Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Wed, Jun 10 1992 Date: Wed, 10 Jun 92 05:20:05 EDT Message-ID: 06-10 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update June 10, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network AMERICA 2000 REGION FORMED: NASA and the Bush administration Tuesday announced the first of several regional partnerships to raise the nation's educational standards and prepare children for the high-tech jobs of the future. Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama will team up to form the first America 2000 region in the United States, NASA administrator Daniel Goldin said during a video teleconference. (For more, see special Education package below.) INTELSAT SATELLITE GOES UP: An Intelsat communications satellite was launched into space Tuesday night by a Atlas rocket made by General Dynamics Corp. The satellite will provide up to 32 television channels to customers in North America, South America and Europe. The spacecraft is owned by the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, a consortium of more than 120 nations. NASA LOBBYING CONGRESS: NASA is intensely lobbying congress as NASA's budget works its way through Congress. The space agency is using astronauts to lobby congress. Last week, NASA towed a full-scale model of Space Station Freedom to the Capitol parking lot. Lawmakers got tours and a talk on the benefits mankind might reap if they find the $2 billion needed to fund next year's phase of development for the lab. TELESCOPE LIKELY TO GET CUT: Lawmakers say NASA will see no budget increase over this year's $14.3 billion level. And it could be less. NASA has requested $15 billion for 1993. Among the probable cuts: Funding for the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility, space-based telescope that can trace X-rays from distant stars; and The Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby, which would study a passing asteroid later this decade. NASA'S TRANSFER PLAN KILLED: A plan to transfer all top space shuttle managers to Florida's Kennedy Space Center is dead. Only about 10 engineers from Houston's Johnson Space Center will move to Florida, officials say. The consolidation plan was expected to save NASA money. But officials decided it was more important to keep a top-level management office in Houston to handle mission operations. SPRINT MOVES INTO EUROPE: Sprint has made deals with two European companies as part of a plan to provide European-based multinationals with internal communications networks on a global basis, Sprint said Tuesday. Sprint signed deals with Televerket, owned by the Swedish government, and PTT Telecom, owned by the Dutch government. The venture will build networks for European-based companies. RASTEROPS, ADOBE MAKE DEAL: RasterOps Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. said Tuesday they have reached an agreement by which RasterOps will integrate Adobe technologies into board products that will enhance Adobe's PostScript imagesetter output devices. The enhanced products will be available later this year, RasterOps said. COMPUTERIZED KIOSK TO BE USED: King County Executive Tim Hill Wednesday will launch an new service in Belevue, Wash., that allows people to conduct government business through a computerized kiosk, Hill said Tuesday. Users can receive information and government forms. Future kiosks may be equipped for financial transactions using credit or debit cards. ANTHEM SPLITS INTO TWO UNITS: Anthem Electronics Inc. Tuesday said it is reorganizing the company's operations into two separate business units - Anthem Electronics and Eagle Technology. The Anthem Electronics business unit is responsible for the company's distribution operations. The Eagle Technology business unit manufactures and markets computer connectivity products. UNITED TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORTED: First Boston sees good things ahead for United Technologies. While there is concern over United's defense-contracting business, it accounts for less than 21% of revenue, the brokerage says. A combination of economic recovery, a rebound in sales of aircraft-engine spare parts and a program to reduce costs could allow earnings to grow 93% this year, First Boston says. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON EDUCATION: NEW SKILLS ARE NEEDED: NASA and the Bush administration launched America 2000 in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama Tuesday. "A world-class education will help students obtain the skills for the jobs of the future: High-tech and highly competitive," NASA administrator Daniel Goldin said. "This is where we want our children to be." NASA COULD BENEFIT: NASA, which has an advanced solid rocket motor project at its Yellow River facility in Tshimingo County, Miss., was a major player in putting the southern coalition together. The space agency wants to improve the skills of students in the communities around its Iuka, Miss., rocket plant because those students could become the agency's work force of the future. STATES WILL WORK TOGETHER: The states forming the Tri-State Education Initiative will work together. It will involve 95,000 students in 29 school districts within a 50-mile radius of the point where the states converge. The project will take an "extraordinary commitment" that cannot be done from Washington, Education Secretary Lamar Alexander said. "We're doing it state-by-state in community-by-community." (End of package.) Technology Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM