret News, Sep. 13, 1990 – edited)
  

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• #185 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:54
• September 14: CRRES SUCCESSFULLY PERFORMS FIRST CHEMICAL RELEASE EXPERIMENT
  A NASA/U.S. Air Force satellite took its first readings of chemical releases in the upper atmosphere this week, helping scientists understand the processes by which fast-moving neutral gases become ionized. The two canisters released, part of the Combined Release and radiation Effects Satellite CRRES project, occurred Monday, September 10 at dusk local time over the South Pacific and above the atmosphere at altitudes between 300 and 360 miles.
  
  The chemical releases were observed by scientists aboard two aircraft, an Air Force KC-135 and a leased Learjet-35. Scientists on American Samoa also observed the releases with low-light video cameras and telescopes. Instruments aboard the satellite also monitored the releases. A second pair of releases had been scheduled for Wednesday, September 12, but were postponed when a camera that was to record the releases from one of the aircraft malfunctioned. The release was being rescheduled for today or this weekend.
  
  “Two releases were seen from both aircraft,” said Gene Wescott, a principal investigator for the CRRES project. “The actual releases in darkness were very bright – you could see a spherical shell 10 to 20 seconds after the releases. Barium ions were seen coming up above the terminator. Anyway, it was a success.”
  
  In the first release, two canisters were ejected from opposite sides of the CRRES spacecraft. After 25 minutes, when the canisters were about two miles from the satellite, vaporized chemicals were released from each canister to expand. The first pair of canisters released 12 pounds of barium from one canister and 12 pounds of strontium from the other. The second pair is to release 12 pounds of barium and four pounds of calcium.
  
  Wescott said barium ions, or electrically charged atoms, were formed by the interaction with the background plasma. No strontium ions were observed, he said. The observation of such an ion cloud confirmed the critical velocity ionization hypothesis, which states that if the relative velocity of an electrically neutral gas and a magnetized plasma (ionized, or electrically charged gas) is large enough, the neutral gas will ionize even though less energy is available than is normally required. (JSC Space News Roundup, Sep. 14, 1990 – edited)
  

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• #186 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:55
• 
  ”Painting” the Heavens
  
  (By Nigel Macknight)
  
  Space science, which has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years, is reaping a further bountiful data harvest, courtesy of a spacecraft designated CRRES – the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite. CRRES is, as its name suggests, a dual-role spacecraft: a joint NASA/Marshall-U.S. Air Force Space Systems Division payload, it is conducting complex scientific research in the region termed “Earthspace” – the space environment just above Earth’s atmosphere.
  
  
  “EARTHSPACE”
  
  “Earthspace,” far from being a featureless void, is a dynamic ocean of invisible magnetic and electric fields, energetic particle radiation and electrically-charged plasmas, collections of negatively-charged electrons and positively-charged atoms whose interactions are influenced by long-range electric forces, rather than by the atomic collisions that govern the behavior of neutral gases. It includes the ionosphere and magnetosphere, which have been the subject of scientific scrutiny for decades, due to their profound influence on spacecraft and spacefarers, communications and the weather.
  
  CRRES works on an ingenious principle: Much as a high school physics student spreads iron filings around a magnet so as to “see” its invisible magnetic field, CRRES periodically releases various chemicals from 24 onboard canisters, creating large luminous clouds when they are ionized by the Sun’s ultraviolet light. The clouds elongate along the Earth’s magnetic field lines, briefly “painting” these invisible structures.
  
  By observing the motion of the clouds, scientists are able to measure electric fields in space and see how they interact with charged particles to form waves, and to better understand how the Earth extracts into the upper atmosphere energy from the solar wind – a continual fast-moving flow of particles from the Sun. The solar wind carries electrically-charged particles that are sometimes trapped in the magnetosphere in two belts, the inner and outer Van Allen radiation belts, named after the scientist who discovered them.
  
  
  TROUBLESOME REGIONS
  
  Earth’s neutral atmosphere, which extends approximately 40 miles above the Earth’s surface, is a shell of neutral gases that encompasses our planet’s weather and protects its life forms. The ionosphere, which extends from above the atmosphere to approximately 620 miles above the planet, is an electrically-charged transition zone between the atmosphere and the magnetosphere. The latter is populated with energetic charged particles and extends 40,000 miles.
  
  When the magnetosphere is hit by a cloud of energetic particles from a solar flare, a so-called geomagnetic storm can occur that can disrupt power systems and long-distance communications. Today’s increasingly complex satellites – such as NASA’s TDRS family and other geosynchronous satellites – are equipped with sophisticated electronics and sensors which are susceptible to damage in these zones of intense radiation. The radiation can disable their electronic systems or trigger false readings in space instruments and equipment. Often, they limit a satellite’s operational lifespan.
  
  CRRES carries samples of the latest generation of spacecraft microelectronics through these troublesome regions to correlate their performance and expected failure-modes with the measured radiation exposure, and aid investigations geared to improving their operation in this environment. For example, a set of solar cells employing gallium arsenide rather than silicon materials is under evaluation. Gallium arsenide is generally believed to be a more efficient producer of power and to have a higher resistance to radiation and high temperatures.
  

