ASTRONAUTICS AND 

AERONAUTICS, I9794984 

A Chronology 

by Bette R. Janson and Eleanor H. Ritchie 

THE NASA HISTORY SERIES 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Office of Management 

Scientific and Technical information Division 

Washington, DC 1990 
NASA maintains an internal history program for two principal reasons. (1) Sponsorship of research in NASA-related history is one wiy in which NASA responds 

to the provision of the National Aeronautics and :Space Act of 1958 that requires NASA to “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof.” (2) 

Thoughtful study of NASA history can help agency managers accomplish the 

missions assigned to the agency. Understanding NASA’s past aids in understanding its present situation and illuminates possible future directions. Selection 

of items for inclusion in the chronology is the responsibility of the History 

Office employee assigned to assemble them; omission or manner of treatment 

has no relationship to agency policy. 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (paper 

cover). Library of Congress catalog number 656038 
Preface 

Astronautics ana' Aeronautics for 159-1984 completes the series of annual 

chronologies of events in aeronautics, aviation, and space science and exploration prepared by the History Division of the National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration since 1961. The concluding volume of the series, Astronautics 

and Aeronautics for 1985, was published in 1988. 

The present volume was written by Bette R. Janson and Eleanor H. Ritchie 

under the editorial supervision of the director of the NASA History Division. 

Items for inclusion in this volume were collected by Eleanor H. Ritchie and 

Lee D. Saegesser of the NASA History Division. 

As with any work of this nature, its extensive scope has made the use of 

primary sources prohibitive. Thus, entries are based largely on normally reliable 

secondary sources. All entries are followed by their sources to provide researchers guides for further investigations. 

July 1989 Sylvia D. Fries 

Director, NASA History Division 

Washington, D.C. 

... 

111 

Contents 

Page 

Preface ..................................................... 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1979 1 

... 

........................ 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1980 ........................... 101 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1981 ........................... 247 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1982 ........................... 319 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1983 ........................... 389 

Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1984 ........................... 457 

Appendix A ................................... ..... 527 

Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1979 ..... 529 

549 

Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1981 ..... 571 

599 

Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1983 ..... 625 

Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1984 653 

Major NASA Launches. 1979-1984 ........................ 683 

Abbreviations of References . 699 

Index ................................................... 707 

Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1980 ..... 

Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1982 ..... 

Appendix B 

Appendix C 

...................... 

The NASA History Series ........................ .... 777 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1979 

Januapy 

January I: The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) announced that this week it would complete taking over all of its 

own managerial and operational activities, performed by the U.S. Communications Satellite Corporation (ComSatCorp) since INTELSAT’s founding in 1964. ComSatCorp had been handing back responsibilities gradually 

since 1973 and would continue to provide technical and laboratory services 

under contract. Jobs done by ComSatCorp had included procuring spacecraft 

and launch services, operating and maintaining facilities, carrying out 

technical studies, and performing research and development. This would be 

the first time in INTELSAT history that it would incorporate all of its own 

executive functions, both administrative and technical. (INTELSAT Release 

79-1-1) 

January 2: Wire services reported that an explosion that damaged a Space 

Shuttle engine during test firing at Bay St. Louis, Miss., on December 27 

might delay the first Shuttle launch, now scheduled for the end of September. 

Further tests would await determining the cause of the accident-apparently 

failure of a valve in a high-pressure pump feeding oxygen to a combustion 

chamber. The engine had completed 255 seconds of a 52-second test firing 

when the pump exploded, damaging the engine, and NASA would also need 

3 to 4 weeks to repair damage to the test stand. Last September, when NASA 

announced delay of the first launch, originally scheduled for March, 

Associate Administrator John F. Yardley warned of further delays “if unforeseen problems arise or the tests are not entirely successful.” (NY Ernes, Jan 

2/79 [UPI], A-13; W Post, Jan 4/79 [AP], A-2) 

January 3: George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) announced that 

the five “payload specialists” selected last July to operate experiments on the 

first Spacelab mission in 1981 would begin training January 9 at seven cities 

in the United States and two in Canada. Selection and training of non-NASA 

scientists to fly in space was a “famous first” for NASA; the scientists chosen 

by their colleagues having experiments aboard the Spacelab would be the first 

noncareer astronauts and would include the first Western Europeans and the 

first non-U.S. citizens to fly on a U.S. space mission. Three payload 

specialists were Europeans: Ulf Merbold of West Germany, representing 

Max-Planck Institute of Stuttgart; Claude Nicollier of Switzerland, representing Europe’s Space Technology Center (ESTEC); and Wubbo Ockels of the 

Netherlands, representing Groenigen University. U.S. selectees were Michael 

L. Lampton of the University of California at Berkeley and Byron K. 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 19m 

Lichtenberg of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since October 1978, the five had been in Europe learning to operate experiments 

designed by European scientists. Two of the selectees would actually fly on 

Spacelab 1, and the other three would operate the experiment equipment on 

earth. 

Spacelab 1 would carry 40 instruments, about equally divided between 

NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) experiments in terms of weight, 

volume, and power requirements; fields of investigation would include solar 

physics, space plasma physics, stratosphere and upper-atmosphere physics, 

biology, medicine, astronomy, earth observation, materials processing, and 

technology areas, such as thermodynamics and lubrication. After leaving 

MSFC, the trainees would visit Redondo Beach (Calif.), the Johnson Space 

Center (JSC), Philadelphia, Boston, and Montreal (Quebec) and Toronto (Ontario) in Canada; return to JSC in Houston; visit Pa10 Alto, Calif; and be back 

at MSFC in Huntsville on March 22. (MSFC Releases 79-1, 79-4) 

MSFC reported that a delegation from the People‘s Republic of China (PRC) 

visiting the United States since November would arrive at MSFC January 5 

to investigate peaceful uses of space technology. Following up a visit to the 

PRC last July by Presidential Science Advisor Dr. Frank Press, the Chinese 

delegation, accompanied by NASA representatives, had visited several NASA 

centers and U.S. aerospace industry establishments. Among items of interest 

to the visitors at MSFC would be the Space Shuttle orbiter Enterprise, currently undergoing tests. 

The PRC representatives were to be in the United States until mid-January 

and had concluded an informal agreement on developing a civilian communications system for the PRC and on buying equipment to receive Earth 

resources data from Landsat remote-sensing satelllites. NASA Administrator 

Dr. Robert A. Frosch headed the U.S. delegation, and Dr. Jen Xin-min, director of the PRC’s Academy of Space Technology, headed the PRC delegation. 

(MSFC Release 79-2) 

Januaiy 7: The Nav York Ernes reported that a huge international scientific 

project supported by 147 nations would begin this week. The $500 million 

Global Weather Experiment (GWE), part of the Global Atmospheric Research 

Program (GARP), would be a joint effort of the World Meteorological 

Organization and the International Council of Scientific Unions, financed by 

the meteorological group. It would expand the existing World Weather Watch, 

now generating more than 40,000 daily observations, by using 10 satellites, 50 

research vessels, 110 aircraft, 300 high-altitude c onstant-level balloons, and 

300 instrumented ocean buoys, in addition to other measuring devices. 

The widely dispersed instruments and large numbers of scientists would 

study seasonal weather cycles in Earth’s atmosphere and would gauge the 

practical limits of present technology for weather forecasting, to compile what 

would be the most complete record of global weather data ever attempted. 

A 
JANUARY 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Twice daily, about 50 oceanographic research ships from 22 nations would 

release balloon-borne packages for atmosphere measurements; U. S. researchers would release 150 balloons in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to monitor 

winds and temperatures at an altitude of 47,000 feet. Satellites would record 

wind forces and directions by photographing changes in cloud shapes and 

positions; they and other spacecraft would record atmospheric temperature 

and humidity as well as ocean rainfall and sea surface temperatures. 

The head of the U.S. team, Rex Fleming of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said that the belt of tropical oceans 

around Earth‘s equator was an enormous heat sink absorbing solar energy and 

creating much of the world’s weather and that observations there were meager. 

“This will be the first time that an annual record of weather data will have 

been taken over the whole world,” Fleming said. “The world can’t afford to 

do this every year, but we hope from all this to design a weather-observance 

system that the world can afford.” U.S. organizations besides NOAA taking 

part in the GWE would include the Departments of Commerce (DOC), 

Defense (DOD), Energy (DOE), Interior, State, and Transportation (DOT); 

the National Center for Atmospheric Research; NASA; the National Science 

Foundation (NSF); Defense Nuclear Agency; the Air Force, Army, Navy, and 

Coast Guard; and many academic institutions. (NY Ernes, Jan 7/79, 1) 

January 10: NASA reported that its first high-energy astronomy observatory, 

Heuo I, had exhausted its attitude-control gas supply, ending a 17-month mapping of celestial X-ray sources. Launched August 12, 1977, and designed for a 6-month lifetime, Heao I had returned data of such quality that NASA had 

extended its mission. Its systems and experiments had functioned well 

throughout, though the primary mission ended in February 1978. Results included raising the number of X-ray sources from the 350 previously known 

to nearly 1,500; locating a new black-hole possibility near the constellation 

Scorpius, bringing the total to four; and discovering a universal hot plasma 

constituting a major part of the mass of the universe, as well as a dust and 

gas cloud with a mass probably sufficient to ‘%lose” the universe (prevent its 

perpetual expansion). The results had already engendered more than 160 

technical papers and scientific presentations, and analysis of the Heno I data 

would require years of work by high-energy astrophysicists; the findings might 

change fundamental concepts of the universe, the NASA report said. Heuo 1 

would probably reenter Earth‘s atmosphere in late March. (NASA Release 

79-4; MSFC Release 79-3). 

January 16: NASA declared the launch of Comstar C on June 29, 1978, to be 

successful. Put into a transfer orbit by an Atlas Centaur at the Eastern Test 

Range (ETR), the spacecraft on July 1 successfully fired its apogee motor to 

go into the desired synchronous orbit. The assessment was signed January 12 

by Joseph B. Mahon, director of the expendable launch-vehicle program in the 

Office of Space Transportation Systems, and by John E Yardley, associate ad5 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY lmS 

ministrator for space transportation systems. (NASA MOR M-491-201-78-03 

[postlaunch] Jan 16/79). 

January 20: At a press conference on NASA’s budget for fiscal year 1980 

(FY80), Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, said the 1980 budget 

year would not “go down in history as my favori1.e.” The request NASA submitted to Congress was just over $4.7 billion, an increase of about $160 

million over the FY79 budget, counting in the latter a $185 million supplemental NASA had asked for. The FY80 request would amount to slightly less than 

the rate of inflation, Dr. Frosch said; not counting the $185 million supplemental in the FYB budget, the 1980 request would be “about equal to inflation.” Whereas funding sought for space science and applications was up 

about 20% and the total amount included support for all ongoing programs, 

it contained no money for “new flight project starts of any major kind” in 

space sciences or applications. The budget did contain “some increases in 

aeronautics, where it is more difficult to identify a major new start in any 

case.” 

“Current best estimate” for the first Space Shuttle flight was November 9, 

postponed from September 28, and NASA’s schedule had been adjusted 

accordingly. 

Money requested for space science had increased $100 million, about 20% 

over FY79; this covered major projects and research and development now 

under way, such as Space Telescope, Galileo (the Jupiter-orbiter probe), the 

high-energy astronomical observatory, Spacelab, the solar polar mission, infrared astronomy satellite, and solar maximum mission. Applications fbnding 

included money for joint multiagency research in crop monitoring and commodity projection by NASA, together with the Departments of Agriculture, 

Commerce, and Interior and the Agency for International Development 

(AID). Funds for aeronautics would increase 14 % to cover current research 

and technology and to continue the aircraft energy efficiency program, with 

research on reduction of noise and pollution. 

In manpower, NASA would lose 674 permanenl Civil Service positions over 

FY79 and FY80, part of this the agency’s share of a government-wide 2 % cut 

in personnel. Frosch summarized the budget as one that “in key program 

areas continues momentum. . .while it’s tight, WI: think we can make a good 

transition to the Shuttle era and we can keep going on the science, the applications, and the aeronautics. . .” (Text; W Star, Jan 22/79, A-10) 

January 22: The Washington Post reported that Pluto, known for some 40 

years as the outermost planet of the Earth’s solar system, would no longer be 

furthest from the Sun as of this date, when it would edge inside the orbit of 

Neptune and remain there until March 1999. Discovered in 1930 by Clyde 

Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory, Pluto had :in elliptical orbit that would 

bring it inside that of Neptune every 248 years (that is, the crossing last happened in 1731, and before that in 1483) and keep it there for about 20 years. 

6 
JANUARY 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Observatory said that elliptical orbits of the two 

planets were so inclined that Pluto and Neptune could never come closer than 

about 240 million miles to one another. Last year, photographs of Pluto revealed a large satellite visible from only one side of the planet; it was named 

Charon, for the ferryman on the river Styx in Pluto’s realm of Hades. 

(Washington Post, Jan 22/79, A-9) 

January 25: NASA announced that it had named the first four Space Shuttle 

orbiters that would operate in space to honor U.S. explorer ships. The first 

orbiter (102) scheduled for launch later in 1979 was named for the Columbia, 

which located the Columbia River in 1792; Captain Robert Gray named the 

river for his sloop. Challenger (orbiter 099) was named for the ship that 

gathered data December 1872-May 1876, filling 50 volumes on Earth’s oceans. 

Discovery (orbiter 103) was the ship looking in 1610-1611 for a northwest 

passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by exploring Hudson’s 

Bay. Atlantis (orbiter 104) was the first US.-operated vessel designed for 

ocean research, a two-masted ketch that logged half a million miles between 

1930 and 1966. Enterprise, the first orbiter built, was named for a vessel exploring the Arctic from 1851 to 1854, as well as for the flagship in television’s 

Star Trek; as the test orbiter, it was not intended for use in space. (NASA 

Release 79-10; Washington Post, Jan 26/79, C-2; WSJ, Jan 26/79, 1). 

NASA reported that engineers at MSFC and controllers at JSC, who had 

been trying to maintain the orbiting Skylab space station in an attitude of least 

deorbit, had turned their efforts toward preserving some control over the 

spacecraft’s final reentry, since NASA had decided in December to abandon 

rescue attempts. The controllers had put the Skylab into a solar-inertial attitude, pointing its solar panels at the Sun at all times to ensure full electric 

power, offering the possibility of some influence over the craft during reentry, 

Engineers had not agreed on the feasibility of such control but did agree that 

steps should be taken to preserve the option while studies continued. (NASA 

Release 79-12; MSFC Release 79-12) 

atmospheric drag to keep it in space until the Shuttle could try to reboost or 

Dr. Frank Press, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, 

told the Senate subcommittee on science, technology, and space that President 

Carter’s May directive reaffirmed the policy of five previous administrations: 

separation of military and “open” civilian space programs; data sharing, hardware sharing, and technology transfer between civilian and military programs; 

and domestic civilian remote sensing regulated by the government. 

The United States had spent $100 billion over the past 20 years on federal 

space activities: about $67 billion for civilian programs ($25 billion for 

Apollo alone) and $33 billion in military programs. Today, the expenditure 

was about half and half. The FY79 budget request had been $7.1 billion, and 

the FYSO request would be $7.9 billion (up by 12%). These sums did not in- 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1979 

clude private investment in space, more than $2 billion in communications 

satellites alone. (Text, Jan 25/79) 

January 30: NASA launched for the U.S. Air Force a satellite called SCATHA 

(spacecraft charging at high altitudes) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 

at 4:42 p.m. EST on Delta into a transfer orbit pending its boost into operational orbit February 2. Later orbit elements were 43,297-kilometer apogee, 

27,512-kilometer perigee, 1,416.6-minute period, 6.5* inclination. SCATHA 

carried twelve experiments, three provided by NASA, to collect data on highenergy solar-wind particles causing false signals from satellites by building up 

electrical charges on their surfaces. Military and commercial satellites in 

geostationary orbit over the Earth at 35,900 kilometers (22,300 miles) had 

been the major sufferers; the charges could efiectively disable vital communications by causing equipment failure, false recording of unachieved 

events, or initiation of unplanned events. 

SCATHA would meet the greatest challenge of its planned 1-year lifetime 

during a solar eclipse period beginning in March, when electrical charging 

would reach its height; Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) had included an 

electric-field detector, a pair of 50-meter antennas to be extended in opposite 

directions in March to form a single instrument longer than a football field. 

Extension of the antennas might effect the spacecraft’s dynamics. The USAF’s 

Space and Missile System Organization (SAMSO) would reimburse NASA 

about $9 million for the launch. (NASA Release 79-3; NASA MOR 

M-492-303-79-01 [prelaunch] Jan 17/79, [postlaunch] Oct 251789; 0 Sen Star, 

Jan 31/79, 1; Today, Jan 20179, 8A; Jan 22/79, 6A; Jan 30179, 1OA; W Star, Jan 

23/79, A-6) 

During January: The ESA announced that it planned to launch one of its Intelsat V communications satellites on Europe’s Ariane booster. The first four 

of this series of seven would be launched from mid-1979 to late 1980 on U.S. 

Atlas Centaurs; ESA’s board opted for a 1981 Ariane launch of its sixth Intelsat 

V and for Shuttle launches for the other two. (ESA Release Jan 1979, 1) 
February 

Febnuzry 1: Flight controllers at JSC reported that they would halt their 

24-hour Skylab watch February 2, following NASA’s decision to abandon attempts to boost or deorbit the space station. The January 25 maneuver that 

positioned Skylab’s solar panels for constant sun tracking had removed it from 

the minimum-drag position and would result in speeding up its orbital decay. 

The repositioning was intended to increase power available to controllers to 

alter the path of Skylab’s descent, now expected between June and August. 

(JSC Release 79-03) 

February 5: NASA announced that it had signed a contract with Rockwell International corporation’s space systems group to build two Space Shuttle orbiters (OV-103 and OV-lW), convert a ground-test orbiter (OV-991, and modify 

the first orbiter (OV-102); this would give NASA four orbiters for Shuttle 

operations. JSC would administer the $1.9-billion contract at Rockwell’s 

California facilities and at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. 

(NASA Release 79-15; JSC Release 79-07) 

February 6: The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) reported 

Japan’s successful launch of an experimental communications satellite Ecs, 

also called Ayame, from Tanegashima Space Center on an N-1 rocket at 5:46 

p.m. local time. Early orbit elements were 34,411-kilometer apogee, 

193-kilometer perigee, 604-minute period, and 24.1O inclination. Designed for 

communications tests at very high frequencies, Ayame would later be 

maneuvered into stationary orbit, the National Space Development Agency 

said. (FBIS, Tokyo Kyodo in English, Feb 6/79) 

February 9: NASA reported that, in keeping with President Carter’s directive 

on space policy, it would undertake a study with NOAA to determine how far 

private industry could participate directly in U.S. civilian remote-sensing programs. Under the direction of Arnold Frutkin, NASA associate administrator 

for external relations, and Wilbur H. Eskite, Jr., NOAA special assistant for 

studies and analysis, the agencies would ask for private-sector views on capital 

investment, system ownership, system concepts, development of commercial 

products, market assessments, incentives needed to participate, and the roles 

of government and private industry in remote sensing. (NASA Release 79-16) 

Febnuzry 17: The Washington Post reported that NASA’s failure to tell a contractor about classified information on the USSR’s early-warning radar network had cost the federal government $75 million, the cost of rebuilding the 

9 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1979 

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) to maintain communications with crews on the Shuttle in its first 10 years, of operations. NASA had 

had to renegotiate a $786 million contract awarded 3 years ago to Western 

Union, which designed the TDRSS without knowing about the problem of interference from USSR installations located between the Baltic and the Black 

Seas and using frequencies high enough to overpower transmissions between 

the TDRSS and the Shuttle orbiter. An unidentified source told the newspaper 

that U.S. intelligence had given such a “superclassified” designation to data 

on Soviet radar frequencies and power outputs that NASA could not give the 

information to Western Union and its subcontractor TRW Systems, Inc. 

Renegotiation and rework had delayed the satellite system by at least a year, 

NASA told Congress, but would not impair Shuttle operations already delayed 

by engine development problems. (W Post, Feb 17/79, A-9) 

February 18: Wallops Flight Center (WFC) launched SAGE (stratospheric 

aerosol and gas experiment) at 11:18 a.m. EST on a Scout into an orbit with 

655. I-kilometer apogee, 554.6 kilometer perigee, 96.9-minute period, and 

54.90 inclination. The 32-pound spacecraft would obtain data on aerosols and 

ozone in the stratosphere, to be used in studying climate and environmental 

changes that might adversely affect life at the surface. Data from SAGE would 

be checked with surface measurements from teams in the United States, 

Japan, and Europe. SAGE would obtain readings from tropical to high 

latitudes; similar data for the polar regions would come from an aerosol 

measurement experiment on Nimbus Z (WFC Release 79-4) 

February 20: NASA reported that four organizations in the United States and 

Canada had formed a joint sounding-rocket program to study this months 

total solar eclipse and its effect on Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere. The 

February 26 event, visible in totality only in the northwestern United States 

and central Canada, would be the last one in this century observable from the 

North American continent. Working from two laurich sites in western Ontario 

north of Minneapolis, Minn., NASA, the Army’s Atmospheric Sciences 

Laboratory, the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, and Canada’s National 

Research Council (NRC) would gather data or predicting atmospheric 

responses to such disturbances. 

NASA, through WFC, would be the U.S. lead agency for seven rocket launches during the operation. The NRC in Canada would provide construction, 

ground and flight safety, launch coordination, and other support. The Army 

lab would sponsor an experiment measuring electron densities, and the U.S. 

Air Force lab would operate a mobile observatory to measure infrared radiation from the upper atmosphere. (NASA Release 79-18) 

February 25: The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 32 from the Baykonur site at 

2:54 p.m. local time, carrying a two-man crew to occupy the orbiting Sulyut 

6 space station for the first time since November 1978, when the Soyuz 29 

10 
FEBRUARY 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

astronauts returned after a record 139 days in space. Soyuz 32 was manned by 

Lt. Col. Vladimir Lyakhov, 37, acting as commander on his first flight, and 

civilian flight engineer Valery Ryumin, 39, who was aboard Soyuz 25 when 

it failed to dock with Salyut 6 in October 1977 and had to return to Earth 2 

days later. 

Gen. Vladimir Shatalov, head of the USSR‘s space training program, said 

Salyut 6 had been “an effective platform for work in space,” having been occupied for 8 of the 16 months since its launch in September 1977. It had seen 

five successful manned dockings (three by international crews including 

cosmonauts from Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland as part of the 

Intercosmos program), as well as dockings by a number of unmanned supply 

vessels delivering food and fuel. (NY Times, Feb 26/79, A-14; W Post, Feb 

26/79) 

During February: The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) reported that 

the Federation Aeronautique International (FAI) had admitted the People’s 

Republic of China as an active member effective January 1. (NAA News, JanFeb 79) 

MSFC reported completion of a number of Shuttle tests precedent to qualifying the engine and combined elements of the configuration for flight later 

in 1979. Thiokol Corporation, prime contractor to MSFC for Shuttle motor 

development, completed static firing tests of the solid-fuel rocket motor 

February 17 at its Wasatch Division in Utah. During the two-minute firing, 

the motor thrust reached about 3 million pounds, and the system gimbaling 

the nozzle for guidance underwent the most severe duty cycle expected to occur during flight. This motor, more than 35 meters long and 3.5 meters in 

diameter, was the largest of its type ever developed for space flight and the 

first built for use on a manned craft. 

Qualification tests later this spring would check out production, assembly, 

and firing cycle to support a full flight schedule. Each launch would use two 

of the motors, separated at burnout and parachuted into the ocean for recovery 

and reuse. On February 23, MSFC also concluded ground vibration tests of 

the complete Shuttle configuration, assembled for the first time to provide 

data on liftoff and flight conditions. (MSFC Releases 79-18, 79-19, 79-21) 

11 

March I: NASA reported that arrangements for press coverage of the overland 

trek of Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia from Rockwell’s plant at Palmdale, 

Calif., to Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) and the flight from there 

to KSC, would begin March 7 for DFRC and March 5-9 at KSC. The trip by 

truck would precede the mating of Columbia to its Boeing 747 carrier, the 

brief flight test March 9 of ferry preparations and tile status, and the departure 

soon after for KSC. The Shuttle would be off-loaded and moved into the orbiter processing facility March 10-11. (NASA Release NE79-2) 

NASA announced preparations for Voyager l’s encounter with the planet 

Jupiter about March 5. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) would provide 

television coverage of the event; employees at Langley Research Center 

(LaRC) would have a special 7 a.m. colloquium in the center’s cafeteria, complete with breakfast service and television monitors throughout the area. After 

18 months of space travel, the encounter would take place at 7:42 a.m. EST 

at a distance of 278,000 kilometers (172,750 miles) from the planet’s cloud 

tops. Real-time images and live programming through Comsat I would continue for about two hours. (NASA Release 79-26; LaRC anno, undated) 

March 2: At “encounter minus 4 days,” JPL issued a Voyager bulletin showing 

a nine-photo mosaic of Jupiter’s surface constructed from time-lapse 

photographs taken 7.8 million kilometers (4.7 million miles) from the planet. 

The bulletin also gave data on expected Sun and Earth occultations by Jupiter 

offering opportunities for “unique radio science and ultraviolet 

measurements” and on the close approaches to the five large Jovian satellites 

that would also occur Mp-ch 5. (Mission status report 37) 

March 5-6: Voyager I successfully met its objectives at the encounter with 

Jupiter, NASA reported, “streaking” past the planet, “threading its way 

among the five astounding satellites, and discovering that Jupiter, like Saturn 

and Uranus, is a ringed planet.” The spacecraft had performed as predicted 

upon close approach, disappearing behind Jupiter for two hours, penetrating 

its flux tube, and passing close to both Ganymede and Callisto. It had been 

subject to hazards from Jupitefs enormous magnetosphere and,high radiation; 

reception of emergency information and issuance of corrective orders would 

require more than an hours travel time to Earth and back. However, results 

were “beyond its creators’ wildest dreams,” especially the imagery of volcanic 

eruptions and other details on Jupiter’s moons. NASA Administrator Robert 

Frosch and Deputy Administrator Alan Lovelace said “superlatives fail us.” 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH l!9?9 

The Voyager project manager, JPL‘s Robert Parks, called it “spectacularly successful.” (NASA MOR S-802-77-01/02; mission status reports 38, 39) 

March 6: NASA announced that it had assigned MSFC responsibility for 

developing a solar electric propulsion stage to be used first in a planned flyby 

of Halley’s comet upon its return in 1985, and after that for a rendezvous with 

comet Tempe1 11. MSFC had been studying for several years the concept of 

a system using solar energy to provide electrical power for ion engines. Other 

uses for such a system would be high-energy planetary and Earth-orbiting 

missions. (NASA Release 79-31; MSFC Release 79-24) 

March 7: NASA announced that Dr. Noel W. Hinners, associate administrator 

for space science, had accepted appointment as director of the National Air 

and Space Museum, effective in April. He had joined NASA in 1972 as chief 

scientist and deputy director of Apollo lunar exploration in the Headquarters 

Office of Manned Space Flight and had held his present job since June 1974. 

(NASA Release 79-32) 

March 8-12: Columbia, the first reusable Space Shuttle orbiter, started on its 

way to space Thursday, March 8, with a nine-hour tow by truck from the 

Rockwell International hanger at Palmdale, Calif., where it was assembled, 

to the DFRC at Edwa;ds Air Force Base, 38 miles away, where it would be 

mounted on a Boeing 747 for a brief test of the orbiter plane assembly before 

flying to KSC. In Lancaster, Calif., the orbiter’s 78-foot wings hung over the 

sides of the two-lane road into town, barely clearing utility poles, and some 

street lights had to be moved to clear the way. Spectators lined the route to 

see the five-story-high 122-foot-long orbiter pass by on its 90-wheel trailer, 

dwarfing its train of security vehicles, trucks, and a fire engine. Onlookers 

commented on the heavy security arrangements, but NASA officials said that 

they had to protect the craft from bystanders who might touch the fragile 

thermal-protection tiles on the spacecraft surface. Obviously missing were a 

number of black tiles on Columbia’s belly and white tiles on its sides, to be 

added in Florida along with the engines and computers. 

The scheduled takeoff for Florida might be delayed because of bad weather, 

NASA spokesmen warned, to lessen chances of an accident during the crosscountry flight; adverse conditions had developed along the route. 

The 15-minute test flight Friday of the orbiter-745‘ combination resulted in 

extensive damage to the protective-tile surface of the orbiter, said former 

astronaut Deke Slayton, NASA’s manager for orbiter flight tests. As the 747 

took off down the runway at Edwards, parts of the dummy tiles, some as long 

as 2.5 feet began to fall off the spaceship. When tht: flight ended, Columbia 

had lost not only some of the plastic-foam dummy tiles attached by tape to the 

areas around the windows, fuselage sides, wings, and midtail, but also some 

of the 26,000 actual protective tiles bonded to the spaceship at the plant. 

“When the dummies began to fall off, the tape which was attached to them 

14 
MARCH 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

started to swirl around and damage some of the real tiles,” said Slayton, who 

flew one of two chase planes to keep an eye on the orbiter-747 test flight. 

NASA had decided to send Columbia to KSC without about 8,000 tiles that 

could be installed there; dummies had been used to cover areas where in-flight 

problems might arise, but after seeing the test results, engineers decided that 

not all the dummies were needed. Slayton said that the orbiter-747 assembly 

was now scheduled to depart for Florida on Monday, March 12. The 

3,000-mile ferry flight had originally been set for Friday, March 9, but a problem arose in mounting the orbiter on the 747, caused by misalignment of the 

orbiter to the three struts atop the 747, and the test flight was delayed until 

Friday afternoon, after which the tile problem occurred. 

Although NASA engineers said March 10 that the combination could still 

fly cross-country March 12, a later report said that 34 dummy tiles were lost 

and 39 damaged; 7 real tiles were destroyed or lost and 100 damaged. 

Replacement of missing tiles would delay the trip at least to Saturday, March 

17; NASA planned to complete the fix without removing the orbiter from its 

carrier aircraft. (NY Times, Mar 9/79, A-20; W Post, Mar 9/79, A-3; Mar 

12/79, A-7; W Star, Mar 10/79, A-5; Mar 11/79, A-6; Mar 12/79, A-4; Today,, 

Mar 9/79, lA, 16A; Mar 10179, L4, SA; NASA Dly Ach, Rept, Mar 13/79) 

March 15: ESA announced approval of a remote-sensing study to be carried 

out by member states, including Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, 

Sweden, and the United Kingdom, with other member states expected to join 

later. Starting with defining optical and microwave instruments for monitoring 

land and ocean surfaces, to be used by European remote-sensing satellites 

planned for launch in the mid-eighties, ESA would stress developments now 

under way in the respective nations, such as a multimission platform being 

produced by Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) for the SPOT 

satellite and a synthetic-aperture radar proposed by West Germany for 

Spacelab flights in 1983. (ESA anno Mar 15/79) 

March 16: The DOD launched two spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force 

Base on a Titan 3D, with no word on mission or orbital elements. A later 

report in Aviation Week & Space Technology’said that the 10:30 a.m. local 

time launch put a Lockheed-built high-resolution film-return satellite in an orbit with 244-kilometer apogee, 177-kilometer perigee, and 96.4O inclination, 

to supplement a KH-11 high-resolution recon vehicle that had been operating 

in space since June 1978, furnishing data by digital transmission rather than 

film returned to Earth in reentry capsules. The digital system allowed much 

longer life for this type of spacecraft, whose usefulness did not depend on 

depletion of its film pod. “As is often the case with film-return spacecraft,” 

said Aviation Week & Space Technology, the March 16 launch had included 

a piggyback payload, probably a ferret mission, put in orbit with 

625-kilometer apogee, 623-kilometer perigee, and 95.70 inclination. (WTR 

cover Mar 16/79; AvWk, Apr 9/79, 18) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1979 

March 19-23: JSC was host to the 10th annual lunar a.nd planetary science conference or more than 700 scientists from the United States, western Europe, 

Africa, Australia, and the Soviet Union. The conference had evolved to include reports not only on lunar studies but also con planetary studies and 

astrophysics. The five-day schedule included a presentation on Pioneer-Venus 

and on Voyager I’s Jupiter encounter, plus a three-dimensional film on Mars 

produced during the extended Viking mission. (JSC Releases 79-10, 79-11) 

March 20: MSFC reported that the NASA barge Poseidon carrying a Space 

Shuttle external tank and other components had begun an 11-day trip to KSC 

by way of the Tennessee River and the Gulf of Merico. KSC would use the 

items to check out assembly and movement of the components in the vehicle 

assembly building and to train personnel in stacking the Shuttle on its mobile 

launch platform. MSFC said the waterways to the Gulf, swollen by recent 

rains, had receded enough to permit a normal trip to KSC. (MSFC Release 

79-27) 

March 23: MSFC announced that payload specialisls selected for Spacelab 2 

would begin training in April with an orientation tour to visit most of the principal investigators whose experiments would ride on the 1982 mission. Each 

of the selectees had been a co-investigator on one of the Spacelab 2 experiments. The three men and one woman selected would visit six sites in the 

United States and three in the United Kingdom for a first look at many of the 

experiments and to allow them to decide with MSFC management how much 

training they would need before the flight. To be visited were Chicago, Iowa 

City, Pa10 Alto, Pasadena, Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., in the 

United States; and Abingdon, Dorking, and Birmingham in England. Those 

selected were Dr. Loren W. Acton, research scientist at Lockheed’s Palo Alto 

laboratory; Dr. John-David E Bartoe and Dr. Dianne K. Prim, research 

physicists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.; and Dr. 

George W. Simon, chief of the solar research branch at the Air Force 

Geophysics Laboratory, assigned to the Sacramento Peak observatory in New 

Mexico. Two of the specialists would actually fly on Spacelab 2 to operate the 

scientific experiments; the others would operate ground-based equipment and 

assist the two in orbit. Spacelab 2’s payload woulld consist mainly of experiments in astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, and solar physics, plus 

plasma physics, botany, medicine, and space technology. (MSFC Release 

79-30) 

March 24: Columbia, first Shuttle orbiter destined for launch into space, landed with its Boeing 747 carrier at 11:03 local time on a! 15,000-foot runway built 

for this and future landings at KSC. Among the 3,000 persons awaiting the arrival were astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen, scheduled as 

crew on the maiden flight set for November 9. NASA officials said “a series 

16 
MARCH 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

of minor snafus” might delay the first launch until 1980. (W Star, Mar 25/79, 

A-3; W Post, Mar 25179, A-6; NY Times, Mar 26/79] 

March 30: NASA announced that Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, 

and Roy Gibson, director general of ESA, on March 29 signed a memorandum of understanding in Washington, D.C., on a joint international solar-polar 

mission to be launched in 1983. NASA and ESA would each provide a 

spacecraft, and ESA would supply software and personnel to support ESA’s 

flight operations in the United States. NASA would be responsible for mission 

control, launch operations, and tracking and data acquisition, and for several 

experiments. JPL would manage the NASA scientific effort and development 

of a NASA spacecraft; JSC would manage the Shuttle launch portion of the 

mission; ESTEC would manage the European effort. 

The objectives of the mission would be to study the structure and emissions 

of the Sun as a function of latitude from the solar equator to the solar poles 

and to study the interplanetary medium Earth-to-Jupiter and the Jovian 

magnetosphere. Launched from a Shuttle, the two craft, each propelled by an 

upper-stage booster, would take a path in the ecliptic plane (that containing 

all the planets in Earth’s system) toward Jupiter, using its gravity to propel 

them out of the ecliptic toward the Sun on trajectories to pass one over the 

north and one over the south solar poles, retrace the ecliptic track, pass over 

the opposite poles, and fly back toward Jupiter. Mission lifetime would be 

about five years. (NASA Release 79-37; ESA anno Mar 30179) 

During March: FBIS carried regular reports on the progress of the Soyuz 32 

cosmonauts aboard the Sulyut 6 orbiting space station. Upon arrival February 

26, the crew had begun reactivating the thermal regulators, water regeneration 

system, and ventilation. On March 1, they had begun checkout of individual 

consoles and scientific instruments, tested the manual attitude control system, 

and corrected the flight path of Safyut 6 using Soyuz 32 propulsion. 

The following day the crew did baseline medical checkups using Polynom 

apparatus; the flight engineer was tested in the morning, and the commander 

was tested in the afternoon. In an interview March 4, the crew’s doctor 

reported that Lyakhov had needed 1.5 days to adapt to weightlessness but was 

now feeling well. The crew had asked to begin their exercise program on 

trainer machines and cycles several days ahead of schedule. Lyakhov’s regime 

emphasized his “vestibular system”; Ryumin’s, the cardiovascular. On March 

5, Tass, the Soviet news agency, said that the doctors were keeping close watch 

on Commander Lyakhov, “a thick-set man.. .on his first flight in outer 

space.” The commentator said “unhasty adaptation” was important during the 

first few days on the space station, which imposed three peak loads at one 

time: adaptation to weightlessness, complicated docking and transfer procedures, and emotional strain. More time had been allowed on this flight than 

usual for the crew to check all the station systems, both those governing flight 

and those controlling living conditions (the “boost week,” a term used by 

17 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1979 

cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok, one of the communications team keeping in 

touch with the Soyuz 32 crew). 

A March 6 broadcast interview with a ‘‘scientific employee at the Flight 

Center” on repair and servicing of the Salyut said that the intensive activity 

“did not mean that anything is broken or needs mending.” On Sulyut 6, unlike 

its predecessors, individual items of equipment for the first time could be exchanged when their resources were exhausted. Thc station had been in orbit 

for 18 months and carried almost 1,000 different instruments, the reporter 

said. Important systems, such as life support, had been designed to be practically failure proof by using interchangeable units within easy reach, 

facilitating periodic exchange of equipment. Introduction of the Progress 

automated cargo ships meant that new instruments, equipment, and tools were 

available upon crew request. Progress 2 had broughir the Soyuz 29 crew a globe 

indicator for the control panel to show the station’s location in relation to 

Earth; it had also brought new computer units for the Delta automated navigation system. 

The first job in reactivating the Sulyut 6 station had been to check out the 

docking unit on the transfer module, with its opening into outer space; the 

Soyuz 26 crew had done this last year. Lyakhov and Ryumin would have to 

test each on-board system and plug in reserve circuits or replace units. The 

reporter pointed out that, notwithstanding the long use of the station, “not one 

reserve circuit in any system has so far been switched on.” The current crew 

would replace ventilators in the thermal system, light bulbs, cables in the 

television and communications systems, components of the exercise equipment, and filters and regenerators in the life-support systems. 

On March 12, Progress 5 was launched with a !load of fuel for the Sulyut 

6 propulsion unit and materials for its on-board systems. A commentator said 

that portable cables and other mobile elements of radiocommunication “wear 

out heavily” on long flights; the crew had replaced headsets, cables, and switches. They had also set up and operated an on-boa.rd videotape recorder and 

a video monitoring device. An interview March 13 with cosmonaut Vladimir 

Aksenov said that the Salyut represented a new stage of technology, not only 

because it could be supplied but also because it could be overhauled in space 

with Components and assemblies flown there by freight and crew transport 

vessels. Aksenov noted that the crew had used an ordinary soldering iron, said 

to be an enormous departure for repairs in a closed weightless space. Also, 

he said, basic scientific apparatus had heretofore been assembled in a ground 

workshop and checked out in a ground station; for the first time, the installation and test of new apparatus would take place on an operating space station 

in orbit. This was made possible by a wide selection of tools designed 

especially for use in space: pliers, screwdrivers,, clamps, and special instruments to handle special nuts and bolts. 

Upon the arrival March 14 of the Progress 5, bringing fuel, equipment, experiment materials, and mail, the crew’s doctor said in an interview that 

previous flights had indicated that weightlessness had some tricky aspects and 

I8 
MARCH 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

that the consequences of exposure to it could be very serious. The current 

crew were apparently beginning to feel at home in the new surroundings, 

however. After unloading the ferry, the crew had the job of dismantling the 

Kristall electric furnace used for more than 40 experiments in space processing of materials and installing new apparatus better designed to operate in 

weightlessness; they had also plugged in a new chemical battery to reinvigorate the power system. By March 21, the unloading of the supply ship was 

completed, and the crew was ahead of schedule using the new equipment, 

especially a color television camera to show the interior of the station with 

equipment replacements including new sensors installed in the work area to 

detect minimal air pollution in the station’s atmosphere. On March 24, the 

crew communicated by television with the flight control center “in the direction from earth to the spaceship. . . for the first time in the history of space 

flight.” The control center could now transmit drawings, plans, and working 

documents from the ground to the Salyut; “in principle,” said the report, “any 

central TV transmission can be sent to the spaceship.” By month’s end, Tass 

said that the crew had adapted to weightlessness and were proceeding with 

scheduled tasks. (FBIS, Tass in English, Mar 1-28/79) 

19 

April 

April 2: NASA reported that 35 candidates for Space Shuttle astronaut had 

completed classroom instruction and moved into engineering assignments at 

JSC. The courses had begun in July 1978, and the successful candidates would 

become astronauts in July 1980. NASA had brought in personnel from other 

NASA centers and from universities to conduct courses on subjects such as 

space physics, ascent and reentry aerodynamics, spaceflight physiology, and 

tracking techniques; veteran astronauts had lectured on the budget process, 

people, and requirements in the space program and on being a CAPCOM 

(capsule communicator). Videotapes of the classes would be available to all 

employees at JSC. 

The first crews selected for Shuttle flights had begun lessons in the mission 

simulator, and the astronaut candidates would be observers. Lessons would include tests of every sort of emergency the crews might encounter during a mission, supervised by instructors who had spent six months learning how to 

harass the astronauts in their simulator exercises. The lesson plan, scheduled 

to take nine months “not counting. . .problems,” would prepare the crews for 

nearly any emergency, NASA said. (NASA Release 79-34; JSC Release 79-20) 

April 3: The NAA announced that Sam B. Williams, president of Williams 

Research Corporation of Walled Lake, Mich., would receive the Collier 

Trophy, the oldest U.S. aviation award. Williams had designed and developed 

the world’s smallest high-efficiency fanjet engine, a low-cost lightweight 

means to realization of the cruise missile. The Williams engine measured 12 

x 37 inches, weighed 145 pounds, and produced more than 600 pounds of 

thrust; it had qualified for both Air Force and Navy cruise missiles. The NAA 

had presented the trophy annually since 1911 for the greatest achievement in 

aeronautics or astronautics in the United States, demonstrated by actual use 

in the preceding year. (NAA Release Apr 3/79) 

April 4: NASA reported that improved components and techniques could 

lower the “now prohibitive” cost of using turbine rather than piston engines 

in small general aviation aircraft. If turbines cost only half again instead of 

three times as much as piston engines, small plane users could reap the advantages of one-third the weight, proven reliability and safety, multifuel capability, and less maintenance, vibration, noise, or pollution. 

A study by Lewis Research Center (LeRC) said that an advance turbine aircraft would be 25% cheaper to operate, would use 10% less fuel, and would 

cost 15% less to purchase than an equivalent aircraft powered by a typical 

reciprocating engine. Although only 8% of general aviation aircraft flying in 

the United States, were turbine powered, the study said that the market for 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1979 

an advanced turbine engine could reach 25,000 units per year by the late 

1980s. The general aviation field included 98% of U.S. civilian aircraft. 

(NASA Release 79-29) 

INTELSAT reported that two new regional satellite systems proposed by 

member groups would be technically compatible with its present system and 

would not threaten its economic well-being. A proposed European Communications Satellite (ECS) system would provide telecommunications service to countries in Eastern and Western Europe and North Africa beginning 

in 1982, working with Europe’s terrestrial network. A Palapa B system, a joint 

venture of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, would 

serve remote areas not having access to INTELSAT’s system, also beginning 

in 1982. (INTELSAT Releases 79-07-1, 79-09-1) 

April 5: MSFC reported that Shuttle orbiter Enterprise would go to KSC to 

give NASA workers experience in prelaunch handling. After a year of tests 

at MSFC, Enterprise would resume the tailcone on its main-engine area for 

piggyback flight, and the dummy pods removed during testing would be 

replaced. After the refit, NASA would tow the Enterprise to Redstone Army 

Air Field for loading on its 747 carrier, with departure set for April 12 or 13, 

depending on weather. (MSFC Release 79-36; NA.SA Release 79-42) 

April 10: NASA announced that Dr. Robert A. Frosch, administrator, and Dr. 

Willy Moenandir Mangoendiprodjo, director of Indonesia’s telecommunications agency, had signed a memorandum of understiinding April 9 for launch 

of two Indonesian domestic communications sate1lil:es. NASA would furnish 

reimbursable launch and associated services for a second generation of Palapa 

spacecraft. The new satellites would replace existing communications 

satellites: Palapa A-1, launched July 8, 1976, and Pul,zpu A-2, launched March 

10, 1977. The Shuttle would launch the first Palapa B in June 1982; the second 

during the first half of 1983. (NASA Release 79-43) 

April 13: NASA announced it would join Soviet scientists for the first time 

in a study of physiological changes due to simulated weightlessness. Tests in 

each country on 10 subjects aged between 35 and 40 would comprise two 

weeks of control observations, one week of bed rest, and two weeks of postrest measurements, including stress tests and blood and urine samples. Half 

of each group would be horizontal during the total bed rest, the others would 

rest with heads lowered 6O for horizontal. U.S. tests had kept subjects horizontal only, and the identical studies would indicate the best procedure. The program would begin in mid-May at the Moscow Institute of Medico-Biological 

Problems and continue at Ames Research Center (ARC) in July. Both NASA 

and USSR scientists would take part in each experiment. (NASA Release 

79-46; ARC Release 79-17) 

22 
APRIL 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA reported that its small astronomy satellite Sus 3 had reentered the atmosphere April 9 over the Pacific Ocean after nearly four years of scanning 

the skies for X-ray data, although its design lifetime had been only one year. 

Launched May 7, 1975, from the San Marco platform off the coast of Kenya, 

the 195-kilogram. Sus 3 in a 500-kilometer orbit had discovered 2 new quasars 

and about half the 35 known X-ray bursters (stars emitting huge brief bursts 

of X-rays once every few hours). Sas 3 indicated that these bursts resulted 

from thermonuclear reactions on the surfaces of neutron stars. (NASA 

Release 79-44) 

April 15: The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) issued a fact 

sheet on satellite decay predictions by its Space Defense Center, watching over 

more than 4,500 man-made satellites in orbit around the Earth. The Tracking 

and Impact Predictions (TIPs) gave time and position for large items such as 

payloads and rocket motors that might survive reentry and impact on Earth; 

for smaller objects likely to burn up without reaching the ground, the center 

would compute only a probable date of decay. Predictions would depend on 

many variables but were necessary under a 1971 pact between the United 

States and the Soviet Union that both nations would help identify objects that 

might reenter over the other’s territory; TIPs would prevent mistaking a 

reentering object for an incoming warhead and triggering warning networks. 

(PAO, Peterson AFB, Apr 15/79) 

April 16: NASA announced that an experimental balloon launched April 12 

at 6:23 p.m. from the National Scientific Balloon Facility in Texas to test a 

new heavy-lift design had apparently failed at about 10:42 p.m. somewhere 

over northwestern Louisiana. The balloon measured about 41 million cubic 

feet and carried an instrumented payload weighing about 5,300 pounds. (Hq 

PA0 anno Apr 16/79) 

April 24: NASA reported that the Shuttle orbiter Enterprise, which arrived at 

KSC April 10-after a piggyback flight from MSFC, would be rolled out to 

Launch Complex 39 on May 1 as part of an exercise to clear the way for 

launch of its sister ship, Columbia, which had arrived at KSC March 24 for 

checkout and final installation of thermal tiles. This would be the first time 

a complete Space Shuttle configuration had been put together in the Vehicle 

Assembly Building (VAB) and moved to the launch pad; use of the Enterprise 

would confirm compatibility of assembly and launch facilities and ground 

support equipment with elements of the Shuttle and would rehearse KSC staff 

in Shuttle handling operations. 

On April 17, a 15-story external tank was mated with two inert solid-fuel 

rocket boosters on a mobile launcher platform in high bay 3; more than 75,000 

visitors to the center viewed the assembly moving down the 2-mile towway 

to the VAB, into which Enterprise was moved April 18. The delta-wing orbiter 

23 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1979 

would be mated with the external tank in a 19-hour operation before its 

3.5-mile ride to Pad A, former site of Apollo lunar launches modified for 

Shuttle operations, where it would remain until the first week of June. (NASA 

Release 79-50) 

DOT announced that Secretary Brock Adams had sent to Congress proposed 

legislation to provide $6.6 billion for improving U.S. airports and airway 

systems over 5 years, beginning October 1, 1980. ‘The proposal emphasized 

aviation safety measures to meet expected 1980s growth in air transportation. 

Financed by a 10 year continuation of the airport/airway trust fund and related 

aviation user taxes, the bill would include airport development and planning; 

acquisition and upgrading of airway facilities and equipment; research to 

reduce congestion and delays at large U.S. airports; improvement of air traffic 

control, instrument landing systems and radars, and other navigation aids; 

reduction of aircraft noise; and funding for smaller airports to reduce the load 

on larger ones. (DOT Release 51-79) 

During April: NASA reported new data on Venus -from the Pioneer mission 

and the radar at the Arecibo observatory in Puerto R.ico. Radar had given best 

information on the surface of Venus, not visible through optical telescopes 

because of heavy cloud cover. Radar images covering an area 80 million 

square kilometers showed craters on Venus as large as 320 kilometers in 

diameter; like lunar craters, which they resembled, they apparently resulted 

from meteorite impacts. 

A circular area 1,120 kilometers in diameter called Alpha, first noticed 

because of high radar reflectivity, consisted of many parallel ridges identifiable for great distances. This area had no Earth counterpart except extensive dune systems in the Arabian peninsula; Alpha :showed a central dark object, possibly a volcano. Another radar feature known as Beta, with long rays 

of rough material extending out as far as 48 kilometers, also had a central dark 

area like a volcano crater. The radar also detected parallel ridges about 2,100 

miles high, extending more than 960 kilometers across the surface of Venus, 

forming a structure exceeding the Grand Canyon in scale. 

A report on Pioneer Venus orbiter and multiprobe mission findings included 

discovery of the largest canyon in the solar system. bigger than Mar’s Vallis 

Marineris, previously thought largest. Lightning activity detected by USSR 

Venera spacecraft was continuous from altitudes of 32 kilometers down to 2 

kilometers, with discharges as frequent as 25 per second. Pioneer’s orbiter apparently saw this lightning also; experimenters Dr. Boris Ragent of ARC and 

Dr. Jacques Blamont of the University of Paris now theorized that a glow 

measured by Pioneer instruments was continuous indistinguishable lightning 

on Venus, rather than an occurrence on the spacecra!ft. The orbiter also found 

an 1,100-kilometer-wide hole containing few or no clouds in the North Pole 

cloud cover, suggesting a downflow of atmosphere there. (NASA Release 

79-47; ARC Release 79-12) 

24 
May 3: NASA announced that its satellite system ASDAR (aircraft-to-satellite 

data relay) had started operation as part of the GWE that began earlier this 

year [see January 71, collecting and relaying weather observations from aircraft in flight and leading to possible million-dollar savings annually in aviation fuel costs. The system, consisting of a power supply, clock, 80-watt 

transmitter, small computer, and antenna, would monitor and report eight 

times per hour the aircraft’s location and altitude, together with weather data 

generated by equipment already aboard each ASDAR-equipped airliner. 

The system would relay the information through a NOAA satellite to 

weather data centers and on to the users. Relay of quickly changing weather 

information to subsequent flights within two hours could save time and fuel 

by taking advantage of favorable winds or avoiding threatening storms. Also, 

the 17 widebody jets using ASDAR would regularly cross the southern 

hemisphere and the tropics, where data were not usually available. Participating countries included England, Australia, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Singapore, and the United States (NASA Release 79-51) 

NASA also reported that ARC’S research aircraft Galileo I1 had gone to 

Saudi Arabia to join an international study of the monsoon, a storm system 

bringing nearly all the Asian subcontinent’s annual rainfall in June, July, and 

August, supplying torrents of moisture for the crops and overwhelming the 

area in floods. In 1978 the storms killed more than 900 people and left more 

than 3 million homeless. MONEX (the monsoon experiment) would trace the 

origin of the storms and attempt to provide weather forecasts that would be 

“extremely useful” in an area “practically devoid of basic weather data,” according to Joachim Kuettner, director of the U.S. effort. (NASA Release 

79-55) 

May 4: NASA launched FltSatCom-B, second in a series of five fleet satellite 

communications system spacecraft, from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas Centaur 

at 2:56 p.m. into a transfer orbit, before firing its apogee kick motor May 6 

to move it toward a 23,300-mile altitude synchronous-orbit station over 23 OW, 

which it should reach in late July. This was the 50th launch by an Atlas Centaur. The TRW-built 4,100-pound FltSutCum 2 was about 880 pounds heavier 

than any previously launched by this vehicle, requiring it to take a path offset 

2.4” from the equator. Like its predecessor FZtSatCom 1 launched in 1978, 

now on station over lOOW, FltSatCom 2 would link ships, submarines, and 

planes to various ground-based control centers and would provide service to 

White House communications centers. The Air Force reported that about 420 

surface ships and 90 submarines contained equipment for communicating by 

25 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTlCS MAY 19’79 

satellite, and the number was growing. (NASA Release 79-49; NASA MOR 

M-491-202-79-02 [prelaunch] May 1/79, [postlaunch] Nov 5/79; W Post, 

May6/79, 17; LA Times, May 5/79) 

May 8: NASA reported that LaRC staffers were using the SAGE satellite launched from WFC February 18 to measure and track into the stratosphere the 

ash and gases from an eruption of La Soufriere, a volcano on St. Vincent 

island in the Caribbean, between April 13 and 17. The eruption, detected first 

by SAGE while passing over the island April 23, deposited as much as an inch 

of dust on neighboring islands and provided an opportunity to study 

stratosphere distribution of aerosols from a single source. NASA alerted 

scientists around the world to use ground-based and balloon-borne instruments in checking between 6”N and 20”N latitudes for effects of the eruption. SAGE might answer questions about the effect of aerosols and ozone on 

climate and environmental quality. (NASA Release 79-56; LaRC Release 

79-29; WFC Release 79-8) 

NASA reported that since February 14 the infrared instrument on Pioneer 

Venus orbiter had been returning “degraded data”; efforts to solve the problem had not succeeded. The instrument began to register a power input of 

6 to 7 volts instead of the required 10 volts; it had dsone this three times before, 

but each time ground command was able to reset ):he instrument with almost 

no loss of information. The orbiter had returned excellent data for 72 orbits 

of Venus (one per day) including more than 800,000 temperature profile, 

albedo, humidity, and cloud height measuremenls, enough for a thorough 

survey of the planet. NASA’s radiometer-science team reported that results 

already exceeded mission objectives despite the apparent loss of the instrument. Dr. Fred W. Taylor of JPL said the instrument might yet be revived. 

(NASA Release 79-59) 

May 10: MSFC reported that 1.5-second ignition-test firings May 4 of a 

cluster of three Space Shuttle main engines at National Space Technology 

Laboratories (NSTL) had been successful, clearing the way for the second 

phase of verification tests. The three flight-type engines, previously acceptance tested individually at the facility, had undergone the cluster test in an 

assembly including the engines, a simulated orbiter midbody, and a flight-type 

aft fuselage to which the engines were fitted. Frank Stewart, MSFC test 

manager, said that sequencing was good and that he foresaw no problems with 

the first long-duration firing scheduled for May 15. The tests would evaluate 

system performance in a static-firing environment as a step in verifying the 

system for the first manned orbital Shuttle flight. Cluster firings would take 

place about once per month through July; the third phase of long-duration firings would begin in September and conclude in November, after the equipment had been modified. (MSFC Release 79-47) 

26 
MAY 1975’ ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

May 14: MFSC reported that the first Space Shuttle engine tested for flight 

acceptance had “passed with flying colors” a 520-second endurance test May 

12 that simulated launch conditions. Scheduled for use on Columbia, this 

engine would undergo electrical and mechanical checkout before formal acceptance. The tests began April 25 with 1.5-second ignition-test firing, followed by a 100-second calibration-test firing May 2. After formal acceptance, the 

engine would go by truck to KSC for installation. The other two of the cluster 

of three Rockwell-built engines to be used on Columbia were at Space 

Technology Laboratories for the same series of tests. (MSFC Release 79-45; 

NASA Release 79-68) 

May 16: NASA reported that the multispectral scanner on Landsat 3 had 

begun sending defective images at random; the pulse to trigger a line-start 

signal was not working. The scanner images, line-by-line transmissions of 

views from an oscillating mirror, would form a continuous line unless arranged one under the other by line-start and line-end scan pulses. GSFC engineers 

noticed that lines normally printed under the preceding line to fill in a picture 

were either missing a start signal or lacking about a fourth of the line. Last 

fall they had solved a similar problem by switching to a backup system, the 

one now malfunctioning. 

Since its launch March 15, 1978, Landsat 3 had transmitted more than 91,000 

scenes each representing an area 185 square kilometers of Earth’s surface, used to produce either photographs or computer tapes. The equipment needed 

to correct for the missing data would not be available until later in 1979, the 

agency said; however, most Landsat 3 data were still accurate, and Landsat 

2. was still “going strong” after producing more than 325,000 scanner scenes 

since 1975. (NASA Release 79-67) 

May 17: NASA announced that Dr. Robert A. Frosch, its administrator, would 

head a 13-member delegation of U.S. officials to the People’s Republic of 

China May 19-June 3 to learn about PRC space activities and discuss areas 

of planned cooperation, including a PRC domestic communications satellite 

system and ground station for PRC reception of Landsat data. The U.S. group, 

including representatives of the White House Office of Science and 

Technology Policy, National Security Council, State Department, National 

Telecommunications and Information Administration, NOAA, and U.S. 

Geological Survey, would meet with PRC officials in Beijing and tour their 

space installations. Frosch would return to the United States, after the Beijing 

meetings. The group had been invited by Dr. Jen Xin-min, head of the PRC 

Academy of Space Technology and leader of a space delegation that visited 

NASA and space industry firms in 1978; President Carter and PRC vice 

premier Deng Xiaoping had signed an agreement on space cooperation 

January 31, 1979. 

Meanwhile, the press reported that ComSatCorp president Joseph Charyk 

had told the corporation’s annual meeting in Washington of talks with PRC 

n 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS M.4Y I579 

representatives on providing ComSat technical assistance in building a network of satellites and ground stations estimated to cost “in the hundreds of 

millions of dollars,” most of the necessary equipment to be purchased in the 

United States (NASA Release 79-70; W Star, May 16/79, F-1; W Post, May 

16/79, D-7) 

May 23: ESA reported that the first qualification test of its Ariane launcher 

first stage had been “satisfactory” May 17 with further tests scheduled for early autumn. The 139-second duration (nominal operating time) had tested the 

resistance of nozzle-throat linings, which had been modified, and propellant 

depletion. The second stage had completed tests that began last October; the 

third stage was currently undergoing tests. (ESAKNES Release No. 17) 

May 28: The U.S. Air Force launched a DOD surveillance spacecraft from 

Vandenberg Air Force Base at 11:30 a.m. PDT on a Titan 3B-Agena into an 

orbit with 323-kilometer apogee, 126-kilometer perigee, 89-minute period, 

and 96.4” inclination. DOD made no announcement, but press reports said 

that the launch was probably a low-resolution search-and-find mission; this 

type of system would remain in orbit about 2.5 months. (NASA wkly SSR, 

May 24-30; D/SD, May 31/79, 149; AvWk, June 11/79, 23) 

May 29: The Washington Star reported on a NASA Pioneer Venus briefing at 

the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., 

which revealed that Venus (far from being the dull and featureless object it 

appeared, covered by heavy cloud layers) had spectacular terrain and a unique 

atmospheric circulation system. Pioneer Enus 1 had been sending back radar 

and other information since it arrived at Venus in December 1478; Pioneer 

Enus 2 had arrived shortly thereafter, separating into five probes to study the 

atmosphere, four of which reached the “smoldering 900” F surface.” 

Dr. Harold Masursky of the U.S. Geological Survey reported that radar 

scans of Venus had shown a mountain estimated at 37,000 feet, far higher than 

Earth’s 29,028-foot Mt. Everest. Dr. Alvin Seiff of ARC said that Venus’s atmospheric circulation was different from any known elsewhere: Earth’s surface absorbed sunlight, and the resulting heat in combination with Earth’s 

rotation made the atmosphere flow west to east. However, the atmosphere of 

Venus absorbed the sunlight 30 to 35 miles above the surface, and heat variations in the atmospheric layers apparently drove one another with their motion. (W Star, May 29179, A-2) 

May 30: INTELSAT announced a first step toward intersatellite communications links: an award of a $170,000 contract to Hughes Aircraft Company for 

design and fabrication of a traveling-wave tube, a vital component of an intersatellite link. Direct transmission via satellite was now possible only between 

points within one satellite’s coverage area (about one-third of Earth’s surface); 

messages for locations outside that area had to use land-based links or ground 

28 
MAY 1’779 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

relay to a second satellite. The planned communications links could transmit 

directly from one satellite to another, saving one down and one up transmission, freeing that link for other use, and making the whole system more efficient and economical by making more stations available to direct access. (INTELSAT Release 79-10-1) 

May 31: Photographs of Jupiter’s moon Io taken by Vbyager I had revealed a 

strange “blue snow,” identified as volcanic gases released by continuous eruptions in the equatorial region, the New York Times reported. Dr. Laurence A. 

Soderblom of the U.S. Geological Survey told the American Geophysical 

Union spring meeting in Washington, D.C., that wisps of the gas appeared in 

Io’s south polar area along faults or fractures in the crust; this was the first 

finding of erupting volcanoes anywhere except on Earth, and the intense 

volcanic activity was “endlessly repaving [Io’s] surface with volcanic 

material .” 

Dr. Edward C. Stone of the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), 

chief Voyager mission scientist, said that a change in the Voyager 2 plan would 

include time-lapse photography of Io to pinpoint the nature of the volcanic activity. Dr. John C. Pearl of GSFC said kyager I’s infrared detectors showed 

that the main constituent of the gases was sulfur dioxide, also found in Earth’s 

volcanic eruptions. Dr. Norman E Ness, also of GSFC, said Jupiter’s 

magnetic field extended far beyond Io’s orbit, creating a “big power station 

in the sky.” (NY Times, May 31/79, B-16) 

During May: NASA reported that the X-ray telescope on Heao 2 had 

photographed for the first time an X-ray “burster,” a “bizarre” phenomenon 

occurring when compact celestial objects less than SO kilometers (30 miles) 

in diameter increase suddenly and intensely in X-ray brightness. Such a burst, 

releasing more X-ray energy in 10 seconds than the Sun does in a week, was 

first discovered by a Nether1andsKJ.S. cooperative satellite carrying HarvardSmithsonian detectors in 1976. 

Scientists had not defined the nature of the bursts, which might result from 

explosions similar to a helium bomb on the surface of a neutron star or from 

violent instabilities in gas flow down a black hole. Heao 2’s picture, said 

Jonathan Grindlay of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 

established the presence of a “steady” X-ray source in a “globular cluster” 

called Terzan 2, bringing the number of such clusters known to harbor X-ray 

sources to at least eight, six of these being bursters. The cores of globular 

clusters (oldest objects in the galaxy, consisting of round swarms of about 

100,000 stars) were under study as possible precursors of black holes or of 

compact binary systems containing either neutron stars or black holes being 

formed to produce bursting X-ray sources. (NASA Release 79-65) 

NASA reported a number of personnel changes during May. 

-Dr. John E. Naugle, longtime associate administrator currently serving 

29 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY lmS 

as chief scientist, announced plans to retire June ;!9, 1979. After receiving a 

doctorate in physics in 1953 from the University of Minnesota, where he 

worked before joining the Convair scientific research laboratory, he began his 

NASA service at GSFC in 1959 as head of the nuclear emulsion section. 

Naugle served in 1961 as chief of physics in Physics and Astronomy Programs, 

Office of Space Science; as director of physics and :astronomy programs in the 

Office of Space Science and Applications from 1962 to 1966; as associate administrator for space science and applications in 1967; and as deputy associate 

administrator of NASA in 1974, becoming associate administrator in 1975. In 

a reorganization of 1977, he assumed the duties of chief scientist. Dr. Robert 

A. Frosch, NASA administrator, said Naugle was “an effective proponent for 

space, an international negotiator of distinction, a leader and a guide to a 

generation of managers.” (NASA anno May 9/79; NASA Release 79-63) 

-Dr. Robert S. Cooper, director of GSFC since July 1, 1976, announced 

he would resign June 1 to become vice president for engineering at Satellite 

Business Systems. Cooper came to GSFC from DOD, where he was assistant 

director for defense research and engineering, beginning in 1972. He was a 

research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of ‘Technology (MIT) Lincoln 

Laboratory and, before that, a professor at MIT. He attended the University 

of Iowa and Ohio State University and received a doctorate in 1963 from MIT 

in electrical engineering. (NASA Release 79-60) 

-JSC announced retirement May 18 of deputy director Sigurd A. Sjoberg 

after 37 years of service with NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). He joined NACA in 1942 as an 

electrical engineer and went to Houston when his group was relocated from 

Hampton, Va. He became director of flight operations in 1969 and deputy 

director of JSC in 1972. He would manage Houston operations for OAO Corporation (JSC Release 79-24; NASA Release 79-58) 

-NASA announced appointment of Dr. Thomas A. Mutch as associate administrator for space science, effective July 1. Mutch, professor of geological 

sciences at Brown University, received a doctorate in geology from Princeton 

University in 1960 and had been a member of NASA’s lunar science review 

board from 1969 to 1973, leader of the Viking project’s lander imaging science 

team, and chairman of several NASA committee.s planning post-Viking exploration of Mars. A mountain climber, he had visited the Himalayas twice, 

most recently in 1978 with a group from Brown Ilniversity. (NASA Release 

79-72) 

-NASAreported that astronaut Fred W. Haise, Jr., would resign at the end 

of June to become vice president for space programs at Grumman Aerospace. 

He began as a NASA research pilot at LeRC in 19.59, followed by three years 

at DFRC, and was one of 19 astronauts selected in April 1966. As pilot of 

Apollo 13’s lunar module, he assisted in converting it into a ‘‘lifeboat’’ for the 

crew after an explosion in the service module ablout 55 hours after launch. 

He had been technical assistant to the manager of the Space Shuttle orbiter 

project and commanded one of the two crews piloting the Enterprise in 

30 
MAY 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

approach-and-landing tests in 1977. (NASA Release 79-79) 

-MSFC announced appointment of Dr. Mathias P. Siebel as manager of 

the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., succeeding Robert C. 

Littlefield, who died May 12. (MSFC Release 79-52) 

-KSC announced retirement of Dr. Walter J. Kapryan, director of Shuttle 

operations, and appointment of George E Page to fill that position, effective 

June 1. Kapryan began in 1947 at the Langley laboratory when it was NACA 

headquarters and went to Cape Canaveral as project engineer for Mercury 

Redstone 1. In 1963 he established the Gemini program office at KSC; he was 

deputy director of launch operations until September 1969. He had assisted 

with KSC’s transition from Apollo to the Shuttle era. (KSC Release 100-79) 

FBIS reported on the status of the Soyuz 32 crew in its continuing flight 

aboard Salyut 6. Since launch February 25, Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery 

Ryumin had done daily exercises and physical tests, noted by Soviet press services as “the cosmonauts are feeling well.” Their May 3 activity was experimenting on the Kristall equipment, making “semiconductor 

monocrystals” of indium arsenide. On May 4 they operated a “submillimeter 

telescope” gathering data to predict cyclones in tropical zones of Earth. A 

commentator noted that this equipment was complicated, requiring exact 

calibration each time it was used, and could be aimed only by turning the entire station. On May 6 they used a “gamma telescope” to measure gamma 

radiation and charged particles in near-Earth space. On May 8 they replaced 

their television transmitter with a new one brought by Progress 5. On May 9-10 

they used the Kristall to experiment with cadmium sulfide. 

Tass reported May 13 the launch of Progress 6; a commentator said that the 

cargo ship contained “an unusual present” to the crew, a tulip scheduled to 

bloom in space. An ongoing task was to study the efforts of weightlessness 

and “other space flight factors” on plant growth; small hothouses aboard the 

Salyut could provide fresh food containing vitamins. The crew was growing 

green onions; they had reaped their first harvest and “ate it with the permission of biologists.” They also had fennel, parsley, and garlic; Tass noted that 

“Despite successes of chemistry. . .scientists have not yet managed to create 

the same vitamins as in nature.” The cosmonauts on Soyuz 29 had repeatedly 

described the mushrooms they were picking as “really strange. . .their form 

was unusual with curly stems. . .”. “Nevertheless,” Tass said, “[the crew had 

been] greatly pleased. All living things evoke their enhanced interest. . .a 

psychological backup in their difficult work.” The tulip in outer space, “merely an experiment to scientists,” was for the cosmonauts “a symbol of spring” 

and an expression of solicitude for the crew that had been working for a long 

time in isolation. Progress 6 docked May 15, and the crew was unloading 

cargo and reloading used equipment for the next fortnight. The major job was 

refueling, difficult and complex in space, but the crew had completed it by 

May 28. (FBIS, Moscow Tass in English, Dom Svc in Russian, Intl Svc in 

Russian, May 3-28/79) 

31 

June 

June 1: NASA announced plans to shift Skylab into a lower-drag attitude that 

could extend its life up to 12 hours, during which the reentry area might shift 

by thousands of miles. Reentry was predicted between June 27 and July 21; 

the “footprint” of resulting debris would be about 160 kilometers wide and 

6,400 kilometers long. About 24 hours before reentry, it might be possible to 

predict the most likely area where debris might reach the surface, but with 

a wide margin of error. “Drag modulation” would offer the possibility of shifting Skylab’s orbit to pass over less populated areas, reducing the chance of 

damage or injury. (NASA Release 79-80; JSC Release 79-37) 

June 2: NASA launched UK 6 from WFC at 7:26 p.m. EDT on a Scout into 

an orbit with 656 kilometer apogee, 607-kilometer perigee, 55 O inclination, 

and 97.5-minute period. Under the terms of a contract of March 16, 1976, between NASA and the U.K. Science Research Council, the launch was the second on a fully reimbursable basis, at an estimated cost to the United 

Kingdom of $4,956,733, including booster, support services, tracking and data 

acquisition, and use of U.S. facilities. 

The British-built spacecraft, weighing 340.6 pounds carried an experiment 

to measure the charge and energy spectra of galactic cosmic rays, and two Xray astronomy experiments on structure and position of low-energy sources 

and on fluctuations in X-ray emission from low galactic latitude sources. UK 

6 would carry two experiments for the Royal Aircraft Establishment to study 

performance in orbit of new types of solar cell and the susceptibility of metaloxide semiconductor devices to radiation in a space environment. NASA judged the mission successful as of October 1979. (NASA Release 79-61, 79-78; 

NASA MOR M-490-301-79-02 [prelaunch] May 14/79, [postlaunch] Oct 

181 79) 

June 4: The $220 million requested by the President as an amendment to 

NASA’s Space Shuttle program was “essential to allow the. . . program to proceed in a reasonable manner,” Dr. William J. Perry, undersecretary of defense 

for research and engineering, told the Senate subcommittee on science, 

technology, and space. Noting that NASA’s launch predictions were based on 

the supplemental funding, Perry said DOD was concerned about the adequacy 

of the Shuttle fleet to meet traffic demands sure to build rapidly “once the 

Shuttle is operational .” DOD planned to transfer “several programs important 

to our national security” to Shuttle launch by 1983, and delays in orbiter 

delivery would mean further use of expendable launch vehicles, with “adverse 

operational and economic impact.” A House a ropriations subcommittee 

PREGEDliNG Pi&& BLANK NOT FILMED 
ASTRONAUTICS ANI) AERONAUTICS JUNE 1979 

had dropped $70 million for construction of Shuttle facilities at Vandenberg 

Air Force Base from FY80 budget requests, and the full committee was not 

likely to ignore the subcommittee’s recommendation. (Text, June 4/79; Today, 

June 6/79, 1A) 

June 6: DOD launched a Block 5D defense meteorological satellite (DMSP) 

from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 11:22 a.m. local time on a Thor 

booster into an orbit with 837-kilometer apogee, 818-kilometer perigee, 

101.5-minute period, and 98.8 O inclination. DOD made no announcement, but 

Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that the 1,131-pound spacecraft 

would be tested for about 15 days before being put into operation in its nearpolar Sun-synchronous orbit. (NASA wkly SSR, May 31-Junc 6; AvWk, June 

18/79, 56) 

June 7: The Soviet Union launched Bhaskara, an Earth-observation satellite, 

for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRC)) from the Kapustin Yar 

cosmodrome at 2 p.m. local time on an SS-5 Skean vehicle into an orbit with 

541-kilometer apogee, 518-kilometer perigee, 50.7 O inclination, and 

95.2-minute period. Named for an ancient Indian astronomer, the 

1,000-pound India-built spacecraft was the second Ilaunched for India by the 

Soviet Union; it carried television cameras and equipment for studying 

hydrology, meteorology, and forestry. India’s first satellite, launched about 

four years ago. was still in orbit and functioning well. (NASA wkly SSR, June 

7-13/79; Spacewarn SPX-308; W Post, June 8179, A-15; AvWk, July 23/79, 59; 

DED, June 11/79, 200; July 3/79, 10) 

June 10: DOD launched a “classified payload” at 9:38 a.m. local time from 

Cape Canaveral on a Titan 3C into a geoqynchronous orbit with 

36,261-lulometer apogee, 35,802-kilometer perigee, 1,448.6-minute period, 

and 2.0” inclination. The U.S. Air Force had no comment on press speculation about the launch. The Nay York Times said “such satellites are used to 

monitor Russian and Chinese launches [and to warn] American officials if a 

missile is launched from a submarine at sea.” Aviation Week & Space 

Ethnology said that the payload had “orbital characteristics of previously 

launched early warning satellites.” (NASA wkly SSR, June 7-13; NY Times, 

June 11/79, B-6; W Post, June 11/79, A-9; Today, June 11/79, IA, 8A; AvWk, 

June 18/79, 13) 

June 11: MSFC announced that on June 13 it would begin flight-qualification 

testing of a Space Shuttle solid-fuel rocket booster at the Thiokol range near 

Promontory Point, Utah, to demonstrate the production, assembly, and firing 

cycle for a full series of Shuttle flights. Assembled from four segments, the 

35-meter-long motor would first be static-fired to demonstrate “ablative safety 

factors” of the motor nozzle, which would be gimbaled to simulate control 

during a launch. Designed to move 8” in any direction, the nozzle would be 

34 
JUNE 1579 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

part of the Shuttle guidance system. Insulation and ablative materials would 

protect the motor from heat during firing. (MSFC Release 79-54) 

The first flight-qualification firing of a Shuttle motor was “quite satisfactory,” said George Hardy, manager of the booster project at MSFC. After 

witnessing the firing in the Utah desert, Hardy said that the amount of thrust 

developed and the performance of the steering nozzles was “well within 

specifications.” The motor and igniter had been modified as a result of test 

firings of four development motors during the past two years. Static tests of 

the flight-configured solid-fuel rocket booster that each Shuttle mission would 

use in pairs would complete qualification testing. (MSFC Release 79-60) 

June 12: After almost a month of waiting for good weather, the first manpowered flight across the English Channel took off at 5:50 a.m. from 

Folkestone, arriving at Cap Gris Nez in 2 hours, 55 minutes. Bryan Allen, 

26, a cyclist, hang-glider, and biologist from California who, at 137 pounds 

was nearly twice as heavy as his craft, pedaled the 70-pound gossamer 

Albatross (built of carbon-filament tubing and covered in transparent mylar) 

nonstop for 25 miles. Rules were that the craft must be heavier than air, must 

be propelled only by the crew, must not fly higher than 160 feet, and must 

not discard any parts in flight. Allen had traveled an average of 6 to 8 feet 

above the water but had dipped to within a foot of the surface several times 

when strong winds arose about halfway over. 

The flight won a $205,000 Kremer prize (“almost enough to pay the costs”) 

and a niche in history for aeronautical designer Paul MacCready, who also 

built the Gossamer Condor that in August 1977 won a $102,500 Krcmer prize 

for the world’s first controlled man-powered flight, steered by Allen around 

a 1.15-mile figure-8 course in California. The Condor was now on display in 

the National Air and Space Museum. U.K. industrialist Henry Kremer had 

established the prizes to be awarded by the Royal Aeronautical Society, which 

called the Channel crossing “a tremendous achievement.” (NY Times, June 

13/79, A-1, A-8; W Post, June 13/79; A-1; W Star, June 12/79, A-1; June 14/79, 

A-18) 

The May 25 crash of a DC-10 aircraft killing 275 was predictable in view 

of previous problems with that plane, Rep. John L. Burton (D-Calif.), chairman, told a House subcommittee on transportation June 11. He asked Federal 

Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Langhorne Bond why the FAA 

had twice previously grounded the DC-10s for inspection and twice sent them 

into the air again. After the accident, the FAA waited for 13 days to ground 

the DC-lOs, “and then only because a federal judge. . .acting on a suit brought 

by the Airline Passengers Association ordered them to do it,” Washington Star 

columnist Mary McGrory noted. 

Engine-mounting pylons, which an FAA memo from California not seen by 

Bond had called a design fault, apparently caused some of the problems. Bond 

said that what McGrory called “the worst plane tragedy in U.S. history” was 

35 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE lY79 

“a single, severe event” when “that pylon experienced an overload of that 

wing and those fasteners,” insisting that FAA’s actions were proper at the time. 

Rep. Burton said that since 1974 the FAA had had many pylon problem 

reports; Bond said they did not form a pattern, as they concerned “individual 

and random defects in an entire area. . .there was no trend.” In 1975, McDonne11 Douglas had suggested some remedies for problems with the pylons; 

Bond told the subcommittee that manufacturers’ suggestions were not mandatory, and the FAA did not make the airlines folllow them. (W Star, June 

12/79, A-2, A-4) 

Neil Armstrong, “America’s reluctant space hero,” said the United States 

should develop a permanent manned orbiting space station for long-duration 

exposure of people and equipment to the space environment. At an interview 

about the 10th anniversary of the moon landing, the University of Cincinnati 

engineering professor who in 1969 had been the first: man to walk on the moon 

said that, if the United States had an ongoing manned space program, “we 

could have solved the problems” with Skylab. (Toduy, June 12/79, 16A) 

June 14: MSFC reported that the seven-member science crew for the first 

Spacelab mission was conducting a three-day crew-station review, using a 

Spacelab mockup just completed in MSFC’s Materials and Processes 

Laboratory. The review would evaluate experiment designs together with written procedures, the ensure proper crew-equipment interface, especially the 

location of switches, controls, and displays. (MSFC Release 79-57) 

MSFC said a long-duration test firing of the Shuttle main propulsion system 

scheduled June 12 was successful, even though a glitch in the automatic-cutoff 

instrumentation had terminated the test about 50 seconds into the 520 second 

program. 

Frank Stewart, test manager for MSFC’s Shuttle projects office, said that 

the test was successful “in the sense that the system performed as predicted 

and yielded a great deal of valuable data” needed before the first Shuttle flight. 

Stewart said the firing sequence was excellent. For the first time in test firing 

of three flight engines, the rated power level was attained, and the test produced pogo pulsing (a deliberate oscillation from very low to very high frequencies generated by a piston in the liquid-oxygen manifold, to show if vibrations 

in flight would constitute resonance dangerous to structures). 

This first long-duration firing of the clustered flight-type engines and propulsion system had already been delayed by malfunction of a development 

engine during single-engine tests. Inspection after the failure revealed a crack 

in the coolant pipe, requiring removal of the engine nozzle. Engineers 

modified a spare nozzle for installation in the test article. Stewart said the 

event should not delay the total test schedule, which included cxtra time for 

unforeseen difficulties. System verification should be complete “in ample 

time for the first Shuttle flight,” he said. (MSFC Release 79-58) 

36 
JUNE 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

June 15: LaRC announced it would crash a twin-engine aircraft June 20 as part 

of an FAA/NASA general aviation crash test program. The test, using a swinging pendulum approach, would aid studies of the plane’s structure, seats, 

restraints, and emergency locator transmitters, to increase the probability of 

survival and lessen the probability of injury. (LdRC Release 79-37) 

Ceremonies at Block Island, R.I., dedicated the third NASA-Department of 

Energy wind turbine, designed to provide 5 % to 15 % of the island’s power 

and up to half in winter when winds are strongest. The windmill’s 125-foot 

aluminum blades would interfere with local television reception, officials 

said; DOE would spend about $700,000 for a cable television system, besides 

$2.3 million for the windmill. Later versions might have wooden or fiberglass 

blades to avoid interference. 

Residents said that their electric rates were the nation’s highest-20% more 

than New York City’s and double those of the mainland 12 miles away. The 

island used diesel generators, with fuel brought by barge. (WPost, June 16/79, 

A-3) 

June 20: NASA announced an MSFC award to General Dynamics Convair of 

a $250,000 contract to study feasibility of a space platform in geostationary 

Earth orbit carrying many separate payloads. The platform would contain 

plug-in equipment to accommodate communications, Earth resources, 

meteorology, and similar studies now flown on separate satellites. 

Preliminary MSFC investigations indicated that a platform could be built 

in space and located in a synchronous orbit at 40,000 kilometers to offer power 

and other functions to “tenant” missions parked there for a fee-like rent. Platform services such as power, available to all tenants, would eliminate the need 

for antennas, solar arrays, or batteries on individual payloads, reducing size 

and launch weight. Locating packages on a single platform would also 

simplify in-orbit repair and servicing. (NASA Release 79-82; MSFC Release 

79-63) 

June 20-21: Newspapers nationwide reported that NASA was now predicting 

Skylab reentry between July 7 and 25, probably July 16. Thomas O’Toole 

wrote in the Washington Post that the descending space station would be visible in the sky over Washington, D.C., this week for the Last time before it 

broke up and fell to Earth. Atmospheric friction would destroy most of it, 

NASA said, but two heavy pieces (an airlock shroud and a lead-lined film 

vault) weighing 3,900 pounds and 5,000 pounds would probably hit Earth 

about 500 miles apart, the airlock being outside the station and the vault inside. The Washington Star said JSC controllers had “prodded” the Skylab into 

a sidewise attitude that might allow them to steer the station away from inhabited areas. NORAD agreed that reentry was probable on or before July 16. 

(W Post, June 20/79, A-11; W Star, June 21, A-4) 

37 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1979 

June 25: MSFC said the propellant tank for Columbia’s engines was ready for 

flight and would leave the Michoud Assembly Facility June 29 for KSC, where 

it would be fitted to the orbiter and two solid-fuel rcocket boosters. The Martin 

Marietta-built 154-foot tank with 140,000 gallons of‘ liquid oxygen and 380,000 

gallons of liquid hydrogen was the only part of the Shuttle assembly that was 

expendable; like the boosters, it would separate from the Shuttle at about 75 

miles altitude and drop into the ocean but would not be recovered. (MSFC 

Release 79-66) 

June 26: NASA issued a press kit on kbyuger 2’s coming encounter with 

Jupiter July 9, describing the modifications resulting from V6yager I findings. 

As the images from the latter in its January approach revealed changes on 

Jupiter differing from observations by Pioneer I1 four years earlier, so 

Voyager 2 had sent back images that differed in Ihe shorter term on its approach. Its pictures of Jupiter relayed from 56 million kilometers had already 

exceeded the best resolution possible with Earth telescopes. (NASA Release 

79-86) 

June 27: NASA launched the NOAA-A at 11:52 a.m. EDT from the Western 

Test Range (WTR) on an Atlas into an orbit with 823-kilometer apogee, 

807-kilometer perigee, 101-minute period, and 98.7 O inclination. It carried six 

devices to measure Earth’s atmosphere, surface, and cloud cover, and nearEarth proton/electron flux. It would also receive, process, and relay data from 

balloons, free-floating buoys, and remote automatic stations. Named Noaa 6 

in orbit, it should have a 2-year lifetime. (NASA wkly SSR June 28-July 4/79; 

NASA MOR E-615-79-01 [prelaunch] May 8/79; daily actv rept, June 28/79; 

AFSC Newsreview, Sept 79, 12) 

June 29: MSFC reported completion of flight-certification test firings of the 

Space Shuttle main engines June 27, with a simulai.ed abort mission requiring 

the engine to fire 823 seconds. To detect potentiall weaknesses in systems or 

hardware, engineers would remove selected components and inspect them for 

wear and tear; after inspection and analysis of test data, the same test series 

would be repeated on the same engine to simulaie typical mission profiles. 

J.R. Thompson, MSFC’s main-engine project manager, said that engine performance and operation during the test series was very satisfactory. Rockwell 

conducted the tests at NSTL. (MSFC Release 79-69) 

June 30: NASA said that it had turned off Applications Technology Satellite 

6 (A73 6) and would boost it to a higher orbit August 6. ATS 6 had lost three 

of its four thrusters and would be a hazard to other spacecraft if it failed on 

station. Launched in May 1974, it had exceeded its design lifetime by three 

years; transmitting directly to small ground receivers, it had relayed educational, scientific, and health programs to stations worldwide. “Firsts” includ- 
JUNE I979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ed the first educational courses by satellite, first two-way teleconference and 

“telemedicine,” and first successful satellite-to-satellite communications. 

(NASA Release 79-81) 

During June: NASA announced that Arnold W. Frutkin, associate administrator for external relations since November 1978, would retire June 27. 

For 18 years before his present appointment, he had headed NASA’s Office 

of International Affairs and was credited with “an extraordinarily successful 

series’’ of international space endeavors and policy initiatives including ATS 

6 broadcasts, US.-USSR arrangements for Apollo-Soyuz, ESA Spacelab 

agreement, and multinational work on NASA science and applications missions. He had come to NASA from the National Academy of Sciences, where 

he was deputy director of the U.S. committee for the International 

Geophysical Year (IGY). (NASA anno June 1/79; NASA Release 79-85) 

JSC announced the appointment of Kenneth S. Kleinknecht, veteran NASA 

manager for manned spaceflight projects, to direct JSC operations at KSC, 

completing installation of the thermal protection tiles and internal vehicle 

systems on the orbiter Columbia. Kleinknecht, who had joined NACA in 

1942, would report to KSC from permanent assignment in Paris as deputy 

associate administrator for STS (European operations). (JSC Release 79-39) 

WFC announced that its associate director, Abraham Spinak, would be on 

special assignment as executive assistant to a special NASA senior-staff group 

evaluating management of the STS. The group would study Shuttle funding 

problems, uncertainties of program predictions, and information flow and 

control. (WFC Release 79-E) 

ESA reported successful completion of exercises at Kourou, French Guiana, 

to prepare for Ariane launches, including assembly of a test launcher, filling 

and draining of propellant, and automatic countdown. The operation was to 

verify the launch team’s competence and the suitability of the site for the 

launch program scheduled to begin in September. (ESAKNES Release June 

6/79) 

FBIS continued to report the status of the Soyuz 32 crew aboard Sulyut 6. 

Beginning their 14th week in orbit, the crew prepared the shower stall and 

used it; they also used the Splav (alloy) furnace to make “foam metals” in a 

Soviet-Bulgarian experiment for low weight and high mechanical qualities. 

(On June 2, Reuters reported that a joint Soviet-Hungarian flight had been 

called off because of “serious trouble” with the Sulyut 6 and predicted delays 

of 4 to 5 months or even a year in further joint manned flight. This would 

have been the 5th USSR joint mission with eastern-bloc countries.) On June 

4, in the 15th week, the crew observed Far Eastern forests and corrected 

Sulyut 6‘s orbit using the Progress 6 engines. On June 5, the crew was congratulated by the Soyuz 29 record-holding crew for completing 100 days in 

orbit. 

39 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1979 

Soyuz 34, an unmanned ferry vessel launched June 6 “to check a crucial 

engine that failed during a manned mission in Apl-il,” might serve as return 

vehicle for the Soyuz 32 crew besides bringing supplies, press reports said. 

The April mission that failed to dock (Soyuz 33) had been crewed by Nikolay 

Rukavishnikov (veteran of Soyuz 10 and 16) and Gecrgy Ivanov, first Bulgarian 

cosmonaut. A June 6 report said the specific part found at fault in Soyuz 32 

had previously been tested 8,000 times with no defect evident; nevertheless, 

the modified Soyuz 34 was launched unmanned to prevent possible casualty. 

Soyuz 34 docked successfully June 9 in the space rormerly used by Progress 

6, which had been set loose June 8 to deorbit over the Pacific Ocean. 

The crew sent away Soyuz 32, loaded with used #equipment and experiment 

material, for a soft landing June 13. Later June reports from scientists studying 

the returned material said that future stations would allow for larger numbers 

of meteorite impacts; for the first time, returned equipment was available for 

analysis, such as devices that operated for 600 days rather than the planned 

100, and lamps that “had not worked out their term.” (FBIS, Tass in English, 

Intl Svc in Russian, Dom Svc in Russian, June 1-30/79) 

40 
July 

July 3: JSC reported that it had amended its contract with Rockwell International Corporation to cover 56 engineering changes in the Space Shuttle orbiter. The first amendment, covering 32 changes, would cost $14,338,000; the 

second, covering 24 changes plus testing, repairs, and spares, would cost 

$2,869,833. The control value was now about $3.43 billion. (JSC Release 

79-48) 

INTELSAT reported from its meeting just ended in Washington, D.C., that 

international telecommunications by satellite would increase nearly 100% by 

1983. More than 200 delegates representing more than 100 nations at the 

week-long meeting had pooled forecasts of services needed from INTELSAT’s 

satellite system. The biggest growth would be in the Atlantic region, where 

traffic might increase 114% by year-end 1983. The new Intelsat V satellites 

soon to be launched could carry 12,000 simultaneous phone calls plus two 

television channels-double the capacity of present satellites. Planning was 

under way for satellites with 40,000-circuit capacity. (INTELSAT Release 

79-16-1) 

July 6: ESA reported signing a contract with NASA July 5 authorizing the 

order of long lead-time materiel and components for construction of a second 

Spacelab flight unit to be delivered “progressively” to NASA in 1982-83. ESA 

had signed a simultaneous contract with ERNO of Bremen, Germany, as 

prime contractor. ESA said that this was the first time the United States had 

placed an order for “work of such importance” with the European industrial 

consortium representing some 50 firms, headed by ERNO. (ESA Release July 

6/79) 

July 9: NASA announced that MSFC had appointed a board to investigate the 

automatic cutoff of a test firing July 2 at NSTL of the Space Shuttle mainengine test article (three main engines mounted in an orbiter aft section and 

attached to an external tank). A liquid-hydrogen leak from a main fuel valve 

caused the cutoff after 18.5 seconds; no explosion occurred, and the gaseous 

nitrogen and water fire-control systems put out an external fire resulting from 

hydrogen accumulation around the test article’s aft area. Inspection revealed 

damage to the aft heat shield and charring of external-tank insulation, but the 

engines appeared generally in good condition. (NASA Release 79-92) 

July 9-13: NASA’s Voyager 2 passed within 404,000 miles of Jupiter July 9, 

making its closest approach at 6:29 p.m. EDT and sending from more than 

41 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY lR9 

570 million miles a flood of scientific data and “stunning photographs of the 

planet and some of its moons,” as the New York Tirncs described them. Scientists at the JPL, control center for the mission, said that the flight was continuing to provide them with “new surprises.’’ They had modified observing sequences on byuger 2 to benefit from discoveries by Ibyuger I on its encounter 

in March. Changes included more darkside images of the planet to measure 

lightning and aurora; images of Jupiter’s ring, taken away from the equatorial 

plane; and about nine hours of continuous imaging of Io for volcanic activity. 

Voyuger 2’s inward track past three of the four “Galilean” satellites had let it 

see regions not viewed by Voyager I; its path was “more conservative,” as it 

passed 10 Jupiter radii above the visible clouds compared to Ibyager l’s 4.9 

radii, for “complementary obscrvations.” byzger .2 studies began April 25 

and would continue for a seven month look compared to Voyager l’s three 

month look. Voyager 2 had been launched August 20, 1977; Lbyuger 1, launched September 5, 1977, on a faster and shorter course, had overtaken its sister 

ship before the end of the year. 

Scientists found that Jupiter and its moons did not resemble planets or 

satellites nearer the Sun, nor one another. Surprises in the findings were due, 

they said, to real differences between the outer and inner solar system and lack 

of previous knowledge, a result of the distance separating Earth from Jupiter. 

Before Voyager I, “we thought we had some idea of what planets were like,” 

said Laurence A. Soderblom of the U.S. Geological Survey after seeing 

Europa images from Byuger 2. Instead of a sphere heavily pocked such as 

Earth’s moon and Mars from meteor impacts, hyuger 2 images showed 

Europa “as smooth as a billiard ball,” with hardly any craters on a surface 

covered by a mantle of slushy snow and ice up to 60 miles deep, with farreaching shallow marks like cracks in an eggshell. The spacecraft passed 

Callisto and Ganymede on its way toward Europa and, after its encounter with 

Jupiter, had begun a 10-hour watch for Io, where it photographed six 

volcanoes erupting. On its approach to Jupiter, Ryuger 2 had encountered 

radiation so intense that JPL had turned off a sensitive ultraviolet (UV) detector six hours earlier than planned; howevcr, project director Ray Heacock 

declared “no problems and no failures in any of our instruments.” (JPL 

Release 901; NASA MOR S-802-77-01/02, June 261‘79; NY Times, July 10179, 

C-1; W Post, July 10179, A-10; W Star, July 11179, A-4; July 13/79, A-10) 

July 10-15: Amid disaster predictions, Skylab deorbited over the Indian Ocean 

with pieces falling on Australia: impact at 1637 GMT (about 11:37 a.m. EDT, 

or 37 minutes after midnight local time) July 1:1 sent debris across the 

Australian outback, with no reports of damage or injury. Australian officials 

had only an 8-minute notice of Skylab’s approach: “‘We nearly had a heart attack” when told that it would cross the coast, said one. (NORAD had lost contact at l2:02 a.m. local time and assumed splashdown into the Indian Ocean, 

with debris coming no closer to Australia than a few hundred miles.) 

The PRC news service told of the difficulties encountered by Skylab and 

42 
JULY lmS ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the U.S. government’s offers of assistance and compensation in case of damage 

or injury, noting that some airlines had suspended flights during the critical 

period. Tass said that western Australia authorities had “warned the population that some parts of Skylab might be radioactive and urged. . .caution in 

approaching them.” At a NASA press conference a few days earlier, a reporter 

asked how NASA could tell if someone brought in a piece of debris claiming 

falsely that it was part of Skylab. Richard G. Smith, deputy associate administrator, space transportation systems, who had been “actively in charge 

of Skylab activities for NASA,” replied that “it is very easy to identify an object that’s been in space. The high-energy particles that penetrate it in orbit 

give an extremely low-level but characteristic radiation background-no radiation for anybody to be worried about. . .But it’s very easy to determine that.” 

United Press International (UPI) reported July 13 that the Kalgoorlie town hall 

had squeezed into its lobby the biggest fragment recovered so far, a 6.5-foot 

by 3.25-foot cylindrical piece of metal bearing a stamped number 102: “very 

good for the tourist industry,” said Mayor Ray Finlayson. (NASA press conf 

July 6/79; coord ctr bltns July 9, 10, 11/79; NASA Dly Acm Rept July 12/79; 

WStur, July 12/79, A-1; UPI, July 14/79, A-7; FBIS, Xinhua in Chinese, July 

12/79; Tass in English, July 13/79; Avwk, July 16/79, 22) 

July 12: INTELSAT would mark the 10th anniversary of its global communications satellite system begun July 15, 1969, when an Inrelsut 3 satellite 

went into service over the Indian Ocean; Intelsut 3 satellites were already 

covering the Atlantic and Pacific. It had been just over 5 years since launch 

of the first commercial communications satellite (Early Bird, nickname of Intelsut r) April 6, 1965. “Best of all,” INTELSAT said, its charges for leased 

telephone circuits by satellite had decreased 71.2% over 10 years despite inflation. (INTELSAT Release 79-17-1) 

July 13: Pioneer 10 had become the first U.S. craft to fly beyond Mars, %day 

reported. An Associated Press (AP) story said Pioneer IO, now 2 billion miles 

from home, had crossed the orbit of Uranus July 11 on its way out of the solar 

system. Launched in March 1972, Pioneer IO sent back the first close-up views 

of Jupiter 21 months later and continued to transmit “valuable data about 

unexplored space and the outer solar system,” said NASA spokesman Duke 

Reiber. A spokesman for TRW, which built both Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, 

said Pioneer 10 would cross Pluto’s orbit in 1987. (Eduy, July 13/79, 1OA; 

NASA Release 79-84) 

The House Committee on Science and Technology announced that it would 

hold a joint hearing July 19-20 with the House Select Committee on Aging 

on space technology applications for the elderly and handicapped, to mark the 

10th anniversary of the first Moon walk. Committee chairman Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.) said that the hearings would emphasize the importance of space 

program spinoffs in solving problems here on Earth. NASA would release a 

43 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1979 

report “Technologies for the Handicapped and Aged” on innovations such as 

a lunar-gravity simulator to speed rehabilitation therapy; a voice-controlled 

vehicle for paraplegics that could pick up packages, open doors, and handle 

eating utensils; a human-tissue stimulator to reduce chronic pain; healthmonitoring systems; and fabrics to prevent bedsores. (H Rept Release 96-60) 

The Washington Stur reported that DOD would begin next week a longawaited fly-off to see who would get a $2 billion contract to produce airlaunched cruise missiles. The U.S. Air Force said that the missile was 

“desperately needed” to fill a gap in the U.S. weapons system created by 

President Carter’s decision to scrap the B-l bomber. Launched from a B-52 

flying off the coast of California, the missiles would fly to a target southwest 

of Salt Lake City, Utah. W Srur, July 13/79, A-4.) 

July 15: Astronauts interviewed in Las Vegas, Nev., on the eve of an Apollo 

I1 10th anniversary commemoration noted the lack of funding and support for 

the space program on the part of the U.S. government. James McDivitt, who 

commanded Apollo 9, said that he foresaw nothing like the Apollo program 

coming along. Ron Evans, command-module pilot for Apollo 17, said that 

spectacular space events were not in the cards for the next 20 years. Charles 

Duke, 10th man to walk on the Moon; AI Worden, Apollo 15 commandmodule pilot; and Dick Gordon, Apollo 12 command-module pilot, said the 

Shuttle system was not as safe as craft used in previous manned programs, as 

“Congress isn’t ready to give NASA the money it needs.” (Today, July 15/79, 

20A; W Post, July 15/79, A-4; P lnq, July 17/79, 11) 

July 16: ComSatCorp announced the official beginning of the new International Maritime Satellite Organization, INMARSAT, to operate a global 

maritime communications network. ComSatCorp would represent the United 

States in the new body. INMARSAT’s board, which would eventually represent 22 member nations, had met for the first time this date at Brighton, 

England. The new group would begin its operations in the 1980s after taking 

over from Marisat (developed and managed by ComSatCorp’s wholly owned 

subsidiary Comsat General), which for three years had provided communjcations services to the U.S. Navy and commercial shipping and offshore industries. (ComSatCorp Release 79-28) 

July 16-21: U.S. observances of the 10th anniversary of Apollo Il’s Moon walk 

included a July 16 Library of Congress exhibition opening attended by only 

one of the Apollo 11 crew: Michael Collins, pilot of the module that circled 

the Moon awaiting the return of astronauts Neil Almstrong and Edwin Aldrin, 

Jr., from the surface. At the reception, James Webb (head of NASA during 

Apollo 14 said that national interest in the space program had waned during 

the last decade. Barry Jagoda, former Carter advisor who had headed CBS 

News coverage of Apollo 11, said “on the way ol’er here I couldn’t help but 

44 
JULY l9i9 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

compare the difference of the price tag for the energy effort-$142 billion 

stretched over a 10-year period versus the $20 billion the Apollo program cost 

us for 10 years.” 

The Washington Star said July 19 that all three Apollo 11 astronauts would 

attend an Air and Space Museum ceremony the evening of July 20; on July 

20 it reported that the ceremony had been held at 11 a.m. A Star editorial July 

20 asked why the United States had stopped abruptly after taking “our first 

steps into the universe,” concluding that the United States was reluctant to pay 

for more space missions; assumed that “Americans had become bored by 

space voyages”; and now leaned “toward introspection and consumption.” 

Like the Star editorial, a Tom Wolfe commentary in the July 20 New York 

Ernes drew a parallel between the Apollo program and Columbus’s voyages, 

with support and excitement at the beginning and loss of public interest at the 

end. 

The July 21 New York Times said that the Air and Space Museum ceremony 

drew “some 2,000 people”; the “engineers and managers and astronauts who 

made possible” the giant leap for mankind had gathered for a “family reunion. . .When they spoke of the future, they wished it somehow could recapture the spirit of the past they remembered.” Later, the three astronauts took 

copies of the NASA history, Chariots of Apollo to the White House; President 

Carter said “We will win energy security for our nation in the same way we 

won the race to the moon.” 

As part of the observance, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation and the House Committee on Science and Technology held 

a symposium July 19: “Next Steps for Mankind-The Future in Space.” 

Moderated by Jules Bergman of ABC News, speakers were Professor Carl 

Sagan, Cornel1 University; Dr. Noel Hinners, Air and Space Museum director; and George Jeffs, president of Rockwell International’s aerospace operations. A NASA release had recalled events of the Apollo 11 launch July 16, 

1969, and an MSFC release announced a nine-day observance in Alabama, 

home of the center and its Saturn V that made the mission possible. (NASA 

Release 79-74, 79-76; MSFC Release 79-72; W Star, July 17/79, D-1, D-2; July 

19/79, B-1; July 20/79, A-10, A-11, B-2; NY Times, July 20/79, A-12, A-25; July 

21/79, A-1, A-21; symp rept, Sen Cte Comm/H Comm Sci, July 19/79) 

July 18: NASA announced it would test a modified U.S. Air Force jet July 20 

at DFRC to see if winglets @-foot airfoil sections) attached to wingtips of a 

KC-135 could improve performance and save fuel. Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb, 

LaRC’s inventor-engineer, had had the idea of using normal drag from a 

wingtip vortex as lift to improve performance. NASA would vary the winglets’ 

cant angle and incidence between test flights to measure effects of different 

positions; DFRC had already flown the plane without winglets to obtain 

baseline measurements for comparison. (NASA Release 79-94; DFRC 

Release 27-79) 

45 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1979 

July 19: The Library of Congress Science and Technology Division’s NASA 

support project issued two news alerts, the first on a Soviet “space mini shuttle” like the French project Hermes, reportedly designed to carry five or six 

crew members (or the equivalent in cargo) to visit and replenish orbital stations. The vehicle would use a normal expendable Soviet rocket for launch 

and make a gliding reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The translation pointed 

out that the Soviet concept differed from the United States reusable Shuttle, 

more closely resembling the CNES manned hypersonic glider. 

The second notice covered government and CNES decisions affecting the 

scope and timing of Hermes. The French Council of Ministers on March 7 

had approved a Hermes launch capability of seven tons to carry a materialsprocessing program called Minos, using a space transport vehicle like a mini 

shuttle to bring back products made in the space factories. A Hermes would 

be launched by the last of five versions of the Ariane vehicle; development 

of the Hermes and the Ariane 5 would take from seven to eight years. 

(LC/S&T Alerts 5498, 5499) 

July 20: The Washington Star reported that the Federal Communications 

Commission (FCC) had voted to let American Telephone and Telegraph Company (ATBrT) and GTE Satellite Corporation, operators of the Comstar 

satellite system, integrate their domestic communications satellite and ground 

networks. Before ihe decision, AT&T could use only ground lines to transmit 

private line communications. The FCC had put a moratorium on AT&T in 

1972 to keep it from cutting circuit costs and further dominating the telecommunications market; since then, the company had bseen able to use its satellites 

for some phone service but not for transmission of commercial private-line 

service. AT&T Comstar craft were currently providing the US. mainland with 

communications to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. 

FCC said AT&T would have to file rate schedules if it operated a satelliteonly service; the company would integrate the satellites into its “national 

telephone network,” the Washington Star said. American Satellite Corporation, which already had an operating satellite, wanted the FCC to limit ATBIT 

use of its satellites to services provided through separate subsidiaries; Satellite 

Business Systems had asked FCC to ensure that AT&T did not fund its satellite 

services with money from telephone ratepayers. (IY Star, July 20179, E-10) 

Today newspaper said that representatives of Western Union and Hughes 

Aircraft Company had announced plans to launch Westar 3, an $8.3 million 

spacecraft bought in 1974 as a ground-based spare to supplement Westar 1 and 

Westar 2, launched in 1974, and now in orbit over the equator south of Dallas 

and southwest of San Francisco, respectively. Western Union said Westar 3, 

needed because of increasing demands on the other two satellites, would be 

stationed over the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific west of Ecuador. Western 

Union had made “substantial savings” in buying the spacecraft five years ago 

when prices were lower: the same item would cost about $14 million if built 

46 
JULY I979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

today. The firm was holding electronic parts for a fourth Westar in a Delaware 

warehouse. NASA would launch Westar 3 on a Delta from Cape Canaveral Air 

Force Station on or about August 9, it said in a release. (Today, July 20/79, 

16A; NASA (press kit) Release 79-96) 

July 23: “Once again,” wrote editor Robert Hotz in Aviation Week & Space 

Technology magazine, “the American public is far ahead of its political 

leadership” in grasping the significance of NASA’s program of planetary exploration. NASA Headquarters was “astounded by the vast amount of unsolicited public reaction to the Viking and Voyager missions,” in the form of 

17,000 letters it received in the first weeks after the Mars pictures reached 

Earth; the “Voyager flybys of Jupiter. . .have aroused similar public interest.” 

In Europe and Japan, interest in U.S. planetary exploration was even stronger;’ 

media coverage there “far surpasses domestic interest.” Hotz criticized the 

“penny-wise, pound-foolish policy” that would force NASA to use a single 

spacecraft for future planetary missions, not the dual-spacecraft approach used through Voyager. “Some day,” he added, “the high price for this folly will 

be paid in spectacular ‘low cost’ failures.” (AvWk, July 23/79, 9) 

July 24: NASA announced plans to demonstrate emergency use of commercial 

tugboats as auxiliary fireboats, by mounting lightweight firefighting modules 

on their decks. A program jointly supported by NASA, the DOC’S Maritime 

Administration, and the U.S. Coast Guard had produced the Firefly, a portable 

fire pump made by Aviation Power Supply Company, Burbank, Calif., after 

a prototype originated by NASA for Coast Guard use on small patrol craft, 

based on pumps developed for space liquid propulsion systems. 

The Maritime Administration had as a primary mission the improvement of 

fire protection equipment in ports; studies had shown the need for a small 

number of modules in custody of the local port authority’s fire service for 

regular use in emergency firefighting. NASA’s module used an aerospace-type 

gas turbine to drive a two-stage pump providing 7 meters (22 feet) of suction 

from the nearest source of water (river, ocean, or lake) for up to four hours 

on ordinary diesel fuel. Automatic controls offered a continuous range of 

pressures to emit steam, fog, or foam. 

The city of St. Louis, Mo., and the St. Louis Port Authority would work 

out arrangements for a series of tests, maneuvers, and operations, including 

public demonstrations of the module in training and simulated emergency 

situations. The Port Authority and a contractor would compile information for 

evaluating the concept and would make it available to other port cities. (NASA 

Release 79-95; MSFC Release 79-77) 

July 25: FBIS reported that the Sulyut 6 cosmonauts were working on experiments to find out “whether tulips will flower in outer space” (see During 

May). In five months of scientific research, they had found that plants under 

weightless conditions generally would develop only to a certain stage: “tulips 

47 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY I979 

produced a nearly half-meter (18 inch) shoot, yet the buds refused to open.” 

Scientists had decided that weightlessness affected normal plant development 

at the cellular level. The cosmonauts would try to verify this theory through 

experiments to lessen “the negative influence of wcightlessness” through “artificial gravitation” available in a “biogravistat,” il centrifuge producing acceleration “equal to what we experience on earth,”’ with a rotating disc containing seed holders in which plants would grow. The station also kept a 

similar disc without rotation, planted with the same samples, and 

simultaneous tests were proceeding on the ground. First results showed the 

shoots produced under artificial gravity were much larger than those in 

weightlessness. Tass said the tests were “of tremendous importance.” (FBIS, 

Tass in English, July 25/79) 

July 26; NASA reported successful demonstration July 24 of in-flight switch 

from helicopter mode to airplane mode, by a research aircraft combining 

features of helicopters and conventional turboprop airplanes. The aircraft, 

designed and built by Bell Helicopter Textron under a joint program of ARC 

and the U.S. Army Research & Technology Laboratories, had a 7.5-meter 

(25-foot)-diameter rotor at each wingtip, each powered by a turboprop engine 

and capable of pivoting from a straight-up to a straight-ahead position. 

Oriented up, the rotors would take the craft up or down and hover like a 

helicopter; rotated forward, the blades would function as propellers, and the 

craft would fly like an airplane. The demonstration at the Bell plant of conversion from helicopter to airplane mode proceeded gradually, with steady-state 

flight at each 5O of nacelle rotation; the craft was dlesigned to be much quieter 

than current helicopters and turboprop planes. The XV-15 craft had logged 

about 15 flight hours since tests began in April, in preparation for delivery 

to ARC for a proof-of-concept flight program. (NASA Release 79-98) 

July 2% ESA announced that, pending an INMARSAT decision on the configuration of its worldwide maritime space system, member states in the 

Maritime European Communications Satellite (Miirecs) program had agreed 

at a July 26 meeting in Paris to prefinance a third maritime communications 

satellite, Marecs-C, under a new arrangement whereby, instead of ESA’s offering INMARSAT the Murecs-A and Murecs-B satellites through Interim European Telecommunications Satellite (Eutelsat), ESP. would offer three Marecs 

satellites directly to INMARSAT. The agreement authorized ESA to sign with 

the satellite contractor for about 45 MAU (million accounting unit) and begin 

arranging for a Pacific-area ground station. (ESA Release July 27/79) 

July 30; NASA announced that Russell L. (Rusty) Schweikart had resigned 

to take a position with a State of California commission on energy resources 

that plans and regulates the state energy system. Schweikart flew the first lunar 

module on Apollo 9 in 1969 and was commander ‘of the backup crew for the 

first Skylab mission. In May 1974 he became director of user affairs in the 

48 
JULY 199 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Office of Applications at NASA Headquarters; in September 1976, he was 

named assistant for payload operations in Planning and Program Integration 

and was detailed in September 1977 to the State of California as assistant to 

the governor for science and technology. (NASA anno July 30/79) 

July 31: KSC reported that NASA’s third spectacular of the year would come 

in August-September when Pioneer 11 passed within 13,300 miles of Saturn’s 

cloudtops. Launched April 5, 1973, the craft would give scientists a first close 

look at the giant planet with rings and 10 moons. Data from Pioneer 11 would 

help them plan Saturn flybys in 1980-81 of Voyagers I and 2, now headed there 

after passing Jupiter in March and July this year. The Saturn encounter would 

be the second planetfall for Pioneer 11, which had used Jupiter’s gravity in 

1974 to put it on a trajectory toward Saturn. (KSC Release 142-79) 

During July: Aviation Week & Space Technology noted a record number of 

USSR spacecraft launches in the first six months of 1979 compared to the past 

year: 49 launches through June, compared with a previous record of 45 in the 

first half of 1978. The record year for Soviet launches, 1976, had seen 99 launches; the 1978 total was 88. (AvWk, July 9/79, 11) 

FBIS carried almost daily reports on Sulyut 6 cosmonauts Valery Ryumin 

and Vladimir Lyakhov, from unloading Progress 7 beginning July 2 to performance of new metal-combination experiments on the newly installed Kristall 

furnace at month‘s end. Noting that the current crew had broken the previous 

record of 140 days in space on or about July 14, the Washington Post picked 

up a Tass report that Valery Ryumin had achieved another space first: he had 

added a “svelte” 1.5 pounds, first weight gain in orbit. The Soviet press attributed the gain to “space meals” like those on Earth, including about 70 

itemsL‘meat and diary products, confectionery, fruits, juices and spices.” A 

July 16 story said that the new spaceflight record was “double the overall duration of manned expeditions aboard American Skylab.” Unfolding a 30-footwide radiotelescope antenna made of fine wire petals and pushing it into space 

was done by July 20, when Progress 7undocked for reentry. (FBIS, Tass in 

English, July 2-30179; W Post, July 15/79, A-14; Avwk, July 9/79, 20; July 

16/79, 23) 

49 

August 

August I: As decided earlier in 1979 [see June 301, NASA took the first steps 

to take Ai5 6 out of geostationary orbit and boost it to a higher altitude to keep 

it from colliding with other spacecraft. On the evening of July 30, NASA fired 

the minus-pitch attitude-control thruster; the firing was successful, but ATS 

lost Earth acquisition because of intermittent telemetry problems. In order to 

reacquire Earth, the spacecraft was put in a Sun-acquisition mode the morning 

of July 31; boost procedures resumed about 1:30 p.m. and proceeded as planned, with completion expected in about 30 hours. 

Since its May 1974 launch, the five-year-old communications satellite had 

exceeded its planned lifetime by three years, but three of its four stationkeeping thrusters had failed, and the fourth was shaky. GSFC would use the 

remaining thruster to lift ATS to a level several hundred kilometers higher, 

where it would remain in orbit indefinitely. (NASA Release 79-81; NASA Dly 

Actv Rpt Aug 1/79) 

NASA announced that it would accept on an annual basis applications to 

become Space Shuttle astronauts; the 1979 time for civilian applications would 

begin October 1 and end December 1. Successful applicants would report to 

JSC for a year’s astronaut training, after which NASA would choose pilot and 

mission-specialist candidates to be assigned by the Astronaut Office to jobs 

that would continue to train them in their scientific or technical field. NASA 

now had 27 selectees, including 11 scientists, available as Shuttle crew; 35 

more candidates were in training to qualify for selection. The number of candidates to be selected in 1980 would depend on mission requirements. (NASA 

Release 79-101; JSC Release 79-50) 

NASA announced that JPL had selected TRW’s Space Systems Division, 

Redondo Beach, Calif., to negotiate a contract estimated at $80 million for 

designing, building, and testing one of two spacecraft to explore the Sun’s 

polar regions in the 1980s. A second spacecraft would be developed by ESA. 

The solar-polar mission sponsored jointly by NASA and ESA would study the 

Sun, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields in uncharted areas of the solar system. 

The four-year mission would begin with launch of both spacecraft by the 

Space Shuttle in 1983; a gravity-assist flyby of Jupiter in 1986 would put the 

craft over the solar poles in 1986 and again in 1987. This would be the first 

mission using spacecraft out of the plane in which Earth and other planets orbit the Sun. JPL would manage the project for NASA’s Office of Space 

Science. The TRW contract covered the spacecraft system and ground-support 

equipment, integration of the science payload, tests and launch preparation, 

and spacecraft-system support during the mission. (NASA Release 79-100) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1979 

FBIS carried a Tass report that “local monitoring services” had revealed 

launch of a “carrier rocket” by the People’s Republic of China, “with the aim 

of putting into orbit an artificial satellite.” Th,e satellite was not orbited 

because the carrier rocket malfunctioned and “fragments fell on the territory 

of the PRC,” the dispatch said, adding that this w.3~ PRC’s fourth abortive attempt to launch a sputnik. (FBIS, Tass in Englirh, Aug 1/79) 

August 2: ComSatCorp announced that it was considering a system to provide 

subscription television service directly to homes by satellite. For a monthly 

fee, the service would offer programming over a number of channels 

simultaneously, broadcast by satellite to small antennas on subscribers’ roofs. 

Programming “without commercials” would include first-run movies, sports 

events, educational and cultural programs, transmissions of data or text, and 

other formats. Dr. Joseph V. Charyk, chief execulive officer of ComSatCorp, 

said technology for such a system already existed and was being tested in 

Japan; Canada and the United States had already tried it, and ComSatCorp 

had demonstrated use of Canada’s CTS satellite with a ComSat-developed 

antenna. The new service could begin as early as 1983, but would require approval by the FCC. (ComSatCorp Release 79-32) 

August 3: NASA reportid that LeRC engineers had worked for six years on 

perfecting a new power transmission system: the Nasvytis multiroller traction 

drive, capable of transmitting high-power loads at high-speed ratios without 

using toothed gears. Between 1879 and 1971 about 34 patents had been issued 

on various fixed-ratio traction-drive concepts; 8 of these were issued to Dr. 

Algirdis L. Nasvytis. NASA engineers working with Nasvytis had made key 

design changes in traction-drive roller geometries to produce a test rig that 

could operate in a 15-to-1 speed ratio. LeRC had developed for an automotive 

gas-turbine engine a similar drive that could transmit 7 horsepower per pound 

compared to conventional gears with about 4 horsepower per pound. 

Stuart H. Loewenthal, lead LeRC engineer on tthe project, said the “quiet, 

almost vibrationless means of transmitting power [could aid in] minimizing 

the noise pollution that now surrounds us.” The (device would be cheaper to 

make because it needed no gear-tooth design or cutting; it was lighter and 

smaller than conventional gearboxes; it had performed at 95 % efficiency for 

15-to-1 ratios at speeds to 73,000 rpm, and was more reliable, being less 

susceptible to wear and breakdown. (Lewis RC Release 79-104) 

August 7: NASA reported that the Vikiug 2 lander cameras had photographed 

a new layer of frost on the Utopia Planitia site, creating “a scientific puzzle” 

for researchers. In September 1977, the lander recorded frost on the surface 

of Mars during its northern winter (one Mars year and almost two Earth years 

ago); scientists had explained the frost as the resulr of a major dust storm, during which atmospheric particles picked up moisture that wound up as frost on 

52 
AUGUST 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the surface. However, latest observations of Mars showed the atmosphere 

clearer than it had been since the Vikings arrived in 1976, so that the frost 

could not be explained as before. (NASA Release 79-107; JPL Universe Aug 

17/79, 1) 

MSFC reported that it had delivered most of the hardware that would be 

needed by the first Shuttle mission: main engines, external tank, and solid-fuel 

rocket boosters. All three main engines had arrived at KSC; two had been installed, and the third was scheduled for next week. The first external propellant tank had been barged to KSC and installed in the VAB to await arrival 

of Columbia from the processing facility nearby. Flight hardware for two 

solid-fuel rocket boosters, except for the loaded motor segments, had been 

delivered to KSC, and the loaded parts were to arrive about September 20. 

(MSFC Release 79-82) 

The Washington Star reported that faulty aluminum might have been built 

into the Space Shuttle and newly constructed military and civilian aircraft. A 

German aircraft firm, Fokker, had discovered the problem in May; Reynolds 

Aluminum Company, the manufacturer, told a high-level team of officials 

from NASA, DOD, and FAA that the plates might have “soft spots” because 

they were not cooled properly during fabrication. 

Walter Williams, NASA chief engineer, said that, until records of the 

disposition of the faulty aluminum were located, “we have to worry about 

everything.” The agency suspected that the large external tank (which would 

carry the Shuttle during blastoff) might contain some of the metal, as might 

the Shuttle itself, as well as its solid-fuel rocket engines. External-tank 

strength was crucial because it bore the weight of the liquid-oxygen and liquidhydrogen fuel under high pressure, as well as the solid-fuel rockets during liftoff. Spokesmen for Reynolds and the Pentagon were “vague about the amount 

of aluminum involved,” the Star said, but an internal NASA memo said it was 

about 15 million pounds of aluminum plates. (W Star, Aug 7/79, 1) 

August 9: NASA launched Westar 3, the last of three craft built for Western 

Union by Hughes Aircraft, from ETR at 8:20 p.m. on a Delta into a transfer 

orbit before going into synchronous orbit at 91-B-W over the equator south 

of New Orleans, La. Launch was 53 minutes behind schedule because of two 

problems: a USAF computer at ETR shut down about 4 minutes before liftoff 

and took 37 minutes to correct; then, 30 seconds before liftoff, a liquid-oxygen 

valve door showed open, and several checks were needed to confirm that the 

door was shut before launch. McDonnell Douglas was to get a million-dollar 

incentive bonus for 15 straight successful launches. (NASA MOR 

M-492-203-79-03 [prelaunch] Aug 7/79, [postlaunch] Oct 25/79; Today, Aug 

10/79, 14A; D/SD, Aug 13/79, 205; Aug 17179,233; NASA Hq WB Aug 20179) 

53 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST lmS 

August 10: Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle orbiter built, began its last trek 

across the United States from KSC to DFRC, where “its flight log books will 

be closed,” said the Marshall Star. DFRC said the craft, which served as prototype in all Shuttle tests to date, would be trucked to Rockwell’s Palmdale 

facility, where parts would be removed for additional testing and possibly used 

in constructing future orbiters. 

Enterprise had made eight captive and five free-flight approach-and-landing 

tests at DFRC in 1977; it then was ferried to MSFC for ground vibration tests, 

then to KSC in April this year to check out facilities for handling Columbia, 

first Shuttle scheduled for launch. JSC Roundup later reported that 750,000 

people had crowded airports during the return to California and that Enterprise was a two-day front-page story in area papers at each of the six stopovers 

and a lead story on television and radio. Donald “Deke” Slayton, now program manager for Shuttle flight-test operations, piloted the T-38 chase plane 

flying with Enterprise and was spokesman for the Shuttle program during 

press briefings. (DFRC Release 29-79; Marshall Star, Aug 8/79, 1; JSC Roundup, Aug 24/79, 1) 

August 11: The Washington Post reported that India’s “problem-plagued space 

program” had suffered another setback August 10 when a seven-story-tall 

launcher, product of 11 years of work, crashed 5 minutes 15 seconds after liftoff and dropped its payload into the Bay of Bengal 300 miles from the takeoff 

point. The failure was a real disappointment, following USSR launches of two 

India satellites, both of which developed serious problems: the first, orbited 

in April 1975, lost power after a few days. A much more complex satellite 

launched in June 1979 from a Soviet site would have mapped India’s surface 

using television cameras to record mineral deposits, water reservoirs, forests, 

and Himalayan snowcover; the cameras failed to switch on, and scientists got 

only the data from lesser experiments on oceans. 

This launch was India’s first attempt to orbit its own spacecraft on its own 

launcher from its own site (the small island of Sriharikota north of Madras, 

whose residents were moved to the mainland as a precaution). Though 

reporters were not allowed to attend, government cameramen were present. 

All publicity on India’s space program discussed mineral location and other 

social uses, but the Washington Post noted the military element: India was trying to join the “club” that included the United ,States, France, the Soviet 

Union, China, and Japan; India had lost a border war with China in 1962 and 

had been at war with Pakistan three times in the past 30 years. A rocket able 

to orbit a spacecraft could give India intermediate-range ballistic-missile 

capability; a satellite transmitting television images of mineral resources could 

also monitor troop movements. The lost booster w,as a four-stage rocket with 

solid-propellant motors designed to orbit an 88-pound satellite. The launch 

had been successful until first-stage burnout; the anomaly had occurred in 

second-stage flight. (W Post, Aug 11/79, A-13) 

54 
AUGUST lmS ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The JSC Roundup carried a report by J.M. Jones, public affairs officer, on 

the trip to Australia by four MSFC employees acting as a Skylab investigating 

team to check up on the path of debris over an area 20 miles wide and several 

hundred miles long. The team left Huntsville, Ala., July 13, two days after the 

midnight spectacular that occurred as the 77-ton Skylab descended and broke 

up over the Indian Ocean. NASA needed interviews with eyewitnesses and 

finders of the fragments to verify the location of the trajectory and the condition and precise location of the debris, and if possible to get samples for examination of the effects on spacecraft materials of more than six years of 

exposure. 

Arriving in Canberra, the team held press conferences to explain the assignment and assure finders that they could keep any fragments they found, which 

would be returned if submitted for scientific study. At the coastal town of 

Esperance, local groups similar to U.S. rescue squads had spread the word 

and gathered about 30 numbered and cataloged specimens laid out in a 

warehouse for examination; most of them were “apparently really Skylab.” 

The team expressed appreciation of the local people’s helpfulness. Going inland several hundred miles to the goldfield region where heavier pieces were 

more probable, the team found the people just as friendly and helpful. When 

light-plane flights over 30 or 40 miles of uninhabited territory produced no 

further finds, the team returned with a stop at Canberra to thank officials for 

the “extraordinary assistance and friendliness” they had met. (JSC Roundup, 

Aug 10179, 3) 

August 16: NASA pronounced the mission of international ultraviolet explorer 

he successful: observatory performance had “substantially exceeded design 

and mission objectives.” Gyros used on he would serve the Space Telescope 

(ST); the spectrograph and cameras would influence the design of those on 

the ST; and operational software and guest-observer operations would provide 

an experience base for the ST. (NASA MOR S-868-78-03 [postlaunch] Aug 

16/79) 

August 21-24: At a NASA Headquarters press conference on the Pioneer 11 

encounter with Saturn expected about September 1, reporters heard predictions of the findings from Dr. Thomas A. Mutch, associate administrator for 

space science; Fred D. Kochendorfer, program manager for Pioneer Saturn; 

and Dr. John Wolfe of ARC, project scientist for Pioneer Saturn. A self-styled 

space exploration buff, Mutch recalled his experience with Viking lander imaging and the delight of a first look at pictures relayed from a planetary mission. Kochendorfer described the Pioneer spacecraft and instruments, explaining how power was obtained at great distances for guidance and transmission, and lauding the Deep Space Network’s remarkable support in getting 

“absolutely the most we can wring out of this [communications] system.” 

Wolfe said that all the experimenters who worked on the mission in 1969 

were still alive, and only one had been changed (the principal investigator for 

55 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST I979 

infrared, who had taken a sabbatical). He called the media coverage of the 

Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 Jupiter encounters in 1973 and 1974 “outstanding.” 

A plaque in the National Air and Space Museurn described Pioneer as “a 

spacecraft designed to fly by the planets Jupiter and Saturn’l-Wolfe congratulated the museum on its forecast. He enurneraled the options for imaging, 

explaining how the Pioneer would approach Saturn and its moons and how the 

information returned would assist the upcoming Voyager encounters. 

A NASA release August 21 said controllers at ARC had ordered a “left 

turn” for Pioneer 11 to permit one-at-a-time aclivation of its onboard instruments. Images of Saturn’s rings from 16 million kilometers looked no 

larger than a penny; by August 26, investigators expected them to be better 

than any taken from Earth and 20 times better by September 1. (NASA 

Release 79-108 [press kit], 79-109; ARC Release 79-37; text, press conf, Aug 

21/79) 

During August: NASA announced selection of a number of investigators and 

experiments for its missions. 

-NASA selected 24 scientists to use data from the laser geodynamics 

satellite Lageos launched May 4, 1976. Having completed an initial phase of 

settling into orbit and checking out its laser tracking system, the satellite was 

now ready to provide mobile and fixed receivers around the world with ranging data on crustal-plate motion, density distribution within the Earth, and 

polar motion/Earth rotation. The investigators would become part of a working group chaired by Dr. David Smith, Lageos project scientist and were to 

meet August 29 and 30 at GSFC. Seventeen investigators were from U.S. 

universities (six), private firms (five), or other government agencies (six); 

others were from France (four), the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and 

West Germany (one each). (NASA Release 79-10:2) 

-NASA selected 32 research proposals that would use global 

measurements of the near-Earth magnetic field from Magsat, scheduled for 

launch in October. The 19 U. S. investigators represented universities (12), 

private firms (6), and government agencies (1). The 13 foreign investigators 

were from Canada (4), France and Australia (2 each), and Brazil, India, Italy, 

Japan, and the United Kingdom (1 each). The 6-month mission managed by 

GSFC would remedy shortages and discrepanlcies in data from many 

geographic areas. (NASA Release 79-103) 

-NASA selected 40 scientific investigations for Spacelab/Shuttle flights 

scheduled between 1983 and 1985; 33 of those ch,osen were from the United 

States, and 7 from other nations (Canada, France, Japan, and Belgium) each 

funding its own experiments. The studies, chosen from some 200 responses 

to a request for proposals, would be on astronomy, solar physics, upperatmosphere physics, space-plasma physics, and high-energy astrophysics. 

(NASA Release 79-112) 

56 
AUGUST 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA announced a number of personnel changes. 

-Eldon D. Taylor, formerly of the NASA Headquarters Office of Space 

Science and Applications, most recently assistant director of administration 

for the NSF was approved by the president July 30 as NASA's first inspector 

general. He had also been deputy assistant administrator for resource management at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before going to NSF. 

(NASA anno Aug 3/79) 

-Dr. Lee R. Scherer, director of KSC since January 1975, would become 

associate administrator for external relations at NASA Headquarters 

September 2, succeeding Arnold W. Frutkin, who retired June 22. Scherer, 

who retired in 1964 from the Navy as a captain, was program manager for 

the lunar orbiter manned spacecraft while on assignment from the Navy in 

1962 and was director of DFRC 1971-1975. (NASA Release 79-106; NASA anno 

Aug 8/79) 

-Succeeding Scherer as KSC director would be Richard G. Smith, the 

deputy director since 1974 of MSFC who had been on detail to Headquarters 

as deputy associate administrator for STS (the Shuttle program). Smith had 

been in charge of operations during the Skylab reentry. At MSFC, he had been 

program manager for the Saturn 5 rocket engine that made Apollo possible. 

(W Post, Aug 9/79, A-11; NASA anno Aug 8/79) 

-Dr. Walter B. Olstad, chief of space systems division at LaRC since July 

1975, would become deputy associate administrator for aeronautics and space 

technology at NASA Headquarters effective October 1, succeeding Dr. John 

M. Klineberg, who became deputy director of LeRC July 1. Olstad had begun 

as a research engineer at the NACA Langley laboratory in 1954, working first 

with transonic tunnels, then in reentry physics. (NASA Release 79-110) 

-JSC announced that Clifford E. Charlesworth had become acting deputy director August 10, succeeding Sigurd A. Sjoberg, who retired May 18. 

Charlesworth for three years had been deputy manager of the Shuttle payload 

integration and development program office, responsible for coordinating JSC 

technical management and Shuttle users. He was deputy manager of the 

Skylab program 1970-1972, then manager of JSC's Earth-resources program 

office. He joined JSC as a flight controller in 1962, working on Gemini and 

Apollo missions and was one of the flight directors during Apollo Us 1969 

Moon landing. (JSC Release 79-51) 

Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Committee on Science 

and Technology, sent committee members a report prepared by staff of a 

review of cost, performance, and schedule aspects of the Space Shuttle program, based on NASA's request for a $220-million addition to the FYSO 

budget request. The staff director wrote that recommendations in the report 

would, if implemented, improve budget requirement estimating, program 

cost, and schedule control, as well as NASA communications with the committee. (Text, oversight rept Aug 79) 

57 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1979 

August 19 saw the end of the record-breaking flight in the Sulyut 6 space 

station of Soyuz 32 cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin, returned safely in the Soyuz 34 capsule after 175 days in !space since launch February 

25. FBIS had carried daily reports of their progre:ss. Besides the experiments 

in materials processing (alloys and coating processes) and the intensive 

physical routines designed to assist long-term assignments in space, the crew 

in their last days in orbit had worked with the KRT-10 radiotelescope sent last 

month by cargo craft and unfurled in space to study extraterrestrial radio 

sources and nonatmospheric radioastronomy. As (early as August 15, they had 

begun to pack the return capsule with items demonstrating the results of their 

space stay. 

Difficulty with the radiotelescope had presented another challenge to the 

crew; upon completion April 9 of the scheduled scans, the antenna was to be 

jettisoned, leaving the docking unit free. “Space sprung another surprise,” 

Tass reported, when the antenna became entangled with a projection on 

Salyut’s surface. The crew tried to free it by “a minor jerk of the station,” 

which was not successful. A space walk was already scheduled to check the 

exterior of the station, dismantle outside scientific equipment, and retrieve 

samples of materials exposed for a long time to outer space. Ground control 

wanted to spare the cosmonauts the stress of an extra task in outer space, but 

the crew insisted it was the only sure way to solve the problem. 

On August 15, the crew in “full pressure suits” opened the hatch, and flight 

engineer Ryumin moved to the attachment point, releasing the 10-meter 

(30-foot) antenna with pliers, and “imparted the antennae acceleration relative 

to the station” (in other words, pushed it away toward the Earth for reentry). 

Then, Ryumin and Lyakhov disassembled and brought in the micrometeorite 

registration instruments and the panels with samples of structural, optical, insulation, and polymer materials, some of which were in orbit since Salyut 6‘s 

launch in September 1977, others installed by the Soyuz 29 crew in July 1978. 

Total time of the space walk was 1 hour, 23 minutes: Tass noted that the suits, 

“fitted out with metal shielding against cosmic rasdiation and possible concussions” from meteorites, had previously served Kcwalenok and Ivanchenkov of 

Soyuz 29 and Grechko and Romanenko of Soyuz 26. The cosmonauts landed 

safely August 19 and appeared to be in the best shape yet: they wanted to walk 

but were not allowed to do so immediately, although they did get brief dips 

in the hotel swimming pool. Later reports praised the exercise routine for its 

good effects on the crew, who agreed that even longer flights were possible. 

(FBIS, Tass in English, Aug 1-25/79; CSM, Aug 14179, 2; NY Times, Aug 

16/79, A-19) 

58 
September 

September 1-7: NASA’s Pioneer 11 had encountered Saturn’s bow shock 

(where the solar wind-a stream of electrified particles from the Sun-bent 

around Saturn’s magnetic field), project manager Charles Hall reported from 

ARC, adding that solar storms during the past few days had played havoc with 

Pioneer’s radio signals. Pioneer was not designed in 1967 to fly to Saturn; that 

mission arose only after a successful Jupiter flyby in 1974, calling at first for 

Pioneer to fly through Saturn’s rings on what the Washington Post called a 

“kamikaze mission.” The most dangerous moment of the 6.5-year 2-millionmile journey would be crossing September 1 through belts of unknown 

material beyond the ring systems around Saturn that had been visible from 

Earth, during which Pioneer would risk a potentially fatal collision. 

Because of intense radiation (solar-particle interference was degrading the 

quality of Pioneer images), mission controllers at ARC had reduced the data 

transmission rate by half. Solar storms had occurred late in July and in midAugust, and high-energy particles from the second storm had reached Saturn 

at the same time as slower particles from the first storm. Reducing the 

transmission rate would diminish effects of interference and also the quality 

of the images. Pioneer would enter the dangerous area outside the visible ring 

system at 104 a.m. EDT, but scientists would not know for 86 minutes 

whether it had survived (the time the signals needed to reach Earth). No one 

knew the composition of the 2 minute-wide third ring; if it consisted of 

boulders, Pioneer could probably get past it safely, but a ring of dust particles 

could riddle the fast-moving craft and end its career. Project scientist Dr. John 

Wolfe said chances for survival were half and half; pictures already transmitted by Pioneer were better than any yet taken from Earth telescopes. 

The Washington Post reported September 1 that solar storms had increased 

the noise level in space to 10 times normal. In early afternoon, Pioneer had 

flown into a detectable magnetosphere, showing that Saturn was surrounded 

by a strong and sizable magnetic field estimated at 700 to 1,000 times the size 

of Earth’s but roughly equivalent in strength. The Nav Yurk Ernes reported 

September 2 that, as of l2:31 p.m. EDT September 1, Pioneer ll had survived 

a hail of fine particles to get within 13,000 miles of Saturn for a 4-hour first 

encounter. During the approach, scientists were keeping watch on the plane 

of the visible rings through which Pioneer was descending: Dr. James Van 

Allen of the University of Iowa was first to note Pioneer’s approach to 

“dangerous ring debris” in its path. However, the 10:30 a.m. crossing at a 

speed of 48,000 mph had taken only a second, though ARC had to wait until 

2:02 p.m. to learn what had happened; when the radio signals continued past 

that moment without interruption, “a cheer went up.” 

59 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER I979 

LaRC’s Donald H. Humes said that Pioneer I1 might have had a close call, 

as the micrometeoroid detector had registered two impacts during the crossing: this was the limit of the instrument’s counting ability, and more impacts 

might actually have occurred. The impacts apparently caused no damage. The 

sharp rise in radiation encountered by Pioneer before it flew under the rings 

had fallen as abruptly as it rose, and by the time Pioneer was under the rings 

(closer to the planet) the radiation reading had disappeared completely. Dr. 

John Simpson of the University of Chicago said the rings were big enough to 

“scour out” nearly all the radiation trapped by the planet’s magnetic field. 

(The New York Times quoted Dr. Van Allen as sayjhg that the radiation count 

while Pioneer flew under the rings was even lower than while the spacecraft 

was sitting on its launching pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., 6.5 years ago. 

Saturn’s radiation, although it would be lethal to an unprotected human, posed 

no hazard to spacecraft, Van Allen added.) 

After its close approach, Pioneer swung behind the planet, out of radio contact for 78 minutes, during which its on-board instruments recorded data for 

later transmission. Upon reemerging, the spacecraft had to cross the ring 

plane again on its outward journey; the outbound crossing came at 2:32 p.m., 

and controllers again had to wait for indication that the spacecraft was safe. 

At 3:55 p.m. the signals affirmed that Pioneer I1 had survived another crossing. This was the last predicted hazard for the spacecraft, which would continue past Saturn to the outer edge of Earth’s solar system and enter interstellar 

space in 1993, by which time its radio would no longer be audible. 

The safe passage meant that Pioneer could spend September 2 and 3 

photographing Titan and measuring Saturn’s rings from the dark side of the 

planet; also, that the two Voyager spacecraft following Pioneer could approach 

without fear of damage. In its two-hour passage, besides recording impacts, 

Pioneer had photographed a new ring previously undetected by Earth 

telescopes, called the F ring: scientists already knew of four rings called A 

through D (in order of discovery, not location), three of them bright enough 

to be seen from Earth telescopes, and a fifth (or E) ring had been suspected 

close to the A ring although Pioneer did not report it. Pioneer had also tracked 

what might be a new Saturn moon orbiting about 70,000 miles out; some 

thought it might be a known moon, Janus, but it was in a position indicating 

that it was an entirely new satellite that would bring Saturn’s count to 11, one 

short of Jupiter’s 12. 

Pioneer 11 photos of Saturn showed dark blue and green stripes across it 

just below the north pole; the colors, not so vivid from Earth, probably came 

from sunlight scattering in upper-atmosphere clouds. Jet streams like those 

seen on Jupiter appeared to whirl around Saturn at speeds of 300 mph. 

Pioneer images could give a better idea of the dimensions and composition 

of the rings when compared with Earth-based ph’otographs. 

In the six years it had taken to reach Saturn, Pioneer 11 had reported a 

space-particle strike only once every two months or so, LaRC’s Humes recalled. Once past Saturn, Pioneer was to photograph Titan from about 221,000 
SEPTEMBER 1579 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

miles, record its temperature and atmospheric methane, and try to detect “life 

chemicals”; as no life was evident on Venus or Mars, this might be the last 

chance to find extraterrestrial biology in the Earth’s solar system. First images 

of Titan had shown a fuzzy ball of light indicating a stratospheric layer of 

orange smog with blue streaks that might denote an atmosphere beneath the 

smog and clouds. The closest approach at 294 p.m. September 2 was 220,000 

miles, and Pioneer had taken the first pictures at 260,000 miles. The pictures 

would be enhanced by computer before scientists could make detailed 

analysis. On September 3, Pioneer was already more than a million miles 

from Saturn, relaying no ill effects from the planet’s rings or radiation belts. 

Early on the morning of September 2, NASA reported loss of about two 

hours of Titan data from Pioneer transmissions to the Madrid station; ARC 

controllers did not know whether the loss occurred between spacecraft and 

station or between Spain and the control center about 40 miles south of San 

Francisco. A loss between spacecraft and station would be irretrievable: 

Pioneer had only the one opportunity for Titan observations after its close approach. It was not sending images at the time, but about 15 minutes of a 

CalTech infrared sensor’s readings on Titan temperature were lost. The cause 

might have been electrical storms in space or on Earth, or passage of the 

signals close to the surface of the Sun on their way to the Earth, any of which 

would make it difficult or impossible for the Madrid station to lock on to the 

signals. A dramatic difference in day-night Titan temperatures would suggest 

a thin atmosphere; a thicker, warmer atmosphere might be more hospitable 

to life forms. 

Project manager Charles Hall reported Septernbcr 4 that the Titan data loss 

previously attributed to radiation disturbances was now thought to result from 

radiofrequency interference by a Soviet satellite. Both Pioneer II and three 

USSR satellites had been operating on a frequency reserved for scientific use. 

The Soviet Union had twice agreed to shut down during Saturn encounter, and 

Hall said NASA had “no doubt the Soviets would have acted” if they had been 

asked; “we did not request them to turn off their satellite on Monday,” U.S. 

scientists did not realize at first that signals from a recently launched Soviet 

satellite might interfere with reception of Pioneer data, being “between 100 

and 1,000 times stronger than the signals we were receiving from our 

spacecraft.” 

Aerospace Daily said September 6 that the three Soviet satellites that had 

stopped transmitting September 1-2 for the benefit of Pioneer’s Saturn flyby 

were early-warning satellites designed to detect U.S. ballistic missile attacks 

on the Soviet Union. Cosmos 1024, 1109, and 1124 had suspended transmissions September 1 and 2 at NASA’s request; however, no request was made 

regarding September 3, and Cosmos 1124 had operated as usual. Western 

analysts questioned, Aerospace Daily noted, “whether the U.S. would suspend communications with any of is early-warning satellites if the Soviets 

made such a request” during a planetary mission. 

Pioneer project officials told a September 6 news briefing that the loss of 

61 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER I979 

Titan data was not the fault of the Soviet satellite, which was broadcasting 

before but not during the lost transmission. Poor data had resulted from the 

combination of solar storm and poor transmission from Madrid. Some data 

had in fact reached ARC, but was so “noisy” as to be useless. Scientists said 

the moon discovered by Pioneer was inside the orbit of Janus, previously the 

innermost known satellite of Saturn; the new ring (labeled G) was between the 

orbits of Rhea and Titan, beyond the rings visible to Earth telescopes. (NY 

Times, Sept 2179, 1; Sept 3/79, A-1; Sept 4179, C-1; Sept 7179, A-I; W Post, 

Sept 1179, A-3; Sept 2/79, A-I; Sept 5179, A-IO; WStar, Sept 1/79, A-4; Sept 

2179, A-1; Sept 7/79, A-1; AID, Sept 6/79, 17; Today, Sept 1/79, 4A; Sept 2179, 

[A) 

September 6: NASA reported that an unmanned S,oviet Cosmos satellite to be 

launched in mid-September would carry 13 experiments from the United 

States along with some from the Soviet Union and other countries, all designed to study effects of weightlessness on physiological processes. ARC would 

manage the U.S. portion of the project, in which 410 scientists representing 18 

U.S. universities and research groups would participate. 

Major payload would be 38 white rats and 60 fertile Japanese quail eggs, 

scheduled to orbit about three weeks. The Soviet Union would make a first 

attempt to breed rats in space, separating males and females until the second 

flight day; two control sets of rats on Earth would be housed and fed like those 

in space, one exposed to stresses such as launch and reentry but not zero 

gravity. Three U.S. experiments would use material handcarried to Moscow 

a week before launch and returned to ARC after recovery. (NASA Release 

79-114; ARC Release 79-39) 

Neil E. Goldschmidt, nominated as secretary of transportation, told a Senate 

commerce committee hearing that after confirmation he intended to look into 

FAA safety policies, the Washington Star reported. FAA was criticized after 

two major crashes: the collision over San Diego of a small plane and a jetliner 

that killed 144 persons and the crash of a DC-10 :let near Chicago that killed 

273. Sworn in as a recess appointee in August, Goldschmidt would require 

confirmation to continue in the position. (W Star, Sept 6/79, A-20) 

September 10: JSC reported on trials of a Buck Rogers-style maneuvering unit 

designed for moving about and working outside the Space Shuttle. Officially 

named Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), the device worn on the back of 

a spacesuited astronaut would allow movement in the weightlessness of space 

using nitrogen gas jets to control direction. 

Martin Marietta, the manufacturer, had submitted a prototype the previous 

week for three months of testing on different-sized astronauts (including 

female candidates) for fit and mechanical performance in use. Astronaut Dr. 

Bruce McCandless had successfully checked out the unit’s compatibility with 

the self-contained portable life-support system, wearing a spacesuit and back62 
SEPTEMBER I979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ing into the maneuvering unit as it would be located in the orbiter cargo bay, 

“like backing into a phone booth with a large knapsack on your back,” KSC 

would get the first flight unit early in 1980. (JSC Release 79-55) 

September ll: NASA declared the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE) 

missions 1, 2, and 3 successful. The international cooperative effort of NASA 

and ESA, as a joint contribution to an international magnetospheric study, had 

used three spacecraft (two launched in October 1977, the third in August 1978) 

to measure Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar wind from widely separate 

orbits to better understand processes controlling Earth’s near-space environment, Maximum value of ISEE stated in 1977 was simultaneous operation of 

all three spacecraft for several solar rotations; the mission operations report 

signed by Harold Glaser, director of the solar terrestrial division, Office of 

Space Science, on September 5 and by Dr. Thomas A. Mutch, associate administrator for space science, on September 9 declared the mission a success 

with respect to prelaunch mission objectives. (NASA MOR S-862-77-01/02/03 

[postlaunch] Sept 1/79) 

MSFC reported that Industrial Research and Development magazine had 

chosen the power-factor controller invented by aerospace engineer Frank J. 

Nola [see A& 75, May 21 as one of the “100 most significant new technical 

products marketed in 1978.” Nola’s invention could sense the amount of power 

required by an electric motor and automatically vary the power to provide only 

as much as actually needed at a given time. NASA had licensed 26 U.S. firms 

to produce and market the device; about 30 others had applied for licensing. 

Results of MSFC tests had indicated that, if all electric typewriters in the 

United States (for instance) were equipped with the device, the energy saved 

would equal that generated by 2,000 to 3,000 barrels of oil per day. Nola and 

other winners would attend an awards banquet September 20 at the Science 

and Industry Museum in Chicago, which would display the 100 products for 

a month afterward. (MSFC Release 79-92; Marshall Star, Sept 12/79, 2) 

September 13: NASA said it would join the Canadian Department of Communications and France’s CNES in a 15-month demonstration in 1982 of a 

search-and-rescue system to speed detection and location of distress signals 

by use of satellites. The three countries would set up ground stations and conduct simulated search-and-rescue. A satellite in polar orbit could cover the 

globe every 12 hours, listening on the emergency frequencies used by ships 

and aircraft. Minutes after receiving an alert, ground computers could pinpoint its origin within 20 kilometers (13 miles) and flash it to coordination 

centers. 

Canada would provide transponders, and France receiver-processors, to fly 

on NOAA satellites in polar orbit; the United States would modify, fit with 

antennas, integrate, and launch the satellites and develop emergency beacons 

for ships and aircraft to use with the systems. The parties to the agreement 

63 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER I979 

were also negotiating for cooperation with the Soviet Union. (NASA Release 

79-118) 

September I4: NASA announced it would deploy seven laser satellite-tracking 

systems in the United States and the Pacific Ocean as part of a global network 

to extend conventional measurements of strain in ithe Earth’s crust and to seek 

the causes of earthquakes. The lasers, to be in full operation by October, 

would work with microwave devices using signals from satellites and radio 

stars to measure crustal movements and the buildup of strain. 

Laser systems using corner-cube reflectors put on the Moon by the United 

States and the Soviet Union were operating in Texis, Australia, and West Germany; satellite-laser systems were operating in France, Spain, Germany, 

Greece, Egypt, England, and the Netherlands. Thl: Smithsonian Astrophysical 

Observatory had laser systems in Peru, Brazil, and eastern Australia. NASA 

had joined NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, NSF, and the Defense Mapping Agency in a program using space technology to reduce earthquake hazards 

and possibly to develop a capability of predicl.ing them. (NASA Release 

79-117) 

September 17: In a move “necessary and proper to achieve the objective of 

national technical superiority through joint action with U.S. domestic concerns,” NASA administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosclh announced that the agency 

would offer industry “equity partnership ventures” in use of the Space Shuttle, 

NASA technical advice, data, equipment, and facilities for commercial 

purposes. 

NASA had set up guidelines to ease U.S. industry entry into an area that, 

because of high technology and high economic risk, had traditionally been left 

to the federal government. Such a government- industry relationship would 

combine industry’s risk capital and experience with NASA’s resources to ensure U.S. leadership in space processing of materials. Areas of potential commercial interest included semiconductors, infrared and nuclear detectors, 

metallurgy, microwave devices, and medicine. (NASA Release 79-119) 

ESA announced that the first stage of its Ariane launcher had undergone its 

last ground qualification test September 13; CNES had scheduled the launch 

phase to begin October 1, with first launch between December 8 and 18. 

Aerospatiale had shipped the flight-qualification model from Le Havre 

September 15, bound for the launch site at Kourou, French Guiana. (ESA 

Release Sept 17/79) 

September 19: The Washington Star said that three jet planes in four days had 

lost large parts while in flight: on September 15, a Boeing 707 passenger jet 

operated by American Airlines on a flight from Detroit to San Francisco had 

dropped a wing flap into San Francisco Bay; on September 17, a DC-9 

passenger jet of Air Canada, 60 miles north of Eloston’s Logan International 
SEPTEMBER I9i9 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Airport en route to Nova Scotia, had dropped is tailcone into the Atlantic 

Ocean from 25,000 feet up. An American Airlines Boeing cargo jet had scattered 200-pound chunks of its left wing over Chicago September 18 before landing safely at O’Hare airport. No one had reported injuries from falling 

debris. (W Star, Sept 19/79, A-9) 

September 20: NASA launched the high-energy astronomy observatory Heao 

3 at 1:28 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on an Atlas Centaur into an orbit with 492-kilometer apogee, 477-kilometer perigee, 

94.3-minute period, 43.6” inclination. It was third of a series designed to 

survey the sky for X-ray sources, measure gamma-ray flux, and define the 

composition of cosmic-ray nuclei. 

The first Heao, launched in 1977 with a 6-month design lifetime, measured 

and mapped X-ray and gamma-ray sources for 17 months, reentering Earth’s 

atmosphere in March 1979. It had increased the number of known X-ray 

resources from 350 to 1,500 and had discovered a new black-hole candidate 

as well as a dust cloud enveloping a supercluster of galaxies. The second, called Einstein, carrying the largest X-ray telescope ever built, was launched 

November 1978 with a 1-year lifetime to examine in greater detail the findings 

of Heao 1. 

Heao 3 carried a gamma-ray spectrometer and experiments on a cosmic-ray 

isotopes and heavy cosmic-ray nuclei. Data from the three observations would 

cast light on the origins of high-energy radiation in space and the formation 

of elements and of the universe. (NASA Release 79-113; NASA MOR 

$432-79-03 [prelaunch] Aug 10/79, [postlaunch] Sept 20/79; prelaunch summary, Sept 10/79) 

NASA announced that JSC was studying two ways to repair Space Shuttle 

tiles in orbit, both requiring crew members to go outside the Shuttle. JSC 

director Christopher Kraft called it “prudent” to be ready for in-orbit repairs, 

in case the tiles did not come up to specifications in actual fight: the thousands 

of heat-resistant blocks covering the underparts and sides of the orbiter might 

be damaged at launch and need patching before reentry. 

The first idea, using an extendable boom carrying television cameras and 

a platform, would relay images of a damaged area into the cockpit and sustain 

a spacesuited astronaut making external repairs. The other concept would use 

a jet backpack to maneuver an astronaut around the orbiter to inspect it and 

make repairs wherever necessary. JSC had three studies under way by General 

Electric, Martin Marietta, and McDonnell Douglas on repair materials and 

tools suitable for outer space. (NASA Release 79-120; JSC Release 79-58) 

September 24: KSC reported receipt of two experiments that would form part 

of OSTA 1, first Shuttle payload to fly into space: an imaging radar antenna 

and an ocean color experiment. The 30-foot by 7-foot imaging radar antenna 

would test the potential of such a system for geological use in mineral location 

65 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER I979 

and fault mapping; the ocean color experiment would test a technique for 

mapping concentration of color-producing phytoplankton in the open ocean. 

All seven OSTA 1 experiments would have Earth-resources applications. 

The five others would be an infrared radiometer; a device to measure air 

pollution (levels of natural and synthetically carbon dioxide) in the orbiter’s 

flight path; a system of identifying and locating surface features or clouds; a 

dayhight survey of thunderstorm and lightning; and a study of the amount of 

moisture needed for plant growth in zero gravity. (KSC Release 161-79) 

September 26: FBIS reported a Tass announcement that the Soviet Union had 

launched a geophysical rocket for shortwave solar-radiation research. Vertikal 

8 was launched at 6:20 a.m. Moscow time from an unspecified point in European Soviet Union to an altitude of 505 kilometers. At 100 kilometers on the 

upward trajectory, a high-altitude astrophysical probe carrying instruments 

from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet llnion separated from the 

rocket; a recoverable package containing measurement results separated from 

the probe at 95 lulometers on the downward flight path and launched by 

parachute. Tass said the participating countries woiild process the information 

obtained from the probe. In an interview on Moscciw domestic service, a Vertikal experimenter, Academician S. L. Mandelshtam, said some of the equipment was unique and could obtain a television image of the Sun in the shortwave band, which they had never done before. Eivaluation of the magnetic 

tapes had been “a weak point with us,” he said, sometimes requiring a year 

or two, but must be dealt with in five to seven months because “it is the active 

year of the sun.” (FBIS, Tass in English, Sept 26/79; Moscow Dom Svc, Sept 

26179) 

September 26-October 3: After a two-month delay, a 100-foot high balloon 

with a crew of four took off Wednesday, Septernber 26, from Tillamook. 

Oreg., to try a nonstop balloon crossing of the United States. The planned sixday 229-mile trip of the DaVinci TransAmerica carrying 8,488 pounds of gear 

under 216,000 cubit feet of helium had lasted out continuous westbound instead of eastbound winds, court battles between two major television networks, and investigation by a federal agency, said the Washington Post. 

The crew consisted of Vera Simons, German-born artist and balloon pilot 

from McLean, Va., who had been planning the flight since 1971; Dr. Rudolf 

J. Engelmann, director of the DaVinci project and an employee of NOAA at 

Boulder, Colo.; Dr. Fred Hyde, an eye surgeon from Prairie Village, Kans.; 

and Randy Burch, a cameraman for NBC televisbm. In August ABC television had sued the group to prevent NBC from having exclusive coverage of 

the flight; the suit was thrown out of court, but Simons said it had upset her 

and delayed flight preparations. 

The flight, originally called a blend of science and art, had lost its science 

aspect two weeks previously when NOAA reclaimed $28,000 of equipment for 

measuring air pollutants, ozone levels, and radiation on the cross-country 

66 
SEPTEMBER 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

flight. NOAA said it had acted because “an agency employee” might have 

sought “personal gain,” and agency lawyers were investigating any illegal conflict of interest. Englemann said he knew of no conflict of interest, calling 

charges against him “a helluva thing,” according to the Washington Post. The 

7-Up Company, which put 100 empty containers on board for distribution after 

the flight, would cover most of the $250,000 cost. Other sponsors included 

NBC; Louisiana Pacific, a wood and paper combine whose small balloons 

DaVinci would drop for finders to exchange for free trees; and camera 

manufacturer Nikon Inc. 

The transparent plastic balloon “larger than the Goodyear blimp” had lifted 

off at 8:16 a.m. September 26 into strong westerly winds, rising 300 feet per 

minute and drifting at about 50 mph toward the western slope of the Rockies. 

Over the Teton mountains of Wyoming the crew had to don oxygen masks and 

stay 4,000 feet above the peaks, to escape downdrafts that could put the 

balloon into an irreversible drop. In this “most dangerous” part of the flight, 

the crew found that its 9-radio system was not working and they could communicate only on a radiotelephone with meteorologists in Massachusetts; they 

guessed that an antenna on the balloon had snagged in the rigging during 

launch. The private meteorologists in New England reported that crew 

members, frequently on oxygen, sounded “strange. . . not as sharp, like having a couple of drinks”; they had postponed discussing plans until the craft 

descended to lower alti’tudes. Traveling at between 17,000 and 18,000 feet, 

DaVinci had gone down to about 10,000 feet over Denver, Colo., but dropped 

ballast to regain altitude east of that city. More than 500 miles south of their 

planned route, the crew on Saturday was flying at 1,000 feet over Kansas, having covered more than 1,380 miles in 4 days. Governor John Carlin tried to 

radio thanks for DaVinci’s visit “even if they didn’t intend to come.” 

DaVinci stayed over Kansas for 2 days, about 24 hours behind schedule for 

an arrival at Norfolk, Va., or Kitty Hawk, N.C. The crew complained of small 

planes flying close to the balloon: the FAA told them to note the registration 

numbers so that the agency could “deal with’ the offending pilots. (Under 

federal rules, balloons-lighter-than-air craft-had right of way over all other 

aircraft.) 

The balloon had unexpectedly crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis, 

Mo., world headquarters of the 7-Up Company that was major sponsor of the 

flight; officials had thought the route would be 50 miles north. Air traffic controllers at St. Louis’s Lambert Field (11th busiest in the United States) had 

diverted airline flights because of the balloon, which had right of way over 

all other aircraft. 

On its stray southward, DaVinci set a new long-distance record for balloon 

flight over the United States: 1,084 miles at Denver, breaking a 1,058-mile 

record set in 1924. As it sailed over Kansas and Iowa in a more northerly 

direction toward its original course, it also passed the 100-hour mark to approach the 137-hour endurance record set by Double Eagle I1 in August 1978 

on its transatlantic crossing. While the crew ate its Sunday dinner over 

67 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1979 

Nebraska wheatfields, waiting for good winds, they got a call from Boston: 

Maxie Anderson, the Albuquerque balloonist who had been aboard Double 

Eagle I1 on the first transatlantic balloon trip, said “We’re pulling for you.” 

Nearly six days after takeoff, at 11:56 p.m. Monday, October 2, DaVinci was 

forced down in a northwest Ohio bean field after a thunderstorm chased it 

across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, caught it in the dark (after 11 p.m.), 

and dumped snow and heavy rain into the gondolla. Three of the crew came 

down safely, but Vera Simons fractured her left leg. DaVinci had not broken 

Double Eagle 11’s endurance record (which would have occurred at 4:23 

a.m.), but it had achieved the longest overload wind-borne balloon flight, 

2,003 miles, surpassing the nearly 1,897 miles flom 65 years ago by a European balloon. (W Post, Sept 26179, B-1; Scpt 27/79, A-1; Sept 30179, A-1; Oct 

1/79, A-22; Oct 2/79, A-I; Oct 3179, A-I; W Star, Sept 28/79; Oct 1/79, A-3; 

Oct 2/79, A-1; NY Times, Oct 3/79, A-16) 

September 28: NASA announced that it would launch the third applications 

explorer mission, AEM-C, from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Scout on 

or about October 29. Called Magsat (magnetic-field satellite), the craft would 

map Earths magnetic field and record distribution of crustal anomalies with 

a resolution of 350 kilometers, first global vector measurements of the nearEarth field. Magsat was a cooperative effort of NASA and the U.S. Geological 

Survey, which would use the data to update its magnetic charts. (NASA MOR 

E-662-79-01 [prelaunch] Sept 28/79) 

During September: The White House Office of Science and Technology 

Policy announced that the United States and Japan had formally agreed to extend their research and development cooperation into nonenergy fields. A 

meeting in Tokyo Scptcmber 20-21 had issued a U.S.-Japan joint communique 

recalling summit talks in May between President Carter and Prime Minister 

Ohira on cooperative efforts in basic and applied research; working groups 

at the September meeting had looked at possible joint projects in areas such 

as environment, health, and outer space development. Further meetings 

would be held, the next in Washington. (Executive Office of the President 

release, no date) 

NASA announced that a special staff of consultants appointed in May 1979 

to assess Shuttle management had submitted its report to Deputy Administrator Dr. Alan M. Lovelace. The report contained eight major conclusions (and comments). 

1) When the Shuttle program began, NASA managers took an economical approach to space transportation. Subsequent budgets challenged managers to 

bring in a difficult technical program with limited funds. 

-(NASA originally envisioned a $5.15 billion program, predicting first manned orbital flight in 1978.) 

68 
SEPTEMBER 159 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

2) Shuttle management had achieved “a commendable level of accomplishment. . .considering fiscal constraints placed upon the program since its inception.” 

(Though this report necessarily focused on deficiencies, it noted that 

Shuttle-program personnel had individually and collectively achieved a great 

deal in a large and very complex program,) 

3) Shuttle management, in an effort to proceed toward completion even under 

funding limitations, had set up work schedules demanding more performance 

than could be delivered. 

(This approach had resulted in deferment of some of the planned work each 

year, as funds required exceeded those available. When critical new work 

became necessary within a fiscal year, as technical problems came up, even 

more scheduled work had to be deferred. This resulted in continual planning 

adjustments that precluded establishment of a stable baseline and led to program inefficiency. 

(Example: subcontractor work increased or decreased repeatedly as funding 

changed in critical areas such as tile manufacturing. Program changes and 

associated up-and-down expenditure rates had led to termination of experienced contractor and subcontractor personnel, who became unavailable later 

because of aerospace industry demand. The subsequent employment of inexperienced personnel reduced overall efficiency. The report called this a major 

cause for concern, especially in the production phase of the program, also, 

costs due to delays in solving technical problems had increased.) 

4) Long-range planning and status reporting were lacking: emphasis was on 

the current fiscal year with only secondary attention to work remaining to be 

done. Near-term planning took so much attention that long-term impact of 

deferred work was not integrated into the budgets. 

(Effective long-range planning requires clear understanding of what has 

been accomplished, plus accurate prediction of remaining work. Shuttle 

management faced budgets showing unrealistic costs of its goals, with no effective status-reporting system. Most program planning consisted of constant 

near-term replanning to count up expenditures in a timely manner, although 

measuring the work achieved through these expenditures and estimating work 

still needed were weak. Management tools lacking in some major Shuttle contracts, such as cost reporting integrated with work measurement, were useful 

but did not provide an automatic solution. 

(The only available means of assessing even the partial funding requirements of the Shuttle was an agencywide budget plan called POP [program operating plan] inadequate for program control: it appeared only twice 

a year and contained little pertinent data between July and March. NASA 

needed a reliable way-lending itself to independent evaluation-to know program baseline and status, with realistic cost and schedule projections. 

69 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMHER 1979 

Management must overcome the cumulative impact of previous constraints 

and pressures, while making allowance for the need to rely on contractor 

input.) 

5) The Shuttle organization functioned well from a technical standpoint but 

not in the areas of schedule and budget. 0rganiz.ation needed strengthening, 

and two-way communications needed improvement. 

(The original concept of Shuttle organization was a Level 1 program director at NASA Headquarters, a Level 2 [integratiori] program manager at JSC, 

and Level 3 separate program offices at the various centers: JSC for the orbiter; MSFC for the main engine, external tank, and solid-fuel rocket booster; 

and KSC for checkout and launch. Prime contractor support to project offices 

would be Level 4. Time had altered the concept: the Headquarters Level 1 

associate administrator had become the de facto program director, who required the directors of JSC, MSFC, and KSC to take more part in activities 

reporting to them; responsibility for funding shifted from Level 2 to Level 1. 

This seemed a feasible arrangement, but the report said “none of the management levels in Rockwell and NASA had a good grasp” of undone work and 

other items needing completion before shipping Columbia to KSC. Investigators said Level I “broad and detailed involvement” with technicalities 

meant less time for cost and schedule. NASA needed cost awareness “independent of contractor input” and sensitivity to “lower-level cost trends.”) 

6) Schedule changes were no longer a valid way to cope with reduced program 

or funds; fixed delivery schedules and milestones in the initial operating program not yet achieved required a new management approach. 

(Work schedules and budgets must allow for modifications required after 

the first few Shuttle flights. Users must recognize that initial operations would 

include development; NASA should make Shuttle users aware of realistic performance and schedule commitments, with priority to successful completion 

of development.) 

7) Transition to the operational phase remained to be worked out; management should ensure that current organization alignments for Shuttle operations 

are appropriate. The NASA/DOD interface needed clarification. 

(NASA Headquarters managed program operations, with operations offices 

at JSC, MSFC, and KSC; cooperation between the operations and program 

offices was evident, but transition from development to operations would need 

work. Since needs and plans of the DOD user conimunity would affect NASA 

planning and budget, management to forestall problems should maintain 

“high-level near-term understanding” of DOD plans.) 

8) The potential was high for unexpected technical problems, schedule slips, 

and cost growth. All program planning should include appropriate reserves. 

(Although the report noted that some parts of a total management-control 

70 
SEPTEMBER 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

and information system were in place and functioning well, significant potential for problems would remain until deficiencies cited in the report were 

corrected.) 

(Shuttle Program Management Assessment rept, Sept 12/79 [issued to press 

Oct 18/79], HistOfc fls; NASA note to editors NE79-20; JSC Roundup, Sept 

21/79? 1) 

NASA reported that 28-year employee Dr. James J. Kramer, Headquarters 

associate administrator for aeronautics and space technology, would retire 

September 30. In 1951 he had gone to work for the NASA Lewis center where 

he had managed the quiet-engine project and the 260-inch solid-rocket project 

and was an aeronautical research scientist. He was manager of the Headquarters refan program office 1971-1973 and directed many Office of 

Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) activities before becoming 

associate administrator in October 1977. (NASA Release 79-123) 

The Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) Newsreview reported that a 

NASA-USAF pilotless research vehicle called HiMAT (highly maneuverable 

aircraft technology) made its first flight at the Edwards Air Force Base test 

center. Purpose of the HiMAT program was to improve maneuverability of 

U.S. fighter craft at transonic speeds (700-780 rnph) and in air-to-air combat. 

