December 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had silenced the scientific instruments aboard the Orbiting Solar Observatory Oso 8 by radio command sent from Goddard Space Flight Center to NASA's tracking station in Orroral, Australia, on the satellite's orbit no. 18 072. A few moments later the Australia station confirmed that the satellite's radio transmission had stopped. Last of the "sunshine" satellites that had begun investigating the sun with the launch of Oso 1 in 1962, Oso 8 (launched from Cape Canaveral June 21, 1975) had surpassed its 1-yr design lifetime by 2yr. It had far exceeded all prelaunch mission objectives, and had obtained the most accurate observations yet of the solar chromosphere and transition regions, giving scientists a better understanding of these.
Dr. Roger Thomas, Oso 8 project scientist at GSFC, said that the lessons learned from 16yr of OSO satellites had been instrumental in developing new experiments for future studies of the sun such as next yr's solar maximum mission. Four of the eight experiments aboard the 1064kg Oso 8 had been designed to measure the sun during the quiet (solar minimum) period. Solar activity had increased substantially, and the solar-science community was preparing to study a period of maximum solar activity, in part through launch of the solar maximum mission in Oct. 1979. The nonsolar high-energy astrophysics experiments on Oso 8 also had made significant observations of the celestial sphere. These experiments had been superseded by Sas 3, HEAO 1, and HEAO 2. The Oso 8 control center at GSFC would be reconfigured to support the SMM mission. (NASA AM, Dec 78, 12)
NASA reported procurements during FY78 totalled $3660 million, 3.6% more than during FY77. Approximately 81 % of the net dollar value was placed directly with business firms, 5% with educational and other nonprofit institutions or organizations, 8% with the Calif. Inst. of Technology (for operations conducted by or through JPL), and 5% with or through other government agencies; 90% of the dollar value of the latter resulted in contracts with industry. About 53% of funds placed by NASA under JPL contracts resulted in subcontracts or purchases with business firms. In short, about 90% of NASA procurement was contracted to private industry. Of total direct awards to business firms, 72% were competitive procurements (either through formal advertising or negotiation) and 28% were noncompetitive.
Small business firms had received $282 million (10%) of NASA's direct awards, indicating that most agency awards to business firms were large continuing R&D contracts for major systems or items of hardware generally beyond the capability of small business firms on a prime contract basis. However, of the $633 million in new contracts worth $10 000 or more awarded to business firms during 1978, small business received $137 million (22%); in addition to direct awards, small business received substantial subcontract awards from 75 of the NASA prime contractors participating in its small business subcontracting program. Total direct awards plus known subcontract awards to small business aggregated $513 million, 17% of NASA's total (direct plus indirect) awards to business firms. Included in awards to small business firms were $75.852 million awarded to minority business enterprises: $14.064 million in direct awards, $32.151 million under Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act, and known subcontract awards of $29.637 million.
In 1978, 49 states and Washington, D.C., participated in NASA prime-contract awards of $10 000 and over. These larger awards went to 2068 business firms in 46 states and D.C., and to 341 universities and nonprofit organizations in 47 states and D.C. Labor-surplus areas in 40 states had received 53% of the awards. (NASA ann proc rpt FY78)
NASA announced the inception of Orbit 81, an RCA educational program to involve inner-city high school students in designing and developing a scientific experiment for launch on the Space Shuttle in 1981. The program had resulted from discussions among representatives of the Camden, N.J., public school system, NASA, and RCA. Other high schools were conducting similar programs, but NASA officials called the Camden project unique because it was the only "total involvement program covering all the disciplines, arts, and skills" taught in the curriculum. Students taking courses other than science and mathematics could be active participants in the project. Selection of an Orbit 81 experiment would take place when students had gained enough scientific insight to participate in the decision. The program would include enrichment courses in space science, summer sessions, and tours of NASA and RCA facilities. RCA had donated surplus laboratory equipment to the schools; NASA would provide literature, special programs, lectures, and demonstrations. Students of Camden and Woodrow Wilson High Schools had attended a space colloquium presented by NASA and RCA. RCA had made an initial payment to NASA as part of the $10 000 reservation fee to ensure that the Orbit 81 payload, which could weigh up to 90kg and occupy no more than 0.14m3, would have a place aboard the Space Shuttle when launch time arrived. (NASA Actv, Dec 78, 11)