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• #187 by Ares67 on 15 Dec, 2016 23:57
• TORTUROUS PATH
  
  CRRES has followed a somewhat torturous path to space. In 1984, the spacecraft was designed with a dual-mission capability carrying 48 chemical canisters, to be deployed from the shuttle into a 215-mile circular orbit. From this low-Earth orbit it would have performed chemical releases for a period of 90 days, the a transfer-stage motor was to have boosted it into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, where additional chemical releases and the primary DOD mission – close-range measurement of the effects of the releases – would be carried out.
  
  The tragic loss of Challenger in January 1986 led to the nature of many upcoming space missions being radically altered, and CRRES was one. Following a major program restructuring effort, NASA announced in June 1987 that CRRES would be launched directly to GTO on an Atlas-Centaur, carrying just 24 canisters, complemented by a program of suborbital sounding-rocket launches to facilitate some of the experiments deleted from the original 48-canister mission.
  
  
  LAUNCH AND RELEASE
  
  CRRES’ prime contractor is Ball Aerospace of Boulder, Colorado. The spacecraft’s scientific instruments and the investigations involving them were developed by scientists from institutions throughout the United States, Europe and South America. Control of CRRES throughout its mission is exercised by the USAF’s Consolidated Space Test Center at Sunnyvale, California.
  
  CRRES was launched under the terms of a contract between NASA and General Dynamics atop one of the latter’s Atlas-Centaur boosters – tail number AC-69 – fitted with a new-specification 14-foot-diameter payload fairing. Lift-off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Pad 36B took place on July 25, 1990. CRRES was placed into a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit of approximately  217 by 22,236 miles.
  
  Seven orbit releases are being undertaken at altitudes ranging from 1,200 to 21,000 miles (the original GTO releases), while the remainder are being undertaken near perigee at altitudes between 240 and 300 miles. A total of ten sounding rockets are to be launched – six from Puerto Rico in the West Indies and four from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Islands. Lofted in July-August 1990 and June-July 1991, the sounding rockets are performing releases – of barium and sulfur hexafluoride – requiring precise targeting as to location, local time and altitude.
  
  The primary thrust of CRRES operational activity is concentrated into three campaigns: The first takes place in September; its highlight is a critical relativity ionization experiment, which among other things is performed to validate a theory that ultimately explains why the inner planets of our solar system are composed of heavier materials than the outer planets.
  
  The second campaign takes place in January/February 1991 and is set to ascertain the possibility of creating an artificial aurora. The summer of 1991 will see the finale, when chemical releases take place at lower altitudes.
  
  
  MODUS OPERANDI
  
  CRRES is spin-stabilized and totes ten deployable booms – extensions of the science payload – which act as antennas to probe electrical and magnetic fields as the satellite passes through them. At launch, CRRES carried 24 canisters containing various chemicals, facilitating a total of 14 experiments in the course of 16 chemical releases. For each experiment, one or two canisters are ejected from the spacecraft at either dawn (seven releases), dusk (two), or at geosynchronous altitude (seven). Approximately 25 minutes later, when the canisters and CRRES are far enough apart to prevent contamination, the canister releases its chemical vapors.
  
  The chemicals – lithium, barium, calcium and strontium – are ionized by the Sun’s ultraviolet light, the process of photo-ionization, creating luminous clouds initially about 60 miles in diameter. The bright clouds of red and white-blue elongate along the Earth’s magnetic field lines, briefly dying the invisible structures so that teams of scientists can observe them. The luminous clouds are being studied by instruments on the ground, in specially-equipped aircraft, and from CRRES itself. There are no adverse environmental effects from the chemical releases.
  
  The principle ground-based facilities that measure CRRES chemical releases include the Arecibo Incoherent Scatter Radar and the Arecibo HF Ionospheric Heater Facility at Arecibo, Puerto Rico; The ALTAIR Radar Facility at Kwajalein; and the Millstone Hill Radar Facility in Massachusetts. These facilities diagnose the state of the ionosphere prior to, during and just after each release. They also examine in detail the structure of the artificial plasma clouds. The radars can measure the state of the ionosphere and artificial plasma clouds simultaneously over a wide altitude range.
  
  No less important are the array of ground- and aircraft-based optical diagnostics, which include wide-field cameras, high-sensitivity TV systems, spectrographs and interferometers. Portable VHF coherent scatter radars diagnose regions not accessible to the fixed radars, and radio receivers aboard the aircraft measure disruptions in signals received from satellites resulting from the ionospheric disturbances.
  
  (Nigel Macknight, Spaceflight News #62, February 1991 – edited)
  

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• #188 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:01
• September 16: BUSH: “WE HAVE NO QUARREL WITH THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ”
  Here is the text of President Bush's address to the Iraqi people broadcast today:
  
  “I'm here today to explain to the people of Iraq why the United States and the world community have responded the way they have to Iraq's occupation of Kuwait. My purpose is not to trade accusations, not to escalate the war of words, but to speak with candor about what has caused this crisis that confronts us.
  
