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Date: Thu, 26 Jul 1990 02:14:43 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #129

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 129

Today's Topics:
         NASA Headline News for 07/25/90 (Forwarded)
          Re: space news from June 11 AW&ST
               Re: 4 Questions
           Payload Status for 07/25/90 (Forwarded)
              Re: hubble trouble
                Shuttle safety
Statement by NASA Deputy Administrator on launch of CRRES/Atlas-1 (Forwarded)

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
  should be sent to [e-mail], or, if urgent, to
             [e-mail]

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

Date: 25 Jul 90 15:37:30 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 07/25/90 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, July 25, 1990             Audio Service:  202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, July 25........

Kennedy Space Center Engineers have completed the third in a
series of hydrogen leak tests on the retightened fuel line on the
Space Shuttle Atlantis.  This morning's tanking test revealed
that liquid hydrogen may be leaking from the 17-inch flange joint
area on the outside of the external disconnect.  NASA managers
are currently analyzing the data to determine the effect on the
overall launch schedule.  Associate Administrator for Space
Flight William Lenoir will provide an update at 4:15 P.M. today
on NASA Select TV.

                            ********

Upon the recommendation of NASA Administrator Richard Truly, Vice
President Quayle today announced the new Chairman of the Advisory
Commission on the Future of the U.S. Space Program.  This
Advisory Committee will provide advise on overall approaches to
implement the U.S. Space Program for the coming decades.  The
first report will be provided to the Administrator in four
months.
                            ********

An Exobiology symposium is scheduled to be held today at NASA's
Ames Research Center.  Topics up for discussion include the
existence of animal or vegetable life on Mars.  The briefing will
be replayed on NASA Select TV on Friday, July 27 at 1:00 P.M.
EDT.
                            ********

Scientists from NASA and U.S. universities have joined Canadian
researchers in an expedition to study pollution at high northern
latitudes and emissions of methane, an important greenhouse gas,
from tundra, forests and marshes.  The cooperative study called
the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment will examine Arctic air
mass changes in chemical composition when mixed with continental
air masses.
                            ********

In other news, after a five-month delay, Arianespace reports the
Ariane 4 rocket carrying 2 European satellites successfully
launched at 6:30 P.M. EDT yesterday from Kourou, French Guiana.

                            ********

Space Fax Daily reports a Chinese newspaper called The Legal
Daily said thieves had stolen a section of copper cable linking
the Xichang launch pad with a command center in Beijing,
according to a Reuters Wire Report.  It appears the theft
disrupted China's first commercial satellite launch last April.







---------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA
Select TV.  All times are Eastern Daylight.

Wednesday, July 25....

               2:00 P.M.   Launch coverage of the Combined
                           Release and Radiation Effects
                           Satellite aboard the Atlas Rocket.

               4:15 P.M.   Space Shuttle Status Media
                           Media Briefing with Associate
                           Administrator for Space Flight
                           Dr. William Lenoir.
Thursday, July 26.....

              11:00 A.M.   U.S. and Soviet crew members of
                           the Apollo-Soyuz Space Mission--
                           15-year reunion news briefing at
                           the Kennedy Space Center.

              12:00 P.M.   NASA Update will be transmitted.

               2:00 P.M.   Magellan Status Press Conference.
                           A summary on the Venus encounter
                           scheduled August 10.

               6:00 P.M.   NASA Video Productions.

Friday, July 27......

               1:00 P.M.   Exobiology briefing at Ames
                           Research Center tape replay from
                           Wednesday, July 25.
--------------------------------------------------------------
All events and times may change without notice.  This report is
filed daily, Monday through Friday at 12:00 P.M., EDT.  This is
a service of the Internal Communications Branch, NASA HQ.
Contact:  JSTANHOPE or CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425.
--------------------------------------------------------------
NASA Select TV:  Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72 Degrees
West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz.  JSNEWS7-25
---------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 25 Jul 90 13:24:29 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: space news from June 11 AW&ST

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Brian or James) writes:
>>... This will take some juggling, as both active VAB bays
>>are already occupied...
>    It strikes me that this would be a particularly poor time to
>have a fire in the VAB [Not that there'd ever be a *good* time for one].
>...I wonder what the VAB would cost to duplicate, these days, though...

Don't even think about it...

NASA used to have an ironclad "no fuel in the VAB" rule.  They weren't too
pleased about having to handle live SRBs in there.
--
NFS:  all the nice semantics of MSDOS, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
and its performance and security too.  |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 25 Jul 90 02:56:53 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (Charles Radley)
Subject: Re: 4 Questions

Getting a job with NASA is very difficult.   You may find it easier
to get a job with one of the many contractor companies at the NASA
center of your choice.   Each comapny will have its own personnel
or human resources department, and so will NASA center itself.   You
could send them resume,. or ask for their standard applicatuion form.
   For government jobs there is usually a special form you have to

fuill out.
There is a publication called   Air Jobs Digest  which is advertsied
in Aviation Week, which lists NASA jobs, plus they are also advertised
in the local newspapers of the locations of the centers, plus look
in professional journals in the field of speciality you wish to work
in.



--
Charles Radley
Internet: [e-mail]
BBS:      714 544-0934   2400/1200/300

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

Date: 25 Jul 90 15:33:26 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 07/25/90 (Forwarded)


  Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 07-25-90.


  - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at OPF)

  Experiment monitoring continues.


  - STS-37 GRO (at PHSF) -

  GRO functional testing will be active today.


  - STS-39 afp-675/ibss/STP-01

  Landline validations at Pad-B continue.


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

  STT operations continue, including MLI installation, and
  horizontal MVAK training.  Also, SLS will be powered up
  today for experiment checks and IPR troubleshooting.


