Feb 26 1975
From The Space Library
Press briefings on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project were held at Johnson Space Center. ASTP participants would be conducting experiments in space sciences, life sciences, and applications, ASTP Project Scientist Dr. Thomas Giuli said at an experiments briefing. The five space-science experiments included a soft x-ray experiment to study radiation by scanning across the celestial mode, pointing at known discrete sources in the soft part of the spectrum from 2 kev to 0.1 kev, and investigating 10 specific x-ray sources known to emit only in regions below 2 kev. A helium-glow experiment would investigate temperature and density of the interstellar medium in the vicinity of our solar system by observing two special frequencies of extreme ultraviolet light emitted from the sun after they traveled into interstellar space, hit the interstellar medium, and were reflected back again. Other space-science experiments included a study of the sun's outer atmosphere during an artificial eclipse created by maneuvering the Apollo spacecraft. During the "eclipse," the Soyuz crew would photograph the sun's corona.
Among the earth environmental and applications studies was an experiment to measure neutral atomic oxygen and neutral atomic nitrogen of the earth's upper atmosphere. Another experiment would try to devise a simple means of monitoring the aerosol content of the earth's atmosphere. A water-resources management experiment, planned and coordinated with the government of India, would photograph the Himalayan area to map drainage patterns and water reservoir locations.
Life-science experiments included a study to observe optical sensations from cosmic rays experienced by the crew, an investigation of mutation in cells grown in space, and studies of the effect of space flight on the ability of microbes to infect humans and of changes in the human immunity system to resist infections under space flight conditions.
At a mission profile briefing, Kenneth A. Young of JSC's Mission Planning and Analysis Div. said that plans called for a 9-day Apollo mission beginning 7.5 hrs after the launch of Soyuz by the U.S.S.R. The planned rendezvous period would be 2 days, with docking scheduled for the 30th inertial orbit, or third day in flight, of the Apollo spacecraft. Following much negotiation, U.S. and Soviet mission planners determined that the two spacecraft would dock over Soviet territory, providing real-time telemetry coverage for the Soviet Union, but at a location where NASA's Ats 6 communications satellite could provide communications coverage to the U.S. The first handshake would take place over Spain.
The spacecraft would undock on the 5th day and perform several joint experiments while separated. Soyuz was scheduled to land the following day. Apollo would continue unilateral experiments in orbit before landing at the end of the 9th day in space.
Astronaut Richard H. Truly said, during a joint crew activities briefing, that while the Apollo and Soyuz were docked, all communications would be conducted in the language of the listener regardless of the nationality of the speaker. (Transcript)
Both the Soviet and U.S. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project crews had reached a level of language proficiency where "we can speak to each other," commander of the Soviet crew Aleksei A. Leonov said in an Izvestiya interview. Leonov said that the crews' first meeting had been "merely a glance" and "we wondered whether we would come to like each other." In preparing for the mission, the Soviets and the Americans had not only come to treat each other "as crew member to crew member" but had also developed a degree of comradeship. It would be impossible to work without this. In the event of some emergency, if "I have to carry him on my shoulders or he has to carry me, how could I do this unless I respect him and value him as a comrade? For we are virtually candidates of the whole world. Despite the difference of our social formations, despite the contradictions which have existed and continue to exist to this day, we have found points of contact." (Kondrashov, Izvestiya, FBIS-Sov, 28 Feb 75, U1)
NASA announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Zaire to build the first African ground station designed to receive earth-resources data from Landsat-1 (launched as Erts 123 July 1972) and Landsat-2 (launched 22 Jan.). Zaire's new station would produce both computer tapes and photographic imagery that would include data on the African continent from Chad to South Africa and from Kenya to the Ivory Coast. Currently, data from that area had been stored by onboard tape recorders for transmission to U.S. ground stations. (NASA Release 75-53)
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