Feb 13 1974
From The Space Library
The Air Force launched an unidentified satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Titan IIIB-Agena vehicle. The satellite entered orbit with a 404-km apogee, 128-km perigee, 89.8-min period, and 110.4° inclination. The press later reported the satellite would support the Navy's surface surveillance program. It reentered 17 March. (Pres Rpt 74; Av Wk, 4 March 74, 24)
The House of Representatives by a 253-to-2 vote passed H.R. 11864, the Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Act of 1974. The bill would authorize $50 million over five years for the early commercial demonstration of solar heating technology by NASA and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, in cooperation with the National Bureau of Standards, the National Science Foundation, the General Services Ad-ministration, and other Federal agencies, and early development and commercial demonstration of technology for combined solar heating and cooling. H.R. 11864 was the clean bill that resulted from the 19 Dec. 1973 recommendation of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Energy to revise, amend, and combine H.R. 10952, introduced 16 Oct. 1973, and 18 similar bills. The bill was sent to the Senate. (CR, 13 Feb 74, H774; Background d Legis Hist, Com Print, Feb 74)
Marshall Space Flight Center awarded a 90-day $950 000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to Thiokol Chemical Corp. for studies, analysis, planning, and design required to define the interface and performance relationships of the solid-fueled rocket motor to the solid-fueled rocket boosters, external tank, and orbiter of the space shuttle. Award of the 90-day contract was necessary to continue the overall development schedule of the total space shuttle system. A contract award to Thiokol in November 1973 to develop the motors for the shuttle had been delayed pending the resolution of a protest filed by Lockheed Propulsion Co. (NASA Release 74-130; Huntsville Times, 17 Feb 74)
NASA and European Space Research Organization officials met in Paris to discuss future cooperative missions to the planets. Joint mission possibilities included an out-of-the-ecliptic flight to study the sun, missions to Jupiter and Mercury, and experiments on missions to Venus and Mars. NASA would receive suggestions for the 1980s from European nations during the next few months. NASA Director of Planetary Pro-grams Robert S. Kraemer had said that international cooperation would be necessary for one third to one fourth of the payloads the agency envisioned for the next 15 yrs. (NASA, Spec Asst to Deputy Assoc Admin, interviews, 20-21 Jan 75; Couvault, Av Wk, 1 April 74, 38-9)
Concorde 202, the second production Anglo-French supersonic transport, made its maiden flight from British Aircraft Corp.'s airfield at Filton, England. The aircraft, developed jointly by BAC and Aerospatiale France, was airborne 1 hr 16 min, including 30 min of supersonic flight, reach-ing a speed of mach 1.4 and an altitude of 12 800 m. On arrival at Fairford, the Concorde made two low-level passes over the runway for instrument calibration tests before making a perfect touchdown, piloted by BAC'S Director of Flight Testing M. Brian Trubshaw. (BAC-Aero-spatiale Release 2c/74)
A New York Times editorial commented on Mariner 10's 5 Feb. encounter with Venus: In less than 15 yrs since a Soviet spacecraft had radioed back to earth the first pictures of the far side of the moon, American and Soviet spacecraft had provided picture coverage of the moon, Mars, and Jupiter. "Now Venus . . . and, if all goes well, Mercury," too, would be photographed. "Man's understanding of the solar system, its nature, origin, and history has been profoundly transformed by these remarkable feats, all carried out in so brief a period . . . at a rather small cost. . . . What are in effect telescopes in space rockets have now realized achievements that can surpass the possibilities of even the largest earth-space telescopes in giving us information about our neighbors in the solar system." (NYT, 13 Feb 74, 36)
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