No other remotely piloted vehicle or aircraft had the design features used on 

HiMAT, which would be incorporated into future USAF vehicles if successful: winglets (airfoils at the end of each wing) and unique close-coupled 

canards (small winglike surfaces located close to the main wings) to reduce 

air drag, and aeroelastic tailoring that originated in the early 1970s using the 

directional properties of graphite composites in the wings and canards 

(representing about 25% of HiMAT’s total weight) to control deformations 

under aerodynamic loads. The first flight was to test vehicle aerodynamics 

during separation from the carrier and during approach and landing. Taken 

to an altitude of 45,000 feet under the right wing of a B-52. HiMAT flew for 

22 minutes under control of a NASA research pilot on the ground before landing on skids at a dry lakebed. HiMAT was built by Rockwell International’s 

North American Aircraft Division under contract to DFRC, using concepts 

from the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory. (AFSC Newsreview, Sept 79, 

6) 

FBIS continued its reports on the experiences of cosmonauts Vladimir 

Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin during their 175 days aboard Salyut 6 At a 

Kremlin ceremony September 8, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev conferred the titles of heroes of the Soviet Union and the orders of Lain and Gold 

Star; Lyakhov also received the title “Pilot Cosmonaut of the USSR.” A 

September 10 report said that they told a press conference that the most important thing about their flight was not the duration but the volume and diversity 

71 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1979 

of the research; they also said they looked forward to future “lengthy expeditions.” 

Dr. Konstantin Feoktistov told Soviet and foreign journalists of plans for an 

investigation of Salyut 6, which had been in orbit for two years; future use 

would depend on results of a check of on-board systems (which would take 

several months). A postflight talk with Feoktistov md A.S. Yeliseyev reported 

that the big design difference in Salyut 6 was the change to two docking units 

plus a new propulsion system, which made the supply service possible and 

enabled successive crews to occupy the station: “in practical terms, we were 

limited only by the life of those systems. . .impossible to replace in flight,” 

Yeliseyev noted. 

Sulyut 6 saw 17 dockings and 6 refueling and produced 6 times as much 

work as previous stations; about 80 flight corrections were performed, and 3 

space walks were made. Fourteen cosmonauts had spent more than a year on 

the station. Without extensive repair and maintenance, “the station would be 

already defunct,” Feoktistov said. Breakdowns that did not affect the main 

system were the videotape recorder, some control consoles, and communications equipment that had stopped working. Access to items that had been used 

on the station had proved important: a harmful-contaminants filter returned 

from the station exhibited corrosion, and the experts could have spent a long 

time looking for the answer without having the actual filter to work with. 

(FBIS, Tass in English, Moscow Dom Svc, Aug 23/79-Sept 5/79) 

R 
October 

October I: Effective this date, Air Force Secretary Dr. Hans Mark announced 

that the U.S. Air Force would realign its space and missile systems research, 

development, and acquisition elements, establishing two new organizations in 

the AFSC: Ballistic Missile Office (BMO) and Space Service Division (SSD). 

The SSD would assume space-related activities for which SAMSO (the U.S. 

Air Force space and missile systems organization) had been responsible, 

realigning operations on the east and west coasts: the Eastern Space and 

Missile Center (ESMC) would be formed at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., and 

the Western Space and Missile Center (WSMC) at Vandenberg Air Force 

Base, Calif. These centers would report through a Vandenberg unit not yet 

named. ESMC would include the present Eastern Test Range (ETR), the 

6,555th aerospace test group, and 6,550th air base wing. WSMC would include the Western Test Range (WTR) and the 6,595th aerospace test wing. 

(AFSC Newsreview, Sept 79, 1) 

ESA reported that the West German firm, Dornier System, leader of the 

STAR industrial consortium, would be prime contractor for a European 

spacecraft to participate in the international solar-polar mission (ISPM), a 

cooperative ESA-NASA project. The contract would cover design, development, manufacture, and testing, at a cost of more than 47MAU (million accounting units, worth U.S. $1.2 in 1979). The ISPM would make 

measurements outside the ecliptic plane and observations of the Sun using two 

spacecraft, one each from ESA and NASA, to be launched in February 1983 

on the U.S. Space Shuttle. (ESA Release 25) 

October 2: Today reported launch of an unannounced classified payload from 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Base on a Titan 3C at 7:22 a.m. Monday, 

September 30. The craft was a reconnaissance satellite, military sources said 

later, and would be used to photograph Soviet troop movements. (Today, Oct 

2/79, SA) 

NASA reported it would speed up development of the MMU to be built by 

Martin Marietta for astronaut use in inspecting and repairing Space Shuttle 

insulating tiles while in orbit. The MMU, an improved version of a gas-jet 

backpack tested inside the orbiting Skylab in 1973-1974, should be fully 

developed by next August for the second Shuttle flight in October 1980. NASA 

would not consider further an alternate method of tile inspection (an extendable platform on a boom with a television camera). (NASA Release 79-125) 

73 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1973 

October 5: MSFC announced that it had issued requests for proposals to 

design a 25-kilowatt power system to provide suplplemental solar power for 

long-duration Shuttle missions or support free-flying payloads. In early spring 

of 1980 NASA would award two or more parallel contracts at $1 million each 

for studies to be completed within 12 months. 

Development would begin in 1982; the system would fly its first mission in 

1984-1985 attached to a Shuttle orbiter carrying a ,Spacelab, to provide additional power and attitude and heat control. The power system on this mission 

would carry an experiments pallet and would be left in space (after the orbiter 

completed its mission) to power the long-duration experiments riding on the 

pallet. Luther E. Powell, MSFC project manager, said the power system 

would be forerunner of future large systems in space, such as service platforms and other unmanned large space structures. (MSFC Release 79-103) 

Ocrober 6: FBIS reported that U.S. scientists and (engineers visiting traclung 

stations, research institutes, and “cosmic centers” iin the People’s Republic of 

China had seen their achievements in rockets and cosmonautics. At one 

center, the Chinese showed their U.S. counterparts the latest “spy in the sky” 

satellite planned for launch in late 1979. (FBIS, Moscow to Asia in English, 

Oct 6/79) 

October 8: KSC reported another step toward Spzce Shuttle launch: mating 

of the first two segments of the solid-fuel rocket motors to aft skirt assemblies. 

The first major element of the system, the orbiter, was in the KSC processing 

facility being prepared for launch: the three main engines had been installed, 

and work was in progress on other items, especially installation of the thermal 

protection tiles. The second major element, the huge external tank, had been 

delivered to KSC for checkout before being mated to the rest of the system. 

The third major element, the two solid-fuel rockel motors that would fire in 

parallel with the orbiter engines at liftoff, had been built in sections to be 

assembled at KSC and were designed for reuse after cleaning, refurbishing, 

and reloading. 

Before the first test flight in 1980, the remaining tiles would be installed; 

orbiter systems checked out; remaining motor segments delivered and stacked; major elements mated on the mobile launch platform; assembly rolled out 

to the launch pad; and three main engines actually test-fired, in a final systems 

checkout. (KSC Release 174-79) 

October 9: NASA announced creation of a new Headquarters program office 

called Space Transportation System Operations, h!eaded by an associate administrator not yet appointed, to be responsible for Shuttle operations including scheduling, pricing, launch-service agreements, the Spacelab program, and expendable launch vehicles (except Shuttle upper stages). Dr. 

Robert A. Frosch said the move would centralize Shuttle services in a useroriented organization. 
OCIQBER lmS ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The former Office of Space Transportation Systems (STS) was renamed Office of Space Transportation System Acquisition; John Yardley would continue 

as associate administrator for STS development and acquisition, including the 

Shuttle and its upper stages, associated ground facilities and equipment, and 

system improvements. (NASA Release 79-127) 

October 10: NASA reported a prediction by NORAD that the Pegasus 2 

spacecraft assembly launched by NASA in May 1965 would reenter Earth’s 

atmosphere about November 5. Pegasus 2, one of three satellites launched in 

1965 to gather micrometeoroid data for use in designing future spacecraft, 

weighed considerably less at 10,430 kilograms than the 70,300-kilogram 

Skylab that reentered over Australia in July. The predicted descent area would 

be 31.7 north and south of the equator, an area three-fourths water. After the 

reentry of Pegasus 1 and 3 (September 1978 and August 1969, respectively), 

no parts of either spacecraft were found or recovered. (NASA Release 79-126) 

October 12: FBIS reported completion of the 19-day flight of Cosmos 1129 and 

recovery of rats, insects, plants, and other items flown on it [see September 

61. Tass said a field laboratory-a huge inflated shed made of several 

hermetically connected tents-was set up at the landing site so that “morphologists, biochemists, and physiologists” could inspect the samples and do 

the first research. 

Samples then went to the Moscow Institute of Medico-Biological Problems 

where scientists from the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, 

Hungary, German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, and the United 

States would make early estimates of the results obtained. Some of the 

materials would be sent to laboratories in participating nations. (FBIS, Tass 

in English, Oct 14/79) 

October 15: NASA reported that scientists and engineers from five countries 

(Australia, Canada, India, Japan, and the United States) had met at WFC to 

compare techniques of gathering data on ozone in the stratosphere. Instruments in use worldwide had used different techniques of measurement and 

had never compared for system errors or other biases. The joint effort was 

sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization, FAA, and NASA. 

Over a 14-day period beginning October 21, the group would perform 20 

rocket-borne experiments to establish instrument precision and comparability; 

the resulting information should define ozone variability during the period. 

Measuring instruments would fly on four kinds of rockets (Orion, Nike Orion, 

Super Arcas, Super Loki) scheduled to coincide with orbiting-satellite passes, 

to compare rocket measurements with those from the satellites. Ozone data 

would also come from meteorological rockets and balloons as well as from 

ground-based equipment. (NASA Release 79-130; WFC Release 79-17) 

15 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1979 

October 16: NASA reported that pictures taken by Vbyager 2 in July during 

its trip through the planet Jupiter’s system had revealed a new moon in the ring 

plane. CalTech researchers David Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson, the latter 

a member of the Voyager imaging-science team, had found a starlike object 

in pictures of the ring plane taken less then 24 hours before the closest approach to Jupiter. When exhaustive search found no star to account for the 

trace in the photograph, the searchers examined another higher resolution image showing the same portion of the ring, trails of known stars, and the same 

unidentified object. The presence of a moon was shown by differing angles 

and lengths of actual star trails compared with tbe trail left by the object. 

Jewitt and Danielson would make a further study of pictures taken four 

months earlier by Voyager I in an effort to identify the same object. (NASA 

Release 79-132) 

JSC announced that all Space Shuttle orbiters would have an optical landing 

aid presently used by pilots of more than 20 U.S. and foreign commercial and 

military aircraft. Rockwell International, prime contractor for the Shuttle, 

would provide for the commander and pilot of all orbiters a “head up” system 

to project instantaneous displays of spacecraft speed, rate of descent, altitude, 

and other critical flight factors on a transparent viewing glass located above 

the cockpit window to be pulled down like the sun visor of an automobile. The 

system would be placed on Columbia in time for i.he first operational flight, 

expected early in 1981 after completion of the flight-test program, and in JSC 

simulators and trainers. (JSC Release 79-64) 

October 18: The New Ynrk Times said that Dr. Tlhomas A. Mutch, NASA’s 

associate administrator for space science, had told a House subcommittee that 

problems with the Space Shuttle would delay flight of the Galileo mission for 

two years. NASA now planned to launch the mission in 1984 in two parts: one 

Shuttle flight would take a Galileo orbiter into Earth orbit for launch toward 

Jupiter, and another Shuttle flight would take another spacecraft for launch into the atmosphere of Jupiter carrying instruments to record its composition. 

Earlier mission plans were for a 1982 Shuttle launch carrying a single Galileo 

package including orbiter and Jupiter probe; the change would add more than 

$184 million to the cost of the project, previously estimated at about $450 

million. 

NASA had had problems not only with the Shuttle insulating tiles but also 

with the rocket engines. An improved engine was to be standard after the first 

test flights. Angelo Guastaferro, NASA’s head of planetary programs, said that 

the 4,600-pound Galileo spacecraft would be too heavy for the Shuttle to carry 

into Earth orbit without the improved engines. (NY Times, Oct 18/79, A-15) 

ESA reported a fifth Japan/ESA meeting October 15-17 in Paris, with Roy 

Gibson, ESA director general, and N. Kozu, of Japan’s science and 

technology agency, leading the delegations. In several working-group sessions 

76 
OCTOBER 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the parties reviewed continuing exchange of information on use of communications satellites; acquiring data from each other’s remote-sensing 

satellites; flying Japanese scientific instruments on Spacelab launches; mutual 

use of Japan and ESA tracking stations; and using Spacelab for research in 

materials and life science. A sixth meeting was set for Tokyo in 1980. (ESA 

Info Bltn 26) 

ESA reported a design review of the Marecs project October 9-10 with the 

prime contractor, British Aerospace, after which the agency approved a start 

on satellite assembly so that a flight unit would be ready for launch by the 

Ariane LO4 vehicle. (ESA Info Bltn 27) 

October 20: FBIS carried a Tass report that U.S. and USSR scientists had 

agreed on joint research headed by Moscow University and CalTech on 

gravitational waves. The agreement covered development of extrasensitive instruments and of laboratories insulated against acoustic and seismic noises, as 

well as coordinating simultaneous measurements taken at two widely 

separated laboratories, in Los Angeles and in Moscow. Soviet physicists 

would use cryogenic electronic devices; the United States would develop laser 

systems to record small-scale oscillations. (FBIS, Tass in English, Oct 20/79) 

October 22: NASA held a press conference on the launch of Magsat, scheduled for the end of the month from the WTR. Pitt Thome, director of space and 

terrestrial applications, described the mission as an effort to obtain a global 

picture of Earth’s magnetic field, data previously available mostly from 

ground or aerial surveys and therefore both fragmentary and unreliable. A 

series of satellites (POGO) in the 1960s and 1970s had done some magnetic 

mapping, and this would be the first update of that information, used for 

navigation and for locating natural resources. Magsat would carry both scalar 

and vector magnetometers, so that it could measure not only the extent but 

also the direction of magnetic forces in Earth‘s crust. Variations in the data 

from those in previous studies would also shed light on tectonic plate motion, 

the constant though small movement of rigid plates forming the Earth’s crust. 

The project scientist, Dr. Robert A. Langel of GSFC and John Denoyer of the 

U.S. Geological Survey described potential use of the Magsat data. Denoyer 

said he had been in southeast Asia recently with officials interested in oil prospecting, who would use the data in the next few years to look for petroleum 

as well as minerals. (NASA Release 79-129 (press kit); briefing text, Oct 

22/79) 

October 23: MSFC reported the launch at 7:40 a.m. CDT October 17 from 

White Sands Missile Range, N.M., of the sixth in a series of space-processing 

applications rockets (SPAR) carrying four experiments to be performed during five minutes of near weightlessness in the coast phase of the suborbital 

trajectory. The payload landed at 6,000 feet in mountains 50 miles downrange 

77 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCIDBER 199 

from the launch site; on impact the package tumbled and landed on a rock, 

knocking a hole in the side of the container and damaging one of the experiments. The payload would be returned to MSFC for disassembly and inspection; two of the experiments would be refurbished and reflown. Investigators should begin forwarding results of SPAlR 6 experiments to MSFC 

within two weeks. (MSFC Release 79-113) 

NASA reported delivery of a second experimental turbofan engine produced 

by AVCO Corporation for a program called QCGAT (quiet clean generalaviation turbofan) to LeRC for testing. The program aimed at decreasing noise 

and exhaust emissions while maintaining or reducing fuel consumption, compared with present general-aviation turbofans. The first engine in the program 

arrived at LeRC last winter from its designedbuilder Garrett AiResearch; 

results of tests on that engine showed noise reduction of about 10 decibels and 

emission reduction of 54% for carbon monoxidi: and 76% for unburned 

hydrocarbons. 

Preliminary AVCO results showed noise-level reduction of at least 14 

decibels compared to the quietest business jet now in service, and emission 

levels even lower than those of the first engine. Noise reduction in the AVCO 

engine resulted from improved design of internal engine parts (using soundabsorbing materials to muffle noise from fan, compressor, and turbine) and 

reduced engine-exhaust velocity. LeRC project manager G. Kenneth Sievers 

said test results from both engines showed “noise need not be a major constraint’’ on use of turbofan-powered aircraft for general aviation. (NASA 

Release 79-137) 

October 24: NASA reported that Pioneer 11 was working well on its way out 

of the solar system after a successful flyby of Saturn, during which it found 

two new rings and possibly a new moon of the planet. Barring a failure, the 

Pioneer could continue to return useful data until the late 1980s when it would 

pass beyond radio contact with Earth. The spacecraft was built by TRW 

Systems Inc., and the project was managed by ARC in California. 

After a six-year trip of more than 3.2 billion kilometers (2 billion miles) in 

space, Pioneer 11 spent 10 days photographing and measuring the ringed 

planet. The spacecraft experienced at least two hits from meteroids above the 

rings of Saturn and three more hits below the rings; it recorded no damage 

from high-velocity ring particles, showing that spacecraft could operate safely 

near the visible rings. Major findings of the flyby included a magnetic field 

around Saturn; analysis of the gravity field and composition of the planet’s 

core; radiation into space of 2.5 times more heat that Saturn received from 

the Sun; and low temperatures on the moon Titan that might remove the 

possibility of life there. (NASA Release 79-135; ARC Release 79-42) 

ESA announced the signing of an agreement in Vienna October 17 giving 

Austria an associate membership for five years, during which it would take 

7x 
OCIOBER 197y ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

part in general studies of future space projects and contribute to the costs of 

those studies, being represented on ESA’s council by no more than two 

delegates. (ESA Info Bltn 29) 

October 25: NASA declared the August 9 launch of WESTAR-C (known as 

Westur 3 in orbit) to be satisfactory. The satellite, third of Western Union 

Telegraph Company’s communications satellites to be launched by NASA, 

was performing satisfactorily on its station at 91”W over the equator. (NASA 

MOR M-492-203-79-03 [postlaunch] Oct 25/79) 

NASA declared satisfactory the January 30 launch for U.S. Air Force SAMSO of the SCATHA mission into a transfer orbit from which it went into 

operational mode, a controlled westward drifting of 5” per day as planned. 

(NASA MOR M-492-303-79-01 [postlaunch] Oct 25/79) 

MSFC reported cancellation of a Shuttle propulsion-system static test firing 

October 24 because of a hydrogen leak in the orbiter’s aft compartment near 

the main engines. Sensors detected hydrogen in the compartment about 10 

a.m. during tanking; attempts to isolate the leak continued until 3 p.m. 

without success. Frank Stewart, MSFC test manager, said the leak apparently 

came from a 17-inch or smaller hydrogen feed line in the aft compartment. 

“It is an inert area,” he said, “and if we could have isolated it to one of the 

lines. . .disconnected after ignition we could have safely fired the engines.” 

Since the exact source and cause of the leak could not be established with 

hydrogen in the system, officials decided to postpone firing, drain the propellants, and give engineers access to the area for additional checking. While 

isolation checks went on, the countdown continued through fuel loading procedures; several tests of the main propulsion system were conducted, such as 

inspection for ice and frost on the external tank after the fuel was loaded. 

Stewart said the problem had no connection with the main fuel valve leak 

that started an external fire during a July 2 test. This postponement, he said, 

should have “very little impact on our target date” for completing main propulsion system tests. (MSFC Release 79-116) 

October 29: NASA reported that DFRC in conjunction with the FAA was conducting tests with a Boeing 747 aircraft to generate wake vortices for probing 

by small instrumented aircraft. The tests, performed both in a simulated approach and in actual approaches and landings, would try to verify optimum 

spoiler arrangements suggested by wind-tunnel tests. 

Wake vortices, normally invisible turbulent airflows that stream in funnel 

shape from wingtips and flaps of aircraft in flight, could be hazardous to 

smaller aircraft; for this reason FAA required spacing of 3 to 6 miles between 

aircraft approaching terminals for landing, to allow time for vortices to break 

up. However, the spacing had slowed flight operations and added to delays experienced by passengers because of airport congestion. To allow closer spacing of aircraft and reduce delays, NASA had begun using wind-tunnel and 

79 
ASl'KONAUlICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER lY79 

other experimental techniques to study reduction of strength in wake vortices; 

one method was partial deployment of wing spoilers, normally used to 

decrease lift after landing. (NASA Release 79-140; DFRC Release 79-38) 

MSFC announced that NASA would buy from Rocketdyne Division, 

Rockwell International, 12 more main engines for the Space Shuttle under a 

$365.7 million amendment of the original 1972 contract that would bring its 

value to $1,263,215,058. The original contract was f,or purchase of 27 engines; 

the amendment would bring the total ordered to 19. The amendment also called for overhaul and test of 10 engines to 109% of rated power level, plus a 

second overhaul and flight test of the 3 engines being used for propulsion 

testing. 

Rocketdyne had delivered the engines for the first Shuttle flight, three 

ground-test engines, and a spare flight engine under the original 1972 contract. 

The three flight engines delivered to KSC had been installed on Columbia for 

next year's first spaceflight. (MSFC Release 79-11'7) 

October 30: NASA announced that Space Shuttle flights through early 1984 

were almost completely booked up for payloads, with firm commitments for 

the first 37 operational flights beginning in 1981. The 47 payloads scheduled 

for those flights belonged to 14 government, commercial, and foreign users 

and ranged from launches of ESA's Spacelab to navigation, communications, 

and weather satellites. NASA payloads would account for 32% of the number; 

DOD, about 15 %; and all other users, about 53 %. Payloads normally received 

assignments on a first-come first-servcd basis, but missions affecting national 

security would get priority, as would missions with1 time-critical launch windows or prime scientific or technical objectives. Flights for which NASA 

would be fully reimbursed would take precedence over routine scientific or 

technical launches. 

Services available to Shuttle users would include: a basic launch with support and options (available at extra cost) such as special hardware, tests, and 

analysis; use of KSC services and facilities; or special operations such as extravchicular activity or longer duration. In addition to the 47 large payloads 

designed for the cargo bay, more than 200 organizations and persons had 

reserved (at a cost of $3 thousand to $10 thousand) space for up to 300 small 

self-contained payloads called getaway specials (GAS), research-anddevelopment packages weighing 200 pounds or less. (NASA Release 79-142) 

MSFC reported the successful conclusion October 26 of three separate 

static-firing tests of the Space Shuttle main engine. 'The three test engines had 

completed a scheduled total of 1245 seconds of firing time in less than 12 

hours; two engines were tested at NSTL in Mississippi; the other, in California. One of the pair tested in Mississippi fired for 520 seconds, the running 

time needed for Shuttle launch; the other fired for 665 seconds, the time required for a mission abort. Both these tests were part of a preliminary flight 
OCIDBER lmS ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

certification series. NASA had postponed a 510-second static test scheduled 

for October 24 [see October 251 because of a faulty sensor that indicated a 

hydrogen leak. (MSFC Release 79-119) 

October 31: NASA announced a short-term research program using the 

human-powered Gossamer Albatross 2, sister ship of the craft that flew over 

the English Channel this summer, powered by a pilot pedaling a bicycle-like 

system to drive the propeller. The study, funded jointly by DFRC and LaRC, 

would fly a lightweight data system on the aircraft to measure its stability, control, and performance characteristics in human-powered flight; under tow (in 

propeller-off flight); and under electric-motor in steady-state conditions. 

NASA would use results of the study in future low-speed lightweight aircraft 

flying at extreme altitudes. (NASA Release 79-141) 

During October: NASA reported personnel actions. 

-Dr. Lee R. Scherer, associate administrator for external relations at 

NASA Headquarters and former director of KSC, received for a second time 

the agency's highest honor, the distinguished service medal, from Dr. Robert 

A. Frosch in a Headquarters ceremony October 4. Scherer previously received NASA's exceptional service medal and exceptional scientific achievement 

medal. (KSC Release 169-79) 

-L. Michael Weeks, formerly with General Electric, would be deputy 

associate administrator for Space Transportation Systems Acquisition under 

John Yardley at Headquarters effective November 5. (NASA Release 79-138; 

-The AP reported the death October 22 of Dr. Hans Gruene, 69, KSC 

director of launch vehicles from 1964 to his retirement in 1973. Born in Germany, he entered the United States in 1945 with a group headed by Wernher 

von Braun assigned to launch V-2 rockets captured from the German army. 

He had come to Cape Canaveral in 1952 to set up a joint long-range proving 

ground that became the ETR. He had concluded his career with the four 

Skylab launches in 1473. (W Star, Oct 25/79, B-5; Spaceport News, Oct 26/79, 

1) 

NASA anno Oct 29/79) 

81 

November 

November 2: NASA announced a new five-year development program to retain U.S. leadership in satellite communications and assigned LeRC to work 

with private industry, DOD, and other NASA centers to launch a sophisticated 

communications satellite in 1985 or 1986. Daniel J. Shramo, LeRC director 

of space applications, explained that NASA in 1973 had “phased down” its 

work in communications satellite technology because of budget pressures and 

“the strong capabilities present in the private sector.” Industry since then had 

been improving antenna performance, increasing the number of circuits per 

satellite, and decreasing satellite weight per channel. Technical studies already 

under way at LeRC should result in a communications satellite system capable 

of transmitting data anywhere regardless of population size or electronic 

sophistication. (NASA Release 79-143) 

November 3: NASA’s public affairs office reported that the 23,000-pound 

Pegasus 2 satellite reentered the Earth’s atmosphere at about 4:20 p.m. EST, 

coming down in the Atlantic Ocean northwest of Ascension Island. The “footprint” of descendingdebris would have spread over a path 60 miles wide by 

1,500 miles long over the South Atlantic, the report said. (Hq PAO, Nov 3/79) 

November 5: The Washington Post said NASA’s inspector general and the 

DOD were investigating charges that Rockwell International’s Space System 

Group beginning in 1977 had hidden cost overruns by charging expenses to 

the wrong projects. Work on the USAF’s Navstar satellite was charged to 

NASA’s Space Shuttle contract, employees alleged, and current costs of Shuttle development were charged to future operations, in violation of government 

budget rules. 

Present and former Rockwell employees had provided company documents 

to back up their statements. Ray Sena, an employee who had complained to 

higher management and to NASA officials, was formally suspended by 

Rockwell. Company officials admitted an investigation was in progress but 

refused comment. Although NASA learned of the situation in 1977, it only 

recently admitted that the Shuttle was at least $500 million over budget. (W 

Post, NOV 5/19, A-2) 

The New York Ernes said President Carter planned to meet with NASA officials to review Shuttle management and finding. The report said NASA administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch would ask for more money to prevent further 

serious delays in Shuttle production and testing. Estimated Shuttle spending 

for FY81 would be $1 billion. NASA’s original estimate of Shuttle cost was 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1979 

$5.15 billion in 1971 dollars, to include delivery of two of four of the planned 

spacecraft; current estimate was $6.1 billion in 1W1 dollars, a 20% increase. 

Rockwell International had delivered only one fliglht vehicle, now at KSC for 

preflight checks and installation of insulating tiles. (NY Times, Nov 5/79, A-1) 

NASA reported that a scheduled 510-second firing of the main Shuttle propulsion system test article’s three-engine cluster at the National Space 

Technology Laboratories had failed November 4 when a sensor detected excessive pressure in the oxygen pump of the No. 3 engine and shut the test 

down after 9 seconds. The No. 1 engine was damaged during the cutoff sequence, when a hydrogen line ruptured near the basie of the engine nozzle. Extent of the damage was unknown; the engine would be sent to Rockwell’s 

California plant for inspection and repair. 

MSFC and the contractor were investigating the failure and the possibility 

of replacing the damaged article in the test stand. Impact on Shuttle schedules 

had not been assessed. Meanwhile, the orbiter Columbia had successfully 

passed a series of ‘‘ hot fire” tests at KSC of the auxiliary power units to steer 

main-engine nozzles during launch and to drive control surfaces during atmospheric flight. The tests simulated ascent and descent phases of a Shuttle 

mission. Next milestone for Columbia would be an integrated test of all 

systems. (NASA Release 79-146; MSFC Release ‘79-122) 

NASA declared successful the May 4 launch of FlfSatCom 2 from ETR on 

an Atlas Centaur into a transfer orbit. An apogee kick motor fired May 6 had 

put the spacecraft into the desired synchronous orbit. All spacecraft systems 

were operating normally. John F. Yardley declareid November 1 that NASA 

objectives had been accomplished. (NASA MOR M-491-202-79-02 

[postlaunch] Nov 5/79) 

November 7: NASA announced flight demonstrations of an experimental pilot 

advisory system for high-density uncontrolled airport environments (where 

more than half of midair collisions occur). The ’WFC test program used a 

computer-generated voice technique to send messages on air-traffic location 

and headings every 20 seconds, airport advisories every 2 minutes and collision warnings as necessary. (NASA Release 79-145; WFC Release 79-18) 

NASA reported that, after five years of continuous service, Landsat 2 had 

begun having difficulty with its on-board attitude-control system November 5 

and might have to be retired like Landsat 1 (launched in 1972 and serving until 

1977). In that event, Landsut 3 would be the only Earth-resources monitor in 

orbit until Landsat D’s launch in 1981. Landsat 2’s design life was only one 

year, but NASA hoped it could supplement Landsat 3 coverage until 1980. 

GSFC controllers said the aging lubrication of a spacecraft flywheel governing yaw motion might have caused it to jam; they had succeeded in pointing 

84 
NOVEMBER 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the solar panels at the Sun, trying to maintain attitude until the flywheel could 

be freed or an alternate procedure could be tried. (NASA Release 79-148) 

November 8: NASA announced that it and the ESA had asked scientists to propose experiments for an international mission to comets Halley and Tempel 

2. The total journey would span four years and cover more than 2.5 billion 

kilometers (1.6 billion miles). A spacecraft using solar-electricity propulsion 

engines for the first time in deep space would fly past Halley’s comet in 1985, 

release an instrumented probe, and proceed to an encounter with Tempel 2 

in 1988, flying side by side with it for a year or more on its path around the 

Sun. Science objectives would be to define the chemical-physical nature of the 

comets’ nuclei, of the comas, gases, and dust surrounding the nuclei, and of 

the comets’ tails. As comets differ widely, NASA wanted to make sure of this 

opportunity to sample two different types. (NASA Release 79-147) 

November 9: NASA reported that JPL had awarded a 16-month $1.2 million 

contract to General Electric’s Space Division for three dish-shaped prototype 

units 12 meters (40 feet) in diameter with a sun-tracking mechanism, able to 

produce solar energy for electric power to small communities and rural areas. 

JPL acted for DOE in the second phase of a program to develop a pointfocusing solar concentrator that would give best thermal performance for the 

lowest cost. (NASA Release 79-149) 

NASA reported that LaRC had developed a microwave device under test at 

Norfolk General Hospital to destroy cancerous tissue by heating tumor cells. 

Used outside the body and emitting no radiation, the device had already 

demonstrated that it could locate tumors in 14 known cancer patients and in 

one patient had found a cancerous site undiscovered by conventional means. 

The applicator could sense cancerous tissues, hotter than normal tissue, much 

deeper in the body than could infrared thermography, limited to finding 

tumors near the body surface. (NASA Release 79-150) 

November 11: FBIS carried a story from Tokyo Kyodo in English that a 

Japanese fact-finding mission to the People’s Republic of China cited as 

evidence of the PRC’s “superior space technology” its CSSX-4 rocket fueled 

by liquefied oxygen and hydrogen, able to carry up to 700 kilograms; Japan’s 

latest could carry only about 130 kilograms. As vehicle for an intercontinental 

ballistic missile (ICBM), the CSSX-4 could take a 3-megaton nuclear warhead 

more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles), in range of both the United States 

and the Soviet Union. The three-stage rocket, 43 meters long, and 3.3 meters 

in diameter, reportedly weighed about 200 tons. (FBIS, Kyodo in English, 

Nov 11/79) 

November 15: NASA announced that tests of the Shuttle’s main propulsion 

system would resume about December 14. A November 4 test stopped when 

85 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1979 

a sensor detected overpressure in a turbopump and rupture of a hydrogen line 

damaged one of the engines. Upcoming tests would use a stub nozzle like 

those used in successful ground tests conducted since April 1978; other tests 

with flight nozzles would be scheduled later. (NASA Release 79-153) 

November 18: The Washington Post reported that five states were vying for the 

Large Space Telescope “even though it will be 300 miles above everybody’s 

head.” The actual bone of contention was the science institute that would 

direct use of the unique orbiting observatory. One astronomer said the location of the institute would be “the astronomical capital of the world” for the 

next 30 years; it was “the biggest astronomical prize to come along since the 

200-inch was built at F’alomar for the Hale Observatory.” 

The five competing states were Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado, 

and California (the University of Arizona and University of New Mexico, 

where numerous ground-based telescopes were already located, were considered “occasional” contenders). Competition for the institute was so serious 

that three of the competing groups represented 74 universities: the University 

Research Association (URA), with 53; Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), 

with 7; and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy 

(AURA), with 14. URA backed the Fermilab outside Chicago; AUI wanted 

it at Princeton; AURA wanted it at Johns Hopkin:; University in Baltimore. 

Princeton boasted of Einstein’s work there for over 20 years. Hopkins said that 

it had been doing spaceborne astronomy for 20 years and was closer to 

Washington and to GSFC, which would track and ccintrol the Space Telescope. 

NASA said it would not decide for a year; the Washington Post said that 

nobody at the agency would talk about it. (W Post, Nov 18179, A-4) 

November 19: NASA reported that failure of a hydrogen line on the nozzle of 

a Shuttle engine being tested November 4 resulted from use of improper 

welding wire that “severely decreased the strength of the weld” on a segment 

of hydrogen line near the base of the nozzle. Rupture of the line caused an 

oxygen-rich combustion that damaged the test engine. Investigators from 

MSFC and Rockwell would check all similar welds., using an oxalic-acid etch 

to identify the weak welds and would decide what remedial steps to take. 

(NASA Release 79-157) 

November 20: President Carter designated the NOAA to manage all civilian 

remote sensing from space. A space policy rcvizw committee chaired by 

Frank Press had assessed future U.S. civilian remote sensing requirements 

and decided that a single agency could best handle operational satellite activities. NOAA had managed three generations of weather satellites to prepare 

it for responsibilities in land remote sensing as well as atmosphere and ocean. 

The directive said the United States would continue to supply Landsat data to 

foreign users; the DOC would foster private-sector involvement in remote sensing and would coordinate and regulate civil remole sensing through a board 

86 
NOVEMBER 199 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

representing federal and state organizations including NASA and DOD. (Text, 

Nov 20/79) 

NASA declared successful the launch of Magsat, third in the applications 

explorer mission series, from WTR October 30, delayed for a day because of 

high winds. Orbit had 351.9-kilometer apogee, 578.4-kilometer perigee, 

93.9-minute period. The sensor boom deployed November 1, and star cameras 

were turned on November 2. Magnetic-field data analysis that began 

November 3 already showed substantial differences from 1970s measurements. 

Cesium cells on the scalar magnetometer exhibited random interference, but 

the 60% of scalar data unaffected was enough to fulfill mission objectives. 

(NASA MOR E-662-79-01 [postlaunch] Nov 20/79) 

November 23: FBIS reported from Tass that Soviet scientists had found no 

pathological changes in animals that underwent weightlessness on biosat 

Cosmos 1129 September 25-October 14. The animals in orbit gained as much 

weight as others of their species in the control group on the ground. Lack of 

gravity was also no obstacle to the development of embryos. The tests 

established that weightlessness had no effect on formation of seeds and 

flowers; plants bloomed in space, and their seeds were obtained later on the 

ground. Observation of biological material flown on Cosmos 1129 was continuing at the Moscow Institute of Medico-Biological Problems, with scientists 

of France and the United States participating. (FBIS, Tass in English, Nov 

23/79) 

November 27: ESA announced that it had scheduled the first test flight of its 

Ariane launcher for December 15 from Kourou, French Guiana. Firing of an 

Eridan sounding rocket November 14 had confirmed operational status of the 

launch base and downrange stations in Brazil and on Ascension Island. (ESA 

Info Bltn 32) 

November 28: NASA said the launch of a FltSatCom scheduled for December 

4 had been postponed to January 1980. A leak in the Atlas vehicle’s highpressure pneumatics system detected during routine testing November 26 was 

traced to a cracked sleeve and nut assembly; defective parts were removed and 

replaced. Analysis of the sleeve showed that it had been made from stainless 

steel that did not meet specifications; NASA immediately began investigating 

all similar sleeves on the launch vehicle and made changes as necessary. Investigation revealed that the problem was more serious: other sleeves located 

in stock did not meet specifications, and NASA now planned to check all appropriate fittings on the launch vehicle. (NASA Release 79-163) 

November 30: NASA set June 30, 1980, as the date of the first Shuttle launch, 

depending on several milestones: Columbia rollout from the orbiterprocessing facility to the vertical-assembly building in late March 1980; 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER I979 

rollout of the complete Shuttle stack (orbiter, solid-fuel rocket boosters, and 

external tank) from the VAB to launch pad 39A in mid-April; and a flightreadiness (20-second) firing of the Shuttle’s main engine on the launch pad 

in mid-May. Also needed to make this schedule was certification of the Shuttle 

main engine by June 30, 1980. Administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch said that 

“some time in August or September” would be a much more likely date as 

unforeseen problems could delay the launch. NASA planned nine unmanned 

launches in 1980, eight of them reimbursable by other organizations. (NASA 

Release 79-162) 

During November: NASA announced appointment effective immediately of 

Glynn S. Lunney, manager of JSC’s Shuttle payloa’d and integration development program, as acting associate administrator for STS operations at Headquarters. Lunney would set up the new office that resulted from NASA’s decision to separate STS acquisition from operations, reporting to Deputy Administrator Dr. Alan M. Lovelace. Lunney had been with NASA since 1959, 

serving at LeRC and LaRC and going to Houston when the MSFC was 

created. There, he was technical director of the Apollo-Soyuz test project 

1972-1975 and was deputy associate administrator for space flight at Headquarters before taking the position at JSC in Aug,ust 1977. (NASA Release 

79-156; NASA anno Nov 16/79) 

-NASA announced’appointment of A. Thoinas Young as director of 

GSFC, succeeding Dr. Robert Cooper, who left gcwernment service in June. 

Young, deputy director of ARC since February 1979, had been with NASA 

since 1961 and had worked at LaRC as mission director for the Viking mission 

to Mars and mission-definition manager for the lunar orbiter project. Before 

assignment to ARC, he had headed the Headquarters Office of Space Sciences 

planetary program. (NASA Release 79-164; NASA anno Nov 30/79) 

-NASA announced that John W. Boyd, on detail as deputy director of 

DFRC since January 1, would return January 1, 1980, to his post as associate 

director of ARC. He had begun working at ARC in 1949 as an aeronautical 

engineer, becoming research assistant to the director of ARC in 1966 and 

deputy director for aeronautics and flight systems in 1970, serving in that position until his detail to DFRC. He was named associate director of ARC in July 

1979. (NASA anno Nov 19/79) 

-DFRC announced that Robert P. Johannes would become deputy director of DFRC, effective December 1, replacing John W. Boyd. Formerly with 

the U.S. Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Johannes joined NASA in 

1979 and had been director of engineering at DFRC. (DFRC Release 79-40) 

The Washington Slur reported that MSFC engineer Frank J. Nola had 

received the first Excalibur award for his invention of a device that could cut 

power consumption of electrical appliances by 30 to 60% [see September 111. 

A committee selected Nola from 120 nominees to receive the award, set up 

to honor the contributions of federal workers. (W Star, Nov 30179, D-1) 

88 
NOVEMBER ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The Washington Post reported the death November 17 of Dr. Immanuel 

Velikovsky, 84, Russian-born author and scholar “whose theories of cosmic 

evolution unleashed decades of scientific controversy.” He had come to the 

United States in 1939 and had done the research for his book Worlds in Collision (1950) at Columbia University Library in New York. His ideas in this and 

other books were widely denounced, but evidence gathered later by deep 

space probes appeared to bear out some of his predictions. When Worlds in 

Collision had its 72nd printing in 1974, Velikovsky said he looked forward to 

ultimate vindication: “I have been proven correct too many times,” he added. 

A Washington Star editorial said that, “however farfetched his theories, he arrived at them honestly and stood by them courageously.” (W Post, Nov 19/79, 

B-7; W Star, Nov 21/79, A-8) 

89 

December 

December 3: The ESA reported from its November 29 meeting that British 

Aerospace, chosen as prime contractor for ESA’s Large Satellite, would 

receive a contract for the first part of a study phase. Contracts for payload 

studies would go to Selenia (Italy) for a television broadcast payload and a 

20-30 GHz transponder payload; to BTM (Belgium) for a 20-30 GHz beacon 

payload; to United Kingdoms Marconi Space and Defense Systems for a 

specialized-services payload; and to Marconi with Telespazio (Italy) and 

Philips (Netherlands) for mission studies related to the 20-30 GHz 

transponder. Contractor work would be done by April 1980, with launch 

scheduled for early 1984. 

Objectives of the Large Satellite program were to build a multipurpose 

space platform to match user requirements in telecommunications and to 

demonstrate a service payload that would advance ESA technology, assess 

potential of new satellite services, and promote satellite usage. (ESA Info Bltn 

33) 

ESA reported that Meteosut 1 had put itself into standby mode November 

24, one day after its second anniversary of successful operation in orbit, 

because of an apparent power overload. Attempts to switch it back to full 

operating mode succeeded only briefly. ESA had begun a step-by-step unit 

switching to detect the area of failure and isolate it; the Eault apparently occurred in the electronics that turned off the main power supply in case of 

overload. 

Periodic instability had appeared in this protection unit, but the data collection function was fully operational and Meteosut I was able to collect and 

relay data from meteorological platforms within its field of view. ESA was 

analyzing the problem for possible effect on Meteosut 2, scheduled for launch 

in September 1980. (ESA Info Bltn 34) 

December 4: Rockwell International said that its Autonetics Strategic Systems 

Division would develop an airborne imaging-sensor autoprocessor under a $1 

million contract with the U.S. Air Force Avionics Laboratory covering design, 

fabrication, and testing. The device would automate functions such as target 

recognition and cueing for sensors such as the forward-looking infrared sensor (FLIR) used in tactical fighters for air-to-ground combat. (Rockwell 

Release ESG 19) 

December 5: The Washington Post reported that the Air Force had taken an 

‘‘unusual step” December 4 in formally defending the htt & Whitney ROO 

engine powering the F-15 and F-16 fighter planes. Robert J. Hermann, assistant 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER lmS 

secretary for research, said the U.S. Air Force hlad no plans to use another 

engine because of FlOO problems. Conceding that FlOO engine durability was 

“less than anticipated,” Hermann said F-15 engine-related safety was better 

than that of any Air Force fighter after comparable service. 

On November 21, the head of the USAF Systems Command told the Senate 

Armed Services Committee that “as many as 43” F45s and F-16s would be 

without engines by next summer because of FlOO production delays and other 

problems; at Congress’s insistence, the Pentagon had financed limited work 

on General Electric’s FlOlX engine as a possible adternative. Pratt & Whitney 

and General Electric were competing “hotly” for flight-engine contracts, the 

Washington Post said, and Pratt & Whitney had announced plans to spend $10 

million on expansion of its jet production capabiliiies. (WPost, Dec 5/79, D9) 

December 6: Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., U.S. Air Force chief of staff, told the annual meeting of the Military Operations Research Society that the priority of 

the Space Shuttle program had “shifted to matters of national defense,” the 

Sunta Burbum News Press reported [see October 301. Whatever else the Shuttle does and whatever other purposes it will have, “the priority, the emphasis, 

and the driving momentum now has to be those satellite systems which are 

important to national security,” said Allen, a member of the Joint Chiefs of 

Staff. 

Emphasizing the “change from what had been true a year or so ago,” Allen 

said the change was “apparent and accepted now, and it’s a change which will, 

if there are additional technical difficulties. . . , become more and more 

significant.” The Shuttle, he said, was “quite critical for concerns of national 

defense and for. . .verification of treaties. . .Confidence in the Shuttle and its 

reliability must be sufficiently high for us to place what is a substantial 

amount of the security of the nation on the performance of that system.” (Suntu Barbara News Press, Dec 6/79, 14) 

NASA reported that researchers from JPL and the U.S. Geological Survey 

had carried out measurements using radio noise from distant quasars that indicated rapid increase in southern California’s width. 

Dr. Arthur E. Niell of JPL‘s astronomical radio-interferometric Earthsurvey team reported an increase of 20.3 centimeters (8 inches) over 7 months 

between JPL and NASA’s Goldstone deep-space station about 193 kilometers 

(EO miles) away. At the American Geophysical IJnion meeting in San Francisco, Niell and J.C. Savage of the U.S. Geological Survey described making 

simultaneous recordings at the two radiotelescopes of radio noise from 

quasars and comparing the signals’ time of arrival using extremely precise 

clocks. Changes in distance between the telescopes could be measured with 

accuracies of 5 centimeters (2 inches) or less, and could be important to the 

Survey’s earthquake prediction mission. (NASA Release 79-166) 

92 
DECEMBER lmS ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA reported results of a 22-month government-industry study of possible 

damage to electrical equipment from release of carbon fibers in fires after accidents to civil aircraft. R. R. Heldenfels, LaRC director for structure, told 

a conference at LaRC that public risk from use of carbon fibers on civil aircraft was so small as to be insignificant. 

The President in July 1977 had directed the Office of Science and 

Technology Policy to study potential problems of using carbon-composite 

materials and to provide a plan for federal action if needed. NASA got the 

assignment to assess risks of such use in civil aviation, with support from the 

National Bureau of Standards, some DOD laboratories, and private firms. 

Other federal agencies studying the problem were DOC, DOT, DOE, and 

EPA . 

The perceived risk was that breakdown of composite materials in burning 

would put into the atmosphere short lengths of carbon fiber thought to be 

hazardous to electrical equipment because of their high heat resistance and 

electrical conductivity; their extreme light weight would allow them to float 

for miles before touching electrical equipment, causing short circuits or 

malfunctions. (NASA Release 79-171; LaRC Release 79-85) 

NASA announced that it had selected 33 scientific investigations for 4 

satellite missions scheduled for launch in 1982-1985. The investigations, 23 

from the United States and 10 from 6 other nations, would be in climate and 

upper-atmosphere research. The 23 U.S. investigations represented 11 universities, 1 private organization, and 2 government agencies. Foreign countries 

represented were Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, 

Japan, and the United Kingdom. Each country would fund its own investigations; the cost of the U.S. studies would be about $5 million over the next five 

years, including instruments. Spacecraft used would be the earth radiationbudget satellite, two polar-orbiting NOAA metesats, and Spacelab 3. (NASA 

Release 79-165) 

December U: The Washington Post reported that technicians at Cape 

Canaveral had lost touch with Satcom 3 December 10 after firing a small 

engine at 1:57 p.m. to put it on station over the Pacific. RCA spokesman John 

Williamson said that no one knew what had happened and “there is certainly 

cause for dismay.” Launched December 6, the 1-ton communications satellite 

designed for television and telephone relay was in a temporary elliptical orbit 

at the time of loss. (W Post, Dec W79, A-6) 

-On CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite and Charles Osgood broadcast 

a “Night Before Christmas” parody on the loss of Satcom 3, concluding with, 

“And from somewhere in space comes the seasonal call: Merry Christmas. 

Good night. And you can’t win ‘em all.” (Text, Dec W79) 

-The Washington Post December 12 ran a feature story about cable 

television companies that planned to use Satcom 3 for alternative programming, such as Ted lhrner who wanted a 24-hour news “superstation” (channel 

93 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER lmS 

17 in Atlanta), and two religious networks (“I guess they didn’t pray hard 

enough,” said an RCA spokesman). NASA had charged RCA $19.9 million to 

launch Satcom 3, most of it already paid, but RCA, had insured the spacecraft 

with Lloyds for more than its $50 million market value. (W Post, Dec 12/79, 

c-1) 

JSC said that Columbia, first Shuttle orbiter, would undergo a first major 

simulated-flight all-systems test on or about December 15 at KSC. Astronauts 

and ground-support teams would conduct a 24-hour 5-day critical operations 

test including five launch-and-ascent flight profiles; on-orbit operations; and 

one entry simulation. John W. Young and Robert Crippen, crew members for 

the first flight, would take part in the test along with the backup crew, Joe 

Engle and Richard Truly. First actual launch was scheduled for June 30, 1980. 

(JSC Release 79-73; KSC Release 246-79) 

NASA adjudged the mission of Heao 2 successful. Launched November 13, 

1978, the observatory had made more than 5,000 discrete observations and had 

worked well for more than 11 months, though #design lifetime was only 9 

months. 

On the basis of significant new findings (X-ray detection of more than 60 

known quasars and discovery of more than a dozen previously unknown; the 

absence of hot neutrod stars at the center of histloric supernovas, calling for 

new theories to explain the remnant cores; X-ray emissions far more intense 

than predicted from main-sequence stars) and of “an active and enthusiastic 

guest observer program,” Dr. Thomas Mutch, associate administrator for 

space science, recommended extension of the mission. (NASA MOR 

[postlaunch] S-832-78-02) 

December 12: NASA announced that it would ask scientists to propose experiments for a satellite-measurements program called OPEN (origins of 

plasmas in Earth’s neighborhood) that would attempt for the first time to explain collective behavior of components of the geospace system: the interplanetary medium near Earth, magnetosphere, ionosphere, and upper 

atmosphere. 

Previous programs detected extensive interaction among all geospace components. The new mission would use a minimum of four spacecraft in widely 

different orbits in key regions of space for measurement and remote sensing 

of electromagnetic radiation, fields and particlm, and plasmas (electrified 

matter) and defining the flow of mass, momenhim, and energy through the 

solar wind and electrified environment near Earth. Launched during a year 

in the mid-1980s by the Shuttle, each spacecraft would be capable of significant orbit changes over a four-year lifetime to permit observing a vast volume 

of space. GSFC would manage the project. (NASA Release 79-173) 

94 
DECEMBER 1973 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

December 13: NASA announced that JPL had selected Martin Marietta 

Aerospace and Hughes Aircraft’s Space and Communications Group for 

award of $500,000 contracts for study of an unmanned Venus mapper to fly 

in the mid-1980s. Upon completion of the study in summer 1980, NASA might 

choose one company to develop a Venus-orbiting imaging radar (VOIR) 

spacecraft for a two-month gravity study of the planet followed by a EO-day 

radar mapping sequence, if Congress approved the mission. (NASA Release 

79-176) 

INTELSAT reported that it would turn off Zntelsat 3 F3 this date after 10 

years of service that gave the organization the first truly global telecommunications system. The Inteisat 3 series of nine communications satellites 

was built by TRW Systems Inc., three of them having failed to orbit or 

destroyed at launch; Intelsat 3 F3 was the last of the series in operation. 

Original design life was five years. 

Launched into synchronous orbit in February 1969, the communications 

satellite operated over the Indian Ocean until July 1972, carrying among others 

a worldwide telecast of Prince Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales. It was 

placed on standby in May 1977, and its mechanically despun antenna stalled 

in April 1979, more than 10 years after launch, rendering it inoperable. As it 

had enough fuel remaining to push it 4,000 to 5,000 kilometers further out into 

space, INTELSAT would turn off spacecraft electronic systems and activate 

small propulsion motors to put it where it would need 4 to 5 million years to 

return to its old altitude, drifting at the rate of a meter a year. (INTELSAT 

Release 79-28-I) 

December 14: NASA announced that it had lost contact with Vbyuger 1 late 

December 13 after a maneuver to refine its path to Saturn. Launched in 

September 1977, Voyager I was now 996 million kilometers (660 million 

miles) from Earth, heading for encounter with Saturn in November 1980. The 

maneuver, commanding the spacecraft to turn and fire its thrusters, should 

automatically orient the antenna toward Earth; the maneuver occurred, but the 

alignment was faulty. The agency said it had had previous problems with 

orientation. 

Several hours later on December 13, controllers at JPL acquired a faint intermittent signal confirming that Voyager I had received and executed the initial command signals to switch to the low-gain antenna and put it into a twoway mode. JPL would now try to analyze the difficulty and correct alignment 

without wasting attitude-control gas. (NASA Release 79-180) 

NASA announced that its manned oblique-wing research aircraft would 

make its first flight December 19 at DFRC with pilot Tom McMurtry at the 

controls. The AD-1 (so named for Ames and Dryden centers) would use a 

pivoting wing to reduce noise and fuel consumption. Studies at ARC indicated 

that such planes flying at 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) per hour would use 

95 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1979 

half as much fuel as conventional swept-wing aircraft. Built by Ames Industrial Co., Bohemia, N.Y., the 907-kilogram (2,000-pound) aircraft was 

about 12.2 meters (40 feet) long with a wingspan of 9.7 meters (32 feet), and 

was powered by two small 99.8-kilogram (220-pound) thrust turbojets. (NASA 

Release 79-177; DFRC Release 39-79) 

NASA announced award of a $4.7 million contract to Goodyear Aerospace 

Corp., Akron, Ohio, for fabricating a high-speed image-processing computer 

(called massively parallel processor) to analyze data from future Earthobservation spacecraft. Current computers had to process one at a time the 

thousands of picture elements (pixels) constituting a satellite image, a timeconsuming and expensive procedure. The new computer would use 16,384 

simple interconnected elements to process the pixe.ls simultaneously, 10 to 100 

times faster than now possible and at a greatly rcduced cost. Scheduled for 

delivery to GSFC in 1982, it would process data in the hundreds of images 

received there from NASA’s Earth-resources spacecraft. (NASA Release 

79-181) 

The Whington Star reported on RCA’s plans lo launch within 18 months 

a replacement for the $20 million Satcom 3 that vanished from orbit 

December 10. The company said that it wanted FCC authority to launch a 

spare satellite now being built; a complete search for the missing communications satellite could take several weeks, but so far “contact has not been 

regained.” (W Star, Dec 15/79, C-8) 

December 17: The Washington Star reported thad NASA had reestablished 

radio contact with Voyager 1 speeding toward Saturn after the spacecraft apparently became disoriented December 13 during a commanded course correction and aimed its antenna in the wrong direction. JPL controllers had 

managed to make it “reorient itself and aim its antenna directly at earth.” (W 

Star, Dec 17/79, A-4) 

The press reported that a 14-hour dry-run test of Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia got under way at Cape Canaveral December 16 after a day’s delay for 

routine checks. The orbiter integrated test would check out Columbia’s 

systems using equipment and engineering teams in control centers at the Cape 

and JSC. (NY Ernes, Dec 17/79, D-15; W Star, Dec 17/79, A-2; W Post, Dec 

Dr. Paul MacCready, builder of the lightweighit Gossamer Albatross that 

made the world’s first manpowered flight across the English Channel in June 

this year, saw his creation go on display in Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute, 

the Washington Star reported. MacCready was now planning a solar-powered 

Albatross, the paper said. (W Star, Dec 17/79, A-2) 

17/79, A-28) 

The Washington Post reported that the Soviet llnion had launched an uncrewed Scryuz T, an improved version of its usually crewed Soyuz craft, to join 

96 
DECEMBER 1979 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the Earth-orbiting Sulyut 6 station. Tass said the launch at W30 Moscow time 

December 16 put the Soyuz T into an orbit with 232-kilometer apogee, 

201-kilometer perigee, 88.6-minute period, and 51.6-f8- inclination. Tass 

reported linkup with Sulyut 6 December 19, the station’s 16th docking with 

another spacecraft in its 26-month flight. 

Dr. Konstantin Feohstov said Soyuz T would test a new propulsion unit 

combining former autonomous systems for orientation, orbit correction, and 

docking, and new life-support, flight-control, and descent systems. Other new 

on-board systems included radiocommunications, orientation, movement control, and a computer complex to handle maneuvers, systems control, and 

transmission of processed data. (W Post, Dec 17/79; FBIS, Tass in English, 

Dec 16-19/79) 

December 18: NASA reported successful completion December 17 at NSTL 

in Mississippi of a full-duration 9-minute 10-second run of the Space Shuttle 

main-engine test article, a time longer than that needed to launch an actual 

Shuttle into orbit. This was the first time the whole system was operated for 

full duration. No problems occurred, and MSFC test managers said that all 

goals were achieved. 

The test article consisted of a cluster of three main engines mounted in a 

simulated orbiter aft section, drawing propellants from a flight-type external 

tank. The three engines were throttled back from 100% rated power level to 

90%, 80%, and 70%; engine gimbaling and pulsing were successful. To 

check out two-engine performance, one engine was cut off early as planned, 

and the remaining two were operated at 70% rated power level for the last 5 

seconds of testing. (NASA Release 79-178; MSFC Release 79-133) 

December 19: Continuing flight tests of the orbiter Columbia were halted 

December 18 after two technical failures. Simulated liftoff occurred at 4:30 

p.m. EJYI with backup crew members Joe Engle and Richard Truly in the 

cockpit, but two minutes later they failed to receive signals of the simulated 

separation of the solid-fuel rocket boosters; 8 minutes 50 seconds into the 

flight, they failed to receive a signal showing successful separation of the external tank. (W Star, Dec 19/79, A-4) 

ESA announced that a halt in Ariane’s launch sequence December 15 

resulted from a faulty sensing of operating pressure in one of the four engines 

that inhibited the release command. The engines functioned normally, and liftoff would have proceeded normally except for the erroneous reading. After 

detailed checks of the launcher and launch pad, subject to satisfactory reports, 

ESA said the launch countdown would resume December 22 for launch 

December 23. (ESA Info Bltn 39) 

December 20: The Wshington Post said the empty Soviet spacecraft that linked up December 19 with Sulyut 6 was probably a three-person version of the 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER l!?79 

vehicle the Soviet Union had been launching for 10 years. The Soyuz T (probably for Transport) docked on ground command at one end of the two-part 

space station in the fourth unmanned test of the new configuration (the first 

was Cosmos 869, November-December 1976; the slecond, Cosmos 1001, April 

1978; the third, Cosmos lU74, January, 31-March 1, 1979). The Washington 

Post said the interior of the Soyuz “command craft” probably was changed 

to accommodate three instead of two cosmonauts, making it easier for the 

Soviet Union to use the Sulyut as a permanent orbital station with interchangeable crews, difficult with only two men at a time. (WPost, Dec 20179, 

A-27) 

ESA announced appointment of Erik Quistgaard of Denmark as its director 

general, to succeed Roy Gibson on May 15, 1980. (ESA Info Bltn 40) 

December 21: The Washington Star reported that three U.S.-built Singapore 

air force jets had disappeared simultaneously at noon December 19 during a 

training flight from Clark Air Force Base near Manila, Philippines, toward 

a bombing range 20 miles away. Maurice Baker, Singapore ambassador to the 

Philippines, said “the astonishing thing is that they all disappeared at the same 

time without a trace.” The planes were on the same route flown by four Philippine air force planes when they mysteriously disappeared more than 5 years 

ago. (W Star, Dec 21/79, A-7) 

December 24: ESA announced the successful launch of its Ariane LO1 at 17 

hours, 14 minutes, 38 seconds GMT from Kourou; all three stages functioned 

normally and the fairing was jettisoned as planned. Achieved orbit was close 

to planned orbit. Space center facilities and all downrange stations functioned 

“faultlessly” and permitted continuous tracking of launcher telemetry. (ESA 

Info Bltn 41) 

December 27: NASA said that it would stop acvquiring Goes 3 data after 

February 1980; on July 1 it had shut down the altimeter, primary experiment 

device. DOD would use the C-band transponders to calibrate tracking and 

would monitor and control Goes 3 after March 1, 1980. (NASA MOR 

E-855-75-01 [postlaunch] Dec 27/79) 

During December: The AFSC Newsreview reported completion of the first 

phase of construction at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Shuttle facility. 

Launch complex 6, built in the 1960s for the Ma.nned Orbiting Laboratory 

program, had never been used (the MOL program was canceled in 1969) and 

was available to WSMC as a Shuttle launch site. Phase 1, carried out by 

Morrison-Knudsen, Inc., under a $3.9 million Army Corps of Engineers contract, had moved 680,000 cubic yards of earth and 10,000 cubic yards of rein98 
DECEMBER lmS ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

forced concrete and had dismantled 2,400 tons of steel. (AFSC Newsreview, 

Dec 79, 6) 

A United Airlines newsletter reported the first solar-powered flight of an aircraft: Larry Mauro's Solar Riser, a homemade tailless biplane with about 600 

solar cells in upper-wing panels, generating about 60 pounds of thrust to turn 

a 3-foot fiberglass propeller, enough to carry a 165-pound pilot and 125-pound 

craft aloft. Mauro flew his plane about a mile at a height of 40 feet during 

the annual experimental-aircraft convention in Oshkosh, Wisc. Astronaut Neil 

Armstrong had watched assembly of the craft, now in a Wisconsin museum. 

(UA rept Dec 79) 

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1980 

PRECEQllNG PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED 

January 

January 4: NASA announced that proposals for establishing a space telescope 

institute in the United States were due March 3 at Goddard Space Flight 

Center (GSFC) . The institute, at a sight to be chosen [see November 18, 19791, would be a 

national facility for receiving and evaluating data from the space telescope and 

should be fully operational in the early 1980s. It would be responsible for 

selecting and supporting users of the telescope; science planning and scheduling; routine console operations; and data archiving, calibration, and analysis. 

The winning contractor would staff and operate a science support center at 

GSFC and would staff the institute with personnel and facilities needed to 

house and support principal investigators and general observers. 

The space telescope itself, scheduled for launch in 1983 or 1984, would 

observe about 350 times the volume of space visible from ground-based 

observatories. The data it acquired would go through a tracking and data-relay 

satellite to a control center at GSFC, then to the science institute for processing and analysis. The telescope should remain in orbit until the end of the century, visited at 30-month intervals by astronauts from the Space Shuttle to perform maintenance and replace instrumentation. If needed, the Shuttle could 

return it to Earth at five-year intervals for major repair, which would take 

about 1 year, then could launch it again. 

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) would be project manager for the 

space telescope; GSFC would manage the on-board instrumentation and the 

science institute; the Headquarters Office of Space would have overall responsibility for the program. (NASA Release 80-1) 

Today reported that Rockwell International, prime Space Shuttle contractor, 

had made “key management changes and major organizational 

realignments. . .similar to ones made within the space agency recently.” The 

paper said NASA now hoped to launch the Shuttle in September, two years 

behind schedule. (Eaky, Jan 4/80, EA) 

January 8: NASA announced that, contrary to recently published reports, it 

was not taking reservations for travel on Space Shuttle missions. Recent articles on NASA plans to carry small experimental payloads on the Shuttle had 

mentioned a deposit of $500 to reserve payload space; the reference to a reservation had been taken to imply passenger space. NASA said that it would not 

offer seats on Shuttle flights to paying passengers. (NASA Release 80-2) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1980 

The Washington Star said that Boeing Company had awarded Fairchild Industries, Germantown, Md., a multimillion-dollar contract to build forwardfuselage parts for a new-generation 757 jetliner. The award by Boeing Military 

Aircraft Company as subcontractor for Boeing C’ommercial Aircraft Company was the third given to Fairchild, which received in October a contract 

for fuselage above the wing and in November a contract for leading-edge wing 

slats. The twin-engine 757 would fly in 1982. (W Star, Jan 8/80, B-4) 

-The United States should develop a way to send nuclear wastes into 

outer space, Stanley G. Rosen told an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Francisco. The Whshington Star said Rosen, 

a test manager for the U.S. Air Force Defense Satellite Communications 

system, described the problem of ”extremely toxi’c‘‘ residues from nuclearpower programs around the world. Extraterrestrial disposal of such wastes 

would have a “short-term risk’ during launch and injection, but “zero risk” 

thereafter, he said. (WStur, Jan 8/80, A-5) 

January 9: The New York Ernes reported from Beijing that the United States 

had agreed to sell the People’s Republic of China (PRC) a ground station for 

reception of Landsat Earth-resources data that might have military applications. Defense Secretary Harold Brown, on an eight-day tour, made the announcement after a two-hour meeting with PRC Deputy Prime Minister Deng 

Xiaoping. The PRC sought to buy such a station more than a year ago; Landsat instruments collected data for agriculture, forestry, drought prevention, 

and oil and mineral exploration, and 20 nations (none Communist) had 

already bought Landsat ground stations. 

Brown’s trip, the first by a senior Department of Defense (DOD) official to 

China since the Communists came to power in 1949. originally was for general 

broadening of contacts to inform the United States of Peking defense strategy 

in the post-Mao era. The Carter administration apparently decided last week 

to use the visit to give Moscow the impression of greater cooperation between 

Beijing and Washington, in view of the Soviet thrust into Afghanistan. (NY 

Ernes, Jan 9/80, A9) 

January 10: Johnson Space Center (JSC) announced that it had extended for 

18 months a cost-plus-award-fee contract with Boeing Company for safety, 

reliability, and quality-assurance engineering support. The extension, valued 

at $11,184,430, brought the total value of the JSC: contract with Boeing to 

$36,712,703. The extension would cover current anti future JSC programs for 

space vehicles and for ground-support equipment, facilities, and payloads. 

(JSC Release 80-001) 

Junuary lZ: U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., said in an interview that a current chill in U.S.-USSR relations would accelerate the development of weapons designed to wage war in outer space or knock down USSR 

satellites for spying, navigation, and communications. 

104 
JANUARY 1960 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Allen said that, although he still hoped for an agreement on continued 

noninterference with satellites maintained in space by both the United States 

and the Soviet Union, the U.S. Air Force was experiencing pressure to move 

quickly on antisatellite weapons. He indicated that extra money would go for 

weapons already in the works such as the “flying tomato can” (operating by 

collision with a target) rather than more distant possibilities such as lasers. 

(W Post, Jan 11/80, A-1) 

January 12-14: The newspaper Wen Hui, published in Shanghai, reported that 

the People’s Republic of China was training astronauts for space travel and that 

the forthcoming first issue of a publication called Science Life would contain 

photographs of “pilots in space clothes in a simulated spacecraft, lying on a 

vibration platform or being thrown down from a height of 20 meters in a shock 

test,” as well as in a weightless environment, according to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). 

This was the first time the Chinese press had mentioned training of space 

crews. FBIS said that the new publication would contain an article on space 

food and that the simulations of space life had already been made into a 

documentary film. The Wen Hui article did not say when or if China would 

send someone into space; however, during U.S. Defense Secretary Harold 

Brown’s visit, a deputy chief of staff for PRC armed forces said a manned 

space program was not one of China’s top priorities. FBIS also reported 

publication in a Shanghai paper of pictures of a dog that had returned from 

space; an editorial in that paper called China the third nation to master the 

technology of satellite retrieval. (FBIS, Beijing Xinhuu, Jan 12/80; Hong Kong 

Wen Wei Po, Jan 14/80; W Post, Jan 13/80, 16) 

January 14: Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that Rocketdyne officials had decided that widespread modification of Space Shuttle flightengine welds made with welding rods from a suspect lot would not be 

necessary. Last month the company reported that it might have to straighten 

a large number of welds, but it had now decided to limit the modifications to 

an area of hydrogen line located near the base of the engine nozzles. The 

modified engines would be reinstalled on Orbiter 102 by mid-March, the 

magazine said. (AvWk, Jan 14/80, 21) 

January 15: NASA reported that X-ray data from Heao I, a high-energy 

astronomy observatory launched in August 1977 and terminated in 1979, had 

revealed a superhot superbubble of gas-a gigantic shell about 6,000 light 

years away from Earth and 1,200 light-years in diameter-in the constellation 

Cygnus, the Northern Cross. Dr. Webster Cash, of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at Boulder, and coinvestigator, Dr. Philip Charles of the University of California at Berkeley, 

had analyzed the information from a cosmic X-ray instrument on the obser105 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1980 

vatory that had been devised by Dr. Elihu Boldt of GSFC and Dr. Gordon 

Garmire of CalTech. 

In a speech for delivery to a meeting of the American Astronomical Society 

in San Francisco January 16, Cash explained that parts of the bubble had been 

seen before in brief X-ray glimpses, but no one realized what was being 

observed: one part was thought to be a supernova remnant, another part to 

be hot gas escaping from a galaxy. Because of its size, the bubble was not visible in its entirety until Heao I picked it up in an X-ray sweep. 

Cash said the huge halo was never spotted before because “it flows so 

energetically that it cools through emission of x-rays” instead of more normal 

emissions visible in the optical or infrared regions of the spectrum. A cool 

gas cloud known as the Great Rift of Cygnus, measuring 800 to 1,300 lightyears, could be seen obscuring the Milky Way in Cygnus on a dark night; this 

cloud, containing “enough material to make 5 million stars,” lay beside the 

bubble and served to hide its central area from Earth view. Supernova explosions impacting this cloud over millions of years clould compress and heat its 

interior, forming a shell of superheated hydrogen materials that became the 

superheated bubble visible in X-ray data today. Caslh said that these explosions 

were a major mechanism for making new stars: Earth‘s Sun might have formed at the edge of a similar bubble, he said. (NASA Release 80-3) 

The New York Ernes reported that Apollo ll .astronaut Michael Collins 

would resign effective January 28 as undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institute, an office held since 1976, to become vice president for field operations 

of Vought, Inc., in Washington, D.C. Collins had joined the Smithsonian in 

1971 as director of the National Air and Space Museum. (NY Ernes, Jan 15/80, 

C -16) 

Communications Satellite Corporation (CornSatCorp) announced that it had 

filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a 5% reduction 

of its basic charges to U.S. common carriers for international communications 

satellite services, It claimed frequent price cuts, most recently by 15 % in May 

lmS, since it began commercial service with Early Bird in 1965. (ComSatCorp Release 80-3) 

January ZT A military communications satellite ihred into orbit from Cape 

Canaveral in an Atlas Centaur January 17 had “settled into temporary orbit” 

and was performing superbly, according to U.S. Air Force Col. George 

Breton, mission director. The 4,100-pound Fleet Satellite Communications 

spacecraft originally was scheduled for launch in December 1979. (WPost, Jan 

19/80, A-9) 

NASA announced that it would extend the mission of Heao 2, nicknamed 

Einstein, beyond its projected lifetime of 11 months. Dr. Thomas A. Mutch, 

NASA associate administrator for space science, said Einstein, second of the 

106 
JANUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

three high-energy astronomy observatories, had not only produced significant 

results [see December 11, 19791 but had also lent itself to a guest-investigator 

program that had garnered about 400 proposals from 80 groups in the United 

States and other nations, including Great Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, India, and Japan. 

Hem 1, launched in 1977, had mapped about 1,500 X-ray sources and 

measured for the first time the uniform high-energy X-ray background of 

space. Heao 3, launched in September 1979, was making an all-sky survey of 

cosmic and gamma rays at higher energies and from a higher orbital inclination than the first observatory. (NASA Release 80-6) 

January 18: Langley Research Center (LaRC) announced that it had awarded 

Computer Science Corporation a 3-year contract valued at $3 million for computational analysis and programming support services to basic and applied 

research at LaRC, includmg computer documentation, technical reports, program designs, training courses, and plans for follow-on work. (LaRC Release 

80-3) 

January 21: JSC reported that it would conduct a 30-hour mock mission of 

Space Shuttle Columbia beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday, January 23, running 

through orbital operations to landing. Flight directors and their teams of controllers would monitor system performance, carry out navigation and 

targeting, and watch support-crew adherence to mission timelines. Simulation 

specialists would spring problems on the controllers and on the orbiter crews 

going through routine duties in the Shuttle simulator and another orbiter 

mockup. 

About 500 persons would participate in the “flight,” including prime crew 

John Young and Robert Crippen and backup crew Joe Engle and Dick Truly. 

Flight directors would be Neil Hutchinson for the launch team, Chuck Lewis 

for the orbit team, and Don Puddy for the landing team. This simulation 

would check out operational procedures over an extended period; previous 

simulations had not lasted as long. More 30-hour practice flights would occur 

every six weeks to two months in preparation for the real thing. (JSC Release 

80-003) 

The European Space Agency (ESA) reported that detailed evaluation of 

records from the Ariane’s first test flight December 24, 1979, confirmed that 

it was a complete success. Each of the three powered stages had performed 

better than predicted, and the results would allow integration of the second 

launcher to proceed without change except for a pogo-correction device not 

used on the first flight. The second flight was set for late May or early June 

1980. (ESA Info Bltn 1) 

January 22: NASA announced that, after five years of studying Earth 

resources and environment from an altitude of 920 kilometers (570 miles), 

107 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1980 

Landsat 2 ceased operation when its primary flight-control mechanism failed 

because of wear. A two-month effort to use other on-board devices to keep 

the craft pointed at Earth had failed, and NASA staff had put it into an 

engineering-test mode that would allow further study of the attitude-control 

problem. 

Landsat 2, launched in 1975 with a one-year :lifetime, was second of a 

remote sensing series that could also collect data from beacon platforms in 

remote areas. A major asset of the Landsat system was its repetitive observation, as often as every nine days with two satellites, which would permit immediate detection of short-term changes. Laruhat 1, launched in 1972, was 

retired early in 1978; Landsat 3, launched in March 1978, would continue to 

furnish data to more than 400 U.S. and foreign Earth-resources programs. 

NASA planned to launch a fourth and more advanced Landsat in 1981. (NASA 

Release 80-9) 

JSC reported signing of a letter contract with Martin Marietta Aerospace 

for development and production of an in-orbit tile-repair kit to be used on the 

Space Shuttle. The letter preceded an official award of contract and authorized 

the firm to go ahead with design and development {Of the kit. Estimated value 

of the contract was $2.1 million. (JSC Release 801-004) 

ESA reported from the Villafranca tracking station near Madrid that its international ultraviolet explorer (he) had detected comet Bradfield January 11. 

The comet, named for the Australian amateur astmnomer who discovered it 

in 1979, made its closest approach to Earth January 22 and would be visible 

in the northern hemisphere by the end of January. (ESA Info Bltn 2) 

-ESA noted the second anniversary January 26 of he, now in a synchronous orbit 18,000 miles above the Atlantic, far beyond Earth‘s atmosphere 

and the cloud cover or interference from background light that hinder observations on Earth. The ultraviolet-sensitive television cameras and processors 

supplied by the Science Research Council (SRC) had garnered “a wealth of 

information” both physical and chemical on astronomical objects, because the 

strongest characteristic emissions of many of the most common atoms and 

ions lie in the ultraviolet. 

More than 500 scientists from 20 nations were situdying 12,000 ultraviolet 

spectra of planets, stars, the interstellar medium, and galaxies. ESA said that 

it expected the spacecraft to exceed its design life of three years, which was 

fortunate because observation time requested by astronomers was already 

more than double that available. The sponsoring ,agencies (ESA, SRC, and 

NASA) had decided to keep he operating as long as feasible. (ESA Info Bltn 

4) 

January 24: The Washington Star reported that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had declared the basic design and certification process of 

the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 satisfactory, but hiid fined the manufacturer 

108 
JANUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

$300,000 for poor control of quality during the manufacture of DC-10 enginemounting pylons. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed 

American Airlines maintenance procedures for allegedly cracking one such 

pylon on a DC-10 that failed over Chicago May 25, 1979, causing a crash in 

which 273 persons died. McDonnell Douglas agreed to pay the fine, denied 

any wrongdoing, and said it was accepting the fine “to avoid further expense 

and the disruption of business.” 

After the Chicago crash, Transportation Secretary Neil Goldschmidt asked 

the National Academy of Sciences to investigate procedures used by the FAA 

to certify planes [see December 12, 19791. The academy named a committee 

of its National Research Council (NRC) to handle the investigation. Jack D. 

Howell of the Airline Pilots Association (APA) told investigators that a “protective relationship” between the FAA and the manufacturers had allowed the 

companies to “use their own employees as ‘FAA-designated representatives”’ 

to oversee plane design and production. In discussing the FAA report, FAA 

Administrator Langhorne Bond defended the procedure for certifying planes. 

(W Star, Jan 24/80, A-7) 

January 25: NASA announced the first step to stimulate commercialization 

of space, signing a joint-endeavor agreement with McDonnell Douglas Company on a new technique for materials processing in space. McDonnell and 

a pharmaceutical firm would investigate separating biological materials by 

continuous-flow electrophoresis in space, thought to have high probability of 

producing substances useful against human or animal diseases. These 

substances were not produced in sufficient quantity or purity by ground-based 

facilities. The joint-endeavor concept would make NASA and the private firm 

responsible for specific parts of the effort, with no transfer of funds. (NASA 

Release 80-12) 

January 26: NASA Administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch conducted a press 

briefing on the FY8l budget, assisted by Dr. Alan M. Lovelace, deputy administrator; C. Thomas Newman, deputy comptroller; and Dr. Anthony J. 

Calio, associate administrator for space and terrestrial applications. Warning 

the reporters that the information was “embargoed” until President Carter formally gave his budget address to Congress January 28, Robert J. Shafer, 

NASA deputy director of public affairs, cited the releases on Frosch’s recent 

trip to China as “not embargoed.” Frosch said that, although NASA’s budget 

was increasing at a slower rate (9.8% for research and development [R&D] 

and 11.5 76 for space science), he considered it a “good start” for the decade, 

compared to last year when extra costs of the Space Shuttle had precluded new 

space science program starts. The figures included an extra $300 million requested as a 1980 supplement for Shuttle development expenses, which 

Frosch said were increased by delays last summer that threatened mission 

schedules. 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1980 

NASA's 1981 request included new-start money for the National Oceanic 

Satellite System (NOSS), to be funded jointly with DOD and the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as a gamma-ray 

observatory to explore the most energetic form of radiation known, exploiting 

the discoveries of the small astronomy satellite Sas 2, ESA's Cos B, and the 

first high-energy astronomy observatory Heao 1. Frosch replied to a question 

that NOSS would be the first scientific satellite shared with DOD and said its 

cost would be split among DOD ($13.9 million) and NOAA and NASA, which 

would pay about $6.4 million and $5.8 million, respectively. 

NASA's total budget request was $5,736 billion, including $4,569.5 billion 

for R&D, $120 million for facilities construction, and $1,047 billion for program management. (Briefing text, Jan 26/80; N,4SA Releases 80-7, 80-11, 

80-13; W Star, Jan 28/80, A-7, B-2; Nature, Jan 31/80, 416) 

NASA announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding January 

24 in Beijing with the PRC Academy of Sciences covering China's participation in the Landsat program. Under a January 1979 understanding on cooperation in space technology, the People's Republic of China would buy from U.S. 

industry a Landsat ground station to be installed near Beijing. 

The Landsat memorandum, the first formal agreement on space since normalization of U.S.-PRC relations, provided that the People's Republic of 

China, like other foreign ground-station operators, would make Landsat data 

available to others according to distribution policies of NASA and other U.S. 

agencies. The PRC academy would pay an annual fee of $200,000, starting six 

months after its station began to receive data. Landsat stations already 

operating outside the United States were two in Canada and one each in 

Brazil, Italy, Sweden, and Japan; new stations now receiving data in Australia 

and India would be operational soon, and one was under construction in 

Argentina. (NASA Release 80-14) 

January 28: Rockwell International announced that GSFC had awarded it a 

$6.5 million contract to produce seven more RS-27 engine systems for NASA's 

Delta launch vehicle, to be delivered beginning in October. Each of the liquidfuel systems consisted of a main engine and two vernier engines combining 

to produce about 207,000 pounds of thrust; Rocketdyne-built hardware left 

over from the Saturn program would be used in the new system, reducing 

costs to the taxpayer. Rockwell would static-test the systems at its Santa Susana 

laboratory in California before delivering them to NASA; it had delivered 60 

RS-27 systems since production began in 1973. In the 150-launch history of 

Delta, 101 launches had used the older Rocketdyn'e Thor MB-3 engines; the 

other 49 used the newer, more powerful RS-27s. i(Rockwel1 Release RD-1) 

January 29: Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, appeared before the 

House Committee on Science and Technology to present the agency's budget 

request for 1981. After reviewing events of last year, Frosch said NASA would 

110 
JANUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

need by July 1 the extra $300 million requested as a supplement to stay within 

Shuttle cost estimates and maintain development and production schedules. 

Problem areas had been the Shuttle engines and the thermal protection 

system (TPS); recent tests had given NASA “increased confidence” in the 

main engines, but Frosch said that he was “not completely satisfied” with the 

tiles and their attachment to the Shuttle surface. He said the tiles might not 

be installed and fully tested before the end of summer, so that the first launch 

might not come until the end of 1980. The original date of launch was March 

1979, and the last previous prediction was June of 1980. Frosch said he expected the first flight “between November and the end of March 1981. A year 

from now might be a more realistic date.” (Text, Jan 29/80; NY Zims, Jan 

30/80, A-17) 

January 30: The Wshington Post said the mystery explosion detected by a 

U.S. Vela satellite September 22, 1979, was still a mystery, although additional 

data had come to light since the State Department announced a suspected 

nuclear explosion. 

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had told “a few select committees 

of the House and Senate” that the Union of South Africa was conducting a 

secret naval exercise in the area where Vela saw the explosion. A committee 

aide briefed by the CIA said the explosion might be “a rocket launched from 

one of those South African ships.” On the same night, scientists using the 

world’s largest radiotelescope had seen a ripple in the ionosphere over herto 

Rico a few hours after Vela saw a double flash 4,000 miles away; it had come 

‘‘from the right direction and at the right velocity to have been caused by a 

nuclear explosion near South Africa.” 

Ever since the State Department announcement, the Carter administration 

had tried to discount the possibility of a nuclear explosion, convening a panel 

of scientists who first said Vela saw a freak lightning strike that coincided with 

a meteor burnout, then suggested the sighting was either a malfunction or a 

mistake. However, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory said that &la had 

picked up the “unmistakable” signature of an atomic explosion, a “double 

flash” caused by a fireball blacked out momentarily by a shockwave surrounding the explosion, then showing 99 times more intense as the shockwave 

dissipated. 

The Vela, it turned out, had carried not one but two optical detectors: one 

very sensitive instrument to spot fireballs from small nuclear explosions and 

a less sensitive one in case an atomic blast overloaded the first instrument. 

As both instruments saw the flash September 22, instrument mistake was 

unlikely. Also, the ripple arrived at the Arecibo observatory at the proper time 

to have been the shockwave of an explosion seen by Vela. No radioactive 

debris had appeared in southern-hemisphere rainwater to confirm an atomic 

explosion, but the United States had taken up to three weeks after last year’s 

explosion to sample rainwater in the area. (W Post, Jan 30/80, A-I) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1980 

MSFC announced that NASA had signed a $183,960,000 contract with ESA 

for a second Spacelab to be delivered in 1984. Like the first, the new Spacelab 

would be built by ERN0 of West Germany, prime ESA contractor, with at 

least 26 subcontractors in ESA nations as well as the United States to make 

components and subassemblies. MSFC was responsible for technical support; 

JSC would handle operations; Kennedy Space Center (KSC) would be responsible for integrating Spacelab with the Space Shuttle and for launch. (MSFC 

Release 80-11) 

Presidential science adviser Dr. Frank Press addressed a conference of the 

Department of Agriculture science and education administration at Reston. 

Va., on expanding horizons for agriculture, which he said was of prize importance to the world’s future. On the relationship of agriculture and space, Press 

cited climate and weather research by satellite as a useful guide in future 

policy; he also said a useful tool in immediate decisions would be the new 

AgRISTARS system (agricultural resources inventory surveys through 

aerospace remote sensing), used by five agencies-NASA, Commerce, Interior, and Agency for International Development (AID), plus the Department 

of Agriculture-to obtain early warnings and quantitative estimates of 

worldwide crop conditions. (Text, Jan 30/80) 

January 31: MSFC reported that it had shipped two segments of a Space Shuttle solid-fuel rocket motor, used during 1979 in m,ited vertical ground vibration tests, to Thiokol’s Wasatch division in Utah to be refurbished and loaded 

with propellant for use as a flight motor after being combined with other 

segments shipped earlier in January. (MSFC Release 80P-12) 

Nature reported that the ESA council voted to transfer launch capability to 

the private firm of Ariane-Espace, which would handle production and launch 

of all future ESA satellites. (Nature, Jan 31/80, 422) 

During January: The Washington Post reported the death January 13 of James 

J. Donegan, 63, “a pioneer in space technology” at NASA since 1958. An 

aeronautical engineer specializing in spacecraft tracking, data acquisition, and 

computing techniques at GSFC, Donegan was an original member of the 

ground instruments unit attached to the first Space Task Group (STG) formed 

in 1958 to meet the challenge of Sputnik. He was a designer of the original 

manned spaceflight network and directed GSFC’s manned spaceflight activity 

until 1973, when he became head of a new Operations Support Computing 

Division responsible for computer support to bolh manned and unmanned 

scientific spacecraft. He was operations director for Project Mercury and 

coordinated instantaneous computer services for Gemini and Apollo flights, 

receiving NASA’s exceptional service medal in 1969 for his work on Apollo. 

(W Post, Jan 18/80, C-10) 

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JANUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Aviation Week C? Space Technology reported the death of John A. (Shorty) 

Powers, 57, who joined NASA as a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel to help 

manage the original seven Mercury astronauts and became known as “the 

voice of Mercury control.” Powers, who retired from NASA in 1964, was 

found dead of natural causes January 1 at his home in Phoenix, Ariz. (AvWk, 

Jan 7/80, 21) 

FBIS reported further comment on the joint flight of Soyuz T and Salyut 6, 

predicted to continue “for several months” so that experts could test systems 

and operations before proceeding to build the new spacecraft “in series.” The 

propellant tanks used by the engines for cruise and for docking now formed 

a single system; in the past, overuse of propellant in attitude control meant 

a Soyuz would have to return to Earth even if plenty of propellant was left in 

the cruise engine. This would not be so in the new engine. The on-board computer now carried out duties previously handled by the crew, such as data processing and flight or system control. Also, Soyuz Thad a panel of solar batteries, which previous spacecraft did not have. The commentary said that 

previous Sop spacecraft would continue to be used for the immediate future, 

the present trial flight serving as dress rehearsal for the “many novel technical 

features.” (FBIS, Moscow Wrld Svc in Russian, Jan 8/80) 

February 

February 6: NASA announced that a joint government-industry team would 

design, fabricate, and test a solar-power 20-kilowatt generator for use by small 

communities, industries, farms, military bases, and similar users. Sponsored 

by the Department of Energy (DOE), the project would foster inexpensive 

ways to use solar energy to produce electric power and industrial heat. Under 

a $1.3 million Lewis Research Center (LeRC) contract, AiResearch Manufacturing Company would build the engine, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 

would develop the solar power system including the solar mirror and receiver. 

(NASA Release 80-17) 

Februury 7: NASA reported that it had selected Boeing and General Electric 

for contract negotiations to design, construct, install, and test multimegawatt 

advanced wind-turbine systems, in an LeRC-directed project sponsored by the 

DOE. The turbines, costing $l5-$20 million each, would be used at sites with 

annual mean wind speed of 23 kilometers (14 miles), to be selected by DOE, 

and would supply electricity to conventional local utility systems for use by 

the general public. (NASA Release 80-18) 

February 8: NASA held a press briefing on the solar maximum mission slated 

for launch February 14. Dr. Thomas A. Mutch, associate administrator for 

space science, said that exploration of Earth‘s nearest star was significant both 

scientifically and technologically. Dr. Harold Glaser of NASA’s solar terrestrial division noted that the Sun, dominant energy source for the Earth, was 

a variable star in that its energy output varied in periods running from 10 

minutes to 11 years (the so-called solar cycle) as well as over periods of 

centuries. 

The solar variations causes variations on Earth; for instance, the solar flares 

known to have a periodicity of ll years. In short time periods, a flare is the 

most energetic manifestation of solar changes, with significant effects: Earth 

suffers communications problems along with atmospheric heating and other 

phenomena, and the trillion kilotons spewed into the solar system would affect 

almost all the planets. The focus of the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) 

would be to understand more about solar flares in order to predict their occurrence. The magnetic field of the Sun had also been found to vary with a 

22-year periodicity, strongly correlated with drought in the U.S. western 

plains. 

During the 17th century, solar activity apparently ceased for about 80 years, 

a period called the Maunder Minimum which featured a “mini-Ice Age” 

documented in northern Europe. This seems to have happened more frequent- 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1980 

ly than previously realized. Space research during; the last 20 years had produced these data, Glaser said, including evidence that the Sun might be changing sides, with a corresponding increase of luminosity or incident radiation. 

Also, the Sun appeared to oscillate rather like a fluid, probably because of interior activity whose nature was as yet unknown 

Joseph Purcell of GSFC, standing in for project manager Peter Burr who 

was ill, described the spacecraft and its planned reirieval by the Space Shuttle, 

and the modular design that would allow it to be serviced in orbit if necessary. 

The SMM would be the first NASA satellite designed for retrieval and first 

to include the tracking and data-relay satellite capability; at 5,000 pounds, it 

would also be the heaviest payload launched by a Delta. Purcell explained the 

24-hour computer watch on the SMM, calling it an operation with “very intense man-machine relationships.” 

Kenneth J. Frost, also of GSFC as SMM project scientist, described the 

payload as essentially one experiment to determine the nature of solar flares, 

using seven instruments and a “very detailed :scientific game plan.” Investigators needed a 24-hour watch to evaluate the plan’s progress and to react 

to targets of opportunity on the Sun. For instance, a flare on the Sun’s west 

limb would be observed on Earth and by a series of spacecraft in orbit around 

the Earth, so that the quality and completeness of the observations would “far 

outstrip anything we’ve ever had before.” The SMM spacecraft would have a 

productive lifetime of about two years, Frost said, and the scientific group at 

GSFC would consist of investigators prepared to spend that much time away 

from their home institutions. In response to a question, he pointed out that 

the broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum 110 be investigated by SMM 

could not penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. (Text, Feb 8/80; NASA Release 

80-16) 

The Washington Star quoted Defense Secretary Harold Brown’s statement 

before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that 

NASA’s Space Shuttle program was “critical” to diefense planning. The committee was considering the FY81 budget requests of NASA and DOD. ( WStar, 

Feb 8/80, A-5) 

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) reported that NASA’s Heao I had 

detected “surprisingly intense” X-ray emission from a pair of common Sunlike stars in the constellation Cepheus. The pair formed a tight binary revolving around each other with a period of only six hours, in a rotary motion like 

“the twin blades of an eggbeater.” The gas in the intervening space would be 

stirred violently and the magnetic-field lines twisted, stretched, and torn in 

a furious turbulence, the resulting X-ray emission being “millions of times 

that expected from either star alone.” The Heao I discovery was recently confirmed by the large telescope aboard Heao 2 (Einstein), and other stars of that 

sort would be checked for X-ray emissions; two other binaries had been 

detected as X-ray sources. (NRL Release 3-1-80F) 

116 
FEBRUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

LaRC reported award of a 3-year $4.6 million contract to Sperry Support 

Services for development, operation, and maintenance of flight simulators, including real-time digital programs for solving research problems and for 

aerodynamics and space flight. Sperry would design and operate flight 

simulators and would develop, integrate, and test electronic subsystems to use 

with existing data systems. (LaRC Release 80-9) 

February 11: The Washington Star said that an Aeroflot jetliner carrying Soviet 

Olympic contenders had landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York 

February 10. This was the second time in two weeks that the airline had broken 

its agreement not to land in New York; union ground crews had refused to service Soviet planes as a protest of Soviet incursion into Afghanistan. New York 

airport officials had unloaded Aeroflot passengers’ baggage two weeks 

previously after the State Department intervened; the plane had sat on the 

ground for two days during arguments about servicing it. The February 10 

flight went on after a two-hour delay to Dulles airport in Virginia, where 122 

of the 145 passengers boarded buses for Lake Placid. (W Star, Feb ll/80, A-1) 

February 12: On the basis of photographs from Manner 9 and Viking Orbiter 

2, Dr. Kevin D. Pang and a team of JPL scientists decided that the surface 

of the two small satellites of Mars (Deimos and Phobos) were like those of 

meteorites known as carbonaceous chondrites, strongly suggesting that the 

two originated elsewhere and were captured by the gravity of Mars in a close 

encounter with the planet, the New York Ernes reported. The surfaces differed 

superficially, Phobos marked by long grooves and Deimos with a covering of 

loose material, but reflected light identically. (NY i’ims, Feb 12/80, C-4) 

NASA announced that it would join the California council of the American 

Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company 

(PG&E) in building an Advanced Technology Display House to open in 1982 

at Ames Research Center (ARC), to demonstrate new materials and 

technology from aerospace and energy research. The sponsors signed on 

February 4 this first-of-a-kind partnership agreement under which AIA would 

contribute innovative architectural expertise; PG&E would share its research 

on energy conservation; and NASA in association with the U.S. Department 

of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would translate aerospace 

technology into the “down-to-earth challenge” of home building. 

The design would include self-contained water and sewage-treatment 

systems and energy-saving lighting, plumbing, ventilation, electrical wiring, 

and appliances, with extensive use of solar energy, all managed and monitored 

by a centralized computer. Using advanced systems and materials instead of 

those now available to the building industry, the AIA would design the house 

to allow addition or deletion of components (office space, physical fitness 

areas) and to be dismantled for exhibition across the United States. Wider use 

117 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1980 

of the innovations would lead to economies in mass production and put the 

new ideas within reach of average customers. (ARC anno Feb 12/80) 

February 13: NASA announced that it would maintain an expendable launchvehicle capability at the Eastern Space and Missile Center (ESMC) in Florida 

as a backup to the Space Shuttle during transition to Space Transportation 

System (STS) operation. It would use the standlard Delta launch vehicle, 

capable of putting spacecraft weighing up to 1,100 kilograms (2,400 pounds) 

into orbit. NASA would charge commercial Delta users $22 million per 

launch at the outset. (NASA Release 80-22) 

NASA reported studies by Western Union and U.S. Telephone & Telegraph 

warning of a fivefold increase in satellite video and data traffic by the end of 

the century, By the year 2000, executive telecommunications would be a 

substitute for business travel; 90% of the messages would need real-time (instantaneous) service and only 10% (such as electronic mail delivery) would 

be non-real-time. The demand for telecommunications would saturate 

domestic communications satellite capacity in the 4-6 GHz (C-band) and 11-14 

GHz (Ku-band) frequencies. 

Having decided to resume advanced communications satellite research, 

NASA would work toward opening the frequency bimd at 20 -30 GHz for commercial use in the next two decades. This band had not yet been used in the 

United States. The 20-to 30-GHz (Ka-band) offend a far greater range than 

the C-or Ku-band; capacities of communications satellite systems using it 

would be 50 to 100 times greater than those working in C-band. (NASA 

Release 80-19) 

NASA announced that it had deferred an experiment to use zero gravity in 

studying cloud-physics phenomena, formerly scheduled as a Spacelab payload 

in 1982. Technical problems in transition from ground laboratory to space environment had caused delays and increased design and construction costs of 

the Atmospheric Cloud Physics Laboratory to the point of terminating the GE 

contact. NASA would use the equipment in its :ground-based weather and 

climate research. (NASA Release 80-23) 

NASA said that it would launch seven sounding rockets February 15 and 16 

from the San Marco platform off the coast of Klmya to study a total solar 

eclipse visible in that area but not in North America, recording changes in 

the electrical structure of Earth's middle atmosphere and temperature distribution in the solar corona during an eclipse. Two Astrobee D and three Super 

Arcas rockets would carry payloads from Pennsylvania State University, and 

two Black Brant rockets would carry payloads from the Los Alamos Scientific 

Laboratory in New Mexico. Piggyback on one of the Black Brants would be 

a Johns Hopkins University experiment to measure ultraviolet zodiacal light 

from the solar corona. Instrument packages carried to 330 kilometer 

118 
FEBRUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

(205-mile) altitude would make measurements during parachute descent. 

GSFC would manage the eclipse study with support from Wallops Flight 

Center (WFC) in rocketry, instrumentation, and range support. The mobile 

launch platform in the Indian Ocean was operated by the University of Rome’s 

center for aerospace research. (NASA Release 80-24; WFC Release 80-1) 

February 15: NASA launched at 1057 a.m. February 14 the SMM observatory from Cape Canaveral on a Delta vehicle into a circular orbit 360 miles 

above the equator. The 5,200-pound spacecraft camed instruments to study 

solar flares [see February 81 over a period of 2 years; the 11-year cycle of solar 

activity was entering its most turbulent phase, with flares erupting on the Sun 

once or twice a day and superflares causing atmospheric disturbances on 

Earth once a month. The SMM launch cost the United States $99 million, including $20 million for the Delta. (WPost, Feb W/80, A-7; NASA Release 

80-16) 

NASA reported that a final test firing of the Shuttle solid-fuel booster motor 

February 13 in the Utah desert was successful, and the motor would be ready 

for flight as soon as test-data results were available. Tests of this motor had 

begun in July 1977 with static firing of the first of four prototypes; three more 

development tests followed, the last February 17, 1979. 

A series of test firings of flight-type motors began June 13, 1979, to qualify 

them for manned flight; the test just concluded was the third and final firing 

of that series. Robert E. Lindstrom, manager of the Shuttle projects ofice of 

would perform successfully in flight. After propellant burnout, the boosters 

would separate and plunge into the ocean for retrieval and reuse. 

Two of the solid-fuel boosters were already on the launcher at KSC awaiting 

integration with other components (external tank and the orbiter itself) in 

preparation for the first Shuttle flight later this year. The assembled motor, 

major component of the booster, was more than 35 meters (ll5 feet) long and 

3.5 meters (12 feet) in diameter, largest rocket motor of its type developed for 

space flight and the first built for manned spacecraft; it would generate 3 

million pounds of thrust. (MSFC Release 80-18; NASA Release 80-25) 

MSFC, said completion of the tests meant that the solid-fuel booster motors 

NASA reported a major milestone for a Shuttle main engine February 8, 

with completion of a second series of flight certification tests at the National 

Space Technology Laboratories (NSTL) near Bay St. Louis, Miss. In the two 

series of tests (mostly run for 520 seconds at 100% of rated power level), the 

engine accumulated more than l0,OOO seconds of firing time, equivalent to that 

required for 19 Shuttle flights; in one test, the engine ran at 102% of rated 

power, and in another it ran for 823 seconds to simulate an aborted mission. 

The first series of tests last year began March 27 and ended June 27. (MSFC 

Release 80-19; NASA Release 80-26) 

119 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1980 

February 17: The General Accounting Office (GAO) warned that the United 

States was in danger of losing its space technology lead unless it invested more 

in the new area of space manufacturing. On Earth, gas bubbles rise in a liquid, 

heavy particles and dense metals settle at the bottom of a solution, and heated 

fluids swirl in random and unpredictable directions, all because of gravity. 

The weightlessness of space permits formation of composite materials and 

facilitates both separation and synthesis. 

The NY Ernes reported a GAO statement that the United States should be 

spending two to three times the $20 million in NASA’s current budget, just 

to maintain parity with other nations such as the Soviet Union, Japan, and the 

11 European members of ESA. GAO said that industrialists believed being 

“first to market” with new products would give a firm the best chance of remaining competitive. GAO predicted that by the end of the century orbiting 

factories would be producing new or better metals and alloys, perfect crystals, 

composite materials, glass, semiconductors, and high-purity chemicals, 

medicines, and vaccines that cannot be made on Earth. If the United States 

is to exploit this new field, the GAO said, its goveniment must work out a plan 

with private industry, and both must be prepared for financial risks. (NY 

Ernes, Feb 17/80, 59) 

February 18: ESA announced the inauguration March 6 in Geneva of the Stella 

experiment using the Ors satellite to transmit scientific data at high speeds between high-energy physics laboratories. Participating in the ceremony would 

be Roy Gibson, ESA director general; J.B. Adams, executive director of the 

European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN); L. van Hove, research 

director for CERN; and F. Braun, director geneiral for the European communities commission on internal market and industrial affairs. 

Some 1,600 scientists from ESA member states used CERN’s accelerators 

and high-energy particle detectors for fundamental research into the structure 

of matter. Stella would transmit electronic data at speeds up to 1 megabit (1 

million bits of data) per second from CERN to member-state laboratories at 

Hamburg, Germany; Saclay, France; Didcot, United Kingdom; Pisa, Italy; 

Dublin, Ireland; and Graz, Austria. The speed of transmission would be 

similar to the working speeds of computers in the participating laboratories, 

eliminating the delay of sending magnetic tapes through the mail. (ESA Info 

Bltn 6) 

February 20: Eighteen years after he blasted away from a launch pad at Complex 14, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to become the first American to 

orbit the Earth, Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) returned to dedicate a marble 

memorial of his flight and those of Mercury astronauts Scott Carpenter, 

Walter Schirra, and Gordon Cooper, donated in 1978 by the American Monument Association but held back for dedication until gantries at the site were 

removed and sold for scrap. 

The Washington Star said the site was now desolate, “surrounded by palmet120 
FEBRUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

tos and visited only by an occasional alligator or rattlesnake.” About 600 persons at the ceremony heard Glenn describe the new U.S. goal of routine and 

economical access to space with the Space Shuttle. (W Star, Feb 2Y80, A-2; 

T&y, Feb. 12/84 1OA; NASA Actv, May 80, 19) 

NASA reported that Dr. Cyril Ponnampema, director of the University 

of Maryland laboratory of chemical evolution, and his researchers had recently discovered amino acids (basic building blocks of life) in Antarctic 

meteorites presented by NASA. The Antarctic program began three years ago 

as a cooperative venture of NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) 

to collect meteorites under extremely clean conditions like those under which 

Apollo astronauts obtained lunar samples, so free of contamination that they 

could offer evidence of any organic history before they impacted Earth. The 

agency had given the team Antarctic meteorite and lunar surface samples, as 

well as data obtained by deep-space probes on atmospheres of other planets. 

The laboratory examined the lunar and meteor samples for evidence of 

organic material and tried to create molecules similar to those present in Earth 

and the planetary atmospheres before life began. 

Using gas-chromatograph techniques to identify right-and left-handed 

molecules of amino acids (the direction in which a beam of polarized light 

sent through a solution of the material would turn), the team had obtained 

strong evidence of both right- and left-handed amino acids in the Antarctic 

meteorites. Since all Earth life forms contain only left-handed molecules, the 

preorganic matter in the meteorites had to be formed somewhere else. The 

meteorites used by the team were about 4.5 billion years old; the oldest Earth 

material identified so far was 3.7 billion years old, and some of it contained 

evidence of organic matter. “The processes we postulated as taking place on 

the earth before life began seem to have taken place somewhere else also,” 

Ponnamperuma said. “What this implies is that all those events which led to 

life may be common in the universe, so what we said happened on the earth 

may be happening somewhere else.” (NASA Release 80-21) 

The Washington Star reported on a campaign to raise $1 million for a Viking 

fund to collect and preserve data from Mars. The Viking landers “sitting on 

the red sands of Mars and sending back information” could keep doing so for 

the next 10 years, the story said, but NASA had decided that no life existed 

on Mars and stopped listening to the Viking transmissions. Among those supporting the fundraising campaign was Ben Bova, editor of Omni magazine, 

who said “the only people who have lost interest in space are here in 

Washington.” NASA had not officially endorsed the effort, but “at least one 

spokesman” said the agency would be delighted to accept the contribution. (W 

Star, Feb 20/80, C-1) 

Febmry 21: Radio Corporation of America (RCA) said it would lease capacity on an American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) satellite to make up for 

121 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1980 

its own satellite that disappeared after launch [see ]December 11, 19791. Eleven 

cable television companies that were to use the lost satellite could now begin 

sending programs to cable systems as early as April 1. Loss of RCA Satcom 

3 had threatened the cable television industry; twenty channels were in use 

on one RCA satellite, and eleven more had been scheduled for the lost 

satellite. Under the arrangement with AT&T, RCA would pay $70,000 a month 

for each channel which it would then lease at $4O,OOO a month; an l8-month 

lease would lose RCA about $5.9 million including expenses. (W Star, Feb 

2V80, C-9) 

February 22: NASA reported that the SMM launch February 14 was successful, the orbit close to prediction and no functional problems in spacecraft 

or experiment systems. The only anomaly during early orbits was inability to 

compute roll reference positions, a figure needed to conduct slew maneuvers. 

The cause was incorrect axis translation by ground processing of star-tracker 

output; the program was modified and all systems were now performing 

within specifications. (NASA MOR S-826-80-01 [postlaunch] Feb 22/80) 

FBIS reported launch of Japan’s second communications satellite CS-B from 

Tanegashima Island at 5:35 p.m. local time. CS-B would replace Ayame (Iris), 

whose signal was lost when it collided with its apogee motor 12 seconds after 

ignition February 5, 1979. Ayame 2 would reach sta.tionary orbit over northern 

New Guinea by March 10: First stationary comsat designed to use millimeterwave transmissions in communications experiments, Ayume 2 was 1.4 meters 

long and 1.6 meters tall, weighed about 130 kilograms, and cost 6 billion yen; 

it would be Japan’s fifth stationary satellite. 

[FBIS reported February 25 that, 8 seconds after firing an apogee motor 

to put the spacecraft into a circular orbit, Japan’s National Space Development 

Agency lost radio contact with Ayame 2 also. With 30 billion yen spent to build 

and launch the two experimental comsats, the siuccessive failures were “a 

shock to the agency and the Science and Technology Agency.” Japan’s tracking 

stations continued to send radio signals in an effort to restore contact, officials 

said, but the two failures would cast a shadow on future satellite-launching 

plans.] (FBIS, Tokyo Kyodo in English, Feb 22, 25/80) 

Today newspaper said NASA Associate Administrator John Yardley had 

“acknowledged for the first time” that NASA engineers were so concerned 

with the Shuttle tiles guarding against heat of reentry that they “virtually ignored whether the tiles would remain stuck to the spaceship.” Yardley said at 

a briefing that tiles still headed the list of Shuttle: problems; he said NASA 

was studying alternative heat protection systems using technology unavailable 

10 years ago. He added that “NASA and Rockwell both have to take a share” 

of blame for not testing the insulating system sooner. NASA originally 

estimated the cost of each custom-built tile covering the Shuttle at $500 for 

fabrication and installation; Yardley said that the tiles would now cost three 
FEBRUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

to four times that much. The actual price tag for the Shuttle was now about 

$8.7 billion; the cost projected in 1971 was $5.2 billion. (Today, Feb 22/80, 

18-A) 

February 25: The Washington Star reported that the Space Environment Services Center at Boulder, Colo., was predicting an ll-year peak in sunspots; 

solar outbursts in coming months could raise magnetic storms on Earth, foul 

up radio communications, and cause computers to go haywire. Gary 

Heckman, head of the center, said solar flares might have set off a civildefense circuit in Canada that automatically put radio stations in an alert 

mode. The upcoming flare peak might be the second most active since the 

record of 1957. (W Star, Feb 25/80, A-9) 

February 26: A United Press International (UPI) report from Moscow said the 

Soviet Union had unveiled its 350-passenger airbus with a timesaving baggage 

compartment where riders would load and unload their own luggage. The Ilyushin 86, 20 feet wide and 193 feet long, carried 70 more passengers than 

the A-300 French/German airbus; it had maximum range of 3,000 miles and 

a cruising speed of 600 mph. It had been test-flown to the Black Sea area and 

to Tashkent and would begin regular service June 1 to Sochi, a resort area; 

the new plane would eventually absorb a fifth of USSR domestic passenger 

service, officials said, especially on peak Black Sea routes. The prototype 

flew in 1976, and fulltime construction began in 1977. 

The new baggage-handling feature had a short ladder by which boarding 

passengers could reach a lower compartment with bins numbered to match 

their seats. After putting their luggage in the proper bin, they would climb to 

the passenger sections on an upper deck. Officials said the system tested in 

a mockup could load or unload all 350 passengers within 20 to 25 minutes. 

(Western aviation experts said the 11-86 was a’ gas-guzzler, its four “fuelinefficient” engines capable of generating only 28,000 pounds of thrust compared with 45,000 pounds for western widebody planes.) (UPIIW Star, Feb 

280, C-11) 

The Washington Star reported that cable television operators awaiting a 

replacement for the lost RCA Satcom 3 had found that they would need big 

new dish receivers for signals from the Comstar satellite RCA planned to 

lease. (W Star, Feb 27/80, C-3) 

February 28: ARC said that it would close the Pioneer project office effective 

February 29 after 16 years of sending spacecraft to various planets and to orbits around the Sun. The Space Missions Branch at ARC would handle the 

seven Pioneers still in interplanetary space: numbers 6 through 9 had formed 

a network of solar weather stations around the Sun, and Pioneer 10 and 

Pioneer Saturn was both headed out of the solar system after flights to Jupiter 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1980 

and Saturn. Pioneer Venus was in orbit about that planet photographing cloud 

circulation and sending back the first detailed maps of Venus’s surface. 

ARC director C.A. Syvertson in a staff memo said that [project manager] 

“Charles Hall and all who have participated in the program deserve our congratulations and a hearty well done.” When NASA Headquarters recently 

presented a number of NASA medals and other recognition to Pioneer individuals and teams, Hall received NASA’s distinguished service medal, its 

highest award, before his retirement after 30 yea.rs with the agency. (ARC 

Release 80-4) 

The International Telecommunications Satellite ,Organization (INTELSAT) 

reported that it had boolungs for 260 hours of international satellite television 

when the winter Olympic games opened at Lake Placid, N.Y.; a tally after the 

games showed that 448 hours had been used, nearly double the original demand. Countries receiving direct broadcasts of the games included the United 

Kingdom, France, West Germany, Yugoslavia, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and 

Venezuela; these would have relayed many of the telecasts to a large number 

of other nations through Earth networks, INTELSAT said. (INTELSAT 

Release 80-02-1) 

February 29: MSFC said that a second full-duration test of the Shuttle mainengine system February 28 was successful, and all objectives were met during 

the 555-second firing. For the first time, the three engines in the system were 

steered while being throttled back from 100% thrust, and the oxygen tank was 

allowed to run dry. (MSFC Release 80-27; NASA Release 80-31) 

NASA announced selection of General Electric and TRW Systems, Inc., to 

negotiate contracts for $500,000 six-month design studies of the gamma-ray 

observatory mission. One of the contractors would be chosen to build and 

operate the satellite under a follow-on contract after Congress approved the 

mission. 

If approved, the observatory would carry five large gamma-ray instruments 

into space to observe gamma-ray sources and obtain fundamentally new information about stars, the galaxy, and the universe. It would be a Shuttle payload 

in the mid-1980s designed for retrieval after a i:wo-year mission lifetime; 

GSFC would manage the project. (NASA Release 80-30) 

During February: Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb, 59, the “legendary 

aerodynamicist” inventor of the area rule and the supercritical wing, retired 

February 29 after 37 years of service with NASA. Graduated in 1943 with 

honors in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Whitcomb said an article in Fortune magazine impelled him to apply for a job at 

NACA’s Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. His “brilliant career” 

there included three landmark ideas, all radical deipartures from conventional 

124 
FEBRUARY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

aerodynamic theory, all developed in Langley wind tunnels, and all 

successful, 

His honors included the Collier Trophy for applying his “area rule” to 

design of supersonic aircraft, and the U.S. Air Force exceptional service 

medal (highest civilian award) in 1954; NACA’s first distinguished service 

medal in 1956; NASA’s medal for exceptional scientific achievement and the 

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautic’s Sylvanus Albert Reed 

award, 1969; the National Medal of Science, highest honorary scientific award 

of the U.S. government, 1973; in 1974, the National Aeronautic Association’s 

Wright Brothers memorial trophy, the AIAA aircraft design award, and a 

$25,000 cash award (largest ever given by NASA to an individual) for invention of the supercritical wing; in 1978, the National Business Aircraft Association award. (NASA Release 74-148, 80-38) 

NASA announced that Dr. William C. Schneider, associate administrator for 

space tracking and data systems, would retire from federal service February 

29. He joined the Gemini program in 1963 after two years at International 

Telephone and Telegraph’s (ITT) federal Laboratories as director of space 

systems, having also worked for the U.S. Navy and for NACA. He received 

NASA’s exceptional service medal for his work as mission director for 7 of 

10 Gemini missions. From July 1967 to December 1968 he directed Apollo 

missions beginning with Apollo 4 and won NASA‘s distinguished service 

medal for the success of Apollo 8, first manned flight around the moon. He 

directed the Skylab program from December 1968 to July 1974, and with the 

three Skylab crews received the Collier Trophy in 1973. He would become a 

vice president of Computer Sciences Corporation. (NASA anno, Feb 22/80; 

NASA Release 80-27) 

LaRC announced that four of its top managers left NASA February 29. They 

were deputy director Oran W. Nicks; associate director Dr. John E. Duberg; 

Richard R. Heldenfels, director for structures; and James E. Stitt, director for 

electronics. The latter three, who began their federal service in the 1940s with 

NACA (Dr. Duberg in 1943, Heldenfels and Stitt in 1947), would retire. 

Nicks, who since 1970 had been deputy director at LaRC, began at NASA 

Headquarters 1960 working on unmanned programs; he would become executive director of the research foundation at Texas A&M University. (LaRC 

Release 80-14) 

The Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) Newsreview reported that Air 

Force Secretary Dr. Hans M. Mark proposed establishment of a consolidated 

space operations center near Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, combining 

two major mission elements of the U.S. Air Force: satellite control and direction of future DOD Shuttle operations. The Colorado location, prime candidate out of 13 potential sites, would offer proximity to the North American 

Air Defense Command (NORAD) complex at Cheyenne Mountain; it would 

125 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1980 

employ about 300 military, 100 U.S. Air Force civilian, and 1,400 contractor 

employees. (AFSC Newsreview, Feb/80, 1) 

FBIS reported the 11-18 airliner that carried a group of Soviet journalists and 

researchers to check the possibility of regular air service through Africa and 

the Middle East to the Antarctic, had returned safely to Moscow after 

establishing the flying time for the new route as 2;' hours. Previously, the trip 

home by sea had taken 1 month. (FBIS, Moscow Wrld Svc, Feb 23/80) 

126 
March 

March 3: NASA reported award of contracts to Martin Marietta and Aerojet 

worth $750,000 and $350,000, respectively, for a liquid-propellant boost 

module to increase the cargo-carrying capacity of the Shuttle’s external tank. 

The goal would be to provide additional thrust by adapting portions of the 

Titan, still used by the U.S. Air Force as its heaviest intercontinental ballistic 

missile. The companies, which had been building the Titan and its engines for 

the U.S. Air Force, were considered the logical choice for adapting the 

booster to the Shuttle. The studies, managed by MSFC would be completed 

by the end of September 1980. (NASA Released 80-32; MSFC Released 

80-28) 

LaRC, manager of the Scout program, announced that NASA had awarded 

Hampton Technical Center (a division of Kentron International, Inc., of 

Dallas) a $2.2 million.contract modification calling for ten Algol lllA Scout 

rocket motors by March 31, 1981. Prime contractor for Scout was formerly 

Vought Corporation, also of Dallas; the modification was made with the same 

parent firm, Ling Temco Vought. Name changes and other corporate restructurings would streamline the work done for NASA, with estimated savings of 

about $1 million to be gained by contracting with a subsidiary already 

qualified to build and load the motors. To be qualified, a firm must have fired 

two or three launch vehicles, a process costing about $1 million. Scout, 

NASA’s smallest vehicle, was a four-stage solid-propellant rocket that had 

launched payloads for NASA, DOD, and several foreign countries. (LaRC 

Release 80-15) 

FBIS carried a Reuters dispatch quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing that 

the People’s Republic of China had launched a CCS-3 limited-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) February 9 from Jilin province in northeast 

China to an impact area in the far western Xinjiang region, a 2530-mile flight 

across a largely unpopulated, mainly desert region. The People’s Republic had 

conducted at least six missile tests in 1979 over distances much shorter than 

the February 9 test. Other sources said the Chinese were working on a fullscale ICBM with a range that would bring the United States, western Europe, 

and all of the Soviet Union within striking distance. Test of such a missile 

would need an ocean-impact area such as the southern Indian Ocean, but no 

such firings had occurred. (FBIS, Reuters in English, Mar 3/80) 

March 5: Newspapers reported a consent agreement in a suit by Ted Turner’s 

Cable News Network (CNN) against RCA, for space on Sutcom 1 to replace 

I27 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1980 

that lost when Satcom 3 disappeared, whereby CNN would use a Satcorn 1 

channel for six months and would drop a demand for $35 million in damages. 

RCA had said its clients could use transponders on the Cornstar 02 leased by 

AT&T from Comsat General; however? cable operators whose antennas 

received Satcom signals would need additional expensive ground receivers to 

get signals from Comstar. Turner’s CNN clients around the United States 

could now continue to receive the 24-hour all-news service for six months 

without the additional expense. The lawsuit would continue in Atlanta’s U.S. 

district court. (W Star, Mar 5/80, C-5;W Post, Mar 7/80, C-10) 

March 6: Press reports said NASA faced a $760 million (14%) cut in its FBI 

funding as President Carter announced a $20 billion cut in the entire federal 

budget. The Washington Post said Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, 

had protested the size of the cut to the Office oii‘ Management and Budget. 

The White House had originally asked NASA to suggest reductions of $630 

million. Defense/Space Business Daily said the cuts would eliminate two new 

NASA starts in FY81, the gamma-ray observatory and the national oceanic 

satellite system, as well as the Galileo mission to Jupiter. On March 5 the 

House subcommittee on space science and applications had unanimously 

passed NASA’s $300 million FY80 supplemental request for Shuttledevelopment funds; subcommittee chairman Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.) said 

NASA should share the FY81 cuts, but 18% was too high. (DISBD, Mar 6/80. 

25; W Post, Mar 7/80, A-2) 

ESA announced it would undertake a new scientific project called Hipparcos, an astrometric satellite to measure positions, proper motions, and 

parallaxes of celestial bodies and define the position and displacement velocity 

of about 100,000 stars. The data would help solve fundamental problems in 

astronomy. The 376-kilogram advanced-design satellite with a 2.5-year 

lifetime would be launched into a geostationary orbit by Ariane in mid-1986. 

(ESA Info Bltn 7) 

March 7: Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) reported that test pilot John 

Make had made test flights in the Gossamer Albatross, part of a joint DFRCLaRC program using the humanpowered vehicle to collect data on large 

lightweight craft. Manke’s first flights were human powered, as he pedaled a 

bicycle-like arrangement to turn the propeller; for later flights, under the 

direction of veteran Albatross pilot Bryan Allen who had flown it over the 

English Channel, he used small battery-powered samarium cobalt motors providing about 0.7 horsepower. 

Manke reached an altitude of 15 to 20 feet, mote than he “ felt comfortable 

with,” and reported that the Albatross was nothin: like anything he had flown 

before, requiring concentration to keep it going straight. Short flights did not 

require an extra amount of legpower to keep it gorng, but longer flights would 

be “an exercise in exercise.” (FRC X-Press, Mar 7/80, 3) 

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MARCH 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine reported the launch March 3 

of a DOD ocean surveillance system from Vandenberg Air Force Base on an 

Atlas F into a 1,115-kilometer by 1,053-kilometer (715 by 654 mile) orbit with 

107.1-minute period, and 63.5 inclination. The report said that, on the basis 

of earlier tests, the system would use three spacecraft carried into orbit on a 

mother satellite and dispersed into parallel orbits with latitude as well as 

time/distance separation. (Earlier clusters developed by the NRL under codename Whitecloud were launched April 30, 1976, and December 8, 1977, into 

orbits having parameters nearly identical to those of last week’s launch.) 

The feasibility of using multiple satellites to eavesdrop on and direction-find 

USSR ships and submarines was first demonstrated by three NRL spacecraft 

launched December 14, 1971, and dispersed into separate orbits. The 1976 and 

1977 missions that preceded the March 3 launch incorporated a 107-minute orbital period to allow about 1,666 miles between successive cluster passes. 

From a 700-mile altitude the spacecraft could receive signals from surface 

vessels more than 2,000 miles away, offering overlapping coverage on successive passes. Similarity of displacement distances perpendicular to the orbital planes of the 1976 and 1977 clusters indicated the use of interferometry 

to pinpoint the location of Soviet vessels. Deployment of the active satellites 

by the carrier normally occurred over a period of days; late last week, 

NORAD was still logging the mission as a single spacecraft. (Avwk, Mar 

10/80, 18) 

-Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals had upheld a FCC authorization of January 1977 that allowed Satellite 

Business Systems (SBS) to own and operate a specialized all-digital domestic 

communications satellite system. AT&T, Western Union, AmSatCorp, and the 

U.S. Justice Department had appealed the FCC ruling. SBS had proceeded to 

develop the system, its first satellite scheduled for launch in October 1980. 

(Avwk, Mar 10/80, 22) 

March 12: MSFC reported that a major reclamation effort had recovered 

thousands of dollars worth of critical or valuable materials from center 

laboratories. Used for electrical contracts, or for plating to protect against corrosion, were gold, silver, platinum, iridium, osmium, rhodium, and 

ruthenium; other substances not necessarily “precious” but consisting of 

strategic materials were aluminum oxide, beryllium, cadmium, cobalt, 

chromite, industrial diamond, ruby and sapphire bearings, and other rarities. 

DOD and the General Services Administration operated a government-wide 

program to conserve such materials, recover them where feasible, and transfer 

them to a defense stockpile. 

Before recycling materials at the center, MSFC property managers had to 

decide whether recovery was possible or profitable: for instance, some center 

groups had been “banking” silver recovered from X-ray films and developing 

solution. The photo lab and documentation repository had contributed much 

because of the amounts of film used; the medical center also turned in silver 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1980 

recovered from X-ray film developing as well as :scrap X-ray film. Materials 

from MSFC were sent to a federal “bank” in NI:~ Jersey for recovery and 

credit to NASA’s account. Last year MSFC recovered and shipped to the bank 

324 troy ounces of silver-bearing photoprocessing residue and 2,400 pounds 

of scrap film; assuming 90% recovery from the residue and 2%-by-weight 

recovery from scrap, MSFC’s yield would be worth $30,000 at current prices. 

(MSFC Release 80-34) 

The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) announced that it would award 

the Collier Trophy, oldest U.S. aviation award, to :Dr. Paul MacCready for his 

Gossamer Condor (first vehicle to make control1e:d sustained humanpowered 

flight) and Gossamer Albatross (first humanpower(-d aircraft to fly the English 

Channel). The NAA said the Albatross flight might result in more practical 

applications than Bleriot’s first engine-powered crossing in 1909. (NAA 

Release Mar 12/80) 

ESA announced that its member nations participating in the Spacelab program had voted to fund it under a new scale that would ensure completion of 

the project by providing 120 to 140% of previously agreed amounts. West Germany would contribute 64.4%; France, 12.07%; the United Kingdom, 7.6%, 

and seven other countries, the remainder. (ESA Info Bltn 8) 

March 13: INTELSAT said that it would reduce by 20% its charges for communications satellite capacity leased to nations for domestic use. The board 

of governors decided to charge $800,000 (U.S.) per year per transponder; the 

previous fee had been $1 million. Fifteen nations were currently leasing 

capacity on INTELSAT spacecraft for their own domestic use. (INTELSAT 

Release 80-03-1) 

March 14: MSFC reported successful completion March 13 of the first fullpower test (10% of rated power level) of the Space Shuttle main engine. The 

test consisted of a 125-second run on a single engine, 10 seconds at 109%; a 

total of 26 seconds ran above normal rated power. This major step toward certification of the engine for full-power abort capability envisioned possible 

malfunction of a single engine, requiring thrust in excess of rated power from 

the other two engines to ensure achievement of orbit or return for safe landing. 

Rockwell International, prime Shuttle contractor, conducted the tests at NSTL 

in Mississippi. (MSFC Release 80-36; NASA Release 80-36) 

NASA announced the first use of a major new llight-simulation facility for 

Shuttle support. The vertical-motion simulator at ARC would start next week 

evaluating the effect of an adaptive gain device to be attached to orbiter controls because of oscillation experienced during approach and landing tests 

conducted at DFRC in 1977. (NASA Release 80-34) 

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MARCH 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

March 18: NASA reported that it and NSF had found a promising new 

meteorite source in the Antarctic, two fields known as Recking Peak and 

Elephant moraines, three or four times as large as the Allen Hills area covered 

by meteorite hunters during the past four years-also “more promising. . .and 

more dangerous,” said curator John Annexstad, one of the discoverers. 

The finds had been handled like the lunar samples brought to Earth by 

Apollo astronauts; the unusual preservation aspects of the ice shelf kept the 

meteorites as they had been when entering Earth atmosphere hundreds of 

thousands of years ago, providing evidence of organic history predating their 

arrival on Earth. The search for meteorites on the ice shelf had begun with 

the Japanese, who found large amounts in the Yamato mountains of Queen 

Maud Land. Dr. William Cassady, University of Pittsburgh, theorized a 

transport system explaining the Antarctic icefield concentrations, and several 

seasons of hunting tended to confirm the theory. The total of Antarctic 

meteorites found topped 1,600, many of them rare or unique types. (NASA 

Release 80-28) 

The Washington Post reported that Dr. Robert A. Frosch had approved a 

NASA regulation covering the situation “when a barroom brawl breaks out 

in space.” The rule would permit a Shuttle commander to “use any reasonable 

and necessary means, including physical force,” to maintain order on board. 

The police power would include authority to arrest a person in space and 

charge him or her with a crime punishable by a $5,000 fine, a year in prison, 

or both. 

Eugene Cernan, veteran of two trips to the Moon and one in Earth orbit, 

commented that “I never felt the need for a written regulation or the need for 

brute force to get things done.” NASA‘s lawyers said that times had changed: 

the Shuttle would carry seven people compared to the three on Apollo and two 

on Gemini; up to four could be civilians, not professional astronauts, and up 

to three of them could be foreigners unfamiliar with NASA procedures. 

NASA General Counsel Neil Hosenball said NASA “had to establish a 

chain of command with all those people on board.” Legal precedents were two 

assault cases where people were out of touch with the rest of the world: one 

occurred on a plane flying from Puerto Rico to New York, the other on an 

ice floe carrying civilian scientists in the Arctic. In 1956 two Puerto Ricans 

on their way to New York were toasting each other in rum while the plane 

was over the Atlantic; a fist fight ensued that drew most of the passengers to 

the rear of the plane to watch. The plane became tail-heavy the pilot interfered; and was bitten in the shoulder. A New York court released the accused, ruling that it was without jurisdiction over a plane in flight above the 

ocean. When one of a team of technicians doing research on an ice island off 

Alaska attacked three others before one of them killed him, a court of appeals 

in Alaska ruled that it had no jurisdiction in a crime committed on an island 

floating through the Arctic Ocean. (W Post, Mar 18/80, A-8; Nature, Mar 

27/80, 296) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1980 

March 20: MSFC reported successful firing of three Space Shuttle main 

engines mounted in a test article for 535 seconds in the eighth test of the main 

propulsion system. A similar firing for 555 seconds occurred 3 weeks ago. 

In the latest test, engineers for the first time gimbaled the engines while including a “pogo” effect (a phenomenon of cyclic pressures in the propellant 

system that had occurred in earlier launch vehicles) to demonstrate the engine 

accumulator’s ability to prevent pogo during flight. Another successful first 

was the simulation of failure in thrust-vector control to see whether redundant 

systems would perform properly. The test had been planned for early morning 

so that engineers could observe ice and frost conditions on the external tank 

when it was filled with supercold propellants during nighttime hours, in the 

absence of heat from the Sun. Rockwell International’s space systems group 

conducted the main propulsion-system testing for. MSFC at NSTL. (MSFC 

Release 80-41) 

JSC described a simulated Shuttle mission ending in a return-to-launch-site 

abort, as one of a series run in the Shuttle avionics integration laboratory 

(SAIL) in preparation for launch later this year. The SAIL resembled a fullsize orbiter stripped of its skin, with wires and connectors bared, configured 

with the same flight-qualifiable hardware and electrical systems being used on 

the real orbiter at KSC. SAIL employees would run test sequences on a 

24-hour basis to check’out the complex Shuttle avionics system; a typical test 

would begin with a nominal phase (all systems operating normally), then 

engineers would inject failures to see if the flight system could cope. The 

Shuttle dynamic simulator would feed equations [or aerodynamics, environment, and motion of the orbiter, solid-fuel rocket booster, and external tank 

into the test system. More than 300 mock missions would fly in the JSC lab 

before the projected November launch. (JSC Rekase 80-016) 

JSC reported that the third group of 20 astronaut applicants from the 3,122 

received in the fall of 1979 would report March 24 for interviews and physical 

exams. This group included 9 pilot and 11 mission-specialist applicants; 5 of 

them were women. (JSC Release 80-017) 

NASA noted the 20th anniversary of the first research of the X-15 rocket 

plane that opened up the realm of hypersonic flight and contributed 

significantly to the U.S. space program. The X-15 made 199 flights in a joint 

NASA-U.S. Air Force-Navy research program between 1960 and 1968, during 

which it set the standing records for altitude and speed of winged aircraft: 

altitude of 1,796 kilometers (354,200 feet, morc than 67 miles), and on 

another flight 7,274 kilometers per hour (4,520 miles per hour), or 6.7 times 

the speed of sound. X-15 pilots included Scott Crossfield, the first; astronaut 

Joe Engle; and Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon. 

In 1954, at the beginning of the X-15 program, hypersonic flight had many 

132 
MARCH 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

unknowns: effects of weightlessness, high heat rates, steep reentry angles, attitude control in space-questions that only actual flight could answer. The 

program would also explore capabilities and limitations of a human pilot in 

an aerospace vehicle; analysis of the first 44 flights showed that 13 would have 

failed without a human pilot. Positive result of the program was the finding 

that human capabilities of sensing, judging, coping with the unexpected, and 

using a variety of acquired skills remained undiminished in all key problems 

of aerospace flight. A significant X-15 contribution to the space program was 

to demonstrate that simulators could be used for crew training: no X-15s had 

two seats, so the pilots had to train in simulators. Success of this method led 

to all-out use of simulators for the space program. Total cost of the program, 

including construction of three X-15 aircraft, was about $300 million. (NASA 

Release 80-37; NASA Actv, May 80, 8) 

March 24: The White House issued a statement on President Carter’s presenting the Goddard Trophy of the National Space Club to NASA’s Voyager team, 

for the “outstanding achievement in advanced spaceflight programs contributing to American leadership in space.” NASA Administrator Dr. Robert 

A. Frosch would accept the trophy on behalf of the Voyager team for its successful planetary mission to Jupiter. The award was established in 1958 to 

honor Dr. Robert Goddard (1882-1945), considered the father of modern 

rocketry; receipts in previous years included Wernher von Braun, John Glenn, 

the Apollo 11 crew, the Skylab astronauts, and the Viking project team. (WH 

Anno, Mar 24/80) 

Defense Daily reported that DOD’s plans to let civilian aircraft and ships 

use its NavStar global-positioning systems to obtain navigation signals with 

200-meter accuracy had met with difficulty. Tests showed that the “coarse” 

signal, considered insufficiently accurate to be militarily useful, was much 

more accurate than DOD thought. DOD was studying techniques to deny use 

of the “precise” NavStar signal to others and to degrade coarse-signal accuracy that “could provide improved capabilities to an adversary.” (D/SBD, 

Mar 24/80, 119) 

Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that NASA scientists and 

engineers were “concerned that political maneuvering, as opposed to 

thoughtful planning, was playing too strong a part” in FY8l budget cuts affecting NASA science and applications programs. 

Delay in bringing NASA’s program before a House appropriations subcommittee scheduled to meet March 25 could force the agency off the hearing 

schedule for weeks, further endangering approval of the $300 million Space 

Shuttle supplemental for FY80. NASA and congressional observers feared administration efforts to delay announcement of federal program cuts until after 

primary elections set for the coming week. (AvWk, Mar 24/80, 21) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1980 

FBIS carried a Tass report that Soyuz T separated from Salyut 6, which was 

continuing to fly “in the automatic regime” after ‘completing a joint program. 

More trials of new Soyuz systems -- power unit, orientation and positioncontrol systems, and computer complex-would proceed during further flight 

of that spacecraft. Tass reported later that Soyuz Tmade a soft landing March 

26 to end a 100-day flight. (FBIS, Tass in English, Mar 24, 26/80) 

March 27: The Washington Post reported that Ihe House Armed Services 

Committee had voted $50 million to expand production of Fairchild Industries, A-10 plane from a one-seat to a two-seal configuration. The aircraft 

was originally designed to accommodate two cockpits. Fairchild said DOD 

would save $10.5 million a year in fuel costs because it would not need a second plane to follow the first in training flights. Besides the added seat, the 

new model had the capability of flying in bad whether and at night. The company tested the two-seater for five months in 1YJ9 and turned over the prototype to Eglin Air Force Base for testing; the U.S. Air Force had completed 

its tests and was assessing results. (W Posr, Mar 27/80, B-1) 

March 28: NRL announced that one of its scientists, James C. Ritter, had 

received a patent on a radioisotope photoelectric generator to produce energy 

for spacecraft on missions to distant planets that would last for years without 

dependence on thermal heat or solar radiation. The generator, built like a 

storage battery, used low-energy photons from a radioactive source interacting 

with high atomic number material to eject pholtoelectrons. (NRL Release 

80-3-8OC) 

March 31: Aviation Week C? Space Technology said that cuts in NASA’s FY81 

budget would delay the international solar polar mission to 1985, although 

$135 million in contracts had already been awarded in the United States and 

Europe. Delay would force “major restructurj ng of the contracts’’$80 

million to TRW for the U.S. spacecraft and $55.8 million to Dornier as prime 

contractor for the European spacecraft-and wou Id give ESA additional problems with its budget, although NASA expressed hope last week that ESA 

would remain a part of the project. A split mission with the U.S. and European 

spacecraft on separate launches would increase costs substantially. 

Aviation Week & Space Technology said that NASA was “unable to discuss 

this situation before Congress last week” because of an administration embargo on new budget projections. Although NASA could testify on the Space 

Shuttle need for a $300 million FY80 supplemeintal appropriation, the embargo had forced the House appropriations subcommittee to cancel two days 

of NASA hearings on FY81 space science and applications. NASA Administrator Robert A. Frosch said that, unless the supplement was passed, 

contractors would lay off up to 20,000 skilled workers, and the overall cost 

of the Shuttle program could increase by $600 to $900 million. The combined 

134 
MARCH 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTrCS 

impact on NASA and DOD could go as high as $1.1 billion, according to subcommittee members. (Avwk, Mar 31/80, 27) 

Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPC) had applied to the FCC for authority to build 

a domestic communications satellite system starting with two satellites in orbit 

and a third maintained as a spare. Capacity of the system would exceed that 

of any other domestic system now in orbit or in construction; each proposed 

satellite would have twice the capacity of the largest communications satellite 

now in domestic service (AT&T's Comsat or RCA's Satcom) and a voice or 

digital-data capacity 60 % higher than Western Union's Westar. 

SPC predicted that the demand for transponders would triple between 1980 

and 1985 and said that no existing or planned system would be adequate to 

provide SPC with the capacity it would need by mid-decade. It had petitioned 

earlier to deny requests of RCA for orbit slots at 132 OW and 83 "w, of Western 

Union for 83 "w, and Hughes for 79 OW and 75 OW. Given authority to orbits 

its satellites at 132" and 83 W, with assignment of a third slot at mow, the 

company said it would provide service to all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the 

Virgin Islands. It would also build a control center in Maryland and launch 

its communications satellite in 1982-1983. (AvWk, Mar 31/80) 

135 

April 

April 1: MSFC reported the first sustained operation of the Space Shuttle main 

engine at full power level, 109% of rated power for 6 minutes, in static firing 

tests March 31 at NSTL. The engine ran for 10 minutes, 10 seconds, reaching 

the objectives attempted in an aborted run the previous week. (MSFC Release 

80-47; NASA Release 80-42) 

NASA reported that LaRC would manage a nine-month $900,000 design 

study of alternative thermal protection for the Shuttle orbiter, aimed at reducing costs and determining whether the present system was the best now 

available. The ceramic covering originally chosen in the early 1970s was the 

best then available; no study of alternative systems had taken place since. The 

study would center on technological advances in reusable surface-insulating 

materials such as metallic or reinforced carbons; coping with various loading 

conditions as well as handling, inspection, and maintenance; and deficiencies 

in present technology needing further research. (NASA Release 80-40) 

JSC reported that the Gossamer Albatross, a human powered aircraft that 

crossed the English Channel last June, would appear on display at JSC’s 

Building 9A during April as part of a nationwide tour. NASA had just completed a month of tests on a sister ship at DFRC to study its unique 

aerodynamic traits, especially its low-speed flight at low Reynolds numbers. 

The test flights used various power sources (motor power, cycle power, and 

towing) to demonstrate the craft’s maneuverability and to define performance 

under varying conditions. (JSC Release 80-020) 

MSFC announced the award to BDM Corporation, McLean, Va., of a 

$699,864 contract for engineering support of a Tennessee Valley Authority 

(TVA) coal-gasification plant, first large-scale commercial operation of this 

type in the United States. Besides helping to ensure efficient operation, MSFC 

would work with TVA to define advanced technology that could be applied in 

areas where NASA had some expertise, such as materials, combustion 

dynamics, instrumentation, and control. (MSFC Release 80-49) 

April 4: ARC said that it would test for the first time the ability of males aged 

55 to 65 to withstand the physiological stress of weightlessness. Previous 

studies had tested males and females aged 35 to 45 and 45 to 55. Women aged 

55 to 65 would be tested later in 1980 to complete the baseline data for use 

in establishing medical criteria for space flight. 

For the first briefing early in February, 46 volunteers reported and 20 were 

chosen for orientation March 24. The preliminary orientation and testing 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1980 

would give researchers a chance to see how the subjects performed and allowed the subjects to decide whether they wanted to participate in the entire test. 

Two sets of four subjects would be selected: four would begin 9 days of controlled observation April 10 at ARC’S human research facility, followed by 10 

days of bed rest and 5 days of recovery and tests of the cardiovascular system. 

Another group of four would begin the same series April 13. Dr. Harold 

Sandler, ARC project scientist, would supervise the tests. (ARC Release 80-7; 

NASA Release 80-43) 

April 6: NOAA reported that it would submit to OEAB by midyear a transition 

plan for NOAA to assume responsibility for opera1:ing a Landsat-type system 

to be launched in the late 1980s. Based on technology derived from NASA’s 

experimental Landsat program, the system would provide essential data from 

space for use in food production, mineral exploration, Earth resources inventory, management of rangeland, forests, and water rlzsources, and environmental protection. 

NOAA had operated meteorological satellites for 14 years, developing the 

ability to process, disseminate, and archive “enonous qualities” of satcllitegenerated data for users who need it for decision making. NOAA would also 

have to determine not only the data requirements o.F various sectors of society 

but also how quickly the information was needed and in what format. NOAA 

would hold a series of regional meetings with users of satellite data to develop 

a system meeting their needs. (NOAA Release 80-48) 

April 7 NASA reported a further development in its ongoing work with the 

St. Regis Paper Company in New York: an arrangement under which the initiating company would share the cost of satellite data gathering, but the 

technology developed would be available to all other timber companies. In 

1977 St. Regis had begun a test program with NASA to see if Landsat data 

could improve the company’s data base on forest lands; it wanted to use the 

information to plan timber harvesting, leasing and buying new timber lands, 

and monitoring more than 2.3 million acres across the southern United States 

[see Add77 Oct 251. The success of the project led to the authorization by 

St. Regis Southern Timberland Division in Florida of more than $300,000 new 

capital investment for an information system using Landsat data to support its 

general operations. 

St. Regis was the first private company to participate in NASA’s test program on resource-observation applications. The program began a unique relationship between NASA and the private sector, because St. Regis (not NASA) 

initiated the project and the company shared in the cost. NASA said that the 

entire forest industry would gain by the venture because technology from the 

St. Regis experiment would be in the public domain, available to other firms. 

NASA and St. Regis planned to conduct a symposium in 1981 to demonstrate 

Landsat data interpretation to timber industry management. The program was 

138 
APRIL 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

managed by JSC and hrdue University’s Laboratory for Applications of 

Remote Sensing, as well as by St. Regis. (NASA Release 80-44) 

INTELSAT announced that its “assembly of parties” in Florida last week 

had agreed to technical and economic coordination of the proposed Arabsat 

communications satellite system, as Arabsat would lack significant economic 

impact on, and would be technically compatible with, the INTELSAT system. 

It would be the third regional system coordinated with INTELSAT; others 

were the European and Indonesian systems. (INTELSAT Release 80-06-1) 

April 9: The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 35 [see During April; Appendix 

‘41. 

Aerospace Daily carried a chart showing Carter administration cuts in 

federal R&D funding for FY80 and FY81. The DOD would absorb 21% of all 

cuts but would retain 46.6% of the remaining federal R&D funds. NASA 

would take 20.8% of the cuts and get 15.4% of the revised total. The cuts 

would have a bigger impact at NASA (3.9% of the agency’s budget) than at 

DOD (1.3%), the report pointed out. (AID, Apr 9/80, 222) 

INTELSAT announced that it had awarded Ohio State University a $150,000 

contract for a rain measurement study that might improve satellite transmission quality in regions with heavy rain. Satellite signals above the 10-GHz frequency would be weakened when sent through rain; the study would help INTELSAT determine how much extra power a satellite would need to compensate for rain effects. Having two stations a few miles apart in heavy-rainfall 

areas would permit use of the station with better weather during stormy times. 

The study would send radar signals into rainclouds and measure the return 

signal to find the rain’s effect on signal strength. (INTELSAT Release 80-07-1) 

April 14: NASA reported that it was studying options for restructuring the 

Landsat D project because of persistent engineering and management problems in manufacturing the spacecraft instruments and ground systems. 

Fourth and most advanced of NASA’s experimental Earth-resources monitoring spacecraft, Landsat D was designed to carry an advanced scanner called 

a thematic mapper, to provide Earth images in more spectral bands and with 

twice the resolution (30 meters) of earlier Landsats. Hughes Aircraft problems with the mapper resulted in increased cost estimates and delivery 

delays. Mission-system contractor General Electric was also having problems 

and had projected schedule delays that would increase costs of both the flight 

system and the ground system it was building for Landsat D. Both sets of problems would effect Landsat D’s launch schedule, increasing the risk of a gap 

in data for present users. Landsat 3, launched in March 1978, was still 

operating but had had problems with its sensor, a multispectral scanner that 

collected data for conversion to images of Earth‘s natural resources. 

139 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1980 

NASA was considering three possibilities: launch Landsat D as soon as 

possible with a thematic mapper and a multispectral scanner like that carried 

on Landsat 3; launch Landsat D as soon as possible with only a multispectral 

scanner, following as soon as possible with another Landsat carrying the 

thematic mapper and a multispectral scanner; or launch Landsat D with Landsat D Prime (the backup) each carrying only a inultispectral scanner. The 

decision weighing budget constraints against providing an ongoing Landsat 

data capability should take weeks, NASA said, including consultations with 

NOAA, which President Carter had designated to manage a follow-on remotesensing satellite system. (NASA Release 80-46) 

JSC announced the award of a $63,640,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to 

Canadian Commercial Corporation, Hull, Quebec, for production of three 

remote-manipulator systems for the Shuttle. The system, a 50-foot jointed 

arm, would be operable from inside the crew compartment to deploy or 

retrieve payloads in space. Under a 1975 agreement between NASA and 

Canada’s National Research Council, Canada would develop the first flight 

unit of the remote manipulator and provide it free to NASA; NASA would buy 

additional systems from Canada as necessary. (JSC Release 80-023; NASA 

Release 80-47) 

April 15: NASA reported successful testing April 14 of a Space Shuttle main 

engine at 109% of rated power for six minutes, in the second such test in two 

weeks conducted by Rockwell International at NSTL. The 10-minute, 

10-second test met all objectives; NASA said that it planned at least one more 

firing in this series on this engine, which had accumulated 183 minutes of firing time in two series of preliminary flight-certification tests. (NASA Release 

80-49; MSFC Release 80-55) 

MSFC said several companies had proposed definition studies to 

demonstrate performance of a large space antenna in low Earth orbit. Wide 

use of such a system could revolutionize satellite communications and radar 

and radiometry. Large space antennas might solve problems preventing expansion of satellite communications, Earth-resources survey, weather research, 

and other services. Dozens of small satellites, each with its own antennas, 

were now providing such services, but their growing number had crowded the 

transmission frequencies and filled up the orbital slots. The MSFC study 

would define the structure of a large antenna as well as packaging, transportation, and orbital deployment. (MSFC Release 80-54; NASA Release 80-48) 

INTELSAT announced that Niger on April 14 had become the 103rd nation 

to join the organization. Niger was already linked to the INTELSAT system 

through a ground station at Niamey that operated with an Intelsat TV-A satellite 

over the Indian Ocean. (INTELSAT Release 80-08-1) 

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APRIL 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

April 16: NASA reported shutdown of a planned 10-minute test of the Shuttle 

main-engine cluster after about six seconds; probable cause was overheating 

in a high-pressure fuel turbopump of engine no. 2 of the three-engine cluster. 

Test stand and engines were apparently undamaged. Had all gone well, each 

engine would have shut down at a different time: engine no. 1 was scheduled 

to fire for 8 minutes (480 seconds), no. 2 (which shut down after 4.71 seconds) 

for 565 seconds, and no. 3 for 591 seconds. Evaluation of test data was under 

way at NSTL to find the cause of the overheating. (NASA Release 80-50) 

April 17: The Washington Post reported that a U.S. Air Force estimate of the 

cost of building a West Coast launch pad for the Shuttle was $82 million short. 

Less than 3 years ago, the estimate was $118 million for a Vandenberg Air 

Force Base pad to launch polar-orbiting (as opposed to equatorial-orbiting) 

satellites. Military satellites used a polar orbit to cover the globe as it rotates; 

spacecraft could not use the Florida facility for launches into polar orbit 

because of the danger of coming down on land in case of a mishap. First phase 

of the Vandenberg program (excavation of the area where the launch pad 

would be built) was complete, the U.S. Air Force said, but bids for the second 

phase ranged from $103.9 to $112 million instead of the $79.6 million U.S. Air 

Force had estimated. Bidders said inflation caused the higher bids, especially 

the price of assembled electrical equipment and copper cable. U.S. Air Force 

could ask permission of Congress to reprogram funds from other construction 

projects to the Vandenberg construction. (W Post, Apr 17/80, A-14) 

April 18: LaRC said that NASA had awarded three major U.S. manufacturers 

contracts for 14.5-month studies of advanced supersonic transport aircraft. 

Boeing Company, Lockheed California, and McDonnell Douglas, each 

received a $1.15 million contract to work in the same discipline, but each on 

its own concept. Boeing’s was a 270-passenger delta-wing, cruise speed Mach 

2.4; Douglas’s was an arrow-wing carrying 225-500 passengers, cruise speed 

Mach 2.2; Lockheed’s was an arrow-wing carrying 290 passengers, cruise 

speed Mach 2.5. 

Each firm would broaden its research in aerodynamics, lightweight titanium 

and composite-material structures, and variable-cycle engines for subsonic 

and supersonic operation. Past studies by these contractors on reducing fuel 

consumption and noise and on economic considerations needed updating. 

LaRC would manage the work at the contractors’ facilities. (LaRC Release 

80-29; NASA Release 80-51) 

WFC awarded a $1.239 million fixed-price noncompetitive contract to 

Automation Industries, lnc., a Vitro subsidiary, for a mobile C-band instrumentation radar system to replace an existing MPS-19 radar, updating 

WFC’s tracking capabilities. (WFC Release 80-3) 

141 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1980 

LaRC said that it would close the Environmenial-Quality Projects Office 

(EQPO) set up in 1972 to lead NASA’s programs in that area and would turn 

over future work to the Office of Space and Terresirial Applications at NASA 

Headquarters. LaRC was chosen for its experience in remote-sensing research 

and in developing advanced instrumentation. 0thi:r centers worked on particular problems: JSC, Earth-resources study; GSFC, meteorological 

research; and ARC, aircraft flight problems. EQF’O head John Mugler said 

LaRC’s leadership had helped that center build a growing atmosphere and 

water-quality program. (LaRC Release 80-28) 

April 19: The New York Ernes and Aerospace Ddy said the Soviet Union 

tested a “killer satellite” in space, ending a two-year gap in testing antisatellite 

weapons. (A killer satellite is an orbiting vehicle: designed to wreck other 

satellites by hitting them in direct collision or exploding nearby, or by directing a force such as a laser beam against them. j Cosmos 1174, launched from 

Tyuratam April 18, apparently neared its target (Cosmos 1121, launched from 

Plesetsk April 3) on its first orbit and exploded. Sources said the test was a 

failure. 

The Soviet Union first tested an antisatellite weapon (ASAT) in 1963 and 

apparently was successful in destroying targets at altitudes up to 150 miles. 

The Soviet tests aroused concern because of U.S. d’ependence on satellites for 

a number of military uses: reconnaissance, communications, and early warning of attack. Though many U.S. satellites orbit 20,000 miles or more from 

Earth’s surface, many systems for reconnaissance and electronic intelligence 

might be vulnerable. In 1978 Defense Secretary Harold Brown announced that 

the Soviet Union had an operational ASAT capability; after launching a killer 

satellite in May of that year, it had suspended tests when talks began on controlling such weapons. U.S. sources said Moscow stopped the tests as proof 

of its interest in a treaty to limit strategic bombers ;and missiles. A treaty was 

signed, but President Carter asked the U.S. Senate earlier this year to hold 

off action because of Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Talks on limiting 

ASATs was also suspended. 

A U.S. antisatellite system in preparation but not expected before 1982- the 

Vought miniature homing craft carrying a heat-seeking guidance unit-was a 

small rocket for launch from high-altitude aircraft. The DOD was also working on a laser-powered system for possible deployment in the 1990s. With talks 

on limiting ASATs now suspended, and the outlook for arms control increasingly bleak, officials said the Soviet Union might have decided to revive its 

space weapons program. Any agreement in the mar future was said to be 

unlikely. (NY Ernes, Apr 19/80, 28; A/D, Apr 21/80, 280) 

April 21: NASA reported “highly successful’’ completion of a third static test 

on a Space Shuttle main engine at NSTL April 19, last of a series simulating 

power levels necessary to abort at full power in a Shuttle launch. Previous 

tests were on March 31 and April 14. The engine used (2004) was fired for 

142 
APRIL 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

10 minutes, 10 seconds with 6 minutes at the 109% power level; this engine 

had a total firing time of 12,911 seconds (3.58 hours), equivalent to about 25 

Shuttle flights. It would now undergo preliminary flight certification tests, 13 

static firings at 102% of rated power level. (NASA Release 80-55; MSFC 

Release 80-58) 

April 22: Aerospace Daily reported that malfunction of a portable life-support 

system caused a flash fire April 18 at JSC in which Robert Mayfield (employed 

by the contractor, Hamilton Standard Division, United Technologies) was 

hospitalized with second-degree burns. The system included two tanks of oxygen pressurized at 3,000 pounds per square inch. The fire started during a 

performance test when a regulator was switched to the extravehicular activity 

mode. Extensive damage occurred to a test spacesuit and the life-support 

system as well as the cleanroom at JSC’s crew systems laboratory. Mayfield 

was reported in stable condition April 20. JSC had appointed a board to investigate the accident. (A/D, Apr 22/80, 289) 

-Aerospace Daily reported an Aerospace Corporation study for the U.S. 

Air Force on the risk that a large active satellite might collide with debris from 

inactive satellites or launchers. Probability of collision for a large satellite on 

a 1,000-day mission in low orbit (500 to 1,500 kilometers up) was high 

because of the great concentration of debris at those altitudes. As the objects 

were moving in different directions, velocity for any satellite would be at a 

maximum. Collision in synchronous orbit was less likely to the extent that the 

objects were all moving in the same direction; however, debris in those orbits 

tended to collect at certain points because of Earths gravity. (A/D, Apr 22/80, 

294) 

The Washington Star said that the FCC would call for restructuring of ComSatCorp to differentiate between its regulated and its competitive activities. 

ComSatCorp, now sole U.S. representative in two global satellite communications systems, would have to put all its competitive operations, including 

research and development, into a separate subsidiary. 

Restructuring would answer complaints that ComSatCorp, a congressional 

creation, could use its unique monopoly status in global communications 

systems to is advantage in highly competitive ventures it is considering. With 

two other major companies, it was starting a long-distance telephone system 

to compete with AT&T; it also had considered a satellite-to-home subscription 

television service to compete with the three major television networks [see 

April 81. 

ComSatCorp already had a subsidiary, Comsat General, that handled its 

competitive activities; the FCC said that a sharper separation was necessary 

between the two: Comsat Laboratories and other research and development, 

for instance, should be put into the subsidiary to avoid the possibility of cross 

subsidies. A newly purchased environmental monitoring firm, Environmental 

Research & Technologies Inc., would have to be in the subsidiary, FCC said. 

143 
ASTROKAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1980 

The parent company would include only those activities relating to INTELSAT and INMARSAT (International Maritime Satellite Organization), international systems in which ComSatCorp acts as US. representative. ( WStur, 

Apr 22/80, C-6; WPost, Apr 23/80, B-1; ComSatCorp Releases 80-22, 80-23, 

80-24, 80-25) 

April 23: NASA announced award of a $70,a72 mill ion contract to McDonnell 

Douglas for Delta expendable launch vehicle services. The company would 

continue for 2 years the launch services work it had done for the past 18 years, 

including mission-peculiar vehicle changes, checkout, and launch. KSC 

would supervise the work at ESMC and Vandeniberg Air Force Base for 

GSFC, which had overall Delta management responsibility. (NASA Release 

80-53) 

April 24: The Department of Commerce (DOC) reported that more than 700 

representatives of business firms, trade associations, educational institutions, 

and state and local government agencies had responded to NOAA’s request for 

assistance in developing a national civil operational land remotc-sensing 

satellite system. 

At March meetings in Seattle, Chicago, Tallahass-e, Washington, D.C., and 

Albuquerque, NOAA satellite managers received many suggestions for using 

such a system in food production, mineral exploration, land-use planning, 

resource assessment and management, and environmental protection. Wilbur 

H. Eskite, Jr., of NOAA’s task force, who chaired i:he meetings, said that interest in an operational system offering a continuity of data within specific 

timeframes was “larger than we had believed” before the meetings [see April 

Questions raised at the meetings that would require policy decisions included what instruments to carry into orbit, their capabilities, how quickly and 

in what form users should receive the data, and whether education and 

government agencies should pay the same fees for data as profit-making companies. The White House made NOAA responsible last November for moving 

to an operational program of satellite remote sensing. (NOAA Release 80-55) 

61. 

April 25: NASA announced selection of 26 scientific investigations for possible inclusion on upper-atmosphere research missioiis in the late 1980s. Congress had not approved the program, but early solicitation of participants and 

experiments would allow prompt start when approved. U.S. researchers had 

suggested 23 of the investigations, the United Kingdom, 2, and France, 1. The 

chosen ideas, selected from 75 proposals, included 16 experimental and 10 

theoretical investigations. U.S. investigators were from 8 universities, 6 

government laboratories, and two private organizations. Cost to the United 

States of the initial study phase would be about $5 million over two years. 

(NASA Release 80-56) 
APRIL 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The last of six science workshops sponsored by NASA's exobiology program 

on the origin of life was at Rockefeller University April 25. An extensive 

report on the series would be available before the end of 1980. A press conference with workshop cochairman Professors Philip Morrison (MIT) and 

Melvin Calvin (UCB) and workshop host Dr. Joshua Lederberg, president of 

Rockefeller University, was followed by a public symposium with lectures and 

presentation of findings by Lederberg. (NASA Actv Rpt, May 5/80, 2) 

April 29: NASA reported that France and West Germany signed an intergovernmental agreement today for joint development of a direct-broadcast 

television satellite to be launched on Ariane late in 1983. The two nations 

would split the cost of the initial three-satellite system, estimated at $250-$300 

million. The sponsors said major return on the investment would come from 

sales of 15 to 20 such television satellite systems over the next 10 years to third 

parties such as Scandinavia's Nordsat, Radio Luxembourg's Luxsat, and People's Republic of China. ESA would continue definition work on LSat, a 

parallel television-satellite effort without French and German participation. 

(NASA Actv Rpt, May 1/80) 

Aerospace Daily reported that the Soviet Union today launched Cosmos 

1176, possibly the first nuclear-powered ocean-surveillance satellite since 

radioactive fragments of Cosmos 954 crashed into Canada in January 1978. 

Orbit parameters were 265-kilometer apogee, 260-kilometer perigee, 

89.6-minute period, and 65" inclination. Until the 1978 incident, the Soviet 

Union had routinely used radar-carrying satellites powered by nuclear sources 

traveling in pairs in similar orbits to detect ships; at end of mission, the 

nuclear source would be propelled into higher orbit to decay in outer space, 

but Cosmos 954 had malfunctioned. (A/D, Apr 30180, 338) 

April 30: The Washington Post reported that AT&T would launch and operate 

its own satellites for use with its domestic satellite communications system. 

The firm filed with the FCC a plan to launch three satellites-one each in 

1983, 1984, and 1986-to replace three Comsat satellites it had been leasing 

from Comsat General Corporation (a subsidiary of ComSatCorp). It would 

use its satellites to provide long-distance telephone service and specialized 

business services for 10 years in the continental United States, Alaska, 

Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each satellite would be able 

to handle up to 21,600 simultaneous telephone conversations. (W Post, Apr 

30/80, B-4) 

During April: NASA announced appointment of Robert E. Smylie, deputy 

director of GSFC since December 1976 and acting director from June 1979 to 

February 1980, as Headquarters associate administrator for space tracking and 

data systems. He had joined NASA in 1962 at JSC, where he worked in 

various positions until assigned to Headquarters in 1973 as deputy associate 

145 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1980 

administrator for aeronautics and space technology. He was previously 

employed by Douglas Aircraft Company. (NASA anno Apr 2/80; NASA 

Release 80-41) 

The AFSC Newsreview reported on tests in Arnold Engineering Development Center wind tunnels of insulating materials for NASA to use on the Shuttle’s external tanks. One or more of these materials would cover the tanks carrying cryogenic propellants for the orbiter’s main (engines, to protect against 

liquid-hydrogen temperatures of -420 OF and liquid-oxygen temperatures of 

-295”F, and to prevent ice buildup on the tanks before launch. 

Although insulation would minimize the icing problem, NASA’s concern 

was that at launch chunks of material might break off where it protected attachment brackets. Lumps the size of a sugar cube could damage the 

thousands of fragile heat-shield tiles designed to protect the orbiter from 

overheating. Tests showed that the material would not fragment if streamlined 

shapes were used ahead of the brackets. (AFSC Newsreview, Apr 80, 7) 

The Washington Star reported that the Americm Newspaper Publishers 

Association (ANPA) approved a proposed system 01‘ satellite communications 

between wire services and newspapers. A joint task force representing ANPA, 

UPI, and Associated Press (AP) conducted a two-year study of economic, 

technical, legal, and regulatory aspects of such a syijtem. ( W &r, Apr 22/80, 

C-6) 

The NAA newsletter paid tribute to former Senator A.S. Mike Monroney 

(D-Okla.), who died February 13 at the age of 77. Known as “Mr. Aviation” 

during his 30-year tenure in Congress, he was president of NAA 1970-1972. 

Longtime chairman of the Senate subcommittee on aviation, he introduced the 

1955 Federal Airport Act promoting civil aviation, which led to establishment 

of the FAA. He received in 1961 the Wright Brothers memorial trophy for service to aviation, and the first Collier award for distinguished congressional 

service. (NAA newsletter Mar-Apr 80, 4) 

The British Interplanetary Society’s Spaceflight armounced that Skylark 12, 

a rocket launched from Natal, Brazil, by British Aerospace, reached a record 

altitude of 834 kilometers (SE Apr 4/80, 177) 

Spaceflight reported a discovery by USSR scientists that the lunar regolith 

(the dust covering the Moon’s surface) contained nonoxidized iron. Lunar 

samples proved to be corrosion resistant when exposed to terrestrial atmosphere. The finding, registered at the USSR Committee for Inventions and 

Discoveries, was confirmed at other USSR and U.S. laboratories. This 

unusual form of element resulted from the action of the solar wind on the 

Moon’s surface, said Dr. Valery Barsukov, director of the Institute of 

Geochemistry. Particles from the solar wind “seize the oxygen of the lunar 

matter and carry it away into space,” leaving pure metal on the lunar surface. 

146 
APRIL 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The iron had not oxidized during the eight years since the Luna 16 expedition. 

(SE Apr 4/80, 164) 

The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 35 at 1638 hours Moscow time April 9 

from the Baykonur site into an orbit with 346-kilometer apogee, 

336-kilometer perigee, 91.3-minute period, and 51.6 O inclination. Headed for 

a linkup with the obiting station Sulyut 6 were two cosmonauts, engineer 

Valery Ryumin, 40, who spent 175 days there last year, and rookie Lt. Col. 

Leonid Popov, 34, a former jet fighter pilot. 

The cargo carrier Progress 8 launched March 27 had automatically docked 

March 29 with Sulyut 6, which used the Progress engine to adjust its orbit. 

The supply ship was still docked to Salyut, waiting for the new arrivals to 

unload it, Sulyut 6, launched September 29, 1977, had been in orbit for more 

than 30 months; when the Soyuz 35 crew docked with it at 6:16 p.m. Moscow 

time April 10, Ryumin said in a telecast “Look, the station is absolutely in 

the same condition as we left it.” Tass said the crew would clean, repair, and 

restock the station and resume research on medical and biological effects of 

long-term spaceflight. The Soviet television program said that Ryumin was a 

last-minute choice for this flight, apparently taken from a backup crew to 

replace an unidentified flight engineer who “had trouble during his physical 

exercises.” 

First task was to turn on station systems: lights, air and water regeneration, 

communications, and control desk, all of which had been off for seven months 

while Sulyut 6 was unmanned. The crew began April 11 to unload Progress 

8 and activate systems and instruments including plant-life installations Oaziz, 

Vazon, and Malakhit, the latter an orchid-growing greenhouse the crew had 

brought with them on Soyuz 35. Ground control said that observing growth 

of the orchids would encourage “good spirits” in the crew. 

By April 15 the crew had dismantled and replaced apparatus that had worn 

out, putting the used equipment into the freight compartment of Progress 8. 

They had installed new storage batteries and replaced solar batteries in the 

attitude-control system and parts in the water-regeneration system. They had 

also prepared to refuel the propulsion unit. At the end of their first week, Dr. 

Anatoly Yegorov said that the cosmonauts were adapting “more quickly than 

expected” and were working ahead of schedule, “the most convincing proof 

of their physical wellbeing.” 

[Nature magazine reported speculation that Ryumin’s return flight meant 

the Soviet Union might be preparing for a manned mission to Mars. 

“Classical” Soviet projects for space exploration, following the lead of 

Tsiolkovsky, assumed the establishment of a permanent orbital station staffed 

by “several tens” of male and female crew and scientists for several months 

at a time; lunar and planetary exploration, for this century at least, would be 

left to automatic vehicles. However, Soviet experts had shown considerable interest in biological effects of long-term spaceflight; they had found “no significant organic changes” that might limit the duration of future flights. Sending 

147 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL IYXO 

Ryumin aloft again after his record 175-day flight (which Nature called 

“serendipitous”) should have especially interesting rcsults. Nuture quoted a 

Tass report that Ryumin was included at the last minute when “Flight 

Engineer Lebedev” hurt his leg.] 

By April 22 the crew had almost finished unloading the freighter and had 

refueled the joint propulsion plant, preparatory to filling the station with oxidizer. Dr. Konstantin Feoktistov said that the most productive period of 

cosmonauts in space would begin one month to six weeks after a mission 

started; the Soyuz 35 crew had been doing repair and fault-prevention work 

so far, but had also begun to resume experiments. lhey used Progress 8’s propulsion unit for another orbit adjustment April 24. On April 25 they separated 

the freighter from the Salyut-Soyuz complex; on April 26 they ignited the propulsion unit at 9:54 Moscow time to put it into a descent trajectory over the 

Pacific Ocean, where it “ceased to exist.” On April 27 the Soviet Union launched Progress 9 at 9:24 p.m. Moscow time; it docked with the Soyuz-Salyut 

complex at 11:09 a.m. April 29, bringing more apparatus and equipment, 

materials for the life-support systems, additional fuel, and mail for the 

cosmonauts. As usual, the report ended with the statement that the 

cosmonauts were “feeling fine.” (Tass in English, Apr 3-29/80; Moscow Dom 

Svc in Russian, Apr 3-29/80; W Post, Apr 10/80, A-18; W Stur, Apr 10/80, 

A-15; Apr 12/80, A-10; NY Ernes, Apr 11/80, D-15; Nature, Apr 17/80, 585) 

148 
May 1: Changes made during the past year to the three main engines 

designated for the first flight of Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia had led NASA 

to set up further tests, the agency announced. Modifications included highpiessure turbopumps, valves, and nozzles. Acceptance-tested between April 

and July 1979, the engines would be shipped from KSC to NSTL in Mississippi for reacceptance firing and return to KSC. The two- to three-month testing 

would not affect the timing of the first flight, now scheduled for a date between November 1980 and March 1981. About 6 weeks before the planned 

launch, the engines would be fired again for 20 seconds on the launch pad. 

(NASA Release 80-60; JSC Release 80-030) 

JSC reported signing a noncompetitive $12.931 million contract with the 

Charles Stark Draper Laboratory for development of Shuttle avionics software. Draper would perform most of the work under the 21-month contract 

at Cambridge, Mass. (JSC Release 80-029) 

May 2: Further press comment on the USSR launch April 29 of Cosmos 1176 

included a Washington Post speculation that the United States might deplore 

the nuclear-powered vehicle for more reasons than its deterrent effect on 

United Nations negotiations. 

Recalling the aborted attempt April 24-25 to rescue U.S. hostages in the 

Tehran embassy, the Washington Post noted that the Cosmos 1176 launch came 

only four days later. Just before it began the rescue attempt, the U.S. aircraft 

carrier Nimitz “sped away from a Soviet spy ship that had been trailing it, and 

apparently was able to launch the rescue helicopters on their secret mission 

without notice.” Satellites spying with radar needed nuclear sources for the 

necessary power; solar cells, e.g., could not produce enough electricity. The 

new satellite “passing daily over the Indian Ocean and Middle East. . .may 

well be meant to keep the Kremlin from being surprised again by providing 

radar surveillance of the U.S. fleet,” the Washington Post said. 

The Washington Star cited the January 1978 breakup of Cosmos 954 that 

scattered radioactive debris across a remote region of Canada; one expert suggested that the Soviet Union might have solved the problem causing the 

Canada crash or might have developed a new nonnuclear power source for the 

new satellite’s radar. However, U.S. officials were “virtually certain” that the 

new satellite was, like those in the Cosmos 954 series, powered by radioactive 

thermal generators creating heat that turned turbines to produce electricity. 

The United States had already detected radar emissions from Cosmos 1176, indicating that it was looking for U.S. and other ships. Its radar was 90% able 

149 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

to detect objects the size of aircraft carriers, 50% cruisers, and 30% frigates. 

