Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Some scientists warn against going overboard with the new technique. Says James Blinn, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who created some of NASA's most spectacular computer simulations of planetary flybys: "Sometimes a half- baked idea gets printed up prettily and gets more attention than it deserves." Still, Blinn believes, as long as the scientific data used to generate the images are accurate, computer graphics can prod scientists to move in exciting new directions. NCSA's Upson agrees. "If we play our cards right," he says, "we may actually make a dent in how people do science...
...near Fermilab, and California has picked its spot, near Stockton. South Dakota has appropriated $900,000 to land the accelerator. Texas is promoting ten different sites for the tunnel and considering a $1 billion bond issue. Says Texas Governor Bill Clements of the SSC: "It could be bigger than NASA." Particle-physics fans are cropping up in the most unlikely places. In Malone, N.Y., a small town near the Canadian border, 800 people turned out to hear physicists lecture about the project...
Kirshner, who has already travelled to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center several times to collect data from a UV-detecting satellite, said he hopes to discover evidence which would support current theories on supernova evolution...
...lift-off from Pad 36B at Cape Canaveral in threatening weather, a $78 million, 137-ft. rocket disappeared into rain- swollen thunderheads and went out of control. A range safety officer hit the destruct button, and the rocket exploded along with its payload, an $83 million communications satellite. For NASA, struggling to recover from the loss of the Challenger shuttle 14 months ago, the aborted flight broke a string of seven successful launches since September. The cause was not immediately known, although a leading suspect was lightning...
...ethereal particles called neutrinos, predicted by theory to be produced during a supernova, had penetrated the earth, leaving their trail in huge liquid- filled neutrino detectors. Astrophysicist J. Craig Wheeler, of the University of Texas in Austin, summarized the activity while addressing a hastily convened meeting of astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center the week after the discovery, "These are frantic times...