January 1984
From The Space Library
The Washington Post reported, according to declassified documents, that the $100 million Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) that the U.S. Air Force found unusable in April 1983 had lost its bearings and was unable to determine its position. After being launched from the Space Shuttle, the inertial upper stage (IUS) rocket veered so far from course that the TDRS ended up in an orbit almost 10,000 miles closer to Earth than was intended. It took NASA and its contractors three months to get the satellite into geosynchronous orbit above the equator.
According to the declassified documents, instructions to the gyroscope in the IUS were in error, causing the guidance computer to ignore them just before the rocket misfired. The Air Force said that the software error had been corrected.
At the same time, the guidance computer's memory became confused, rendering it unable to distinguish between right and wrong information about its location in space. Engineers said that they still did not know what caused this failure.
Because of the changes that had to be made in the IUS rocket, the flight of a secret Department of Defense (DOD) satellite aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger would be delayed from July 1 until the end of 1984, sources said. (W Post, Jan 31/83, A-2)
NASA announced that John J. Martin was named associate administrator for aeronautics and space technology. Previously, Martin had served as vice president and general manager at Bendix Advanced Technology Center, Columbia, Md.; at the Institute for Defense Analyses; on the staff of the president's science adviser at the White House; as associate deputy to the director of central intelligence for the intelligence community; as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force; and as assistant secretary of the Air Force for research, development, and logistics. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and commissioned by the U.S. Navy, Martin is the author of numerous technical papers and reviews and a book on "Atmospheric Reentry," published in 1966. (NASA anno, Jan 30184)
NASA announced that C.A. "Sy" Syvertson would retire on January 13 as director of Ames Research Center (ARC). Syvertson had a major part in the first U.S. research in supersonic and hypersonic flight, both in finding new aerodynamic theory and in development of hypersonic wind tunnels. He designed the first lifting body (a vehicle for flight from orbit to airfield landing and the precursor to the Shuttle) and did planning for major NASA missions in both aeronautics and space. During his tenure, ARC merged with NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) and continued advances in aircraft research.
Syvertson received the Lawrence Sperry Award for "fundamental under-standing of hypersonic air flow and its application to efficient aircraft design." He received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1971 for work as executive director of the joint Department of Transportation (DOT)-NASA Civil Aviation Research and Development (CARD) policy study, which made a series of recommendations for future civil aviation policy. He was named a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1976 and of the American Astronautical Society in 1978 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1981. (NASA Release 84-01)
Dr. William F. Ballhaus, Jr., director of astronautics at ARC, was named director of the center, succeeding C.A. Syvertson, who retired January 13. Ballhaus is a nationally known expert in computational fluid dynamics-use of supercomputers to stimulate air flow around flight vehicles. As ARC director of astronautics, Ballhaus had been responsible for interplanetary spaceflight projects, operation of a number of airborne observatories used in astronomy and Earth resources research, development of supercomputer systems, research in computational fluid dynamics and computational chemistry, space science, thermophysics, and materials science. Ballhaus came to ARC in 1971, after receiving his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). He joined what is now the Army Aeromechanics Laboratory at ARC and was assigned to the Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch. He has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia and has published more than 35 technical papers. (NASA Release 84-5)
Jack Lousma, commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia on its third flight, announced at the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., his campaign for the U.S. Senate. He will seek the Republican nomination to run against Democratic Senator Carl Levin. "Twenty-five years ago, I made a commitment to serve my country-a commitment that has led me from Michigan to the Marine Corps to missions in space," he said. "That same commitment brings me home today." He spent 59 days in orbit as part of Skylab's second manned mission in 1973 and was commander of the Shuttle Columbia in 1982. (W Post, Jan 26/84, C-2)
- 1984
- January
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