Aug 9 1976
From The Space Library
9-25 August: At 15:04 GMT (18:04 Moscow time) 9 Aug., Luna 24, an automatic space probe, was launched toward the moon "from the orbit of an artificial earth satellite" as the official USSR news agency Tass described it. A course correction 11 Aug. permitted the probe to reach a preset point in near-moon space; a braking operation 14 Aug. put the probe into a circular selenocentric orbit 115 km from the moon's surface, with 120° inclination and 1 hr 59 min period. (NYT, 11 Aug 76, 37; FBIS, Moscow Tass in English, 9 Aug 76, 14 Aug 76; Spacewarn bulletin, 17 Aug 76, 1; P Inq, 10 Aug 76, 6; LC S&T Alert #3407, 31 Aug 76)
At 6:36 GMT (9:36 Moscow time) 18 Aug. the probe landed on the moon in the Sea of Crises (Mare Crisium) at 12°45"N and 62°12'E, about 40 km from a northern isthmus between the moon's 2 seas, where the oldest rocks (about 4.5 billion yr) on the moon might be sampled. The area differed from the Sea of Felicity-site of landings by Luna 16 (1970) and Luna 20 (1972)-not only in age but also in the presence of mascons, gravitational anomalies caused by mass concentrations of extremely dense materials. (The U.S. Lunar Orbiter 5 had discovered 5 such concentrations on the moon in 1968.)
The USSR's 8th successful unmanned landing on the moon in 6 yr was expected to make up for the failure of Luna 23, which sustained damage when it landed on the moon 8 Nov. 1975 and was unable to carry out its mission. The U.S. had not probed the moon since 1972, date of the last of 6 manned lunar landings. Luna 24 weighed 1880 kg upon landing; early reports contained no description of the probe, but photographs of it appeared in Oct. in Aviation Wk and Space Technology magazine, with comparisons of the earlier probes. (FBIS, Moscow Tass in English, 18 Aug 76, 13 Oct 76; UPI, Denver Post, 19 Aug 76, 14-F; NYT editorial, 26 Aug 76; Science News, 28 Aug 76; Av Wk, 11 Oct 76, 53)
Tass announced 19 Aug. that, after being on the moon 22 hr 49 min, Luna 24 had blasted off the moon's surface at 5:25 GMT (8:25 am Moscow time) and was on its way back to earth with a sample of moon soil obtained by a device that drilled to a depth of about 2m and put the core sample into a hermetically sealed container in the return module. The bulk of the spacecraft remained on the moon's surface; the New York Times noted there was no mention of a robot vehicle like the Lunokhods landed previously. Lunokhod 1 (on Luna 17) had spent 10 mo on the moon in 1970-1971, traveling about 10 km; Lunokhod 2 (on Luna 21) roamed the Lemonnier crater in the Sea of Serenity for 6 mo in 1973. (FBIS, Moscow Tass in English, 19 Aug 76; NYT, 20 Aug 76, A-19; UPI, Denver Post, 20 Aug 76, 10; LA Times, 20 Aug 76, 3)
On 22 Aug. the Luna 24 return craft parachuted to earth in a "forest site" 2400 km northeast of Moscow, soft-landing at 17:55 GMT (20:55 Moscow time). The landing craft and sample were flown to Moscow from the site. Research on the comparatively large moon sample would proceed at the Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where lunar samples returned by Luna 16 and Luna 20 had been studied. Pravda was quoted as stating that the 1970 mission of Luna 16 brought back particles of lunar iron that "does not rust"; learning how to manufacture such a metal under earth conditions "would repay all the expenditures for space study," the newspaper said. Metallurgy stations might be established in space or on the moon to make nonrusting iron in commercial quantities, a process requiring a powerful vacuum like that in space which would be difficult to establish on earth. The gray-brown lunar material was said to resemble the Luna 16 sample, also taken from a lunar "sea" area. Mineralogists studying the top of the 30-cm-wide column of material said they expected to find the same Mendeleyev elements existing on the moon as on the earth, but in different proportions because of fewer volatile materials. Scientists would search the lunar sample for any sign of water vapor, regarded as important "not only for space physics but also for the future exploration of space," Tass said.