NASA announced that its administrator, Dr. Robert Frosch, had accepted for NASA a document commemorating the anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh's solo trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in the "Spirit of St. Louis" on May 20 1927. Copies of the framed Flight Philatelic Document, containing a series of American and French Lindbergh stamps and cancellations tracing the history of the aviator's achievement, had been presented to 25 persons and organizations in the U.S. and France. Friends of the Nassau County Museum, Long Island, N.Y., had produced the tribute and selected the recipients, including President Jimmy Carter, French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and museums and agencies linked to aviation. Each of the documents bore seven American and French Lindbergh stamps with key cancellations, and each document was autographed by President Carter, President d'Estaing, Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, U.S. Postmaster General Benjamin Bailer, French Postal Secretary Norbert Segard, and Mrs. Lindbergh. (NASA Actv, Dec 78, 12)
DOT's National Transportation Report noted that the department had been using administrative action to improve transportation. For example, while working for the Aviation Regulatory Reform Act, the department had led a federal interagency task force to develop guidelines for U.S. negotiators in reaching air service agreements with other countries. This had resulted in bilateral air service agreements with 13 nations that would increase competitive opportunities for airlines and lower passenger fares. Another major DOT aviation action was Secretary Brock Adams's decision to allow existing Concorde supersonic aircraft to fly over U.S. territory, at the same time requiring future SSTs to meet the same noise standards as subsonic aircraft. (Natl Transp Rept Jan 77-Dec 78, 3)
The AFSC Newsreview reported that the USAF's Geophysics Laboratory (AFGL) had successfully completed a rocket test flight of equipment to cope with lightning-like discharges that could affect earth orbiting satellites. These high-voltage discharges could interrupt transmissions of information to earth stations from geosynchronous satellites. A sudden rush of electrical current could confuse control circuits, causing a satellite to behave erratically or fail to function. Scientists were still analyzing information from the 160mi-high rocket flight, but preliminary results showed that the electrical buildup-which could reach thousands of volts-could be controlled by emitting negative or positive charges from the spacecraft.
An Astrobee F sounding rocket carried equipment that released either negative charges (electrons) or positive charges (ions) as the electrical charge built up on the rocket body. This either kept the charging to a low voltage or provided an electrically conductive path around the rocket body so the charge could leak off slowly. The rocket payload contained instruments nearly identical to those scheduled for orbit in Jan. on a SCATHA (spacecraft charging at high altitudes) satellite as part of a test program managed by SAMSO, Los Angeles. (AFSC Newsreview, Dec 78, 9)
The USAF's Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD) had awarded Hughes Aircraft Co., Canoga Park, Calif., a $90.25 million contract for engineering development and test of the AGM-65D imaging infrared (IIR) Maverick missile, the AFSC Newsreview reported. A 35-mo engineering-development program designed to fine-tune the IIR version of Maverick would ensure that the weapon incorporated the state-of-the art and was producible, maintainable, and reliable. ASD officials said testing, a key element in advanced development, would be equally crucial as the IIR program moved into the engineering development phase. The 16-mo test series would begin with ground-based studies and captive flight tests using helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Live firings of both telemetry- and warhead-equipped missiles from A-10, A7D, and F-4D and -E aircraft would complete the rigorous flight-test schedule.
The IIR guidance system (fourth and most sophisticated mate to the already-proven Maverick) would also be used with two guided bombs, the Air Force's GBU-15 and the Navy's Walleye. The IIR Maverick's digital-centroid tracker could pick up heat images generated by a target, calculate its approximate center, and guide the missile to target impact. USAF plans called for procurement of more than 31 000 IIR Maverick missiles; production would begin in mid-1981. (AFSC Newsreview, Dec 78, 7)
The AFSC Newsreview reported that F-15 fighter pilots had come closer to better anti-G (gravity forces) protection, with airworthiness certification of a high-flow ready-pressure anti-G valve developed by the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine. Tests of the valves installed in two F-15s at Edwards AFB, Calif., had checked their reliability under flight conditions. Alar Products, Inc., Macedonia, 0., was manufacturing 15 of the high-flow anti-G valves, and the ready-pressure attachment would be manufactured and added to the valves at USAFSAM. The valves would be installed in F-15s at Holloman AFB, N.M., and tested for 2 to 3mo. If test results were favorable, the valve would be further developed by the Aerospace Medical Division's life support system program office at Wright-Patterson AFB. (AFSC Newsreview, Dec 78, 12)
The AFSC Newsreview reported that, pending arrival of the age of the Space Shuttle, the USAF Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) was modifying a Titan III 34D booster to ensure prime and backup launch capabilities during Space Shuttle transition. The 34D was a modified Titan HID that the USAF had put into operation in 1971; SAMSO had recommended it in 1975 to the Defense Science Board studying how DOD could manage an orderly transition from expendable to reusable launch vehicles. Instead of a variety of boosters, the 34D would use a common Titan III core for east- and west-coast launches, with the option of dedicating a 34D launch vehicle to either coast as late as 6mo before launch.