  Let there be no misunderstanding. We have no quarrel with the people of Iraq. I've said many times and I will repeat right now: Our only object is to oppose the invasion ordered by Saddam Hussein.On Aug. 2, your leadership made its decision to invade, an unprovoked attack on a small nation that posed no threat to your own. Kuwait was the victim; Iraq, the aggressor. And the world met Iraq's invasion with a chorus of condemnation, unanimous resolutions in the United Nations.
  
  Twenty-seven states - rich and poor, Arab, Moslem, Asian and African - have answered the call of Saudi Arabia and free Kuwait and sent forces to the gulf region to defend against Iraq. For the first time in history, 13 states of the Arab League, representing 80 percent of the Arab Nation, have condemned a brother Arab state. Today, opposed by world opinion, Iraq stands isolated and alone.
  
  I do not believe that you, the people of Iraq, want war. You've borne untold suffering and hardship during eight long years of war with Iran, a war that touched the life of every single Iraqi citizen, a war that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men, the bright promise of an entire generation. No one knows better than you the incalculable costs of war, the ultimate cost when a nation's vast potential and vital energies are consumed by conflict. No one knows what Iraq might be today, what prosperity and peace you might now enjoy had your leaders not plunged you into war.
  
  Now, once again, Iraq finds itself on the brink of war. Once again, the same Iraqi leadership has miscalculated. Once again, the Iraqi people face tragedy. Saddam Hussein has told you that Iraqi troops were invited into Kuwait. That's not true. In fact, in the face of far superior force, the people of Kuwait are bravely resisting this occupation. Your own returning soldiers will tell you the Kuwaitis are fighting valiantly in any way they can.
  
  Saddam Hussein tells you that this crisis is a struggle between Iraq and America. In fact, it is Iraq against the world. When President Gorbachev and I met at Helsinki, we agreed that no peaceful international order is possible if larger states can devour their neighbors. Never before has world opinion been so solidly united against aggression. Nor, until the invasion of Kuwait, has the United States been opposed to Iraq. In the past, the United States has helped Iraq import billions of dollars worth of food and other commodities. And the war with Iran would not have ended two years ago without U.S. support and sponsorship in the United Nations.
  
  Saddam Hussein tells you the occupation of Kuwait will benefit the poorer nations of the world. In fact, the occupation of Kuwait is helping no one and is now hurting you, the Iraqi people, and countless others of the world's poor. Instead of acquiring new oil wells by annexing Kuwait, this misguided act of aggression will cost Iraq over $20 billion a year in lost oil revenues.
  
  Because of Iraq's aggression, hundreds of thousands of innocent foreign workers are fleeing Kuwait and Iraq. They are stranded on Iraq's borders without shelter, without food, without medicine, with no way home. These refugees are suffering and this is shameful. But even worse, others are being held hostage in Iraq and Kuwait. Hostage-taking punishes the innocent and separates families. It is barbaric. It will not work. And it will not affect my ability to make tough decisions.
  
  I do not wish to add to the suffering of the people of Iraq. The United Nations has put binding sanctions in place not to punish the Iraqi people but as a peaceful means to convince your leadership to withdraw from Kuwait. That decision is in the hands of Saddam Hussein. The pain you now experience is a direct result of the path your leadership has chosen. When Iraq returns to the path of peace, when Iraqi troops withdraw from Kuwait, when that country's rightful government is restored, when all foreigners held against their will are released, then and then alone will the world end the sanctions.
  
  Perhaps your leaders do not appreciate the strength of the forces united against them. Let me say clearly there is no way Iraq can win. Ultimately, Iraq must withdraw from Kuwait. No one - not the American people, not this President - wants war. But there are times when a country, when all countries who value the principles of sovereignty and independence, must stand against aggression. As Americans, we're slow to raise our hand in anger and eager to explore every peaceful means of settling our disputes. But when we have exhausted every alternative, when conflict is thrust upon us, there is no nation on Earth with greater resolve or stronger steadiness of purpose.
  
  The actions of your leadership have put Iraq at odds with the world community. But while those actions have brought us to the brink of conflict, war is not inevitable. It is still possible to bring this crisis to a peaceful end. When we stand with Kuwait against aggression, we stand for a principle well understood in the Arab world.
  
  Let me quote the words of one Arab leader, Saddam Hussein himself: "An Arab country does not have the right to occupy another Arab country. God forbid, if Iraq should deviate from the right path, we would want Arabs to send their armies to put things right. If Iraq should become intoxicated by its power and move to overwhelm another Arab state, the Arabs would be right to deploy their armies to check it."
  
  Those are the words of your leader, Saddam Hussein, spoken on Nov. 28, 1988, in a speech to Arab lawyers. Today, two years later, Saddam has invaded and occupied a member of the United Nations and the Arab League. The world will not allow this aggression to stand. Iraq must get out of Kuwait for the sake of principle, for the sake of peace and for the sake of the Iraqi people.” (Deseret News, Sep. 17, 1990 – edited)
  

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• #189 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:02
• September 16: A NEW ROAD TO PLAYALINDA BEACH
  Construction may begin this fall on the new road to Playalinda Beach; permits have been obtained and bids for the project have been opened. The new road was made necessary by the need to provide beach access which was outside Kennedy Space Center’s three-mile security zone. Currently, the only access road to the beach for Titusville residents is closed when an orbiter is on Launch Pad 30B or when a shuttle is being flown back to the Space Center following a California landing.
  
