Feb 24 1977
From The Space Library
JSC announced plans for NASA Symposium 77 to be held at the center March l-3 for more than 2000 students from junior and senior high schools in Texas, a first-of-its-kind event for NASA, designed to motivate youth (especially female and minority students) to seek careers in engineering and science. Special guest at the event would be actress Nichelle Nichols, best known as Lt. Uhura, communications officer on the Star Trek television series. JSC and contract employees would conduct workshops and describe their own careers as scientists or engineers, and would take the students on tours of various work areas at the center.
The symposium would include a seminar for college and university administrators from schools having high enrollments of minority and female students, giving information on NASA research, training, and employment opportunities. NASA had conducted programs similar to Symposium 77 at 3 universities, but not at a field center. (JSC Release 77-10)
The initial phase of Shuttle approach and landing tests (ALT) that began Feb. 18 at DFRC might end ahead of schedule, DFRC announced, if the 4th and 5th flight of the combined 747-and-orbiter vehicles continued to meet program objectives. Donald K. Slayton, ALT program manager, said that if performance measured up to previous successful flights, the 6th test (now scheduled for Mar. 4) would be dropped. Program officials had praised the performance of the 747 and its piggyback passenger, Slayton said; flight data had verified preflight wind-tunnel test results and simulations conducted by Boeing.
Early completion of inert tests with an unmanned orbiter would put the orbiter in its hangar a week ahead of schedule to prepare for its next flight, in the captive-active phase. Five flights scheduled in this phase would carry astronaut crews to perform systems checks and go through crew procedures as the 747 went through maneuvers up to, but just short of, actual release of the orbiter. Tests later in the summer would release the orbiter for an unpowered landing on DFRC's dry lakebed. (NASA Release 77-36; DFRC Release 8-77)
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