Aug 10 1976
From The Space Library
By a vote of 82 to 6, the U.S. Senate approved a $104-billion defense appropriations bill that prohibited expenditure of $1 billion voted by the House for the controversial B-1 bomber, until after 1 Feb. 1977, when the next President would be in office. The House had included funds for initial orders for a fleet of 244 supersonic B- Is that would eventually cost more than $22 billion. The bill would go to conference where the House-Senate differences would be settled, after Congress returned 23 Aug. from a week's recess for the Republican convention. The date of the production decision would be important because the current Republican administration proposed to place orders for the first 3 planes in Nov.; the Democratic presidential nominee, Jimmy Carter, opposed B-1 production and wanted a review of prototype test data early next yr. The Senate bill was $3.9 billion less than President Ford's budget proposal and $1.4 billion less than the House voted; however, it was $11.6 billion more than appropriated for FY 1976, which ended 30 June.
(NYT, 10 Aug 76, 8; WSJ, 10 Aug 76, 3; W Star, 10 Aug 76, A-2) The U.S. Air Force announced selection of the Boeing Aerospace Corp., a unit of the Boeing Company, to design and produce an interim upperstage (IUS) solid-fuel rocket motor for the Space Shuttle, to lift Shuttle craft from low earth orbit to higher mission altitudes. Boeing, chosen over Martin Marietta, Lockheed, and General Dynamics Corp., still had to negotiate a contract, estimated to be ultimately worth about $300 million. (NYT, 10 Aug 76, 45; WSJ, 10 Aug 76, ,3)
Aeronutronic Ford Corp. would probably win a $250-million contract to build INTELSAT V, the next generation of seven global comsats owned by INTELSAT (the 94-nation Intl. Telecommunications Satellite Organization), said the New York Times. Scheduled for launch starting in 1979 to expand message-handling capacity of the INTELSAT network, particularly across the North Atlantic, INTELSAT V would be first to use both a spatial separation technique used on INTELSAT IV and a cross-polarization technique used on two ComSat domestic satellites leased to American Telephone & Telegraph and the General Telephone and Electronics Corp. INTELSAT's board at its July meeting chose Aeronutronic for final negotiations over Hughes Aircraft, which had build all but one of the preceding generations of INTELSAT spacecraft; other competitors eliminated earlier were TRW Systems (which had built one previous generation of the INTELSATs) and Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. All the competitors had selected West European or Japanese subcontractors.
Unlike previous INTELSATs, which were cylinders coated with solar cells, INTELSAT V's would be boxlike containers with flat solar-cell panels stretching from each side like windmills; weighing nearly a metric ton apiece, the spacecraft would be stabilized by a 3-axis system similar to those used on the Franco-German Symphonie satellites over the Atlantic Ocean, and on the U.S. domestic satellites built and operated by RCA. Each INTELSAT V would carry 27 signal-transmitting transponders with capacity of 12 000 two-way telephone conversations, compared to 6000 through INTELSAT IVA and 4000 through INTELSAT IV; each satellite would also transmit color TV. INTELSAT V would replace INTELSAT IVA which had replaced the INTELSAT IV, seven of which were in orbit above the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. (NYT, 10 Aug 76, 37)
Robert G. Deissler, technical consultant to NASA's Lewis Research Center, received the 1975 Max Jakob Memorial Award at the 16th National Heat Transfer Conference in St. Louis. The award, established in 1961 by the American Society for Mechanical Engineering and the American Institute for Chemical Engineering, commemorated a pioneer in the science of heat transmission, and was given for distinguished service in the field of heat transfer. Deissler, who joined Lewis in 1947 and gained early recognition for work in turbulent flow and heat transfer of variable property fluids in pipes or tubes, was cited for "outstanding contributions to the theory of turbulence and turbulent transport ... for his ability to perceive and derive the fundamental theory required to advance applied research and development in convective heat transfer." Author of about 70 technical papers, Deissler had received an Exceptional Service Award in 1957 from NACA, NASA's predecessor. (LeRC News, 6 Aug 75, 1; Cl PD, 10 Aug 76)
Both the Boeing Co. and Japan's official transport-development corporation announced pending agreement on Japanese participation in a billion dollar project to develop a new medium-range Boeing jet liner in the 1980s. The new plane, temporarily designated the 7x7 (middle number to be given later), would be a 198-passenger 2-aisle craft, probably with 3 jet engines: one under each wing, and a third on the tail. It would be low-noise and fuel-conservative, with a high-performance bent wing to operate close to the speed of sound. The medium-range jet would fly one-stop trips between N.Y. and San Francisco. The pending agreement was announced separately, Reuters news agency reporting from Tokyo that the Civil Transport Development Corporation representing government and leading aerospace manufacturers had said the parties were ready to proceed; Boeing headquarters in Seattle termed the announcement premature, but verified progress in negotiations. Proposed Japanese share in the venture had ranged from 50 to 30 to 20%, the last amount currently being discussed. Aeritalia, the Italian aerospace-development concern, had agreed to put up 20% and Boeing had favored French, British, and West German participation. (NYT, 11 Aug 76, 43)
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