  Peggy DeWeese, federal highway engineer, said Speegle Construction Co. of Cocoa, Florida, has submitted the lowest bid, $3.9 million, but that the contract had not yet been awarded. “We look at price, responsiveness and responsibility,” she said. “The company that will receive the project has to fulfill the essential contract requirements and be qualified to do the work. We have to make sure the price they bid will allow them to do the work.” The project is scheduled for completion in January 1993. When completed, there will be year-round access to Playalinda Beach. (Long, Florida Today, Sep. 18, 1990 – edited)
  
  
   September 19: TITAN IV LAUNCH POSTPONED
  The launch of a Titan IV rocket was postponed today for 24 to 48 hours because of technical problems encountered during countdown. Lift-off of the Titan is expected to take place between 12:01 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. EDT September 21 or September 22. The rocket is carrying a Department of Defense payload. (Florida Today, Sep. 20, 1990)
  
  
  September 22: FIRST NIGHT FIRING OF MODIFIED SHUTTLE SRM AT MARSHALL
  An experimental Solid Rocket Motor was successfully test-fired for 30 seconds at 7:30 p.m. CDT at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The test marked the first night firing of the 20-ft.-long modified shuttle motor, which was tested once before in June 1989. During the test, the 48-in.-diameter motor rested in a specially constructed test stand. The test motor consisted of one case segment, two propellant cartridges weighing a total of approximately 10,000 pounds, a forward dome loaded with inert propellant, an aft dome segment, a nozzle, an igniter, and a safe and arm device. Approximately 70 instruments were attached to the motor to gather data.
  
  “The primary purpose for this test is to evaluate the performance of a new Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor nozzle liner material for the Space Shuttle,” said Chuck Vibbart, test area manager for Marshall. The new material is supplied by North American Rayon Corporation of Elizabethtown, Tennessee. Results will later be used to aid in the prediction of rayon material erosion in a full-scale static test at Thiokol’s facility in Utah. Thiokol is prime contractor for the Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor.
  
  Another major test objective, according to Vibbart, was to evaluate the erosion and characteristics of three non-asbestos insulation candidate materials, in comparison with the currently used asbestos insulation. “Another objective and the reason we are firing the test motor at night is to provide the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor program with radiation heating data from the exhaust plume of the motor,” said Tom Williams of Marshall’s Solid Rocket Motor office. “Radiometers installed on the test stand will provide this data and will be used to compare the difference in radiation heating between Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor propellant and ASRM propellant. The night firing will enhance radiometer measurements.”
  
  The test firing Saturday night at the Marshall Space Flight Center should lay the groundwork for a later full-scale static firing near Brigham City of the Space Shuttle's Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor. Thiokol Corp., Brigham City, is the prime contractor for the redesigned motor, which will launch space shuttles for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for several years.
  
  The redesigned shuttle motor incorporates new safety features to prevent accidents like the one that killed seven astronauts in the explosion of Challenger in 1986. NASA intends to fly the redesigned motors until the next generation of motors – the advanced solid-fuel boosters - can be certified for flight. That is expected to happen in 1996 or 1997. Sometime after certification, NASA will begin flying advanced boosters built by Lockheed and Aerojet Corp., to be assembled in a new booster plant in Mississippi. However, Thiokol is expected to continue building the booster's nozzle under a subcontract with Lockheed. (Countdown, November 1990; Joseph Bauman, Deseret News, Sep. 23, 1990 – edited)
  
  
  September 23: “SECRET” TITAN MAY BE BLASTING OFF SUNDAY
  Under a cloak of secrecy, engineers were believed to be readying a powerful Air Force Titan 4 rocket for blastoff early today on a clandestine mission to put a military spy satellite into orbit, sources said. The Titan 4, the most powerful unmanned rocket in the nation's inventory, apparently was scheduled for lift off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station shortly before 1:00 a.m. EDT today, according to government radio traffic monitored by reporters near the launch complex. In addition, flashing red warning lights at the Titan launch complex could be easily seen from nearby public highways and the Coast Guard made frequent broadcasts warning fishermen to steer clear of the rocket's presumed flight path.
  
  But as usual with such military missions, all details about the flight were classified and Air Force officials would neither confirm nor deny reports about an impending launch. The rocket's payload was classified as well, but it may have been a $180 million Defense Support Program early warning spacecraft built by TRW of Redondo Beach, California, capable of detecting rocket launches using a large infrared telescope. Such a satellite could prove useful in the Persian Gulf crisis, giving the military more warning of any Iraqi missile attacks on U.S. troops or those of its allies. (Deseret News, Sep. 23, 1990 – edited)
  
  
  September 24: ANOTHER TITAN SCRUB AS SHUTTLE SHUFFLE CONTINUES
  Because of a persisting hydrogen leak problem NASA does not expect to launch Columbia now until late November or December, by which time hopefully both Discovery and Atlantis will have launched. At Pad 39A, Auxiliary Power Unit No. 1 will be removed from Columbia this afternoon and transported to the OPF for installation into the orbiter Atlantis; due to a shortage of flight-ready APUs in early August one of Atlantis’ three hydraulic units had been removed and installed on Discovery.
  
