David W. Garrett Headquarters, Washington, D.C. December 16, 1988 RELEASE: 88-171 NASA HIGHLIGHTS OF 1988 The September launch of Space Shuttle Discovery signaled the nation's return to piloted space flight and the beginning of a new era in the annals of space exploration. Followed 2 months later by the Atlantis mission in early December, the space agency began to look forward to the 7 Shuttle flights planned for 1989 which will deploy scientific spacecraft to explore the poles of the Sun, to probe the mysteries of Jupiter and to look toward the very edge of the universe. During the year, Space Station Freedom planning accelerated and the United States signed final agreements with its foreign partners to develop the permanently inhabited, Earth-orbital space facility. Global warming and ozone depletion were intensely studied by NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications in 1988 and plans were being formulated for a major airborne Arctic stratospheric expedition in 1989 to analyze ozone levels. The world's fastest supercomputer was installed at NASA's Ames Research Center during the year. Called the Cray Y-MP, the computer is capable of exceeding 1 billion computations per second permitting solutions to aerodynamic problems far too complex to be handled by previous computers. Significant developments in technology applications included a cooperative effort by NASA and the John Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute to use space technology to develop a means to improve the sight of people with low vision and a joint project with the American Cancer Society to seek ways to improve laboratory identification and monitoring of cancer cells. These topics and others covering the activities of NASA during the year 1988 are the subject of this release. NASA had eight launches in 1988 -- including two Space Shuttle flights and six expendable rocket launches -- all successful. It was the year that America returned to space flight. Space Transportation System The year was replete with activities leading to the launch of the highly successful STS-26 mission on Sept. 29. Significant return-to-flight milestones included a variety of efforts. In January, after completion of acceptance tests at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, the Space Shuttle main engines were shipped to Kennedy Space Center for installation on the orbiter Discovery. Also in January, work began to improve the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy. Improvements included grinding a 3,500-foot section at each end of the runway to smooth the surface texture, removing cross grooves, adding longitudinal grooving, modifying existing landing zone light fixtures and repainting the markings on the entire runway and overruns. Two new abort landing sites were brought on line in northwestern Africa -- one located near Ben Guerir, Morocco; the other at Banjul, The Gambia. The sites are used as contingency landing facilities in the event of a transatlantic abort during the launch of Shuttle missions. In April, a telescoping pole was chosen as the egress method for the Space Shuttle's crew escape system. The system provides crew escape capability from the orbiter during controlled, gliding flight following failures or difficulties during ascent or entry where landing at a suitable landing field cannot be achieved. The new system was installed in the orbiter Discovery for the STS-26 flight and will be installed in the remaining orbiters for use on subsequent flights. Three full-duration test firings of the redesigned solid rocket motor (RSRM) were conducted at Morton Thiokol's Wasatch Facility near Brigham City, Utah. The first firing, qualification motor-6 (QM-6), occurred in April; the second, QM- 7, was test fired in June. For the third test, production verification motor-1 was extensively flawed to demonstrate the fail-safe characteristics of the redesign. This final RSRM test, required prior to resumption of flight, took place in August. After months of preparation, the assembled Space Shuttle vehicle aboard its mobile launcher platform was rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building on July 4 and transported 4.2 miles to Launch Pad 39-B for final launch preparations. On Aug. 10, a 22-second flight readiness firing of Discovery's main engines was conducted. This firing verified that the entire Shuttle system -- including launch equipment, flight hardware and the launch team -- was ready for flight. On Sept 29, America returned to space with the launch of STS-26. Crewmembers for the historic flight were Commander Frederick H. Hauck, Pilot Richard O. Covey and Mission Specialists John M. Lounge, George D. "Pinky" Nelson and David C. Hilmers. The primary payload, a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, was deployed on schedule and is expected to be fully operational in mid-January 1989. On Nov. 2, the orbiter Atlantis was rolled out to Launch Pad 39-B for final preparations for the launch of STS-27. Launch of STS-27 took place on Dec. 2. The crew for the dedicated Department of Defense mission included Commander Robert L. Gibson, Pilot Guy S. Gardner and Mission Specialists Richard M. Mullane, Jerry L. Ross and William M. Shepherd. In August, NASA issued a request for proposals inviting industry to compete for the design, development, test and evaluation of a Space Shuttle advanced solid rocket motor (ASRM) to replace in the mid 1990s the current redesigned solid rocket motor. The proposals received are being evaluated and a contract award is anticipated in the Spring of 1989. The performance goal is to provide a 12,000-pound increase in the Shuttle's payload capacity. This improved performance will help significantly in supporting deployment of Space Station Freedom and other critical missions. Also in August, NASA signed a definitive contract with Boeing Military Airplanes, Wichita, Kan., to modify a 747-100 aircraft for use as a second Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to provide