ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991                   TAG: 9102150239
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WEBSTER, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

SPACE OPERATION HOPES TO LAUNCH CRAFT IN 1992

A Houston firm signed contracts Thursday that will make it responsible for half of an estimated $85 million NASA-related project to get the United States in the commercial spaceflight business by as early as next year.

Space Industries, Inc., signed three contracts with the University of Tennessee Center for Aerospace Research as part of the NASA-sponsored Commercial Experiment Transporter program, known as COMET.

Project officials hope to launch a spacecraft, powered by a rocket supplied by another Houston firm, in September 1992, and keep a space capsule in orbit about 300 miles high for 30 days before returning it to earth.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB