Titan IV Launch a Success: A Titan IV booster carrying a classified military payload lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Mother's Day, May 12. The rocket lifted off at 2:32pm PDT Sunday afternoon from the 4-East complex at Vandenberg. It was the second Titan IV launch in less than three weeks and the only one scheduled for Vandenberg this year. "That is an astounding success by the Titan IV team," John Adamoli, vice president for Titan programs at Lockheed Martin, said.

Russian Recon Satellite Launch Fails: A Russian military reconnaissance satellite failed to each orbit Tuesday, May 14 when technical problems developed with the booster engines on its Soyuz-U rocket. The satellite would have been in a low Earth orbit for six weeks taking detailed photographs of Russia and the United States for mapmaking purposes. Some of the work would have been in cooperation with an American mapmaking firm, according to Reuters.

AXAF Makes Progress: AXAF, The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility, reached a major milestone recently when the spacecraft's eight mirrors were successfully coated with a special material that reflects X-rays. The mirror segments will be integrated into the High Resolution Mirror Assembly later this year. The spacecraft, one of NASA's Great Observatories (which includes the Hubble Space Telescope and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory) will be launched in August 1998.

NASA's Chief Vet: Joseph T. Bielitzki, DVM, was appointed to the newly-created position of Chief Veterinary Officer at NASA earlier this month. The position was created to oversee animal research at all NASA facilities and to ensure compliance with relevant federal laws. The position ensures NASA's commitment to high-quality scientific research and ethical practices, according to Dr. Arnauld Nicogossian, the acting associate administrator for Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications.

Fast Flybys: NASA selected 35 candidates for the astronaut class of 1996 on May 1. The class, which includes 10 pilot and 25 mission specialist candidates, is the largest since the first shuttle astronaut class in 1978... NASA and the Defense Department are working together to find ways to cut costs. The savings will come from resource sharing between NASA centers and nearby military bases... Virginia-based Sky Station International, Inc., is looking to compete with planned low Earth orbit communications satellite constellations with blimps. The company, backed by former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, plans to place aerostats 30 km (50 mi) above 250 cities worldwide, where they would receive and transmit data throughout a city's metropolitan area... The launch of the MSTI satellite from a Pegasus rocket is scheduled for 11pm EDT May 15 from Orbital Science Corporation's carrier aircraft off the California coast.

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