backup ferrying capability and eliminate a potential single-point failure in the National Space Transportation System. During the year, NASA named crews for Space Shuttle missions STS-28 (DOD), STS-29 (TDRS-D), STS-30 (Magellan), STS-31 (Hubble Space Telescope), STS-32 (Syncom IV-5 deploy and Long Duration Exposure Facility retrieval), STS-33 (DOD), STS-34 (Galileo) and STS-35 (Astro-1). Expendable Launch Vehicles Throughout the space shuttle recovery period, unmanned expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) continued to keep America operating in space. The past year was no exception. When Discovery lifted off on Sept. 29, it had been preceded by six successful ELV missions launched from the East Coast, West Coast and Indian Ocean: o Delta 181/Thrusted Vector -- a Strategic Defense Initiative Organization payload was launched on Feb. 8 at 5:07 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla; o Scout/San Marco D/L -- an international satellite, designed to study Earth's lower atmosphere, was launched March 25 at 4:50 p.m. EST from Italy's San Marco Equatorial Range platform in the Indian Ocean; o Scout/SOOS-3 -- a pair of Navy navigation satellites (Stacked Oscars On Scout) was launched from the Western Space and Missile Center, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 6:57 p.m. PDT on April 25; o Scout/Navy Nova-II -- an advanced Navy navigation satellite was boosted into polar orbit from Vandenberg on June 15 at 11:54 p.m. PDT; o Scout/SOOS-4 -- twin payloads launched, again from Vandenberg, on Aug. 24 at 11:59 p.m. PDT; o Atlas/NOAA-H -- a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorological spacecraft was launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg at 3:02 a.m. PDT on Sept. 24. The Delta-181 mission in February marked the final East Coast Delta launch by a NASA launch team. A NASA/Air Force agreement, effective July 1, officially transferred custody of Delta Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to the Air Force. NASA launched 143 Deltas from the two Complex-17 pads over a 28-year period. The first successful Delta launch from the complex took place in August 1960. The payload was Echo-I, a 100-foot-diameter reflective communications balloon which became a familiar orbital sight to a world-wide audience of nighttime sky watchers. In keeping with the President's National Space Policy, 1988 was a year in which a number of agreements and negotiations took place concerning the private sector's expanding role in future space activities. Of particular significance was the award of a commercial launch services contract to General Dynamics Space Systems Division in May. Under the $2.2 million contract awarded by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, General Dynamics will provide launch transportation services for NOAA's new family of GEOS weather satellites. Terms of the contract are significant because, for the first time, a contractor will assume systems performance responsibility for overall program and subcontractor management. In a related matter, NASA's Kennedy Space Center entered into an agreement with General Dynamics which allows the company to use NASA Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for commercial launch operations of the Atlas-Centaur rocket. Under terms of the agreement, General Dynamics agrees to pay all costs associated with facility maintenance and operation. The company assumed operation of the pad April 1. SPACE SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS While several space science missions were being prepared for 1989 launch dates and international space cooperation continued, the Earth's environment held center stage as national attention turned to global warming and ozone depletion. Earth Science and Applications In late spring, the NASA-convened international Ozone Trends Panel produced a report which undeniably implicates chlorofluorocarbons as the cause of the annual austral ozone hole in the Antarctica stratosphere. In the middle of an unusually hot and dry summer, NASA's Dr. Jim Hansen, director, Goddard Institute For Space Studies, N.Y., told congressional committees that global warming as a result of the "greenhouse effect" was unarguably at hand and needed to be dealt with in a scientific manner. NASA's chief scientist for the global change program, Dr. Ichtiaque Rasool, led a multi-disciplinary team of NASA and other American scientists to the first scientific meeting of the International Geosphere/Biosphere Program in Stockholm. The group subsequently concluded that the global warming issue is a serious scientific concern, but the reasons why, the time scale of the cause-and-effect relationship and what, if anything, can be done to predict or change the process are the real issues to be addressed. NASA subsequently outlined some preliminary steps to be taken including the creation of a global environmental database from existing scientific data. By the fall, NASA was well into the preparations for the second dedicated airborne mission to explore cause-and-effect relationships of ozone depletion, this time in the Arctic. Scheduled for Jan. 1 through Feb. 15, 1989, this expedition will attempt to determine the extent of Arctic stratospheric ozone depletion and to what the cause can be attributed. Unlike Antarctic studies, this effort is expected to require significant scientific sleuthing since the conditions are an order of magnitude more complex. The implications of Northern Hemisphere ozone depletion, though, are more dramatic than those of the Antarctic depletion. The NOAA-11 operational weather satellite was launched into low-Earth orbit on Sept. 24, from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Spacecraft instruments will provide more ozone depletion information, determine the Earth's surface temperature and cloud cover and provide data for local and global weather forecasts. Life Sciences Nobel Laureate Frederick C. Robbins, M.D., chaired the study committee charged with