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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #464

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 464

Today's Topics:
           Payload Status for 02/01/90 (Forwarded)
         Is Widespread Civil Use of GPS in Jeopardy?
NASA selects eight research satellite communications proposals (Forwarded)
             STS Mission Order (Shuttle)
New directors named for international and industry relations (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 2 Feb 90 00:52:37 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 02/01/90 (Forwarded)

Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 02-01-90



- STS-31 HST (at VPF) -

At pad B, the keel side catwalk access platform was proof
tested yesterday.  HAT coupler fit checks will occur today.
At the OPF, ICBC installation into the payload bay continues.
At the VPF, HST functional test started second shift
yesterday and will continue today and tomorrow.

- STS-32R SYNCOM/LDEF (at OPF) -

LDEF/SYNCOM cradle removal preps were completed yesterday
with the exception of canister door opening.  The canister
doors will be opened today and LDEF will be transferred to
the LSET.

- STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at O&C) -

Sharp edge inspections and argon dewar hoist onto the CITE
stand were completed yesterday.  Closeout inspections along
with SC&DU move and connection will continue today.

- STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) -

MLI closeout and inspection, rack 4 staging, and fire
suppression bottle installation and test will continue
today.  Also three EPDB's will be installed today.  MVAK
training continues.

- STS-42 IML (at O&C) -

Rack 11 panel removals were completed yesterday.  Also rack
10 was removed from its shipping container yesterday.  Racks
5 and 8 structural mods will continue today.

- STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C) -

No activity.

------------------------------

Date:        Thu, 01 Feb 90 20:49:44 AST
To: [e-mail],
        "Space Digest" <[e-mail]>,
        "TS Kelso" <[e-mail]>
From: [e-mail]
Subject:     Is Widespread Civil Use of GPS in Jeopardy?

Is Widespread Civil Use of GPS in Jeopardy?
-------------------------------------------

According to the 8 and 15 January 1990 issues of Aviation Week & Space
Technology, there is concern that the U.S. Department of Defense might
be considering a change in its policy regarding the use of the Navstar
Global Positioning System by the civilian community.  The magazine
refers to a letter dated 14 December to Defense Secretary Richard B.
Cheney and Transportation Department Secretary Samual K. Skinner
signed by the heads of five U.S. airspace user organizations and three
former Federal Aviation Administration officials.

The letter states that "in recent months, we have heard renewed
concerns in some organizations within [the Defense Department]. ...  A
number of old issues which we had thought had been previously laid to
rest apparently are being raised again, including the appropriateness
of making GPS available to the civil community, and restated concerns
about technology transfer problems."

It appears that some Pentagon "nervous Nellies" (in AW&ST's words) are
not content with restricting the real-time positioning capability of
most civil users but want the U.S. to withdraw GPS completely from
civil use. Such a move would renege on Reagan's offer of GPS to the
aviation community which followed the shoot-down of a Korean Airlines
747 in late 1983 and the 1988 U.S./U.S.S.R. bilateral treaty on
cooperation on transportation science and technology, including
navigation satellites.

Cheney and Skinner are to meet early this month to resolve the issue.

In related developments, the FAA has funded a program at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory to monitor
the signal characteristics of the U.S.S.R.'s Glonass satellites and to
develop a dual GPS/Glonass receiver for civil use.  The receiver could
make use of Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring to determine if
any of the received GPS or Glonass signals are out of tolerance.  RAIM
is essentially a majority voting technique which computes the position
of the receiver using different combinations of satellites.  Flight
tests of the future receiver are scheduled for 1992.

(Source:  Aviation Week & Space Technology issues of 8 and 15 January
1990)

========================================================================
Richard B. Langley                  BITnet:  [e-mail] or [e-mail]
Geodetic Research Laboratory        Phone:   [phone]
Dept. of Surveying Engineering      Telex:   014-46202
University of New Brunswick         FAX:     [phone]
Fredericton, N.B., Canada  E3B 5A3
========================================================================

------------------------------

Date: 2 Feb 90 00:57:21 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA selects eight research satellite communications proposals (Forwarded)

Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                   February 1, 1990


RELEASE:  90-18

NASA SELECTS EIGHT RESEARCH SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS PROPOSALS


     NASA has selected eight research proposals to help maintain
U.S. preeminence in satellite communications.  Still under
contract negotiations, the proposals will result in contract
awards by April 1990.  The proposals were submitted under the
Satellite Communications Applications Research Program (SCAR),
which has an annual budget of $2 million.

     SCAR was established to support promising satellite-based
communications technology systems.  The program will aid applied
research, innovative services and, ultimately, accelerate
transferal of the results of this research to the user
community.  The program's goal is to define and develop space
communications technology that can be used by the industry to
open up new communications services.