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had revealed that such satellites carried about 

1001 pounds of uranium; after about 75 days, they were supposed to be 

rocketed to 500-mile-altitude orbits where they would remain for about 100 

years, or until the materials were no longer dangerous. (WPost, May 2/80, 

A-6; W Star, May 2/80, A-1) 

May 4: The U.S. Coast Guard signed an agreement with NASA April 29 for 

work leading to an operational lighter-than-air machine that might constitute 

a fleet of blimps by the early 1990s, according to the New York Times. Coordinating the two agencies’ research would reduce costs: NASA scientists had 

been studying use of lighter-than-air craft to lift heavy equipment and would 

now work on developing stronger synthetics and beirter adhesives for the blimp 

bag, more sophisticated electronics, and more automated procedures for 

ground handling to do away with the need for large ground crews. 

Lt. Cdr. Kenneth Williams, chief of the Coast Guard technology branch, 

said that they sought a vehicle for use in “search anld rescue, law enforcement, 

and other patrol functions.” The Navy had abandclned its airship program in 

the early 1960s because fuel was cheap; it “costs a heck of a lot more today,” 

Williams said, and a Coast Guard-Navy study had found fuel-efficient airships 

operationally and technically feasible for maritime patrol work in combination 

with cutters and conventional aircraft. (NY Times, May 4/80, 56) 

May 6: NASA announced that a JPL scientist? Dr. Stephen P. Synnott of the 

Voyager optical navigation team, had discovered a 15th moon of Jupiter from 

T/oyager I photos taken in March 1979. Checking March photos to confirm the 

discovery of another satellite (1979 J1) in October 1979 photos taken by Pbyager 

2, Synnott detected an unexplained shadow on the planet that, once recognized, was evident on seven earlier images. The new satellite, labeled 1979 52, 

had a 16-hour orbit around Jupiter between moons Amalthea and Io; 1979 J1 

had a 7-hour orbit. (NASA Release 80-61; JPL Release 930) 

INTELSAT announced that Honduras had become its 104th member. In a 

ceremony at the U.S. State Department Roberto Nunez Montes, general 

manager of HONDUTEL (Empresa Hondurena de ‘Telecomunicaciones) signed the operating agreement. Honduras already wa:; a user of the INTELSAT 

system through ground stations in neighboring countries. (INTELSAT Release 

80-09-1) 

May 7: NASA announced selection of two firms, McDonnell Douglas and 

TRW, to receive parallel $1 million one-year contracts for design-definition 

studies of 25-kilowatt power systems for the STS. The power systems, using 

solar energy to support large payloads left in orbit, would be placed in a fixed 

orbit by the Space Shuttle to provide electric power, heat rejection, attitude 

control, communications, and data handling for a variety of payloads freeing 

150 
MAY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the Shuttle from extended time in orbit and reducing payload cost per day in 

orbit. MSFC would manage the study contracts and any follow-on development flight system. (NASA Release 80-63) 

May 8: NASA announced that it and the ESA had selected 37 scientific experiments for the first flight of Spacelab, scheduled for launch on the Space 

Shuttle late in 1982. The experiments were in five categories: atmospheric 

physics and Earth observation; space plasma physics; material sciences and 

technology; astronomy and solar physics; and life science. NASA would sponsor 13 of the 37; ESA (a consortium of 11 nations), the others. 

Deferred for assignment to later flights were three NASA experiments and 

a major ESA facility; the factor preventing selection of all the experiments was 

mass. Each agency would be allowed to fly 1,392 kilograms (3,062 pounds) 

of equipment on the mission. Unlike Skylab, Spacelab would not be left unattended in space; it would remain in the Shuttle and be returned to Earth for 

use in another mission. (NASA Release 80-62; MSFC Release 80-66; ESA 

Info 9) 

May 9: JSC announced NASA selection of two California aerospace firms to 

negotiate contracts for production of solar cells as a supplemental power 

source for the Space Shuttle orbiter. Applied Solar Energy Corporation and 

Spectrolab would each receive a $300,000 contract to develop a large-area 

low-cost solar cell for NASA's proposed power-extension package, to be produced at the rate of 144,OOO space-qualified solar cells per year, reducing the 

power-extension item would be a 2,000-pound package folded into the orbiter 

cargo bay; in orbit, the item would be moved out by a remote mechanical arm, 

the 177-foot wings unfolding to supply the Shuttle with 26 kilowatts of electric 

power. (JSC Release 80-032) 

cost to $30 per watt. (Solar cells now cost from $80 to $120 per watt.) The 

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) reported that a team of its scientists 

was working on a solar-ultraviolet (UV) spectral irradiance monitor (SUSIM) 

for use on the Space Shuttle to study long-term variations in solar flux for 

more accurate monitoring of UV radiation from the solar chromosphere and 

corona. Solar radiation in the wavelengths under study control many 

photochemical processes in Earth's atmosphere at altitudes below 100 

kilometers; variations in the radiation may alter the composition of the lower 

atmosphere, affecting the lifetime of pollutants and ion density in the D 

region. The Navy also considered the D region of the atmosphere important 

because of its direct effect on communications systems. 

The principal investigator, Dr. Guenter E. Brueckner, said that 

measurements by conventional methods in the 120- to 400-nanometer 

wavelength range were not accurate enough for scientists to define values for 

solar-flux variations over time. The monitor would travel as a solar sensor on 

an early orbiter flight; the spacecraft pilot would use its real-time data to point 

151 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

directly at the Sun in order to monitor the entire solar disk and measure variation of its intensity with solar activity. Brueckner’s team consisted of three 

scientists-Michael E. VanHoosier, Dr. Dianne K. Prinz, and Dr. John-David 

E Bartoe-developing and testing the SUSIM for Shuttle flight. Both Prinz 

and Bartoe had passed mental and physical tests for astronaut-scientists and 

had been chosen to make a Shuttle flight; one of them might obtain firsthand 

data on solar activity by actually using monitor on a Shuttle flight. (NRL 

Release 20-5-8OC) 

May 12: NASA reported that the National Archives had formally accepted its 

records of the 1967 Apollo 204 spacecraft fire, to he retained permanently for 

use by scholars studying the space program in general and the failure and 

subsequent redesign of the spacecraft. (NASA Actv Rpr May 12/80) 

JSC reported that parts of the remote-manipulator system (the robot crane 

that would handle inflight transfer of Space Shuttle cargo) were being tested 

in its Shuttle avionics integration laboratory. The system would be used on the 

Shuttle beginning with the second flight to place or retrieve satellites in space, 

to assemble structures or components, or if necessary to rescue crews by 

transferring them to another vehicle. 

The manipulator was a 50-foot arm with movable joints at the shoulder, 

elbow, and wrist; associated motors, gears,and sensors; and an end-effector 

serving as an ingenious hand. The test parts were a display and control panel, 

rotational and translational hand controllers, and an interface unit for 

manipulator control belonging to the electrical subsystem. The arm and its 

movement would be simulated by computers in thc lab. 

In the tests, engineers and technicians from NASA and the contractor Space 

Aerospace, astronauts, and representatives of the Canadian Research Council 

would try to duplicate events to be encountered while operating the space 

crane in orbit. Astronauts Drs. Sally Ride, Judy Resnick, Norm Thagard, and 

Story Musgrave would controls arm movement by using the hand controllers 

in a mockup of the orbiter’s aft station. System operators would watch a 

computer-generated television scene duplicating the: view the crew would have 

out of the cockpit aft window. 

The difficulty would come in operating the arm with the dynamics induced 

by arm movement: in the weightlessness of space, once a mass (the arm and 

its load) were moved, it would keep going until stopped by an equal and opposite force. When a command moved the arm, the control system had to be 

ready to command a counteracting move. Also, the orbiter would move in 

response to the arm, and vice versa. Interaction between arm and orbiter controls must be explored before flight; the simulations in this investigation were 

among the most sophisticated ever attempted at JSC. (JSC Release 80-034) 

In the first transcontinental balloon trip, a father-son team landed the 

75-foot-tall helium-filled Kitty Hawk on Canada’s Gaspe peninsula at 7:27 

152 
MAY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

EDT after a May 8 liftoff in San Francisco, Calif. Maxie Anderson, 48, and 

his son Kris, 23, of Albuquerque, N.M., had planned to land in Kitty Hawk, 

N.C., but were blown by brisk winds toward Maine and Canada. They had 

met with bad weather beginning with strong winds, rain, and snowstorms over 

Wyoming. Despite their failure to land at Kitty Hawk, the team set distance 

records: a previous balloon record was set last year by a 2,002-mile flight that 

ended in a snowstorm in Ohio. The Andersons on May 11 had gone 2,417 

miles. 

In August 1978 Maxie Anderson and two companions had crossed the Atlantic in 137 hours in the balloon Double Eagle I1 from Presque Isle, Maine, to 

Paris. The Washington Star said in a May 21 editorial: “Mr. Anderson says 

he has no plans for further record-breahng trips, but refuse to believe it. 

There’s the Pacific Ocean just waiting to yield to helium and human dexterity.” 

During a visit to North Carolina the week after the flight, Anderson was inducted into the Man Will Never Fly society, a group with the motto “Birds 

Fly; Men Drink.” The society’s Dr. Ed North said it had awarded Anderson 

and his son memberships without knowing whether they were drinkers. “They 

missed their landing site by over a thousand miles,” North said, “so I just 

assumed that they were.” (W Star, May 12/80, A-1; May 20180, A-2; May 

21/80, A-12) 

May 13: NASA’declared the mission of Heao 3 successful in its prelaunch objectives. Launched September 29, 1979, the satellite had in its first six months 

of operation made a full gamma-ray sky survey and detected a wide range of 

cosmic-ray elements. Dr. Thomas A. Mutch, associate administrator for space 

science, said Heao 3 should “continue to provide excellent scientific data.” 

(NASA MOR S-382-79-03 [postlaunch] May 13/80) 

NASA announced plans to launch NOAA-B on or about May 21 from WTR 

on an Atlas F. A third-generation environmental-monitoring spacecraft 

operated by NOAA for the National Operational Environmental Satellite 

System (NOESS), NOAA-B would join NOM-A (Nom 6) in acquiring quantitative data as input for GARP (the Global Atmospheric Research Program). 

Known as the “TIROS twins,” the NOAA satellites would be the only civilian 

operational spacecraft whose orbits cover the polar regions. (NASA MOR 

E-615-80-02 [prelaunch] May 13/80; DOC Release NOAA 80-67) 

NASA reported that it would negotiate with the National Science Teachers 

Association (NSTA) to run the student involvement project, a nationwide 

yearly competition among secondary-school students for scientific and 

engineering experiments to fly on the Shuttle on a space-available basis. The 

NSTA would manage the competition to the point of selecting 10 finalists from 

20 semifinalists in each of 10 regions; NASA would decide whether to fly a 

particular experiment. 

Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, noting “The vitality of NASA 

153 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

depends heavily on an infusion of fresh ideas,” said the student connection 

would be important to the agency program. NASA held a similar competition 

before the Skylab mission in 1973; it was also considering a program to involve 

college students. (NASA Release 80-65) 

MSFC announced that the second round of acceptance tests declared 

necessary for Columbia’s main engines because of modifications on them 

since acceptance [see May 13 would consist of a sin.gle 520-second static firing 

of each engine. No. 2007 was mounted in test stand A-2 for firing late in May; 

no. 2006 would be tested on stand A-1 in midJune; and no. 2005, on stand 

A-2 in late June. (MSFC Release 80-67; JSC Release 80-036; NASA Release 

80-68) 

JSC said that it had selected Barrios and Associaites for negotiations leading 

to award of a cost-plus-award-fee contract for flight-design support services 

to operational flights of the Shuttle. Cost of the first two years of a planned 

five-year program (June 80 through May 82) would be $1.9 million. (JSC 

Release 80-035) 

The Wushingron Post said that Pratt & Whitncy division, United 

Technologies, had signed a pact with Rolls Royce of England to jointly develop 

and produce engines for AV-8B aircraft. The company said that the Pegasus 

engine could be worth up to $1.5 billion, $350 million of it for Pratt & 

Whjtney. (W Post, May 13/80, D8) 

ESA reported that representatives from Canada., France, India, Japan, and 

the United States, as well as ESA, met in Ottawa May 8-9 to discuss international cooperation in remote-sensing satellite systems. ESA would host a 

follow-up meeting in 1981. A series of regional meetings with nations planning 

to use remote-sensing data would bring the needs of user states to the attention 

of satellite operators and would help in preparing for a 1982 United Nations 

conference on exploration and peaceful uses of outer space. (ESA Info 11) 

Muy 15: NASA reported that astronomers using data from the international 

UV explorer were continuing to study the halo discovered around the Milky 

Way in early observations by the satellite. The halo material was found to be 

hot (about 100,000”), to extend 50,000 light-years from the galaxy, and to contain oxygen, sulfur, iron, silicon, and carbon. he launched January 26, 1978, 

was a joint mission of the United States, the United Kingdom, and ESA. 

For most of history, visible light was the only medium for studying celestial 

objects, but many types of electromagnetic radiation were now available for 

observation: radio waves, infrared, X-ray, gamma rays, and ultraviolet rays. 

Earth’s atmosphere blocked most of these types of energy, which must be 

studied through spacecraft above the atmosphere. he, in a synchronous orbit 

keeping it in continuous touch with either the United States or the European 

154 
MAY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ground station, could be used by astronomers located either at GSFC or the 

Villafranca station in Spain (Vilspa) much like a ground-based telescope but 

observing in the ultraviolet instead of visible-light spectrum. A scientific colloquium at GSFC during May heard 92 papers on he, findings; Prof. Robert 

Wilson, University College London, said “there is hardly an area of modem 

astronomy that hasn’t been affected.” Scientists from 25 countries were participating, and 478 astronomers had been assigned observing time on the 

satellite. (NASA Release 80-67) 

NASA might decide to remove and strengthen every heat-protection tile on 

Columbia not already removed and treated, Today newspaper reported. As 

many as l0,OOO tiles could be affected, delaying Shuttle launch by months. 

Recent tests had shown weaknesses in tile faces that were glued to the Shuttle surface; NASA had removed thousands for “densification,” painting the 

bonding surfaces to increase their sticking power. NASA was now testing 

16,000 of the 30,922 tiles at points of greatest stress to see if they needed to 

be densified. Tiles failing the test had been removed and densified; those passing were left intact. However, NASA was now thinking of doing all the tiles 

as a safety measure. Installation was about 80% complete, but a decision to 

densify all would leave only a few thousand tiles on the ship. 

Officials would not give an exact count of the number of tiles already densified; technicians gluing the tiles in the processing facility at KSC had been 

averaging about 700 a week. JSC structural design chief Tom Moser said that 

he could not predict whether all the tiles would be densified or how long it 

would take. (Toduy, May 15/80, 1A) 

May 16: Aviation leaders from across the United States attended a banquet at 

the Washington Hilton, Washington, D.C., to honor Dr. Paul B. MacCready, 

designer of the Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross, who won the 

Robert J. Collier trophy for the first human powered flight across the 22-milewide English Channel. Master of ceremonies was NBC news correspondent 

Peter Hackes, a fellow enthusiast of sail planing. The audience saw the film 

of the Channel flight and applauded the touchdown of the Albatross on the 

beach at Cap Gris Nez, France. MacCready accepted the trophy for himself 

and for the “engine” of the Albatross, cyclist Bryan Allen, who was unable 

to attend. 

MacCready reported that NASA was negotiating to use his backup aircraft 

Gossamer Albatross II in tests aimed at design and operation of a remotely 

powered vehicle at 100,000 feet altitude. The Albatross’s extremely light 

weight “exaggerates the apparent mass effects in stability and control, and also 

the effect of turbulence on wing efficiency.” “These are areas heretofore unexamined and deal with phenomena never before encountered,” he added. (NAA 

newsletter May/June 80; NAA Release May 19/80) 

155 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

May 18: The People’s Republic of China launched a long-range missile May 

18 capable of delivering a nuclear warhead as far a:; Moscow or the west coast 

of the United States, Xinhua press agency announced. Australian navy ships 

reported the rocket’s splashdown in the ocean about 750 miles northwest of 

Fiji. Diplomatic sources in Beijing said the rocket may have been fired from 

a complex about 1,000 miles west of there, or from the Lop Nor nuclear-arms 

test area in northwest China. If so, the rocket made a flight of 5,000 miles or 

more. (WStur, May 19/80, A-6; FBIS, Xinhua in English, May 23/80; Hong 

Kong AFP in English, May 18/80; Moscow World Svc in English; Tass in 

English, May 16-25/80) 

May 19: AP said that NASA and DOE had awarded Boeing Aerospace a 

$296,000 contract to study disposal of nuclear wasle (long-lived radionuclides 

radioactive for thousands of years) in space: whether to launch the “nuclear 

trash” on an unmanned rocket, or by a manned Shuttle whose crew would 

eject it in orbit and propel it further out; where in space to put it; how to protect it during launch and in space; and how to retrieve it in case of an abort 

at liftoff. (NASA Release 80-69; MSFC Release 130-69; AP in W Post, May 

21/80, A-5) 

NASA announced that it had renewed a cost-plus-management-fee contract 

with the Universities Space Research Association for management and operation of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The fee through March 31, 1982, 

would be $4,292,700. Work would be done at the institute, adjoining JSC in 

Houston. 

The institute, a focal point for the lunar and planetary science community 

to pursue solid-body geosciences such as mineralogy, petrology, and 

geochemistry, was created in October 1968 in response to NASA’s quest for 

a university consortium to work with. The association was incorporated the 

following March as a means for universities and other research organizations 

to work with each other and with NASA in space research. (NASA Release 

80-73) 

May 20: ESA reported that European and U.S. astronauts scheduled to fly 

with the first Spacelab on the ninth Shuttle flight would attend a training session May 27-30 on using an infrared-grill spectrometer to check the composition of the stratosphere to monitor the effect of human activity on its evolution. 

Besides a commander and copilot of the Shuttle, the Spacelab crew would 

include two payload specialists (one each from ESA. and the United States) and 

two mission specialists in charge of the interface between the Shuttle and 

Spacelab. Two of the five payload specialists attending the training session 

would be selected six months before flight: physicist Ulf Merbold of West 

Germany; astronomer Claude Nicollier of Switzerland; physicist Wubbo 

Ockels of the Netherlands; physicist Michael Lampton, University of California at Berkeley; and biomedical engineer Byron Lkhtenberg, Massachusetts 

156 
MAY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Institute of Technology. NASA mission specialists attending the training session would be atmospheric physicist Owen Garriott and astronomer Robert 

Parker. (ESA Info 13) 

May 21: Jack Anderson wrote in the Washington Post that the controversial B-1 

bomber, “like the wondrous Phoenix of Egyptian mythology, seems about to 

rise from the ashes” 3 years after the President “shot it down in flames”: the 

House Armed Services Committee had voted $600 million for B-1 research 

and procurement. 

The committee had asked Rockwell International, “which still hopes to 

build the big bird,” to prepare a brochure comparing the B-1 with the FB-111 

preferred by the U.S. Air Force to carry cruise missiles. The Post said an internal Air Force report prepared for Rep. Robert Carr (D-Mich.) indicated 

that Rockwell had “drastically” oversold B-1 capabilities. The brochure 

“grossly understated the range of the FB-Ill” by almost 900 nautical miles, 

comparing it on a low-level mission with a B-1 flying at a higher, fuel-saving 

altitude, the U.S. Air Force noted. Rockwell also “fudged on the delivery 

dates it promised in the brochure” by three to four months in one case, almost 

a year in another. The U.S. Air Force report said that there were “many other 

areas that are inaccurate.” (W Post, May 21/80, B-16) 

NASA reported that a team using Voyager data found that Saturn’s period 

of rotation (the length of a day on that planet) was 24 minutes longer than was 

thought earlier. Astronomers using Earth-based observations had calculated 

the length of a Saturn day as 10 hours, 15 minutes but admitted that their 

figures lacked accuracy. The inaccuracy of the earlier measurements arose 

from Saturn’s lack of a solid surface; viewers could see only the cloud tops 

of the planet, with no sharply defined features to permit accurate determination of rotation. 

The two Voyager spacecraft had recorded bursts of radio noise from Saturn 

and other sources in the sky during January 1980. By isolating Saturn signals 

from those recorded from the Sun, Jupiter, and other sources, the Voyager 

planetary radioastronomy team found that Saturn’s originated at the planet’s 

north pole and were precisely controlled by its rotating magnetic field. (NASA 

Release 80-72) 

May 22: NASA announced a change of date to April 1982 for completing orbital flight tests of the Shuttle. “Several factors” such as continuing engineering assessment and improvement of the thermal-protection system led to the 

decision. First operational flight of Columbia, now slipped from March to 

September 1982, would carry the tracking and data-relay satellite TDRS-A into a geosynchronous orbit. Other schedule adjustments would be discussed 

with users at KSC May 29-30. Changes in the manifests had been coordinated 

with DOD, NASA said; it would make use of Deltas during the transition to 

157 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

full Shuttle operations. Others set to use the Delta included Telesat of Canada, 

Hughes Aircraft, and Indonesia. (NASA Release 80-74; JSC Release 80-037) 

May 23: The Washington Post reported that Summa Corporation, holding 

company for the late billionaire Howard Hughes’:; estate, would “immediately” disassemble the Spruce Goose, Hughes’s 140-ton flying boat, since a lastminute public appeal for $750,000 to preserve it had failed. The Port of Long 

Beach, Calif., had wanted the 220-foot boat, 80-feet high with a 320-foot 

wingspan, to display with another transportation mammoth, the ocean liner 

Queen Mary. Designed to be a World War I1 troop carrier, the eight-engine 

Spruce Goose (actually made mostly of birch) had flown only once in 1947. 

Parts of it would go to nine museums, including the Smithsonian. (W Post, 

May 23/80, F3) 

ESA reported that the Ariane LO2 launched from Guyana at 14:29 GMT had 

fallen into the sea. Liftoff was normal, but 7 seconds later, telemetry showed 

pressure fluctuations in a first-stage motor that caused the other motors to fail. 

The launcher self-destructed at 108 seconds. Teams evaluating the telemetry 

data later reported events during launch in detail; further study would be needed to find the cause of the malfunction. (ESA Release May 23, Info 15) 

LaRC said that NASA had sent an airborne-particle measurement team from 

WFC as far west as Missouri May 21-22 to measure dust layers resulting from 

the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, which had caused (dense concentrations of particles in five distinct clouds in the stratosphere over the United States and 

Canada. The leading edge of the volcano plume (a tropospheric cloud containing the largest amount of particles) had already piissed over the United States 

and was out to sea. 

NASA had detected concentrations of from 200 to 800 particles per cubic 

centimeter (typical readings were only half a particle per cubic centimeter) 

May 21 and 22 in a stratospheric dust layer over Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, 

and Indiana at an altitude of 13-14 kilometers (43,000-46,000 feet). Four other 

stratospheric dust clouds had been detected over eastern Canada, the Ohio 

Valley, the Great Plains, and the far west, with particle concentrations far 

above normal. Besides airplane and high-altitudle balloon observations the 

week of May 19-23, scientists were waiting for a NASA satellite carrying the 

SAGE (stratospheric aerosol and gas experiment) to come to a point in its orbit 

over the United States and Canada where it could provide more detailed 

measurements of atmospheric profile in latitudes from 55” to 30”N before it 

went out of range May 28. (LaRC Release 80-42) 

May 26: The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 36 M.ay 26 at 9:21 p.m. Moscow 

time (2:21 p.m. EDT) carrying a Russian commander (Valery Kubasov, 45, 

veteran of three space missions) and Hungarian en,gineer (Bertalan Farkas, 30) 
MAY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

to the orbiting Sulyut 6 station already occupied by Leonid Popov and Valery 

Ryumin. (W Star, May 27/80, A-8) 

May 27: LaRC announced that NASA had selected Rockwell International to 

study alternate thermal-protection systems for the Shuttle orbiter [see April 

11. The nine-month study beginning in late June would cost about $900,000. 

Boeing Aerospace also bid on the study. (LaRC Release 80-43; NASA Release 

80-77) 

May 28: The WZl Street Journal said that the Ariane rocket failure in its second test flight was a blow to western European development of a competitor 

for the U.S. Shuttle. ESA experts had not solved the mysterious engine shutdown that dropped the Ariane into the ocean after launch from Guyana [see 

May 231. The difficulty seemed to be with the Ariane feature they valued 

most, the first-stage engine that had been fired 200 times on the ground and 

had worked flawlessly during test flights. The same engine had been highly 

reliable in the French rocket Diamant, now being phased out after years of 

successful use. 

ESA and France (which paid 64% of Ariane expenses and had done much 

of the development) hoped to put Ariane into service in mid-1981, ahead of 

the Shuttle, which was able to orbit six times the weight of an Ariane payload 

and return to Earth for reuse. Shuttle problems had put NASA behind, but the 

Wall Street Journal said prolonged delay in Ariane development would have 

“serious consequences” for ESA. The Europeans had bid vigorously for launching assignments for Ariane because it would be available earlier as well as 

less expensive, but engine problems could undermine the claim. (WSJ, May 

28/80,20) 

NASA reported that scientists were beginning to identify major features on 

the surface of cloud-shrouded Venus on the basis of data returned by Pioneer 

and had met with the working group on planetary nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on a policy of naming the major features for 

goddesses from various cultures, with minor features named for other 

mythical females and smaller features for famous women no longer alive. The 

Washington Post said that women’s groups such as the National Organization 

for Women (NOW) had immediately protested “a typically male response” of 

naming planetary features for myths instead of real women. Dr. Harold 

Masursky said the IAU at its Budapest meeting next week would consider 

names for Venus sites, most of the 30 submitted being those of actual women. 

(NASA Release 80-70; ARC Release 8047; W Post, May 29/80, A-2) 

May 29: NASA launched NOAA-B from the Western Space and Missile 

Center (WSMC) into an elliptical orbit of 1,453-kilometer apogee, 

273-kilometer perigee, 72.9” inclination, and 90.4 minute period, instead of 

the planned circular orbit at 470-540-kilometer altitude. Malfunction of the 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

Atlas F launch vehicle put the $15 million payload where it could not carry 

out its planned mission, and NASA expected it to remain in orbit only about 

six months. Attempts by NASA and NOAA to correct the orbit were unsuccessful. A replacement called NOAA-C would be sent up in about five 

months. (NY Ernes, May 30180, B-6; W Star, May 30/80, A-7; W Post, May 

30/80, A-9; NASA Release 80-82; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, June 2/80) 

NASA announced selection of Ford Aerospace to negotiate a contract for 

overall system-design engineering on preliminary operations requirements 

and test-support system for the Space Telescope. Work under the $9.2 million 

contract should be done by December 1983, to support the space-telescope 

mission. Ford Aerospace would run the system for six months before turning 

it over to NASA. 

The system located at GSFC would control telescope attitude, point it, and 

monitor the on-board systems 24 hours a day, ‘7 days per week. Besides 

engineering design, hardware and software, and support for facility construction, the contract covered design of the project operations-control center plus 

required software and hardware. Ford Aerospace would provide testing, integration, installation, maintenance, documentation, training, and operating 

services for the system, including launch on the Space Shuttle. (NASA 

Release 80-80) 

KSC reported on steps taken by NASA to ensure survival of an endangered 

species, the manatee or sea cow, whose entire U.S. population estimated at 

about 1,OOO lived in Florida waters. Brevard County, site of KSC, had the 

highest incidence of manatee deaths in the state. KSC included the site of the 

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge containing hundreds of species of 

plants, birds, mammals, and reptiles; 12 of the latter were endangered, more 

than in any other single site in the 48 states. About 20% of the nation’s 

manatees spent part of the year on the Space Center, and KSC activities had 

been arranged for minimum interference with the indigenous wildlife. 

Aerial surveys over KSC furnished informaticin about group migratory 

habits, feeding grounds, and times for scheduling work in areas when the 

manatees would be elsewhere. Space technology provided tracking devices to 

monitor the routes traveled by individual animals. Ships that recovered spent 

Shuttle boosters docked in the Banana River, a prime manatee feeding ground. 

NASA had fitted its ships with a propulsion unit it0 maneuver them without 

use of large propellers found to be highly dangerous to the slow-moving and 

air-breathing manatee; the unit proved to be better at retrieving booster 

parachutes without tangling the lines. (KSC Release 95-80) 

NASA said MSFC’s Spacelab program office had ordered a second Spacelab 

instrument-pointing system from ESA and Dornier Systems of West Germany 

for delivery by the end of 1983. The major Spacelab subsystem was valued at 

about $20 million. The number of experiments currently planned for Spacelab 

160 
MAY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

that needed highly accurate pointing required NASA to buy a second unit to 

supplement the one NASA would receive as basic Spacelab equipment provided by ESA. Earlier this year ESA had signed a contract with NASA for a second Spacelab unit; each basic unit would now have its own pointing system. 

Mounted on a Spacelab pallet in the Shuttle cargo bay, the instrumentpointing system (IPS) gimbaled in three directions offered highly accurate 

pointing to scientific instruments weighing from 200 to 2,000 kilograms, 

belonging to disciplines such as astronomy, solar physics, high-energy 

astrophysics, or Earth observation, and needing more stability than the Shuttle 

provided. It could lock on and track targets such as stars, solar flares, or 

specific items of interest on the Earth’s surface without being affected by slight 

changes in Shuttle attitude. (NASA Release 80-79; MSFC Release 80-75; ESA 

Info 14) 

May 30: Newspapers reported NASA’s selection of 19 astronaut candidates for 

Space Shuttle training, the second group of pilots and scientists specifically 

picked for that purpose. Those chosen in the 1978 group of 35, including the 

first women and blacks among civilian astronauts, received astronaut wings 

at JSC in August 1979. In the new group was Dr. William F. Fisher, husband 

of Dr. Anna Fisher, who was selected two years ago; the Seabrook, Tex., 

physicians were the first married couple chosen by the United States. The 8 

new pilot candidates (one black) and 11 mission specialists (two women and 

one Hispanic) would, if successful, join the 62 astronauts now on duty with 

NASA. The Shuttle was scheduled to fly 30 or 40 missions a year with up 

to seven astronauts on a mission. 

Pilot selections were Lt. Col. John E. Blaha, U.S. Air Force; Maj. Charles 

E Bolden, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps; Lt. Col. Roy D. Bridges, Jr., U.S. Air 

Force; Maj. Guy S. Gardner, U.S. Air Force; Maj. Ronald J. Grabe, U.S. Air 

Force; Maj. Brian D. O’Connor, U.S. Marine Corps; Lt. Cdr. Richard N. 

Richards, U.S. Navy; and Lt. Cdr. Michael J. Smith, U.S. Navy. 

Mission-specialist selections besides Dr. William Fisher were Dr. James P. 

Baglan, anesthesiologist; Dr. Franklin R. Chang, physicist; Dr. Mary L. 

Cleave, research engineer; Bonnie J. Dunbar, JSC flight controller; Capt. 

David .C: Hilmers, U.S. Marine Corps; Lt. Cdr. David C. Leestma, U.S. 

Navy; John M. Lounge, JSC flight controller; Capt. Jerry L. Ross, U.S. Air 

Force; Maj. Sherwood C. Spring, U.S. Army; and Maj. Robert C. Springer, 

U.S. Marine Corps. (NY Times, May 30t80, A-11; W Post, May 30t80, A-8; 

NASA Release 80-78; JSC Release 80-038) 

MSFC reported successful test firing of the Shuttle main propulsion system 

May 30 at NSTL. Firing time, 9 minutes 38 seconds, exceeded the duration 

required to place a Shuttle in orbit. Total test time on the main propulsion 

system (three engines, external tank, and associated parts of the orbiter) was 

now 41.3 minutes, in addition to 19 hours of single-engine tests conducted in 

a separate program. The Shuttle engines were gimbaled (steered) during the 

161 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

test firing, throttled in stages from 100% of rated thrust down to 65%. The 

Shuttle would have the first human-rated engines. capable of throttle control 

during flight. (MSFC Release 80-79) 

During May: GSFC reported discovery by a team of its scientists of the largest 

gamma-ray burst ever recorded and the first tracing of such a burst to a known 

astronomical object, providing for the first time evidence of the vibration of 

a neutron star. The burst, trillions of miles away, occurred March 5, 1979, and 

was recorded by a network of nine satellites. The uniqueness of the event and 

the time needed to coordinate data from the Soviet Union, France, and West 

Germany delayed completion of analysis until recently; a GSFC colloquium 

April 24 heard a report on the theoretical developments. The GSFC team was 

headed by Dr. Thomas L. Cline and Dr. Reuveri Ramaty. 

Gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, exhibit 

energy from tens of thousands to tens of billions of volts. The amounts of 

energy required to produce gamma rays had to come from extremely highenergy processes such as explosion of an atomic b'omb or a star. Until the explosion of March 5, lq9, astronomers could only speculate that neutron stars 

went through giant vibration episodes explosively propelling their substance 

outward, then being pushed just as explosively by (external forces back to their 

original shape. The theory of relativity says that these vibrations should emit 

gravitational waves. The March 5 burst, said to ra.diate more energy than the 

Sun could produce in 1,000 years, was measured by devices on nine spacecraft 

including five launched by the United States (three Velus, the Pioneer Venus 

orbiter, and the international Sun-Earth explorer Isee 3; three by the Soviet 

Union (Prognoz 7, Veneru 11, and &enera 12, carrying French instrumentation); and one launched jointly by the United States and the Federal Republic 

of Germany (Helios 2). The satellites were widely separated in space or in 

Earth orbit when they detected the burst. 

By timing and triangulation, scientists could trace the source of the March 

5 event to a decaying star (supernova) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (one of 

two galaxies nearest the Milky Way) and specifica.lly to a supernova remnant 

identified as N-49. A supernova would have blown its contents all over surrounding space, leaving a large compact body called a neutron star so dense 

that a spoonful of material from its center would weigh a billion tons. The 

unusually large output of energy and the fact that its release was very rapid 

led to the vibrating-source conclusion. Celestial gamma rays are detected only 

by aircraft above the atmosphere, or by spacecraft; detection of future bursts 

would require highly sensitive devices like the gamma-ray observatory 

scheduled for Shuttle launch in 1985. (GSFC Release G-80-23) 

Control of motion sickness might be learned as one learns to balance or to 

ride a bicycle, according to ARC'S Dr. Patricia Cowings. Half of all astronauts 

exposed to the weightless environment of space had symptoms of motion 

sickness; young athletes were often the persons most sensitive to motion. 

162 
MAY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Cowings and her team had taught about 50 volunteers to suppress illness when 

subjected to a chair spinning ever faster; another 60 subjects were studied 

without the training. Of the trained subjects, 85% improved their ability to 

withstand effects of motion, 65 % being able to suppress their symptoms completely. The other 20 % took significant increase in rpms before becoming ill. 

In the control group of 60 subjects who received no training, no one showed 

any significant improvement with time. 

The trained subjects monitored their own respiration and heartbeat during 

the tests, biological feedback long used by researchers and known to produce 

positive results. After the subjects were trained to detect the onset of sickness, 

65 % were able to suppress the symptoms by using the feedback. Biofeedback 

was preferred to conventional treatment, which is use of drugs, because it had 

no side effects, such as sleepiness. 

The success of the theory led Cowings to propose a life-science experiment 

tentatively accepted for a Spacelab flight on which two trained crew persons 

would wear a harness feeding eight channels of a small data recorder collecting information on heart rate and other factors and providing the subjects with 

a feedback display. A subject feeling ill would consciously use the feedback 

training for a maximum 30 minutes. When subjects succumbed to motion 

sickness, they would mark the point where they became ill so the researchers 

could learn which responses led to the sickness. So far Cowings had found 

no sex differences in susceptibility to motion sickness; also, of a group aged 

18 to 45, older subjects appeared less likely to suffer. (NASA Release 80-57; 

ARC Release 80-32) 

FBIS carried Tass and other Soviet news reports on the flight of Salyut 6 

and Soyuz 35 with cargo ship Progress 9. On May 2, cosmonauts Leonid 

Popov and Valery Ryumin, in their fourth week of flight, used “bilateral 

television communication” to visit with their families who had come to the 

mission control center. A May 6 report said that for the first time in manned 

space flight the crew had pumped water from the freight ship to containers 

on the station, using a system called Rodnik. The crew had completed 

unloading the food, regenerators, and fresh equipment from Progress 9 and 

refueled the joint propulsion unit; they would use the cargo ship to dispose 

of used material. 

On May 8, the chief of the aerogeology organization said Ryumin and Popov 

before the launch of Soyuz 35 had flown over certain linear and ring geological 

structures to acquire data for comparison with satellite observations; the Soyuz 

26 crew (Romanenko and Grechko) had identified 25 such structures in the 

Soviet Union that proved to contain mineral deposits. 

By May 13 the crew repaired the on-board videotape recorder and replaced 

a motor in the biogravistat and a filter in the gas analyzer; some items would 

be returned to Earth for study. On May 16 they were putting plant sprouts in 

various stages of development into a special solution for study on Earth; they 

also used the Progress 9 propulsion unit for another orbit adjustment. The 

163 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1980 

cargo ship separated from the orbital complex May 20 at 21:15 hours Moscow 

time; on May 22 ground command switched on its engine, and it “ceased to 

exist” upon entering the atmosphere. The next big event was launch at 21:21 

hours Moscow time May 26 of Suyuz 36 carrying veteran Valery Kubasov and 

Bertalan Farkas, first Hungarian cosmonaut, to join Popov and Ryumin who 

had occupied Salyut 6 since April 9. Docking occurred at 22:56 hours 

Moscow time, and the visitors went aboard Salyut for a 7-day program of international research. Kubasov and Farkas would return to Earth in Supz 35, 

leaving Soyuz 36 for later use. (FBIS, Tass in English, May 2-27/80) 
June 

June 3: The Washington Post quoted a White House source as saying that 

“We’re running out of patience on the Space Shuttle. . .There’s a feeling here 

that we can’t tolerate any more delays in the Shuttle program.” Noting the six 

postponements that had done “serious harm to the space agency’s credibility,” 

the Washington Post said that “in fairness. . .the delays caused by engine and 

tile troubles are not all its fault.” When Pratt & Whitney lost the engine contract to Rocketdyne, it sued NASA, delaying engine tests for a year; lack of 

money also caused delay. 

JSC Director Christopher Kraft pointed out that money cutbacks in 1978 

meant that “we delayed building the tiles, and that naturally delayed our test 

procedures, which naturally delayed us from getting at the answers we now 

have.” The custom-built tiles, each shaped to fit a specific place on the 

fuselage, took 25 hours apiece to install. After many were attached, NASA 

found that half had lost their strength in the bonding process; technicians had 

to remove and coat the tiles before replacing them. 

When NASA shipped the Shuttle orbiter piggyback on its Boeing carrier 

from Palmdale, Calif., to Cape Canaveral in 1979, only 10 % of its 30,922 tiles 

were in place, and some of those fell off during the trip. NASA enlisted a force 

of 1,200 workers to install the tiles, working two 10-hour shifts six days a week 

at the Cape. When the coating problem developed, the crews were attaching 

750 tiles a week but removing 100. About 5,000 cavities on the frame remained 

to be filled, and NASA forecast August as the finishing date for the task. 

The other technological challenge was the Shuttle’s engine cluster, three 

liquid-hydrogen engines, each 10 times as powerful as the largest jet engine 

and burning 1,000 degrees hotter than any engine before it. These were the 

first liquid-fuel rockets designed for reuse; said Shuttle program manager 

Robert Thompson: “We had to expect that in heating it and stressing it with 

repeated use we were going to run into problems.” During tests, engines had 

caught fire and even blown up; 6 of the last 12 tests of the three engines firing 

together had to be stopped because of overheating. By summer’s end the tests 

would have cost $1 billion more than the $500 million NASA estimated. 

NASA’s costs by the time the first Shuttle flew would be $264 million for 

solid-fuel rocket engines; $381 million for tiles; $442 million for the external 

fuel tank; $1.5 billion for development of the main liquid-rocket engine, 

amounting to an overrun of almost $1.6 billion. 

Money was a lesser concern, however, than the slips in schedule. The Shuttle was the first civilian vehicle designed to carry surveillance satellites for 

the DOD; those due to fly in 1983 were the biggest and most sophisticated 

ever built, weighing up to 25 tons each, too big to be carried by any other 

165 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1980 

rocket including DOD’s Titan. Former astronaut Sen. Harrison Schmitt (RN.M.), ranking Republican on the Senate subcommittee on space, said that 

DOD would have to alter its craft to fit on the Titan if they could not fly on 

the Shuttle in 1983. (WPost, June 3/80, A-2) 

June 4: U.S. newspapers carried Tass reports that two cosmonauts launched 

May 27 in Soyuz 36 to join Leonid Popov and Valt:ry Ryumin on Sulyut 6 had 

returned safely to Kazakhstan the night of June 2-3 in the Soyuz 35 that took 

Popov and Ryumin to Salyut 6 on April 9. Soyuz 36 remained with Sulyur 6. 

Veteran cosmonaut Valery Kubasov and rook:ie Bertalan Farkas, first 

Hungarian in space, performed the fifth Soviet-bloc Intercosmos mission, 

photographing land and ocean surfaces and testing the effects of spaceflight 

on the human body. (NY limes, June 3/80, A-14; W Post, June 4/80, A-25; 

W Srur, June 4/80, A-18) 

June 5: The Soviet Union launched Lt. Col. Yuri V. Malyshev and Vladimir 

V. Aksyonov toward the orbiting station Sulyut 6 in Soyuz 72, an “improved 

model” of its manned capsule. An uncrewed Soyuz Tl tested in December 

1979 docked automatically with Sulyut 6 and remained for 99 days. A U.S. expert on USSR space activity said that T2 was “a new ship” except in appearance: the main change was an on-board computer that for the first time 

let cosmonauts navigate independently of ground control. Launched from 

Tyuratam, the T2 arrived June 6 to join Leonid ~Popov and Valery Ryumin. 

( W Star, June 5/80, A-12; June 6/80, A-10; June 7/60, A-12; W Post, June 6/80, 

A-22; NY Times, June 6/80, B-6) 

NASA announced award by LeRC of parallel 1-year $1 million contracts to 

TRW’s Defense and Space Systems Group and to Hughes Aircraft Company 

for designing an advanced commercial communications satellite system. 

Operating in a high-frequency 30- to 20-GHz band not used in the United 

States commercially, the system would help handle: the increased communications expected in the next 20 years which would saturate existing domestic 

communications satellite capacity. The new system, a network of ground stations using two shuttle-launched spacecraft, would lower costs of services 

such as videoconferencing, teletext, and electronic mail delivery. (NASA 

Release 80-84) 

The House Committee on Science and Technohgy said that on June 11-12 

its subcommittee on space science and applications would hold hearings on 

the Space Industrialization Act of 1980 (H.R. 7412) for private commercialization of space. Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.), committee and subcommittee chairman, said that the bill he sponsored would create a space industrialization corporation to develop new products, services, and industries using space 

technology and the properties of the space environment. NASA would continue to advance national capabilities in space, Fuqua said, but the corporation 

166 
JUNE lY80 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

would be responsible for encouraging private development. (Committee 

Release 96-196) 

NASA announced that the Shuttle main engine had reached a milestone June 

5 when two of the three main engines that would fly on Columbia’s first mission demonstrated flight readiness in test firings at NSTL that sent total test 

time over the 80,000-second mark. This was the minimum needed to assure 

reliability of the liquid-fuel main engines. A third engine would undergo an 

identical test in two weeks. (NASA Release 80-85) 

NASA reported that GSFC had chosen Canadian Astronautics, Ltd., to 

negotiate a $3,042,500 contract for local-user terminals to process signals 

from search-and-rescue instruments aboard the NOAA-E, NOAA-F, and 

NOAA-G satellites in the early 1980s. The instruments would relay signals 

from distressed ships and aircraft to the terminals, which would use them to 

locate the distressed craft and aid rescue operations. The first terminal would 

be at Kodiak, Alaska, with others at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., and the Coast 

Guard station at San Francisco. The Soviet Union, Canada, and France would 

demonstrate the search-and-rescue capability. (NASA Release 80-87) 

June 9: The Earth 34 million years ago might have had a ring like those that 

circle Saturn today, said Dr. John A. O’Keefe of GSFC’s Laboratory for 

Astronomy and Solar Physics. A sudden event 34 million years ago, known 

to geologists as the terminal Eocene event, caused dramatic climate changes 

in Earth’s temperate zones, dropping northern-hemisphere winter 

temperatures about 35 OF (20°C). Botanical studies revealed that the 

temperature change, the most profound climatic event between 65 million and 

2 million years ago, occurred at the end of the Eocene, but it had no acceptable explanation as yet. 

O’Keefe noted that the changes coincided with a massive fall from outer 

space of tektites (glass meteorites) possibly from an eruption on Earth’s 

Moon; studies of these tektites showed similarities to rocks brought from the 

Moon. Whatever the source, the tektites that hit Earth made a path around the 

globe from the eastern United States across the Pacific to the Philippines. 

Tektites that missed the Earth would have formed a ring like the rings 

around Saturn; such a ring in the winter would block the Sun’s rays in the northern hemisphere when the Sun was below the equator, and the shadow cast 

by the ring would lower winter temperatures. The ring disappeared when 

forces (such as pressure of sunlight or drag of the atmosphere) pulled it either 

into the atmosphere, where some particles burned and others fell to Earth, or 

upward into space away from the Earth. (NASA Release 80-86) 

June 10: JSC said that a NASA board investigating the April 18 flash fire in 

a space suit backpack [see April 221 had found where the fire started and had 

recommended 11 changes to improve system safety. Apparently, when a 

167 
ASTRONAUTlCS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1980 

technician during a test in the crew systems laboratory switched the secondary 

oxygen pack to the “spacewalk” position, ignition occurred in a V-shaped 

passage restricting oxygen flow between a shutoff valve and a chamber in the 

pack’s regulator module. In the accident, which destroyed an unoccupied 

Shuttle space suit and life-support backpack, Hamilton Standard technician 

Robert A. Mayfield was severely burned but was recovering. 

After five weeks of engineering detective work (including more than 2,000 

unsuccessful attempts to reproduce the fire), the board had not found the exact 

cause, but reported to JSC Director Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., the four most 

probable causes of the fire: heating by compressioi~ or shock of a thin section 

of aluminum between the flow-restrictor passagt: and the adjacent cavity; 

heating by compression or shock of contaminants in the flow restrictor; 

heating of internal surfaces through mechanical shock from incoming highpressure oxygen, or heating of particles; similar heating of shutoff valve 0 

rings. The regulator module had undergone 19 cycles with high-pressure oxygen before the accident. The board found that all procedures followed during 

the April 18 test were proper. 

Technicians at JSC’s White Sands Test Facility could not duplicate the 

failure, although they cycled four regulator modules from the same factory 

batch 2,228’ times. Disassembly after the tests revealed contamination inside 

the modules. The board recommended redesign, design reviews, inspections, 

and collection of high-pressure oxygen data to establish standards for equipment design and use. (JSC Release 80-039; NASA Release 80-91) 

NASA reported award to United Space Boosters, Inc., subsidiary of United 

Technologies Corporation, of a contract for a two-ship recovery force to 

retrieve used Space Shuttle solid-fuel rocket boosten from the Atlantic Ocean. 

This supplemented a contract under which the firm assembled and processed 

solid-fuel rocket boosters for flight. The ships would locate and retrieve expended booster casings, parachutes, and other equipment from the Atlantic 

and deliver them to a disassembly facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The disassembly facility was on the eastern !shore of the Banana River, 

a shallow area where an endangered species, the !sea cow or manatee, made 

its home. The ships would use a 425-HP waterjet stern thruster instead of propellers that could maim or kill the manatees [see May 291. 

The ships, UTC Liberty and UP2 Freedom, were being built and would be 

delivered in October 1980 and January 1981; both would be used on each Shuttle mission, each retrieving one booster and its components. At liftoff, the 

boosters would bum simultaneously with the three-engine cluster on the Shuttle. After about two minutes they would be jettisoned and land in the Atlantic 

about 257 kilometers (160 miles) downrange from KSC, their descent being 

slowed by three parachutes on each casing. Each vessel would carry four 

parachute-rollers to handle the three main and single drogue parachutes on 

each booster and cranes to hoist aboard the collat1:ral flight equipment. The 

ships would carry equipment to plug the nozzles, pump water out of the cas168 
JUNE 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ings, and ready them for towing to the disassembly facility, where they would 

be cleaned and taken apart for shipment to Utah and reloading with solid-fuel 

propellant. Each casing could be used for up to 20 missions, reducing the cost 

of flight operations. The ships would also have sophisticated electronic communications and navigation gear such as radars, sonars, loran, direction 

finders, fathometers, and gyrocompasses. (NASA Release 80-89) 

DFRC reported that it and the FAA had resumed wake vortex flight tests 

using an L-1011 widebody jet transport. The wake produced by a widebody 

aircraft could be severe enough to delay takeoffs and landings at airports; 

planned time separations were in effect because the wake could upset other 

aircraft landing or taking off. Diminishing the wake vortex could reduce traffic congestion, with significant savings in fuel and time. 

Previous tests using a Boeing 747 [see October 29, 19791 showed that 

selected use of ailerons and spoilers on the aircraft could break up the vortex, 

an invisible flow of turbulent air streaming from flaps and wingtips in a tornado shape. Spoilers, normally used as speed brakes and to decrease 

aerodynamic lift after landing, would serve in flight to break up the vortex 

trailing from the flaps; ailerons, normally used for turning, would serve to 

break up the wing vortex. The L-1011 being tested was the Lockheed prototype 

with a direct-lift flight-control system using spoilers deflected upward at 8"; 

the proposed vortex alleviation system would not differ much from the system 

already in use on the L-1011. The tests would use a small highly instrumented 

NASA test aircraft for high-altitude recording of the L-1011 vortex, marked by 

smoke generators. (DFRC Release 80-7; NASA Release 80-92) 

The Wshington Star carried a Tass report that cosmonauts Vladimir Aksyonov and Yuri Malyshev had soft-landed in Central Asia after a visit to orbiting space station Salyut 6. The two were launched June 5 in a new transport 

vehicle called Soyuz T-2. Sulyut 6 had been occupied since April 9 by Leonid 

Popov and Valery Ryumin, who would probably remain in orbit to greet 

visitors to the Moscow Olympics, the dispatch said. (WStur, June 10/80, A-8) 

June U: UP1 reported that the 500-pound Mugsat that gathered data indicating 

that Earth's magnetic poles would reverse in 1,200 years had fallen into the 

Norwegian Sea between Greenland and Norway at 3:30 a.m. EDT. NASA 

said that no debris survived the plunge. NORAD said earlier that the reentry 

occurred northwest of Spain but later moved the location north. 

The Magsat program cost $19.7 million; project scientist Dr. Robert A. 

Langel said the findings predicting a magnetic reversal were only the first in 

a series expected as scientists from nine nations studied Magsat data. The 

magnetic-field reversal should have no bad effects, Langel said; reversals had 

occurred more than 130 times in Earth's history. Besides the United States, 

nations participating in the project were Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, 

169 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1980 

India, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. (U1?1-045, June 11/80; NASA 

Release 80-90) 

DFRC announced that the HiMAT (highly maneuverable aircraft 

technology) plane would fly again in mid-June after four months of modifications, scheduled during the rainy season when flooding would prevent landing 

the plane on a dry lakebed. Modifications included airframe, flight-control 

and instrumentation systems, and data link. The 3,400-pound craft had reached speeds up to 595 mph at altitudes to 40,000 feet and a maximum load factor 

of 4.5 grams. (DFRC Release 80-8) 

June 12: DFRC reported that an unmanned remotdy piloted vehicle crashed 

during a research flight, impacting a dry lakebecl north of the center. Airlaunched from a B-52 mother ship at 7:lO a.m. PDT, the small plane called 

DAST (drones for aerodynamic and structural testing) exhibited wingstructure problems about 10 minutes later. NASA was investigating. The 

DAST program, to demonstrate the control of wing flutter by advanced flightcontrol systems, used a remotely piloted vehicle that could be launched from 

a mother ship and flown through the maneuvers using telemetry from a pilot 

in a ground cockpit. The likelihood of structural damage during flight called 

for a safer and more economical way of testing advanced high-risk concepts. 

(DFRC Release 80-9) 

NASA announced that WFC would begin testing this month at the 

Manassas, Va., municipal airport an experimental computer-advisory system 

that would increase data available to pilots using small airports without control 

arrangements. Designed as an extension of the procedural system now in use 

at uncontrolled airports, the system would keep track of aircraft in the vicinity 

and supply pilots with air-traffic information. 

Computer-generated voice, radar, and weather-sensing information would 

automatically broadcast an airport advisory every 2 minutes and a traffic advisory every 20 seconds: the airport advisory woulcl offer an airport identifier, 

broadcast time, windspeed and direction, favored or active runway, altimeter 

setting, and ambient and dew-point temperature. ‘The traffic data would include the number of aircraft on each pattern, and position and heading of arriving or departing aircraft. Manassas was estimatcd to handle about 200,000 

operations (landings and takeoffs) yearly; the demonstration would allow 

pilots using the system in an uncontrolled high-density environment to 

evaluate its effectiveness. (NASA Release 80-88; ‘WFC Release 80-7) 

FBIS carried a Tokyo Kyodo story that Japan’s Space Development Council 

had decided that the failure last February of its Ayame 2 communications 

satellite was caused by malfunction of the apogee motor. The ground station 

lost contact with Ayame 2 three days after launch when engineers tried to fire 

the motor to put it into proper orbit. The council report called for domestic 

170 
JUNE 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

production of the apogee rocket and other major satellite components in 

future; the apogee motor had been made in the United States. (FBIS, Tokyo 

Kyodo in English, June 12/80) 

June 13: The House Committee on Science and Technology said that its subcommittees on space science and applications and on natural resources and 

environment would hold hearings June 24-25 on administration plans to 

develop a Landsat remote-sensing system with private-sector participation. 

(House anno 96-204) 

The Washington Post reported that Rep. Bruce Vento (D-Minn.) had called 

for congressional investigation of the Navy’s new F-18 jet fighter, claiming the 

multibillion-dollar project was in “deep financial and technical trouble.” The 

F-18 was the biggest single item in the military budget now before Congress; 

despite critical reports, Vento said the project had “eluded congressional 

scrutiny.” 

The GAO, Congress’s investigative arm, in February reported that the F-18’s 

planned performance had been reduced and various problems remained uncorrected. GAO said that during its investigation at Navy, DOD, and contractor facilities “we were not granted access to information we felt critical to our 

evaluation.” Vento pointed out that the GAO report received little official 

notice and said that he had “startling information” as a result of his own investigation. In the past 15 months alone, he said, F-18 costs increased $10.9 

billion, and the Pentagon was talking a $32.8 billion total cost for the project 

previously estimated at $24 billion. (W Post, June 13/80, A-16) 

June 16: MSFC reported that the last of the three main engines scheduled for 

flight on the Columbia had successfully completed its second flightacceptance test with an 8-minute 40-second test run that exceeded the time required to put a Shuttle into orbit. Engine no. 2007 underwent throttling and 

gimbaling during the test to show its ability to change speed and direction after 

liftoff, The other two engines (2005 and 2006) had completed their second 

acceptance tests June 2 and 5, respectively. Although the engines had 

undergone acceptance test firings last year, modifications made since that time 

had led NASA to retest them. Successful retest also demonstrated the on-line 

component replacement that would be required in repeated reuse. Testing of 

associated main propulsion equipment would continue at NSTL. (MSFC 

Release 80-86) 

The Washington Post reported that heat-resistant tiles on Columbia had survived without damage a critical test June 14 simulating separation of the giant 

fuel tank. Engineers scanned the tiles for 10 hours and were “all pretty 

ecstatic,” said a NASA spokesman, adding that they would spend the next few 

days evaluating results of the “pyrotechnic shock test” before pronouncing it 

a complete success. Dr. Robert Gray, project office manager, said previous 

171 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1980 

simulations had damaged Shuttle tiles; “if there are no major problems, we 

could launch our first flight in February,” he added. (WPost, June 16/80, A-11) 

NASA reported that its five-year-old Landsat 2 spacecraft, after nearly six 

months of inaction, was restored to service through “intensive efforts” by 

engineers at GSFC. Problems had developed November 5, 1979, when the 

yaw-attitude flywheel in the Landsat’s Earth-pointing system stopped functioning, probably because of a lubrication breakdown. The attitude-control 

system could not keep the spacecraft sufficiently stabilized to acquire pictures 

of Earth, or keep the solar panels facing the Sun to collect enough energy for 

operation. 

The spacecraft was “retired” on its fifth birthday, January 22, 1980, but 

GSFC engineers began trying to use magnetic compensation operating 

without either the flywheel or the control-system gas, which had been 

depleted. Magnetic control required defining the spacecraft’s magnetic 

characteristics in order to plot interaction with Earth’s magnetic field. As the 

spacecraft had no system for direct measurement of yaw attitude, engineers 

had to find a way to use the solar-array output, which varied with the 

spacecraft’s attitude and its latitude position relative to Earth. 

On May 5, 1980, apparently as a result of redistribution of the lubricant, 

the flywheel responded to an ON command and started running again, and 

the attitude-control system was once more able to keep the spacecraft pointed 

properly toward the Earth and Sun. However, lack of gas required use of the 

magnetic system to keep roll and yaw flywheels in a safe range. 

Experience gained in magnetic control of attitude was applied to controlling 

wheel speeds without delays in development. Thl. GSFC engineers believed 

that this new procedure would let Landsat 2 operate almost at previous capacity, although this would be limited to readout since the tape recorders were not 

functioning. The return to operational status was important because the 

multispectral scanner, principal Earth-imaging device, would again provide 

data to three U.S. and nine foreign sites, supplementing operations of Landsat 

3. (NASA Release 80-94) 

June 17: ESA reported the complete engine D that malfunctioned May 23 during the launch of Ariane LO2 had been located the morning of June 16 about 

5 kilometers south of the Iles du Salut off French Guiana, and brought to the 

surface early in the afternoon. It was in good condition, capable of being subjected to a thorough inspection. Engineers from CNES (Centre National 

d’Etudes Spatiales) and SEP (Societe Europeenne de Propulsion) dismantled 

it at the Ariane launch site and would send it tci SEP’s facility at Vernon, 

France, with propulsion elements of the other engines that had been 

recovered, B entirely and A and C partially (serv’omotors and turbopumps). 

Working groups studying launch data would report their results at the end of 

June; a schedule of further test flights would not be set up until then. (ESA 

Info 16) 
JUNE 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The Washington Post reported that demonstrators trying to keep Howard 

Hughes’s Spruce Goose from being carved up rallied at its hanger Saturday, 

June 14, to voice concern about sending parts of the plane to museums. Summa Corporation, the Hughes holding company, said that it would go ahead 

with plans to dismantle the plane in two weeks: A spokesman for the Committee to Save the Hughes Flying Boat said the group had received no replies 

from corporations it asked to donate the $750,000 needed to keep the plane 

in one piece. (W Post, June 17/80, B-3) 

MSFC reported selection of two firms, Grumman Aerospace and the Harris 

Corporation, to negotiate parallel contracts for concept-definition studies of 

a deployable space antenna [see April 151. MSFC would demonstrate use of 

such an antenna flown in low Earth orbit until completion of definition studies 

by the two firms. (MSFC Release 80-87) 

The Washington Post reported that Great Britain’s postal service June 17 

became the first international public service to send letters by satellite. Intelpost, the new system, used a satellite 25,000 miles above Earth to send 

documepts and letters by facsimile, an electronic means of transmitting the 

written word from one place to another. The first letter using the new system 

took just over 1 minute to get from Great Britain’s Post Office chainnandesignate Ron Dearing to a receiving center in Toronto. (W Post, June 18/80, 

c-2) 

June 23: INTELSAT announced election of Irving Goldstein, previously vice 

chairman of its board of directors, to be chairman succeeding Randolph Payne 

of Australia. Goldstein, U.S. signatory in the organization, had been working 

with the board since its formation in 1973. He was vice president and general 

manager for international communications of ComSatCorp, responsible for 

activities including planning, installation, and operation of ground stations using the INTELSAT system. (INTELSAT Release 80-10-1) 

June 24: INTELSAT said that its board meeting in Bogota approved use of 

time-division multiple-access equipment with its global communications 

satellite system; the new devices, to be installed in the 198Os, would offer three 

times more telephone channels on INTELSAT satellites than available from 

frequency-modulation (FM) equipment now in use. (INTELSAT Release 

80-11-1) 

ESA said that the six groups investigating the malfunction at the Ariane LO2 

launch ended four weeks of study on one of the four first-stage engines. They 

reported that the suspect engine recovered from the sea [see June 171 had a 

foreign body at the injector level: an identification plate was found near the 

injection orifices, and they were trying to determine if it was there at launch 

or got there during the engine’s immersion in the sea. 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1980 

Analysis of engine noise showed differences from results recorded at 

ground tests in Europe; also, engine start-up parameters (combustion-pressure 

build-up time) showed abnormal dispersions, but researchers had not been 

able to link them to observed phenomena. ESA said that the LO3 test flight 

originally set for November 1980 might not occur until February 1981, and 

the fourth test flight by midyear, to qualify the rocket for operational launch. 

(ESA Info Bltn 17) 

June 25: NASA reported that MSFC had chosen Ball Aerospace Division to 

negotiate a $9.5 million contract for design, development, and manufacture 

of a chemical release module for use in the first large-scale controlled investigations of dynamic phenomena outside Earth’s atmosphere. Information 

on such processes in Earth‘s magnetosphere, ionosphere, and upper atmosphere was hard to obtain because the areas were so enormous and the 

dynamic activity was invisible. 

Scheduled for mid-1983 launch on the Space Shuttle, the self-contained 

free-flying module would release in space chemical elements that would absorb sunlight and reflect distinctive colors; other chemicals would glow when 

reacting with oxygen particles in the upper atmosphere. Motion of atoms and 

ions colored in this way could be tracked. During the module’s six-month 

lifetime, it would make 20 to 30 chemical releases for visual, camera, and 

radar observation. (NASA Release 80-99; MSFC Release 80-89) 

June 26: NASA announced that scientists studying data from Heao 2 had confirmed the emission of X-rays from Jupiter, making the giant planet the only 

one besides Earth to produce X-rays. Heao 2, launched November 13, 1978, 

carried a focusing X-ray telescope with four different instruments that could 

be positioned at the focus, including the imaging proportional counter used 

to view Jupiter. Dr. Albert Metzger of JPL, leader of the scientific team making the discovery, reported it to a meeting of the American Astronomical 

Society at the University of Maryland last week. 

The X-ray find indicated the power needed by the intense radiation belts in 

the Jovian magnetosphere: from the brightness observed, scientists said that 

energetic electrons in the system emitted nearly a (quadrillion watts of power. 

To maintain the radiation belts, an equal amount of power had to come from 

the planet’s rotational energy and the force of the solar wind. Also, energetic 

ions and electrons impacting the surfaces of satellites orbiting inside the Jovian radiation belt might also produce X rays; observing those X rays might 

help determine the composition of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. 

(NASA Release 80-98) 

MSFC announced that it would mark its 20th anniversary July 1 with an 

assembly honoring the 1,039 “charter members” who had been there since its 

founding. In 1960, the Development Operations Division of the Army’s 

Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) became the nucleus of a center belonging 

1 74 
JUNE 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

to the space agency founded in 1958, bringing to NASA property worth hundreds of millions of dollars and a staff headed by Dr. Wernher von Braun, the 

center’s first director. President Eisenhower had decided to name the center 

after George C. Marshall, five-star general, Secretary of State, and winner of 

the Nobel Peace Prize, an appropriate name for an organization devoted to 

peaceful uses of space. (MSFC Release 80-92) 

June 27: A panel of the NRC said that the FAA had lost the engineering expertise to say whether airplanes were safe and waited until accidents occurred 

before seelung regulations that might have prevented them. 

Both the Washington Post and the Washington Star reported a briefing by 

panel chairman George M. Low, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 

and former deputy administrator of NASA. “The FAA engineering staff today 

is considerably less competent than the engineering they regulate,” Low told 

the press. The latest of a series of studies of the crash of an American Airlines 

DC-10 in Chicago May 25, 1979, that killed 273 people, the panel study was 

sought by Transportation Secretary Neil Goldschmidt, who said he had 

ordered an immediate analysis of the panel’s findings “with the intent of putting into effect promptly any recommendations that will improve our procedures.” 

The Chicago accident was blamed on improper maintenance procedures by 

American Airlines, but a contributing cause was found to be the plane’s 

design. The panel said that the FAA relied too much on manufacturers and 

was performing “only a cursory review” of industry tests; FAA officials 

charged with supervising manufacturers and airlines had “gotten too close to 

their industry counterparts, weakening their independence and objectivity.” 

The panel recommended reassignment of officials on a periodic basis to 

work with different manufacturers and airlines. It also recommended new 

licensing and training certification rules for airline and airplane mechanics 

“more like those for aircraft flight crews.” FAA should require aircraft to be 

designed to continue flying after any structural failure unless the failure would 

prevent flight, such as loss of a wing. In the Chicago crash, an engine mount 

had ripped from the plane, destroying vital controls in the cockpit; the mount, 

certified as safe, would not have. failed except for maintenance-induced 

damage. Asked if the DC-10 would have survived if the proposed rule had 

been in effect, Low replied “Yes.” (W Post, June 27/80, 1A; W Star, June 

26/80, A-1) 

JSC reported that its engineers were working on automated ways to fabricate 

in space the beams and trusses needed in space construction projects of the 

future. Recently arrived on center was a truss such as a “beam builder” in 

space would form, the product of three years of analysis, design, and testing 

at General Dynamics-Convair Division. JSC engineers would begin 

evaluating it in July using a hydraulic cylinder to apply various loads to 

measure stiffness and strength of the truss. (JSC Release 80-040) 

1 75 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1980 

June 30: NASA announced that MSFC had awarded a $230 million cost-plusaward-fee contract to Martin Marietta Aerospace for full-scale production of 

Space Shuttle external tanks, the only part of the Shuttle not recovered for 

reuse. Martin Marietta had an earlier contract foI design, development, and 

delivery of nine tanks-three test articles and six flight articles-for Shuttle 

test flights. 

The new contract, for delivery of 7 flight tanks to support Shuttle operating 

missions, included long lead-time procurement of components and 

subassemblies for 5 additional tanks and raw material for 24 other additional 

tanks. Manufacturing of the external tanks would take place at NASA’s 

Michoud assembly facility. (NASA Release 80-100; MSFC Release 80-90) 

-MSFC announced that it planned to reduce the weight of the Shuttle external tank by 6,000 pounds, a change that could increase the Shuttle’s 

payload-carrying capability by about the same amount. The center amended 

its tank design and development contract with Martin Marietta, adding more 

than $42.9 million to cover the weight-reduction effort and modify tools used 

in future production. The change would affect tank:, built under a new contract 

for full-scale tank production to support operational Shuttle launches. The 

first lightweight external tank would be delivered in the summer of 1982. 

(MSFC Release 80-93; NASA Release 80-102) 

In an editorial headed “Shuttle at the Crossroads,” Aviation Week & Spuce 

Technology reviewed the delays and difficulties besetting NASA’s program, 

starting with the budget problem in Congress. The first flight, now set for early 1981, would be two years behind schedule, and “even that date may keep 

on slipping.” Technical problems other than tiles included retest of the first 

set of flight-rated engines “over objections of technical management but with 

the endorsement of the flight crew.” NASA’s dilemma in risk assessment was 

real, particularly because of the tile problem. Aviation Week & Space 

Technology said: “Loss or damage to one of the clrbiters of its limited fleet, 

not to mention of a crew, could decimate public support and disrupt operations 

of the shuttle program. On the other hand, at some point fairly soon NASA’s 

top management is going to have to decide that risk has been reduced to a 

reasonable minimum, draw a deep breath and commit to first flight.” (Avwk, 

June 30/80, 9) 

During June: Republic Airlines said June 9 that its representatives had signed 

a pact with Summa Corporation and the estate of Howard R. Hughes, Jr., 

under which it would purchase Hughes Airwest for $38.5 million. Acquisition 

would occur next fall, if legal and other regulatory problems were solved. (W 

Star, June 10/80, C-10) 

United Airlines began a six-month test June 11 of air-to-ground telephone 

service for passengers, using a standard 12-button wall model installed on one 

of the airline’s DC-10s. The firm was conducting the test with Sky-Tel, a subI 76 
JUNE 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

sidiary of Page-America. The caller would press buttons for connection with 

the ground station nearest to flight path, where an operator would place the 

call. The charge would be $10 plus cost of the call. (WPost, June 11/80, B-2) 

The FCC authorized the ComSatCorp to begin construction of a $15 million 

ground station on Saipan, in the western Pacific Ocean, to bring the first 

satellite communications to the northern Mariana Islands. The ComSatCorpowned and -operated station would provide direct communications between 

the northern Marianas and the United States, Hawaii, Guam, Japan, and other 

points in the Pacific. (W Star, June 12/80, B-7) 

FBIS carried Tass reports on the continuing flight of Salyur 6 with its international crew, Bertalan Farkas of Hungary and Valery Kubasov, workmg with 

longtime occupants Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin. Preparing Soyuz 35 for 

return to Earth, the cosmonauts carried into it containers of materials on 

which research had been completed: exposed rolls of film, space navigation 

charts, flight logs, biological objects, and substances produced in materials 

experiments. Used-up equipment would be taken into the “living compartment.” The crew had shot a film about their joint operations, including 

development of plants in weightlessness and production of metal alloys and 

castings. 

Tass reported June 3 that the descent module of Soyuz 35 had landed safely 

near Dzhezkazgan and that the Intercosmos crew were well. The Soyuz 36 that 

took them to Sulyut 6 was still attached to it; on June 4, the Salyut 6 crew 

moved Soyuz 36 to the other docking port to make room for another craft. On 

June 5 at 1719 Moscow time the Soviet Union launched Soyuz T-2 carrying Lt. 

Col. Yuri Malyshev and, as flight engineer, veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Aksyonov, tenth crew to visit Salyut 6 since its launch. An unmanned Soyuz T 

launched in December 1979 had docked with Sulyut 6 and remained for more 

than three months, testing new automated features. Before docking with Salyut 

6, the crew turned the Soyuz toward the Sun to test its solar batteries, one of 

the new features. 

On June 6 Soyuz T-2 docked with Sulyut 6 at 1858 Moscow time. Tass said 

that the approach was automated up to within 180 meters, after which it was 

controlled by the crew. Konstantin Feoktistov explained that “earlier, during 

manual approach the station was. . .automatically aligned with the ship and 

was always directed toward it with its docking unit. . . [the crew] regulated the 

longitudinal speed and made sure that it went in straight. This time the station 

was immobile: the craft approached from the side. . . A quarter turn was made 

around the station and it came on to the axis level. The manual control system 

worked well. We think the crew was even better.” Later reports mentioned a 

malfunction of some automated part and the need for an unplanned manual 

docking. 

The visiting cosmonauts performed “dynamic operations” including a 

photographic turn around the station, which had not been possible before. 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1980 

After a four-day mission, Malyshev and Aksyoncw undocked Soyuz T-2 June 

9 and returned to the spot near Dzhezkazgan where the previous Soyuz crew 

landed. Popov and Ryumin remained in Salyut 6, ,which logged its thousandth 

day of flight June 24. Progress 10 was launched June 29. (FBIS, Tass in 

English, June 1-29/80; NY Ernes, June 10/80, C-2; A/D, June 10/80, 219; 

AvWk, June 23/80, 18) 

178 
July I: NASA announced selection of General Electric Space Division, 

Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, RCA Astro-Electronics, and 

Rockwell International to negotiate 9-month $750,000 fixed-price contracts for 

parallel definition studies of alternate ways to implement the NOSS. Studies 

would include flight segments, ground segments, and orbit operations. 

NOSS would acquire ocean-surface data for delivery to selected users in 

weather and sea-ice forecasting, climate research, fisheries management, and 

ocean acoustic-propagation predictions. A large free-flying high-inclination 

spacecraft carrying a coastal-zone color scanner, scatterometer, altimeter, and 

large-antenna multichannel microwave radiometer would measure the ocean’s 

emitted and reflective energy in radio, infrared, and visible frequencies to 

satisfy both civilian and defense needs. DOC’S NOAA and DOD would 

cooperate in the NOSS program with NASA, which had given GSFC project 

responsibility. (NASA Release 80-103) 

July 2:INTELSAT said that its board of governors meeting in Bogota last week 

had made decisions that would determine the course of international communications satellite system development for the decade. INTELSAT would 

purchase key items needed for a ninth Intelsat V series satellite; order from 

NASA three more Atlas Centaur launch vehicles with improved capability; 

procure from the ESA two more Ariane launch vehicles; and define specifications for an improved satellite, Intelsat V-A, and a high-capacity satellite to 

be called Intelsat VI. INTELSAT would spend more than U.S. $230 million, 

said W. Wood, deputy director general for operations and development. (INTELSAT Release 80-12-1) 

July ?NASA said that it had agreed with ESA to let two European scientists 

enter tfie mission-specialist training program for Shuttle astronauts at JSC [see 

May 301. The Europeans, Claude Nicollier of Switzerland and Wubbo Ockels 

of the Netherlands, were both ESA employees and, as Spacelab 1 payloadspecialist candidates, had undergone a screening and selection process like 

that of U.S. candidates. NASA agreed to train them in view of Spacelab delay 

and in recognition of ESA’s contribution to the STS in funding Spacelab 

development; ESA would reimburse NASA for the cost of training the two. 

(NASA Release 89-106; ESA Info 19) 

July 8:WFC observed the 35th anniversary of the launch on July 4, 1945, of 

its first research rocket, a 17-foot Tiamat. Since it became a rocket range, 

Wallops Island had seen the launch of about 12,000 research vehicles of from 

179 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1980 

1 to 7 stages, sent as high as 19,000 miles above the Atlantic at speeds over 

38,000 mph, and the launch of 19 satellites. From Wallops, rhesus monkeys 

Sam and Miss Sam rode into space on a Little Joe booster in 1959-60 to test 

the Mercury spacecraft before Alan Shepard took it into space; first test of 

the Echo balloon also occurred here. 

Early research at Wallops collected aerodynamic data at transonic and low 

supersonic speeds as part of the push to break thie sound barrier; today, the 

launches gathered data on space, aeronautics, and characteristics of aerospace 

flight and tested ideas and devices for future spaceflight. 

NASA’s predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for 

Aeronautics (NACA), put its Pilotless Aircraft R,esearch Station on Wallops 

Island under the direction of LaRC; its mission was aeronautical research to 

supplement wind-tunnel and laboratory work at LaRC. When NASA came into being in 1958 and took over LaRC and other field centers and research 

facilities, it put the Wallops station directly under NASA Headquarters and 

renamed it Wallops Flight Center in 1974. (WFC Release 80-8) 

NASA had no plans to carry tourists into outer space, the Washington Star 

said, even though its offices around the United Slates had floods of requests 

for rides since the Space Shuttle project was unveiled in 1977. At least 15,000 

people had tried to book seats, and 1,200 new requests arrived each week. 

“Non-astronauts may be aboard some missions to conduct experiments,” said 

Chester M. Lee, NASA’s director of space transportation systems, “but we’re 

not ready to book tourists. There is absolutely no provision or thought for 

non-working passengers.” (W Star, July 8/80, A-2) 

July 9:JPL reported that Viking orbiter 1, after more than four years of circling Mars, was reaching the end of its mission. JPL would command it off 

some time between July 23 and 30 after it had exhausted the attitude-control 

gas that kept its solar panels pointed at the Sun and its antenna toward Earth. 

A controlled burn during that time would change its orbit to fulfill planetary 

quarantine requirements, avoiding impact with-a nd contamination of-Mars 

before the year 2019. The orbiter would keep obsei-ving until commanded off, 

and thereafter circle Mars for decades in silence 

Viking I launched toward Mars in August 1975 arrived there June 19, 1976. 

Its lander reached Mar’s surface July 20 with a planned 90-day lifetime but 

on July 20, 1980, would have observed the planet for more than two full Mars 

years (four Earth years) and would operate unati.ended on Mars into 1990, 

perhaps into 1994. The orbiter and lander of Eking 2 had been commanded 

off on July 24, 1978 and April 11, 1980, respectively. Fewer than 30 people 

at JPL remained in Viking operations and data processing. (JPL Release 940; 

NASA Release 80-108) 

MSFC’s Marshall Starreported the return of Shuttle main engines 2005 and 

2007 from NSTL to KSC after modification and testing. The third engine 

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JULY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

(2006) of the cluster scheduled to power orbiter Columbia in its first flight 

was still at NSTL. NASA had called for retest after the engines were modified 

on the basis of flight readiness tests last year. (Marshall Star, July 9/80, 2) 

Jury 10:ESA announced that its science program committee had approved a 

major space first: sending a spacecraft to Halley’s comet. The mission, called 

Giotto, would send a spacecraft derived from the Goes design through the 

comet in 1986 at a speed of 70 kilometers. Objective of the mission would be 

to measure the substances (atmospheric, ionized particles, and dust) from the 

coma boiling off the nucleus under the effect of solar heating and to 

photograph the nucleus with an on-board camera. The payload would consist 

mainly of the camera and spectrometers for measuring atomic composition. 

The Giotto mission was named for the “Adoration of the Magi” scene in 

a fresco in Padua’s Arena Chapel done by Florentine artist Giotto di Bondone. 

The sky in the Adoration scene shows Halley’s comet, which made one of its 

periodic 76-year appearances in 1301; Giotto was thus able to use it as a model 

for the Bethlehem star in his painting, completed in 1304. The fresco might 

be called the first scientific description of Halley’s comet. (ESA Info 20) 

July 1I:NASA reported award of an $8.5 million contract to Thiokol Corporation for Caster IV auxiliary motors for the Delta launch vehicle, part of a 

fixed-price supplement to an existing contract being negotiated with Thiokol 

for 63 of these motors at an estimated price of $20.9 million, all to be 

delivered to the KSC launch site by the end of 1982. 

The Wall Street Journal commented that the “old-fashioned” liquid-fuel 

Delta rockets had long served to put vehicles into space, and its job was to 

have been taken over by the reusable Shuttle. But the Shuttle was two years 

behind schedule, so that NASA had to buy more solid-fuel Castors to help 

with the extended schedule of Delta launches. (NASA Release 80-110; WSJ, 

July 11/80, 3) ’ 

July 14:MSFC reported that a planned 542-second test July 12 of the threeengine cluster for Shuttle’s main propulsion system lasted only 106 seconds 

because of fire indication in the aft compartment of the orbiter simulator. Up 

to cutoff, all engines and other parts of the propulsion system apparently 

worked normally, including completion of the scheduled gimbaling and throttling of the engine. About 45 seconds of the firing reached 102% of rated 

thrust, first time for the cluster at this performance level. Inspection after the 

test showed a small hole in the no. 3 engine’s fuel preburner that allowed burning gas to escape into the area above the heatshield containing the powerheads. 

Damage was confined to the one engine, with none to the facility or the rest 

of the test article, MSFC engineers said. 

The damaged engine would probably be returned to the manufacturer, 

Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International at Canoga Park, Calif., for inspection and repair. A committee headed by Dr. Herman Thompson, deputy 

181 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1980 

director of the science and engineering directorate at MSFC, was appointed 

to find the cause of the accident; no date would be set for further testing until 

the committee made its report. (MSFC Release 610-97; NASA Release 80-113) 

ComsatCorp said that it had signed a contract with MultiVisions, Ltd., of 

Anchorage for the first commercial use of a new 10-meter multiple-beam torus 

antenna, a revolutionary design allowing a user to work with as many as seven 

geosynchronous satellites at the same time. The usual parabolic dish antenna 

could work with only one satellite at a time. 

The torus, scheduled to be in operation in Anchorage next year, would be 

equipped initially to receive television programs from three satellites 

simultaneously. With three dual-polarization receive-only feeds, the new 

antenna could receive up to 72 different programs from 72 different 

transponders from U.S. domestic satellites, and additional feeds would provide even greater capacity. Where access to more than one satellite was needed, the torus would be cheaper both to build and to operate than the two or 

more conventional antennas that would usually be required. It would also 

reduce the amount of real estate needed for several parabolic antennas and the 

amount of interference in congested frequency areas (of which Anchorage was 

one). ComSatCorp had asked the FCC for permission to locate torus antennas 

at Etam, W. Va., Andover, Maine, and Jamesburg, Calif. (ComSatCorp 

Release 80-30) 

INTELSAT announced that Guinea became: the 105th member in a 

ceremony at the U.S. State Department when Ambassador Mamady Lamine 

Conde signed the operating agreement. Guinea planned to operate a ground 

station using the Intelsat spacecraft located over the Indian Ocean. (INTELSAT Release 80-15-1) 

July I5:The Wall Street Journal said that ESA uould go ahead with a $125 

million probe of Halley’s comet because original plans for a $370-$470 million 

joint mission with NASA had become impossible due to U.S. budget cuts. The 

original plan called for launch of a Space Shuttle that would have sent a 

satellite to Halley’s as well as to Tempe1 2, a comet much farther out in space. 

NASA had to scrub the two-comet mission because it couldn’t get the 

money for a new kind of space engine to make the flight; the Wall Street Journal said that it was still studying a stopgap plan to use an old-fashioned rocket 

to shoot a spacecraft past Halley’s when it approached Earth. ESA now planned to put up a 750-pound satellite, Giotto [see July IO], from Kourou in July 

1985 to rendezvous with Halley’s in March 1986. (WSJ, July 15/80, 30) 

July l7:The Washingron Star reported that discovery of a “serious potential 

safety defect” in the nation’s most widely used jet engine had led the FAA to 

order mandatory inspections for two-thirds of the short- and medium-range 

commercial jetliners in the United States. The en,gine was standard on three 

182 
JULY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

major planes: the medium-range Boeing ?27, with three engines, and two 

short-range planes with two engines each, the Boeing 737 and the McDonnell 

Douglas DC-9. Each FAA-ordered inspection on a Pratt & Whitney JT8D 

engine would take 170 hours to disassemble it to the point where it could be 

checked. Some of the engines were nearly new; others had been serving for 

several years: a JT8D would normally be retired after 20,000 cycles in service. 

When a Hawaiian Airline DC-9 blew up on takeoff at Honolulu June 15, 

FAA inspection revealed that a portion of the engine was subject to metal 

fatigue and failure because of the factory machining of the metal. No serious 

injuries occurred in the Hawaii incident. However, random FAA checking 

showed that other planes equipped with JT8D engines had cracks in the same 

engine spot as the Hawaii plane. The potential flaw in the engines was the 

eighth compressor hub, a 591-pound wheel with an array of blades located in 

the middle of the 3,000- to 4,000 pound engine. Each engine had 13 compressor hubs, each with a successively smaller set of fans to collect air and 

force it through smaller areas into the fuel-combustion chamber. Machining 

of a flange on the eighth compressor hub was ground against the grain of the 

metal, putting unusual strain on that part. FAA spokesman Dennis Feldman 

could not estimate the cost of the inspection programs, thought to be in tens 

of millions of dollars; nor could he give any definitive answer as to whether 

the manufacturer or the airline would have to cover the cost. (W Star, July 

17/80, A-1) 

July 18: Newspapers reported the launch at 8:04 a.m. local time of the 

771-pound.Rohini I by India’s space research organization (ISRO), making India the sixth country in the world to build and launch its own satellite. Rohini 

1 was launched from Sriharikota Island near Madras on a four-stage SLV-3 

solid-fuel rocket into an orbit with a 919-kilometer apogee, 306-kilometer 

perigee, 44.7” inclination, and 97-minute period. “This is a great day for India,’’ said Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who estimated the cost of the launch 

vehicle at $25.2 million. 

The Washington Post said that the launch was remarkable “for a country 

that still used bullock carts as a prime mode of transportation.” Despite its 

poverty, India had the world’s third largest pool of technically trained personnel. Dr. Satish Dhawan, head of ISRO, said that the successful launch would 

pave the waya3for liquid-fuel rockets carrying larger payloads up to 1,300 

pounds. India’s 17-year-old space program had had setbacks, including a 

failure in August 1979, when its rocket dropped into the Bay of Bengal about 

5 seconds after liftoff because the second stage failed to ignite. Launch of 

Rohini “underscored India’s place as the most powerful nation of the South 

Asian subcontinent,” said the Washington Post. (W Post, July 19/80, A-13; W 

Star, July 19/80, 4; NASA Dly Acrv Rpt, July 21/80) 

Since Mt. St. Helens erupted May 18, NASA reported what it called the 

most complete observations to date of volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere. 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1980 

Large volcanic eruptions had previously changed Earth’s weather (short-term) 

and climate (long-term). ARC had collected M!t. St. Helen’s data for its 

aerosol climate effects (ACE) program, using the U-2 aircraft in sampling 

missions on May 19, 22, and 27, and June 14 and 17. 

A preliminary analysis of the volcanic plumes showed solid ash and sulfuric 

acid, the proportions varying in different samples. The acid in the stratosphere 

was several hundred. times greater than before the eruptions. The first flight 

found ash particles as large as 30 microns, of composition similar to ash on 

the ground near the volcano. (Largest particles .Found on later flights were 

about 3 microns.) Gaseous sulfur dioxide also increased: levels on the first 

flight were 10 to 1,000 times ambient levels, and on the second flight were 100 

times normal. The second flight found water vapor in the plume to be 10 times 

the normal amount, showing that volcanic water was injected into the 

stratosphere. A July 1979 ACE flight over Alaska g.we baseline levels for comparison with conditions after the eruption. 

On the day of the eruption, one of NASA’s SAGE teams in Wyoming launched instruments on a balloon to enter and measure the dust plume; it detected 

dust concentrations 400 to 1,600 times normal in tihe stratosphere. The SAGE 

satellite launched in 1979 tracked the Mt. St. Helens’ clouds as it had those 

of two previous eruptions. WFC sent an Orion P-3 a plane on an 

“underflight” as the cloud went over North Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean, 

along with a Super Loki rocket; these flights gave scientists simultaneous data 

readings from above and below the atmosphere. Bj, late June, LaRC scientists 

decided that, although Mt. St. Helens could h.ave boosted stratospheric 

aerosols by 50%, there was as yet no sign of adverse climate change. (ARC 

Release 80-62; NASA Release 80-107) 

July 22:NASA unveiled the first scientific and applications payload for the 

STS (Shuttle) at GSFC’s clean room, where instruments were installed in the 

package planned as an alternate payload on orbital test flight 4, scheduled for 

April 1982. (Prime payload for this flight belonged to DOD.) Called OSS-1 

for NASA’s Office of Space Science, the entire payload was designed, built, 

tested, and integrated by a team of GSFC engineers and scientists headed by 

Ken Kissin, OSS-1 mission manager, and Jon Busse, project manager for 

Shuttle payload integration and rocket experiments. Project scientists were 

Drs. Siegfried Bauer and Werner Neupert. The seven principal OSS-1 experiments were in the disciplines of space plasma physics, solar physics, 

astronomy, and life sciences, each represented by one or more instruments. 

(NASA Release 80-114, 80-117) 

NASA announced that a sunspot hotline set up at GSFC would keep the 

public informed about solar flares during the 1980 peak cycle of activity. Daily 

recorded messages would contain information on sunspots, solar flares, 

geomagnetic storms, and the impact of solar activily on radio transmissions, 

for instance. The recordings provided jointly by NASA and NOAA through 

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JULY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

its space environment services center in Boulder, Colo., would originate in 

the SMM facility at GSFC. The “Solar Max” spacecraft launched February 

14 was an orbiting solar observatory carrying seven instruments whose data, 

coordinated with data from scientists at ground-based observatories 

throughout the world, would permit the most comprehensive investigation of 

solar flares ever made. Information from these sources would be relayed to 

GSFC on a 24-hour basis so that NASA scientists could determine which active regions of the Sun to study during the next 24 hours. (NASA Release 

80-116) 

July 23:The Soviet Union launched Soyuz flat 9:33 p.m. Moscow time, carrying Col. Viktor Gorbatko and a 33-year-old Vietnamese air force pilot, Lt. 

Col. Pham Tuan, first Asian space traveler and sixth citizen of an eastem-bloc 

country to be part of the USSR’s Intercosmos program. The Soyuz would link 

up within 24 hours with the orbiting Salyut 6 space station where Leonid 

Popov and Valery Ryumin had been working for more than three months. The 

Salyut’s docking port had been cleared July 19 by jettisoning cargo ship Progress 10, which burned up reentry. (W Post, July 24/80, A-15; Today, July 

24/80, L4; W Star, July 20180, 2; July 24/80, A-7) 

Forthright criticism of Carter-administration space policy came from Rocco 

A. Petrone, former director of MSFC, and Dr. Thomas A. Paine, who was 

NASA administrator during the early manned lunar landing years, the Huntsville Emes reported. The two testified July 23 before the House Committee 

on Science and Technology’s subcommittee on space science and applications. 

Committee chairman Don Fuqua (D-Fla.) and ranking minority member 

Larry Winn (R-Kans.) both expressed support of the NASA veterans; Winn 

remarked that it was :“like old timers’ day up here.” Under Carter, Paine said, 

the U.S. had “lost both our senses of direction and our resolution. . .Ringing 

rhetoric proclaiming U.S. leadership in space is no substitute for plans and 

programs. In my view it is self-delusive to give lip service to leadership while 

avoiding initiative and commitment.” 

Petrone said the usual pause for evaluation after a large program like the 

lunar mission “is now becoming dangerously close to a condition of stall and 

possible loss of minimum momentum needed” for complex space programs. 

He expressed concern over “technological timidity in a nation that has been 

built over the years on technological strength.” (Htsvl Tms, July 24/80, 6) 

July 25:A rescue training exercise at KSC was about to begin: a mock-up of 

the Space Shuttle was set down in a pond, and the rescue team was ready to 

practice its procedures in case the Shuttle overshot the runway upon its return 

to launch site and landed in the drink. Then, Fat Albert rose from the pond 

and lumbered up to Sun himself about 10 feet from the mock-up. The test was 

halted until wildlife officers arrived on the scene. 

Fat Albert, a local alligator, used to share lunches with KSC employees until 

185 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1980 

(so it is said) he ate an employee’s tennis shoe right off his foot. The wildlife 

officers who lassoed and carried away the alligator weighed him (1,OO pounds) 

and measured him (13 feet, 9 inches). With Fat Albert gone, the maneuver 

continued: the rescue team dropped from a helicopter into the pond and 

rescued two dummy astronauts from the mock-up. (JSC Roundup, July 

25/80, 1) 

July 28:NASA reported on a solar-flare “first” resulting from coordination 

of data from the Solar Max spacecraft and from a network of sophisticated 

ground observatories participating in the International Solar Maximum Year. 

On the basis of worldwide predictions, instruments on the Solar Max and 

at observatories in 18 nations had focused on an active region of the Sun June 

24. On June 28-29, that region produced two m,3jor flares, captured by all 

seven spacecraft instruments (first all-instrument simultaneous measurement 

of the same flare since the spacecraft was launched in February). The observation was also the first in which scientists traced material ejected from a flare 

into the solar atmosphere. (NASA Release 80-120) 

The first Viking soft-landed on Mars just four years ago, the Washington Star 

noted, but “it seems now like ancient history”: this week, the Viking orbiter 

would shut down for good [see July 91. It had been mapping Mars with highresolution photographs since 1976; even more remarkable was the lander, 

scheduled to last for 90 days and now programmed to operate possibly through 

1994. 

“All this suggests an extraordinary contrast,” the paper said, “On Mars, 

American technology is thriving.. .on earth, the American genius that made 

such things possible is not being encouraged.” Pis the last messages arrive 

from the Viking orbiter, “its most important message-what the end of its 

useful life has to say about America’s scientific and technological future-is 

the one not heeded.” (W Star, July 28/80, A-6) 

July 30:LaRC said that its researchers, working with the FAA in a Radio 

Technical Commission for Aeronautics, might have solved a problem relating 

to general aviation aircraft distress-signal equipment, six of every seven failing to transmit after a plane crash and about 7556 of all signals being false 

alarms. 

The devices, emergency locator transmitters, emitted a signal on a 

wavelength designated for emergency use to locate downed aircraft and were 

supposedly activated by the impact force of a crash. The problem was in the 

sensor switch, which was sometimes too sensitivl: to normal aircraft vibrations (and sent false alarms), sometimes not sensitive enough to forces in a 

crash. 

Langley engineer Huey D. Carden had designed and tested an experimental 

switch sensitive to low-cycle vibrations out of tha range of normal aircraft 

vibrations and closer to the low-cycle pulselike fo:rce of a crash. The resear186 
JULY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

chers were also looking into the general usefulness of the beacons and their 

performance as a total system. (LaRC Release 80-53; NASA Release 80-118) 

MSFC reported that July 21 had marked the end of an era: Gustav A. Kroll, 

last of the original 118-man “von Braun team” to leave the center, retired just 

six weeks short of having 35 years of U.S. government service. He had headed 

the structures division of MSFC’s Structures and Propulsion Laboratory. 

Kroll arrived in the United States in 1945 in Operation Paperclip and worked at Ft. Bliss, Tex., with the von Braun team, which transferred to Huntsville 

in 1950. Kroll became a U.S. citizen in 1954. He received NASA’s exceptional 

service medal in 1976 for “guiding the overall structural design of the solid 

rocket boosters,” two of which would be used in the first two minutes of flight 

on each Space Shuttle launch, recovered, and refurbished for reuse. He had 

worked in structures throughout his career: “all of them-every one of Marshall’s projects-Redstone, Jupiter, Saturn, Shuttle-all of them,” he said. 

Looking back, “there are no favorites, but the highlight would have to be the 

Saturn V flight and landing on the moon.” (MSFC Release 80-101) 

e The Washington Star said that prospects of mining on the Moon brought 

senators, scientists, and lawyers together to discuss profits that would not be 

earned for years, if ever. Witnesses at a Senate commerce subcommittee hearing said that some companies thought private investment would be hindered 

by any treaty that called for dividing lunar products among Earth‘s nations. 

A proposed Moon treaty approval last year by the United Nations said that 

lunar resources were “the common heritage of mankind,” a phrase that might 

threaten profits of the few nations or companies that could mount successful 

moon-mining expeditions. 

NASA’s Dr. Robert Frosch said the treaty was not a problem, noting that 

years of development would have to precede any actual “issues of investment 

or returns in extraterrestrial resources.” Former astronaut Sen. Harrison 

Schmitt (R-N.M.) asked if the treaty might have a chilling effect on investment; Frosch replied, “Only if you want to be chilled.” (Wushingron Star, July 

30/80, G-7) 

July 31:Following an intensive review of the Space Shuttle program over the 

past few weeks, NASA confirmed a decision made earlier in 1980 to schedule 

the first Shuttle launch in March 1981. NASA administrator. Dr. Robert Frosch 

said the decision was made in spite of a potential setback when fire damaged 

a Shuttle engine cluster during a test [see July 141. A study of the engine fire 

and its possible impact had already begun but would not impede the effort to 

maintain the launch schedule. The decision to commit to a March launch came 

after a series of meetings in which NASA and contractor personnel examined 

the status of hardware and software required for the first flight. 

On the 15-week work schedule from rollout to launch, Frosch said that experience of previous “first launches of new vehicles” showed that original 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1980 

schedules were seldom carried out in the time planned, but “the best chance 

of the earliest successful first flight comes in worlung to a tight but achievable 

work schedule.” (NASA Release 80-122; MSFC ]Release 80-102) 

During July: ESA’s monthly newsletter said that the launch failure of its 

Ariane LO2 launch vehicle [see May 23, June 171 did not call into question 

the continuation of the program. When the cause of the engine failure was 

known, program officials would conduct the other two qualification firings. 

The six Arianes now being manufactured would launch Marecs B, Sino 2, Intelsat V, Exosat, ECS, and Telecom M, the organiization said. (ESA newsletter, July 80) 

NASA announced appointment of Dr. Stanley I. ’Weiss, DOE’S deputy assistant secretary for industrial and utility applications and operations, as 

associate administrator for space transportation operations, effective July 7. 

He would be responsible for STS functions including Shuttle, Spacelab, and 

expendable launch vehicles during transition to the Shuttle. (NASA anno July 

2/80) 

-NASA announced appointment of Gerald D. Griffin, deputy director of 

KSC, as acting associate administrator for external relations at Headquarters 

effective July 7. He would have responsibility for policy-level management, 

direction, and coordination of NASA’s Offices of Public Affairs, International 

Affairs, DOD Affairs, GovernmentiIndustry Affairs, and University Affairs, 

reporting to the NASA administrator. His KSC responsibilities would be given 

temporarily to senior managers at that center. (NASA Release 80-104; NASA 

anno July 3/80) 

The Washingron Post reported the death of Walter R. Dornberger, 84, who 

as a German general had supervised Wernher von Braun’s work on the V2 

rocket during World War 11. Cause of death June 26 was not given in either 

the Washington Post or Aviation Week & Space Technology. Dornberger was 

visiting in West Germany. He had come to the United States in 1947 after two 

years in a British prisoner-of-war camp; like more than 100 other Germanborn rocket scientists who worked for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, he 

became a U.S. citizen. He also worked for Bell Aerosystems Company, where 

he was a vice president. 

A volunteer in the imperial German army of World War I, Dornberger was 

a career soldier to the end of the second war. In 1932 he was given charge 

of a group of scientists working on rocket concepts and moved to Peenemunde 

in 1937. When the first test of the V2 October 3, 1942, was successful, Dornberger asked von Braun: “Do you realize what we accomplished today?” Von 

Braun said “Yes, today the spaceship was born.” 1.n 1958, nearly three years 

before President Kennedy voiced the goal of landing a man on the Moon by 

1970, Dornberger predicted that man would be on the moon in 10 years: 

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JULY 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

“whether he is Russian or American depends on how much money Congress 

is willing to spend,” he said. (W Post, July 2/80, B-6; AvWK, July 7/80, 25) 

The Washington Star reported five new members for the Aviation Hall of 

Fame: former astronaut Charles Conrad, third man to walk on the Moon; Anthony H. G. Fokker, founder of Fokker Aircraft Company; William T. Piper, 

founder of Piper Aircraft Corporation; retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Bernard 

A. Schriever, “architect of the Air Force’s ballistic missile program”; and 

Robert F. Six, founder of Continental Airlines. Fokker and Piper were 

honored posthumously in the announcement at Dayton, Ohio’s, exhibition 

center. ( W Star, July 21/80, A-2) 

NASA announced that its quiet short-haul research aircraft (QSRA) had 

made more than 500 landings on a simulated aircraft-carrier deck in a 

NASA/U.S. Navy study of the application of propulsive-lift technology to aircraft carriers. The landings were made at a naval auxiliary landing field near 

ARC in California. Using a carrier-deck outline painted on the runway, the 

craft in 23 mph (37 kmh) headwinds touched down at about 52 mph (84 kmh), 

slow enough to make unnecessary the arresting gear normally used on 

carriers. 

Actual operations would be demonstrated on a U.S. carrier at sea off San 

Diego later in July. Built by Boeing under NASA contract, the plane was 

essentially a new aircraft making extensive use of existing parts: fuselage and 

tail from a deHavilland C-8 Buffalo, landing-gear parts from a Boeing 727 jet 

transport, and engines from the US A.F. A-9A prototype. (NASA Release 

80-111) 

FBIS carried Tass reports on the flight of Salyut 6, with Leonid Popov and 

Valery Ryumin aboard for 12 weeks. The crew spent the first week of July 

unloading cargo ship Progress IO, which linked with the Salyut July 1. 

Unloading was completed, and the orbiting station was refueled by July 15. 

Experiments with Isparitel apparatus were performed, using a powerful 

beam of electrons to plate metal and glass surfaces with precious metals and 

alloys of aluminum and copper. Properties of plating done in weightlessness 

differed from those under Earth conditions, Tass noted. First tests of the apparatus were made last year when Lyakhov and Ryumin brought back 24 

titanium plates with metal covering from Soyuz 32; the current tests should 

produce about 200 specimens covered with films of varied thicknesses. 

Progress 10 separated from the Salyut 6-Soyuz 36 complex at 1:21 Moscow 

time July 18 after a 17-day stay, during which its engine was used to adjust 

the station’s orbit. On July 19 the cargo ship engines were switched on by 

ground command; it reentered over the Pacific and “ceased to exist.” 

Soyuz 37, launched at midnight July 23 Moscow time, carried the first Vietnamese cosmonaut, Lt. Col. Pham Tuan, and veteran cosmonaut Col. Viktor 

Gorbatko as the sixth Intercosmos crew to visit with Popov and Ryumin, 

189 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1980 

fourth main crew on Sulyut 6. At the launch, Boris Petrov, vice president of 

the Soviet academy of sciences, noted that “although space school in Vietnamese science was established later than in other Soviet countries,” experiments in space medicine and technology and in mapping of land and ocean 

surfaces had been prepared for the Soviet-Vietn.imese expedition. Soyuz 37 

docked with Salyut 6-Soyuz 36 at 2302 Moscow time July 24; on July 25, the 

visitors began a study of head blood circulation during adaptation to 

weightlessness, with Pham Tuan as first subject. The visitors returned in 

Soyuz 36 at 1815 hours July 31 to the preset area! near Dzhezkazgan. (FBIS, 

Tass in English, July 4-31180) 

190 
August 

August 1: WFC reported the successful launch July 31 or a two-stage sounding 

rocket to test both the vehicle system and a “mother-daughter’’ two-part 

payload, an electrodynamics package to be used in a series of three launches 

from Norway later in 1980. Launched at 8:18 a.m. on an Honest John-Orion 

rocket, the 216-kilogram (476-pound) instrumented payload was programmed 

to separate at about 95 kilometers (59 miles) altitude and measure the electric 

field and profiles of ion density and conductivity in the atmosphere. (The 

three experiments to be launched in Norway would measure energetic-particle 

and X-ray fluxes and ultraviolet light from the aurora in addition to the electric 

field and ion density and conductivity.) 

Telemetry showed that the payloads separated as planned and both the sections reached peak altitude of 111 kilometers (69 miles). The “daughter” 

payload, a sphere with six 1-meter booms extending from it, performed well 

and exhibited good stability until descent. At 73 kilometers (45 miles) on the 

way down, a 65-foot-diameter mylar parachute deployed from the “mother” 

section; this was a lower altitude that planned, resulting in a faster fall than 

planned, but the section’s stability allowed it to acquire usable data. This section also contained a movie camera to film parachute deployment; recovery 

of the section from the Atlantic was in progress. (WFC Release 80-9) 

August 4: The Wall Street Journal reviewed the competition for locating the 

Large Space Telescope’s science institute at one of three sites, each the protege 

of a university consortium: Princeton University in New Jersey, the Johns 

Hopkins University in Baltimore, and the Fermi National Accelerator 

Laboratory west of Chicago. NASA teams visiting the sites would make a 

decision in October. 

In November 1979, five sites were being promoted with two others as minor 

contenders: Princeton, Hopkins, Fermilab, the University of Colorado, and 

the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) plus the Universities of 

Arizona and New Mexico, where numerous ground telescopes were already 

located [see November 18, 19791. Usually the site for an astronomical installation would require clear skies and steady air, but “any old kind of sky” would 

do for the Space Telescope, the Wall Street Journal said, as the images its 

computers received would originate above Earth‘s atmosphere. The winning 

manager would provide his own building, either a new one or a remodeled 

existing one; a resident staff of 100 to 150 persons; and room for a constant 

flow of visiting astronomers. (WSJ, Aug 4/80, 15) 

MSFC reported that students from the Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology (MIT) had returned to the center to continue a study begun last 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1980 

January on in-space assembly of large structures in MSFC’s neutral-buoyancy 

simulator, this time with a manned maneuvcring unit they had built 

themselves. The MSFC simulator, a 1.3 million-gallon water tank, closely approximated a zero-gravity environment. The stualents had spent three weeks 

on a NASA-MIT project, assembling in the tank a tetrahedral truss containing 

48 parts: 36 tubular beams 11 feet long with 12 -ioints, largest in number of 

components ever tested in the simulator. 

Since their January stay, the students had modified the beams and joints 

(designed and made in MIT machine shops) on th: basis of data derived from 

their work at MSFC and had been building an alternative crewed maneuvering 

unit. Testing it at MSFC would show whether it would be of use in assembling 

large space structures; like one previously built by MSFC engineers, it had 

instead df the gas jets needed to move it in space five small motor-driven propellers to move it in the tank. The motors were enclosed to prevent injury to 

other divers or damage to hoses and lines in the simulator. The unit would 

fit on the backpack worn over a pressurized sipace suit. (MSFC Release 

80-103) 

Press reports said that Maxie Anderson, who made a transatlantic crossing 

in the balloon Double Eagle I1 in 1978, crashed hi:; balloon Columbine I1 into 

a lake near Lacrosse, Wisc., August 4 during opening ceremonies of the U. 

S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships. Anderson, his wife Pattie, and 

copilot Don Ida escaped injury, but the balloon was destroyed. 

August 6: A small device flown in space for the first time had detected small 

changes in the Sun’s brightness over periods of d.ays to months, NASA said. 

An experiment on the Solar Max satellite had registered fluctuations of about 

a tenth of 1% in solar radiation, corresponding to a change of up to 10°C 

(18°F) in the Sun’s average temperature. This trend lasting for several years 

could make major alterations in Earth’s climate:, measurement of even the 

slightest change in the Sun’s emitted heat and light might enable scientists to 

predict future changes in climate. A drop of 1% in the output of solar radiation 

would lower Earth’s mean temperature by more than a degree (2°F); if solar 

radiation decreased by only 6%, the entire Earth would be covered with ice. 

Evidence showed that Earth had been cooling down for about 90 million 

years; it was about 8°C (15°F) warmer 150 million years ago than it was today 

and might cool by 10” or more in the next several million years. Cycles with 

frequencies ranging from 22 years to millions of years had caused ice ages 

ranging from glacial epochs to “little ice ages.” Most recent of the latter, 

beginning in the mid-17th century and lasting about. 200 years, was a 1.5 ” drop 

from mean global temperature of 14°C (58°F): it resulted in observable increase of glaciation in the Alps. (NASA Release 80-124) 

August 7:The Washington Post reported that schoolteacher Janice Brown, 32, 

piloted Paul MacCready’s solar-powered Gossamer Penguin as high as 12 fect 

192 
AUGUST 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

off the ground for 14 minutes, 21 seconds, going 2 miles along a desert 

streambed at Edwards Air Force Base in the first sustained flight by an aircraft 

powered only by the Sun. The top speed was 16.5 mph. The Gossamer 

Penguin had a 72-foot wingspan and weighed about 68 pounds, including the 

bank of 2,800 photovoltaic cells mounted above the wing. Unlike other electrically powered aircraft, Penguin had no storage batteries and relied only on 

direct solar power. (W Post, Aug 8/80, A-6; Zndl Dsgn, Sept/Oct 80, 18; FRC 

X-Press, Aug 22/80, 2) 

JPL engineers had sent a command August 7 to Viking orbiter 1, switching 

off its transmitter and ending its four year mission. Viking project manager 

Kermit Watkins said that its attitude-control gas would have been depleted 

before it completed another orbit: by commanding it to turn off, instead of 

allowing it to occur automatically, “we will be sure that the radio transmitter 

has been shut off.” Confirmation of the switchoff was received at 4:16 EDT 

August 7. The Viking lander would continue to transmit meteorological and 

engineering data weekly on command until about December 1994. (NASA 

Release 80-129; NASA Dly Am Rept, Aug 11/80; W Star, Aug 5/80, A-2) 

August 8: DFKC said that it was awaiting delivery of a new aircraft that would 

take off and land like a helicopter and cruise in flight like a conventional 

airplane: the XV-lSA, built for NASA and the U. S. Army by Bell Helicopter 

Textron in Ft. Worth, Tex. Another XV-15 was at ARC preparing for research 

flight tests. The one being delivered to DFRC would serve to expand performance limits reached by NASA, military, and contract pilots in a flight-test 

program expected to last one year; the ARC craft would be flown within limits 

established at DFRC to accomplish specific research objectives. (NASA 

Release 80-127; DFRC Release 80-16) 

NASA reported that its QSRA was the first four-engine transport jet to land 

and take off from an aircraft carrier at sea [see During July]. It made 37 touchand-go landings and 16 full-stop landings on the carrier during the evaluation, 

and 16 takeoffs without the aid of catapult gear. The tests, by a Navy pilot, 

Lt. Cdr. Pete Strickland, and two NASA research pilots, Jim Martin and Bob 

Innis, deomonstrated QSRA’s use on short runways and its quieter operation. 

(NASA Release 80-126) 

August 10: DOC reported that the Nimbus 7 satellite successfully tracked between October 16, 1979, and June ‘15, 1980, the 800-mile journey of a 

2121-pound loggerhead turtle called Diane from a point south of Gulfport, 

Miss., past Louisiana and Texas to an area in the Gulf of Mexico near 

Brownsville, Tex., where Diane apparently shed the signal transmitter. 

(NOAA officials said that, after a break in transmission, a mystery developed 

when the signal resumed, moving inland to stop in Kansas-far from the turtle’s ocean or river habitat. A fisherman had found the 7-pound transmitter on 

193 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1980 

a beach near Port Arthur, Tex., and had taken it home, where he used the 

$5,000 device as a doorstop.) 

Robert Timko, electronic engineer at NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Service 

(NMFS) laboratory in Galveston, said that no technology except satellite 

tracking could have followed a wide-ranging and generally inaccessible 

animal like the loggerhead turtle (a threatened species) over so large an area. 

NMFS would use the data to identify feeding, nesting, and mating areas to 

help manage the stock of sea turtles. The test was inspired by previous work 

with polar bears, which were tracked from 60 tci 90 days. (NOAA Release 

80-102) 

August 11; ARC reported that eight men aged 35 to 50 would participate in 

a study of weightlessness to help NASA learn why spaceflight dehydrates 

humans. Dr. Joan Vernikos-Danielis of ARC’S biomedical research division 

would use a head-down method in prolonged bed rest for the study; the rush 

of blood to the head in the first exposure to zero gravity might trigger the body 

mechanism that eliminated fluids and salts. The Soviets for some time had 

been using bed rest with head down 6” from the horizontal to simulate 

weightlessness. Usable measurements were not obtainable during actual 

spaceflight because of the heavy demands on astronauts in the first stages of 

a mission. (ARC Release 80-68; NASA Release 80-131) 

LaRC staff working this summer at NOAA’s National Severe Storms 

Laboratory at Norman, Okla., guided a modified F-106B jet fighter plane 

through severe southwest thunderstorms to show that lightning could strike not 

just once but two or even three times in the same place. Most lightning study 

had been at ground level; LaRC was studying its effect on planes in flight. 

The F-106, holder of a world single-engine speed record set in the 1950s, 

was still used by the Air Force and could fly up to 50,000 feet (15,250 meters); 

most flights would be around 15,000 feet (4,500 meters), the altitude where 

lightning was most statistically likely to strike. LaliC used an F-106B on loan 

from DFRC, considered top choice for the mission because of its thick wing 

skins and its larger-than-average bay with roorn for much experimental 

equipment. 

All F-106B work was on storm hazards, divided into those that did or did 

not involve lightning (those unrelated to lightning were turbulence, wind 

shear, and storm-hazards correlation). Hazards from storms were factors in 

aircraft operations and design. Through the summer, WFC instruments would 

map thunderstorms and the exact location of the F-106B in them, to compare 

with pilot and instrument observations. (NASA Rekase 80-130; LaRC Release 

80-56) 

August 13: WFC reported that it had made nighttime electric-field 

measurements in the “middle atmosphere” from balloon ceiling to the 

ionosphere (30 to 100 kilometers), to extend measurement capability into this 

194 
AUGUST 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

region, and to compare techniques simultaneously on a worldwide basis. During the past decade scientists had become able to obtain reliable data 

elsewhere in the atmosphere (troposphere, stratosphere, ionosphere, 

magnetosphere, and even in deep space) but not in the middle region. WFC 

used rockets and a balloon for its local experiments; radars in Massachusetts, 

Alaska, Peru, Puerto Rico, France, and Scandinavia made supporting ground 

measurements. 

At 8:35 p.m. EDT August 13, WFC launched a hundred-thousand cubicfoot balloon inflated with helium, carrying a 21-kilogram (46-pound) payload 

to measure AC and DC electric fields from to 10 kHz in the middle atmosphere. The mission ended 10 hours, and a chase plane located the payload 

near Roanoke, Va. At 10:40 p.m. EDT, WFC launched a two-stage NikeOrion rocket carrying a 232-kilogram (510-pound) payload that reached peak 

altitude of 90.2.kilometers (56 miles) and recorded data during both ascent 

and descent. The payload included a water-recovery system; it was recovered 

at 11:58 p.m, and returned to WFC. 

At 11:ll p.m. EDT, WFC launched a single-stage Super Arcas to reach 90 

kilometer (58-mile) altitude, carrying an experiment called Blunt Probe to 

measure electric fields as well as positive and negative conductivity in the 

middle region, for comparison with balloon and Nike-Orion measurement. 

(WFC Release 80-11) 

ARC would close the free world’s largest wind tunnel for an $85 million 

modification. The 40 x 80 foot (E x 24 meter) tunnel, in continuous use since 

completed in 1944, would have a 6W-foot (183-meter) addition to house a new 

test section 80 x EO feet (24 x 37 meters) with an air intake 362 feet (110 

meters) wide and 132 feet (40 meters) high. The six 6,000-hp electric motors 

used since 1944 would be replaced with 22,500-hp units, raising drive from 

36,000 hp to 135,000 hp. (NASA Release 80-125) 

NASA reported results of a coordinated balloon and rocket launch at WFC 

August 13 to measure fair-weather electric fields. A balloon carrying 

Aerospace Corporation instruments measured vector electric fields on six 

booms and evaluated the data with an on-board COSMAC microprocessor. At 

30-kilometer altitude, it saw unexpectedly large fields for about one hour. 

Rockets carrying payloads from Cornel1 and Penn State Universities launched 

20 minutes apart during the balloon flight, both saw anomalously large electric fields that peaked near 70 kilometers. The results would call for revision 

of present theories, as they suggested that some other generator of electricity 

was active in addition to the thunderstorm-driven system and the ionospheric 

system. (NASA Dly Acm Rpt, Sept 23/80) 

August 20: NASA announced a student involvement project, a joint activity 

with the NSTA. Up to 200 semifinalists in a competition to develop experiments for flight on the Shuttle and their teachers would attend preliminary 

195 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1980 

conferences in 10 regions to discuss the proposals with other students as well 

as NASA and industry scientists; many of the regional conferences would be 

at NASA centers. NASA awarded the science teachers’ group a contract to 

conduct the competition and select the winners. 

From the 200, 10 would be selected whose concepts would best use the 

capabilities of the Shuttle. The 10 national winners would attend a special conference at KSC late in 1981; all entrants would receive a certificate of participation. Shuttle flights should begin in March 1981; the winning experiments might go on flights in 1981 or 1982. (NASA Release 80-132) 

Augusr 22: JSC reported on its new water-immersion facility (WIF) for Shuttle 

crew training. MSFC would furnish some payload training mock-ups; JSC 

would build others including a full-sized Shuttle bay. The new pool, measuring 33 x 78 x 25 feet and located in a building formerly housing an Apollo 

manned centrifuge, would hold half a million gallons-as much water as 25 

average backyard swimming pools-heated to a constant 85 OF for diver comfort over long periods of time. It would replace a 25-foot-diameter tank built 

in the mid-1960s for Gemini and Apollo emergency training. 

Filter and chemical systems would reduce bacteria and provide a clear 

medium needed for underwater photography. Six submersible television 

cameras, two operated by divers and four mounted under water, would follow 

the training operations, with pan, tilt, and zoom operated from a console at 

the pool edge. The facility would include a 5-ton air-powered overhead crane 

to lift trainers and mock-ups out of the water (and lzliminate electrical shock), 

as well as air compressors to fill scuba tanks. (JSC Roundup, Aug 22/80, 1) 

August 25: ARC reported on a space-technology assessment workshop held 

at the University of Santa Clara in California on robotics, automation, remotely operated systems, and artificial intelligence vital to future missions such as 

an orbiting space factory, a self-directed deep-space robot explorer, a fully 

automated Earth-resources and Earth-environment monitor, or a lunar base 

able to expand through self-replication of its elements. The 10-week workshop 

would end August 29 with an oral report and submission of other reports for 

publication. 

Drawing on work by research institutions such as Stanford University, MIT, 

and SRI International as developers of computer-based “intelligence,” the 

program participants included 18 professors of eng.ineering, mathematics, and 

science, 15 NASA engineers and scientists, and several representatives of 

manufacturer groups. The workshop emphasized four areas: 

-A versatile “intelligent” satellite information system able to select and 

interpret the data from its sensors to give specific items to a specific user, 

unlike previous systems recording everything they saw to produce great 

masses of superfluous data. 

-A deep-space exploration system for reconnaissance, exploration, and 

intensive surface study of planetary bodies, specifically Saturn’s moon Titan, 

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AUGUST 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

bigger than the planet Mercury and with its own atmosphere. Uniting functions of previously separate craft (orbiter, atmosphere probe, mobile surface 

explorer), the vehicle would observe an unknown environment and modify its 

“knowledge model” and exploration techniques according to its observations. 

Systems of this sort could explore distant bodies in the solar system such as 

outer planets and their satellites, comets, and asteroids; such systems would 

be required for exploring planetary systems of other stars when communications distances and flight time of many years would preclude manned 

involvement. 

-A permanent automated Earth-orbiting facility initially geared to process Earth-supplied raw materials in the space environment; later it would 

make progressively larger use of nonterrestrial materials from the asteroids 

and moons of Earth and other planets. The workshop considered a number 

of processing and manufacturing techniques adaptable to a space environment, starter facilities capable of producing a wide range of items, and the 

tools that would be needed to expand the facility’s capabilities. 

-A factory on the Moon to use lunar materials and replicate itself, its 

first major product being another lunar factory or factory segment. Such a 

self-replicating facility had been of theoretical interest for some time as a way 

of rapidly expanding space resources. The workshop had studied types of 

logical organization for such a factory, and requirements for an Earth-based 

demonstration of the concept. (ARC Releases 80-69, 80-70; NASA Release 

80-134) 

August 26: Press reports said that the U.S. Air Force wanted to spend about 

$1.4 billion to replace the wings of 81 “trouble-ridden C5A cargo transports.” 

In 1965, Lockheed Corporation had decided to reduce the weight of C5A 

wings by 5 tons each, so as to underbid Boeing on a contract for building aircraft capable of carrying outsized loads. Robert B. Ormsby, Jr., president of 

Lockheed-Georgia, which built the planes, told a congressional hearing that 

the company’s sole objective was to reduce wing weight to “the absolute 

minimum within the design requirements” and denied any company plan to 

replace the wings later when they should prove unsatisfactory. The 

10,000-pound weight reduction apparently caused cracks in the aircraft calling 

for wing replacement: “Ormsby did not explain why Lockheed did not know 

that the modification would reduce the effective life span of the wing from the 

30,000 hours specified by the Air Force to an estimated 7,100 hours,” the 

Washington Star noted. 

Principal focus of the hearings was on whether the 30,000-hour service life 

presented by Lockheed and the U.S. Air Force as justification for the $1.4 

billion wing-replacement program was really necessary. Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), chairman of the subcommittee on priorities and economy in 

government of the House-Senate Joint Economic Committee, said Lockheed’s 

$2 billion cost overrun on the contract, discovered in 1968, was the largest in 

defense procurement history. He said the $1.16 billion Lockheed-Georgia 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1980 

would get for wing replacement would be “the biggest cost in history to correct a mistake.” When Ormsby said that his firm would make a $140 million 

profit on the contract, Proxmire said “a lot of businessmen would love to make 

a mistake like that.” 

The subcommittee heard David Keating, legislative director of the National 

Taxpayers Union (NTU), charge that such a profit would set up “a terrible incentive system.” The message to defense contractors would be, “The more inefficient you are, the more profit you make. Build failures into the system and 

you’ll be rewarded.” Ormsby responded that, in terms of the critical need for 

the C5A in the nation’s defense, the $1.4 billion was a “bargain” for taxpayers. 

Paul C. Paris, director of the center for fracture mechanics at Washington 

University (St. Louis), said that the U.S. Air Force set up a Structural Information Enhancement Program (SIEP) after receiving a 3-volume report from 

Rand Corporation suggesting that C5As could serve under “present constraints on operational use” until the year 2000 without significant modification. The U.S. Air Force had put “severe restrictions on the C5A to prevent 

it from being flown in accord with its design specifications,” Paris said, or 

it would have lasted “fewer than 3,000 flight hours”; it was “absolutely incredible” that.a major aircraft producer would miss the fatigue life of a wing 

by a factor of more than 10. He said the SIEP assumed “since the [wing 

replacement] was going to be done, other less expensive options were not to 

be considered.” (Paris was the only member of the SIEP steering committee 

not an employee of Lockheed or the U.S. Air Force.) 

The Rand report recommended appointing a panel of independent 

specialists to assess the situation; Proxmire, Pari!;, and the NTU wanted the 

assessment done by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. (W 

Star, Aug 26/80, A-8; W Post, Aug 26180, A-8) 

August 27: ARC announced selection of Burroughs Corporation and Control 

Data Corporation to study system design for its supercomputer, the numerical 

aerodynamic simulator, that would aid in developing and testing new designs 

for aircraft and other flight vehicles and perform research in areas of fluid 

flow such as meteorology, gas dynamics, and coinputational chemistry. The 

two parallel fixed-price studies, each valued at $350,000, should produce a 

data processor 40 times faster and with a high-speed memory 60 times larger 

than those presently in use. 

The new computer would use fluid-flow equations for continuous calculation of three-dimensional air flows simultaneously at thousands of points; it 

could simulate conditions of wind-tunnel testing far more cheaply than actual 

model tests. It would do a billion operations per second, using a data base of 

40 billion words, and could handle 100 users simultaneously. ARC, with project responsibility for the numerical simulator, had been working on the 

system since 1975. (ARC Release 80-71; NASA F.elease 80-135) 

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AUGUST 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA announced selection of McDonnell Douglas Technical Services 

Company to negotiate a cost-plus-award-fee contract to support JSC STS 

engineering and operations from October 1980 through September 1986. The 

contract, divided into three increments, would cover technical and analytical 

support in engineering-systems analyses, flight design, flight operations, and 

management-systems support. Contractor estimate of the cost for the first twoyear increment, plus a firm two-year option, would be about $25 million. JSC 

would manage the contract. (JSC Release 80-053; NASA Release 80-136) 

August 29: NASA announced that the GOES-D meteorological satellite, 

scheduled for early launch from KSC for NOAA, would carry a new type of 

instrument: the visible-infrared spin-scan radiometer (VISSR) atmospheric 

sounder. GSFC would join with the University of Wisconsin in long-term 

evaluation of the VISSRs usefulness in predicting severe local storms, hurricanes, and other short-term weather phenomena. 

Earlier spacecraft in the series had provided 24-hour two-dimensional 

cloudcover photography; the new sounder would measure temperature and 

moisture in various altitude layers besides returning high-resolution images. 

The synchronous GOES satellites, useful in observing storms during development, required observation schedules, data processing, and data analysis 

markedly different from those for polar-orbiting satellites such as the TIROS 

series. GSFC, NOAA, and the University of Wisconsin had set up facilities 

over the past few years to handle the atmospheric sounder data. (NASA 

Release 80-137) 

In the last of a series on “Life Aboard the Space Shuttle,” KSC’s Spaceport 

News described the unisex space suits provided for the pilot and the ranking 

mission specialist on each flight. No longer tailor-made for an astronaut, the 

Shuttle space suit would come in small, medium, and large sizes to be worn 

by men or women. It consisted of an upper and a lower section snapping 

together with sealing rings, with a life-support system in the upper half. 

In an emergency, each of the other crew members would use a ‘‘personal 

rescue enclosure,” a 34-inch-diameter ball fitted with life-support and communications gear for one person. Nonsuited crew would climb into the 

enclosures, and the suited astronauts would transfer them from a disabled 

vessel to a rescue ship by carrying them, by attaching them to the remotemanipulator arm used for deploying payloads, or by using a pulley line between the two spacecraft. (Spaceport News, Aug 29/80, 4) 

During August: NASA distributed its Program Plan, Fiscal Years I981 through 

1985, containing “initial guidance for NASA’s activities over the short-term 

and, to some extent, the long-term future.” The introduction noted the current 

drive to curb inflation and resulting cuts in the federal budgetL‘including 

NASA’s’’-but called for a perception of the work the agency was 

technologically ready to undertake “and should undertake in the interest of the 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1980 

Nation.” Citing problems raised by “absence of major new initiatives,” the introduction called for “sound, logical, technological progression toward 

achievement” of U.S. goals in aeronautics and c .;p ace. 

Major goals to be met by the plan’s 46 “major initiatives” were: 

-to fill the transportation and orbital operatilons needs of science and applications space missions and most transportation needs of national security 

space missions; 

-to apply space technology in remote sensing, communications, 

materials processing, and technology transfer that “hold promise for immediate or potential benefits to humanity”; 

-to continue developing aeronautical technology; 

-to improve “by a factor of 10 to 100” NASA’s ability to acquire, 

transmit, and process data; 

-to advance knowledge of how energy is transported from the Sun and 

through the interplanetary medium and how thait energy effects Earth; 

-to ensure good health and performance of humans in space and to study 

the effects of gravity on living systems; 

-to understand the origin and distribution o-F life in the universe and the 

relationship between life and its habitat. 

Major initiatives in the field of aeronautics numbered 6; in space science, 

8; in space and terrestrial applications, 20; and in space transportation 

systems, 12, for a total of 46. 

Half the initiatives listed in a similar program plan (for FY80-FY84) had 

been postponed: Of the 23 missions, 11 were previously scheduled for 1981; 

7 for 1982; 4 for 1983; and 1 for 1984. Of the 11 previously scheduled for 

1981, 9 were now postponed to 1982; and 1 each, to 1983 and 1984. Of the 

7 missions previously scheduled for 1982, 5 were postponed to 1983; 1, to 

1984; and 1, to a time “to be determined.” 01: the 4 missions previously 

scheduled for 1983, 1 was scheduled for 1984; and 3, for 1985. The sole mission previously scheduled for 1984 had been postponed to 1985. 

International programs in which NASA would tie concerned during the next 

fiscal years would include cooperative activities (Space Shuttle and Spacelab; 

space applications such as remote sensing, geodynamics, materials processing, and communications; space science such as astrophysics, planetary 

research, solar-terrestrial relationships, and solar energy; exchanges of experiments with the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union); reimbursable launches; and foreign competition in remote sensing, communications, spacecraft launching, and aircraft development. 

The volume included probable schedules for NASA missions and tables of 

funding and development needed to carry out the program. Space transportation funding, for instance, showed increases in FY81 and FY82, then leveled 

off. Funding for applications showed rapid increase; that for aeronautics, 

space technology, and space science would also increase but at a slower rate. 

The 235-page program plan contained detailed lists of activities in each program area, with graphs and tables showing schedules and funding for that 

200 
AUGUST 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

area. The book concluded with an index and a list of the abbreviations and 

acronyms used in NASA’s programs. (Text, NASA Hq Mgmt Sppt Ofc, 

distributed Aug 80) 

Aviation Week and Space Technology reported that the Secretary of the Interior had asked the Secretary of Commerce to cancel the Hughes-built 

thematic mapper [see April 141 that was to form part of an operational Landsat 

system, originally scheduled for launch on Landsat-D. Cecil D. Andrus wrote 

Philip M. Klutznick that the main obstacle to achieving an operational Landsat system was “the presumption” that Landsat-D research missions must 

come first. Andrus noted that Interior had proposed two years ago to give 

priority to solid-state multispectral linear-array technology [see June 161 instead of the “elaborate, expensive, and research-oriented’’ thematic mapper. 

Andrus, who Aviation Week and Space Technology said was “extremely 

concerned about competition” from France, Japan, and the Soviet Union in 

remote sensing, emphasized the “implications for the President’s policy of 

leadership in space if France and others are able to offer better resolution data 

at lower cost before our core system becomes operational.” (Avwk, Aug 11/80, 

17) 

The British Interplanetary Society’s publication Spaceflight carried an article by one of its fellows (barrister Cyril Horsford, also a director of the International Institute of Space Law), on the agreement covering the activities of 

states on the Moon and other celestial bodies, opened for signature at the 

United Nations (U.N.) December 18, 1979. The ‘‘moon treaty,” 10 years in the 

making, was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly as a resolution; some of 

its principles were already in the first outer space treaty in 1967, but several 

nations, “notably the USSR,” had expressed the need for a separate agreement 

specially directed at exploration of the Moon. The treaty now awaiting 

signature would apply to all bodies in the solar system and their orbits, as well 

as the Moon; the text (reproduced as appendix to Horsford’s article) was 

already the subject of controversy among international lawyers and others in 

two particular areas. 

First, Article IV said use of the Moon was “the province of all mankind”; 

Article XI said the Moon and its resources were “the common heritage of 

mankind.”.The difference had raised questions whether the meaning was the 

same. Article I of the 1967 space treaty had used the words “province of all 

mankind,” whereas the words ‘‘common heritage” first appeared during a 

Law of the Sea conference, when a moratorium on exploration preceded a 

General Assembly resolution affirming the common-heritage principle. International law had not defined the limits of the principle; the new “moon treaty” 

would reserve privileges under it to States Parties to it (although “all 

mankind” would be beneficiaries). Also, the concept of “common heritage of 

mankind” was apparently limited to the terms of Article XI.l. 

Second, the third paragraph of Article XI would apparently prohibit any apc-3 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1980 

propriation of resources found on the surface or subsurface of the Moon; in 

its literal meaning, this wording would preclude any mining or exploitation of 

valuable minerals found there in future. Some felt the language was “merely 

legal,” reaffirming the existing principle that no legal property in lunar 

resources in place could accrue to an exploring stale. The U.S. delegate to the 

United Nation’s legal subcommittee was confident that the wording did not 

place any moratorium on exploration, pending th8e international “regime of 

management” required under Article XI.5. Horsford noted that opposition to 

Article XI had already led the U.S. Senate to postpone ratification of the treaty 

this year. 

Although the 1967 space treaty “clearly enshrined” the principle of nonsovereignty over celestial bodies, “some quarters” feared that such a clause 

would inhibit space powers (particularly the United States) from embarking 

on “the costly adventure of lunar exploitation” while such a restraint existed 

or where an international regime of shared resources would result in little or 

no profit. “This danger is already apparent in. . .deep sea mining, when an 

international regime is involved,” said Horsford. (SF: July-Aug 80, 273) 

The NAA reported that Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose would remain intact 

under an agreement signed by the Summa Corporation, executor of the 

Hughes estate, with the Aero Club of Southern Calif. (NAA’s California 

chapter) and with the Wrather Corporation which would display the aircraft 

near the Queen Mary at the Port of Long Beach. :Summa, under pressure to 

vacate the hangar site, had announced plans to dismantle the Goose and 

display parts of it at the Smithsonian and eight other museums [see May 23, 

June 171. Now it would transfer the flying boat to the Aero Club after agreement on details of display and management. (NAA newsletter, July/Aug 80, 7) 

NASA reported on its 17-year-old art program of inviting well-known artists 

to document major agency activities. Among participants were traditionalists 

like Peter Hurd and James Wyeth and modernists like Robert Rauschenburg 

and Lamar Dodd. NASA had stationed artists at the closest possible observation points during Moon launches and on recovery ships when astronauts 

returned from space and let them pilot simulators of travel to make-believe 

moons. 

In 1977 NASA commissioned Robert T. McCall to document the rollout of 

Enterprise at DFRC (McCall was muralist for the National Air and Space 

Museum). In 1978 Franklin McMahon and Tom O’llara painted the first flight 

of the orbiter. Arthur Shilstone and Clayton Pond covered vibration tests at 

MSFC; Shilstone and Nicholas Solovieff recorded Shuttle progress, including 

rollout in May 1979 at KSC. NASA would send a team to paint the launch and 

landing of Columbia. The New York Society of Illustrators had given 

Shilstone a certificate of merit for his painting “The Crawler: Rollout of the 

Enterprise” which had been in an international exhibition, including 

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AUGUST 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Japan and China, and would appear in the society’s 1980 art annual. (NASA 

Actv, Aug 80, 18) 

Science magazine carried R. Ganapathy’s report on existence in Earth’s 

Cretaceous-Tertiary geological boundary of debris from a major meteorite impact 65 million years ago, discussing the possible effects of such a catastrophe 

as extinction of the dinosaurs. (Science, Aug 22/80, 921) 

NASA announced appointment of Roy S. Estess as deputy manager of 

NSTL, replacing Henry E Auter, who retired in February 199. Estess joined 

NSTL in 1966, working on the Saturn V acceptance tests and directing the advanced planning for Shuttle testing at NSTL. Since 1977 he had managed 

satellite remote-sensing research in NSTL‘s Earth resources laboratory. 

(NASA anno Aug 29/80) 

-The New York Ernes reported the death from a heart attack at her home 

in California of Jacqueline Cochran, first woman to fly faster than the speed 

of sound and director during WWII of the Women’s Air-Force Service Pilots 

(WASPS), which trained more than 1,200 women to fly transport planes. 

Brought up in poverty and working in a cotton gin in Georgia at the age of 

9, she took her first flying lesson when 22 and in 1935 was the first women 

to enter the Bendix transcontinential air race, winning the Bendix trophy in 

1938. She had married Floyd Odlum in 1936 and served as a captain in the 

British Air Force Auxiliary, returning to the United States after Pearl Harbor. 

She set more than 200 flying records, breaking the sound barrier in 1953 in 

an F-86 jet fighter plane. In 1961 she set a new altitude record of 55,253 feet 

and in 1964 a women’s world speed record of 1,429 mph in an F-104G 

Superstar. She retired in 1970 as colonel in the Air Force Reserve. (NY limes, 

Aug l0/80, 40) 

ESA observed the fifth anniversary of its first satellite, Cos B, designed for 

an operational life of one year. ESA commended the quality of the spacecraft 

and its subsystems, especially the spark chamber for which no space experience existed at the time of its construction. The eighth satellite built by 

European industry for ESA’s predecessor, the European Space Research 

Organization (ESRO), Cos B made the first complete detailed survey of the 

Milky Way in high-energy gamma-ray spectra and discovered a score of new 

gamma-ray sources. The spacecraft was made by the CESAR consortium led 

by Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blom with industrial firms of seven ESA member 

states: Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, Spain, and the 

United Kingdom. (ESA Info 21) 

Progress reports on the continuing flight of Leonid Ryumin and Valery 

Popov in the Sulyut 6-Soyuz 37 orbiting space station noted that their mission 

had lasted 115 days as of August 1. The cosmonauts were busy redocking Soyuz 

37 (which Pham Tuan and Viktor Gorbatko had used to get to the Salyut) to 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS AUGUST 1980 

make room for more supply-ship missions. The visitors had returned to Earth 

safely July 31 in the Soyuz 36 craft; next on the list for the long-term occupants 

was “cleaning of the premises of the orbital complex” and physical training, 

Tass said. 

On August 5 Tass reported completion of various crystal experiments using 

Splav and Kristall apparatus in “cosmic material :studies” of semiconductors 

cast from gallium arsenide, and crystals of indium ,antimonide and gadolinium 

cobalt, a magnetic material. Tass August 9 reported a first: crystallization of 

a substance from a smelt in “directional microgravitation.” The idea was to 

form crystals at more than “minimum microacce1t:ration.” The crew put into 

the Splav an ampule of raw material and activated it; they then used the space 

station’s motors in a twisting maneuver during which the station became “a 

sort of centrifuge” for a few hours. Acceleration, zero at the center, “near the 

transfer compartment and transfer chamber. . .was at its maximum.” 

Previous experiments had always been during sleep periods, as movement 

of people around the station affected the results. For more data on crystal formation in orbit, the crew tried it in the span betwleen Earth gravity and zero 

gravity. Tass called the test a first step in a new :science of “weightlessness 

physics” whose practical conclusions were already being felt. On August 12 

Tass noted the crew had been in space for 18 weeks; further tests were going 

on, making special glass in zero gravity and monocrystals of germanium. 

On August 22, Moscow radio said that this expedition had had more 

technological tests than any previous ones: the Isparitel apparatus alone had 

provided more than 186 samples, most of them delivered to scientists on Earth 

by Pham Tuan and Viktor Gorbatko. One substance, a solidified solution of 

cadmium telluroid and mercury telluroid, would be impossible to obtain on 

Earth where “when molten they separate out as oil and vinegar do when 

poured into the same glass.” The large crystals of this obtainable in space 

would permit “heat viewing” or detection of negligible variations in 

temperature, important to industry and to medicine. (FBIS, Tass in English; 

Moscow Dom Svc, Aug 1-26/80) 

204 
September 

September 2: JSC reported that its television engineers were working on 

modifications of a U.S. Air Force camera for live television broadcast by crew 

members on spacewalks outside the Space Shuttle orbiter. NASA would buy 

three systems for flight, training, and qualifications at a cost (including integration, testing, and mission planning) of about $750,000. 

The camera (which would include a battery pack, FM transmitter, antenna, 

and a receiver inside the orbiter, with other support hardware), located on an 

astronaut's visor assembly, as miners' lights are mounted on their foreheads, 

would see what the astronaut saw and send black-and-white pictures to a 

television monitor watched by crew members on the spacecraft. A wide-angle 

lens would give a 19.7-mm focal length with a 32" horizontal field-of-view; 

lens range would be present to focus from about 15 inches to the distance 

needed. The inside crew members could see hardware or spacewalk activity 

in real time, helping make joint decisions on repair. (JSC Release 80-052) 

September 4: NASA issued a prelaunch summary of the GOES-D mission, 

sixth of a series designed for continuous cloud-cover observation from synchronous orbit. The program had two prototypes (Sms 1 and Sms 2) developed 

by NASA and follow-on craft (GOES-A through GOES-F), funded by NOAA 

of the DOC. The NOAA-funded craft were designated Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), 

Since the Srns 1 launch in May 1974, the satellites had continuously viewed 

Western Hemisphere weather patterns and relayed video scenes from orbit as 

part of everyday television weather reports. The reports five were produced 

by Ford Aerospace; GOES-D, GOES-E, and GOES-F would be from Hughes 

Aerospace. 

The primary instrument on previous craft was a visiblehnfrared spin-scan 

radiometer with one visible and one infrared channel. GOES-D would be the 

first of three carrying a modified VISSR sounding the atmosphere in 12 infrared bands, acquiring temperature and moisture data profiles at various 

levels. 

NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Service (NESS) program required two operating satellites at all times to cover Atlantic and Pacific ocean 

approaches, as well as the American landmass. Sms 2 launched in 1975 and 

Goes 3 launched in June 1978 were covering east and west stations, respectively; Sms 1 and Goes 1 and Goes 2, none fully functional, were on operational 

standby. GOES-D, initially located at 90W for a demonstration of the atmospheric sounder, would later be located either east or west depending on 

operating need. Should one of the operating craft fail before the demonstration 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1980 

ended, NASA would configure a time-sharing operating mode to continue 

coverage. (NASA MOR E-612-80-02 [prelaunch summary], Sept 4/80) 

NASA announced that JPL‘s Dr. Stephen P. Symnott, the Voyager project 

navigator who discovered a 15th moon of Jupiter [see May 61, had done it 

again: searching through Voyager photographs taken in 1979 to confirm 

discovery of a 14th satellite, he discovered a 16th. 

The new find was about 40 kilometers (25 miles.) in diameter and circled 

the planet every 7 hours, 4 minutes, 30 seconds. the same process had located 

the 15th satellite, found by Synnott in March 1980; at that time, he thought 

he was confirming an earlier sighting of a 14th moon because they had similar 

sizes and orbits. But, upon comparing data from Wyager I and Eyager 2, 

Synnott found that “the object I was looking at was on the opposite side of 

the planet-it couldn’t be 514, so it had to be a new one.” Before Voyager 1 

reached Saturn the planet was believed to have 13 moons; a 14th (the one Synnott was trying to confirm) had been seen in October 1979. (NASA Release 

90-139) 

September 5: Joseph B. Mahon, director of NASA expendable launch vehicles 

program, said that NASA would use such vehicles in 18 missions through the 

end of September 1981. Of these, 7 would be flown on Deltas, 7 on Atlas Centaurs, 3 on the solid-fuel Scout, and 1 on the Atlas E 

Two flights would carry NASA science satellites; NASA would launch the 

other 16 (for which the energy would be reimbursed) for other government 

agencies or private firms. The latter would include three weather satellites for 

NOAA; five DOD payloads; and eight commercial geosynchronous communications satellites for SBS, RCA, Comsat General Corporation, and the 

INTELSAT consortium. The Office of Space Transportation Systems Operations would run the program. (NASA Release 80-140) 

September 8: DOC announced that it had upgraded the satellite division of 

NOAA and renamed it the National Earth Satellite Service (NESS), reflecting 

broader responsibilities for the former National Environmental Satellite Service. Earlier in 1980, NOAA became responsible for developing and managing a remote-sensing satellite system based on NASA’s experimental Landsat 

program. 

Since 1965, NOAA had managed operational weather satellites whose data 

served in navigation, commercial fishing, and water-resource management as 

well as weather forecasting. The greater resolutioa of the Landsat system 

should offer similar monitoring as well as data for uses such as farming, urban 

planning, and mineral exploration. (DOC Release 80-106) 

The NY Emes reviewed advances in phototypesetting technology, including 

satellite transmission, that had made it possible for publications to print identical copies simultaneously anywhere in the world. 

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SEPTEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

“Cold type,” the first generation of phototypesetting, replaced use of individual characters with a matrix of symbols on a transparent material. Light 

sent through characters produced an image on high-contrast photographic 

paper. The second generation of typesetting machines also used a 

photographic negative to generate characters, but used digital computer scan 

to produce the symbols, recreating them on a cathode-ray tube as a series of 

minute dots or lines reproduced on photographic paper. The third generation, 

developed in the late 1960s, encoded text on a disk and printed out entirely 

by computer, working 10 times as fast as previous machines. By the 197Os, 

publications such as US. News and World Report, Newsweek, and the New 

York Ernes had switched from either hot type or less sophisticated cold type 

to the third-generation technology, which was amenable to satellite transmission. Some of the machines could produce entire pages of newspapers and 

magazines, including advertisements, artwork, and text, reducing time and 

cost of publication. 

A fourth generation would abandon photographic imaging altogether: using 

lasers, it would produce characters directly on paper without use of a cathoderay tube. One such unit had the advantage of producing its output on nonphotographic paper, made without silver, at a price a third that of conventional 

light-sensitive paper. (NY Ernes, Sept 8/80, D-5) 

INTELSAT said that an “extraordinary session” of its signatories in 

Washington had authorized increasing the organization’s capital ceiling from 

$990 million U.S. to $1.2 billion to buy a follow-on to the Intelsat V series 

of satellites and launch vehicles that could fill “booming world demand’ for 

international and domestic communications until the Intelsat VI is available 

around 1986. 

INTELSAT’s announcement said that the actual cost per unit of satellite 

communications was dropping steadily, in spite of the increased investment required; its charges were about a sixth of the level in 1965 when the first Intelsat went into service. (INTELSAT Release 80-18-1) 

September 9: NASA launched the fourth geostationary orbital environmental 

satellite (GOES-D) for NOAA from ESMC on a Delta at 6:27 p.m. EDT. The 

Delta put Goes 4 into a synchronous transfer orbit close to nominal. Firing 

an apogee kick motor at 8 a.m. September 11 would put it into geosynchronous equatorial orbit over 90”w for flight testing, after which it would 

be turned over to NOAA for operational use of the VISSR [see August 291. 

The 103-day gap since NASA’s unsuccessful launch of NOAA-B May 29 

almost set a record for inactivity. (NASA Dly Acm Rpt, Sept 11/80; Of Dfy, Sept 

12/80, 62; Spucavurn, Sept 30180) 

September IS: NASA announced plans to join a university research team in 

first-time transcontinental laser-radar soundings of the volcanic veil still hanging in the upper atmosphere over the United States from the eruptions of Mt. 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1980 

St. Helens. Using NASA’s SAGE satellite with an aircraft “crammed with the 

latest in laser and electronic remote-sensing and near-sensing technologies,” 

scientists from LaRC and WFC and from Drexel ZJniversity, the Universities 

of Maryland, Arizona, and Alaska, Dartmouth College, Michigan 

Technological University, and the Oregon Graduate Center would study 

volcanic aftermath. 

teams for the SAGE program and the Research on Atmospheric Volcanic Emissions (RAVE) project 

funded by NASA and operated through the universities would measure quantities of gases ejected by Mt. St. Helens and atmospheric dispersion of 

aerosols. Launched in 1978, SAGE had used a four-channel solar radiometer 

to track volcano plumes and take profiles of ozone and aerosols in the 

stratosphere, site of most of the ozone preventing harmful solar radiation from 

damaging life on Earth. (NASA Release 80-143; LaRC Release 80-61) 

This joint effort scheduled for September 17-21 

September 17: A partnership of the American Institute of Architects, Pacific 

Gas & Electric, and NASA’s ARC announced selection of the architect for a 

space-age advanced technology house to be built at ARC and opened to the 

public late in 1982 [see February 121. The house, about 2,500 square feet, 

with additional facilities to accommodate visitors, would incorporate experimental ’techniques, new materials, and systems originating in the U.S. 

space program. 

Advanced technology that let astronauts live in the hostile environment of 

space under a controlled life-support system would be used in the house, as 

would self-contained water and sewage systems, recycling all its water and 

disposing of wastes by incineration; heat from the incineration would serve 

as an energy source. Energy-saving and water-saving design features would 

make the house 80% self-sufficient. (AIA/PG&E/ARC anno, Sept 17/80) 

September 18: Tass reported that Soyuz 38, launched September 18, carried a 

Cuban cosmonaut and a Soviet mission commander to join cosmonaut Leonid 

Popov and Valery Ryumin, who were within two weeks of breaking a spaceendurance record on the orbiting Salyut 6 space station. Armando Tamayo 

Mendez, 38, was the seventh non-Soviet citizen to fly in the USSR’s Intercosmos program. His companion on Soyuz 38 was veteran cosmonaut Yuri 

Romanenko. (W Post, Sept 19/80, A-30) 

NASA announced that Administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch had signed a 

memorandum of understanding with Dr. David H. Jacobson, vice president 

of South Africa’s council for scientific and industrial research, for establishment of a Landsat ground station near Johannesburg. The pact would let the 

South African council, an early user of Landsat data, operate a ground station 

at Hartebeesthoek and receive, process, and disserninate data. The council 

would pay for a ground station and attending costs, plus an annual access fee 

of $200,000 after the first six months of data receipt, and would have to make 

208 
SEPTEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Landsat data available on a nondiscriminatory basis. Landsat users in 

southern Africa would have access to regular coverage of the region, as a contribution to development efforts of southern African nations. 

Nine Landsat stations were operating outside the United States, two in 

Canada and one each in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, and 

Sweden. The People’s Republic of China and Thailand were buying groundstation equipment, and other ground stations were being planned. (NASA 

Release 80-147) 

ComSatCorp announced appointment of Dr. Delbert D. Smith, vice president for corporate affairs, to a three-year term on the board of the International 

Institute of Communications (IIC) at the latter’s annual conference. Smith led 

a conference discussion of satellite communications for social and 

developmental purposes. 

The IIC, based in London, was set up to further international cooperation 

in the field of communications; it put out research and policy studies of the 

impact of media on society and analyzed the implications of communications 

technology, seeking to eliminate barriers to the free flow of communications. 

(ComSatCorp Release 80-33) 

INTELSAT announced that it would buy an additional Intelsat V satellite 

from Ford Aerospace and an additional NASA Atlas Centaur vehicle to launch 

it. The first Intelsat V launch had been scheduled for December 1980. The 

ninth in the Intelsat V series would help fill domestic and international demand until higher capacity comsats became available in the mid-1980s. INTELSAT’s decision would add about U.S. $70 million to the cost of the Intelsat 

V program, estimated at U.S. $650 million. (INTELSAT Release 80-19-1) 

September 19: NASA reported selection of Rockwell International’s Energy 

Systems Group to negotiate a cost-shared $9 to $11 million contract under a 

DOE program for design, construction, installation, and test of an advanced 

multipurpose 350-kilowatt wind-turbine system with blades 38 meters (125 

feet) in diameter. 

LeRC with its expertise in aerodynamics and structures would direct the 

project for DOE; it was currently running a 100-kilowatt turbine testbed at its 

Plum Brook test area near Sandusky and four 200-kilowatt versions built and 

installed by Westinghouse in New Mexico, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, and 

Hawaii. A 2,000-kilowatt machine by General Electric was supplying power 

to the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative System in North Carolina. Boeing was 

building a 2,500-kilowatt machine, three of which would be working in the 

Bonneville Power System by the end of 1981. (NASA Release 80-148) 

The Washington Post reported that NORAD in Colorado Springs, Colo., had 

identified a flaming object that streaked across the sky and plunged into the 

Gulf of Mexico earlier in the week. The object was apparently the remains 

209 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1980 

of a Soviet rocket, probably Cosmos 549, that had been in orbit for seven 

years. (W Post, Sept 19/80 A-5) 

September 20: Today newspaper said that a 13-nation U.N. committee that met 

in Geneva, Switzerland, had drafted a report on .1 proposed satellite system 

to scan the Earth and spot disarmament violations. Ending a closed two-week 

session of the committee, the report said that the scientific, financial, and 

legal experts would meet there again in February 1981 to consider and approve 

the draft for submission to the United Nations. The statement contained no 

details of the proposed satellite monitoring system. 

U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim had appointed the committee after 

a special General Assembly session in 1978 on diaarmament received a proposal by France for U.N. establishment of an international satellite agency to 

check up on disarmament pledges. (Today, Sept 20/80, 1OA) 

September 22: JPL Director Bruce C. Murray announced appointment of Dr. 

Freeman Dyson, theoretical physicist and leader in studies of new systems for 

spacecraft propulsion, as a distinguished visiting scientist. A professor at 

Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study, Dyson participated in 

Project Orion at the General Atomic Laboratory, San Diego, from 1958 to 

1965, studying the potential use of atomic explosions to propel crewed 

spacecraft. In 1977 he led a laser-propulsion study for the Defense Advanced 

Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and was later active in studies of solar 

sailing and NASA’s SET1 (research for extraterrestrial intelligence) project. 

Author of “Disturbing the Universe,” Dyson would join Jacques Blamont 

of France, Klaus Hasselmann of Germany, Giuseppe Colombo of Italy, 

Michael Longuet-Higgins of the United Kingdom, and Richard Goody and 

Gene Shoemaker of the United States as a JPL distinguished visiting scientist. 

(JPL anno Sept 22/80) 

September 23: ComSatCorp announced the formation of a new organization, 

ComSatCorp World Systems Division, to handle all matters of global telecommunications through the INTELSAT system and global maritime services 

through the INMARSAT system. John L. McLucas, most recently ComSatCorp vice president for international communications and technical services, 

would head the new division. Joseph V. Charyk, pr1:sident and chief executive 

of ComSatCorp, said that the change responded to FCC concern expressed in 

a study of ComSatCorp organization, as it would let FCC regulate rates and 

costs within an organization segment. (ComSatCorp Release 80-34) 

LaRC reported that staffer Wesley R. Cofer, Jr. would participate during 

October with other researchers from the United Slates and Europe in an expedition on the Atlantic Ocean to evaluate the effect of humans on Earth’s 

troposphere by studying environmentally importani. trace gases. Cofer would 

measure hydrocarbon concentrations with an insti-ument he and Gerald C. 

210 
SEPTEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Purgold developed at LaRC: designed for marine operation, the device was 

built during a 1978-1979 LaRC remote-sensor technology study, for use in aircraft tracking of atmospheric pollutants up the eastern shore of Virginia. 

(LaRC Release 80-64) 

September 27: Today newspaper attended the christening of the first ship built 

to recover NASA’s Shuttle boosters from the Atlantic after launch. United 

Space Boosters, Inc., subsidiary of UTC would operate the U7C Liberty, first 

to be named, and UE Freedom out of KSC. Today said that everybody “involved in the lengthy process of building the ship was in attendance from the 

banker to the builder to the ship’s captain.” (Today, Sept 28/80, 16A) 

September 30: NASA reported that the Winkfield tracking station completed 

its last Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN) support pass at 23452 

and was transferred to U.K. ownership at 00012. It would now be operated 

by Britain’s Science Research Council. Part of NASA’s network for about 20 

years, the station had “performed in an exemplary manner,” NASA said. 

(NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Oct 1/80) 

During September: NRC’s News Report included an article on asteroids, comets, and meteroids, subject of a report by the Space Science Board’s committee 

on planetary and lunar exploration, calling for investigation and analysis of 

the solar system’s “primitive objects” to determine their chemical and isotopic 

composition and deduce their history through Earth-laboratory and theoretical 

studies as well as from spacecraft and space probes, as part of a strategy for 

understanding solar system development. The committee, chaired by Eugene 

Levy of the University of Arizona, called for initial exploration and reconnaissance of asteroids and comets by spacecraft encounter as a “goal of high 

priority” for the period 1980-1990. (NRC News Rept, Sept 80, 1) 

NASA issued a summary of Saturn encounter events for the period August 

22 through December 15, beginning with “in-bound movie sequences” from 

Voyager I through Saturn-Titan close approach and ending with a postencounter movie sequence. Subjects of Voyager research at Saturn would be 

the planet itself, its rings, its satellites (especially the Mercury-size Titan), and 

Saturn’s magnetosphere; the summary listed points of special interest and the 

unique properties to be investigated. (NASA Release 80-145) 

211 

October I: Cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin set a new record 

for spaceflight duration, breaking the mark of 175 days, 36 minutes set last 

year by a crew in Soyuz 32. Ryumin had been on that record mission also; 

he had stayed on Earth for only 236 days since February 25, 1979. Popov, 40, 

and Ryumin, 34, had set out April 9, 1980, in Soyuz 35 to occupy the orbiting 

Safyut 6 launched September 29, lm7, one of 13 crews to visit the 20-ton 

49-foot-long space station. 

Three times during the spring and summer visiting crews brought the “permanent occupants” food and experiment materials, life-support equipment, 

and companionship. These relief missions included the first Vietnamese, 

Hungarian, and Cuban cosmonauts. Earlier this week, an unmanned cargo 

ship Progress 11 arrived with fresh supplies of food, fuel, and technical equipment for the cosmonauts. The Soviet Union had not set a time limit for the 

Salyut-Soyuz flight; Popov and Ryumin reported themselves healthy. (NY 

Times, Oct 2/80, A-17) 

October 2: Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Committee on 

Science and Technology, said that his space science subcommittee would hold 

hearings at the Severe Storm Forecast Center in Kansas City, Mo., on the consolidated storm information system, a joint NASA-NOAA program. The committee heard about the project in July 1979 when it was merely a concept: “it 

will be a pleasure to see it coming to fruition.” 

When fully operational, the system would give a forecaster real-time atmospheric data such as temperature, air pressure, and wind forces from 

around the globe, a substantial improvement on current systems requiring 

several hours to obtain the data. It would combine communications links with 

data sources, such as environmental satellites and atmosphere soundings, into 

a single computer system. (H Comm Sci Release 96-235) 

Nature magazine described equipment problems on Heao 2, also called the 

Einstein observatory, that might end the mission prematurely. Launched in 

1978, Heao 2 carried the first X-ray telescope “as sensitive as ground-based 

optical telescopes”; it had a planned lifetime of only one year. Its success in 

generating new scientific data had led to extension of its mission; until the recent setback, NASA scientists hoped that it would continue to return data well 

into 1981 when atmospheric drag would take it from orbit. The outcome would 

depend on the “behavior of the gyroscopes used to position it.” 

Data transmission was halted three weeks ago when two of the six 

gyroscopes failed after a temporary blackout. Heao 2 needed three function- 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCIOBER 1980 

ing gyroscopes for positioning. One of the other four was already dead; 

another, running erratically, was on standy. NASA was working on software 

for backup control using the two gyros still functioning, along with either a 

Sun sensor or star tracker on the satellite. (Nuturp, Oct 2/80, 379) 

October 4: Cosmonaut Aleksey Yeliseyev, veteran of Soyuz 5, Soyuz 8, and 

Soyuz IO, told a press conference that the flight of Ryumin and Popov on Sulyut 

6 “is coming to an end. The flight will be completed in the first half of October and no more Soyuz expeditions will visit.” “The station today,” he added, “is in a perfectly good state and the question of its being manned in the 

future may be answered in the affirmative.” (FBIS, lWosc Dom Svc in Russian, 

Oct 4/80) 

October 7: Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, told President Carter 

that he would leave January 20 to become the first president of the American 

Association of Engineering Societies, a federation created in January of 39 

major engineering societies of the United States representing more than a 

million engineers. In a memorandum headed “Dear Colleagues,” Frosch said 

that he could “no longer ignore the competitive opportunities available to me 

and to my family in private life. . . I continue to be devoted to our common 

interests in aeronautics and space.” 

Frosch was sworn in as NASA administrator June 21, 1977. He had been 

associate director for applied oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since 1975. He had attended Columbia University, where he received 

a bachelor’s degree in 1947, a master’s in 1949, and a doctorate in theoretical 

physics in 1952. He had been assistant secretary of the Navy for F&D, assistant executive director of the U.N. environment program, and deputy director 

of DOD’s DARPA. (NASA Release 80-151) 

NASA announced award of its largest contract far to a small business 

firm. KSC entered a fixed-price contract of $6,689,666 to W&T Construction 

Company of Cocoa, Fla., for work on Pad B of Launch Complex 39 where 

the Space Shuttle would be launched in 1982 when it became operational. 

W&T would put in long-run pipes and cables to pump and monitor fuels, 

coolant, nitrogen and gaseous helium, compressed air, and hydraulic fluids, 

from storage areas to the fixed and the rotating service structures. Connections to the Space Shuttle would be from the two service towers. The contract 

would be completed in 20 months. (NASA Release 80-152) 

NASA announced an MSFC award to Martin Marietta and Aerojet Liquid 

Rocket Company of contracts to define a liquid-propellant boost module for 

the Shuttle external tank, to increase its cargo-carrying capacity to 5,400 

kilograms (12,000 pounds). 

Under the new terms, modifying initial program-definition contracts let 

earlier in 1980, the two firms would study adapting Titan hardware and 

214 
OCTOBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

systems to the boost module. They had been building Titans for years; the U.S. 

Air Force had used Titan 2 in the mid- %1960s to launch Gemini and was still 

using it. Martin Marietta, under a contract valued at $1.18 million, would 

carry out follow-on studies and design activities on the overall system; Aerojet, under a contract for $782,500, would work on modification of the Titan 

3 stage 1 engine. A modified version of Titan had launched communications 

satellites and other Earth orbiters as well as deep-space Viking and Voyager 

payloads. The first use of the augmenting booster would be in 1986. (NASA 

Release 80454; MSFC Release 80-126) 

October 8: ComSatCorp announced that it would dedicate its new ground station on Saipan in the Marianas in November [see During June]. At the 

ceremony would be Carlos Camacho, governor of the Northern Marianas; 

ComSatCorp head Joseph V. Charyk; officials of the U.S. Department of the 

Interior and of U.S. corngunications carriers; and dignitaries from several 

Pacific nations. The Saipan station working with an Intelsat 22,300 miles over 

the Pacific could offer a wide range of services: in addition to more reliable 

telephone calls, residents would have access to television, telex, data, and facsimile, “an era of modern and improved communications,” the organization 

said. (ComSatCorp Release 80-38) 

October 10: LaRC announced an award to Dynamic Engineering Inc., 

Newport News, Va., of a three-year cost-plus-fixed-fee contract valued at $4.3 

million for design and fabrication of dynamic models for NASA research and 

development programs. It would include personnel, equipment, materials, and 

facilities for feasibility studies, engineering design, and assembly and calibration of models. 

Used primarily in wind-tunnel tests, the models would be of three kinds: 

general-performance, holding a fixed geometry through a range of angle-ofattack and dynamic pressure; free-flight and spin models, simulating mass 

properties of aircraft; and aeroelastic models simulating configuration 

changes ,with load, for performance and flutter investigations. The models 

would consist of fiberglass-reinforced resin, wood, metal, moldable or formable materials, or combinations of these. (LaRC Release 80-73) 

October .ll: The longest spaceflight in history ended at 12:50 Moscow time 

when cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin landed near Dzhezkazgan 

in the descent module of Soyuz 37 after 185 days aboard the Salyut 6 space 

station. A previous record of 175 days was set last year by Ryumin and 

Vladimir Lyakhov; shown on Soviet television immediately after landing, they 

seemed to have trouble walking and talking. The Soviet Union did not have 

television coverage of the Ryurnin-Popov landing, but the two appeared on 

television at 9 p.m. local time in recliners, being interviewed. A Reuters 

report from the landing, carried by the Nau York Times, said that the two men 

appeared well when they climbed from their capsule in the rain, Ryumin 

215 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1980 

noting “it’s always pleasant to have a soft landing.” He joked with journalists 

and insisted on walking two yards unaided “almosl without staggering,” said 

Trud, a trade-union newspaper. Doctors said that neither man seemed to show 

the physical deterioration suffered by other long-mission crews: Popov had 

gained 6.5 pounds, Ryumin almost 11. They had kept up their strength in space 

with exercises. 

(The New York Times noted that the new record fir outdistanced the longest 

U.S. space mission, the 84-day mission of Skylab 4 with Gerald Carr, Edward 

Gibson, and William Pogue, that ended in 1974. In the absence of U.S. space 

exploits since the Moon landings, Western observers said that the new Soviet 

feat might indicate that the Soviet Union had regained the lead in space; coupled with the delay in the U.S. Shuttle program and public awareness of growing 

Soviet military might, the Salyut accomplishment might translate into political 

advantage.) 

Salyut 6 had been orbiting for three years, being manned for about half that 

time. Four main and eight visiting expeditions had been working there, backed 

by automatic cargo craft bringing fuel and supplies. Tass said that the preventive maintenance and resupply procedures carried out by the crews were a big 

step toward “lasting manned complexes for scientific and national economic 

purpose.” (FBIS, Tass in English, Oct 11/80; NY Times, Oct 12/80, 23; Oct 

13/80, A-13) 

October 14: The FCC called for public comment on ComSatCorp reorganization, to prevent its role as sole U.S. representative in the global communications satellite system from interfering with its growing competitive activities. 

An official said that this “could lead to changes” in ComSatCorp operations. 

An FCC staff study earlier in 1980 said that the potential for conflict was 

substantial enough for ComSatCorp to need two separate parts: one for its role 

in the global system, the other providing services like a long-distance 

telephone system or satellite-to-home subscription television. As a result, 

ComSatCorp had set up a World Systems Division to take charge of its congressionally mandated role in the global system, its competitive activities remaining with its subsidiary Comsat General [see September 231. However, 

research and development by Comsat Laboratories would remain in the parent 

company. FCC noted that the subsidiary could obtain new technology 

developed by the laboratories either free or below cost, enabling it to undercut 

competitor prices. It was debating further action to ensure that ComSatCorp 

did not use the knowledge gained in its monopoly role to compete unfairly 

with other communications firms. (W Star, Oct 14/80, D-7) 

October 15: NASA reported that it had begun a three-year program with the 

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources using Landsat data to 

detect gypsy-moth damage. Under an agreement signed recently, the data 

would identify and locate damage so that subsequent satellite images could be 

216 
OCTOBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

used to monitor affected areas. Foresters could identify infestations and isolate 

areas for pest management. 

Results would be passed on to other states in the eastern United States that 

could use the techniques to control spread of gypsy-moth damage initially 

mapped in New England in 1910. Damage to hardwood forests in Pennsylvania 

over the past 10 years was an estimated $32 million; in 1980 alone, gypsymoth caterpillars defoliated 440,000 acres of hardwood forest. (NASA Release 

80-155) 

MSFC reported that it had recovered scientific packages launched from 

Palestine, Tex., on two 30-story-tall balloons after both balloons “by a 

remarkable coincidence” floated directly over the Alabama center. The 

300-foot balloons traveled 20-35 mph about 23 miles up. Dr. Gerald Fishman, 

of MSFC’s space science laboratory, said that it was “almost unbelievable” 

that the payloads flew over the center after drifting some 700 miles. MSFC 

had run a research balloon program for seven years, but not one balloon had 

ever come over the center, much less two. 

The two experiments were also the most successful, Fishman said, recording more than 28 hours of gamma-ray data and more than 38 hours of 

cosmic-ray data. The first, which had been launched October 6 with a 

gama-ray package, was seen by unaided eyes over MSFC about 1:30 p.m. 

October 7; MSFC scientists tracked it and took pictures by telescope. The second, launched October 7 with a cosmic-ray detector, flew over about 3 a.m. 

October 8. Both balloons were tracked by a telemetry station on Redstone 

Arsenal that received experiment data. A National Scientific Balloon Facility 

team recovered the gamma-ray package after it came to Earth near Roanoke, 

Va., and then sought the cosmic-ray package in a heavily wooded area near 

Elkins, W.Va., where a helicopter retrieved it. Both packages were returned 

to MSFC for analysis. (MSFC Release 80-129) 

October 16: ESA announced that the cause of the failure of Ariane LO2 May 

23 was “combustion instability” on one of the four first-stage engines 5.75 

seconds after launch. The violent event “altered the characteristics of the injector” and destroyed the vehicle 108 seconds after liftoff. ESA had analyzed 

telemetry, looked over hardware recovered from the ocean, conducted 

acoustic simulations and 37 static firings between July and mid-October, and 

investigated manufacturing processes. It would change its procedure for buying injectors. (ESA Info 24) 

October 17: ComSatCorp announced that it would reduce its charges for international satellite communications by 11.8 %. FCC was concerned over the increase in international carrier earnings for these services and had begun a formal rate procedure against ITT Worldcom for the same reason. ComSatCorp 

president Joseph V. Charyk said that the reduction could save its members 

about $19 million in 1981 and asked FCC to see that the savings reached the 

217 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1980 

public. (ComSatCorp Release 80-39) 

October 20: NASA declared successful the mission of Magsat, launched 

Ocober 30, 1979, to measure Earth’s magnetic field. The satellite’s lifetime exceeded that planned for it by three months and met or exceeded accuracy requirements in instrumentation and in attitude and position determination. The 

mission had met the objectives of developing a worldwide magnetic-field 

model; acquiring data for crustal magnetic-anomaly maps; and adding to 

knowledge of Earth’s magnetic field and its temporal variations. (NASA MOR 

E-662-80-01, Oct 20/80) 

NASA reported that byuger I would approach closest to Saturn November 

12, third episode in a 10-year multibillion-mile trip to the outer planets. A 

briefing on the encounter would take place October 28 at Headquarters with 

Andrew Stofan, associate administrator; Angelci Guastaferro, director of 

planetary programs; Dr. Edward Stone of CalTech, project scientist; Ray 

Heacock of JPL, project manager; and Dr. Bradford Smith, University of 

Arizona, of the imaging team. (NASA Release Oct 20/80; LaRC Release 

80-77) 

October 21: The Washington Star reported a warning from the Center for 

Defense Information (“an unofficial defense study group”) that technological 

progress in U.S. and Soviet space programs could spark an arms race in space. 