The 34D also was compatible with the new inertial upper-stage (IUS) vehicle, another SAMSO project in full-scale development by Boeing Aerospace Co. During the Space Shuttle backup era beginning in 1980, the 34D/IUS combination would be contingency booster for top-priority defense payloads. Plans called for development of seven 34D boosters to be used first for launching two defense satellite communications system (DSCS) spacecraft in July 1980 from Cape Canaveral. Four of the seven vehicles would serve east coast launches using the IUS, and three would serve polar launches from Vandenberg AFB.
Differences between the 34D and Titan HID included solid-fuel rocket motors lengthened 5ft each to align with new common-core attach points and payload fairing modified to extend from 40 to 55ft. The new fairing would make the 34D payload environment nearly identical to that of the Shuttle orbiter cargo bay, a step toward upper-stage commonality. The 34D program was in final design stage under contracts with Martin Marietta Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas Corp., and United Technologies Corp. (AFSC Newsreview, Dec 78, 9)
The Natl. Science Foundation reported that the 1979 federal budget presented in Jan. 1978 reflected greater austerity in R&D programs than during the previous 3yr, in which rate of R&D growth had exceeded the rate of inflation. R&D programs funded were those that met direct federal needs, general social and economic needs, or the need to accelerate private R&D efforts because of overriding national interest. The FY79 budget contained a rise for defense and space R&D programs of about 8% each, with only a 3% rise for all other R&D. This would reverse a 13-yr trend in which federal R&D support had shifted steadily toward civilian programs. The 1979 change had resulted not only from increases in defense/space support at rates at least equal to anticipated inflation, but also from expected real-dollar declines in support of civilian R&D areas of health, energy, and environment.
Federal R&D obligations rose 6% to an estimated $28.0 billion in the FY79 budget, an all-time high in current dollars, but inflation would mean a drop from the 1978 total figure in constant dollars. Later congressional actions had raised the level approximately 9% above that of 1978, and action on supplemental requests might add another 2 or 3 percentage points. Defense and space programs had accounted for more than 80% of the current dollar rise in R&D support in 1979. Funding for each of these was expected to increase by about 8% in 1979, whereas all civilian functions taken together would increase by only 3%. The defense/space share of the federal total in 1979 would be an estimated 62%, more than the 1978 share but still considerably lower than the 77% share in 1969. (Analysis of Fed R&D Funding by Function, Dec 78, vii) ComSatCorp announced it had derived 57% of its 1978 operating revenues from services provided through INTELSAT satellites; 37% from maritime and U.S. domestic services provided by Comsat General through the Marisat and Comstar satellite systems; and 6% from its investment share in INTELSAT and operational and technical services.
ComSatCorp had been considering expansion into the growing environmental information services field in which satellite technology could play a significant, possibly essential, role. Comsat General, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey and Telesat Canada, had already demonstrated the ability of satellites and small unattended earth stations to collect water-resources data from remote areas of the U.S. and Canada. ComSatCorp would enter the field by acquiring at a price not to exceed $20 million Environmental Research & Technology, Inc. (ERT), currently engaged in a broad spectrum of environmental services. Adding ERT's expertise in environmental data collection, monitoring, analysis, and prediction to ComSatCorp's expertise in satellite communications and related technologies should make the organization better able to extend satellite-communications technology to the growing environmental-information services market.
ComSatCorp had also been working to apply advanced technology in developing and manufacturing specialized products, including earth station components, signal-processing systems equipment, and fiberoptics communications equipment. (COMSAT annl rept 78, 1-7)
The Aerospace Industries Assn. announced that industry sales, earnings, backlog, export performance, and contribution to the U.S. balance of trade had improved substantially in 1978. Sales, at $37.3 billion, were up almost $5 billion over 1977; the major gain was in commercial sales. The high inflation rate had distorted sales data, but 1978 sales had increased about 15% above 1977, well in excess of the inflation rate. Industry profits as a percentage of sales rose half a percentage point to 4.7%.
Aerospace exports had reached an all-time high of $9.3 billion, $l.8 billion more than in 1977. At a time when export sales were important to the U.S. economy, the aerospace industry recorded an international trade surplus of nearly $8.4 billion, leading all U.S. manufacturing industries in contributing to the nation's balance of trade. Industry backlog at year-end, estimated at $51.4 billion, was a sharp increase over $44.3 billion in 1977, resulting mostly from a surge of new orders for commercial transports. (Aerospace, Winter 78, 2)
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