Technology 1991: aerospace/military

Abstract

Significant events of 1990 are recounted. During the year the Cold War all but concluded, raising the prospect of cuts in military budgets and motivating defense contractors to look for commercial ventures. Arms-control pacts notwithstanding, turmoil in the Persian Gulf dominated the military realm in 1990. Two technology developments of the 1980s-night-combat capabilities and better control of electromagnetic signatures-may be critical to Gulf combat. Another ongoing trend, distancing humans from battle to reduce casualties, is expected to result in one of the few significant growth areas in the 1990s: unmanned vehicles. Space, also a robust area, saw the debut of an inexpensive launch vehicle called pegasus, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In civilian aerospace, the Hubble Space Telescope debacle cast a long shadow, although some bright stellar images proved salvageable by computer reconstruction. Officials at NASA hope the next one of their four orbiting observatories, the US $550 million Gamma Ray Observatory, will be lofted without glitches in the first half of 1991. Commercial space ventures took off and are changing the landscape for launching. Japan and Europe achieved notable successes with some spacecraft. >