Jan 29 1976
From The Space Library
INTELSAT IV-A F-2, second in a series of improved commercial comsats, was launched from Cape Kennedy on an Atlas-Centaur at 6:56 pm EST (2356 GMT) into a transfer orbit at about 31 000-km apogee, aimed at a station over the Atlantic Ocean at 29.5°W which it should reach by April. Working as a backup to INTELSAT IV-A F-1, the newly launched spacecraft would provide almost two thirds more communications capability than previous INTELSATs, by increasing the number of transponders from 12 to 20 and by using an improved antenna system that permitted frequency reuse by beam separation. The east-pointed am used for transatlantic service would illuminate Europe and Africa; the same 320-mhz bandwidth would be reused in the west beam aimed at North and South America, doubling the usability of the frequency and the satellite's capacity. The cylindrical spacecraft was about 7 m high and 2.38 m in diameter, with a solar panel about 2.8 m long; liftoff weight was 1515 kg, and in-orbit weight 825.5 kg. (NASA Release 76-8; MOR E-491-633-76-02, 12 Feb 76 [prelaunch], 25 Feb 76 [postlaunch])
Soon after Rockwell International Corp. was named prime contractor on a $5-billion Space-Shuttle program, Rep. Olin E. Teague (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, had accepted an invitation for a trip to Rockwell's resort in the Bahamas. Teague's name was added to a list of senators and representatives who had accepted invitations from Rockwell, a prime government contractor; most went to hunt at the company's lodge in Maryland. Three Senate staff members had accepted invitations to hunt at the Maryland lodge of another contractor, Northrop Corp. During the previous week, the Pentagon had rebuked 38 civilian and military officials, including admirals and generals, for accepting similar invitations from Northrop. House rules prevented members, officers, or employees from accepting gifts "of substantial value, directly or indirectly, from any persons, organization, or corporation having a direct interest in legislation before the Congress;" the Senate had no similar written regulation. (W Post, 29 Jan 76, F-5)
A vacuum test facility built near Philadelphia in 1962 by General Electric to test satellites would be used to freeze-dry most of New York City's air-pollution control records, damaged in a 16th-floor records office on Wall Street by flooding from a ruptured check valve in the 17th-floor airconditioning system, the New York Times reported. Hundreds of thousands of cards and pages had been shipped in a refrigerator truck to Pa. to be dried before mold could form and consume the cellulose fibers in the paper. After placement in the chamber, the records would undergo a vacuum so that the water would turn into vapor, move to a condenser, and turn to ice; after being frozen and dehydrated, the papers would be rewarmed. Use of the facility would save "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and untold time in attempting to duplicate the records, the Commissioner of Air Resources said. (NYT, 29 Jan 76, 35)
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