  - STS-41 Ulysses (at VPF) -

  Troubleshooting will continue today on the IUS prla
  system.  Pending the outcome of this troubleshooting
  the decision will be made as to whether or not to
  connect Ulysses to the upper stage today.


  - STS 42 IML-1 (at O&C)

  Rack, floor, and module staging is continuing.  Rack
  4 will be mated to the floor today.


  - Atlas-1 (at O&C) -

  Coldplate and experiment hardware installations are
  continuing.


  - STS-46 TSS-1 (at O&C) -

  Hardpoint installations will continue today.


  - STS-47 Spacelab-J (at O&C) -

  Rack staging continues.

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

Date: 25 Jul 90 19:48:54 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester![e-mail]  (Ray Frank)
Subject: Re: hubble trouble

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dan Sullivan) writes:
>According to Ray Frank:
>>I would have interrogated NASAs head even more that Gore.
>  [lines deleted]
>>If the average guy on the job had cost his company even hundreds of
>>dollars because of incompetance, he would be fired very quickly.
>
>The trouble with this analogy is NASAs current head had nothing to do with
>the trouble with the HST (assuming it is a design or even manufacturing
>defect).  He was not around at the time.  You might blame him for not
>paying as close attention as he should have, but not for the actions
>of his predecessors.
>
>dan sullivan

Sounds political to me.  Like the current president of the US blaming
the previous one for the counties woes, and eight years later, the current
president is still blamming his predecessors for our woes.  The NASA chief
inherited the good, the bad, and the ugly from his predecessor and his
job will be to fix the bad, make ugly the more attractive, and make the good
even better.
Keep in mind that not one NASA job was lost because of the Challenger
disaster.  So it has become clear to the the big boys that a lot can happen
and their jobs can still be protected.  I think this type of thinking needs
to be changed by making the top people more accountable for their actions.

ray

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 90 17:15:28 EDT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Shuttle safety


>From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (David Anderman)
>Subject: Space shuttle

>The space shuttle is probably the most dangerous space vehicle ever
>designed (except for the Soviet Voshkod). THere is no way to survive a
>first stage engine failure.
>David Anderman
>Internet: [e-mail]

If your second statement applies only to the solid rocket boosters, it's
probably correct. If you include the main engines (which are running at
liftoff), then you should be aware that there are quite a few failure modes
which shuttle and crew would be likely to survive (for example the various
abort sequences).

PLEASE remember: to analyze risk, you should at least take the expected
harm from a given event, and *multiply* it by the calculated probability
that the event will take place. Sum these products over all plausible harmful
events to get an estimate for overall risk. (Or use a more sophisticated
method if you have the mathematical background.)

If you don't take a mathematically sensible approach to it, you end up with
pure garbage. For instance, noting that exposure to a large quantity of
cyanide is more likely to cause death than climbing a flight of stairs,
you could conclude that a lot more people are killed by cyanide than stairs.
This ignores the fact that the average person has much more exposure to stairs
than cyanide, and in fact many more people are killed falling down stairs.

I'm aware that it has become popular in the news media to label the Shuttle
unreliable in relation to other boosters. Please keep in mind that most of
these folks didn't have to take any advanced college math courses to get
through journalism school. Sometimes in technical evaluations, the usual
handwaving doesn't suffice, and some actual knowledge is needed.

NASA claims that the shuttle as it is now being operated (post-Challenger)
is safer than any unmanned US booster in the moderate to heavy payload range,
based on its estimates of the consequences and probabilities of the various
failure modes. I think this is probably a valid claim, and that it can also
be applied to Ariane (which has had several failures). I don't know about the
Soviet manned and unmanned boosters. (Does anybody have solid numbers?)

The latest estimate I've heard is that the Shuttle is up to 8 times as safe
(so to speak) as the manned Apollo configuration.

There are obviously things that could be improved. The emphasis on performance
has led to such tight design tolerances that much of the orbiter has to be
disassembled and at least inspected between flights. It would also be nice to
have a system that can launch on the first try a higher percentage of the time.
Question: Could it be economically practical to retrofit a shuttle with
components having wider tolerances, even if it leads to decreased payload,
in order to reduce the amount of maintenance required?
      John Roberts
      [e-mail]

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

Date: 25 Jul 90 21:20:40 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Statement by NASA Deputy Administrator on launch of CRRES/Atlas-1 (Forwarded)

Ken Atchison
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                      July 25, 1990
(Phone:  [phone])


RELEASE:  90-104

STATEMENT BY NASA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR ON LAUNCH OF CRRES/ATLAS-1


     Following today's successful launch of the joint USAF/NASA
Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) aboard a
General Dynamics commercial Atlas-1 (Atlas/Centaur-69) launch
vehicle, NASA Deputy Administrator James R. Thompson issued the
following statement:

     "Today's successful launch of the sophisticated scientific
satellite known as 'CRRES' marks an important step forward in the
'new way' in which NASA is doing business with the private sector
for expendable launch vehicle services.

     Although NASA maintained both direct oversight and insight
throughout the prelaunch and launch process for CRRES, my
personal congratulations go out to General Dynamics, and, in fact
to the entire industry/government team, for placing CRRES into
its proper orbit where it can now begin a string of strenuous
scientific tasks.

     Under terms of our contract with General Dynamics, the
government exercised considerably less oversight over launch
vehicle manufacturing and processing than it has during previous
Atlas/Centaur missions.  As a result of the added responsibility
accepted and, obviously, demonstrated by the company during this
mission, we look forward to future launch services partnerships
with General Dynamics and other launch services contractors as we
jointly continue to pursue the nation's ambitious scientific
goals in space using expendable launch vehicles."

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #129
*******************