Aug 10 1971
From The Space Library
President Nixon approved H.R. 9382, FY 1972 HUD-space- science appropriations bill that contained $3.298-billion NASA FY 1972 appropriation and $619 million NSF appropriation. Bill became P.L. 92-78. NASA total included $2.523 billion for R&D, $52.7 million for construction of facilities, and $722.6 million for research and program management. Bill appropriated $39 million for NERVA program, $13 million for space shuttle main engine test facilities, and $5.5 million for space shuttle thermal-protection facilities. President also signed H.R. 9667, $2.9-billion DOT FY 1972 appropriations bill that included $58.5 million to repay airlines for money they invested in SST but eliminated funding for SST program. Bill became P.L. 92-96. (PD, 8/16/71, 1157; NASA Budget Off; H Rpt 92-377)
Scientists at LRL in Houston began opening bags of rocks returned from moon by Apollo 15 crew. Before and after day-long debriefing Astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin assisted geologists in identifying samples. Material included football-size piece of black, glass-like rock; brick-size chunk of volcanic rock pitted with small cavities (vesicular basalt) ; and 91/2-kg (21-lb) rock, largest single sample ever returned from moon, from rim of Hadley Rille. Scientists were anxiously waiting to examine crystalline rock in sample bag No. 196, scheduled to be opened Aug. 12, that Scott had described as possible chip of moon's original crust. (W Post, 8/11/71; AP B Sun, 8/10/71, Al)
Lagos, Nigeria, Morning Post congratulated Apollo 15 astronauts for successful mission, which they attributed to ingenuity and resourcefulness of NASA. Lunar explorations, Post said, would strengthen faith in and appreciation of God's work. (FSIS-Nigeria- 71-153, 8/11/71, W6)
NASA launched three sounding rockets from WSMR. Two Aerobee 170 sounding rockets, one carrying NRL experiment to study stellar spectra and one carrying GSFC experiment to conduct x-ray studies, were unsuccessful. Boosted Arcas II carried GSFC experiment to 70-km (43.5-mi) altitude to measure mobility of charged particles in lower D region. Rocket functioned satisfactorily, but some anomalous data were received. Data would be correlated with data from two Nike-Cajun launches scheduled for Aug. 31. (SR list; NASA Rpt SRL)
Australian pilots Trevor Brougham and Bob Dickeson landed twin- engine Beechcraft Baron aircraft at Darwin, Australia, after 125-hr 27-min flight round the world which was believed to have set world record for light aircraft. (Reuters, W Post, 8/11/71, A6)
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