Jun 1 1973
From The Space Library
Skylab 3's target launch date had been changed to July 27, NASA announced at a Johnson Space Center press briefing. SL-3, to carry the second crew to the Orbital Workshop launched May 14, previously had been scheduled for Aug. 8. The new target date was set because unexpected use of Skylab hardware during the Skylab 1-2 mission had exposed electronics, batteries, and systems to unusual environments. Deputy Skylab Program Director John H. Disher said a July 27 launch would give greater solar power input, because the relation of the sun to orbit plane at that date would give the spacecraft a greater percentage of time in the sun. The precise date would be set after the end of the Skylab 2 mission. (Transcript; NASA Release 73-111)
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, released a statement on private communications of crews of the Skylab Orbital Workshop (launched May 14), after meeting with the Deputy Administrator, Dr. George M. Low; Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Dale D. Myers; and Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs John P. Donnelly. A May 3 memorandum had authorized private communications for morale purposes (weekly calls from Skylab astronauts to their families), for "extreme" operational emergencies, and for medical reasons (to permit private doctor-patient relations) . Following objections from some newsmen to the May 29 Charles Conrad, Jr., private conversation on operational matters, Dr. Fletcher had decided to instruct Mission Control's Capsule Communicator to query the seriousness of a situation before permitting a private conversation from Skylab. Dr. Fletcher said in his new statement that he would rescind this instruction because "we believe it would be imprudent to discourage requests by the crew for private operational communications." Paraphrases of the communications would be released to the press. "We will continue to leave it entirely up to the flight crew as to when to call for such a conversation, and will send no new instructions or clarification of instructions. This decision was reached so that we would in no conceivable way inhibit them from calling for a private conversation when they believe a need exists, and so that we will not jeopardize the safety of the mission." (NASA Release 73-110)
A Chicago Tribune editorial hailed the Skylab 2 astronauts (launched May 25 to man the crippled Workshop orbited May 14) as "tinkerers." The men who overcame the senseless stubbornness of inanimate objects had been "superlatively trained and admirably persistent and are the products of a highly scientific preparation. But the achievement also reflects the fine American heritage of tinkering. This was the quality that enabled the Pilgrim fathers to make do with strange, native materials when they landed on our alien shores." It was also "the practical genius that has enabled four generations of young Americans to compel model Ts to live and snort again when it was obvious that they were clinically dead. Its magic has guided these astronauts and their ground advisers to a thrilling kind of space achievement that is typically American." (C Trib, 6/1/73)
The General Accounting Office released Comptroller General's Report to the Congress: Analysis of Cost Estimates for the space shuttle and Two Alternate Programs. The review, made by GAO at the request of Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.), said GAO was "not convinced that the choice of a launch system should be based principally on cost comparisons" and "not certain that the space shuttle is economically justified (is less costly when the time value of money is considered), even though NASA's calculations show that it is." Payload cost was the major element in program cost estimates for both the shuttle and alternate use of existing expendable launch vehicles. NASA had estimated $30.2 billion for the shuttle and $50.1 billion for the expendable systems. The $19.9- billion difference was due to estimated low-cost design of shuttle pay-loads which could be recovered, refurbished, and reused. GAO recommended that Congress "consider the future space missions used in NASA's economic analysis . . . to determine whether these missions are a reasonable basis for space program planning at this time" and "review the estimates for the space shuttle annually, giving due consideration to the appropriateness of the missions used in making those estimates." (CR, 6/8/73, S10703-4)
The Air Force announced a $3 547 890 firm-fixed-price contract award to Textron, Inc., Dalmo Victor Div. The contract was for aerospace ground equipment test sets applicable to the radar warning system for the F-105G, OV-1, and F-4E aircraft. (DOD Release 277-73)
Jeanne M. Holm, age 51, became the first two-star female general officer in U.S. military history with her promotion to Air Force major general. She had begun her military career as a truck driver in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942 and was now Director of the Air Force Personnel Council. M/G Holm was among seven women who had achieved the rank of general or admiral and the only woman to hold a command outside a service nurses' corps or women's branch. (ups, W Star & News, 6/2/73, 2)
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