October 28, 1996

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HEADLINE NEWS

Clinton Soft-Sells Cost Of NATO's Enlargement

WASHINGTON President Clinton made a campaign pitch last week for enlarging the NATO alliance by 1999, but failed to tell taxpayers it might cost them as much as $19 billion. Stumping in the Midwest, Clinton for the first time served notice to voters of the financial burden they will bear to help bring East-Central Europe’s former Communist-bloc countries into NATO.

By PAUL MANN

HEADLINE NEWS

Solid Earnings Belie Anxious Undercurrent

NEW YORK Solid third-quarter earnings seem to be the order of the day among most major U.S. aerospace/defense companies, but less reassuring news lies just around the corner for some of the industry’s biggest players. STARTING IN EARLY NOVEMBER and continuing for about another 120 days, a series of major contracts will be awarded, and companies and Wall Street analysts alike are anxiously waiting to find out the names of the winners and losers.

By ANTHONY L. VELOCCI

HEADLINE NEWS

Samsung-Fokker Plan Meets With Skepticism

SEOUL Samsung Aerospace has presented a plan to recreate the bankrupt Fokker Aircraft Co. that includes retaining its business base in Holland and using the Fokker 100 program as a bridge toward the development of a South Korean-made regional jet.

By MICHAEL MECHAM

HEADLINE NEWS

Mars Sample Return Still Years Away

WASHINGTON NASA is hoping to greatly increase the scope of a sample-return mission to Mars to help answer questions about possible life on the planet, but the complexity of the effort makes it unlikely that a spacecraft will be returning Martian rocks to Earth for at least a decade.

By JOSEPH C. ANSELMO

HEADLINE NEWS

Pentagon Again Requests Civil Helos for Resupply

WASHINGTON Pentagon sealift planners are once again asking the commercial marketplace to provide civilian-operated helicopters that can go to sea with the U.S. Navy to conduct ship-to-ship resupply. Bids are due Nov. 9 in response to a request for proposals for a six-month demonstration of vertical replenishment.

By DAVID A. FULGHUM

HEADLINE NEWS

NASA Sets Argentine Spacecraft Launch

Greenbolt, Md. The first scientific spacecraft built by Argentina is among a pair of satellites being readied by NASA for launch on a Pegasus XL booster. The SAC-B satellite, built by Argentina’s National Commission of Space Activities under a cooperative agreement with NASA, will carry five instruments designed to advance the study of solar physics and astrophysics by observing solar fiares, gamma ray bursts, diffuse cosmic X-ray background and energetic neutral atoms.

By Joseph C. Anselmo

SPACE TECHNOLOGY

Columbia Set for Dual Deployments, Retrievals

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Shuttle Mission 80, set for liftoff here Nov. 8, will be the first shuttle flight in which two satellite payloads will be deployed and flown simultaneously in formation with the orbiter before being retrieved later during the same flight.

By CRAIG COVAULT

October 211996

November 41996

October 28, 1996

October 28, 1996