  Atlantis SCAPE operations over the weekend took longer than expected when thruster thermal barrier damage was noticed and repaired. The OPF bay was opened for normal work this morning with continuing leak checks in the Main Propulsion system and Freon servicing scheduled for today. The flash evaporator retest is scheduled for tomorrow. Rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building will occur early in October. The External Tank, attached to the Solid Rocket Boosters on the Mobile Launcher Platform in the VAB is undergoing final closeouts this week.
  
  Meanwhile, the launch of a Titan IV on a Department of Defense mission has again been scrubbed by the Air Force. On Sunday undisclosed problems led to the scrub and the inability to fix those problems led to a scrub early this morning. The first launch attempt had been September 20. (KSC Space Shuttle Processing Status Report, Sep. 24, 1990; Florida Today, Sep. 24, 1990 – edited)
  
• #190 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:05
• September 26: SANCTIONS BEGIN TO BITE, SAYS CHENEY
  Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said today there is an increasing likelihood that Iraqi
  President Saddam Hussein will lash out with military force to try to break the U.N. embargo. "We may have seen in the last 48 or 72 hours the beginning commentary from him that would indicate that the sanctions are beginning to bite," Cheney told a conference of economists in Washington. His comments followed Saddam's videotaped message to Americans, broadcast Tuesday and today, that said U.S. gulf forces faced the prospect of bigger losses than those suffered in the Vietnam War.
  
  The Defense Department reported Tuesday that about 430,000 Iraqi soldiers are now in southern Iraq and Kuwait, up from 360,000 last week. The U.S. aircraft carrier Independence and its 70 attack jets will soon join other warships in the gulf in a show of force, a U.S. military source in the gulf said Wednesday. It would be the first U.S. carrier in the gulf since 1974. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to say when the 1,000-foot Independence would sail in from the Arabian Sea. The Pentagon declined comment. Officials concerned about vulnerability had been reluctant to send a carrier into the gulf, whose entrance is the narrow Strait of Hormuz. About 165,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed in the Saudi desert.
  
  Jordan joined Egypt today in saying it will abide by the Security Council resolution calling for an embargo on the aircraft of Iraq and occupied Kuwait. "The civil aviation authority and concerned government departments will implement this resolution," Jordan's official Petra news agency quoted an unidentified Jordanian transport ministry official as saying. However, three regularly scheduled Iraqi Airways flights arrived in Amman from Baghdad today. The first carried 185 people aboard - including 11 British women and children. The two flights that landed later today also carried Westerners.
  
  Jordanian officials said they were checking on details of the U.N. resolution. "According to our initial studying of the resolution, we understand that it does not bar human traffic," said a Cabinet minister on condition of anonymity. The Security Council resolution passed 14-1 on Tuesday, with Cuba the only country voting no. In an unusual move intended to give symbolic weight to the resolution, 13 of the 15 countries represented on the Security Council sent their foreign ministers to cast their countries' vote. Ordinarily, countries allow their ambassadors at the United Nations to cast their votes.
  
  Only a few supplies have been flown in to Baghdad since the invasion, according to
  Western officials. The Security Council already has authorized military enforcement of a sea embargo. The air embargo is largely symbolic, since most trade with Iraq is by land and has already been halted. Iraq's only major export is oil. Iraq has sought a way around the embargo by seeking better relations with Iran - its bitter foe in the 1980-88 war - and reportedly attempted to exchange oil for food. Syrian President Hafez Assad reportedly failed during his visit to Tehran this week to persuade the Iranians not to ship supplies to Iraq. Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani reportedly has said that food shipments to Iraq do not violate the U.N. embargo because "humanitarian shipments" are permitted.
  
  Terrorist leader Mohammed Abul Abbas warned of a "war without limits" if Iraq is attacked and threatened in an interview published today to strike against the United States and Western Europe. "The Palestinians support Baghdad with all their force because Baghdad was the first to link the Palestinian cause to the gulf and the petroleum crisis," Abul Abbas, head of the Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told the Paris daily Le Figaro.
  
  
  U.N. RESOLUTIONS CONDEMNING IRAQ
  
  Since Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait on August 2, the Security Council has passed eight resolutions condemning Baghdad and ordering action intended to force the Iraqis into withdrawing.
  