developing a program in space life sciences, a critical component of manned space missions. In June, the committee presented a report, entitled "Exploring the Living Universe: Strategic Plan for NASA Life Science", to NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher. The report may become a blueprint for NASA's Space Life Sciences program, focusing on the health and safety of human spaceflight crews. Other interrelated missions include protecting the Earth's fragile biosphere and exploring the universe for signs of life. Working with Soviet life scientists, NASA conducted experiments on rodent tissue shared from the Cosmos Biosatellite 1887 mission launched in late 1987. The results were presented by U.S./USSR investigators at a Moscow symposium in late 1988. The experiments analyzed the effects of 12 days of weightlessness on various body systems such as bone, muscle and cardiovascular. Space Physics An international satellite, to study Earth's lower atmosphere, was launched March 18 from Italy's San Marco Equatorial Range in Kenya. Three of the spacecraft's five instruments were U.S., one was Italian and another was German. The satellite returned significant space plasma data. Astrophysics Hubble Space Telescope, slated for launch in December 1989, successfully underwent comprehensive, ground system tests in June to exercise the complete data system from the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, through the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in Sunnyvale, Calif. HST will allow astronomers to penetrate deep into the universe in visible and ultraviolet light. HST is a cooperative project with the European Space Agency. In a month-long campaign, NASA launched three huge balloon- borne payloads in Canada to search for cosmic rays, including those that could provide evidence of galaxies made of antimatter. The balloons lifted the three cosmic ray detectors to about 120,000 feet during August. TRW was awarded the contract to build the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, providing the X-ray element of the Great Observatories program. The facility is a major NASA new start and joins the Hubble optical space telescope and the Gamma Ray Observatory, currently under construction at TRW. Facility launch date is the mid-1990s. The Cosmic Background Explorer, built by the Goddard Space Flight Center to investigate the earliest epochs of the universe by measuring its infrared and microwave radiation, has been integrated and is being tested prior to launch. It is scheduled to launched in the summer of 1989. Solar System The Magellan spacecraft, delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in early October, will map the surface of Venus, obtaining radar images of 70 to 90 percent of the planet at a resolution 10 times greater than the Soviets' Venera 15 and 16 missions. Launch date is set for April 28 from Space Shuttle Atlantis. Galileo, scheduled for launch in October 1989, underwent additional minor modifications associated with its most recent Venus-Earth-Earth Gravity Assist (VEEGA) trajectory. Galileo scientific teams also worked to develop additional Earth science requirements for the craft's Earth flybys. A team of MIT scientists, analyzing data acquired while flying aboard NASA's Kiuper Airborne Observatory, discovered an atmosphere around Pluto. Information on the temperature, pressure and extent of Pluto's atmosphere is expected in the spring of 1989. Communications and Information A reassessment of NASA's scientific communications network and computational capabilities was begun this year. Driving this activity is the expectation that much of the data coming from the Great Observatory program, from the Galileo and other planetary observatories and from the Earth system satellites will swamp present capabilities. Also driving this assessment is the expected multi-disciplinary nature of many of the scientific programs of the 1990s. The contract with GE Astro-Space Div. for development of the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite was redefined in light of congressional and NASA reexamination of the associated technology risks. Much of the development effort, including design and fabrication of prototype and production units of the multi-element, arrayed antenna system, now will be done in-house by Astro-Space. Flight Systems The next Spacelab mission - a reuseable Space Shuttle-based research facility - will be reconfigured to carry an X-ray telescope in addition to the three ultraviolet telescopes originally planned. Now scheduled for launch in March 1990, the Astro-1 Spacelab mission will provide a wider research capability than previously planned. It is being enhanced with the Broad Band X-ray Telescope, borrowed from the planned Shuttle High Energy Astrophysics Laboratory mission, to enable a more complete study of Supernova 1987A. The Flight Systems Office continued development of Space Station laboratory equipment scheduled to fly first on a Spacelab flight or flights and to evolve into the Freedom station environment as the station itself becomes available. Animal holding facilities, a research centrifuge and a special purpose medical station are among the equipment being developed. SPACE STATION Agreements were signed with U.S. international partners who will cooperate with the United States in the development, use and operation of the space station, and the international space station was christened "Freedom" by President Reagan. Government-level agreements between the United States, nine European nations, Japan and Canada, as well as memoranda of understanding between NASA and the European Space Agency and NASA and Canada were signed during a ceremony held September 29 at the State Department. The ceremony marked the conclusion of more than 2-years of negotiations on international participation in the Freedom program. Out of a list of more than 700 names submitted by NASA employees, contractors and the public, Freedom was recommended by a team of NASA