Aug 21 1972
From The Space Library
Cosmos 516 was launched by U.S.S.R. from Baikonur. Orbital parameters: 264-km (164-mi) apogee, 250-km (155.3-mi) perigee, 89.6-min period, and 64.9° inclination. (GSFC SSR, 8/31/72; Sov Aero, 9/11/72, 70)
Dr. Rocco A. Petrone, Apollo Program Director, had been assigned additional responsibilities as Program Director of Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), NASA announced. Dr. Petrone would have overall responsibility for direction and management of U.S. portion of joint earth-orbital mission with U.S.S.R. (NASA Release 72-174)
First pre-production Anglo-French Concorde 01 supersonic transport had completed first stage of performance and handling characteristics tests, including 80 flights, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported. Aircraft would be grounded for about 20 wks for installation of production Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 Mk 602 engines and production variable-geometry intakes to replace fixed intakes. (Av Wk, 8/2/72, 22)
President Nixon issued Proclamation 4146 proclaiming Oct. 9 in each year as Leif Erikson Day in honor of Norse explorer who crossed Atlantic to North America in year 1000. President said: "Now, more than nine hundred years later, we must summon those same qualities [of adventure and courage] to aid us in meeting the challenges of this world and exploring the unknown of outer space." (PD, 8/28/72, 1260)
Chicago Tribune editorial said there was still "a lot of studying to be done" on U.S. conversion to metric system [see Aug. 18]. Question of financing was "sticky" one. "Many of the countries which have gone or are going metric have provided some sort of government help to finance the changeover." U.S. estimated conversion cost at between $10 billion and $40 billion. "Both labor and industry- especially small business-have been leery of undertaking this expense without government help. But the government is in no position at the moment to give much help; and if it were to convert its purchases to the metric system quickly, the result would be favorable to foreign manufacturers already on the metric system and detrimental to our own." (C Trib, 8/21/72)
August 21-29: OAO 3 (Copernicus) Orbiting Astronomical Observatory was launched into orbit to observe stars, planets, nebulae, galaxies, and interstellar matter in the ultraviolet and x-ray regions of their radiation, from above the earth's atmosphere. By Aug. 29, checkout had been completed and OAO 3 was obtaining excellent data. In the photo, the spacecraft's Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle stages arrived at Cape Kennedy Skid Strip in the cargo hold of an Air Force C-5A aircraft June 15. Use of the world's largest transport aircraft permitted shipment of both stages in one aircraft for the first time. The Atlas 5004 and Centaur 19D stages were later mated on the pad at Launch Complex 36, to form the Atlas-Centaur 22 vehicle baffle, inertial reference unit, electronically scanned star tracker, and heat pipes. Spacecraft carried two experiments-Princeton experiment package (PEP), 80-cm (32-in) Cassegrainian telescope and photo-electric spectrometer; and Univ. College London (DEL) x-ray experiment containing three telescopes and collimated proportional counter. All spacecraft operations were carried out as planned, with space-craft checkout completed Aug. 24, experiment checkout completed Aug. 26, and stabilization and control system checkout completed Aug. 28. By 2:00 pm EDT Aug. 29 OAO 3 had completed 120 orbits with systems operating almost perfectly. PEP was viewing bright star Zeta in constellation Ophiuchus and obtaining excellent data. UCL experiment was undergoing calibration and alignment and would begin observing x-ray sources in September. Fourth OAO launched by NASA, OAO 3 at 2200 kg (4900 lbs), 2 m wide and 3 m high (7 x 10 ft), was heaviest and most complex auto- mated spacecraft developed by U.S. It had new gyro inertial reference unit with four star trackers, electrically scanned star tracker, precision digital solar-aspect sensor, and onboard computer that could handle 16 000, 18-bit words and store 1024 ground commands. OAO-B had crashed Nov. 30, 1970, when shroud failed to separate after launch. OAO 2 (launched Dec. 7, 1968) was still returning valuable data. OAO 1 (launched April 8, 1966) had failed because of high-voltage arcing in star trackers and malfunction in power supply system. Ono program was managed by Goddard Space Flight Center under direction of NASA Office of Space Science. (NASA proj off; NASA Release 72-156)
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