  Number / Date / Passed Vote
  660 Aug. 3 14-0 Yemen abstains
  Condemns the invasion and demands the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Iraqi troops.
  661 Aug. 6 13-0 Cuba and Yemen abstains
  Orders an embargo on trade with Iraq and occupied Kuwait
  662 Aug. 9 15-0
  Declares Iraq's annexation of Kuwait null and void under international law
  664 Aug. 18 15-0
  Demands that Iraq free all detained foreigners
  665 Aug. 25 13-0 Cuba and Yemen abstain
  Gives the United States and other naval powers the right to enforce the economic embargo by halting shipping to those countries
  666 Sept. 13 13-2 Cuba and Yemen oppose
  Allows humanitarian food aid into Iraq or Kuwait only "to relieve human suffering"; only the council can decide when those circumstances exist.
  667 Sept. 16 15-0
  Condemns Iraq's aggressive acts against diplomatic missions in Kuwait, including the abduction of foreigners who were in the buildings
  669 Sept. 24 15-0
  Stresses that only its Sanctions Committee has the power to permit food, medicine or other humanitarian aid to be sent into Iraq or occupied Kuwait
  670 Sept. 25 14-1 Cuba opposes
  Expands its economic embargo to include air traffic in or out of Iraq and Kuwait, except for cargoes of humanitarian aid specifically authorized by its Sanctions Committee; also calls on U.N. member nations to detain any Iraqi ships that may be used to break the naval embargo.
  
  (Deseret News, Sep. 26 & 27, 1990 – edited)
  
  

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• #191 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:07

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• #192 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:09

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• #193 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:09

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• #194 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:11
• September 27: ATLANTIS PREPARED FOR ROLLOVER TO VAB
  Atlantis underwent checks of her Auxiliary Power Unit controller today. Seals of the 17-inch disconnect are scheduled to be installed today also. Closeouts are underway on all areas of the vehicle. Cleaning operations of the payload bay are to begin tonight. The payload bay doors will be closed tomorrow night. Rollover from the OPF to the Vehicle Assembly Building is expected to come tomorrow night, as well. Closeouts of the External Tank are continuing in the VAB in preparation for orbiter mating operations scheduled for next week. (KSC Shuttle Status Report, Sep. 28, 1990)
  
  
  September 27: HP-20 MINI-SHUTTLE MOCKUP UNVEILED
  A fiberglass mockup of a mini-shuttle that could ferry astronauts to and from the Space Station was unveiled in North Carolina. Built for NASA by two universities in the state, the mini-shuttle, called the HP-20, is a candidate for NASA’s Personnel Launch System (PLS). The full-scale model of the HP-20 was buit by students at North Carolina State University and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, and will later be tested at NASA centers.
  
  The space taxi would be able to seat eight passengers with a crew of two, or could be used to carry 1,200 pounds of primary payload flown by a two-member crew. Its design was taken from that of a Soviet mini-shuttle tested in the 1980s, which in turn evolved from lifting-body tests conducted in the U.S. in the late 60s to early 70s. The HP-20 would weigh about 24,000 pounds, with a wingspan of 23.5 feet and a length of 29.5 feet. Its wings would be foldable to allow for packaging within the shuttle’s payload bay.
  
  The space plane would be able to land on runways, and perform similar tasks as the Space Shuttle. Where the STS could carry heavy loads, the smaller space plane could carry the crew. However, engineers are designing the mini-shuttle with an emphasis on less time and expense for turnaround.
  
  NASA engineers predict the HP-20 could enter existence by the year 2000, but a new launch vehicle will also have to be developed. The HP-20 will also be safer than its larger sibling, able to separate from its booster on the launch pad in case of an accident. The new vehicle will not replace the shuttle, but will accommodate many of the routine exchanges of people and cargo to and from space. Currently, Rockwell International has a $1.75 million contract to study the HP-20. (Countdown, November 1990 – edited)
  
  
• #195 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:13
• September 28: WORLD WANTS IRAQ PULLOUT, BUSH SAYS
  President Bush told the exiled ruler of Kuwait today that "the world is strongly supporting what we all are trying to do" in seeking to force the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Bush complimented Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah on his speech Thursday, September 27, before the United Nations General Assembly, calling it "a marvelous thing." The President said he could not recall anyone getting a standing ovation, as the Emir did, when Bush was U.N. ambassador from 1971 to 1973.
  
  Al-Sabah was warmly greeted by the multinational body. Officials pointedly referred to him as leader of the "state of Kuwait" in defiance of Iraq's annexation of the oil-rich nation. The three member Iraqi delegation walked out. The Emir told the U.N. General Assembly that his country was suffering a crisis that is "a manifold tragedy whose dire consequences affect not only Kuwaitis but other peoples as well."
  
  "In fact, it has jeopardized stability in the world, especially in the gulf region," he said, adding his country now was ruled by "rape, destruction, terror."
  
  Following their Oval Office meeting, Bush and the Emir had lunch together while their top aides met in a Cabinet room. The White House meeting was intended as a clear sign that the United States still regards the 64-year-old Emir as the legitimate ruler of Kuwait. The President has consistently insisted that not only must Iraq withdraw his invasion troops from Kuwait but that the Emir must be restored to the power he has wielded since 1977.
  
  Meanwhile, Iranians staged massive anti-American demonstrations today, chanting  "Death To America" and denouncing the U.S.-led forces deployed in the gulf, according to a news report. Tehran radio, monitored in Nicosia, covered the protest in the Iranian capital live from the streets. It said others were held across the nation. A reporter said the demonstrations were "an opportunity for the nation to announce its stance on the attack on Kuwait, followed by the U.S. forces' hasty departure to take up positions in Saudi Arabia."
  
