Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That's not just hot air. "You'll not only be able to send up instruments cheaper than by rocket (for less than $2 million, vs. $40 million for the least expensive Delta launcher)," says astronomer Jack Tueller, program scientist for NASA's balloon project, "you'll also be able to assemble and launch your package quicker and carry more weight--up to 3,000 lbs.--and the instrument isn't subjected to vibrations or high Gs." Moreover, the scientific gear (though not the balloon) will be recoverable, drifting back to earth by parachute at the end of a mission...
...Which explains why NASA and its peers in the private sector are rotating their high-tech machinery away from the storm, powering down, and wishing on a star that they won't be the unlucky one. "The chance of any one satellite getting smacked by a particle is probably less than one in one thousand," said Don Yeomans of NASA's JPL labs. "But on the other hand, some of these satellites are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so you do take whatever precautions you can." Even a single direct hit could cause a communications disaster: Remember the malfunction...
...best place to go: Find an open area away from cities and towns with a good view of the southern sky. Webcast: Leonids Live! from NASA...
...NASA is taking no chances. It will power down any threatened spacecraft to avoid short circuits and will temporarily orient each one, says Riegler, "so that its strongest side faces the incoming Leonids." Even the Hubble Space Telescope will turn its back to the meteoroids, to shield the aperture through which it scans the heavens. And the flat solar panels that energize most of the satellites will be turned edge on to the Leonid stream to minimize the possibility of impact...
Leno was not the only one who got orbital schmooze time with the shuttle crew last week. Glenn also took a call from NASA administrator Daniel Goldin, who relayed a blunt message from Glenn's wife Annie: "You ain't going up again...