representatives and international partners and selected by the President as an appropriate name for the space station. The name was chosen because it symbolizes a value shared by all the nations contributing to the project and because space station activities in the weightless spaceflight environment provides freedom from Earth's gravity. Negotiation of 10-year contracts with the four primary contractors to design and build Freedom's manned base and polar platform -- Boeing Aerospace Co., McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co., GE Astro-Space Div. and Rocketdyne -- was completed in September and the NASA/industry team proceeded to develop detailed requirements to guide design work beginning early next year. A request for proposal for development of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) went out from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in November. Responses are due Jan. 3. The FTS will be a space robot with automated features to assist crews in the assembly, maintenance and servicing of the Freedom station and visiting spacecraft. Contractor selection is slated for mid June. Results of early advanced development activity, prototype hardware was delivered to various NASA centers in 1988 to undergo test and evaluation. Prototype airlocks from McDonnell Douglas were delivered to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) for underwater testing in the center's weightless environment training facility, and a prototype thermal management system was installed in a vacuum chamber in JSC's environment simulation laboratory where tests are performed to simulate the heat load and temperature environment in which Freedom will operate. A crew training facility at JSC, where astronauts will rehearse space station assembly flights and mission operations, was dedicated in November, and a Space Power Facility at the Lewis Research Center neared completion. The manned base's 75,000-watt, solar power generating and distribution systems and the polar platform power system will undergo development testing and preflight checkout in the Lewis facility. At the Marshall Space Flight Center, life-sized mockups of the station's habitat and laboratory modules, built by Boeing Aerospace, were incorporated into Marshall's full-scale engineering mockups. As detailed design of the station proceeds, interior features of the mockups will be changed. A prototype control moment gyroscope, designed specifically for Freedom, was completed and tested by Allied Signal (Bendix) and is being delivered to the Marshall Space Flight Center for additional testing. A prototype docking/berthing mechanism, which will be used to couple Freedom's pressurized modules on orbit, has been completed by McDonnell Douglas and delivered to Marshall. Mechanism testing is underway on a 6 degree of freedom test facility which simulates the on-orbit coupling of the space station modules. Prototype components for several of the environmental control and life support systems have been delivered to Marshall and are currently being tested. With an eye toward stimulating and encouraging involvement from the private sector in both the use of the Freedom station and the development of hardware, several activities took place in 1988. NASA revised and published new guidelines for responding to and assessing commercial proposals for participating in the Freedom program. The revised guidelines are being reviewed by industry and will be established as government policy next year. NASA also sponsored the second in a series of commercial users conferences, this one in Denver, Colo. Personnel changes included naming of James B. Odom, director of the Science and Engineering Directorate at Marshall and a former project manager for both the Hubble Space Telescope and external tank projects, as associate administrator for Space Station. He replaces Andrew J. Stofan, who headed the Freedom program from June 1986 to March 1988 and retired April 1. Deputy Associate Administrator Franklin D. Martin left the post he had held since September 1986 to head up the Office of Exploration, and Thomas L. Moser, named the Freedom program's first director in October 1986, moved into the deputy associate administrator position. OFFICE OF SPACE OPERATIONS NASA's tracking and communications capabilities were bolstered in 1988 by further development of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). Foremost was the successful launch and deployment of one of these satellites, TDRS-3, as the primary payload aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as the Space Shuttle returned to flight on September 29. Orbiting at 22,250 miles above the Earth, these 5,000-pound communications satellites look down on NASA's low-Earth-orbiting spacecraft and Shuttles, tracking them worldwide and relaying two-way communications between them and mission control centers through a ground station at White Sands, N.M. TDRSS now will provide communications with Earth-orbital spacecraft for about 85 percent of each orbit, contrasted with about 15 percent provided by NASA's world-wide ground network. TDRSS also will facilitate a much higher information flow rate between the spacecraft and the ground, particularly important as NASA resumes regular Shuttle flights and launches satellites with high data rates. TDRS-3 is the third of the satellites to be launched. The first has been in operation since 1983. The second was lost with the Shuttle Challenger. The fourth, to complete NASA's constellation of three on-orbit satellites, was shipped to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Nov. 29 for launch aboard Discovery this February. On Oct. 27, 1988, NASA selected General Electric Co., Valley Forge, Pa., to provide communications hardware and software for a second TDRSS ground terminal at White Sands. The facility will provide a backup for the existing White Sands ground station and help handle NASA's increased mission support requirements in the 