The United States had a 12 xl3-inch device-the miniature homing interceptor 

vehicle-that could home in on infrared radiation “to destroy a target satellite 

by high-speed impact,’’ the group said; if the device were actually tested in 

space, “it could destroy more than the target satellite: it could destroy U.S. 

and Soviet negotiations aimed at limiting antisatellite warfare as well.” 

The group said that the Pentagon believed that the Soviet Union had an 

operational but limited antisatellite weapon that had been tested about 17 

times; 7 of the tests were failures, but 10 were “possible successes” in that 

the interceptor passed less than a mile from the targets. No target was 

destroyed, suggesting that the Soviet Union might be working on inspection 

of foreign satellites. PRC reconnaissance satellites traveled in orbits like those 

of the Soviet test targets, and an interception program might be aimed mainly 

at the Chinese, the group said. 

Rear Adm. Gene LaRocque (USN-ret.), head of the center, said wars might 

begin in space “but they’re going to end right here on earth. It won’t be a Star 

Wars show with a lot of robots. . .vaporizing each other in the remote regions 

of space. . . . Once those nuclear missiles start to fly, the science-fiction drama 

will be over.” (W Star, Oct 21/80, D-10) 

October 23: Nature magazine commented on D:r. Robert Frosch’s leaving 

NASA, “the latest to join the exodus of science administrators from the 

218 
OCMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

federal government” with the departure in June of Dr. Richard Atkinson, 

director of the NSF, and the “widely expected” appointment of Dr. Frank 

Press, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as 

president of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Frosch’s time at NASA 

had seen “the agency struggling increasingly against the escalating costs of the 

[Shuttle] which is now biting deeply into the space research budget.” (Nature, 

Oct 23/80, 673) 

October 27: DFRC announced plans for a ceremony at which ARC officials 

representing NASA and the Army’s Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft project would 

accept the first of two aircraft built under a joint program. One of the two 

planes built by Bell Helicopter Textron arrived at ARC in March 1978 for tests 

in its full-scale wind tunnel; the other arrived at DFRC August 13 for followup of tests by Bell. So far, two contractor pilots, two NASA pilots, one Army 

pilot, and one Marine pilot had tested and evaluated the aircraft. (DFRC 

Release 80-28) 

MSFC noted the arrival of the age of automation in its Materials and Processes Laboratory, where industrial robots were improving manufacturing 

techniques in Space Shuttle hardware production. Robotics, integrated into 

totally compuier-controlled systems, would help meet high launch-rate 

fabrication and between-flight refurbishment requirements of reusable Shuttle 

items. 

One of the two MSFC robots was helping spray foam insulation for thermal 

protection on booster structures such as forward and aft skirts or nosecones. 

The second, currently used for advanced welding, would serve in a thermal 

protection process for the external tank. A third robot to arrive in December 

would run a high-pressure water blaster to strip insulation from reusable Shuttle hardware. (MSFC Release 80-138) 

Aviation Week & Space Technology said that General Dynamics Convair had 

developed a prototype deployable space truss as a building block in large 

space structures,. A 26-foot beam stowed in a flat pack 3 feet long, 5 feet wide, 

and 9.5 inches high would unfold in five segments to 5 feet in width and 7.5 

feet in height. The hinged and folded struts of graphite-epoxy bonded to 

aluminum would deploy in three automatic steps, forming first a triangular, 

then a diamond-shaped, section. A Shuttle could carry 24 500-foot beams into 

space on a single mission. (AvWk, Oct 27/80, 49) 

Ocotober 28: NASA reported that DFRC had conducted a “highly successful” 

sixth HiMAT flight October 28, lasting more than 32 minutes and reaching 

45,000 feet and a maximum Mach number of 0.9. No anomalies occurred. 

(NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Oct 29/80) 

219 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1980 

INTELSAT announced that its assembly had agreed to technical and some 

economic compatibility with seven other satellite systems. Found technically 

compatible with existing and planned INTELSAT systems were Eutelsat, 

spare craft for a European communications satellite system; Germany’s TVSat 

broadcasting system; India’s Insat 1-A and 1nsa.t I-B for television and 

meteorological use; Indonesia’s Palapa-A system for limited regional service 

to remote areas in southeast Asia; the Intersputnik system for limited use by 

Algeria; Japan’s GMS-2 metesat system; and Saudi Arabia’s broadcastsatellite system. 

Algeria’s proposal was the first instance of an INTELSAT signatory’s seeking use of another system for general international public traffic instead of for 

limited regional service. INTELSAT said that its permission would apply only 

through 1985 and to a total of 22 telephone lines; similar proposals by other 

members would require separate handling. The specific request by Algeria for 

use of Intersputnik would not constitute significant economic harm to INTELSAT at present; however, the assembly noted that INTELSAT’s objective 

was to promote development of “a single” global communications satellite 

system, and all signatories must continue to consider that a goal. (INTELSAT 

Release 80-23-1) 

October 29: Newspapers said Voyager 1’s Saturn approach had discovered two 

new moons, a 13th and 14th, and confirmed existence of three previously 

shown in Earthbound observations. Until the recent discoveries, the giant 

planet was thought to have only nine satellites. Closing on Saturn at 45,000 

mph, Voyager I should come within 77,000 miles of the surface on or about 

November 12 and obtain high-resolution photographs of the planet and its 

satellites. It was already returning pictures with resolution far higher than 

those taken in 1979 by the less sophisticated Pioneer 11. 

Images relayed over the past 10 days showed dozens of divisions never seen 

before between Saturn’s rings, meaning that the six known rings would have 

to be recounted. “Almost everything we’re seeing at Saturn right now is brand 

new,” said Dr. Bradford Smith, head of the Voyager imaging team. JPL‘s Ray 

L. Heacock, project manager, said that 9 of Voyager’s 10 instruments were 

working, 1 having failed after encounter with Jupiter, and the spacecraft was 

in good shape after traveling 1.3 bilion miles through space. (NY Times, Oct 

29/80, A-20; W Post, Oct 29/80, A-2; W Star, Oct 29/80, D-18) 

MSFC said that it would static-fire for 581 secon’ds a test prototype of the 

Shuttle main propulsion system in one of two tests remaining before the first 

flight in March 1981. Rockwell International would conduct this 11th firing of 

the system at NSTL. The test would serve to evaluate thrust-vector controls, 

low-level fuel cutoff, and liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen pressurization. 

Final main propulsion-system test firing would be in late November. (MSFC 

Release 80-139) 

220 
OCIOBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Comsat General announced that it was providing consulting service to 

Alascom Inc., based in Anchorage, on a new generation of communications 

satellites to meet Alaska’s future communications needs. Alascom was now 

leasing 15 to 17 transponders on a domestic Satcom to relay communications 

throughout Alaska, but growth by the late 1980s should require double that 

number. Comsat General would help design a spacecraft to meet increased 

transponder demand. (Cornsat Gnl Release 80-5) 

October 30: NASA launched FltSatCom-D into a synchronous transfer orbit 

from Launch Complex 36, ETR, on an Atlas Centaur at 1054 p.m. EST. An 

apogee kick motor fired November 1 at fifth apogee put it (as FltSatCorn 4) 

into the desired synchronous orbit [see October 201. Spacecraft systems were 

turned on and operated normally. (NASA MOR M-491-202-80-04 

[postlaunch] Nov 21/80) 

October 31: The Washington Post reported that SBS was “having a hard time 

getting off the ground” with launch of its first satellite put off for the third 

time in a month. Technical problems with the Delta had delayed the launch 

of SBS 1, built by Hughes Aircraft, first of its kind to offer a high-frequency 

interference-free signal. Liftoff had been postponed to November 6 because 

of insulation damage, then to November 12 when a motor bolt broke. The 

latest problem was a leak in the liquid oxygen system. ( WPost, Oct 31/80, E-3) 

MSFC reported signing a $2,271,391 contract with a small business, OAO 

Corporation of Beltsville, Md., for design, assembly, delivery, test, and 

checkout within 18 months of a data-base management system to handle an 

“immense volume” of instrument data transmitted at “extremely high rates” 

by spacecraft during missions between 1985 and 1995. The system would accept data at rates up to 50 million bits per second (44,650 pages of computer 

printout per minute). “Firsts” to be included in the system would be a data 

bus of fiber-optic cabling for use in a computer configuration and use of lasers 

to transmit and receive data at the high rates required. (MSFC Release 80-141) 

During October: NASA appointed Dr. Jack L. Kerrebrock, head of MIT’s 

aeronautics and astronautics department, as associate administrator for 

aeronautics and space technology as of June 1, 1981. Replacing Dr. James J. 

Kramer who retired in October 1979, he would be responsible for aeronautics, 

space and energy research, and technology programs. Dr. Walter B. Olstad 

would act as associate administrator in the interim. (NASA Release 80-156) 

-JSC announced that Dr. Edward G. Gibson, scientist-astronaut, would 

leave October 31 to become advanced systems manager for TRW Defense and 

Space Systems Group. The science pilot on the record 84-day Skylab 4 mission in 1973-1974, he had left NASA in 1974 to work for Aerospace Corporation and for ERN0 but had rejoined the agency in March 1977. (JSC Release 

80-057) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCIOBER 1980 

-C.A. Syvertson, ARC director, named Angelo Guastaferro of the Headquarters Office of Space Science as his deputy, replacing A. Thomas Young, 

recently named director of GSFC. John Boyd, associate deputy director, 

would remain acting deputy director for six moniths. (ARC anno Oct 31/80; 

NASA Release 80-165) 

-The NAA newsletter reported that Maurice Bellonte, copilot of the first 

east-to-west transatlantic nonstop flight in 1930, wiis guest of honor at the National Air and Space Museum on the 50th annive-rsary of his flight from Le 

Bourget airfield near Paris to Curtiss Field, N.Y. In 1929 Bellonte and his 

copilot Dieudonne Coste had set a world record for longest nonstop flight, 

4,788 miles from Paris to Manchuria in 51 hours, 39 minutes. The Atlantic 

crossing had taken 37 hours, 18 minutes. (NAA nsltr Sept-Oct 80, 2) 

-The New York Ernes reported that after long service in orbit and “a 

galaxy of discoveries” the astrophysics observatories Copernicus and Galileo 

were nearing the end of their useful lives. Copel-nicus (Om 3, launched in 

August 1972 and named to honor the 500th birthday of the Polish astronomer) 

carried the first UV telescope above Earth’s atmosphere and made precise 

measurements of the amount of deuterium in the universe. Galileo (Hem 2, 

launched in November 1978) carried the only imaging X-ray telescope ever orbited and mapped X-ray emissions from every knciwn quasar. (NY Times, Oct 

31/80, A-19) 

-1NTELSAT announced that its Italian signatory member, Telespazio, 

had set up an award of U.S.$lO,OOO for contributions to the field of satellite 

communications. Established on the 10th anniversary of the death of Dr. Piero 

Fanti, first general manager of Telespazio, the awaird would go every two years 

to a researcher or student in an INTELSAT member country who made a contribution of significant value to the field. (INTEILSAT Release 80-22-1) 

FBIS carried Tass reports during October on the flight of Popov and Ryumin 

aboard Salyut 6, beginning with resupply of water from the cargo vessel Progress 11 October 3 and completion of unloading by October 6, including 

resupply of air. On October 8 Tass said that the crew was measuring the 

dynamics of the orbital complex for use in designing new space systems. 

Launched September 29, 1977, Salyut 6 had received 13 Soyuz (7 with international crews), 2 Soyuz-T, and 11 Progress craft during its three-year flight, 

manned about half that time by four main and eight visiting expeditions; 24 

dockings occurred, plus 4 redockings from one port to another. On October 

11, after Popov and Ryumin returned to Earth, Tass reported that no irreversible effects of weightlessness had occurred. The crew’s diet included meat and 

dairy products, confectionery, beverages, and various seasonings. Fresh 

vegetables and fruits brought from Earth during the flight helped diversify the 

meals. On October 13, Tass said that the cosmoniiuts had gone for a walk in 

less than 24 hours after their return from six months in space and had met 

with journalists for interviews. Both said that working in space would be 

possible for longer than six months; Ryumin said that he felt better after his 

222 
OCTOBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

second prolonged flight, thanks to better ground training and better scheduling of on-board activity. A rest period every fourth day had made them “more 

eager to do exercises.” On October 29, the cosmonauts reported to a meeting 

of the State Commission representing 400 organizations and agencies interested in their results on the 3,500 photos and 40,000 atmospheric spectra, 

more than 70 materials experiments, and the medical and biological tests. 

(FBIS, Tass in English, Oct 3-29/80) 

223 

November 

November 1: OMB told Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, that 

President Carter concurred with NASA’s request for a 1986 mission to make 

a detailed examination of the surface of Venus. Previously, both U.S. and 

Soviet probes had penetrated the planet’s cloud cover to send data over a few 

minutes to several hours; Pioneer Venus returned data on the atmosphere, but 

none had given an idea of the surface. The President would request the 

necessary funds in his FYS2 budget. 

The Venus-orbiting imaging radar (VOIR) spacecraft, managed by JPL, 

weighing about 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds) at launch, and costing $500 

to $600 million, would carry a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) and other 

scientific instruments. Lanched from the Space Shuttle in May or August of 

1986, it would arrive at Venus in December 1986 and circle it for seven months 

in a 300-kilometer (180-mile) near-polar orbit, taking radar pictures and 

measuring atmosphere as well as surface. VOIR images should disclose the 

presence of contlnents, ocean basins, mountain chains, rift valleys, fault belts, 

or volcanoes, as well as nature and timing of plate-tectonic activity (continental drift) or the size and frequency of occurrence of impact craters. (NASA 

Release 80-166) 

November 2: ComSatCorp said that telephone and other services in Saipan 

improved with dedication of a new ground station there [see October 81. 

Saipan communications carried by high-frequency radio had suffered delay 

and interference from atmospheric disturbance. Better telex, facsimile, and 

television would also be possible through a large dish antenna working with 

an Intelsat spacecraft 22,000 miles over the Pacific. (ComSatCorp Release 

80-42) 

November 3: NASA said that Dr. Floyd W. Stecker of GSFC had found 

evidence to suggest that subatomic particles called neutrinos might have mass, 

redefining the nature of all matter and the ultimate fate of the universe. Observations of rocket-launch results had detected a spectral line that might mean 

neutrino decay near the W wavelength of 0.00017 mm. Neutrinos were 

previously thought to lack mass, like photons. In the “Big Bang” theory, an 

explosion of all matter in the universe 15 billion years ago formed galaxies 

that continued to expand away from the original site. The theory suggested 

roughly a billion neutrinos for every proton (protons, the nuclei of hydrogen 

atoms, made up 90% of the atoms in the universe). 

If Stecker’s findings were correct, a spherical area of “heavy” neutrinos 

created by the Big Bang would surround the galaxy; they would live so long 

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P Ai; 4NTfNTlOHU.Y W 225 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1980 

that only one in 10 million would have decayed since the time of the Big Bang. 

The weight of a billion would equal the weight of me nitrogen atom, but they 

would be so numerous that they would account fclr the mysterious “missing 

mass” in large clusters of galaxies. Absence of this mass had thwarted calculation of whether the original expansion would continue forever or would collapse on itself to produce another Big Bang. (NASA Release 80-163) 

Ground testing of Space Shuttle engines suffered another setback, the New 

York 7Tmes reported, when three engines shut down prematurely during a 

static test firing in Mississippi. The engines, identkal to three now on the Columbia at Cape Canaveral, were supposed to fire lor 9 minutes, 41 seconds, 

the time it would take to put a Shuttle into orbit. ~IASA said that instruments 

indicated overheating in part of a turbopump. This 11th firing of the three 

engines in the test series would have been the 5th for the full time needed to 

launch a Shuttle. Columbia was scheduled for its, maiden launch in March 

1981. (NY Times, Nov 4/80, C-3) 

NASA said that JPL would arrange for media coverage of Voyager I’s Saturn 

encounter over a 47-hour period on or about November 11-13, relaying live 

television to television stations, science centers, and planetariums across the 

United States. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in 

Washington, D.C., also planned to change its regular closing time from 5:OO 

to 8:30 p.m. during the encounter to handle the expected crowds and had 

scheduled special programs around the encounter.. (NASA Release 80-164) 

November 6: ESA announced plans to mark a milestone in space cooperation 

on or about November 28 when prime Spacela13 contractor VFW-ERN0 

delivered the engineering model to NASA. After 6.5 years of development and 

manufacture, the model would be ready for shiprnent to KSC for verifying 

flight-unit interface with ground equipment and for training. 

Delivery of the prototype, not meant for flight, would be the first Spacelabhardware transfer under a 1973 memorandum of understanding, followed in 

1981 by delivery of the first flight unit, which would carry experiments being 

developed in Europe and the United States. NASA., which had ordered a second flight unit for delivery in 1982-1983, had scheduled Spacelab launches 

for June and November 1983. (ESA Info 25; NASA Release 80-180; MSFC 

Release 80-152) 

November 10: The Wushingron Star reported the latest photographs from 

Voyager 1 on its way to Saturn revealed that the ring system was far more complex than Earth-based observation suggested. Besides rings within rings and 

a collection of particles filling the gaps between the major rings, the images 

showed in the brightest and widest inner rings fingerlike shadows like spokes, 

first seen two weeks ago, that scientists could not explain. Dr. Bradford A. 

226 
NOVEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Smith, imaging team leader, called the photos “baffling.” (W Star, Nov 7/80, 

B-2) 

LaRC announced selection of Martin Marietta Corporation for negotiations 

leading to a $2 million, two-year contract for design and development of a 

real-time signal-processing system using new technologies to perform on a 

spacecraft several processing functions formerly carried out on the ground. 

Elements to be developed included radiometric and geometric correction 

and packeting of data. The contractor would demonstrate these operations on 

Landsat-type data in a laboratory and would incorporate new signalprocessing functions into commercial-grade electronic components. Martin 

Marietta would do the work at its Denver facility. (LaRC Release 80-93) 

ESA reported that Professor P. Wild, University of Berne, had discovered 

a supernova in spiral galaxy NGC 6946, a relatively close galaxy appearing 

nearly face-on to the Earth and a prolific source of supernovas (5 in the past 

63 years). Within three hours after Dr. Wild alerted the astronomical community, the Villafranca (Spain) tracking station used the international 

ultraviolet explorer he to acquire the first spectrum, before optical 

astronomers could do so from the ground. 

Early spectra taken by the station near Madrid showed the supernova nearly 

at maximum and fading slowly, with a strong continuum representing a 

temperature of about 20,000°C. Before the object faded too far, it would be 

a target of concerted observations over the electromagnetic spectrum. ESA 

noted that such supernovas were rare, only two occurring per decade on the 

average; he observers were fortunate in witnessing the event, second seen 

since he’s launch in January 1978. (ESA Info 26) 

November U: Only a day away from its closest encounter with Saturn, Voyager 

1 had surprisd scientists again with images of a huge hill on the moon Tethys 

and some distorted “ringlets” inside Saturn’s concentric ring system. The 

head of the imaging team, Dr. Bradford Smith, said Saturn’s rings were a complex system with dozens of small ringlets forming perfect circles within 

circles; traditional theories did not explain even the series of concentric 

ringlets. 

Of one ringlet offset in a ring gap, Smith said that it was not circular and 

not of uniform width, varying from 15 to 50 miles wide; this and another 

found elsewhere might be caused by small moonlets not yet visible on either 

side, distorting the ring particles with their gravity. (W Star, Nov 12/80, A-5) 

ESA announced that France had deposited its “instrument of ratification” 

of the convention establishing the agency, completing legal formalities for its 

going into force. Countries that signed the convention May 30, lq5, had 

agreed to make it applicable immediately, permitting ESA to operate de facto 

for more than five years. Formalizing the agency meant that the 11-member 

227 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1980 

states could now avail themselves of all possibilities offered by the convention 

intended to give a “truly European dimension” to the space effort. 

Current member nations were Belgium, Denma1 k, France, West Germany, 

Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United 

Kingdom. Ireland had signed the convention Dectxnber 31, 1975, and would 

soon deposit with ESA its own instrument of ratilkation to obtain the legal 

status of a member state. Austria, under various azreements to participate in 

ESA programs, would be an associate member as defined in the convention. 

Canada and Norway, which had also participated in some ESA programs, 

would remain in observer status. (ESA Info 23, DfDly, Nov 14/80, 65) 

November 12: Climaxing a 1.3 billion-mile, 3Ehnonth trip from Earth, 

kbyuger 1 came within 77,000 miles of Saturn for “man’s best-ever look” at 

its surface, the Washington Star reported. Cameras surveying some of Saturn’s 

moons revealed a huge crater with a central peak on Mimas; bright cobweb 

markings on Rhea and Dione; and a 500-mile canyon cutting through the 

frozen surface of Tethys, all moons that until now were only points of light 

as seen by Earth telescopes. 

Voyager I showed particles in the narrow outer F ring orbiting in three 

“braided” strands, as JPL scientists described thern; from 470,000 miles, the 

ring appeared about 20 miles wide with small “knots” that might be clumps 

of ring material, or mini-moons. (W Star, Nov lWO, A-5) 

November 14: NASA reported that the People’s Republic of China had been 

admitted as the 48th member of the United Nations outer space committee, 

which the General Assembly had expanded from 48 to 53 members. The 

president of the General Assembly would appoint five new members, one each 

from the U.N.’s regional groups; those expressing interest were Upper Volta, 

Syria, Uruguay, Peru, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. The United States supported 

admission of the People’s Republic but was the sole nay in a 113-1 vote to expand the committee. (NASA Dly Acrv Rpt, Nov 14430) 

The Washington Star reported that SBS had bet its future on the launch of 

a $20 million satellite as the basis of a revolutionary long-distance telephone 

service. SBS had promised new communications at lower rates than those of 

AT&T; its network would be the first in the world to use satellites and ground 

stations alone to transmit voice, data, and video messages from one place to 

another. Telephone firms had previously transmitted messages by 

underground cable or microwave-relay towers. 

The system would connect a firm with its faraway offices without reference 

to local phone lines: it would use a 16- to 25-foot-diameter antenna installed 

on a roof or in a parking lot to signal the satellite, which would relay the signal 

to ground stations at distant company offices and give service not presently 

available. Computers at far locations could talk to each other at speeds 20 

times faster than was now possible; facsimile pictures could be transmitted 

228 
NOVEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

200 times faster; and the system would allow customers to hold 

videoconferences with executives located all over the United States. 

SBS had had difficulty in selling its services, designed for companies or 

government agencies conducting a large amount of nationwide business. It 

estimated a need for 25 to 30 private-line customers to break even by 1983. 

Two of its owner companies, IBM and Aetna, were among its 10 customers, 

and General Motors had asked for three stations to link Detroit, Atlanta, and 

Dayton. SBS said that the launch, scheduled for November 15, should attract 

attention and more customers to the company. (W Star, Nov 14/80, B-5) 

November 15: NASA launched SBS-A, the SBS spacecraft, from ESMC on 

a Delta at 5:49 p.m. EST into a transfer orbit. At 5:30 p.m. EST November 

17, the apogee motor fired it as Sbs I into a circular geosynchronous orbit over 

176 W. The final station would be over the equator at 106"W, south of Santa 

Fe, N.M., for coverage of the continental United States. 

Sbs 1, first of a new satellite series built by Hughes Aircraft, was a spinstabilized 1,212-pound (550-kilogram) craft 216 centimeters (7 feet) in 

diameter, 282 centimeters (9 feet, 3 inches) high when stowed for launch. In 

geosynchronous orbit, extension of its telescoping solar-panel cylinder and 

communications antenna would make its height 660 centimeters (21 feet, 8 inches). Sbs 1 would also be the first U.S. domestic communications satellite 

to use the less congested 12- to 14-GHz (K-band) high frequencies. Its highspeed all-digital 10-transponder system could relay up to 480 million bits per 

second, equal to more than 10 million words. It would begin early in 1981 to 

provide integrated all-digital interference-free transmission of telephone, computer, electronic mail, and videoconferencing to SBS business and industrial 

clients. 

This launch was also the first use of a new McDonnell Douglas solid-fuel 

payload-assist module (PAM) as part of the SBS-A payload, to increase Delta 

capability on launches to geosynchronous orbit by 20% over that of the usual 

Delta third stage. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Nov 19/80; NASA Release 80-167) 

November 18: NASA reported that LeRC awarded a two-year $2,917,800 contract to Energy Research Corporation, Danbury, Conn., under a DOE program managed by LeRC, for fuel cell technology to provide EO-kilowatt 

capacity needed to meet all heating, cooling, and electrical needs of an apartment complex or small shopping mall with greater efficiency than that of usual 

systems. Fuel cells would combine hydrogen and oxygen electrochemically to 

produce electricity as well as a usable by-product, heat. A fuel-conditioning 

system would produce hydrogen from natural gas or naphtha, oxygen coming 

from the air; future such systems could make hydrogen from synthetic fuels, 

liquid or gaseous, derived from coal. The LeRC contract would aid the 

government's effort to develop high-efficiency means of reducing U. S. 

dependence on scarce fuels while meeting environmental standards. (NASA 

Release 80-170) 

229 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1980 

NASA reported selection of Hughes Aircraft’s space and communications 

group for negotiation of a $40 million contract to be managed by ARC for a 

carrier spacecraft to transport the Galileo probe to Jupiter. Launched from the 

Space Shuttle in March 1984, the probe would reach the planet by July 1987, 

separate from the carrier, and enter the atmosphere to measure it for about 

one hour down to a level where pressure would be 10 times that of Earth’s. 

The carrier would be powered by two radioisotope thermoelectric 

generators (RES); solar energy at Jupiter’s distance would be too weak to furnish power to the carrier, which would maintain contact with Earth during the 

entire mission, returning data both in real time and for playback on tape 

recorders. The carrier would receive data from the probe during its entry and 

descent into Jupiter’s atmosphere, transmitting it to Earth stations. Data on 

Jupiter’s atmosphere, believed to consist of the original material that formed 

the stars, would give scientists better understanding of Jupiter’s and Earth’s 

weather mechanisms. (NASA Release 80-171; ARC Release 80-79) 

NASA launched an eighth space-processing applications rocket, SPAR 8, 

November 18 from the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. Its payload, 

developed and tested by MSFC, was three experiments processed in about five 

minutes of zero gravity in the coast phase of the suborbital flight, using a 

three-axis room-temperature acoustic levitator; a single-axis acoustic-levitator 

furnace to produce 1,575 “C; and a specialized processing furnace. 

All experiments had apparently performed as expected: two were on 

acoustic levitation (use of soundwaves to keep liquids from contamination in 

touching the walls of a container), one of them to produce a high-temperature 

glass; the third experiment studied movement of bubbles in molten glass. The 

payload, damaged at impact on Earth, was recovered for damage assessment 

and study by the investigators of the results. (MSFC Release 80-148) 

November 19: NASA announced that it had signed a memorandum of 

understanding with TVA on NASA support of ‘TVA programs in energy 

research, development, and demonstration. The two agencies were currently 

negotiating an agreement for TVA reimbursement of NASA for MSFC support of TVAs coal-gasification project. NASA for some time had supported 

DOE and other agencies’ programs on energy research and development 

(R&D) because its facilities were adaptable to such research. TVA had requested NASA assistance because of the NASA staff s experience in engineering and scientific disciplines applicable to energy research and technology, as 

well as in managing such programs. (NASA Release 80-172; MSFC Release 

80-145) 

November 20: NASA said that the Shuttle orbiter IColumbia would move out 

of the orbiter-processing facility at KSC no earlier than November 23 for tow 

to the VAB and mating with the external fuel tank and solid-fuel rocket 

230 
NOVEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

booster. Actual date would depend on results of final inspections now in process; NASA would issue an update November 22. (NASA Release 80-173) 

ESA reported that INMARSAT had awarded it a five-year contract at U.S.$1 

million a year for leasing MARECS satellites A and B when located over the 

Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The completed INMARSAT system would cover 

the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans by using those satellites with Intelsat 

Vs carrying maritime communications payloads, and with one of the 

MARISAT satellites already in orbit. For the first time a European-built 

satellite would let ships at sea dial shore-based subscribers directly and 

establish telephone and telex links with them, through the real-time highly 

reliable MARECS system operating in the 4- and 6-GHz band and on 1.5- to 

1.6-GHz frequencies. (ESA Info 28) 

NASA announced that Dr. John E. Naugle, its former chief scientist, would 

return December 1 on a temporary basis as acting chief scientist, principal 

scientific adviser to the NASA administrator, and continuing member of the 

Advisory Council responsible for planning long-range solar system exploration and other long-range goals for the agency. Naugle had joined GSFC in 

1959 as head of its nuclear emulsion section and retired from the agency in 

June 1979. 

During those 20 years, he had been chief, physics and astronomy programs, 

at Headquarters Office of Space Sciences in 1961; director of physics and 

astronomy programs, Office of Space Science and Applications, from June 

1962 to May 1966; associate administrator for space science and applications 

in 1967; and deputy associate administrator of NASA in 1974. He became acting associate administrator in April 1975 and associate administrator in 

November 1975. He was appointed chief scientist in ,the 1977 reorganization. 

(NASA Release 80-175; Hq anno Nov 21/80) 

November 21: LeRC awarded a one-year $150,980 grant to Atlanta University 

for research in high-strength fibrous polymers (a low-cost silicon product) for 

use .in solar cells, and complex iron molecules for a chemical-storage system. 

Lockheed-Georgia Company would give $25,000 in technical support. (NASA 

Release 80-174) 

November 24: The Space Shuttle Columbia, OV-102, rolled out of KSC’s 

orbiter-processing facility at 6:01 p.m. and moved to the VAB for mating to 

its external tank and solid-fuel rocket boosters. Next rollout, from VAB to 

launch pad, would occur late in December. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt Nov 26/80; 

NASA anno Nov 24/80) 

NASA reported that Dr. Robert A. Frosch, its administrator, had signed an 

agreement November 18 in Bangalore, India, with Dr. Satish Dhawan, 

secretary of the Indian government’s Department of Space, for launch by 

231 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1980 

NASA of two India communications satellites/mi:tesats. In geosynchronous 

orbit, India’s national satellites (INSAT) 1A and 1B would provide the subcontinent with point-to-point television and voice, coinmunity broadcasting, and 

weather data. Launch would be either by Shuttle 01, at India’s option, on Delta 

(expendable) launch vehicles. 

Under the agreement, India’s Department of Space would be responsible for 

manufacture of the satellites (under contract to Ford Aerospace), and for 

checkout and integration of a spinning solid upper stage (SSUS) to boost them 

into transfer orbit for maneuver to geosynchronoiis sta,tions. NASA through 

KSC would provide all other launch-related services. INSAT 1A was schedulcd for Shuttle launch in August 1983, or on a Delu in February 1982; INSAT 

lB, by Shuttle in December 1983 or a Delta in July 1983. (NASA Release 

80-176) 

November 25: ARC announced that it would host a workshop in December 

on the atmosphere of Titan, largest of Saturn’s moons and bigger than the 

planet Mercury. Experts on Titan from NASA, the university community, and 

elsewhere would discuss the temperature, pressure, and physical nature of 

Titan’s surface, in view of new data from byugu f’s flyby. (ARC Release 

80-85) 

ARC announced a briefing December 4 on findings from the Pioneer knus 

orbiter and five atmosphere probes. Scientists could now explain the planetwide circulation of the Venus atmosphere; ultraviolet photography over a twoyear period showed long-term patterns of cloud circulation; more new work 

seemed to explain the “hothouse effect” that produced Venus’s heat; and new 

measurements were available of elements in that atmosphere. For television, 

ARC had prepared large color illustrations of Venus atmosphere circulation 

as well as new color pictures of the planet and mo’dels of the Pioneer orbiter. 

(ARC Release 80-84) 

NASA announced selection of Ball Aerospace Systems to negotiate a costplus-award-fee contract estimated at $21 million for an Earth RadiationBudget Satellite ERBS and mission operations support. The satellite would be 

integrated, tested, and delivered for Shuttle launch by April 1984. Working 

with NOAA-F and NOAA-G, it would become part of a three-spacecraft 

system using scanning and nonscanning radiomettm to measure solar radiation received and reflected from various regions of Earth. NASA’s experimental Nimbus 6 and Nimbus 7 carried radiation-budget instruments, but the 

(ERBS) would offer for the first time measurement of radiation on a global 

basis 24 hours per day. (NASA Release 80-178) 

NASA reported that Peter Bird, a 33-year-old London photographer, who 

in 1974 crossed the Atlantic with a friend in a rowboat, had left Baja California 

for Australia November 11 alone in the same vessel (Royal Navy rescue boat 

232 
NOVEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Britannia II) carrying a NASA locator beacon of the type used on Nimbus 6. 

This type of beacon had tracked a two-man balloon crossing of the Atlantic, 

an expedition into the Egyptian desert, and a Japanese explorer’s hike from 

Canada to the North Pole and the length of Greenland, all in 1978, sending 

data to GSFC for computation and relay to pinpointing locations. Bird would 

use the locator for his own position computations. (NASA Release 80-177) 

November 26: ARC announced plans to flight test the parachute system for the 

Galileo Jupiter-atmosphere probe, third and last test of the system at the Naval 

Weapons Center test range at China Lake, Calif. Previous tests revealed the 

need for improvements, which had been made on the chutes to be tested. On 

completion of the test program, the design would be ready for delivery. 

Early in 1982 a U.S. Air Force Geophysics Laboratory balloon would carry 

a fully equipped probe to 100,000-foot altitude over the White Sands missile 

range and release it in a drop like the Jupiter descent, including parachute and 

hardware staging. When launched by a Shuttle and released from its carrier 

at the planet in September 1987, the parachute would slow descent of the probe 

in the turbulent atmosphere, using its six instruments to measure chemical 

elements and compounds, weather patterns, and pressures. (ARC Release 

80-81) 

ESA said that Erik Quistgaard, its director general, would meet in London 

November 27 with Olof Lundberg, director general of INMARSAT, to sign a 

contract for lease to ESA of 2 Marecs satellites [see Nov. 201. The contract, 

worth about U.S.$65 million, would go into effect in 1982. ESA was first of 

three entities expected to contract with INMARSAT for satellites to provide 

a new worldwide maritime telecommunications service for the international 

shipping community. (ESA Info 29) 

November 27: The Soviet Union launched a redesigned spacecraft, Soyuz 73, 

carrying three cosmonauts in what the New York Times called a possible bid 

to break the 185-day endurance record set in October. Launch at 5:18 pm. 

Moscow time was from the cosmodrome at Baykonur in Soviet central Asia; 

Tass reported that all systems were working well. The pilot of the flight was 

Lt. Col. Leonid Kizim, 39, a first-time flyer in space; flight engineer Oleg 

Makarov, 47, had flown on Soyuz 12 in September 1973 and Soyuz 27 in 

January 1978, as well as the “anomaly” of April 1973. Research engineer Gennady Strekalov, 40, also a rookie, had worked for 20 years in spacecraft 

design. This was the first three-person flight launched by the Soviet Union in 

nine years, since the crew of Soyuz 11 died during reentry in June 1971 when 

their capsule sprang a leak and lost pressure. The cosmonauts had not worn 

their space suits because of crowded conditions on the capsule. 

Vladimir Shatalov, head of cosmonaut training, said that Soyuz 73 had “all 

the latest accomplishments of science and technology” including a fast onboard computer to free the crew “to the maximum from . . . .routine opera233 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1980 

tions.” The system was said to perform all calculations needed to dock with 

another craft such as Sulyut 6. However, Radio Moscow did not say how long 

the flight would last, and Moscow media did not say whether Soyuz B would 

link with Sulyut 6, which had been in orbit three years-only that the crew 

would test a new spacecraft. 

Soyuz 73 was first of that type to carry a three--person crew, 39th in the 

Soyuz series, and sixth manned craft to be launched in 1980. Two tests of the 

new design had been successful: an unmanned Soyu:; Thad docked with space 

station Sulyut 6 in December 1979, and Soyuz Z2 carrying Yuri V. Malyshev 

and Vladimir V. Aksyonov had joined the Soyuz 36 crew (record-holders 

Valery Ryumin and Leonid Popov) there in June of this year. Salyut 6, designed to last only 18 months, had supported four expeditions over its three years 

in orbit. When Ryumin and Popov left it six weeks ago, after a thorough 

overhaul of its equipment, they said that it was fit for further use. (NY Times, 

NOV 27/80, A-3; W Post, NOV 28/80, A-28) 

During November: MSFC announced that Dr. William R. Lucas, center director, had appointed Thomas J. (Jack) Lee deputy director, effective December 

1. Lee had worked at the center and its predecessor since 1958 and for the 

past six years had managed the Spacelab program, ,working with ESA on this 

Shuttle payload. John W. Thomas, Lee’s deputy, would succeed as manager 

of the Spacelab office. 

Lucas named John S. Potate, associate director for management, to a new 

position as associate director. Potate had come to MSFC in 1973 from the 

Apollo lunar-landing program at KSC and at Headquarters. (MSFC Release 

80-149) 

234 
December 

December 1: Astronomer Robert Victor, a professor at Michigan State University, said that the Christmas season would be marked by a triple conjunction 

of Jupiter and Saturn “worth gazing at” that would not occur again until A.D. 

2238 or 2239. The event had occurred in 7 B.C. and resembled a similar conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in 2 B.C., either of which could have appeared 

as the guiding light of the Magi or star of Bethlehem. ( W Star, Dec 1/80, A-2) 

ARC announced plans to mark the second anniversary of Pioneer Venus’s 

orbiter when it would complete two Earth years (equivalent to three Venus 

days) circling the cloud-covered planet. It should remain in orbit there until 

1992, looking at Venus from a variety of new vantage points. 

Since its arrival December 4, 1978, Pioneer had made 730 24-hour orbits 

and returned more than a thousand W pictures of Venus’s clouds. It has mapped 93% of the surface by radar, showing a terrain of mountains, high 

plateaus, and wide plains. To transmit its 40 billion data bits back to Earth, 

its antenna had made more than 5 million rotations relative to the spinning 

spacecraft; it had recorded 75 gamma-ray bursts from other parts of the 

galaxy, and its other instruments had measured Venus’s atmosphere and surface, interior, and surrounding environment. 

During the first two years, Earth commands had kept Pioneer in a fixed 

position; from now on it would “float” in response to pressures of solar radiation and of Venus and solar gravity, orbiting over the planet’s equator by 1986. 

Itwould be able to measure the bow shockwave of Venus and its wake region 

in the solar wind, or “tail,” possibly in cooperation with USSR spacecraft 

scheduled to arrive there in 1982 and 1984. (ARC Release 80-88) 

December 2: The NSTL in Mississippi completed a fourth and final cycle of 

certification tests on the Shuttle main engine. Certification required successful 

completion of four test cycles each of 13 tests and more than 5,000 seconds 

of operation, using two different engine assemblies. A cluster of three main 

engines and two solid-&el rock& would thrust the Shuttle into orbit. (NASA 

Release 80-182; MSFC Release 80-L58) 

MSFC said that the Michoud facility near New Orleans had begun assembling the lightweight external-propellant tank for the Space Shuttle. Built by 

Martin Marietta Aerospace, the modified tank would weigh 6,000 pounds less 

than its predecessor, increasing Shuttle payload capacity by about that 

amount. Recent structural tests showed that reducing thickness of skin panels 

235 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1980 

would not affect tank integrity; changing materials of some components would 

also take advantage of recent research. 

The external tank (actually two tanks connected by a collar-like intertank) 

would contain liquid-hydrogen and liquid-oxygen propellants for the three 

Shuttle main engines and would be the only major element not recovered for 

reuse. First of the lightweight tanks should be ready for delivery in the summer of 1982 for the fifth Shuttle launch. (MSFC Release 80-155) 

The New York Times reported that the first attempt at long-distance solarpowered flight lasted 22 minutes when Solar Challenger, Dr. Paul MacCready’s lightweight high-strength plastic-and-balsa craft driven by a 2.75-hp 

motor, took off December 3 about 1:OO p.m. from an airport north of Tucson, 

Ariz., headed for Phoenix, and came down six miles away. Former teacher 

Janice Brown, 32, who piloted Challenger, said that it was “fantastic” and she 

would “try again tomorrow.’’ 

Powered like other record-setting MacCready vehicles by solar cells covering its wing and tail, Challenger apparently experienced failure of its motor 

(no larger than a champagne bottle, and of lighter weight, the New York Times 

noted) and Brown set the 1351-pound plane down on the desert, where nearby 

farmers and several American Indians came to look at it. (NY Ernes, Dec 

4/80, A-18) 

GSFC said that a team of its scientists and technicians had pioneered a 

stereo-imaging technique for studying hurricanes, using photographs of the 

top of the same hurricane taken by two spacecraft, geostationary operational 

environmental satellites Goes East and Goes West, hovering over the equator 

at 75”W and 135W The team combined time-lapse cloudcover photos of 

Hurricane Frederic over the Gulf of Mexico September 12 in a stereo display 

showing changes in the storm as seen from spats? and allowing estimates of 

its intensity. (NASA Release 80-181) 

ESA said that it was training at Toulouse and Marseilles the U.S. and European Spacelab mission and payload specialists ta, give them a better idea of 

the scientific objectives and let them operate 2 of the 11 French experiments. 

The first Spacelab payload would be launched in June 1983. 

PICPAB (phenomena induced by charged-particle beams), a plasma-physics 

experiment under test at Toulouse, would study results of energetic-particle 

emission along Earth’s magnetic-field lines, such as neutralization and instability, for use in remote measurement of electric fields and creation of artificial auroras. At Marseilles the crew would become familiar with the verywide-field camera for general W survey of most of the celestial sphere and 

study of galactic and extragalactic sources. (ESA, Info 30) 

December 4: NASA adjudged Solar-Maximum lbiission Smm successful in 

observing solar flares using five or six experiments simultaneously, coalign236 
DECEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ing the narrow field-of-view instruments and measuring total solar radiation 

over at least six months. Launched February 14, 1980, Smm had collected the 

most data ever on solar flares, about 25 in number, coordinating with groundbased optical and radio telescopes under the International Solar-Maximum 

Year program. These valuable joint observations would continue. (NASA 

MOR-S-826-80-01 [postlaunch] Dec 4/80) 

NASA reported successful static-firing for 591 seconds December 4 at 

NSTL of the main Shuttle propulsion system. The test exceeded the firing time 

needed to put the Shuttle into Earth orbit. This 11th test of the three-engine 

cluster brought total test time on the main system to almost 32,000 seconds, 

in addition to more than 86,400 seconds of tests on individual engines conducted in separate firings. (NASA Release 80-184; MSFC Release 80-160) 

December 5: KSC reported that Shuttle orbiter Columbia, mated with other 

elements on a mobile launcher in the VAB, was ready for its first major test 

as a unified system. On November 24, Columbia moved 300 yards from the 

VAB to the orbiter-processing facility where solid-fuel rocket boosters and external tank had been assembled on the mobile platform. A Shuttle-interface 

test running more than two weeks would check electrical and mechanical connections between elements and on-board flight systems. Interface tests 

originally scheduled earlier this week were delayed by problems including 

failure of a device providing umbilical link with the orbiter. 

This was the first flow of flight hardware through KSC processing facilities: 

the orbiter Enterprise, not built for spaceflight, served as “pathfinder” 

through the facilities in 1979 but lacked many of the systems installed in Columbia. Individual Columbia systems had passed checkouts in late 1979 and 

early 1980, but thesupcoming test would check the entire Shuttle system as a 

unit with,the prime and backup crews taking part in simulations of ascent to 

orbit, abort, and descent to landing. 

William H. Shick, chief of prelaunch test operations, noted that this would 

be the first time the astronauts had occupied the cabin with the vehicle in a 

vertical position; they would “get a feel of what they can and can’t reach,” 

he added, to assess crew comfort while awaiting launch. (KSC Release 

206-80) 

Press reports said that the FCC had voted 7 to 0 to approve construction 

and launching of 20 new communications satellites by 8 companies, tripling 

the number of commercial satellites providing domestic communications service, in what the New York Ernes called “in a single action the greatest impetus ever to the expansion of satellite service.” 

Besides alleviating a shortage of satellite capacity faced by cable television 

and other industries, FCC said that the decision would open the way for investment of more than $2 billion by the eight companies. This was their first 

chance to compete directly in the long-distance field with AT&T, instead of 

231 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1980 

tying their local networks to the Bell System. Already operating their own 

satellite networks were three companies operating eight commercial communications satellites: Western Union Telegraph Company with three, RCAAmerican Communications, Inc., with two, and Comsat General Corporation 

with three leased entirely to AT&T and General Telephone & Electronics 

(GTE). Also Satellite Business Systems had finally launched its Sbs in 

November, making nine. 

All four current owners would expand operations under the new policy: 

AT&T and GTE as well as Hughes Communications and Southern Pacific 

Communications would build their own systems for the first time. Continental 

Telephone Corporation and partner Fairchild Industries would enter the field 

through purchase of 50% of WU's Space Commuriications Corporation. (NY 

Times, Dec 5/80, D-1; W Post, Dec 5/80, E-2) 

December 6: NASA launched Intelsut 5A E, first of a new communications 

satellite series, from ESMC at Cape Canaveral, Flii., at 6:31 p.m. EST on an 

Atlas Centaur, into a transfer orbit with 35,950-kilometer apogee, 

166.8-kilometer perigee, and 23.75 O inclination. ComSatCorp fired the kick 

motor December 8 to put the craft into near-geosynchronous orbit at L5"E for 

tests. By mid-1981 the communications satellite would be on station at 

338.5 "E. (NASA MOR 0-491-203-80-01 [postlaunch] Dec 29/80) 

-NASA issued a press kit describing the spacecraft, which weighed 

1,928 kilograms (4,250 pounds) at launch. Built by Ford Aerospace using 

system components developed by firms in France, the United Kingdom, West 

Germany, Japan, and Italy, it had a capacity of 1:!,000 voice circuits and 2 

television channels, almost double the capability of earlier Intelsats. Cost of 

the launch was about $76.6 million, including $34 million for the spacecraft 

and $42 million for the Atlas Centaur and launch services. INTELSAT, with 

headquarters in Washington, D.C., would reimburse NASA for costs of the 

vehicle and launch services, under an agreement signed in May. (NASA 

Release 80-179) 

December 8: The Washington Post reported that two Florida launches had lit 

up evening skies with brilliant colors and a streak of light that prompted calls 

to authorities from as far away as Nashville, Tenn. 

In the second of four tests to see whether ionized clouds blocked communications among aircraft, satellites, and ground stations, a U.S. Air Force 

rocket from Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle sprayed the 

ionosphere 116 miles above the Gulf of Mexico with 106 pounds of barium 

Sunday, December 6, creating a pink, green, and purple haze monitored by 

scientists on the ground and in airplanes. One aircraft was positioned so that 

the barium cloud passed between it and an experimental satellite in orbit 

25,000 miles up. About 30 minutes later, the Intdsat 5A E, largest communications satellite ever built, roared into orbit with the rocket trail familiar 

to Space Coast residents. (W Post, Dec 8/80, 4) 

238 
DECEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

December 9: The Washington Post reported that Dr. Paul MacCready had 

completed a round of test flights of his solar-powered airplane Solar 

Challenger to prepare it for a Paris-to-London flight in June 1981. In six days 

of tests at the air park in Marana, Ariz., the Challenger had not achieved a 

planned 63-mile flight over the desert [see December 41. Trouble with the 

propeller pitch control and related equipment continued, and MacCready said 

that he wanted to consider some changes before resuming the tests. The 

plane’s 47-foot wingspan and stabilizer carried 16,000 solar cells to gather 

sunlight and convert it to power for the 2.7-hp motor that turned the propeller. 

(W Post, Dec 9/80, A-20) 

Responding to press reports on the Ariane, ESA issued a statement on its 

program of four flight tests, the second of which failed when the first stage 

malfunctioned. ESA had identified the trouble and taken steps to rectify it. 

Test 3 would now take place in June 1981 and test 4 in the autumn of that 

year, a timetable ESA said was compatible with its commitments to put scientific and communications satellites into orbit in late 1981 and 1982. Financing 

arranged at the outset, which included 20% for contingencies, would cover 

the additional studies and tests needed. (ESA Info 31) 

December 10: Press reports said that the three cosmonauts launched 

November 27 in Soyuz 23 on a repair mission to the three-year-old space station Sulyut 6 had returned safely from their 13-day flight December 10 at 

l2:26 p.m. Moscow time. Landing was in Kazakhstan in Soviet central Asia. 

Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov, and Gennady Strekalov were in perfect condition, Tass said. This was the sixth manned mission by the Soviet Union this 

year and the first three-person crew orbited since 1971, when three cosmonauts 

died during reentry after a valve blew on Soyuz 11. 

A new guidance system on Soyuz-73 took over after liftoff and guided it to 

smooth docking with Sulyut 6. The spacecraft, third of an improved version 

of the Soyuz (mainstay of the Soviet space program since 1967), carried solar 

batteries, an on-board computer, improved maneuvering rockets, and improvements in cabin comfort for the cosmonauts. The crew had performed 

repairs and maintenance on Salyut 6 telemetry, refueling systems, and 

temperature controls. (W Post, Dec 10/80, A-2; Dec 11/80, A-13; NY Times, 

Dec ll/80, A-23) 

December ll: ARC reported that its Earth-resources survey aircraft (U-2) was 

helping the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and California 

Department of Forestry fight fires by providing real-time infrared imaging of 

smoke-obscured landscapes. The images, used for the first time October 2 

during a fire at Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada where thick 

smoke blocked aerial viewing, gave the size, shape, direction of burn, and hot 

spots of the fire. Crews had to hike four hours each way to get to some areas. 

239 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1980 

Steep terrain would endanger firefighters and equipment if the fire perimeter 

was unknown. 

Flying at 21-kilometer altitude (about 65,000 feet), the plane used a 

Daedalus multispectral scanner with a Fairchild charge-coupled linear-array 

scanner to send infrared (IR) images directly to ARC, which transferred the 

hard copy of processed information immediately to U.S. Geological Survey 

maps of the area. Within 10 minutes, fire control headquarters would receive 

a telecopy for use in deploying manpower and cquipment. The U-2 could 

photograph a fire for up to 5 hours and trammit anywhere within 500 

kilometers (300 miles) of ARC, located near San Francisco, covering virtually 

all forested lands in California. (ARC Release 80-90) 

NASA announced development of a new lightweight flame-resistant material 

subject only to charring even at 800°F (426°C): polyimide resilient foam, a 

product of International Harvester’s solar division at San Diego, under contract to JSC. Use of the new foam, available next year, would reduce hazards 

for buses, trains, and automobiles as well as planes. 

Between 1965 and 1978, fires occurred in 20% of all passenger air-carrier 

accidents and caused 2,727 deaths, 469 of them (17%) attributed to effects of 

fire or srnolce. Airlines and builders of commercial planes had sought improved materials since the 1960s; in the late 1960s, materials developed by NASA 

for Apollo and Skylab were made available to the industry, which chose not 

to use them because of cost, scarcity, and lack of durability. (NASA Release 

80-185) 

9 INTELSAT said that the full launch sequence for Intelsat 5A E, world’s 

largest and most advanced commercial communications satellite, was completed successfully December 10 when the craft unfolded its antennas upon 

command from the Washington, D.C., control center relayed through a ground 

station at Fucino, Italy. 

Launched December 6 on an Atlas Centaur into t2 highly elliptical orbit, the 

satellite went into near-circular orbit when the apogee motor was fired 

December 8. For the next two days the control cenier staff had been activating 

it into operational configuration, unfurling its giant 51-foot (15.6-meter) solar 

arrays and locking its sensors on the Earth, spinning up the momentum wheel 

to stabilize it facing Earth’s surface. Final operation was antenna deployment. 

Intelsar 5A Fz would now drift in equatorial orbit to its station as primary 

Atlantic Ocean communications satellite by May 1981, when it would begin 

serving as communications link between the weste;rn hemisphere and Europe, 

the Middle East, and Africa. (INTELSAT Release 80-29-1) 

December 12: NASA reported that GSFC scientists had developed a highprecision radioastronomy system to study movements of Earth’s crust. A 

technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferoinetry (VLBI) used ground 

antennas to observe fixed extragalactic sources, usually quasars. Arrival of the 

240 
DECEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

quasar signal at the different points at different times could serve to calculate 

geometrically the distance between the stations with a high degree of accuracy. 

The VLBI technique had been one means used by NASA with other federal 

agencies to study movement and deformation of Earth’s crust, including how 

and why earthquakes occur. A team representing GSFC; the Haystack observatory at Westford, Mass.; MIT at Cambridge; and JPL, Pasadena, Calif., 

had refined the technique for ultraprecise geodesy using fixed or mobile 

radioastronomy antennas 4 to 64 meters (13 to 210 feet) in diameter to measure 

Earth and polar rotation with precision better than 10 centimeters (4 inches), 

and detect Earth movement preceding large earthquakes. Such movement 

might occur so slowly and over so wide a region as to be undetectable by conventional means. The project had used fixed stations in California and 

Massachusetts and at Green Bank, W.Va., and Ft. Davis, Tex., as well as in 

Sweden, West Germany, and England. JPL was also working the system into 

a mobile station to measure movement in the Western United States. (NASA 

Release 80-187) 

NASA said that the Shuttle integrated flight system was in its second week 

of tests in the VAB at KSC. Electrical and mechanical interfaces between the 

elements and between the individual Shuttle systems were under extensive test 

the past week, including umbilical connections between launcher and orbiter, 

external-tank tumble system, and inertial-measurement unit. Interface tests 

began at 2:OO a.m. December 4 and had continued around the clock since that 

time. The integrated test began early December 10; flight simulations with 

prime and back-up crews would begin December 14. (NASA Release 80-190; 

KSC Release 261-80). 

NASA announced signing of an agreement in Jakarta December 9 by Dr. 

Stanley I. Weiss, associate administrator for space transportation operations, 

and Drs Suryadi, Indonesia’s director general of posts and telecommunications, for NASA launch of two Indonesian communications satellites. 

Satellites Palapa B-1 and Palapa B-2 in geosynchronous orbit would offer 

voice, video, telephone, and high-speed data service to member states of the 

Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN) including, besides Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. NASA would 

launch B-1 between January 1983 and January 1984, depending on Shuttle 

availability, and B-2 between January and March 1984; it had launched earlier 

versions of Palapa in 1976-77. (NASA Release 80-183) 

December 16: NASA reported that it was’test firing Shuttle main engines with 

spalled (pitted or flaked) bearings and cracked turbine blades, to show that 

the liquid-fuel engines could tolerate less-than-perfect conditions and still perform Shuttle missions successfully. Firing began this week at NSTL and at 

Rockwell’s Rocketdyne Division in California. The bearings and blades were 

parts of the engine’s high-pressure oxidizer pump: in more than 153 tests on 

241 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1980 

23 pumps, totaling more than 34,000 seconds of operation, only five instances 

of spalling on the bearings occurred, detected in inspections after the tests. 

In each instance, operation of engine and pump was satisfactory. 

Since procedures for chilling before operation were improved, 6 pumps had 

gone through 25 tests (7,500 seconds of operation) with zero spalling. 

Although engine runs had produced some cracked turbine blades, such cracks 

had caused no failures or engine malfunctions in more than 98,000 seconds 

of testing. NASA had instituted the tests for added assurance of successful performance even with cracked blades or spalled bearings in the Shuttle engines. 

Testing was under the direction of MSFC. (NASA Release 80-191) 

DFRC reported that on December 16 Dr. Roben. A. Frosch visited it for the 

first time as NASA administrator, holding an all-hands meeting in the 

auditorium for an overview of NASA status and a farewell speech. Center 

director Isaac T. Gillam IV gave Frosch a montage of photographs of DFRC 

research aircraft. After the meeting, Frosch briefed local reporters on Shuttle 

status. (FRC X-Press, Dec 19/80, 4) 

December 18: KSC reported that the Shuttle interlace tests were corning to an 

end. This first major checkout of the integrated flight system was to close with 

a series of four simulations using prime and back-up crews of the first launch 

to validate computer programs that would serve on-board flight systems during the first STS mission in 1981; the last two simulations were scheduled for 

December 18. 

Tile work and processing of gap fillers was continuing, with only a small 

amount of gap-filler work to be completed after the Shuttle moved to Pad A 

of Launch Complex 39. At the pad, filling of the liquid-oxygen storage tank 

was to be complete December 17, as would insertion and removal of dummy 

payloads to test the service structure. Tests of UK Liberty retrieving solidfuel rocket casings from the ocean would continue through December 19, and 

sister ship UK Freedom would begin sea trials later. (KSC Release 268-80) 

The Washington Star carried a UP1 report that astronauts Richard Truly and 

Joe Engle had put Columbia through its third rehearsal of the week December 

18 “as slick as silk,” improving chances of launch March 14. (W Star, Dec 

19/80, A-5) 

NASA announced that rollout of orbiter Columbia to the launch pad would 

occur no earlier than December 29 at KSC. The move was postponed from 

December 26 because of time lost in VAB processing, intensity of crew work, 

and a two-day holiday vacation. Gap-filler closure rate was averaging 275 per 

day and would not constrain the rollout data, N.4SA said. (NASA Release 

80-195) 

INTELSAT announced that its board of governors had decided to purchase 

three more Intelsat 5A satellites in addition to the nine already on hand for 

242 
DECEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the Intelsat 5 series, the latter to be launched by the end of 1982. Launching 

of the 5A series would begin in 1984; basically similar to Intelsat 5, they would 

have increased reliability and 25 %I more communications capacity, handling 

15,000 telephone calls compared to 12,000. (INTELSAT Release 80-30-1) 

December 19: LaRC announced successful demonstration of the world’s first 

gas laser powered directly by sunlight. Conventional laser systems required 

intermediate energy conversion to achieve lasing: LaRC’s device without conversion components reduced system size, weight, complexity, and cost. 

Researchers J.H. Lee and W.R. Weaver directed light from a solar simulator 

onto a quartz tube filled with gaseous iodide; the light excited the iodide, causing lasing and emission of a 5-W burst of concentrated light waves. 

NASA plans for lasers included use of a space-based system powered by 

sunlight to direct a laser beam at remote space operations; at the operations 

site, the laser would change to conventional energy such as electricity or heat. 

A laser might propel a special space engine to provide economical transfer of 

payloads in orbit. (LaRC Release 80-96; NASA Release 80-196) 

NASA noted that Pioneer 6 had completed 15 years of circling the Sun and 

returning solar data, longest operating life attained by an interplanetary 

spacecraft. Original Pioneer specifications had called for a working life of six 

months. 

Pioneer 6 was first to measure the interplanetary medium in detail, 

sometimes over a half-billion-mile distance. It measured the Sun’s corona, 

returned data on solar storms, and measured a comet’s tail. It acquired data 

on solar cosmic rays, the solar wind, and the solar magnetic field, all three 

of which extend far beyond the orbit of Jupiter. 

Launched in December 1965, the 140-pound (64-kilogram) drum-shaped 

TRW-built craft was 35 inches (89 centimeters) high and 37 inches (94 centimeters) in diameter, covered with solar cells, and carried three booms EO” 

apart. With Pioheer 7, Pioneer 8, and Pioneer 9, its sister craft, it constituted 

a network of solar weather stations circling the Sun millions of miles apart. 

All current Pioneers (6 through U, and the Pioneer orbiter at Venus) were still 

operating; mission manager Richard Fimmel said that Pioneer 6 was so good 

“that we may get another 10 years out of it.” (NASA Release 80-194) 

December 23: KSC reported final preparations under way for moving the orbiter Columbia from VAB to pad A, Launch Complex 39, within the week. 

Mating Columbia in the VAB to its external propellant tank and solid-fuel 

rocket boosters November 24 was followed by tests of ground-support connections for checkout, fueling, and launch, and of the entire flight system. 

December 23 should see completion of the installation and checkout of ordnance (any explosive devices for parting components like the boosters and external tank from the vehicle in flight). 

Gap-filler work needed before rollout would be complete by December 27; 

243 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1980 

the crawler-transporter would take its place under the mobile launch platform 

December 28. Senior NASA managers would review the VAB tests and pad 

A status before rollout to make sure no constraints existed. (KSC Release 

275-80) 

December 24: NASA said that ARC had begun a study of the effect on airline 

pilots of irregular work schedules and sleep patterns and frequent crossing of 

time zones. Studies of animals and humans showed that reduced performance, 

short-term memory lapses, loss of attentiveness and alertness, and fatigue 

were results of “circadian desynchronosis” (’jet lag), the disturbance of 

24-hour biological rhythms, especially sleep cycles. Previous research was on 

shift workers, truckers, ship crews, and railroad engineers, but little on airline 

crews. 

A workshop last August for airline, research, and FAA personnel agreed on 

pilot fatigue as a problem but could not agree on its magnitude. A group of 

life scientists checked reports from NASA’s safety reporting system for events 

possibly related to fatigue; another group reviewed scientific literature to 

prepare a bibliography on jet lag in lay terms and distribute it to the aviation 

community. ARC would also do a field study on dietary, sleep, rest, and druguse patterns of commercial airline crews and study altered sleep and nutrition 

patterns in its simulation facilities. (NASA Release 80-197) 

December 29: Dr. Alan M. Lovelace, NASA’s deputy administrator, submitted his resignation effective this date, but agreed to be appointed agency 

associate administrator and general manager. Named deputy administrator by 

President Ford in June 1976, Lovelace had been associate administrator for the 

Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) since September 1974. 

In his new post he would continue the basic management he did as deputy administrator and be acting administrator during the absence of departing administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch from January 20 until appointment of a new 

administrator and confirmation by the Senate. This arrangement, agreed to by 

both President Carter’s and President-elect Reagan‘s staffs, would give NASA 

maximum continuity of management. (NASA Release 80-200) 

Bolted nose up to crawler-transporter, Shuttle orbiter Columbia arrived at 

its KSC launch pad for final tests before launch into space in 1981. The 

transporter made the 3.5-mile trip over a rocky road at 1 mph or less, completing the operation about 8:OO p.m. Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, told a “shivering crowd” that turned out to watch the journey that 

“we are now at the threshold of a new capability to investigate the universe.” 

Richard G. Smith, KSC director, and George Page, Shuttle launch director, 

said that test firings, simulated countdowns, and other work at the pad would 

probably delay liftoff to the end of March or early April. Navy Cdr. John W. 

Young, who had gone into space four times and would command the first 

flight, told reporters that delays in the program resulted from the concern for 

244 
DECEMBER 1980 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

safety: more than a year went into attaching, replacing, and strengthening 

thermal tiles designed to protect the Shuttle astronauts from the heat of reentry. (B Sun, Dec 30/80, 4) 

245 

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1981 

January 

January 7: Ames Research Center (ARC) announced the completion of a 

flight program to evaluate the quiet short-haul research aircraft (QSRA). 

Twenty-two visiting pilots representing 16 organizations made 2 flights each 

in the modified deHavilland Buffalo (C-8A) with a new wing design and 4 

Lycoming YF-102 engines mounted on the wing to provide propulsive lift. 

NASA offered the evaluation program to introduce QSRA technology to 

potential users, obtain feedback on the future of the program, and get an independent critique. Participating pilots and engineers represented ARC, 

Dryden Flight Research Center (DRFC), and Langley Research Center 

(LaRC), as well as the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, the Federal 

Aviation Administration (FAA), and companies including Boeing, McDonnell 

Douglas, Lockheed, detravilland, Grumman, United Airlines, U.S. Air, Ransome Airlines, and the Airline Pilots Association (APA). (ARC Release 81-01) 

January 8: NASA officially approved the continuation of Voyager 2’s journey 

to encounter Uranus in 1986 after a Saturn flyby this summer. The Uranus 

encounter in January 1986 (a first close-up look at that planet, seventh from 

the Sun and twice as far from it as Saturn) would produce measurements and 

photographs as the spacecraft passed on its way to a possible encounter with 

Neptune. 

NASA’s decision to maintain Voyager 2’s present trajectory depended on 

Voyager I’s November 1980 close approach to Titan and Saturn’s ring system. 

Successful so far in its scientific aims, NASA judged the health of the kyuger 

2 spacecraft and instruments sufficient to complete a 5-year journey to Uranus 

and a productive flyby of that planet. (NASA Release 81-3) 

January 13: NASA said that a new instrument it developed for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had measured, for the first time, ozone 

concentration and distribution in a column of atmosphere. Ozone is a component of photochemical smog possibly hazardous to health; previous instruments could analyze its presence only in the area immediately surrounding 

an aircraft. The ultraviolet differential-absorption lidar, called UV-DIAL, 

analyzed light of different wavelengths-one absorbed by ozone, the other 

not-to define the amount and location of ozone between aircraft and ground. 

Lidar (light-intensification detection and ranging) is similar to radar but uses 

electromagnetic waves of much shorter length. (NASA Release 81-7) 

January 15: Outgoing NASA Administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch held a 

press conference on the agency’s 1982 budget proposed by President Reagan 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1981 

in the amount of $6.7 billion, an overall increase of 21% ($1.2 billion) over 

FY81. “Given the inflation rate, the budget reflects real growth of about 9% 

over FY 1981. . . [not] as much as I would like to have seen, given NASA’s extremely tight budgets over the past decade.” The major emphasis would be on 

completing the development of operational capability for the Shuttle. 

This budget would also include “a balanced effort in other areas of the space 

program and in aeronautics,” Frosch said, mentioning the Venus-orbiting imaging radar (VOIR); a geological applications progmm (GAP); research using 

the triagency flight program NOSS (National Oceanic Satellite System); an 

upper-atmosphere research satellite (UARS) experiment defining the optimum 

spacecraft design to improve understanding of the stratosphere and 

mesosphere; and a numerical aerodynamic simulator (NAS) of airflow over 

three-dimensional aerodynamic surfaces, with major impact on design of aircraft and large-scale computers. The budget was “good, but not as good as 

it should be if we are to revitalize NASA,” Frosch said. (NASA Text, press 

conf, Jan 15/81) 

In an accompanying statement, Frosch reviewed the situation of the inertial 

upper stage (IUS) to be used on the Shuttle for launching spacecraft into outer 

space from Shuttle orbit. Within resources offered by the 1981 and 1982 

budgets, the best alternative seemed to be modifying the Centaur instead of 

proceeding with a three-stage IUS, in order to have “that very powerful combination available for first launches in 1985. No other alternative upper stage 

is available on a reasonable schedule or with comparable costs. Therefore, 

NASA will expand discussions with the Air Force on the best means for providing upper stages. . . [and continue with] the two-stage IUS, which both we 

and the Air Force are counting on.” (NASA Release 81-14) 

January 16: NASA announced the selection of the Association of Universities 

for Research in Astronomy (AURA), a consortium of 14 universities, for final 

negotiation of a contract to establish, operate, and maintain a science institute 

for the 13.1-meters (43-foot) Space Telescope scheduled for launch on the 

Shuttle early in 1985. 

The space telescope science institute, making scientific investigations using 

the telescope for at least 15 years, would be located on the Homewood campus 

of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The estimated contractor cost for 

an initial 5-year contract would be $24 million. Additional funding would be 

needed later for a guest-observer and archival-research program. The contract 

had options for three 5-year extensions. The institute would receive data sent 

from the telescope via the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) 

and NASA’s communications network through the Goddard Space Flight 

Center (GSFC), where the institute would operate a space telescope support 

center. Investigations would be able to ask GSFC to point the spacecraft at any 

desired field-of-view. The 2.4-meter (96-inch, mirror in the telescope could 

250 
JANUARY 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

image 350 times the volume of space now visible from Earth. (NASA Release 

81-12; MSFC Release 81-11; Nature, Jan 29/81, 339) 

January 17: NASA reported success in the last Shuttle main-engine test (static 

firing 12); engine 3 shut down as planned at 235 seconds, engines 1 and 2 shut 

down at 624.5 seconds. All major objectives were satisfied, including gimbaling and POGO pulsing; loading liquid oxygen (LOX) with the anti-geyser line 

removed; shutting down engines 1 and 2 using a flight high-pressure oxygen 

turbopump overspeed-prevention sequence; and completing a full-duration 

run using flight nozzles. Completion of this test ended the main propulsion 

test (MPT) constraint on the Space Transportation System STS-1. The test 

facility would be phased down until full power-level tests scheduled to take 

place in the spring of 1982. (NASA Dly Actv Rept, Jan 21/81; NASA Release 

81-16; MSFC Release 81-8) 

January 26: The government of Spain delivered a note to the U.S. embassy 

in Madrid agreeing to use of the naval base at Rota as a contingency landing 

site for the Shuttle. This completed action on contingency landing-site negotiations, as NASA had already reached agreement with Japan. (NASA Dly Actv 

Rept, Jan 28/81) 

January 30: Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Space News Roundup said that a 

conference sponsored by NASA and the American Institute of Aeronautics 

and Astronautics (AIAA), attended by representatives of major U.S. industries, heard briefings on systems developed for the space program that 

were applicable to Earth-based activities. Representatives of Dow Chemical, 

Exxon, ITT, Johnson & Johnson, Teledyne, 3M, Xerox, and numerous other 

corporations learned about pharmaceutical production in Earth-orbiting 

laboratories, 1ife;support systems designed for space suits, and an elcctromechanical alternative to conventional hydraulic actuators. 

Bryan Erb of JSC’s Earth-resources division described the use of satellite 

observations to predict crop growth or locate mineral deposits or oil sources. 

From 1974 to 1978 JSC had managed the Large-Area Crop-Inventory Experiment (LACIE), showing how sensors on an orbiting platform could read and 

relay to Earth the characteristic signatures of Earth features used by scientists 

and engineers to make mathematical models on a worldwide basis. The 

AgRISTARS (agricultural resources inventory survey through aerospace 

remote sensing) project was carrying the measurements further, reading out 

thermal conditions, predicting soil moisture, and analyzing crops in the visual 

(as compared to infrared) spectrum. Erb said a worldwide remote-sensing 

system should be available within the next 20 years for managing Earth 

resources. 

Another innovation would be to work in space with living cells and proteins 

to develop products for fighting disease. Products like beta cells, enzymes, 

and immunoglobulins produced by kidney cells were already available in 

251 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANU4RY 1981 

hospitals, but at astronomical cost. JSC’s Dennis Morrison said that on the 

ground this kind of work was limited to a microbiological level; working in 

space with larger amounts would mean a 20 to :;Or0 improvement. Pituitary, 

kidney, and pancreas cells wouId be among candidates for spaceflight, even 

though weight limitations would delay early commercial processing. (JSC 

Space News Roundup, Jan 30181, 4) 

During January: NASA reported Orbiting Astronomical Observatory Oao 3 

(Copernicus), the heaviest and most complex observatory ever launched by 

the agency and instrumental in discovery of the first black hole (Cyg X-l), had 

finished its career at the end of 1980 after 8.5 years of operation. Launched 

from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) August 21, 1972, with a life expectancy 

of 1 year, its performance was “astonishing,” said GSFC engineers and 

scientists. 

Orbiting at an altitude of 740 kilometers (460 miles), Ouo 3 used its 

supersensitive ultraviolet telescope, largest ever put into orbit, to view the 

heavens “with a precision and clarity never before possible,” producing spectral readings invisible to ground-based observatories because of the obscuring 

effects of Earth’s atmosphere. The telescope was capable of pointing accuracy 

equivalent to seeing a volleyball from a distance of 400 miles. During its 

lifetime, Oao 3 served more than 160 investigators from the United States and 

13 foreign countries in observing more than 450 unique objects. 

Formal scientific investigations using Uuo 3 ended December 31, 1980, but 

a series of engineering tests would continue into mid-February, when NASA 

would terminate contact with the spacecraft. GSFC engineers were not sure 

whether it would orient itself permanently toward the Sun, begin a permanent 

orbital tumble, or combine the two. (NASA Relea.se 81-10; Goddurd News, Jan 

5/81, 1) 

252 
February 

February 2: Insulation that separated from the Space Shuttle’s huge external 

fuel tank would delay the long-awaited launch to a time “no earlier than the 

week of April 5,” NASA announced. Columbia’s maiden flight was already 

more than two years behind its original schedule because of technical probable 

causing a series of postponents. The new difficulty was discovered in preflight 

tests at Cape Canaveral in which over a half-million gallons of supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were pumped into the fuel tank for the first 

time. 

The new delay was “the first substantial” problem encountered since July 

1980 and was not related to earlier problems with the Shuttle’s ceramic-tile 

insulation. During tanking tests, two areas on the external tank-one about 

7x8 feet, the other about 4x4 feet-became debonded. The loose insulation 

would have to be rebonded before launch. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Jan 28/81; 

NASA Releases 81-15, 81-25; W Post, Feb 3/81, A-7; W Star, Feb 3/81, A-8) 

February 2: The European Space Agency (ESA) reported on the May 23, 

1980, failure of Ariane flight L02. The cause was “clearly identified” as inherent instability in one of the four launch-vehicle engines. All external causes 

had been excluded, and the manufacturer was able to reproduce the failure at 

a single-engine test stand. Devices for fuel injection in the combustion 

chamber provided unstable despite positive tests during development. The 

fault, “unfortunately a very common phenomenon with liquid-fuel rocket 

engines,” had occurred in “most rocket programmes. . . 

notably in the American programmes.” 

ESA said that it had abandoned the injector in its present form and was 

working on modifications. The report concluded with a tentative launch 

schedule to be confirmed after the modifications were validated. (ESA Info 

Bltn, Jan 28/81 for release Feb 2/81) 

February 9: LaRC reported on a meeting of representatives from industry and 

six NASA centers to review the agency’s large space antenna program. Shuttle 

flights in the mid-1980s would include models of several antenna concepts: the 

large antennas designed for communications and other Earth-oriented applications, as well as for purely scientific studies of the solar system and the 

universe, would be transported into space folded into the Shuttle’s cargo bay 

and deployed in Earth orbit. Previous work concentrated on the structural and 

material requirements of each concept; the meeting would identify work still 

needed on system technology, ground testing, and technical resources to complete development. (LaRC Release 81-9) 

253 
ASTRONAUTICS 4ND AERONAI!l-ICS FEBRUARY 1981 

February IO: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

(NOAA) was undertaking the first mass shift of satellites at 22,300 miles 

altitude in space, moving three meteorological satellites to new areas to improve their product and to prevent possible collision of one of them in its present crowded location, the Department of Commerce (DOC j reported. 

NOAA would move Goes 4 (the geostationary operational environmental 

satellite launched in September 1980) from 98”W to 135 W as backup for failing Goes 3; NOAA would not move Goes 3 while it continued to function, 

but would put Goes 4 as near as possible without its interfering with 

communications. 

On January 29, NOAA moved a third meteorological satellite, Goes 2. from 

105”W to 1W0W to reduce the danger of collision with other craft or space 

debris; this satellite served primarily to relay weatherfax charts to ground stations. NOAA had to operate two geostationary satellites at all times: “Goes 

Fast” for the eastern United States and Canada and for most of the Atlantic, 

and “Goes West” for the western United States and Canada, for Alaska, and 

for the Pacific westward to Hawaii. 

On January 29, NOAA also boosted its 7-year old Srns 1 into a 22,600 mile 

high orbit, where it would remain indefinitely. .4fter NASA’s launch of a 

seventh geostationary satellite, planned for March, NOAA would move Sms 

2 from its station at 75”W to a nearby location on standby. (NOAA Release 

81-16) 

February 11: Japan reported that its National Space Development Agency 

successfully launched the first N-2 vehicle from Tanegashima carrying the 21st 

Japanese satellite-the engineering test satellite Ers 4 (Kiku 3)-into a transfer 

orbit with 36,000-kilometer apogee, 230-kilome~.er perigee, and 10.5-hour 

period. The 650-kilogram satellite would monitor vehicle performance. Japan 

would launch seven N-2s between August 1981 and February 1986 to 

meteorological and communications satellites and aeronautical experiments. 

Although used for five years, the N-l did not have the power to carry big 

geostationary spacecraft into orbit. (FBIS, Kyodo in English, Feb 11/81; NASA 

Dly Acrv Rpr, Feb 12/81) 

Februan 20: Columbia, flagship of U.S. Space Shluttles, “proved that at long 

last it is ready to carry astronauts into orbit,” said the Washington Star, 

describing “a successful and spectacular firing of its three powerful engines.” 

At the end of the practice countdown, 8:45 a.m. EST, the three engines at 

the base of the delta-wing spaceship “flashed to life, spewing torrents of 

almost invisible flame, steam, and smoke over the launch pad” and sending 

a thunderclap of sound across KSC. “All engines are up and running,” the 

control center announced. The world‘s most sophis:ticated rocket machine had 

generated 1.1 million pounds of thrust for 20 seconds, while the 122-foot-tall 

orbiter with fuel tank and boosters remained fixed to the pad by eight 3-foot 

254 
FEBRUARY 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

steel bolts. In actual launch, explosive charges would sever the bolts, releasing 

the orbiter, and the solid-fuel boosters would help lift it to orbit. 

During the final countdown, 526,000 gallons of fuel were pumped into the 

external fuel tank. Technical, weather, and procedural difficulties had 

postponed the firing, a first test of all shuttle systems combined, three times 

this week. Minor problems had delayed today’s test another hour. 

The Washington Post said that a labor walkout at KSC immediately after the 

8:45 a.m. firing might threaten the April 7 date set for the actual launch of 

Columbia, About 800 aerospace workers, members of the International 

Association of Machinists employed by Boeing in spaceport support work, 

had struck in a pay dispute. Richard Smith, KSC director, said that the strike 

might jeopardize remaining operations; however, he noted that the union had 

a legal right to strike because its contract with Boeing had expired some time 

ago. 

Columbia crew members John Young and Robert Crippen, who had waited 

out 2% years of delays, viewed the test firing from the air; Young in a Shuttle 

training jet at 4,000-foot altitude, and Crippen in an identical craft about 1,900 

feet higher. (W Star, Feb 20181, A-1; W Post, Feb 21/81, A-7) 

February 21: NASA launched Comstar-D, last of a series of four domestic 

communications satellites built by Hughes Aircraft for Comsat General, from 

KSC at 6:23 p.m. EST on an Atlas Centaur into a geosynchronous transfer 

orbit. The 6.1-mile (20-foot) high cylinder called Comstar 4 in orbit, weighing 

1,516 kilograms (3,342 pounds) at launch, had 12 transponders (channels), 

each capable of relaying 1,500 two-way voice circuits (overall capability of 

18,000 simultaneous high-quality two-way phone transmissions). A postlaunch 

report said the apogee motor firing February 23 was successful. (NASA 

Release 81-27; NASA MOR-0-491-201-81-04 [prelaunch summary] Feb 

1O-l2/81, [prelaunch] Feb 17/81, [postlaunch] June 17/81; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, 

Feb 24/81, Feb 25/81; Cornsat Gnl Release 81-6; D/SD, Feb 25/81, 286; Feb 

26/81, 294; AID, Feb 26/81, 292; Spacewarn, Mar 31/81, 2) 

FBIS reported the launch at 9:30 a.m. local time of Astro-A, a scientific 

experimental satellite, by the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Space and 

Aeronautical Science. The launch from Kagoshima had been postponed twice, 

from February 18 to 19 and again to February 21, because of rain. NASA’s 

Space Tracking and Data Network (STDN) supported both this launch and 

that of Comsat 4. 

Called Hinotori (fire bird) in orbit, the new satellite was Japan’s 22d object 

to orbit and its 7th scientific satellite. It was the heaviest (190 kilograms) ever 

launched on the MU-3S rocket. In an elliptical orbit with 695-kilometer 

apogee, 568-kilometer perigee, and 37-minute period, Hinotori would study 

X-rays, gamma rays, and other aspects of solar flares. Its data would be of particular value because the Solar Max satellite launched by the United States in 

February 1980 on a similar mission was having instrument trouble. (FBIS, 

Kyodo in English, Feb 21/81; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Feb 23/81) 

255 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRU.4RY 1981 

February 26: ESA announced that it had “rejcctcd” NASA’s decision to 

cancel the U.S. spacecraft that would have been part of the joint International 

Solar-Polar Mission (ISPM). NASA told a meeting of the two organizations 

in New York that the cancellation resulted from budget cuts imposed by the 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in preparing the Reagan administration’s budget proposal. ESA responded that canceling the satellite 

without consultation was a unilateral breach of a memorandum of understanding between the agencies and was unacceptable. ESA asked that NASA 

restore the program to its original level, noting that unilateral actions of this 

kind would be detrimental to future space cooperation between the United 

States and Europe. ESA said that, when its science-program committee decidcd to pursue ISPM in 1979: they chose that mission over a number of purely 

European missions because of the value ESA put on transatlantic cooperation. 

Because of NASA’s decision, European scientists froni 17 institutions who 

supplied experiments for the NASA spacecraft would not be able to fly them. 

The experiments, “in an advanced stage of development” with more than half 

of the costs committed, ESA said, would be lost with no corresponding scientific return. ESA’s director general immediately asked all of its member states 

to protest, through their ambassadors in Washington, the decision takcn by 

NASA. Timing was crucial, because Congress would consider the federal 

budget in March. (ESA Inf 2) 

Februury 27: DFRC reported on a dress rehearsal of Shuttle first-mission landing and postlanding activities on the dry lake bed ar Edwards Air Force Base, 

Calif. The crew that would act as recovery convoy used an orbiter mock-up, 

fitted with interfaces for ground connections, to practice postlanding safety 

and servicing procedures: simulated activities included testing for the 

presence of toxic or explosive vapors and gases and cooling the orbiter by circulating freon through its pipes and cool air through its ducts. To simulate the 

landing, a NASA ,T-38 jet descended along the planned flight path from 40,000 

feet up, while test manager Deke Slayton kept in touch with the recovery convoy and with the flight director, Don Puddy, at JSC. 

Meanwhile, astronauts John Young and Robert (Irippen at JSC completed 

a full-scale flight rehearsal, going through the 54.5-hour mission in a 

computer-operated simulator. Flight directors monii:ored the mock mission as 

if it were the real thing. (DFRC Release 81-8; WStur, Feb 27/81, A-9) 

During February: Nature magazine reported that the Franco-Soviet mission 

to Halley’s comet in 1986 entailed “a substantial cutback” for a planned joint 

mission to Venus in 1984. Assignment of two of the original four Venus probes 

to Halley was a reminder that Soviet space-program resources, though vast, 

“are not infinite.” 

Pravdu had published several articles aimed at putting the Soviet effort in 

a favorable light; the Communist party congress would be asked next week 

256 
FEBRUARY 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

to approve another 5-year plan including space exploration. However, the 

Soviet Union had never revealed the costs of the program. Nature said hints 

of increasing financial constraints had appeared recently: no further Intercosmos flights were in view after those with Mongolia and Romania, and 

Bulgaria had been offered two unmanned probes instead of a manned flight 

to replace the failed trip of its cosmonaut to the orbiting Sulyut 6. (Nature, 

Feb 26/81, 741) 

257 

March 

March 5: The Japanese government accepted a U.S. proposal to use the U.S. 

Air Forces’ Kadena Airbase on Okinawa Island as an emergency landing area 

for the Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia, the Foreign Broadcast Information 

Service (FBIS) reported. Tokyo Kyodo said NASA was arranging sites for 

emergency landings at six airports, three domestic and three abroad. The 

agreement with Japan covered only four test flights; other flights would need 

further negotiations. Officials of Japan’s foreign and defense ministries would 

discuss safety measures because nearby Naha airport was in constant use for 

both civil and military flights. (FBIS, Tokyo Kyodo in English, Mar 5/81) 

March 9: The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) reported that it had signed an agreement with the International 

Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT) to provide satellite communications services to ships. INTELSAT would put at the service of INMARSAT three of its satellites to be launched between mid-1981 and 

mid-1982: two Intelsat Vs over the Indian Ocean, one over the Atlantic. 

The maritime communications subsystems (MCS), each with a capacity of 

30 voice channels plus data, would operate for up to seven years and would 

bring more than $100 million (U.S.) to INTELSAT. In addition to the MCS, 

each Intelsat V could carry up to 12,000 simultaneous international telephone 

calls and two television channels. (INTELSAT Release 81-1-1) 

Murch 10: Dr. Alan Lovelace, NASA’s acting administrator, held a briefing 

on the agency’s FY82 amended budget, which he said “eliminates or defers 

all FY81 and FY82 new program initiatives in space science, aeronautics, and 

applications.” At a press conference January 15, he had discussed the budget 

for NASA proposed by the previous administration, just over $6.7 billion for 

FY82. The revised budget would reduce NASA funds by $604 million to a 

new total of $6.122 billion. The revisions preserved Space Shuttle test-flight 

schedules and research and development; allowed continued production of a 

four-orbiter fleet on the present schedule, which “meets the critical needs for 

both civil and military missions”; and kept the option for a fifth orbiter. 

However, the funding would delete the solar-polar spacecraft; cut space and 

aeronautical technology development; delete construction-of-facilities projects; and eliminate 840 civil-service positions. It would defer the VOIR and 

the gamma-ray observatory launch from 1986 to 1988; cancel NOSS, a threeagency project; end the technology transfer program; and cancel funding for 

energy-technology activities, a geological applications program, and a searchand-rescue mission. 

PRECEDING PAGE 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1981 

Aeronautics programs canceled or deferred included efforts in vertical/ 

sidewise takeoff and landing (V/STOL) systems, supersonic cruise research, 

the variable-cycle engine, and the proposed numerical aerodynamic simulator. 

A initiative in large, composite primary aircraft structures was eliminated. 

Other programs affected were materials processing in space, AgIUSTARS, 

instrumentation for an upper-atmosphere research satellite, and the Spacelab 

flight schedulc. 

Lovelace said that adjustments in FY81 figures would reflect impact of decisions on the FY82 budget: an increase of $60 mirllion in 1981 Space Shuttle 

changes and upgrading would “provide added schedule confidence” in Shuttle 

development and testing and in production of orbiter vehicles. The amended 

budget reflected NASA’s decision announced in January to discontinue the 

three-stage version of an inertial upper stage and to modify the Centaur upper 

stage instead. The modified stage would allow N.4SA to fly the Galileo mission to Jupiter on a single launch in 1985 and could be used for a restructured 

solar-polar mission in 1986 and VOIR in 1988. i(NASA Text, Mar 10/81) 

March 12: The Soviet Union announced the launch of Soyuz T-4 at 10 p.m. 

Moscow time to link with the orbiting space complex Sulyut 6-Progress 12. 

Sulyut 6, in space since September 29, 1977, had docked January 26 with cargo 

craft Progress 12, which refueled it automatically on ground command and 

used its engine to raise the orbit. 

Soyz T-4 carried as commander Col. Vladimir Kovalenok, veteran of Soyuz 

25 that failed to dock with Sulyur 6 in October 1977 and of Soyuz 29, which 

docked there for 140 days in June 1978. Also on the T-4 flight was Viktor 

Savinykh as flight engineer. (FBIS, Tass in English, Mar 12/81) 

-Tass said March 13 that the Soyuz T-4 had docked with the Salyut 6- 

Progress I2 complex March 12 at 11:33 p.m. Moscow time and the 

cosmonauts had transferred into the space station, being the 15th crew to occupy it in the 3% years. They would check on-board systems and equipment, 

do maintenance. and replace instrumentation as necessary. (FBIS, Tass in 

English, Mar 13/81) 

March 16: ESA reported that it had successfully tested injectors for the five 

Ariane engines to be used in the LO3 flight, now scheduled for the latter part 

of June. The LO3 vehicle could carry a tech capsule to monitor equipment and 

environment; a second flight model of the Meteosat 2 aimed at putting ESA 

into the Earth-observation field; and an India communications satellite known 

as Apple (Ariane passenger-payload experiment) at Kourou, French Guiana. 

(ESA Info 3) 

March 17: NASA announced the selection of scientific instruments to be 

flown on the Gamma-Ray Observatory scheduled for launch from the Space 

Shuttle in 1988. Produced from the most energetic processes in the universe, 

gamma rays were the most direct source of knowledge about these processes. 

260 
MARCH 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Gamma rays to be measured by the observatory would begin at 100,000 electron volts (100 Kev) and continue up to several hundred million electron volts 

(100 Mev or more). 

The instruments chosen were a transient-event monitor to detect short intense bursts of gamma rays of unknown origin and localize them to determine 

their distribution in the galaxy; a high-energy gamma-ray telescope that could 

measure the energy spectra and arrival directions of the highest-energy gamma rays it finds; an imaging Compton telescope to obtain gamma-ray maps 

of the celestial sphere at medium energies; and a low-energy gamma-ray spectrometer to look for evidence of nucleosynthesis in supernovas. 

The observatory, with a planned 2-year lifetime would be one of the largest 

every orbited, weighing 23,000 pounds (10,432-kilograms) and measuring 25 

feet (7.6 meters) in length and 12.5 feet (3.8 meters) in diameter. (NASA 

Release 81-40) 

March 22: The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 39 from the Baykonur 

cosmodrome at 5:59 p.m. Moscow time to link with the orbiting Sulyut 6/ 

Soyuz T-4 complex. Tass said that the Progress 12 cargo ship had undocked 

March 19 after being filled with discarded equipment to replace the supplies 

it brought and on March 20 had entered the atmosphere over the Pacific where 

it “ceased to exist.” 

The crew of Suyuz 39 were veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov as 

commander and the first citizen of Mongolia to fly in space, Jugderdemidyn 

Gurragcha, as researcher and “lOlst spaceman of the world.” They would join 

Vladimir Kovalenok and Viktor Savinykh already aboard the orbiting 

complex. 

Tass said that the launch commemorated the 60th anniversary of the revolution of the Mongolian People’s Republic, 10th nation to participate in manned 

spaceflight. United Press International (UPI) said that it was in honor of the 

20th anniversary of launching Yuri Gagarin, first man into space, on April 12, 

1961. (FBIS, Tass in English, Mar 22/81; UPI, in W Star, May 23/81, A-8) 

March 23: Digital techniques would cope with “the coming world telecommunications explosion” and cut the cost of overseas transmissions as well, 

said INTELSAT Director General Santiago Astrain in his keynote address to 

the fifth international conference on satellite communications in Genoa, Italy. 

In the first use of the giant new Zntelsat I/ (launched December 6, 1980, 

from Cape Canaveral into geostationary orbit 22,300 miles up), the speech 

was heard simultaneously in three countries. The telecast also marked 

INTELSAT’s first use of the 14/11 GHz frequency band. Receiving stations 

were two small 3-meter antennas at Genoa; a 10-meter torus antenna at COMSAT laboratories in Clarksburg, Md. ; and 19-meter antenna at Goonhilly, 

England. (INTELSAT Release 81-5-1) 

261 
ASTRON4UTICS AND AEROU4UTICS MARCH 1981 

Murch 24: Biggest and best customer of the Space Shuttle, developed and 

operated by a civilian agency, would be the Department of Defense (DOD), 

said the Wushingtoti Stur in one of a series of articles on the Shuttle program. 

At least 21 of 75 spaceflights planned before 1986 would be military missions, 

and neither NASA nor DOD would say what the flights were for. DOD had 

contributed millions of dollars to the Shuttle program in hardware and personnel, including a multibillion-dollar facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base for 

launches into polar orbit. 

Although the Shuttle would serve both civilian and military purposes, the 

two sides showed differing degrees of confidence: current boosters had reached orbit only 90% of the time, 10% dumping expcnsive satellites into the sea. 

“We have yet to achieve routine access to space,” said Lt. Gen. Richard C. 

Henry, commander of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Division. Shuttle reliability 

should be “as close to 100% as you can get.” Most NASA missions slated for 

the 1980s and beyond could not be flown without thc hugc cargo bay of the 

Shuttle. The military, however, would keep its All.las and Titan expendable 

boosters just in case. Space, said Henry, was the high ground, “crucial for collecting and disseminating information, for reducing the confusion of battle, 

even for improving combat efficiency. . . . Everything we put up is supportive 

of our national security, but nothing is combative.” DOD, he added, had 

“made commitments far in excess of any civil ustrs.” (WStur, Mar 24/81, 

A- 8) 

Murch 26: Japan’s National Space Developmcnt Agency conducted, for the 

first time, a successful 30-second firing test of its huge H-l liquid-fuel rocket. 

Japan’s LE5 engine fueled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen would serve as 

the second stage of H-I, which was scheduled to launch a 500-ton satellite into 

orbit in February 1986. Japan was now the fourth country to have a liquidhydrogen engine; in addition to the United States, ESA, and China. (FBIS, 

Tokyo Kjodo in English, Mar 26/81) 

Murch 30: Shuttle launch dircctor George Page said that success of the two 

final fueling tests cleared the way for launch April 10, but official announcement would await a flight-readiness review at KSC Page said examination of 

the silo-like tank revealed “a few foam cracks” readily fixed with spray-on 

foam. 

The launch-preparation schedule now in progres:, could indicate an April 9 

launch, but Page wanted to give his teams a day off before the launch took 

place. Inquiry into the accidental death of a launchpad worker would not delay 

the liftoff, Page said, but the board would probably recommend revising safety 

procedures. (W Stur, Mar 30181 A-5) 

Murch 31: NASA Headquarters held a press briefing on scientific results of 

kyuger I’s Saturn encounter in 1980. On hand were project scientists Dr. Edward C. Stone, California Institute of Technology (CalTech); imaging-team 
MARCH 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

leader Dr. Bradford Smith, University of Arizona; and project manager E.K. 

Davis, JPL. Initial results included discovery of a ring system vastly more 

complex than imagined and a thick nitrogen atmosphere around Titan, 

Saturn’s major moon. 

byuger I took 17,500 photographs of Saturn and its satellites between 

August 22 and December 15, 1980. The closest approach was 

November 12--126,000 kilometers (78,000 miles) from Saturn’s cloud tops. 

From the spacecraft, as from Earth, the atmosphere of Saturn looked grossly 

similar to Jupiter’s, with alternating light and dark zones, circulating storm 

regions, and other distinguishable cloud markings. 

Unlike Jupiter, however, Saturn’s markings were blurred by thick haze 

above the visible cloud tops; the haze layer at Jupiter was not as optically 

dense as Saturn’s. Wind speeds were substantially higher than on Jupiter and 

did not appear closely tied to belt-zone boundaries. Highest winds, blowing 

eastward at the equator, were four times stronger than on Jupiter; velocity 

decreased to near-zero at about 40” latitude north and south. 

Saturn’s atmosphere consisted mostly of hydrogen, helium accounting for 

only 11% of atmospheric mass above the clouds compared to 19% at Jupiter. 

The difference was consistent with separation by gravity of helium and 

hydrogen in Saturn’s interior and could explain the excess energy radiated by 

Saturn over that received from the Sun. 

byuger I found that the A, B, and C rings visible from Earth consisted of 

hundreds of small ringlets, a few of them elliptical; the classical gaps also contained ringlets. Intertwining (“braiding”) of the rings was not explainable, 

although it might stem from electrostatic charging of their dust-sized particles. 

Vayager 1 discovered three new satellites, photographed the D and E rings, 

and confirmed the existence (2.8 Saturn radii from planet center) of a new ring 

postulated on the basis of Pioneer 11 findings. 

The flyby observed all of Saturn’s known satellites except Phoebe: Mimas, 

Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea, all appeared roughly spherical and composed mainly of water ice. Titan was the most interesting from an Earth viewpoint because of its atmosphere, similar to what would have evolved on Earth 

had it formed at Titan’s distance from the Sun. Previously considered the 

largest satellite in the solar system, Titan was found to be slightly smaller than 

the largest satellite of Jupiter (Ganymede). Both are larger than the planet 

Mercury. Titan’s atmosphere consisted mostly of nitrogen, the main constituent of Earth’s atmosphere; pressure near the surface was 60% greater than 

Earth’s. The surface was not visible in photographs from Voyager 1 because 

of the haze layer, though the southern hemisphere was slightly brighter than 

the northern, possibly a seasonal effect. Titan’s density seemed about twice 

that of water ice, indicating that it, like Ganymede, was made of equal 

amounts of rock and ice. 

Vbyuger 1 was now headed out of the solar system, and ils platform 

instruments were turned off December 19. Most fields-and-particles 

instruments on byuger 1 were still monitoring the solar wind and its changes 

263 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONACTICS MARCH 1981 

with distance and time; exact location of the heliopause (outer edge of the 

solar wind) was unknown, but might be reached around 1990, byuger 2 

would reach Saturn in August 1981 and procccd on a trajectory to Uranus. 

(NASA Releases 81-41, 81-44) 

264 
April 

April 10: Nine minutes before launch time, NASA grounded the Space Shuttle 

Columbia until April 12, because one of five computers in its nose was failing 

to communicate properly with the other four. The decision to scrub the launch 

came after a three-hour delay from the original 6:50 a.m. liftoff time; a fuelcell warning light showed in the cockpit just 16 minutes beforehand. No 

sooner was that problem solved than a second one appeared, when the program in the backup computer did not match that of the four primary computers controlling the ship. (W Star, Apr 10/81, A-1) 

April 12: NASA launched Space Shuttle Columbia, designated STS-1, from 

pad A of KSC’s launch complex 39 at 3 seconds after 7 a.m. EST. All launch 

facilities, systems, and support equipment performed as designed; NASA said 

that damage to the launch pad was less than predicted. The solid-fuel rocket 

boosters (SRBs) jettisoned after burnout fell within the predicted impact 

“footprint” in the Atlantic about 14 nautical miles northeast of KSC, 

splashing down 7 minutes and 100 seconds after liftoff. All the SRB parts 

were recovered for reuse except two of the six parachutes. 

The external tank separated at 8 minutes and 58 seconds into the flight and 

began to break up at about a 280,00O,-foot altitude without tumbling as planned. A tumble system built into the tank to prevent skipping during reentry (and 

keep debris within a preplanned area) did not work. The Indian Ocean tracking ship, USNS Arnold, said that the tank-debris footprint was larger than 

expected. 

Orbit-maneuvering system (OMS) firings (OMS-1 and OMS-2) put 

Columbia into an orbit with 133.7-nautical-mile apogee, 132.7-nautical-mile 

perigee, and 40.3 O inclination. Ascent went as planned, with all events, 

through payload-bay door opening, occurring normally. (NASA MOR 

M-989-81-01 [postlaunch] May 12/81) 

April 13: Press reports on the Space Shuttle Columbia’s launch noted the loss 

of some insulating tiles from engine-pod coverings visible, television viewers 

from an aft-facing cockpit window when astronaut Robert Crippen opened the 

payload-bay doors to dissipate heat into space as a way of cooling the orbiter. 

The areas lacking tiles, nine on the right-hand engine pod and four to six on 

the left-hand pod, had undergone the greatest stress during blastoff and ascent. 

Astronaut John Young relayed the view to Earth so flight directors could 

estimate the damage. 

The two astronauts evinced so little concern about the missing tiles that, 

during a six-minute telecast late on Monday, neither mentioned the subject. 

As flight directors wanted to know whether the underside of the fuselage was 

265 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS APRIL 1981 

intact, Deputy Operations Director Eugene E Kranz announced that 

supersecret U.S. Air Force cameras in Hawaii and Florida would photograph 

the orbiter in an attempt to discover further areas of damage. His statement 

hinted at the highly classified capability of DOD cameras: photographing 

areas lacking tiles of a moving craft 170 miles up would be like reading license 

plates in a Moscow parking lot from orbit, the M$shington Pusr commented. 

The fuselage’s underside housed Shuttle electronics and hydraulics systems 

that would navigate the craft on its return; move the elevons, keeping it on 

course during the last 1,000 miles; and lower the landing gear. Should loss 

of tiles expose the surface to reentry heat that could burn through the fuselage 

and the underlying systems, the orbiter without its landing gear lowered would 

have to crash-land at more than 200 rnph. If photography showed underside 

tiles missing, Kranz said the crew would handle the reentry “to avoid a possible catastrophe,” not specifying the alternatives. Officials said that the areas 

known to be missing tiles were not critical to reentry; all visible edges of tail 

and wings appeared intact, suggesting that tiles vicrc lost during the stress of 

launch only on the engine pods. (W Post, Apr 13/81, A-I, A-20, WSJ, Apr 

13/81 3; NYTimes, Apr 13/81, 1; W Srur, Apr 13.91, A-1) 

April 14: The Shuttle orbiter Columbia came to a “flawless” landing on a dry 

lake bed in the Mojave desert at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 1:21 

p.m. EST before a crowd that included NASA employees, 20,000 VIPs, and 

about 250,000 spectators who had camped out all night to watch Columbia’s 

return. Millions of people around the world also watched the return on 

television. 

The astronauts got a wakeup call from mission control about 4 a.m. on their 

30th orbit, with a special message for Robert (Irippen: “You’ve waited 12 

years for this. If you don’t wake up, you’ll miss the whole thing.” Before eating 

breakfast, the crew took time to check flight systems, guidance and navigation 

instruments, and the 44 reaction-control thrusters used during reentry. On 

36th orbit, the crew received “final go” for deorbit firing. Columbia’s 

payload-bay doors were closed four hours before the scheduled landing time, 

and the astronauts put on their pressurized space. suits in case of emergency. 

Over the Indian Ocean at 12:22 p.m., an hour before landing and while out 

of contact with any tracking stations, Commander John Young turned Columbia tail-first and fired two on-board maneuvering rockets to brake the 

spacecraft; then, turned it nose-first again, tilting it slightly to permit full exposure of underside insulation. Reentry into the atmosphere at more than 

17,000 mph took place at 12:48 p.m., 400,000 feet over the Pacific at Wake 

Island. The few tiles missing from tail areas after liftoff did not affect reentry 

at heats up to 2750°F. The 8O-ton 122-foot long vehicle landed at 215 mph, 

twice the usual jet speed. 

As Columbia’s wheels touched down, flight-control chief Don Puddy at 

Houston told his jubilant team to “Prepare for exhilaration:“ allowing them 

about 15 seconds of celebration before resuming their jobs. For the first time, 

266 
APRIL 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AXD AERONAUTICS 

a splashdown or landing did not immediately end a manned spaceflight. 

“Welcome home, Columbia,” Houston greeted the craft landing on the center 

line of the California runway. “Do you want us to take it up to the hangar, 

Joe?” Young radioed, and mission control responded “We’re going to dust it 

off first.” 

A NASA official said that Columbia would probably begin its return flight 

to Cape Canaveral in seven or eight days, riding piggyback on its Boeing 747 

carrier. Arl “optimistic” estimate was that the orbiter would fly again under 

its own power in less than six months, on a four-day flight from which it might 

be able to “turn around” and be ready to fly again in four months. (NYTimes, 

Apr 15/81, 1, 21; W Post, Apr 15/81, A-I; W Star, Apr 15/81, A-I; WSJ, Apr 

15/81, 2) 

April 15: NASA officials said that the Space Shuttle Columbia was “in 

excellent condition” after its flight and should be able to make at least 100 

round trips into orbit. Technicians were hooking up ground power links and 

monitoring systems, photographing the tiles, and preparing to purge the fuel 

tanks and to install a shroud over the tail section for the flight back to Florida. 

Postflight servicing was running about 12 hours behind schedule. (WStur, Apr 

16/81, A-1) 

April 16: NASA reported that the Shuttle orbiter Columbia would not be 

ready by April 21 for ferrying back to KSC. A first postlanding check at 

DFRC indicated that no tiles were missing other than those noted before; later, 

however, two from in front of the windshield appeared to be missing, and 

gouges were evident on the tile surface from nose to aft fuselage. Gap fillers, 

thermal-barrier seals, and ablators were reported to “look good,” and technicians said that they could still read the stenciling on the tiles “with no 

shrinkage to speak of.” (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Apr 16/81, 2) 

April 17: The New York Times said that launch pad 39A at KSC, earlier 

reported to have been seriously damaged by Columbia’s blastoff, suffered 

“very minimal” damage, according to a KSC damage-assessment team. 

Wayne C. Ranow, an assistant to pad-site manager Tip Tallone, supplied a 

preliminary list of items damaged and added that just a few more seconds of 

“hang time” before the Shuttle cleared the pad would have caused much more 

damage. NASA spokesman Hugh Harris said KSC had expected “a lot more 

damage than that;” although it would take two weeks to restore the pad this 

time, “we will learn from the experience and change some things” to avoid 

delays in the program. The impact of the 6.6 million pounds of thrust was 

“similar to what we saw with Apollo,” Harris said. (NYTimes, Apr 17/81, 

A-26) 

ARC reported the effects of weightlessness on physiological processes 

shown in 14 U.S. experiments carried on unmanned Soviet satellite Cosmos 

267 
ASTkONAUTlCS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1981 

1129 in 1979. This was the only U.S. opportunity fix biological research in 

space since 1975. The Vostok spacecraft sent into elliptical orbit and recovered 

within the Soviet Union 18% days later was like thost: of two previous Cosmos 

missions in which the United States had participated in 1975 and 1977. Use 

of Cosmos vehicles was inexpensive for the United States because the Soviet 

Union paid for spacecraft, launch, and support activities; 40 scientists from 

18 U.S. universities and research organizations shared in the mission. 

The U.S. experimenters found changes in enzymes and in animal bone 

strength, growth rate, and mineral content, like the changes cxperienced by 

astronauts and cosmonauts; the results would help (explain some of the problems of weightlessness. The Soviet Union provided 37 white rats and 60 fertile quail eggs, shared by the experirnentcrs; U.S. scientists provided carrottissue cultures and plantlets and carrot slices inoculated with tumor-forming 

bacteria. One of two control groups of white rats kept in Moscow lived in ordinary cages and ate the flight diet; the other, called “synchronous control,” 

was housed in an identical spacecraft on the ground a.nd subjected to vibration 

and gravity forces like those of launch and reentry: expericncing whatever 

changes in environment the orbiting Cosmos transmitted to earth. The only 

difference between the synchronous control group and the mammals in flight 

was the weightlessness. 

After the Cosmos flight, the animals were recovered immediately, before 

they could readapt to Earth gravity, and a recovery iteam set up a mobile lab 

at the landing site to autopsy about a fifth of the rats. The rest were flown to 

Moscow, where some were autopsied after 6 days of readaptation to gravity, 

and the rest after 29 days. The Cosmos rats showed a 20% dcficiency in bone 

mineral content compared to the synchronous-control subjects. In the rats 

readapting to normal gravity, some changes reversed within a few days; others 

took longcr to return to normal. 

Under normal conditions, the total amount of bone in an adult human or 

animal remains constant, with bone continually resorbed and replaced by 

newly formed bone. In spaceflight, production of new bone seems to slow 

down, but resorption continues, resulting in net loss of bone and a decrease 

in strength. The greatest change is in weight-bearing bones, but even those 

not bearing weight (as jaw bones) show changes in mineral content and the 

cells forming new bone. 

The experiments included the first attempt to breed animals in spacemating the rats and examining how embryos developed in a weightless state. 

This experiment did not succeed, however, and no litters were produced; the 

control group, to the surprise of Soviet and U.S. scientists, showed the same 

results. The scientists were still seeking a reason for the failure. The quail eggs 

provided no information on embryo development because the incubator failed 

on the 13th day of flight. The plants showed no ill effects; carrot embryos and 

plant tumors grew in space just as on the ground, suggesting that spaceflight 

had no effect on carrot tissue. (ARC Release 81-21) 

268 
APRIL 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

April 21: NASA said that the most likely date for ferrying the Space Shuttle 

orbiter Columbia back to KSC would be April 25 for the flight to Tinker Air 

Force Base in Oklahoma and April 26 for the flight from Tinker to KSC. 

Delays in deservicing were “mainly due to first-time-thru problems,” the 

agency said, referring to the lack of interface between Columbia and the 

mate/demate device “because of the unavailability of OV-2” which had not 

been checked out with the new ground-servicing equipment “for form, fit and 

function.” NASA noted that the three-day stretch in the schedule had covered 

leaks in quick-disconnect systems, new position of the work stand, the “unexpected OV-102 configuration (engine-bell placement that no longer fitted into 

the mate/demate device), and changes in operational maintenance 

instructions. 

A NASA press release pointed out that deservicing the orbiter involved 

“removal or containment of hazardous propellants such as toxic hypergolics 

and cryogenics,” inspecting its systems (including the thermal protection 

system), and raising the orbiter, with its 17-piece tailcone in place, to a stand 

where it could be fastened to its 747 carrier. Reviewing events, Aviation Week 

Space Technology said that ground personnel wearing protective suits had 

trouble connecting hoses to orbiter interfaces for off-loading propellants and 

purging systems because of limited space; operations were complicated by 

wind, rain, and lightning, with a series of four power losses in service facility, 

each requiring a two-hour minimum to power up again by following a 

checklist. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Apr 21/81; NASA Release 81-50; DFRC 

Release 81-18; AvWk, Apr 27/81, 30-31) 

April 23: President Reagan announced the nomination of business executive 

James Montgomery Begs as administrator and Dr. Hans Mark as deputy administrator of NASA. If confirmed, Beggs (who was executive vice president 

and a director of General Dynamics Corporation, which he had joined in 

January 1974), would be the sixth person to head the civilian space agency, 

succeeding Dr. Robert A. Frosch. 

Begs had been associate administrator in the Office of Advanced Research 

and Technology (OART) at NASA in 1968-69, leaving to become 

undersecretary at the Department of Transportation (DOT). Mark, who 

became secretary of the Air Force in July 1979 the being undersecretary since 

1977, was formerly director of NASA’s ARC. (NASA Release 81-51; MSFC 

Release 81-50; NYErnes, Apr 24/81, A-12; W Post, Apr 25/81 A-4) 

John Young and Robert Crippen, the crew of Columbia’s maiden flight, told 

of their experience at at 75-minute JSC press conference carried on closedcircuit television to NASA Headquarters and other centers. They said that the 

orbiter was an incomparable flying machine, surprisingly easy to control, and 

that the mission was “what NASA calls nominal, although I think you’re going 

to have to call it phenomenal,” Young reported. Neither crewman expressed 

concern over the loss of tiles from the aft end of the vehicle, detected shortly 

269 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1981 

after launch. Young said that he was impressed by the fact that the metal under 

the tiles did not heat up during reentry as much as expected: he said “a lot” 

of the thermal tiles on the topside could probably be eliminated in future missions, lowering spacecraft weight and increasing the limit on payload weight, 

now set at 65,000 pounds. 

Young said that he went immediately upon landing to look at the underside 

of the orbiter, which had encountered the most heat. “People had been telling 

us it was impossible that some of these tiles wouldn’t fall off. Well, none of 

them fell off, and those tiles went through some of the roughest ascent and 

reentry you can imagine.” “Nothing failed. Statistically, I didn’t think that was 

possible,” Crippen added. “We’ve been working 3 years to learn how to handle catastrophes, and all we did the whole time was sit hack and enjoy it.” 

The cruise was not perfect, the astronauts agreed: the craft was cold to the 

point of discomfort some of the time, and the toilet shut down near the end 

of the flight. The crew kept getting tangled in comrnunications lines, and Columbia “landed long” instead of at its prescribed touchdown spot. Young said 

the chill could be avoided by putting interior temperature sensors nearer to the 

crew than to heat-emitting electronic gear. Cordless microphones would solve 

the problem of tangled cords, and engineers were already working on the toilet 

program. Young said that he had landed Columbia farther down the 7-mile 

long runway than he was asked in order to test the Shuttle’s wings and tail for 

lift; he said that the lift he got at landing was “remirkable.” “We hardly used 

our brakes. I tell you that was quite a performance, taking 99 tons out of orbit 

and getting it back down all in one piece.” 

A reporter asked Crippen if his pulse rate of 130 at liftoff, compared to 

Young’s 90, meant that he was more excited. “You betchum I was excited,” 

hc replied. “What you don’t understand is: I was e:xcited too,” Young added. 

“I just can’t make it go any faster.” (Young is SO, seven years older than 

Crippen.) 

The mission was so successful that Columbia might fly again as early as 

September 23, with a third test in December and a final test in April 1982. 

With that schedule, NASA might begin operational flights carrying cargo into 

space as early as September 1982. Young said they had been given 135 flight 

objectives and had completed all 135. “You really should be proud of this vehicle,” he told the JSC audience. (NASA Text, postflight brfg, Apr 23/81; 

NYTimes, Apr 24181, A-12; WPost, Apr 24/81, A-6; WStar, Apr 24181, A-12; 

B Sun, Apr 24/81, A-6) 

April 27: NASA announced that it would consolidate two major field 

installations as of October 1, 1981: DFRC would become an operational element and component of ARC, and Wallops Flight Center (WFC) would 

become an operational element and component of GSFC. DFRC and WFC 

would retain their identity under the overall management of ARC and GSFC, 

respectively. (NASA anno, Apr 27/81; NASA Releasc 81-54) 
APRIL 1981 ASTRONAUTKS AND AERONAUTICS 

April 27: Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) reported that Heao 2, 

NASA’s second high-energy astronomy observatory (Heao) , had expended its 

control-gas supply and ended its mission. One of a family of three “highly 

successful” scientific satellites managed by MSFC, Hem 2 (like its 

predecessor, Heao r) had performed twice as long as its predicted design life; 

a third observatory was still operating. 

Launched November 13, 1978, Heao 2 carried the world’s largest focusing 

X-ray telescope and an array of astronomical instruments; it had provided data 

on X-ray output of normal stars, content of supernova remnants, distribution 

of mass in galaxies, and the origin of the extragalactic X-ray background. 

MSFC said that participating astronomers would need years to analyze all the 

data received. Unable to maintain attitude after exhausting its control fuel 

April 25, the spacecraft was powered down April 26. Reentry and burnup 

would probably occur early in 1982. (MSFC Release 81-52; NASA Release 

81-56) 

April 28: Shuttle orbiter Columbia on its 747 carrier landed at the Shuttle landing facility runway at KSC at 11:24 a.m. EDT. Demating began in preparation for moving it into the processing facility for 72 hours of troubleshooting. 

CBS-TV News said hundreds of employees and their families were on hand 

for the arrival; reporter Bruce Hall said that, although the orbiter’s condition 

was “excellent,” a number of NASA officials did not expect the next launch 

to take place before 1982. Jules Bergman of ABC-TV said that work on the 

orbiter would include installing a miniature remote-control arm to deploy 

satellites and retrieve them on future missions. The second flight, STS-2, 

would test the arm only. NASA’s current target date was said to be midOctober, though much work remained to be done on the reusable boosters and 

the launch pad. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Apr 29/81; DOD RadioTv Rpts, 

Apr 29/81) 

NASA’s acting administrator, Dr. Alan M. Lovelace, signed a memorandum 

of understanding with Hans-Hilger Haunschild of the Federal Republic of 

Germany’s (FRG) ministry for research and technology on FRG use of the 

STS (Shuttle), with NASA furnishing launch and support services on a reimbursable basis. NASA said that the Federal Republic had “long been a supporter” of STS and had contributed 40% to ESA’s development of Spacelab, 

soon to be a Shuttle payload with laboratory facilities like those on Earth but 

adapted for zero gravity. 

The Federal Republic of Germany had already paid NASA for two reimbursable Spacelab missions: D-1, materials processing and life-sciences experiments, and D-4, astrophysics experiments; it also planned to launch an Xray satellite (Rosat) from the Shuttle in 1986. In addition, private and scientific 

organizations in West Germany had reserved 25 small self-contained payloads 

for eventual shuttle flight on a space-available basis. (NASA Release 81-58) 

May 8: NASA announced that the National Science Teachers Association 

(NSTA), chosen last summer to run a nationwide student competition to 

develop payloads to fly on the Shuttle, had picked from 191 semifinal entries 

10 finalists to attend a conference at KSC on preparing their experiments for 

payload assignment. 

Finalists and their teacher-advisers would view KSC preparations for 

Columbia’s second flight, now scheduled for October; the finalists and their 

teachers as well as their schools would receive special medallions. 

The winners and their experiments were Wendy A. Angelo of New York, 

use of biofeedback to help Shuttle crew members relax or sleep; Aaron K. 

Gillette, Florida, growth of common sponges in zero gravity; Pritchett A. 

Harris, Pennsylvania, simulating planetary atmosphere; Karla R. 

Hauersperger, North Carolina, space-travel effect on chromium in the human 

body; Michelle A. Issel, Connecticut, formation of crystals from supersaturated solution in weightlessness; Amy M. Kusske, California, space-travel 

effect on lipoprotein profiles; Dave D. Madura, Indiana, space-travel effect on 

human cell division; Todd E. Nelson, Minnesota, insects in zero-g; D. Scott 

Thomas, Pennsylvania, convection in zero-g; Daniel J. Weber, New York, effect of weighdessness on arthritis in rats. (NASA Release 81-59) 

May 14: The Soviet Union launched from Baykonur the Soyuz 40 spacecraft 

crewed by Leonid Popov, who in 1980 achieved a world space-endurance 

record of 185 days with fellow cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, and Dumitru 

Prunariu of Romania’s air force. Tass said the ship would dock with orbiting 

space station Salyut 6,. occupied since March 14 by Vladimir Kovalenok and 

Viktor Savinykh. 

This flight, ninth in the Intercosmos program of launching a Soviet 

cosmonaut with one from another country, would complete the first round that 

began in March 1978 with representatives from Bulgaria, East Germany, 

Poland, Cuba, Hungary, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, and Mongolia. (W Star, 

May 15/81, A-16) 

May 15: NASA launched the U.S. Navy’s improved Transit navigational 

satellite Nova 1 at 2:07 a.m. from the Western Space and Missile Center 

(WSMC) on a Scout vehicle into a polar transfer orbit with 935-kilometer 

apogee, 353-kilometer perigee, 90.16 O inclination, and 97.67-minute period. 

The solar panels deployed, and the payload was in a housekeeping mode. A 

multiple-burn spacecraft motor fired on later orbit would raise the 368-pound 

spacecraft’s altitude to about 600 nautical miles. 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1981 

This 102d launch of a Scout was the ninth success in a row. NASA provided 

the launch under a June 1962 agreement with DO11 to reimburse NASA for 

the cost of Scout vehicles, Western Test Range (WTR) launch services, and 

mission support, as required. So far, NASA had launched 15 Transit satellites 

and 3 Transit improvement program satellites, of which 5 were currently 

operating. The Navy would reimburse NASA about $1.6 million for services 

and hardware provided for the program ($1.825 million for launch-vehicle 

hardware; $0.950 million for WTR launch services and mission support: 

$4.825 million for FY81 support services), (NASA MOR 0-490-603-81-01 

[prelaunch] May 13/81; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, May 18/81; SF; Oct 81, 274) 

NASA announced that it would launch the next Shuttle flight (STS-2) on 

September 30, if turnaround procedures went smoothly. JSC spokesman 

Robert Dotts said that the thermal-protection systeni “exceeded our expectations” and that the amount of repair needed would not affect turnaround time. 

Only 10 or 12 of the foamed-glass tiles protecting Columbia’s fuselage during 

reentry would need replacement. Inch-deep gouges ;dl over the surface of the 

Shuttle mostly occurred during takeoff. NASA cautioned that the orbiter 

would be undergoing turnaround for the first time, ,and unforeseen problems 

could affect the flight schedule. (NASA Release 81-65; MSFC Release 81-61; 

W Post, May 16/81, A-2) 

May 19: Some 40 astronauts were on hand at the White House as President 

Reagan awarded John Young and Robert Crippen, the crew of Space Shuttle 

Columbia’s first flight, the Distinguished Service Medal. Young also received 

a Space Medal of Honor for his five spaccflight,j in two decades as an 

astronaut . 

The guest list of 160 included present and former space officials and 

astronauts, including six of the original Mercury seven: Alan B. Shcpard, first 

American in space; John H. Glenn, Jr.? first Ame.rican to orbit the Earth; 

L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, Walter M. Schirra, and Donald K. 

Slayton. (Virgil L. Grissom, the seventh, had died 1.4 years ago in a launchpad fire.) The group included the crew of Apollo 8 that orbited the Moon at 

Christmas in 1968: Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. 

Anders. Also on hand were the Apollo I1 moon walkers, Neil A. Armstrong 

and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and the third pilot on their mission, Michael Collins. This was the first time so many former astronauts from the Mercury, 

Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab projects had come together. They did so at the 

invitation of the president to honor the reusable Shuttle, most recent U.S. 

space cffort, and the men who flew it into orbit for the first time last month. 

The president described the Shuttle as “the world’s first true space transportation system,” saying it would affect American life in both subtle and 

dramatic ways, “bringing energy and excitement to our national rcserve.” The 

Columbia crewmen presented the president and vice president with American 

flags they had carried on the Shuttle’s first flight. They also gave the president 
MAY 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND .AERONAUTICS 

a gold spaceflight jacket with the presidential seal, and Reagan responded: 

“You won’t mind if I only wear this in Earth’s atmosphere.” 

Reagan also awarded the presidential citizen’s medal to Dr. Alan M. 

Lovelace, acting head of NASA, who had been in charge of the Shuttle’s first 

flight. Lovelace was the fourth recipient of the medal, established in 1969. 

(Text, WhHs remarks, May 19/81; NASA Releases 81-70, 81-71 Nflimes, May 

20181, A-22, W Post, May 20/81, A-2; W Star, May 20/81, A-3) 

May 22: After a series of delays, NASA launched GOES-E, fifth of a series 

of geostationary operational environmental satellites funded by NOAA, from 

the Eastern Space and Missile Center (ESMC) at 6:29 p.m. EDT on a Delta 

into a transfer orbit with 49,768-kilometer apogee, 192-kilometer perigee, 

921-minute period, and 24.1” inclination. The craft would move into synchronous orbit at 85”W by the first week of June for testing. 

The Hughes-built 875-pound satellite, Goes 5 in orbit, carried a new visibleinfrared radiometric atmospheric sounder (VAS)-modified from the original 

visible-infrared spin-scan radiometer (VISSR) first carried by Goes 4 in 

September 1980-to provide not only visual imagery of Earth surface and 

cloud cover and infrared sea-surface temperature but also temperatures and 

amount, distribution, and movement of water vapor at various altitudes. 

Goes 5 would ultimately replace an older craft at 75”W, now serving as 

“Goes East” to monitor the eastern United States and Canada, Central 

America, South America, and much of the Atlantic Ocean. (NASA MOR 

E-612-81-03 [prelaunch] Apr 28/81, [postlaunch] July 23/85; NASA wkly 

SSR, GSFC, May 28/81; D/SD, May 29/81, 156; AvW, June 15/81, 53; 

Spacewarn SPX-332, June 30/81) 

May 23: NASA launched the world’s largest telecommunications satellite, Intelsat V2, from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas Centaur at 6:42 p.m. EDT into 

a highly elliptical transfer orbit with 35,960-kilometer apogee, 172-kilometer 

perigee, 633.9-minute period, and 24.1 O inclination. Originally scheduled for 

May 21, the launch was delayed by computer problems in the rocket’s main 

safety-control system. 

The huge communications satellite, weighing more than 2 tons, was second 

in a new series of nine international communications satellites the first having 

been launched December 9, 1980, as an on-orbit spare for the Atlantic network, which would eventually consist of four satellites. The first five Intelsat 

Vs would be launched by Atlas Centaur; the next three, by Europe’s Ariane 

booster. Average estimated cost of an Atlas Centaur launch was $42 million; 

that of an Ariane launch was $27 million. Overall cost of the Intelsat V program was $680 million, or some $76 million for each mission; estimated 

average cost of each satellite was $34 million. 

Intelsat V-2, after coming on station at 355 “E for a month of testing, would 

be operational by July at 335.5 “E, handling communications between the 

Americas and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It could transmit 12,000 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1981 

telephone calls simultaneously in addition to two television color channels, 

having twice the capacity of Intelsat IV-As previou:;ly launched by NASA for 

INTELSAT. The 106-nation organization jointly owned and operated 12 

satellites over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans in order to handle twothirds of the world’s overseas communications, from telegrams and telephone 

calls to television and data. 

In 1984, INTELSAT would begin a series of three improved Intelsat V-As 

capable of 15,000 simultaneous telephone calls and two television channels; 

1986 would inaugurate Intelsat VIS, each handling more than 40,000 

simultaneous telephone calls and two television channels and designed for 

launch by either the Ariane or the Space Shuttle. (NASA MOR-491-203-81-02 

[prelaunch] May 20/81, [postlaunch] June 17/81; NASA Release 81-60; INTELSAT Release 81-10-1; W Post, May 24/81, A-3, D/SD, May 27/81, 140; 

A/D, May 28/81, 151; Spacewarn SPX-332, June .?0/81) 

May 26: NASA announced the establishment of two new divisions within the 

Office of Space Transportation Systems and the disestablishment of the Expendable Equipment Division. L.M. Weeks, NASA Headquarters deputy 

associate administrator for space transportation systems, said the change 

would direct increased attention and impetus to the widebody Centaur program recently approved by NASA. 

A new Upper Stage Division would manage the widebody Centaur, the inertial Upper stage (IUS), the spinning solid upper stage (SSUS), and the solarelectric propulsion system (SEPS) proposed for use on the Galileo and solarpolar missions. Frank van Rensselaer, director of the former Expendable 

Equipment Division, would direct the new upper !stage Division. Jerry Fitts 

would direct a new Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank (SRBIET) Division. (NASA anno May 26/81) 

Press reports said that two the cosmonauts who occupied orbiting space station Sulyut 6 for 75 days had returned safely at 4:38 p.m. Moscow time in 

Soyuz T-4 to a landing site in Kazakhstan. Col. Vladimir Kovalenok, flight 

commander, and flight engineer Viktor Savinykh had two sets of visitors during their mission: Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Mongolian cosmonaut 

Jugderdemidyn Gurragcha of Soyuz 39 in March and Leonid Popov and Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu of Sqyuz 40, just a week ago. 

The New York Times said that this was the final mission for Salyut 6, which 

would probably be abandoned. Launched in 1977. it had been the base for 

nearly four years of record-setting tests of huma.n endurance. Last week, 

Popov said that the Soviet Union would also retire the old-model two-person 

Soyuz spacecraft used for the past 14 years in favor of the Soyuz-T, a threeman version more maneuverable and sophisticated, with four successful 

flights, including the one just ended. (NYTimes, May 27/81, A-1; W Post, May 

27/81, A-14) 

276 
MAY 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

During May: The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) reported unofficial records set by Columbia’s first flight, pending review for world certification. As the official U.S. certification authority for aerospace records 

since 1905 and sole U.S. representative of the Federal Aeronautique International (FAI), NAA gave the following figures: duration, 54 hours, 20 minutes, 

52 seconds; maximum altitude, 209 kilometers; distance, 1,144,709 

kilometers; mass carried into orbit, 95,201 kilograms; payload mass to 

altitude, 4624 kilograms. NAA said that Columbia was “the world’s first and 

only aerospacecraj?.. .capable of operating in space or in the atmosphere.” 

NAA had awarded the Voyager mission team represented by Dr. Eidward C. 

Stone the Collier Trophy, oldest U.S. aviation award, for space exploration 

achievement peaking in the close examination of Saturn after a comparable 

visit to Jupiter the previous years. Established in 1911 and first presented to 

Glenn Curtiss for development of a seaplane, the Collier Trophy was awarded 

yearly for achievement demonstrated by actual use. (NAA newsletter, May 

1981) 

June 

June 1: NASA said that the principal investigators for the plasma-wave instruments on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-managed Voyager 2, 

heading for rendezvous with Saturn in August 1981, discovered that the 

spacecraft had encountered the magnetic tail of Jupiter almost two years after 

leaving that planet, confirming a theory that the huge magnetosphere might 

extend all the way to Saturn. 

Dr. Frederick L. Scarf, scientist at TRW Inc., and his colleagues, Dr. 

Donald Gurnett and Dr. William Kurth of the University of Iowa, found 

plasma-wave phenomena from February 1981 identical to those of July and 

August 1979, when byuger 2 had left Jupiter but was still in that planet’s 

magnetosphere. Scarf had published in 1979 in the Journal of Geophysical 

Research his idea that Jupiter’s magnctotail might reach as far as Saturn and 

that the rare alignment of outer planets that permitted the successive JupiterSaturn encounters might put Vbyager 2 and Saturn simultaneously into 

Jupiter’s far-flung influence. 

Inside the Jovian tail, Saturn could experience unusual conditions observable by the Voyager when it arrived in August. The next Saturn encounter 

might differ widely from the two previous. (NASA Release 81-73) 

June 2: MSFC said that NASA’s third high-energy astronomy observatory, 

Hem 3, used the last of its attitude-control thruster gas and was powered 

down, completing a mission begun in September 1979 to study pulsars, 

quasars, exploding galaxies, and black holes in space, whose high energy output could not be studied with Earth-based telescopes due to atmospheric interference. With 20 myths of operation in orbit, Heao 3 was the third of its 

type to perform for more than twice its design lifetime. It would reenter and 

burn up later this year. (MSFC Release 81-69; NASA Release 81-77) 

Lewis Research Center (LeRC) said that it had awarded four contracts totaling more than $/ million for design and development of a modified Centaur 

launch vehicle and components to be used as a Shuttle upper stage. 

A $1.545 million contract with Teledyne Industries called for five digital 

computer units and nine remote multiplex units. A $1.593 million contract 

with Honeywell was for three inertial-measurement groups, part of an 

automatic navigation and guidance system. A $3.412 million contract with 

General Dynamics was for design and development of two modified Centaur 

vehicles. A $.933 million contract with United Technologies Corporation 

would cover building four RL10-3-3A rocket engines, two of which would provide primary thrust for one Centaur. Work under these contracts would con 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROXUAUTICS JUNE 1981 

tinue through September 1981; they were all to support the Galileo mission 

to Jupiter, scheduled for launch in 1985, and the international solar-polar mission in 1986. 

The Centaur for these missions would rescmble thc one used over the past 

15 years as an upper stage for Atlas and Titan boosters on Mariner missions 

to Mars and Venus, Pioneer missions to Jupiter and Venus, Viking and 

Voyager missions, and the cooperative Helios missions with West Germany. 

It had carried low Earth-orbit missions for NASA, such as the Heao series 

and commercial and military geosynchronous satellites. (LeRC Release 81-26; 

NASA Release 81-75) 

DFRC said that its newly refurbished Canberra bomber would be the test 

airplane for an atmospheric-turbulence measurement program to gather data 

on sudden wind changes creating abrupt and uneven pressures on different 

areas of an aircraft. Engineers would use the information to improve aircraft 

design and operation, with special attention to approach and takeoff during 

strong winds and unstable atmospheric conditions. 

Project eigineers chose the B-57B because of ii:s ability to withstand high 

g forces; its wings were extremely rigid and strong enough to recover from 

upsets during severe turbulence. Its cockpit held two crewmen, so that a 

meteorologist could fly as observer during the lests. Wen Painter, project 

manager for the program, said that scientists do not fully understand windshear phenomena and expect the flight tests to produce valuable data. 

The B-57B would fly at Edwards Air Force Bast:, Denver, Oklahoma City, 

Huntsville, Cape Canaveral, and Wallops Island, all of which exhibited 

distinctive types of turbulence. Other NASA centers participating in the study 

would be ARC, LaRC, and MSFC. (DFRC Release 81-21) 

June 10: NASA’s Atmosphere Explorer 5 reentered Earths atmosphere aftcr 

31,268 orbits and more than 5% years of service. Launched from KSC 

November 20, 1975, the 720-kilogram (1,587-pound) AE-5 carried 15 highly 

specialized instruments to gather data on Earth’s near-space environment. It 

was the first spacecraft using on-board propulsion to make large orbit changes 

and to use a central computer to make all data acquired immediately accessible to members of investigator teams at terminals in their own facilities. 

The last signal from AE-5 came over Hawaii, and no signal was received 

when it was due over Ascension Island. Trajectorjf of the descent was across 

the Pacific, Central America, and toward the Atlantic; the North American 

Air Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed reentry into the atmosphere over 

the Caribbean east of Nicaragua at 9:57 a.m. ELIT. (NASA Release 81-86) 

June 11: The Soviet Union’s space program must develop a low-cost transport 

vehicle like the U.S. Space shuttle, according to Konstantin P. Feoktistov, one 

of the three cosmonauts who orbited the Earth six times in bstok 1 in 1964. 

Feoktistov, now a professor of technical sciences doing research for the Soviet 

280 
JUNE 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

space program, did not specifically mention the successful flight of Columbia 

in April but called for solution of technological problems in space travel such 

as cheap lightweight batteries. The New York Times quoted from Pruvdu, the 

official Communist Party newspaper, the first official acknowledgment by the 

Soviet Union that it would like to have a shuttle-like vehicle for manned space 

flights. 

Tass said June 19 that Cosmos 1267 had docked with the empty Salyut 6 

with the mission of testing systems “of the design of future spacecraft and for 

training in the methods of assembly of orbital complexes of a big size and 

weight.” The Washington Post said that the linkup was “the precursor of a very 

large space complex that U.S. sources expect to have military uses.” 

(NYErnes, June 11 81, A-18; W Post, June 20/81, A-9; FBIS, Tass in English, 

June 91/81) 

June 12: NASA signed an agreement with the West German firm 

Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blom (MBB) covering the first flight of shuttle-pallet 

satellite SPAS-01 scheduled for orbit on STS-5, the first operational Shuttle 

flight, in September 1982. This would be the first payload deployed and 

retrieved by the Shuttle’s Canadian-built remote-manipulator system (RMS). 

The 1,814-kilogram (4,000-pound) payload would operate inside the payload 

bay and would also be a free flyer when deployed, using an on-board stabilization and control system. NASA would use it to test RMS capabilities during 

the five-day mission, with a 70-mm camera on the payload to record deployment, free flight, retrieval, and reberthing. MBB would conduct materialsprocessing experiments while the payload was in the shuttle bay. 

The agreement was signed for NASA by Dr. Stanley I. Weiss, associate administrator for space transportation operations, and for MBB by Dr. Johannes 

Schubert and Dr. Peter C. Bittner, general manager and commercial director 

of MBB’s space division. The pact would cover KSC and JSC launch services 

as well as NASA’s use of the payload for RMS testing. (NASA Release 81-80) 

June 15: NASA said that investigators at GSFC and the University of 

Maryland had discovered a natural infrared laser on Mars, a find that could 

help detect new planets in the universe and require rewrites of books on 

general physics of the planetary atmosphere. Members of the team were Dr. 

Michael J. Mumma, Dr. David Buhl, Dr. Gordon Chin, Dr. Drake Deming, 

Fred Espenak, and Dr. Theodore Kostiuk, all of GSFC, and Dr. David Zipoy 

of the University of Maryland. The discovery was reported in Science 

magazine. 

Optical lasers since their 50-year-ago invention had proved extremely useful 

not only in scientific laboratories but also in everyday life; for example, as 

price scanners in supermarkets. However, the investigators said, no naturally 

occurring laser had ever been reported, although “the extreme variety of 

physical and chemical environments of extraterrestrial objects. . . argue[d] that 

natural lasers must exist.” 

281 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AkKONAUTICS JUNE I981 

In theory, “natural” lasers would occur whenever .atoms or molecules were 

stimulated to release photons in transition from higher to lower energy states. 

A Goddard-developed device (an infrared heterodyne spectrometer) used with 

the McMath solar telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona had 

detected such a process in the Mars atmosphere (made up almost entirely of 

cabon dioxide) between January and April 1980. The new device let the scientists confirm occurrence of a molecular-population inversion, necessary for 

lasing. 

The natural laser on Mars, identical in principle I:O man-made lasers with 

commercial, scientific, and military applications, had a total continuous 

power output of more than a million megawatts, equivalent to that generated 

by a thousand large hydroelectric-power projects; in fact, the Mars laser 

generated more than five times the total power output of the United States. The 

investigators said orbiting satellites might eventually be able to extract power 

from the natural laser and beam it wherever needed. (NASA Release 81-78) 

June 16: NASA announced that Perkin-Elmer Corporation’s Danbury, Connecticut, facility had finished shaping and polishing the 94-inch (2.4-meter) 

diameter primary mirror for the space telescope, main optical component of 

the telescope assembly. Launched on the Shuttle early in 1985, the 12-ton unmanned telescope would orbit at 600 kilometers (370 miles) above the interfering haze of Earth’s atmosphere. It would be able to see objects 50 times fainter 

than observable from Earth telescopes, observing about 350 times more 

volume of space and 7 times further into space than now possible, up to 14 

billion light-years. To make full use of this undistorted view of space, 

telescope parts had to be much more accurate than those in Earth telescopes. 

The mirror exhibited a deviation at any point on its surface of less than one 

millionth of an inch from an ideally perfect surface. 

Manufacture of the mirror blank began in October 1977 at Corning Glass 

Works, which delivered it to Perkin-Elmer in December 1978. The blank was 

made of a Corning product called ultra-low-expansion glass, which has extremely low thermal expansion properties. Optical fabrication began with 

rough grinding of front and back surfaces of the blank, followed in August 

1980 by fine polishing of the front surface, using a computer-controlled 

polisher. The next stage of fabrication would be the application to the polished 

surface of two uniform extremely thin coatings, one a reflective layer of pure 

aluminum, the other a protective layer of magnesium fluoride to prevent oxidation of the aluminum. Coating would take place at Perkin-Elmer in the 

world’s largest vacuum chamber, which operates at a vacuum very near that 

of space. After coating, the mirror would be installed in the optical telescope 

and aligned to the secondary mirror, focal plane, scientific instruments, and 

guidance sensors. The completed optical telescope would then be integrated 

into a support-systems module, a major element of the space telescope, under 

construction by Lockheed. 

The space telescope project was managed by MSFC. (NASA Release 81-82) 

282 
JUNE 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

June 17: MSFC awarded a $400,000 contract to McDonnell Douglas as the 

follow-up of an initial study of ideas for manned platforms in space. MSFC 

was the lead NASA center for the study of space platforms designed to carry 

payloads of science experiments left in orbit by the Shuttle, which would 

return from time to time to replace equipment in orbit. As a structure grew, 

temporary manned modules would be added, with the objective of a permanent structure where scientists and technicians would do research for extended 

periods of time. The McDonnell Douglas study would be completed in about 

10 months. (MSFC Release 81-68) 

June 18: ESA successfully launched its Ariane rocket from Kourou, French 

Guiana, at 2:33 p.m. local time, carrying Indian-built comsat Apple and ESA’s 

own Meteosat 2 into an orbit with 36,206-kilometer apogee and 201-kilometer 

perigee and “breaking a quarter-century two-power monopoly on space 

achievements,” as the Washington Post and Washington Star agreed. 

Michel Bignier, ESA’s director of space and transport systems, said “space 

is no longer the exclusive preserve of a few powerful nations but now belongs 

to all of humanity.” Pierre Morel, director general of the Centre National 

d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), said the third Ariane launch “opens the way to 

European commercial exploitation of space.” ESA had hoped for a third of the 

180 to 200 satellite launches scheduled for the next decade; Ariane had firm 

contracts for 7 launches through 1985 and options for another 14. 

Ariane’s second launch in May 1980 had ended in failure when the rocket 

burst into flames moments after leaving the pad. The first test in December 

I979 had been successful, but that rocket carried no satellites. The $1.6 billion 

Ariane program was funded by 10 nations, with France (contributing about 

64%) and West Germany (about 20%) as major participants. (ESA Info IO, 

11, 12; WPost, June 20/81, A-9; WStar, June 20/81, D-2; Nature, June 25/81, 

604) 

June 19: NASA Headquarters released an official report on the investigation 

of the March 19, 1981, accident at KSC that killed two employees of Rockwell 

International, who went into the Shuttle’s aft compartment while it was filled 

with gaseous nitrogen. It had been determined that an all-clear signal was 

given too soon. 

Primary findings by an investigative board headed by Charles D. Gay, KSC 

director of expendable-vehicle operations, were that test procedures lacked 

adequate steps to clear a vehicle or pad for hazardous operations, or to partially or completely reopen the vehicle or pad for resumption of normal work; 

also, that a breakdown occurred in the operational command/coordination 

process. The report of more than 400 pages included 19 pages of findings, 

observations, and recommendations to prevent similar accidents in future. 

(NASA Release 81-85; W Post, June 20/81, A-5) 

283 
ASIRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1981 

NASA said that astronaut Alan L. Bean, fourth man to set foot on the 

Moon, would resign effective June 26 to devote full time to his career as a 

painter. Bean, selected in the third group of astronauts in the fall of 1963, flew 

on the second moon-landing mission, Apollu 12, in November 1969, exploring 

the Ocean of Storms with Charles (Pete) Conrad, Jr., as Richard F. Gordon 

circled in the command module. He captained thf- second Skylab mission in 

July-September 1973 and was backup spacecraft commander for the 1975 U.S.- 

USSR Apolio-Soyuz mission. He noted that in his 18 years as astronaut he 

had seen sights no artist had ever viewed firsthand, and he hoped to record 

his experiences through his art. 

Bean's time in space-l,671 hours 45 minutes-made him first among active 

U.S. astronauts and fourth of all in total spaceflight time. He was currently 

head of astronaut-candidate operations and training. His resignation would 

leave in the corps only one of the 12 U.S. astrona.uts who had walked on the 

Moon: John Young, chief of the astronaut office and commander of shuttle 

Columbia's first flight last April. (NASA Release 81-87) 

June 23: A U.S. Air Force launch team from WSMC, Vandenberg Air Force 

Base, California, launched NOAA-C under NASA direction from WSMC at 

6:53 a.m ED?' on an Atlas F into a polar orbit with 863-kilometer apogee, 

845-kilometer perigee, 101.9-minute period, and 98.9" inclination. The 

371-centimeter-high spacecraft, 188 centimeters in diameter weighing 723 

kilograms in orbit, was fourth of eight advanced weather satellites to be launched in the Tiros-N series to measure Earth-atmosphere temperature and 

humidity, sea-surface temperaturc, and proton-electron flux near the Earth. 

Designated NOAA 7 in orbit, the spacecraft with a two-year design life carried the most versatile scanning radiometer ever launched, gathering visual 

and infrared images and other measurements in five spectral channels. (Two 

earlier craft in the series carried four-channel radiometers: NOAA 6 was still 

operational, but firm N was turned off February 21 after operating for twice 

its design life.) NOAA 7 also carried a joint U.S. Air Force-NASA instrument 

to monitor in the spacecraft vicinity any environmental contamination from 

its propulsion systems; such contamination could degrade performance of 

future instruments planned for launch on similiair satellites. 

Successful launch of NOAA 7 meant that two polar-orbiting satellites would 

circle the Earth, viewing virtually all of its surface at least twice each 24 

hours. NOAA routinely used data and imagery from the polar orbiters as well 

as from two geostationary spacecraft it was operating. NOM 6 and NOAA 7 

would transmit unprocessed sensor data in real time to ground stations in 

more than 120 nations, while passing overhead. ;Four more satellites in this 

series would be launched through 1985 on a call-up basis to ensure uninterruptcd data flow. 

NOAA 7, built by RCA Astro-Electronics, under contract to GSFC, industry 

interface for NOAA, cost about $15 million to build and V.5 million to 

launch. (NASA MOR E-615-81-03 prelaunch summary, June 2/81; [prelaunch] 

2 84 
JUNE 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

June 9/81; NASA Release 81-76; NASA wkly SSR, June 25/81; NASA Dly Actv 

Rpt, June 24, 30/81; SPX-332) 

The House of Representatives passed NASA's authorization bill by a vote 

of 404-13. The amount, the same that appeared in the amended budget request, 

was $6.122 billion for research and development, construction of facilities, 

and research and program management. One amendment was adopted, reducing the authorization for aeronautical research and technology by $11.2 

million. (CR, June 23/81, W73; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, June 24/81) 

June 25: The Senate confirmed appointment of James M. Beggs as administrator of NASA. (CR, June 25/81, W97) 

285 

July 

July 2: Dr. Alan M. Lovelace, acting adminsitrator, left the agency July 11 to 

become corporate vice president for science and engineering at General 

Dynamics Corporation, St. Louis, Mo., in charge of research, engineering, 

advanced product and program development, and development and implementation of corporate engineering and research policy. NASA’s new chief, James 

M. Begs, who began his new job July 9, had been executive vice president 

for aerospace at General Dynamics. 

Lovelace had been acting administrator of NASA since the departure of Dr. 

Robert A. Frosch in January 1981; he had actually retired as deputy administrator in December 1980 but at Frosch’s request had agreed to remain 

through the first flight of the space shuttle Columbia and appointment of a new 

administrator. Lovelace had entered federal service in 1954 with the U.S. Air 

Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and became director there 

in 1967. He went to Andrews Air Force Base in 1972 as director of science 

and technology for the U.S. Air Force Systems Command and in 1973 became 

acting deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for research and development. He came to NASA in 1974 as associate administrator, Office of 

Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) and was appointed deputy administrator of NASA in June 1976 by President Ford. 

Lovelace recently received the Presidential Citizens Medal for his work on 

developing the Space Shuttle. (NASA anno, July 2/81; NASA Release 81-88; 

NYTimes, July 6/81, D-6) 

July 7: A 122-pound Colorado pilot, Stephen Ptacek, steered Dr. Paul 

MacCready’s Solar Challenger (a 210-pound aircraft made of lightweight DuPont synthetics and powered solely by 16,000 photovoltaic cells on its 47-foot 

wingspan) across the English Channel from Cormeilles-en-Vexin 25 miles 

northwest of Paris to a Royal Air Force base at Manston on England’s 

southeast coast, a 5%-hour flight of 165 miles at an average speed of 30 mph 

and a cruising altitude of 11,000 feet. Other planes had flown on solar power, 

but Challenger was the only one to do so without storage batteries. The project 

was largely financed by DuPont, maker of the Lucite windscreen, Mylar 

sheathing, and Kevlar-fiber struts. 

MacCready said that his solar plane was no serious alternative for air travel, 

but the flight was to highlight “irrational” dependence on fossil fuels. He had 

built the first human powered aircraft, Gossamer Condor, which flew in 1977, 

winning the $lOO,OOO Kremer prize and earning the Condor a place beside the 

Wright flyer in the National Air and Space Museum. He had also made the 

Gossamer Albatross, which flew the Channel in 1979 under human legpower, 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1981 

winning a $213,000 prize and a Royal Aeronautical Society trophy. (NYTimes, 

June 9/81, C-I; July 8/81, A-1: July 12, 22E; WPost. July 8/81, A-20; W Star, 

July 8/81, A-2; AvWk. July 13/81, 21: Nswk, July 20181, 50; Time, July 20181, 

45) 

July 8: The Senate confirmed the appointment as NASA deputy administrator 

of Dr. Hans Mark, former secretary of the Air Force and former director of 

NASA’s ARC. Mark, a physicist and nuclear enginEer, became diretor of ARC 

in February 1969 and undersecretary of the Air Force in 1977. He had been 

secretary of the Air Force from July 1979 until 1981. 

Mark had taught at Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology (MIT), the University of California, and Stanford University. He 

was chairman of the nuclear engineering department at Berkeley from 1964 

to 1969, administering its research reactor. (NASA spl anno, July 9/81; NASA 

Release 81-51) 

July 10: NASA reported “encouraging initial results” from a two-month experiment that it conducted jointly with the FAA., National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Northwest Airlines. An instrument on Nimbus 7, 

called total ozone-mapping spectrometer, sent GSFC cxperimenters data on 

the total ozone profile in the atmosphere. Within three hours the GSFC scientists relayed the data, processed to indicate upper-air patterns and 

meteorological activity, such as rapidly moving fronts: to Northwest Airlines 

meteorologists in Minnesota for usc in forccasting. 

Knowing the location of the fronts could help in avoiding them, both 

because they were associated with clear-air turbultmce and because ozone encountered by airlines at high altitudes had caused shortness of breath as well 

as eye, nose, and throat irritation among airline passengers. Further research 

would lead to deduction of troposphere heights from total-ozone data for comparison with satellite temperature-sounding data. (NASA Release 81-90) 

NASA reported that Dr. Jack L. Kcrrebrock, former head of MIT’s department of aeronautics and astronautics, had become associate administrator at 

NASA Headquarters for aeronautics and astronautics, effective July 1, replacing Dr. James J. Kramer, who retired in October 1979. 

Before accepting the NASA Headquarters position, Kerrebrock had been a 

member of the U.S. Air Force scientific advisory board, the National 

Research Council’s aeronautics and space engineering board, and the NASA 

Advisory Committee. He had directed MIT’s gas-turbine laboratory from 

1968 to 1978. He received his Ph.D. from CalTech in 1956; from 1951 to 1953 

he was a researcher in aeronautics at the Lewis laboratory of NASA’s 

predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). 

(NASA Release 81-91) 

288 
JULY 1981 ASTROKAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

July 23: Press reports said that a Texas-based firm called the Percheron project was preparing to launch the first U.S. privately owned space rocket into 

a 50-mile suborbital flight from Matagorda Island northeast of Corpus 

Christi. 

Backers of thc project, named for a breed of large French draft horses, 

hoped to launch their rocket powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen at the end 

of July, but had run into trouble with the FAA, which said they must seek 

waiver of air-traffic rules preventing “nonconventional” use of U.S. air space 

above 12,500 feet. An FAA spokesman said that an application for waiver 

could take more than two weeks to resolve and could end by restricting Percheron to a flight no higher than 14,500 feet and no further out to sea than 

the three-mile limit over which FAA had jurisdiction. A flight would also call 

for extensive coordination with the Coast Guard to protect shipping and oil 

rigs in the area. 

Percheron was the idea of Gary C. Hudson, a “self-taught engineer” seeking to head a company pioneering corporate space ventures. In 1979 he met 

a fellow enthusiast, Houston developer David Hannah, described as “a disciple of Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill,” the Princeton physics professor famous for his 

ideas about the commercial and social possibilities of space colonies. Hannah, 

a supporter of the U.S. space program, had developed a slide show on commercial uses of a cheap, privately owned space vehicle; to launch Perchcron, 

he raised $1.2 million from a number of investors including an oilman and rancher who owned part of Matagorda Island. 

Hudson rounded up a crew of engineers, scientists, and technicians, some 

from NASA’s JPL, others from private aerospace firms. So much information 

and so many plans were available that production of Percheron took only six 

months from final design. The 55-foot single-engine rocket used in clusters 

might one day orbit a 5,000-pound geosynchronous payload with a conical 

module able to withstand reentry heat and return reusable components to 

Earth. (W Star, July 23/81, A-1; July 28/81, A-7; W Post, July 29181, A-1) 

July 26: Space shuttle Columbia was still awaiting its trip to KSC’s Vehicle 

Assembly Building (VAB) because of a delay in the orbiter integrated test that 

had been scheduled for July 23. The test had to wait until technicians finished 

wiring the remote manipulator’s system for emergency jettison of its $100 

million Canada-built “bionic arm.” That system would have to be retested 

before the major integrated test could begin, probably not before August 9. 

The delay would not affect launch date of STS-2, NASA said. (MSFC Release 

81-90, 81-91; NASA Release 81-109; W Star, July 27/81, A-2) 

July 2% MSFC reported the arrival from Europe of a jumbo jet carrying 

equipment to prepare Spacelab, the ESA reusable scientific research facility, 

for flight on the shuttle beginning in 1983. 

The gear for electrical ground support and mechanical servicing arrived at 

KSC after formal acceptance in early July by representatives of MSFC, which 

289 
AS1 KOhALTlCS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1981 

was responsible for monitoring Spacelab design ;md devclnpment and would 

manage the first three Spacelab missions. (MSFC Release 81-92) 

LaRC said that it was studying a possible ‘hsembly line in space” that 

would allow astronauts to build large platforms or antennas in Earth orbit 

from the shuttle. A mobile work station would position a pair of pressuresuited astronauts so that they could move horizontally and vertically within a 

prescribed area to set up structures too large or complex to fold up and 

transport inside the shuttle. The work station wodd be located inside the orbiter’s cargo bay or would be a free-flyer operating near the shuttle. 

LaRC was testing a large-scale model to detect possible problems in space 

and identify ways to improve astronaut productivity: foot restraints to leave 

hands free, for instance, and electrically operaled work platforms. (LaRC 

Release 81-50; NASA Release 81-104; MSFC Release 81-93) 

July 30: The NASA centers which were directed in April to merge reported 

the steps being taken to complete the action, approved by the agency’s new 

administrator, James M. Beggs. 

As of October 1, DFRC, Edwards, Calif., would become a directorate of 

ARC, Mountain View, Calif., reporting to ARC director C.A. Syvertson; it 

would retain its name and its “essential identity” but would function as an 

operational element of ARC. Aeronautical research at the two locations would 

be integrated and staff functions for the two centers would be combincd. 

Several ARC projects, such as the quiet short-hand research aircraft (QSRA) 

and the tilt-rotor research aircraft would be :moved to DFRC over the 

30-month consolidation period. 

WFC in Virginia would become an operating clement of GSFC at 

Greenbelt, Md., responsible for suborbital projects and operations. WFC’s 

applied sciences directorate would be a new ins1 runient-systems division of 

GSFC’s applications directorate. GSFC’s management operations directorate 

would absorb WFC’s technical support and administrative directorates, except 

for electronic and mechanical shops. (NASA Release 81-107; WFC Release 

81-9) 

?YO 
August 

August 3: NASA launched Dynamics Explorer A and B from the WSMC at 

2:56 a.m. PDT (5:56 a.m. EDT) on a Delta into polar orbits with 

24,945-kilometer(15,5OO-mile) and 1300-kilometer(808-mile) apogees, 

675 kilometer(420-mile) and 306-kilometer(190-mile) perigees, 90 O inclination, and 409 and 97.5-minute periods. The orbits, lower than predicted, were 

still suitable for the full scientific mission. Launch had been delayed three 

successive days by command-system discrepanies, high winds at the launch 

site, and problems with a tracking aircraft. 

Called DE4 and DE-2 in orbit, the satellites would study the interaction of 

solar energy with near-Earth space, simultaneously acquiring data on auroras 

(northern lights) produced by solar energy entering Earth's magnetic field and 

their effect on radio transmission and basic weather patterns. (NASA Releases 

81-95, 81-114; NASA MOR S-850-81-03 [prelaunch] July 28/81, [postlaunch] 

Aug 7/81; W Star, Aug 4/81, D-5) 

August 5: Press reports said that test firing of a rocket built by Space Services 

Inc. (SSI) seeking to be the first private company to launch satellites for profit, 

ended with an explosion on the launching pad while 18 of its crew watched. 

The 53-foot Percheron [see July 231 broke into four major parts. costing the 

firm more than $1.2 million and delaying the project at least six months. Flight 

plans had called for the rocket to climb to 14,500-feet and drop into the Gulf 

of Mexico about three miles from the site. (NY Times, Aug 6/81, B-7, W Star, 

Aug 6/81, A-8) 

August 6: NASA launched FltSatCom-E for the Naval Electronic Systems 

Command at 4:16 a.m. EDT from KSC on an Atlas Centaur into a transfer 

orbit with 35,790-kilometer apogee, 166.7-kilometer perigee, and 26.6" inclination, and turned the craft after it separated from the Centaur over the U.S 

Air Force Space Division. 

Designated FltSatCom 5 in orbit, the TRW-built DOD communications 

satellite with a five-year design life would join four similar craft now in 

geostationary orbit 22,300 miles over the equator at different locations around 

the Earth, forming a worldwise system to provide two-way communications 

between naval aircraft, ships, submarines, ground stations, Strategic Air 

Command elements, and presidential command networks. FltSatCom 5 would 

serve over the eastern Pacific. DOD would reimburse NASA for Atlas Centaur 

and launch services. LeRC had management responsibility for development 

and operation of the Atlas Centaur; KSC was responsible for checkout and 

29 1 
ASTROKAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 4UGUST 1981 

launch. (NASA Releases 81-32, 81-93; NASA MOR 0-491-202-81-05 

[prelaunch] Aug 4/81; DBD, Aug 7/81, 211) 

August 7: The Soviet Union launched an Intercosmos-Bulgaria 3000 satellite 

into an orbit with 906-kilometer apogee, 825kilometer perigee, 81.2 O inclination, and 101.9-minute period. A Tass report said that the satellite would study 

ionsopheric plasma and high-energy charged-particle flux, magnetic fields, 

and upper-atmosphere glow in the ultraviolet and visible bands of spectrum. 

The Soviet Union and Bulgaria cooperated on the design of the craft and 

would continue to work together in data processing and analysis. (FBIS, Tass 

in English, Aug 7/81) 

Augusr 8: WFC reported the launch of a coordinated balloon, plane, and 

rocket experiment to study electric fields in thunderstorms. Five vehicles 

simultaneously measured the fields from troposphere to ionosphere for a 

number of firsts: first multiple flight of electric-field devices, first 

simultaneous direct observations of ionosphere lightning, and first measures 

of lightning waveforms in the stratosphere. (WFC Release 81-11) 

August IO: During the early-morning move of space shuttle Columbia from 

it KSC hangar to the VAB. a forklift “accidentally banged into” the spacecraft, 

damaging two tiles on the left elevon, according to KSC spokesman Rocky 

Raab. Engineers and technicians were expected to replace the tiles by nightfall 

so that raising Columbia and bolting it to its mobile launcher could proceed. 

The three-times-delayed rollout began at 3:54 a.m EDT and took 26 minutes 

to cover the quarter-mile distance. (NY Times, Aug 11/81, C-3) 

August 18: NASA declared successful the Landsor 3 project launched March 

5, 198, still in operation three years later. Its multispectral scanner (MSS) acquired more than 200,000 images worldwide and the return-beam vidicon 

(RBV) acquired more than 175,000. The project completed two full years of 

data acquisition and processing for LACIE, and was continuing the same for 

AgRISTARS. Some equipment was no longer operative, but MSS operations 

were judged successful, and some foreign stations were still receiving RBV 

data in real time. (NASA MOR F-641-78-03 [postlaunch] Aug 18/81) 

August 19: NASA announced that it had postponed to August 31 Columbia’s 

move to KSC’s launch complex 39A, scheduled for August 26, but did not say 

what effect the delay would have on the September 30 launch date. A nine-day 

preflight test series that began August 17 would culminate in simulated liftoffs 

and descent from orbit to landing. 

MSFC later reported that the launch date for STS-2 would be reset to October 9 because of “a number of small problems” and a need to prevent crew 

fatigue. A loss of five days in the VAB was caused by delays in interface tests 

and misalignment of Shuttle and external-tank connections. The thunderstorm 

292 
AUGUST 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

season would also account for some lost time. (NASA Releases 81-123, 81-135; 

MSFC Release 81-107) 

August 25-31: Press coverage of the Vquger 2 encounter with Saturn came 

from JPL, Pasadena, Calif. New NASA Administrator James M. Beggs told 

reporters that the mission was “one of the really great scientific achievements 

of our age.” Under questioning, Begs said that he could not promise any new 

planetary missions in the near future. The New York Times said that the encounter meant “farewell to American planetary exploration for at least five 

years,” alluding to the expected encounter with Uranus in January 1986. 

The 1,800-pound byuger 2, having arrived within Saturn’s magnetic field 

early August 25 after a four-year 1.2 billion-mile journey, was sending back 

data and pictures “as perplexing as they are dazzling,” the New York Times 

said. The craft photographed four of Saturn’s moons in greater detail than 

before, sent data on the thousands of strands in Saturn’s rings, and dived 

behind the planet for a close approach and a gravity-assisted push toward arrival at Uranus in 4% years. So far, it had found no new moons of Saturn, 

which had been one of its aims. 

When Voyager 2 reappeared, JPL engineers reported that its camera platform was stuck, affecting three scientific sensors as well as the two television 

cameras. Chief project scientist Dr. Edward C. Stone said Vbyuger 2 “basically completed” all of its observations before the malfunction: “We were fortunate that the troubles didn’t happen a few hours earlier,” he told a news 

conference. 

Signals needed 1 hour and 27 minutes to travel to Earth. Controllers picked 

up the signals again at 3 a.m. EDT after Voyager had been out of tmch with 

Earth for 2 hours and 20 minutes; the cameras were showing black space, indicating that the platform was pointing away from Saturn. The platform could 

be rotated in two dimensions, and controllers countermanded the original program so that the swivel could operate in high torque and expel or destroy 

whatever foreign object was making the platform stick. A similar problem 

with kyuger I in 198 was solved by manipulation of the swivel, after records 

showed a tiny piece of plastic had been left in a gearbox during construction. 

Further reports Thursday, August 27, said that the platform (which had been 

jammed for 17 hours) was working again but not perfectly. Project Director 

Esker K. Davis said that it was moving sluggishly in low gear; the plan was 

to keep moving it, but it took three hours just to send a command and get back 

a signal that the spacecraft responded. Stone said that his main objective was 

to recover use of the platform for the voyage to Uranus. Project scientists had 

turned the cameras off when the platform stuck and would not turn them on 

again until the problem was solved. 

Loss of about 600 pictures of Saturn’s rings and darkside, as well as infrared 

and ultraviolet measurements of clouds and atmosphere, did not mean that the 

mission had failed, Stone said, calling it “a 200 percent success.” Thousands 

of photos stored on Voyager’s tape rccorders were still pouring back to Earth, 

293 
ASTRONAUTlCS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1981 

showing sights never seen before. Dr. Arthur L. 1-anc’s telescope aimed at a 

distant star to catch it blinking on and off as l41yugc.r 2 passed through Saturn’s 

rings was so successful that he said it would take years to map the rings, 

45,000 miles of which were shown by his telescope. 

Early on Friday, August 28, flight directors restarted one of the five 

blackcd-out cameras to photograph “a rapidly receding Saturn” from byuger 

2’s location already 2 million miles beyond the planet. The platform had 

responsed by rotating 40” on command in exactly the proper time. NASA 

would photograph Saturn‘s outermost moon Phoebe next week when Voyager 

crossed its orbit: Phoebe, rotating in a direction opposite to that of the other 

16 moons, might be a burned-out comet nucleus captured by Saturn.(NASA 

MOR S-802-77-01/02, July 16/81. WSJ. Aug 24/81, 15: NY Times, Aug 14/81, 

A-13; Aug 26/81, A-1; Au~ 27/81, A-I; Aug 28/81, B-5; Au~ 29/81, A-9; Aug 

30181, F-1; Au~ 31/81, B-6; W Post, Aug 25/81, .4-2; Aug 26/81, A-3; Aug 

27/81, A-1; Aug 28/81, A-1, Aug 29/81, A-3; Au~ 30181, A-5; Au~ 31/81, A-5; 

Scierzce, Scpt 11/81, 1236; Dstvr: Sept 81, 79) 

August 26: The Washington Post said that a USSR satellite that fell into the 

sea off the coast of China August 23 might have “lost its way to the Moon.” 

The Soviet foreign ministry said that Cosmos 431 was not nuclear-powered 

and posed no danger of nuclear contamination: the Wushirzgron Post said that 

the Soviet Union seemed eager to allay any fears of radioactive debris like that 

Cosmos 954 strewed over Canada’s “sparsely inhabited” Northwest Territories in January 1978. The Soviets said that the reentered craft was an “experimental lunar cabin.” This description tallied ,with a long-held belief that 

Cosnios 434 was relic of an unsuccessful manned 1 unar mission planned in the 

1960s by the Soviet Union to rival the U.S. Apollo program, which had put 

12 men on the Moon by the time it ended in 1952. 

Between November 1970 and August 1971, the :Soviet Union had launched 

four unmanned satellites that performed complex maneuvers in Earth orbit 

simulating those of a lunar-landing mission. A two-volume book on thc Soviet 

space program published in 1979 by the American Astronautical Society said 

that the satellites (Cosmos 379, Cosmos 382, Cos~wos 398, and Cosmos 434) 

seemed to be practicing acceleration toward the Moon, braking into lunar orbit, landing on the Moon, and returning to Earth. The Soviet Union ncvcr 

disclosed thc purpose of the satellites, but U.S. analysts believed them to be 

flight tests of a propulsion unit for manned lunar spacecraft. As the 50th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution neared, observers thought it likely 

that the Soviet Union would mark 1967 by putting a man on the Moon; in 

1968; the year before the first U.S. moon landin,g, Soviet cosmonauts were 

saying that, when the Americans reached the Moon, Russians would be there 

to greet them. 

The Soviet program apparently had a series of setbacks that “cooled the 

leadership’s enthusiasm,” the Washington Post said. In June 1969 the first attempt to launch the G rocket (a giant new booster like the U.S. Saturn 5) was 

294 
AUGUST 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AiiD AERONAUTICS 

said to have ended in a mammoth explosion demolishing the launch complex. 

It also apparently exploded in the early stages of flight during two other tests, 

in the summer of 1971 and on November 24, 1972. (W Post, Aug 30/81, A-25) 

295 

September 

September 1: Press reports described the rollout of spacc shuttle Columbia on 

its eight-tread mobile launching platform from KSC’s VAB to launch pad 39A, 

a 3.5-mile trip that took about seven hours. 

New launch date was October 9, only 39 days from rollout; however, Columbia had sat on its pad for 104 days before its first flight, and launch director 

George F. Page said that all the usual tests should be completed in time. The 

new schedule allowed for weather delays or new technical problems. The 

launch pad was modified after last April’s ignition caused shockwaves that 

buckled struts on the spaceship and endangered other parts; Columbia had 

“several hundred” of its 31,000 heat-resistant tiles replaced. It would carry a 

new fuel tank-the only expendable part of the Shuttle assembly-and two 

new solid-fuel booster rockets to be retrieved from the ocean shortly after 

1 i ftoff. 

KSC officials had closed two viewing sites for the next launch because of 

exhaust fallout. Dr. Albert Koller, chief of environmental management for 

KSC, said that the fallout problem was a surprise: acid drops in an exhaust 

cloud produced by STS-1’s boosters had spotted vegetation up to four miles 

north of the site, but apparently did not harm animals in the area. 

Hydrochloric acid drops from the cloud might cause reddening and burning 

of unprotected skin. 

NASA hoped eventually to send a shuttle back into space within two or three 

weeks of its previous mission, but Page said “we’re a long way from that 

ultimate goal.” (NY Times, Sept 1/81, C-3; W Post, Sept 1/81, A-4) 

September 7: ESA announced that Drs. Claude Nicollier and Wubbo Ockels, 

two ESA payload specialists in astronaut training at JSC since July 1980, had 

completed training and were now officially European mission specialists. 