     These proposals were selected for their potential for
improvements in technology, materials, processes, methods,
devices, or techniques, as well as to advance the state-of-the-
art of satellite communications.

     Selected by an extensive peer review process, the eight
proposals were chosen from a total of 85 submitted in response to
a NASA research announcement (NRA-89-OSSA-14).  The selected
proposals and their submitting organizations follow:

     o  "1 Watt CW 2-D Steerable Coherent Monolithic
Semiconductor Master Oscillator Power Amplifier," Spectra Diode
Laboratories, Inc., San Jose, Calif.;

     o  "Efficient, High Power, Solid State Amplifier for EHF
Communications," Rockwell International, Anaheim, Calif.;

     o  "Superconducting MMW Phased Array," Ball Aerospace
Systems Group, Broomfield, Colo.;

     o  "Commercialization of Optic Intersatellite Links," COMSAT
Laboratories, Clarksburg, Md.;

     o  "On-Board B-ISDN Fast Packet Switching Architectures,"
COMSAT Laboratories, Clarksburg, Md.;

     o  "Advanced Satellite Designs and Experiments for ISDN
Service," Contel Federal Systems, Chantilly, Va.; National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, Institute for
Telecommunications Science of the U.S. Department of Commerce,
Boulder, Colo.; and the University of Colorado Interdisciplinary
Telecommunications Program, Boulder;

     o  "Flexible-Rate HDTV Codec," COMSAT Laboratories,
Clarksburg, Md.;

     o  "Neural Network-based Decoders of Convolutionally Encoded
Data for Satellite Communication," University of California, San
Diego.

     SCAR intends to help maintain U.S. technological and
economic preeminence in satellite communications by enabling new
and innovative services for private and public sector needs.
This program is managed by the Communications and Information
Systems Division of the Office of Space Science and Applications,
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

------------------------------

Date: 2 Feb 90 02:00:13 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!tank!iitmax![e-mail]  (Dean M. Bleess)
Subject: STS Mission Order (Shuttle)


 The reason for the mission numbering anomalys (ies? -whatever) is because
 (I quote from the mission manifest) 'In the mission integration process,
 efficiency and integrity are enhanced if flight numbers are maintained
 after assignment at 19 months before launch.  With manifest changes, numerical
 sequence of early flights is not maintained.'

  This means if something comes up and flight schedules have to be juggled to
 meet launch windows or other flight requirements, it is easier for NASA to
 not just move the flight but move it's mission designation also.  It does
 help cut down on confusion even if it doesn't have the nice flow of the
 previous programs numbering systems.
                                      -DMB@IIT

------------------------------

Date: 2 Feb 90 00:58:48 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: New directors named for international and industry relations (Forwarded)

Debra J. Rahn                               February 1, 1990
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.


RELEASE:  90-20

NEW DIRECTORS NAMED FOR INTERNATIONAL AND INDUSTRY RELATIONS


     NASA announced today the appointments of Peter G. Smith
to the position of Director, International Relations Division,
and David L. Stottlemyer to the position of Director,
Industry Relations Division.

     Smith's appointment becomes effective Feb. 5, 1990.  He
will replace Richard J.H. Barnes who is retiring after 29 years
of NASA service.

     Stottlemyer was appointed to his postion Jan. 10, 1990, and
replaces Carl F. Emde who is serving as special assistant to the
Associate Administrator for External Relations.

     Smith will be responsible for planning and directing NASA's
international relations.  Smith is currently Deputy Director of
International Relations, a position he assumed in 1987.
Previously, he was Chief of the International Program Policy
Office in the International Affairs Division, which he joined in
1979.  Before that, he was a foreign service officer and China
specialist with the Department of State for 14 years, serving in
Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei.

     Smith received a BS degree from Wesleyan University,
Middletown, Conn., and did graduate work in Chinese studies at
the University of Michigan.  He also trained as an interpreter at
the State Department's Chinese language school in Taichung,
Taiwan.

     Stottlemyer received a BA degree from Miami University,
Ohio, and a master's degree in public and international affairs
from the University of Pittsburgh.  He also did doctoral work at
the same university.

    In 1964, Stottlemyer joined the federal government, initially
with the Bureau of the Budget's International Programs
Division.  He entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1971
and was assigned to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in
New York.  Subsequently, he held a number of positions with the
Department of State in Washington and in early 1981, joined the
staff of then Vice-President George Bush.  Stottlemyer returned
to New York and the United Nations in 1984, serving as Director
of Management and subsequently, as Director, Office of the Under-
Secretary-General for Finance and Administration.  He retired
from the Foreign Service and the United Nations in 1987.

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V10 #464
*******************