  Iran has condemned Iraq's August 2 invasion of Kuwait, but it has deplored the U.S.-led multinational forces sent to protect Saudi Arabia and enforce a U.N.-imposed embargo against Baghdad.
  
  Turkey enforced the U.N. air embargo against Iraq by searching planes bound for Baghdad, and Spain and South Korea joined other nations in pulling envoys from embassies besieged by Iraqi troops in Kuwait. For the past five weeks, Iraqi soldiers have been trying to starve diplomats out of their compounds in Kuwait. At last word, the U.S. ambassador and envoys in more than a dozen other embassies were still holding out. Baghdad says the embassies must close because Kuwait was annexed and made a province of Iraq. The diplomatic war escalated this month when Iraq raided several Western diplomatic compounds in Kuwait City.
  
  In Paris, representatives of the United States and 20 industrialized nations met behind closed doors to discuss how to replenish oil supplies if they are depleted by the gulf crisis. Oil hit $40 a barrel Thursday, exactly eight weeks after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent his troops into Kuwait and increased his share of world oil reserves to 20 percent. Oil sold for $22 per barrel before the invasion. (Deseret News, Sep. 28, 1990 – edited)
  

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• #196 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:14
• September 29: TITAN MAKEOVER FOR VANDENBERG SHUTTLE PAD
  Titan IV/Centaur rockets will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base after the SLC-6 Space Shuttle facilities are converted. Ironically, California’s $3.5 shuttle launch pad was originally built for the Titan III / Manned Orbiting Laboratory program and was later converted for the Space Transportation System. However, SLC-6 never witnessed a shuttle flight and, following the Challenger accident in 1986, NASA gave up on the California site. Construction starts October 1 on converting Space Launch Complex-6 into a launch pad for Titan IV rockets with Centaur upper-stage boosters, according to a Pentagon spokesman. The conversion of SLC-6 will cost between $300 and 500 million, said a Vandenberg spokesman. (Florida Today, Sep. 29, 1990; Countdown, September 1990 – edited)
  
  
  September 29: THUNDERSTORMS DELAY DELTA LAUNCH
  Thunderstorms and thick clouds over Cape Canaveral today prompted a 24-hour delay in the launch of an Air Force Delta II rocket. Air Force meteorologists had predicted a 40 percent chance for an on-time lift-off at 5:44 p.m. EDT, with a launch window lasting until 6:12 p.m. EDT. Launch of the 13-story Delta II rocket and a $65 million military Navstar GPS navigation satellite has been rescheduled for 5:40 p.m. EDT September 30. The launch window will extend until 6:08 p.m. EDT. (Florida Today, Sep. 28 & 29, 1990 – edited)
  
  
  September 30: ANOTHER WEATHER DELAY FOR DELTA II
  Bad weather forced the Air Force to postpone the launch of a Delta II rocket for a second time today. The mission has been rescheduled for Monday, October 1. Air Force Captain Ken Warren said the weather is expected to be more cooperative, with only a 50-percent chance of thunderstorms during the launch period. “We’ll have the same potential problems, just less chance of them,” he said. (Florida Today, Sep. 30, 1990 edited)
  
  
• #197 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:15
• CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS: October 1990
  
  
  October 1: DELTA II LAUNCHED – NAVSTAR GPS WILL AID U.S. TROOPS
  A U.S. Air Force Delta II rocket was finally sent into space from Launch Complex 17A at 5:56 p.m. EDT after two scrubs due to bad weather over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Delta 199 carried Navstar GPS II-9 into orbit. There were two minor delays during the final minutes before lift-off. The first delay was caused by an unauthorized aircraft straying too close to the launch pad, and the second was a temporary problem with the tracking system on the island of Bermuda.
  
  “The guidance system thinks it did a great job, and we can’t find any reason to disagree,” said telemetry manager Skip Mackey.
  
  The Navstar Global Positioning Satellite will be used by military ground, sea and air units holding small, sophisticated receivers to pinpoint their location on Earth. This ability is an especially important aid for the American forces deployed in the desert of Saudi Arabia. “The maps don’t have a lot of things our ground troops can go on,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas Moorman, Jr., Commander of Air Force Space Command.
  
  Another satellite that some military observers say will help in Operation Desert Shield is waiting for launch aboard a Titan IV rocket. The Titan IV has had three launch dates scrubbed since September 19 due to undisclosed technical problems. The $173-million Martin Marietta booster will carry a classified Air Force payload.
  