Ockels would rejoin the crew readying the first Spacelab mission in Europe, 

at MSFC and at JSC; Nicollier would stay at JSC to continue training as mission specialist for future missions carrying European payloads. The third ESA 

representative, Dr. Ulf Merbold, had been working with the European experiments selected for first Spacelab flight and would remain as European 

payload specialist. 

The two U.S. candidates for the Spacelab crew, Drs. Michael Lampton and 

Byron Lichtenberg, had been in a hiatus from training because of delays in 

the launch date. One each of the U.S. and ESA candidates would be chosen 

to fly; the others would provide ground support. (MSFC Release 81-119; FSA 

Info 20) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERO\AUTIC5 SEPTEMBER 1981 

September 14: GSFC said the two Dynamic Explorers DE-1 and DE-2 launched August 3 would soon be fully operational. Designed for simultaneous 

observation of solar-energy effects on Earth’s environment, the two craft failed 

to achieve planned orbit because of Delta-stage misfire but should carry out 

their major scientific objectives. (NASA Release 81-147) 

Seprernber 15: LaRC said that it was conducting, under contract with McDonnell Douglas Corporation, a test program on widebody commercial DC-IO aircraft to measure the effect on fuel efficiency of winglets, small structures attached to the tips of airplane wings perpendicular to the wing surfaces. 

Winglets would reduce fuel-consuming drag by lessening the effect of vortices, turbulent air swirls forming during flight at tips of all aircraft wings. 

Developed by aeronautical designer Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb, recently 

retired from LaRC. the concept had been tested on several types of small aircraft but not on a plane as large as the DC-10. b‘inglets were already in use 

on the Gates Learjet 55 and Grumman’s Gulfstream 111. Wind-tunnel tests 

showed a drop of about 3% in fuel use, which would mean an annual saving 

per plane of about 250,000 gallons of fuel, now priced at more than $1 a 

gallon. 

LaRC said that it was also working on the prevention of stall and spin in 

light aircraft by using the canard, a miniature wing sprouting from an aircraft’s nose area, first used by the Wright brothers at the turn of the century 

but neglected since then because of patent and flight-handling considerations. 

LaRC found that home-built airplane kits that used the canard to increase fuel 

efficiency also had impressive records of stall-spin safety. Tests of a model in 

LaRC’s spin tunnel showed that with proper loading the plane was “virtually 

impossible to spin .” Current tests would document the plane’s aerodynamic 

efficiency without trying to improve it. Although the canard did reduce a 

pilot‘s area of vision in takeoff and landing, ths- tunnel data should show 

whether it could be relocated without sacrificing its safety features. 

NASA’s aircraft energy-efficiency program was seeking ways to reduce fuel 

consumption and improve safety. Four NASA centers were focused on 

aeronautical research: LaRC, LeRC: ARC, anc. DFRC. (NASA Releases 

81-145. 81-155; LaRC Releases 81-68, 81-75) 

NASA officials began a “tanking exercise” of the Shuttle on its KSC launch 

pad to see if newly installed water-pressure systems would prevent recurrence 

of shockwaves produced by booster exhaust during the April 12 liftoff. The 

New York Times quoted officials as saying that shockwave reduction was 

“mandatory” before Columbia could head for space again. Columbia, already 

erected on the pad for its second mission, contained a payload of five experiments and a 50-foot mechanical arm put aboard in June when the cargo 

bay was “closed out,” the New York Times said. NASA might rcmove a 

package of scientific experiments rather than risk damaging it during liftoff. 

(NY Times, Sept 15/81, C-2) 

298 
SEPTEMBER 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

-MSFC said September 8 that the Shuttle’s external tank was “successfully 

filled with liquid propellants” in a cryo-loading test at KSC designed to check 

out ground and vehicle systems. The success was “a major milestone” toward 

the second Shuttle flight, now scheduled for October 9. (MSFC Release 

81-117) 

September 20: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) launched 3 experiments 

in space physics on a single rocket, making a total of 11 manmade Earth 

satellites sent into space by that country since 1970. FBIS quoted PRC press 

service Xinhua in reviewing the successful series that began April 24, 1970. 

Previous reports had said the Great March 3 rocket would use a liquid 

hydrogen and oxygen mixture “slightly less powerful than the European 

Ariane system,” in which the People’s Republic had “shown close interest.” 

Both the rocket and its payload were “wholly Chinese manufactured.” (FBIS, 

Xinhua in English, Sept 20/81; Hong Kong AFP in English, Sept 14/81; Paris 

AFP in English, Sept lO/Sl) 

September 22: LaRC said that it was advancing aviation technology that could 

“revolutionize commuter flying in the 1990s” by making 20- to 60-passenger 

turboprops sturdier, faster, and able to travel farther than current commuter 

aircraft. Rising interest in such aircraft stemmed from high oil prices and 

airline deregulation, creating “greater demand than supply” for small planes 

that had to be more cost-effective than large ones because of their smaller 

capacity and short-haul operations. 

LaRC and NASA’s other lead centers for aeronautics (ARC, DFRC, and 

LeRC) were developing advanced aerodynamics, propulsion, materials, and 

control and guidance systems to provide technological data considered too 

high-risk or beyond the resources of industry to produce (LaRC Release 81-69; 

NASA Release 81-131) 

September 22-25: Accidental spillage of a caustic oxidizer being pumped into 

the shuttle damaged the spacecraft surface, unglued nearly 300 of its thermal 

tiles and forced postponement of the October 9 launch date. Between two and 

three gallons of nitrogen tetroxide spurted from a malfunctioning connector 

about 1:15 a.m. and dissolved the bonding agent that fastened the tiles to Columbia’s skin. [See December 141 No one was on the launch pad except the 

specially clothed technicians, and no injuries were reported. About 67 tiles 

came loose in the hands of technicians mopping up the spill; launch director 

George Page said the tiles themselves were not damaged, but the vehicle skin 

would have to be decontaminated and dried, and each tile would have be 

waterproofed and retested. 

NASA warned that the shuttle might have to be moved back into the VAB, 

separated from its external tank, and moved again into the orbiter-processing 

facility to see if any propellant had leaked inside. The Washington Post said 

September 24 that inspection of the orbiter’s nose showed contamination of 

299 
.AS IRONAUTICS AXD .AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1981 

the reactor-control system containing thrusters to govern pitch and roll of the 

vehicle during atmospheric reentry. The oxidizer, when it encountered water, 

turned into nitric acid, highly corrosive to copper wire and other materials. 

Moving the ship back to its hangar for repair would delay launch “in excess 

of a month,” Page said. 

September 25 NASA said that management had decided to repair Columbia 

on its launch pad, making a move to the VAB unnecessary. (W Post, Sept 

23/81, A-17; Sept 24/81: A-28; NASA Release 81--154) 

Scptctnber 24: NASA launched SBS-B from the Eastern Space and Missile 

Center (ESMC) on a Delta at 7:09 p.m. EDT into ;i transfer orbit. Owned by 

Satellite Business Systems, Inc. (a consortium of I13M, Comsat General, and 

Aetna Insurance Company), the Hughes-built cylinder was second of four 

commercial communications satellites planned for launch by NASA at a fixed 

cost to SBS Inc. of $22 million. Called SBS 2 in1 orbit, the spin-stabilized 

communications satellite 660 centimeters high and 216 centimeters in 

diameter weighed 555 kilograms on station. It would be the first to offer 

routine commercial service in the K-band, 12-14 GHz. (NASA Release 81-130; 

NASA MOR 0-492-213-81-02 [prelaunch] Sept 21/81, [postlaunch] Jan 27/82; 

NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Sept 25/81, 2) 

September 29: NASA Administrator James M. Reggs announced the 

reorganization of Headquarters effective November 9 “to assure proper 

delegation of authority to all line managers, set forth a clear distinction between line and staff, and a simplification of field centers’ reporting lines.” The 

change would combine the Office of Space Science and Office of Space and 

Terrestrial Applications into an Office of Space Science and Applications. It 

would set up an Office of Management to handle c,ome functions now under 

the NASA comptroller and some now under the Officc of Management Operations and to support program offices in managing research and development 

and institutional resources. 

Associate administrators in the program offices would be NASA‘s major line 

officers through whom center directors would report to Headquarters. JPL 

and GSFC would report to the associate administrator for Space Science and 

Applications. ARC, LaRC, and LeRC would report to associate administrator 

for Aeronautics and Space Technology; JSC, KSC, MSFC, and the National 

Space Technology Laboratories (NSTL), to the associatc administrator for 

STS. Remaining program offices would be Space ‘kinsportation Operations 

and Space Tracking and Data Systems. 

The administrator’s staff would include chief engineer, comptroller, procurement; equal opportunity, external relations, general counsel, inspector 

general, legislative affairs, associate deputy administrator, and assistants to 

the administrator. A reorganization working group led by NASA’s general 

counsel S. Neil Hosenball would work out functional and personnel changes; 

a reorganization steering committee led by Dr. Hans Mark, deputy ad300 
SEPTEMBER 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AI:RONAU rm 

ministrator, would review the plans and recommend a complete reorganization 

package to the administrator. (NASA Release 81-156) 

The external tank (ET) for the third shuttle flight (ET-3) left the Michoud 

Assembly Facility in New Orleans on a NASA barge for KSC. Unlike those 

used in the first two flights, this tank would be light brown, the natural color 

of the insulation sprayed on the tank’s cxterior. The white paint on the first 

two tanks weighed about 600 pounds. Since the tank went almost all the way 

to orbit, elimination of the paint would add nearly 600 pounds payload 

bcsides saving several thousand of dollars in handling and would not affect the 

tank’s fire-retardant or water-repellent qualities. (MSFC Release 81-122) 

Pruvdu, the official Communist Party newspaper, marked the fourth anniversary of orbital laboratory Salyut 6 with a report of planned space activity. 

A “lull” was being used for an overhaul of the ground-control center in the 

Crimea. Employees were on long-awaited vacations, and a skeleton staff was 

monitoring Sulyut 6, orbiting without a crew since May 26. 

After orbiting for nearly two months of unspecified tests, a Cosmos craft 

launched April 25 had linked with the Salyut in June to form a 34-ton complex. A flight-test manager said that the complex would help in designing 

future space stations and was being monitored to sce how such a heavy system 

behaved in space. Since docking with the Salyut the Cosmos had used its 

cngines twice to raise the orbit of the complex. (NY Ernes Oct 7/81, B-ll) 

Dtiring September: William E Lilly, named NASA comptroller in 1973 and 

the only person so far to hold that position, announced that he would retire 

in October after 37 years of service to the federal government, thc last 21 with 

NASA. (NASA Release 81-148; Sp anno Sept 22/81) 

--Isaac T. Gillam IV, director of DFRC since June 1978, would become 

special assistant to the NASA administrator October 1, detailed to the White 

House Office of Science and Technology Policy to participate in a spacepolicy review. (NASA Release 81-151; DFRC Release 81-30; NASA anno Scpt 

15/81) 

-Abraham D. Spinak, acting director of Wallops Flight Facility, would 

leave government service in December after nearly 33 years with NASA and 

NACA, its predecessor, which he joined in 1948. He had actually retired 

September 1, 1980, but stayed on to help in the consolidation with GSFC. 

(WFC Release 81-14) 

-Edwin C. Kilgore, associate administrator for management operations at 

Headquarters, would retire in October after 37 years of service with NASA 

and NACA. After graduation from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1944, he 

went to work at Langley, joined Headquarters in 1970, and was nanied deputy 

associate administrator for center operationas in 1974. As head of management 

operations, he had been in charge of agencywide institutional management. 

(NASA Release 81-139; LaRC Release 81-67) 

30 I 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1981 

-Ann P. Bradley, deputy associate administrator for management operations, who had been acting associate administrator ;and acting executive officer 

at NASA Headquarters pending the retirement of E.C. Kilgore, would return 

to her duties in management operations with the appointment of A.B. Virkler 

Legate to the office of the administrator as NASA's executive officer. Legate 

had been associate deputy undersecretary for inte:rgovernmental relations at 

the Department of Labor since February 1971: hc had previously been a congressional special assistant and executive secretary of DOT from 1969 to 1977. 

He had also been a congressional administrative assistant. (NASA Spl anno, 

Aug 28/81, Sept 21/81) 

302 
October 

October I: NASA appointed Maj. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, deputy chief 

of staff for systems at Air Force Systems Command headquarters, Andrews 

Air Force Base, as associate administrator for the Office of Space Transportation Systems. Abrahamson, former test pilot and manager of the development 

program for U.S. Air Force's F-16 fighter, would succeed John F. Yardley, who 

left NASA in May to become president of McDonnell Douglas Astronautics 

Corporation. 

In 1979, Abrahamson was one of five on a special panel selected by NASA 

to assess STS management; he began his job at Andrews in July 1980. He had 

been an astronaut in the Air Forces's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) 

program from August 1967 until the program was canceled in June 1969. He 

then served on the staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Council in the 

Executive Office of the President. A command pilot with more than 3,000 flying hours in jet and conventional fighter aircraft, he was promoted to major 

general May 1, 1978. (NASA Release 81-159; NASA anno Oct 2/81; NY Ernes, 

Oct 3/81, 15) 

October 2: Astronomers at three major U.S. observatories found a vast region 

of empty space so large that 2,000 galaxies the size of the Milky Way could 

fit into it. The void, about 400 million light years from Earths solar system, 

seemed to be growing as galaxies near its boundaries gravitated together. 

A survey of the large-scale structure of the universe by telescopes at Mt. 

Hopkins, Arizona, Kitt Peak, and Mt. Palomar showed enormous gaps in 

three directions near the constellation Bootes. The cosmological principle, 

basis of modern theories about the universe, assumed that distribution of matter and motion in all directions of space was homogeneous; the new finding 

would challenge that principle (W Post, Oct 2/81; NY Times, Oct 2/81, A-1) 

October 6: NASA launched a 90-pound solar mesosphere explorer from 

WSMC, Vandenberg Air Force Base, at 7:27 a.m. EDT on a two-stage Delta 

into a polar orbit at an altitude between 535 and 550 kilometers with 

95-minute period and 97.4" inclination. The satellite, carrying five sensors to 

monitor atmospheric constituents between 19 and 50 miles up, would study 

conversion of molecular oxygen to ozone, a layer protecting Earth against 

ultraviolet radiation and possibly being depleted by refrigerant 

chlorofluorocarbons. The University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric 

and Space Physics developed the instruments and would manage the mission 

under contract to JPL. 

Riding piggyback atop the Delta was a smaller craft built by amateur radio 

303 
ASTROKAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1981 

operators at the University of Surrey in England. Uosat (University of Surrey 

satellite) was ninth in a series of Oscar (orbiting satellite carrying amateur 

radio) satellites launched as a second payload on U.S. rockets. Using a voice 

synthesizer, it could broadcast ionosphere data to amateur receivers. (NASA 

Release 81-106; NASA MOR S-887-81-01 [prelaunch] Sept 17/81, [postlaunch] 

Oct 16/81; NY Times, Oct 7/81, B-11) 

ARC announced that John A. Manke, famed test pilot, would head a new 

directorate of flight rerearch after consolidation of ARC and DFRC, effective 

October 1. 

Manke, who made the first supersonic flight of a lifting body and the first 

landing of a lifting body on a hard-surface runway, had joined DFRC as a 

research engineer in 1962 and later became a research pilot, testing advanced 

designs like the wingless craft that were forerunners of the Shuttle. He was 

project pilot on the X-24B and also flew the M-2, HL-10, and X-24A lifting 

bodies. Most recently he had been director of flight operations and support 

at DFRC, where he would remain responsible for Ion-site management as well 

as for aircraft operations at both centers. (ARC Release 81-32) 

October 7: The Washington Post said that NASA was faced with cutting so 

much money from its budgets for the next three years that it was considering 

abandoning the Voyager, now on its way from Saturn to a flyby of Uranus in 

1986 and Neptune in 1989. 

Turning off Voyager’s radios would save $222 million (the amount needed 

to keep NASA scientists and engineers on the job and to operate the Deep 

Space Network antennas in California, Australia, and Spain) over the next 

eight years. OMB had ordered NASA to cut $3’67 million from its FY82 

budget and $1 billion each from FY83 and FY84. As NASA could not take 

money from the Space Shuttle, it would have to save money in other ways. 

It had already bowed out of an international misision to Halley’s comet and 

now must choose from among three other programs: the Galileo mission to 

Jupiter in 1987, the large Space Telescope to be orbited in 1985, or the Voyager 

trips to Uranus and Neptune. Killing both Voyager and Galileo would save 

about $520 million. The only other way for NASA to save a large amount of 

money would be an indefinite delay in building a fourth shuttle, the Discovery, 

estimated to cost $1.2 billion and due for delivery in 1985. (W Post, Oct 7/81, 

A-4) 

October 8: NASA postponed the second Shuttle launch to November 4 

because of tile damage caused by an oxidizer spill September 22. Tile replacement was “proceeding well,” and measures had been taken to prevent further 

spillage. 

Science magazine described the “minor problems” causing previous 

postponements: tests that took longer than expected and various handling 

mishaps. The Shuttle’s complexity would “resist attempts to operate with 

304 
OCTOBER 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

aircraft-like efficiency," the article said. NASA had already decided to trim 

its Shuttle flights by 30% over the next three years, from 44 missions to 28: 

it had less money to spend on flying its own satellites and science experiments, 

as it had to pay for Shuttle modifications and construction of more orbiters. 

The delicate instruments planned for the second flight had almost been 

delayed to a later mission by the discovery that pressures from the solid-fuel 

boosters against the KSC module launch pad could damage the experiments: 

the shock had been 2.4 pounds per square inch, not the expected 0.6, enough 

to buckle a strut supporting a fuel tank near the cabin. If the tank had been 

jarred enough to leak or malfunction, the first-flight crew would not have been 

able to orient the Shuttle properly for landing. NASA engineers devised a 

system of nylon water troughs to disperse the shock and redesigned the launch 

platform to allow jet watersprays to dissipate the pressure. (NASA Release 

81-160; WPost, Oct 9/81, A-15; Science, Oct 9/81, 160) 

October 20: NASA declared the mission of the stratospheric aerosol and gas 

experiment (SAGE) launched February 18, 1979, successful. SAGE, designed 

for a 1-year life in orbit, was the second of two small applications-explorer 

missions built to provide a global data base on ozone and aerosols in the 

atmosphere. 

Like its predecessor, the heat-capacity mapping mission (HCMM), the 

SAGE spacecraft was built by Boeing. It carried an instrument designed by 

LaRC that met or exceeded all design specifications, despite power-subsystem 

problems. Before battery capacity dropped in June 1979, SAGE had acquired 

96% of all possible events; since then, about 82%. 

SAGE obtained the first global measurements accurate within 1%, more 

than 12,000 between 78 "S and 78 "N, to define mass aerosol loading of the 

stratosphere and its seasonal variations. Worldwide ground-truth 

measurements validated the accuracy of its measurements from space of vertical profiles of aerosol extinction and of ozone and nitrogen dioxide 

concentration. 

SAGE also detected and tracked at least five volcanic-eruption plumes that 

had penetrated the stratosphere, one every six months: La Soufriere in May 

1979, Sierra Negra in November 1979, Mt. St. Helens in May 1980, Ulawun 

in October 1980, and Aloid in May 1981. The volcanic data were the first clear 

instance of gas-to-particle conversion in the stratosphere and of using volcanic 

aerosols to track global circulation. (NASA MOR E-659-79-01 [postlaunch] 

Oct 20/81) 

October 22: NASA said that the third shuttle flight, now scheduled after 

January 1982, would carry the first biology experiment specifically designed 

for the Shuttle: the effect of gravity on formation in plants of lignin, the woody 

substance giving plants structural stability. Monitoring growth in the 

microgravity environment of space should show how wood is formed. The 

plants should grow upward in response to the presence of artificial sunlight, 

305 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1981 

but root development was unpredictable. (NASA Release 81-166; ARC Release 

81-56) 

October 27: NASA consideration of a “mixed fleet” to augment Shuttle missions by using an unmanned vehicle developed froin recoverable shuttle components led to issuance in September by MSFC of a request for proposals asking for definition of such a vehicle, to be called !SRB-X. Boeing Aerospace 

and Martin Marietta Aerospace were the two contractors responding. MSFC 

had management responsibility for the SRB-X study because it had been in 

charge, of Shuttle propulsion and was the lead center for design, development, 

and testing of all NASA propulsion systems. (MSFC Release 81-135) 

October 28: NASA announced that it would shut down on December 1 its 

three 26-meter (85-foot) tracking antennas operated by the Deep Space Network at Canberra (Australia), Madrid (Spain), arid Goldstone (California), 

because of reductions in the agency’s budget. The stations would operate the 

64-meter (210-foot) and 34-meter (112-foot) deep-spice antennas as in the past. 

Loss of the 26-meter antennas would mean a 30% reduction in tracking and 

data-acquisition and support for NASA’s planetary spacecraft: the network 

was currently supporting Voyuger I and byuger 2, Helios 1: the Viking I 

lander on Mars, and Pioneers 6 through 12. 

Shutting down the three antennas would save about $7.2 million per year, 

beginning in FY83; termination would eliminate 110 positions, 51 in Spain, 26 

in Australia, and 33 at Goldstone. The stations in Spain and Australia were 

operated by government agencies of those countries, which would reduce staff 

by rcassignment and attrition; the Goldstone station was operated by Bendix 

Field Engineering Corporation, which would also reduce staff by reassignment and attrition. JPL managed the Deep Space Network for NASA’s Office 

of Space Tracking and Data Systems. (NASA Release 81-171) 

306 
November 

November 1-12: NASA reported that its $2 million quick-fix shock-prevention 

water system was hooked up November 1 during a countdown “notable for its 

smoothness,” the Washington Post said. Designed hastily over the past five 

months, the shock-absorber system would flush 400,000 gallons of water in 

35 seconds into the Shuttle’s exhaust. Food for the journey was loaded aboard 

the spacecraft, and the next task would be loading chemicals for the ship’s 

electric and environmental systems. 

Liftoff had been scheduled for 7:30 a.m. EDT on November 4, but officials 

called off the countdown at 9:35 a.m., when rising oil pressures in the Shuttle’s power generators, apparently caused by waxy contaminants. threatened 

to impair control of the hydraulic system that moved aerodynamic surfaces, 

such as the elevons, landing gear, and rudder and body flaps, and swiveled 

the nozzles on the Shuttle’s three main rocket engines. L. Michael Weeks, acting associate addnistrator for STS, said that the engineers would have to 

analyze the trouble, correct it, and lay out a plan for resuming countdown; 

the delay would be “approximately one week.” 

NASA was considering two courses of action: changing the oil and the 

filters in the auxiliary power units or replacing them with backup units. 

Engineers at KSC or JSC were not sure which course would take longer; 

neither, however, would mean hauling Columbia with its attached fuel tank 

and booster rockets back from the launch pad into the processing hangar for 

reworking. 

The launch team had noticed the lubrication problem while the countdown 

was halted to grapple with other problems. Pressure in the liquid-oxygen 

chamber of the external tank had dropped below the limit for launch, and a 

similar glitch occurred in three smaller tanks feeding the electricity-producing 

fuel cells inside the Shuttle. Flight controllers decided that they could live 

with the pressure drops and instructed the control computers to ignore the 

warning signals. Two of the computers accepted the instruction but “logic got 

hung up in the system” leading to the third computer, which stopped the clock 

governing countdown at T minus 31 seconds. This was the point at which Columbia’s on-board computers were supposed to take over control of all remaining steps in the countdown, but-having detected a problem-they refused to 

continue. 

Controllers at the Cape and at mission control in Houston called up data 

displays to locate the trouble, and Shuttle operations director George F. Page 

finally announced that there would be no launch. Astronauts Col. Joe H. 

Engle and Capt. Richard H. Truly, who emerged from the Shuttle about an 

307 c-4 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS NOVEMBEK 1951 

hour after the launch was scrubbed, seemed to takge the delay “in stride.“ the 

New York Times said. 

What persuaded controllers to call off the launch was the finding that oil 

pressure for two of the units had stabilized at 100 pounds per square inch, 

about 40 over normal. Neil B. Hutchinson, a flight director at JSC, said that 

contaminants in the oil had previously clogged Shuttle filters, which resembled the oil filter in an automobile. However, replacing a filter along with the 

lubricant it was supposed to keep clean would take far more time than in an 

automobile. If thc auxiliary power units now in the Shuttle were to be used. 

technicians would have to drain the present oil, change filters, and flush the 

system before the flight could proceed. This had never been done on the 

launch pad; engineers would have to go ahead wilhout knowing hvw long it 

would take. NASA spokesman Charles Redmond iioted that General Motors 

found out about such problems “at the proving grounds, behind high screens: 

while we’re doing it in public.” 

Either changing filters and lubricant or completely replacing the two power 

units would be time-consuming because the units deep inside the ship would 

be difficult to reach. The power-unit fuel hydrazine, suspected of gumming 

up the works by interacting with the lubricating oil, was highly toxic, and the 

location of the power units would have to be purged with nitrogen. The 

nitrogen, which also could be fatal, would have to be purged in its turn. 

The next procedure was the flushing and reservicing of the auxiliary powerunit (APU) gearboxes and installation of new filters. Tests to see what would 

happen if the APU was operated with a clogged filter (using the oil and filter 

removed from Columbia) showed that the filter would clear after about 10 

minutes of operation, as the temperature increased. Launch was reset for 

November 12. 

A second countdown to launch November 12 was delayed 2 hours and 40 

minutes by trouble in the cockpit electronics. Engineers discovered November 

11 that a 15-pound device, called multiplexer-demu1i:iplexer (MUXIDEMUX), 

that collected information from all over the spacecraft about its condition to 

display both on video terminals for the astronauts and on the ground for 

analysis by engineers, was not working properly; it was quickly replaced with 

a substitute that did not work as well as the original. Officials sent for two 

of the instruments from the Challenger orbiter, still unfinished at Rockwell’s 

Palmdale plant, to be flown to KSC and installed on Columbia. One went into 

Columbia’s cockpit: the other would be carried as a spare. Countdown was 

at a built-in hold designed for emergencies such as the one that had occurred: 

it would resume early November 12 with the loading of 3-million gallons of 

supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel into the external tank, delaying 

launch until at least IO a.m. The latest delays would cost NASA more than 

$26 million; every day of delay, including the eight in this last series, cost $3 

million. The MUXiDEMUX delay cost an extra $2 million from handling, 

overtime, travel costs, and additional launch and landing tracking report. 

Launch of the second mission finally occurred at 1O:lO a.m. EST November 

308 
NOVEMBER 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

12. About 2% hours into the mission, during the third orbit, fuel cell one 

showed a voltage drop; by the sixth orbit, it was so erratic that the astronauts 

were told to turn it off and use one of the other two. The faulty cell failed when 

one of the lines feeding hydrogen into it caused a water buildup that spilled 

onto an electrically charged manifold, breaking down the water into a potentially explosive mixture of gaseous hydrogen and oxygen. The failure took 

flight directors by surprise, as the cells had been used in 25 manned U.S. 

spacecraft since 1965 and had never before failed in flight. Hutchinson noted 

that “the good thing about this” was that the Shuttle could sustain a fuel-cell 

failure and continue operations. At 10 p.m. November 12, one of the standby 

cells was producing 7.5 kilowatts of electricity, and the other, 8.5, enough to 

do nearly everything except run all five instruments while the Shuttle arm was 

in operation. If the two good cells continued satisfactory, the flight would proceed as scheduled and return November 16 to Edwards Air Force Base in 

California; if either showed signs of weakening, the crew would return 

November 13 or 14. (WPust, Nov 2/81, A-3; Nov 6/81, A-9; Nov 13/81, A-1; 

NY fimes, Nov 5/81, A-1; NASA MOR M-989-81-02 [postlaunch] Dec 17/81) 

November 13-15: President Reagan became the first incumbent chief executive to visit JSC’s mission-control center during a flight, when he came on 

the second day of STS-2’s flight to sit in the capsule communicator chair and 

talk briefly to the astronauts. After his conversation, the president had a short 

talk with the Engle and Truly families and left for a dinner in Houston. Two 

days later, November 15, JSC played host to Vice President Bush at breakfast 

with the STS-I and STS-2 crews at the recreation ccnter. This was the first 

back-to-back visit to JSC of the two highest U.S. officials. 

The New York Times said that workers were already ahead of schedule 

November 13 in a 3- to 4-week cleanup of the launch compound at Cape 

Canaveral. A shock-absorber water-trough system worked “better than expected,” said Merrill Oakley, design engineer on the launch pad, cutting 

shockwaves to a fifth of the first launch’s intensity. After a washdown and 

system checks, Oakley said all that remained was replacement of some bricks 

that blew out of a flame trench and painting. 

The STS-2 crew flew to Ellington Air Force Base, in Texas shortly after landing the Columbia at Edwards Air Force Base ending “a troubled but scientifically rewarding 54-hour mission,” the New York Times said. Welcomed on 

their 9:50 p.m. arrival in Texas by about 400 JSC employees, the astronauts 

breakfasted the next morning with Bush, JSC director Chris Kraft, and the 

first shuttle crewmen John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen among the 23 

guests. Although Bush said “the people here at the NASA complex are a national treasure,” he said that he could not promise any easing of budgzt constraints on the agency. 

Preparations were already under way for the third shuttle flight, now 

scheduled for March 1982. Damage to the launch pad from the second mission was “minimal and superficial,” Oakley said. (Public Papers of the Presi309 
ASTRONAUTICS AND 4ERONAUTICS NOVFMHI‘R IY81 

dent; WPost, Nov 14/81, A-7; NY Titnes, Nov 15/81. 35; Nov 16/81. A-1, A-19; 

JSC Sp NRdC Nov 20181, 1) 

November 20: NASA launched RCA Sutconi 4 from the ESMC on a Delta at 

8:37 p.m. EST into a transfer orbit with 19,356-kilometer apogee: 

100-kilometer perigee, and 25.5 O inclination. The (objective of the commercial 

communications satellite was to transmit video programs to cable television 

(CATV) systems throughout the United States. Th- 500-kilogram box-shaped 

craft, fourth in a series of large 24-transponder communications satellites, 

managed by a subsidiary of RCA, carried a payload-assist module (PAM) to 

put it into geosynchronous orbit at 132 “W, joining three other RCA satellites 

providing television, voice, and high-speed data to all 50 states and Puerto 

Rico. More than 4,000 Earth stations had direct access to these spacecraft. 

GSFC had project-management responsibility for the launch vehicle; RCA 

Americom, which managed the Satcom program, including spacecraft acquisition and tracking, telemetry, and command systcms, would reimburse 

NASA $22 million for the launch and launch support. (NASA Release 81-172; 

NASA MOR 0-492-206-81-04 [prelaunch] Nov 18/81, [postlaunch] Jan 27/82) 

NASA announced that it had completed plans for the reorganization of its 

Office of Space Science and Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications into 

a new Office of Space Science and Applications tl:) take over responsibilities 

of the former offices, except for the technology utilization program, which 

would go to the govcrnment and industry affairs division of the Office of External Relations. 

Andrew J. Stofan, formerly acting associate administrator for space science, 

would be acting associate administrator of the new group; Samuel W. Keller, 

formerly deputy associate adminstrator for space and terrestrial applications, 

would be deputy associate administrator. (NASA Release 81-182) 

Science magazine said that Congress was in a “stir“ because the administration planned to let a U.S. company sell materi,als for an advanced communications satellite to an Arab consortium that included the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). 

Ford Aerospace would sell satellite parts to the French firm Aerospatiale, 

which was under contract to build three communications satellites for a group 

called Arabsat, composed of 22 governments, among them Libya, Syria, 

South Yemen, and the PLO. Libya has been “an avowed enemy” of the United 

States. The $135 million contract would cover satellites similar to but less 

sophisticated than the one Ford Aerospace was building for global communications system INTELSAT: Arabsat would offir-r 8,000 simultaneous twoway telephone conversations and one television channel. These services would 

cost less if bought directly from INTELSAT, but the Arab group apparently 

preferred to operate its own system. 

The matter came up November 3 during hearings before the Senatc Foreign 

310 
NOVEMBER 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAlJTlCS 

Affairs Committee, when Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said that 

he knew nothing about the deal; the next day, Secretary of State Alexander 

Haig also said that he knew nothing about it. The Arms Export Control Act 

required State Department approval of exports of high-tech items, even those 

having no direct military application. (Science, Nov 20/81, 891) 

NASA reported that it would join a sounding-rocket program with Canada's 

National Research Council to study a cleft or wedge-shaped opening over the 

Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) in Earth's magnetic field. From November 25 

to December 21, researchers would launch five rockets carrying experiments 

into the cleft region to record effects ranging from disrupted communications 

to pipeline corrosion and long-term weather patterns. Ground-station equipment would be installed at the launch site, Cape Parry, N.W.T., and at Sachs 

Harbor about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north. 

Data from the project, called CENTAUR (cleft energetics, transport, and 

ultraviolet radiation), would define mechanisms causing particle acceleration 

in the cleft and would aid in studying ion flow, auroral arcs, and plasma instabilities. WFC would manage launch and tracking and acquisition of experiment data. (NASA Release 81-180; WFC Release 81-18) 

DFRC said that it was readying Shuttle orbiter Columbia for its return to 

KSC on its Boeing 747 carrier plane. DFRC was deservicing the orbiter after 

its 54-hour second flight, draining liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuels, removing pyrotechnic devices, and purging toxic chemical and fuel cells used in the 

propulsion systems. DFRC would attach a tailcone to the orbiter covering its 

three main engines and two orbital-maneuvering engines. 

The ferry flight would take two days, with a refueling and overnight stop 

at Bergstrom Air Force Base near Austin, Texas, or Dyess Air Force Base 

near Abilene. Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, manager of the orbital flight tests, 

would accompany Columbia back to KSC. (NASA Release 81-181; ARC 

Release 81-34) 

The Soviet Union launched India's satellite Bhaskuru 2 into an orbit with 

557-kilometer apogee, 514-kilorneJer perigee, 95.2-minute period, and 50.7 ' 

inclination. It carried television and microwave radiometers to study Earth's 

natural resources. Tass said that India and USSR stations were receiving data. 

(FBIS, Tass in English, Nov 20/81) 

November 27: Newsreview, published by the Air Force Systems Command, 

told of a special "bake job" done for NASA by Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., 

in its Civil Engineering Squadron's fabrication-branch shop. Ovens there, normally used to harden, soften, or anneal metals, were large enough to treat 75 

to 80 thermal tiles from Shuttle orbiter Columbia damaged by a nitrogen 

tetroxide spill. The heat treatment at 1,100-1,400"F took about 16 hours to 

311 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBEK 1951 

burn off contaminant and bonding material. Checking for toxic vapors caused 

by the heat disclosed none. (AFSC Newsreview, Nov 27/81, 8) 

During November: Administrator James M. Eleggs appointed Philip E. 

Culbertson associate deputy administrator with revised duties, serving as 

senior staff adviser and directing formulation of NASA policy, strategy, and 

planning of a facility to constitute permanent U.S. presence in space. Culbertson had served for two years as assistant for space transportation systems. 

-Robert F. Allnutt, associate deputy administrator since mid-1978, would 

assume new duties as deputy general counsel for policy review, studying the 

long-term development of NASA and its relationship to other federal agencies 

as well as contractual arrangements with future users of the Space Shuttle. 

(NASA anno, Nov 18/81; NASA Release 81-178, 81-179) 

-NASA named C. Thomas Newman comptroller to succeed Wiliam E. Lilly, who retired in October. Thomas F. Campbell would replace Newman as 

deputy comptroller. (NASA anno Nov 25/81) 

-Frank J. Malina, cofounder of JPL and of thi: Aerojet General Corporation, died November 9 at his home in Paris. He had moved there to work with 

the United Nations Educational ~ Scientific and Cultural Organization 

(UNESCO) after retiring in 1947 as an officer of Aeroject and JPL. He had 

worked for Theodore von Karmann as a researcher for Guggenheim 

Aeronautical Laboratory, CalTech, leading to creetion of the CalTech rocketresearch project in 1936 that later became JPL, which made the first successful U.S. satellites in the 1950s. 

-William Pickering, who followed Malina as JPL director from 1954 to 

1976, said that inventionslhat made present-day rockets possible went back to 

work done at JPL under Malina. A leader in developing jet-assisted takeoff 

(JATO) rockets used in World War I1 and co-developer of the WAC Corporal, 

first U.S. successul stratosphere rocket, Malina had in 1942 joined von Karmann to form Aerojet General, first U.S. manufacturer of rocket engines. He 

left UNESCO in 1953 to start a studio as a graphic artist, working in a form 

he invented called “kinetic art.” (LA fimes, Nov 11/81; LA Stur News, Nov 

11/81) 
December 

December 1: NASA said that it had picked Jack R. Lousma and C. Gordon 

Fullerton as commander and pilot for the third flight of Shuttle orbiter Columbia. The backup crew would be Thomas K. Mattingly I1 and Henry W. 

Hartsfield, Jr. 

Lousma, a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was mission pilot on Skylah 

3, logging more than 1,427 hours in space as he and his crew accomplished 

150% of their assigned goals. Fullerton, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, 

piloted the Shuttle Enterprise on its first, third, and fifth flights in the 

approach-and-landing tests in 1977. The third Columbia flight, a seven-day 

and three hour mission of 116 orbits set for March 1982, would carry a payload 

(OSS-1) developed by NASA's Office of Space Scinece and would further test 

the remote manipulator arm for inserting future payloads into space. (NASA 

Release 81-187) 

December 4: ESA handed over to NASA in Bremen the first flight unit of 

Spacelab, built for use on the shuttle. Just a year after delivery of the engineering model, NASA received all the systems-first main components of standard 

equipment, platforms, ground facilities, and spare parts-to be used on the 

first Spacelab flight September 1983. It would transfer to NASA in May 1982 

experiments for the first Spacelab payload. 

An industrial consortium with ERN0 as prime contractor had carried out 

development since January 1980. The contract, worth 301.3 million 

deutschmarks (DM) at 1980 levels, had increased to 380 million DM at 1981 

levels. NASA would receive the componcnts of a second Spacelab flight unit, 

ordered throughout ESA to be identical with the first, in 15 batches, starting 

in 1982. (ESA Info 28; NASA Release 81-193; MSFC Relcase 81-145) 

December 7: NASA's Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications (OSTA) 

announced its selection of 9 experimental and 10 theoretical teams to participate in the upper-atmosphere research satellite (UARS) program designed 

to provide data on energy input, chemical composition, and dynamics of 

Earth's stratosphere and mesosphere. Interest in this area had increased with 

the realization of potential damage to the ozone layer from high-flying aircraft 

and from chemicals in aerosol sprays, refrigeration, air-conditioning, and 

foam-blowing operations. 

The experimental teams would develop instruments for direct measurement 

of upper-atmosphere winds, solar-ultraviolet radiation, energetic-particle interaction with the upper atmosphere, and variation of chemical content with 

altitude. Theoretical teams would develop upper-atmosphere models to be us313 
ASTKC)NALITICS AKD AERONAUTICS DECE.MBER 1981 

ed with new acquired data for assessing the impact of man’s activities on the 

delicate processes in the stratosphere and for improving understanding of’ 

upper-atmosphere chemistry and dynamics. (NASA Relcase 81-190) 

December 8: MSFC said that the Spacelab 1 payload crew was in Japan for 

a week, practicing the use of instruments scheduled to fly on the first mission 

in 1983. A NASA-sponsored package, SEPAC (space experiments with particle accelerators), would study the interaction of Earth’s magnetosphere with 

the upper atmosphere. Professor Tatsuzo Obayashi of the University of Tokyo 

would be the principal investigator. 

Before leaving Japan December 15, the crew would be trained on the actual 

flight hardware at Japan’s National Space Development Agency. The crewcivilian scientists called payload specialists and two NASA mission-specialist 

astronauts-were Drs. Byron Lichtenberg and Micihael Lampton of the United 

States, Dr. Ulf Merbold of West Germany, I>r. Wubbo Ockels of the 

Netherlands, and NASA mission specialists Drs. Owen Garriott and Robert 

Parker. Two payload specialists would actually fly on the mission with the 

mission specialists; the other two would support the mission on the ground. 

(MSFC Release 81-146) 

-NASA said that one of Japan’s major newspapers, Asahi Shibmun, had 

signed an agreement to fly a “getaway special” experiment on the Shuttle, 

possibly in late 1982, using the weightlessness of space to make pure artificial 

snow crystals directly from a gaseous substance while the Shuttle was in orbit. 

A Japanese physicist, the late Dr. Ukichiro Nakaya, had made the first artificial snow-crystal experiments in 1936. The Shuttle experiment, a first try 

at creating artificial snow in a weightless environment, would contribute 

significantly to crystallography, especially growth of semiconductor crystals 

or other items from a vapor source. The idea, suggested by two Japanese 

students, was choscn for 17,000 suggestions by the newspaper’s readers. 

To date NASA had accepted 321 getaway specials-privately funded experimental payloads-for flight on the Shuttle on a space-available basis, 

beginning with the fifth mission in 1982. (NASA Release 81-191) 

December 10: ARC reported the first NASA-piloted test flight of its “flying 

research facility,” a helicopter-type aircraft equipped with fixed wings and jct 

engines, over San Francisco Bay at speeds of up to 120 knots (138 mph) for 

45 minutes. Warren Hall of ARC piloted the flight; copilot was Lt. Col. Bob 

Merrill, deputy director of U.S. Army flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base. 

Designed for studying advanced rotor systems in actual flight, the craft had 

the highly reliable type of rotor used on presidential helicopters. The wings 

and engines provided the lift needed in studying rotors too small to support 

the research aircraft alone. A second rotor-systems research aircraft (RSRA) 

had been flown at ARC in the basic-helicopter configuration. 

Located at ARC, the two aircraft constituted a national facility for in-flight 

verification of rotor-system technology; they could bc flown as helicopters or 
DECEMBER 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

equipped with the fixed wings and auxiliary jet engines to enhance test 

capability. The two craft, built by the Sikorsky Division of United 

Technologies for LaRC and the Army’s technology lab at Moffett Field, 

California, were transferred to ARC in 1979 for the joint NASA-Army research 

program. (ARC Release 81-67; NASA Release 81-194) 

MSFC reported a milestone in the development of the Space Telescope. 

Perkin-Elmer Corporation, contractor for design and production of the optical 

asembly, finished putting an aluminum coating 3 millionths of an inch thick 

on the 94-inch primary mirror, an 1,800-pound polished glass blank. 

Engineers from the firm and from MSFC verified that the coating adhered to 

the mirror and exhibited the proper reflectivity. The telescope would use two 

mirrors to focus light from stellar objects onto a group of instruments at the 

rear of the telescope assembly. Launched from the Shuttle into Earth orbit in 

the mid-l980s, the Space Telescope should allow astronomers to see seven 

times deeper into space than is now possible with ground-based telescopes. 

(MSFC Releae 81-148) 

NASA declared the mission of byager 1 and byager 2 successful. Launched September 5 and August 20, 1977, each of the spacecraft had traveled more 

than 2.4 billion kilometers during the past four years and had conducted scientific investigations at seven major bodies of the solar system. They had made 

comparative studies of the Jupiter and Saturn systems, including their 

satellites, rings, and fields and particles environments. They had also 

measured characteristics of the interplanetary medium from Earth to Saturn. 

Achievements included: 

-acquiring more than 62,000 images from the outer solar system 

-discovering rings around Jupiter and unusual braiding, spokes, ringlets, 

and shepherding satellites in the rings of Saturn; new satellites of Jupiter and 

Saturn;’lightning on Jupiter; eight active volcanoes on Io; and new sources 

of radio emissions in the Jupiter and Saturn systems 

-measuring atmospheric composition, temperature, pressure, and 

dynamics, magnetospheres; and particle environments of Jupiter, Saturn, and 

Titan. (NASA MOR S-802-77-01/02 [postlaunch] Dec lO/Sl) 

December 14: NASA issued a final report on investigation of the leak of 

nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer at KSC September 22. A four-person committee 

chaired by KSC’s Wiley Williams said that the cause of the leak was failure 

of a quick-disconnect fitting in which iron nitrate from the oxidizer had accumulated between interior components, allowing escape to the outside. 

Between 15 and 20 gallons of oxidizer escaped, some diverted away from 

the orbiter surface by a catch system, but “a significant quanity” flowed over 

the outside of the orbiter and its thermal-protection system. About 370 tiles 

315 
ASTRONAllTlCS AND AERONAUIICS DECEMBER 1981 

had to be removed. Oxidizer also got into the forward module of the reactioncontrol system, damaging thermal blankets and electrical wiring. 

Close tolerance in the interior components, allowing the binding to take 

place, was a design failure point unrecognized before the accident. As the 

same fittings would be used for the second Shuttle launch, the committee 

recommended taking several stcps before loading hypergolic propellant again: 

-adding more values to the system to permit isolation of the quickdisconnect fittings 

-modifying the catch system and adding protective aprons to guard against 

a large leak 

-changing procedures to eliminate use of the quick-disconnect fitting as a 

shutoff valve 

-expanding emergency procedures and conditiioning the servicing team to 

expect similar failures 

-sealing possible entry paths into the orbiter during loading, or purging internal compartments with inert gaseous nitrogen. 

Although the committee limited its investigation to this one incident. it 

rccornmended review of its report to identify other fluids used around the orbiter that could cause damage if spilled. (NASA Release 81-73) 

Decetnber 15: NASA launched lntelsut 5-C F3 from ESMC at 6:35 p.m. EST 

on an Atlas-Centaur into a highly elliptical transfer orbit with 

35,953-kilometer apogee, 165.8-kilometer perigee, and 23.7' inclination. Firing of the apogee motor by INTELSAT would put it in geostationary orbit at 

15 "E for tests by Telespazio at Fucino, Italy. It would later become the primary 

Atlantic communications satellite at 335.SoE, replacing Intelscif 5 Ff, which 

would move to an Indian Ocean location at 62 "E 1.0 begin service next March 

after launch of another communications satellite as a spare. 

The two-ton F3, capable of 12,000 simultaneous telephone conversations 

plus two international color television channels, was third of the 5 and SA 

series of 15 communications satellites planned by INTELSAT to handle international communications, such as telephone, telegrams, telex, data, and 

television. (NASA MOR 0-491-203-81-03 [prelaunch] Dec 1/81, [postlaunch] 

Jan 9/82: NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Dec 16/81; Spcicewurn, Dec 29/81; INTELSAT 

Releases 81-271, 81-32-1; AID, Dec 22/81, 268) 

December- 20: ESA launched Marecs-A, first European maritime communications satellite, from Kourou in French Guiana at l:29 a.m. GMT on 

the fourth Ariane booster into a highly elliptical orbit with 35,820-kilometer 

apogee, 220-kilometer perigee, 632-minute period, and 10.5 " inclination, 

preparatory to a boost into geosynchronous orbit at 26"W. The Ariane also 

carried a technological capsule (CAT 4) enclosing an experiment called 

Thesee (Theseus) that would remain in the original orbit. 

The European Space Operations Center (ESOC) would test Morecs before 

handing it over to INMARSAT, which would lease its communications capaci316 
DECEMBER 1981 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ty over the Atlantic Ocean. A Marecs-B spacecraft was being readied for 

launch in April 1982 for TNMARSAT use over the Pacific Ocean. (ESA Infos 

29, 31, 32, [81], 1 [82]) 

December 22: NASA said that its joint sounding-rocket project with Canada’s 

National Research Council [see November 201 was successful. William A, 

Brence of WFC said that preliminary results were satisfactory. Data from the 

seven experiments launched on five large suborbital rockets from temporary 

facilities at a radar site on the Arctic coast would, in combination with 

ground-based observations, enlarge understanding of the dynamics of the cleft 

in Earth’s magnetic field. (WFC Release 81-20) 

During December: NASA announced the appointment of Dr. Walter B. 

Olstad, deputy associate administrator for management to direct all matters 

such as personnel, supply and equipment, facilities, computer support, and 

the like. He would succeed Edwin C. Kilgore, who retired October 2. C. 

Robert Nysmith would replace Olstad in an acting capacity. Both appointments were effective immediately. 

The Office of Management was created in the NASA reorganization plan 

effective in Novembei to perform some of the functions previously under the 

Office of Management Operations and some previously under the NASA 

comptroller. 

Olstad began his association with the agency in 1954, working at the 

Langley laboratory as a research engineer in the transonic tunnel branch, then 

in the reentry physics branch. He became ehicf of LaRC’s space systems division in July 1975. He went to Headquarters in 1979 as deputy associate administrator for OAST. (NASA anno Dec 14/81; NASA Release 81-195) 

317 

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1982 

January 

January 6: Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) reported testing the thermal 

performance of a helium cooling system to be used on the large infrared 

telescope experiment planned for flight on Spacelab 2 in 1984. For the MSFCmanaged experiment to work, the cooling system must keep the infrared 

detectors at a supercold temperature. The liquid-helium coolant stored'during 

the mission in a 250-liter container would vaporize as withdrawn to circulate 

through telescope channels and keep the instrument near absolute zero, coldest possible temperature, at which all molecular action stops. One objective 

of the tests was to see how long the system could store the cold liquid; the 

container would be filled one or two weeks before launch, then undergo a 

seven-day mission. Tests would continue until March. (MSFC Release 82-2) 

January 8: NASA said that it was relocating the Applications Technology 

Satellite (ATS) A7S I from its station at 149 W to a new position about 50 farther west, at 162"E. Maintaining orbit position in its present location required 

maximum use of its thrusters; moving to the new station would put ATS 1 into 

a more stable position and substantially reduce the stationkeeping power 

requirement. 

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) had considered several options to 

conserve on-board fuel supplies, which had been estimated adequate until 

mid-1982.The new location should prolong stationkeeping through 1983 and 

reduce the need for center contract from biweekly to quarterly. (NASA 

Release 82-4) 

January 15: NASA launched RCA-C from the Eastern Space and Missile 

Center (ESMC) at 8:55 p.m. on a Delta into a transfer orbit with 

36,116-kilometer apogee, 182-kilometer perigee, and 27.5 inclination, from 

which it would assume a geosynchronous station at 83 W. Called Sutcom 4 

in orbit, the 2,385-pound craft with a 10-year design life carried 24 

transponders, each able to handle an FM/color television transmission. 

(NASA Release 82-3; NASA MOR 0-492-206-82-05 [prelaunch] Jan 11/82, 

[postlaunch] May 13/82; NASA wkly SSR, Jan 14-20/82; D/SD, Jan 19/81, 83) 

MSFC shipped the induced environment-contamination monitor back to 

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) after servicing it in preparation for the third 

Shuttle flight. The desk-sized detector consisted of 10 instruments to check the 

environment in and around the Shuttle cargo bay for contaminants that might 

damage or interfere with sensitive equipment. The monitor would play a dual 

role on the next mission: besides carrying out its normal functions, the 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1982 

1,000-pound package would serve as a load to exercise the remote-manipulator 

arm. All instruments on the monitor operated successfully in its first flight on 

the second Shuttle mission; data collected then were still being analyzed. 

(MSFC Release 82-7) 

-A month-long analysis of the data produced by the monitor on the second 

Shuttle flight clearly identified every contaminal:ion-producing activity (such 

as thrust firings and water dumps). On future missions, the monitor could differentiate contamination from other sources. It recorded low humidity in, and 

successful sealing of, the cargo bay from engine lyproducts during ascent and 

descent; few particles of matter larger than five micrometers, but a number 

of smaller particles well above expectations; a 90% reduction of water 

molecules and other early-mission contaminants after about 35 hours in orbit; 

and a temporary cloud of particles from using the attitude-control system or 

from dumping of water. Project scientist Edgar Miller of MSFC said that, 

when the orbiter flew with the cargo bay pointing ahead, molecular readout 

was high because orbiter-generated particles werl: deflected back into the bay; 

action would be taken to keep this from happening while using sensitive 

instruments. 

The third Shuttle flight, planned for seven-days, would test the monitor in 

high temperatures from the planned solar orientation of the cargo bay, compared to the mild levels produced by the Earth or-ientation of the second flight. 

The remote manipulator would move the monitor to selected points for 

readout during the flight. (MSFC Release 82-14; NASA Release 82-13) 

January 19: MSFC said that it had shipped the external tank for the fourth 

Shuttle mission from Michoud Assembly Facility on the NASA barge Orion 

for a five-day trip to KSC. The fourth launch was set for mid-1982. (MSFC 

Release 82-12) 

-MSFC reported shipment of the monodisperse latex reactor, an experiment “with major medical and industrial applications,” to KSC for flight on 

the third Shuttle mission. Dale Kornfeld of MSFC’s space sciences laboratory 

said that the instrument would produce identical-sized microspheres of 

polystyrene latex, resembling tiny beads, to measure the size of intestinal 

pores for cancer research and of pores in the eye for glaucoma research and 

to act as a carrier of drugs and radioactive isotopes for treatment of cancerous 

tumors. On Earth, the beads could be produced only up to about 3 microns 

in size; the low gravity of space would permit them to “grow” up to 20 

microns while remaining identical. The National Bureau of Standards had indicated interest in using the beads to calibrate medical and scientific equipment. (MSFC Release 82-9) 

January 20: Ames Research Center (ARC) released new findings about Venus 

from 30 experiments of the Pioneer Venus missions and reported that the orbiter was still returning daily information. The data were available only now 

322 
JANUARY 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

because of the complexity of the missions and the large amounts of data 

returned, combined with the value of comparisons with Soviet data on Venus. 

The new data included evidence for two major currently active volcanic 

areas on Venus; findings that Venus had a thicker crust than Earth and was 

a “one-plate’’ planet with little plate-tectonic movement; and models of the 

Venus cloud system and greenhouse effect that were complete and consistent. 

The research also found strong new evidence of former Venus oceans on the 

scale of Earth‘s. Data indicated that the Earth would become “a virtual Venus 

if you stopped its rotation, removed the moon, and moved [it] slightly closer 

to the sun.” Although Venus’s atmosphere and environment might have been 

Earthlike during the solar system’s early history, evidence of the lost oceans 

remained only in the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen (100 times as much 

deuterium relative to hydrogen on Venus as on Earth). Earlier, abundant water 

could have sustained life; the greenhouse effect “wiped out most existing 

phenomena” on Venus, replacing them with the current furnace-like environment. (ARC Release 82-1; NASA Release 82-9) 

January 21: MSFC reported a joint-endeavor agreement signed by NASA’s Office of Space Sciences and GTI Corporation of San Diego that might lead to 

flight of a GTI materials-processing device on four future Shuttle flights. The 

agreement was a new NASA approach to government-industry partnerships in 

developing future applications or technologies for space-flown devices. The 

agreement would have three phases: design by GTI of a low-cost multichamber 

alloy-solidification furnace operable in low-gravity space; development, 

testing, and integrating the GTI furnace into the Shuttle; and flight on the 

Shuttle. 

GTI’s interest was in the manufacturing in microgravity of space alloys that 

would not be immiscible on Earth, where many theoretical alloys were not 

possible because of the density variations of the elements and the effect of 

gravity on the heavier elements. GTI would fund development and testing; 

NASA, the integration and flight. (MSFC Release 82-13; NASA Release 

82-10) 

Dr. Wubbo Ockels of the Netherlands and Dr. Ulf Merbold of West Germany, the Spacelab payload specialists representing the European Space 

Agency (ESA), had arrived at MSFC to complete training for the first 

Spacelab flight set for September 1983, a seven-day joint US.-ESA mission 

to carry out 70 investigations in five different disciplines. Of the four payload 

specialists in training, one American and one European would actually go into 

space; the other two would provide ground support to those in orbit. (MSFC 

Release 82-11) 

Marine Col. Jack Lousma and Air Force Col. C. Gordon Fullerton, the 

astronauts scheduled to fly the third Shuttle mission, told a news conference 

in Houston that the flight was now set for March 22. A major objective of the 

323 
ASTRONAUTlCS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1982 

mission would be to see how well the Shuttle sy,stems withstood the extreme 

heat and cold of space. Sections of the ship exposed to the Sun would experience temperatures up to 250°F; sections in shadow, down to -250°F. The 

Shuttle would also be subjected to slightly higher dynamic pressures during 

launch and landing, to gain additional knowledge about its flight 

characteristics and limits. (W Post, Jan 22/81, Pi-16) 

During January: NASA named Dr. Burton I. Edelson, a senior vice president 

of Comsat General Corporation, as its associate administrator for space 

science and applications, effective February 14. He would succeed Andrew J. 

Stofan, who had been in an acting capacity and would remain as advisor until 

NASA appointed him to another management position. Edelson, before joining Comsat, had been an engineering officer in the U.S. Navy with 

assignments on the staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Council at the 

White House and the Office of Naval Research. (NASA anno Jan 13/82; 

NASA Release 82-7) 

324 
February 

February 1-5: George Bush, U.S. vice president, unveiled at KSC the flight 

version of Spacelab, a reusable scientific-research facility designed to fly on 

the Shuttle. 

At the ceremony, Mr. Bush called the Spacelab “an extraordinary engineerthe largest cooperative space project ever.” Noting that 

rsons, from 50 European firms and 10 member nations, 

helped to build it, he added: “If today can be considered Spacelab’s birthday, 

then there are a great many proud parents celebrating Let us continue to 

be partners,” he concluded, “and let me take this opportunity to assure you 

that we intend to continue our international cooperative programs, just as 

President Reagan recently reconfirmed the commitment of the United States 

to a vigorous space program.” 

The joint venture of NASA and ESA was a cylindrical module built to fit 

into the Shuttle cargo bay, where both astronaut mission specialists and 

civilian scientists (payload specialists) would work in a shirtsleeve environment, with a series’of unpressurized pallets to support experiments requiring 

direct exposure to space. The first Spacelab flight, planned for a seven-day 

Shuttle mission in September 1983, would carry out some 70 investigations in 

5 different disciplines. 

About 50 firms in ESA’s participating nations had supplied parts to ERNO, 

prime contractor in Bremen, West Germany, for assembly and integration. 

The program, which cost ESA about $1 billion, would provide NASA, at no 

charge, with one engineering model and one complete flight version of 

Spacelab with associated ground-support equipment and some computer software. NASA was buying, for about $300 million, a second flight-model 

Spacelab to be delivered in mid-1982. MSFC would manage the first mission 

with ESA and had been in charge of U.S. development of flight-hardware 

items, such as the transfer tunnel and other operating equipment. MSFC 

would manage the second and third (NASA-only) missions alone. (Ofc of VP 

anno, Feb 5/82; NASA Release 82-14; MSFC Release 82-15; ESA Info 6, Feb 

2/82, Feb 3/82) 

Dr. Stephen P. Synnott of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced 

evidence for the existence of four (possibly as many as six, new satellites of 

Saturn in data from Voyager 2’s Saturn encounter. This brought the number 

of known Saturnian satellites in between 21 and 23; the two “possible” 

satellites had only one observation each, and their orbits were not yet confirmed. In 1979, Synnott, a member of the Voyager navigation team, had found two 

new satellites of Jupiter in images studied after the Voyager encounters. 

325 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1982 

Some of the new “moons” seemed to be influenced by the gravity of larger 

moons as well as by Saturn itself while orbiting, between the planet and its 

larger moons, they would move faster than the large ones because of the strong 

pull of Saturn’s gravity. But, while closing from behind on the larger moons, 

the gravity of those bodies would pull them into orbit outside the larger 

moons, where Saturn’s pull was weaker, and they would slow and drop back 

into inner orbit. Scientists called this type of track “horseshoe orbits.” (JPL 

Release Feb 1/82; W Post, Feb 3/82, A-6) 

February 2: ESA announced that it would develop a more powerful version 

of its Ariane launcher to “enhance its competitiveness on the space transportation systems market over the period 1986 to 199’3 by reducing the cost per 

kilogram in orbit and providing greater adaptability to user requirements.” 

Ariane 4 would differ from Ariane 3 in enlargement of the first-stage tanks, 

increasing on-board propellants from 140 tons to 220 tons; addition of liquidor solid-fuel boosters in various combinations of IWO or four; and a new fairing fitted as necessary with a new dual-launch system, use of which was cxpected to increase steadily. Six versions of this new Ariane would permit 

launch of a wide range of spacecraft with masses between 1,100 and 4,300 

kilograms; maximum lift would be twice that of the initial Ariane 1. 

The development schedule called for a demonstration flight late in 1985 and 

an operational flight beginning early in 1986. Cost was estimated as $241 

million U.S. (1981 prices). ESA has given France’s Centre National d’Etudes 

Spatiales (CNES) technical direction and fina.ncia1 management of the 

development program. (ESA Info 5) 

February 3: On the basis of data acquired in support of its mission objectives, 

NASA declared successful the Viking extended mission conducted from the 

end of its primary mission in 1976 until August 1980. Viking’s mission was 

to explore the planet Mars using two instrumented orbiters operating in conjunction with two instrumented landers on the surface. Identical spacecraft 

launched in 1975, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander, began operating 

at Mars in 1976. The design life of the spacecraft ‘was 90 days following orbit 

insertion or landing on the Martian surface; however, the Viking flight team 

found “ingenious ways” to extend the operating lifespans and obtain the maximum possible science data. 

When the extended mission began November 15, 1976, Orbiter 2 operated 

until July 24, 1978 (another 20 months), when SI small leak in its attitudecontrol system depleted its gas supply. Lander 2 operated on the planet’s surface for 41 months, until April 12, 1980; its tranmitter was turned off when 

its batteries could no longer hold a charge. Orbiter 1 lasted even longer, a total 

of 45 months after orbital insertion, and compleLed is operations August 7, 

1980, when its control gas was also exhausted. The end of Orbiter 1 operation 

was to be the official end of the Viking extended mission; however, Lander 

1-designated the Mutch Memorial Station January 7, 1981-was still 

326 
FEBRUARY 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

operating in a continuation automatic-mission mode and providing important 

science data. 

Extended-mission ’objectives were “to obtain seasonal variations, longduration sampling for statistically important experiments, and to obtain data 

not possible during the primary mission due to time constraints or observational limitations.” Mission results were “far in excess of those expected.” The 

program now consisted of Lander 1’s acquiring and storing imaging, 

meteorology, and engineering data in a seven-plus day cycle and transmitting 

to Earth on command. Data should continue until the end of 1994, when the 

radioisotope thermoelectric generator (EyTcr) could no longer power the 

transmitters. (NASA MOR S-815-75-01/02 [postlaunch] Feb 3/82; NASA 

Release 82-36) 

February 5: NASA announced a week-long series of Shuttle checks to verify 

readiness for launch. Prime and backup crew members would fly a mock liftoff, return to launch site, and descend from orbit to a simulated landing on 

the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The first 99 hours 

would be checkout of individual orbiter systems (electrical distribution, environmental control, instrumentation, flight control, and propulsion), the external tank (power, instrumentation, range safety, and tumble-valve systems), 

and solid-fuel rocket boosters (hydraulic, electrical, instrumentation, and 

range-safety systems) as well as critical electrical and mechanical connections 

between Shuttle elements. 

The second part of the tests would simulate portions of the mission, the 

launch, a return-to-launch-site abort with the orbiter’s system in control, and 

descent from orbit. (NASA Release 82-19) 

February 8: The Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of’the President released budget figures showing funds for all federal 

research .and development as $43 billion in FY83, $4.2 billion over FY82. 

NASA’s portion of the research and development (R&D) budget ($6.5 billion 

for FY83, $672 million over FY82) would “assure timely transition of the 

space shuttle to an operational system [and] continue the highest priority 

research and space exploration projects,” namely the Space Telescope, the 

gamma-ray observatory, and the Galileo mission to Jupiter. (NASA anno, Feb 

8/82) 

-James M. Beggs, NASA’s administrator, said in a budget message that 

“given the tightly constrained fiscal environment. . .I believe we did 

well. . . . [Tlhough there are no new starts, we are continuing with most of our 

ongoing activity in what we consider to be a balanced way.” (Text, Feb 8/82) 

February 10: The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Air Force would have 

to build a $40 million windscreen around its Space Shuttle launch pad at 

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to protect the orbiter while the external tank was being attached. 

327 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 19x2 

The Air Force was building a second launch complex in California to put 

the Shuttle into north-south or polar orbit that, combined with Earth’s rotation, would carry it over the entire surface of the Earth. This would not be 

possible at Cape Canaveral for reasons of safety; from Vandenberg, however, 

the orbiter’s route would be over the Pacific ocean. 

Hans Mark, deputy NASA administrator, told the House Committee on 

Science and Technology that the windscreen would be a huge three-sided 

sheet of metal around the launch pad to protect the orbiter from gusts while 

attaching the fuel tank. Winds off the Pacific at that location averaged 9 mph 

year-round and up to 47 mph from January through March, more than enough 

to break connections between Shuttle and tank. At the Cape, mating took 

place inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB); Vandenberg had no such 

building. (W Post, Feb 10182, A-5) 

February 16: NASA announced that Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, 58, last of the 

Mercury Seven astronauts selected in 1958, would leave after 23 years with 

the space agency. He had retired from NASA in Felbruary 1981 but had worked 

since that time on a temporary basis as a retired annuitant managing the Space 

Shuttle orbital flight tests at Johnson Space Center (JSC). He planned to work 

as a consultant to Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif., and to Space 

Sciences Inc. of Houston, Tex. 

Slayton joined the U.S. Air Force in 1942, flying 56 combat missions in 

Europe and 7 over Japan as a B-25 bomber pilot; he was a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base when selected as a Mercury astronaut. Grounded in 

August 1959 because of a suspected heart condition, he was later approved for 

flight and was part of the U.S. crew in the Apollo-Soyuz mission of July 1975. 

(NASA Release 82-23) 

-The New York Ernes said that friends and associates “wondered why matters were not handled better”: NASA never responded to a JSC request for 

another year’s extension of Slayton’s employment. His departure reduced the 

number of the astronaut corps to 79. Several were doctors or scientists without 

piloting skills; 6 were women. “Many,” the New York Times added, ‘Lare 

young enough to be Slayton’s children.” There had been 108 U.S. astronauts 

“but only one Original Seven.” (IVY Times, Feb 12/82, A-14; Feb 28/82, 30; 

W Post, Feb 18/82, A-21) 

Presidential Science Adviser Dr. George A. Keyworth announced the names 

of 13 U.S. scientists and engineers to a White Hsouse Science Council. 

Chairman of the council was Solomon J. Buchsbaum, executive vice president, Bell Laboratories; vice chairman was Edward Frieman, vice president, 

Science Applications Inc. Other members were Harold M. Agnew, president, 

General Atomic Company; John Bardeen, emeritus professor, engineering 

and physics, University of Illinois; D. Allan Bromley, professor of physics, 

Yale University (chairman, American Association for the Advancement of 

Science); George A. Cowan, senior fellow, Los Alamos Scientific 

328 
FEBRUARY 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Laboratory; Edward E. David, president, Exxon Research and Engineering 

(former science adviser to President Nixon); Donald S. Frederickson, resident fellow, National Academy of Sciences (former director, National Institutes of Health-NIH); Paul E. Gray, president, Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology (MIT); Robert 0.. Hunter, president, Western Research Company; Arthur K. Kerman, director, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics; 

David Packard, chairman, Hewlett Packard; Edward Teller, Hoover Institute, 

Stanford University. Lt. Col. Thomas H. Johnson, special assistant to 

Keyworth, said that the council would meet up to six times per year and would 

study issues with “significant technical components”; it was not meant to be 

demographically representative of U.S. science but rather would consist of 

“people with first-rate technical credentials and excellent judgment.” 

The New York Ernes noted that in an interview last summer Keyworth said 

that “good judgment is hard to find’ among scientists because “our profession 

is one of the few where arrogance has been condoned if not nurtured.” 

A presidential science advisory committee formed in 1957 was abolished in 

1977 by President Nixon, angry when some of its members took public stands 

against his policies. The new council, known by its initials WHSC (whisk), 

was meant to be more modest, the New York Ernes said. It would have its first 

meeting in March. (OST Policy Release, 2-16-82; NY fimes, Feb 18/82, A-12) 

February 19: A JSC release described a space operations center (SOC) concept complete’d by a special JSC study team. A manned center in space to exploit the Shuttle and allow incremental growth was the “essential next step in 

exploitation of space”; it would become a space-base and marshaling yard for 

large and complex payloads, including an upper-stage propulsion system in 

low Earth orbit. It would serve as “garage space” for reusable cryogenic 

stages for easier access, lowering costs of geosynchronous space operations. 

It could be a manned base with Department of Defense (DOD) military 

capabilities or a manned platform for science and applications research. It 

could provide a manufacturing facility in a weightless environment. 

The JSC design was for an SOC operating continuously, with maintenance 

and resupply, for 10 years; parts would be delivered and assembled by the 

Shuttle orbiter in a low Earth orbit (230 to 280 statute miles). An 8- to 12-man 

center, about 435 feet long tip to tip, would weigh about 245,000 pounds. Initial launch would put into orbit an energy section, a short cylinder carrying 

two booms with solar arrays, antennas, reaction-control system, and radiators, 

weighing in total between 34,000 and 43,000 pounds. A second launch would 

bring a command module to be joined to the energy section, completing phase 

1; this module would have one doclung and nine berthing ports, airlocks, command station, guidance and control, data management, open-loop lift support, 

and accommodations for two (but able to support a crew of four, in an 

emergency). Weight would be between 40,000 and 50,000 pounds. The next 

launch would bring a second command module to the other end of the energy 

section. 

329 
ASTRONALTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1982 

Each of the next two launches would bring a habitat module able to accommodate a crew of four; the two habitats would provide emergency accommodations and life support for a crew of eight. Each habitat would weigh between 25,000 and 28,000 pounds. 

After phase 3, the SOC would be ready for long-term manned occupations 

by eight to twelve persons; the platform could now handle full flight support, 

satellite servicing, and space construction. (JSC Release 82-009; AvWk, Feb 

15/82) 

February 22: JPL reported the selection of Martin Marietta Aerospace for 

negotiations on study of spacecraft suitable for a Venus radar-mapping mission. Hughes Aircraft, which also submitted a proposal, had been selected in 

November 1981 as the radar-instrument study contractor for the mission. 

(NASA Release 82-26) 

Februur?, 26: NASA launched Westar 4, first of a series of second-generation 

24-transponder domestic commercial communications satellites built by 

Space Communications Company for Western Union, from ESMC on a Delta 

into a suborbital trajectory. An apogee kick motor would put it into orbit at 

99OW, 19,300 nautical miles over the equator to relay voice, data, video, and 

facsimile communications to an area covering the United States from Hawaii 

to the Virgin Islands. 

Westar 4, with a design life of 10 years would join three other Western Union 

communications satellites: Westar I and Westur 2, launched in 1974, and 

Westar 3 launched in 1979. It was twice their si2.e and had four times their 

capacity. (NASA Release 82-17; NASA MOR 0-492-203-82-06 [prelaunch] 

Feb 25/82, [postlaunch] May 13/82) 

330 
March 

March I: A robot craft, kneru 13, fifth from the Soviet Union to land on 

Venus, sent the first color pictures of that planet’s surface and scooped up a 

soil sample for the most detailed analysis to date of Venus chemistry, Tass 

reported. 

A module detached from Veneru 13 plunged through Venus’s dense carbon 

dioxide atmosphere to an area called Phoebe, south of its equator. A kneru 

14 identical lander was scheduled to arrive March 5 at an area east of the 

Phoebe site. Soviet mission planners had consulted scientists and radar maps 

from the U.S. Pioneer Venus project in deciding where to aim the Veneras; 

they promised to share Venera data at future international scientific conferences. U.S. scientists familiar with the Soviet plans said that the Veneras 

were equipped for “much more sophisticated” studies of Venus soil chemistry 

than previous probes; these were the hrst craft able to drill into the crust, extract a sample, and analyze it, as the Vilungs had on Mars. 

Pioneer Venus I had been orbiting Venus since December 1978, mapping the 

planet by radar. Pioneer Venus 2 deployed five probes to sample the planet’s 

atmosphere, only one of them surviving to transmit an hour of data on surface 

temperatures. Soviet studies of Mars failed, but knera 9 and Veneru 10 in l!975 

transmitted the first images from the Venus surface, and Enera 11 and Emera 

12 in 1978 collected data on radioactive soil. After separation and landing, 

kneru 13 had survived to send surface data relayed by the mother ship for 127 

minutes. @IS, Moscow, Tass in English, Mar 1/82, Mar 2/82; NY Times, 

Mar 2/82, C-1; W Post, Mar 2/82, A-10) 

NASA announced the crews for the fourth, fifth, and sixth Shuttle flights. 

On STS-4, Thomas K. Mattingly would be commander, and Henry W. 

Hartsfieid, pilot. Scheduled for launch early in July, the seven day STS-4 

would be the last of four orbital flight tests to verify Shuttle hardware and software. Mattingly, 47, orbited the Moon 10 years ago on Apollo 16: Hartsfield, 

48, was a rookie. 

STS-5, a five-day mission planned for mid-November to deploy commercial 

communications satellites, would be the first to use mission-specialist 

astronauts. Vance D. Brand, 50, who was command-module pilot on 1975’s 

Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous, would be mission commander. This would be the 

first spaceflight for Robert E Overmyer, 45, the pil,ot. Mission specialists 

would be Dr. Joseph P. Allen and Dr. William B. Lenoir. Columbia would be 

the spacecraft for both STS-4 and STS-5. 

STS-6, planned for January 1983, would be the first flight of the orbiter 

331 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1982 

Challenger, a two-day mission to deploy NASA's Tracking and Data Relay 

Satellite System (TDRSS), one of an eventual two-.satellite system providing 

comprehensive voice and data coverage between orbiting shuttles and the 

ground. Commander would be Paul J. Weitz, 49, who was pilot on Skylab I; 

copilot would be U.S. Air Force Col. Karol J. Bobko, 44, anothcr rookie. 

Donald H. Peterson and Dr. Story Musgrave would fly as mission specialists. 

NASA would no longer assign Shuttle backup crews; its pool of experienced 

pilots at JSC would readily permit interchange of crewmen. (NASA Release 

82-33; JSC Release 82-012; W Post, Mar 2/82, A-9) 

March 2: NASA said that it would change the Shuttle's solid-fuel rocket 

boosters, reducing weight and incrcasing payload capability about 6,000 

pounds (2,720 kilograms) by replacing 8 of the 11 metal booster motor-case 

segments with 4 segments made of composite filament. Other components, 

such as the metal forward and aft domes and the external-tank attachment area 

of the metal case, would remain. NASA had issued a request for proposals 

to develop the filament-wound case. 

The lightweight case would be needed in high-performance launches from 

Vandenberg Air Force Base into near-polar orbit, helping to compensate for 

the loss of lift in west coast launches that could not use Earth's rotation to 

boost their velocity. The lightweight case could also boost extra-heavy 

payloads into orbit from KSC. First use of the motor would be in 1985. After 

plan approval NASA would have Thiokol Corporation make test firings 

directed by MSFC of solid-fuel rocket motors with filament-wound casings. 

(NASA Release 82-32; MSFC Release 82-19) 

ARC reported changes in the Shuttle's thermal protection system. New 

materials developed at ARC, stronger, lighter, and costing less than the 

original ones, would be installed gradually on the four orbiters over the next 

few years. Some new materials had been installed on Columbia; others were 

planned for Challenger, which was under construction for delivery this summer, and for Discovery and Atlantis, scheduled for delivery in 1983 and 1984. 

Thermal protection of the Shuttle consisted of tiles and other heat-resistant 

materials applied to the outside to protect its aluminum and epoxy-graphite 

skin from extreme temperatures ranging from-170"F; (-110°C) in space up to 

3,000 "F (1,648 "C) during reentry. A growing knowledge of reentry problcms 

had brought changes in the system: the original materials had served beyond 

expectations, but research had provided new answers. Columbia now had a 

glass-fiber quilt over 20 square feet of its elevon cove: replacing the felt 

reusable insulation that was inadequate to the 1,500"IF (816°C) temperature in 

that area. 

This new material would be used on Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. 

The new orbiters would also use a fibrous refractmy composite insulation 

lighter and stronger than the current tiles that would save about 1,000 pounds 

332 
MARCH 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

on Discovery and Atlantis; the new insulation was developed by ARC and 

manufactured by Lockheed. (ARC Release 82-05) 

ARC noted that Pioneer 10 had been in space 10 years as of March 2. Launched in 1972, the first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter had crossed the asteroid belt, 

survived the radiation near Jupiter, and operated almost flawlessly on its way 

out of Earth's solar system. It had traveled 3.27 billion miles, received more 

than 40 thousand commands, and transmitted more than 125 billion bits of 

scientific data. Now more than halfway between orbits Uranus and Neptune, 

2.5 billion miles from the Sun, Pioneer was currently defining the extent of 

the solar atmosphere, a bubble in the interstellar medium called the 

heliosphere. 

By June 1983, Pioneer would be at a point outside all of the planets of 

Earth's system, in their current positions. Its transmissions, traveling at the 

speed of light, already needed 3 hours and 42 minutes to reach the operations 

center at ARC, and this time was increasing 1 minute every four days. Nearly 

all of its systems were still performing well; its magnetometer shut down in 

1975, but experimenters could use correlations from five other instruments. 

Data showed that the heliosphere was far larger than predicted; Pioneer was 

seeking the boundary between the solar atmosphere and true interstellar 

space, probably 5 to 10 billion miles from the Sun. Experts at the Deep Space 

Network hoped to track Pioneer as far out as 5 billion miles. 

The solar wind had been expected to slow with distance from the Sun, but 

this had not happened; almost no motion energy was lost as heat. Turbulence 

in the heliosphere was caused by solar storms, not solar-wind collisions. As 

solar storms increased in strength, the heliosphere seemed to alter shape, 

more oval at the Sun's equator than its roundness at solar minimum. Pioneer 

10's sun-sensor could no longer furnish position data because of its great 

distance from the Sun and the resultant decline in solar brightness. However, 

mission controllers would use the Pioneer camera (photopolarimeter) to make 

star maps that would provide the rotation and attitude data needed to define 

Pioneer's position. (ARC Release 82-04; NASA Release 82-34) 

March 4: NASA launched Intelsat 5-F4 for the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) from Cape Canaveral at 7:23 p.m. 

EST on an Atlas Centaur into a transfer orbit with 35,953-kilometer apogee, 

165. 8-lulometer perigee, and 24" inclination. INTELSAT would fire an 

apogee motor to put the communications satellite into a near-geosynchronous 

orbit for 'testing before moving it over the Indian Ocean to provide communications between Europe, the MIddle East, and the Far East. 

This fourth of the Intelsat 5 series built by Ford Aerospace had a capacity 

of l2,OOO voice circuits plus two television channels. INTELSAT's global 

system consisted of a space segment (IO satellites in synchronous orbit) and 

a ground segment (295 communications antennas at 242 ground stations in 

129 countries and territories). The combined system provided more than 800 

333 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAIJTICS MARCH IYX? 

links between ground stations, with about 8,500 imernational voice circuits in 

full-time use, plus telegraph, telex, and television. (NASA 

MOR-491-203-82-04 [prelaunch] Feb 25/82, [po,stlaunchJ Mar 25/82; INTELSAT Release 82-4-1) 

March f0: The Observatory for Geophysical Monitoring of Climatic Change 

at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, on March 3 said that scientists doing a routine weather 

scan had discovered a huge cloud orbiting the Earth and had tracked it for five 

weeks, but could not explain what it was. The cloucl, about 10 to 12 milcs high 

(just above the flight paths of most commercial jets), had probably circled the 

Earth four or five times. The best guess was that it iresulted from an unnoticed 

volcanic eruption. 

On March 10 NASA said that the “mystery cloud” detected over Hawaii 

definitely came from a volcanic eruption. Chemical analysis of samples showed that it consisted entirely of sulfuric acid, ruling out nuclear explosion or 

a meteorite, either of which would have produced fragments of rocky 

material. The cloud had been measured from the e:quator to Germany, about 

50-f8-N, with the heaviest concentration of particles found by a Langley 

Research Center (LaRC) research aircraft at 20”N. 

No volcanic source for the cloud had been identified. Scientists from ARC 

were studying atmosphere-circulation patterns to see how gas from an 

equatorial source could spread over the northern half of the Earth. Sulfur 

gases injected into the stratosphere by volcanic eruptions tended to remain for 

months, as there would be no rain to remove them; changing gradually into 

drops of sulfuric acid, the volcanic cloud would increase over time in depth 

and density as more sulfur compounds arrived. Highly reflective clouds of the 

acid, like those on Venus, could prevent solar heat from reaching the ground, 

but the current cloud apparently had not produced. any climate changes. 

A NASA research plane flying from Wallops Flig.ht Center (WFC) to Costa 

Rica carried a remote-sensing laser radar that mapped the cloud content while 

doing previously scheduled data-gathering on locail volcanoes. LaRC would 

continue taking radar data; also, an ARC U-2 aircraft would make follow-on 

flights beginning March 23. (ARC Release 82-11; LaRC Release 82-12; NASA 

Release 82-45; W Post, Mar 6/82, A-4; NY Times, Mar 7/82, P-24) 

March 17-30: NASA began the countdown for the third test flight of Space 

Shuttle orbiter Columbia scheduled for launch March 22, although runways 

at Edwards Air Force Base in California were too rainsoaked to permit an 

emergency landing. STS-3 would use a runway at White Sands, N.M., for landing. Marine Corps Col. Jack Lousma and U.S. Air Force Col. C. Gordon 

Fullerton had frequently practiced landing jet aircraft at White Sands, where 

the two gypsum-based desert runways were as wide and almost as long as the 

seven mile-long runway at Edwards. They had also practiced landing on a 

three-mile-long concrete runway at KSC, to be used only in case of losing an 

engine during the first four minutes of flight from that location. 

334 
MARCH 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Heavy rains all day March 17 left more than an inch of water on the “dry” 

lake beds at Edwards, where Columbia had landed after its first two flights. 

NASA said that it was cheaper to move landing equipment to White Sands 

than to postpone the flight until Edwards dried out: each day of delay in launching the Shuttle cost the agency $3 million. A special landing team immediately began loading support equipment on a 23-car train that would carry 

it the 1,000 miles from Edwards to White Sands. The equipment should be 

in place late on Sunday, March 21, ready for use should an emergency occur 

after liftoff. 

The upcoming flight, third of a series of four test flights before the Shuttle 

began carrying payloads into space later in 1982, would subject the spacecraft 

to temperature extremes to see how it endured long exposure to dark and light. 

It would also include further tests of the 50-foot robot arm designed to handle 

Shuttle payloads. Exposure of the Shuttle tail would test pumping of fuel and 

restarting rear engines under extremely high or low temperatures. 

Exposure of the 65-foot-long cargo bay carrying more than 21,000 pounds 

of instruments and experiments to the extreme heat encountered in space 

would show how materials carried into space over the next 10 years would survive. The open cargo bay aimed at the Sun would also seek exposure to solar 

flares, for which scientists were still seeking explanations. 

Lousma and Fullerton flew from JSC at Houston to Patrick Air Force Base, 

Fla., near KSC in T-38 jet trainers Saturday, March 20, and planned to spend 

most of Sunday in preflight briefings. KSC said that the countdown had been 

virtually trouble-free and ahead of schedule. 

Liftoff from pad A, launch complex 39, took place Monday, March 22, at 

10:59 a.m. EST after an hour’s delay caused by failure of a protection circuit 

in the cdntroller for the heated nitrogen purge of the main engines, required 

before introduction of cryogenic fuel. Countdown stopped for reestablishment 

of heater ,control. Initial orbit elements I were 240-kilometer apogee and 

perigee, 89-minute period, and 38” inclination. Operations began in the 

fourth hours of flight with the opening of payload doors, removal of ejection 

suits, and activation of the Office of Space Sciences experiment package 

(OSS-1). Later reports indicated that the crew suffered from motion sickness 

after the exertion of removing the space suits; incidence of motion sickness 

had been less on Mercury and Gemini when astronauts had less area to move 

in, and both Soviet and U.S. crews had taken time on longer flights to get used 

to weightlessness before active exertion. 

Scheduled for the second day was deployment of the robot arm; for the third 

was practiceh grappling payload packages and extending a set of sensors over 

the edges of the cargo bay to measure plasma (electrically charged gases) in 

Earth orbit. The fourth and fifth days would see further tests of the arm, more 

thermal testing, and two brief ignitions of the maneuvering rockets to see how 

they performed after long periods of cold. The sixth day would have more 

thermal tests and experiments on solar radiation; the seventh day would be for 

shutdown and landing preparations. 

335 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 19x2 

All activities planned for day one were accomplished; OSS-1 experimenters 

reported “excellent data.” Thermal attitude tail-to -sun prevailed throughout 

the sleep period. A survey with the remote manipulator system (RMS) camera 

showed several low-temperature white tiles missing or damaged on the 

nosecone. Also, three pieces of black tiles (about 1 112 tiles) had been found 

700 feet south of the launch pad; others had been found on and near the beach. 

All had been sent to JSC for identification and analysis. 

On Tuesday, the first day in orbit, the “wrist” camera on the manipulator 

arm went dark, and flight directors postponed the critical grappling test to 

devise a way to do the test without it. That camera served as the crew’s eyes 

whenever the end of the arm took hold of an object in the cargo bay. Planned 

use was to raise an 82-pound package and move it around the bay; the instrument inside would measure electrical disturbances caused by the spacecraft‘ 

and its motion through the electronically charged ionosphere. Instead, the 

crew extended the robot arm far over the cargo b;ay and used the “elbow” 

camera to transmit “the best television ever seen of the earth” from 150 miles 

UP. 

The crew turned on the monodisperse latex reactor [see January 191 for 14 

hours; the solution would be stirred every 30 minutes for the rest of the mission. Ground control changed the activity schedule to allow for crew rest and 

troubleshooting; day four activities would be done on day three and vice versa, a prelaunch-planned option. Problems were repoirted with the environmental control and life-support systems and with the waste-control “slinger”; 

NASA said it had initiated “backup procedures.” 

Besides suffering from motion sickness, Lousma had been kept awake by 

loud radio static, probably from a Soviet radar at lbstov on the Black Sea, 

said to be the most powerful in the world; it was called Woodpecker by radio 

ham operators because of its noise, heard from Spain to parts of China. 

STS-3 lost three main radio links to Earth Friday, March 25, through the 

Shuttle’s transponders that locked on and amplified ground signals and carried 

nearly all data on Shuttle condition and its speed and location. Two ultra-highfrequency (UHF) radio channels carried voice transmission, however, and the 

astronauts were using the remaining transponder, a backup UHF voice line, 

and the FM-radio line to relay information to Earth. 

Gene Kranz, deputy flight director at JSC, said that the mission would go 

full time unless the high-power transponder link was lost. A premature end 

to the mission would require a landing somewhere ol.her than at White Sands, 

because of bad weather with overcast slues and hi,gh winds that blew dust 

across the runways and created haze thick enough to obscure the landing site. 

Two days away from the scheduled landing, the crew had completed all the 

thermal tests on Columbia: baking tail, nose, and top in unimpeded sunlight 

and chilling the same parts in the icy cold of space for hours. They had 

restarted the Shuttle engines hot and cold, opened and closed cargo-bay doors 

under both conditions, and repeatedly tested the mechanical arm under varying conditions with excellent results. 

336 
MARCH 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

In the last possible opportunity, less than a day before the end of the mission, the crew pointed their solar telescope directly at the Sun and got a solar 

flare (an event on the Sun’s surface they could not have predicted) “almost as 

if it were planned.” Dr. Robert Novick of Columbia University, where the Xray polarimeter was built, said that this was the first time that an instrument 

in space with this sensitivity had witnessed a solar flare. 

On Sunday night, March 28, the crew went to sleep two hours earlier than 

usual in preparation for landing Monday. About 40 minutes before the time 

scheduled for touchdown, astronaut John Young in a Grumman Gulfstream jet 

tried a practice landing on the White Sands runway and found visibility completely obscured. The Columbia crewmen were about to fire rockets to begin 

descent. “That’s the first time I’ve seen it this bad,” Young told mission control in Houston. “I think we ought to knock this thing off.” Less than 15 

minutes later, mission control ordered a day’s delay. The two astronauts unpacked to await word from mission control on where and when they would 

return. 

Landing finally occurred at 9:04 a.m. MST on Tuesday, March 30, on a dry 

lake bed at White Sands. Touchdown point was 1,092 feet past the runway 

threshold; rollout distance was 13,732 feet. The crew left the orbiter 45 

minutes after landing, and postflight operations proceeded without incident. 

(NASA Release 82-29; NASA MOR M-989-82-03 ’ [prelaunch] Mar 13/82, 

[postlaunch] May 5/82; NASA MOR E-835-03-82-01, OSS-1, [prelaunch] 

Mar 17/82, [postlaunch] Sept 20182; Spacewarn SPX-341; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, 

Mar 24, 25, 29/82; NY Times, Mar 18/82, A-18; Mar 20, 7; Mar 21, 1; Mar 

22, A-1; Mar 30, A-1; WPost, Mar 19/82, A-7; Mar 21, A-1; Mar 22, A-1; Mar 

25, A-2; Mar 27, A-2; Mar 29, A-1; Mar 30, A-1) 

March 25: MSFC reported Heao 2, second in a series of three high-energy 

astronomy observatories launched in the late 1970s and the last to reenter, fell 

from orbit at I:Z7 a.m. CST and burned up in the atmosphere. John Stone, 

project manager a MSFC, said that tracking stations indicated that it broke up 

over the South Pacific east of Australia. Heao 1 had reentered in 1979; Heao 

3, in December 1981. Heao 2 had not been operational for almost a year, as 

it had expended its control-gas supply in April 1981, so that it could not maintain attitude and had to be powered down. 

Launched in September 1979 and nicknamed Einstein, Heao 2 had operated 

for nearly 2 112 years, carrying the largest X-ray telescope ever built. It had 

made detailed imaging and spectroscopic observations of about 300 known Xray sources and discovered thousands of faint new ones. It also made the first 

X-ray photographs of supernova remnants, pulsars, galactic X-ray sources, 

and diffuse emissions from galactic clusters. Scientists said it would take three 

years longer to analyze the data from the Heaos. (MSFC Release 82-31) 

During March: NASA said that Dr. John E McCarthy, director of Lewis 

Research Center (LeRC) would return July 1 to MIT as professor of 

3 37 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1982 

aeronautics and astronautics. Before becoming director at LeRC in October 

1978, McCarthy directed MIT’s center for space research. From 1962 to 1971 

he was with North American Rockwell. (NASA anno, Mar 2182; NASA 

Release 82-35) 

-Daniel J. Fink, senior vice president at General Electric Company, was 

named chairman of the NASA advisory council by James M. Beggs, administrator. He assumed the chair March 11. As general manager of General 

Electric’s space division, Fink had received the Collier Trophy for his contributions to the Landsat program. (NASA Release 82-39) 

-Administrator Begs changed the titles of officials in charge of three programs at NASA Headquarters: Harriett G. Jenkins would be assistant administrator for equal opportunity; Stuart J. Evans, assistant administrator for 

procurement; John F. Murphy, assistant administrator for legislative affairs. 

(NASA anno Mar 2/82) 

-A Thomas Young, director of GSFC, would 1e.ave NASA March 20 to 

become vice president of research and engineermg at Martin Marietta 

Aerospace. He had joined the Langley laboratory in 1961 and in 1975 become 

Viking mission director. He was deputy director of ARC from February 1979 

until taking over at GSFC in February 1980. Acting, director at GSFC until 

the appointment of a successor would be Dr. Leslie H. Meredith, who had 

been director of applications there since 1976. (NASA annos Mar 1/82, Mar 

23/82; NASA Release’s 82-31, 82-48) 

-Andrew J. Stofan, who was acting associate administrator for space 

science at NASA Headquarters until Dr. Burton Edelson took over last month, 

would become director of LeRC, succeeding Dr. John McCarthy as of July 

1. Before assignment to Headquarters in 1978 a:: deputy associate administrator for space science, Stofan was director of launch vehicles at LeRC, 

where he had begun as a research engineer in 1985. (NASA Release 82-47; 

LeRC Release 82-14) 

338 
April 

April 2: The Los Angeles Times said that Dr. Bruce Murray would resign later 

in 1982 as director of JPL. In “an emotional speech” televised to all 5,000 JPL 

employees, Murray said that he was leaving to move on “to the next phase of 

my own professional career.” He reminded his audience that from the time he 

arrived at JPL he planned to stay for only 5 to 10 years. The announcement 

came at the start of his seventh year as director; he had served since April 

1, 1976. The California Institute of Technology (CalTech), operator of JPL 

under contract to NASA, had not chosen a successor. (LA Times, Apr 3/82, 1) 

April 9: NASA announced the selection of American Airlines to negotiate a 

contract for a new heiicopter-simulation system to be installed at ARC, funded 

by the U.S. Army and used by both agencies. 

The $16 million system, designed to duplicate cockpit configurations and 

flight handling of helicopters, would aid in rotorcraft design and allow simulation of experiments, flight tests, and evaluation of improvements in basic 

helicopter technology. Pilots and engineers could simulate sight, sound, and 

motion of helicopter flight, using the system either stationary or in the 

vertical-motion simulator. (NASA Release 82-52; ARC Release 82-13) 

April IO: NASA launched the Indian Department of Space payload INSAT-l.4 

from ESMC at 1:48 a.m. EST on a Delta into an orbit with 35,985-kilometer 

apogee, 166-kilometer perigee, and 28.4’ inclination. An apogee boost motor 

fired April 11 and 12 put Insat 1 into synchronous orbit at 74’E over the 

equator. Attempts to release the C-band (uplink) antenna were unsuccessful; 

ground control deployed it by blasting it with the reaction-control jets. The 

S-band (downlink) antenna deployed without difficulty, but the solar sail 

would not release as planned. (NASA Release 82-44; NASA MOR 

0-492-214-82-01 [prelaunch] Mar 30/82, [postlaunch] May 18/82; C Trib, Apr 

12/82, 4) 

April I#: Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., director of JSC since 1972, said that he 

would retire from NASA after the fifth (and first operational) Shuttle flight, 

now scheduled for November. He had begun working at the Langley 

laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 

1945. 

When NASA was established in 1958, he was selected as an original 

member of the space task group to manage the Mercury project: that group 

was the nucleus of NASA’s manned spacecraft center, which became JSC in 

1973. Kraft was flight director of all the Mercury missions and many of the 

Gemini missions; in 1972 he succeeded Dr. Robert Gilruth, who had been the 

339 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1982 

first director of JSC. Kraft said he had no definite plans for the future. (NASA 

Release 82-62; NY Times, Apr 15/82, B-4; W Post, Apr 15/82, D-2) 

NASA reported that its Kuiper airborne obserkatory (a Lockheed C-141 

Starlifter aircraft carrying a 36-inch infrared reflector telescope) had captured 

an image of Columbia’s reentry heating pattern at the end of its third 

spaceflight. 

The procedure, known as IRIS (infrared imagery of Shuttle), was part of 

an orbiter experiment program using the Shuttle to collect data of value in advancing aerospace technology. The Kuiper plane, operated by ARC, had taken 

off for observation without knowing whether the Shuttle would land at White 

Sands or KSC; an update 15 minutes before landing ensured success. A 

similar attempt on the first flight had failed. (NASA Release 82-56; ARC 

Release 82-14) 

April IS: NASA said that it had turned off the SAGE (stratospheric aerosol 

and gas experiment) after the spacecraft’s battery failed. A joint project of 

LaRC and GSFC, SAGE was the first to perform extensive vertical 

measurements of aerosols in the stratosphere and first to detect volcanic dust 

in that region, 9 to 40 kilometers (6 to 25 miles) abclve Earth’s surface. Launched from WFC in February 1979 with a 1-year design lifetime, it had tracked 

plumes from five volcanic eruptions, including Mt. St. Helens, and had mapped ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere from data taken during more than 13,000 

sunrises and sunsets. Its orbit was not expected to decay until about 1984, 

when it would burn up during reentry. (NASA Release 82-59) 

ESA said that it would begin a follow-on program with Spacelab. Financial 

contributions from member states for this purpose had reached 80% of the 

goal April 15, permitting work to start immediately. Part of the new program 

would be development of a European retrievable carrier (EURECA) to be 

launched and retrieved by the Space Shuttle as well as a core payload for the 

first mission consisting of microgravity research emphasizing material and life 

sciences, with first flight scheduled for the end of 1986. 

Weighing about 1,500 kilograms, EURECA would have a design life of six 

months or more in orbit, providing services for its payload including electrical 

power and heat protection. Its low gravity-disturbance level would be essential 

to microgravity research. After deployment, an on-board propulsion unit 

would put it in a higher orbit with less drag on its large solar arrays. Once 

in orbit, its experiments, although highly automated, would be operated by 

remote control and monitored from the ground. It would reassume low orbit 

for recovery by the Shuttle and return to Earth for refurbishment. (ESA Info 

12) 

April 16: NASA Administrator James M. Beggs announced the reorganization 

of Space Shuttle management. Maj. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, who had 

340 
APRIL 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

joined NASA in November 1981 on loan from the U.S. Air Force, would be 

associate administrator for the Space Transportation System (STS). He would 

take over the office of Space Shuttle operations formerly headed by Stanley 

Weiss, named chief engineer for NASA to succeed Walter Williams. The combined offices of space transportation systems and space transportation operations, effective May 15, would be responsible for the final Shuttle development 

flight and the operational flights that followed and for procuring more shuttles 

and expendable launch vehicles. 

Gerald D. Griffin, formerly Apollo flight director, was named director of 

JSC to succeed Dr. Chirstopher C. Kraft, who would retire later in 1982. Griffin, who had also been deputy director at KSC and Dryden Flight Research 

Center (DFRC) and had held other positions at NASA Headquarters, had left 

in August 1981 to become vice president of Scott Science and Technology. He 

would return to NASA Headquarters briefly to assist Abrahamson. (NASA 

anno Apr 16/82; NASA Release 82-58; NY Times, Apr 19/82, A-7) 

April 19: The Soviet news agency Tass reported that the Soviet Union had 

launched space station Salyut 7 apparently to replace Salyut 6, home in space 

for cosmonauts since September 1977, for a joint French-Soviet manned flight 

this summer. Orbital parameters were 278-kilometer apogee, 219-kilometer 

perigee (between 136 and 172 miles), 89.2 minute period, 51.5” inclination. 

Agence France-Presse said that a Soviet-French team would shortly be launched in a Soyuz-T craft to link up with Salyut Z 

Lt. Col. Jean-Loup Chretien, France’s “spacecraft” who had had “intensive 

training in Soviet facilities” with his backup, Col. Patrick Baudry, would fly 

to Salyut 7 with two Soviet cosmonauts about June 22. The report said that 

the French preferred the neutral word spacenaut because the Soviets used 

“cosmonaut” and the Americans “astronaut.” (FBIS, Tass Intl Svc in Russian, 

Apr 19/82; Paris AFP in English, Apr 20/82; W Post, Apr 20/82, A-18) 

The New York Times reporter in Moscow said that the French-Soviet mission would be the first launch of a noncommunist in a Soviet spacecraft and 

the first East-West spaceflight since Apollo-Soyuz in 1975. Flight commander 

Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov would occupy Salyut 7 a 

few days earlier. An three-man crew on another spacecraft-two cosmonauts, 

Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyev, and Jean-Loup Chretien-would join 

them. The Soviet Union had released few details on the mission. 

The USSR’s goal was said to be deployment of a 12-man station weighing 

more than 100 tons, permanently occupied by rotating crews. Salyut 6’s 

lifetime had included two “marathon missions” of 185 and 175 days; the U.S. 

record was 84 days during the Skylab program of 1973 and 1974. Soon after 

the last mission on Salyut 6 the Soviet Union had sent a large craft (Cosmos 

1267) to link with it and test “methods of assembly of orbital complexes of 

great size and weight.” No one said what would become of the SalyutCosmos; Western observers believed that the assembly, even with a combined 

weight of 36 tons could safely burn up on reentry. The U.S. Skylab that scat341 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL. 1982 

tered debris on western Australia in 1979 during its uncontrolled plunge to 

Earth had weighed 77.5 tans. (FBIS Moscow Tass Intl Svc in Russian, Apr 

19/83; NY Times, Apr 21/82, A-12) 

April 20: NASA’s Solar Max satellite had detected an 18-month decrease in 

solar-energy output that might have caused an unumally harsh winter in 1981 

and 1982, said JPL. In the first direct observation of cause-and-effect between 

solar output and changes in Earth’s climate, a solar telescope-Solar Max’s 

active-cavity radiometer irradiance monitor-recorded a steady decrease from 

February 1980 to August 1981 of a tenth of 1% in total solar energy reaching 

Earth. 

Systematic increases or decreases as small as 0.5 % over a century had produced vast changes in Earth’s climate: the ‘‘Maunder minimum” in the 17th 

century, when sunspot activity almost vanished, had coincided with a period 

known as Europe’s little ice age. A 1% decrease could lower mean global 

temperature by more than 1,000 (2”F), and less than 10% decrease could 

freeze Earth‘s entire surface. Earth lifeforms existed in the bioshell, an area 

10 kilometers (6.2 miles) on either side of mean seis level, with temperatures 

fed by solar-energy input and interaction between atmosphere, ocean, and 

land masses. The time needed to cool down the atmosphere and ocean would 

allay short-term changes in solar input. JPL‘s Dr. Richard C. Willson noted 

that “if you turned off the sun tomorrow, you wouldn’t see its full effects on 

earth for three years.” 

Solar activity peaked about every 11 years. The current cycle peaked about 

the time Solar Max was launched early in 1980; the decrease might represent 

the general decline since then but might also indicate a longer term lowering 

of solar input. (Telescope at the High-Altitude Observatory, Boulder, Colo., 

had recorded images of what seemed to be a shrinking sun that might have 

grown as much as a tenth of 1% smaller every 100 )‘ears for the last four ccnturies.) Solar Max had lost pointing capability in December 1980, and only 

three of its seven instruments were still returning data. It had been designed 

for retrieval by the Shuttle, and NASA was seeking authorization for a Solar 

Max repair mission. (NASA Release 82-57; W Pa:ir, Apr 20/82, A-6) 

During April: Dr. Noel W. Hinners, director of the Smithsonian’s National 

Air and Space Museum, would become director of CSFC June 14, succeeding 

A. Thomas Young. Dr. Hinners was associate administrator for space science 

at NASA Headquarters from June 1974 to April 1979, when he took over at 

the museum; he had also been director of lunar programs in NASA’s Office 

of Space Sciences. He had joined NASA in 1972 as deputy director and chief 

scientist of Apollo lunar exploration. (NASA anno ,4pr 1/82; NASA Release 

-Col. Joe H. Engle, commander of STS-2 in November 1981, was temporarily assigned to the STS office at NASA Headquarters in conjunction with 

recent organization changes. As deputy associate administrator for manned 

82-49) 

342 
APRIL 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

space flight under Gen. James A. Abrahamson, his special experience would 

help simplify the integration process for Shuttle users and ensure maximum 

use of its manned capabilities. He would retain astronaut status and return to 

JSC to train for his next flight. (NASA Release 82-71) 

343 

May I: The first Maritime European Communications Satellite, Marecs A, 

launched December 20, 1981, began service at midnight. The spacecraft and 

its payload, leased to the International Maritime Communications Satellite 

(INMARSAT), was working well and already improving communications between land and ships and oil rigs in the Atlantic. 

The Marecs program would lease two satellites to INMARSAT: Marecs A 

would cover the Atlantic ocean; Marecs B, the Pacific. Launch of Marecs B 

on an Ariane L5 had been put off to September 1982 to allow time for 

modifications reducing the effects of electrostatic discharge that had caused 

the Marecs A command system to malfunction during tests in February. (ESA 

Info 15) 

Muy 2: The New York Emes said that the Soviet Union had assembled six, 

possibly eight, intelligence-gathering satellites over the south Atlantic to 

watch Argentine and British military movements around the Falkland Islands. 

U.S. sources said that they assumed information from the satellites was being 

relayed to the Argentine government but had no proof of this. A senior official 

at the State Department said that leaders in Argentina had told Security of 

State Alexander Haig that they would not accept such help from the Soviet 

Union. The United States had two satellites over the area and was passing information from them to the British. 

The Soviet satellites were communications interceptors Cosmos 1346 and 

1354; radar-sensing craft Cosmos 1345 and 1351; and photoreconnaissance 

craft Cosmos 1347 and 1352, and possibly 1350 and 1353. (NY Times, May 

3/82, A-14; AvWk, May 3/82, 22; W Post, Jun 7/82, A-20) 

May 3: An analysis of NASA’s 1983 budget for research and development, 

prepared for Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) by the General Accounting Office (GAO), said that more than 25 % of it was for military programs. The New 

York Times said that the report would lead to more criticism from Congress 

that NASA was becoming increasingly militarized, at the expense of civilian 

science and technology. 

Proxmire said that he asked for the report to “determine the extent to which 

NASA was merely acting as an agent” for DOD. As nearly half the Shuttle 

flights would take military payloads, more than $1 billion of the $3.5 billion 

requested for the Shuttle in FY83 was considered military: $1.1 billion of an 

R&D budget of $5.33 billion (20.5 %) and $400 million support funds (7.77 %) 

could therefore be military related. NASA’s total 1983 budget request was $6.6 
ASTROKAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1982 

billion; total Pentagon direct spending on space was not known but was probably as much as or more than NASA’s annual budget. 

Proxmire said that he did not object to use of the. Shuttle for military purposes, but paying for DOD activities through the NASA budget was “not the 

way to ensure that dollars spent on national security are spent with maximum 

effect.” NASA said that it had been tasked with developing the Shuttle as a 

national endeavor, and reimbursement by other agencies for use of the Shuttle 

did not change the cost to the government. (NY Times, May 3/82, A-15) 

May 14: MSFC announced the choice of two firms, Hercules Inc. and Votaw 

Precision Tool Inc., to negotiate a contract for development of a filamentwound case for the solid-fuel rocket motor used in the Shuttle boosters. The 

contract to produce the filament-wound item [see: March 21 would cover 

design, manufacture, test, and delivery of four flight cases at an estimated cost 

of $33 million. 

The new case segments would replace portions made of steel, improving 

performance by reducing Shuttle-liftoff weight about 66,000 pounds (29,937 

kilograms). First use would be in late 1985. (NASA Release 82-80; MSFC 

Release 82-52) 

May 20: NASA Administrator James M. Begs established a space station task 

force, directed by John D. Hodge, to be responsible for developing program 

aspects, including mission analysis, definition of rcquirements, an program 

management. Hodge would report to Philip E. Culbertson, associate deputy 

administrator, and would draw on space-station activities at each program office and field center. (NASA anno, May 20182) 

JPL said that it had joined Australia’s commonwealth scientific and industrial organization in a first-time operation of five radiotelescopes in 

Australia and a sixth in South Africa as a single instrument “half a world 

wide” for observing astronomical radio sources. Thse Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) project could point telescope:; located great distances 

apart at the same object, achieving angular resolution equivalent to a single 

radiotelescope several thousand miles in diameter. The two-week program 

observed about 30 quasars and galaxies. (JPL Release 993; NASA Release 82 

-99) 

May 23: At 9:57 local time May 23 the Soviet Union launched supply ship 

Progress 13, which docked automatically with Sulyut 7’s service module at 

11:57 Moscow time May 25, bringing 660 kilograms of fuel and 290 liters of 

water as well as air, food, equipment, and mail. On May 28, Tass described 

the unloading and refueling procedures. (FBIS, Tass in English, May 

13-28182; NY Times, May 19/82, A-4) 

346 
June 

June 4: The Soviet Union launched Cosmos I374 from Kapustin Yar into a 

“round orbit” at 225-kilogram altitude and 50.7 O inclination. Press reports 

said that Australian aircraft watched a seven-ship Soviet task force retrieve 

from the Indian Ocean an object that might be either a nuclear test craft or 

a “fairly small” shuttle. United Press International (UPI) said an Australian 

spokesman claimed to know what kind of craft was recovered but gave no 

details because the information was “classified”; also, U.S. scientists said that 

the spacecraft had “an unusually low trajectory.” 

Associated Press (AP) quoted U.S. government sources “who asked to remain anonymous” that the Soviet Union had launched and recovered, after 1 

114 orbits, its first space-shuttle type of vehicle; they did not know whether 

the craft was manned. A Reuters report said that Maj. Gen. Alexey Leonov, 

who had been one of the cosmonauts on the Apollo-Soyuz mission, hinted that 

the shuttle guess was right but would give no details. (FBIS, Tass Intl Svc in 

Russian, June 4/82; W Post, June 9/82, A-7; June 10/82, A-26; June 11/82, 

A-35; W Rimes, June 11/82, 6; AvWk, June 14/82, 18-19) 

Esther C. Kisk Goddard, 81, widow of U.S. rocketry pioneer Dr. Robert H. 

Goddard, whom she married in 1924, died in Worcester, Mass. She had been 

secretary and photographer for his research; since his death in 1945 she had 

worked to make his discoveries known. (NY Times, June 7/82, D-11; Goddard 

News, June 15/82, 3; Ntl Sp Clb bllton, June 82, 3; Worc Sndy Tlg, June 6/82, 

19B) 

The Soviet Union said that Soyuz T-5 cosmonauts Anatoliy Berezovoy and 

Valentin Lebedev, in their fourth week aboard Sulyut 7, had finished unloading 

Progress 13, launched May 23 to refuel and replenish the orbiting station, and 

undocked it to make room for a spacecraft carrying a French-Soviet crew later 

in June. Progress 13’s propulsion unit had served twice to adjust the orbit of 

the Soyuz-Salyut complex. Tass reported that ground control had reoriented 

the Progress June 6 to reenter and burn up over the Pacific Ocean. (FBIS, 

MscWldSvc in English, Tass in English, June 4/82; Tass Intl Svc in Russian, 

June 6/82) 

June 8: NASA launched Western Union’s Westur 5 commercial communications satellites from ESMC at 8:23 p.m. EDT on a Delta into a transfer orbit 

with 36,469-,kilometer apogee, 167-kilometer perigee, and 27.5 O inclination. 

Firing of a booster at 5:20 p.m. June 11 would move it to station at 123”W 

over the equator. 

347 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1982 

Westur 5, heaviest of the series of satellites owned and operated by Western 

Union, weighed 585 pounds in synchronous orbit, was double the size of 

Westur 1, Westur 2, and Westur 3, and had about four times their capacity. Like 

Wstar 4 it had 24 transponder channels, all under lease; a 10-year design life; 

and 40% more transmitting power than most domestic communications 

satellites. It would replace Westur 2 in service. (NASA Release 82-82; NASA 

Dly Acm Rpt, June 9182; NASA MOR 0-492-203-82-05 [postlaunch] July 

6182; NASA Wkly SSR, June 10182; NY Times, June 10182, D-4) 

June 11: NASA said that a team of astronomers led by Dr. Michael Werner 

of ARC had mapped the Orion nebula using infrared data from NASA’s Kuiper 

airborne observatory. The nebula, 1,500 light-years from Earth, was one of 

the closest known regions in the galaxy where stars were currently forming. 

Since its discovery 17 years ago, infrared images had shown the total power 

output of the group of new stars invisible to the naked eye to be more than 

100,000 times the power output of Earth’s sun. (NASA Release 82-88; ARC 

Release 82-86) 

June 14: LeRC announced the start of a seven-year $45 million test program 

to increase engine durability for U.S. jet fleets. Aimed at improving analysis 

methods and prediction techniques, the program would be a pioneering effort 

in five areas: structure analysis, surface protection, instrumentation, combustion, and turbine-heat transfer. LeRC would award 25 to 30 contracts for this 

work, about half the research to be done directly by LeRC staff. (NASA 

Release 82-89; LeRC Release 82-33) 

June 21: NASA announced signing of agreements with Telesat Canada for 

launch of five Anik communications satellites, four on the Shuttle and one on 

a Delta. The launches would cost Canada’s domestic satellite communications 

corporation about $75 million; the spacecraft would be worth about $130 

million. The third-and fourth-generation Anik C and Anik D communications 

satellites would be the backbone of Canada’s system until the 1990s, carrying 

new pay-television, voice, video, and data links, private business networks, 

and other special services. First of the D series would be launched in August 

from KSC; the next Telesat launch would be an Anik C, one of two communications satellites scheduled for the Shuttle’s fifth flight and first conimercia1 mission. (NASA Release 82-101) 

June 21-23: NASA Administrator James M. Beggs and former astronaut Sen. 

John Glenn (D-Ohio) were speakers at the 18th National Joint Propulsion 

Conference in Cleveland, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics 

and Astronautics, Society of Automotive Engineers, and American Society of 

Mechanical Engineers. In attendance were more than 800 technical professionals and key managers representing worldwide organizations in research 

348 
JUNE 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

and development, manufacture, and use of propulsion systems for aircraft and 

space, surface, and marine vehicles. Glenn, keynote speaker, received an 

award commemorating the 20th anniversary of his orbital flight. Representatives of European and Asian firms presented papers, and a group from the 

People’s Republic of China attended. 

Beggs, luncheon speaker, said that foreign competition in high-tech research 

required a new partnership between government and industry. Although 

NASA-industry cooperation over the past 25 years was a major factor in U.S. 

world leadership, many foreign firms had been able, with “far-sighted planning [and] government-industry cooperation,” to move from idea to manufacture to delivery in half the time the United States needed. 

The world edge once enjoyed by the United States in many high-tech areas 

has “been eroded,” he said: France was ahead in nuclear power; West Germany, in chemicals; Japan, in optics and metallurgy. “The Japanese have 

managed to capture some 70% of the American market for the 64K randomaccess memory, which can store 64,000 information units.” The Humurd 

Business Review had even suggested that U.S. firms look abroad-even to Iron 

Curtain countries-to tap foreign technology. What was needed, Beggs said, 

was a more balanced cooperation between government and industry, geared 

to investment in projects leading to speedy adoption of new technologies. 

“No one ever ran a race by standing still. And we are in a race, a dead 

serious one. The stakes are high. They include not only our own economic 

security but the ecohomic security of the Free World,” he concluded. (LeRC 

Releases 82-30, 82-34) 

June 23: Three astronomers at the University of Hawaii, using NASA’s infrared telescope facility on Mauna Kea and data from Voyager 2, announced 

the first measurement of the sizes of four of the five known moons of Uranus. 

byuger 2 was heading for Uranus after a successful flyby of Saturn 10 months 

ago, and the new calculations would be useful in planning the scientific studies 

to be done after arrival. Uranus was so far from Earth, about 3 billion 

kilometers (2 billion miles), that it was visible only through telescopes. Sizes 

of the moons were figured from their infrared (heat) radiation. NASA had 

built the Mauna Kea telescope, most sensitive in the world for measuring faint 

infrared sources, to provide support for spacecraft exploring the planets; Dr. 

David Morrison of the University of Hawaii team, also a member of the 

Voyager project, said that the Moon data were exactly the sort of support 

NASA had in mind. 

The moons of Uranus, smaller than Earth’s, were all as large as any of 

Saturn’s except Titan, the giant moon that was the only planetary satellite 

found to have an atmosphere. Oberon, largest of the Uranus moons, had a 

diameter of about 1,690 kilometers (1,100 miles). Besides measuring the 

Uranus moons, the astronomers reported that Triton, largest moon of Neptune, and the planet Pluto were both too small and too cold for any heat radiation to be detected: the weakness of the sources led them to decide that Triton 

349 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1982 

must be smaller than Earth’s Moon. Triton and Pluto, “based on our current 

knowledge,” might be very similar; past speculation suggested that Pluto 

might have been a escaped moon of Neptune. (NASA Release 82-104) 

WFC announced the launch of a Nike Orion sounding rocket at 11:40 a.m. 

to measure magnetosphere instabilities induced by very low-frequency (VLF) 

waves produced in the troposphere. Its measurements would coincide with a 

satellite overpass to detect particle precipitation triggered by VLF waves from 

a high-intensity transmitter. (WFC Release 82-3) 

June 24: At 8:30 p.m. Moscow time (4:30 p.m. GMT), the Soviet Union 

launched Soyuz T-6 carrying cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Alexandr 

Ivanchenkov, with French “spationaut” Col. Jean-:Loup Chretien, to spend a 

week with cosmonauts Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev, the Soyuz 

T-5 crew who had been occupying orbiting laboratory Salyut 7 since May 13. 

This was the first time a five-man crew would occupy an orbital station. Initial 

orbit elements were 277-kilometer apogee, 248-kilometer perigee, 

89.6-minute period, and 51.6 O inclination. 

Chretien, who had trained with his French backup Maj. Patrick Baudry in 

the Soviet Union for 21 months, was the first westerner to take part in a Soviet 

space mission. (The last east-west venture was the US.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz 

linkup in July 1975.) The mission had been approved by French President 

Valery Giscard d’Estaing in 1979. 

This was also the first Soviet life television coverage of a launch, beginning 

two hours before liftoff with taped views of crew training, Salyut assembly, 

Soyuz rollout, departure of the crew by bus, interviews with the crew orbiting 

in the Salyut, and ending with a live broadcast of .the liftoff plus 10 minutes. 

During the two-hour broadcast, all three crew members gave speeches praising the trip as symbolic of friendship between French and Soviet peoples. 

(FBIS, Moscow Tass in English, June 24/82, June: 28182; Mosc DomTVSvc 

in Russian, June 24182; NY Times, June 25/82, A-9; W Post, June 25/82, 

A-22; Spacewarn SPX-344, June 29182) 

June 27: NASA launched STS-4, fourth test flight of space shuttle Columbia, 

from KSC at 11 a.m. carrying Ken Mattingly as commander and Henry Hartsfield as pilot. This was the first time that the Shuttle had lifted off on 

schedule, but the chase planes televising separation did not show the opening 

of parachutes on the two reusable solid-fuel booster rockets, and there was no 

sign on the ocean surface of any of the six mailn chutes or either of the 

boosters, which cost $24 million each. Boosters from earlier launches were 

towed to KSC for refit. After disassembly and cleaning, the first six motorigniter-nozzle assemblies were returned to Thioko1”s Utah plant for rebuilding 

at !$7 million each; this procedure had saved NASA $36 million per flight for 

the first three flights. 

The launch was imperiled the night before by a one-hour hailstorm with 

350 
JUNE 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

pellets “the size of golf balls” denting about 400 of the black protective tiles 

on the Shuttle’s undersides. Workmen on hastily erected scaffolds had applied 

a hardener to strengthen the tiles. Enough water soaked the tiles to make the 

crew need to bake the underside of the Shuttle in the sunlight for 10 hours to 

dry it out, so that low temperatures on the night side of the Earth would not 

freeze and further damage the tiles. Mattingly and Hartsfield had begun to 

power up the 2,000-pound cargo put in the payload bay by the Air Force as 

well as four experiments managed by MSFC, including the first use of the 

Shuttle by a commercial firm. Press reports called it “an open secret” that 

the U.S. Air Force instruments included an extremely sensitive infrared 

telescope, an ultraviolet telescope, and a new space sextant designed to 

navigate spy satellites without ground command. 

Hartsfield, on his spaceflight, suffered nausea but was later able to eat dinner. Instead of televising a view of the payload bay as other crews had done, 

or using the camera on the end of the 60-foot robot arm to show the Earth 

as they saw it from space, the crew merely described the view, expressing surprise at the amount of detail discernible. The seven-day mission would “wring 

out the wrinkles” in the Shuttle not dealt with on the first three flights. NASA 

said that it would name a board to review “in excruciating detail” how the 

boosters could sink in 3,500 feet of water although the drogue parachutes were 

found floating 150 miles downrange. (NASA Release 82-87; MSFC Release 

82-56; NASA MOR M-989-82-04 [prelaunch] June 18/82; W Post, June 

28/82, A-1; June 29/82, A-2; Dtln Gd, June 28/82; Marshall Star, June 

30182, 1) 

During June: NASA announced that Dr. Walter C. Williams, chief engineer 

since July 1975, would retire in July. Dr. Stanley I. Weiss, associate administrator for space transportation operations, would succeed him. Williams 

began his career with NACA, NASA’s predecessor, in August 1940 and worked during the war to improve U.S. fighter planes. He was founding director 

of the organization that became NASA’s Dryden facility. He went to Langley 

Field, Va., in September 1959 as associate director of the new NASA space 

task group created to carry out Project Mercury and later was director of 

operations for the project. He then became associate director of NASA’s 

manned spacecraft center in Houston that later was JSC. He went to NASA 

Headquarters in January 1963, leaving in April 1964 to work for Aerospace 

Corporation’s vehicle systems. He became NASA’s first chief engineer in 1975. 

(NASA anno, June 1/82; NASA Release 82-86) 

-NASA announced the appointment of George F. Page as deputy director 

of KSC effective July 5. He had directed Shuttle operations there since lmS 

and was launch director for the first three launches of Columbia. From 1964 

to 1975 he directed KSC operations planning for 19 Gemini and 25 Apollo 

spacecraft launches, ending with the lunar landings and the successful Apollo351 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1982 

Soyuz project. He directed unmanned launch operations from 1975 to 1979, 

with more than 54 major launches from both KSC and the Western Test Range 

(WTR) at Vandenberg Air Force Base. (NASA anno June 21/82; NASA 

Release 82-102) 

352 
July 1: “A clever bit of rewiring. . .with the skill of an automobile thief’ enabled the astronauts aboard Columbia (STS-4) [see June 271 to bypass a defective 

circuit and turn on the power for part of its payload called the “getaway 

special .” The University of Utah students sponsoring the experiment had 

given up hope but now planned to accomplish nearly all of their objectives. 

A thank-you message from the students said, “One small switch for NASA, 

a giant turn-on for us.” 

Engineers at JSC and GSFC had transmitted 10 possible corrective 

measures after figuring out that a cable from a control panel was faulty; on 

the first try, everything began to work, and the conclusion was that launch 

vibrations could have loosened a connection. 

A more serious problem arose when the clamshell doors of the payload bay 

refused to shut snugly after exposure to the heat and cold of space had expanded and contracted the aluminum fuselage and graphite epoxy doors. A similar 

problem on the preceding flight was solved by putting Columbia into a slow 

roll (the so-called barbecue mode), turning the surface toward and away from 

the Sun to equalize temperatures around the ship. Columbia had been circling 

the Earth for most of the last two days with its underside facing the Sun, as 

a means of baking out moisture trapped in the insulating tiles from a hail 

storm the night before liftoff. Harold Draughon, a flight director, said that 

data from the flight showed that all the tiles had baked dry. (NASA MOR 

MR-004, 3; NY Times, July 1/82, B-8) 

July 2: Larry Walters of Los Angeles went for a 3-mile-high ride in an 

aluminum lawn chair borne aloft by 45 weather balloons and ballasted with 

jugs of water, ending with his unusual craft wrapped around power lines in 

Long Beach about 20 miles from his starting place in San Pedro. During his 

45-minute flight he reached an altitude of 16,000 feet, got so cold he became 

numb, and had to shoot some of the balloons with a BB gun to make his flying 

chair descend. 

He was also sighted by pilots of Delta Air Lines and Trans World Airlines 

jets. A safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said 

that Walters had broken “some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon 

as we decide which part it is some type of charge will be filed.” Walters later 

said, “you couldn’t pay me a million dollars to do it again.” (NY Times, July 

4/82, 22) 

The French-Soviet crew of Soyuz T-6 that had visited Salyut 7 and its Soyuz 

T-5 occupants for a week returned safely to Earth at 6:21 p.m. Moscow time, 

353 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1982 

landing near Arkalyk with cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Aleksandr 

Ivanchenkov and their visiting spacenaut from France, Col. Jean-Loup Chretien, “in good health.” Tass said that the research planned by Soviet and 

French scientists was “accomplished in full.” Work aboard Sulyut 7continued 

with cosmonauts Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev. (FBIS, Tass in 

English, July 2/82) 

July 4: Crowds estimated at half a million watched Columbia’s fourth return 

to Earth, the first to use a concrete runway at Edwards Air Force Base. Among 

about 30,000 guests invited by NASA to the occasion were President and Mrs. 

Reagan. His comment at the touchdown was “Halppy Fourth of July, and you 

know this has got to beat firecrackers.” 

The fourth flight, STS-4, was classified as the: last of four test flights but 

carried more than 22,000 pounds of cargo, including a secret military payload. 

Although security considerations kept it from being photographed for 

viewers, the 50-foot mechanical arm designed to move objects in and out of 

the cargo bay and capture objects in space had been in use on this flight to 

move an 800-pound contamination monitor around the cargo bay. 

The runway, about 300 feet wide and 15,000 feet long, was about the size 

of the one at KSC made for routine Shuttle use after the seventh flight. The 

fifth (and first operational) flight scheduled for November would carry two 

commercial communications satellites, one for Canada and one for Satellite 

Business Systems; each .customer would pay NASA $21 million if the 

spacecraft reached orbit safely. Shuttle Program Manager Glynn S. Lunney 

said that NASA would do well to achieve one launch per month by the late 

1980s and, ultimately, 24 to 30 per year. (NASA MOR M-989-82-04, July 

19/82; NY Ernes, July 5/82, A-1, 8; W Post, July 4/82, A-1, A-11; July 5/82, 

A-1; July 6/82, A-9) 

July 19: With the end of the four-flight orbital test program using the Shuttle 

Columbia, Maj. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, NASA’s associate administrator 

for space transportation systems, announced that the STS-4 mission was a success “under conditions more demanding than STS-3 conditions.” He said that 

the test-program flights were “accomplishments of international significance” 

and a credit to the Shuttle development team. (NASA MOR M-989-82-04 

[postflight] July 19/82) 

July 20: Marine Col. Robert E Overmyer, named as copilot with Vance D. 

Brand on the STS-5 flight, told a JSC preflight press conference that the mission would carry four astronauts, the largest number to fly on any U.S. 

spacecraft; the other two would be physicists Joseph P. Allen and William B. 

Lenoir, both making their first spaceflight. Overrnyer said that it would take 

four men to launch the two communications satellites set for deployment from 

STS-5 over the Pacific between Hawaii and Chile. 

The Shuttle’s two ejection seats would be repla.ced with three nonejectable 

354 
JULY 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

cockpit seats. The fourth crewman would ride in a seat installed in the middeck of Columbia’s cabin next to the airlock leading to the cargo bay, designed 

for use in the first Shuttle space walk. The report said that the crew did not 

seem bothered to be “the first to fly the shuttle without being able to eject 

if the spaceliner is damaged during liftoff.” (W Post, July 21/82, A-1) 

July 23: NASA said that Landsat 4, launched July 16, was “in excellent condition” and ready for a week’s orbit-adjustment maneuvers. The multispectral 

scanner, one of its two sensor systems, was turned on July 19; the first image 

had been processed at GSFC, results indicating “flawless operation of the instrument and spacecraft systems.” Transmission of data from the new, more 

powerful thematic mapper began July 20; images of the area around Detroit 

should be available in a week. (NASA Release 82-112) 

July 27: NASA reported the failure at 9 a.m. of a high-speed tape recorder 

on Nimbus 5 collecting’ Antarctic and Arctic radiometer data for the U.S. 

Navy. The loss of the last recorder on Nimbus 5 meant that future operations 

would have to be in real time, subject to the communications satellites view 

of the Alaska ground station. NASA had agreed to provide Nimbus 5 data 

through FY83, and the Navy had reimbursed NASA as a source of data for 

polar sea-ice calculations. NASA would review real-time operation with the 

Navy. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, July 30/82) 

July 30: Cosmonauts Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev made a space 

walk from the orbiting station Sulyut 7 to disassemble and partially replace 

wornout equipment on the station’s exterior and study opportunities for doing 

various jobs outside it. After they donned space suits, Lebedev left the station 

for the “zone” of operations, while Berezovoy remained in the open manhole 

to film his walk for television. They dismantled and passed into the station 

a micrometeorite-measuring instrument and some panels with optical and 

various structural materials that had been outside the station since its launch 

April 19. They also tested the station after exposure of thermomechanical and 

threaded connections made of different metals that might be used in assembling future craft in orbit. (FBIS, Tass in English, July 30/82) 

During July: Press reports said that astronauts Margaret Rhea Seddon and 

Robert I. Gibson were parents of a baby boy, Paul, born July 26 in Houston. 

Seddon, 34, and Gibson, 35, joined the astronaut program in January 1978 and 

were married in May 1981. Also, Dr. Sally K. Ride, selected for the seventh 

Space Shuttle mission as first female U.S. astronaut, announced her marriage 

to colleague Steven Hawley at her hometown, Salina, Kans. Hawley, an 

astronomer, had not yet been selected for a mission. (WPost, July 27/82, C-3; 

St. L P/Dsp, Aug 15/82) 

355 

August 

August 3: NASA announced that ARC and LaRC were cooperating in the acquisition of data on the giant stratospheric cloud produced by the eruption of 

El Chichon volcano in March and April, now covering much of the Earth’s 

northern hemisphere, to define the cloud’s effect on global weather patterns. 

The centers were using satellites, U-2 aircraft, and lidar (light-intensification 

detection and ranging) for the study. The lidar equipment, mounted in a 

Lockheed Electra aircraft, would shoot laser pulses into the atmosphere and 

monitor reflections, “painting” the spatial and vertical extent of cloud layers 

above the aircraft. Lidar measurements in mid-July confirmed earlier findings 

of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that the 

volcano had put up to 50 times (500 times in some areas) the normal amount 

of aerosols into the upper atmosphere; that the material layers had spread to 

different latitudes, depending on altitude; and that sunlight reaching Earth’s 

surface could be reduced several percent. 

The cloud, a mixture of dust and sulfuric acid, would offer “a once-in-alifetime chance” to form an information base for prediction of dispersion, 

changes in temperature, and dynamic and photochemical changes, according 

to Dr. M. Patrick McCormick, head of LaRC’s aerosol research branch. Dr. 

Brian Toon, atmospheric physicist at ARC, said that the most likely effect of 

the cloud would be a gradual reduction in northern hemisphere temperature 

over the next two years. (NASA Release 82-115; ARC Release 82-31; LaRC 

Release 82-57) 

August 6: GSFC astronomers said that a new comet, Austin 1982G, brightest 

since 1979, should arrive in view of skywatchers later this month. The comet, 

the first one visible to the naked eye since 1976, would be six times as bright 

as the faintest star. It would pass closest to the Earth August 10 and closest 

to the Sun August 24. Long before then, NASA’s international ultraviolet explorer (he) would be photographing it in the ultraviolet spectrum to detect its 

composition. Astronomers hoped to define the content of the comet to compare it with short-period ones previously observed and with Comet Halley, 

due to appear in 1985-86. (NASA Release 82-118) 

August 9: NASA announced that it would try to salvage the two solid-fuel 

rocket boosters that sank in the Atlantic June 27. Underwater cameras carried 

by the Scarab 2, a remotely controlled submersible vehicle operated by technicians from Ocean Search, Inc., Lanham, Md., from the deck of the United 

Space Boosters recovery ship UX Freedom, showed the boosters on the ocean 

floor, broken up by the impact. The debris had no built-in lifting points, but 

PRECEDING PAGE 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1982 

the Scarab could attach recovery lines to the sunken objects for hydraulic lift 

by the salvage ships. 

Vessels used for recovery would include, besides the Scarab, the U7C 

Freedom and U7C' Liberty (the designated booster-recovery ships). A remote 

station on a recovery ship would navigate Scarab, using bridge displays to 

show range and bearing, heading, depth, and pitchroll of the submersible. 

Radar had located the boosters at about 3,500 feet, too deep for humans in 

hardshell diving suits to inspect; Scarab could operate in underwater currents 

up to 0.5 knots at 6,000 feet using three television cameras and one still camera 

with six quartz-diode floodlights to illuminate the ocean-floor. 

The solid-fuel rocket boosters' parachutes failed to open properly because 

explosivc bolts on half the parachute risers fired prematurely. Premature firing separated half of the risers from each main parachute, allowing the 

parachutes to stream instead of filling with air. NASA did not know why the 

explosive bolts fired prematurely. (AvW, Aug. 9182, 20; Spaceport News, 

Aug 19/82, 1 & 2; W Post, Aug 2/82, 3) 

NASA said that it had selected eight companies to negotiate fixed-price contram of less than $1 million each for space-station mission studies. The companies were Boeing Aerospace, General Dynamics, Grumman Aerospace, 

Lockheed, Martin Marietta Aerospace, McDonneII Douglas, Rockwell, and 

TRW. 

The eight-month studies to be covered by the contracts would identify and 

analyze the scientific, commercial, national security, and space operations 

missions that could be conducted most efficiently by a space station. Contractors would use the studies to develop alternative concepts for the station, with 

specific mission requirements and architectural opitions to be incorporated in 

NASA's Shuttle-tended permanent orbiting facility. (NASA Release 82-121; 

MSFC Release 82-75) 

August 10: NASA said that Administrator James M. Begs had signed in Vienna, Austria, a memorandum of understanding with Hans-Hilger Haunschild 

of the Federal Republic of Germany ministry for research and technology to 

cooperate in an astrophysics mission called ROSA'T (Roentgensatellit), to be 

launched in 1987. ROSAT would join Galileo and the active magnetosphericparticle tracer explorer missions as another cooperative project between 

NASA and West Germany. 

ROSAT would study X-ray emissions of nonsolar celestial objects, surveying specific sources for extended periods. Operating in both a survey and a 

pointed mode, ROSAT would compile an X-ray source catalog. The Federal 

Republic of Germany would provide the spacecraft; NASA, the highresolution imaging detector and Shuttle-launch services; the United 

Kingdom's science and engineering research council would provide an XUV 

wide-field camera. NASA and West Germany would invite proposals from the 

international scientific community for investigations. (NASA Release 82-119) 

358 
AUGUST 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

August 13: An ESA team of 17 engineers arrived at MSFC to prepare for the 

first Spacelab launch on the Shuttle, now scheduled for September. Preparations would include extensive training and simulations with the Spacelab 

payload specialists, including two Europeans already based at MSFC and the 

NASA payload-operations engineers supporting NASA experiments on the 

mission. Several months before launch, the NASA/ESA team would begin to 

support operations from the payload-operations control center (POCC) at 

JSC. 

The ESA team had been working for five years on computer software and 

displays, crew procedures, experiment simulators to train the crew and the 

POCC team, and establishing a data base. The team, representing 6 different 

countries, would support experiments from 11 European countries. The 38 experiments on Spacelab 1 in five scientific disciplines would include 25 ESA 

experiments. (NASA Release 82-76; MSFC Release 82-77) 

ARC reported the effects of disruption of the body’s circadian (24 hour) 

rhythms on test groups subjected to weightlessness, rapid shifts in darkness 

and light, and social isolation, conditions similar to those encountered on 

manned space missions. These effects were important, said Dr. Charles 

Winget, ARC physiologist, because similar conditions on Earth were 

associated with boredom, irritability, negative moods, and withdrawal; the 

desynchronosis could also cause fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, gastrointestinal 

and other physical symptoms, and resulting decreased performance. 

Experimental subjects showed abnormal temperatures and brain waves during circadian disruption; neither measurement returned to normal in less than 

two weeks. Upset rhythms caused problems with physical health, emotions, 

behavior, sleep, altered responses to medication, and increased susceptibility 

to colds, viruses, and infections. Daily rhythms linked to Earth’s light/dark cycle appeared to be a natural function of cell-formation cycles in the human 

body, except for cancer cells, which did not exhibit rhythms. Pulse rate, blood 

pressure, heart rate, temperature, kidney function, metabolism, and hormone 

secretions, all followed a pattern; drugs and alcohol affected the body differently at various times. Winget and others had developed a new field of 

biology called chronopharmacology to study the effects of drugs administered 

at different times of day. (ARC Release 82-32; NASA Release 82-124) 

August 19-29: The Soviet Union launched Soyuz T-7at 9:12 p.m. Moscow time 

August 19 carrying three cosmonauts to orbital station Sulyur 7 to join Anatoly 

Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev, who had been working there sirice May 14. 

Commander of Soyut T-7 was Col. Leonid Popov; flight engineer was 

Aleksandr Serebrov; and researcher was Svetlana Savitskaya, the second 

woman to fly on a space mission. Initial orbit parameters were 280-kilogram 

apogee, 223-kilometer perigee, 89.5-minute period, and 51.6 O ir clination. 

On August 20, Soyuz T-7 docked with the Salyut 7-Soyuz T-5 complex at 

359 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTlCS AUGUST 1982 

10:32 p.m. Moscow time. The five-person crew would carry out a week-long 

scientific program, largely medicobiological research, Tass reported. Soviet 

manned flights had included many studies of the effects of weightlessness on 

men; the present crew would check the effects “on the female organism” to 

understand better how humans adapted to life in those conditions. 

An interim report said that Sulyut 7 had “more comfortable conditions for 

life and work” than Sulyut 6. On a television broadcast, rookie Savitskaya 

said, “I think women cosmonauts can work in outer space successfully 

and. . .in future whole families will work on orbital stations.” On August 26 

the visitors began preparing for their return trip, packing research materials, 

like biological objects with technical documentation, and used equipment 

such as exposed still and motion-picture film. They returned to Earth at 7:04 

p.m. Moscow time August 27 in the Soyut T-5 that had carried Berezovoy and 

Lebedev to Sulyur Z On August 29 the remaining crew redocked Soyuz T-7 

with the orbiting Sufyut 7 to make room for carg,o vehicles expected later. 

(FBIS, Tass in English, Aug 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 29; NY Times, Aug 20182, 

A-28; Aug 21182; AUg 27/82, A-11; Aug 28/82, 5; AUg 29182,3; W Post, Aug 

20182, A-25) 

August 26: NASA launched Canada’s Telesat-G, called Anik D-I in orbit, from 

ESMC on a Delta at 7:lO p.m. EDT. Transfer-orbit parameters were 

36,358-kilometer apogee, 185-kilometer perigee, and 24.5 inclination. Firing of a booster motor at 5:29 p.m. EDT Augusl 29 put Anik D into synchronous orbit, and it was maneuvered to a station 104”W above the equator. 

Anik D, weighing 2,370 pounds at liftoff, was the heaviest payload launched 

into transfer orbit by a Delta from that site. Initial on-station weight was 1,454 

pounds. This was a 30th consecutive success for the: Delta, a new record. The 

24-channel communications satellite would provide Canada with television, 

data, and voice communications. 

Anik D was Canada’s tenth satellite and fifth in .a series of domestic commercial communications satellites owned and operated by Telesat Canada. It 

would be a backup in orbit for three aging Anik A satellites (launched 1972, 

1973, and 1975) and Anik B (1978). (NASA MOR M-492-201-82-05 [prelaunch] 

Aug 24/82, [postlaunch] Jan 17/83; NASA Release 82-126; Spacewarn 

SPX-346, Aug 31182; NASA DQ Actv Rpt, Sept 1/32; SSR, Sept 2/82; A/D, 

Aug 31/82, 343; AvWk, Sept 6/82, 53) 

During August: Dr. Christopher C. Kraft announced his resignation as director of JSC. He had retired from federal service in March 1980 but had stayed 

on at the request of the NASA administrator to see the Shuttle program 

through the flight-test phase that ended July 4. Kraft had begun working for 

NASA’s predecessor organization, NACA, in 1945 and was appointed director 

at JSC in 1972. He would be succeeded by Gerald 1). Griffin. (NASA Release 

-Pravda announced the death of Nikolai Pilyugin, 74, a key figure in 

82-116) 

360 
AUGUST 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

development of the Soviet space program. An obituary signed by President 

Leonid Brezhnev said that Pilyugin, who had headed a large researc:h institute 

for 20 years, was an outstanding designer in the field of space-rocket engineering. He was credited with designing the control system for Soviet launch 

vehicles, space ships, and interplanetary stations. (FBIS, Pravda in Russian, 

Aug 3/82) 

361 

September 

September 6: India declared its first commercial satellite, INSAT I, “dead” 

because its fuel supply had run out and it failed to respond to ground commands 150 days after an April 10 launch. Built by Ford Aerospace to Indian 

Space Research Organization (ISRO) specifications and launched from Cape 

Canaveral, INSAT was the first operational spacecraft equipped for telecommunications, direct-broadcast television, and weather. Prime Minister Indira 

Gandhi’s government had planned to use INSAT to broadcast the Asian Games 

scheduled for New Delhi. 

ISRO was reported “caught off guard” by the amount of fuel it had used 

to correct early malfunctions. Soon after reaching orbit, INS.4T’s C-band 

antenna jammed. Fuel was wasted trying to free it, as well as to deploy the 

malfunctioning solar sail designed to collect energy from the Sun’s rays. 

Failure of the sail would have reduced INSAT’s life from 7 to 2 112, years. Fuelsupply checks might have been inaccurate. 

Because INSAT was built to ISRO specifications, blame would probably fall 

on Satish Dhawan, head of India’s space program, who had argued for a 

multifunction satellite to bring radio and television to thousands of remote 

villages and give India international telecommunications links. H e considered 

mass communications the best hope for progress in a country with a 36% 

literacy rate. India’s press hinted that the system had tried for too many 

functions. 

A second India communications satellite had been planned for shuttle 

launch next July as a backup for INSAT, and the government would have to 

decide how to proceed. Leasing two transponders on INTELSAT’s Indian 

Ocean satellite as a cost of $16 million per year to partly cover the loss of INSAT would not offer India the prestige of using its own satellite during the 

games. (W Post, Sept 8/82, A-21; Nature, Sept 23/82, 293) 

September 9: Space Services Inc. (SSI) of America launched the first U.S. 

privately funded rocket from a small concrete launch pad at a cattle ranch on 

Matagorda Island, 45 miles northeast of Corpus Christi on the south coast of 

Texas, at ll:15 a.m. Washington time. Conestoga I rose to 196 miles altitude, 

traveling 326 miles downrange before dropping into the Gulf of Mexico. The 

solid-fuel rocket, with a motor purchased from NASA for $3658,000, was not 

designed for recovery. The booster successfully separated from the upper 

stage of the rocket; a shroud covering a mock payload that weighed 1,097 

pounds, including 40 gallons of water, ejected at peak altitude as a visual 

marker. 

After years of planning and one explosive failure in 1981, SSI’s launch 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1982 

would offer relatively inexpensive space transportation for firms wanting to 

put up private satellites without government help. SSI chairman David Hannah, a Houston real-estate man, said that the launch of Conestoga I was a 

“giant step forward” for his two-year-old company; the plan was to send up 

an orbital test flight within two years and start operating on a commercial 

basis shortly thereafter. 

Former astronaut Deke Slayton, who joined SSI after retirement from 

NASA and was in charge of the launch team, said that everything worked 

perfectly. Besides buying the booster from NASA, SSI also had help from 

subcontractors with considerable government experience and a variety of exNASA personnel. It was negotiating for a permanent launch site in Hawaii but 

was also looking into a lease of the Atlas Centaur launch site in Florida for 

the sort of launches that could send heavier spacecraft, such as communications satellites, into orbit. 

As SSI officials toasted the successful launch with champagne, former 

director of KSC Lee Scherer, now an SSI consultant, remarked “You can’t do 

this at a government launch site.” He said that a high-level administration 

statement that SSI was “in the national interest” would put the firm in competition for space business. (W Post, Sept 10/82, A-1; NY Times, Sept 10182, 

A-I) 

FBIS reported that the People’s Republic of China successfully launched 

“another scientific experiment satellite.” This was the People’s Republic’s 12th 

satellite (the first was launched in 1970) and was timed for the opening of the 

national congress of the PRC Communist Party. L.ater reports said that the 

satellite had “landed with precision at the predetermined recovery site’’ on 

September 14 at 2:OO p.m. Beijing time. (FBIS, Xinhua in EngliShiDom Svc 

in Chinese, Sept 9/82, Sept 14/82; Pruvdu in Russian, Sept 10182; Tass Intl 

Svc in Russian, Sept 14/82) 

September 9-20: Europe’s first commercial space mission apparently failed 

when Ariane rocket L5 vanished 14 minutes after its launch from French 

Guiana September 9 at 11:12 p.m. local time. It was carrying European 

satellites Marecs-B and Sirio-2, a maritime telecommunications satellite and 

a weather satellite, both lost with the rocket in the Atlantic north of Ascension 

Island when the motor stopped 30 seconds early. This was the second failure 

in five Ariane launch attempts; the two previous attempts succeeded, although 

they carried no commercial payloads. A success would have put the Arianes 

into competition for contracts to launch commercial satellites. 

ESA began investigating the failure. First reports said that the problem was 

in third-stage turbopump parts in the casing or the lubrication system. The 

first and second stages operated correctly, as did the separations and jettison 

of the fairing. The third stage ignited and ran for 275 seconds when rotation 

speed dropped, reaching zero at 325 seconds. The drop in thrust and engine 

364 
SEPTEMBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

cut-out led to a downward trajectory. (W Post, Sept 10/82, A-1; ESA Info 27, 

29, 30) 

September 10: NASA rolled out the first lightweight external tank for the 

Space Shuttle at its Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. The tank, 

structural backbone of the Shuttle launch assembly, included an oxygen tank, 

a hydrogen tank, and a connecting intertank housing the instrumlzntation. 

At 66,824 pounds the new tank was more than 10,000 pounds lighter than 

the one used for the first Shuttle flight in April 1981; the reduced weight would 

add payload capability almost pound for pound. The new tank, loaded on a 

NASA barge for shipment to KSC, would be prepared for the sixth shuttle 

mission scheduled for January 1983. (MSFC Releases 82-81, 82-83) 

September 15: NASA announced that MSFC had selected four of the eight 

aerospace firms making space-station mission analyses for Headquarters to 

negotiate contracts exploring early uses of a space station. Each MSFC contract would address a specific area: Boeing would describe building large 

structures in orbit, such as huge communications antennas; both Martin 

Marietta and TRW would study servicing and maintenance of satellites by a 

manned facility in space; and General Dynamics would study operations of 

a Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) serviced in space by a manned facility to 

move payloads from lower to higher orbits. 

William R. Marshall, MSFC director of program development, said that the 

studies would posit a space station in orbit by 1990 and the kinds of experimental operations to be carried out there that would lead to a fully operational station by the end of the century. (NASA Release 82-134) 

September 16: NASA reported a happy ending to a search-and-rescue mission 

that began in July with the loss of a pilot somewhere in northern !British Columbia. The Canadian government conducted an unsuccessful search that cost 

$2 million before it ended. The father of the missing pilot started to search 

with a pilot and another passenger and failed to return on September 9. They 

had crashed in a valley 3,500 feet deep where the Rockies hid their rescue 

beacon from passing planes. The Canadian rescue center had no data on their 

location. 

Canada had just joined in the SARSAT (search-and-rescue satellite-aided 

tracking) program using Cospas 1, a Soviet satellite launched June 30, and 

asked for any data it might gather. Early September 10 the satellite 600 miles 

up detected an emergency locator-transmitter in the area; a search aircraft 

found the crash and called for a rescue helicopter. All three persons had been 

injured but had survived. Canadian authorities praised the timely rescue of the 

victims at minimal cost. (NASA Dly Aclv Apt, Sept 16/82; W Posr, Sept 30/82, 

A-3) 

365 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1982 

September 20: NASA announced the selection o:f a West German physicist, 

Ulf Merbold, and a U.S. biomedical engineer, Byron K. Lichtenberg, as the 

first nonastronauts to fly on the Space Shuttle. The two would be part of a 

crew of six on the ninth Shuttle mission, scheduled for September 1983, and 

would use the Spacelab workshop installed for the first time in the Shuttle 

cargo bay to operate 38 scientific packages representing more than 70 investigators from Europe, Japan, and the United States. ESA, which for 10 

years had planned and built the $1 billion joint US.-European Spacelab unit, 

had agreed with NASA that one European scientist would be on all Shuttle 

missions carrying a Spacelab. 

Merbold, trained at Stuttgart University, compeiied for his Shuttle seat with 

Dutch physicist Wubbo Ockels, trained at the University of Groningen. 

Lichtenberg, with a Ph.D. from MIT, competetd with Michael Lampton, 

holding a doctorate in physics from CalTech. Winners were chosen in secret 

ballot by a panel of 36 U.S. and European scientists. (MSFC Release 82-86; 

ESA Info 31; W Post, Sept 20182, A-5) 

September 28: NASA launched Intelsat 5E F-5 at 7:08 p.m. EDT from Cape 

Canaveral on an Atlas Centaur into a transfer orbit with 35,962-kilometer 

apogee, 165.7-kilometer perigee, and 24.4 O inclination. This craft would carry 

for the first time a maritime communications package for ship and shore use 

by INMARSAT. ’An apogee kick motor fired October 1 would start it to 

geosynchronous orbit. (NASA Release 82-136; NASA MOR 

M-491-203-82-05 [prelaunch] Sept 22/82, [postlaunch] Oct 26182) 

During September: NASA Headquarters announced the reorganization of its 

Office of Space Transportation Systems and Office of Space Transportation 

Operations into a new Office of Space Flight. L. Michael Weeks was named 

acting deputy associate administrator, with assistant associate administrators 

for policy, space transportation, and institutions. The new arrangement would 

stress integrated Shuttle operations planning and direction; STS orientation to 

customers; a manageable span of control for the associate administrator; maximum delegation of authority to subordinate officials and field organizations; 

and minimum disruption to existing lines of communication with centers and 

outside NASA. (SP anno, Sept 1/82) 

-John J. Quann was appointed deputy director of GSFC, effective 

September 8. He had been director of GSFC’s mission and data operations 

directorate since October 1980 and had worked at Goddard since 1963. 

(NASA anno Sept 1/82; NASA Release 82-131) 

-NASA named Dr. Frank B. McDonald, chief of GSFC’s laboratory for 

high-energy physics since 1970, as NASA chief sciantist, effective September 

20. In this position he would be the principal adviser to the administrator and 

other senior officials on scientific aspects of NASA activities. Beginning at 

GSFC in 1959, McDonald had been project scientist on nine NASA satellite 

programs and principal investigator for many space (experiments. He previous366 
SEPTEMBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

ly taught physics at the Iowa State University of Science and Technology. 

(NASA anno, Sept 9/82; NASA Release 82-133) 

-NASA reported that the Shuttle orbiter Enterprise, not slated for flight, 

was still working for the U.S. space program, helping DFRF engineers to 

predict and avert structural trouble spots resulting from wear and tear. All preShuttle spacecraft had been one-shot items, so that space fatigue was a new 

problem. As each Shuttle was meant to fly up to 100 missions, NASA needed 

a reliable way to foresee difficulties before they developed into problems and 

to detect potential weakness without damaging the structure. A method called 

modal analysis measuring structural response to shaker acceleration could 

track changes from baseline data. Piecemeal testing of parts woulld not give 

results valid for the entire structure: Enterprise, built to the same dimensions 

as the four actual orbiters, was “uniquely qualified for the job,” researchers 

said. (NASA Release 82-139; DFRF Release 82-13) 

-MSFC said that Lockheed’s contractor facility had successfully extended 

and retracted an experimental solar-array wing as tall as a 10-story building, 

scheduled for flight on the Space Shuttle in 1984. Unlike rigid metal structures 

used on current long-life spacecraft, the accordion-like array consisting of 

lightweight flexible plastic contained contact solar cells welded diriectly to the 

array like a printed circuit. The wing, measuring 105 feet by 13.5 feet, could 

fold into a package less than four inches thick and expand in orbit to its full 

length on a coilable extension mast. It could provide 66 watts per kilogram 

compared to 20 watts in present systems. (MSFC Release 82-84) 

367 

October 

October I: NASA signed an agreement with the National Science Foundation 

(NSF) that transferred management and operation of the Nation(s1 Scientific 

Balloon Facility (NSBF) at Palestine, Tex., from NSF to NASA as of October 

1. The largest and most advanced facility of its type in the worldl, the NSBF 

provided launch and services for scientific balloons at its location 200 miles 

north of Houston. The site had good conditions for launching lighter-than-air 

craft, and the ground track after launch put balloons over large portions of 

the continental United States, allowing easy tracking and instrument 

monitoring. 

Balloon vehicles could carry payloads for research in atmospheric physics, 

astronomy, and astrophysics to altitudes above the stratosphere (70,000 feet or 

higher). NASA had been the principal user of the facility; other users were 

NSF and private and foreign research institutions. GSFC’s Wallops Flight 

Facility ’would manage NSBF for NASA. (GSFUWFF Release 132-8; NASA 

Release 82-142) 

October 4: The Washington Post noted the 25th anniversary of the USSR‘s 

launch of an orbiting satellite, saying that “no single event in history assaulted 

America’s image of itself as did Sputnik.” Subsequent U.S. space ventures 

“did nothing but tarnish that image,” the Army and Navy arguing over which 

would launch the first satellite, while the Soviet Union orbited dogs, rats, and 

mice and took pictures of the dark side of the Moon. 

The Navy got the first opportunity December 6, 1957, with Vanguard on the 

pad at Cape Canaveral and “literally blew it.” The Army was given four days 

in January 1958 to launch Explorer from the Cape. When the laiunch finally 

took place after being delayed two days by unsafe winds, sea air had so corroded Army tracking radios in the Caribbean that the Cape never received the 

signal that the satellite was in orbit. In 1961 “the roof fell in” when Yuri 

Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth, and Gherman ‘Titov orbited 

17 times. The “best U.S. orbital effort that year was that of Ham the chimpanzee.’’ Not until 1962 did John Glenn orbit the Earth, and then for only 

three orbits. By the,end of that year the Soviet Union had sent four cosmonauts 

into space. 

President John F. Kennedy had told Congress May 25, 1961, that the U.S. 

goal would be to put a man on the Moon and return him safely “before the 

end of the decade.” By the time a three-man crew in Apollo 8 orbited the 

Moon in 1968 at Christmastime, “the space race was over. What happened 

to the Soviets?” 

Former JSC Director Chris Kraft said in an interview that the Soviet Union 

PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1982 

“abandoned their moon program. We took the wind right out of their sails.” 

Critics said that not all of the effects of the space race were good: it “spurred 

U.S. determination to improve the quality of schools and students, but whether 

that succeeded is debatable.” Kennedy “never saw the flight of anything to 

which he gave the initial impetus”; President Johnson, “who did more for the 

Apollo manned program than any president, suffered through the fatal Apollo 

fire”; President Nixon “basked in all of the Apollo triumphs only to answer 

for Watergate.” 

One educator said “Sputnik is one reason Johnny can’t read today. He’s 

more interested in Pac-Man, which you might call an outgrowth of Sputnik.” 

If Sputnik led to Pac-Man, the Washington Post said, it also “helped to produce the high technology of the computer revolution. . .Today’s state-of-the-art 

computer processes 5 million operations a second.” W Post, Oct 4/82, A-1) 

October 5: NASA observed the 100th anniversary of the birth in Worcester, 

Mass., of Dr. Robert Goddard, “father of modern rocketry.” President Reagan 

issued a proclamation calling October 5 “Dr. Robert H. Goddard Day,” noting 

that during his lifetime Goddard was “often ignored or ridiculed for his imagination, including the concept of a rocket going to the moon.” “Due to his 

pioneering vision of space travel and his tireless research efforts in developing 

the world’s first liquid-fuel rocket, the United States has achieved a preeminent position in space,” the proclamation said. “Dr. Goddard was a trailblazer 

to the stars.” (Text, procl Oct 5/82; Dtln Gd, Oct 5/82) 

October 6: NASA announced the selection of four of five crew members for 

the first DOD Shuttle mission, STS-10, scheduled for launch from KSC in the 

last quarter of 1983. The commander would be Thomas K. Mattingly; pilot, 

Loren J. Shriver; and mission specialists, Ellison S. Onizuka and James F, 

Buchli. The fifth crew member, an Air Force man.ned-spaccflight engineer, 

would be named later. (NASA Release 82-146; MSFC Release 82-90; NY 

Times, Oct 7/82, A-18) 

The Washington Post said that STS-5, the first operational Shuttle mission, 

would include simulation of a space repair job to practice for the salvaging 

of an orbiting satellite, Solar Max, in April 1984. The 5,000-pound Solar Max 

cost $70 million at its launch in February 1980 to study the Sun during maximum sunspot activity. Less than six months later, the devices pointing its instrumentation at the Sun broke down, and the satellite wa practically useless. 

Congress allowed $18 million to put the Shuttle alongside in a 308-mile-high 

orbit so that astronauts could ground a dozen cables, cut seals holding them 

to a panel, and pry the entire group from the panel. The greatest expense was 

for training the spacesuited crew to use tools and to handle the Solar Max as 

it orbited at 17,500-miles-per-hour alongside the Shuttle. (W Posf, Oct 7/82, 

A-23) 

370 
OCTOBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

NASA announced that the Federal Republic of Germany was thlz first nation 

to buy a dedicated Spacelab mission from NASA, at a cost cd about $65 

million. Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson, NASA associate administrator for 

space transportation systems, signed the launch services agreement with the 

chairman and vice chairman of the German aerospace research establishment 

(DFVLR). 

The D-1 Spacelab mission, set to fly on the Shuttle in June 1985, would consist of low-gravity experiments primarily from German industry and research 

groups in the field of materials processing in space and life sciences. The 

Federal Republic had given about 64% of the funding for the billion-dollar 

European development of Spacelab. (NASA Release 82-145) 

October 8: NASA declared successful the heat-capacity mapping mission 

(HCMM) launched from the WTR April 26, 1978. Carrying a two-channel 

radiometer to measure reflected solar radiation and emitter thennal radiation 

over a 1-year lifetime, HCMM acquired more than 25,000 Earth images during 

its 2 1/2 years in orbit with a spatial resolution superior to all prekious thermal 

sensors. (NASA MOR E-651-78-01 [postlaunch] Oct 8/82) 

JPL reported the discovery of the most distant object in the universe: a 

quasar named PKS 2000-330, more than 12 billion light years away. Light arriving at the Earth from that object started out before the solar system and probably the Milky Way itself were formed. Astronomers from the IJnited States, 

Great Britain, and Australia began the search 10 years ago, using JPL‘s Deep 

Space Network antennas in Australia to pinpoint radio sources that might be 

quasars. (NASA Release 82-154; JPL anno Oct 8/82) 

October 19: Astronomers from JPL and the University of Hawaii on October 

19 reported detection on two solar-system bodies-Pluto and Neptune’s largest 

satellitebTriton-of frozen methane, a substance present on Earth as a product 

of living organisms ,and petroleum. Although the surfaces, mostly water ice, 

of Pluto and Triton differed from those of other bodies orbiting the Sun, the 

methane did not seem to come from biological activity. (NASA Release 

82-157; JPL anno Oct 20/82) 

October 20: The 200-inch telescope at Mt. Palomar observatory and an extremely sensitive electronic camera made the first confirmed sighting of 

Halley’s comet beyond the orbit of Saturn. Recording the reflected light of an 

object the night of October 15 and observing it again at a predicted location 

the night of October 17, G. Edward Danielson and David C. Jewitt of CalTech 

told an October 20 press conference “it was both where we expected it to be 

and had the correct brightness:”: 

The sighting was the farthest ever made of Halley’s, named for English 

astronomer Edmond Halley, first to recognize it as one traveling through the 

inner solar system every 76 years. He correctly predicted its reappearance in 

371 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1982 

1758 but did not live to see it. Its spectacular appearance in 1910 resulted from 

a favorable arrangement of Sun, Earth, and comet that would not occur on this 

visit. (W Post, Oct 21/82, D-1) 

October 22: NASA Administrator James M. Begs announced a revised policy 

on Shuttle-mission opportunities for payload specialists, heretofore available 

only to those buying half or more of a Shuttle mission of flying a unique experiment needing the presence of a particular scientist or engineer. 

Starting in 1984, NASA would no longer require a minimum payload. 

Flights for payload specialists would be available on a reimbursable basis to 

all classes of customer: foreign and domestic commercial firms, international 

cooperative partners, the scientific and applications community, and DOD. 

The payload specialists would usually be scientists with special skills who 

would undergo a brief training for spaceflight. The expanded policy reflected 

a Shuttle-program goal of sending more people into space on a routine basis. 

(NASA Release 82-158; MSFC Release 82-9) 

October 2% NASA launched RCA-E (RCA-Sutcom 5) from ESMC at 9:28 

p.m. on a Delta into a synchronous transfer orbit. It would be stationed on 

the equator at 143 “W over the Pacific to serve the continental United States, 

Alaska, and Hawaii. First of a series of second-generation domestic communications satellites made by RCA Astro-Electronics, it arrived at ESMC 

“slightly overweight” and carried no third-stage telemetry. Confirmation of 

third-stage burn and spacecyft separation was delayed until it passed over the 

tracking station in New Jersey to confirm that it was working satisfactorily. 

(NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Oct 29/82; NASA Release 82-155; NASA MOR 

M-492-206-82-06 [prelaunch] Oct 26/82) 

NASA said that Cospas/SARSAT, an international search-and-rescue project 

of the United States, the Soviet Union, Canada, and France, had located four 

accident sites and saved seven lives in its first month of operation. The Soviet 

Union’s Cospas satellite, launched June 30, had located two downed planes in 

Canada during September, another in September in New Mexico, and a capsized catamaran off the coast of New England in October less than 24 hours 

after receiving the first signal. 

As part of the program the United States planned tcl launch in February 1983 

a weather satellite, NOAA-F, carrying a search-and-rescue capability. GSFC 

managed SARSAT activities for NASA. (NASA Release 82-152) 

October 30: The U.S. Air Force launched two military communications 

satellites from Cape Canaveral on its Space Division’s first Titan 34D and inertial upper stage (IUS). The first Defense Satellite Communications System 

111 (DSCS) satellites went into orbit with parameters of 

35,779/35,901-kilometer apogee, 35,641135,839-kilometer perigee, 

1440-minute period, and 2.5 O inclination. 

m 
OCTOBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND A.ERONAUTICS 

The Air Force Systems Command said that the launch was the culmination 

of five years of development effort on an experience base of 47 previous Titan 

I11 launches from the Cape. The DSCS system had handled national security 

communications since the late 1960s, maturing from simple short-lived 

satellites to flexible systems with six times the capacity and more: than three 

times the on-orbit life. (AFSC Newsreview, Nov 19/82, 1) 

During October: Leroy R. Grumman, 87, founder of the Grumman aerospace 

firm and designer of carrier-based airplanes with stubby teardrop-shaped 

fuselages used by the U.S. Navy in World War 11, died October 4 in 

Manhasset, N.Y., after a long illness. He had started his business with a few 

other persons in 1929 as a repair shop for amphibious aircraft hilt by the 

Loening brothers’ company; by the end of the war, Grumman employed 

20,000, and it was still Long Island’s largest employer. The company built 

more planes in a single month than any other U.S. firm (664, in March 1945) 

and made 98% of the Navy’s bombers. 

In 1966, when Grumman resigned as chairman of the board, the firm was 

building the lunar module that carried Apollo crews to the Moon. His awards 

included the Guggenheim Medal for Aeronautics and the Presidential Medal 

of Merit. (W Post, Oct 5/82, C-7; NY Times, Oct 5/82, D-25) 

m 

November 

November 3: A formal ceremony in Washington, D.C., marked the acceptance 

of the Canadian-built remote-manipulator system as “ready for operational 

use” on the Space Shuttle. NASA Administrator James M. Begs and Dr. 

Larkin Kerwin, head of Canada’s National Research Council (NRC), signed 

an agreement declaring the device (already successfully used on STS-;I, 

STS-3, and STS-4) operational. Although NRC thus fulfilled its obligations 

under a 1975 memorandum of understanding, it would continue to monitor th.e 

arm system on future missions. Next use of the arm would be on STS-7 in 

April 1983. (NASA Release 82-168) 

DFRF resumed its DAST (drones for aerodynamic and structurad testing) 

flight-test program with a successful launch and flight of the DAST 1 vehicle 

from its B-52 carrier. The 15-minute test of the remotely piloted research vehicle by NASA civilian research pilot Thomas C. McMurtry used flight-control, 

instrumentation, and launch and recovery systems. This was the first flight 

since DAST lost a wing in June 1980. 

The joint program of DFRF and LaRC would lead to flying transport arid 

other aircraft more efficiently with more flexible wings and allowing larger 

aircraft payloads or greater fuel economy, or both. Rather than use “brute 

force” stiffening in wings to ensure a safe approach to flutter boundaries (the 

point at which destructive flapping occurred), DAST computers would indicate ways to suppress flutter. (DFRF Release 82-18) 

November 4: MSFC said that it had selected Martin Marietta Aerospace to 

negotiate a $1-million contract for a tethered-satellite system concept. A 

tethered-satellite system would go into orbit on the Space Shuttle in the late 

1980s, suspended downward from the cargo bay on a 60-mile-long: tether to 

troll the atmosphere for days as a time to gather magnetospheric, atmospheric, 

and gravitational data. It could also be deployed upward to study electrodynamic and other phenomena. The area to be studied was too high for 

airplanes, too low for satellites to, cover for long, and reachable only for brief 

periods by instrument-laden rockets. 

Under a letter of agreement sigced in 1981, NASA would join with Italy in 

developing and launching the system, building the deployment system and 

managing systems integration and mission operations, while Italy built the 

satellite itself. (NASA Release 82-169; MSFC Release 82-102) 

November 11: NASA launched the fifth flight (STS-5) of Space Shuttle Columbia on time at 719 a.m. EST from KSC with a four-man crew, largest ever 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1982 

to take off from Earth at the same time. Feeling none of the motion sickness 

suffered by three of the first four Shuttle crews, the astronauts were so busy 

preparing for deployment from orbit of the first of two communications 

satellites that they had no time for chitchat with mission control. Astronaut 

Joseph Allen took off his shoes and socks to work. barefooted inside the Shuttle 

cabin: “it’s like having four hands,” he explained. He and William Lenoir 

maneuvered the first of twin satellites (one US., the other Canadian) into 

space at 3:17 p.m. EST, while Vance Brand and Robert Overmyer flew the 

100-ton Shuttle, positioning Columbia to avoid smearing its windows with exhaust from the satellite engine. The astronauts would use the same procedures 

November 12 to deploy the Canadian satellite on a similar flight path. 

The first commercial cargo carried by the Shul.tle was a 21-foot-tall cylinder 

worth almost $50 million, owned by Satellite Business Systems (SBS), a firm 

begun as a partnership of Aetna Life & Casualty, Comsat General Corporation 

(a subsidiary of Communications Satellite Corporation-ComSatCorp), and 

International Business Machines (IBM). Boeing, General Motors, and 

General Electric were among its more than 300 clients who used SBS 

satellites to transmit coast-to-coast computer traffic and telephone calls. 

Transmissions to SPS satellites were at 14GHz, twice as high as frequencies 

used by other U.S. communications satellites and were relayed at 12GHz to 

avoid interference. 

