Apr 19 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced plans to conduct the first full design-limit test of the parachute-recovery system for Space Shuttle solid-fuel rocket boosters. A B-52 aircraft flying at an altitude of 21 000ft would drop a 48 0001b dummy booster over the National Parachute Test Range at El Centro, Calif. Three main parachutes plus the pilot and drogue parachutes would deploy to slow the rate of descent. Primary objective of the test would be to simulate at a high dynamic pressure the loads that the main cluster of parachutes would encounter in actual use. MSFC would be responsible for the solid-fuel rocket boosters; Martin Marietta Carp. had been under contract to develop the recovery system; and DFRC would be responsible for B-52 operations. (Marshall Star, Apr 19/78, 3; DFRC Release 10-78)
The USAF's Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) announced award of a contract to Boeing Aerospace Company, Seattle, Wash., for full-scale development and initial production of an inertial upper-stage (IUS) vehicle system, consisting of a 3-axis-stabilized vehicle of multiple solid-propellant stages with an avionics section including a reaction-control system. Although the USAF had primary responsibility for development of the IUS, NASA would participate in development because it also would use the IUS. The basic concept, a 2-stage vehicle for use with the Space Shuttle and on the Titan for some USAF missions, had one 20 000lb solid-propellant motor and one 60001b solid-propellant motor that would deliver a 5000lb spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit. NASA also planned two other vehicle configurations; one to carry large spacecraft on planetary missions and another for deep-space missions such as Galileo, a probe of the planet Jupiter. The Space Shuttle would deliver all NASA IUS vehicles to low earth orbit for use in pushing spacecraft to higher orbits or to earth-escape trajectories. The first NASA IUS flight would be a mission planned for summer 1980 to launch a tracking and data-relay satellite (TDRS); first use of a 3-stage IUS would be the Galileo mission planned for launch Jan. 1982. (Marshall Star, Apr 19/78, 1)
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