Jul 18 1977
From The Space Library
MSFC announced that one of its orbiting satellites, Pegasus 1, silent since Jan. 13, 1968, had suddenly come to life; GSFC's network operations group had picked up signals from its beacon June 27 as interference with data transmission by another satellite. Pegasus 1 had been launched Feb. 16, 1965, to acquire meteoroid data on its 2300ft2 of instrumented surface and transmit its findings to earth stations. After a silence of nearly 10yr, its revival was a puzzle to NASA officials who were checking circuit drawings still available. After notifying MSFC of the occurrence, GSFC network operations had sent a command from Australia's Orroral station to turn off the satellite's AM beacon, only to find that the FM beacon was also working. The transmitters, operating when the vehicle was in full sunlight, were sending strong signals; the network group had recorded signal strengths of both transmitters before commanding them off. (MSFC Release 77-130)
MSFC reported it had fired for 2min the largest solid-fuel rocket motor ever developed, at Thiokol Corp.'s installation 24mi from Brigham City, Utah, and 2mi from the nearest occupied building. The Thiokol motor, the propulsive part of the Space Shuttle booster, contained 502 454kg (more than 1.1 million lb) of propellant, half again as much as the next largest motor ever fired at the site. A composite fuel, mixed and poured into the 4 segments of the SRM, had been cured for 4 days before the segments were joined horizontally at the test site by special handling devices. The segments would go by rail to KSC for vertical assembly. Each Shuttle launch would use two of the boosters, designed for reuse up to 20 times. (MSFC Releases 77-125, 77-133; NASA Release 77-142)
NASA announced it had awarded a 12th grader from Calif. a prize in addition to the grand prize for 1977 in a nationwide student science competition. Jonathan Holman, who had worked with control mechanisms in blood clotting, received his award from his older brother Jeffrey, top winner in the 1976 competition and now a student at the Mass. Inst. of Technology. Jonathan had chosen his experiment because his family had a history of hemophilia, in which the blood fails to clot properly. The competition was sponsored by the Natl. Consortium for Black Professional Development. NASA coordinator for the program was Everett P. Colman, EEO officer at LeRC, who said it was a part of NASA's effort to increase the number of people with scientific skills the agency would need in future. (NASA Release 77-140)
MSFC reported that NASA had issued a request for proposals to integrate mission payloads, in preparation for the first three Spacelab missions and the sixth Space Shuttle orbiter flight test. Integration would include combining a number of experiments into a compatible payload; controlling the configuration during instrument development, testing, and flight operations; and disassembly of the payload after the mission. Proposals, due Aug. 15, would be reviewed by a source evaluation board. (MSFC Release 77-131)
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