President Reagan held a telephone conversation with the astronauts at 10:26 

a.m. November 11, repeating his request to an earlier crew to “pick me up 

and drop me off in California.” He added that “if more of us could see [the 

earth] from that angle we might realize that there must bc a way to make it 

as united in reality here on earth as it looks from outer space.” Brand replied, 

“We’re in total agreement on that one.” (NASA MOR M-989-82-05 

[prelaunch] Nov 5/82, [postlaunch] Dec 7/82; USA Today, Nov 12/82, 1A; W 

Post, NOV 12/82, A-1, D-8) 

Charles (Pete) Conrad, who commanded Skylab’s first mission and was now 

a vice president for marketing at McDonncll Douglas, said that pieces of 

Skylab that crashed in 1979 over western Australia after five years in orbit 

would go on sale, with proceeds to NASA, for the support of Viking I, the 

Mars lander still sending messages from the surface of that planet. The Skylab 

pieces fitted into colorful posters were expected to raise from $150,000 to 

$500,000. Conrad had been a member of the Apollo 12 mission that landed 

on the Moon as well as commander of the Skylab mission in 1973. (W Post, 

NOV 12/82, A-10) 

LeRC said that it had developed a device called MIAMI (micro-wave iceaccretion measurement instrument) to warn airplane pilots of dangerous ice 

buildup. This was the only device able to measure actual ice thickness and rate 

of accretion, besides giving a warning. Un1ik.e other such instruments, 

MIAMI was imbedded in, instead of projecting from, the surface under study; 

316 
NOVEMBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

projecting probes tended to collect ice and confuse detection of how much was 

actually forming on the surface. The microprocessor in the device could tell 

the difference between ice and other substances (oil, dirt, grease, insects) and 

signal only the formation of ice. (LeRC Release 82-56) 

LeRC also reported the completion of a five-year $39-million program of 

engine improvements to conserve fuel in commercial jet aircraft through identifying areas for cost-effective refurbishment and of performance loss. The 

specific goal was to reduce fuel use by up to 5 % for current jet engines. Much 

of the cost would be repaid by contractors Pratt & Whitney and General Electric; under the reimbursement feature of the program, repayments over a 

10-year period would be based on sales of improved components. So far, 

NASA had recovered nearly $1 million from the contractors, with a potential 

of $19 to $20 million. (LeRC Release 82-57) 

November 14-18: Soviet cosmonauts Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev 

on November 14 broke the 185-day record in space set by two compatriots, 

Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin, in October 1980. Berezovoy and Lebedev 

were in their 186th day on board the orbiting Sulyut 7 space station, where 

they would remain for several more weeks. The longest US. spaceflight was 

the 84 days spend on the Skylab station in 1974 by astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue. 

Sulyut 7 had been visited twice by the other crews: on June 24 two veteran 

cosmonauts arrived with French test pilot Jean-Loup Chretien, the first nonAmerican from the West to travel in space; on August 19, a second set of 

visitors arrived, including Svetlana Savitskaya, the second womari to fly in 

space. 

Cargo ship Progress 16 had docked with the combined Sulyut 7-Soyuz T-7 

November 2 bringing fuel, research materials, supplies for the crew, and mail. 

On November 18 the cosmonauts launched from Sulyut 7s airlock Zskru 3, a 

small communications satellite created by student designers at the Moscow 

Aviation Institute to make experiments in amateur radio. Student receiving 

stations in Moscow and Kaluga would control Zskru 3 and receive and process 

incoming data. (NY Ernes, Nov 15/82, B-6; FBIS, Tass in Englislh, Nov 2, 

9, 16, 18, 22/82) 

November. 15-19: Press reports said that problems November 15 with new 

million-dollar space suits had canceled the first space walk scheduled in nearly nine years and would bring STS-5 to a conclusion November 16. The walk 

was canceled when the fan in astronaut Joseph Allen’s suit quit and the device 

maintaining oxygen pressure in William Lenoir’s backpack behaved so erratically that flight directors feared a breakdown during any space walk. Program managers said that the walk could be done on a later flight; Glynn Lunney at JSC said that the program was “still right on track.” The inext thrlee 

flights would carry space suits for any unexpected problems, such as cargo- 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1982 

bay doors that refused to close. The next flight was scheduled for February 

1983. 

Inspectors after the November 16 landing said that Columbia came through 

the fifth flight better than previously: an inboard tire on the left side was 

shredded and flattened on landing by a brake januning against it, but only 4 

of the 33,000 protective tiles were damaged or came loose during reentry. A 

seven-man panel investigating the space-suit failure said that they hoped to 

have answers within a week. One possibility was that the suits were dropped 

while in their cases or when removed and stowed in the ship. Engineers were 

baffled by the failure of both suits at the same time for different reasons. 

The New York Times said that the suits, “most complex human garments 

ever made,” differed from those used in Apollo moon landings, or for Skylab 

in 1973 and 1974, which functioned well but were too stiff for easy handling 

of tools needed by Shuttle astronauts. Shuttle missions had called for production, by United Technologies’ Hamilton Standard Division, of 43 suits and 13 

backpacks at a cost of about $2 million each; the suits had been tested by the 

company 160 times while unmanned and 70 times while manned, said a company spokesman. (W Post, Nov 16/82, A-1; Nov 18/82, A-7; NY Times, Nov 

16/82, C-3) 

November 16: Space Shuttle Columbia began a year-long vacation as the second operational Shuttle, Challenger, began final engine tests at KSC in 

preparation for a three-day mission in January 1983 with a four-man crew. 

After its landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Columbia was scheduled to 

return to KSC for “six dozen minor modifications” after completing its first 

commercial venture, STS-5. The modifications would prepare it for the 

December 1983 launch of Spacelab, built for NASA by ESA. NASA 

spokesman said that the first five flights had proved that the Shuttle could 

launch satellites into space with “remarkable aocuracy”; demonstrated that 

four men could do high-pressure jobs in a cabin tihe size of a pickup camper; 

and showed that the Shuttle, like an airplane, worked better the more it was 

used. (USA Today, Nov 17/82, 3A) 

-MSFC said that it had sent NASA’s first inertial upper stage (IUS-1) to 

Cape Canaveral to ready it for launch in Challenger’s payload bay in January 

1983. The first of six to be built by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force Systems 

Command, IUS-I was an unmanned system for pushing payloads to high 

altitudes unreachable by the Shuttle in its 150-mill: orbit. The two-stage vehicle, 17 feet long and about 9 feet in diameter, weighed more than 16 tons, had 

more than 64,000 pounds of thrust, and could carry up to 5,000 pounds of 

payload to geostationary orbit 22,300 miles up. 

At KSC, the IUS would be mated to a tracking and data-relay satellite 

(TDRS), first of four planned for launch to replace present ground stations 

and improve command and telemetry functions for the growing number of 

operational satellites. NASA hoped to have the four-craft system in operation 

late in 1983. (MSFC Release 82-103) 

378 
NOVEMBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AE XONAUTICS 

November 18: The Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee, a group of 

more than 80 scientists, met for the first time in Washington to discuss its role 

in advising NASA on science activities. Associate Administrator Dr. Burt 

Edelson told the committee of two recent changes in NASA: a reorganization 

that moved science and applications into the same department and the appointment of Dr. Frank McDonald as chief scientist, a position that had been vacant 

for a long time. (AD, Nov 19/82, 107) 

November 22: NASA signed an $11.6 million contract with a 22-member Arab 

group of nations and organizations to launch a communications satellite from 

the Shuttle in 1984. Administrator James M. Beggs signed the agreement for 

NASA; Dr. Ali Al-Mashat, director general, signed for the Arab satellite 

group. Arabsat, a consortium, included both Libya and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); some uproar ensued on Capitol Hill until senators 

were persuaded that the deal did not imply U.S. recognition of the PLO. The 

United States also had no diplomatic relations with Libya and had a policy of 

selling no military goods to its government. 

A State Department spokesman said that Arabsat members would “get no 

more than they already had through the existing INTELSAT satellite cornmunications system.” The deal envisioned no transfer of technology, as the 

satellite would never be handled by its Arabsat owners. Saudi Arabia, which 

would be the center of operations, would control television prograrnming for 

Arabsat use. 

NASA Associate Administrator James A. Abrahamson said that tlhe Shuttle 

was a commercial service and that its launches “should not be considered a 

political activity.” (NASA Release 82-173; W Post, Nov 23/82, A-2) 

November 23: The Shuttle imaging radar (SIR) flown on STS-2 in November 

1981 had revealed previously unknown river channels, geologic structures, 

and possible Stone Age occupation sites in the eastern Sahara desert. 

JPL‘s Dr. Charles Flachi, principal investigator for SIR, reported that the 

radar signal could penetrate the virtually featureless desert surface to show 

subsurface features nearly as broad as the Nile Valley and up to !jO-million 

years old. Drainage networks detected by radar and confirmed by ground 

studies would explain the location of present oases in the desert. This new tool 

could serve in the search for ground water in such arid regions. 

Dr. Alexander Goetz of JPL said that the multispectral infrared radiometer 

flown on the same Shuttle mission had made the first detection from orbit of 

clay and carbonite-bearing minerals, an important step in the use of remote 

sensing for geological mapping. The device used an area in Egypt of known 

mineral content as a baseline for analysis; its narrow spectral resolution made 

it able to map mineral content in the area, using specific substances as a guide 

for exploration and development, previously possible only through laboratory 

sampling techniques. 

Dr. Henry C. Reiche, Jr., of LaRC was the principal investigator for the 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1982 

MAPS (measurement of atmospheric pollution from satellites) experiment 

flown on STS-2, which proved accurate when compared to ground studies. A 

gas-filter radiometer, part of the first scientific Shuttle payload, measured carbon monoxide ratios in the lower, upper, and middle troposphere, data to be 

used in 1984 for seasonal variation studies. 

Besides the desert features revealed by the Shuttle radar, Flachi reported 

readings over densely forested areas such as the U.S. Appalachians, the mountains covered by rain forests in western Guyana and Venezuela, and other 

remote locations not covered by ground survey. Geologic features shown in 

the radar images would help identify causes of change: erosion, fault lines, 

or previously unknown fractures of the Earth’s crust. The devices recorded 

their findings because the Shuttle lacked commuiiications capacity. (NASA 

Releases 82-174, 82-175, 82-176, 82-177; W Post, NOV 26/82, A-1) 

November 24: NASA said that the three main engines that powered Space 

Shuttle Columbia on its five missions would be modified and retested to certify them for operation on the orbiter Atlantis. Rocketdyne would disassemble, inspect, and reassemble the engines before forwarding them to MSFC’s 

NSTL for acceptance tests and certification. They would be installed in Atlanti5 for its first mission in 1985. Columbia would get three new engines for its 

Spacelab mission in 1983. (MSFC Release 82-104) 

November 28: Press reports said that weather satel!lite Goes West, monitoring 

the Pacific Ocean and the western United States, had stopped functioning 

November 25, leaving more than 60” of Earth’s surface (an area responsible 

for most of the winter storms on the Pacific coast) with a “blind eye.” Efforts 

to revive it were unsuccessful; officials said that the problem was in the Goes 

radiometer. Launched in 1980, the satellite was designed for three-year operation; a replacement was to be launched in 1983. If further efforts failed, the 

National Weather Service planned to reactivate one of several older satellites 

that had been retired but were still in place. W Post, Nov 28/82, A-8) 

November 29: NASA went before the Federal Communications Commission 

(FCC) to ask for a market test of a “land mobile ss.tellite service” to complement cellular systems and other mobile arrangements now being planned or 

in use. NASA asked the FCC to reserve frequencies, for commercial companies offering to establish communications by satellite to rural America via 

portable radiotelephones that could switch calls between vehicles and local 

telephone networks. Present “cellular radio” systems were land-based, difficult to install in remote areas amid mountains and other barriers. 

The FCC had denied a similar NASA request last year but would not comment on the new request. NASA said that other nations were developing 

mobile satellite communications services on frequencies provided by the 1979 

World Administrative Radio Conference; if the FCC failed to provide the 

United States with frequencies, it could jeopardize its leadership “in satellite 

3 80 
NOVEMBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

communications and in mobile communications equipment.” The application 

said that mobile systems in the United States had been “available only through 

terrestrial facilities. . . limited in range” and restricted mostly to urban areas. 

A satellite system could include up to 288,000 rural subscriber:; by 1990, 

NASA said. W Post, Nov 30182, C-7) 

November SO: Former Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert, elected November 2 

as congressman from Colorado’s 6th congressional district, was hospitalized 

in Denver after undergoing chemotherapy for bone-marrow cancer. He would 

remain there “another few days,” an aide said. (NY Times, Nov 30/82, A-17) 

381 

December 

December 2: NASA investigators of the failure of $2-million space suits on 

STS-5 issued an interim report blaming two missing parts and a faulty sensor. 

During the mission on Shuttle Columbia, an oxygen device in astronaut 

William Lenoir’s suit failed to provide required pressure, and the fan in 

astronaut Joseph Allen’s suit and portable life-support system would not 

operate. JSC program Operations Manager Richard A. Colonna, who headed 

the team, said that two vital plastic parts the size of a matchstick, worth less 

than a nickel apiece, that several to hold a pair of screws against a metal piece 

in Lenoir’s suit, had been removed for a test last August and were never put 

back. Documentation indicated that the parts were in place, a.nd during 

repeated tests, technicians failed to spot their absence. 

The team said that the fan failed because a tiny magnetic sensor no bigger 

than a pinhead apparently gave way just after Allen put on his space suit. The 

motor running the fan and pumping water through the suit used the sensors, 

instead of the magnetic brushes used in most motors, because of the danger 

of a spark igniting the pure oxygen circulating inside the spacesuit. 

Colonna said that the team would continue its investigation. He Iexpectetl it 

to recommend further and more frequent testing and quality-control inspections by the manufacturer, Hamilton Standard, during space suit lproduction 

and at JSC,and KSC. (NASA Release 82-181; W Post, Dec 2/82, A-1) 

Speaking to an audience of U.S. and Brazilian businessmen in the governor’s 

palace at Sao Paulo, Brazil, President .Reagan proposed that ‘‘a Brazilian 

astronaut train with ours so that Brazil and the United States can one day participate in’a shuttle launch together as partners in space.” George P. Shultz, 

U.S. secretary of state, told newsmen on Air Force One that Brazil’s president 

Joao Figueiredo, hearing of Reagan’s proposal, said “That’s wonderful, and 

I know just who the first astronaut is going to be, Me.” 

Brazilian officials said that Reagan had initiated a welcome new climate in 

U.S. relations with Brazil but said that the closer ties were more ii matter of 

potential than reality. (Text, Dec 2/82; W Post, Dec 3/82, A-1) 

.8 

December 3: NASA named Dr. Peter J. Denning head of a new Rmearch Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) to begin at AFC in June 

1983. Denning, chairman of computer sciences at Purdue, wciuld direct 

research in computer science and engineering with potential for use in NASA 

programs. Funded by NASA through the Universities Space Research 

Association (USRA), RIACS would be an academic center for applications of 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1982 

the computer to solve scientific and engineering problems. (NASA Dly Actv 

Rpt, Dec 3/82) 

December 9-15: Tass reported preparations for the end of the record-setting 

flight in Salyut 7 of cosmonauts Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev, the 

crew of Soyuz T-7 launched May 13. The crew was stowing in a reentry module 

a number of containers with flight documentation, biological samples, motion 

picture and still films, and monocrystals of semiconductor materials. They 

were also mothballing research equipment and siipport units on the station. 

On December 10 the crew returned to Earth at 10:03 p.m. Moscow time in 

the preset area 190 kilometers east of Dzhezkazgcm “not far from” the space 

center at Baykonur. Beijing’s Xinhua press service said that a special 

lighthouse equipped with a strong beam was installed at the site to guide 

helicopters with ground crews to assist the cosmonauts. Difficulties with the 

landing meant that journalists for the first time were not at the site. 

Berezovoy later reported that “Judging from previous crews, who hardly felt 

the shock of landing, this landing was quite severe and was followed by a few 

more rolls, apparently because we were on a small incline, and we ended up 

on our side with one on top of the other-Valentin [Lebedev] was on the (?upper) couch and I was on the lower. . . .We spent about 20 minutes in the descent module while an offroad vehicle was made ready but then spent 5 hours 

in this vehicle because of poor conditions. It was not bad, it was warm. We 

changed our clothes for clean and dry ones, replacing spacesuits with flight 

suits.” (Interview recorded for Moscow DomSvc in Russian, December 13) 

Later press reports said that the cosmonauts had “a harrowing reentry” in 

a craft rolling across a steppe swept by a blizzard and fog. Although initial 

USSR reports implied all had gone well, the New York Times said that the 

crew had “anxious moments” when unexpected tiad weather landed them in 

darkness, near-zero temperatures, and blowing snow. One helicopter “forcelanded” without injury, and another had to turn back. (NY Times, Dec 14/82, 

C-2; W Post, Dec 12/82, A-31)] 

Tass carried reports December 12 of the first meeting with the cosmonauts. 

Their doctors said that “the cosmonauts feel fine which is somewhat at 

variance with the real state of their organisms.” Good appetites indicated 

“energetic adaptation to terrestrial conditions. In 24 hours the cosmonauts 

gained about a kilogram in weight each. They particularly liked a bath with 

the air temperature of up to 709” Berezovoy said alfterward “If we could have 

such a pleasure at the Salyut station I would have worked for more time in 

orbit .” 

On December 16 Ivan Skiba, chief physician of the space training center, 

said that the cosmonauts had been “put on a regime approximating their usual 

lifestyle.” He said that the doctors were “naturally worried over the decree 

to which the additional 26 days spent by [Berezcwoy and Lebedev] in outer 

space over the 185-day space mission of [Popov and Ryumin] will affect the 

human organism. These 26 days constituted the “unknown path” both for the 

384 
DECEMBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

cosmonauts and for us physicians. Now we can say with certainty that the [,additional] time in space. . . has not affected the cosmonauts’ organi,sms. Their 

cardiovascular activity, blood composition, and other characteristics are returning to preflight figures.” Skiba recalled that Boris Yegorov, “a representative 

of the medical profession,” was among the first cosmonauts andl hoped he 

would not be the last medical man to fly in space. 

Cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov told a magazine December 17 Berezovoy and 

Lebedev had “made an important step in increasing the endurance of 

weightlessness. . .essential for activity in large orbital stations, space plants 

and factories, and interplanetary missions.” When the two returned from the 

211-day mission, they “were sunken physically and had become thinner and 

paler. , . [wanted] regular human communication with friends. They eat with 

a good appetite. . .swim every day. . .to have some weightlessness in water 

and make their life easier. They still find it a bit difficult to be seated as the 

muscles that make the position comfortable are out of their elementary function .” 

U.S. space officials were watching the cosmonauts’ adaptation to gravity 

after 30 weeks of weightlessness. A television broadcast three days after their 

return showed them moving unaided to the edge of a whirlpool where they 

were assisted down a ladder. A commentator noted they were “like infants” 

and would have to relearn how to walk. The Soviet Union had announced 

plans for a station orbiting for a year and permanently manned, its crews remaining in space indefinitely to reduce ferrying costs. Soviet experts, like 

former cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov, had talked of manned missions, to 

destinations such as Titan, a satellite of Saturn. (Longest U.S. flighlt so far was 

the 84-day mission flown by Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pope 

on Skylab in 1973 and 1974.) 

The Washington 7imes said that Soviet planners were “seriously divided 

about what to do next.” Valery Ryumin, who spent 175 and then 185 days on 

Sulyut 6 and was now a senior program chief at the space center, talked of 

grave risks to crew health on long-term missions and said that “four months 

is about the optimal period.” Ignoring reports that Berezovoy and Lebedev 

were in fine health, Ryumin said that it would take “through medical tests on 

earth” to show how they had fared. (FBIS, Tass in English, Dec 9-17/82; Beijing Xinhua in English, Dec 11/82; NY Times, Dec 11/82, 12; Dec 14/82, C-2; 

W Post, Dec 11/82, A-23; Dec 12/82, A-31; W Times, Dec 15/82, 8A) 

December 18: NASA successfully completed a 30 second flight-readiness firing of the new higher power space shuttle main engines at KSC. The test was 

to verify flight readiness of the three new engines and demonstrate in a launchday environment the proper integration of all elements before the STS-6 niission. The successful test was a major step in preparation for STS-6, scheduled 

for launch in January 1983. Pre- and post-test activities included personnel 

from KSC, JSC, and MSFC. 

3 85 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1982 

This was the second time in history for static-firing the primary propulsion 

system of a manned spacecraft on the launch pad. 14 similar test of Columbia’s 

three main engines occurred Febraury 20, 1981, belore the first Shuttle launch. 

Challenger’s more powerful engines, each generating 390,000 pound of thrust 

at sea level, had been fired individually at NSTL but were fired for the first 

time today in a flight configuration. 

The most significant problem was a high level of gaseous hydrogen in the 

aft compartment. NASA said that so much work remained in the crew compartment that Rockwell employees at KSC were scheduled to work in that area 

over the holidays. (NASA Dly Acm Rpt, Dec 21/82; NASA Release 82-187; 

MSFC Release 82-111) 

December 21: NASA said that it had added two physicians, Dr. Norman 

Thagard and Dr. William Thornton, to the crews of STS-7 and STS-8, respectively, to study space motion sickness, because other measures had failed to 

indicate the causes of the sickness. Neither physician had flown in space 

before. 

Thagard would join STS-7 commander Robert I,. Crippen, pilot Frederick 

H. Hauck, and mission specialists John M. Fabian and Dr. Sally K. Ride. 

Thornton, the oldest astronaut at 53, would join :STS-8 commander Richard 

Truly, pilot Daniel Brandenstein, and mission specialists Dale Gardner and 

Guion Bluford, Jr. A five-person crew would not requirc spacecraft changes. 

(NASA Release 82-190; MSFC Release 82-115; W Post, Dec 22/82, A-3; NY 

Times, Dec 22/82, B-12) 

December 27: ARC said that it had developed, with the aid of General Electric, a portable remote-communications system: a terminal and a folding 

antenna sized to fit inside two suitcases and be carried aboard an airplane and 

powered by either an ordinary AC outlet or the cigarette lighter in an 

automobile. Working with experimental communications satellite A23 3, 

operated by NASA since 1967, an operator anywhere in North or South 

America or most of the nearby Atlantic and Pacific Oceans could contact any 

of several ground stations at any time. 

The system would fit into two ordinary suitcases that could be carried as 

luggage in an automobile or on public transportation; one suitcases contained 

the collapsible antenna, the other an alphanumeric terminal to send or receive 

messages. The alphanumeric system would not disturb voice communications 

over the satellite, so that a NASA-authorized user could use it at any time 

without prior scheduling. ATS 3 had already served in many emergencies. 

When Mt. St. Helens erupted in May 1980, an Air Force jeep at the disaster 

site maintained voice communications through A7S 3 and a GE station near 

Schenectady, showing the need for rapidly deployable long-distance systems 

not dependant on land lines, often destroyed in emergencies. Organizations, 

including the state of California and the National Association for Search and 

386 
DECEMBER 1982 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Rescue, were working with NASA on further uses of the technology. (NASA 

Release 82-195; ARC Release 82-48) 

During December: George B. Kistiakowsky, 82, a developer of the first 

atomic bomb who later became a leading opponent of nuclear weapons, died 

of cancer at his home in Cambridge, Mass. In 1944 he headed the explosives 

division at Los Alamos Laboratory of the Manhattan project, where he 

designed the arrangement of conventional explosives needed to detonate the 

atom bomb, receiving the Presidential Medal of Merit for his work. After he 

saw the first nuclear bomb explode at Alamogordo July 16, 1945, he said “I 

am sure that at the end of the world-in the last millisecond of the earth’s 

existence-the last human will see what we saw” ( W Post, Dec 9/82, C-17) 

-Jack Swigert, the former astronaut elected to Congress by Colorado’s 6th 

district voters, who knew he was fighting cancer, died December 27 at the age 

of 51 a week before he was to be sworn into office. He had flown on the 

aborted Apollo 13 Moon mission in April 1970, substituting at the last minute 

for Thomas K. Mattingly who had been exposed to German measles and was 

not immune. Swigert left NASA in 1973 to become executive director of the 

House committee on science and technology and had worked for two energy 

firms in Denver before resigning to run for Congress. (MiHrld, Dec 29/82, 

14 

387 

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 198.3 

January 

January 3: President Reagan approved a joint resolution designating 1983 the 

“Bicentennial of Air and Space Flight.” His proclamation recalled the first 

manned flight in history, in a hot-air balloon that traveled 5% miles after its 

launch on Novemeber 21, 1783, over Paris, France. He said that the commemoration would be “an opportunity to increase public awareness of our nation’s achievements in aviation and space flight and to rededicate ourselves to 

the spirit of excellence which has brought us so far so fast.” (Text, Jan 3/83) 

January 5-31: The Pentagon issued a warning January 5 that a nuclearpowered Soviet reconnaissance satellite had “run into problems” and would 

probably crash somewhere on Earth before the end of January. The Soviet 

Union’s Cosmos 1402, like an earlier Cosmos that crashed in northern Canada 

in January 1978 and caused minor radiation contamination, was carrying about 

100 pounds of enriched uranium to provide electrical power for its radar. 

The Soviet Union confirmed loss of its control over Cosmos 1402, launched 

to observe U.S. naval operations from an orbit of 64.9” inclination that 

covered most of North America and all of China, Africa, South America, and 

Australia, as well as part of the Soviet Union. The danger lay not in the 

possibility of an explosion but in the radioactivity of the nuclear fuel core if 

the craft should come down in a densely populated area. 

The foreign press had warned that Cosmos 1402 had “separated into individual fragments on a command from earth.” The nuclear power unit aboard 

it was a matter of concern to all other nations; the United States had “expressed its:concern to Moscow” that the object and its 100 pounds of uranium 

would crash on the Earth like the other. (FBIS, Xinhua in English, Jan 7/83; 

PravdQ in Russian, Jan 8/83; Tass in English, Jan 15/83) 

Normally, said the United Press, when an ocean-surveillance satellite such 

as 1402 exhausted its 4-to-7-month life expectancy it would be raised and 

“parked” at a high orbit altitude “for centuries.” The Tass news agency said 

January 7 $at Cosmos 1402 had been “divided into separate fragments by 

commands from earth in order to isolate the active part of the reactor, which 

ensured its complete combustion in the atmosphere strata.” Department of 

Defense (DOD) sources said January 10 that one piece had burned up in the 

atmosphere, but two larger sections were still descending-those holding the 

reactor, biggest and heaviest part of the 6,000-pound satellite. At the current 

rate of descent, the parts could enter the atmosphere in the week beginning 

January 23, sources said. 

Tass reported January 24 that “the main part of the satellite structure” tiad 

reentered over the Indian Ocean at 1:lO a.m. Moscow time: the fuel core was 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1983 

forecast to enter between Fcbruary 3 and 8 [see Feb. 71. (NY Times, Jan 6183, 

A-1; Jan 22/83, 9; Jan 31/83, A-25; W Post, Jan 7/83, A-21; Jan 8/83, A-11; 

Jan 11183, A-9; Jan 20183, A-2; Jan 24183. A-1; Tass in English, Jan 7183, Jan 

24/83) 

January 7: NASA said it would conduct another flight-readiness test of 

Challenger’s three main engines late in January because of high gaseoushydrogen levels in the aft compartment after the first firing December 18. 

Several leaks had shown up, including a split cooling tube in the # 3 engine 

nozzle. The need for a second test would delay the STS-6 Challenger launch 

to late February. (NASA Release 83-2; MSFC Release 83-2; AvWk, Jan 17/83, 

24) 

Lewis Research Center’s (LeRC) basic organization was revised following 

a recent strategic planning session. The four research and technology (UT) 

directorate (aeronautics, energy, science and technology, and space) were 

changed to aeronautics, spaceflight systems, space technology, and materials 

and structures. An office of comptroller was established to manage resources 

and budget. Other directorates affected were administration, engineering services, and technical services, (NASA anno Jan 14183; LeRC Release 83-3) 

January 17: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced that it would 

buy from the United States a Landsat ground station to be hooked into the U.S. 

system. A spokesman for the China Academy of Sciences said that the new 

station would help analyze China’s geological structure, locate mineral 

resources, and provide data for land use, crop estimates, irrigation, environmental monitoring, alterations in watercourse:<, pest and disease control, 

and predicting natural disasters. 

The Washington Post said that a Maryland company, Systems and Applied 

Sciences Corporation, had a signed contract with the People’s Republic of 

China to build the station at a cost of up to $12 million. The firm, among the 

largest black-owned enterprises in the United States had “worked on many 

projects” for NASA, but the PRC contract would be its first significant international venture. PRC officials would press Secretary of State George Shultz 

when he visited in February to approve the sale, as the United States had 

blocked technology transfers in the past because of possible military application. Both the Carter and the Reagan administrations had approved such a sale 

in the past, but the People’s Republic’s economic problems had forced a delay. 

(FBIS, Xinhua in English, Jan 17183; W Post, Jan 18/83, A-18; AvWk, Jan 

31183, 21) 

January 19: The press reported the death in North Carolina at the age of 

“about 26” of Ham, the chimpanzee sent on a Mercury capsule into suborbital 

flight January 21, 1961, to prepare for the flight of Alan B. Shepard, Jr., first 

U.S. astronaut. 

392 
JANUARY 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Ham, named after the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center in New Mexico, retired from the space program in 1963 to live at the National Zoological 

Park in Washington, D.C., and after 1981 in the North Carolina Zoological 

Park. His trip in “a very primitive space capsule on an experimental suborbital run” was attended with “excitement and suspense,” even dread, because 

no one could predict whether he would survive the shocks of the trip or 

undergo emotional trauma. 

“Ham rose to the occasion and took it all in stride,” the report said. “Never 

mind that the capsule, through an error, had been shot 40 miles higher than 

planned or that it had landed 30 miles past the target area where a fleet awaited 

it or that it had been traveling 5,000 miles an hour, 800 miles faster than planned. . . . During the time radio signals were received the chimp pushed various 

levers and performed other behavior tasks assigned him.” (W Post, Jan 21/83, 

A-16; Jan 26183, B-3; Jan 27/83, A-22) 

January 21: NASA declared successful the mission of Nimbus 7, launched 

October 24, 1978, from Vandernberg Air Force Base into a polar orbit. Using 

eight interdisciplinary research experiments representing domestic and international scientific and government communities, it accomplished mission objectives, including proof of the feasibility of mapping upper-atmosphere 

characteristics, of supplying space-collected oceanographic data to scientific 

uses, and of extending the solar-radiation and Earth-radiation data base. Objectives were met or exceeded with high-quality and high-quantity data, iind 

Nimbus 7would continue into its seventh year “in good health.” (NASA MlOR 

E-604-78-08 [postlaunch] Jan 21/83) 

January 25: NASA launched the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) at 

6:17 p.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta into polar orbit 

with 883.6-kilometer apogee, 856.6-kilometer perigee, lOO.l%clination, and 

102.4-minute period. A joint endeavor of NASA, Netherlands Aerospace 

Agency, and U.K. Science and Engineering Research Council, IRAS, was a 

2,360-pound spacecraft carrying a 22-inch Cassegrain telescope cryogenically 

cooled by a helium tank to measure infrared radiation in four bands between 

8 and 119 microns. At low temperature the detectors would have the sensitivity 

needed for an all-sky survey of the “heat signatures” of stars. 

The $80 million mission might find up to a million infrared sources not 

previously detected, filling “a significant gap in the electromagnetic spectrum 

between visible light and radio waves. . .about which we have no or very little 

information,” according to Dr. Dale Compton, telescope manager at Ames 

Research Center (ARC). IRAS was designed to cover about 95% of the sky 

over the next sixth months and produce the first comprehensive catalog of infrared objects. 

The United States built the telescope and the rocket and was managing 

operations through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), The Netherlands 

built the spacecraft and three other scientific instruments. The United 

393 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONALTICS JANUARY 1983 

Kingdom would handle the tracking and collect the data. (NASA MOR 

E-885-83-01 [prelaunch] Jan 3/83; NASA wkly SSR, Jan 27/83; Spacewarti 

SPX-352; NY Times, Jan 27183, A-7) 

Discovery of another hydrogen leak during a second test-firing of Shuttle 

Challenger’s main engines would delay the launcli recently postponed to late 

February for at least several more weeks, said Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, Shuttle program head, at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The leak meant 

delaying Challenger‘s five-day mission for a month or more if one or more 

of the engines had to be removed from the Shuttle, test-fired, and replaced. 

The new leak was “on the same order of magnitude” as the first; as the source 

was never located, the leaks might be from the same or different areas. (W 

Post, Jan 26/83, A-5) 

Junuury 31: James M. Beggs, NASA’s administrator, told a press conference 

on the agency budget that President Reagan was committed “to a strong national space and aeronautics program,” citing NASA’s obligation to help 

strengthen national security and maintain U.S. leadership in space. “This 

budget, I believe, moves us forward toward those goals,” he said. 

NASA’s FY84 budget would be just over $7.1 billion, an increase of $267 

million (4%) over FY83. Of $5.7 billion sought for research and development 

(RBrD), 61% (about $3.5 billion) would be earmarked for the Shuttle program 

to cover Shuttle procurement and operation, upper stages for Shuttle use, the 

Spacelab, the tethered satellite, and other equipment and launch vehicles. 

Begs said that the trend begun last year was to spend relatively more on 

operations and less on capability development. NASA’s FY84 budget request 

included four initiatives to “stretch the scope of our program in science, applications, and aeronautics.” They were the Tethered Satellite System (TSS), 

a cooperative U.S.-Italian project for conducting experiments in space up to 

100 kilometers from a Shuttle orbiter; the Venus radar mapper, replacing the 

Venus-orbiting imaging radar (VOIR) authorized by Congress in FY82; the 

Advanced Communications Technology Satcllic (ACTS) to flight-test highrisk technology, using “a novel procurement approach” of cost-sharing with 

industry; and a numerical aerodynamic simulation (NAS) capability, a large 

computer system to improve accuracy and reliability in aircraft design while 

reducing the need for wind-tunnel and flight testing. 

Beggs said U.S. space policy called for “permanent space facilities,” to be 

embodied in the Space Shuttle program; FY84 money would define and plan 

for such facilities. We have no specific plans to establish a permanent manned 

spacc station in earth orbit,” he said, but NASA would continue the study of 

user requirements, hardware and software system:;, science applications, and 

designs to accommodate specific missions. (Text, press conf, Jan 31/83) 

During January: Speaking in the House of Representatives, Reps. Don Fuqua 

(D-Fla.) and Larry Winn (R-Kans.) noted the 25th anniversary of thc start of 

304 
JANUARY 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

the U.S. space program. When the Navy’s Vanguard rocket exploded on its 

pad in December 1957, the Army “quickly moved forward” to finish developing Explorer 1, and the Jupiter C rocket carried it into orbit January 31, 1958. 

After two Soviet space firsts-Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and Sputnik 2 

carrying the dog Laika into space on November 3, 1957-the United Statems had 

entered the space race that would land two astronauts on the moon just over 

11 years after Explorer 1. 

Explorer 1 exceeded all expectations, transmitting data until its batteries 

were exhausted May 23, 1958. Scientists basing a decay rate on data from 

Sputnik said that Explorer 1 would not last more than five years. But on 

March 3, 1970, more than 12 years after launch, Explorer 1 plunged back into 

Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. It had made the most significant discovery 

of the International Geophysical Year (the Van Allen radiation belt about 

Earth), controlled the temperature in a satellite, and found that 

micrometeorities were not serious hazards to space vehicles, data valuable to 

the Moon missions. 

Although “the American story in space is only 25 years old,” Winn added, 

“we have made tremendous progress in that quarter century, and it all began 

with Explorer 1.” (CR, Jan 31/83, E204; AFSC Newsreview, Feb 11/83, 1) 

The hydrogen leak that caused postponement of Challenger’s maiden launch 

had been traced to one of the three engines, according to KSC’s Dick Young. 

A three-quarter-inch-long crack appeared in the combustion manifold of the 

#1 engine, a piece of metal an eighth of an inch thick. ( WPost, Jan 30/83, A-2) 

NASA reported a number of differences between Shuttle orbiters Columbia 

and Challenger, most of them stemming from Columbia’s being a vessel for 

research and development, whereas Challenger came equipped as an operational craft. 

Control and display panels on Columbia had sensors configured for data 

collection and processing in the flight-test phase; those on Challenger had 

fewer of these and more support equipment, such as a Ku-band antenna system 

for tracking future data-relay satellites. On the first four flights, Columbia had 

an ejection-seat system for the commander and pilot in case of accident in the 

launch or landing phase of flight-testing. Challenger had no ejection system; 

the space used for it on Columbia would serve on Challenger to seat the mission specialists. On its first flight in February, Challenger would seat all four 

of the flight crew on the orbiter’s flight deck; it would be able to seat three 

more crew members in the mid-deck on later flights. 

Challenger would weigh abot 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) less than Columbia and could carry more payload and additional crew on operaLiona1 

flights. The orbiters differed in thermal-protection systems: heat-shielding 

tiles on Columbia were being replaced with densified tiles to eliminate porosity that made the original tiles vulnerable to loosening. All of Challenger’as tiles 

had been densified. Challenger also had an advanced thermal-protection 

395 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1983 

blanket, a silica material sandwiched between an upper and lower quilt and 

bonded directly to the orbiter skin. Its identification marking also differed 

from Columbia’s, being located so the name would be visible during on-orbit 

operations. (NASA Actv, Jan 83, 4) 

396 
February 

February 1: NASA transferred operation and management of its Landsat 

system to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) 

National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) 

during ceremonies at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Beginning in 

1972 with the launch of Landsat 1 (Erts 1, the Earth-resources technology 

satellite), the Landsat program was a research and development effort to determine the usefulness of satellite multispectral data from synoptic views of the 

Earth’s surface for agricultural and urban planning, geologic exploration, land 

management, and snowmelt and flood-runoff analysis. 

Over the following 10 years NASA had operated four Landsats, including 

Landsat 4, launched in July 1982, and a ground system at GSFC. Landsat I 

and Landsat 2 were no longer operating; Landsat 3 would be retired later in 

1983 because of degradation related to age. In 1979 the Reagan administration 

told NASA to transfer operation to NOAA so that the latter agency could work 

toward eventual commercialization of the system. 

NASA had relinquished operation of Landsat 4 (except for the thematic 

mapper, which NASA would continue to use), the control center at GSFC, and 

the multispectral-scanner data-processing facility, also at GSFC, and mould 

hand over control of the thematic mapper early in 1985. NOAA would also 

take over the Landsat 4 backup spacecraft (the Landsat D now in final 

checkout by General Electric) that would replace Landsat 4, probably in 

mid-1985. NOAA would reimburse NASA for the use of buildings and 

utilities. (NASA Release 83-7) 

February 1-11: Despite “intense efforts” to communicate with Viking lander 

1 on the surface of Mars, silent since mid-November, controllers and scientists 

at JPL and a Martin Marietta group had received no signals during a scheduled downlink February 11. Since February 1 they had sent commanlds that 

should have started the lander’s on-board computer executing the steps needed 

to transmit to Earth. Declining battery power on the lander was thought to 

have tripped a protective low-voltage switch that shut down major subsystems; 

if the commands had been followed, the lander would have communicated 

February 11. 

JPL would go ahead with efforts to reestablish contact, which would be unsuccessful if the lander had multiple problems. No telemetry dala were 

available to diagnose the situation. The 64-meter Deep Space Tracking Network antenna, near Canberra, had bombarded the lander on Mars with 80- 

to 100-kilowatt signals, said George Gianopulos, Viking team leader at JPL. 

Gianopulos said that commands from JPL through Australia could he up to 

397 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRtiARY 1983 

40” off the receiving line into the leader’s antenna dish and still be picked up. 

Getting into the lander to reset the switch “is going to be a neat trick,” he 

added. 

Launched August 20, 1975, and designed for a 90-day mission, Viking 1 had 

shown “incredible stamina” in the harsh environment of Mars. Radioisotope 

thermoelectric generators (RES) could provide power for years, but in 1982 

its four nickel-cadmium batteries began to show their age. Viking could be instructed to charge or discharge batteries to keep them functioning longer. A 

command sent November 19 to repeat this exercise apparently got into the 

antenna-pointing subroutine and switched the crucial communications antenna 

to point away from Earth. (NASA D1y Actv Rpt, Fch 16/83; JSC Roundup, Jan 

2XfX3, 1) 

A NASA team investigating space-suit failures that occurred during STS-5 

issued a report listing ways to improve and simplify contractor test and inspection procedures. Regulators and motors would undergo more extensive testing 

on the Shuttle orbiter just before being stored, and space suits would be fully 

tested the day before a scheduled space walk. The First failure to be detected, 

shutdown of a fan motor while Joseph P. Allen war; donning his suit, was the 

fault of sensors in the motor electronics. The other failure, that of an oxygen 

regulator in William Lenoir’s suit, resulted from the absence of two tiny 

devices holding a regulator spring in place. (NASA Release 83-9) 

February 4: Japan launched its first “practical communications satellite, 

Cs2A, at 5:37 p.m. local time from its Tanegashima space center on a threestage rocket toward a stationary orbit at 36,000 kilometers over New Guinea. 

It would be Japan’s sixth in stationary orbit, although it would be the first used 

for practical purposes. 

Cs2A carried eight transponders with communications capacity equal to 

4,000 telephone circuits, to improve links between ithe mainland and outlying 

islands in the Pacific south of Tokyo. It would be used by government agencies 

and public transportation rather than by the publlic sector for research to 

develop new media such as television communications links, electronic mail, 

high-speed datafax, and color television. (FBIS, Tokyo Kyodo in English, Feb 

4/83) 

NASA announced crew selections for STS-11 and STS-12, both to be commanded by veterans of earlier shuttle missions. The crew for STS-11 in 

January 1984, led by Vance D. Brand, who commanded STS-5 in November 

1982, would include pilot Robert L. Gibson and mission specialists Bruce 

McCandless 11, Robert L. Stewart, and Dr. Ronald E. McNair. STS-11 would 

be the fifth flight of Challenger, and its seven-day mission would launch an 

Indonesian communications satellite. 

The crew for STS-12, led by Henry W. Hartsfield, who commanded STS-4 

in June 1982, would include pilot Michael L. Coats and mission specialists 

398 
FEBRUARY 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Dr. Judith A. Resnik, Dr. Steven A. Hawley, and Richard M. Mullane. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) said that a sixth crewman might be added 

later under a new NASA policy permitting major customers to send a payload 

specialist along. To be launched in March 1984, STS-12 would be the lirst 

flight of a new orbiter, Discovery; its 5-day mission would include deplqyment 

of the third tracking and data-relay satellite. (NASA Release 83-15; MSFC 

Release 83-6) 

MSFC announced that it would begin drop tests in cooperation with Dryden 

Flight Research Facility (DFRF) to try out larger parachutes for Shuttle 

boosters. The current means of slowing booster descent after launch into the 

ocean for retrieval and later use consisted of small pilot chutes, a drogue, and 

three main chutes 115 feet in diameter. The new main chutes being tested 

would be 13 feet in diameter. Use of larger chutes would slow velocity at impact from 89 feet per second to about 75 feet per second, reducing IO~I~S on 

(and amount of damage to) boosters that had occurred during Shuttle flight 

tests, officials said. 

A modified B-52 aircraft from DFRF would fly the test article to about 

20,000-feet altitude and release it. Both ground-based and airborne caimeras 

would record the mock booster’s descent to evaluate design, deployment, and 

parachute performance. (MSFC Release 83-9; DFRF Release 83-1) 

NASA announced its decision to locate a refurbishment and assembly facility for Shuttle solid-fuel rocket boosters elsewhere than in the Vehicle 

Assembly Building (VAS) at KSC. High production rates required in the 

1986-and-later timeframe could not occur in the available space; also, the ‘VAB 

did not lend itself to efficient “factory operation” for refurbishment of‘ the 

solid-fuel rocket boosters. 

NASA had considered alternate locations, such as a complex on government 

property at KSC or Canaveral Air Force Station or an off-site location near 

KSC. All these sites had problems, and the search had expanded to include 

some partially empty industrial facilities formerly used to build Saturn rockets 

at MSFC. The location chosen would be cost-effective as well as the hest for 

recompeting the contract. (NASA Release 83-17; MSFC Release 83-7) 

February 7: In a White House speech to persons from the aviation, government, diplomatic, military, and business areas, President Reagan hailed 200 

years of manned flight and announced a decision to “keep the shuttle production lines intact” to “preserve the option of building the fifth shuttle” and advantage of “the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead.” (Text, Feb. 7/83) 

Senior NASA managers, headed by Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, 

associate administrator for space flight, had met with contractors and “c1e:ared 

the way” for returning the tracking and data-relay satellite to KSC’s launch 

pad in preparation for the first launch of Challenger, the agency said. 

399 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1983 

Results of the second flight-readiness firing led to a decision not to conduct 

a third firing before launching Challenger early in March. The #1 engine had 

been removed for exchange with the flight spare. The spare would have the 

high-pressure pump from the #1 engine installed before the change took place. 

(NASA Release 83-16) 

Tass reported that the fuel core for the nuclcar-powered Cosmos 1402 

entered the atmosphere over the Atlantic at 1:5b p.m. Moscow time and 

“burned up entirely.” Data from “competent Soviet organizations tracking the 

flight” said the Sputnik “totally ceased its existence.” (FBIS, Tass in English, 

Feb 7/83) 

February 18: A panel investigating the loss of two solid-fuel rocket boosters 

after the launch of STS-4 said that a switch in the. booster decelerators was 

at fault . 

Premature separation of one of two riser attachrnents on each main chute 

occurred about 365-seconds after liftoff, when the frustrums were exploded 

away from the booster, instead of at impact with the water. A switch designed 

to release the chutes when the boosters hit the water had freed the parachutes 

from the boosters before impact, probably because of severe shock when the 

explosion separated the frustrum from the boosters. 

Before STS-5, NASA modified the decelerating system to fix both risers 

firmly to each booster, to eliminate switch separat.ion, and to prevent shock 

from affecting other subsystems. The booster deceleration worked perfectly 

during STS-5. (NASA Release 83-19) 

February 22: NASA announced the selection of crews for STS-13 and 

Spacelab 3, as well as mission specialists for Spacelab 2. Robert L. Crippen, 

who piloted STS-1 and was scheduled to command STS-7, would command 

STS-13 in April 1984 with Francis R. Scobee as pilot. Mission specialists 

would be Dr. George D. Nelson, Terry J. Hart, and Dr. James D. van Hoften. 

Robert E Overrnyer, who has pilot of STS-5, woiild command STS-18 (the 

Spacelab 3 mission, now scheduled for launch ahead of Spacelab 2) with 

Frederick D. Gregory as pilot. Mission specialists would be Dr. Don L. Lind 

and physicians Dr. Norman E. Thagard and Dr. William E. Thornton. Both 

of the latter would be on Shuttle flights before Spacelab 3: Thagard on STS-7, 

Thornton on STS-8. Payload specialists would be selected later. 

Mission specialists for STS-24 (Spacelab 2) would be Dr. Anthony W. 

England and Dr. Karl G. Henize. Spacelab 3 was originally to be the first 

operational mission; Spacelab 2, which should have preceded Spacelab 3, was 

delayed for completion of an instrument-pointing system. (NASA Release 

83-22) 

During February: The Florida Historic Preservation Society charged that 

NASA had breached a 1974 agreement by arranging for demolition of the last 

400 
FEBRUARY 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONIiUTICS 

Apollo launch tower at KSC and sale of the metal as scrap. NASA said that 

it had to award a contract for demolition by February 18 or risk further dclay 

in Shuttle schedules: the tower had to be removed by October so that NASA 

could begin modifying the mobile launch pad for use by the Shuttle beginning 

in 1986. 

NASA had postponed demolition for a week to let the society find a way 

to preserve the tower but said none of the suggestions was practical. The matter arose when two U.S. Air Force engineers at KSC said that the tower could 

be a major tourist attraction and started a move to save it. NASA said that it 

would cost up to $4 million to remove the tower and reassemble it for display. 

The agency had accepted a bid of $557,000 to remove the tower, arid the 

demolition company would keep the steel, worth about !$400,000, as scrap. A 

coalition of historic preservation groups said that the tower could be removed 

and rebuilt for $1 million (admittedly only an estimate). NASA had offered 

free storage and a site for reconstructing it if the coalition would pay :i contractor to dismantle and move it. (NASA Release 83-25; W Post, Feb 17/83, 

A-17) 

NASA said that its IRAS launched January 25 had revealed infrared scmrces 

in the Large Magellanic Cloud not visible to optical telescopes on Earth. The 

Large Magellanic Cloud was the galaxy closest to Earth, about 155,oOcl light 

years away. IRAS produced an image from the nebula, called 30 Doradus, of 

a cloud called Tarantula by astronomers, from its long separate filaments giving it a spider-like appearance. Astronomers suggested that the nebula (ii giant 

H I1 region, consisting of hydrogen clouds ionized by the ultraviolet radiation 

from a very hot star) might contain a monster star thousands of time, c, more 

massive than Earth’s Sun. (NASA Release 83-21) 

40 1 

March 

March 1: NASA technicians at Cape Canaveral removed two of Challenger’s 

main engines for repairs; a third engine, on its way from Mississippi, would 

undergo similar maintenance. Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, associate administrator for space transportation systems, told a House subcommit tee on 

science and technology that discovery of the flaws while the Shuttle was still 

on the ground showed the agency’s conservative approach to safety. He blamed 

tight budgets in the past for a lack of spare parts. Delay from the original 

January 20 launch date had already cost NASA about $1.5 million; costs 

would increase later when crews would have to work overtime to me€ t program commitments. 

Challenger’s #l engine was removed February 4 when a crack in a coolant 

line allowed inflammable gas to leak into the aft compartment. Then, the 

replacement engine was found to have an oxygen leak in its heat exchanger, 

a system to pressurize the external fuel tank. An inspection of the #3 engine 

revealed the same flaw. 

As Challenger’s engines were intended to handle heavier payloads than (301- 

umbia’s, a design change had added a metal sleeve over the fuel-supply tubes 

to absorb greater vibrations. Soldering apparently overheated and embrittled 

the underlying metal tubing. Welding new tubing would make the configuration like the old Columbia engines, and Challenger would not be ablc to run 

at full thrust. (NASA DIy Actv Rpt, Mar 2/83; NY Times, Mar 2/83, A-1; W 

Post, Mar 2/83, A-5) 

March 5: NASA said that it would have to revise the schedule for 

Challenger’s first launch because delays had pushed the date past the vernal 

equinox and would put the Shuttle’s communications satellite payload in 

Earth’s shadow for an undesirably long time. Liftoff would be reset for 1:30 

p.m. EST, regardless of the date, shortening the launch window from 4 hours 

to 18 minutes, because of the need for daylight conditions at an emergencylanding runway in Dakar, Senegal. 

Spring would start March 20 at 11:39 p.m. EST. With the sun directly over 

the equator, the time in darkness between transferring the communications 

satellite from the Shuttle’s low Earth orbit to stationary orbit at 22,300 miles 

altitude would have resulted in too much heat loss. All five Columbia missions 

were launched in the morning, the earlier the better according to NASA, so 

that the crews had more dayiight to work in. (NY Times, Mar 6/83, M;I 

March 7-19: A KSC spokesman said that another problem could delay further 

the first flight of Challenger: contamination of the giant tracking and dataPRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT ;F!ILMED 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1983 

relay satellite (TDRS) to be carried on that flight. A storm February 28 with 

winds from 60 to 70 mph had carried “sand, salt, silica particles, and paint 

chips” into the room at the launch pad where the payload was kept and onto 

the satellite. NASA said earlier that the TDRS was not seriously damaged by 

“particulate matter” found on it; however, the contaminants were undergoing 

laboratory tests, and the sensitive Earth-scanner and tracking instruments 

were being closely examined. Launch would again be delayed, probably to 

April 7. 

Spokesman James Kukowski said that NASA could fly the 2%-ton satellite 

as is; try to clean it inside the Challenger cargo bay (where it was installed 

February 25); remove and clean it at the launch pad; return it to a KSC 

payload assembly building; or send it back to TRW’s plant in California. 

Delays were costing up to $3 million a day in overtime. (NY Times, Mar 8/83, 

C-8; Mar 11/83, A-14; Mar 19/83, 14; W Post, Mar 9/83, A-17; Mar 11/83, 

A-18; Mar 19/83, A-10) 

March 9: NASA said that it had joined with the Department of Energy (DOE) 

and the DOD in a program to advance technology of nuclear-reactor power 

systems for use in future civilian and military space missions. The SP-100 program would assess promising concepts with the aim of beginning engineering 

and ground testing within a few years. Research would proceed on thermoelectric and other power-conversion systems; high-temperature metals and 

materials; radiators for dissipating waste heat in space; and high-temperature 

nuclear fuels. A project office at JPL would provide day-to-day management 

of SP-100. (NASA Releaw 83-30) 

LeRC issued a request for proposals to design, build, and launch an ACTS 

system, including flight spacecraft, ground system, and operations. Launched 

by the Space Shuttle in 1988, ACTS would serve foir two years in communications experiments. (NASA Release 83-28; LeRC :Release 83-14) 

Tass announced the docking of Cosmos 1443, probably an advanced version 

of earlier Salyut craft, with Salyut 7 that had been orbiting since April 1982. 

Cosmos 1443, launched unmanned from Baykonur March 2, weighed about 

20 tons and was larger than the Soyuz or Progress spacecraft. The 21-ton 

Salyut 7 was about the size of a small house trailer., said the New York Times. 

The linkup was thought to demonstrate the Soviet 1Jnion’s ability to assemble 

larger space stations. (FBIS, Tass in English, Mar 10, 11/83; NY fimes, Mar 

11/83, A-12; W Post, Mar 11/83, A-24) 

March 12: Launched January 25, IUS had already discovered up to 20 distant galaxies too small to see previously. Dr. James Houck of Cornell University, one of 18 astronomers on the three-nation IRA!; science team, said at JPL 

that only 20 small galaxies outside the Milky Way were measured before IRAS 

went into orbit. “In 12 hours of operation with this satellite, we doubled that 

404 
MARCH 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERON/\UTICS 

number." In a single minute, the 22.4-inch IRAS telescope found out more 

about the Large Magellanic Cloud, galaxy closest to the Milky Way, than ever 

discovered by Earth telescopes. 

The IRAS telescope, cooled by liquid helium to 2.5" above absolute zero 

to offset any stray heat that might confuse its imaging, was so sensitive that 

it could detect an object with temperatures far below that of freezing on Earth. 

Optical telescopes, by contrast, could see only objects with temperatures hot 

enough to make them shine (above 10,OOO"F). The telescope was built in the 

United States, the spacecraft in the Netherlands; Great Britain was tracking it. 

The biggest surprise, said Houck, was that the $80 million satellite 'was 

"working better than we had hoped," seeing cooler objects in greater detail 

than astronomers thought possible. Over its 12-month lifetime, IRAS could 

survey 95% of the sky in the infrared, never attempted from the ground. Infrared lightwaves were longer than those in the visible spectrum but shorter 

than radiowaves. The projected lifetime would probably be extended by 50% 

because of the slow rate of helium use so far. (W Post, Mar 12/83, A-113) 

March 17: MSFC test-fired a high-performance development motor for a 

Shuttle solid-fuel rocket booster, redesigned for more thrust at liftolf and 

higher payload capability. Successful completion of the test would qualify the 

motor for flight. First use would be on the eighth Shuttle mission, set for. summer 1983. (MSFC Release 83-12) 

March 22: NASA announced the establishment of a Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science at ARC, to begin operations in June. Funded by 

NASA through the Universities Space Research Associations (USRA), lhe institute would be a place for the academic community to work in computer 

science, applied math, and computer applications to solution of scientific and 

engineering problems. Director of the institute would be Dr. Peter J. Denning, 

head of the computer sciences department at Purdue University. (NASA 

Release 83-38) 

March 23: The Nimbus 5 Earth-observation satellite would end operations as 

of April 1, said 'Dr. S.G. Tilford of NASA's environmental observation division. Launched in 1972, Nimbus 5 would probably reenter after the year 2000. 

Its last-on-board tape recorder stopped in November 1982. The U.S. Navy, the 

only user of its data, would get this information from Nimbus Z (NASA 

Release 83-40) 

MSFC said that NASA transferred the Astro program (Spacelab astronomy 

missions beginning in 1986) to it from GSFC. Leon B. Allen, Astro manager, 

said that the move followed reallocation of internal resources at GSFC. IMSFC 

was the logical place for the program because of experience in managing shuttle missions. (MSFC Release 83-14) 

405 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1983 

March 28: NASA launched NOAA-E for NOAA from the Western Space and 

Missile Center (WSMC) on an Atlas vehicle at 7:52 a.m. EST into an orbit 

with 829-kilometer apogee, 806-kilometer perigee, 101.2-minute period. and 

98.8” inclination. Called NOM 8 in orbit, it carried search and rescue (SAR) 

equipment to locate signals from emergency beacons on planes and ships. 

An hour later, when the satellite came over Vandenberg Air Force Base for 

the first time, malfunction of a control device was rotating the spacecraft “like 

the propeller on a plane,” said a NASA spokesman. As it solar panels could 

not fix on the Sun, the spacecraft was losing the power needed to make corrections and was put into a safety mode to prevent fiirther discharge of battery 

power. A similar problem occured in 1978 with TIROS-N and was corrected 

in two weeks. (NASA MOR E-615-83-04 [prelaunch] Mar 23/83; NY Times, 

Mar 29/83, A-14; W Times, Mar 29/83, 3; AID, Mar 30183, 171; P Inq, Mar 

30183, 10; Spacewarn SPX-354, Apr 26/83) 

A report from the House Appropriations Committee said that the Space 

Telescope, called by NASA Administrator James M. Beggs “the most important scientific instrument” ever to be flown, would cost $200 million more and 

reach orbit a year later than expected because of difficulties in development. 

The report blamed delays and cost overruns on NASA for understaffing the 

program by 50% in its early development, and on Perkin-Elmer Corporation, 

one of two major contractors, for failing to “properly plan for a project of the 

technical and manufacturing difficulty of the Space Telescope.” Besides the 

glitches in tracking and alignment devices, possibly unremovable dust on the 

primary telescope mirror after 15 months in a Perkin-Elmer “clean room” had 

lowered its reflecting power by 20 to 30%. (W Post, Mar 28/83, A-8) 

March 29: An international team of scientists studying the upper tropical atmosphere completed a month of rocket launches in Peru. Project Condor was 

an equatorial-atmosphere rocket and radar mission by universities and agencies of the United States, Peru, and the Federal Republic of Germany. The 

equatorial jet stream spawned the largest electrical currents and fields outside 

the auroral zone. Also, high- and low-density plasma mixing in the post-sunset 

ionosphere created greater disturbances than magnetospheric substorms. 

Project Condor: part of NASA’s sounding-rocket program, was managed by 

GSFC’s Wallops Flight Facility. Condor would map electrical conditions and 

wind- and radio-wave patterns in the tropic upper atmosphere; applications 

would include, for instance, satellite ranging systems used to locate ships at 

sea that could be affected by ionosphere conditions. (GSFC Releases 83-4, 

83-7) 

406 
April 

April 1-14: Countdown for the April 4 launch of STS-6, first flight of shuttle 

orbiter Challenger, began when inspection of its payload-TDRS-showed “a 

much lower level of contamination than originally thought.” Robert E. Smylie, 

associate administrator for space trackmg and data systems, said that the cargo 

bay and critical parts of the TDRS solar array had been cleaned and that 

TDRS would be put back into the cargo bay. 

Press reports noted that the 75-ton Challenger, a slimmed-down version of 

Columbia, could lift more and was nearly 2,500 pounds lighter than its 

predecessor. Made of lighter materials, it had no crew-ejection seats. Crew of 

the five-day $26-million mission would be Paul Weitz, the only spact:flight 

veteran; Karol Bobko; and Donald Peterson and Story Musgrave, who on the 

fourth day of the mission would perform the first Shuttle space walk. 

Launch April 4 at 1:30 p.m. EST fiom KSC exhibited “no sign of the 

engine trouble that forced four of its five launch postponements,” said press 

reports. Challenger was in orbit 10 minutes after liftoff. 

About 11:30 p.m. the crew launched TDRS from the cargo bay by firing six 

explosive bolts that hurled it a mile or so from Challenger. About one hour 

later, from a distance of about 32 miles, the crew fired a huge rocket engine 

attached to TDRS to start boosting it to a permanent position 22,400 miles 

above the equator. TDRS-A would be first of three communications satellites 

to be stationed in a global network that would quadruple the area from which 

U.S. spacecraft could communicate with Earth, as well as the amount of time 

available for such communication, and would begin to eliminate the need for 

global ground stations. 

About 6 a.m. EST April 5 ground control lost touch with TDRS.during a 

104-second firing to nudge it into higher orbit. This was the second use of the 

rocket system called inerfial upper stage (IUS), built by Boeing for the U.S. 

Air Force. The second state ignited but burned only about 70 seconds; TDRS 

and its rocket were out of contact for 3 hours. The STS-6 crew was asleep at 

the time. At 9 a.m. EST, mission control suddenly reacquired signals from 

TDRS, and project officials reported that it had separated from the IUS and 

stabilized itself. All satellite sytems appeared to be working normally. NASA 

said that it had appointed a panel to look into anomaly, which was blamed on 

misfire-of an on-board rocket. The misfire put TDRS into an eccentric: orbit 

at an angle to the equator, instead of almost directly over it. Flight directors 

said that they could correct the TDRS orbit by period firings of omboard 

hydrazine. 

Just before the space walk April 7, President Reagan congratulatcd the 

STS-6 crew on being “ahead of schedule,” adding “I can’t say I envy you.” 

407 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1983 

A reporter who asked the president why was told “May be a little 

claustrophobia.” 

Musgrave and Peterson exited through an airlo’zk just after 4 p.m. EST, 

fastened themselves to 50-foot safety wires, and mcved about the 65-foot-long 

cargo bay to test new space suits, handholds and footholds, tools, and ropes 

to be used in retrieval and repair of orbiting spacecraft. While Weitz and 

Bobko watched from inside, Musgrave and Peterson stayed outside Challenger 

for 3 hours and 52 minutes, doing the first U.S. space walk since February 

1974, when Edward Gibson and Gerald Carr left Slcylab to retrieve film from 

an exterior camera. A space walk scheduled last November from the Shuttle 

Columbia had been canceled when both space suits exhibited mechanical 

failures. 

On April 8 from JSC mission control, Vice President George Bush told the 

crew that their mssion was a “significant contribution.” The crew had suffered 

some space sickness but felt “pretty chipper,” according to the capsule communicator. When the astronauts appeared on television during Bush’s visit, 

Musgrave was performing rolls in the weightless environment, and Weitz cxplained that he was “trying to see if he can make himself sick again.” 

Challenger, with Weitz at the controls, landed ai- Edwards Air Force Base 

April 9 at 1:53 p.m. EST. Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, NASA associate 

administrator for space flight, said that the crew and the vehicle were “in great 

shape.” Besides launching TDRS, the mission exposed seeds to effects of 

weightlessness and cosmic radiation. It also carried a snowflake machine 

from the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun to produce symmetrical crystals, 

such as those needed in computers; a device to separate rat and egg proteins 

in weightlessness, aimed at ultrapure medicines; a device to produce uniform 

microscopic latex beads to test supersensitive measuring instruments; and an 

Air Force Academy canister containing a tiny oven to solder metals in 

Weightlessness. 

STS-7, tentatively set for June 9, was to land Challenger at KSC only a few 

miles from its launch point. STS-8 was supposed to take TDRS-B into orbit 

as part of a communications link needed for the European Space Agency’s 

(ESA) Spacelab mission due to fly on STS-9; Spacelab would carry about 40 

scientific experiments requiring constant communications with Earth through 

the two TDRS communications satellites. 

However, Abrahamson said that NASA “will not fly a second satellite on 

the eighth shuttle flight until we understand what went wrong on this flight.” 

He said that a U.S. Air Force camera in New Mexico had recorded, from a 

distance of about 20,000 miles, what happened to put the $100 million TDRS 

into a wrong orbit. (NASA MOR T-313-83-01 [prelaunch] Jan 14/83, Mar 

25/83; NASA Releases 83-37, 83-49; MSFC Release 83-21; text, Pres. Doc., 

Apr 4, 7/83; NY Times, Apr 6/83, A-1; Apr 7/83, D-7; Apr 8/83, A-1; Apr 

9183, 8; Apr 10183, 1; WPost, Mar 31/83, A-15; Apr 5/83, A-1; Apr 6/83, A-1; 

Apr 8/83, A-1; Apr 10183, A-1; W Times, Apr 5/83, 2A) 

408 
APRIL 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUT ICs 

April 4: For the first time in the U.S. space program, one satellite used signals 

from another satellite to navigate. The Air Force System Command said that 

Landsat D (Landsat 4), a NASA remote-sensing craft built by General IElectric, was getting signals from the U.S. Air Force Space Division's NavStar 

global-positioning system (GPS) satellite to compute position, velocity.. and 

time. Landsat 4, first satellite to carry a GPS receiver, could record its precise 

position as it acquired Earth-imaging data. The receiver also eliminated 

transmission of navigation signals between space and Earth; direct signal 

reception ensured efficient and economic spacecraft operation. (AESC 

Newsreview, Apr 4/83, 5) 

April 11: NASA launched RCA-F at 5:39 p.m. EDT from the Eastern Space 

and Missile Center (ESMC) on a Delta into a transfer orbit with 

36,266-kilometer apogee, 169-kilometer perigee, 634.2-minute period, and 

24" inclination, before reaching geosynchronous orbit at 139 W where for 10 

years it would provide commercial and official voice, digital, and video communications between Alaska and the continental United States. 

Called Sutcom 1R in orbit, the 3-axis stabilized craft weighed nearly 600 

kilograms (1,320 pounds) and carried 24 solid-state transponders. It would 

replace the first of RCA's domestic communications satellites, RCA Satcom 1 

launched December 12, 1975, which had served for seven years. Satcum IR 

joined five previous RCA communications satellites to provide television, 

voice, and high-speed data transmission to all 50 states and Puerto Rico. More 

than 4,000 Earth stations had direct access to these spacecraft. (NASA IMOR 

M-492-206-83-07 [prelaunch] Mar 31/83; NASA Release 83-44; SPX-354; 

NASA wkly SSR, Apr 14/83) 

NASA said that President Reagan asked his Senior Interagency Group for 

Space, chaired by William P. Clark, assistant to the president for national 

security affairs, to establish a basis for an administration decision on whiether 

to proceed with NASA development of a permanently based manned space 

station. (NASA Release 83-51; MSFC Release 83-24) 

After months of unsuccessful effort to communicate with Viking lander 1 

(the Mutch Memorial Station on the surface of Mars), engineers at JPL clecided that they probably could not reestablish contact. 

Launched in August 1975, the lander reached Mars July 20, 1976, and was 

joined by lander 2 September 3 of that year for the most thorough examination 

of another- planet ever undertaken. When contact was lost in November 1982, 

engineers vainly transmitted command series based on studies of possible 

failure modes. However, lander l's internal program could initiate signals to 

Earth without being commanded; if the lander were still operating, it might 

transmit in May. 

Lander 1 was renamed the Mutch Memorial Station to honor Dr. Thornas 

A. Mutch, former leader of the Viking imaging team, who disappeared in 

409 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEKONAUTICS APRIL 1983 

September 1980 during a climbing trip in the Himalayas. (NASA Release 

83-471 

April 14: Efforts to push the $100-million TDRS ccimmunications satellite into its proper orbit were suspended when NASA engineers found that two of 

its maneuvering rockets were damaged and would not work. Firing the 16 

small thrusters on the satellite was the obvious way to correct the orbit, but 

Ron Browning, TDRS project manager, said that engineers from NASA and 

TRW Inc., manufacturer of TDRS, would take four to six weeks to figure how 

to operate it with “less than a fully optimal control system.” (W Post, Apr 

14/83, A-3) 

April 16: A Solar System Exploratory Committee, representing the science 

community and NASA, concluded a two-year study by recommending that the 

agency undertake “moderately priced missions” tcl Mars, Venus, Titan, and 

a comet before the end of the century. NASA had sent 32 unmanned spacecraft 

to other worlds in the 1960s and 11 in the 1970s; ,only 2 in this decade. 

Proposals were a Venus radar-mapper in 1988, a Mars orbiter in 1990, flyby 

of an asteroid and rendezvous with a comet in the mid-l990s, and a probe of 

Saturn’s moon Titan between 1988 and 1992. Other missions of interest to the 

group would be sampling Mars and comets; robot rovers on Mars; and probes 

to Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn. (W Post, Apr 17/83; A-9; NY Ernes, Apr 

17/83, 22) 

April 17: India, for the third time since 1980, launched a satellite into orbit 

from its own soil. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi watched liftoff of the 17-ton 

four-stage rocket carrying the 91-lb Rohini satellite t’rom Sriharikota island off 

India’s east coast. The launch, part of a series aimed at perfecting the launch 

vehicle, would be followed in the next 10 years by higher investment in the 

national space research program, Gandhi said. (LV Post, Apr 18/83, A-17; 

FBIS, Apr 20t83; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Apr 25/83:1 

April 18: NASA announced a deal with Orbital Systems Corporation, a 

private company, to develop and market a $20-mill ion propulsion system for 

launching satellites from the Space Shuttle. (NY Kmes, April 19/83, D-1) 

4 GSFC said that signals radioed to the NOAA-E environment satellite had 

stabilized it, apparently solving the attitude-control problems it had developed 

after launch March 28 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. A team of experts 

from government and industry drew up instructions for the corrections that 

resulted in complete recovery, according to Gerald W. Longanecker, project 

manager. The satellite carried six environmental-monitoring devices and one 

search-and-rescue satellite-aided tracking (SARSA’T) experiment, the latter 

for use in locating and rescuing victims of plane crashes and ships in distress. 

Launched on a U.S. Air Force Atlas E, NOAA-E went into near-perfect or410 
APRIL 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAL TICS 

bit but was found to be in the wrong attitude after reaching a 450-nautical-mile 

altitude; it was in a spin every 17 minutes instead of pointing its sensors and 

antennas toward Earth. The correcting signals stopped the tumble and allowed 

the control system to acquire Earth lock. (NASA Release 83-61) 

April 19-22: The Soviet Union launched from Baykonur three cosmonauts at 

5:11 p.m. Moscow time in Soyuz T-8 on a mission to dock with orbital complex 

Salyut 7-Cosmos 1443. Commander of the mission was Soviet air force Lt. 

Col. Vladimir Titov as commander, Gennady Strekalov as flight engineer, and 

Aleksandr Serebrov (who was on a week-long mission in August 1982) as 

researcher. 

Tass later said that “deviations from the planned rendezvous program” 

canceled plans to dock with the orbital station, and the crew made a soft landing near the city of Arkalyk April 22 at 5:29 p.m. Moscow time. Radio 

Moscow had said this would be the first time a piloted craft docked with such 

a huge space complex. Although North American Air Defense Command 

(NORAD) radar showed the Soyuz and Salyut in close orbits, the Kettering 

satellite-monitoring group in England said that the mission did not proceed 

as expected and that communications between the cosmonauts and ground 

control were “very terse.” This was the first failure of a Soyuz-T, a type in 

use for three years. (FBIS, Tass in English, Apr 20183, Apr 22/83; Beijing 

Xinhua in English, Apr 22/83; WPost, Apr 19/83, A-20; Apr 22/83, A-1; Apr 

23/83, A-1) 

April 25: Scientists at ARC said that Pioneer 10 would be nearly 2.8 billion 

miles beyond the Sun at 2 p.m. PDT, when it passed the orbit of Pluto, traveling 30,000 mph on its way outside the solar system. The first manmade object 

to reach such a distance, Pioneer 10 might go on for millions of years and 

carry Earth greetings to another galaxy. Launched March 2, 1972, the craft 

had functioned “almost with flaw,” said project manager Richard Fimmel. 

Because of its elliptical orbit, Pluto-usually the outermost planet-at this 

time was nearer than Neptune to the Sun and would travel inside Neptune’s 

orbit for the next 17 years. Pioneer 10 would cross Neptune’s orbit June 13, 

effectively leaving the solar system behind. Radio signals moving at the speed 

of light needed more than four hours to cross the distance between Earth and 

spacecraft; even after a decade in space, Pioneer 10 was transmitting data of 

great value to scientists. Since the date of its launch with a predicted lifetime 

of 21 months, long enough for a Jupiter encounter, Pioneer 10 signals over 

vastly increasing distances had remained detectable because of improvements 

in antenna sensitivity. NASA said that it hoped to track the craft for another 

eight years, to a distance of 5 billion miles, 2.2 billion miles beyond its present 

location. (NASA Release 83-57; ARC Releases 83-13, 83-14; W Post, Apr 

25/83, A-23) 

41 I 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1983 

In an exercise called Balloon Intercomparison Campaign, NASA launched 

four giant balloons from the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF) at 

Palestine, Tex., to a 40-kilometer (25-mile) altitude in the largest study ever 

of ozone depletion in the stratosphere and global air pollution from natural 

events like El Chichon’s eruption in April 1982. Each 800-foot-high, 450-footwide balloon could carry two tons of scientific devices. Investigators were 

from Canada, Europe, Japan, and the United :States. (JPL Release 1019; 

NASA Release 83-62; LA Her-Exam, April 24IB3, 2) 

April 28: NASA launched GOES-F from ESMC at 6:26 p.m. EDT on a 

three-stage Delta into a transfer orbit with 48.400-kilometer apogee, 

33,483-kilometer perigee, 1707.4-minute period, and 0.5 inclination, before 

moving it into geosynchronous station at 135 “w over the Pacific to acquire environmental data as “Goes West.” The launch was the 34th consecutive success for a Delta. (NASA MOR E-612-83-04 [prelaunch] Apr 28/83; NASA Dly 

Actv Rpt, Apr 29/83; Spacewarn, SPX-355) 

Press reports described NASA plans to raise the orbit of TDRS to the proper 22,300 miles altitude by as many as 12 separate firings of different engines 

over a two-week period. Robert Aller, TDRS program manager, said that 

TDRS was essential to U.S. military and civilian satellites for the next 20 

years. “Without it, we can’t use the space shuttle [or] Spacelab the way we 

want to, and we can’t hse some very expensive projects like Landsat or the 

space telescope at all.” The $1 billion telescope, called the most ambitious 

scientific instrument ever built, would be useless without TDRS’s high-speed 

communications relays. 

TDRS was about 10,000 miles below the lowest point at which it should approach Earth. The proper orbit would be geosynchronous at 22,335 miles 

altitude, where its speed would match Earth’s spin at the equator. TDRS 

should reach that point by June: if not, NASA would face “a long trudge up 

Capitol Hill to explain the impact of the loss.” (NY Ernes, Apr 25/83, B-12; 

W Post, Apr 28/83, A-17) 
May 2: Engineers at GSFC sent commands to fire 6 of the 24 small control 

thrusters on the TDRS that was launched from Challenger in April into a faulty orbit. Scheduled to last one hour, the firing ended after 41% minutes, when 

one thruster overheated. Engineers said that they could prevent overheating in 

future maneuvers. The firings would continue daily for two to three weeks. 

(NY Times, May 3/83, C5; W Post, May 3/83, A-11) 

May 4: MSFC reported successful simulation of Solar Maximum Mission 

(SMM) spacecraft-repair procedures in its huge neutral-buoyancy tank as 

rehearsal for the actual task set for 1984 during the 13th shuttle mission. 

Solar Max, launched February 14, 1980, worked for 10 months until fuses 

blew on three of its four attitude-control momentum wheels. The repair mission would replace its 500-pound attitude-control subsystem and part of the 

coronagraph-polarimeter. Three of its seven instruments continued to work 

despite the malfunction. 

Dr. George Nelson, lead astronaut for the repair, and STS-13 pilot Francis 

Scobee wore space suits during the underwater simulation to experience the 

physical difficulty of working in the space environment. Dr. Nelson and Dr. 

James D. van Hoften would make the actual repairs. 

Dr. Ernie Hildner, coinvestigator on the polarimeter and MSFC’s solar 

physics branch chief, said that watching the simulation made him “more optimistic about the success of the endeavor.” (MSFC Release 83-30) 

May 6-27: Challenger’s second flight in August would probably not include 

the second TDRS, said NASA’s Robert Aller, as the agency still had no idea 

why the first tumbled out of control after launch April 5. STS-8 would carry 

only a small communications satellite for the government of India; as a 

substitute for the $100-million TDRS, NASA would fly the “payload flight test 

article,” an 8,500-pound package designed to test the robot arm’s ability to 

retrieve and deploy satellites. 

Postponement of TDRS-B would keep the $1 billion Spacelab built by ESA 

and scheduled to fly in September on STS-9 from carrying out its full mission, 

as its 40 instruments were designed to work at such high speeds that they 

needed at least two tracking satellites to operate properly. However, ESA and 

NASA agreed to launch Spacelab on schedule and get a 60% to 70% return 

from its experiments. Even this, Aller said, would depend on NASA’s ability 

to move TDRS-A into a synchronous orbit. Two test firings had raised its 

perigee 350 miles, and Aller expressed “confidence we will have [TDRS] in 

geosynchronous orbit sometime in June.” 

413 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1983 

Press reports said that firings May 10 and 11 raised the perigee more than 

800 miles, still 7,000 miles short; it would take iinother three weeks of daily 

firings to achieve synchronous orbit. On May 27 NASA said that it removed 

TDRS-B from the cargo manifest for STS-8 and substituted the test article. 

By that time it had moved TDRS-A within 3,674 miles (5,915 kilometers) of 

proper perigee. (W Post, May 7/83, A-3, May 11/83, A-9; May 12/83; NASA 

Release 83-86; MSFC Release 83-38) 

May 16: President Reagan issued a directive for the government to rent launch 

pads and sell rocket parts and plans to private fiirms as “a domestic backup 

for the shuttle at essentially no cost to the U.S. government. . . .the private 

sector would assume all costs of [expendable launch vehicle] production now 

borne by the U.S. government.” U.S. government facilities and equipment that 

would otherwise be underutilized or no longer required would find a market. 

The government began 10 years ago to phase out expendable rockets like 

Delta, Atlas, and Titan in favor of reusable Space Shuttles. Contracts with 

rocket firms were ending, and launch pads at the Cape were closing down. 

Gilbert Rye of the National Security Council said that the costs of keeping 

the U.S. facilities open and operating would be borne by the private companies. The president’s directive would allow the firms to buy parts and 

government-owned plans for the rockets at cos1 and to pay for the use of 

launch pads, equipment, and engineers. (Text, PresDoc, May 16/83; W Post, 

May 17/83, A-I) 

May 18: Pioneer 9, orbiting the Sun since its November 1968 launch, returned its last signals to Earth. The 148-pound TRW-built craft and its sisters, 

Pioneer 6, Pioneer 7, and Pioneer 8, were among the earliest interplanetary 

probes, and the other three were still functioning. Designed to transmit data 

for only six months, Pioneer 9 had continued to do so until May 18, 1983. 

ARC engineers tried vainly to revive it. (NASA Release 87-23; W Post, Mar 

5/87, A-9) 

May 19: NASA launched Intelsat 5-F at 6:26 p.m. EDT from ESMC on an 

Atlas Centaur into a transfer orbit. Thiq was the 100th launch for LeRC. The 

4,400-pound Ford Aerospace-built communications satellite carried 12,000 

voice and two color television channels and was the first to have a maritime 

communications link for ship-to-shore communications. (NASA Release 

83-77; LeRC Release 83-25: NASA Dly Actv Rpt, May 20183; D/SD, May 

17/83, 95) 

NASA declared the May 19 launch of lntelsat .T-F successful, as the Atlas 

Centaur had put the satellite into the desired transfer orbit. After an apogee 

kick motor fired May 22 put it in near-geosynchronous orbit for initial positioning and preliminary tests, the Intelsat would be moved on station over the 

Atlantic Ocean. (NASA MOR M-491-203-86-06 [postlaunch] June 13/83) 
MAY 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

May 22: Final attempts to contact the Viking 1 lander on Mars failed, and 

JPL spokesman said that they would try no more “unless NASA Headquarters 

changes its mind.” The craft outlived its 90-day guarantee by years; it was survivor of a pair of two-part spaceships, each including an orbiter that circled 

Mars while its robot laboratory sampled and photographed the planet’s surface. Viking 2’s lander and Viking 1’s orbiter went mute in April 1980. The 

$500-million project returned data on Mars, including pictures of rust-red 

rocks and boulders, dust storms, and periodic layers of frost; recorded 

temperatures ranged from 124E24”OF below zero. (NY Times, May 23/83, 

A-17; W Post, May 23/83, A-8) 

May 26: NASA launched ESA’s X-ray observatory, Exosat, from Vandenberg 

Air Force Base at 3:18 p.m. GMT on a Delta. Designed to study cosmic X-ray 

sources from 0.04 to 80 Kev, the craft carried four instruments: two imaging 

telescopes, a large-area proportional counter array, and a gas-scintillation 

spectrometer. It reached a planned highly elliptical orbit with 

192,000-kilometer apogee, 340-kilometer perigee, and 72.5 O inclination. 

ESA’s operations control center (ESOC) took over shortly after liftoff. (NASA 

MOR M-492-304-83-01 [prelaunch] May 20/83; ESA Infos 18, 20) 

May 27: NASA reached agreement with the National Trust for Historic 

Preservation and five co-plaintiffs in a U.S. district court suit to preserve the 

last of the Apollo-program rocket gantries at KSC. NASA said that it would 

disassemble the gantry into 20-foot sections and store them until a place was 

found to display the tower and money could be raised to reassemble it. 

Michael Ainslie, president of the National Trust, said that the agreement 

recognized “the growing national imperative for the preservation of our 

physical history, even if that history was built less than 20 years ago.” NASA 

said that it would cost $1.8 million to take the tower apart and $8 million to 

reassemble it. (W Post, May 28/83, A-11) 

During May: Dr. Jack Kerrebrock, associate administrator for aeronautics 

and space technology at Headquarters, announced that he would return to the 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) July 1 to resume the position as 

head of MIT’s department of aeronautics and astronautics that he held before 

coming to NASA in July 1981. Dr. Raymond S. Colladay would act as 

associate administrator until the position was filled (Hq anno May 27/83) 

-Robert C. Goetz, director of structures at Langley Research Center 

(LaRC), would become deputy director of Johnson Space Center (JSC), effective July 1, replacing Clifford E. Charlesworth who would become JSC director of space operations. (LaRC Release 83-32) 

c‘ -5 415 

June 

June 2-7: The Soviet Union launched from Baykonur two interplanetary 

spacecraft, Veneru I5 on June 2 on Veneru 16 on June 7. The spacecrafts first 

went into “an intermediate orbit of an artificial earth satellite”; then, an onboard engine sent them toward Venus, where they were scheduled to arrive 

in October. 

Veneru 15 had no descent module, indicating that “a landing is not being 

planned” and that the spacecraft would conduct atmospheric and surface 

research from orbit. Tass said that Veneru 16, “by its design and mission,” was 

“analogous to” Veneru 15. Tass also mentioned the lapse of more than 20 years 

since the Soviet Union began its interplanetary program with the launch in 

February 1961 of Eneru 1, which reached a heliocentric orbit. First probe to 

land on Venus was I/eneru 3, in March 1966; Veneru 4 landed gradually and 

sent data on the planet’s atmosphere for 93 minutes. Eneru 13 and Veneru 14 

soft-landed in March ,1982 and returned photographs of the landing site. 

(FBIS, MoscDomTvSvc in Russian, Tass in English, June 2&7/83) 

June 10: A NASA board said that slippage of a mechanical adjustment caused 

a December 1982 accident at ARC during tests of the world’s largest and 

newest wind tunnel. The collapse of a structure smoothing airflow through the 

tunnel pulled debris through the power section and damaged the fan blades 

beyond repair. The damage cost more than $10 million and would delay completion by a year or more. No persons were injured. (NASA Release 83-96) 

June 12: The prototype Shuttle Enterprise, returning from an overseas tour 

that included the Paris air show, flew over Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, 

Md., early in the morning before landing at Dulles airport in Virginia for 

public viewing at a distance. “Hundreds of thousands,” according to the 

Washington Post, came to see the Shuttle, “despite soaring temperatures.” 

Enterprise and its Boeing 747 transport jet left for California the next day. 

(NASA‘Releases 83-89, 83-93; WPost, June 13/83, B-1; USA Today, June 13, 

7A; W Ernes, June 13/83, lA) 

June 13: Press reports said that the 10th Shuttle mission originally set for 

November, first to have a secret mission and first to be flown solely for the 

U.S. Air Force, was delayed “indefinitely” at the request of the Air Force and 

that NASA officials had “no idea” when it would be rescheduled. The Air 

Force confirmed the delay but would not discuss the reasons. NASA and the 

Air Force had an agreement allowing the service to preempt any scheduled 

Shuttle mission. 

PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1983 

Unidentified sources said that the reason was the Boeing-built upper stage 

that failed when the TDRS was launched from the Shuttle in April. Postponement indicated that the payload scheduled for the Air Force would have used 

the type of upper stage that malfunctioned. A special board convened to investigate the matter had not issued a report. (NY :Times, June 14/83, C-3; W 

Post, June 14/83, A-7) 

At 8 a.m. EDT June 13, unmanned U.S. spacecraft Pioneer 10 crossed the 

orbit of Neptune on the way out of the solar system. The 570-pound robot craft 

2.81 billion miles from the Sun and traveling 30,558 mph at the time. (NASA 

Releases 83-39, 83-91; ARC Releases 83-11, 83-18; W Post, June 12/83, A-1; 

June 14/83, A-1; NY Ernes, June 14183, A-1) 

June 16: Associated Press (AP) said that ESA launched Ariane 6 at 7:59 a.m. 

EDT from Kourou, French Guiana, carrying two communications satellites: 

the first ESA telecommunications craft, the Britkh Aerospace-designed Ecs 

1, and a smaller West German satellite to retransmit amateur radio broadcasts. 

This sixth attempt to get the three-stage Ariane off the ground was 

considered a “crucial boost” to Europe’s space program as a way to break th 

superpower monopoly on space. Ariane faced competition from the U.S. 

Space Shuttle and from private companies planning to buy conventional Thor, 

Atlas, and Titan vehicles from the U.S. government. ESA was counting on 

enough business for everyone, but admitted that Ariane would have had trouble getting any if this sixth faunch had failed. (ESA Info 21; WPost (AP), June 

17/83, A-2) 

June 18-26: STS-7, carrying the first U.S. woman astronaut, took off June 18 

at 7:33 a.m. EDT from KSC launch pad 39A for a six-day mission that would 

deploy two foreign communications satellites and practice freeing and retrieving a pallet containing 11 experiments from the West German government. 

Crew members were Navy Capts. Robert L. Clrippen, commander, and 

Frederick H. Hauck, pilot, plus mission specialist!; Dr. Norman E. Thagard, 

a civilian physician; U.S. Air Force Col. John M. Fabian; and Dr. Sally Ride, 

a civilian with a Ph.D. in physics. 

Mission control stated that the group of five was “the largest human payload 

in the history of the space age.” The Soviet Union had maintained crews of 

five on its Salyut space station but had never carried that number on a single 

launch. 

First deployment of a payload was at 5:02 p.m. EDT when the crew launched from the cargo bay a seven-ton communications satellite, Anik C2, for 

Telesat (Canada’s governmental telecommunications organization). At 9: 36 

a.m. EDT the next day the crew launched a $40 million Pulupa B communications satellites for the government of Indonesia. Two previous Palapas launched by the United States were providing communications to Indonesia, 

Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippine:;. Palupu B, twice the size 

418 
JUNE 1983 ASTRONAUTlCS AND AERONAUTlCS 

of the earlier communications satellite could increase television and telephone 

traffic in the area by 10% to 15% a year. The 147 million Indonesians living 

on islands extending more than 3,200 miles east to west had only 560,000 

telephones: Pulapa B could provide service for as many as a million new 

telephones in the next 10 years. 

After the second communications satellite was launched, the four rookie 

astronauts (Ride, Fabian, Hauck, and Thagard) appeared on the television 

screen assembled in the cockpit and wearing dark-blue T-shirts with white letters reading “TFNG: We Deliver.” TFNG stood for “thirty-five new guys,” 

the astronaut class, recruited in 1978, to which all four belonged. Crippen 

stayed out of camera range, but mission control said “That’s all right, Crip. 

We can tell you’re a steely-eyed veteran from here.” 

On June 19 mission control said that the families of the four fathers aboard 

Challenger had gathered “to wish you a happy Father’s Day.” The four male 

astronauts had a total of 10 children: Crippen and Thagard, 3 each, Hauck and 

Fabian, 2 each. 

Major activities for the next three days would be the release of the 

mechanical arm and rehearsal for deployment and retrieval of the West German pallet. Ride and Fabian would drop the 15-foot, 5,000-pound package off 

the Shuttle and try to pick it up again. (This would be a first for an exercise 

that could be commonplace on future missions.) On June 22 the team released 

and retrieved the package five times, as television cameras on Shuttle and 

package sent spectacular shots of the procedure with a backdrop of Earth and 

black space. When the exercise concluded and the arm and the payload were 

back in the cargo bay, Crippen reminded mission control that some crews had 

announced “We deliver” (referring to the STS-5 crew’s boast when they launched two communications satellites from the shuttle last November): “Well, 

for flight 7, we pick up and deliver.” 

The USSR’s Valentina Tereshkova, first woman to make a flight in space 20 

years ago, wired congratulations to Sally Ride. The telegram expressed 

pleasure “to know that a third representative of this planet’s women, now from 

the United States of America, is in outer space today.” Last year the Soviet 

Union sent a second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, into space. 

Among more than 20 experiments in Challenger’s cargo bay and mid-deck 

was the colony of 150 carpenter ants sent into space by high-school students 

from Camden, N.J., to record their reactions to weightlessness. The ants were 

considered good space subjects, being hardy and naturally social creatures. 

Marginal weather at KSC raised a question whether Challenger would land 

near its launch point, as planned. Landing on the Florida runway was a way 

to reduce time in preparing Challenger for its next flight. STS-7 could be extended, or landing could be shifted to Edwards Air Force Base in California; 

a shift to California would mean an eight-day delay in bringing Challenger 

back to KSC for a mid-August mission, adding pressure to the timetable for 

launching Spacelab between the end of September and mid-October. The next 

chance for a Florida runway landing would be early in 1985; the two interven419 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1983 

ing missions would be a night launch and landing and the heavyweight 

touchdown of the Shuttle carrying Spacelab. Alslo of concern was the effect 

of rainstorms on the Shuttle tile covering: planes carrying strips of the insulation had been flown through rainstorms with a uniform result of “significant 

erosion of the tile surfaces.” 

Mission control offered three landing times, 6:53 a.m. and 8:29 a.m. EDT 

at KSC and 9:56 a.m. EDT at Edwards Air Force Base. The crew appeared 

on television “stowing the cabin” in preparation for landing. A sign “The 

Doctor Is In” was held up as Thagard showed viewers the experiments he was 

conducting to find clues for the cause of space si’ckness. STS-7 had been the 

first shuttle mission to have no space-sick astronauts. 

The Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force Base June 24 at 9:57 EDT 

after a steady downpour began at KSC. In a congratulatory telephone call to 

the astronauts, President Reagan mentioned Ride’s handling of the mechanical 

arm and said “You were there because you were the best person for the job.” 

Ride said that the flight was “the most fun I’ll ever have in my life.” When 

the astronauts attended a brief homecoming ceremony at Johnson Space 

Center June 24, Ride refused to accept a bouquet of flowers from a NASA 

official; she had said before the mission that she wanted to be treated no differently from her four male crewmates. Wives of the male astronauts each 

received a red rose; Ride’s husband, astronaut Dr. Steven Hawley, did not. 

(NASA MOR E-420-07-83-04 [prelaunch] June 9; NASA MOR M-989-83-07 

[prelaunch] June 13/83; NY Ernes, June 20183, A-1; June 23/83, A-1; June 

25/83, 16; June 26/83, 4-8; W Post, June 17/83, A-2; June 20183, A-1; June 

21/83, A-6; June 22/83, A-3; June 23/83, A-1; June 24/83, A-3, C-4; June 

25/83, A-I; June 26/83, A-2) 

June 27: NASA launched HiLat (U.S. Air Force satellite P83-1) from WSMC 

on a Scout at 11:37 a.m. EDT into an orbit with 834-kilometer apogee, 

765-kilometer perigee, 100.9-minute period, and 82 O inclination. The 

248-pound HiLat would obtain data on propagaticin effects on plasma distortion on radar and other communications and baseline data for interpreting the 

distortions. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, June 29/83; NASA MOR M-490-604-83-01 

[prelaunch] June 22/83) 

U.S. balloonists Maxie Anderson, first to make a balloon crossing of the 

Atlantic, and Don Ida were killed when they crashed in a forest in Bavaria during the Gordon Bennett race for distance from Wris. Police saw the basket 

of the balloon detach and fall into the forest; a West German search-andrescue unit said that the ballon struck a high-tension wire that separated it 

from the gondola. Police found both occupants dead at the scene. 

Anderson, with Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman, landed Double Eagle I1 

in France August 17, 1978, after a transatlantic flight. He and his son Kris hand 

flown across North America from San Francisco to Quebec, landing the 

balloon at Kitty Hawk May 12, 1980, far from it; North Carolina goal. He 

420 
JUNE 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

and Don Ida had attempted a 45-day around-the-world flight in the balloon 

Jules Verne last November but encountered mechanical trouble in India. (NY 

Ernes, June 28/83, B-8) 

June 27-30: The Soviet Union launched Soyuz T-9 at 1:12 p.m. Moscow time 

June 27 to link with orbiting complex Salyut 7-Cosmos 1443. Crew members 

were Col. Vladimir Lyakhov, pilot, and flight engineer Aleksandr Aleksandrov, Soyuz T-9 docked with the complex at 2:46 p.m. Moscow time June 28, 

and the cosmonauts entered the station to begin “practicing. . .control of 

large-size manned complexes.” On reactivating life-support and communications systems, the crew began unloading the automatic cargo craft that had 

brought about three tons of supplies. (FBIS, Tass in English, June 27, 28, 29, 

30) 

June 28: NASA launched Galaxy 1, first of a series of three wholly owned 

Hughes communications satellites, at 7:08 p.m. EDT from ESMC on a Delta 

into a transfer orbit before stationing it at 135 9’4 to serve the cable television 

industry. Hughes had sold its 24 operating transponders on a noncommoncarrier basis to ensure purchasers a stable source of programming. NASA 

would launch the other Galaxies in September 1983 and June 1984. (NASA 

MOR M-492-215-83-01 [prelaunch] June 27/83; NASA Dly Actv Rpt, June 

29/83) 

June 29: NASA said that TDRS-I had achieved geosynchronous orbit at 

67”W at 12:31 p.m. Em. By 7:41 p.m. EDT, the communications satellite was 

stabilized in a normal Earth-oriented mode, with momentum wheels and 

Earth sensors controlling it for the first time. The White Sands ground station 

was activating the payload. 

The press said that NASA’s $100 million rescue mission had put TDRS into 

proper stationary orbit on the equator over Brazil, two months after the 

5,000-pound communications satellite went off course when a second-stage 

thruster misfired after launch from the Challenger in April. The 39th firing 

of thruster jets moved TDRS into an orbit parallel to Earth‘s rotation and at 

the same speed, keeping it in the same position above Earth. Saving the 

satellite meant that Spacelab, due to fly in September on STS-9, could proceed 

as planned. Also, the Lundsat now in orbit could send its images to Earth 

through TDRS, and all future Shuttle flights could keep in touch with Earth 

85 % of the time instead of the present 20 % . 

An adjacent story in the Washington Post said that the House had approved 

and sent to President Reagan for signature a compromise bill authorizing 

NASA to spend $7.3 billion in FY84, slightly more than the president’s request, but approval was expected. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, July 1/83; W Post, 

June 30183, A-3) 

42 1 

July I: Tass reported that the two cosmonauts aboard Salyut 7 had opened 

doors to a large attached module, Cosmos 1443, and were working in essentially a three-part assembly consisting of a Salyut, a Cosmos, and the Soyuz 

T-9 in which they arrived at the space station June 28. 

When the Cosmos docked automatically March 10 with the Salyut, U.S. 

space experts said that it would double the size of the 21-ton Salyut and had 

carried 3 tons of cargo, such as scientific gear, experiments, and life-support 

materials. Cosmos had sets of small thrusters generally used to change the orbit of the entire complex, which weighed in total about 50 tons. The Cosmos 

itself, 43 feet long and 13 feet in diameter with solar-cell panels to generate 

electricity, consisted of an orbital module and a descent module. The descent 

module could return to Earth unmanned and land by parachute carrying experimental data and materials no longer needed on the Salyut, giving the same 

sort of round-trip supply service instead for the U.S. Shuttle without being 

reusable. 

Tass said that the cosmonauts, Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, were unloading Cosmos 1443 and reactivating systems on Salyut 7, putting film into cameras and turning on observation instruments, such as an East 

German mass spectrometer, which would photograph and measure “vast 

tracts of Soviet territory in middle and southern latitudes.” (FBIS, Tass in 

English, July 1/83; NY Ernes, July 1/83, A-1) 

A team of engineers from NASA and industry celebrated at GSFC their 

success, after 58 days of maneuvers, in putting the tracking and data-relay 

satellite into geosynchronous orbit. Using tiny one-pound thrusters with 

nozzles about the size of a thimble, the team boosted the 5,000-pound TDRS 

more than 8,600 miles further into space, a feat never before attempted. The 

TDRS was launched from the Shuttle Challenger during its first mission April 

4; after a successful deployment from the Shuttle, some difficulty in the inertial upper stage (IUS) rocket threw TDRS into a tumble from which ground 

control rescued it, stabilizing it far short of the altitude needed for geosynchronous orbit. 

A joint board representing NASA and the U.S. Air Force said later that the 

problem was loss of oil pressure in an engine seal, probably caused by excess 

engine heat. The board had viewed photographs taken by U.S. Air Force 

camera over New Mexico and had conducted “extensive tests.” Because of the 

importance of TDRS operation to space communications, NASA and the Air 

Force had rescheduled two shuttle missions that were to use the IUS. (NASA 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1983 

Releases 83-104, 83-114, 83-116; MSFC Releases 83-49, 83-50; W Post, July 

-NASA announced that Charles D. Walker, an engineer at McDonnell 

Douglas, would be the first payload specialist representing a project designed 

for commercial purposes. He would fly on the 12th Shuttle mission set for 

March 1984, operating a materials-processing device developed by 

McDonnell-Douglas to separate large amounts of tdological materials in space 

for new pharmaceutical uses. As chief engineer responsible for spaceflight 

tests and evaluation, Walker had worked with project support at KSC and JSC, 

training NASA astronauts who operated the device for electrophoresis 

research on earlier Shuttle missions. (NASA Release 83-105) 

13/83, A-1; July 28/83, A-4) 

July 5: A colony of carpenter ants flown on the shuttle Challenger in June 

had apparently not survived the trip. Press repons said that no signs of life 

were seen through the clear plastic top of the casing housing the 151 ants. The 

sponsors, students from two New Jersey high schools who flew to Cape 

Canaveral with a teacher to recover the experiment, checked heat and light 

supply to the canister, as well as the cameras-one making periodic exposures 

and the other recording on television tape-that monitored the ants in flight. 

Everything worked. RCA Corporation had suppolrted the experiment with a 

$10,000 grant. 

Press reports noted that the ants had been inside Challenger’s cargo bay 

almost two months before launch and might have died before the flight; 

however, two control colonies in New Jersey had survived under the same 

conditions. The canister would be opened in New Jersey in the presence of 

two biology professors from Temple University who were advisers to the 

students. (W Post, July 7/83, A-2) 

July 15-17: Reports from Tass on the flight of the Sulyut 7-Soyuz T-PCosmos 

1443 complex included “an unpleasant surprise” when a micrometeorite 

struck one of the windows with quite a loud crack, leaving a four-millimeter 

at diameter crater on the pane. “Luckily,” the report added, “the windows 

have double panes, each 14mm thick. That is why nothing terrible has happened.” Earth was passing through a meteorite shower, and Valery Ryumin had 

noted during his space walk that the skin of Sulyut 6 had been riddled with 

small craters. 

The incident had “amazingly coincided” with a preplanned exercise in 

“urgent escape from the station.” Journalists “could not help asking” how 

long it would take for the crew to abandon station. ]Deputy flight director Victor Blagov said that the “minimum required time is 15 minutes, but we consider 90 minutes-that is, one orbit-to be standard time” during which the 

crew could take all steps needed for an emergency mothballing of the station 

and enter the return module. The cosmonauts could “spend several days 

[there] in absolute safety,” Blagov added, but if necessary they could “splash 

down in the reentry vehicle in the ocean, or touch down in one of the reserve 

424 
JULY 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

landing ranges in the USA, France, and other countries. There is an international convention on that score.” (FBIS, Tass in English, July 15, 22, 27/83) 

July 18: NASA Administrator James M. Beggs told a symposium of several 

hundred government, industry, military, and foreign space-station planners 

that President Reagan would approve a manned U.S. space station within the 

next 12 months. Dr. George A. Keyworth, presidential science adviser, had 

dropped opposition to the space station and asked NASA to come up with a 

“grand vision.” NASA hoped to get from the administration and Congress 

“seed money” of about $200 million for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 

1984; Begs said that it would cost $6 to $8 billion to get a permanent station 

with four to six persons aboard into orbit by 1991. The station would enhance 

U.S. economic well-being by providing new areas for research. (NY Ernes, 

July 19/83, C-3; C Trib, July 18/83, 1) 

July 28: NASA launched Telestur 3A for the American Telephone and 

Telegraph Corporation (AT&T) from the Eastern Space and Missile Range at 

6:49 p.m. EDT on a Delta into a transfer orbit with 37,516-kilometer apogee, 

185-kilometer perigee, 23 O inclination, and 664-minute period, preparatory to 

moving it to geosynchronous station at 96W over the Pacific just west of the 

Galapagos. 

Telestur 3A was the first of a new series of three domestic communications 

satellites offering AT&T long-lines customers television, phone, and data service over the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico; it 

had 24 transponders and 6 spares, each able to relay a color-television signal 

at 60 million bits per second or up to 3,900 two-way phone calls. (Telestur I 

launched 21 years ago for the first transatlantic television relay could offer only 600 one-way voice channels or one television channel.) Launch of Telestur 

3A was declared successful December 16. (NASA Release 83-110; NASA 

MOR M-492-216-83-01 [postlaunch] Dec 16/83; Spacewurn SPX-358, Aug 

30/83, 2) 

During July: NASA appointed Dr. Milton A. Silveira, assistant to the deputy 

administrator, to succeed Dr. Stanley I. Weiss as chief engineer. Weiss, who 

came to NASA in 1980 as associate administrator for space transportation 

operations at Headquarters, was leaving to become vice president for 

engineering at Lockheed Corporation, where he had worked from 1957 to 

1978. 

Silveira began at Langley with the National Advisory Committee for 

Aeronautics (NACA) in 1951 and worked in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo 

programs. He was deputy project manager at JSC for the shuttle orbiter program before coming to Headquarters in 1981. (Anno, July 1/83) 

NASA also appointed John W. Boyd associate administrator for management at Headquarters effective September 4. He had begun at ARC in 1947 

425 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1983 

and served there until appointed deputy director of DFRC in 1979, returning 

to ARC in 1980 as associate director. (Anno, July 1/83) 

Dr. Homer E. Newell, Jr., associate administrator of NASA when he 

retired in 1973, died July 18 at his home at the age of 68. Before joining NASA 

shortly after its formation in 1958, he had been acting superintendent of the 

Naval Research Laboratory’s atmosphere and astrophysics division, and coordinator of the science program for the Navy’s Project Vanguard. The New York 

Times said that Newell was “primarily responsible for organizing early [U.S.] 

scientific efforts in space” and “firmly championed the view that scientific exploration of space should be under civilian rather than military auspices.” (NY 

Times, July 20/83, B-8; W Post, July 20183, C-8) 

426 
August 

August 5: Japan launched a second operational communications satellite, 

Cs-2B (code-named Sukuru 28), at 8:20 p.m. GMT from Tanegashima Island 

toward a stationary orbit above northwestern New Guinea. This seventh 

satellite launched by Japan was only the second “for practical purposes”; the 

first was Sukuru 2A launched in March as communications link between 

Japan’s mainland and outlying Pacific islands. Each communications satellite 

had capacity equal to 4,000 phone circuits, and the two were designed for use 

in a major emergency like an earthquake. (FBIS, Tokyo Kyodo in English, 

Aug 6/83) 

August 9: JPL said that NASA’s IRAS launched in January had found a formation of large particles orbiting Vega, one of the brightest stars seen from 

Earth, in what might be a solar system like Earth’s in a different stage of 

development. This was the first evidence of large solid objects orbiting a star 

other than the Sun. 

IRAS scientists Dr. H.H. Aumann of JPL and Dr. Fred Gillett of Kitt Peak 

National Observatory, working at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in 

Chilton, England, had decided to use Vega (commonly serving astronomers 

as a standard for measuring other stars’ brightness and spectra) as a source 

for calibrating IRAS. “To their surprise,” Science magazine said that Vega’s 

image in the 20-, 60-, and 100-micrometer channels was much brighter than 

the infrared images of similar stars or than expected from an A-type star. 

The heat-sensitive telescope on IRAS was measuring infrared radiation extending out as far as 80 astronomical units (about 7.4 billion miles) from Vega, 

reporting the temperature of the bodies in orbit around the star at about 

-3OO0F, far above the norm of “cold black space” and about that of the inner 

rings of Saturn. The JPL announcement said that the material orbiting Vega 

could compare in mass “to all the nine planets and other matter” in Earth’s 

solar system, not including the Sun. Scientists had long speculated that Earth 

and its companion planets were not the only system of that type in the cosmos, 

but they had never had evidence to prove it, The IRAS discovery was a bonus 

of the decision to use Vega as a ship’s navigator might use the North Star as 

a guide across the ocean. (JPL Release Aug 9/83; NASA Release 83-120; NY 

Ernes, Aug 10183, A-1; W Post, Aug 10183, A-1; Aug 11/83, A-2, A-22; 

Science, Aug 26/83, 846) 

August Z2: NASA signed with the California Institute of Technology 

(CalTech) an extension of its contract for performance of research and 

development at JPL. The contractual relationship had been in effect since 

427 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTlCS AUGUST 1983 

1962; JPL studies for NASA’s Office of Space Science and Applications 

(OSSA) had been principally in space science anti unmanned exploration of 

the Moon and planets. Extension from October 1, 1983, through September 

30, 1988, would cover space exploration and Elarth observation. (NASA 

Release 83-122) 

August 15: MSFC said that it had installed the reusable orbital-research 

Spacelab in the cargo bay of the Shuttle Columbia at KSC. Designed, 

developed, and funded by ESA, Spacelab had undergone tests for three 

months in a cargo-integration test equipment (CITE) stand at KSC. Columbia 

would carry Spacelab and a four-member crew inlo orbit October 28 to perform more than 70 individual investigations in five research areas during a 

nine-day mission. (MSFC Release 83-59; ESA Info 36) 

In “a frank portrayal of the difficulties of life in orbit. . .extremely rare in 

the Soviet media,” the daily newspaper Pruvda printed extracts from the diary 

of a cosmonaut who spent a record 211 days in space between May and 

December 1982, the Washington Post reported. 

Flight engineer Valentin Lebedev, flying on Salyut 7 with Lt. Col. Anatoly 

Berezovoy, found the seven-month mission an intense strain relieved only by 

the fascination of Earth spinning by below the station. Halfway through the 

mission, fatigue had made the two so nervous and sensitive that effort was 

needed to avoid losing their tempers. Arrival of two visiting space crews was 

viewed with apprehension because the original crew feared they might disrupt 

the working relationship they had established; one (entry said “They won’t get 

any of our food. We think they will have to bring their own.” Once on board, 

the visitors apparently offered welcome compan:y. The Soviet Union had 

presented the cosmonauts as heroic, almost superhuman figures, Reuters news 

agency said, and television had invariably shown them smiling. (W Pusr, 

AUg 16/83, A-18) 

August 19-25: The People’s Republic of China launched RPC 13 August 19, 

according to the People’s Daily quoted by Reuters, .which gave no other information on it. The People’s Republic had retrieved the spacecraft from orbit 

August 25 and said that all systems had worked normally. (Spacavurn 

SPX-358, Aug 30183; W Post, AUg 26183, A-20) 

August 22: ARC scientists said that exercise, coupkd with a low-calorie diet, 

might counteract effects of weightlessness on the levels of insulin and glucose 

in the blood of space travelers. Plasma and glucose had increased during 

simulated weightlessness, returning to normal after exercise. 

Simulations of weightlessness for one or two weeks of prolonged bed rest 

had approximated the physiological responses occurring in space; resting 

without exercise had decreased the ability to use glucose, and average levels 

of blood sugar rose more than 10% above normal, a condition like a 

428 
AUGUST :983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

prediabetic. state. Also, a more than 200% rise in blood insulin occurring in 

the test subjects seemed to result from normal production of the hormone and 

less use of it. Tests showed that, even with ample circulation of insulin, the 

body was less able to control glucose storage. Exercise and low-calorie diets 

would be used to solve the problem in test subjects. (NASA Release 83-130; 

ARC Release 83-37) 

August 26: NASA said that IRAS had completed its primary mission 

objective at l2:30 p.m. EDT by conducting an all-sky survey and giving an 

opportunity for double confirmation of sources. Survey data had a few 

“holes” because of Sun-Earth-Moon observation constraints and an anomaly 

that occurred early in June. NASA had begun another survey to fill in the gaps 

and confirm earlier observations; end-of-life would come early in January. 

(NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Sept. 1/83) 

August 30-31: NASA STS-8 at 2:32:02 EDT August 30 from KSC after a 

17-minute hold because of thunderstorms passing through. “Tropical disturbance” Barry had moved ashore August 26 about 40 miles south of the 

Cape and could have turned into a hurricane, but it bypassed the launch-pad 

area. This third flight of Shuttle Challenger was commanded by 

Navy Capt. Richard H. Truly, who was copilot of the second Shuttle mission 

two years ago; pilot for STS-8 was Navy Cdr. Daniel C. Brandenstein. Mission specialists were Navy Lt. Cdr. Dale A. Gardner; civilian physician 

William E. Thornton, oldest American in space; and U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. 

Guion S. Bluford II, first black American in space. 

This was also the first night Shuttle launch. NASA was testing its ability 

to launch at night from KSC, where weather was often more favorable than 

in the daytime. The DOD wanted a demonstration of night launch in case of 

needing the Shuttle for a military.mission on short notice. And Challenger was 

carrying into orbit a $43 million India satellite to forecast weather and relay 

radio, television, and phone calls that required a night launch for proper location. NASA’s first manned night launch had been December 7, 1972, when 

Apollo 17 lifted off at KSC on its way to the Moon; that launch had been visible to people in the Great Smoky Mountains more than 500 miles away. 

NASA also planned to land STS-8 at night, another first, for the same 

reasons it launched at night. Landing would be at Edwards Air Force Base 

in the Mojave desert of California instead of KSC, because of the longer runway and the greater probability of good weather there in midsummer. This 

would be.the first time the public would not be allowed at the landing; NASA 

did not want “hundreds or even thousands of moving automobiles with 

headlights” to confuse Shuttle pilots descending out of total darkness toward 

the concrete runway. 

About three hours after reaching orbit, the crew began communicating with 

mission control through the properly relocated $100 million TDRS launched 

from STS-6 in April, instead of using ground stations out of reach during most 

429 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1983 

of their orbit. The first major task of the STS-8 mission would be deployment 

of INSAT-B, and the crew spent most of August 30 checking the performance 

of the 50-foot mechanical arm in the Shuttle’s cargo bay that had entitled “a 

slightly arthritic reaction” in its elbow. The arm would grapple and move a 

heavy dummy-spacecraft package later in the mission in rehearsal for future 

release or retrieval of satellites. 

INSAT-B was launched over the Indian Ocean August 31 at 7:49 GMT and 

successfully put into transfer orbit, according to the Indian Space Research 

Organization, which said that all on-board systems were worlung well and that 

the solar panel was partly deployed. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Aug 30183; FBIS, 

Delhi DomSvc in English, Aug 31/83; NY Times, Aug 3183, A-10; Aug 31183, 

A-8; USA Today, Aug 30183, 1A, 3A; W Times, Aug 30183, 12A; Aug 30183, 

1A; Intervia, Aug 83, 817) 

A-1; W Post, Aug 25/83, A-8; Aug 26/83, A-10; Allg 30/83, A-1; Aug 31/83, 

During August: NASA said that it would cease in September to operate Nimbus 6, launched June 12, 197.5, for tracking balloons floating around the Earth 

to gather data on winds in the tropical and mid-latitudes. This system was the 

forerunner in one-way platform-to-satellite data collection that had provided 

worldwide ocean temperatures from buoys, tracked animal migration on land 

and sea, and kept in contact with numerous adventures, such as the crew of 

the Eagle I balloon rescued after it crashed in the Atlantic and a Japanese who 

crossed the North Pole by dogsled from Canada. 

Nimbus 6 had lost attitude-control capability in October 1982 when two 

momentum wheels failed with an accompanying severe power reduction. It 

would remain in polar orbit at 600 miles altitude, r,eentering the atmosphere 

some time after the year 2500, NASA said. (NASA Release 83-126) 

Tass reported that the cosmonauts on the Salyut 7-SO)lUz T-9-Cosmo 1443 

complex were working on a “new and unusual mission” to determine the ways 

in which man affects Earth’s environment. The Soviet Union had established 

about 10 biospheres in its territory, and space phot’agraphy would allow experts to assess the state of the flora and fauna there. The Soviets were emphasizing environmental issues, as provided in the USSR constitution, and 

space surveys were helping to detect sources of environmental pollution and 

mapping ways to improve land reclamation or bring water to desert areas. 

The crew had loaded Cosmos 1443 with half a ton of excess material for 

the return to Earth, including photographic films and some instruments (including a nonworking air regenerator and a defunct memory unit of the 

autonomous navigation system) that would be examined for effects of space. 

Cosmos 1443 undocked August 14 at 6:04 p.m. Moscow time and soft-landed 

August 23 with 350 kilograms of cargo. Another cargo ship, Prugress 17, was 

launched August 17 at 4:08 p.m. Moscow time and clocked August 19 at 5:47 

p.m. Moscow time. (FBIS, Tass in English, Aug 1-23/83) 

430 
Septm ber 

September 1-6: Press reports said that the continuing STS-8 mission followed 

up its successful nighttime liftoff and nighttime launch of India’s INSAT-B, 

deployed from Challenger’s cargo bay at 3:49 a.m. EDT by mission specialist 

Air Force Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr. This was the sixth successful launch 

of a communications satellite from a shuttle cargo bay in orbit. Navy Capt. 

Richard H. Truly and Navy Lt. Cdr. Dale A. Gardner spent most of the mission’s third day using the 50-foot mechanical arm to lift and move around a 

19-foot 7,460-pound lead-and-aluminum dumbbell-shaped weight “the size of 

a truck,” practicing for retrieval next April of a dummy satellite platform 

before trying to catch and repair the crippled 20,000-pound Solar Max 

satellite. 

The next two days would see tests of the TDRS, now properly located to 

transmit communications during next April’s Spacelab mission for most of the 

Shuttle orbit rather than the present 20%. 

The odd workday beginning at night and launching INSAT in the dark had 

the crew retiring about 2 p.m. EDT, starting tasks in the late evening, and ending in the early afternoon. The computer at White Sands began refusing to 

acknowledge commands or to correctly position the three TDRS-use antennas 

at White Sands, on board the Challenger, and on TDRS. Flight controllers encountered a three-hour silence from TDRS, but other communications links 

showed no problem with Challenger, and the crew was not awakened. Harold 

Draughon, flight director at JSC, said that 90% of the trouble lay in the instructions given the White Sands computers and that he expected Spacelab to 

fly on time. 

The crew<also underwent tests by Dr. William Thornton on the causes of 

space sickness. In an unusual news conference between mission control in 

Houston and the crew in orbit, Thornton said that he had “learned more in 

the first hour and a half on orbit here than I had by all literature research I 

had done and all of the active work in the past year.” His crewmates had suffered symptoms like nausea, drowsiness, and “just plain giddiness,” although 

he refused to give details. However, he expressed confidence that the medical 

problem could be solved through physiological studies aboard the Shuttle 

flights and would become a thing of the past “as in the early days the weight 

losses that were of great concern turned out to be a simple thing.” 

The mission also accomplished a successful first-time separation in 

weightlessness by mission specialists Bluford and Gardner of live pancreas 

cells, in a pharmaceutical process that could be a step toward conquering 

diabetes. The “astrorats’kix specimen flown on STS-8 to try out an “animal 

housing module” that would carry laboratory animals into orbit for various 

43 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1983 

tests-were returning healthy and “feisty“; veterinarians at DFRF later found 

them dehydrated, as potatoes had been their source of water during flight. The 

rats were flown to ARC, where tests showed a postllight drop in blood volume 

like that of astronauts. 

STS-8 concluded its series of firsts September 5 with a first-time night landing at 3:40 a.m. EDT on an Edwards Air Force Base runway, touching down 

300 feet from the aiming point with no on-board power or lights to assist. 

“That’s as good as we see in the daytime,” said Lt. Gen. James A. 

Abrahamson, NASA associate administrator for space flight. “Based on what 

we’ve seen here tonight, I think night landings will become routine,” Truly 

told a welcoming ceremony. NASA had turned on the world’s most powerful 

searchlights, beams of 4.8 billion candlepower, visible for 100 miles in every 

direction, to guide Challenger down. 

The largest and most enthusiastic crowd of invited guests ever gathered at 

the end of a Shuttle mission gave the crew a stan’ding ovation; Bluford said 

he was “really humbled tonight to see so many people out here at 4 o’clock 

in morning to welcome us back.” Thornton, the oldest person at 54 to fly in 

space, was visibly moved by the welcome and said “I know of no point in my 

life that will ever reach this.” President Reagan’s plan to visit KSC on Labor 

Day September 5 to greet the crew in person was canceled; he returned to 

Washington cutting short a vacation, when a Korean airliner was reportedly 

shot down. However, Vice President George Bush was to come in his place 

and attend a picnic for 15,000 employees, government and contractor. 

Challenger was in better shape than any of the Shuttles used on the seven 

previous flights, said Herman K. Widlick, KC ground operations manager, at 

Edwards to plan for the fastest turnaround so far. Despite a four-hour exposure 

to pelting rains before liftoff, six days in orbit, and landing in the dark on a 

concrete runway, Challenger showed less damage on the fuselage or underbelly. Tires and brakes also came through the night landing in good shape; 

however, the space toilet experienced the eighth straight breakdown in flight. 

Lt. Gen. Abrahamson said that he was “not at all pleased with the waste 

management system” and would set up a task-force (equivalent to deal with the 

problem. (NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Sept 9/83; NY Times, Sept 2/83, D-20; Sept 

4/83, 1,36; Sept 5/83,9; Sept 7/83, A-18, A-22; WiDost, Sept 2/83; Sept 3/83, 

A-3; Sept 5/83, A-3; Sept 6/83, A-3; Sept 7183, 14-4; W Times, Sept 1/83, 

2A; Sept 2/83, 2A; Sept 5/83, 3A; Sept 6183, 1A; Time, Sept 12/83, 42) 

September 4-19: ZNSAT IB, the India communications satellite successfully 

launched from STS-8 August 31, had solar-array problems, said Indian Space 

Research Organization (ISRO) scientists who worked with engineers from 

Ford Aerospace, the manufacturer, to extend the panels on both sides of the 

spacecraft. 

Press reports later said that the ISRO center in Bangalore had been able to 

put the entire solar panel in operation after tilting it toward the Sun. But ISRO 

also announced September 9 that “an unidentified object” struck INSAT 1B 

432 
SEPTEMBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

only seconds after its release from Challenger; an object about eight inches 

across that came from outside the Shuttle hit the satellite 23 seconds after 

separation. Study of a videotape shot during INSAT development ruled out 

origin of the object in Challenger’s cargo bay. Experts said that this was the 

first spacecraft to be hit in space by a stray object. INSAT reached the correct 

geostationary orbit 19 days after launch and was to be operational by October 

15; the first transmission test, sending and receiving a picture by a master control facility at Hassan, was successful and INSAT 1B was “fully responding 

to ground commands.” 

India’s first commercial communications satellite INSAT 1, built and launched by the United States to India specifications, was declared officially dead 

a year ago when it failed to respond to ground commands and ran out of fuel 

150 days after launch. (FBIS, Delhi DomSvc, Sept 8, 10, 11, 14, 15/83; WPost, 

Sept 6/83, A-3; Sept 10/83, A-22; Sept 12/83, A-21; Sept 20183, A-6; W 

Ernes, Sept 12/83, 6A) 

September 7: Three new companies entering the “race to commercialize 

space” would launch Space America, a venture to provide remote-sensing 

satellite data services by 1986, the Washington Post reported. The companies 

were two in Washington, D.C.-American Science & Technology and AEROS 

Data Corporation-and Space Services Inc. (SSI) of Houston, which 

developed the first U.S. privately funded and operated launch vehicle. SSI 

would be managing partner. All three companies were less than three years 

old,. privately owned, and “actively seeking capital,” according to Donald 

“Deke” Slayton, former astronaut and president of SSI. The group hoped to 

put into polar orbit a privately owned satellite built by Honeywell Inc. and Ball 

Aerospace Systems with sensors to collect data on Earth resources such as 

agriculture, mineral deposits, and water. (W Post, Sept 8/83, D-1) 

September 8: NASA launched RCA-G, third in a series of high-traffic capacity communications satellites, for RCA Americom from ESMC on a Delta at 

6:52 p.m. EDT into a transfer orbit with 35,758-kilometer apogee, 

176-kilometer perigee, 104-minute period, and 24 O inclination, preparatory to 

assuming station over the equator at 72 “w. RCA-G would join four other communications satellites in orbit (RCA-C through RCA-F) to provide a fivesatellite RCA network providing coverage to all 50 states. More than 4,000 

ground stations had direct access to these communications satellites, which all 

carried 28 completely solid-state C-band amplifiers in a configuration that 

gave 24 operating channels for television, voice, and high-speed data 

transmission. (NASA MOR M-492-206-83-08 [prelaunch] Sept 8/83, 

[postlaunch] July 26/84) 

September 21: NASA said that it had signed a contract with Fairchild Industries for design and development of an unmanned space platform called 

Leasecraft, to be deployed from the Shuttle to serve commercial and govern433 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1983 

ment users. James M. Begs, NASA administrator, said that the move was 

consistent with administration plans to promote space exploitation by commercial firms. Fairchild said that the platform, which would measure 15 by 

15 by 9.5 feet and carry power and command and data-handling modules with 

other equipment needed by various payloads, would cost more than $200 

million. Payloads would include materials-processing and remote-sensing 

equipment and scientific experiments. (NASA Release 83-143) 

September 22: NASA launched Galaxy-B for Hughes Communications from 

ESMC on a Delta at 6:16 p.m. into a transfer orbit before moving it on station 

at 74V over the equator. Second of 3 for Hughes to relay television, voice, 

data, and FAX for U.S. business customers, the cra.ft carried 24 transponders 

and 6 spares, 12 of these already sold to MCI and another to be used by IBM. 

The Galaxy craft were designed to take full advantage of the concept of private 

ownership. (NASA MOR M-492-215-83-02 [prelaunch] Sept 20/83, 

[postlaunch] July 26/84) 

September 23: NASA began moving the TDRS to iits permanent location over 

the Atlantic Ocean, from 67 W to 41 W, said Charles M. Hunter, deputy TDRS 

project manager at GSFC. Using six tiny thrusters, the move began with a 

19-minute bum at 8:57 p.m'. EDT, with a second burn for 17 minutes at 8:57 

a.m. September 24. The craft would move to its permanent station at the rate 

of 1.2" per day, drifting until October 16, when the first of two burns to stop 

the drift would occur. Another burn on October 17 jhould put TDRS over the 

Atlantic just east of Brazil, Hunter said. The fuel to be used, about 8 pounds, 

would not affect operations over the planned 10-year life of TDRS. (NASA 

Release 83-145) 

During September: NASA announced that Richard H. Truly, commander of 

STS-8, was named the first commander of the Naval Space Command to be 

set up October 1 at Dahlgren, Va. Selected as a NASA astronaut in August 

1969, Truly had been on one of the crews for Shuirtle approach-and-landing 

test flights in 1977. His spacecraft was as pilot of !iTS-2 in November 1981. 

(NASA Release 83-133) 

NASA said that astronaut Jack R. Lousma would leave the agency and retire 

from the Marine Corps October 1. A NASA astronaut since April 1966, he 

was pilot on Skylub 3 in 1973 and commanded shuttle orbiter Columbia on its 

third test flight in March 1982. (NASA Release 83-151; W Posr, Sept 30/83, 

A-4) 

Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov on the Sulyur 

7-Soyuz T-PProgress 17 complex continued geophysical observations using 

photography and spectrometry from orbit. They loaded used equipment on 

Progress 17 and undocked it September 17 at 3:44 p.m. Moscow time; Tass 

431 
SEPTEMBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

reported that it “ceased to exist” in the atmosphere the next day. The Cosmos 

1443 module sent into the atmosphere August 14 also burned up September 

18. On September 29 the crew marked three months in the complex. (FBIS, 

Tass in English, Sept 2, 13, 17-18, 23, 29-30/83) 

435 

October 1: President Reagan issued a proclamation calling on the nation to 

observe the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s 25th anniversary with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.” Reviewing the agency’s 

history and accomplishments, including preeminence of U.S. civil and 

military aviation, the Apollo program, planetary exploration, and the Space 

Shuttle, the message stated “The future looks bright, and NASA will be an 

important part of it.” (Text, pres. doc., Oct 1/83) 

October 3: The New York Ernes carried a report by “American intelligence 

sources” that three Soviet cosmonauts escaped death but might have been injured when a USSR launch vehicle exploded or caught fire September 27 at 

a site in Asia. The crew was saved when an escape rocket on top of the capsule 

pulled the spacecraft away from the booster. The incident, first of its kind in 

manned space programs, occurred as the liquid-fuel rocket was about to 

launch the crew to the orbiting Sulyut 7 space station. (NY Ernes, Oct 3/83, 

B-13) 

October 4: The Washington Post said that an experiment on the next U.S. 

Shuttle flight was canceled because of the shooting down last month of a South 

Korean airliner by the Soviet Union. The experiment would have made the 

first mapping photographs from orbit of the entire area of Afghanistan, whose 

government the Soviet Union supports. 

Cancellation was a joint decision of NASA and ESA, which built the $1 

billion Spacelab scheduled to make its first flight October 28 in the Shuttle 

Columbia’s cargo bay. This mission would take the Shuttle farther north and 

south than any previous manned U.S. flight, going 55” from the equator over 

the end‘of Argentina as well as the Hudson Bay region of Canada and @e upper areas of Scotland. Columbia and Spacelab would also fly over most of the 

Soviet Union (including Moscow for the first time) but would take no 

photographs of the Soviet Union. (W Post, Oct 4/83, A-2) 

October 7: NASA said that prelaunch processing for STS-9 would include 

removal of the OV-102 waste-management system and replacement with the 

system from OV-099. The job would take place after the completion of a 

launch-confidence test that included a wet-countdown demonstration, hot-fire 

testing of propellant units, and operation of the fuel-cell power systems. 

(NASA Dly Actv Rpt, Oct 7/83) 

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ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1983 

October IO: Tass said that Venera 15, launched June 2, had reached Venus October 10 and fired its engine to assume an elongated elliptical orbit around the 

planet with a 24-hour period of revolution. Venera 16, still on its way, was 

scheduled to arrive about October 14. (FBIS, Tass in English, Oct 10/83) 

October 10-27: FBIS carried a report from Paris quoting “a source close to 

Soviet space circles” that three Soviet cosmonaul.s, one a woman, were injured when a rocket blew up at Baykonur two weeks ago. The crew was ejected 

from the launcher by a secondary rocket, the source said. (FBIS, Paris AF 

in English, Oct 10183) 

The New York Times said that Soviet officials had “privately admitted” that 

one of their rockets exploded on the launch pad as three cosmonauts prepared 

to join the crew on orbiting space station Sulyut Z However, “in the absence 

of any public accounting of the incident,” questions remained as to the damage 

done to the Soviet Union’s space program or its effect on the mission of the 

crew now in their fourth month aboard Salyut Z 

The private sources said that the 160-foot A-2 rocket began to topple on the 

launch pad before its liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel exploded. The accounts 

were contradictory, some saying that a woman was in the crew and others that 

the crew was either injured or merely shaken up by the experience. The explosion could amount to a major setback, in view of a Soyuz crew’s failure to 

dock with the Salyut last April at the end of a “harrowing 17-hour struggle.” 

The Washington Post said that the crew sustained “unspecified injuries” and 

that the event was important because the visitors to the Salyut would have 

returned to Earth in the capsule that took occupants Aleksandr Aleksandrov 

and Vladimir Lyakhov to the station June 28, 1ea.ving their module for the 

“permanent crew” to use on their return. No immediate concern was exprcssed about the latter, as the original capsule was still usable. 

A later report noted that Aleksandrov and Lyakhov had been endangered 

September 9 by a leak of nitrogen tetroxide propellant into space; the 

cosmonauts had put on their space suits in case the ioxic gas entered the cabin. 

They were allowed to remain in orbit after they found no traces of the gas. 

But the leak had left 16 of the station’s 32 control jets unusable, and less than 

1,000 pounds of the gas in its single operating tank, meaning that a new crew 

could not operate the station in a normal mode. A new crew could fly a different type of space tug to one of the docking ports, however, and use its control jets to maneuver the station. 

The New York Times reported October 18 that a Soviet official with direct 

contact to senior mission control that said two experienced cosmonauts were 

recuperating from effects of acceleration when emergency rockets blew their 

capsule clear of the exploding A-2 launch vehicle and that the crew did not 

include a woman. 

The Washington Post said October 20 that the two cosmonauts on Sulyut 7 

were “in no danger,” according to Eugeny Tabakaev of the Soviet academy of 

sciences; the statement followed a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 

438 
OCrOBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

report that the station was crippled because of a propellant leak. British 

teacher Geoffrey Perry, a regular listener to Soviet radio transmissions, told 

AP that he had detected no signs of stress and that the cosmonauts “sound 

fine.” James Oberg, U.S. specialist on Soviet space programs, said that the 

Sulyut 7crew could get back to Earth in the Soyuz that took them into space, 

but the Soviet Union had not used the Soyuz craft after 115 to 120 days in space 

because batteries and other systems could deteriorate over time. Oberg said 

that Lyakhov and Aleksandrov were to have returned late in September after 

another crew arrived but were delayed by the launch-pad explosion. 

The Soviet Union launched a supply ship, Progress 18, from Baykonur at 

4:59 a.m. EDT October 20 to rendezvous with Sulyut 7, claiming that the 

cosmonauts there were “living normally.” Lyakhov and Aleksandrov appeared 

on Moscow television October 16 and appeared to be “in high spirits.” 

However, their flight had reached its 116th day October 21, and the previous 

record for a stay in space was the 114 days set last year in the course of a 

211-day endurance flight. It would take 10 days to 2 weeks for the cosmonauts 

to unload Progress 18, which would be burned on reentry. 

Nature magazine, published in Great Britain, said that the crisis was exaggerated and concern for the crew came not from Soviet engineers but from 

physicians, who had seen significant declines in activity and efficiency after 

four months in space. Nature described as “fanciful” a suggestion that the 

Soviet Union wanted to keep the cosmonauts in orbit until they could be 

rescued by the U.S. Shuttle on4s November flight. (FBIS, Paris AFP in 

English, Oct 10/83; Tass in English, Oct 14, 20, 21, 22, 28/83; NY Times, Oct 

20183, A-39; Oct 21/83, A-7; Nature, Oct 2l/83, 756) 

12/83, A-7; Oct 18/83, C-2; W Post, Oct 12/83, A-19; Oct 14/83, A-10; Oct 

October 13: LeRC said that Dr. Henry G. Kosmahl, an electron physicist 

employed there, had developed an amplifying system that could double the 

number of channels on a communications satellite. The system, called a 

dynamic velocity taper, was a “relatively minor technical modification” of an 

existing device. 

Most nations had been seeking additional output from communications 

satellites for voice, picture, and data transmission. However, communications 

satellites could be spaced around the globe no closer than 2 O part; otherwise, 

the signals from one would interfere with those adjoining. The number of 

possible communications satellites in orbit was therefore limited, and all 

available slots would be full by the year 2000. 

Kosmahl’s idea would make each communications satellite able to handle 

more traffic without affecting quality of the signals or increasing the power 

supply. He had applied for a patent on the device, which would be owned by 

NASA but available to industry. (LeRC Release 83-62) 

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum said that it would build 

an adjunct facility at Dulles International Airport to house an expanding 

439 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1983 

collection of aircraft, including the Shuttle Enterprise. Estimated to cost $40 

million, the facility would replace the restoration site now at Silver Hill, Md., 

but would not be completed for another 7 to 15 years. Possibilities for Dulles 

included a group of four buildings to accommodate a Boeing 707, a Boeing 

B17 bomber, Boeing 727, a Boeing 747, and others; the design and funding 

were not yet settled. 

The collection had outgrown the Mall area, saial Walter Boyne, director of 

the museum: “We are going to get the space shuttle and the Concorde,” which 

it would be physically impossible to move to the Mall area. “They are so complex, you can’t simply take a wing off and move them.” The present museum 

now has 10 million visitors a year, and Boyne said that people would be as 

interested in the Shuttle 100 years from now as they were in the Wright 

Brothers’ plane today. ( W Post, Oct 13/83, D-1) 

October 13-17: Press reports said that NASA might have to delay the first 

flight of Spacelab on the Shuttle Columbia until the end of November, because 

a protective liner on the inner surface of the solid-fuel rocket-engine exhaust 

nozzles might be part of what one official called “a bad batch.” 

A three-inch layer of the carbon-epoxy material was intended to protect the 

metal nozzles from flaming exhaust by charring, tci dissipate heat; about half 

the layer would normally burn away during the two-minute firing of the 

booster. On the last mission, one nozzle’s lining came within 0.2 inches of 

burning away completely. Damage to a metal nozzle could send the Shuttle 

off course; had the flame burned through part of the engine in flight, “it could 

have caused a catastrophe,” said the Washington Post. A test firing October 

11 at Thiokol’s Utah plant, where the rockets were built, showed that the liner 

had begun to “delaminate,” which would make the Shuttle aerodynamically 

unstable after two minutes of flight. 

If NASA decided to replace one of Columbia’s motors, it would have to 

move the entire vehicle off the pad. Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, head of 

the Shuttle program, said that chances of staying on schedule for a Spacelab 

launch between October 28 and November 5 were “diminishing rapidly”; 

however, he would not set a launch date “with this type of uncertainty.” The 

next possible launch date after November 5 would be November 27: 

astronomy experiments to be carried on Spacelab had to orbited while the 

moon was dark. 

[Students at Camden, N.J., high schools said that the carpenter ants flown 

on Challenger in June had died from lack of moisture before leaving Earth.] 

The New York Times said that NASA might have to delay the next Shuttle 

mission for one to four months, possibly to next February 6, because of concern about reliability of the nozzles in the Shuttle boosters. Positions of stellar 

targets would again be favorable for Spacelab observations by next February. 

ESA and scientists from the United States and Europe were asked to suggest 

rescheduling that would have the least impact on their experiments. 

440 
OCrOBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

A later report said that engineers who examined one of the engines 

recovered from the Atlantic after the mission in August found that the threeinch coating inside the rocket nozzle had burned down to 0.2 inches. 

Astronaut Daniel C. Brandenstein, pilot of that flight, told CBS News that the 

lowest part of the engine would have burned through if the engines had fired 

2.7 seconds more, which would have “spelled curtains for the crew.” A NASA 

official said that was conjecture, though the agency admitted that a burnthrough might have occurred after 20 more seconds. 

NASA decided October 14 to postpone the first flight of Spacelab for “at 

least a month” but would announce a new launch date. Gen. Abrahamson said 

October 16 that the probable date would be late next February, but the decision 

would be made jointly by NASA and ESA. He said that NASA engineers still 

did not know what caused the near-failure of the engine on the eighth shuttle 

flight in August. Two test firings in the last 10 days had produced confusing 

results: one engine lining had almost burned through, the other less than 

halfway, as it was meant to do. NASA had changed the manufacturing process 

not long ago, he noted, and the change might have trapped gases in the lining 

instead of baking them out. 

With Columbia waiting for Spacelab, the next Shuttle flight would take 

place in January as planned. Challenger would deploy two communications 

satellites, and astronaut Bruce McCandless would demonstrate in space a selfpropelled manned maneuvering unit that could go 500 to 600 feet from the 

Shuttle. (W Posr, Oct 13/83, A-15; Oct 14/83, A-10; Oct 15/83, A-20; Oct 

17/83, A-3; NY Times, Oct 13/83, A-16) 

October 16-17: Engineers from NASA, TRW Inc., and Spacecom successfully carried out two maneuvers to put TDRS 1 at its permanent station at 41W. 

The communications satellite, launched from the shuttle in April, was now 

over the Atlantic Ocean at the equator just off the north coast of Brazil. 

(NASA Release 83-156) 

October 19: ESA launched Ariane 8 from Kourou, French Guiana, at l2:45 

a.m. GMT from Zntelsat 5-F7as Payload, which it deployed at 1:OO a.m: into 

an orbit with 36,158-kilometer apogee, 183-kilometer perigee, and 8.5” inclination. Representatives from ESA and France’s Centre National d’Etudes 

Spatiales (CNES) were delighted with a new success for the European space 

industry. (FBIS, Paris AFP, Oct ~19/83) 

The NY Zimes said that ‘komputer enthusiasts” had invaded NASA’s electronic mail system, left cartoon images and “Kilroy was here” messages for 

agency employees, and played pranks on others. A NASA official said that the 

intruders had destroyed some information but had not “significantly 

disrupted” the electronic mail service. NASA first noticed the intrusions in 

mid-July, and they continued into mid-September. Besides reading 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1983 

unclassified NASA messages, the intruders had destroyed some messages and 

created personal passwords and new files for themselves and their computer 

friends. Some NASA employees who used Telemail had been inconvenienced, 

but the system had never been halted. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that it was investigating a 

number of youths in connection with the intrusions. To make Telemail easy 

to use, NASA had told employees to use their firmst initial and last names as 

part of an entry code; employee names were available from agency telephone 

directories sold by the Government Printing Office (GPO). The Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) told a House subcommittee that it was trying 

to increase security for federal computers, and an FBI official asked Congress 

for a law prohibiting unauthorized entry into a computer. Without such a law, 

federal authorities were treating the cases as wire lraud, like use of telephone 

lines to obtain service without paying. (NY Timer:, Oct 19/83, A-16) 

Another report said that the FBI had seized computers and other equipment 

from 15 computer enthusiasts around the United States, mostly teenagers. The 

bureau said that there was “extensive” penetration into commercial and DOD 

computers and that intruders had tampered with the files of some corporations. (NY Ernes, Oct 17/83, A-12) 

During October: Kurt Debus, who helped develop Germany’s World War I1 

V-2 rocket and worked on the Redstone ballistic missile for the U.S. Army in 

the 1950s, died after a heart attack at his home near Cocoa, Fla., at the age 

of 74. 

He had joined Wernher von Braun’s rocket team on the Baltic coast during 

the war and came to the United States afterwards. Von Braun said of him: “We 

develop the rockets and it’s up to Debus to see they do what they’re supposed 

to do.” In 1952, Debus became director of what would later be NASA’s Kennedy Space Center; his last official act before retirement was to break ground 

for a KSC landing strip for Shuttles returning from orbit. (WPost, Oct 11/83, 

B-6) 

MFSC said that the Space Telescope, NASAls future optical orbiting 

astronomical observatory, had been named the Edwin P. Hubble Space 

Telescope to honor a foremost U.S. astronomer who had died in 1953. 

Scientists had differed on the extent and dimensions of the universe: Earth’s 

solar system was considered part of a larger system of all stars visible to the 

naked eye. It was not known whether faint spiral nebulae were part of the 

Milky Way or distant universes, each composed of myriad stars. 

Hubble, working with the 100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson, Calif., looked 

at individual stars in the Andromeda nebula and by the end of 1924 was able 

to show that Andromeda was many times farther away than any star in the 

Milky Way system. He later showed that the universe was expanding (evidence 

of the Big Bang theory), that external galaxies were moving away from earth, 

and that the more remote the galaxy the faster it was moving. This was called 

442 
OCTOBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTlCS 

Hubble’s Law; the coefficient relating distance and velocity of the galaxy was 

called Hubble’s Constant. 

The newly named Space Telescope was scheduled for launch from the 

Space Shuttle in 1986. (MSFC Release 83-70) 

443 

November 

November 18: The European Space Operations Center (ESOC), at the request 

of the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT), completed 

a switching operation on board ESA's operational Maritime European Communications Satellite Murecs-A that increased the satellite's capacity from 30 

simultaneous voice telephone channels to 46. ESOC completed the transfer in 

less than 10 minutes; thus, avoiding the need to transfer communications to 

the spare satellite and back again. The satellite provided the total of the Atlantic Ocean region shore-to-ship and ship-to-shore satellite communications. 

Murecs-A was providing to INMARSAT its full capacity, one in excess of 

the contractual requirement of 40 voice telephone channels. The increased 

capacity seemed to bode well for Murecs-A to fulfill its design lifetime of 

seven years. (ESA Release, Nov 28/83) 

November 22: The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), launched on 

January 25, 1983, as a joint project of the United States, the Netherlands, and 

the United Kingdom, depleted its supply of helium at 1:30 a.m. GMT. The 

superfluid helium refrigerant cooled the telescope, which would cease operations in about a week, mission officials said. Throughout the mission, the 

telescope's focal plane was cooled to a temperature of about 2.5" above absolute zero (-455"F), making the instrument the coldest manmade object 

ever flown in Earth orbit. 

The telescope surveyed more than 95 % of the sky, pinpointing the locations 

and intensities of more than 200,000 infrared objects. During its 300 days of 

observations, IRAS carried out the first complete survey of the infrared sky 

and made many discoveries, including the detection of a ring of solid material 

around the star Vega and seven comets and bands of dust around the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. More than 200 billion bits of data came 

from IUS, and results announced to date represented only a hurried look at 

a very small proportion of this data. It was evident, however, that IRAS would 

have a major impact on many areas of astronomy and that astronomers would 

be making new discoveries from its data for years to come. 

On November 9, NASA announced two IRAS findings: a new object in the 

solar system-possibly an asteroid or a dead comet-that passed closer to the 

Sun than any planet or known asteroid and three giant rings of dust that circled 

part of the solar system. The unknown object, temporarily designated minor 

planet 1983TB, appeared to be less than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter 

and about 30 million kilometers (19 million miles) from Earth. 1983TB passed 

within 15 million kilometers (9 million miles) of the Sun, closer than any 

planet or known asteroid and 10 times closer than Earth. And its orbit almost 

Pf%XEDII\%G PAGE BLANK MOT FILMED 

Y #fdTpJrtfl?4htY WLWR 445 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1983 

exactly matched that of the Geminid stream of meteoroids, which were visible 

as a shower of meteors (shooting stars) in December 1982. Astronomers were 

planning additional observations with photometers and spectrometers in an effort to clear up the mystery of the identify of 19t13TB. The three dust rings 

were 100 million miles wide and were circling the asteroid belt between Mars 

and Jupiter 200 to 300 million miles from the Sun. The dust bands appeared 

to defy the laws of physics by encircling the asteroid belt in three extremely 

stable and symmetrical rings. Particles making up the dust bands “this small 

can only survive in stable orbits for a few ten-thousands of years before they 

are pulled apart by the sun,” said Dr. Frank Low of the University of Arizona. 

“There must be something that replenishes the rings because three stable 

bands that large cannot exist any other way.” 

In addition, NASA announced that same day that astronomers studying 

IRAS data at the University of Groningen, the N’etherlands, had discovered 

three giant dust shells that were asymmetrically placed around the star 

Betelgeuse. It was already known that the red supergiant star lost material, but 

IRAS data showed evidence of the presence of dust shells that extended more 

than four light years from the star. At that distance, the material must have 

left the star 100,000 years earlier. The IRAS observations thus allowed 

astronomers to study the earliest stages in the episode of mass loss. (NASA 

Release 83-162, 83-171, 83-172, 83-181; W Post, Nov 10183, A-1) 

November 23: Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov returned to EartH aboard the Soyuz T-9 descant module after a 150-day 

flight on board the Sulyut-7-Soyuz orbital space station. The two landed at 3:OO 

p.m. EST (in the middle of the night in the Soviet Union), 16 kilometers east 

of Dzhezkazgan in that country. U.S. intelligence sources said that the two 

were expected to return in September, when an exchange crew of cosmonauts 

was due to visit them. However, they were forced to stay in orbit an additional 

six weeks when an explosion at the launch pad almost killed the two other 

crewmen. And at about the same time that the launch pad accident forced the 

extension of their flight, the two cosmonauts had to deal with a fuel leak 

aboard the Sulyut that left the space station with less than half of its normal 

navigating propellant. The two men had to live in space suits, because the fuel 

that leaked was nitrogen tetroxide, which was so toxic it might have killed 

them if it penetrated the cabin of the space station. 

Western space observers had noted that the six-week extension in space 

might cripple the Soyuz T-9 spacecraft because it had been in orbit longer than 

115 days and this length of time could possibly cause its nonrechargeable batteries to burn out, allowing the corrosive nitrogen textroxide fuel the Soyuz 

used to navigate to eat through engine valves and jeopardize the flight home. 

Western space experts were also interested in the night landing. The 

cosmonauts, earliest day landing would have been December 15, which might 

have been too long for them to trust the Soyuz T-!) to return safely. 

The official Soviet news agency Tass said that, during the flight, the crew 

446 
NOVEMBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

carried out a large volume of scientific-technical and medicobiological 

research and experiments and gathered data on the Earth‘s natural resources, 

its atmosphere, seasonal changes, and the biological productivity of the 

world’s oceans. New research was carried out under the program of material 

studies in space. An Elektrotropgraf instrument on board the station provided 

data on the state of construction materials following exposure to open space. 

Tass also noted that an important part of the crew’s flight program was to carry 

out complex assembly work on the external surface of the Salyut 7 station. 

During two space walks of 5 hours and 45 minutes, the two cosmonauts installed additional solar batteries on the station, in addition to other construction tasks. Over the course of the flight, there were regular medical checkups 

of the crew, which confirmed the possibility of man’s active functioning in 

weightlessness. (FBIS Moscow Pruvda in Russian, Nov 25/83; NY Times, 

NOV 3/83, A-8; W Post, NOV 12/83, A-2, NOV 24/83, A-12) 

November 28: NASA launched at 11:OO a.m. EST the Space Shuttle Columbia 

(STS-9) from KSC. Columbia carried the largest space crew ever, which consisted of John Young, commander; Brewster Shaw, pilot; Dr. Robert Parker 

and Dr. Owen Garriott, mission specialists; and Dr. Byron Lichtenberg and 

West Germany’s Dr. Ulf Merbold, payload specialists. The crew would 

operate in two shifts to permit 24-hour operation of experiments. The mission 

was originally scheduled to get under way September 30 but was delayed to 

October 28 to give engineers additional time to check out a communications 

satellite needed to relay data to Earth from Spacelab, carried on Columbia. 

The flight was postponed again when an examination of the booster rockets 

used for the Space Shuttle mission in August revealed serious erosion of the 

insulation lining one of the rocket nozzles. The rocket was replaced. 

Columbia carried Spacelab, designed and built by ESA, which marked 

Europe’s first major entry into a manned space program. Other firsts 

associated with the flight was that it carried the heaviest payload on a Shuttle, 

the 33,584-pound Spacelab and pallet, and that it would include more experiments and spacecraft maneuvers than did any previous flight. 

Immediately after liftoff, Columbia rolled over and turned northward to put 

itself into an orbital path that would range from as far north as Scotland and 

Leningrad to as far south as Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America in 

order to take pictures of Europe. The orbit would also take Columbia over 

Moscow and many militarily sensitive areas of the Soviet Union, the first time 

a U.S. manned spacecraft had flown over the Soviet Union in daylight. No pictures or other sensing would be taken of the ground while Columbia passed 

over the Soviet Union. 

The $1-billion Spacelab’s 23-foot-long laboratory was sealed and pressurized so that the scientistslastronauts could work in shirtsleeves as they carried 

out more than 70 experiments on 38 sets of equipment. Operating Spacelab 

were Merbold and Lichtenberg, a new breed of astronaut-payload 

specialists-who were not career astronauts but scientists trained to operate 

447 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1983 

the science instruments on the mission. Wired with sensors, the scientists 

were guinea pigs in a number of experiments designed to explore how the 

body adapted to space and how it performed in the absence of gravity. Blood 

samples were taken three times so that scientists could study how the ratio of 

red to white blood cells changed once the body was weightless. Several experiments were conducted to measure eye movements; in another experiment, 

Garriott was given mild electric shocks to see how the muscles in his body 

responded to a sudden jolt that was the bodily equivalent of a sudden movement in weightlessness (doctors believed that one of the causes of space 

sickness might be abrupt movements that disoriented the inner ear). In 

another experiment, the crew in shifts pushed two balls identical in shape and 

size, although of different weights, to determine how quickly humans would 

distinguish weight from size in weightlessness. 

Other Spacelab studies were concerned with the growth in space of 

sunflower seedlings, a fungus, and four types of microbes. Exotic metal mixes 

were melted, and crystals were grown in three Spacelab furnaces. There were 

experiments intended to determine the practicality of orbiting factories to produce products not possible in the gravity of Earth. 

During the flight, two antennas failed on the TDRS-I that was used to relay 

data from Spacelab to Earth. The failure meant that Litchtenberg and Merbold 

had to share the voice link to Mission Control Cenirer in Houston with the four 

astronauts in Columbia’s cockpit, and it meant that the two scientists got their 

instructions from the ground via a teleprinter aboard Spacelab. Columbia 

landed December 8 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. (NASA MOR 

M-977-09-83-01 [prelaunch], Oct 83; NASA Releases 83-163, 83-176; NASA 

Dly Actv Rept, Nov 29/83; W Post, Nov 22/83, ,443, Nov 28/83, A-1, Nov 

29183, A-1, Nov 30/83, A-I; USA Today, Nov 29/83, 1A; W Times, Nov 22/83, 

C-1; B Sun, Nov 29/83, A-1) 

November 29: NASA Administrator James M. Beggs announced that NASA 

and Canada’s Department of Communications signed an arrangement to 

cooperate in the definition of a space program thai. could lead to the development of commercial satellite service to meet mobile communications needs 

in both countries. The arrangement would provide a framework for the 

Department of Communications and NASA to work with telecommunications 

carriers in both countries to initiate mobile satellite service. This approach 

could lead quickly to a commercial satellite system that simultaneously allowed for the development of advanced research and (development to support second generation systems. 

In the event that the program definition activities were successful, the next 

step would be to agree to cooperate in the implemention and postlaunch 

phases of the program. Under that arrangement, NASA would invite U.S. carriers to participate in a joint endeavor arrangement through a Notice of Opportunity, under which the carrier would be responsible for the development of 

448 
NOVEMBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

commercial markets and, with Telesat Canada, the specification, procurement, and operation of the system. 

Succesful completion of this program would result in initiation of new services and industries in both countries to provide two-way radio, radio 

telephone, and low-speed message and data services to mobile terminals 

operating in rural and nonmetropolitan areas. Potential users would include 

radio common carriers, telephone companies, resource industries, trucking 

companies, federal and state governments, and emergency and law enforcement agencies. (NASA Release 83-186) 

During November: NASA announced that it had set up at JSC the Biomedical 

Research Institute, which would function as part of the Space Adaptation Project within the Space Transportation Systems Program Office, to focus efforts 

on solving some of the problems space crews had in adjusting to a weightless 

environment. The Space Adaptation Syndrome was the name that NASA gave 

to a wide range of physical problems that astronauts sometimes experienced, 

including nausea, vomiting, and general malaise. Approximately 45 % of 

astronauts who had flown had experienced some of those symptons. Flight 

data on the problems had been collected over 22 years of manned spaceflight, 

particularly during the extended Skylab missions. Experiments were performed on Space Shuttle flights with physician astronauts Dr. Norman Thagard on 

STS-7 and Dr. William Thornton, the principal investigator and designer of 

much of the experimental hardware and research on STS-8. In an attempt to 

speed up the process of finding countermeasures and perhaps predict who 

might be more susceptible to the condition, NASA created the research project and established the institute. Elena Huffstetler was named project 

manager, and Dr. Sam Pool, chief of medical sciences at Johnson, was director. At NASA Headquarters, the Space Medicine Branch, Life Sciences Division, Office of Space Science and Applications, would be responsible for 

managing the program of both clinical and applied research in this area. 

(NASA Release 83-167) 

-NASA announced that Robert 0. Aller was appointed associate administrator for space tracking and data systems. Aller, then director of the 

Tracking and Data Satellite System Division, succeeded Robert E. Smylie, 

who left NASA October 28 to become vice president for government communications services at the RCA American Communications Company in 

Princeton, N.J. Aller came to NASA in August 1964 from the Philco Corporation in Houston. Prior to joining Philco, he served for 10 years in the United 

States Air Force. He had held numerous positions in NASA during the 

Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), and Space 

Transportation System (STS) programs. In September 1977 he was appointed 

deputy director of expendable launch vehicles and in 1979 to his current position, where he was responsible for the planning, direction, execution, and 

449 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1983 

evaluation of the TDRS Program. Aller had twice been awarded the NASA 

Exceptional Service Medal for his work in the Apollo and Skylab programs, 

and he also received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal while working 

on the Apollo/Soyuz test project. (NASA anno, Nov 3/83) 

450 
December 

December 1: NASA announced that its scientists studying motion sickness 

were focusing on a chemical substance in the fluid core of the brain that might 

cause vomiting. The fact that there might be a chemical link in motion 

sickness was discovered through NASA’s research into the causes of space motion sickness. The research was being conducted at ARC in the Biomedical 

Research Division and at the new Biomedical Institute at JSC. Studies by 

Ames scientist Dr. Nancy Daunton and two colleagues at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, showed that blocking the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in 

the brain stopped motion-induced vomiting and that an incomplete block did 

not suppress vomiting. The scientists were attempting to isolate the responsible chemical from cerebrospinal fluid. 

When a person received sensory cues for motion, the brain responds with 

its normal, programmed responses to control eye, head, and body movements. 

But when the responses do not yield the expected results-especially when the 

visual image does not stabilize and posture control is not easily maintaineclhumans and animals often experience motion sickness. (NASA Release 

83-191) 

December 8: The Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-9) landed at 3:47 p.m. PST 

at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., after 10 days in space and 167 orbits-the 

longest Space Shuttle mission ever. The landing followed a delay necessitating 

22 more orbits than planned when Columbia’s computers failed 3 hours and 

49 minutes prior to the planned reentry burn. Six hours after the two computers went off line, Columbia also lost one of its three inertial measurement 

units that provided orbiter orientation information. The orbiter carried five 

IBM general purpose computers and three inertial measurement units. Today’s 

reentry was flown with one of each inoperative. A reentry could be flown with 

only a single computer and single measurement unit. Mission pilots John W. 

Young and Brewster H. Shaw, Jr., said at the time that they believed that the 

triggering of an upward firing 870-pound nose reaction control jet, which 

caused an unusually strong impact to the orbiter, was the likely cause of the 

computer failures. However, telemetry analysis showed that the thruster 

activity was coincidental to the computer malfunction. Instead, NASA came 

to the conclusion that it was a transient hardware internal problem. About 40 

minutes after the problems occurred, the crew restored the second computer 

to operation. 

On December 5, President Reagan and West German Chancellor Helmut 

Kohl, in Athens at the time, held a conference call with the five U.S. crew 

members and one German payload specialist on Columbia. The LJ.S. 

45 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1983 

Information Agency (USIA) used five satellites and thousands of miles of land 

lines around the world to bounce the signals among Athens, Washington, and 

JSC to provide live television coverage of the call to seven European cities and 

the Cable News Network (CNN). 

Aside from the computer problems, the ninth ,Space Shuttle mission was 

almost flawless and was distinguished by sclme significant scientific 

discoveries. One discovery involved the workings of the inner ear, disproving 

a 77-year-old hypothesis that had won the 1914 Nobel Prize in medicine for 

Swedish professor, Robert Barany. Barany had said that nystagmus, a flickering of a person’s eyes when cold air is blown into one of his ears and hot air 

into the other, was caused by convection, the motion of fluids under uneven 

heating. But in space, the lack of gravity meant that convection did not occur. 

Nevertheless, the astronauts aboard Columbia showed the characteristic eye 

movements. 

The six-man crew completed work on all but one of the 70 scheduled experiments; only a microwave sensing device misfired. Scientists from 14 countries designed the experiments, and the experiments did not end with 

touchdown. The four scientists were in quarantine, where they would be required to remain motionless so that scientists could observe how their bodies 

acclimated to gravity. (ESA Release, Dec 9/83; WH annon, Dec 5/83; W 

Ernes, Dec 6/83, 3A; W Post, Dec 6/83, A-3, Dec 8/83, A-3, Dec 9/83, A-1; 

NY fimes, Dec 9/83, A-1; P Znq, Deci83, A-1; AvWk, Dec 12/83, 23) 

December 12: Professor Konstantin Feoktistov, a senior Soviet space official, 

told a news conference that “work was being done” on the Soviet space shuttle 

project, which he described as being “more complex” and more “expensive” 

than Moscow’s current orbiting manned-station pro’gram, the Washington Post 

reported. Also at the news conference were cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov 

and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, who had just returned from their record-long stay 

aboard Sulyut-7 The two confirmed a series of re’cent mishaps in the Soviet 

space program, including a fuel leak in their Sulyut 7 orbiting station and a 

launch pad explosion of a booster rocket September 26 that was to have 

brought a fresh crew to relieve them. Because (of the explosion, the two 

cosmonauts said that their mission was extended by 50 days. General Vladimir 

Shatalov, space training chief, told the news conference that there was a leak 

of toxic propellant on the Salyur 7 spacc station but denied reports that the 

craft was so crippled by this as to endanger the crew’s lives. “There was a 

problem with one of the subsystems and there was a leak of a certain amount 

of fuel,’’ he said. “That part of the station was switched off and it continues 

to be viable today.” That subsystem was used for space. maneuvering, the 

general added, noting that backup systems were sufficient to deal with the 

problem. 

Another senior Soviet space official said privately that the Soviets were 

working on a space shuttle and that in “general ternis we are considering both 

452 
DECEMBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

types of orbital vehicles-single-use and multiple-use,’’ the Washington Post 

said. (W Post, Dec 13/83, A-10) 

December 14: Three U.S. biomedical experiments were flying aboard a 

Soviet spacecraft, Cosmos 1514, launched today. In an announcement following the launch, Moscow said only that “scientific experimental systems with 

various biological objects” were aboard and made no reference to foreign collaboration. However, NASA Administrator James M. Beggs disclosed that 

NASA had provided three pieces of medical equipment that the Soviets incorporated in the scientific payload of Cosmos 1514. Later, NASA said that the 

experiments had to do with blood system and biorhythm studies in monkeys 

and fetal development studies in rats. Beggs said that talks that paved the way 

for the Cosmos 1514 experiments were held “about five years ago.” 

Cosmos 1.514 was recovered on December 19, 1983, and in May 1984 TASS 

reported that the rats on the flight were developing normally and that Soviet 

scientists believed the weightlessness did not affect the normal development 

of embryos. (GSFC SSR; FBIS, USSR, May 9/84; W Post, Dec 17/83, A-15) 

December 15: Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft, released today, said that the 

Soviet Union was developing the world’s largest jet airplane, the Antonov 400, 

the Washington Post reported. Jane’s said that the plane had the ability to 

transport SS20 nuclear missiles and that new supersonic Soviet fighters carried advanced electronics and weapons that enable them to shoot down cruise 

missiles and engage Western fighter jets on an equal footing. June’s also said 

that the AN400, known as the Condor, was specifically designed for the rapid 

deployment of SS~OS, tanks, and other heavy equipment and that it was about 

5% larger than the U.S. C5A Galaxy. (W Post, Dec 16/83, A-37) 

December 19: West German physicist Ulf Merbold, the first European to 

share flight with U.S. astronauts, said at a news conference that he believed 

that more Europeans should be assigned to future Space Shuttle flights. “The 

return to Europe should be better than it was for this particular flight 

[STS-9],” which had a crew of six. “The politicians in Europe will not be able 

to sell European participation in the future because there’s not enough 

balance. I think things should be changed.” He continued, “The memorandum 

of understanding signed by the Europeans and Americans called for joint 

space flights by Europeans and Americans, not one European and many 

Americans. I think the Americans have to rethink this agreement to make it 

fairer.” (W Post, Dec 20183, A-4) 

December 21: An Office of Technology Assessment study released today said 

that the Soviet Union was nearing construction of a permanent space base that 

would serve as an eventual springboard for Soviet settlements on Mars and 

the Moon. “The Soviet space station program is the cornerstone of an official 

policy which looks not only toward a permanent Soviet human presence in 

453 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1983 

low-Earth orbit but also toward permanent Soviet settlement of their people 

on the Moon and Mars,’’ the report said. “The Soviets take quite seriously 

the possibility that large numbers of their citizens will one day live in space.” 

The report pointed out that the United States was still debating NASA’s request 

for as much as $200 million in FY85 to begin development of a U.S. space 

station. However, the Soviets had committed to a permanent space base. 

The report pointed out that, while the United States “seems to have gained 

a substantial lead over the Soviet Union” in space science and comniunications, the picture in human spaceflight was “less clear.” The report noted that 

Soviets had flown six models of the Salyut space station in the last 12 years; 

their cosmonauts had flown more than three time:; as many hours in space as 

U.S. astronauts and had accumulated extensive experience “in flight operation, experimentation, and earth observation on trips that last for months.” 

However, U.S. space experts had long criticized the Soviets for sticking with 

what they believed was essentially outdated technology in the Salyut. It could 

not fly back to Earth, deploy other satellites, or carry as many people as the 

Space Shuttle. But the report pointed out that “Sa.lyut may be the penultimate 

step leading to a permanent, large-scale presence in space.” As evidence that 

the Salyut represented only a stepping stone to 1s:rger ventures in space, the 

report said that there is “unclassified photographic evidence” that the Soviets 

were developing a small space plane and a larger “heavy-lift’’ shuttle that 

would carry “more massive payloads into low-earth orbit” than the U.S. 

Space Shuttle could lift. (WPost, Dec 22183, A-1; Salyut, Soviet Steps Toward 

Permanent Humn Presence in Space, A Technical Memorandum, OTA, 

Washington, D.C., Dec 83) 

December 22: The International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE), a spacecraft intended to be the first man-made machine to encounter a comet, came within 

72 miles of the Moon’s surface in a maneuver designed to carry it through the 

tail of the comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1984. Engineers at GSFC 

stored the five-year-old spacecraft on a horseshoe-shaped path behind the 

Moon, then down over the Sea of Smyth on the visible side of the Moon, 

where it picked up speed and sped out oward deep space. Goddard’s 

worldwide tracking network lost contact with the spacecraft when it flew 

behind the Moon, then regained contact when it flew across the Moon in a 

flyby as close as any unmanned spacecraft had ever made to another heavenly 

body without going into orbit around it. The close approach to the Moon was 

intended to provide a slingshot effect from the brush with lunar gravity that 

accelerated the spacecraft from 2,900 to 5,145 miles per hour. 

The flight through the comet’s tail was to take place on September 11, 1985, 

when Giacobini-Zinner was 44 million miles from Earth. It was planned that 

the spacecraft would fly through the comet’s tail for about 30 minutes at a 

distance of about 12,000 miles fro’m its head. 

On passing the Moon, the ISEE-3 spacecraft was renamed the International 

454 
DECEMBER 1983 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Cometary Explorer to emphasize its new mission. (NASA Dly Actv Rept, I>ec 

28/83; W Post, Dec 23/83, A-4) 

December 23: NASA published in the Federal Register a proposal on how it 

would select passengers to ride on the Space Shuttle, possibly as early as 1985. 

NASA emphasized in the proposal that it was not accepting applications. It 

had already received more than 2,000 written requests for rides since the 

1960s, and it had received so many telephone calls about riding the Space 

Shuttle that it had to attach a recorded message to its telephone line to request 

that potential astronauts have patience. All requests that had been received by 

NASA would be disregarded, said NASA’s Sara Keegan. 

The proposed selection plan would use a multitiered process to choose 

Shuttle passengers. All requests would be screened by an outside review panel 

appointed separately by NASA for each flight and then reviewed by a panel 

of seven top space agency officials before NASA’s administrator made the final 

selection. 

Several months before liftoff of a flight, the agency would announce when 

it would accept applications and disclose specific requirements for the flight. 

Such requirements could change according to the Space Shuttle’s mission. 

There were, however, broad requirements for all passengers. Citizen 

observers/participants would have to be in good health and condition, pass a 

detailed background investigation, and be willing to undergo rigorous training. NASA was accepting comments from the public on its proposed selection 

process until mid-February. (NASA Release 83-190; Federal Register, Dee 

23/83, Vol. 48 No. 248, pages 56770-71. Published in final form in FederuI 

Register, Apr 25/84, Vol. 49 No. 81; NY Times, Dec 16/83, A-11; WPost, Dec 

23/83, A-3) 

During December: The large number of malfunctions that struck the Space 

Shuttle Columbia in its final hours of flight during STS-9 forced engineers to 

inaugurate the most extensive trouble-shooting operations since the Space 

Shuttles began flying in April 1981. They were not sure how long the undertaking would last, what they might find, or what effect their findings could 

have on future flight schedules. NASA officials did not rule out the possibility 

that the Columbia’s troubles could cause a delay in the next Space Shuttle mission scheduled for January 30, 1984. 

