Feb 25 1976
From The Space Library
Fred W. Haise, Jr., astronaut on the Apollo 13 lunar mission of April 1970 that nearly ended in disaster, would command the first free-flight test of the Space Shuttle, Johnson Space Center officials announced. A research pilot for NASA since 1959, Haise worked at Lewis Research Center and the Flight Research Center before his selection as a civilian astronaut in 1966. He was technical assistant to the manager of the Shuttle orbiter project from April 1973 to January 1976. With Haise on the test Shuttle flight would be Air Force Lt. Col. Charles G. Fullerton, appointed astronaut in 1969, who had never flown in space. The Shuttle was scheduled to fly piggyback in 1977 on a modified Boeing 747 jet transport, then in free-flight testing and landing after release at about 8-km altitude. Haise and Col. Fullerton would guide the Shuttle to an unpowered landing at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Calif. to demonstrate handling and reusability. (B Sun, 25 Feb 76, A-7; Ill Post, 25 Feb 76, B 5; NASA Release 76-35; JSC Release 76-17)
Comsat General Corp. announced an agreement with ARCO-the Atlantic Richfield Co.-to install a Marisat terminal on the S/S Arco Prudhoe Bay, a tanker commissioned in Baltimore in 1971, to evaluate satellite communications with an eye to equipping other Arco ships if the new medium should prove reliable. The tanker would transport crude oil from Alaska to U.S. west-coast ports, and communications via satellite would be valuable during periods when the aurora borealis (northern lights) made high-frequency communication difficult. Comsat facilities had been installed previously on 15 commercial vessels; the Marisat system would be the 16th, and would begin operations in commercial service about 1 April. (Comsat Release 76-105)
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