  Civilian experts speculate that the cargo is an early-warning satellite capable of detecting Iraqi missile attacks in the Middle East. The satellite, named DSP-15, will use a sensitive 12-foot infrared telescope to detect missile attacks from Iraq against Saudi Arabia or other Middle Eastern locations. The satellite, manufactured by TRW Inc., will be the 15th Defense Support Program satellite to be launched since 1971. The satellites were originally built to detect Soviet nuclear attacks against U.S. targets. (Banke, Florida Today, Oct. 2, 1990; Glisch, The Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 2, 1990; Countdown, November 1990 – edited)
  

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• #198 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:16
• October 1: GAO SAYS PRIVATE FIRMS DON'T SEE MARKET FOR THEM IN NASA PROJECTS
  NASA got a cool response to its first effort to arrange private financing for space projects, partly because it turned out the government way was cheaper, a government study says. "Private concerns were not willing to invest in most of the projects because they perceived few or no commercial markets for them," said the General Accounting Office, which reviewed the NASA effort.
  
  The space agency sought private financing last year for seven projects worth nearly $800 million, but only one wound up being commercialized, GAO said. A cornerstone of the U.S. space policy under Presidents Bush and Ronald Reagan has been to increase private sector investment. To that end Bush's budget last year proposed private financing for the projects in the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs.
  
  The GAO said it reviewed NASA's actions "because this was the first effort of this type." Not only did private industry not see a commercial market, said GAO, about half the projects were believed too far along in development to modify for commercial use without added expense and delay. For some, the financial risk was judged to be too high. "Private financing would have significantly increased the government's cost for some projects," the study said.
  
  The ventures were an Advanced Solid Rocket Motor production facility in Yellow Creek, Miss., a weightlessness laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, a Space Station payload processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a processing laboratory for observational instruments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, a robotic arm and a docking system for the Space Station, and equipment to make the shuttle able to fly 16-day missions.
  
  NASA rejected financing plans three of the four construction jobs because they would
  have been significantly more costly than if the money was provided by the government. Private financing of space projects was intended to help reduce NASA spending, GAO said, but added it is an "unlikely possibility" that private industry can borrow money cheaper than government. (Deseret News, Oct. 3, 1990)
  
  
• #199 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:18
• October 4: SADDAM TOURS OCCUPIED KUWAIT
  Iraqi troops kissed Saddam Hussein's hands as he took his first known tour of occupied Kuwait, and officials said today that three Britons and two Frenchmen had fled Iraq in a daring escape by boat. The five Europeans were found Wednesday, October 3, by the Saudi coast guard in the small boat in a Persian Gulf shipping lane off the Saudi-Kuwait border, British diplomats and Saudi officials said.The British escapees told London's Daily Mail newspaper that they had spent 25 hours in rough seas after taking the 10-foot boat through the marshes of southern Iraq, into the Shatt-al-Arab waterway and then the gulf. It was the first report of Western men escaping Iraq since August.
  
  The Britons said they had been working on a key oil installation near the Iraqi port of Basra, and the two Frenchmen were barge masters. They were among a small number of Europeans living on dwindling food supplies and denied permission to leave. Iraq is holding about 2,200 Westerners hostage in Kuwait and Iraq, some at strategic installations to discourage attack by the U.S.-led military forces that began massing in the region after Iraq seized Kuwait on August 2. Nine of those hostages - all Frenchmen - returned to Paris today after being freed earlier by Iraq.
  
  Saddam's visit to Kuwait coincided with the arrival in the region of two foreign leaders and a top envoy seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis. Yevgeny Primakov, a top adviser to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, and Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu of Japan were to meet with Iraqi officials in Baghdad and Amman, Jordan. Soviet diplomatic sources said Primakov, a leading Soviet expert on the Middle East, arrived in Baghdad today carrying a message from Gorbachev. Its contents were not disclosed.
  
  In Moscow, Gorbachev said he did not think the crisis would lead to war, and he also told reporters Thursday he saw no reason to send Soviet troops there. French President Francois Mitterrand, arriving in Saudi Arabia, discussed the crisis with King Fahd and met with French troops in the U.S.-led multinational force. Kaifu met Wednesday with Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan. Jordan has tried to mediate the dispute, even though many of its people support Iraq.
  
  The United States has said its forces will remain until Kuwait's sovereignty is restored. The Pentagon says Iraq has massed 460,000 troops in Kuwait since the multinational force began forming in the gulf region. The United States now has about 170,000 troops in Saudi Arabia and on ships in the area.
  
  Saddam's tour of Kuwait on Wednesday was his first known trip to the country since Iraq invaded the emirate and declared it Baghdad's 19th province. He talked with Iraqi troops and presided over two meetings of military commanders, said the Iraqi News Agency, monitored in Cyprus. It said the soldiers confirmed "their ever-readiness for sacrifice for Iraq and the Arab nation and defeating all evil attempts to desecrate our sacred land."
  
  In pictures of the visit broadcast by Iraqi television, Saddam was shown getting into a foxhole as he discussed a machine gun placement with a soldier. Iraqi troops kissed his hands. The footage also included scenes of all-but-deserted Kuwait City streets, although a dispatch from the Iraqi News Agency said the city "glittered with pride" at Saddam's visit. The agency said Kuwait "appeared flourishing after its return to the mother homeland." Refugees say Iraqi troops have pillaged Kuwait City and executed resistance fighters, seeking to break the spirit of the Kuwaitis and erase their national identity. (Associated Press / Deseret News, Oct. 4, 1990 – edited)
  

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