The malfunctions included two computer failures, a navigation instrument 

shutdown, and an explosive fire in the rear compartment. Early Space Shuttle 

flights had had troubles with computers and the heat-shielding tiles, but these 

were straight forward physical defects that were easily identified. The current 

problems were more perplexing and came when the Space Shuttle was assumed to be a fully tested, operational vehicle. NASA engineers and other 

aerospace observers had suggested that the Columbia’s problems stemmed 

from a phenomenon not uncommon in any new, complex technology: that is 

after the initial text phase, when extreme care and attention were given to 

455 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1983 

every step in a project, it was human nature to relax a bit, and it was the nature 

of machines to misbehave occasionally in unexpected ways. 

International Business Machines (IBM), contractor for the computers, 

would examine the faulty computers; NASA engin’xrs would closely examine 

data in search of clues to the cause of the two malfunctions, 

which did not seem to be related to any fundamental design flaw but 

could have been caused by loose circuitry resulting from vibrations. 

NASA would ship the inertial measurement unit to its manufacturer, 

the Singer Kearfott Company in Little Falls, N.J., for examination. 

(NY Times, Dec 15/83, A-1) 

-JPL announced that the IUS had found a ring of planets being born 

around Fomalhaut, one of the most studied stars in the southern skies. Earlier 

in the year, the telescope had discovered a primitive solar system around the 

star Vega. The discovery that Vega and Fomalhaut appeared to have solar 

systems was the first evidence supporting the theory that Earth’s solar system 

was not the only such in existence. Vega and Fomalhaut might be undergoing 

the same kind of evolution that Earth’s solar system went through three to four 

billion years ago. “The discovery provides the second direct evidence that 

solid objects of substantial size exist around a star that is not our sun,” said 

Dr. Gerry Neugebtiuer, IRAS program scientist at JPL. “These objects could 

be a solar system in a different stage of development and evolution than our 

own or the one that we found to be circling Ve,ga,” he added. The IRAS 

detected the two extraterrestrial solar systems by measuring the temperature 

of the bodies circling the two stars. It found them much cooler than the stars 

but far too warm and far too large to be rings of interstellar dust. (JPL Releasc, 

Dec 16/83; W Post, Dec 17/83, A-3) 

-Lt. Gen. Charles H. Terhune. Jr., retired December 31 as deputy director, JPL. Following retirement from the Air Force in 1969, he joined JPL as 

deputy director, functioning as general manager responsible for the day-to-day 

management of the laboratory’s resources and the direction and coordination 

of its technical. administrative, and service activitics. General Terhune received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in October 1982. He will be 

replaced as deputy director by Robert J. Parks. JF’L associate director. (JPL 

Release, Dec 12/83) 

456 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1984 

January 

January 6: The Washington Post reported that Air Force Lt. Gen. James A. 

Abrahamson, NASA associate administrator, said that coded software instruction cards on both computers on the Space Shuttle Columbia’s last voyage 

(STS-9) were contaminated, delaying Columbia’s landing at Edwards Air 

Force Base in California by eight hours. The instruction cards were shaken 

from their printed circuits when the Shuttle pitched up and down just before 

reentry; however the up-and-down maneuvers would not ordinarily loosen the 

software cards unless there was something wrong with them. 

Abrahamson said that postflight analysis of the cards at IBM’s Owego, N.Y., 

plant, where the computers were built, showed that one card was contaminated with solder and the other had a carbon chip coated with gold that 

should not have been there. Abrahamson pointed out that “the most disturbing 

thing. . .is that both computers were contaminated. I do not like the idea that 

we flew 10 days in space with contaminated computer parts.” 

The six-man crew, commanded by astronaut John W. Young, was able to 

land the Shuttle and its $1 billion European Spacelab safely by relying for 

navigation on three standby computers. (W Post, Jan 6/84, A-8) 

January 16: NASA reported on scientific data of the Viking Lander Monitor 

Mission (VLMM) in the areas of meteorology, radio science, and imaging. 

The Viking program had explored Mars, using two instrumented orbiters 

operating in conjunction with two instrumented landers on the planet’s surface. Two identical spacecraft, each consisting of a lander and orbiter, were 

launched in 1975 and began operating at Mars in 1976. A frugal VLMM was 

conducted from the end of the extended mission in 1980 until June 1983. Based 

on the data acquired in support of the mission objectives, NASA judged the 

VLMM successful. Analyses of the data from the mission would continue for 

some years, supported by the Mars Data Analysis Program of the Solar 

System Exploration Division. (NASA MOR S-815-75-01/02 [postlaunch] Jan 

16/84) 

January 23: Japan launched today the BS-2A (Broadcasting Satellite) from 

Tanegashima. The apogee kick motor (AKM) firing occurred successfully on 

January 26 at l2:14 a.m. EST. Under NASA’s Space Tracking and Data Network (STDN) support for Japan, the STDN would provide continuous 

coverage for 30 hours after AKM firing and contingency support for another 

30 days. STDN support to BS-2A had been nominal to date. Launch and early 

orbit support was provided by the STDN on a cost-reimbursable basis. (NASA 

Dly Act Rept, Jan 30/84; GSFC SSR) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1984 

January 25: President Reagan, in his State of the Union address, endorsed 

the development of the U.S.’s first permanently manned space station. “Wc 

can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for 

peaceful, economic and scientific gain. Tonight., I am directing NASA to 

develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade,” 

he said. “A space station will permit quantum leap!; in our research in science, 

communications and in metals and lifesaving medicines which can be 

manufactured only in space. We want our friends to help us meet these 

challenges and share in their benefits. . . .Just as the oceans opened up a new 

world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential 

for commerce today,” he said. 

NASA prescntcd the agency’s plans to the president on the day that he spokc 

to astronauts in the Spacelab orbiting in the Space Shuttle in December 1983. 

NASA Administrator James N. Beggs had sought the space station as a science 

laboratory, astronomical observatory, space manufacturing center, servicing 

facility for spacecraft, and an assembly site for larger orbiting structures. 

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Central Intelligence Agency 

(CIA) Director William J. Casey had opposed any rnajor commitment to space 

station funding because they feared it could draw money from their own space 

programs, government officials said. The officials added that military and intelligence agencies were concerned that they would have to share the space station with civilian agencies such as NASA and sometimes with astronauts of 

other countries. 

NASA also had found little enthusiasm when it turned for support from 

other agencies. When the National Academy of Sciences space science board 

was asked whether basic research in science would “require or be enhanced 

by the space station,” Thomas M. Donahue, chairman of the space board, said 

the answer was no. “I don’t think you could ever really justify $20 billion for 

a space station,” he said. 

At this early stage, there was no design for the ,space station, but officials 

of NASA had previously sketched the broad out1inc:s of the most likely initial 

design. (Weekly Compilation of the Papers of Ronald Reagan, Jan 25184, 87ff; 

NY Ernes, Jan 26/84, A-1; W Pos;, Jan 18/84, A--l, Jan 29/84, A-4) 

January 27: Johnson Space Center (JSC) spokesman Davc Alter said today 

that NASA had imposed a $131,250 penalty on contractor Hamilton Standard, 

Windsor Locks, Conn., for failure of two space suits that it had built for use 

on the fifth Space Shuttle mission in November 1982. Hamilton Standard was 

to be paid a $175,000 fee over costs for service from October 1982 through 

March 1983. However: the failures had prevented :space walks by astronauts 

Joe Allen and Bill Lenoir on November 11-12, 1982. After a lengthy investigation, NASA blamed the contractor for the failure of a fan in Allen’s life support backpack and an oxygen pressure regulator on Lenoir’s suit. (WPust, Jan 

28184, A-7) 

460 
JANUARY 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

January 30: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced that it had 

launched on January 29 a space satellite that achieved “important results,” and 

the New York Times reported that Western experts speculated that the launch 

could be the debut of a more powerful Chinese rocket and the nation’s first 

communications satellite. They added that the launching could mean that 

China had joined the United States, the Soviet Union, and the European Space 

Agency (ESA) in its capability to loft satellites into geostationary orbits 

22,300 miles above the Earth, the orbit favored for commercial and military 

communications satellites. There were no details of the satellite launched; only “Close observation is being undertaken of the satellite’s operations,” from 

China’s official Xinhua new agency. 

There had been reports as early as 1980 that China was developing a threestage rocket for boosting heavy payloads. (NY Times, Jan 31/84, C-8) 

During January: The Washington Post reported, according to declassified 

documents, that the $100 million Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) 

that the U.S. Air Force found unusable in April 1983 had lost its bearings and 

was unable to determine its position. After being launched from the Space 

Shuttle, the inertial upper stage (IUS) rocket veered so far from course that 

the TDRS ended up in an orbit almost 10,000 miles closer to Earth than was 

intended. It took NASA and its contractors three months to get the satellite 

into geosynchronous orbit above the equator. 

According to the declassified documents, instructions to the gyroscope in 

the IUS were in error, causing the guidance computer to ignore them just 

before the rocket misfired. The Air Force said that the software error had been 

corrected. 

At the same time, the guidance computer’s memory became confused, 

rendering it unable to distinguish between right and wrong information about 

its location in space. Engineers said that they still did not know what caused 

this failure. 

Because of the changes that had to be made in the IUS rocket, the flight 

of a secret Department of Defense (DOD) satellite aboard the Space Shuttle 

Challenger would be delayed from July I until the end of 1984, sources said. 

(W Post, Jan 31/83, A-2) 

-NASA announced that John J. Martin was named associate administrator 

for aeronautics and space technology. Previously, Martin had served as vice 

president and general manager at Bendix Advanced Technology Center, Columbia, Md.; at the Institute for Defense Analyses; on the staff of the president’s science adviser at the White House; as associate deputy to the director 

of central intelligence for the intelligence community; as principal deputy 

assistant secretary of the Air Force; and as assistant secretary of the Air Force 

for research, development, and logistics. A graduate of the University of 

Notre Dame and commissioned by the U.S. Navy, Martin is the author of 

46 I 
ASTRONAUTlCS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 1984 

numerous technical papers and reviews and a book on “Atmospheric Reentry,” 

published in 1966. (NASA anno, Jan 30184) 

-NASA announced that C.A. “Sy” Syvertson would retire on January 13 

as director of Ames Research Center (ARC). Syvertson had a major part in 

the first U.S. research in supersonic and hypersonic flight, both in finding new 

aerodynamic theory and in development of hyptxsonic wind tunnels. He 

designed the first lifting body (a vehicle for flight from orbit to airfield landing and the precursor to the Shuttle) and did planning for major NASA missions in both aeronautics and space. During his tenure, ARC merged with 

NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) and continued advances in 

aircraft research. 

Syvertson received the Lawrence Sperry Award for “fundamental understanding of hypersonic air flow and its application to efficient aircraft design.” 

He received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1971 for work as executive director of the joint Department of Transportation (DOT)-NASA 

Civil Aviation Research and Development (CARD) policy study, which made 

a series of recommendations for future civil aviation policy. He was named 

a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1976 and 

of the American Astronautical Society in 1978 and was elected to the National 

Academy of Engineering in 1981. (NASA Release 84-01) 

Dr. William E Ballhaus, Jr., director of astronaiitics at ARC, was named 

director of the center, succeeding C. A. Syvertson. who retired January 13. 

Ballhaus is a nationally known expert in computational fluid dynamics-use 

of supercomputers to stimulate air flow around flight vehicles. As ARC director of astronautics, Ballhaus had been responsible for interplanetary 

spaceflight projects, operation of a number of airborne observatories used in 

astronomy and Earth resources research, development of supercomputer 

systems, research in computational fluid dynamics and computational 

chemistry, space science, thermophysics, and materials science. Ballhaus 

came to ARC in 1971, after receiving his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). He joined what is now the Army Aeromechanics 

Laboratory at ARC and was assigned to the Computational Fluid Dynamics 

Branch. He has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia and 

has published more than 35 technical papers. (NASA Release 84-5) 

-Jack Lousma, commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia on its third 

flight, announced at the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., his campaign for the 

U.S. Senate. He will seek the Republican nomination to run against 

Democratic Senator Carl Levin. “Twenty-five year:, ago, I made a commitment to serve my country-a commitment that has led me from Michigan to 

the Marine Corps to missions in space,” he said. “That same commitment 

brings me home today.” He spent 59 days in orbit as part of Skylab’s second 

manned mission in 1973 and was commander of the Shuttle Columbia in 1982. 

(W Post, Jan 26/84, C-2) 

462 
February 

February 2: NASA announced the crew assignments for Space Shuttle flights 

51-D, scheduled for launch in February 1985, and 61-D, set for January 1986. 

Brewster H. Shaw, Jr., would command 51-D. Shaw was pilot of the orbiter 

Columbia on STS-9, the first Spacelab mission flown in November and 

December 1983. His crew would consist of Bryan D. O’Connor as pilot and 

mission specialists Mary Cleave, Sherwood C. Spring, and Jerry L. Ross. 

Mission 51-D would be the 21st Space Shuttle flight and the 9th for the orbiter 

Challenger. The principal objectives of the six-day flight would be deployment 

of a SYNCOM communications satellite and retrieval of the free-flying Long 

Duration Exposure Facility. 

John M. Fabian, an Air Force pilot with more than 3,500 hours of flying 

time, would fly as one of the pilots on 61-D. He flew as mission specialist on 

STS-7 in July 1983 and was scheduled for 51-A in October as a mission 

specialist. Flight 61-D mission specialists would be James P. Bagian, M.D., 

and Rhea Seddon, M.D., who is also scheduled to fly on mission 41-F in 

August. Mission 61-D would be the fourth Spacelab flight, focusing on experiments in life sciences during its seven days in space. It would be the ninth 

flight of the orbiter Columbia. A commander and another pilot for 61-D would 

be named at a later date. (NASA Release 84-11) 

-Donald J. Johnston, Canadian Minister of State for Science and 

Technology, announced that a Canadian would fly as a payload specialist on 

Space Shuttle mission 51-A, set for launch in October, in addition to two 

earlier Canadians already scheduled for Shuttle flights. NASA offered Canada 

the opportunity to fly a payload specialist in keeping with President Reagan’s 

initiative to increase international cooperation. Shuttle flight 51-A would be 

a six-day flight, carrying Telesat Canada’s ANIK C-1 satellite and a Getaway 

Special experiment designed by two Canadian high school students. The 

Canadian crew member and backup for the October flight would be announced in March. (NASA Release 84-12) 

February 3-10: NASA launched at 8:OO a.m. EST from Kennedy Space 

Center (KSC) the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission 51-D, what space 

observers called the most dangerous Space Shuttle mission to date. 

Commander of the flight was Vance D. Brand, 52, a former Marine pilot and 

veteran of two spaceflights, and the pilot was Navy Cmdr. Robert L. Gibson, 

37, who flew combat missions in Vietnam. The mission specialists were Navy 

Capt. Bruce McCandless, 46; Lt. Col. Robert L. Stewart, 41, the first Army 

officer to make a spaceflight; and Dr. Ronald McNair, a physicist. 

463 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1984 

Seven hours after launch, the astronauts pushed Westar VI, Western Union’s 

$30 million satellite, out of the cargo bay to join two identical satellites already 

serving North America. However, NASA officials said that the satellite could 

not be contacted by radio and was considered lost in space. Officials said that 

the satellite’s on-board rocket engine, which was to propel it into higher orbit, 

either misfired or never fired. Radars operated by the North American 

Aerospace Defense Command (NAADC) later fourid the satellite in an erratic 

orbit above and behind Challenger. The radars found two large pieces in an 

orbit more than 800 miles high at its peak and just over 200 miles high at its 

lowest point above Earth. 

On February 5, a large balloon that the astronauts were to chase through 

space exploded just after it had begun to inflate. Pla.ns called for the astronauts 

to back up to 120 miles away from the balloon, then move in over the next 

eight hours to contact it. Instead, the crew spent 90 minutes tracking pieces 

of the balloon and never got farther than 20 or 30 miles from the debris. The 

astronauts tracked the balloon’s largest piece with radar for almost 20 miles 

and used special binoculars and an optical sextant to follow the same piece 

more than 20 miles by watching sunlight reflected off the balloon’s aluminum 

surface. 

The Indonesian satellite Palapa-B2, launched February 6, went into a 

useless orbit, believed to be caused by the same technical problem that Westar 

VI suffered. The NAADC located Pulupu-B2 about seven hours after its ejection from the Challenger’s cargo bay, but it was in an orbit so low that it “cannot perform its mission,” said Richard Brandes of Hughes Aircraft Company, 

builder of the satellite. He added that both satellites’ rocket motors apparently 

shut down 15 seconds early; they were intended to burn for 80 seconds. 

On February 7, astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart left 

Challenger and flew unrestrained for the first time., adding another milepost 

to man’s conquest of space. They unhooked their lifelines and rosc up more 

than 100 yards away from the Space Shuttle. Propelled by $10 million jetpowered backpacks, they traveled at 4.8 miles a second, although they had no 

sensation of speed. The two reentered Challenger after 5 hours and 55 

minutes. The exercise was a rehearsal for the next !shuttle flight, when other 

astronauts would try to retrieve an ailing satellite, tiring it into the cargo bay 

for repair, and release it to orbit again. On February 9 the two took a second 

walk in space, which lasted 6 hours and 17 minutes. 

The Space Shuttle made its first landing at KSC on February 11, when it 

touched down at 7:16 a.m. EST. The Florida landing had been a Shuttle program goal because it would save money and time by eliminating sending 

maintenance crews to California to prepare the vehicle for a return flight to 

Florida on the back of a Boeing 747. It was the first Florida landing in two 

attempts and the first of six planned for the year. Challenger was in relatively 

good shape following the landing, although its windshield, fuselage, and landing gear were damaged. The windows were hazed and pitted; and 31 of its 

33,000 protective tiles, two brake assemblies, and all four tires on the main 

464 
FEBRUARY 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

landing wheels would have to replaced. Repairs should not slow the preparation of Challenger for its next flight in April. (NASA MOR M-989-41-B 

[prelaunch] Jan 30184; NASA Dly Actv Rept, Feb 6/84; WPost, Feb 2/84, A-2, 

Feb 4/84, A-1, Feb 5/84, A-1, Feb 5/84, A-1, Feb 8/84, A-1, Feb 9/84, A-12, 

Feb 11/84, A-2, Feb 12/84, A-1, Feb 13/84, A-3; W Times, Feb 6/84, 2A, Feb 

7/84, lA, Feb 8/84, 1A; USA Today, Feb 6/84, A-1) 

February 8: Because of the failure of two telecommunications satellites launched by the Space Shuttle, the insurance industry would receive more than 

$200 million in claims, and premiums would skyrocket when underwriters 

resumed writing satellite risk policies, the Washington Post reported. Analysts 

said that it was too early to determine what impact the satellites’ failures would 

have on their manufacturer, Hughes Aircraft Company, or McDonnell 

Douglas Corporation, which built the rocket motors that apparently failed on 

the two satellites. 

Western Union, owner of one satellite, was insured for $105 million to cover 

the cost of the satellite and potential revenue; Indonesia, owner of the other 

satellite, had $75 million in insurance to cover the cost of building and launching the payload. Robert J. Tirone, vice president of the large insurance 

broker Alexander & Alexander, said that underwriters would likely hold off 

issuing any new policies until they found out what went wrong with the two 

satellites. “Something went wrong,” he said, “and it went wrong twice.” 

A spokesman for McDonnell Douglas said that the company was puzzled 

by the apparent failure of the rockets that were supposed to lift both satellites 

into stationary orbits about 22,300 miles from Earth. The rockets, payload 

assist modules (PAM), had been successfully used in 16 previous commercial 

satellite launches-5 from the Space Shuttle and 11 by missiles. 

At the end of 1983, the insurance industry had collected $205 million in 

premiums and paid $210 million in claims. As a result of the two recent 

failures, claims would rise to about $420 million. An insurance broker, who 

asked not to be identified, said that he expected premiums to quadruple as a 

result of the loss of the two satellites. (W Post, Feb 8/84, D-2) 

-The Soviet Union launched today a three-man crew on board the Soyuz 

TI0 spacecraft, which successfully docked with the Salyur 7 space station on 

February 9. The crew consisted on Col. Leonid Kizim (commander), 

Vladimir Solovyev (flight engineer), and Oleg Atkov (cosmonaut-researcher). 

It appeared that only Kizim had previous space experience, having commanded the Soyuz T-3 in 1980 in the first three-man mission to test and dock the 

upgraded Soyuz-T and the Salyut 6. 

Because of the greater amount of instrumentation and power then in place, 

TASS noted that the current mission “will have broader possibilities for 

research than any of the previous ones.” Scientific, technical, medical, and 

biological studies were on the schedule of the current mission, and the 

cosmonauts were reactivating life support, power supply, and heat control 

465 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1984 

systems and were inspecting on-board equipment as part of their “demothballing” process [See Oct 2/84 for return of crew]. (NASA Dly Acm Rept, Feb 

14/84; FBIS, USSR Feb 9/84, U1) 

February 9: Pilot Brooke Knapp landed a Gulktream 111 business jet at 

Washington (D.C.) National Airport today and claimed a new speed record for 

an around-the-world flight by any type of aircraft. Her unofficial average 

speed was 512 miles per hour. Knapp had origindly intended to break the 

record for a heavy class of business jet, but she bested by nine miles per hour 

the old record for all types of planes, set by an Pan American World Airways 

747 in 1976. Knapp was president of a California executive charter and aircraft 

management service. 

The flight raised about $500,000 in gifts and pledges for the United Nations 

Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and carried children’s letters and art from country 

to country. At the Novosibirsk Airport in the Soviet Union, children carrying 

their paintings greeted Knapp. The elaborate welcoming ceremony lost time 

for the crew, but they believed they could not ignore it. 

After refueling stops in London, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Peking, Tokyo, 

Honolulu, and Los Angeles, Knapp landed the twin-engined jet at National 

at 9:E a.m., 45 hours, 32 minutes, and 53 seconds ,after taking off. The plane 

flew about 20,300 miles. (W Post, Feb 10184, C-1) 

February 10: Inflight refueling tests on the NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 

had been suspended following a series of preliminary flights intended to check 

potential buffeting and turbulence levels on the specially equipped widebodied 

jet, NASA reported. The aircraft carrier with its orbiter cargo was required 

to travel at low altitude and to avoid bad weather, so it could not travel long 

distances without frequent stops. Therefore, NASA had hoped to develop airborne refueling techniques that would reduce the number of landings required 

to travel coast to coast or to international location:;. 

The preliminary tests had the 747 without the orbiter flying behind two 

tanker aircraft-first a KC-135 and then a KC-10. Heavy turbulence 

encountered in the vortices of the tanker aircraft had produced minor cracks 

in the tail of the 747. Although the cracks were of no serious concern, NASA 

had decided to suspend the flight tests and to investigate an alternative refueling technique that allowed the 747 carrier to fly in front of the tanker aircraft. 

If the alternative approach proved feasible, it could likely be adopted with little or no additional flight testing with the carrier aircraft. (JSC Release 

84-007) 

February 14: The Washington Post reported that a scxret military payload set 

for launch July 14 on the Space Shuttle had been canceled and that the mission 

would be scrubbed without it, according to Air Force and NASA officials. A 

Pentagon spokesman declined to identify the payload or say when it would be 

flown. Glynn Lunney, Shuttle program manager, said “if they remove the 

466 
FEBRUARY 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

payload, we won’t fly.” The canceled mission left astronauts Thomas Mattingly, Loren Shriver, Ellison Onizuka, and James Buchli without a flight for the 

second time; they were to have flown the Shuttle in the fall of 1983 on a 

military mission canceled because of rocket problems. (W Post, Feb 14/84, 

A-7) 

February 15: NASA Administrator James M. Begs announced today that 

JSC was named “lead center” for the agency’s Space Station Program. In a 

letter to center director Gerald D. Griffin, Begs said that he was requesting 

the center to form a program office to execute five basic program responsibilities: systems engineering and integration, business management, operations integration, customer integration, and support of NASA Headquarters 

Space Station Program Office. 

Begs noted that he planned to form a new organization at NASA Headquarters to direct the Space Station Program and that he would make 

assignments to other centers under overall project management of JSC. 

Terry White, a NASA spokesman in Houston, said that space station work 

would probably not require a large increase in personnel there because people 

working on the Space Shuttle program would shift over to the Space Station, 

the New York Times reported. 

February 29: NASA announced the establishment of seven intercenter teams 

to conduct advanced development activities for high potential technologies to 

be used in Space Station design and development. Marshall Space Flight 

Center (MSFC) would lead three of the intercenter teams; JSC, three of the 

teams; and a lead center for the seventh team would be assigned later. 

The teams would identify emerging technologies for advanced development 

for Space Station design and establish test beds into which prototype 

technology hardware could be integrated, tested, demonstrated, and 

evaluated. MSFC would be the lead center for the Attitude Control and 

Stabilization System, the Auxiliary Propulsion System, and Space Operations 

Mechanisms. JSC would be the lead center in the Data Management System, 

Environmental Control and Life Support System, and the Thermal Management System. The Electronic Power System would have a leader designated 

later. Assisting on various assignments would be the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory (JPL), Langley Research Center (LaRC), Goddard Space Flight 

Center (GSFC), KSC, ARC, National Space Technology Laboratories 

(NSTL), and Lewis Research Center (LeRC). (NASA Release 84-31). 

During February: The mission of ESA’s first preoperational remote-sensing 

satellite, ERS-1, would be mainly to monitor ice and coastal and ocean zones, 

the agency announced. Among the instruments in the ERS-1 payload would 

be an active microwave instrumentation package operating in the C-band and 

combining the functions of a synthetic aperture radar, a wave scatterometer, 

and wind scatterometer for the purpose of measuring wind fields and the wave 

461 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS FEBRUARY 1984 

image spectrum and taking all-weather high-resolution images of coastal 

zones, open oceans, ice areas, and (on an experimental basis) land. Germany, 

the Netherlands, France, and Canada, each built a C-bank scatterometer for 

comparison of data in order to evaluate the optimal technical characteristics 

of the C-band scatterometers on board ERS-I and to check the mathematical 

models used for data processing. 

This experimental campaign organized by ESA would operate in the North 

Sea, in conjunction with a German scientific platform supplying “sea truth” 

data, and about 40 kilometers off the Brittany coast, in conjunction with a 

French oceanographic vessel supplied by the Centre National d’Exploitation 

des Oceans (National Center for Ocean Exploitation). This would allow comparison of the data acquired by the various scatterometers and data acquired 

by conventional means on board the platform and the oceanographic vessel. 

(ESA Release, Feb 6/84) 
March 

March 6: Charles Yost, a member of NASA’s Space Station task force, speaking at the Shuttle/Space Station business opportunities conference in 

Washington, said “There’s been an overhyping of the commercialization of 

space idea.” He added that it would take years before investments in many of 

the space-based opportunities being explored showed a significant return. 

However, he pointed out, “industry must be willing to risk its money up 

front,” and said that nine companies had applied for a joint endeavor agreement with the space agency. At the time, only four companies had actually 

signed with NASA to use the Space Shuttle for business ventures. 

Space industry analysts said that it would cost “a minimum of few million 

dollars” to begin exploiting the commercial potential of space. Though 

satellite communication had proved profitable, most space-based efforts faced 

an uncertain future. A Reagan administration recommendation to turn the nation’s Landsat remote-sensing and weather satellite systems over to private industry had met resistance in Congress, and some analysts believed there might 

not be a market for remote-sensing data. Many attendees at the conference 

questioned whether any company would make money in space manufacturing 

before 1990. (W Post, Mar 7/84, D-16) 

March 7: NASA Administrator James M. Begs and Professor Ernest0 

Quagliarello, president of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), signed today in Rome two memoranda of understanding; the separate agreements 

established the development of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) and the 

development and launch of Laser Geodynamics Satellite-2 (Lageos-2). 

The TSS would be a data-gathering satellite that would be carried into orbit 

by the Space Shuttle and released from payload bay on a tether. It would provide an important new reusable, multidisciplinary facility for conducting 

space experiments in Earth orbit and open the way to several areas of longterm scientific experimentation not otherwise possible. NASA would develop 

the TSS deploy, perform the system-level engineering and integration, and 

launch TSS on the shuttle. CNR would develop the two-module (science and 

service) TSS satellite and provide system-level support to NASA for technical 

aspects of the satellite. 

Eleven countries were conducting laser ranging activities with the passive 

Laser Geodynamics Satellite-1 (Lageos-I) launched by NASA in 1976. The 

agreement signed today outlined the terms for the development of Lugeos-2, 

which would significantly enhance study and understanding of the solid earth 

and its dynamic processes. Lageos-2 would be identical in configuration to 

Lageos-I and would be placed in an orbit of similar altitude but with a dif469 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1984 

ferent inclination (51-53 O prograde instead of 70" retrograde). Lageos-2 

would contribute to the study of plate tectonics and thc accumulation of crustal 

strain in areas of high seismicity through very accurate measurements of 

baseline changes resulting from crustal motion. The two satellites, in essentially opposite orbits, would improve the precision of current laser-determined 

baselines by a factor of two and would make possible achievements of a precision of one centimeter for baselines of several thousand kilometers. CNR 

would be responsible for the fabrication of the Lageos-2 satellite, integration 

of the apogee stage and the Italian research interim stage, and delivery to 

NASA. NASA would provide existing ground support equipment, hardware. 

and software remaining from the Lageos-1 mission, technical consultation, 

and launch on the Space Shuttle as a payload of opportunity with a planned 

launch in 1987. (NASA Release 84-34) 

March 11: NASA announced that the fifth group of applicants to be 

interviewed for possible selection as Space Shuttle astronaut candidates, including 15 mission specialists and 7 pilot applicant:;, reported to JSC today for 

a week of interviews and medical evaluations. A total of 4,934 men and 

women had applied for the approximately 12 posiitions open. 

The selected candidates would begin in July 1984 a year of training and 

evaluation at JSC and be selected as astronauts after satisfactory completion 

of the evaluation period. 

The selected candidates were: David T. Allen, Pln.D., employed by University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA); Maj. Larry D. Autry, U.S. Air 

Force; Lt. Commander Dennis N. Bostich, U.S. Navy; Capt. Joseph A. Carretto, U.S. Air Force; Lt. Commander Keith I:. Crawford, U.S. Navy; 

William M. Decampli, M. D., Ph. D., employed by Stanford Medical Center, 

Stanford, Calif., Jan D. Dozier, employed at MSFC; Lt. Col. William A. 

Flanagan, U.S. Air Force; Wendy S. Hale, Ph.D.: stationed at Edwards Air 

Force Base, Calif.; Rosario M. Izquierdo, employed by National Security 

Agency (NSA); Lt. Fred D. Knox, Jr., U.S. Navy; G. David Low, employed 

by JPL; Lt. Commander Michael J. McCulley, U.S. Navy; Kenneth J. Myers, 

M.D., employed by the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, M:inn.; William S. O'Keefe, 

employed by Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, .Mich.; Donald R. Pettit, 

Ph.D., employed by Los Alamos National Laboratory; Lt. Commander 

William F. Readdy, U.S. Navy; Lt. Commander Gregory J. Rose, U.S. Navy; 

Lonnie Sharpe, Jr., Ph.D., employed by North Carolina A&T State University, 

Greensboro, N.C.; Kathryn C. Thornton, Ph.D., ernployed by the U.S. Army 

Foreign Science and Technology Center, Charlottesville, Va. ; C. Lacy Veach, 

employed by JSC; and Lt. commander James B. Waddell, U.S. Navy. (NASA 

Release 84-018) 

March 16: NASA announced that it had selected McDonnell Douglas 

Astronautics Company, Huntington Beach., Calif., and TRW, Inc., Space and 

Technology Group, Redondo Beach, Calif., for negotiations that would lead 

470 
MARCH 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

to two parallel Space Station study contracts, each contract for a firm fixed 

price of approximately $2 million, covering a performance period of approximately 27 months, beginning in March. Contracts would be for the development of functional, performance, and technology requirements; the definition 

of system architecture for the Space Station data system; and the relationship 

of that system to the overall NASA end-to-end flight and ground information 

system. 

The studies would define the role of the Space Station data system and its 

relationship, and interfaces to the Space Station information systems elements. 

They would also define the data system to determine the environment in which 

both the user and facility subsystems interface and operate; address all 

avionics and other electrically automated Space Station functions; develop a 

clear understanding of system functional, operational, and interface requirements; identify major cost items to enable effective management decisions and development control; and define a program plan. 

NASA's JSC would negotiate and administer the TRW contract; NASA's 

GSFC, the McDonnell Douglas contract. (NASA Release 84-36) 

March 19: The Soviet Union was developing a large laser-equipped prototype 

military spacecraft for launch on its heavy Saturn-5-class booster, which was 

also competing development, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported. 

Soviet scientists were designing the spacecraft to attack U.S. satellites and 

would launch it on the booster within the next two years. The new booster's 

primary mission was to place the 300,000- to 400,000-pound Soviet space station elements in orbit, but the U.S. DOD had been concerned for some time 

that it also could be used for the type of heavy, unmanned, prototype directedenergy weapon known to be under development. (Avwk, Mar 19/84, 13) 

March 27: Secretary of Defense Caspa'r W. Weinberger today named Air 

Force Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, NASA's associate director for space 

flight, to be manager of what the Reagan administration called the strategic 

defense initiative, a program to explore the feasibility of building a spacebased defense against nuclear ballistic missiles. President Reagan had suggested the program the previous year. 

Abrahamson's job would be to direct and coordinate several research programs that had been under way for some time at DOD and in the Department 

of Energy (DOE). These included research on several kinds of laser and particle beam weapons, work on large mirrors needed for some lasers, advances 

in high-speed data processing, and methods of generating large amounts of 

electrical power in space. 

Abrahamson had been at NASA since November 1981 and had directed not 

only the Space Shuttle operation but also commercial sales of Shuttle services 

and relations with Congress and the space industry. He would begin his new 

duties on April 15 after the nation's 11th Space Shuttle flight, scheduled for 

launch on April 6. (NY Times, Mar 28/84, A-19) 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MARCH 1984 

-NASA announced that Jesse W. Moore would become acting associate administrator for spaceflight on April 15, succeeding Lt. Gen. James A. 

Abrahamson, who would become director of strategic defense at DOD. 

Moore, who had been Abrahamson’s deputy, had come to NASA Hcadquarters in 1978 as the deputy director of the Solar Terrestrial Division in the 

Office of Space Science. He was director of the Spacelab Flight Division until 

December 1981, when he assumed the positicn of director, Earth and 

Planetary Exploration Division in the Office of Space Science and Applications. In February 1983 he was appointed to the position of deputy associate 

administrator for spaceflight. (NASA Release 84-40) 

-US. Ambassador to Portugal Allen Holmes and Portuguese Foreign 

Minister Jaime Gama signed today in Lisbon an accord that would provide for 

a satellite traclung station in Portugal. Under the accord, the United States 

would provide Portugal with $60 million annually, of which $20 million would 

be for military aid and $40 million for economic ail3. The United States would 

use the station to track flying military targets; U.S. plans called for five 

satellite tracking stations in the world, and stations in New Mexico, Hawaii, 

and South Korea were completed. (FBIS, Beijing Xinhua in English, Mar 

28/84) 

During March: In an interview following his around-the-world trip to sell the 

U.S. Space Station idea to U.S. allies, NASA Administrator James M. Beggs 

said, “I thought the trip went well, I thought it went extremely well.” He added that he had proposed that as much as one-fourth of the proposed $8 billion 

cost of the Space Station be borne by western Europe, Japan, and Canada. 

“They didn’t exactly stand up and cheer when I ,;aid I’d like them to think 

about contributing a couple of billion dollars, but they didn’t blink at the 

numbers either,” he said. 

Beggs said that the countries had about a year to decide if they wanted to 

join in a partnership with the United States, sincl-, NASA planned to begin 

awarding contracts for the Space Station’s final design in the spring of 1985. 

He noted that all of the countries had laid down conditions under which they 

would agree to participate: the station must provide technological challenges 

to their industries; they must have what Beggs called a “clearly defined role” 

in the direction of Space Station operations and selection of flight crews; they 

must have access to the entire station; and their industries must have the same 

access that U.S. industry had. (WPost, Mar 27/84, A-2) 

412 
April 

April 3: NASA announced that it awarded to the University Corporation for 

Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo., a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract of 

$7,076,741 for operation and maintenance of the National Scientific Balloon 

Facility (NSBF) in Palestine, Tex. The contractor would provide the personnel, materials, supplies, and services to manage, operate, and maintain the 

NSBF, including flight program operation, engineering activities, and 

research and developmnet. The NSBF would annually conduct 60 to 70 scientific balloon flights. 

GSFC’s Wallops Island, Va., facility would administer the contract. (GSFC 

Release 84-4) 

April 3-11: The Soviet Union launched today, aboard the Soyuz T-ll, two 

Soviet cosmonauts, Col. Yuri Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov, and the first 

Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, a 35-year-old Air Force pilot, for an 

eight-day visit to the Sulyut-7space station to join three other cosmonauts who 

had been living there since February 8. The joint flight was the 11th in the Intercosmos series that had taken non-Soviet cosmonauts into space along with 

Soviet counterparts. 

On this flight, Sharma would conduct medical experiments in which he 

would practice yoga as a possible mcans of coping with space sickness. Experiments would also include detailed space surveys of the Indian subcontinent. The Soviet Union and India televised the launch, and Tass quoted Prime 

Minister Indira Gandhi as saying that the joint mission gave a “new dimension” to friendship between India and the Soviet Union. 

The three returned to Earth April 11 in a perfect parachute landing of their 

Soyuz TI0 space capsule near the town of Arkalyk, 1,500 miles southeast of 

Moscow. Tass reported that the cosmonauts were “feeling fine.” The report 

continued, “New information on peculiarities of the human organism’s adaptation to space flight conditions was obtained.” Beyond stressing Soviet-Indian 

cooperation and friendship, the flight also demonstrated the peaceful uses of 

outer space, Soviet officials commented. (FBIS, USSR, Apr 4/84, U1-4; 

FBIS, USSR, Apr 11/84, U1-3; NY Times, Apr 4/86, A-16; W Post, Apr 

12/84, A-33) 

April 4: The Washington Post reported the death of April 4 of Oleg Antonov, 

78, one of the Soviet Union’s leading aircraft designers. Antonov, whose 

obituary was signed by Communist Party leader Konstantin Chernenko and 

other dignitaries, became the head of that country’s aircraft design office in 

1946. One of his first creations was the AN-2 transport and agdcultural 

biplane, which soon became the national airline’s (Aeroflot) workhorse and 

41 3 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1984 

still was in use. Under his leadership, the office also designed a range of Antonov aircraft, including passenger planes and the long-range AN-22 heavytransport aircraft. (W Post, Apr 6184, B-6) 

April 6-13: NASA launched at 8:58 a.m. EST today from Cape Canaveral the 

Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-41C) carrying Capt. Robert L. Crippen, commander; Frances R. Scobee, pilot; and mission specialists Terry J. Hart, Dr. 

James D. Van Hoften, and Dr. George D. Nelson. Challenger flew to an 

altitude of nearly 300 miles, the highest any Shuttle crew had flown, because 

the astronauts had to match the orbit of, rendezvous with, and repair the burned out Solar Maximum Observatory satellite that had been out of service for 

almost four years. 

At 12:20 p.m. EST on April 7 the astronauts deployed the Long Duration 

Exposure Facility (LDEF), a 30-foot-long cylinder carrying 57 varieties of 

space-age materials. Following retrieval by other astronauts next February, 

scientists would examine the cargo to determine how it stoop up to the heat, 

cold, and cosmic rays of space. The Space Shuttle’s SO-foot-long robot arm 

pushed the cylinder out of Challenger’s cargo bay. 

The initial attempt on April 8 to retrieve the ol-biting Solar Max satellite 

failed when astronaut George (Pinky) Nelson, propelled by a jet-powered 

backpack, tried unsuccessfully to attach himself to the crippled, slowly spinning observatory. He bounced away from the satellite each time, causing it to 

spin faster with each bounce. After running low on fuel, Nelson returned to 

Challenger. However, on April 9 radio commands from ground controllers at 

GFSC stabilized the satellite just before its batteries went dead. On April 10 

Crippen inched Challenger’s robot arm up to one end of the 21-foot-tall Solar 

Max, and then Hart caught the slow-spinning satellite on the first try. They 

then moved it into flight support system, a berthing area in the back of the 

Space Shuttle’s cargo bay. The following day, Ne1so.n and Van Hoften, wearing 

space suits, stepped out into the cargo bay and replaced a 500-pound fuse box 

and fixed a smaller electronics box supplying power to one of seven instruments. The work was completed in slightly less than the alloted six hours. 

The astronauts redeployed the observatory on April 12. The Wushingron Post 

reported that, because the repair job was done so well, the observatory would 

do better in its restored statc than in the 10 months it. had worked before breaking down almost four years previously. 

Challenger landed at 5:38 a.m. local time April 13 at California’s Edwards 

Air Force Base instead of the preferred site at KSC, due to poor weather in 

Florida. NASA officials pronounced the Space Shuttle to be in excellent condition. “Compared to 10 previous recoveries, the condition of the ship is much 

better,” Fritz Widick, operations manager for the recovery, commented at a 

news conference. “During the flight there were only something like 12 problems recorded in the ship, which is remarkable.” (NASA MOR M-989-41-C, 

Mar 19/84; WPost, Apr 8/84, A-3, Apr 6/84, A-2, .Apr 9/84, A-I, Apr 10184, 

A-1, Apr 11/84, A-1 Apr 12/84, A-1, Apr 13/84, A-2: NY Ernes, Apr 15/84,23) 

414 
APRIL 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

April 6: Engineers at NASA’s GSFC completed checkout and activation of the 

Landsat-5 Earth resources satellite, launched from the Vandenberg Air Force 

Base complex in California on March 1, and turned over today operational 

control of the spacecraft to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 1,950-kilogram (4,300-pound) spacecraft was 

placed in a 705-kilometer (438-statute miles) near-polar orbit. NASA 

engineers had checked out all computer, communications, telemetry, and 

other spacecraft systems and declared the spacecraft ready for operational use. 

With Lundsat-4 still functioning, data acquisition over the same ground 

swath was possible on an eight-day repeat cycle. NASA planned to turn over 

to NOAA operational responsibility for Thematic Mapper operation and data 

processing in January 1985. (NASA Release 84-49; NASA Dly Actv Rept, Apr 

9/84) 

-NASA announced that it had established an interim Space Station Program office as a result of President Reagan’s January 25, 1984, directive to 

NASA to develop a permanently manned Space Station and to do it within a 

decade. Philip E. Culbertson, in addition to his duties as associate deputy administrator, would assume the role of acting director of the interim office, with 

John D. Hodge (former director of the Space Station task force) as acting 

deputy. 

The interim office superseded the former Space Station task force and 

would be responsible for direction of the Space Station Program and for planning the organizational structure of a permanent Program Office. (NASA anno, Apr 6/84) 

April 8: The PRC New China News Agency announced that China had launched on April 8 its first permanently orbiting communications satellite, the 

Washington Post reported. The geosynchronous satellite was positioned over 

the Moluccan Sea near Indonesia. The news agency reported that all meters 

and instruments were working normally as the satellite began experiments on 

telephone communications and radio and television transmissions. 

Foreign experts said that the launch was a major achievement that could improve communications in all facets of Chinese life, including the far-flung 

military. It also had vast implications for China’s fledgling nuclear force. The 

rocketry required to propel the satellite into orbit-a three-stage launcher with 

a refined guidance system-far exceeded the firing capability of the nation’s 

best intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). 

China also had pending contracts with the United States to launch three 

larger communications satellites with the Space Shuttle, but no dates were set. 

(W Post, Apr 19/84, A-31) 

April 9: NASA named Neil B. Hutchinson manager and John W. Aaron deputy manager of the Space Station Program Office at JSC in Houston, Tex. 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APRIL 1984 

Hutchinson was serving in a staff assignment to the Johnson director since 

his return in January 1984 from a one-year assignment at NASA Headquarters, where he was director, Space Shuttle Operations Office in the Office 

of Space Flight. 

Aaron had been chief of the Spacecraft Software Division at JSC since 1981. 

He also had served as avionics flight software prqject manager for the Shuttle 

approach and landing test and orbital flight test programs. (NASA Release 

84-50) 

April 13: NASA announced that LeRC awarded a $161 million contract to 

General Dynamics Corporation, Convair Division, San Diego, Calif., for two 

Shuttle/Centaur G vehicles for the DOD. A previous contract included two 

NASA-unique Shuttle Centaur G-Prime vehicles for the Galileo (Jupiter) mission and the International Solar/Polar Mission (ISPM), scheduled for launch 

in 1986. The two contracts together totaled $414 million. 

Centaur was a high-energy upper-stage booster expected to add substantially to the Space Shuttle’s ability to deliver heavier payloads from low-Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit or interplanetary trajectories. (NASA Release 

April 25; NASA announced that it and its Italian counterpart, the National 

Space Plan office of the Italian National Research Council (PSNKNR), had 

asked scientists from around the world to submit their ideas for experiments 

to be performed on a joint U.S.-Italian program known as the TSS-Satellite 

that later in the decade could be reeled into and out of the Space Shuttle’s 

cargo bay on a miles-long tether. NASA and PSNlCNR would evaluate scientists’ proposals and decide what experiments would be performed on the 

system. NASA planned to carry the system aboard the Space Shuttle by 

sometime in 1987. 

On its first flight the satellite, once the Shuttle was in orbit, would be 

deployed upward about 40 feet by an extendable boom. The satellite would be 

checked out while at the top of the boom and then released. As it moved upward away from the Shuttle, the reel would unwind until the satellite was at 

its proper distance for conducting electrodynamic experiments. 

As the Shuttle passed through the space plasma, the satellite, with its conducting tether, could become a generator, much. as a copper coil moving 

within a magnet on Earth can produce a flow of electricity. By drawing off 

the energy from the conducting tether and releasing it into space, scientists 

would be able to study magnetic lines of flux that surround the Earth. (NASA 

Release 84-54) 

84-44) 

During April: Science reported that the first commercial product manufactured in space, 15 grams of 10-micrometer polystyrene spheres that were produced on the STS-6 mission, would soon be transferred from NASA to the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) for sale to the public. The spheres could 

476 
APRIL 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

be used for calibration of microscopes, laser light scattering equipment, and 

particle sizing equipment. The spheres also had potential uses in biomedical 

sciences, particularly for sizing of pores and membranes. The spheres fit the 

two key criteria for space manufacturing: they could not be made on Earth, 

and they were very expensive. 

NBS would divide the 15 grams of spheres into 1,000 samples, each of 

which would sell for about $350. Total value of the spheres would thus be 

about $23,000. (Science, Apr 84, 265) 

411 

May 4: NASA Administrator James M. Beggs said that engineers had determined the problem with two types of rocket motors that had caused the loss 

of two $75 million satellites and the near-loss of a third and had led to 

postponements of two Space Shuttle flights, the Washington Post reported. A 

report from McDonnell-Douglas said that a team had found a way to determine which rocket nozzle would fail in space and which would work. Such 

a procedure might have saved the two communications satellites that gone into 

useless orbits. However, the solution had come too late to put a Canadian communications satellite on the next Space Shuttle flight scheduled for June 19. 

(W Post, May 4/84, A-2) 

-In a continuing series of reports on orbiting cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, 

Vladimir Solovyev, and Oleg Atkov, who had been in space for 85 days aboard 

the Salyut-7 Tass said that the crew had completed planned operations with 

the cargo craft Progess-20, storing supplies and pumping drinking water into 

the station’s tanks. 

Kizim and Solovyev then made their fourth walk in open space. The two 

removed a heat-resistant coating that had been installed during a previous 

space walk, assembled a second conduit, and checked it for airtightness. The 

two then reinstalled the heat-resistant coating, put tools into a container, and 

returned to the station. Their walk lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes, bringing 

their total time in open space to 14 hours and 45 minutes during 4 walks in 

12 days. (FBIS, Tass in English, May 4/84) 

May 16: NASA announced that approximately 200 people representing every 

NASA installation and the JPL were selected to augment the staff of JSC to 

help plan the next phase of NASA’s Space Station Program. This team had two 

major objectives: issue a request for proposals to industry for the definition 

of the specific elements of the Space Station and define a reference configuration or configurations to accompany the request for proposals. 

“The purpose of the reference configuration is to provide a framework to 

help industry understand how the various elements of the Space Station are 

related,” said Dr. Ralph Muraca, deputy head of LaRC, designated a “center 

of excellence” to help plan this next phase of the program. “In addition, it 

will help individual companies determine which of the elements or work 

packages they would be interested in competing for.” 

The group’s guidelines were to develop a configuration that would meet all 

the requirements associated with the final configuration of the Space Station, 

expected to be operational in the 1999-2000 time frame, and then scale that 
ASTRONAUTICS .AND AEKONAUTICS MAY 1984 

back to an $8 billion configuration that would provide maximum mission 

capability in 1991. (LaRC Release 84-35) 

May 18: At a ceremony today in Washington, D.C., NASA transferred ownership of Viking Lander 1, which was on the planet Mars, to the Smithsonian 

Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. It was the first time a museum 

would own an object located on another planet. The transfer also included 

loan of the official Viking Lander plaque, which renamed the lander the 

Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station in memory of the Viking landing imaging team leader and NASA associate administrator for space science who had 

died in a climbing accident in the Himalayas in 1080. NASA retained reclaimant rights to the lander for scientific purposes. (NASA Release 84-58; NY 

Times, May 3184, A-19) 

May 22: An Arianespace Ariane I rocket lifted off at 9:33 a.m. EDT to orbit 

a U.S. communications satellite 22,300 miles above the equator in the world’s 

first strictly commercial space venture. Virginia-based GTE Spacenet Corporation built the satellite, which was intended to relay thousands of 

simultaneous television, telephone, and data trammission channels to U.S. 

domestic subscribers over the next 10 years. The corporation would launch 

other satellites later in the year and early in 1985. 

ESA had contracts for 28 launches worth more than $800 million, plus options for another 19. More than 40% of the orders #came from outside Europe. 

(W Post, May 22184, A-24) 

During May: NASA and Deere C? Company, Moliine, Ill., signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the design of metallurgical tests to be 

conducted aboard a future Space Shuttle flight. In 1981, Deere became the 

first private company to sign a Technical Exchan::e Agreement with NASA 

that permitted the company to perform cast iron solidification experiments on 

board conventional suborbital NASA aircraft, which simulated microgravity 

for 30 to 60 seconds. 

Deere was already working on the design of additional metallurgical tests, 

where engineers used data from the low-gravity tests conducted earlier. Based 

on this work, Deere and NASA engineers conclude’d that further experimentation would be productive. The Space Shuttle tests would permit experiments 

in space for longer periods, which could yield new information to aid in the 

search for stronger irons. These tests could also provide new data about the 

process for forming iron molecules, leading to improved foundry efficiencies. 

(NASA Release 84-56) 

-NASA announced that astronaut Terry Hart, who had operated the Space 

Shuttle’s mechanical arm to retrieve the Solar Marimum Satellite during the 

April 6-13, 1984, Space Shuttle flight, would leave NASA effective June 15 

to work in an engineering management position for the newly formed Military 

and Government Systems Division of Bell Laboratories in Whippany, N.J. 

480 
MAY 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

The division would produce large digital communications networks for 

government applications. Hart was also a member of the astronaut support 

crews for Shuttle missions 1, 2, 3, and 7, serving as capsule communicators 

in mission control for those flights. (NASA Release 84-59) 

-Officials at the U.S. Department of State blocked an offer by the Soviet 

Union to use its rockets to launch Western satellites, the Christian Science 

Monitor reported. The Soviets had offered to “sell” their rockets to ZNMMSAT, the International Maritime Satellite Organization based in London, for 

launching a new generation of satellites in the 1980s. INMARSAT was running 

a network of communications satellites that routed telephone calls and data 

among some 2,300 ships and their shore bases. However, it had not decided 

on the companies that would supply the new satellites, which could number 

up to nine and cost up to $500 million. Under the Soviet Union plan, satellites 

would have to travel to the Soviet rocket site prior to launch into space, and 

the satellites would undoubtedly contain a large proportion of U.S. parts. Such 

a transfer would be prohibited under the technology control regulations that 

sought to stop the channeling to unfriendly countries of hardware that could 

be used in weaponry. The State Department said that “under no circumstances” would it permit the transfer to the Soviet Union of Americanmade satellite components. Only two organizations had submitted tenders to 

INMARSAT to build the satellites: a joint venture of Hughes Aircraft Corporation and British Aerospace and a consortium of Marconi of the United 

Kingdom, Aerospatiale of France, and Ford Aerospace of the United States. 

The Soviet Union had said that it would make available its Proton rockets 

for a fee of about $23 million a launch. That was roughly half the comparable 

charge for a satellite launch by either the Space Shuttle or the Ariane rocket 

sold by Arianespace, a semipublic company dominated by French interests. 

U.S. officials feared shipment to the Soviet Union’s main launch site at 

Baykonur in Central Asia of hardware containing electronic components that 

could be useful to the Soviet’s military buildup. (CSM, May 3/84, 1) 

-NASA announced that Dr. Hans M. Mark, deputy administrator of 

NASA since July 1981, would become chancellor of the University of Texas 

System, effective September 1, 1984. In announcing the appointment, Texas 

Board Chairman Jon Newton said of Mark: “With his Air Force and NASA 

background, he has demonstrated the management ability to administer effectively a complex organizational enterprise such as the U.T. System, which involves 119,000 students, 50,000 faculty and staff, and an operational budget for 

FY84-85 of $1.8 billion.” 

Mark was born in Mannheim, Germany, and in February 1969, after receiving his doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

(MIT) in 1954, became director of NASA’s ARC. He had also served as a consultant to government, industry, and business, including the Institute for 

481 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS MAY 1984 

Defense Analyses and the President’s Advisor:y Group on Science and 

Technology. (NASA Release 84-65) 

-Martin A. Knutson was named director of Flight Operations and Ames 

Dryden Site manager for ARC. In this position, Knutson would be responsible 

for the operation of more than 40 highly specialized research and support aircraft at ARC and its Ames Dryden Flight Research Center. He also would be 

responsible for site management of the Mojave Desert facility that conducted 

NASA’s high-speed flight research and served as one of the prime landing sites 

for Space Shuttle missions. Knutson joined NASA in 1971 as the ARC’S 

manager of the Airborne Instrumentation Research Project. He was instrumental in creating the project and in acquiring its U-2 aircraft and was a 

pilot with over 6,000 hours of flight time. (ARC Release 84-11) 

482 
June 

June 5: NASA announced the selection of four career scientists to fly as 

payload specialists on the next two missions of Spacelab, a reusable Space 

Shuttle-based research facility. Dr. Lodewijk van den Berg of EG&G 

Corporation, Goleta, Calif., and Dr. Taylor G. Wang of JPL were named 

flight payload specialists for Spacelab 3, scheduled for launch in January 1985. 

Dr. Mary Helen Johnston of MSFC and Dr. Eugene H. Trinh of JPL would 

serve as alternates for Spacelab 3. 

Dr. Loren W. Acton of Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, 

Calif., and Dr. John-David Bartoe of the Naval Research Laboratory, 

Washington, D.C., were named flight payload scientists for Spacelab 2, which 

was slated for launch in April 1985. Alternates named were Dr. Dianne K. 

Prim of the Naval Research Laboratory and Dr. George W. Simon of the Air 

Force Geophysics Laboratory. 

Spacelab 3 would be the first operational mission of the research facility 

with mission emphasis on materials processing in space. Spacelab 3 would use 

the long version of the laboratory module, in which the scientists would work 

on a special cargd bay instrument support structure. Spacelab 2, which followed Spacelab 3 due to experiment development delays, included experiments 

in solar physics, plasma physics, infrared astronomy, high-energy physics, atmospheric physics, and life sciences and technology (NASA Release 84-74) 

June 7: The research satellite orbiting Venus, Pioneer Venus Orbiter, briefly 

tilted to watch passing comet Encke and sent back information showing that 

the comet was losing water at a rate three times higher than earlier calculations predicted, scientists at Ames Research Laboratory reported. The surprising finding “could be due to the particular arrangement of ice and dust 

which comprise the comet or to crumbling of steep-sloped hills and mesas that 

may cover the surface of the 1.2-mile diameter of the comet nucleus,” said 

NASA spokesman Peter Waller. He added that the finding might shed some 

light on the exact nature and makeup of comets. 

Comets were “dirty cosmic snowballs” of dust, rocky materials, and ice, 

Waller said. “Whether the ice and dust are layered, mixed together in chunks, 

or form hills and valleys remains a mystery.” 

Observations of the comet were made with an ultraviolet spectrometer, one 

of many scientific instruments aboard the orbiter, which detected light in the 

ultraviolet region of the spectrum. “Because most atoms emit ultraviolet light 

when they’re bathed in sunlight, measuring the wavelength and intensity of the 

emitted light can give scientists an idea of what elements are in a sample as 

well as how much of an element or compound is present,” said Dr. Ian Stewart 

483 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1984 

of the University of Colorado. His team at the university built the spectrometer and calculated the comet’s rate of water loss. 

Johann Encke, a German astronomer who calculated the comet’s orbit in 

1818, noted that the comet was behaving abnormally, with the time it took to 

travel once around the Sun getting shorter in apparent contradiction to the laws 

of classical physics. Scientists now explained the phenomenon with the fact 

that comets spun slowly, like frozen tops. “The ice vaporizes, particularly 

when the comet is near the Sun and may cause a j13t reaction that can change 

the comet’s orbital path,” Stewart said. (ARC Release 84-27; NY Times, June 

10184, 25) 

June 8: Addressing a conference on “Space, Our Next Frontier,” sponsored 

by the Dallas-based think tank National Center for Policy Analysis, retired Lt. 

Col. Thomas H. Krebs, former chief of the Defknse Intelligence Agency’s 

(DIA) space systems branch, said that the Soviet Union had obtained 

blueprints for the Space Shuttle and would within a year or two launch an orbiter that was an “identical copy.” He said that U.S. military experts were not 

sure how the Soviets obtained the plans but were certain that the Soviet vehicle 

was made within U.S. blueprints. He indicated that it was likely that they had 

bought a copy of the Space Shuttle plans. “We’ve seen the [Soviet] orbiter, 

and it’s identical to ours,” Krebs pointed out. “I ciin’t tell how far along they 

are, but in a year or two you can expect to see one launched. 

Krebs said that the Soviets improved on the U.S. design by adding engines 

to the bottom of the external fuel tank, thereby increasing the tonnage the 

Shuttle could carry into orbit. “The space shuttk was totally unclassified. 

Anyone could buy a set of plans. However, no one has been able to find the 

requisition,” he said. 

In Washington, DIA sources speaking off the record said that they knew 

nothing specifically about the Soviets obtaining Shuttle blueprints. (W Post, 

June 8/84, A-4) 

June 9-11: Investigations were continuing into why a $30 million international 

communications satellite, Zntelsat 5, tumbled out of control after launch June 

9 by a new model Atlas-Centaur rocket. NASA launch director Skip Mackey 

said that attention focused on a thruster jet, 1 of 14 small jets intended to keep 

the upper stage of the Atlas-Centaur rocket flying straight. Mackey said that 

a fuel filter in one of the jets may have become clogged, causing the upper 

stage and the attached satellite to spin out of control 23 minutes after launch. 

The rocket and satellite were in a looping orbit ranging from 93 to 750 miles 

high, circling the Earth every 90 minutes. 

It had been the 62nd launch of an Atlas Centaur rocket, but it was the first 

of the new lengthened model. The International Telecommunications Satellite 

Organization (INTELSAT) had paid NASA $60 million to launch the satellite, 

which had 12,000 voice channels and 2 color television channels and was to 

have joined 15 other satellites serving the 108-nation organization. (NASA 

484 
JUNE 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Release 84-62; W Post, June 10/84, A-13, June 11/84, A-4; W Ernes, June 

11/84, 4A) 

June 11: NASA announced that it had selected a team of scientists to observe 

Halley’s comet in 1986 using a Space Shuttle-based astronomy observatory 

called Astro. The scientists were Dr. Michael A’Hearn, University of 

Maryland, College Park, Md.; Drs. John Brandt, Bertram Donn, and Malcom 

Neidner, GSFC; Dr. Barry Lutz, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Ariz.; Dr. 

Chet Opal, University of Texas, Austin; Dr. C. Robert O’Dell, Rice University, Houston; and Dr. Susan Wyckoff, Arizona State University, Tempe. These 

reseachers, together with a scientist representing each of the three ultraviolet 

telescope teams, comprised the Astro Halley Science Team that would plan 

the overall program for observing the comet. 

Astro consisted of three specially designed ultraviolet telescopes and two 

wide-field cameras that would be carried as a Spacelab payload in the Space 

Shuttle cargo bay. 

The observatory was scheduled for assembly and integration into the Space 

Shuttle at KSC during 1985 for launch in early March 1986. The first sevenday Astro mission was scheduled at a time when several comet probes would 

intercept Halley, and it was intended to return important scientific data and 

photography of the comet. ESA, Japan, and the Soviet Union had each designed probes that would fly by the comet and through its tail in early March 1986. 

(NASA Release 84-72) 

June 12: NASA scientist Dr. Hartmut H. Aumann said that the annual 

meeting of the American Astronomical Society that satellite observation in 

space had produced evidence of rings around nearby stars that might be the 

birth sites of new planets. Aumann, of JPL, said that indications of orbiting 

material around more than 40 stars within 75 light years of Earth came from 

observations made by the IRAS launched in 1983. Scientists had said that the 

existence of other planetary systems would increase chances that life similar 

to that on Earth had evolved elsewhere in the universe. Only in our solar 

system had scientists confirmed the existence of planets. 

Scientist discovered the material circling the stars by measuring infrared 

light energy. The stars produced more of it than could be accounted for by 

their number. Scientists would try to obtain a telescope image of the rings 

around the closer stars for further verification of the theory, Aumann said. If 

existence of the orbiting material was confirmed, it would take about 500 

million years for the material to develop into planets. 

In a background report, NASA said that the discovery suggested that stars 

orbited by solid materials might be almost commonplace in the Milky Way 

galaxy. (USA Today, June 13/84, 4D; W Post, June 13/84, A-15) 

June 17: Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch giant balloons float 

overhead in honor of the first American to build a full-scale hot-air balloon 

485 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JUNE 1984 

and fly the tethered balloon June 16, 1784, 70 feet over a field in Bladensburg, 

Md. Peter Carnes had been a Bladensburg innkeeiper, lawyer, and adventurer 

and had built the hot-air balloon, the first of its kind in this country. Carnes 

had had no interest or knowledge of ballooning until he read newspaper accounts of the first flights in France in 1783. Having never seen a balloon, 

Carnes fashioned his 35 feet in diameter based on sketchy newspaper stories. 

One week after his unmanned balloon flight, Carnes took his balloon to 

Baltimore, where 13-year-old Edward Warren volunteered to ride in the 

tethered craft, making him the first American to ascend in a hot-air balloon. 

Shortly thereafter, at the Philadelphia Cormnons, spectators watched 

234-pound Carnes ascended about 10 to 20 feet in the balloon, when a wind 

shift pushed him into a wall, breaking the chain:, and dropping him to the 

ground. 

Tom Crouch, curator of aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum, 

said that the balloon construction “was considered a great scientific achievement. It is difficult to realize what an achievement flying that balloon really 

was. His flight was a demonstration of the fact that while this nation was 

young, it was a nation with great hope for the future.” (W Posr, June 17/84, 

B-1; B Sun, June 25/84 D-1) 

June 28: NASA announced that three of its cent’zrs would participate with 

JSC, named earlier in the year to be the lead center, in definition and 

preliminary design studies of the Space Station. 

MSFC would be responsible for definition of the pressurized Space Station 

modules that would be built and equipped with aippropriate systems for use 

as laboratories, the ward room and galley, and logistic transports. Development of this single “common” module design, with provisions for data 

distribution, power, environmental control, thermal control, and communications systems to be used in all pressurized areas in the station would provide 

significant savings in the overall program. 

LeRC would be responsible for the definition of the electrical power generation and conditioning and storage systems. Although most Space Station 

studies had focused on large solar arrays as the probable power generation 

system, Lewis would also examine and evaluate a number of alternative 

systems. 

GSFC would be responsible for definition of the automated free-flying platforms that would be part of the overall Space Statim program and for provisions to service, maintain, and repair these platforms, as well as other freeflying spacecraft. Goddard would also define the ~xovisions for instruments 

and payloads to be attached externally to the pressurized sections of the Space 

Station and the pressurized modules as a laboratory. 

In addition to its lead contractor role, JSC would be responsible for the 

definition of the structural framework to which the various elements of the 

Space Station would be attached and for the integration and installation of 

systems into this structure. The center would oversee the interfaces between 

the Space Station and the Space Shuttle and be responsible for mechanisms 

486 
JUNE 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

such as the remote manipulator systems. JSC would also manage the attitude 

control, thermal control, communications, and data management systems and 

the equipping of a common module for crew use as a ward room and galley. 

Other NASA centers would support the definition and design activities, particularly in technology areas. KSC would be responsible for preflight and 

launch operations and be involved in logistic support activities. (NASA 

Release 84-85) 

June 23-27: NASA began on June 23 the countdown at Cape Canaveral for 

the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. This twelfth flight would 

carry Henry Hartsfield, commander, who was pilot on STS-4; Michael Coats, 

pilot; mission specialists Judith Resnik, Steven Hawley, and Richard Mullane; 

and payload specialist Charles Walker of McDonnell Douglas, the first 

payload specialist for private industry. Originally scheduled for launch on 

June 22, NASA had delayed liftoff when workers inspecting the orbiter’s 

rocket motors following a test firing found that a heat shield inside a highpressure pump in engine No. 1 had “debonded” and pulled away slightly from 

the wall of a chamber that contained superheated gases during launch. This 

necessitated replacement of one of the main engines, a three-day job that 

would delay launch until at least June 25. 

The flight of Discovery was delayed on June 25 for at least 24 hours when 

its backup navigating computer failed less than 30 minutes before takeoff. 

Though it was not operational in space, the fifth backup computer was used 

during ascent to “watchdog” the other computers during the critical first 10 

minutes of flight. 

Four seconds from launch on June 26, the flight of Discovery was 

automatically aborted by a computer due to malfunctioning of a fuel valve on 

the rear starboard engine, causing the engine to catch fire. The fire was extinguished after three attempts with heavy sprays of water. NASA placed Hartsfield and his five-member crew on leave for two days after experiencing this 

first launch abort in 12 Space Shuttle missions and only the second launch 

abort in American manned spaceflight history. Thomas E. Utsman, Shuttle 

operations manager at KSC, said that he had no idea when the maiden flight 

of Discovery could be rescheduled. It depended, he said, on how much 

damage had been done to the malfunctioning engine that caught fire and to 

the Space Shuttle’s protective tiles from the high-speed water jets that extinguished the fire on the aft part of the fuselage. Utsman said that the fire 

may have burned through the heat shield on the engine nozzle, meaning that 

the entire engine would have to be replaced. 

NASA announced on June 27 that Discovery’s maiden flight would not be 

attempted for at least two weeks in order to verify all three main engines. John 

Talone at KSC said, “I don’t think we’re talking about midJuly before we can 

get to the point of launching again.” Talone said that the only serious question 

remaining about the aborted launch was why the valve stayed closed when 

commanded to start the liftoff firing sequence. When the valve failed to open, 

487 
ASTRONAUTICS AKD AERONAUTICS JUNE 1984 

a backup actuator automatically started the openmg sequence, and the valve 

opened soon enough for the engine to build full power, although it did not. 

He said that Discovery probably would have reached orbit, but mission rules 

said that a Space Shuttle could not lift off without redundant valve, and when 

the Shuttle’s main computer sensed that one actuator system was out, the computer ordered engine cutoff. Photographic inspection of Discovery showed 

remarkably little damage from fire that broke out below the main engine 

nozzles after engine shutdown. The only structural damage to the Space Shuttle’ airframe was the speed brake just below the tail and half of the brake’s 

protective enamel was scorched off. (W Post, June 23/84, A-3, June 25184, 

A-7, June 26/84, A-1, June 27/84, A-3) 

During June: ARC Director William E Ballhaus announced that center aircraft and their operation would be transferred to the Ames Flight Operations 

Directorate. Martin A. Knutson, director of flight operations and site manager 

of the Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, would be responsible for all 

flight activities at the Ames’s Moffett Field location in northern California and 

at the Ames Dryden Facility in southern California. The Flight Operations 

Directorate office would continue to be maintained at the Ames Dryden Facility at Edwards Air Force Base? Calif. Factors in the management change were 

continued safety of flight and continuity of aircraft operations to be assured 

with all flight operations reporting through a single management chain. And 

the change served to integrate more fully the Arn1-s Dryden Facility into the 

day-to-day operations of the parent Ames Center. ‘The Ames Research Center 

and the former Dryden Flight Research Center, now Ames Dryden, were consolidated in 1981, a move that enhanced the capabilities of both organizations. 

Ames officials said that the latest move was a continuing part of the overall 

Ames-Dryden consolidation and would centralizl: all flight operations activities in terms of operations procedures, safety, arid management philosophy. 

There were no plans to move any aircraft or personnel involved from either 

location. (ARC Release 84-15) 

488 
July 

July 3-11: Workers replaced one of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s three 

engines as NASA reported that loose insulation on a super-cooled fuel line 

may have been a factor in the aborted liftoff of the Space Shuttle’s maiden 

flight. Officials said that the faulty insulation’s inability to insulate nitrogen 

gas from the cold may have turned the gas to liquid, and the liquid may have 

dripped on an engine valve, blocking it from opening. 

Later, NASA announced that it was considering a plan to continue the 12th 

and 13th Space Shuttle missions as a way to avoid expensive delays that could 

push at least one mission scheduled for 1984 into 1985. The problem with 

combining missions was the inability to combine crews. Five crew members 

from the aborted flight or from the August flight would have to step down and 

wait for another turn. The possibility of combining missions arose when 

technicians at NASA’s engine test facility at Bay St. Louis, Miss., were unable 

to duplicate the failure of Discovery’s starboard engine that had aborted the 

flight. “No matter what we did, we were unable to duplicate the failure,“ a 

NASA source said. “And until we understand what went wrong, we don’t want 

to fly.” 

The failure of a rocket nozzle on a communications satellite during a test 

in St. Louis then further complicated NASA’s rescheduling decision. A final 

decision awaited analysis on the test of a Star48 solid-fuel rocket nozzle at 

the Astronautics Division of McDonnell Douglas Corporation in St. Louis. 

Star-48 rockets were on two communications satellites that would be part of 

the cargo on a combined mission. 

On July 12 NASA announced that the next Space Shuttle flight would consist of payloads from flights 41-D and 41-F and would be launched from KSC 

no earlier than August 24. The mission aboard the orbiter Discovery would 

retain the designation 41-D. The cargo would remain essentially the same, except that the large format camera and spartan would be replaced with the 

Satellite Business Systems (SBS) and Telstar payloads then scheduled for 

launch in the same time frame. The crew for mission 41-D would be the sixmember team of Commander Henry Hartsfield; pilot Michael Coats; mission 

specialists Judith Resnik, Steven Hawley, and Richard Mullane; and payload 

specialist Charles Walker. The crew of 41-F would be scheduled for a later 

flight. (NASA Release 84-95; W Post, July 3/84, A-12, July 10/84, A-5, July 

11/84, A-6) 

July 5: NASA announced that MSFC had awarded contracts to Martin 

Marietta Aerospace Company Denver, and Boeing Aerospace Company, Seattle, to study a space vehicle to move payloads from low Earth orbits to higher 

489 
ASTRONAUTICS AKD AERONAUTICS JULY 1984 

orbits. The “parallel” studies, concurrent but independent studies in the same 

area of concentration, for an Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) would run for 

15 months at about $1 million each. The companieli would conduct conceptual 

studies to examine the possibilities of both space-based and ground-based 

transfer vehicles. The space-based version would be maintained and refueled 

at the Space Station; the ground-based vehicle would be carried into space by 

the Space Shuttle for deployment. 

The transfer vehicle, as it was conceived by Marshall engineers, would be 

an unmanned upper-stage in the beginning. The ult mate goal, however, would 

be to develop a manned vehicle capable of ferrying a crew capsule to geosynchronous orbit. The vehicle would then return the crew and capsule for other 

missions. (NASA Release 84-90) 

July 16: ESA’s Director, R. Bonnet, and Director ,General of Arianespace C. 

Bigot signed a contract for the launch of ESA’s scientific spacecraft Giotto, 

which was designed for observations of Halley’s comet, aboard an Ariane 1 

launcher. They scheduled the launch for the first day of the July 1985 launch 

window. 

Giotto would go into a heliocentric transfer trajectory that would be very 

close to the ecliptic plane (the plane in which the planets orbit the Sun). During its flight, which would last eight months, Giotto would be under the command of the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. 

Ground-based telescopes would track Giotto, and course corrections would be 

made with the on-board propulsion system to ensure that the spacecraft passed 

as close as possible to the comet nucleus during the encounter phase, planned 

to last four hours. It was expected that the most im,portant data from the mission would come from 10 scientific experiments on board Giotto within a few 

minutes before and after Giotto’s closest approach to the comet’s nucleus. It 

would be during that period that the spacecraft’s camera would photograph the 

comet’s nucleus in color, resolving surface structure down to 50 meters (150 

feet). (ESA Release, July 16/84) 

-NASA and NOAA announced that the NOM-8 environmental monitoring 

satellite appeared to have lost it latitude control system and was tumbling in 

orbit unable to relay its signal effectively to Earth. Launched board an Atlas 

E launch vehicle in 1983, the 1,700-kilometer (3,775-pound) satellite had six 

environmental monitoring instruments and a search-and-rescue payload, provided by Canada and France under an international cooperative space project 

with NASA known as SARSAT (search-and-rescue satellite-aided tracking). 

Much of the environmental monitoring lost by NOM-8 could be conducted 

by NOAA-6, launched in 1979. And although the S.4RSAT capability, which 

permitted the satellite to relay emergency signals from downed aircraft and 

ships in distress, was out of service, the SARSAT project would continue 

operations through use of three Soviet COSPAS search-and-rescue satellites 

in orbit. 

NOM-8 first showed signs of problems on June 12, when it experienced a 

490 
JULY 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUIICS 

“clock interrupt” that caused the spacecraft’s gyros to desynchronize. Continued clock disturbances interfered with the meteorological instruments, 

preventing scientists and engineers from obtaining good data. 

The satellite was the first in a series of three Advanced TIROS-N (ATN). 

NASA planned the next launch of a TIROS-N, NOAA-F, for October 1984. 

(NASA Release 84-93; NY Times, July 14/84, 46) 

July 19: MSFC announced that it had awarded Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation of Pa10 Alto, Calif., and Lockheed Missiles and 

Space Company of Sunnyvale, Calif., contracts for the conceptual study of 

geostationary platforms. Under the contracts, the two firms would envision 

platforms of the 1990s and report their findings to the MSFC. The platforms 

would revolve about the equator at the geostationary altitude of 22,300 miles, 

where they would be in synchronization with the Earth’s rotation. 

Each contract was for approximately $550 and would ruL for 21 months. 

(MSFC Release 84-64) 

July 24: NASA announced that it had selected LTV Aerospace and Defense 

Company, Dallas, Tex. ; Martin Marietta Denver Aerospace, Denver, Colo. ; 

and TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., for negotations leading to contracts 

for system definition studies of an Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) to 

ferry satellites about in space. MSFC would manage the fixed-price contracts 

of approximately $5 million each. NASA anticipated that one of the three 

companies would likely construct the platform upon approval to proceed with 

the project. 

The vehicle would supplement the Space Transportation System (STS), having the ability to retrieve satellites from high orbits and bring them to the 

Space Shuttle for maintenance and repair. The OMV would then place the 

repaired satellites in their operational orbits. The OMV would also serve as 

a means of reboosting satellites as their orbits decayed, thereby avoiding costly, dedicated Space Shuttle missions. 

As envisioned, the OMV would be a remotely piloted, unmanned spacecraft 

approximately 3 meters (15 feet) in diameter and about 1 meter (3 feet) in 

length. (NASA Release 84-102) 

July 25: Svetlana Savitskaya, a Soviet cosmonaut, today became the first 

woman to walk in space. Savitskaya, 36 years old, performed welding and 

soldering operations in the course of her walk in space, which lasted 3 hours 

and 35 minutes. She was also the first woman to make two spaceflights, her 

first being in August 1982 aboard the Soyuz T-7, which like the current flight 

linked with the Sulyut 7 space station for a brief period. 

Savitskaya went into space July 18 along with Vladimir Dzhanibekov and 

Igor Volk aboard Soyuz TI2 and linked with the Sulyut-7 space station, where 

three other cosmonauts had been in orbit for more than five months. Tass said 

that the main goal of the space walk was to test a new general-purpose hand49 1 
ASTRONAUTICS ANI) AERONAUTICS JULY 1984 

operated tool designed “to carry out complex technological operations.” 

Dzhanibekov accompanied her on the space walk. 

Savitskaya, along with Dzhanibekov and Volk, returned to Earth July 29 

aboard Soyuz T12. They landed in an area 140 kilometers southeast of 

Dzhezkazgan. The three were reported to be feeling fine after landing. Remaining aboard Sulyut 7 were cosmonauts Leonid Kisim, Vladimir Solovyev, 

and Oleg Atkov. 

Savistskaya was born in Moscow and graduated from the Sergo 

Ordzhonikidze Aviation Institute in Moscow. She had worked as an instructor 

pilot and, since 1976, had been a test pilot on 20 types of aircraft, Tass 

reported. (FBIS, Tass in English, July 17/84; FBTS, Tass in English, July 

29/84; NY Times, July 26184, A-24; W Post, July 26/84, A-31) 

July 29: NOAA’s GOES-5 satellite failed at 8:39 p.m. today, blanking out 

weather pictures for parts of the eastern United States and the Altantic Ocean, 

just at the time of the year when hurricanes and severe storms were likely to 

form there. NOAA had not planned replacement of the satellite for another 

two years, but would move the satellite covering the western half of the country and the Pacific eastward as a stopgap measure during the hurricane season. 

It would station the operational satellite midway over the continental United 

States, leaving Hawaii, Alaska, and the western Pacific uncovered to the west, 

and half the Atlantic uncovered to the east. 

The $100 million satellite, like its four predecessors, failed prematurely. It 

was intended to operate for five years but lasted only three. In testimony 

before a Senate subcommittee, NOAA’s John McEllroy said that government 

experts and the system contractor, Hughes Aerospace, had calculated that the 

satellite expected a five-year lifetime, but that had proved optimistic, chiefly 

because one mechanical system, and in particular one specially made light 

bulb, kept having problems. Another official at NClAA said that the failure of 

the custom-made light bulb, which caused five of the six U.S. weather 

satellites to go blind prematurely, would cost Hughes millions of dollars in 

penalties. Because Hughes’s contract was linked to performance, it stood to 

lose as much as $3 million for the recent failure plus: losses for earlier failures. 

(W Post, July 31/84, A-1, Aug 3/84, A-3; W Times, Aug 3/84, 4A) 

July 31: The Washington Posr reported that, in testimony to a House subcommitte on space science and applications, NASA Administrator James M. 

Beggs said that he feared that an Air Force plan to make more use of large, 

unmanned rockets to launch Pentagon satellites would undermine NASA’s 

plans for the Space Shuttle program. “The Air Force has said they plan two 

flights a year starting in 1988 using expendable launch vehicles as an alternate 

to the shuttle, and if they stick to that it will have no real impact on us,” Beggs 

said. “But if they increase that rate to four or five flights a year, as some people suggest they might, it will have severe impact on us,” he pointed out. 

Beggs went on to say that the Air Force had asked General Dynamics Cor492 
JULY 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

poration and Martin Marietta Corporation to submit plans for increasing the 

lifting power of their Atlas-Centaur and Titan 34D booster rockets to launch 

into space large satellites that currently could be carried only by the Shuttle. 

He pointed out that NASA stood to lose much of the business of one of its 

main customers and also that, because he disagreed with the Air Force, having 

an alternate way of putting its satellite in orbit was an improvement in security. 

“All. . .that means is they’ll have another launch pad right on the ocean,” he 

said. 

Begs indicated that he was worried that the Air Force would acquire an 

alternate launch vehicle to use more frequently to make it cost effective. And 

he expressed concern that the winner of the Air Force contract to build the 

larger rocket would try to take commercial business away from the Space 

Shuttle. “Our commercial business has already begun to fall off a little 

because our commercial customers tended to overbook when we started to 

fly,” Beggs said. “Our traffic model for 1985 is already down about 10 percent.” (W Post, Aug 1/84, A-20) 

During July: NASA announced the appointment of C. Robert Nysmith as 

associate administrator of management, effective August 26, 1984. He would 

succeed John Boyd, who would return to ARC to become associate director. 

Nysmith had served as assistant associate administrator for management since 

January 1984. Before that, he was assistant associate administrator for 

management support in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology. 

(NASA Release 84-107) 

-NASA announced the appointment of Jesse W. Moore to associate administrator for space flight, effective August 1, 1984. Moore had been serving 

as the acting associate administrator for space flight since April 15, 1984. He 

was appointed deputy associate administrator for space flight in February 

1983. Moore came to NASA Headquarters in 1978 as deputy director of the 

Solar Terrestrial Division in the Office of Space Science. In June 1979 he was 

appointed director of the Space Flight Division. He assumed the position of 

director, Earth and Planetary Exploration Division, in December 1981. Prior 

to these assignments he was employed at JPL. (NASA Release 84-105) 

-Effective August 1, 1984, the Interim Space Station Program Office 

would become the permanent Office of Space Station (Code S), NASA announced. Philip E. Culbertson would be the associate administrator for space 

station and John D. Hodge would be the deputy associate administrator for 

space station. The Office of Space Station was responsible for developing the 

Space Station and conducting advanced development and technology activities, advanced planning, and other activities required to carry out President 

Reagan’s direction to NASA to develop a permanently manned Space Station 

within a decade. (NASA anno July 27/84; NASA Release 84-104) 

493 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JULY 1984 

-inteniu reported that Transpace Carriers Inc. (TCI) was challenging in 

the United States the pricing policies of the European multinational company 

Arianespace. TCI, a Washington-based firm, had earlier received the goahead to take over the Delta launcher following completion of existing NASA 

contracts and subject to the provision that TCI secured three new customers 

before October 1, 1984. 

TCI lodged a complaint with the U.S. Trade R.epresentative, alleging that 

Arianespace was practicing “predatory” pricing by offering users from nonESA member countries (notably U.S. commercial satellite operators) rates 

that were up to 33 percent below launch fees quoted for European satellites. 

So far, both the Space Shuttle and Ariane were generally agreed to have been 

operating at unprofitable “introductory” prices; NASA had put Delta-class 

satellites into geostationary orbit for around $15 million, including the PAM-D 

upper stage. General Telephone & Electronics (GTE) reported paid 

Arianespace “under $25 million” for the Spacenet 1 launch. 

The complaint raised by TCI applied only to contracts for launch after 1985, 

the earliest date it could begin operations. TCI President Tony L. Savoca said 

that his company would charge between $26 and $32 million, according to 

launch requirements. He claimed that he had heard of Arianespace bids as low 

as $22 million for the same time period and added that Arianespace “should 

be charging” around $64 million for a dual (SYLDA) launch on Ariane 111. 

(Znterviu, July 7/84, 643) 

-George M. Low, president of Rensselaer Polytzchnic Institute and a driving force in the Apollo moon landing program, died July 17 of cancer. The 

White House announced that he would be awarded the President’s Medal of 

Freedom for his contributions to education and the nation’s space program. 

In his 27 years with NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), Low served as an engineer and manager in 

the Mercury and Gemini programs and was put in charge of redesigning the 

Apollo spacecraft after a fire on the launching pad killed three astronauts in 

1967. Later he became deputy administrator of NASA and acting administrator in the early 1970s when he negotiated the initial agreements 

leading to the joint American-Soviet mission in August lY.5. (NY Times, July 

18/84, E-8) 

494 
August 

August 8-26: Soviet cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyev, and Oleg 

Atkov completed on August 26 their 200th day of work on the Salyut 7 space 

station. During the day’s activities, there was an assessment of the reaction 

of the cardiovascular system of the cosmonauts to the initiation of hydrostatic 

pressure created by means of the vacuum suit “Chibis,” and the crew used 

hand-held cameras and spectrometers to study the natural resources and environment of Soviet territory. 

Also on that day the Progess 23 cargo craft, launched August 14, undocked 

with the Space Station, following unloading of the cargo craft’s contents. Progress 23 was launched on August 14. 

On August 8, Kizim and Solovyev made their sixth space walk. The 

cosmonauts removed part of the heat insulation cover on the back of the service module and shut off a pipe in the fuel line with a special device. This 

extravehicular activity lasted 5 hours and was the first time that cosmonauts 

had made six space walks, for a total of 22 hours and 50 minutes, in the course 

of one trip. (FBIS, Tass in English, Aug 9/84, Aug 14/84, Aug 16/84, Aug 

20/84, Aug 24/84) 

August 4: Arianespace launched at 10:32 a.m. local time the satellites ECS-2 

and Tekcom I aboard an Ariane vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana. The 

first data received from both satellites showed satisfactory behavior. They 

were injected into an orbit with provisional parameters of 199.02-kilometer 

perigee, 36,091.00-kilometer apogee, and 6.98 O inclination. 

This 10th Ariane launch was the first flight of an Ariane 3 version of the 

vehicle, whose main characteristics were a higher thrust of the Viking first and 

second stage, a stretched third stage; greater ‘liquid oxygen and liquid 

hydrogen tank capacities, leading to an increased flight time by approximately 

30%; and the addition to the first stage of two strap-on rocket boosters. 

Ariane 3 could carry 2,580 kilograms into geostationary transfer orbit. 

(ESA Release Aug 4/84) 

August 10: NASA announced that it had awarded an industry team headed by 

RCA’s Astro-Electronics Division, Princeton, N.J., a $260.3 million contract 

for design; development, and fabrication of the Advanced Communications 

Technology Satellite (ACE). Other major participants in the team were TRW 

Electronics Systems Group, Space Communications Division, Redondo 

Beach, Calif. ; Communications Satellite Corporation (ComSatCorp), 

Washington, D.C. ; Motorola Inc., Government Electronics Group, Scottsdale, 

495 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1984 

Ariz. ; Hughes Aircraft Company’s Electron Dyinamics Division, Torrance, 

Calif. ; and Electromagnetic Sciences Inc., Norcross, Ga. 

One of the primary goals of the ACTS program was to develop advanced 

satellite communications technologies, including satellite switching and processing techniques and multibeam satellite antennas. using the 20- and 

30-gigahertz bands. These technologies would be needed for the increased 

satellite capacity for the mid-1990s. 

The ACTS program results would make available to corporations, universities, and government agencies the ACTS spacecraft and ground systems 

capabilities for experimentation. Organizations that met specified requirements for space communications research would participate in such experiments during the flight phase of the program. NASA had received over 

30 expressions of interest in experimental use of the new satellite system. 

NASA had scheduled ACTS for launch by the Space Shuttle in 1989. (NASA 

Release 84-113; LeRC Release 84-54) 

August 13: NASA signed an agreement with two insurance organizations, 

Merrett Syndicates Ltd. and International Underwriters (Intec), to retrieve the 

Pulupa B-2 spacecraft February 6, 1984, for the government of Indonesia. 

However, it did not achieve the proper transfer orbit when the perigee kick 

motor failed. 

The agreement called for NASA to retrieve the satellite on Space Shuttle 

mission 51-A, currently scheduled for launch November 2, 1984. The 

insurance underwriters would pay NASA for costs, not to exceed to $4.8 

million, incurred in preparing for and executing the retrieval. 

In the near future the parties would sign a standard Space Shuttle launch 

services agreement, which would contain details of the rescuc plan and a commitment to relaunch the satellite in July 1985, should the underwriters request 

it. (NASA Release 84-116) 

August 15: President Reagan approved today National Space Strategy 

intended to implement the National Space Policy, which was supplemented by 

the President’s 1984 state of the union address. Concerning the STS, the 

Strategy pointed out that the STS was a critical factor in maintaining U.S. 

space leadership, and, therefore, it was NASA’s first priority to make the STS 

fully operational and cost effective in providing routine access to space. The 

Strategy further noted that the STS was to be fully operational by 1988. 

Regarding the civil space program, the Strategy indicated that NASA should 

develop a permanently manned Space Station within a decade and that the 

United States should seek agreements with friends and allies to participate in 

the development and use of the Space Station. 

In the area of commercial space programs, the Strategy called for the United 

States to encourage and facilitate commercial expendable launch vehicle 

operations and minimize government regulation of these operations. 

496 
AUGUST 1984 ASTKONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Concerning national security space programs, it was mandated that the national security sector must pursue an improved assured launch capability to 

satisfy two specific requirements2‘the need for launch system complementary 

to the STS to hedge against unforeseen technical and operational problems, 

and the need for a launch system suited for operations and crisis situations.” 

The Strategy further stated that to fulfill this requirement, the national security sector should pursue the use of a limited number of expendable launch 

vehicles to complement the STS. (National Space Strategy, WH Fact Sheet, 

App F-4, Aug 15/84, 137) 

August 16: NASA launched the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) aboard a three-stage Delta 3294 launch vehicle from the 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. AMPTE consisted of three satellites provided by the United States, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and the 

United Kingdom. The program was designed to supply knowledge about the 

transfer of mass from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and its further 

transport and energization within the magnetosphere. 

Initial chemical releases in September by the FRG’s Ion Release Module 

(IRM) would be swept toward Earth’s magnetosphere by the solar wind. When 

the released ions reached the magnetosphere, it was expected that ions would 

spread out along this boundary region in all directions, but some of the ions 

would pierce the magnetosphere, as do some of the charged particles of the 

solar wind. These rare ions would act like a “dye” in the plasma of charged 

particles. 

The manueverable United Kingdom subsatellite, located in close proximity 

to the IRM, and the IRM would acquire data from outside the boundary to 

the magnetosphere while the Charge Composition Explorer, provided by the 

United States, would study the activity from within the magnetosphere. 

A second series of chemical releases in December would create an artificial 

comet forming inside the bow-shock region but outside of the magnetosphere, 

directly in the orbital path of Earth. The third series of chemical releases 

would occur in 1985 behind Earth in the magnetotail. 

The three spacecraft would send data to ground stations at NASA’s Deep 

Space Network at JPL, the German Space Operations Center at Oberphaffenhofen, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, England. 

(NASA MOR E-846-84-01, Aug 2184; NASA Release 84-109; NY Times, Aug 

7/84, C-2) 

August 17: NASA announced that it had selected United Space Boosters Inc. 

(USBI), Huntsville, Ala., to receive a $274 million cost-plus-incentive-fee 

contract to manufacture, assemble, and refurbish solid-fuel rocket boosters for 

the Space Shuttle. The approximately five-year contract would require USBI 

to manufacture, assemble, check out, and deliver 84 flight sets of solid-fuel 

rocket boosters and to refurbish them when returned to Earth after each 

launch. The contract, to be managed by MSFC, also launched two unpriced 

491 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS AUGUST 1984 

options, each for the delivery of 60 flight sets, covering a total additional 

period of performance of about five years. 

Under a separate contract, USBI would build a new facility at KSC for 

booster assembly and refurbishment, at a cost of $21 million. In the past, 

refurbishment had taken place at Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building 

(VAB), which was used to assemble the entire configuration of orbiter, 

boosters, and external tank. (NASA Release 84-118; MSFC Release 84-75) 

August 23: The Far Eastern Economic Review was quoted as saying that the 

People’s Republic of China had asked the United States to allow a Chinese 

astronaut to be included in the Space Shuttle program. The Hong Kong-based 

weekly magazine also said that Beijing had asked the United States to consider 

providing a launcher for a Chinese manned space vehicle. It was reported that 

the Reagan administration was giving both requests “sympathetic” consideration (FBlS, Hong Kong AFP in English, Aug 23/84) 

August 26: Spacelab 3 investigators, engineers, support personnel, and 

science crew members completed the first integrated Spacelab 3 mission 

simulation at MSFC. Mission participants would take part in several such 

simulations in preparation for the scheduled January 1985 mission. The 

payload and mission specialists were located at the Marshall Center Payload 

Crew Training Complex for the simulation. They ‘communicated and worked 

with mission management and science team members in a simulated Payload 

Operations Control Center (POCC) at the Huntsville Operations Support 

Center (HOSC). 

Spacelab 3 mission manager Joe Cremin said that the primary purpose of 

the simulation “was to train the principal investigator operation teams in the 

Payload Operations Control Center procedures with the Marshall Center 

POCC cadre.” The simulation also provided the participants with communications experience in an operational environment. 

An additional simulation would take place at Marshall in September, and 

in November the Marshall team would begin operations and simulations at the 

POCC at JSC. “Even then, the flight crew will Ibe at Marshall to use the 

Payload Crew Training Complex and the HOSC will be active in providing 

support for the simulation,” Cremin said. (MSFC Release 84-70) 

August 27: Speaking to 262 winners of the Secondary School Recognition 

Program and their teachers, President Reagan said that he had directed NASA 

to carry an elementary- or secondary-school teacher in orbit aboard the Space 

Shuttle as the nation’s first space passenger. “When the shuttle lifts off, all 

of America will be reminded of the crucial role teachers and education play 

in the life of our nation,” Reagan said in the annoiincement. This would be 

the first spaceflight of an American who was neither a scientist nor a trained 

astronaut. The only physical limitations were that the candidate be free of 

498 
AUGUST 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

debilitating disease, have good eyesight, and not have hearing loss or high 

blood pressure. No age limit was specified. 

NASA had thought about the possibility of flying private citizens aboard the 

Space Shuttle more than a decade ago. The idea was a natural outgrowth of 

its legislative mandate that called for “the widest practicable and appropriate 

dissemination of information concerning NASA’s activities and the results 

thereof. . , .” 

NASA officials told reporters that they would begin a search for the most 

qualified teacher candidate and described a program in which each of the fifty 

states, the District of Columbia, herto Rico, and Guam would submit the 

names of two teachers. A peer-review panel would help pare the applicants 

to 10, to 5, and finally to a prime and backup candidate. 

“When we decide on our final two candidates, we will give them eight 

weeks of preflight training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center right along with 

the astronaut crew they fly with,” said NASA Administrator James M. Beggs. 

“When the candidate’s flight is over, we will insist that he or she give a year 

of their time to NASA, visiting schools, talking to workshops, lecturing, and 

appearing on television and radio,” he said. 

Beggs said that it was impossible to predict how many civilians would be 

able to fly on Space Shuttle, noting that it depended on how many Space Shuttle flights NASA could schedule. (NASA Release 84-122; NASA anno Aug 

2ll84; W Post, Aug 28/84, A-1) 

August 30: The New York Times reported that space industry experts and 

government intelligence officials had said that U.S. Air Force satellite 

photographs of launching pads in central Asia showed that the Soviet Union 

was developing a booster rocket for a Soviet version of the Space Shuttle and 

a new family of big rockets similar to those used by the United States for the 

Apollo Moon program. A special feature of the new rockets was that they 

would use liquid hydrogen, a cryogenic (supercooled) type of fuel technology 

that had eluded Soviet space experts but had been mastered in the United 

States nearby 20 years ago. 

The Pentagon had originally described the Soviet development of new 

booster rockets and a Space Shuttle in April. The new disclosures gave added 

detail of the Soviet program, including checkouts on the launching pad and 

the development of cryogenic fuels. 

“It’s a major step to go to liquid hydrogen,” said James E. Oberg, an expert 

on Soviet space technology.” They’ve been, using the same boosters for 20 

years. Now they appear to be trying to build a new family.” 

The Pentagon’s “Soviet Military Power 1984” had originally suggested the 

existence of a new family of Soviet booster rockets. The publication asserted 

that the biggest of the new Soviet rockets could lift payloads of up to 150 tons 

into low orbits around the Earth, about seven times more than the largest 

operational Soviet booster and five times more than the biggest U.S. booster, 

the Space Shuttle. The publication also said the Soviet Union’s space shuttle 

499 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS AUGUST 1984 

differed from the U.S. Shuttle only in the respect that the main engines were 

not on the orbiter. In addition, the publication published pictures of a small 

Soviet space plane that had undergone flight tests. (NY Times, Aug 30184, 

B-13) 

-NASA launched at 8:41 a.m. from KSC the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS 

41-D) on its maiden voyage after three earlier poslponements, another one-day 

postponement due to computer problems, and a last-minute delay to avoid 

possible collision with a private line. Discovery carried for mission 41-D a sixmember crew of commander Henry Hartsfield; pilot Michael Coats; mission 

specialists Judith Resnick, Steven Hawley, and Richard Mullane; and payload 

specialist Charles Walker, a McDonnell Douglas engineer. It also carried the 

heaviest cargo flown in orbit aboard a Space Shuttle. 

About eight hours after liftoff, three of the crew members deployed a U.S. 

communications satellite, SBS-4, which was owned by Satellite Business 

Systems, McLean, Va., and was designed to relay data, including telephone 

and television transmissions. About 45 minutes later its on-board engine ignited flawlessly to send it to a position 22,400 des above the equator just 

west of South America. The successhl launch helped dispel doubts about the 

solid-fuel rocket motor technology when two satellites last February did not 

reach orbit. 

Also planned for launch from the Space Shuttle were the Leusut-2, owned 

by Hughes Communications Services, Inc., and leased by the U.S. Navy, and 

the Telestur 3-C of AT&T. On board would be NASA’s Office of Astronautics 

and Space Technology OASTOl, a collapsible solar array, and the Continuous 

Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES) of McDonnell Douglas. 

On the same day as the liftoff, President Reagan visited GSFC and 

addressed several hundred of Goddard’s employees. In his remarks, Reagan 

said that “there is nothing that the United Stales of America cannot accomplish. If the doubting Thomases would just stand aside and get out of our 

way.” He went on to speak of the creation of nl:w jobs, technologies, and 

medical breakthroughs as a result of the rigors of the space program. (NASA 

Release 84-112; NASA Press Kit June 84, August 84; W Post, Aug 31/84, A-1; 

W Times, Aug 31/84, 3A) 

August 31: NASA announced the start of the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer 

(EUVE), a new astronomy satellite project that would be launched into Earth 

orbit from the Space Shuttle in 1988. The purpose of the explorer was to make 

the first all-sky map in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) band of the electromagnetic spectrum, a band between ultraviolet and X-ray light. 

The EUVE, managed by JPL, with scientific instruments supplied by the 

University of California, Berkeley, was a true expbrer in that it would conduct 

the first in-depth investigation of that critical bband and was expected to 

discover stars and other celestial objects with unexpected characteristics. The 

EUVE would orbit Earth at an attitude of 340 statute miles and from that point 

500 
AUGUST 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

above the atmosphere would be able to scan the sky for emissions of extreme 

ultraviolet radiation. EUVE would use four 40-centimeter (15.7-inch) 

ultraviolet telescopes to conduct the all-sky survey and a spectrometer to carry 

out detailed observations of the new sources and stars expected to be 

discovered. 

JPL was responsible for overall EUVE project responsibility. The UCB 

would supply the 1,100-pound science payload, consisting of the extreme 

ultraviolet telescopes and the spectrometer; and the university’s Space 

Sciences Laboratory would design and fabricate the payload. JPL would control flight operations, and the science operations center would be at the Space 

Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley. (NASA Release 84-125) 

50 I 

September 

September 3-5: NASA officials were concerned that the buildup of two ice 

blocks, one about 30 by 18 inches and weighing between 8 and 20 pounds and 

another about 10 pounds, that covered an excess water-dump nozzle, might 

break off the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission 41-D (a combination of niissions 41-D and 41-F) during its return to Earth, causing damage to the orbiter’s 

protective tiles. The agency said that they had three options for removing the 

ice, the last of which, a space walk, could delay reentry by at least a day. The 

crew continued their efforts to melt or shake loose the ice, and Discovery’s 

cabin pressure was lowered as a preliminary step in case a space walk was required, although NASA officials said that a space walk was the last option. 

Discovery was oriented with the port side in direct sunlight, so when the 

crew awoke the next morning they found about half of the large ice block had 

melted. Then, astronaut Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr., switched on heaters in the 

pipes leading to the nozzle and fired the orbiter’s thrusters to see if the vibrations would shake the ice free. Next, Hartsfield, assisted by Judith Resnik, 

took the controls of the mechanical arm and following procedures outlined by 

Sally K. Ride on the ground knocked off with little difficulty all but about 

5 inches of the ice chunk. The remaining ice apparently then melted in the 

warmth of the sunlight. 

Discovery landed September 5 at Edwards Air Force Base, completing its 

six-day maiden flight. During the flight, crew deployed three communications 

satellites, LEASAT-I (SMVCOM-I), Telestar-3, and SBS-D in the first three days 

of the flight; extended an experimental solar-powered array in a test for future 

Space Station construction; and processed a sample of a hormone that could 

lead to a commercial pharamaceutical product. Lt. Col. Richard M. Mullane, 

one of the astronauts on board, said that Discovery “performed superbly,” 

while NASA officials pointed out that all the mission’s objectives were accomplished. (W Post, Sept 4/84, A-6; NY Ernes, Sept 3/84, A-1, Sept 4/84, 

A-1, Sept 5/84, A-1; W Times, Sept 5/84, 4A) 

September 5: Soviet cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyev, and Oleg 

Atkov aboard Salyut 7 equaled the record of 211 days in space, set by 

cosmonauts Anatoliy Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev in December 1982. 

The increasingly long flights, coupled with Western intelligence reports that 

the Soviets were experimenting with rockets capable of lifting heavy payloads 

into orbit, indicated that the country was moving toward a goal of establishing 

a permanent, manned space station. Soviet reports said that the flight of Salyut 

7 was proceeding normally and that there was no indication how long the 

flight would last. 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1984 

During the flight the cosmonauts had spent 22 hours and 50 minutes outside 

the craft in 6 space walks, breaking the U.S. record for a single mission by 

29 minutes. The three have been visited by six other cosmonauts, including 

an Indian and the first woman to walk in space, Svetlana Savitskaya, who during her space walk used a welding machine that space analysts said could be 

used for building large Space Stations. 

The three cosmonauts had focused on the psychology of long periods in 

space as well as carried out important repairs outside the craft, demonstrating 

the crew’s ability to maintain their spacecraft in an extended flight. 

In a televised ceremony, Soviet leader Konstantin U. Chernenko honored 

the cosmonauts taking part in the flight and spoke of the great advances in 

knowledge and equipment since the first manned spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin, 

23 years previously. “In the successes of cosmonautics we see a blend of the 

daring thinking of scientists, the remarkable skills of engineers, technicians 

and workers, and the great courage of cosmonauts,” he said. (FBIS, Moscow 

Tass Intl Svc in Russian, Sept 6/84; FBIS, Moscow Tass in Engligh, Sept 7/84; 

NY Times, Sept 6/84, B-10) 

September 9: A working meeting, in Paris, of astronaut? from the Soviet 

Union, the United States, and France concluded after participants expressed 

concern for mankind’s future and the need for cooperation, and they emphasized their desire to use their unique experience to promote space exploration and the use of space technology for the good of all people. Participating 

in the meeting were Soviet cosmonauts A.A. Leonov (Voskhod-2 and Soyuz 

Apollo), O.G. Makarov (Soyuz 12, Soyuz 27, Soyu F3), and Yu.V. Romanenko 

(Soyuz 26, Suyuz 38); U.S. astronauts R. Schweickart (Apollu 9), E. Mitchell 

(Apollo 14, and D. Eisele (Apollo 7); and French astronaut J.L. Chretien. 

The participants agreed to set up an organization of those who had traveled 

in space, with the aim of studying the potential and promoting the constructive 

use of space to improve living conditions on Earth., formulating positive prospects for future generations, and promoting the emblishment of broad contacts among people who had been in space to identify opportunities for 

cooperation and issues of common concern. (FBI:;, Moscow TRUD in Russian, Sept 12/84; FBIS Moscow Tass in English, Sept 11/84) 

September 10: NASA and ESA changed the name of their International Solar 

Polar Mission to “Ulysses.” They made the change, proposed by ESA and 

concurred in by NASA, not only in reference to Homer’s mythological hero 

but also for the Italian poet Dante’s description (in the 26th Canto of his “Inferno”) of Ulysses’s urge to explore “an uninhabited world behind the Sun.” 

The reference from the “Inferno” was appropriate because the mission would 

permit measurements to be made for the first time away from the ecliptic plane 

and over the poles of the Sun-the mission’s trajectory taking the spacecraft 

into the uncharted third dimension of the heliosphere. (NASA Release 84-127) 

504 
SEPTEMBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

September 14: NASA issued a Requet for Proposal (RFP) for definition and 

preliminary design of a permanently manned Space Station to be operational 

in low-Earth orbit early in the 1990s. Proposals were due by November 15. 

The Space Station would support scientific and commercial endeavors in 

space, stimulate new technologies, enhance space-based operational 

capabilities, and maintain U.S. leadership in space. 

The RFP contained four “work packages” covering definition and 

preliminary design (Phase B) of Space Station elements. NASA planned to let 

competing contracts for each of the work packages and scheduled April I, 

1985, as the effective date of the contracts. (NASA Release 84-130) 

September 16: U.S. balloonist Joe W. Kittinger crash-landed his 10-story 

balloon on a mountain in Savona, Italy, after completing the first solo balloon 

flight across the Atlantic. Kittinger also made the flight in four days, setting 

a speed-for-distance record. Six other people had tried the solor ocean crossing, but all failed, and two died in the attempt. A three-man US. crew of Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo, and Larry Newman was the first to cross the 

Atlantic by balloon in 1978. Kittinger said, before beginning his flight, that his 

next goal would be a solo crossing of the Pacific. ( W Times, Sept 19/84, lA, 

September 21: NASA launched at 6:18 p.m. EDT the Hughes Communications, Inc., Galaxy-C communications satellite from the Eastern Space and 

Missile Center (ESMC) by Delta 3920 vehicle. The satellite would relay 

business communications throughout the United States. It was the third in a 

series, with Galq-A dedicated to cable television programming and &layB (along with Galaxy-c) relaying video, voice, data, and facsimile communications for large corporations, long-haul carriers, and broadcasters. 

(NASA MOR No. M-492-215-84-03 [prelaunch], Sept. 19/84, [postlaunch], 

Oct 15/84; NASA Release 84-128) 

September 24: At the request of Switzerland and the Federal Republic of Germany, ESA reactivated the GOES-2 spacecraft. The two countries wanted use 

of the satellite to obtain data over a complete 11-year solar cycle and to support 

the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Experiment (AMPTE) project. 

GOES-2, launched in June 1978, completed its planned scientific mission in 

July 1980. It resumed operations in 1981, continuing these until the end of 

1983. In January 1984, GOES-2 was moved from the densely occupied geostationary orbit into a higher and slightly asynchronous orbit, where it was drifting at a rate of about 3.5” in longitude per day and becoming visible to the 

European Space Operations Center station at Michelstadt, Germany, for 4 

weeks every 3% months. (ESA Release, Sept 24/84) 

September 20: The second and last of two lithium releases from the Federal 

Republic of Germany’s IRM was completed, part of the world’s first active 

so5 
ASTRONAUTlCS AKD AERONAUTICS SEPTEMBER 1984 

probe reaching beyond the Earth’s magnetosphere. Data from the first release 

on September 11 was being analyzed to determin’c if the U.S. satellite inside 

the Earth’s magnetosphere had detected the lithium released outside. NASA 

launched on August 16 the AMPTE satellites in a stack aboard a Delta rocket 

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (NASA Release 84-140) 

During September: NASA Administrator James M. Beggs announced the 

establishment of the new position of assistant administrator for commercial 

programs, reporting directly to him, to provide a focus for and facilitate efforts 

within NASA to expand U.S. private-sector investment and involvement in 

civil space-related activities. Isaac T. Gillam IV, formerly assistant associate 

administrator, Office of Space Flight, would assume the new position with 

L.J. (Bud) Evans Jr., formerly assistant to the deputy associate administrator 

for commercialization, to serve as his deputy. In announcing the position, 

Begs said, “In support of the President’s policy or1 commercial uses of space, 

the commercial programs office will be responsible for providing management direction within the agency for our efforts to establish new links with 

the private sector to stimulate the development of business in space. It will 

also be responsible for maintaining existing relationships with industry 

through the functions of industry affairs, technology utilization, and shuttle 

marketing.” (NASA Release 84-129) 

-USA Today reported that 2,500 teachers had represented to NASA with 

requests to be the first observer to ride the Space Shuttle in 1985 or 

1986-even though the agency was not yet taking applications. NASA would 

announce its application process shortly. Dale Boatright, a Chicago teacher, 

was told by the U.S. Department of Education that his request was the first 

received, nearly a month before. NASA was notififing the teachers that they 

would receive a formal application when plans wtxe set. (USA Today, Sept 

24/84, 1A) 

-NASA had embarked on a new research program to show that a transport 

airplane’s metal skin and supporting structure coulcl be replaced with metallic 

composite material to save weight and manufacturing costs and thereby increase fuel efficiency. Work in the program represented the first application 

of composite materials in the construction of primary wing and fuselage structures for transport-class aircraft. NASA’s long-range goal was to provide commercial air transport manufacturers with the technology to produce composite 

structures and apply them on new aircraft, or on derivatives of current aircraft, in substantial amounts by the early 1990s. Researchers at LaRC, where 

the new composites programs was managed, expected by the mid-1990s to see 

about 75 % of the airframe structure of a transport to be made of composites. 

(LRC Release 84-69) 

506 
SEPTEMBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

-Dr. Jerome C. Hunsaker, an aviation pioneer who founded the first college course in aeronautical engineering at MIT and later designed the first aircraft to fly the Atlantic Ocean, died September 8 after a brief illness. He was 

98 years old. He had established himself as one of the leading theorists of 

flight and aircraft design in a career in aviation engineering and air technology 

that spanned six decades. In addition to designing the flying boat NC-4, which 

flew from Newfoundland to Portugal and England in the first trans-Atlantic 

flight in May 1919, Hunsaker supervised the design of the dirigible Shenandoah, the first large rigid airship made in the United States that made its first 

flight in 1923. (NY Times, Sept 12/84, B-6) 

507 

October 

October 2: Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyev, and Oleg Atkov 

returned safely to Earth after 237 days in space. Soviet television broadcast 

the return, showing a parachute bearing the crew coming down about 500 

miles northeast of Tashkent in Kazakhstan at 1:57 p.m. Moscow time. The 

three crew members had lived on the Salyut 7 orbiting space station since 

February 9. In television interviews, the cosmonauts said that they were glad 

to be back with friends on the “warm earth,” although one commented he was 

sad to leave the empty space station behind. 

The Soviet media had indicated recently that the crew was growing weary 

and to save energy had their working day cut by one hour. However, a medical 

checkup given the day after their return found the three to be in good health. 

In an interview in the newspaper Socialist Industry, a medical specialist said 

that recent endurance flights showed humans could live in space a year or 

more. 

The cosmonauts spent their last days on board transferring material to their 

Soyuz Tll spacecraft and mothballing scientific equipment on the Salyut. The 

space station, launched in April 1982, would continue in orbit. 

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet awarded medals to the three 

cosmonauts; and Kizim, who headed a crew that linked up with an earlier 

space station in 1980, would be honored with a bronze bust, the Washington 

Post reported that Tass said. (W Post, Oct 3/84, A-23; FBIS, Moscow Tass 

in English, Oct 1/84, Oct 2/84; FBIS Moscow DomSvc in Russian, Oct 3/84) 

October 3: The NASA Army Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA), a 

helicoptedairplane testbed in a fixed-wing mode, returned to Ames-Moffett 

Flight Research Facility following the flight testing of a new helicopter rotor 

system in a flight environment. The purpose of the flight tests was to 

demonstrate the fixed-wing capability of the research helicopter/airplane 

hybrid and to expand its flight envelope in that configuration. The evaluation 

included taxi tests, acoustic tests, control power/stability tests, and rotor hub 

drag investigation as well as takeoff and landing technique investigation and 

envelope development. A total of 13 flights expanded the RSRAs fixed-wing 

envelope capability to 262 knots (about 300 miles per hour) and its altitude 

to 10,000 feet. (ARC Release 84-23) 

October 5-13: NASA launched on October 5 at 7:03 a.m. EDT from KSC the 

Space Shuttle Challenger on STS mission 41-G, the sixth flight of Challenger, 

with a crew consisting of Commander Robert L. Crippen; pilot Jon A. 

McBride; mission specialists Sally K. Ride, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and David 

PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMEB 

-tN‘t*4TtONW 509 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1984 

C. Leestma; payload specialists Marc Garneau, a Canadian; and 

oceanographer Paul D. Scully-Power. It was the most crew members to fly on 

a Space Shuttle mission. 

During the first day of flight, crew members dejployed NASA‘s Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS); however, the two solar panels that supplied electricity to the 5,000-pound satellite refused to unfo1.d. Ride corrected the ERBS 

problem by using the Space Shuttle’s mechanical arm to place the satellite’s 

solar panels in the sunlight to thaw the hinges. It took almost three hours to 

get the panels warm enough to respond to commands to unlock. The satellite 

was placed in orbit off the west coast of Mexico, instead of south of Bermuda. 

While trying to determine the source of the ERBS problem, Kathryn 

Sullivan deployed the Shuttle Imaging Radar-B (SZR-B), a 35-by-7-foot radar 

camera, which had difficulty stabilizing when only one of it two “leaves” was 

erected. The radar antenna would send out thousands of pulses every second, 

and the large number of echoes the radar antenna received allowed it to draw 

a photograph-like image of the part of Earth that its beams struck. 

During the flight, a storm of cosmic rays apparently caused by sunspots 

knocked out for about 13 hours NASA’s TDRS, >which affected the imaging 

radar system. Among the parts of the world that th.e radar had planned to map 

but would probably lose were the entire Amazon River basin, the islands that 

made up Indonesia,’and the seas off the Cape of (Good Hope. The radar was 

also to track the progress of tropical storm Josephine, southeast of Florida in 

the Atlantic Ocean, which would force Challenger’s landing from Cape 

Canaveral to Edwards Air Force Base. 

An ice buildup on the exterior of the Space Shuttle’s water vents forced the 

crew to alter slightly the use of the ship’s water facilities. The buildup, caused 

by a slight malfunction of the backup cooling systems, posed only an inconvenience as the astronauts had to heat up the water vents to melt away the small 

accumulations of ice, raising the temperature inside the cabin to as high as 

90 4 Crippen corrected the craft’s air-conditioning system, and the 

temperature inside Challenger neared its norm of about 75 9 

On October 11, Sullivan became the first Americ:an woman to walk in space 

when for 3 1/2 hours she performed tasks requiring a kind of patience, dexterity, stamina, and strength originally believed in the !;pace program to be unique 

to men. She stepped into space at 11:44 a.m. EDT along with Leestma. With 

each held by a single tether, they worked in daylight and darkness to rehearse 

a critical fuel transfer, stow a troublesome antenna, and photograph their efforts for ground engineers. 

Challenger landed at 12:D p.m. EDT at KSC in the second of four attempts 

to land there instead of at California’s Edwards Air Base and the first in three 

missions that Crippen was not waved off a Florida landing by bad weather. 

Dr. Shelby Tilford, NASA director of space science, said that the mission was 

successful despite disappointments with the imaging radar. Tilford said that 

all other Challenger experiments worked perfectly. The space-borne mapping 

camera, carried on a Space Shuttle flight for the first time, took 2,300 frames 

510 
OCTOBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

of film in mapping parts of every continent. Challenger apparently returned 

to Earth in good condition, except for minor damage to the two rear engine 

parts suffered during ascent. (NASA MOR E-420-41-G-09 [prelaunch], Sept 

28/84, [postlaunch], Oct 5/84; NASA Release 84-132; NASA Fact Sheet, Sept 

84; NASA Press Kit, Oct 84; W Times, Oct 9/84, 2A, Oct 10/84, 5A, act 

A-6, Oct 13/84, A-3, Oct 14/84, A-5; NY Ernes, Oct 11/84, A-18) 

12/84, 3A; WPost, Oct 5/84, A-2, Oct 9/84, A-4, Oct 11/84, A-17, Oct 12/84, 

October 10: NASA announced that Dr. Richard J. Terrile of JPL and Dr. 

Bradford A. Smith of the University of Arizona, using a special electronic 

camera system at the Carnegie Institution’s Las Campanas Observatory in 

Chile, clearly photographed the rings of Uranus, showing them to be made 

of particles that were possibly the darkest found in the solar system. The 

camera used a charge-coupled device to record the image. Photographing the 

rings was difficult because they were darker than charcoal and very close to 

the much brighter Uranus. Special computer processing was performed on the 

images in order to make the rings visible. This processing created the false 

three-dimensional look of the images. 

Analysis of the photographs showed that the rings reflected back only about 

2 % of the sunlight falling on them, making them possibly the darkest material 

found in the solar system. This raised the question as to what the rings were 

made of, and two possibilities were suggested. Evidence from meteorites and 

astronomical observations of asteroids suggested that dark organic materials 

were prevalent in the outer solar system and could comprise the rings. Another 

possibility was that the rings were made of frozen methane, another common 

material in the outer solar system. Studies of the rings were important because 

they would contribute to preparations for the Voyager 2 encounter with Uranus 

in January 1986, the first opportunity to view the rings close up. (NASA 

Release 84-145) 

October 13: President Reagan established a National Commission on Space, 

to be composed of 15 members appointed or designated by the president; not 

more than 9 advisory, nonvoting members representing federal departments 

and agencies; 2 advisory, nonvoting members appointed by the president of 

the Senate ,from among the members of the Senate; and 2 advisory, nonvoting 

members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 

among mnembers of that body. The commission was directed to study existing 

and proposed U.S. space activities; formulate an agenda for the U.S. civilian 

space program; and identify long-range goals, opportunties, and policy options for civilian space activity for the next 20 years. It was to submit its plan 

and any recommendations for proposed legislation to the president and Congress within 12 months. (WH anno, Oct 13/84) 

October IS: NASA announced that astronomers Dr. Bradford A. Smith of the 

University of Arizona, Tucson, and Dr. Richard J. Terrile of JPL had 
ASTRONAUTICS ANI1 AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1984 

photographed a vast swarm of solid particles, called a circumstellar disk, surrounding Beta Pictoris, a star 50 light years from Earth. The disk was the first 

of its kind to be seen clearly in astronomical photographs and could indicate 

a possible solar system around Beta Pictoris. 'Io make the observations, the 

astronomers used a 100-inch telescope at the Lar; Campanas Observatory near 

La Serena, Chile, operated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. 

A charged-coupled device electronic camera and a coronagraph were attached 

to the telescope. 

The two astronomers had turned attention to Beta Pictoris because of an 

IRAS science team's reports earlier in the year that stated that the star, and 

three others similiar to it, showed abnormal amounts of infrared radiation, implying the existence of solid material orbiting {.he stars. 

Scientists believed that the circumstellar disk was made up of countless particles, ranging in size from tiny grains less than a thousandth of an inch (10 

microns) in diameter to the nuclei of comets a few miles across. the most likely composition included ice, silicates, and carbonaceous (organic) compounds, the same materials from which the Earth and other planets of the 

solar system were believed to have formEd. 

Questions to be answered were whether Beta Pictoris had existed long 

enough for planets to have formed and whether large planetary bodies would 

necessarily form, even when the required materials were present. (NASA 

Release 84-146) 

October 17: NASA announced that Robert L. Crippen, commander of Space 

Shuttle mission 41-G earlier in the month, was named deputy director of 

Flight Crew Operations at JSC, Houston. He would serve as deputy to George 

W.S. Abbey and remain an active astronaut. 

Crippen was pilot on STS-1, the first Space Shuttle flight, and commanded 

STS-7 and 41-C, the Solar Maximum satellite rescue mission. He joined 

NASA in September 1969 after three-year assignment with the Air Force's 

Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. (JSC Release 84-050) 

October 21: The first Space Shuttle external fuel tank for use at Vandenberg 

Air Force Base, California, arrived there after a 5,000-mile journey, marking 

a major milestone in activation of the West Coast space launch complex. Plans 

called for the initial launch from the new complex in October 1985. 

Most of the major faciliteis at Space Launch Complex-Six were completed, 

including the facility for storage and preparation of the external tank. The U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers had been responsible since lW9 for building and 

facility construction at the launch site, while Martin Marietta Aerospace had 

responsibility for design, procurement, installation, and checkout of Space 

Shuttle ground support systems. Space Shuttle missions from Vandenberg 

would carry both DOD and NASA payloads. 

At the facility, the tank would undergo a thorough four-week inspection by 

the Air Force and its Shuttle processing contractors. Early in 1985, it would 

512 
OCIOBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

be mated with two inert solid-fuel rocket boosters and the Shuttle orbiter 

Enterprise for testing and compatibility between the Space Shuttle and ground 

facilities. 

Martin Marietta Aerospace manufactured the tank at MSFC’s Michoud 

Assembly Facility. (MSFC Release 84-85) 

October 25: MSFC announced that Morton Thiokol’s Wasatch Division near 

Brigham City, Utah, had successfully static-fired a new, lightweight version 

of the Space Shuttle’s solid-fuel rocket booster at its northern Utah facility. 

Preliminary results from the two-minute firing indicated that all objectives 

were met and that the system operated as expected. The case of the new motor 

was made from a composite material of plastic reinforced with graphite fibers 

wound into a cylinder. Each of these filament-wound cases weighed about 

30,000 pounds less than the current steel case that made up most of the length 

of the Space Shuttle’s solid-fuel focket booster. Use of the lighter cases could 

increase the Space Shuttle payload carrying capacity about 4,600 pounds. 

Two more of the filament-wound booster motors would be test fired by 

Motron Thiokol in the spring and summer of 1985. Also in the spring of 1985, 

flight motor segments containing filament-wound cylinders would be shipped 

to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for use by NASA and the U.S. Air 

Force in the first Space Shuttle launch from Vandenberg planned for October 

1985. 

The test was conducted under the direction of MSFC, Huntsville, Ala. 

(MSFC Release 84-86; Marshall Star, Oct 31/84, 1) 

During October: The astronauts of western Europe formed an Association of 

European Astronauts (AEA), to which all European astronauts who had flown 

or been selected to train for a specific mission were eligible to join. The group 

would hold its first meeting on October 5 and 6. The purpose of the association was to encourage get-togethers for the exchange of views on training experiences and the projects concerned. The AEA had seven members: three 

ESA astronauts, Claude Nicollier, Ulf Merbold, and Wubbo Ockels; two 

French astronauts, Patrick Baudry and Jean-Loup Chretien; and two German 

astronauts, Reinhard Furrer and Ernst Messerschmid. During meetings they 

planned to exchange experiences, compare USSR, U.S., and European approaches, and discuss future plans for Europe in manned spaceflight. (ESA 

Release, Sept 24/84) 

-Dan Germany, crew systems manager at JSC, observed that, after five 

years and $12 million, the Space Shuttle toilet still did not work, with failures 

on 10 out of 11 missions. “It’s very disappointing,” he said. On one mission, 

Robert Gibson had to use a crowbar to free the toilet mechanism; Sally Ride 

and Fred Hauck employed a camera bracket. NASA would test a new solution 

in August 1985 in which a bag would fit inside the commode and be removed 

after every flight. This reminded observers that NASA once spent $1 million 

513 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS OCTOBER 1984 

to develop a pen to use in weightlessness. An engineer asked later, “Why 

didn’t you use a lead pencil?” (SF, SeptlOct 84) 

-A commemorative envelope sold in the gift shop at JSC gave details and 

drawings of a U.S. Navy space program so secret that its name could not be 

used on the telephone, the Washington Post reported Aviation Week & Space 

Technology magazine as saying. The publication1 said that the envelopes, called postal cover, carried the words “Project Whitecloud,” accurate drawings 

of a mother satellite, and drawings of three smaller spacecraft. The envelopes 

said that the satellite disperses the smaller craft to cover more ocean surface 

and that it used radar-frequency antennae to detect shipboard radar and communications signals. The Navy had no immediate comment. (W Post, Oct 

23/84, A-15) It was later revealed that the information had been taken from 

the May 1976 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology. 

5 I4 
November 

November 2: NASA announced that larger main parachutes, designed to slow 

the solid-fuel rocket boosters’ final rate of descent prior to impact into the 

ocean, would be part of the mission 51-A Space Shuttle flight scheduled for 

launch November 7 from KSC. The new parachutes would be 136 feet in 

diameter compared to previously used chutes of 115 feet in diameter. The 

larger chutes would reduce the velocity of the boosters at water impact from 

88 feet per second, or 60 miles per hour, to 75 feet per second, or 51 miles 

per hour. The reduced velocity would relieve the structural loads on the 

boosters at impact by about 25 % ; thus reducing the amount of impact damage 

sustained by the boosters. Following launch and separation from the Space 

Shuttle, the boosters were recovered from the ocean, refurbished, and used 

on a later flight. 

According to Keith Henson, booster recovery subsystem manager in the 

Shuttle Projects Office at MSFC, the larger chutes were tested during mission 

41-D in August on the Space Shuttle’s right booster. Beginning with mission 

51-B, scheduled for January 1985, all future steel case boosters would have the 

larger chutes. Smaller main chutes would continue to be used on some Space 

Shuttle missions, including the 51-C mission in December and on missions 

where lighter-weight filament-wound booster motor segments were used. First 

use of those segments was planned for October 1985. Martin Marietta Corporation, Denver, Colo., under the direction of MSFC, designed the booster’s 

deceleration system. Pioneer Parachute Company, Manchester, Conn., provided the parachutes. (MSFC Release 64-90) 

November 5: NASA announced the delay of the 51-C Space Shuttle mission 

originally scheduled for launch from KSC on December 8, 1984. The agency 

had decided to replace up 2,800 thermal protection tiles on the underside of 

the orbiter Challenger due to the degradation of the bonding material. 

When Challenger returned from space on its last mission, a black tile from 

the left wing chine area just behind and below the crew door area was missing. 

About 100 tiles were removed from Challenger, and it was found that the 

adhesive substance known as “screed,” used to smooth irregularities in the 

surface of the orbiter, had softened. Screed was applied directly over the 

aluminum skin of the orbiter. All other areas were covered with a primer called red RTV-560 (room temperature vulcanizing), which was used as an 

adhesive for bonding the strain isolation pads (SIP) to the body and the tile 

to the SIP. The 51-C mission was the first completely dedicated DOD mission. 

The 51-A mission continued on schedule for launch November 7. (MSFC 

Release 84-91) 

515 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1984 

November 8-16: NASA launched on November 8 from KSC the Space Shuttle 

Discovery on STS mission 51-A with a five-member crew consisting of commander Frederick H. Hauck; pilot David M. Walker; and mission specialists 

Anna L. Fisher, Dale A. Gardner, and Joseph P. Allen. 

During the flight, the crew recovered the satellites Pulupu B2 and Westur 

VZ, which had not operated properly following tlheir earlier deployment from 

the Space Shuttle. The Pulupu B2 recovery was the first retrieval ever of a 

satellite from space, although astronauts previously had caught and repaired 

the Solar Maximum satellite. Astronauts Allen and Gardner had to move 

Pulupa B2 into the Discovery’s cargo bay themselves when an unforeseen 

obstacle prevented use of the spacecraft’s mechanical arm. This resulted in 

some damage to the power-generating solar cells surrounding the seven-footwide satellite, but the damage was not expected to interfere with a successful 

relaunching of the satellite. Later in the flight the same two astronauts took 

5 hours and 42 minutes to retrieve Westur VI, a 2,300-pound communications 

satellite, and bolt it down next to Pulupu B2-possibly the shortest $35 million 

salvage operation ever undertaken, the Wushingmn Post reported. Insurance 

companies had to pay the owners of the two satellites, the government of Indonesia (Pulupu B2), and Western Union Telegraph Company (Westar VI) 

$180 million. The insurance brokers paid NASA !$5.5 million for the satellites’ 

retrieval and Hughes Aircraft Company $5 million for technical help in the 

retrieval operation. Stephen Merrett, chairman of Merrett Syndicates, an affiliate of Lloyds of London, that helped underwrite the insurance on the 

satellites, said “I’m proud to be a part of the crowd that put this mission 

together in just six months.” He added, “We expect Palapa to be resold for 

between $30 and $40 million and Westar for $30 million, and we expect those 

sales to be concluded very soon.” Merrett declined to identify potential buyers 

of the two satellites. 

In interviews later, Allen and Gardner noted that the task of retrieving the 

satellites was easier than dealing with small items such as tools and the tether 

wires that tied them to the Space Shuttle’s cargo bay. “As objects get smaller 

in space, they become more difficult to handle. It’s really extraordinary how 

much easier it is to move massive objects like satellites.” Allen pointed out 

that the only trouble they had in retrieving the satellites resulted from their 

tendency to grip the satellites too hard and move i:hem too quickly in an effort 

to get them back and secured in the cargo bay in a limited amount of time. 

“Once you get over that difficult spot where you think you have to have the 

satellite in a death grip, things are a lot easier,” he said. 

In addition to the salvage missions, the crew during the flight deployed the 

Canadian Elesut-H and Hughes Syncom-ZVl cornmunications satellites. The 

Radiation Monitor Experiment and the Aggregation of Red Blood Cells experiments were carried out in the orbiter’s midcleck. 

Discovery landed November 16 at 7 a.m. local time at KSC. “Two landings 

in a row at Kennedy, and this time with a cargo bay as full as it was when 

516 
NOVEMBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

it took off:’ said Jesse W. Moore, NASA associate administrator for space 

flight. “It’s hard to believe those two satellites are sitting out there on the runway after being in space for more than eight months.” (NASA MOR 

E-420-51-A-11 [prelaunch] Nov 8/84; NASA Release 84-144; MSFC Release 

84-90; JSC Release 84-051; W Post, Nov 13/84, A-11 and D-1, Nov 14/84, 

A-1, Nov 17/84, A-10, Nov 18/84, A-19, Nov 28/84, A-18; NY Ernes, Nov 

18/84, 3A; H Chron, Nov 11/84, 24) 

November 8: In conjunction with the Council of Chief State School Officers, 

NASA released the Announcement of Opportunity (AO), specifying the 

eligibility and requirements for selection of a teacher in NASA’s Space Flight 

Participation Program. Through the program, NASA would extend Space 

Shuttle flight opportunities to a wide segment of private citizens with the purpose of communicating the experience of spaceflight to the public through 

educational and information programs. NASA intended eventually to fly 

various categories of space flight participants two to three times per year. 

The A0 was open to elementary and secondary level teachers in all public, 

private, and parochial schools in the United States and U.S. territories; in 

DOD overseas dependents’ schools; in Department of State overseas schools; 

and in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Teachers applying for the flight opportunity would submit an application to illustrate their qualifications and excellence as an educator and demonstrate how they would share the experience 

with the public. Review panels would select two teachers’ nominees for each 

of the states and organizations identified above for forwarding to a National 

Review Panel. This panel would select 10 teachers as semifinalists, who would 

go to JSC for thorough medical examinations, in-depth briefings, and interviews. NASA would receive the names of five finalists and select the primary 

and backup candidates to undergo training for spaceflight. NASA‘s goal was 

to fly the first teacher on a mission in early 1986. (NASA Release 84-155) 

November 10: Arianespace launched at 1:14 a.m. GMT Ariane VII varying 

Spacenet 2, for the GTE’s Spacenet, and the second ESA European Space 

Agency maritime communications satellite, Marecs B-2. Marecs B-2 was 

placed in geostationary transfer orbit with a perigee of 199.9 kiometers and 

an apogee of 36,022 kilometers. Following firing on November 11 of its apogee 

boost motor, Marecs B-2 was injected into a near circular orbit at 135.5 “E with 

a perigee of 35,600 kilometers, apogee of 35,900 kilometers, and inclination 

of 3.190”E. 

tuiane VI1 was the second flight of the more powerful version of the European launcer, Ariane 3, developed by ESA. Ariane 3 was 49 meters high and 

weighed about 237 tons at liftoof. It had three stages, the first povided with 

two strap-on boosters that ignited just after liftoff. Ariane 3 could place 

payload of up to 2,580 kilograms into geostationary transfer orbit. (ESA 

Release Nov 12/84) 

517 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS NOVEMBER 1984 

November 13: The congressional Office of Technology Assessment released 

a report, “Civilian Space Stations and the U.S. F;uture in Space,” which said 

that the kind of Space Station that NASA was planning could not be justified 

on scientific, economic, or military grounds. It went on to say that not just 

Congress, but the entire nation, ought to consider what the country wanted 

to do in the second quarter-century of the space em. The Space Station envisioned by NASA, the report said, “is only one alternative in a wide range of 

options.” 

Thomas E Rogers, director of the two-year study, said that the time had 

come for the general public to play a greater role in space program goals. 

“We’ve been spending $7.5 billion a year, every year; we can do anything want 

to do,” he said. “It’s great, it‘s exciting, but we’re missing large numbers of 

important activities by allowing all this to go on under technological drivenot policy drive, economic drive, social drive, the way everything else is done 

in this country at that level of public expendihwe.” 

The report characterized the nation’s goals in space as shortsighted and narrow, reflecting the views only of the science and technology communities and 

not of the general public, which foots the bills. lhe study also said, “There 

is no compelling, objective, external case” for building a Space Station “to 

be used to support over 100 conceptual uses, few of which have been sharply 

defined or gained wide acceptance as important objectives of the space program.” 

The report concluded by spelling out the “kinds” of goals the nation should 

set: increase the efficiency of space activities and reduce their costs; involve 

the public; reap scientific, economic, social, and political benefits; increase 

international cooperation; and “spread life, in a responsible fashion, 

throughout the solar system.” (Civilian Space Sturions and the US. Future in 

Space, (D.C.: OTA, 1984; W Post, Nov 14/84, A.-4; NY Times, Nov 14184, 

B-20) 

November 17: NASA technicians today began p;reparing the Space Shuttle 

Discovery for a top-secret DOD flight in January 1985. Discovery was towed 

into a processing hangar just a few hours after the ship and its crew had 

recovered two satellites from useless orbits. Jesse Moore, director of the Shuttle program, reported that Discovery “looks like she’s in excellent shape,” and 

there should be little trouble getting it ready for [:he next mission scheduled 

to start January 21 or 22, 1985. 

The Space Shuttle Challenger was originally scheduled to fly the secret 

DOD payload on December 8, but that spacecrafi: was undergoing extensive 

repairs to thermal tiles damaged in its last mission in October and would not 

be ready for several weeks. Because of the high priority the Pentagon placed 

on the mission, it was decided to shift Discovery to the assignment, and the 

Spacelab flight that Discovery originally had been scheduled to fly in January 

was being delayed. 

Moore said that the retrieved satellites, Pulupu J32 and Westur VI, would be 

518 
NOVEMBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

removed from Discovery’s cargo bay and taken to a nearby facility for servicing. Later in the month they would be flown to Hughes Aircraft Company 

plant in El Segundo, Calif., for refurbishing. (NY Emes, Nov 18/83, A-3) 

November 28: The White House approved a policy that would free the Federal 

Communications Commission (FCC) to begin processing several applications 

from companies hoping to provide satellite telecommunications services, 

thereby breaking INTELSAT’s 20-year monopoly on such service. President 

Reagan signed a “finding” that it was in the national interest to have alternatives to INTELSAT. The announcement came after the State and Commerce 

departments had fought for months over who would define the new international telecommunications policies. And, of course, INTELSAT and its U.S. 

representative, ComSatCorp, tried to block entry of private competitors into 

the international market. 

David Markey, assistant secretary of commerce for telecommunications and 

information policy, said that the new policy would not permit private satellite 

networks to mount full-fledged competition against INTELSAT. “It will be 

clear that [such networks] should be restricted to non-public switched voice 

services,” he added. (W Post, Nov 28/84, C-1) 

During November: Upon the departure at the end of November of Dr. Donald 

P. Hearth from NASA, Richard H. Petersen will move from deputy director 

to director of LaRC. Hearth had been center director at Langley since 

September 1975. He joined NASA in 1962 and had held various agency positions, inlcuding deputy director of Planetary Programs at NASA Headquarters. Petersen had served as deputy center director at LaRC since July 

1980. He began his career at ARC in 1957 and was chief of the Aerodynamics 

Division there from 1975 until he joined Langley. (NASA Release 84-163) 

-USA Today reported that Miss Baker, the squirrel monkey that joined 

another monkey, Able, in the U.S.’s first spaceflight May 28, 1959, died 

November 27 of kidney failure. She was buried in the Space and Rocket 

Center in Huntsville, Ala. (USA Today, Nov 31/84, 3A) 

519 

December 

December I: A four-engine Boeing jetliner in a radio-controlled test of an aircraft fuel mixture called “antimisting kerosene” crashed on Rogers Dry Lake, 

California. A huge fireball engulfed three-fourths of the plane immediately 

after it crashed. The fireball lasted about six seconds and was followed by an 

outpouring of black smoke that often accompanies landing crashes. Flames 

from what officials called a “secondary fire” were visible through the smoke. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA sponsored the $11.8 

million crash primiarly to test the new fuel mixture, which was designed to 

prevent an explosive burst of flames in case of an accident. Safety specialists 

emphasized that it would take a long time to reconstruct precisely the sequence of events that left the Boeing 720 a much more devastated wreck than 

had been expected. An initial examination of the plane showed that the interior 

had been totally gutted by the fire that the crash produced. Despite the outcome, government and industry officials appeared willing to continue efforts 

to produce a practical way to minimize the fire risk from fuel spilled in accidents. (WPost, Dec 21734, A-I; NY Times, Dec 3/84, A-21; Time, Dec 10184, 

32; Wlimes, Dec 3/84, 3A) 

December 12: NASA launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., 

aboard an Air Force Atlas launch vehicle NOM-9, a 3,775-pound Advanced 

Tiros-N spacecraft that also carried search-and-rescue equipment. The 

satellite was placed in a 540-statute-mile, circular, near-polar orbit with an inclination of 98.86” to the equator. Total orbital period was 102.12 minutes, 

with an average of R minutes in sunlight and 30 minutes in the Earth‘s 

shadow. Because the Earth rotated 25.59 beneath the orbiting spacecraft during each orbit, the satellite would observe a different portion of Earth’s surface 

with sufficient overlap from orbit to orbit. NOAA satellites collected 

meteorological readings and transmitted the data directly to users around the 

world for local weather analysis and forecasting. Information from the 

satellites ‘was also used for hurricane tracking and warnings, agriculture, commercial fishing, forestry, maritime, and other industries. NUAA-9 was the 

latest in a series of RCA-built TIROS weather satellites dating back nearly 25 

years to TIROS-1, launched on April 1, 1960. It was the 6th in the current 

series of 11 satellites developed to give scientists the most comprehensive 

meteorological and environmental information since the start of the nation’s 

space program. The satellite cost $43.5 million; launch vehicle costs were 

$11.4 million. 

NOM-9 also carried the second set of Earth Radiation Budget Experiment 

instruments, an atmospheric experiment that would increase knowledge of 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS DECEMBER 1984 

Earth’s climate and weather systems, particularly how climiate was affected 

by radiation from the Sun. (NASA MOR E-615-8.4-05 [prelaunch], Nov 5/84, 

NASA Mission Summary, Nov 8/84; NASA Release 84-150; LaRC Release 

84-89) 

December 13: Grumman test pilot Chuck Sewell flew for its first flight the 

experimental X29 forward swept-wing jet over,Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. 

He kept the landing gear extended and held the plane to 270 miles per hour 

for the flight, which was intended to determine th83t everything worked properly, not to see how fast or high the plane could fly. The flight lasted 58 minutes 

and remained confined to an area around Edward:; at an altitude of 15,000 feet. 

The X29, which had the nose of an F5 fighter, would never fly as a fighter 

in its own right but was supposed to help the United States design fighter 

planes of the future. Not until space age materials like graphite became practical for aircraft construction could wings be built light enough and strong 

enough to reach into the oncoming flow of air as the plane sped along. It was 

hoped that the forward sweep would give the X29 and it successors advantages 

in maneuvering for the kill in a dogfight. (W Post, Deci84, A-9) 

December 15-21: The Soviet Union launched the automatic interplanetary 

station Vega-1 as part of a program for the exploration of outer space and 

planets of the solar system. The multipurpose flight provided for exploration 

of Venus and Halley’s comet. The first portion of the flight of kga-1 would 

continue the study of the atmosphere, cloud layer, and surface of Venus by 

means of a descent module that would carry out new experiments with an 

aerostat probe. Scientists and technicians from ,4ustria, Bulgaria, Hungary, 

the German Democratic Republic, Poland, France, the Federal Republic of 

Germany, and Czechoslovakia joined Soviet scientists, designers, engineers, 

and technicians to create the package of research equipment and apparatuses. 

The station was due to reach the vicinity of Venu.s in mid-June 1985 and pass 

near Halley’s comet in March 1986. 

The Soviet Union launched December 21 Gga-:?, which should, like Kga-1, 

reach the area of Venus in the middle of June 1985 and travel close to Halley’s 

comet in March 1986. The Vega-2 station should drop landing craft and 

balloons into the Venusian dtrnosphere. (FBIS, Tass in English, Dec 15/84; 

FBIS, Moscow DomSvc in Russian, Dec 21/84) 

December 18: NASA announced that Administrator James M. Beggs and 

U.R. Rao, chairman of the Indian Space Reseach Organization (ISRO), signed 

a launch services agreement covering the reimbursable launch of the Indian 

National Satellite, INSAT lC, scheduled for mid-I986 aboard the Space Shuttle. INSAT 1C was a multipurpose satellite that would provide communications and meteorological service to India. An ISRO scientidengineer would 

serve as a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle during the INSAT 1C 

mission. Discussions were also held concerning experiments the Indian 

522 
DECEMBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

payload specialist would perform during the mission and concerning potential 

cooperation between NASA and ISRO in the areas of space applications and 

space science. (NASA Release 84-175) 

December 19: The Soviet Union launched a scale model of what U.S. experts 

called a small, reusable, winged spaceplane. It orbited the Earth once, glided 

back into the atmosphere, and splashed down in the Black Sea. The apparently 

successful unmanned flight, the fourth in a new shuttle program, was seen.as 

further evidence of the growing competition among superpower countries to 

develop advanced instruments for using space for military as well as peaceful 

operations. U.S. intelligence analysts speculated that the Soviet spaceplanes, 

when fully developed and flown by pilots, could be used to deliver small 

payloads or to inspect or attack other satellites in low-Earth orbit. The Soviet 

Union was also reported to be dose to conducting the first tests of a larger, 

manned space vehicle comparable to the U.S. Space Shuttle. 

In what had become a characteristic of the space race between the Soviet 

Union and United States, one nation, the Soviet Union in this case, was trying 

to catch up with the other in developing the large shuttle but was also trying 

to move ahead with another technology, the small spaceplane. And equally 

characteristic, this had apparently prompted the other, in this case the United 

States, to step up its efforts to design a spaceplane of its own. (NY Times, Dec 

19/84, A-1) 

December 20: Scientists at the University of Chicago announced that a U.S. 

experiment to analyze the dust of Halley’s comet was riding aboard the Soviet 

Union’s &a-1 spacecraft. It was the first known Soviet-U.S. cooperative 

space venture since the docking of the manned ApoIlo and Soyuz spacecraft 

in 1975. The cosmic dust analyzer-and a twin that would be launched aboard 

Ggu-2-were built by university scientists under the leadership of John Simpson, one of the preeminent astrophysicists in the United States, who had 

designed experiments for more than 30 space missions over the past 25 years. 

The joint project was born at an international symposium in Holland in 

September 1983, where Simpson outlined vastly improved comet dust measuring methods. Aboutza month later, he said, the Soviets surprised him by’inviting him to put the analyzer aboard their Vega. Simpson received Reagan 

administration approval and about $300,000 in NASA funds, which touched 

off a frantic search for components. “We scoured the U.S. and within two 

weeks got all the pieces,” Simpson said. 

Plugging U. S. electronics into a Soviet spacecraft required unusual cooperation. Moscow shared telemetry coding data, and Simpson was able to conduct 

high-speed computer analysis of Soviet rocket launch characteristics to aid in 

designing the dust analyzer so it could survive blastoff and flight. “On May 

7, we walked into the Soviet space lab with working instruments,” which were 

then bolted aboard the Soviet spacecraft by U.S. scientists, he said. Simpson 

said that he had received computer tapes from the instrument during Soviet 

523 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEKONAUTICS DECEMBER 1984 

tests of the device while it awaited launch from the Baykonur cosmodrome and 

added that the Soviets had invited him to br on hand in Moscow when the 

comet encounter would begin in March 1986. (W Post, Dec 21/84, A-1; NY 

Ernes, Dec 21/84, A-1) 

December 21: NASA announced that a six-member team from GSFC was 

helping to establish the first satellite data link to the South Pole that would 

make possible real-time collection of scientific data from the pole, which was 

not possible in the past. The effort was in support of a joint program with the 

National Science Foundation; the Applied Research Laboratory of the University of Texas, Austin; NOAA; and a number of other government, private, and 

education institutions. To establish a real-time conmunications link by any 

means other than by satellite would cost as much ,as $35 million compared 

with approximately $250,000 via satellite. “The project could revolutionize 

communications in the region,” said Goddard engineer Michael Comberiate. 

“Currently, scientific data collected from the Pole during the winter months 

must be stored and shipped out by aircraft during Astral Summer” (November 

1-February 1). The link would use existing polar-orbiting satellites to relay 

data from the pole to McMurdo Sound, which would retransmit the data to 

a geostationary satellite that, in turn, would transmit the information to the 

continental United States. This routing was necessary because signals from 

the transmitter at the Pole (90’s latitude) were too far below the horizon to 

be acquired by a geostationary satellite. The McMurdo station, however, was 

located on the edge of the Antarctic (77”s) and was barely in view of the 

geostationary satellite. The link with polar orbiting l~ndsut 4 and Landsat 5, 

with Dynamics Explorer 1 (DE-I), and with Nimbus 7 would allow reliable 

transmission of routine, high-volume data from scientific investigations being 

conducted at the Pole by 20 different institutions. (NASA Release, Dec 21/84) 

-A Titan 34-D rocket with a top-secret payload was launched at 7:02 p.m. 

local time from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in what might be the 

final military space mission of the year. An Air Force statement did not indicate whether the payload reached the planned orbit. The next announced 

DOD launching was scheduled for January 23, 1985, when the Space Shuttle 

would carry an intelligence satellite into orbit. (NY l’irnes, Dec 23/84, A-14) 

During December: NASA announced that a publicacion of infrared celestial 

objects, presented in a series of catalogs and maps of 96% of the entire sky, 

was completed by the international science team of the IRAS. This was a 

milestone in the history of astronomy and would provide a wealth of new information about the universe in a wavelength region that was nearly impossible to study from the Earth’s surface. 

The IRAS catalogs printed nearly a quarter-million infrared sources-stars, 

galaxies, and newly forming stars-in addition to entirely new classes of ob524 
DECEMBER 1984 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

jects. The catalogs and sky maps would be used for decades by astronomers 

investigating the nature of celestial objects that emitted much of their energy 

in infrared wavelengths as well as by astronomers seeking to understand objects at other wavelength regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The catalog 

contained roughly 130,000 stars, 20,000 galaxies, 50,000 dense condensations 

within the infrared cirrus, and 40,000 objects of all types within the plane of 

the Milky Way galaxy. The catalogs were presented in several formats, including a five-volume book containing 5,000 pages of computer printout information on the location and infrared characteristics of 245,839 individual point 

sources found by the telescopes. The catalogs were also available on 

microfiche (24 cards) and magnetic tape comprising 60 megabytes of data. 

IRAS was a joint project of the space agencies of the United States, United 

Kingdom, and the Netherlands. The telescope satellite was launched by 

January 25, 1983, and conducted a 10-month all-sky survey of infrared objects 

from Earth orbit until its supply of liquid helium coolant was depleted 

November 23, 1984. (NASA Release 84-169) 

-Paul E Holloway would become deputy director of LaRC, effective 

February 3, 1985, succeeding Richard H. Petersen. Holloway had been director for space at LaRC since May 1975 and had joined NASA in June 1960 as 

an aerospace research engineer. Since that time he had held various agency 

positions, including acting deputy associate administrator of the Office of 

Aeronautics and Space Technology at NASA Headquarters and chief of the 

Space Systems Division at Langley. He received the NASA Outstanding 

Leadership Medal in 1980 and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1981. 

(NASA anno, Dec 10/84; LaRC Release 84-114) 

-Krafft A. Ehricke, 67, father of the space-launched Centaur interplanetary vehicle and a leading space scientist for more than 40 years, died 

December 11 in La Jolla, Calif. Born in Berlin, Ehricke was brought to the 

United States with other members of the German V-2 rocket team after World 

War I1 to launch the U.S. space program. Ehricke worked briefly for Bell Aircraft Company in Buffalo, N.Y., after the war and later for Consolidated 

Vultee Corporation, which had a contract with the Air Force to develop the 

Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile. Vultee eventually became part of 

General Dynamics. The Atlas project produced the United State’s first ICMB, 

and versions of it were still flying as space boosters. (W Times, Dec 13/84, 

8C; W Post, Dec 13/84, D-7; NY Times, Dec 13/84, D-30) 

-Vladimir N. Chelomei, 70, a rocketry expert who designed the Soviet 

Union’s first jet engine, died December 8 in Moscow. Tass, which carried the 

news of his death, did not report the cause. His work was closely connected 

with the Soviet space program and aircraft design, and he is credited by The 

Great Soviet Encyclopedia with the 1942 design of the Soviet’s first jet engine. 

He had headed a major scientific research, design, and development organization for 29 years. (W Posr, Dec 13/84, D-7) 

525 

Appendix A 

SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND MANNED SPACE 

FLIGHT, l979-1984 

World space activity in the years 1979 through 1984 included 106 launches 

in 1979, 105 launches in 1980, 151 launches in 1981, 141 launches in 1982, 144 

launches in 1983, and 147 launches in 1984. 

Of the 106 launches (with 123 payloads) attemped in 1979, 86 (with 101 

payloads) were for Soviet programs; 15 (with 17 payloads), one successful, 

were for U.S. programs; 2 were for Japanese; 1 each was from European 

Space Agency (ESA) (launched on an Ariane), India (launched by the Soviet 

Union), and the United Kingdom (launched by NASA). Of 83 USSR launches, 79 (with 97 payloads) were unmanned, and 4 were manned (3 Soyuz and 

1 Soyuz-T). Of the 97 unmanned payloads, 79 were in the Cosmos series and 

18 were of other types (5 Molniya, 3 Ekran, 3 Progress supply, 1 Raduga, 2 

Horizont communications satellites, and 2 Intercosmos and 3 Meteor scientific satellites). Of the 14 successful U.S. launches, 7 (with 9 payloads) were 

Department of Defense (DoD), and 7, NASA. Japan had 1 launch, and ESA 

launched its Ariane carrying a test vehicle called CAT (capsule Ariane 

technologique) to monitor performance. 

Of the 105 launches (with 127 payloads) attempted in 1980, 89 (with 110 

payloads) were for Soviet programs; 13 (with 14 payloads) were from the 

United States; 2 were from Japan; and 1 was from India. Of 89 USSR launches, 79 (with 100 payloads) did not have crews and 10 had crews (4 Soyuz, 

2 Soyuz-T, and 4 Progress supply ships). Of the 100 unmanned payloads, 89 

were in the Cosmos series and 11 were of other types (4 Molniya, 1 Ekran, 

1 Horizont, 2 Raduga communications satellites, 1 Prognoz, and 2 Meteor 

scientific satellites). Of the 13 U.S. launches, 6 (with 7 payloads) were by 

DOD, and NASA had 7 launches, including 2 for DOD. Japan had 3 launches, 

and India had 1 launch. 

Of the 151 launches (with 168 payloads) attempted in 1981, 120 (with 143 

payloads), 4 unsuccessful, were for Soviet programs; 19 (with 18 payloads), 

2 unsuccessful, were for U.S. programs; 3 were for Japanese; 3 for the ESA 

(launched on an Ariane); 3 were by $e People's Republic of China; and 1, 

unsuccessful, was by India. Of USSR launches, 120 (with 141 payloads) were 

unmanned, and 3 were manned (Soyuz T-4,39, and 40). Of the 122 unmanned 

payloads, 94 were in the Cosmos series and 28 were of other types (8 

Molniya, 1 Ekran, 3 Raduga, 1 Progress, 2 Intercosmos, 2 Meteor, 2 Iskra, 

1 Aureole, 2 Venera, and 6 Radio). Of the 19 U.S. launches, 15 (with 18 

payloads) were successful unmanned launches; 2, unsuccessful unmanned 

NASA launches; and 2, manned launches. Japan launched 3 unmanned 

satellites, each with 1 payload; India tried unsuccessfully to launch one 

PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED 

527 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

payload; the ESA had three launches with three payloads, 1 for India. The 

People’s Republic of China had 1 launch with three payloads. 

Of the 141 launches (with 152 payloads) attempted in 1982, 119 (with 128 

payloads), 2 unsuccessful, were for Soviet programs; 18 (with 22 payloads) 

were for U.S. programs; 1 was by the Japanese; 1 was by the People’s Republic 

of China. Of USSR launches, 114 (with 128 payloads) were unmanned, and 

3 were manned (Soyuz T-5, T-6, and T-7). Of the unmanned payloads, 96 were 

in the Cosmos series and 18 were of other types (1 Salyut, 5 Molniya, 2 Horizont, 2 Ekran, 1 Raduga, 4 Progress, 2 Meteor, 1 Iskra). Of the 18 U.S. launches, 15 (with 18 payloads) were successful unmanned launches; 3 were 

manned launches. Japan launched 1 unmanned satellite; and the People’s 

Republic of China had 1 launch (with 1 payload). 

Of the 144 launches (with 161 payloads) attempted in 1983, 115 (with 125 

payloads) were for Soviet programs; 22 (with 33 payloads) were for U.S. programs; 3 were by the Japanese; 1 was by the People’s Republic of China; 1 

was by India; 1 (with 2 payloads) was by ESA; and 1 was by ITSO. Of USSR 

launches, 114 (with 125 payloads) were unmanned, and 3 were manned (Soyuz 

T-5, T-6, and T-7). Of the unmanned payloads, 94 were in the Cosmos scries, 

and 20 were of other types (7 Molniya, 2 Ekran, 2 Raduga, 2 Progress, 1 

Meteor, 2 Horizont, 1 Prognoz, 2 Venera, and 1 Astron). Of the 22 U.S. launches, 18 (with 28 payloads) were successful unmanned launches, and 4 were 

manned launches. Japan launched 3 unmanned satellites; the People’s 

Republic of China, 1 launch (with 1 payload); India, 1 launch; ESA, 1 launch; 

and ITSO (Intelsat), 1 launch. 

Of the 147 launches (with 152 payloads) attempted in 1984, 115 (with 115 

payloads) were for Soviet programs; 18 (with 21 payloads) were for U.S. programs; 3 were by the Japanese; 3 were by the People’s Republic of China; 3 

(with 4 payloads) were by ESA. Of USSR launches, 112 (with 112 payloads) 

were unmanned, and 3 were manned (Soyuz T-10, T-11, and T-12). Of the unmanned payloads, 94 were in the Cosmos series, and 18 were of other types 

(4 Molniya, 2 Ekran, 2 Raduga, 5 Progress, 1 Meteor, 2 Horizont, and 2 

Vega). Of the 23 U.S. launches, 18 (with 22 payloads) were successful unmanned launches, and 5 were manned launches. Japan launched 3 unmanned 

satellites; the People’s Republic of China, 3 launches; and ESA, 3 launches. 

Data from the accompanying tables came from the United States National 

registry of spaceflights; the Satellite Situation Reports issued by Goddard 

Space Flight Center; press releases of NASA, DOD, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other U.S. government agencies; and press 

releases from the Communications Satellite Corporation. Data on Soviet launches came from statements in the USSR press service, international news 

service reports, and announcements and briefings by Soviet officials. Data on 

satellites of other nations came from announcements by their governments and 

by international news services. 

528 
SATELLITES, SPACE PROBES, AND MANNED SPACE ELIGHlS, flm 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX A 

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Appendix B 

MAJOR NASA LAUNCHES, 1979-1984 

The following table lists payloads launched in 1979 through 1984 by NASA 

or under NASA direction on vehicles larger than sounding rockets. 

During 1979, NASA launched 8 spacecraft (with 8 payloads), only 3 for its 

own programs: the stratospheric gas and aerosol experiment (SAGE), the third 

high-energy astronomy observatory Heao 3, and Magsut. The 5 launches for 

others in 1979 included 2 for DOD, SCATHA for the U.S. Air Force and FltSatCom 2 for the Navy; Ariel 6 for the United Kingdom; Westur 3 for Western 

Union; and RCA Satcom for RCA; the last mentioned was the only failure. 

During 1980, NASA launched 7 spacecraft, only 1 for its own programs, 

the solar-maximum mission (SMM). The other 6 were FltSatComs 3and 4 for 

DOD; 2 for NOAA, NOAA-B (which proved inoperable when its booster sent 

it to the wrong altitude) and Goes 4; Sbs I for Satellite Business Systems; and 

Zntelsat 5 for INTELSAT. 

During 1981 NASA launched 13 spacecraft with 15 payloads, including 4 

for its own programs, the manned STS-1 and STS-2 launches and unmanned 

Dynamics Explorer 1 and 2 (a dual payload launch) and Solar Mesosphere Explorer and UOSAT (also a dual payload launch). NASA launched Comstar 0-4 

for Comsat General Corp.; NOVA 1 for the U.S. Navy; Goes 5 and NOAA 7 

for NOAA; lntelsut 5B-FI and Intelsut 5 f-3 for INTELSAT; FltSatCom 5 for 

DOD; SBS 2 for Satellite Business Systems; and RCA Satcorn 3R for RCA. 

During 1982 NASA launched 12 spacecraft with 13 payloads, including 4 

for its own programs, the manned STS-3, STS-4, and STS-5 and unmanned 

Landsat 4. NASA launched RCA Sutcom 4 and 5 for RCA, Westar 4 and 5 for 

Western Union Telegraph Company, Zntelsat 5 F4 and Zntelsat 5 F5 for INTELSAT, Znsat IA for the Indian Department of Space, Anik D-I and Anik C-3 

(from STS-5) for Telesat Canada, and SBS 3 (from STS-5) for Satellite 

Business Systems. 

During 1983 NASA launched 15 spacecraft with 19 payloads, including 7 

for its own programs, the manned STS-6, STS-7, and STS-8 and the Infrared 

Astronomical Satellite (IUS, a joint program with the United Kingdom and 

the Netherlands), ZVRS I, NOAA 8 (a search and rescue satellite), and EXOSAT NASA launched RCA Satcorn 6 and 7 for RCA, Goes 6 for NOAA, Intelsat 5 F6 for INTELSAT, Anik C-2 (from STS 7) for Telesat Canada, Palapa 

B-I (from STS 7) for Indonesia, Spas OZ (from STS 7) for MBB of Munich, 

West Germany, HILAT for the U.S. Air Force, Galaxy I and 2 for the Hughes 

Aircraft Co., Telestar 3A for AT&T, Znsat 1B (from STS 8) for India. 

During 1984 NASA launched 11 spacecraft with 24 payloads (3 unsuccessful), including 10 for its own programs, the manned STS-41B, STS41C, 

STS41D, STS41G, and STS-51A and ZRT (from STS41B, a balloon that 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX B 

exploded during inflation), Lundsat 5, Long Durotion Exposure Facility (from 

STS41C), Charge Composition Explorer (from STS-41C as part of AMPTE), 

and Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (from STS-41G). NASA launched Westar 

6 (from STS41B for Western Union, unsuccessful), Palapa B2 (from STS41B 

for Indonesia, unsuccessful), UOSAT2 (a piggyback on Landsat 5 for U.K. 

amateur radio operators), Intelsat 5 F-9 for INTELSAT, Ion Release Module 

(built by West Germany as part of AMPTE), AMPTE 3 (third AMPTE 

satellite built by U.K.), Syncom 4-2 for U.S. Navy, Efestur 3C for AT&T, 

Galaxy 3 for Hughes, NOVA 3 for the U.S. Navy, Anik 02 (from STS-51A) 

for Telesat Canada, Syncom Zlrl (from STS-51A) lor the U.S. Navy, NATO 30 

for the U.S. Air Force, and NOM 9 for NOAA 

Further information on these launches appears in Appendix A and in the 

indexed entries in the text. 

684 
1979-1984 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX B 

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Appendix C 

ABBREVIATIONS OF REFERENCES 

Listed here are the abbreviations used for citing sources in the text. Not all 

the sources are listed, only those that are abbreviated. 

AAAS 

A&A 

.4BC 

AEC Release 

A/D 

Aero Mag 

AFHF Newsletter 

AFJ 

AFSC Newsreview 

AFSC Release 

AIA Release 

AIA/PG&E/ARC 

AIAA Facts 

AIAA Release 

AIP Neivsletter 

AP 

ARC anno 

ARC Astrogram 

ARC Release 

Astro journ 

Atlanta JC 

Avwk 

B News 

B Sun 

Bull kom Sci 

Bus Wk 

American Association for the Advancement of 

American Institute of Aeronautics and 

Science’s AAAS Bulletin 

Astronautics’ magazine, Astronautics h 

Aeronautics 

American Broadcasting Company 

Atomic Energy Commission 

Aerospace Daily newsletter 

Air Force Association’s Air Force Magazine 

Air Force Historical Foundation Newsletter 

Armed Forces Journal magazine 

Air Force Systems Command’s Newsreview 

Air Force Systems Command news release 

Aerospace Industries Association of America 

news release 

American Institute and Architects, Pacific Gas & 

Electric, and NASA’s Ames Research Center 

Announcement 

American Institute of Aeronautics and 

Astronautics’ Facts 

American Institute of Aeronautics and 

Astronautics news release 

American Institute of Physics’ Newsletter 

Associated Press news service 

NASA Ames Research Center announcement 

NASA Ames Research Center’s Astrogram 

NASA Ames Research Center news release 

American Astronomical Society’s Astrophysical 

Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper 

Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine 

Birmingham News newspaper 

Baltimore Sun newspaper 

Education Foundation for Nuclear Science’s 

Business Week magazine 

Journal 

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 

699 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX C 

C Daily News 

C Trib 

Can Press 

CBS 

C&E News 

C1 PD 

C1 Press 

Columbia J Rev 

ComSatCorp Release 

ComSat Gnl Release 

CQ 

CR 

CSM 

cms 

D/SBD 

D/SD 

D News 

D Post 

DASA Release 

DFRC Release 

Df DlY 

DJ 

DOC PI0 

DOC Release 

DOD Release 

Dscvr 

DOT Release 

Dtln Gd 

EOP Release 

ESA anno 

ESA Info Bltn 

ESA Release 

ESAKNES Release 

ESA Info 

FAA Release 

FBIS-SOV 

FRC Release 

FRC X-Press 

Chicago Daily News newspaper 

Chicago Tribune newspaper 

Canadian Press news release 

Columbia Broadcasting System 

Chemical & Engineering News Magazine 

Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper 

Cleveland Press newspaper 

Columbia Journalism Review magazine 

Communications Satellil.te Corporation news 

ComSat General news ]*elease 

Congressional Quarterly 

Congressional Record 

Chrisfian Science Monitor newspaper 

Chicago Tribune News Service 

Defense/Space Business Daily newspaper 

Defense Space Daily newsletter 

Detroit News newspaper 

Denver Post newspaper 

Defense Atomic Support Agency news release 

Defense Daily newsletter 

Dryden Flight Research Center news release. 

Prior to 8 January 1976, Flight Research 

Center 

release 

Dow Jones news service 

Department of Commerce Public Information 

Department of Commerce news release 

Department of Defense news release 

Discover magazine 

Department of Transportation news release 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Dateline 

Executive Office of the President news release 

European Space Agency announcement 

European Space Agency Information Bulletin 

European Space Agency news release, used 

Office 

Goddard 

dated (not numbered) 

European Space Agency Information 

Federal Aviation Administration news release 

Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Soviet 

number 

See DFRC 

NASA Flight Research Center’s X-Press 

700 
APPENDIX C ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Goddard News 

GSFC Release 

GSFC SSR 

GSFC/WFF Release 

GT&E Release 

House anno 

H Corn Sci 

H Rept Release 

H Chron 

H Post 

Htsvl Tms 

INTELSAT Release 

Zntervia 

JA 

JPL anno 

JPL Lab-Oratory 

JPL Release 

JPL Universe 

JPRS 

JSC Release 

JSC Roundup 

JSR 

KC Star 

KSC Release 

LA Her-Ekam 

LA Star News 

LA Times 

Langley Researcher 

LaRC anno 

LaRC Release 

LATNS 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Goddard 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center news 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Satellite 

NASA ‘Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops 

General Telephone & Electronics news release 

U.S. House of Representatives announcement 

U.S. House Committee on Science and 

U.S. House of Representatives news release 

Houston Chronicle newspaper 

Houston Post newspaper 

Huntsville Times newspaper 

International Telecommunications Satellite 

Organization news release 

Intervia magazine 

Journal of Aircraft magazine 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory announcement 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Lab-Oratory 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory news release 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Universe 

Department of Commerce Joint Publications 

NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center news 

NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center’s Space 

American Institute of Aeronautics and 

News 

release 

Situation Report 

Flight Facility Release 

Technology 

Research Service 

release 

News Roundup 

Astronautic’s Journal of Spacecrafr and 

Rockets magazine 

Kansas City Star newspaper 

NASA John E Kennedy Space Center news 

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner newspaper 

Los Angeles Star News newspaper 

Los Angeles Times newspaper 

NASA Langley Research Center’s Langley 

NASA Langley Research Center announcement 

NASA Langley Research Center news release 

Los Angeles Times News Service 

release 

Researcher 

70 I 
ASTRONAUTICS AYD AERONAUTICS APPENDIX C 

LC/S&T 

LeRC Release 

Lewis News 

MiHrld 

M News 

M Trib 

Marshall Star 

MJ 

MSR 

MSFC Relcase 

N Hav Reg 

N News 

N ?b Sun 

NAA nsltr 

NAA News 

NAA Record Book 

NAA Release 

NAC Release 

NAE Release 

NANA 

NAS Release 

NAS-NRC Release 

NAS-NRC-NAE-Nws 

RPt 

NASA Actv 

NASA Actv Rpt 

NASA anno 

NASA Dly Actv Rept 

NASA GMR 

NASA Hist Off 

NASA Hq Mgmt 

Suppt Office 

NASA Hq WB 

NASA Int Aff 

NASA Leg Off 

NASA MSR 

Library of Congress Science and Technology 

NASA Lewis Research Center news release 

NASA Lewis Research Center’s Lewis News 

Miami Herald newspaper 

Miami News newspaper 

Minneapolis Tribune newspaper 

NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight 

Milwaukee Journal newspaper 

See NASA Monthly Status Report 

NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center 

New Haven Register newspaper 

Newark News newspaper 

Northern Virginia Sun newspaper 

National Aeronautic Association’s newsletter 

National Aeronautic Association’s News 

National Aeronautic Association’s World and 

National Aeronautic Association news release 

National Aviation Club news release 

National Academy of Engineering news release 

North American Newspaper Alliance 

National Academy of Sciences news release 

National Academy of Sciences-National 

National Academy of Sciences-National 

Division’s Alerts 

Center’s Marshall Si’ur 

news release 

US. A. National World Aviation-Space Records 

Research Council news release 

Research Council-National Academy of 

Engineering’s News Report 

NASA Activities 

NASA Activities Report 

NASA announcement 

NRSA Daily Activities Report 

NASA Headquarters “General Management 

Review Report” 

NASA History Office 

NASA Headquarters Management Support OfNASA Headquarters Weekly Bulletin 

NASA Office of International Affairs 

NASA Office of Legislative Affairs 

NASA Monthly Status Report 

fice release 

702 
APPENDIX C ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAL’TICS 

NASA MOR 

NASA prog off 

NASA Release 

NASA Rpt SRL 

NASA spl anno 

NASA wkly SSR 

Natl Obs 

Nature 

NBC 

NGS Release 

NMI 

NN 

NOAA Release 

NRC News Rpt 

NRL Release 

NSC Release 

NSC Letter 

NSF Highlights 

NSC .N&s 

NSF Release 

NSTL Release 

Ntl Sp Clb bllton 

Nswk 

NY News 

NY Times 

NYTNS 

0 Sen Star 

Oakland Trib 

Omaha WH 

ONRRev . 