The Luna 24 landing craft, still on the moon, would continue to function and flight controllers were still communicating with it. (FBIS, Moscow Tass Intl Serv in Russian, 21 Aug 76; Tass in English, 25 Aug 76; CSM, 24 Aug 76, 1; B Sun, 24 Aug 76, 5; SBD, 31 Aug 76, 223)
9 August: McDonnell Douglas Corp. announced award of a $63.9-million contract to Hughes Aircraft Co. for research, test, and development of radar for the Navy F-18 strike fighter, including 3 renewal options for additional production beyond the development phase. Current Navy and Marine Corps plans called for procurement of 800 F-18s in addition to the test-flight planes; major assembly was to be completed late in 1977 and early 1978, with first flight scheduled for mid-1978, McDonnell said. Hughes Aircraft received Army and Navy contracts totaling $16.5 million a wk later for a location-reporting system and for development of a missile fire-control system for the F-14 fighter plane, the Wall Street Journal reported. (WSJ, 9 Aug 76, 11; 17 Aug 76, 6)
More trouble developed for the DOD's "controversial" F-111 and F-14A jet fighter planes,, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the Air Force announced grounding of 183 General Dynamics F-111 s at Nellis AFB, Nev., and Cannon AFB, N.M. The groundings, ordered after inspections showed defects in fan blades, would continue to midmonth and would not affect F-111s stationed elsewhere. A General Accounting Office report on the Grumman F-14A, 14 of which had crashed at a loss of $161.6 million, questioned the plane's ability to cope with attacks by antiship missiles. The GAO said that problems with equipment and inadequate supplies of parts had reduced the readiness of the F-14A to 37.2% during 1975, and that the electronic equipment's reliability was extremely low, some of the major systems exhibiting only 6% to 14% of the desired objective. Cost of the F-14A had risen from $18.2 million each in 1973 to $20.2 million. Designed to defend the Navy against assaults by antiship missiles, the F-14A could engage current Soviet fighter jets, said GAO, but the Navy itself feared the plane's ability to cope with the missiles might be "marginal." (WSJ, 9 Aug 76, 11)
The U.S. Senate, by a vote of 78 to 6, confirmed the nomination of Dr. H. Guyford Stever to be director of the newly created Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House. Dr. Stever, director of the National Science Foundation, had been under criticism for NSF actions in reviewing applications for research grants; also, conservative senators had objected to social-science textbooks prepared under NSF auspices in the 4 yr that Dr. Stever headed that agency.
The confirmation marked reestablishment of a White House science advisory post after its elimination by President Nixon early in 1973. On 7 Nov. 1957 President Eisenhower had announced appointment of Dr. James R. Killian as special assistant to the President for science and technology, whose prime role was to speed rocket and missile development in the wake of the first satellite a month earlier. Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky, who succeeded Dr. Killian, wrote later that the science advisory committee set up in the White House helped President Eisenhower make major military decisions.
The Natl. Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 11 May 1976 would also provide 4 new executive-branch agencies: the Office of Science and Technology Policy, whose director would advise the National Security Council upon request, but would mainly assist the Office of Management and Budget in decisions on funding federally supported R&D and would prepare an annual science and technology report for Congress as a counterpart of the State of the Union Message; the President's Committee on Science and Technology, consisting of 8 to 14 specialists in a wide range of fields who would study for 2 yr and report on the nation's science, engineering, and technology policies, and disband after submitting the report unless the President chose to continue it; the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, to deal with interagency problems, chaired by the Science Adviser; and the Intergovernmental Science, Engineering, and Technology Panel, consisting of the Science Adviser as chairman, the Director of the NSF, and at least 10 members representing state interests, to define civilian problems at state, regional, and local levels which could be resolved by science, engineering, and technology. Dr. Richard T. Atkinson, Deputy Director of NSF, would act as Director until the end of the present administration in January. (CR, 9 Aug 76, S 13954-13963; NYT, 6 Aug 76, Al; 10 Aug 76, A3; 15 Aug 76,4-6; 24 Aug 76, 28)
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