1990s. NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) also was in the news this year as preparations were made to participate in important space science events in 1989. The DSN, operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is supporting the Soviet Union's mission to the tiny Martian moon Phobos. The network will help track the spacecraft, launched in July 1988, as it encounters the 17-mile-long moon in January 1989. After the deployment of a lander onto Phobos' surface in April, the DSN will help maintain radio contact with the lander, measuring very precisely the positions and motions of Phobos. To accomplish this difficult task, U.S. scientists will use a radio-astronomy technique called very long baseline interferometry, which employs widely spaced, paired ground antennas, as well as doppler and range tracking to pinpoint Phobos. The DSN includes 230-foot dish antennas in California, Spain and Australia. A Soviet radio telescope in the Crimea also will be used for the Phobos mission. In addition, the DSN will be part of a special deep-space communications system fashioned for the August 1989 encounter of Neptune by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977. By the time the spacecraft reaches Neptune, it will be nearly 3 billion miles from Earth and its signals will be extremely faint. To receive the close-up pictures and other data transmitted by Voyager 2, the DSN complex at Goldstone, Calif., has been linked by satellite to the the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, N.M. Adding the VLA's 27 radio telescopes to DSN will more than double the ability to capture Voyager's signal. AERONAUTICS AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY Aeronautics NASA's Aeronautics Program focuses on long-range research and technology development to benefit future U.S. civil and military aircraft development. The results of these efforts expand U.S. capabilities in civil and military aviation and contribute significantly to the nation's aviation leadership and national security. Aeronautical products are the principal positive contributor to the U.S. balance of trade. The National Aero-Space Plane program, a joint NASA-DOD program, is an accelerated technology development program expected to lead to a flight research vehicle (X-30) to validate a wide range of aerospace technologies and capbilities, including horizontal takeoff and landing, single-stage operation to orbital speeds and sustained hypersonic cruise within the atmosphere using airbreathing propulsion. The conceptual design phase has been completed and the program is now in the vehicle technology development phase. The program could provide technology for a wide variety of operational aerospace vehicles, including space launch vehicles and hypersonic cruise vehicles. Studies indicate that the projected growth in civil long- haul travel, particularly trans-Pacific, will create a market estimated to exceed $200 billion for future transport aircraft capable of flight at 2 to 3 times the speed of sound. Such a speed would permit flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo in less than 4 hours. NASA research is developing the technology necessary to make the U.S. competitive in this future market, insuring environmental compatibility and low operating costs. NASA's Lewis Research Center, Cleveland and its industrial advanced turboprop team were the recipients in May of the 1987 Robert J. Collier Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually by the National Aeronautic Association for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America. NASA was selected for developing the technology for and testing of advanced turboprop propulsion systems that offer dramatic reductions in fuel usage for future subsonic transport aircraft. The world's fastest supercomputer, a Cray Y-MP, was installed in the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Facility at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif. Capable of exceeding 1 billion computations per second in sustained operation, the computer's vast computational capabilities will permit solutions to aerodynamic problems far too complex to be handled by previous computers . The Cray Y-MP will replicate aircraft and spacecraft flight by virtually "flying" the craft inside the computer on a three dimensional grid. Computer modeling has been used by NASA to advance jet engine designs and efficency by simulating the complex, fluctuating air flow within aircraft engine turbines and compressors. A flight research program involving the use of a vortex flap on the leading edge of a NASA F-106B research aircraft wing has shown the potential for a 30 percent inprovement in the aircraft's lift-to-drag ratio and improvements in stability, control and maneuverability. The NASA/U.S. Air Force experimental forward-swept-wing X-29 aircraft flew its 200th research mission from the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, Calif., in June, marking the most flights ever of a single X-series high performance aircraft. The unusual flight rate was made possible by a series of innovative procedures developed by NASA researchers. NASA's efforts continue to enhance efficiency and maneuverability of future aircraft through materials and structures research, providing lighter, stronger and more durable materials for aircraft construction. A joint United Kingdom, DOD and NASA program is developing technology for advanced, short take-off and vertical landing type aircraft. Advanced rotorcraft research conducted by NASA will lead to future aircraft that could hover like helicopters, yet obtain the high cruise speeds of conventional airplanes. One promising application of such technology could be a civil version of the miltary's V-22 tiltrotor aircraft. Such a vehicle offers the potential to relieve world airport and airway congestion. In flight safety, NASA research programs continue to focus on the problems of human error, wind shear, icing, heavy rain and lightning, as well as runway and tire