OST Policy Release 

P Bull 

P Inq 

PA0 

PD 

PI0 

NASA Headquarters Mission Operations Report, 

preliminary launch and postlaunch report 

series (information may be revised and refined 

before publication) 

reported) 

NASA program office (for the program 

NASA Headquarters news release 

NASA report of sounding rocket launching 

NASA special announcement 

NASA Satellite Situation Report 

National Observer magazine 

Nature Physical Science magazine 

National Broadcasting Company 

National Geographic Society news release 

NASA Management Instruction 

NASA Notice 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministraNational Research Council’s News Report 

Naval Research Laboratory news release 

National Space Club news release 

National Space Club’s News 

National Space Club’s Letter 

National Science Foundation’s Science Resources 

National Science Foundation new release 

NASA National Space Technology Laboratories 

National Space Club’s Bulletin 

Newsweek magazine 

New York Daily News newspaper 

New York Times newspaper 

New York Times News Service 

Orlando Sentinel Star newspaper 

Oakland Tribune newspaper 

Omaha World-Herald newspaper 

Navy’s Office of Naval Research’s Reviews 

Office of Science and Technology Policy Release 

Philadelphia Evening and Sunday Bulletin 

Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper 

Public Affairs Office 

National Archives and Records Service’s Weekly 

Public Information Office 

tion news release 

Studies Highlights 

news release 

newspaper 

Compilation of Presidential Documents 

703 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS APPENDIX C 

PMR Missile 

PMR Release 

Rockwell Release 

SA0 Release 

Sen Cte Comm 

Science 

Sci Amer 

Sci & Govt Rpt 

SciServ 

SD 

SD Union 

SET Manpower 

Comments 

SF 

SF Chron 

SF Enam 

Sov Aero 

Sov Rpt 

SP 

Spaceport News 

Spacewarn 

SP anno 

SR list 

SSN 

SSR 

St. L PIDsp 

T-Picayune 

Tech Rev 

St. Louis G-D 

Eme 

Today 

testimony 

text 

transcript 

UA rept 

USN Pacific Missile Range’s Missile 

USN Pacific Missile Range news release 

Rockwell International news release 

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory news 

Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Science magazine 

Scientific American magazine 

Science & Government Report, independent 

bulletin of science policy 

Science Service News service 

Science Digest magazine 

San Diego Union newspaper 

Scientific Manpower Commission’s Scientific, 

British Interplanetary !jociety’s Spaceflight 

Sun Francisco Chronicle newspaper 

Sun Francisco Examiner newspaper 

Soviet Aerospace newsletter 

Center for Foreign Technology’s Soviet Report 

Space Propulsion newsletter 

NASA John F. Kenned:y Space Center’s 

Spaceport News 

IUWDS World Data Center A for Rockets and 

Satellite’s Spacewarn Bulletin 

Sept. 1, 1982, and During Sept. 

NASA compendium of sounding rocket launches 

Soviet Sciences in the News, publications of 

See NASA wkly SSR 

St. Louis Globe-Democrat newspaper 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch., newspaper 

News Orleans Times-Picuyune newspaper 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s 

7ime magazine 

Today newspaper 

Congressional testimony, prepared statement 

Prepared report or speech text 

Official transcript of news conference or congressional hearing 

United Airlines report 

release 

Transportation report 

Engineering, Technical Manpower Comments 

magazine 

(translation) 

Electro-Optical Systems, Inc. 

Technology Review 

704 
APPENDIX C ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

UN Reg 

UP1 

USA Today 

USGS Release 

USPS 

w Post 

W Star 

W limes 

WFC Release 

WH anno 

WH Release 

WhHs remarks 

WJT 

Worc Sndy Tig 

WSJ 

United Nations Public Registry of Space Flight 

United Press International news service 

USA Today newspaper 

U.S. Geological Survey news release 

U.S. Postal Service news release 

Washington Post newspaper 

Washington Star newspaper 

Washington Times newspaper 

NASA Wallops Flight Center news release 

White House announcement 

White House news release 

White House remarks 

World Journal Tribune newspaper 

Worcester (Mass) Sunday Telegraph 

Wall Street Journal newspaper 

705 

Index 

A-I (test stand), 154 

A-2 (test stand), 154 

Aaron, John W., 475 

Abbey, George W. S., 5 12 

Abingdon, Eng., 16 

aborted flights, 80, 137, 141, 489 

simulated, 38, 119, 132, 142 

Abrahamson, James A., 303, 340-342, 371, 379, 394, 399, 403, 408,432 440, 441, 459, 471, 

Abruzzo, Ben, 420, 505 

accidents, space-related, 283, 292, 299, 378, 391, 417, 420, 424, 432 484 

Acton, Loren W., I6 

acoustic levitation, 230 

Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorer (AMPTE), 497, 505, 506 

Adams, Brock, 24 

Adams, J.B., 120 

Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), 394, 404,495, 496 

Advanced Technology Display House, 117 

Aero Club, 202 

aerodynamics, 71, 132, 137, 141, 209, 298, 299, 307 

Aeroflot, I 17, 475 

Aerojet General Corporation, 215, 312 

Aerojet Liquid Rocket Company, 127, 214 

aeronautical experiments, 255, 285, 290, 298, 299 

AEROS Data Corporation, 433 

aerosol climate effects (ACE), 184 

aerosols, 208, 305, 313, 340, 357 

Aerospace Corporation, 143, 195, 221, 328, 351 

Aerospatiale, 64, 310, 481 

Aetna Life & Casualty Insurance Company, 229, 300, 376 

Afghanistan, 104, 117, 142 

Agency for International Development (AID), 6, 112 

Aggregation of Red Blood Cells, 516 

Agnew, Harold M., 328 

agricultural resources inventory survey through aerospace remote sensing (AgRISTARS), 1 12, 

25 1, 260, 292 

A’Hearn, Michael, 483 

Ainslie, Michael, 413 

Air and Space Museum. See National Air and Space Museum. 

Air Force, US., 5, 8, 28,44,45, 53, 79, 91, 92, 105, 125-127, 132 134, 142, 157, 194, 197, 

472 

numerical aerodynamic simulator (NAS), 198, 250. 394 

198, 205, 215, 238, 249, 250, 259, 266, 269 284, 287, 288, 303, 327, 328, 341, 351, 

370, 372,407,417,418,449 461, 492, 393, 499 

Academy, 408 

Avionics Laboratory, 91 

budget, 141 

PRECEDING PAGE BLANK fWMED 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONACTICS INDEX 

communications, 25 

Defense Satellite Communications, 104 

engineers, 401 

Flight Dynamics Laboratory. 71, 88 

Geophysics Laboratory. 10, 16, 233, 483 

Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, 512 

research, 73 

Reservc, 203 

Space Division, 262, 291, 409 

Ballistic Missile Office (BMO), 73 

Space Service Division (SSD), 73 

airbus, 123 

A-300 (FrenchiGerman), I23 

A-9A, 189 

A-IO. 134 

AD-I , 95 

AN-2, 473 

AN-22, 474 

Antonov 400 (AN 400, Condor), 453 

AV-XB: IS4 

B-I, 44, I56 

Air Force Systems Command (AFSC), 71. 73, 92, 98. 125, 146, 287, 303 31 1, 373, 378, 409 

aircraft, 71, 79, 96, 117, 132, 142, 243, 292, 349, 375, 500 

8-52, 44, 71, 179, 375, 399 

8-578, 280 

Boeing B 17 bomber, 440 

Boeing 707, 64, 440 

Boeing 720, 522 

Bocing 727, 183, 440 

Boeing 737: 183 

Boeing 747, 13- 16, 22, 79, 169, 267, 3 I 1.4 17, 440. 464, 466 

Boeing 757, I04 

C-jA, 197, 198 

C-8 Buffalo, 189 

C-8A Buffalo, 249 

C-141 Starlifter, 340 

civilianlcornmercial. 53, 76, 93, 133, 298 

DC-9, 64. 183 

DC-IO, 35, 108, 109, 175, 176, 298 

efficiency, 2 I 

Electra, 357 

experimental, 99 

F-5, 523 

F-15, 91, 92 

F-16, 91, 92 

F-18, 171 

F-86, 203 

F-106, 194 

F-I06B, 194 

FB-Ill, 157 

Gulfstream 111, 298, 337, 466 

hypersonic, I32 

708 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

11-18 (Soviet), 126 

jet, 165, 182, 189, 193, 314, 334, 348,377 

JT8D, 183 

KC-135, 45, 466 

L-1011, 169 

Learjet 55, 298 

military, 53, 76, 194, 203, 351 

NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, 466 

Orion P-3, 184 

research, 48, 95, 242, 249, 290, 314 

solar-powered, 239 

supersonic, 141 

survey, 239 

turbine, 21 

widebody jets, 25, 123, 169, 298 

X-15, 132, 133 

KC-IO, 466 

T-38, 54, 256, 335 

U-2, 184, 240, 334, 357 

X-29, 523 

XV-15, 48, 193 

XV-ISA, 193 

aircraft-to-satellite data relay (ASDAR), 25 

Airline Passengers Association, 35 

Airline Pilots Association (APA), 109, 249 

airports, 84, 169,259 

advisory activities, 170 

Curtiss Field, 222 

Dulles International, 117, 439, 440 

Kennedy International, 117 

Lambert Field, 67 

LeBourget, 222 

Logan International, 64,.65 

Naha, 259 

Novosibirsk, 466 

O’Hare, 65 

Washington (D.C.) National, 466 

AiResearch Manufacturing Company, I15 

Akron, Ohio, 96 

Aksyonov, Vladimir V., 18, 166, 169, 178, 234 

Alascom, Inc., 221 

Alaska, 221, 254 

Albuquerque, N.M., 144, 153 

Aldrin, Edwin E., Jr., 44, 274 

Aleksandrov, Aleksandr, 421,423,434,438,439, 446, 452 

Alexander & Alexander (insurance brokerage), 465 

Algeria, 220 

Algol 1 I IA Scout (rocket motor), 127 

Allen, Bryan, 35, 128, 155 

Allen, David T., 472 

Allen, Joseph P., 331, 376, 377, 383, 398, 460, 516 

Allen, Leon B., 405 

709 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Allen, Lew, Jr., 92, 104, 105 

Allen Hills area. 131 

Aller, Robert O., 312, 412, 413, 449 

Allnutt, Robert F., 312 

alloys, 323 

AI-Mzhat, Ali, 379 

Alpha. 24 

Alter, Dave, 460 

altitude control, 273 

Amalthea (Jupiter moon), 150 

Amencan .4irlines. 64, 65. 109, 175, 339 

American Association for the Advancement of Sciencc, 104, 328 

American Association of Engineering Societies, 214 

American Astronomical Society, 106, 174, 462. 485 

American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), 66 

American Communications, Inc., 238 

American Geophysical Union, 28, 29, 92 

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). l:!5, 251 348, 462 

American Institute of Architects (AIA), 117. 208 

American Monument Association, 120 

American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA). 146 

American Satellite Corporatioy (AmSatCorp). 46. 129 

American Science and Technology, 433 

American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 348 

American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), 46. 121, 122, 129 135, 143, 228, 237, 

Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility (ADFRF). 482, 488 

Ames Flight Operations Directorate, 488 

Ames Industrial Company, 96 

Ames Research Center (ARC), 56, 59. 61, 62. 78. 88, 95. 189. 208. 219 232, 235, 239, 240, 

238, 425 

299, 314, 322, 332, 334, 340, 348, 357. 359. 383 386. 393, 405, 41 I, 417, 425. 428, 

432. 451, 462, 467. 488, 493, 509 

Airborne Instrumentation Research Project, 482 

Biomedical Research Division, 451 

consolidation with Dryden Flight Research Center. 270, 290, 304 

facilities. 117, 315 

human research. 137, 138, 194 

people, 55, 124, 269 

programs, 22, 25, 48, 123, 130, 137, 142. 184, 198. 230, 24.1, 249, 267, 333 

Space Missions Branch. 123 

testing, 193 

Ames Research Laboratory, 483 

Anchorage, Alaska, 182, 221 

Anders, William A., 274 

Anderson. Jack, 157 

Anderson. Kris, 153, 420 

Anderson. Maxie, 68, 153, 192, 420, 505 

Anderson, Pattie, 192 

Andover, Me. 182 

Andrews Air Force Rase,, 287, 303 

Andromeda (nebula), 442 

Andrus, Cecil D., 201 

710 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAIJTICS 

Angelo, Wendy A,, 273 

Anik (communications satellite) 

Anik A, 360 

Anik C, 348 

Anik C-I, 463 

Anik C-2. 418 

Anik D, 348, 360 

Anik D-I, 360 

animals, 62, 105, 160, 168, 369 

Able (squirrel monkey), 519 

“astrorats,” 431, 432, 453 

Diane (turtle), 193, 194 

experiments and studies, 75, 180, 244, 273, 453 

Fat Albert (alligator), 185, 186 

Ham (chimpanzee), 392, 393 

Laika (Soviet dog), 395 

Miss Baker (squirrel monkey), 519 

Miss Sam (rhesus monkey), 180 

Sam (rhesus monkey), 180 

weightlessness, 87, 268 

Annexstad, John, 131 

Antarctic, 121, 131, 524 

antennas, 8, 58,63,95, 96, 128, 140, 180, 225, 228,235, 241, 261 290, 304, 306, 329, 339, 

363, 395, 397, 41 1, 43 I, 448 

communications, 229, 333, 365, 398 

ground-based, 240 

imaging-radar, 65 

space-based, 253 

torus, I82 

antisatellite weapons (ASAT), 105, 142, 218 

Antonov, Oleg, 473 

apogee kick motor (AKM), 459 

ApoM 14, 31, 57, 112, 125, 131, 196, 234, 240, 267, 274,341, 342 370, 373,437,494 

Apollo 4, 125 

Apollo 8, 125, 274, 369 

Apollo 9, 44, 48 

Apollo 11, 44,45, 57, 106, 133,274 

Apollo 12, 44, 284, 376 

Apollo 13, 30 

Apollo 15. 44 

Apollo 16, 331 

Apollo 17, 44 

launch-tower demolition, 400, 401, 415 

APoIIo-SO~UZ, 39, 88, 284, 328, 331, 341, 347, 350-352 

Apple (payload experiment), 260, 283 

applications explorer mission (AEM). 68 

Applications Technology Satellite (ATS), 38, 5 I, 321 

AEM-C, 68 

ATS I, 321 

ATS 3 

ATS-6, 38, 39, 51 

Applied Research Laboratory, 525 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Applied Solar Engergy Corporation. 15 I 

Arabsat (communications satellite), 139. 310. 379 

Arctic, 7 

Arecibo observatory. 24, 1 I I 

Argentina, I IO, 209 

Ariane, 8, 28, 39, 46, 64. 87, 97, 107. 128, 145, 159, 172, 179, 239 260, 275, 276, 283, 299, 

316, 326, 364, 418, 494, 495 

Ariane I, 326, 480 

Ariane 3. 326, 495 

Ariane 4, 326 

Ariane 5, 46 

Ariane 7. 517 

Ariane 8. 441 

Ariane LO1 , 98 

Ariane L02, 158, 172-174, 188, 217, 253 

Ariane LO3, 260 

Ariane L04, 77 

Ariane L5, 345 

Ananespace, 112, 480. 481.490, 494, 495, 517 

.Arizona State University, 485 

Arkalyk, 41 1 

Arms Export Control Act. 3 I 1 

Armstrong. Neil A,, 36, 44. 99, 132, 274 

Army, U.S., 5, 19,48, 193, 219, 315, 339, 369. 395 

Aeromechanics Labratoy, 462 

Corps of Engineers, 98, 512 

Research & Technology Laboratones. 48 

Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA). 509 

Tilt Rotor Rcsearch Aircraft, 219 

Developnient Operations Division. 174 

Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), 174 

Arnold Engineering Development Center, 146 

Ascension Island, 83, 87, 280, 364 

Asian Games, 363 

Associated Press (AP), 43, 146 

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), 86 

Association of European Astronauts (AEA), 513 

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 22, 241 

Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), 86, 250 

asteroids. 21 1, 445, 446 

Astrain, Santiago, 261 

Astro program, 405, 485 

Astro Halley Science Team, 485 

Astrobee D (rocket), 118 

astronauts, 303 44, 45, 94, 133. 265. 266, 268, 274, 290, 308. 323 328, 419,449, 510 

Apollo, 131 

black, 161. 429 

civilian, 161, 498, 499 

Hispanic, 161 

Mercury, 113, 120 

Mercury Seven, 328 

in orbit, 255 

712 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

reaction to weightlessness, 268 

selection of, 3, 21, 51, 132, 152, 161, 284, 331, 370,419,470,498,499,506, 517 

TFNG (thirty-five new guys), 419 

training, 105, 179, 196, 297, 359 

Voyager, 133 

women, 161 

astronomers, 155, 191, 227, 271, 303, 348, 357, 371,401,445,446,526 

astronomy, 151, 161, 227, 271, 346, 369, 405, 440, 445, 483 

astrophysics, 161, 222, 271, 358, 369 

Atkinson, Richard, 219 

Atkov, Oleg, 465, 479,492,495, 503, 509 

Atlanta University, 23 1 

Atlantic [orbiter 104), 7 

Atlantic Ocean, 5, 7, 41, 43, 83, 108, 231,240, 254,259, 316, 345 420,434,492 

Atlantis (orbiter), 7, 332, 333, 380 

Atlas, 87, 262, 280, 414, 418, 522 

Atlas E, 410, 490 

Atlas F, 129, 153, 160, 206, 284 

Atlas Centaur, 5, 25.65, 84, 106, 179, 206, 209, 221, 238, 240, 255 275, 291, 316, 333, 364, 

366,414,484,493 

Atmosphere Explorer 5, 280 

Atmospheric Cloud Physics Laboratory, 118 

Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory (Army), IO 

atmospheric studies, IO, 24,28,38,46, 52,53,65, 86, 131, 151, 174 191, 195, 225, 252, 

263, 280, 282, 284, 293, 303, 331, 334, 337, 342 357, 375, 406, 417 

disturbances, 119, 225, 279, 280 

solar, 333 

soundings, 2 13 

upper-atmosphere, 292, 314 

Venus, 232, 235, 323 

attitudecontrol, 51, 84, 113, 150, 172, 180, 271, 279, 322, 326, 410413 

Austin 19826 (comet), 357 

Australia, 16, 25,42,43, 55, 56.64, 75, 1 IO, 124, 146, 169, 209 232, 304, 342 

Austria, 78,228, 523 

Auter, Henry E, 203 

Automation Industries, Inc., 141 

Auhy, Larry D., 470 

auxiliary power-unit (APU), 308 

AVCO Corporation, 78 

Aviation Hall of Fame, 189 

Aviation Power Supply Company, 47 

avionics systems, 132, 149 

awards andmedals, 63, 71,81, 124, 509 

Titan, 232 

Bendix Trophy, 203 

Collier Trophy, 21, 125, 130, 146, 155,277, 338 

Distinguished Service Medal, 81, 124, 125, 274, 456 

Excalibur, 88 

Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, 81, 125 

Exceptional Service Medal, 81, 112, 125, 187,450,462,526 

Goddard Trophy, 133 

Guggenheim Medal for Aeronautics, 373 

713 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Kremer prize, 35 

Lawrence Speny Award, 462 

National Business Aircraft Association Award. I25 

National Medal of Science. 125 

Nobel Peace Prize, 175. 452 

Order of Ixnin, I1 

Order of the Gold Star, 71 

Outstanding Lcadership Medal, 450, 526 

“Pilot Cosmonaut of the USSR,” 71 

Presidential Citizens Medal, 175, 287 

Presidential Medal of Freedom. 494 

Presidential Medal of Merit, 373, 387 

Royal Aeronautical Society Trophy, 288 

Space Medal of Honor, 274 

Sylvanus Albert Reed Award, I25 

Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, 125, 146 

Ayume (Ecs. Iris), 9, 122, 188, 418 

Ayume 2 (Ecs 2), 122, 170, 495 

backpack, 167, 192, 378 

jet, 65, 73 

life-support. 168 

backup procedures, 336 

Bagian, James P., 161, 463 

Baja, Calif., 232 

Baker, Maurice, 98 

Ball Aerospace Division. 174, 232, 433 

Ballhaus, William E. Ir., 462, 488 

Balloon Intercomparison Campaign, 4 I2 

balloons, 4, 23, 38, 66, 67, 152, 153. 192, 194. 195, -733, 292. 353 391, 412. 420, 421, 430. 

464. 473, 485, 486, 505 

scientific, 369 

Baltic Sea, IO 

Baltimore, Md., 86 

Banana River, 160, I68 

Bangalore, India. 23 I 

Bangladesh, 228 

Barany, Robert, 452 

Bardeen, John, 328 

Barrios and Associates, 154 

Barsukov, Valery, 146 

Bartoe, John-David F., 16. 152, 483 

batteries: 340, 397. 398, 406, 439, 474 

capacity, 305 

lightweight, 281 

problems, 340 

Baudry, Patrick, 341, 350, 513 

Bauer, Siegfried, 184 

Bay of Bengal, 54. I83 

Bay St. Louis, Miss., 3, 119 

Baykonur, IO, 147. 233, 261, 273. 384, 404. 41 I. 438, 439 

BDM Corporation. 137 

Bean, Alan L.. 284 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Beggs, James Montgomery, 269, 285, 287,290, 293, 300, 312,327, 338 340, 345, 348, 349, 

358, 372, 375, 379, 394,406,425,434,448,460 467, 469,472,479,492,493,499, 

506, 523 

Beijing, 27, 104, 110, 127, 156,498 

Belgium, 56, 203, 228 

Bell Aerosystems Company, 188, 238 

Bell Helicopter Textron, 48, 193, 219 

Bell Laboratories, 328, 480 

Bellonte, Maurice, 222 

Beltsville, Md., 221 

Bendix Advanced Technology Center, 461 

Bendix Field Engineering Corporation, 306, 461 

Berezovoy, Anatoliy, 347, 350, 355,359, 360, 377, 384, 385, 428,503 

Bergman, Jules, 45, 271 

Bergstrom Air Force Base, 31 1 

Berkeley, Calif., 3, 105 

Beta Pictoris (star), 24, 512 

Betelguese (star), 446 

Bhaskara, 34, 31 1 

Bhaskara 2, 31 1 

“Bicentennial of Air and Space Flight,” 391 

“Big Bang” theory, 225, 226, 442 

Bignier, Michael, 283 

Bigot, C.,, 490 

biofeedback, 273 

Bird, Peter, 232 

Birmingham, Eng., 16 

Black Brant (rocket), 118 

black holes, 5, 252, 279 

Black Sea, IO, 123 

Blagov, Victor, 424 

Blaha, John E., 161 

Blamont, Jacques, 24, 210 

Bleriot, Louis, 130 

Block 5D, 34 

Block Island, R.I., 37 

Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative System, 209 

Bluford, Guion, Jr., 386, 429, 431, 432 

Blunt Probe, 195 

Boatright, Dale, 506 

Bobko, Karol J., 332,407,408 

Boeing Aerospace Company, 65, 104, 115, 141, 156, 159, 165, 189, 197 209, 249, 255, 305, 

Military and Government Systems Division, 480 

Bittner, Peter C., 281 

Cyg X-1, 252 

306, 358, 365, 376, 378,407,418,489,421 

Commercial Aircraft Company, 104 

Military Aircraft Company, 104 

Bogota, 173, 179 

Bohemic, N.Y., 96 

Bolden, Charles F., Jr., 161 

Boldt, Elihu, 106 

715 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Bond, Langhome, 35, 36, 109 

Bonnet, R., 490 

Bonneville Power Systcm, 209 

boosters, 8, 34, 35, 38, 127, 168, 21 1, 215, 219, 255, 262, 275, 294 291, 305, 326, 360, 363. 

364, 397, 398, 406, 439, 474 

reusable, 27 I 

Bootes (constellation), 303 

Borman, Frank, 274 

Bostich, Dennis N., 470 

Boston University, 288 

Boulder, Colo., 66, 105. 123. 185 

Bova, Ben. 121 

Boyd, John W.. 88, 222. 425, 493 

Boyne, Walter, 440 

Bradfield (comet), 108 

Bradley, Ann P.. 302 

Brand, Vance D., 331, 316, 397,463 

Brandenstein, Daniel C., 388, 429, 441 

Brandcs, Richard, 464 

Brandt, John, 485 

Braun, F., 120 

Brazil. 56. 64. 87, 110, 169, 209, 385 

Bremen. Germany, 41, 325 

Brence, William A,, 317 

Breton, George. 106 

Brevard County, Fla., 160 

Brezhnev, Leonid, 71, 150, 361 

Bridges, Roy D., Jr.. 161 

Brighton, England, 44 

British Aerospace Dynamics Corporation, 77, 91, 146, 418, 481 

British Air Force Auxiliary, 203 

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 438 

British Interplanetary Society. 146. 201 

Bromley, Allan, 328 

Brown, Harold, 104, 105, 116, 142 

Brown, Janicc, 1Y2, 236 

Brown University, 30 

Browning, Ron, 410 

Brownsville, Tex., 193 

Brueckner, Guenter E., 151, 152 

BTM (Belgium company), 91 

Buchli, James E, 370, 467 

Buchsbaum, Solomon I., 328 

Budapest, 159 

Buhl, David, 281 

Bulgaria, 39, 75, 257, 273, 292, 523 

cosmonauts, 40 

Burbank, Calif., 47 

Burch, Randy, 66 

Burr, Peter, I16 

Burroughs Corporation, 198 

Buflon. lohn L., 35, 36 

716 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Busse, Jon, 184 

Bush, George, 309, 325, 408, 432 

C-band (radar system), 141 

Cable News Network (CNN), 127, 128, 452 

California, 48, 54, 110, 240, 241, 267, 304, 328 

California Institute of Technology (CalTech), 29, 61, 76, 106, 262 288, 312,339, 366, 371, 

Callisto (Jupiter satellite), 13, 42, 174 

Calio, Anthony J., 109 

Calvin, Melvin, 145 

Camacho, Carlos, 215 

Cambridge, Mass., 16, 149, 241 

Campbell, Thomas E, 3 12 

Canada, 3.4, 52,56, 75,93, 110, 123, 154, 169, 209, 228, 254, 281 375, 416, 516 

CTS satellite, 52, 479 

Department of Communications, 63, 448 

National Research Council (NRC), 10, 140, 152, 31 1, 317, 375 

search and rescue, 167 

Department of Forestry, 239 

427 1 

Canadian Astronautics, Ltd., 167 

Canadian Commercial Corporation, 140 

Canberra, Australia, 55, 280, 306, 397 

Canoga Park, Calif., 181 

Cap Gris Nez, France, 35, 155 

Cape Canaveral, 25, 31, 34,60, 81, 93, 96, 106, 119, 120, 165, 226 238, 253, 267, 275, 280, 

307, 309, 328, 333, 366, 369, 372, 378,403 414,424,429, 487,497, 506, 510 

Air Force Station, 8, 47, 65, 73, 168, 261, 399, 497, 525 

CapePerry, N.W.T., 311 

capsule communicator (CAPCOM), 21, 309 

carbon dioxide, 33 1 

carbon epoxy material, 440 

carbon monoxide, 380 

Carden, Huey D., 186 

cargo-bay doors, 336 

cargo-integration test equipment (CITE), 428 

Carlin, John, 67 

Carnegie Institution, 5 1 1 

Carnes, Peter, 486 

Carpenter, M. Scott, 120, 274 

Carr, Gerald, 216, 377, 385, 408 

Cam, Robert, 157 

Carretto, Joseph A,, , 470 

Carter, Jimmy, 7,9, 27,44,45,68, 83, 86,93, 104, 109, 111, 128 133, 139, 140, 142, 185, 

214, 225, 392 

Casey, William J., 460 

Cash, Webster, 105 

Cassady, William, 131 

Castor IV (motors), 181 

CCS-3 (PRC missile), 127 

Centaur, 250, 260,276, 279, 280, 31 1 

Las Campanas Observatory, 5 1 I, 5 12 

Centaur G. 476 

717 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Centaur G-Prime, 476 

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1 I 1, 460 

Ccntre National d‘Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 15, 46, 63, 64, 172, 283 326, 441 

Centre National d’Exploitation des Oceans, 468 

Cepheus (constallation), I 16 

Ceman, Eugene, 13 1 

CESAR (consortium), 203 

Challenger (orbiter), 7, 236, 239, 308, 332, 378, 386, 392, 394, 395 398, 399,403, 404, 407. 

408,413,419-421,423,424,429,431,432441,474,5;09-511 

delays, 403, 461 

Chang, Franklin R., I61 

Charge Composition Explorer, 497 

Charles, Philip, 105 

Charlesworth, Clifford E.. 57, 415 

Charyk, Joseph V., 27. 52, 210. 215, 217 

Cheloniei, Vladimir, 526 

chemical elements and studies, 174, 196, 198, 21 I, 233, 313, 314, 330 331, 334, 349, 450 

Cherncnko, Konstantin U.. 473, 504 

Cheyenne Mountain, 125 

Chicago, Ill., 16. 62, 86, 144, 175 

Chilton, England, 427 

Chin, Gordon, 281 

China Lake. Calif., 233 

chlorofluorocarbons. 303 

Chretien, Jean-Loup, 341, 350, 377. 504, 513 

chronopharmacology, 359 

circuits, defective, 353 

civilian and commercial programs, 7, 9,46, 5l,61, 83, 133. 165, 192 262, 271. 280, 325, 

345, 35 I, 364, 4 12, 4 18, 424, 434, 461, 480, 498 499. 505 

laser applications, 282 

Clark, William P., 409 

Clark Air Force Base, 98 

Clarkshurg, Md., 261 

Cleave, Mary L.? 161, 463 

Cline, Thomas L., 162 

cloud formations, 205, 225. 235, 238, 263, 275, 293, 323, 334 

Coast Guard, U.S., 5, 47, 150: 167, 289 

Coats, Michael L., 398, 487, 489, 500 

Cochran, Jacqueline, 203 

Cofer, Wesley R., Jr., 210 

Colladay, Raymond S., 415 

Collier, Robert J., 155 

Collins, Michael, 44, 106, 274 

Colombo, Giuseppe, 2 IO 

Colonna, Richard A., 383 

Colorado, 125 

Colorado Springs, Colo., 209 

Columbia (OV-102j.7, 13-16, 23, 27. 38, 39, 53, 70: 76, 80, 84, 87, 94 96, 97, 107, 149, 154, 

155, 157, 167. 171. 181, 202, 226, 231, 237 242-244, 253-255. 259, 265-267, 269-271, 

277, 287, 289, 297-300 307-309, 313. 332, 334, 335, 350, 351, 376, 378, OXO, 383, 386. 

395 407, 408, 428, 44 I. 448, 45 I. 455, 459 

See also Space Shuttle 

718 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Columbia (explorer ship--] 792), 7 

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 93 

Columbia University, 89, 214, 337 

Columbine 11, 192 

Comberiate, Michael, 525 

comets, 21 1, 294, 357, 372,454,483,484,512, 525 

command systems(?), 3 IO 

Committee to Save the Hughes Flying Boat, 173 

communications, 4, 8, 18, 22,25, 27, 28, 39,.44, 51, 62, 80, 83, 93 95, 135, 139, 150, 151, 

177, 209, 243, 250, 275, 345, 380, 381, 404 

business, 505 

commercial, 43, 46, 238 

data, 348, 360, 409, 425, 434,439, 448, 480, 500 

digital, 409 

global, 143, 216, 310,407,418 

links, 28,29, 39,213,408, 525 

military, 106, 142 

national security, 373 

problems, 72 

radio, 123 

remote, 386 

ship-to-shore, 414, 445 

telephone, 425, 480, 500 

television, 163, 360, 425, 434, 439,480, 484, 500 

video, 348, 409 

voice, 348, 360, 409, 434, 439, 484 

with crews, 10, 18 

See also satellites, television 

Communications Satellite Corporation (ComSatCorp), 3, 27, 28, 44, 52 106, 143-145, 173, 

177, 182, 209, 210, 215-217, 225, 238, 376, 495 519 

Cornsat I, 13, 135 

Comsat Laboratories, 143, 216 

World Systems Division, 2 (0 

competition with other nations, 120, 159, 349 

competition with the Soviet Union, 104, 105, 120, 142, 201, 216, 294 369, 370,454, 484, 524 

Complex 14, 120 

Compton, Dale, 393 

Compton telescope, 261 

Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch, 462 

computer developments, 96, 256, 265, 325, 359, 376, 384, 441, 451, 455 459, 487, 500, 523 

flight simulator, 256 

on-board, 239, 307, 397,430 

system intruders, 441, 442 

Computer Science Corporation, 107, 125 

Comsat General Corporation, 44, 128, 143, 145,206,216, 221, 238,255, 300, 324, 376 

Comstar, 46, 123, 128, 255 

Comstar C, 5 

Comstar-D (Cornsfar 4), 255 

Comstar DZ, 128 

Concorde, 440 

Congress, U.S., 95, 124, 144, 345, 389, 394, 442,469, 471 

budget, 6,24, 33, 109, 133, 141, 176, 285,421, 425 

719 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Congressional observers, 133 

House Appropriations Committee. 406 

House Armed Services Committee, 134. 157 

House Committee on Science and Technology, 43. 45.57, I IO, 166, 171, 185, 213. 328 

House of Representatives, 33, 35, 76, 11 I, 133, 285, 394. 403, 421. 442, 492. 51 1 

House Select Committee. 43 

House-Senate Joint l%onomic Committee, 197 

Senate, 7, 33, 62, 11 I, 142, 146. 187, 202, 244. 285, 288, 492 

Senate Armed Services Committee, 92 

Senate Cnnimittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, 45, 116 

Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, 3 IO. 3 1 1 

Conde, Mamady Lamine. I82 

Conestoga I, 363, 364 

Conrad, Charles (Pete), Jr.i, 189, 284, 376 

Continental Airlines, 189 

Continental Telephone Corporation, 238 

Control Data Corporation, 198 

Convair, 30 

Cooper, L. Gordon, 120, 274 

Cooper, Robert S.. 30, 88 

coopcration with other nations, 16, 25, 27, 33. 41, 54, 56, 63. 67, 73 75, 93, 104, 107, 154, 

201, 226, 236, 251, 256, 281, 323, 325, 341 350, 359, 366, 372, 375, 379, 383, 394, 

405, 412, 418,437,445, 453 463, 412. 476, 526 

See also European Space Agency 

cooperation with the People's Republic of China, I IO, 200, 392. 463 498 

cooperation with the Soviet Union, 22, 39. 62, 77, 107, 200, 201, 268 284, 341. 349, 350, 

Copcmicus. See Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 

Cormeilles-en-Vexin, 287 

Cornell University, 45, 195, 404 

Corning Glass Works, 282 

Corpus Christi, Tex., 289, 363 

Cos B, I IO, 203 

COSMAC (microprocessor). 195 

cosmic ray activities, 51, 65, 107. 153, 217, 415. 510 

cosmonautics. 74 

cosmonauts, 11. 72.98, 147, 148, 158. 159, 163, 164. 166, 169. 178 185, 234, 261, 268, 

372, 463, 481, 494, 504 

273, 280, 294, 340, 347. 354, 369, 41 I, 424, 428 504, 509 

diet, 222 

exercises, 31, 58, 223 

experiments, 39, 47, 58. 163, 177, 189 

problems, 58. 428, 438, 439, 446 

reaction to weightlessness, 19. 147. 268 

record-breaking flights. 58, 147, 148. 177. 203. 204, 208, 211'-216, 273, 377, 384, 509 

repair and maintenance, 239 

Cosmos 379 

Cosmos 382 

Cosmos 398 

Cosmos 434 

Cosmos 54Y, 210 

Cosmos 869, 98 

Cosmos, 62, 268, 301, 423 

720 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Cosmos 954, 145 

Cosmos 1001, 98 

Cosmos 1024, 61 

Cosmos 1074, 98 

Cosmos 1109, 61 

Cosmos 1124, 61 

Cosmos 1129, 75, 87, 267, 268 

Cosmos 1171, 142 

Cosmos 1 174, 142 

Cosmos 1176, 145, 149 

Cosmos 1267, 281 

Cosmos 1345, 345 

Cosmos 1346, 345 

Cosmos 1347, 345 

Cosmos 1351, 345 

Cosmos 1352, 345 

Cosms 1354, 345 

Cosmos 1374, 347 

Cosmos 1402, 391,400 

Cosmos 1443, 404, 411,421,423, 424, 430,435 

Cosmos 1514. 453 

Cospas (Soviet search-and-rescue satellite), 372, 490 

Cospas I, 365 

CospadSARSAT, 372 

Costa Rica, 334 

Coste, Dieudonne, 222 

countdown, 307, 308, 335 

Cowan, George A,, 328 

Cowings, Patricia, 162, 163 

Crawford, Keith E. i470 

Cremin, Joe, 498 

Crippen, Robert L., 16, 94, 107, 255, 256, 265, 266, 269, 270,274 309, 386,400,418, 419, 

474, 509, 510, 512 

Cronkite, Walter, 93 

crop growth predictions, 251 

Crossfield, Scott, 132 

Crouch, Tom, 486 

cryogenic devices, 77, 146, 329, 335 

crystallography, 314 

CS-B. (Japanese communications satellite), 122 

CSSX-4 (rocket), 85 

Cuba, 273 

Culbertson, Philip E., 312, 346, 475, 493 

Curtiss, Glenn, 277 

Cygnus, Great Rift of (the Northern Cross), 105, 106 

cylinders, 329 

Czechoslovakia, 11, 66, 75, 273, 523 

cosmonauts, 11 

Daedalus (multispectral scanner), 240 

Dahlgren, Va., 434 

Dakar, Senegal, 403 

cosmonauts, 208, 213 

72 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Dallas, Tex., 127 

Danbury. Conn., 229, 282 

Danielson, C. Edward, 76. 371 

Dartmouth College, 208 

data, 215, 227, 317 

collection, 91, 292, 322 

Earth resources, 4, 94, 104 

energy, 313 

micrometeoroid. 75 

ozone, 75 

processing, 292 

transmission, 3 16 

volcanic, 305 

Daunton, Nancy, 45 1 

David, Edward E., 329 

DaVinci TransAmerica, 66, 67, 68 

Davis, Esker K., 263, 293 

Dayton, Ohio, 189 

Dearing, Ron. 173 

Debus, Kurt, 442 

Decampli, William M., 470 

Deep Space Network, 55. 304, 306. 371, 397, 497 

Deem & Company. 480 

Defense Advanced Research Projccts Agcncy (DARPA), 210, 2 14 

Defense Mapping Agency (U.S.), 64 

defense meteorological satellite (DMSP). 34 

Defense Nuclear Agency (U.S.), 5 

Dcfense Satellite Communications System (DSCS), 372, 373 

Dcimoc (Mars satellite), I17 

Delta, 8, 18. 53, 110, 116, 118, 119, 144. 157, 158, 181. 206: 221 229, 232, 291. 298, 303, 

310, 317, 347, 348, 353, 372,409,412, 414 415, 421, 4Z15, 434,494, 506 

Delta 3294, 497 

Delta 3920, 505 

Deniing, Drake,, 281 

Deng Xiaoping, 27, 104 

Denmark, 15, 98, 203, 228 

Denning, Peter J., 383, 405 

Denoyer, John, 77 

Denver, Colo., 227, 280 

Department of Agriculture, U.S., 6, 112 

Department ofCommerce, C.S. (DOC), 5, 6, 86, 93, 112, 144, 193, 201 205, 206, 254, 519 

Department of Defense, U.S. (DOD, 5, 15, 28, 30, 34, 44, 53, '70, 83 87, 92, 93, 98, 104. 

110, 125, 127, 129, 133, 142, 157, 165, 166 171, 179, 184, 206, 262. 266, 274, 291. 

329, 345, 370, 391,404.429 461. 471. 512, 518, 525 

Maritime Administration, 47 

budget, 116, 134, 135, 139, 346 

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), 484 

"Soviet Military Power 1984," 499 

Department of Education, 506 

Department of Energy. U.S. (DOE), 5, 37, 85, 93, 115, 188, 209, 229 404, 471 

Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. (HUD). 1 17 

Department of the Interior, U.S. 5. 6. 112. 201. 215 

722 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUIICS 

Bureau of Indian Affairs, 517 

Departmcnt of Justice, U.S., 129 

Department of Labor, U.S., 302 

DepartmentofState, US.. 5, 27, 111, 117, 150, 182, 311, 3.15, 481 517, 519 

Department of Transportation, U.S. (DOT), 5, 24. 93, 269, 302, 462 

design, 72, 77, 154, 187, 290, 298, 305, 339, 367,486, 505, 523 

aircraft, 298 

engineering, 280 

problems, 175 

spacecraft, 152 

deuterium, 222, 323 

Dhawan, Satish, 183, 231, 363 

Didcot, U.K., 120 

Dione (Saturn moon), 228, 263 

Discovery (orbiter 103), 7, 304, 332, 333, 399, 487, 488, 500, 503 516, 518, 519 

Dodd, Lamar, 202 

Donahue, Thomas M., 460 

Donegan, James J.', 112 

Donn, Bertram, 485 

Doradus (cloud), 401 

Dorking, England, 16 

Dornberger, Walter R., 188 

Dornier System, 73, 134, 160 

Doffs, Robert, 274 

Double Eagle 11.67, 68, 153, 192, 420 

Douglas Aircraft Company, 146 

Daw Chemical, 251 

Dozier, Jan D., 470 

drag reduction, 33 

drainage systems, 381 

Draper, Charles Stark, 149 

Draper Laboratory, 149 

Draughon, Harold, 353, 431 

Drexel University, 208 

drones for aerodynamic and structural testing (DAST), 170, 375 

DAST 1, 375 

Dryden Flight Research Center (DF'RC), 13, 14, 54, 95, 170, 202, 249 267, 299, 311, 341, 

462, 488 

consolidation with Ames Research Center, 270, 290, 304 

contracts, 71 

people, 30, 57, 88, 242, 301 

programs, 81, 193, 194 

testing, 45, 79, 128, 130, 137, 169 

Dryden Flight Research Facility (DFRF), 367, 375, 399, 432 

Duberg, John E., 125 

Dublin, Ireland, 120 

Duke, Charles, 44 

Dunbar, Bonnie J., 161 

DuPont, 287 

Dynamic Engineering, Inc., 215 

dynamic velocity taper, 439 

Dynamics Explorer A (DE-I), 291, 298, 525 

123 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Dynamics Explorer B (DE-2), 291. 298 

Dyson, Freeman. 210 

Dzhanibekov, Vladimir, 261, 276, 341. 350. 491, 492 

Dzhezkazgan, 177, 178, 190, 215, 384 

Eagle I (balloon). 430 

Early Bird. See International Telecommunications Satellite Organization 

early-warning radar devices, 172 

Earth, 91. 215, 227 

data, 13, 27, 38, 68, 96 

environment monitoring, 196, 298 

magnetic hcld, 77, 291 

observation satellite, 34, 151, 161, 226 

orbiting missions, 14, 51, 173, 215, 237. 284, 290, 299, 315 

resources, 4, 37, 57, 66, 92, 94, 104, 107, 108, 129, 130, 138-140, 142, 196, 239, 251, 311 

surface, 38, 241 

Earth-based observations, 157 

Earth-imaging devices. 172 

Earth Radiation-Budget Satellite (ERBS), 232, 5 10, 522 

Earth resources technology satellite (Ens I J, 375 

carthquakcs, 64, 92, 241, 427 

East Gcrmany. SCC German Democratic Kepublic 

Eastern Space and Missile Center (ESMC). 73, 118, 144, 207, 229, 238 275, 300, 310, 316, 

Eastern Test Range (ETR), 5, 84, 221 

Ecs. See Ayarne; European Communications Satell~te 

Ecuador, 46 

Edelson, Burton I., 324, 338, 379 

educational programs, 38, 39, 196, 405, 498, 506, 517 

321, 339, 347, 360, 409, 412,414,421, 425,433 434, !io5 

Announcement of Opportunity (AO), 5 17 

carpenter ant experiment, 419, 424, 440 

Secondary School Recognition Program, 498 

Space Flight Participation Program, 5 17 

student participation, 153, 154, 191, 192, 195, 196, 273, 314, 353, 377,419, 424. 440, 463 

Edwards, Calif., 290 

Edwards Air Force Base, 14, 71, 193, 256, 266, 280. 309, 314, 327: 328 334, 335, 378, 408. 

EG&G Corporation, 483 

Eglin Air Force Base, 134, 238 

Egypt, 64 

Ehricke, Krafft, 526 

Einstein observatory. See high-energy astronomy observatory 

Eisele, D., 504 

Eisenhower, Dwight D., 175 

ejection seats, 354, 395, 407. 438 

nonejectable seats, 354. 355 

El Chicon (volcano), 357, 412 

electrical and electronic systems. 266, 307. 308, 336 

electrodynamics, 375 

electromagnetic radiation, 154, 526 

Electromagnetic Sciences, Inc., 496 

electromagnetic waves, 249 

electronic mail, 441 

419, 420, 429, 431; 448, 451, 459, 474,488, 503 510 

724 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

electrophoresis research, 424 

electrostatic discharge, 345 

Elektrotropgraf, 447 

Elephant moraines, 131 

elevons, 266, 292, 307 

Elkins, W. Va., 217 

Ellington Air Force Base, 309 

emergency conditions and provisions, 330, 335, 386, 395, 403, 438 

Empresa Hondurena de Telecomunicaciones (HONDUTEL), 150 

Enceladus (Saturn satellite), 263 

Encke, Johann, 484 

Encke (comet), 483, 484 

energy, 14,229, 230,243, 259,282, 313, 329, 363 

Energy Research Corporation, 229 

Engelmann, Rudolph J., 66, 67 

engineering, 193, 196, 280, 308, 327 

engines, 23, 26, 27, 34, 35, 38,41, 47, 74, 80, 85, 88, 92,97, 104 119, 123, 137, 142, 143, 

test satellite, 254 

154, 162, 171-173, 180, 183, 189, 217, 235 251, 314, 335, 360, 380, 386 

advanced turbine, 2 1, 22 

fanjet, 21 

F100, 91, 92 

FIOIX, 92 

LE5, 262 

nozzles, 36, 84, 86, 105, 149, 251, 307 

Pegasus, 154 

problems, 3, 159, 188,403,487 

rocket, 53, 57, 76, 279, 307,464 

seals, 42 

test, 124, 132, 140, 181, 348 

turbine, 37 

turbofan, 78 

valves, 149 

RL10-3-3A, 279 

YF-102, 249 

England, Anthony W., 400 

England. See United Kingdom 

Engle, Joe, 94,97, 107, 132, 242, 307, 342 

English Channel, 35, 81, 96, 128, 130, 137, 155, 287 

Enterprise, 4,7, 22, 23, 53, 202,237,313, 367,417,440, 513 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 57, 93, 249 

Environmental Quality Projects Office (EQPO), 142 

Environmental Research & Technologies, Inc., 143 

environmental studies, 138, 143, 171, 185, 214, 297, 307, 321, 336 430, 490 

gypsy-moth infestation, 216, 217 

near-space, 280 

Venus, 323 

Erb, Bryan, 251 

Eridan (sounding rocket), 87 

ERN0 (West Germancompany), 41, 112,221, 313, 325 

Espenak, Fred, 281 

Esperance, 54 

725 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Eskite, Wilbur H.. Jr., 9, 144 

d'Estaing, Valery Giscard. 350 

Estess, Roy S.. 

Etam, W. Va., 182 

Ets 4 (Kiku 3), 254. See also Japan 

Europa, 42, 174 

European Communications Satellite (ECS). 22, I88 

European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), 120 

European retncvable carrier, 340 

European Space Agency (ESA). 4, 8, 15, 39, 48, 51, 64. 76, 78, 79, 85 97, 108, 1 IO. 120, 

130. 160. 179, 226. 228. 233, 234, 239, 256. 271 283. '289, 313, 316. 323, 325, 326. 

340. 359, 364. 378, 408. 428, 437 441,445, 448,461, 467,468, 485, 504, 505, 513. 

517 

budget, 134 

contracts. 41, 48, 91, 112, 134, 161 

ERS-I. 467 

experiments, 4 

Large Salellite, 91 

LSat, 145 

people. 17, 98, 154, 179 

problcms, 159, 253 

programs, 128. I81 

testing, 28, 87. 107, 174 

tracking station, 77 

training, 236, 297 

X-ray observatory (Exosat), 188, 415 

See also Spacelab 

European Space Operations Center (ESOC). 316, 445, 490. 50.5 

European Space Research Organization (ESRO), 203 

Europcan Space Tcchnology Center (ESTEC). 3 

Evans, L.J. (Bud), Jr., 506 

Evans, Ron. 44 

Evans, Stuart J., 338 

exobiology system, 145 

Explorer, 369 

explosions and fires, II I, 152, 167, 168, 175. 181-183, 187, 2119, 240 283, 295, 370, 

437-439, 446, 452,455,464, 487, 488, 522 

external propellant tank, 53, 74. 88, 119, 127, 132. 146: 165, 176 214> 230. 231, 235-237, 

241, 243, 253, 255, 265, 276. 292. 299. 301 307, 308, 322, 327, 332, 365, 403 

extragalactic activities, 271 

Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), 500, 501 

Fabian, John M., 386, 418, 419, 463 

facilities, 98, 1 IO, 117, 285 

facsimile transmissions (FAX), 215, 225, 228, 229, 434 

Fairchild Industries, 104, 134, 238, 240, 433 

Falkland Islands, 345 

Fanti, Piero, 222 

Farkas, Bertalan, 158, 164, 166, 177 

Federal Airport Act, 146 

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 35, 36, 37, 53, 62, 67, 75, 79 108, 169. 175, 182, 

responsibility, 17 

Explorer I, 395 

726 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

183, 186, 244, 249, 288, 289, 353, 522 

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 442 

Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 46, 52, 96, 106, 129, 135 143, 145, 177;182, 

Federation Aeronautique International (FAI), 11, 277 

Feldman, Dennis, 183 

Feoktistov, Konstantin, 72, 97, 148, 177, 280, 385, 452 

Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, 86, 191 

Figueiredo, Joao, 383 

Fiji, 156 

filament-wound case, 332, 346, 513 

filters, 308 

Rmmel, Richard, 41 1 

Rnk, Daniel J., 338 

Rnlayson, Ray, 43 

Firefly, 47 

Fisher, Anna L., 161, 516 

Fisher, William E, 161 

Fishman, Gerald, 217 

Rtts, Jeny, 276 

Flachi, Charles,, 379, 380 

flame-resistant materials, 240, 301 

Flanagan, William A., 470 

flaps, body and rudder, 307 

Fleet Satellite Communications, 106 

Fleming, Rex, 5 

flight simulators, 117 

flight-readiness firings, 392, 394, 400 

Florida, 118, 128, 238, 266, 267 

Florida Historic Preservation Society, 400 

FltSatCom, 87 

210, 216, 217, 237, 380, 519 

FltSatCom I, 25 

FltSufCom 2 (FltSatCom B), 25, 84 

FltSatCom 5 (FltSatCom E), 291 

FltSatCom D, 221 

Fokker, Anthony H.G., 189 

Fokker Aircraft Company (German firm), 53, 189 

Folkestone, 35 

Ford. Gerald, 244 

Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation, 160, 209,238, 310, 333 414,432, 481, 491 

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), 9, 17, 31, 39,47,49 58, 105, 127, 259 

Fomalhaut (star), 456 

Ft. Bliss, Tex., 187 

Ft. Davis, Tex., 241 

Ft. Worth, Tex., 193 

forward-looking infrared sensor (FLIR), 91 

France, 15, 54, 56,64,75,93, 107, 124, 130, 144, 145, 154, 159, 169 201, 203, 227, 228, 

238, 256, 283, 349, 504, 523 

Council of Ministers, 46 

search and rescue, 167 

Franklin Institute, 96 

Frederickson, Donald S . , 329 

121 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

French Guiana, 172, 364, 418 

Frieman. Edward, 328 

Frosch: RobenA.,4,6, 13. 17, 22, 27, 30, 64, 74, 81, 83, 88, 109 110, 111, 128, 131, 133, 

134, 153, 187, 208, 214, 218, 219, 225. 231 242, 244. 249, 250, 269, 287 

Frost, Kenneth J. ~ I 16 

Frutkin, Arnold W.. 9, 39. 57 

Fucino, Italy, 240, 3 16 

fuels, 214, 229, 287, 363,438,487 

efficiency, 298, 375 

on-board supply, 32 I 

tanks, 267, 298, 305, 307 

valves, 487-489 

See also propellants 

fuselage, 266, 274. 353, 373 

Fullerton, C. Gordon, 313, 323, 334. 335 

Fuqua, Don, 43, 57, 128, 166, 185, 213, 394 

Furrer, Reinhard, 5 13 

Gagarin, Yuri, 261, 369, 504 

Galapagos Islands, 46 

galactic clusters, 337, 346, 348, 404 

exploding galaxies, 279 

Galaxy, 421, 434 

Galrtq I, 421 

Galary A, 505 

Ga1ux.v B, 434, 505 

Galqv C. 505 

Galileo, 6, 42, 76, 128, 222, 230, 233. 260, 276. 280. 304, 327. 358 476 

Galileo 11, 25 

Galveston, Tex., 194 

Gama, Jaime, 472 

gamma-ray activities. 65, 107. I IO, 124. 153, 154, 162, 203, 217, 235 255, 259-261 

Gamma-Ray Observatory, 260 

Ganapathy, R., 203 

Gandhi. Indira, 183, 363, 410, 472 

Ganymede (Jupiter satellite). 13, 42, 174, 263 

Gardner, Dale A., 386, 429, 431, 516 

Gardner, Guy S., 161 

Gannire, Gordon, 106 

Garneau, Marc, 510 

Garrett AiResearch, 78 

Garriott, Owen, 157, 314. 447, 448 

gaseous iodide, 243 

Gaspe peninsula, 152 

Gates Learjet, 298 

Gay, Charles D., 283 

gearboxes, 308 

Gemini, 31, 57, 112, 125, 196, 215, 274, 335, 339. 351, 494 

Geminid (stream of meteoroids), 446 

General Accounting Office (GAO), 120, 17 I, 345 

Gcneral Atomic Company, 328 

gamma radiation. 3 I 

General Atomic Laboratory, 2 IO 

728 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

General Dynamics Corporation, 269, 279, 287, 358, 365, 476, 492,493 

General Electric, 65, 81, 92, 115, 118, 124, 139, 209, 338, 376, 377 386, 409 

General Motors, 229, 308, 376 

General Services Administration (GSA), 129 

General Telephone & Electronics (GTE), 238 

Convair, 37, 175, 219,476 

Space Division, 85, 179 

GTE Satellite Corporation, 46 

GTE Spacenet Corporation, 480, 517 

generators, 115 

Geneva, Italy, 120, 210 

Genoa, Italy, 

geodesy, 241 

geological applications program (GAP), 250, 259 

geomagnetic storms, 184 

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. See Marshall Space Flight Center 

geosciences, 150, 156 

geospace system, 94 

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), 181, 199 205 

GOES-A (Goes f), 205 

GOES-B (Goes 2), 205, 254, 505 

GOES-C (Goes 3). 98, 205, 254 

GOES-D (Goes 4), 199, 205, 254, 275 

GOES E (Goes 3, 205, 275,492 

GOES F, 205, 412 

Goes East, 236, 275 

Goes West, 236, 254, 380, 412 

cosmonauts, 11 

German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany), 75, 124, 273,423, 523 

Germantown, Md., 104 

Germany, Dan, 513 

Germany, Federal Republic of (FRG; West Germany), 3, 15, 56, 64, 93 107, 112, 130, 145, 

156, 160, 162,203, 228, 238,241,271,280, 283 349, 358, 371,406,418, 420,497, 

505, 523 

Ion Release Module (IRM), 497 

Space Operations Center, 497 

Getaway Special experiment, 463 

Giacobini-Zimmer (comet), 454 

Gianopulos, George, 397 

Gibson, Edward G., 216, 221, 377, 387, 408 

Gibson, Robert L., 355, 398, 463, 513 

Gibson, Roy, 17, 76, 98, 120 

Gillett, Fred, 427 

Gillette, Aaron K., 273 

Gillam IV, Isaac T., 242, 301, 506 

Gilruth, RobeIt, 339 

Giotto (mission), 181, 182, 490 

Glaser, Harold, 63, 1 15, 116 

glass, ultra-low-expansion, 282 

GkM, John H., Jr., 120, 121, 133, 274, 348, 349, 369 

glider, hypersonic, 46 

Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP), 4, 153 

129 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS INDEX 

global positioning system (GPS), 409 

Global Weather Experiment (GWE), 4, 5, 25 

goals, 200 

Goddard, Esther C. Kisk, 347 

Goddard, Robert H.. 133. 347, 370 

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), 8, 27. 51, S6. 86, 103, 144, 160 184, 199, 233, 240. 

241, 250, 252, 288, 321, 340, 353, 355, 357, 366 369, 372, 397,405, 410. 422. 434. 

454: 467, 471, 473-475. 486. 500 525 

consolidation with Wallops Flights Center, 270, 290, 301 

contracts, 110. 167, 284 

Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, 167 

missions, 94, 298 

Operations Support Computing Division, 1 12 

people, 29, 30. 77. 84. 88, 106. 116. 145, 155. 172, 222, 231. 281. 413 

programs, 119, 124, 142, 162! 179, 185, 282, 310 

Goetz, Alexander, 381 

Goetz, Robert C., 41 5 

Goldschmidt, Neil E., 62, 109, 175 

Goldstein, Irving. 1+73 

Goldstone. Calif., 92 

Goody, Richard. 210 

Goodyear Aerospace Corporation, 96 

Goonhilly, England, 261 

Gorbatko, Viktor, 185, 189, 203, 204 

Gordon, Richard F. (Dick). 44, 284 

Gordon Bennett race, 420 

Gossamer Albatross, 35, 96, 128, 130, 137. 155, 287 

Gossamer Albatross 2, 81, 155 

Gossamer Condor, 35, 130, 155, 287 

Gossamer Penguin, 192, 193 

Government Printing Office (GPO). 442 

Grabe. Ronald J., 16 1 

Grand Canyon, 

gravitational forces and data, 77, 268, 340, 375. 385, 452, 480 

Gray, Paul E., 329 

Gray, Robert, 7, 17 I 

Graz, Austria, 120 

Great Britain. See United Kingdom 

Great March 3 rocket (or Mach?), 

Grechko, Georgiy M., 58, 163 

Greece, 64 

Green Bank, W.Va., 241 

Greenbelt, Md., 290 

greenhouse effect, 323 

Greenland, 169 

Gregory, Frederick D., 400 

Griffin, Gerald D., 188, 341, 360, 467 

Grindlay, Jonathan, 29 

Grissom, Virgil 1. (Gus), 274 

Groenigen University, 3 

Cruene, Hans, 81 

Grumman, Leroy R., 373 

730 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Grumman Aerospace, 30, 173, 249, 298, 358 

GT1 Corporation, 323 

Guam, 177 

Guastaferro, Angelo, 76, 218, 222 

Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, 3 12 

Guinea, 182 

Gulf of Mexico, 16, 193, 209, 236, 238, 291 

Gulfport, Miss., 193 

Gurnett, Donald, 279 

Gurragcha, Jugderdemidyn, 261, 276 

Guyana, 158, 159 

gyroscopes, 213, 214 

habitat modules, 330 

Hackes, Peter, 155 

Haig, Alexander, 31 I, 345 

Haise, Fred W., Jr., 30 

Hale, Wendy S., 470 

Hale Observatory, 86 

Hall, Bruce, 271 

Hall, Charles, 59, 61, 124 

Hall, Warren, 314 

Halley, Edmond, 371 

Halley (comet), 14, 85, 181, 182, 256, 304, 357, 371, 485, 523, 524 

Hamburg, Germany, 120 

Hamilton Standard. See United Technologies Corporation 

Hampton, Va., 30 

Hampton Technical Center, I27 

Hannah, David, 289, 364 

Hardy, George, 35 

Harris, Hugh, 267 

Harris, Pritchett A., 273 

Harris Corporation, 173 

Hart, Terry J., 400, 474, 480, 481 

Hartebeesthoek, 208 

Hartsfield, Henry W., Jr., 313, 331, 350, 351, 398,487, 500,503 

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 29 

Hasselrnann, Klaus, 210 

Hauck, Frederick H., 386,418,419, 513,516 

Hauersperger, Karla R., 273 

Haunschild, Hans-Hilger, 27 1 

Hawaii, 177, 183,209, 254, 266 

Hawaiian Airlines, 183 

Hawley, Steven A., 355, 399, 420,487, 489, 500 

Haystack observatory, 241 

Heacock, Ray, 42, 218, 220 

health programs and studies, 38, 44, 85, 109, 121, 137, 138, 147, 148 162, 163, 244, 249, 

251, 252, 268, 359, 384-386,428,429,449,495 

cancer research, 322 

glaucoma research, 322 

Hearth, Donald P., 51 9 

heat-capacity mapping mission (HCMM), 305, 371 

Heckman, Gary, 123 

73 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Heldenfels, Richard R., 93. 125 

helicopters, 48. 314, 339, 384 

Helios, 280 

Helios I, 306 

Helios 2, 162 

heliosphere, 333 

helium, liquid, 321, 393, 405, 445 

Henize, Karl G., 400 

Henry, Richard, 262 

Henaon, Keith, 515 

Hercules Inc., 346 

Hermann, Robert J., 9 I, 92 

Hemes (French project), 46 

Hewlett Packard, 329 

High-Altitude Observatory, 342 

high-energy astronomy observatory (Heao): 5. 6, 65. 271. 280, 337 

Heao I, 5, 65, 105, 106, 107. 110. 116. 271. 337 

Heao2 (Einstein), 29, 65, 94, 106. 116, 174. 213. 271. 337 

Heao 3. 65, 107. 153, 279 

highly maneuverable aircraft technology (HiMAT), 71, 170, 21’2 

HiLat, 420 

Hildner, Ernie, 413 

Hilmers, David C., 161 

Himalayas, 54 

Hinncrs, Noel W.. 14, 45, 342 

Hinotori (Firebird), 255 

Hipparcos (satellite), 128 

Hodge, John D., 346, 475, 493 

Holloman Aerospace Medical Center. 393 

Holloway, Paul F., 526 

Holmes. Allen, 472 

Honduras, 150 

Honest John-Orion (rocket), 191 

Honeywell Inc., 433 

Hoover Institute, 329 

Horsford, Cyril, 201 

Hosenball, S. Neil. 131, 300 

Hotz, Robert, 47 

Houck, James, 404,405 

House of Representatives, US. See Congress. U.S. 

Houston, Tex., 4, 30, 88, 266, 267 

Howell, Jack D., I09 

Hubble, Edwin P., 442 

Hubble’s Constant, 443 

Hubble’s Law, 443 

Hudson, Gary C., 289 

Huffstetler, Elena, 449 

Hughes, Howard R.. Jr., 158, 173, 176. 202 

Hughes Aerospace. 492 

Hughes Aircraft Company. 28,46. 53, 135, 139. 158, 166, 201, 221, 229 230, 255, 275, 300, 

Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope. 442 

330, 420, 464, 465,481, 496, 516, 519 

732 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTlCS 

Hughes Airwest, 176 

Space and Communications Group, 95, 238, 434 

Hughes Communications Services, Inc., 500, 505 

Hull, Quebec, 140 

Humes, Donald H., 60 

Hungary, 39, 75, 273 

Hunsaker, Jerome C., 507 

Hunter, Charles M., 434 

Hunter, Robert O., 329 

Huntsville, Ala., 4, 55, 187, 280 

Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC), 498 

Hurd, Peter, 202 

Hurricane Frederick, 236 

Hutchinson, Neil B., 107, 308, 309,475,476 

Hyde, Fred, 66 

hydraulics systems, 266, 307 

hydrazine, 308 

hydroelectric power projects, 282 

hydrogen, 323, 365 

cosmonauts, 158, 164, 166, 177, 213 

clouds, 401 

gaseous, 309, 386, 392 

leak, 392, 395 

liquid, 38,41, 79, 81, 85, 86, 146, 165, 220, 236,253, 262, 308 

hypersonic operations, 46, 462 

ice buildup, 146, 376, 377, 503 

Ida, Don, 192, 420, 421 

Iles du Salut, 172 

Ilyushin 86 (I1 86), 123 

image-sensing autoprocessor, 9 I 

imaging facilities, 65, 91, 358 

imaging radar antenna, 65, 409 

India, 54,56, 75, 107, 110, 154, 209, 232, 283, 311 

Department of Space, 231, 232, 339 

India national satellite (INSAT), 430, 432, 523 

Insat-I, 363, 433 

Insat-IA, 220, 232, 339 

Insat-IB, 220, 232,430-432 

Insat-IC, 523 

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), 34, 183, 363,430,432, 523, 524 

Rohini satellite, 410 

11-18, 

Indian Ocean, 42,43, 55,95, 119, 140, 182, 231, 259, 265,266, 316 333, 347, 391, 430 

Indonesia, 22, 158, 220, 241, 398, 465 

inertial upper stage (IUS), 250, 276, 372, 380,407,423, 461 

infrared activities, 154,239,240,281,348,349, 351, 401, 405, 525 

instruments, 26, 29, 156, 340 

lasers, 281 

problems, 26, 293 

Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), 393,401,404,405,427, 429 445, 446, 456,485, 512, 

infrarrd imagery of Shuttle (IRIS), 340 

525, 526 

733 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS INDEX 

Institute for Defense Analyses, 461 

Institute of Geochemistry, I46 

instmmcnt pointing system (IPS), 

insulation, 332, 333 

interceptor vehicle, 2 I8 

Intercosmos (program), II, 166: 177. 189, 208, 257, 273, 29:! 

intercontinental continental ballistic missile (ICBM), 85, 127, 475 

interest in space program. 47. 121,432, 440, 496, 518 

Interim Eurcpean Telecommunications Satellite (Eutelsat). 48, 220 

International Association of Machinists. 255 

International Astronomical Union (IAU). 159 

International Business Machines (IBM), 229. 300, 376, 434. 45 I, 456 459 

International Cometary Explorer, 

International Council of Scientific Unions, 4 

International Geophysical Year (ICY), 39. 395 

International Harvester, 240 

International lnstitutc of Communications (IIC), 209 

International Institute of Space Law, 201 

International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT), 44, 48, 144 210, 231. 233, 259. 

316, 317, 345, 366,145, 481 

International Solar Maximum Year. 186, 237 

International Solar-Polar Mission (ISPM), 73, 256, 476, 504 

International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE), 63, 454 

waning, 44. 45 

lsee I, 63 

/see 2, 63 

/see 3 (International Cometary Explorer), 63, 162, 454. 455 

Inlernational Telecomrnunications Satellite Organzation (INTEI-SAT), 3 22, 28, 41, 124. 130, 

139, 140. 144, 150, 173. 179, 182, 206. 207 209, 210, 215, 220, 222, 225. 231. 238. 

240, 242, 259, 261, 276. 310 316, 333, 363, 381.484, 519 

lntelsat I (Early Bird), 43, 106 

Inrelsat 3, 43, 95 

lnrelsat 3 F3. 95 

Jntelsnt 5. 484 

Inrelsar 5 F, 414 

lntrlsut 5 FI, 316 

Intel~crt 5 F4, 333 

lnielsar 5 F7 (Payload), 44 1 

Intelsat 5A F2, 238, 240 

lntelsat 5C F.3, 316 

Intelsat IV-A, 140, 276 

Intelsat V, 8, 41, 179, 188, 207. 209,243. 259, 261, 275, 331 

lntelsat V-A, 179, 242, 276 

Intelsat VI. 179, 207, 276 

Worldcorn, 2 17 

International Telephone and Telegraph (In), 125. 217 

international ultraviolet explorer (Iue), 55. 108, 154. 155, 227, 357 

interplanetary spacecraft, 4 17 

Intersputnik, 220 

Io (Jupiter’s moon), 29, 42, 150, 174 

ionosphere, IO, 174, 194, 195, 292, 336 Iowa City, Iowa, 16 

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, 

734 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Ireland, 228 

lskra 3, 377 

isotopic studies, 211 

Isparitel apparatus, 189, 204 

Issel, Michelle A,, 273 

Italy, 15,56, 93, 107. 110, 203, 209, 228, 238, 375 

National Research Council (CNR), 469,470, 476 

National Space Plan Office, 476 

Ivanchenkov, Aleksandr, 58, 341, 350 

Ivanov, Georgy, 40 

Izquierdo, Rosario M., 470 

Jacobson, David H., 208 

Jagoda, Barry, 44 

Jakarta, 241 

Jamesburg, Calif, 182 

Janus (moon), 60 

Japan, 54, 56, 68, 75, 76, 85, 93, 107, 110, 120, 122, 124, 154, 177 201, 209, 220, 238, 251, 

255, 259, 349, 427, 485 

Asahi Shimbun (newspaper), 408 

BsZA, 459 

Cs2A (Sakura 2A), 398 

Cs2B (Sakura 2B): 427 

engineering test satelliteJETS), 254 

GMS-2 metesat system, 220 

H-1 rocket, 262 

LE5 engine, 262 

N-l vehicle, 255 

N-2 vehicle, 254 

National Space Development Agency, 9, 122, 254, 262, 314 

Science and Technology Agency, 122 

Space Development Council, 170 

tracking station, 77 

Jeffs, George, 45 

Jen Xin-min, 4, 27 

Jenkins, Harriet G., 338 

jet lag, 244 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 13, 85,92, 225, 241, 293, 325, 330 342,346, 371,393,397, 

404,409,415,427,428,456,467,479,483 485, 497, 51 1 

contractors, 5 I 

contracts, 95 

missions, 42, 96, 279, 306 

people, 14, 26, 117, 150, 193, 206,210,228, 263,293, 312 

responsibility, 17, 115 

Jewitt, David C., 76, 371 

Jilin (PRC province), 127 

Johannes, Robert P., 88 

Johannesburg, 2,08 

Johns Hopkins University, 86, 118, 191, 250 

Johnson, Lyndon B., 370 

Johnson, Thomas H., 329 

Johnson & Johnson, 25 1 

Homewood campus, 250 

73s 
ASTRONALTLCS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Johnson Space Center (JSC). 4. 15, 21. 65, 88, 112, 143, 145, 156, 270 307, 309, 328, 329, 

335, 336. 341, 343, 348. 351, 353, 359. 360. 377 383, 385,408,415, 420,424, 425, 

43 1, 449, 45 I, 452, 460, 467, 47 I 475, 47. 486. 487, 499, 5 12-514. 5 I7 

Biomedical Research Institute, 449, 451 

contracts, 9,41: 104, 108, 140. 149, 151, I54 

costs. 104 

missions, 107, 132, 281 

people, 7, 9. 30, 39. 57, 70. 155, 297 

programs, 139, 142 

responsibility, 17 

Spacecraft Software Division, 476 

testing. 94, 152, 168 

training, 51 

White Sands Tcst Facility. 292 

Johnston, Donald J., 463 

Johnston, Mary Helen, 483 

Jones, J.M., 55 

Josephine (tropical storm) 

Jupiter (orbiter), 6, 187, 233 

Jupiter (planet), 13, 17, 29, 38. 41. 42,43,49, 51, 56.59, 76, 123 128, 133, 150, 157, 174, 

Kadena Air Force Base, 259 

Kagoshima, 255 

Kalgoorlie, 43 

Kaluga, 377 

Kapryan. Walter J., 31 

Kapustin Yar cosmodrome, 34, 347 

Kazakhstan, 166, 239, 276 

Keating, David, 198 

Keegan, Sara, 455 

Keller, Samuel W.! 310 

Kennedy, John E, 188, 369, 370 

Kennedy Space Center (KSC). 9, 13-16, 23, 27: 49, 53. 54,70. 84,94 112, 149. 157, 180. 

196, 21 I, 243, 254. 262. 267, 269. 271. 281. 283 289, 307, 308, 315, 321, 322, 335, 

429, 432, 442. 448463, 464,467. 474, 487, 489. 509, 510. 515, 516 

Jupiter C, 395 

206, 220, 230. 235, 243. 260, 263, 277, 279 280, 315, :325, 327, 333.445 

340, 350-352, 364, 365, 370, 375 385, 386, 394, 399, 407, 408, 415,419. 420,424: 

aft-compartment accident. 283 

contracts. 9 

facilities, 80, 155, 181, 231, 241, 244. 265, 297. 298. 305, 334, 401, 418, 428, 485, 498. 

missions, 119, 132, 252, 291 

people, 31. 57. 81, 188, 254 

programs, 39. 144. 234 

rescue training, 185, 186 

services, 80 

testing. 242, 299, 378 

500 

Kentron International, Inc., 127 

Kenya, 118 

Kerman, Arthur K., 329 

kerosene, 438 

Kembrock, Jack L., 22 I, 288 

736 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Kenvin, Larkin, 375 

Kettering satellite-monitoring group, 41 1 

Kevlar-fiber struts: 287 

Keyworth, George A., 328, 329, 425 

KH-I I (reconnaissance vehicle), 15 

Kilgore, Edwin C., 301, 302, 317 

Kings Canyon National Park, 239 

Kissin, Ken, 184 

Kistiakowsky, George B., 389 

Kitt Peak National Observatory, 282, 303, 425 

Kittinger, Joe W., 503 

Kitty Hawk (transcontinental balloon), 152, 153 

Kitty Hawk, N.C., 153 

Kizim, Leonid, 233, 239, 341, 465, 479,492, 495,503, 509 

Kleinknecht, Kenneth S., 39 

Klineberg, John M., 57 

Klutznick, Philip M., 201 

Knapp, Brooke, 466 

Knox, Frcd D., Jr., 470 

Knutson, Martin A,, 488 

Kochendorfer, Fred D., 55 

Kodiak, Alaska, 167 

Kohl, Helmut, 4.51 

Koller, Albert, 207 

Komfeld, Dale, 3 17 

Kosmahl, Henry G., 439 

Kostiuk, Theodore, 281 

Kourou, French Guiana, 39,64, 87, 182, 260, 283, 316,418,441, 49.5 

Kovalenok, Vladimir, 18, 58, 260, 261, 273, 276 

Kozu, N., 76 

Kraft, Christopher C., Jr., 65, 165, 168, 309, 339-341, 360, 369 

Kramer, James J., 7 1, 22 I, 288 

Kranz, Eugene I:., 266, 336 

Krebs, Thomas H., 484 

Kremer, Henry, 35 

Kristall (equipment), 19, 31, 49, 204 

Kroll, Gustav A., 187 

Kubasov, Valery. 158, 164, 177 

Kuettner, Joachim, 25 

Kuiper airborne observatory, 340, 348 

Kukowski, James, 404 

Kurth, William, 279 

Kusske, Amy M., 273 

La Soufiere (volcano), 26 

Lacrosse, WISC., 192 

Lake Placid, N.Y., 117, 124 

Lambert Field (St. Louis), 

Lampton, Michael L., 3, 156, 297, 314 

Lancaster, Calif. 14 

lander, 52, 55, 331 

Lander 1 (Mutch Memorial Station), 326, 327, 397,409, 480 

Lander 2, 326, 409 

73 7 
ASTRONAL'TICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

landing gears. 189, 266 

landing preparations. 335 

Landsat, 4, 86, 104, 108, I IO, 138, 140. 171. 172, 201, 206. 208, 209, 216,227, 338, 355. 

392, 397, 412, 421, 469 

Landsur I, 84, 108, 397 

Landsar 2. 27. 84, 108, 172, 397 

Lundsa3. 27, 84. 108, 139, 140, 172, 292, 397, 525 

Landsat 4 (Landsat D). 139. 140. 201. 397. 409, 475 

Landsat 5, 475, 525 

Lane, Arthur L., 

Langel, Robert A.. 77, 169 

Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (NACA), 31, 124. 125 

Langley Research Center (LaRC), 13. X8, 93. 128, 142. 249. 1190, 299 305. 334, 340, 351, 

357, 375, 404, 415, 467, 506, 526 

contracts, 107, 117, 215, 227 

crash test, 37 

design study, 137 

experiments, 26, 85, 194 

people. 45, 57, 88, 125. 184. 208, 317,425 

programs. 81. 127, 180. 186. 211, 243, 298 

Space Systems Division, 526 

testing, 128 

Lanham, Md.. 357 

Large-Area Crop-lnvcntory Experiment (LACIE), 25 1. 292 

Large Magellanic Cloud, 162, 401, 405 

Large Spacc Tclescope. See Space Telescope 

LaKocque, Gene, 218 

Las Vegas, Nev., 44 

laser developments and systems, 56, 64, 77, 142, 281, 282, 471 

propulsion $tudy, 210, 243 

radar soundings. 207 

Lageos- I, 469, 470 

Lageos-2, 469, 470 

latex reactor, 322, 336 

Launch Complex 36, 221 

Launch Complex 39. 23, 214, 242> 243, 267, 292, 335 

launch pad rental, 414 

launches, 119, 176, 199, 292 

Laser Geodynamics Satellite (Lageos), 56 

schedules, 91, 94, 155. 291, 308 

scientific, 80 

simulated, 107 

technical, 80 

expendable, 74, 118, 144, 188, 206, 418. 496 

mobile platform, I19 

launch vehicles, 5, 1 10, 127. 132, 160, 179. 181, 188. 279, 310,437 522 

Law of the Sea conference. 201 

Le Havre, 64 

Leasat 1 (SYNCOM-I), 503 

Lemur 2. 500 

Leasecraft. 433 

Lebedev, Valentin, 148> 347, 355, 359. 360. 377: 384, 385, 428. 503 

738 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Lederberg, Joshua, 145 

Lee, Chester M., 180 

Lee, J.H., 243 

Lee, Thomas J. (Jack), 234 

Leestma, David C., 161. 509, 510 

legal aspects, 442, 460, 465 

Legate, A .B . Virkler, 302 

Lenoir, William B., 331, 376, 377, 385, 398, 460 

Leonov, Alexey A., 347, 385,504 

Levin, Carl, 462 

Levy, Eugene, 21 1 

Lewis, Chuck, 107 

Lewis Research Center (LeRC), 21, 83, 88, 299, 337, 348, 376, 377, 392 414,439, 467, 486 

procedures in space, 131, 201, 202 

contracts, 115, 166, 229, 279, 476 

grants, 231 

missions 

people 

programs, 209. 291 

testing, 78 

Science and Technology Division, 46 

Library of Congress, 44, 46 

Libya, 379 

Lichtenberg, Byron K., 3-4, 156, 297, 314, 366, 447, 448 

lidar (1ight-intena;i~cation detection and ranging), 249, 357 

life science studies, 151, 271, 340, 371 

life-support systems, 143, 336, 383 

lifting bodies, 304, 462 

HLIO, 304 

M-2, 304 

X-24A, 304 

X-24B, 304 

liftoff, 335 

lighter-than-air craft, 150, 369 

Lilly, William E , 30 1, 3 12 

Lind, Don L., 400 

Lindstrom, Robert E., 119 

Ling Temco Vought, 127 

lithium, 506 

Little Joe (booster), 180 

Littlefield, Robert C., 31 

Lloyds of London, 94,5 16 

locator beacon, 233 

Lockheed Corporation, 15, 16, ,141, 169, 197, 249, 333, 340, 425 

Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, 179, 282,.357, 358, 367,491 

Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, 483 

Lockheed-Georgia Company, 197, 231 

Loening Brothers company, 373 

Loewenthal, Stuart H., 52 

London, 209 

Long Beach, Calif., Port of, 158, 202, 353 

Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), 463, 474 

73Y 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Longanecker. Gerald W., 4 10 

Longuet-Higgins, Michael, 210 

Lop Nor (nuclear-arms test area), 156 

Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 111, 118. 328, 329, 389 

Los Angeles, 77 

Louisiana Pacific, 66 

Lounge, John M., 161 

Lousma, Jack R., 313, 323, 334, 335, 434, 462 

Lovelace, Alan M., 13,68, 88, 109, 244, 259, 260. 271, 275. 287 

Lovell, James A,, Jr.. 274 

Low, Frank, 446 

Low. G. David, 470 

Low, George M.. 175, 494 

Lowell Observatory, 6, 485 

LTV Aerospace and Defense Company, 491 

lubrication systems, 364 

Lucas, William R., 234 

Luna 16, 147 

lunar activities, 121, 146, 349: 350. 369, 373, 428,453, 499 

landing, 36, 188. 216, 234, 294, 376, 395 

mining, 187, 197 

missions, 64, 167, 342, 373 

“moon treaty,” 201 

Moon walk, 36,43, 44, 57, 132. 189 

resources, 202 - 

samples, 131, 146 

Lunar and Planetary Institute, 156 

Lundberg, Olof, 233 

Lunney, Glynn S., 88, 377,466 

Lutz, Barry, 485 

Luxsat, 145 

Lyakhov, Vladimir, 11, 17, 18. 31, 49. 58. 71, 421, 423, 434, 438. 439 446, 452 

Lycoming YF-102 (engine). 249 

McBnde, Jon A,, 509 

McCall, Roben T., 202 

McCandless, Bruce, 62,398. 441, 463. 464 

McCarthy, John F., 337, 338 

McCormick, M. Patrick, 357 

MacCready, Paul. 35, 96. 130, 155, 192, 236. 239. 287 

McCrary, Mary, 35 

McCulley, Michael J., 470 

McDivitt, James, 44 

McDonald, Frank B., 366, 381 

McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Corporation, 36, 53.65, 108, 109, 141 144, 150. 229, 249. 

283, 298, 303, 358, 376,424, 465, 470. 471. 479 487, 500 

Astronautics Division, 489 

Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES), 500 

Technical Services Company, 199 

McElroy, John, 492 

Mackey, Skip, 484 

McLean, Va., 66, 137 

McLucas, John L., 210 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

McMahon, Franklin, 202 

McMath solar telescope, 282 

McMurdo Sound, 525 

McMurtry, Thomas C . ,95, 375 

McNair, Ronald E., 398, 463 

Madras, 54 

Madrid, 61, 62, 108, 227, 251, 306 

Madura, Dave D., 273 

magnetic control, 172 

magnetic field satellite (Magsat), 56, 68, 77, 87, 169, 218 

magnetic fields, 51, 68, 87, 157,218, 236, 291-293, 31 I 

magnetic poles, 169 

magnetic sensor, 385 

magnetometer, 333 

magnetosphere, 13, 17, 63, 174, 195, 279, 314, 350, 358, 375, 406,497 SO6 

Mahon, Joseph B., 5, 206 

main propulsion test (MFT), 251 

Makarov, Oleg G., 233, 239, 504 

Malakhit, 147 

Malaysia, 22, 241 

Malina, Frank J., 3 12 

Maiyshev, Yuri V., 166, 169, 177, 178, 234,473 

Man Will Never Fly Society, 

Manassas, Va., 170 

Mandelshtam, S.L., 66 

Mangoendiprodjo, Willy Moenandir, 22 

Manhasset, N.Y., 373 

Manhattan project, 

Manila, Philippines, 98 

Manke, John A., 128, 304 

Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), 62,73 

Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), 98, 303 

Manned Space Flight, Office of (NASA), 

Manston, England, 287 

Marana, Ariz., 239 

Marconi Space and Defence Systems (U.K.), 91, 481 

Marianas Islands, 177, 215 

Marine Corps, U.S., 249, 313, 434 

Mariner 9, 1 17 

Marisat, 44 

maritime communications subsystems (MCS), 259 

Maritime European Communications Satellite (Marecs), 48, 77, 233, 345 445 

self-propelled. 441 

Marecs-A, 48, 231, 316, 345,445 

Marecs-B, 48, 188, 231, 316, 345, 364, 517 

Marecs-C, 48, 

communications, 231, 259, 364, 366, 445, 517 

global, 210 

payloads, 231 

Mark, Hans M., 73, 125,269, 288, 300, 328, 481 

Markey, David, 519 

maritime services, 233, 345 

74 1 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS INDEX 

Mars, 24. 30,42> 43, 52, 61, 117, 121, 180, 186, 280-282, 306, 326 376. 397, 398, 409, 410, 

415, 445, 453, 459, 480 

Mars Data Analysis Program, 459 

Marseilles. 236 

Marshall, George C., 175 

Marshall: William R., 365 

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). 3. 4, I I, 14, 16, 23. 70, 78, 86 88, 112, 137, 140, 234, 

atmosphere, 52, 53 

271, 289, 322, 323, 325, 346, 365, 366. 375 378, 385, ,405, 413, 428. 442. 467, 486. 

490, 497, 498, 515 

contracts, 37, 137, 151, 173, 174, 176, 214, 283, 346, 489, 491 

Materials and Processes Laboratory, 36, 219 

missions, 132. 292 

Payload Crew Training Complcx, 498 

people, 7, 16, 26, 31, 36,41, 54, 57, 297 

programs, 37, 54. 103, 119, 127, 129, 130. 160, 187, 191. 192, 282 

Shuttle Projects Office, 515 

Structures and Propulsion Laboratory, I87 

tests, 11, 22, 34, 38. 54, 79. 124, 154. 161, 230. 242, 321 

training, 3 

Martin, Jim, 193 

Martin, John J.. 461 

Martin Marietta Aerospace Corporation, 38: 62,65, 73. 95. 108, 127 176. 214, 215, 227, 235, 

Maryland, 135 

Massachusetts, 241 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 4, 30, 145, 156, 157, 191 192, 196, 241, 288, 

306, 330, 338, 358, 365, 375, 397, 489, 491 493,512, 513, 515 

329, 338, 366. 415. 481 

Ccntcr for nleoretical Physics, 329 

Lincoln Laboratory, 30 

Masursky, Harold, 28, 159 

Matagorda Island, 289, 363 

material science studies, 151, 271, 323: 340, 371, 434 

Mattingly, Thomas K. (Ken) 11. 313, 331, 350, 351, 370, 389, 467 

Mauna Kea, Hawaii, 349 

Mauna Loa, Hawaii, 334 

Maunder Minimum, 342 

Mauro. Larry, 99 

Mayfield Robert A.. 143. I68 

MCI, 434 

measurement of atmospheric pollution from satellites (,MAPS), 3.3 I 

measuring devices and techniques, 4, 38, 73. 75, 77, 78, 87, 94, 194 197, 235. 241 

atmospheric, 280 

micrometeorite, 355 

surface, IO 

medicine, 22, 64, 85, 452 

biomedical research, 194, 360, 447 

pharmaceutical research, 424, 43 1 

rehabilitation therapy, 44 

space, 151, 190 

See also health programs and studies 

Mendez, Armando Tamayo, 208 

742 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Merbold, Ulf, 3, 156, 297, 314, 323, 366, 447, 448, 453, 513 

Mercury (planet), 197, 232, 263 

Mercury, 113, 274, 335, 339, 494 

Mercury Redstone 1, 3 1, 

Project Mercury, 112, 351 

Meredith, Leslie H., 338 

Merrett, Stephen, 516 

Merrett Syndicates Ltd., 496, 516 

Merrill, Bob, 314 

Merritt Island, 160 

mesosphere, 250, 303, 313 

Messenchmid, Einst, 5 13 

Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blom (MBB), 203, 28 I 

metallurgy, 349, 480 

meteoroids, 21 I 

meteorology, 37, 67, 93, 121, 131, 138, 142, 167, 193, 198, 254, 280 288, 327, 424,445, 491 

Meteosat 1, 91 

Meieosat 2, 91, 1260, 283 

methane, 371 

Mctzger, Albert, 174 

Mexico, 124 

Michoud Assembly Facility, 31, 38, 513 

micrometeorites, 75, 395 

Military Operations Research Society, 92 

military programs, 7, 34, 7 1, 104, 106,262, 280, 28 I, 345,4 12,448 46 I, 492 

funding, 7 

laser applications, 282 

Milky Way, 106, 154, 162, 203, 303, 404, 405, 442, 485, 526 

Miller, Edgar, 322 

Mimas (Saturn moon), 228, 263 

mineral exploration, 138 

Minneapolis, Minn., 10 

Minos, 46 

mirror, primary. 282, 315 

missiles, 

ballistic, 54, 61 

cruise, 21 

nuclear, 453 

Mission Control Center, Houston, 448 

mission specialists, 157, 161, 179. 199, 236, 297, 325, 331,332, 370 386, 398,400, 431, 463 

Mississippi, 130, 226 

Missouri, 158 

Mitchell, E., 504 

Moffett Field, Calif., 315, 488 

Mohave Desert, 266 

Mongolian People’s Republic, 257, 261, 273 

monitoring systems, 2 10 

Earth-resources, 139 

environmental, 143 

land surfaces, 15 

ocean surfaces, 15, 86 

Monroney, A.S., Mike (“Mr. Aviation”), 146 

743 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROh’hUTICS INDEX 

monsoon experiment (MONEX), 25 

Montes, Roberto Nuncz. 150 

Montreal (Quebec), 4 

Moore, Jesse W.,. 472, 493, 517. 518 

Morel, Pierre, 283 

Morrison, David, 349 

Morrison, Dennis, 252 

Morrison, Philip. 145 

Morrison-Knudsen. Inc., 98 

Moscow, 77, 204, 277 

Moscow Olympics, 169 

MOSCOW lnstitutc of Medico-Biological Problems, 22, 75, 87 

Moscow Aviation Institute, 377 

Moscow University. 77 

Moser, Tom, 155 

motion sickness, 335, 336, 376, 3x6. 408, 420. 451 

Motorola Inc., 495 

Mt. Hopkins, Ariz., 303 

Mt. Palomar, 303, 371 

Mt. Saint Helens (volcano), 158, 183, 184, 207. 208, 340, 388 

MI. Wilson, 442 

Mountain View, Calif., 290 

MPS-19 (radar system), 141 

Mullane, Richard M., 399, 487! 489, SM. 503 

multiplexer-demultiplexer (MUXIDEMUX), 308 

multispectral infrared radiometer, 38 I 

MultiVisions, Ltd., 182 

Mumma, Michael J., 281 

Muraca, Ralph, 479 

Murphy. John E. 338 

Murray, Bruce C.. 210. 339 

Musgrave, Stow, 152, 332,407, 408 

Mutch. Thomas A., 30> 55, 63. 94. 106, 115. 153. 409. 480 

Mutch Memorial Station. See Lander 1 

Myers, Kenneth I., 470 

Nakaya, Ukichiro, 3 14 

Nasvytis, Algirdis L. (or Nasyvtis?), 52 

Nasvyris multiroller traction drive. 52 

Natal, Brazil, 146 

National Academy of Engineering, 462 

National Academy of Sciences, 39. 109, 219, 329. 460 

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), 30, 31, 39, 124 180. 288: 339, 351, 

425,494 

Lewis laboratory, 288 

National Aeronautic Association (NAA), 1 I, 21. 125. 130, 146, 202. 222 277 

National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), 43, 75, 132, 213. 201 383. 398, 399, 407, 

409 

Advisory Council, 231, 288 

Astronaut Office: 5 1 

budget, 6, 57, 83, 109, 110, 116, 120, 128, 130, 133. 139, 249. 250, 259, 260, 304, 345, 

394, 403, 425, 454 

Chariots of Apollo. 45 

744 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Civil Aviation Research and Development (CARD). 462 

contracts, 41, ’14, 85, 96, 112, 115, 127, 134, 141, 144, 150, 156, 160, 161, 168, 179, 181, 

costs, 45,76, 80, 83, 84,94, 127, 133, 135, 145, 199,274, 275. 307,406,472, 496 

delays, 53, 76. 165, 265 

Earth and Planetiuy Exploration Division of OSSA, 472, 493 

experiments, 4. 

funding, 8, 10, 44: 88 

Headquarters, 124, 142, 180, 188. 222, 231, 234, 302, 341, 342, 351, 415, 467,493 

launches, 6, 238, 255,269, 276, 333, 421, 505 

lawsuit, 165, 415 

Life Sciences Division, 449 

management, 176, 244, 301 

Mission Control Center (Houston) 

missions, 5, 17, 65,68, 76, 87 

Office of Advanced Research and Technology (OART), 269 

Office of Aenwautics and Space Technology (OAST), 71, 24, 287, 317, 493, 500, 526 

Office of Applications, 49 

Office of DOD Affairs, 188 

Office of External Relations, 310 

Office of Governmenthdustry Affairs, 188 

Office of International Affairs, 39, 188 

Office of Management, 30b, 3 17 

Office of Management Operations, 300, 317 

Office of Manned Space Flight, 14 

Office of Public Affairs, 188 

Office of Space, 103 

Office of Space and Temstrial Applications (OSTA), 142, 300, 310, 313 

Office of Space Flight, 366, 476, 506 

Office of Space Science (OSS), 30, 51, 63, 103, 184, 222, 231, 300, 310, 313, 323, 335, 

Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA), 30, 57, 21, 300, 428, 449, 472 

Office of Space Station, 493 

Office of Space Tracking and Data Systems, 306 

Office of Space Transportation System Operations, 74, 206, 366 

Office of Technology Assessment, 453 

Office of University Affairs, 188 

people, 6, 14, 29, 30, 56.57, 71, 81, 88, 185,410 

Program Office (planned), 475 

“Program Plan, Fiscal Years 1981 through 1985,” 199 

program management, 110 

programs, 47, 81, 83, 145, 153, 158, 202 

reorganization, 270, 290, 300, 301, 317, 340, 366,462 

Solar Terrestrial Division of OSS, 472,493 

Space Medicine Branch, 449 

Space Station Program, 467 

Space Station Program Office (interim), 467, 493 

Space Tracking and Data Systems, 300 

Space Transportation Operations, 300 

Spacelab Flight Division of OSSA, 472, 493 

Technical Exchange Agreement, 480 

“Technologies for the Handicapped and Agcd,” 44 

189, 199, 209, 214, 230, 339, 358, 365, 379,401,494,497 

342,472,493 

745 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

testing, 169, 242 

25th anniversary. 437 

See also Space Transportation Systems, Office of 

National Air and Space Museum, 14, 35, 45. 56, 106, 222, 2?6, 287, 342 439. 440, 480, 486 

National Association for Search and Rescue, 388. 389 

National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), 66, 155 

National Bureau of Standards, 93. 322. 476. 477 

National Business Aircraft Association, I25 

National Center for Atmospheric Research, 5, 288 

National Center for Policy Analysis, 484 

national defense, 92 

National Earth Satellite Service (NESS) (formerly National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration and National Environmental Satellite Service, 205, 206, 397 

National Institutes of Health (NIH), 329 

National Joint Propulsion Conference, 348 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 5, 9, 25, 27 38, 64, 66, 67, 86, 

93, 110, 138, 144, 153, 160, 179, 193, 199. 205 207, 213. 254. 284, 357, 397, 406.475, 

492, 522 

Marine Rshcrics Service (NMFS), 194 

National Severe Storms Laboratory. 194 

NOAA-B. 153. 159, 207 

NOAA-C, 160. 284 

NOAA-F. 167, 232, 372, 491 

NOAA-G, 167. 232 

NOM-7, 284 

NOAA-A (No~u 6), 38, 153, 284 

NOAA-E (NOUO 8), 167. 406, 410, 490 

National Oceanic Satellite System (NOSS), I IO. 179. 250> 259 

Nalional Operational Environmental Satellite System (NOESS), I53 

National Organization for Women (NOW), 159 

National Park Service, 239 

National Research Council (NRC) (U.S.), 109: 175, 288 

National Research Laboratory (NRL), 129, 134 

National Science Foundation (NSF), 5, 57; 64, 121. 131, 369, 5125 

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), 153. 273 

National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSHF) (Texas). 23. 217, 369. 412 473 

National Space Club: 133 

National Space Technology Laboratories (NSTL], 26, 38. 41, EO. 84.97 119: 130, 132. 137. 

140, 142, 149, 161, 180, 181, 203, 235, 241, 382 467 

National Taxpayers Union. 198 

National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 27 

National Transportation Safety Board, 109 

National Trust for Historic Preservation, 41.5 

National Weather Service, 382 

National Wildlife Refuge, 160 

natural resources, 17 I 

Naugle, John E., 29, 30, 231 

Naval Electronics System Command, 291 

Naval Research Laboratory, 426, 483 

Naval Space Command, 424 

Naval Weapons Center. 233 

navigation, automatic. 279 

746 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Navstar satellite (USAF), 83, 133, 409 

Navy, U.S., 5,44, 125, 132, 150, 151, 171, 189, 249, 273, 274, 324 373, 426, 461, 500, 514 

near-sensing programs, 208 

nebula, 401, 442 

Neidner, Malcolm, 485 

Nelson, George D. (Pinky), 400, 413,474 

Nelson, Todd E., 273 

Neptune (planet), 6, 7, 304, 371, 410, 411, 418 

Ness, Norman F., 29 

Netherlands, 3, 15: 25, 56, 64, 156, 179, 228, 446 

Neugebauer, Gerry 456 

Neupert, Werner, 184 

neutral-bouyancy simulator, 192 

neutrinos, 225, 226 

New China News Agency 

New Delhi, 363 

New England, 2 17 

New Guinea, 122 

New Jersey, 130 

New Mexico, 118, 230 

New Orleans, La., 3 1, 53 

New York, N.Y., 117 

New York Society of Illustrators, 202 

Newell, Homer E., Jr., , 426 

Newman, C. Thomas, 109, 312 

Newman, Lany, 420,505 

Newport, Werner, 184 

Newport News, Va., 215 

Newton, Jon, 481 

NGC 6946, 227 

Niamey, 140 

Nicks, Oran W., 125 

Nicollier, Claude, 3, 156, 179, 297, 513 

Niell, Arthur E., 92 

Niger, 140 

night landings, 432, 446 

Nike-Orion (rocket), 75, 195, 350 

Nikon Inc., 66 

Nimbus 

Aerospace Agency, 393 

Nimbus 5, 35.5, 405 

Nimbus 6, 237, 233, 430 

Nimbus 7, IO, 193, 393, 525 

1979 J1 (satellite), 150 

1979 52 (satellite), 150 

1983TB (unknown object), 445, 446 

nitrogen, 41, 335,489 

Nixon, Richard M., 329, 370 

Nola, Frank J., 63, 88 

Nordsat, 145 

Norfolk General Hospital, 85 

tetroxide, 283, 299, 305, 311, 315,438, 446 

747 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Norman, Okla., I94 

North, Ed, 153 

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NAADC), 464 

North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). 23, 37, 42, 75, 125. 169 209, 280. 41 1 

North American Rockwell. 338 

North Carolina, 209 

North Star. 427 

Northwest Airlines, 288 

Northwest Terntories (N.W.T.), Canada, 31 1 

Noway, 169, 191. 228 

Norwegian Sea, 169 

Nova I, 273 

Novick, Robert, 337 

nuclear arms teht area, 156 

nuclear cmulsion studies, 30 

nuclear power, 149, 349, 404 

nuclear reactor, 404 

nuclear warhead, I56 

numerical aerodynamic simulator (NAS), 394 

Nysmith, C. Robert, 317, 493 

nystagmus (eye condition), 452 

Oakley, Merrill. 309 

OAO Corporation, 30, 221 

Oaziz, 147 

Obayashi, Tatsuzo, 3 14 

Oberg, James E., 439. 499 

Oberon (Uranus moon), 349 Oberphaffenhofen 

Observatory for Geophysical Monitoring of Climatic Change, !;34 

ocean color experiment. 65, 66 

ocean data, 166, 179, 275, 284, 342 

Ocean of Storms, 284 

Ocean Search, Inc.. 

oceanographic data, 393, 468 

Ockels, Wubbo, 3, 156, 179, 297, 314, 323 

O’Connor. Brian D., 161, 470 

O’Dell, C. Robert, 4x5 

Odlum, Floyd, 203 

O’Hara, Tom, 202 

Ohio Statc University, 30, 139 

Ohira, Masayoshi. 68 

O’Keefe, John A., 167. 470 

0 ’ Keefe, Wil I iam S . 

Okinawa Island, 259 

Oklahoma, 269, 280 

Olstad, Walter B., 57, 221, 31 7 

O’Neill, Gerard K., 289 

Onizuka, Ellison S., 370, 467 

Ontario, IO 

Opal, Chet, 485 

Operation Paperclip, 187 

optical fabrication, 282 

optical landing aid, 76 

748 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

optics, 349 

Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV), 491 

Orbital Systems Corporation, 410 

Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV), 365 

orbiter, 4, 7,9, 10, 11, 13, 38, 74, 76, 88, 146, 159, 197. 269, 311 322, 326 

changes, 41 

engines, 146 

lunar, 57 

Orbiter 1, 326 

Orbiter 2, 326 

OV-2, 269 

OV-99, 7, 9, 437 

OV-102, 7, 9, 269, 437 

OV-103, 7, 9 

OV-104, 7, 9 

permanent, 350, 358 

reusable, 14, 289 

Oao 3 (Copernicus), 222, 252 

Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), 252 

orbiting satellite carrying amateur radio (OSCAR), 304 

orbits, 328, 369 

deorbiting, 7, 40 

Earth missions, 280 

eccentric, 407 

elliptical, 410, 415, 438 

fixed, 150 

gcostationary, 8, 34, 37, 51, 261, 284, 433, 461, 494 

geostationary transfer, 5 I7 

geosynchronous, 34, 157, 182, 205, 206, 229, 232, 241, 280, 289, 310, 321, 329, 409, 412, 

413, 421, 423,476 

geosynchronous transfer, 255 

heliocentric, 417 

horseshoe, 326 

near-geosynchronous, 238, 333 

near-polar, 225, 332 

polar, 284, 393 

polar-transfer, 273 

“round,” 347 

stationary, 122, 427 

Sun-synchronous, 34 

synchronous, 5, 37, 53, 268, 333, 339, 348, 360, 413,414 

synchronous transfer, 207, 221, 372 

transfer, 79, 84,232,333,347, 360, 366,409, 412, 425, 430,434 

orbit-maneuvering system (OMS), 265 

OMS- 1, 265 

OMS-2, 265 

Oregon Graduale Center, 208 

origins of plasmas in Earth’s neighborhood (OPEN), 94 

Orion (barge), 322 

Orion (nebula), 348 

Orion (rocket), 75 

Ormsby, Robert B., Jr., 197, 198 

149 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUnCS INDEX 

Osgood, Charles. 93 

Oshkosh, Wisc., 99 

OSTA I, 65, 66 

O’Toole, Thomas, 37 

Ors (satellite), 120 

Ottawa, 154 

Overmyer, Robert F., 33 I, 376, 400 

oxygen, 365 

OSS-I, 184, 313, 336 

gaseous. 309 

liquid (LOX), 38. 53. 85, 86, 124. 146, 220, 221, 235, 242, 251, 253, 262, 307, 308, 438, 

leak, 403, 460 

pressure, 377, 385 

495 

ozone, 75, 208, 249, 288, 305, 313 

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), 117, 208 

Pacific Ocean, 5, 23.40, 43. 64, 148, 177. 231, 254, 266. 31 6.492 

Packard, David, 329 

Pad A, 24 

Page, George F., 31, 244, 262, 297, 299, 307, 351 

Page America. I77 

Paine, Thomas A,. 185 

Painter, Wen, 280 

Palapa. 22, 220 

Palapa A-1, 22 

Palapu A-2, 22 

Palapa B system, 22, 418 

Palapa B-I. 241 

Palapa B-2. 241, 464, 496, 516, 518 

Palestine, Tex., 217. 369 

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), 310, 381 

Palmdale, Calif.. 14, 54, 165 

Palo Alto, Calif., 4, 16 

Palomar, 86 

Pan American World Airways. 466 

Pang, Kevin D., 1 17 

parachutes, 233. 351. 358. 399,473. 515 

Paris. France, 153 

Paris. Paul C., 198 

Parker, Robert, 157. 314, 447, 448 

Parks, Robert J.. 14, 456 

Pasadena, Calif., 16. 241, 293 

Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.. 73. 3 11. 335 

payload specialists. 3, 16, 156. 236. 297. 323. 359, 372, 399,424 448,451, 463, 510 

payload-assist module (PAM), 465 

Payload-Operations Control Center (POCC), 35%. 498 

payloads, 15, 23, 34: 54, 57, 62,65> 73,77, 78, 80, 88. 91. 118, 124 127, 150, 184, 191, 

195,215, 229, 266, 271, 273, 274, 281, 301, 310 313, 314, 329, 332, 335, 340, 345. 

351, 360, 363. 365, 369, 372,401 413,434,448, 476, 485. 489,499. 512. 524 

Civil Engineering Squadron. 3 I1 

commercial, 376 

cost, 151, 160 

750 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

experiments, 298 

free-flying, 74 

“getaway specials” (GAS), 353 

maritime communications, 23 1 

passenger, 260 

reservations, 103 

retrieval, 140, 195, 230, 281 

scientific, 283, 380, 453 

search-and-rescue, 490 

transfer of, 243 

Payne, Randolph, 173 

peaceful uses of space technology, 4, 154 

Pearl, John C., 29 

Peenemunde, 188 

Pegasus, 154 

Pegasus I, 75 

Pegasus 2, 75, 83 

Pegasus 3, 75 

Pennsylvania, 217 

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, 2 16 

Pennsylvania State University, 118, 195 

People’s Republic of China (PRC), 4, 11, 27,42,52, 54, 74, 85, 104 127, 145, 156, 209, 228, 

299, 349, 364, 392, 428, 461,498 

Academy of Sciences, 110, 392 

Academy of Space Technology, 4, 27 

cooperation with the Unitcd States, 4 

RPC 13, 428 

training of astronauts, 105 

Pcrcheron project, 289, 291 

Perkin-Elmer Corporation, 282, 315, 406 

Perry, GeofTrey, 439 

Perry, William J., 33 

Peru, 64, 228, 406 

Petersen, Richard H., 5 19, 526 

Peterson, Donald H., 332, 407, 408 

Peterson Air Force Base, 125 

Petrone, Rocco A,, 185 

Petrov, Boris, 190 

Pettit, Donald R., 470 

Pham Tuan, 185, 189, 190, 203, 204 

phenomena induced by charged-particle beams (PICPAB), 236 

Philadelphia, 4 

Philco Corporation, 449 

Philippines, 22, 241 

Philips (Netherlands company), 91 

Phobos (Mars satellite), 117 

Phoebe (Saturn moon), 263, 331 

Phoenix, Ariz., 236 

photography, 166, 177, 199, 206, 220, 226, 228, 236, 266, 267, 293 294, 336, 357, 430 

ultraviolet, 232 

X-ray, 337 

photometers, 446 

75 I 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

photons: 282 

photopolarimeter, 333 

phototypesetting technology, 206: 207 

physiological studies, 268 

Pickering, William, 312 

Pilotless Aircraft Research Station, 180 

pilotless research vehicle, 71 

Pilyugin, Nikolai, 360, 361 

Pioneer, 24, 55, 56, 60, 61, 62, 78, 123, 159, 235, 243, 280, 333 

Pioneer 6. 243, 306, 414 

Pioneer 7, 243, 306, 414 

Pioneer 8, 243, 306, 414 

Pioneer 9, 243, 306, 414 

Pioneer IO. 43, 56, 123. 306, 333, 41 I, 418 

Pioneer 11. 38,49, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61.62, 78, 220, 263, 306 

Pioneer 12, 306 

Pioneer Saturn, 55, 123 

Pioneer-Venus, 16, 24, 26, 28. 124, 162, 225, 232, 235, 322, 331. 483 

Pioneer Venus I. 28, 33 I 

Pioneer Venus 2. 28, 331 

Pioneer Parachute Company, 5 15 

Piper, William T., 189 

Piper Aircraft Corporation, I89 

Pisa, Italy, 120 

plasma-wave phenomena and instruments. 279, 406,176,483, 497 

Plum Brook (test area), 209 

Pluto (planet), 6, 7, 43, 349, 350, 371, 41 I 

POGO (satellites), 77, 25 I 

pogo-correction device, 107, 132 

Pogue, William, 216, 377, 385 

Poland, 11, 66. 75, 273, 523 

polarimeter, 337 

political aspects, 133, 379, 392 

pollutants and contaminants, 21 1, 321, 391, 407, 459 

Polynom apparatus, 17 

Pond, Clayton, 202 

Ponnamperuma, Cynl. I2 I 

Pool, Sam, 447 

Popov, Leonid, 147, 159, 163, 164, 166, 169, 177, 178, 185, 1!:9, 203 208, 213-216> 222, 

Port Arthur, Tcx., 194 

Poseidon (barge), 16 

Potate, John S., 234 

Powell, Luther E., 74 

power consumption systems, 88, 150 

power factor controller, 63 

power transmission system, 52 

power units, 308 

Powers, John A. (Shorty), I13 

Pratt & Whitney. See United Technologies Corporation 

Presque Isle. Me., 153 

cosmonauts, 1 I 

234, 273, 276, 359, 377, 384 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Press, Frank, 4, 7, 86, 112, 219 

Princeton University, 30, 86, 191 

hnz, Dianne K., 16, 152, 483 

Prognoz 7. 162 

Institute for Advanced Study, 210 

Progress 

Progress 2, 18 

Progress 5, 18, 3 1 

Progress 6, 31, 39, 40 

Progress 7, 49 

Progress 8, 147, 148 

Progress9, 148, 163 

Progress 10, 178, 185, 189 

Progress 1 I, 2 I3 

Progress 12, 260,.261 

Progress 13, 346, 347 

Progress 16, 377 

Progress 17, 430, 434 

Progress 18. 430 

Progress 20, 479 

Progress 23, 495 

program operating plan (POP), 69 

Project Condor, 406 

Project Orion, 210 

Project Whitecloud, 5 14 

Promontoly Point, Utah, 34 

propulsion systems, 84, 85, 113, 132, 161, 181, 220,236, 237, 251 269, 289, 297, 299, 329, 

337, 347, 349, 363, 386,437, 490 

flight test, 294 

liquid, 47, 110, 127, 167, 181, 183, 214, 262, 326 

on-board, 280, 340 

protons, 225,481 

proton-electron flux, 284 

Proxmire, William, 197, 198, 345, 346 

hnariu, Durnitru, 273, 276 

F’tacek, Stephen, 287 

Puddy, Don, 107,256,266 

PuertoRico,24, 111, 135,209 

pulsars, 279, 337 

Purcell, Joseph, 11 6 

Purdue University, 139, 405 

Purgold, Gerald C., 210, 21 I 

pylons, 279, 337 

pyrotechnic shock test, 171 

Quagliarello, Ernesto, 469 

Quann, John J., 366 

quasars, 222, 240, 241, 279, 346, 371 

Queen Mary, 158,202 

Queen Maud Land, 13 I 

quiet clean general-aviation turbofan (QCGAT), 78 

Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing, 139 

PKS2000-330, 371 

753 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

quiet short-haul research aircraft (QSRA), 189, 193, 249, 291) 

Quistgaard, Erik, 98, 233 

radar, 24, 28, 330, 358, 379, 391, 406,464 

C-band system, I41 

mapping, 410 

radar-sensing craft, 345 

radiation, 13, 154, 333, 501 

belts, 171, 395 

contamination, 39 I 

infrared, 393, 512 

solar, 393 

Radiation Monitor Experiment, 5 16 

radiators, 329 

radios 

cellular, 380, 381 

tracking, 369 

radio communications, 123, 184, 193, 291, 377 

Radio Corporation of America (RCA), 93, 94, 96, 121. 122, 127. 128 135, 206, 310, 424. 421 

American Communications Company, 449 

Astro-Electronics. 179, 284, 495 

RCA Americom, 310, 433 

RCA-C, 321 

RCA-D, 433 

RCA-E, 433 

RCA-F, 433 

RCA-G, 433 

Radio Luxembourg, 145 

radio static. 336 

Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, 186 

radio waves, 154 

radioactivity. 134, 331, 391 

isotopes. 322 

radioastronorny, 240, 2’41 

radioisotope photoelectric generator, 134 

radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), 230, 327. 398 

radiomerq 140. 199. 208. 232, 284. 342, 355, 381, 382 

radiotelephones. 382 

radiotelescope. 58, 346 

Ragent, Boris, 24 

Ramaty, Reuven, 162 

Rand Corporation, 198 

Ranow, Wayne C., 267 

Ransome Airlines, 249 

Rauschenburg, Robert, 202 

reactor-control system, 300, 329, 339 

Readdy, William F. ~ 470 

Reagan, Ronald W., 244, 249, 256, 269, 274. 275, 309, 325, 370, 376 383, 391, 392. 394, 

397. 379,407,409,414, 420, 421. 425,432, 437 451,460, 463, 469,475,493, 496, 

498. 500, 511. 519, 524 

receiver-processors, 63 

Recking Peak moraines, 13 I 

recommaissance vehicles, 15, 142 

754 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

recovey, 363. See also satellite, retrieval; Space Shuttle, retrieval 

Redmond, Charles, 308 

Redondo Beach, Calif, 4, 51 

Redstone, 187 

Redstone Army Air Held, 22 

Redstone Arsenal, 2 1 7 

reentry, 23, 75, 83, 113, 169, 245, 265, 268, 270, 271, 280, 289, 294 391, 400 300, 332, 340, 

341, 347 

problems, 55, 266 

See also Skylab 

Reiber, Duke, 43 

Reiche, Henry C., Jr., 381 

remote control, 340 

remote-manipulator system (RMS), 281, 289, 322, 336 

mechanical arm, 151, 152, 298, 309, 313, 335, 336,413, 419, 420,430,474,480, 503, 

remote-sensing programs, 9, 15, 86, 108, 140, 142, 144, 154, 171, 208 21 1, 251, 334, 409, 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 175, 494 

repair, 103, 108, 256, 330, 342, 370, 408,413,464, 491 

Republic Airlines, 176 

research and devekipment (R&D), 77, 83, 95, 109, 110, 132, 137, 138 141, 144, 193, 215, 16, 

5 10 

434,467,469 

See also Space Shuttle 

259, 285, 304, 327, 345, 348, 354, 358, 369 375, 392, 393,397, 496, 506 

airway systems, 24 

atmospheric, 1 12, 118 

biomedical, 453 

clinical, 449 

energy, 229, 230 

microgravity, 340 

oceanic, 129 

research vehicles, 179, 189 

Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science, 383, 405 

Research on Atmospheric Volcanic Emission (RAVE), 208 

Resnick, Judith A., 152, 399,487,489, 500, 503 

Reston, Va., 1 12 

retrieval, 408,413,419,464,474,480,491,496, 515, 516 

See also Space Shuttle 

return-beam vidicon (RBV), 291 

Reuters, 39, 127, 215,428 

Reynolds Aluminum Company, 53 

Reynolds numbers, 137 

Rhea (Saturn moon), 62, 228, 263 

Rhode Island, 209 

Rice University, 485 

Richards, Richard N., 161 

Ride, Sally K., 152, 355, 386,418-420,503, 509, 513 

rings, 263,315 

Jupiter, 42, 76 

Saturn, 56, 59, 60, 62, 78, 167, 226, 293 

Uranus, 5 1 1 

Ritter, James C., 134 

155 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Roanoke, Va., 2 17 

robotics, 196, 219, 331. 335 

Rockefeller University, 145 

rocket motors, 289 

problems. 76 

solid-fuel, 74, 127 

See also solid-fuel rocket boosters 

rockets, 46. 54, 74, 75.77, 85, 87, 118, 159, 184, 188, 194, 195. 225 238, 239. 255, 279, 

292, 304, 317, 337, 363, 393, 398,406, 438, 465 481,499 

A-2, 438 

applications, 230 

casings. 242 

G rocket (Soviet), 294, 295 

geophisical, 66 

manuevering. 335 

MU-35, 255 

nozzles, 440, 441, 447, 489 

on-board maneuvering. 266 

research, 179, 312 

reusable, 289 

sale of parts, 414, 481 

SLV-3, 183 

sounding, 118, 191, 350 

Star-48, 489 

V-2, 81 

H-I, 262 

Rockwell International Corporation, 9. 14, 27. 38,4I, 45. 54, 70, 76 84, 86, 91, 103. I IO. 

122, 130, 132, 140, 157, 159, 179, 209, 220283. 358 

Autonetics Strategic Systems Division, 91 

Energy Systems Group, 209 

North American Aircraft Division. 7 I 

Palmdale plant, 308 

Rocketdyne Division, 80, 105, 1 IO. 380 

Space Systems Group, 83 

Rodnik, 163 

Rogers, Thomas F., 5 I8 

Rohini I, 183 

Rolls Royce of England, 154 

Romanenko, Yuri V.. 58, 163, 208, 504 

Romania, 75, 257, 273, 276 

room temperature vulcanizing (RTV), 515 

Rosat (Roentgensatellit), 271, 358 

Rose, Gregory J., 470 

Rosen, Stanley G., 104 

Ross, Jerry L., 161, 463 

Rota, 251 

rotor-systems research aircraft (RSRA), 3 14, 3 I5 

Rukavkhnikov, Nikolay. 40 

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 

Ryumin, Valery, II, 17, 18, 31: 49.58> 71, 147. 148, 159, 163, 164 166: 169, 177, 185, 189, 

Sachs Harbor, 3 I I 

203,208, 213-216. 222, 234, 273, 377, 384 385, 424 

156 
WDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Saclay, France, 120 

Sacramento ,Peak, N.M., 16 

safety, 10, 24, 37, 155, 167, 175, 244, 259, 262, 298, 330, 403 

Sagan, Carl, 45 

St. Louis, Mo., 47, 287 

St. Louis Port Authority, 47 

St. Regis Paper Company, 138, 139 

St. Vincent, 26 

Saipan, 177, 215, 225 

Salt Lake City, Utah, 44 

Salyut, 350,404,41 I, 423, 454 

Southern Timberland Division, 138 

Salyut6, IO, 11, 17, 18, 31, 39,47,49, 58,71, 72,97, 113, 134, 147,148, 159, 163, 164, 

166, 169, 177, 178, 185, 189, 190, 203, 208,213-216, 222, 234, 239, 257, 260, 273, 

276, 281, 301, 341, 385, 424, 465 

434, 438,439,446,452,454,465,473,479,491,492, 495,503, 509 

Salyut 7, 341, 345, 347, 350, 353, 359, 360, 377, 384, 404, 411,421,423,424, 428,430, 

Salyut-Cosmos, 341 

San Diego, Calif., 62, 210, 240, 323 

San Francisco, Calif., 46, 92, 104, 106, 153, 167, 240 

San Marco platform, 23, 118 

San Pedro, Calif., 353 

Sandler, Harold, 138 

Sandusky, Ohio, 209 

Santa Susana, Calif., I10 

Satcom program, 135, 221 

Satcorn 1, 127, 128 

Satcom 3 (RCA), 93.94.96, 122, 123, 128 

Satcorn 4, 310, 321 

Satellite Business Systems (SBS), 30,46, 129, 221, 229, 238, 300, 376 489, 500 

SBS-A (SbS I), 229 

SBS-B (Sbs Z), 300 

SBS-D (Sbs 4), 500, 503 

satellites, 15, 22, 26, 68, 86,93,94, 139, 325, 375 

artificial, 52 

broadcasting, 459 

commercial, 8,43, 166, 238, 240, 310, 331, 347, 348, 354, 363 

communications, 8,9, 25-28, 39,41,43,48, 51,77, 79, 80, 83, 95, 118, 122, 129, 135, 

139, 145, 146, 166, 170, 206, 215, 220, 222, 229, 232, 237, 239, 240, 255,261, 310, 

330, 333, 347, 348, 354, 355, 372, 376, 398,413, 419,421,425,427,431,441,448, 

48 1 

data-relay, 116, 157, 395, 399 

early-warning, 61 

Egrth-observation, 34 

environmental, ,207, 213 

geostationary, 255 

geosynchronous, 475 

global communications, 173, 179, 217, 220, 316 

infrared astronomy, 6 

intelligence-gathering, 345 

magnetic field, 56 

maritime communications, 231, 259, 316, 345, 364 

757 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

meteorological. 34, 199. 254, 255. 260, 283 

military, 106, 372 

navigational, 273. 274 

ocean surveillance. 128, 391 

orbiting, 282, 369 

POGO, 77 

PRC "spy in the sky," 74 

reconnaissance, 73. 218, 391 

remote-sensing. 4. 77 

research. 250, 260 

retrieval, 152, 297, 306 

scientific, 206, 255, 271 

small astronomy, 23 

SPOT, 15 

surveillance, 165 

telecommunications, 465 

tethcred, 394 

tracking, 116, 122, 157, 395, 399, 472 

weather, IO, 80. 86, 206. 284. 288, 380, 522 

X-ray, 271 

See also communications; television 

Saturn (planet), 13. 49, 56, 59, 60, 62, 78, 95, 96, 124, 157, 167 196, 206, 211, 218, 227, 

Saturn, 110, 187. 226 

Saturn V, 45, 203 

Saturn 5, 57. 294 

228, 232, 235, 249, 262-264, 279, 293, 304 315. 325, 399. 410, 427 

Saudi Arabia, 25 

Savage, J. C., 92 

Savinykh, Viktor. 260, 261, 273, 276 

Savitskaya, Svetlana, 359, 360, 377, 419, 491, 492, 504 

Savoca, Tony L.. 494 

Scandanavia, 25, 145 

scanners, 27, 139, 140 

linear array, 240 

multispectral (MSS), 172, 240, 292, 355, 397 

Scarab 2, 351 

Scarf, Frederick L., 279 

scatterorneters 

C-band, 468 

wave, 461 

wind, 467 

Scherer, Lee R., 57, 81, 364 

Schirra, Walter M., 120, 274 

Schmitt, Harrison, 166, 187 

Sehneider, William C., 125 

Schnever, Bernard A,. I89 

Schubert, lohannes, 281 

Schweikart, Russell L. (Rusty), 48, 49, 504 

Science and Industry Museum, 63 

Science Applications Inc.. 328 

Science Research Council (SRC), 108 

scientific research facility, resusable, 325 

758 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

scientific studies and experiments, 4, 16, 18, 22, 26, 30, 31, 36, 38 42, 47.48, 52, 56, 80, 84, 

87, 93, 120, 121, 128, 144, 204, 250 252, 273, 281, 283, 289, 291, 293, 298, 315, 333, 

434, 447,448, 490 505 

animals, 75, 244 

biology, 305 

disappointments, 54 

forestry, 217 

instruments, 77, 161, 225, 322, 393 

laser applications, 282 

plants, 87, 145, 163, 305, 306 

Spacelab, 151 

scientists, 108, 155, 162, 179, 184, 256, 268 

European, 179, 256 

Scobee, Francis R., 400, 412, 474 

Scorpius (constellaton), 5 

Scott Air Force Base, 167 

Scott Science and Technology, 341 

Scout, IO, 33, 68, 127,206,273, 274 

Scully-Power, Paul D., 510 

Sea of Smyth, 454 

Seabrook, Tex., 161 

search-and-mcue (SAR) missions and systems, 63, 167, 185, 259, 365 406,420,522 

search-and-rescue satellite-aided tracking (SARSAT), 365, 372, 410, 490 

search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), 210 

Seattle, Wash., 144 

Seddon, Margaret Rhea, 355, 463 

Seiff, Alvin, 28 

Selenia (Italian company), 91 

Senate, U.S. See Congress, U.S. 

Senior Interagency Group for Space, 409 

Serebrov, Aleksandr, 41 I 

Sergo Ordzhonikidze Aviation Institute, 492 

servomotors, 172 

7-Up Company, 67 

Severe Storm Forecast Center, 213 

Sewell, Chuck, 523 

Shafer, Robert J., 109 

Shanghai, 105 

Sharma, Rakesh, 473 

Sharpe, Lonnie, Jr., 470 

Shatalov, Vladimir, 11, 233, 452 

Shaw, Brewster H., Jc, 447, 451, 463 

Shenandoah (dirigible), 506 

Shepard, Alan B., 180, 274, 392 

Shick, William H.,, 237 

Shilstone, Arthur, 202 

shock absorber system, 307, 309 

Shoemaker, Gene, 210 

Shramo, Daniel J., 83 

Shriver, Loren J., 370, 467 

Shultz, George P., 383, 392 

‘The Crawler: Rollout of the Enterprise,” 202 

159 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

shutdown, 335 

Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), 132 

Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR), 379, 510 

shuttle-pallet satellite (SPAS), 281 

Siebel, Mathias P., 3 1 

Sierra Nevada, 239 

Sievers, G. Kenneth, 78 

Silvcira, Milton A,, 425 

Simon, George W., 16, 483 

Simons. Vera, 66, 68 

Simpson, John, 60, 524 

Singapore, 22, 25, 98, 241 

Singer Kearfott Company, 456 

Sino 2, 188 

sirio-2, 364 

Six, Robert F., 189 

Sjoberg, Sigurd A., 30, 57 

Skiba. Ivan, 384 

Sky-Tel, 176 

Skylab, 7, 9. 33, 48, 55, 75. 133, 153, 274, 376, 377, 385, 408,434 

SPAS-01, 281 

launches, 81, 284 

people, 125 

radioactivity, 43 

reentry. 33. 37, 55: 57 

Skylub 1, 332 

Skylab 3, 313, 434 

Skylab 4, 216, 221 

Skylark 12, 

Slayton, Donald K. (Deke), 14, 15, 54. 256, 274. 31 I, 328, 3854,433 

small astronomy satellite (SAS), 23, 1 IO 

Sus 2, I10 

Sus 3, 23 

Smith, Bradford A., 218, 220, 226, 227, 263, 51 1 

Smith, David, 56 

Smith, Delbert D., 209 

Smith, Michael J., 161 

Smith, Richard G., 43, 57, 244, 255 

Smithsonian Institute, 106, 158, 202 

Sms I, 205, 254 

Sms 2, 205, 254 

Smylie, Robert E., 145, 407, 449 

Sochi, 123 

Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP), 172 

Soderblom, Laurence A,, 29, 42 

See also Naiional Air and Space Museum 

solar, 

activity, 119. 123, 152, 184, 342 

mays, 172, 329, 340. 367, 407. 432, 500 

batteries, 239, 447 

cells, 151, 236, 239, 243, 367 

cosmic rays, 243 
lNDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

cycle, I15 

data, 13, 157, 243 

disk, 152 

eclipse, 10 

energy, 14, 85, 115, 117, 162, 230, 291, 298, 342 

gravity, 235 

heat, 334 

magnetic field, 243 

minimum, 333 

panels, 7, 85, 172, 180,406 

physics, 151, 161 

power, 74, 96, 115, 193, 239 

radiation, 66, 121, 237, 335, 371 

sail, 363 

storms, 243, 444 

weather stations, 123, 243 

wind, 63, 146, 235, 243, 263, 264, 497 

Solar Challenger, 236, 239, 287 

Solar Maximum Mission (SMM), 115, 116, 119, 122, 185, 236, 237, 413 

Solar Maximum Observatory, 474 

solar-polar mission, 6, 17, 51, 73, 134, 259, 280 

Solar Riser, 99 

Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank Division (SRB/ET), 276 

Solar System Exploration Program, 459 

Mars Data Analysis Program, 459 

Solar Systems Exploratory Committee, 410 

flares, 184-186, 236, 237, 255. 337 

Solar Max, 185, 186, 192, 255, 342, 370,413,431,474,480, 512, 516 

solar-electric propulsion system (SEPS), 276 

solar-ultraviolet spectral irradiance monitor (SUSIM), 15 1, 152 

solid-fuel rocket boosters (SRBs), 53, 54, 88, 97, 112, 119, 132, 165 168, 169, 230, 231, 235, 

237, 242, 243, 265, 276, 297, 305, 326, 327 332, 346, 350, 357, 358, 363, 399, 400, 

405, 440, 497, 500, 515 

reusable, 350 

SRB-X, 306 

Solovieff, Nicholas, 202 

Solovyev, Vladimir, 341,465,479,492,495, 503,509 

South Africa, Union of, 208 

Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPC), 135, 238 

Soviet Union, 66, 120, 129, 156, 208, 256, 323,437,461,485,499 

academy of sciences, 438 

airbus, 123 

awards, 71 

Committee for Inventions and Discoveries, 146 

costs, 257, 268 

experiments, 62, 430 

goals, 341 

installation, IO 

launches, 22, 34,49, 66, 96,98, 149, 158, 177, 185, 190, 233, 239, 260,273, 292, 311: 

military programs, 181, 371 

Olympic contenders, 1 17 

347, 359, 372, 421,465, 523, 524 

761 
.ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS INDEX 

orbiting space station, 203 

Pravda, 256, 281 

problems, 257 

research, 177, 194, 280, 281 

rockets, 46, 209 

scientists, 75, 77, 146, 268 

search-and-rescue, 167, 372, 490 

shuttle considerations, 280, 281 

television, 215 

tests, 142, 218 

training, I I 

sounders, 199 

sounding rocket program, IO 

Soyuz, 96, 185. 214. 222. 239, 404, 438, 439, 416 

Sovui 5, 214 

Soyuz 8, 2 14 

So~uz 10, 40. 214 

Soyuz 11, 233, 239 

Soyuz 16. 40 

Soyuz 25, 1 I, 260 

So~ui26, 18, 58. 163 

Suwz 27, 233 

Soyuz 29. 10, 18, 31, 39, 58. 260 

Soyuz32, 10, 11, 17, 18,31, 39,40, 58, 189, 213 

Susuz 33, 40 

Suvuz 34, 40, 58 

Soyuz35, 139, 147. 148, 163, 164, 166, 177, 213 

Suyuz36, 158, 164, 166, 177. 189, 190, 204, 234 

Suvuz 37, 185, 189, 190, 203, 215 

Sovuz 39, 261, 276 

Soyuz 40, 273, 276 

Suyuz T, 96, 97, 98, 113, 134, 222, 234, 276, 41 1, 465 

Soyuz 7-1, I66 

Soyuz T-3, 233, 234, 239, 465 

Soyuz T-4, 260, 261, 216 

Soyuz 12, 233 

Soyui 38, 208 

SOWZ T-2, 166, 169, 177, 178, 234 

SO~UZ T-5, 347, 350, 353, 359, 360 

S~UZ T-6, 3.50, 353 

SUJUZ T-7, 359, 377, 384, 491 

Suyuz T-8, 41 I 

SOYUZ T-9, 421. 423. 424. 430, 434, 446 

SO~UZ T-IO. 465, 413 

Soyuz T-11, 509 

SO>WZ T-12, 491, 492 

Space Adaptation Syndrome, 449 

Space Aerospace. I52 

Space America, 433 

Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee, 381 

Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) (USAF), 8, 73, 79 

Space and Rocket Center, 5 19 

162 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Space Defense Center, 23 

Space Environment Services Center, 123 

Space Industrialization Act, 166 

space operations center (SOC), 329, 330 

“Space, Our Next Frontier” (conference), 484 

space platform, unmanned, 433,434,491 

Space Sciences Inc., 328 

Space Services, Inc. (SSI), 433 

Space Shuttle, 3,4, 6, 8, 13, 16, 38, 79, 88, 107, 112, 118, 131. 150, 151, 154, 168, 176, 

188, 200, 214, 220, 237, 250, 253, 270, 283, 327, 328, 365, 404, 410,440.449.490, 

493,494,496 

assembly, 23 

budget andcosts, 68, 69, 83, 111, 122, 123, 133, 134, 304 

camer aircraft, 466 

civilian reservations, 103, 366 

crew, 5 1, 305 

delays, 155, 165, 289, 292. 304, 335, 417,440,479, 515 

engines, 80, 97, 111, 119, 137, 141-143, 162, 167, 226, 237 

facilities, 34 

first mission (Columbia), 53, 149, 256,269, 270,274, 275, 277, 287, 512 

flight 41-D, 489, 503 

flight 41-F, 489 

flight SI-A, 463, 515 

flight 51-C, 515 

flight 51-D, 463 

ffight 61-D, 463 

fourth mission (Discovery), 304, 322, 351 

funding, 33, 69 

launch, 73, 74, 87, 160, 171, 174, 176, 182, 187, 225, 232, 262 

management, 68-7 1, 83 

national defense, 92 

night landings, 432 

nonastmnauts, 366 

orbiters, 7, 9, 137, 159, 205 

organization, 70 

passengers, 180, 455 

people, 21, 131,453, 470, 498 

planetary, 349 

planning problems, 69 

problems, 3, 141, 274 

production, 83 

reentry, 267 

repair, 103, 108, 256, 342 

retrieval, 105, 115, 124, 211, 256, 342 

reusable, 46, 103, 159, 181, 219, 274, 414 

safely, 256 

scheduling, 70, 84, 87, 187, 196,’260,262, 271 

second mission (STS-2). 271, 274, 304, 305, 308, 309, 322 

subcontractors, 69 

technical problems, 70 

telecommunications, 276 

tests, 11, 27, 157, 171, 176, 203. 241, 242, 251. 256, 480 

763 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS IYDEX 

third mission (ET-3). 301, 305. 309. 322> 323 

training exercise. I85 

space sickness, 428, 429. 431, 449, 473 

Space Station. orbiting, 203. 246, 409,460,472, 475. 479, 486,490 493, 495, 496, 503.505 

design, 467 

urganization. 467, 471 

study contracts, 471 

task force. 469, 475 

"Chibis," 495 

problems. 167. 377, 380. 383. 398. 408, 460 

space suits, 58. 62, 143. 168. 192. 199. 269, 290. 335, 355, 370, 408 438, 495 

Space .Fask Group (STG). 1 I2 

Space Technology Laboratories. 27 

Space Telescope (ST), 6. 55, 86, 160, 191, 250. 304. 315. 327. 406 442, 443 

Space Transportation Systems Acquisition, Office of, 75, 81 

Space Transportation Systems (STS), Office of, 5. 39, 57. 75, 88, I18 150, 179, 184. 188. 199. 

242. 25 I. 276. 303, 342, 366, 376, 49 I, 496 497, 5 16 

Expendable Equipment Division, 276 

management, 303 

Space Adaptation Project. 449 

STS-I, 251, 265. 297. 309, 342 

STS-2, 271, 274. 292. 309. 375, 379, 380 

STS-3. 375 

STS-4. 331. 350. 353, 375, 398, 400. 487 

STS-6, 33 I. 407 

STS-7, 375. 400. 408, 418-420, 449 

STS-8. 400, 408. 413, 414, 430-432.449 

STS-9. 408.448. 451.455. 463 

STS-IO, 370 

STS-I I, 398 

STS-12. 398 

STS-13. 400. 413 

STS-41C. 474 

STS-41D, 500 

Upper Stage Division, 276 

See also Columbia; Space Shuttle 

STS-5. 281. 331, 370, 375, 377, 380. 385. 398, 400 

s-mix. 400 

space treaty, 201. 202 

space walk. 168. 205. 355. 377, 398. 407, 408, 460, 491. 495. 503. 504 

space weapons, 142 

spacecraft charging at high altitudes (SCATHA). 8. 79 

Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN). 2 I 1. 255. 459 

Spacelab. 3. 6, 15, 74. 77, 118, 130. 151. 179. 188. 200. 226. 234 260. 271, 289. 290. 3 13. 

325, 340. 366, 380, 408. 412, 413. 421. 428431, 437, 447, 459, 463. 485. 518 

D-I. 271 

D-4. 271 

delay, 440, 441, 447 

experiments, 163. 297, 448 

instrument-pointing system, 160 

Spacelab I, 4, 156, 179. 314, 400 

Spacelab 2, 112, 321 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

Spacelab 3, 400, 498 

See also European Space Agency 

spacenauts, 341, 354 

space-pmessing applications rockets (SPAR), 77, 230 

SPAR 6, 78 

SPAR 8, 230 

Spain, 155, 203, 228, 251, 304 

Spectrolab, 15 I 

spectrometer, 415, 446, 483 

Speny Support Services, 116 

Spinak, Abraham D., 39, 301 

spinning solid upper stage (SSUS), 232, 276 

Splav furnace, 39, 204 

SPOT satellite, 15 

SP-I00 program, 404 

Spring, Sherwood C., 161, 463 

Springer, Robert C., 161 

Spruce Goose, 158, 173, 202 

Sputnik, 112, 369, 395,400 

SRI International, I96 

Sriharikota Island (India), 54, 183, 410 

SS-5 Skean vehicle, 34 

Stanford Universiq, 196, 288, 329 

STAR (German industrial consortium). 73 

Stecker, Floyd W., 225 

Stella experiment, 120 

Stewart, Frank, 26, 36, 79 

Stewart, Ian, 483 

Stewart, Roben L., 398, 463, 464 

Stitt, James E., 125 

Stofan, Andrew J., 218, 310, 338 

Stone, Fdward C., 29, 218, 262, 277, 293 

Stone. John, 337 

strain isolation pads (SIP), 5 15 

Strategic Air Command, 291 

stratospheric studies, 26, 75, 157, 158, 183, 184, 195, 208, 250, 292 305, 313, 334, 340, 357, 

369 

stratosphenc aerosol and gas expenment (SAGE), IO, 26, 158, 184, 208 305, 340 

Strekalov, Gennady, 239, 41 1, 473 

Stnckland, Pete, 193 

Structural Information Enhancement Program (SIEP), 198 

subsonic operations, 141 

sulfur gases, 334 

Sullivan, Kathryn D . 509, 5 10 

Summa Corporation, 158, 173, 176, 202 

Sun, 115, 116, 119, 132, 152, 185, 197, 243 

Stuttgart, 3 

exposure to, 324 

formation, 106 

relationship to planets, 6 

structure, 17 

studies, 51 

765 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROhAUTlCS INDEX 

sunspot activity. 342 

Sun-Earth explorer. 162 

Super Arcas (rocket), 75, 118. I95 

Super Loki (rocket). 75. I84 

supernova activities, 106. 162, 227, 271. 337 

supersonic operations, I4 I 

Suryadi, Drs, 241 

Sweden, 15, 1 IO, 209, 228 

Swigen, Jack, 38 I, 387 

Switzerland. 3, 156, 228 

SYNCOM (satellite). 463 

Synnott, Stephen P., 150, 206, 325 

Systems and Applied Sciences Corporation, 392 

Syvenson, C.A., 124, 222, 462 

Tabakaev, Eugeny, 43X 

Tallahassee. Fla.. 144 

Tallone. Tip, 267 

Talonc, John, 487 

Tanegashinia Space Center, 9, 122. 254. 398, 427. 459 

Tarantula (cloud). 401 

Tashkent: 123 

‘lass (Soviet news agency). 17, 31. 43 

Taylor, Eldon D., 57 

Taylor. Fred W.. 26 

technical services, 210 

N-49, 162 

synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). 225. 467 

problems. 176, 221, 255. 297 

rewurces. 253 

technicians. 267 

340, 345. 358 

technological studies and developments. 3. 18. 64. 80. 83, 137.. 138 151, 165, 259, 299. 310. 

advanced technolory house. 208 

problems. 28 I 

tektites. 167 

Tclecom IA, 188 

telecommunications. 3. 8. 22, 28. 41, 48. 91, I IX, 261. 276. 363. 465 

global. 210, 363, 484 

maritime, 233 

Teledyne Industries, 25 I, 279 

telegraph. 334 

Telemail, 442 

telemetry. 51, 158, 191. 217. 310. 372, 378. 451. 524 

Telepazio (Italian co.), 91 ~ 222 

telephone, 93. 143. 145> 173. 215. 216. 220. 225, 228, 231. 24.3. 259 276. 310, 316, 376, 419 

Telesat (Canada), 158, 348, 360. 418. 449. 463 

telescopes, 86, 166. 228, 252, 261, 279. 303, 315, 371, 393. 405. 427 442. 44.5. 490 

air-to-ground services, 176, 177, 216 

Telesrrr-H, 5 14 

Casscgrain, 393 

Earth, 405 

imaging, 415 

766 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

infrared, 340, 349, 351 

minors, 406 

optical, 237, 282 

radio, 237 

solar, 282, 337, 342 

space, 103, 191, 250, 282 

ultraviolet, 351, 501 

X-ray, 65, 116, 174, 213, 222, 271, 337 

Telestar 3. 503 

Telestar 3A, 425 

Telestar 3C, 500 

Telstar, 489 

television transmission, 41, 52, 93,94, 108, 122.324, 128. 143, 145 163, 205, 215, 225, 232, 

259,265,276, 293, 310, 316, 334, 350, 358 363,414,419,434 

cable, 237, 505 

pay, 348 

subscription, 216 

See also communications 

telex, 215, 225, 231, 316,334 

Tempe1 I1 (comet), 14, 85, 182 

Temple University, 424 

Tennessee Rivcr, 16 

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 137, 230 

Tereshkova, Valentina, 419 

Terhune, Charles H., Jr., 456 

Terrile, Richard J., 5 I 1 

Terzan 2, 29 

testing, 7, 13, 14.45, 81, 84, 94, 96. 129, 132, 133, 142, 143, 149242, 244, 289, 292, 380, 

392 

approach-and-landing, 31, 54, 313 

crash, 37 

endurance, 27 

engines, 78, 124, 140, 154, 235 

flight tests, 74, 76, 119, 128, 134, 137, 169, 172, 239, 259, 280, 294, 314, 331, 334. 335, 

339, 350, 354,375, 394 

ignition, 26 

main propulsion system, 36 

missile, 127 

test firings, 3, 38, 79, 80, 84, 119, 137, 161, 162, 167,226,244, 332, 385, 386, 440, 441 

thermal, 335 

tiles, 15, 146 

volunteers, 137, 138 

wind tunnel, 79;394 

wings 

Tethered Satellite System (TSS), 394,469 

Tethys, 227, 228, 263 

Teton mountains, Wyo., 67 

Texas, 64 

Texas A&M University, I25 

Thagard, Norman, 152, 386,400,418-420,449 

Thailand, 22, 209, 241 

thematic rnappcrs, 139, 140, 201, 355, 397, 475 

767 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS IKDEX 

thermal expansion, 282 

thermal protection system (TPS), 137, 157. 159, 315, 332, 3.36, 395. 

thcrnial radiation. 371 

Thesee [Theseus), 3 16 

Thiokol Corporation, II, 34, 112. 181, 332,440 

Thome, Pitt, 77 

Thomas. D. Scott, 273 

Thomas, John W., 234 

Thompson, Herman, I8 I 

Thompson, J.R., 38 

Thompson, Robert. I65 

Thor, 34. 4 I8 

Thor MB-3. 110 

Thornton, Kathryn C., 470 

Thornton, William E.: 386.. 400: 429. 431, 432. 449 

Tiamat, 179 

tilec, protective. 14, 23.65. 74, 84, 1 I I, 146: 155. 165, 171, 172 245. 265-267. 7-70, 274, 

See also tiles, protective 

Wdsatch Division (Utah). 1 I, 112, 513 

292, 31 I. 332. 336, 351. 395, 420,455,487 503, 515 

problems. 14. 15, 76, I 11: 122, 297. 299. 304. 353 

Tilford, Shelby ti., 405, 510 

Tillarnook, Oreg. ~ 66 

Timko, Robert, 194 

Tinker Air Force Base. 269 

Tirone. Robert J., 465 

TIROS (satellite), 153. 199. 522 

TIROS- I, 522 

TIROS-N, 406. 491 

Titan (Saturn satellite), 60. 61. 62, 78. 196. 21 1. 232. 263. 31.5. 410 414 

Titan, 127, 166, 214: 215, 349. 418 

Titan 2. 215 

Titan 3, 215. 373 

Titan 3B-Agena, 28 

Titan 3C, 34, 7-? 

Titan 3D. 15 

Titan 34D, 493. 525 

Titov, Gheman. 369 

Titov, Vladimir, 4 I 1 

Tornbaugh. Clyde, 6 

Toon, Brian. 357 

Toronto (Ontario), 4, 173 

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), 10. 250, 332. 380 403, 404, 407. 410, 

412, 418, 421. 429, 431, 434. 441, 449, 450, 461 510 

TDRS-A (TDRS-I), 157, 407, 413, 448 

TDRS-B, 408, 413 

Tracking and Impact Predictions (TIPS), 23 

tracking facilities, 116, 122, 141. 145. 166, 310 

training, 3. I1 

non-NASA scientists. 3 

Trans World Airlines, 353 

Transit (satellite), 273. 274 

768 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

transmitters, high-intensity, 350 

Transpace Carriers Inc. (TCI), 494 

transponders, 63, 98, 128, 135, 182, 310, 330, 36, 348, 363, 398, 409 425 

Trinh, Eugene H., 483 

Triton, 349, 350, 371 

troposphere, 195, 208, 288, 292, 350, 380 

Truly, Richard, 94, 97, 107, 242, 307, 386,429,431, 434 

TRW Systems, Inc., 10, 43, 78, 95, 124, 134, 150, 243, 279, 291, 358 410, 441,471,495 

Defense and Space Systems Group, 166, 221 

Space and Techndogy Group, 470 

Space Systems Division, 51 

Tsiolkovsky, Konstantine, 147 

Tucson, Ariz., 236 

turbines, 115 

turbopumps, 149, 251, 364 

Turner, Ted, 93, 127, 128 

TVSat (German broadcasting system), 220 

Tyuratam, 166 

ultraviolet differential absorption lidar (UV-DIAL), 249 

ultraviolet studies and findings, 42, 55, 118, 154, 155, 191. 222, 225 232, 236, 249, 252, 292. 

Union of South Africa, 11 1 

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). See Soviet Union 

United Airlines, 99, 176, 249 

United Kingdom (Great Britain), 15, 33, 56, 64, 93, 107, 124, 144, 154 203, 211. 228, 238, 

293, 303, 351, 357, 483, 500, 501 

241, 371,497 

Britannia II, 233 

costs, 33, 130 

Post Office, 173 

postal service, 173 

Royal Aeronautical Society, 35, 288 

Royal Air Force, 287 

Royal Aircraft Establishment, 33 

Royal Navy, 232 

Science Research Council, 52 

Science and Engineering Research Council, 393 

UK6, 33 

United Nations, 149, 154, 201,202, 210, 214, 228 

General Assembly, 201, 210, 228 

United Nations Children’s Fund, 466 

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 312 

United Press International (UPI), 43, 123, 146, 242, 261, 347 

United States, 519 

Advisory Group on Science and Technology (President’s), 48 1 

Armed Services Committee, 

.budget, 7, 33, 128, 134, 139, 171, 182, 199, 256, 327, 425 

costs, 9, 93, 119, 141, 144, 171 

Management and Budget, Office of (OMB), 128, 138, 225, 256, 304, 442 

National Archives, 152 

National Commission on Space, 51 1 

National Security Council, 27, 414 

National Space Policy, 496 

769 
ASTRONAU IICS AND AERONAUTICS 

National Space Strategy, 496, 497 

Naval Research, Oflice of, 324 

Technology Assessment. Office of. 198, 518 

White House communications centers. 25, 128 

White House National Aeronautics and Space Council, 303. 324 

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 7, 27, 68, 93. 219, 301, 327 

White House Science Council (WHSC), 328 

U.S. Court of Appeals, 129 

U.S. Forest Service, 

U.S. Geological Survey. 27, 28. 29, 42. 64, 68. 77. 92, 240 

U.S. Information Agency (USIA). 452 

U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships. 192 

U.S. Naval Observatory, 7 

U.S. Naval Kesearch Laboratory (NKL). 16, 116, 151 

U.S. Telephone & Telegraph, I18 

USNS Arnold 

Unired Tiv-hnologirs Corporatioil (UTC), 143. 211, 279, 315 

Hamilton Stundurd Division. 143. 168. 378. 3x3. 160 

Prarr & Whitncy Divlrion, 91, 92, 154. 165, 183, 377 

Sikorsk\: Division, 31.5 

United Spare Roosters, Inc. (USBIJ, 168, 211, 357. 497 

UIC k-reedoin. 168. 21 I. 242, 357. 358 

UTCLibert!. 168, 21 I, 242, 358 

Universities Space Research .4ssociation (USRA), 156. 383, 405 

University College London, 155 

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. 473 

University of Alaska, 208 

University of Arizona. 86, 191, 208. 211. 446. 51 I 

University of Berne, 227 

University of California at Berkeley (UCB). 3. 105, 145, 156, 288 500, 501 

University of California at San Diego (UCSD). 191 

University of Chicago, 60, 524 

University of Cincinnati. 36 

University of Colorado, 105, 191 

University of Groningen. 366, 446 

University of Hawaii, 349, 371 

University of Illinois, 328 

University of Iowa. 30, 59, 279 

University of Maryland, 121, 174, 208, 281 

University of Minnesota, 30 

University of New Mexico. 86, 191 

University of Notre Dame, 461 

University of Paris, 24 

University of Pittsburgh, 131 

University of Rome, I19 

University of Santa Clara. 196 

University of Surrey, 304 

University of Texa5, 481, 525 

University of Tokyo, 255. 314 

Space Sciences Laboratory. 501 

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, 105, 303 

Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, 255 

INDEX 

770 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

University of Utah, 353 

University of Wisconsin, 199 

University Research Association (URA), 86 

uosut, 304 

Upper Volta, 228 

upper-atmosphere research satellite (UARS), 250, 313, 314 

Uranus (planet), 13, 43, 249, 264, 293, 304, 349, 410, 51 I 

Uruguay, 228 

US. Air, 249 

USNS Arnold, 265 

Utah, 11, 112, 119 

Utopia Planitia, 52 

Utsman, Thomas E., 487 

V-2 rockets, 81 

vacuum chamber, 282 

Vallis Marineris, 24 

Van Allen, James, 59, 60 

Van Allen radiation belt, 395 

van den Berg, Lodewijk, 483 

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., IS, 28, 34, 68,73, 98, 129, 141 144, 262, 284, 303, 327, 

332, 352, 393,406,410,415, 475, 512, 513 522 

Space Shuttle Facility, 98 

Van Hoften, James D., 400, 413, 474 

Van Hove, L., 120 

Vanguard, 369, 395 

Project Vanguard, 426 

VanHoosier, Michael E., 

van Rensselaer, Frank, 276 

Vazon, 147 

Veach, C. Lacy, 470 

Vega (star), 427,445,456 

Vega-I, 523, 524 

Vega-2, 523, 524 

Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), 23, 53, 88, 231, 237, 241-244, 289 292,297,299, 300, 

328, 399,498 

Vela (satellite), 11 1, 162 

Velikovsky, Immanuel, 89 

Worlds in Collision, 89 

Venera (USSR spacecraft), 24, 331 

Veneru I, 417 

Veneru 3, 417 

Venera 4, 4 17 

Veneru 9, 331 

Veneru'l0, 331 

Venera Il, 162 

Venera 12, 162 

Veneru 13, 162, 417 

Veneru 14, 331, 417 

Veneru 15, 417,438 

Veneru 16, 417, 438 

Venezuela, 124 

Vento, Bruce, 17 1 

77 I 
ASTRONALiTlCS AKD AERONAUTICS INDEX 

Venus, 26. 61, 95, 159. 225, 235, 256, 2x0. 322, 330. 331, ,410. 417 483, 523 

Venus-orbiting imaging radar (VOIR), 95. 225. 250. 259. 260. 394 

Vernikos-Danielis, Joan. 194 

Vernon, France, 172 

vertical-motion simulator. 339 

verticalisidewise takeoff and landing (V/STOL), 260 

Vertikal 8, 66 

Very Long Baseline Interferornetry (VLBI), 240. 241. 346 

vibrations, 268, 353: 456 

Victor, Robert. 235 

Vietnam, 190, 228, 273 

Viking, 16, 30, 55, 121, 133, 186, 280. 326. 331, 397, 409, 459, 480 

VFWERNO, 226 

cosmonauts, 185. 189. 190, 203, 204. 213 

Viking I, 180, 193. 306, 376. 398. 415 

Vikirtg 2, 52. 415 

Viking Lander Monitor Mission (VLMM), 459 

Viking Orbiier 2. 1 I7 

Villafranca tracking station (Vilspa). 108. 155. 227 

Virgin Islands, 135 

Virginia, I I7 

Virginia Polytechnic Institute. 301 

visible-infrared radionictric atmospheric sounder (VAS). 275 

visible-infrared spin-scan radiometer (VISSR), 199. 205, 207. :!75 

Vitro, 14 

volcanic activity. 26. 29, 42. 158, 183. 184. 207. 208. 305. 340. 357 388 

Volk, Igor. 491, 492 

von Braun. Wernher, 81, 133, 175, 187, 188. 442 

von Kannann. Theodore, 3 12 

Vostok. 268 

Votaw Precision Tool Inc.. 346 

Vought. Inc., 106, 127. 142 

Voyager, 13, 14, 29: 60, 76, 150. 157. 206. 21 I. 220, 277, 304, 325 

Vosrok I. 280 

problems, 293 

Vuyager I. 13, 16, 29. 38, 42. 49, 76, 95. 96, 150. 206, 21 I, 218, 220. 226-228. 232. 262. 

VujuRer 2. 29, 38, 41. 42, 49, 52. 76. 150. 206. 249, 264, 259, 293, 306. 315, 325. 349, 

280, 293. 306, 315 

51 I 

W&J Construction Company, 2 I4 

Waddell, James B., 470 

Wake Island, 266 

wake vortex, 169 

Waldheim, Kurt, 208 

Walker, Charles D.,, 424, 487. 500 

Walker, David M., 5 I6 

Walled Lake. Mich., 21 

Waller, Peter, 483 

Wallops Flight Center (WFC), IO, 119. 179, 180, 290. 311, 334. 340, 350 

consolidation with Goddard Space Flight Center. 270, 290 

contacts. 141 

instruments. measuring. 194, 195 

772 
INDEX ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS 

missions, 26, 33, 184, 191 

people, 39, 208 

test program, 84, 170 

Wallops Flight Facility, 301, 369, 406, 473 

Wallops Island, 179, 180, 280 

Walters, Lay, 353 

Warren, Edward, 486 

Wdsatch. See Thiokol 

Washington, D.C., 16, 17, 37, 106, 144, 155, 226 

Washington Hilton, 155 

Washington University (St. Louis), 198 

waste and debns, 209, 210, 265, 294, 342, 354 

control, 336 

damage from, 417 

in space, 143. 283 

nuclear, 104, 156 

possible effects, 203 

radioactive, I I 1, 149 

water repellants, 30 I 

water resources, 138, 323 

water-immersion facility (WIF), 

Watkins, Kermit, 193 

weather, 26, 52, 54, 80, 86, 112, 118, 167, 184, 192, 205, 232,233 29 I, 334, 342, 363. 380, 

404, 419, 420, 429, 430, 474, 492, 421, 523 

climate, 192 

delays, 35, 87, 292, 293, 297, 335, 337, 350 

global patterns, 357 

hurricanes, 236, 429, 492 

impact of, 139, 194, 335 

Josephine (tropical storm), 5 10 

problems, 14, 255, 269, 328, 350 

solar stations, 123 

solar storm, 59, 60 

storm information system, 213, 292 

studies and experiments, 4, 5, 10, 25, 140, 199 

temperatures, extremes and effects, 273, 322, 324, 331, 332, 335, 351, 353, 357, 384; 405, 

tests, 132 

visibility, 337 

weatherfax charts, 255 

Weaver, W. R . , 243 

Webb, James, 44 

Weber, Daniel J., 273 

Weeks, L. Michael, 81,276,366 

weightlessness, 87, 120, 152, 314, 329, 335, 336, 408, 428,453 

445, 456, 474 

adaptation to, 17, 190 

effectsof, 133, 137, 147, 162, 163, 1943, 222, 359, 360 

effects on physiological processes, 267, 268, 359, 385,428-432,448, 453,473 

experiments, 77, 87, 189, 273, 408, 419 

plant growth, 47, 48, 87 

problems, 18, 19 

Weinberger, Caspar W., 31 I, 460, 471 

113 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AEROKAUTICS INDEX 

Weiss, Stanlcy I.. 188. 241, 281, 351. 425 

Weitz, Paul J., 332, 407, 408 

Werner, Michael, 348 

West Germany. See Germany, Federal Rcpublic of 

Westar, 135 

Werrar I, 46, 330. 348 

Wesrur 2, 46, 330, 348 

Wesfar3 (WESTAR-C), 46, 47, 53, 79. 330. 348 

Wesrar 4. 47, 330, 348 

Westar 5. 347, 348 

Westar VI, 464, 516, 518 

Western Research Company. 329 

Western Space and Missile Center (WSMC). Calif., 73. 98, l5!J, 273, 284 291. 303, 406. 420 

Western Test Range (WTK), 38. 73, 77. 87, 274. 352, 371 

Western Union Telegraph Company, 10, 36, 53. 79. 118. 129, 135, 238 330, 348, 464, 465, 

516 

Space Communications Corporation, 238 

Westford, Mass., 241 

Westinghouse. 209 

Whitcornb, Richard T.. 45, I24 

White, Terry, 467 

White Sands, N.M., 334, 337 

White Sands Missile Range, 77, 230, 233 

White Sands Test Facility. 168, 421, 431 

Whitecloud (code name), 129 

Widick, Fritz, 474 

Widlick, Herman K.. 432 

Wild, P., 227 

Williams, Kcnncth, I50 

Williams, Sam B., 21 

Williams, Walter C., 53, 35 I 

Williams, Wiley, 315 

Williams Research Corporation. 21 

Williamson, John, 93 

Willson, Richard C., 342 

Wilson, Roben, 155 

wind-shear phenomena. 280 

wind tunnels, 74, 125. 146, 195, 215, 219. 298, 417. 462 

windscreens. 287, 327. 328 

Winget, Charles, 359 

winglets, 45. 71, 298 

wings, weight of, 197 

wingtips, 45, 48, 79 

Winkfield (tracking station), 21 1 

Winn. Larry, 185, 394 

Wolfe, John, 55. 56, 59 

Wolfe. Tom, 45 

women, 159, 203, 355, 360, 419. 420, 438, 491: 504, 510 

Women’s Air-Force Service Pilots (WASPS), 203 

Wood, W., 179 

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2 14 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, I24 

774 
INDEX ASTRONAUTlCS AND AERONAUTICS 

Worden, AI, 44 

World Administrative Radio Conference, 1979, 380 

World Meteorological Organization, 4, 75 

World Weather Watch, 4 

Wrather Corporation, 202 

Wright State University, 451 

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 287 

Wyckoff, Susan, 485 

Wyeth, James, 202 

Wyoming, 153, 184 

Xinhua (PRC press agency), 156 

Xinjiang (PRC region), 127 

X-ray, 106, 154, 174, 191, 213, 255, 271, 337 

data, 23, 94, 105 

emissions, 116, 222 

equipment, 29, 105 

experiments, 33 

films, 129, 130 

observatory, 4 I5 

sources, 5, 107, 116, 358 

XUV camera, 358 

Yamato mountains, 131 

Yardley, John E, 3, 5,75, 81, 84, 122, 303 

Yegorov, Anatoly, 147 

Yegorov, Boris, 385 

Yeliseyev, Aleksey S., 72, 214 

Yost, Charles, 469 

Young, A. Thomas, 88, 222, 338 

Young, John W., 16, 94, 107,244,255, 256, 265, 266, 269, 270,284 337, 342, 395, 447, 

451, 459 

Yugoslavia, 124 

zero-gravity, 273 

Zipoy, David, 281 

115 

The NASA History Series 

HISTORIES 

Anderson, Frank W., Jr., Orders of Magnitude: A History of NACA and h'ASA, 

Benson, Charles D., and William Barnaby Faherty, Moonport: A History of Apollo 

Bilstein, Roger E., Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the ApollolSaturn 

Boone, W. Fred, NASA Ofice of Defense Affairs: The First Five Years (NASA 

Brooks, Courtney G., James M. Grimwood, and Lloyd S. Swenson, Jr., Chariots,for 

Byers, Bruce K., Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program (NASA 

Compton, W. David, and Charles D. Benson, Living and Warking in Space: A History 

Corliss, William R., NASA Sounding Rockets, 1958-1968: A Historical Summary 

Ezell, Edward Clinton, and Linda Neumann Ezell, On Mars: Exploration of the Red 

Ezell, Edward Clinton, and Linda Neuman Ezell, The Partnerships: A History of the 

Green, Constance McL., and Milton Lomask, I/anguard: A History (NASA SP-4202, 

Hacker, Barton C., and James W. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans: A History 

Hansen, James R., Engineer In Charge: A History of the Langley Aeronautical 

Hall, R. Cargill, Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger (NASA SP-4210, 1977). 

Hallion, Richard P., On the Frontier: Flight Research at Dryden, 1946-1981 (NASA 

Hartman, Edwin P., Adventures in Research: A History of Ames Research Center, 

Levine, Arnold, Managing NASA in the Apollo Era (NASA SP-4102, 1982). 

Muenger, Elizabeth A,, Searching the Horizon: A History of Ames Research Center, 

Newell, Homer E., Beyond the Atmosphere: Early Years of Space Science (NASA 

Pitt, John A., The Human Factor: Biomedicine in the Manned Space Program, 1980 

Roland, Alex., Model Research: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 

Roland, Alex., A Spacefaring People: Perspective on Early Spaceflight (NASA 

Rosenthal, Alfred, Venture into Space: Early Years of Goddard Space Flight Center 

1915-1980 (NASA SP-4403, 2d ed., 1981). 

Launch Facilities and Operations (NASA SP-4204, 1978). 

Launch Vehicles (NASA SP-4206, 1980). 

HHR-32, 1970, multilith). 

Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft (NASA SP-4205, 1979). 

TM X-3487, 1977, multilith). 

of Skylab (NASA SP-4208, 1983). 

(NASA SP-4401, 1971). 

Planet, 1958-1978 (NASA SP-4212, 1984). 

Apollo-Soyut Test Project (NASA SP-4029, 1978). 

190; also Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971). 

of Project Gemini (NASA SP-4203, 1977). 

Lahomtory, 1917-1958 (NASA SP-4305, 1987) 

SP-4303, 1984). 

1940-1965 (NASA SP-4302, 1970). 

1940-1976 (NASA SP-4304, 1985). 

SP-4211, 1980). 

(NASA SP-4213, 1985). 

1915-1958 (NASA SP-4103, 1985). 

SP-4405, 1985). 

(NASA SP-4103, 1985). 

PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FULMED 
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS THE NASA HISTORY SERIES 

Rosholt, Robert L., An Administrative Histoy of NASA, 1958-1963 (NASA SP-4101, 

Sloop, John L., Liquid Hydrogen as a Propulsion Fuel, 1945-1959 (NASA SP-4404, 

Swenson, Lloyd S., Jr., James M. Grimwood and Charles C. Alexander, This New 

1966). 

1978) 

Ocean: A Histo? of Project Mercuty (NASA SP-4201, 1966). 

REFERENCE WORK 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President, annual volumes for 195-1986, 

The Apollo Spacecraj: A Chronology (NASA SP-4009, vol. 1, 1969; vol. 2, 1973; vol. 

3, 3976; vol. 4, 1978). 

Astronautics and Aeronautics: A Chronology of Science, Technology, und Policy, annual volumes with an earlier summary volume, Aeronautics and Astronautics, 

Dickson, Katherine M. ed., History of Aeronautics and Astronautics: A Preliminury 

Bibliogmphy (NASA HHR-29, 1968, multilith). 

Ezell, Linda Neuman, NASA Historical Data Book, vol. I1 Programs and Projects 

1958-1968 and vol. 111 Progrums and Projects 19694978 (NASA SP-4012, 1988). 

Hall, R. Cargill, Project Ranger: A Chronology (JPLIHR-2, 1971, multilith). 

Hall R. Cargill, ed. Essays on the Hi5tot-y of Rocketry und Astronautics: Proceedings 

of the Third through the Sixth Hisiory Symposia of the International Academy of 

Astronautics (NASA CP-2014, 2 vols., 1977). 

Looney, John J., ed., Bibliogruphy of Space Books and Articles from Non-Aerospace 

Journals, 1957-1977 (NASA HHR-51, 1979, multilith). 

Roland, Alex E, A Guide to Reseach in NRCA History (NASA HHR-50, 6th ed.. 1982, 

available from NASA History Office). 

Skylab: A Chronology (NASA SP-4011, 1977). 

kn Nimmen, Jane, and Leonurd C. Bruno, with Robert L. Rosholt, NASA Historical 

Wells, Helen T., Susan H. Whiteley, and Carrie E. Karegeannes, Origins of NASA 

1915-1960. 

Data Book, 1958-1968, vol I, NASA Resources (NASA SP-4012, 1976). 

Names (NASA SP-4402, 1976). 

Recent volumes are available from Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402; early volumes from National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161. 

778 IJ.S. CXWERDPm PRINTING. DFFICE : 1990 - 265-950 
Report Documentation Page 

9. Performing Organization Name and Address 

NASA History Office 

NASA Headquarters 

Washington, DC 20546 

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 

NASA SP-4024 

Astronautics & Aeronautics, 1979-1984: A Chronology 

11. Contract or Grant No. 

13. Type of Report and Period Covered 

17. Key Words (Suggested by Authork)) 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Washington, DC 20546-0001 

18. Distribution Statement 

I 

15. Supplementary Notes 

Astronautics, aeronautics, NASA History 

series provides a c f all significant events and develthe period covered. 

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Subject category 1, 12 

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