Word: shielding
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Capitol Hill there is some sentiment for limiting SDI appropriations. That lingering skepticism found new support last week in a study published by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. The 325-page report on missile defenses concluded that SDI would not produce an effective shield for U.S. population centers. While Star Wars weaponry could protect missile sites to a considerable extent, actual deployment on both sides, unless governed by a Soviet-American treaty, might increase the temptation of one nation to strike first. "There is great uncertainty," the analysts said, "about the strategic situation that would arise...
...expensive. The Administration calls the program the Strategic Defense Initiative, the press has dubbed it Star Wars, and the hundreds of companies and universities competing to work on the project could easily rename it Star Bucks. Experts estimate that fulfilling President Reagan's vision of building an impregnable defensive shield against nuclear attack, if it is possible at all, could ultimately cost anywhere from $400 billion to $1.2 trillion. It would thus become the biggest bonanza ever for American businesses and educational institutions...
Once safely in a 219-mile-high orbit, Discovery's crew members set about inspecting the condition of its cargo, three communications satellites, and promptly ran into trouble. As they were attempting to temporarily open the sunshield on AUSSAT, an Australian satellite, the shield snagged on AUSSAT's antenna and stuck. Although the astronauts managed to nudge the sunshield completely open with Discovery's 50-ft. robot arm, NASA decided it was too risky to close the screen again; if it could not be reopened, the satellite would be useless in orbit...
...rise in product-liability lawsuits, notably in the case of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine birth control device, has resulted in ballooning insurance rates for manufacturers. And Union Carbide's Bhopal disaster, which prompted more than $100 billion in lawsuits, has helped make toxic-pollution insurance virtually impossible for most chemical companies to obtain...
...arms control: Unless the U.S. agrees to stop work on its Star Wars program, which aims to develop a shield against atomic warheads, "it will not be possible to reach an agreement on the limitation and reduction of (offensive) nuclear weapons either . . . Thus, if the present U.S. position on space weapons is its last word, the Geneva negotiations will lose all sense." (The reference was not to the forthcoming summit but to arms- limitation talks already under way in the Swiss city.) But Gorbachev was significantly more flexible on the issue of defensive research than his negotiators have been...