studies. Space Technology NASA's space research and technology development program provides advanced technology to ensure continued U.S. leadership in civil space programs. The Civil Space Technology Initiative (CSTI) program, begun in 1988, focuses on enhancing technologies for reliable, low-cost access to Earth orbit and supports effective operations and science missions. It looks not only at requirements but at mission-enabling technologies that create building block options. It develops specific technologies critical to accomplishment of relatively near term, high priority national goals. Project Pathfinder is a research and technology development program begun in 1988 to enable a broad set of space missions and strengthen the technology base of the United States' civil space program. Building on the CSTI foundation, Pathfinder will develop the emerging, innovative technologies to make possible such missions as an intensive study of the Earth, a return to the Moon, piloted missions to Mars and the continuing robotic exploration of the solar system. The program focuses on a strong partnership between NASA and U.S. industry and is a critical step in the revitalization of NASA's technology program. Academic sector participation has been encouraged in the strengthening of the U.S. space technology base through programs such as the University Space Engineering Research program. Nine U.S. universities were selected to be NASA's first University Space Engineering Research Centers, with the goal to broaden the nation's engineering capability to meet critical civilian space program needs. This year's selection included new opportunities for university specializations such as Mars mission technologies, extraterrestrial materials, in-space construction and large space-based observatories. A NASA-developed, computer-generated display system will aid close-in spacecraft maneuvers. Using modified geometric perspective to convey three-dimensional information on a computer screen, the computer graphics system can simulate planned spacecraft maneuvers, allowing pilots to visualize the consequences of a variety of orbital changes. NASA and the AIAA sponsored the First International Symposium on Space Automation and Robotics in November, providing a forum for an open dialogue on the increasingly vital technologies of automation and robotics. Challenges for human space flight and unmanned planetary exploration, space stations and other planned missions were addressed. COMMERCIAL PROGRAMS NASA's efforts to encourage an expanded involvement by the U.S. private sector in the civil space program grew significantly during 1988 as the commercial use of space received new policy emphasis and the Space Shuttle returned to flight. In early 1988, President Reagan signed a new National Space Policy which strongly supports a national goal of creating opportunities for U.S. commercial space ventures. In addition, he issued a 16-point Commercial Space Initiative. NASA's Office of Commercial Programs carried out activities during the year to implement the new initiatives and continued the expansion of its on-going programs of government-industry cooperation. Key developments of 1988 included: * The flight of two commercially-development payloads aboard Discovery during STS-26 -- an industrial experiment in thin films by 3M Co. and an investigation of protein crystal growth led by the NASA-sponsored Center for Macromolecular Crystallography with the participation of Merck, Upjohn, Du Pont, Schering-Plough and Burroughs-Wellcome. * Establishment of the Commercial Programs Advisory Committee -- a new NASA Advisory Council subcommittee composed of 18 senior corporate and university executives. * Signing of a space systems development agreement with SPACEHAB, Inc., providing for six Space Shuttle flights of the firm's middeck augmentation module beginning in June 1991. * Signing of agreements with McDonnell Douglas and Martin Marietta providing for access to NASA-controlled facilities in support of their commercial launch operations, and the signing of an agreement with LTV granting the firm exclusive rights to manufacture and market the Scout launch vehicle. * Award of a $1 million, commercial launch services contract, through a grant to the NASA-sponsored Consortium for Materials Development in Space, to Space Services Inc. for the launch of a materials science payload aboard the firm's Starfire rocket in 1989. * Startup of seven new Centers For The Commercial Development Of Space, which joined nine other NASA-supported centers to attract industrial investment in the development of new space technologies with promising commercial potential. * Signing of a memorandum of understanding with Corabi International Telemetrics, Inc., supporting the commercial development of telemedicine services for Space Station Freedom. * Publication of an invitation for private sector expressions of interest in the commercial use of jettisoned Space Shuttle external tanks. NASA's Technology Utilization program observed its 25th year as efforts increased to further expand NASA's nationwide network supporting technology transfer to the private sector. Significant developments in technology applications included: * Announcement of a cooperative effort by NASA and the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute to use space technology to develop a device to improve the sight of people suffering from low vision. * Initiation of a joint project with the American Cancer Society seeking to improve ways for laboratory identification and monitoring of cancer cells. The office's Small Business Innovation Research Division announced in November and December the award of 227 Phase 1 and 61 Phase 2 contracts to small, high technology firms. The total value of the contracts is approximately $41 million. OFFICE OF EXPLORATION NASA's Office of Exploration, in its first full year of existence, firmed its organizational structure and began defining and analyzing missions to achieve the NASA goal of expanding