Aalice.215
net.columbia
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:mhtsa!alice!sjb
Wed Dec  9 18:48:26 1981
update
Budget
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Congress has passed a $6.17 billion budget for NASA, $50 million
more than President Reagan wanted.  The bill now goes to Reagan
for signiture (notice I don't say ``or veto'' -- oops!)  The main
parts of the bill are:
	$2.19 billion for the STS program.  This will insure the
delivery of the three other shuttles, now being built, with a
possibility of a fifth shuttle.
	$1.1 billion for research and program management
	$908 million for space flight operations.

Experiments
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Experiments on board Columbia during STS-2 showed that clay,
essential to geologists for finding oil, can be detected from
space, along with other precious metals.  The Shuttle Multispectral
Infrared Radiometer, SMIRR, uses the fact that each mineral
has its own reflective signiture.