Apr 13 1977
From The Space Library
NASA announced that principal investigators for Spacelab experiments would attend briefings at MSFC Apr. 13 to 15 on Spacelab mission management as an Investigative Working Group (IWG). Dr. C.R. Chappell, mission scientist at the MSFC space sciences laboratory, and Dr. Bernt Feuerbacher, ESA project scientist, as IWG chairman and vice chairman, would channel recommendations on selection of payload specialists directly to management. (NASA Release 77-77; MSFC Release 77-61)
The Dept. of Commerce reported that a Boeing 747 in regular passenger service for Pan American World Airways had been doing double duty as a flying laboratory for 2 government agencies, NASA and NOAA, carrying an electronic package collecting data from the plane's instruments to show that ordinary planes could get weather information in flight and relay into the ground. This yr, five more packages would be put on planes of international carriers.
The prototype package, weighing about 18kg and the size of an electric typewriter, used about 200w power and transmitted at 401.7MHz. LeRC had built the package under technical management from GSFC to tap into the inertial-navigation systems of widebodied jets like the 747 and DC-10 series, recording data on air temperature, wind direction and speed, and aircraft location and altitude. The package converted the data to a format transmitted hourly to the ground through NOAA's Goes 1.
The idea was to enable planes flying over areas where such information was sparse or unobtainable to collect and transmit the data as a help to aircraft operations as well as to weather prediction and analysis. NOAA had begun negotiations with foreign weather services and international airlines to put the packages on their aircraft, especially those flying over equatorial regions. (NOAA Release 77-91)
The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., counted its 7 millionth visitor, Mrs. Elizabeth Weber of Queens, N.Y. However, she and many other visitors exemplified the fading public interest in space: none of them recognized the date as the 16th anniversary of Yuri A. Gagarin's historic feat, man's first spaceflight.
A NY Times article contrasted the festive feeling at the museum (the capital's largest tourist draw) and the almost melancholy mood at NASA Hq across the street. NASA employees had cause for despair, said the article, with a space program rarely in the public eye and funding that had delayed long planned projects. Even President Carter, during a cursory 30-minute inspection of the museum, omitted mention of the space program or the space agency. (NYT, Apr 13/77, D-10)
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