human presence into the solar system as directed by the National Space Policy issued by President Reagan in February 1988. The ultimate Exploration Office goal is to provide recommendations and alternatives for a future national decision by the President and the Congress, in the early 1990s, on a focused program for human exploration of the solar system. The office established various exploration groups at both Headquarters and the NASA field centers and outlined their responsibilities. The office then tested the organizational structure by examining three exploration strategies as they applied to test exploration case studies. The strategies and case studies examined were: o Human Expeditions - an approach which emphasizes a significant, visible, successful effort to establish the first human presence on another solar system body. Missions to Mars and to one of its moons, Phobos, were used as case studies to test this strategy. o Science Outpost - this strategy emphasizes advancing scientific knowledge and operational experience by building and maintaining an extraterrestrial outpost such as a permanent observatory. For this strategy, the Exploration Office used the case study of establishing an observatory on the far side of the moon. o Evolutionary Expansion - this type of exploration effort consists of a methodical program to open the inner solar system for exploration, space science research, extraterrestrial resource development and permanent human presence. The office used the case study of a lunar outpost to examine this strategy, which later would build towards a Mars Outpost. The results of the past year's efforts were detailed in a report entitled "Beyond Earth's Boundaries - Human Exploration of the Solar System in the 21st Century", presented at a press conference, Dec. 19, at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS The highlight of l988 was the signing, Sept. 29, of the multilateral, intergovernmental space station agreement (IGA) by the United States, Japan, Canada and the nine member states of the European Space Agency (ESA) participating in the program (Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom). This umbrella agreement sets the broad principles of the rights and obligations of the partners, including the legal regime within which the program will operate. Two space station bilateral memoranda of understanding between NASA and ESA and NASA and Canada also were signed. A memorandum between NASA and Japan will be signed next spring after the Japanese Diet has approved the IGA. These memoranda focus on programmatic and technical aspects of the cooperation and establish the management mechanisms necessary to implement the program. The United States will provide the basic infrastructure for Space Station Freedom, as well as a laboratory module and a polar orbiting platform. The agreements call for Canada to provide a mobile servicing center to be used in station assembly, maintenance and servicing; Japan to provide a pressurized laboratory; and ESA to provide a pressurized laboratory, polar platform and a man-tended free flyer. The total international contribution to Space Station Freedom is valued at more than $7 billion. The partners also will contribute to the annual operating costs of Space Station Freedom throughout its lifetime. At the Moscow summit in May l988, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to expand space science cooperation under the l987 space science agreement between the two countries. They agreed to exchange flight opportunities for scientific instruments to fly on each other's spacecraft and to exchange results of independent national studies of future unmanned solar system exploration missions as a means of assessing prospects for further U.S.-Soviet cooperation on such missions. An exchange of results of national studies of Mars rover/sample return and lunar missions took place at the second meeting of the U.S./USSR Joint Working Group on Solar System Exploration in November. NASA accepted, in principle, a Soviet proposal to fly a French-manufactured transponder on the Mars Observer to enable the U.S. mission to serve as a communications relay for the planned l994 Soviet Mars balloon mission in which the French will participate. Discussions began on the possible flight of a U.S. total ozone mapping spectrometer on a Soviet Meteor-3 spacecraft. Agreement was reached on experiment protocols for joint U.S./USSR experiments to be conducted on the Soviet Biosatellite to be launched in l989. The U.S./Italian San Marco D/L spacecraft was successfully launched on a U.S. Scout rocket from Italy's San Marco Equatorial Range, Kenya, on March 25. The international satellite carried five scientific instruments to study the lower atmosphere. The U.S. and The Gambia signed an agreement in March l988 permiting use of Banjul International Airport as a Space Shuttle emergency landing site. Transatlantic abort landing sites in Spain, Morocco and The Gambia actively supported the Shuttle's return to flight with mission STS-26. The International Space Year (ISY) Mission to Planet Earth Conference was held in Durham, N.H., in late April. Senior management officials from l7 space agencies and organizations participated, as well as approximately 60 Earth observation officials and scientists. The senior management officials agreed to establish a Space Agency Forum on International Space Year which will meet periodically to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas on ISY programs. They also endorsed Mission to Planet Earth as a major theme for ISY. NASA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan signed an agreement in January l988 for the direct reception by NASA of data from Japan's Earth Resources Satellite. NASA continued sounding rocket and scientific balloon missions to study Supernova l987A from Australia. The sounding rocket missions were conducted from the Woomera Range in South Australia and the balloon campaigns from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The