Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to intercept this visitor from deep space with cameras and other scientific instruments. Says George Rathjens, former chief scientist at the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency: "Space science is in shambles. Planetary exploration is in shambles." Indeed, because of shuttle costs, NASA is so strapped that there is only one planetary exploration it can be sure of-and that the budget cutters cannot call off: Voyager 2, launched 3½ years ago and still speeding toward an August rendezvous with Saturn and its moons...
...perform more mundane research, like that planned for Spacelab. Among them: investigations into the behavior of metals, chemicals and even living cells in what scientists call the microgravity of orbit, the familiar condition of weightlessness. Some student experiments will be carried up as well, probably as part of NASA'S so-called getaway specials, compact canisters as small as 1.5 cu. ft. that can be placed on a flight for as little as $3,000. One young man recently announced he intended to use such an experimental package to see if fruit flies breed in space. What will...
...commercial clients sign up in sufficient numbers, NASA plans to fly more than 400 shuttle missions in the next ten years. It has even considered subcontracting shuttle operations to an airline, and United Airlines has expressed interest. Farsighted planners are thinking about more ambitious roles for the shuttle, or its successor. In the future, such a spacecraft may carry work crews into orbit, where they will be left behind inside comfortable modules that could serve as building blocks for permanent space stations. As more components are shuttled up, these centers might begin to produce space goods, perhaps even utilize...
...exchange for this crucial backing, the space agency was compelled to change the shuttle's design, vastly complicating the job of building it. The Air Force insisted that the payload capacity be expanded to 65,000 lbs. (the better to carry big spy satellites). NASA also had to extend the orbiter's "cross range" so that it could glide a full 1,200 miles either to the right or left of its original orbital trajectory after re-entering the atmosphere. That would enable a Florida-launched shuttle, which travels about 1,000 miles south of Vandenberg...
Unlike the Soviet space program command, which is military and rarely announces a space launch beforehand, civilian NASA has carried out its shots in the full glare of publicity. But under the terms of NASA'S new partnership with the military, security is being tightened at such key facilities as Cape Canaveral and the Johnson Space Center in Houston in anticipation of military launches. Military observers are now regular participants at shuttle planning sessions and have their own facilities inside Mission Control. At the height of the shuttle's development problems, there was even talk that the task...