Apr 21 1976
From The Space Library
Kennedy Space Center announced award to Pan American Technical Services, Inc., Cocoa Beach, Fla., of the first contract to modify KSC facilities for Spacelab processing as part of the Space Shuttle program. The $129 627 contract included architect and engineer services to design the modifications of the Operations and Checkout Bldg., including changes in utilities (gaseous nitrogen, helium, high-pressure air, water and airconditioning) and adaptation of Apollo equipment acceptance and checkout rooms to make them compatible with ground-support equipment provided by the European Space Agency for automated Spacelab testing. Spacelab-to be carried into space by the Space Shuttle orbiter-was being designed, developed, and built by 9 member nations of ESA at a cost of $300 to $400 million. At the end of each mission, the Spacelab would be removed from the landed orbiter and prepared for the next mission. The engineering model to be used for facility and orbiter checkout was scheduled to arrive at KSC in July 1978; the first flight model was due in June 1979. (KSC Release 128-76)
William A. Anders, former Apollo 8 astronaut who became the first chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1974, was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Norway [see 9 Mar.]. (NRC Release 76-93) Joseph A. Zinno made aviation history "of a sort," the National Aeronautic Association reported, when his man-powered 68-kg airplane swooped off the ground and flew more than 24 m for 5 sec at Quonset Point, R.I. In 1959 a British industrialist had offered a prize of $24,000 (now grown to $92,500) for flight in a machine powered solely by the crew that could fly a figure-eight course around 2 pylons set 0.8 km apart and cross the starting and finish lines at least 3 m above the ground. So far 16 Europeans and Zinno had succeeded in flying man-powered planes. However, aeronautical experts believed the altitude needed to make a figure-eight maneuver (more than 12 m) would undo any aviator striving for the prize. (NAA newsletter, June 76, 3)
Tass announced the return to Riga of the 20th Soviet Antarctic expedition after completing "its successful 15-month program of research." For the first time under Antarctic conditions, scientists had operated automatized processing of data from rocket soundings of the atmosphere; also for the first time, a shelf glacier had been drilled with 3 holes, one of them 358 m deep (entirely through the glacier). The Soviet scientists reported increasing cooperation with colleagues; the 20th expedition included geologists and medical workers from the German Democratic Republic, and a U.S. weather specialist spent the winter at the Soviet station while a Soviet glaciologist spent the winter at the U.S. McMurdo station. (FBIS, Tass in English, 21 Apr 76)
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