missions were carried out from Australia since the supernova is only visible from Earth's southern hemisphere. SAFETY, RELIABILITY, MAINTAINABILITY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE A six member ad hoc committee, composed of both government and independent safety experts, completed a report in July that reviewed safety risk management in the National Space Transportation System. The report stated that there has been "a positive change in attitudes" by NASA and its contractors towards safety; that roles and responsibities have been clarified; and safety risk assessments improved. NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher proclaimed October 25 as "NASA Quality Day" reaffirming the agency's dedication to excellence and to recognize NASA's reliance on the creative and imaginative contributions of its work force. The Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International Corp., Canoga Park, Calif., was named NASA's recipient of the 1987 Excellence Award for Quality and Productivity. Rocketdyne was one of eight finalists chosen for the award that recognizes NASA's aerospace industry contractors, subcontractors and suppliers that consistently demonstrate ways to maintain and improve the quality of their products and services. Rocketdyne's primary responsibility is the design, development and production of Shuttle main engines. EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS Over 60,000 teachers requested entry packets for U.S. student participation in the national competition to name NASA's replacement Space Shuttle orbiter. In addition, requests for unofficial entry packets were granted to 99 teachers in 29 other countries. Entry deadline is Dec. 31, 1988. The name will be announced in May 1989. Two student experiments, selected under the Space Science Student Involvement Program, flew aboard the Shuttle Discovery. Student investigator Lloyd C. Bruce, St. Louis, Mo., designed an experiment that heated titanium alloy to near its melting point, reorganizing its crystals in the weightlessness of spaceflight, to produce larger crystals and a stronger, lightweight alloy. The second student investigator, Ricard Cavoli, Marlboro, N.Y., designed an experiment to test the effects of weightlessness on lead iodide crystals, grown along a semi- permeable membrane. The objective was to grow larger, purer lead iodide crystals, used in x-ray imaging, that could reduce the potentially harmful radiation. To date, 17 student experiments have flown aboard the Shuttle. Two are manifested for STS-29 scheduled for launch in February 1989. In its 7th year, the Space Science Student Involvement Program selected seven national winners in the Space Station category. Top honors, plus a $3,000 scholarship and a computer went to John Marschhausen, Glastonbury, Conn., for his experiment to test remedies for calcium loss during space flight. Also honored was the winner of the student newspaper competition and two aerospace internship competition winners. A team of four Eau Claire, Wisc., students won a pilot project to design and plan the first permanent manned Mars colony. The Aerospace Education Service Project continues to be one of NASA's most popular education programs. During 1988, over 1.2 million students and 28,000 teachers were reached through school visits, classroom lectures and teacher workshops. In a pilot year, 80 elementary school teachers, representing 32 states, were selected to participate in the NASA Educational Workshop for Elementary School Teachers (NEWEST). Teachers spent 2 weeks at a NASA field center learning the latest in aerospace activities and working with educational specialists to fit the materials into a classroom curriculum. NEWEST is modelled after NASA's program for Educational Workshops for High School Math and Science Teachers. In February, NASA enhanced student and teacher services by opening the NASA SPACELINK computer information access system. Accessed by modem over regular phone lines, over 4,000 participants have registered with the system which received 60 to 70 calls per day for NASA information and aerospace educational materials. Over 20,000 educators in the 50 states and parts of Canada tuned in for NASA's satellite video conferences for teachers. NASA projects covered in the live, interactive programs this year included aeronautics research programs, including the National Aero-Space Plane; Space Station Freedom; launch vehicle preparations; and living in space. NASA and the American Society for Engineering Education celebrated a 25-year partnership in conducting the Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, which allows university faculty the opportunity to spend 10 weeks in cooperative research with scientists and engineers at NASA field centers. Since 1963, over 5,000 university faculty members have participated in the program. This year, over 260 fellowships were awarded to faculty from 174 colleges and universities. The Minority Graduate Program, a component of NASA's Graduate Student Researcher's Program, was announced in December 1988. The program is designed to increase minority participation in graduate study and research. University principal investigators, working on NASA research grants, assist in locating promising graduate students. The students compete for 3-year fellowhips and the opportunity to work with the nation's top aerospace engineers and scientists at national laboratories with unique facilities. Over $5 million was awarded to 345 students at 110 universities for advanced engineering study in space, physical, life and environmental sciences under NASA's Graduate Student Researcher's Program. NASA also announced in December development of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, designed to create a network of universities capable of contributing to aerospace science and technology and training a highly skilled future workforce. Final announcements will be sent to the university community in the Spring 1989.