Jun 20 1979
From The Space Library
NASA announced an MSFC award to General Dynamics Convair of a $250,000 contract to study feasibility of a space platform in geostationary Earth orbit carrying many separate payloads. The platform would contain plug-in equipment to accommodate communications, Earth resources, meteorology, and similar studies now flown on separate satellites.
Preliminary MSFC investigations indicated that a platform could be built in space and located in a synchronous orbit at 40,000 kilometers to offer power and other functions to "tenant" missions parked there for a fee-like rent. Platform services such as power, available to all tenants, would eliminate the need for antennas, solar arrays, or batteries on individual payloads, reducing size and launch weight. Locating packages on a single platform would also simplify in-orbit repair and servicing. (NASA Release 79-82; MSFC Release 79-63)
June 20-21: Newspapers nationwide reported that NASA was now predicting Skylab reentry between July 7 and 25, probably July 16. Thomas O'Toole wrote in the Washington Post that the descending space station would be visible in the sky over Washington, D.C., this week for the Last time before it broke up and fell to Earth. Atmospheric friction would destroy most of it, NASA said, but two heavy pieces (an airlock shroud and a lead-lined film vault) weighing 3,900 pounds and 5,000 pounds would probably hit Earth about 500 miles apart, the airlock being outside the station and the vault inside. The Washington Star said JSC controllers had "prodded" the Skylab into a sidewise attitude that might allow them to steer the station away from inhabited areas. NORAD agreed that reentry was probable on or before July 16. (W Post, June 20/79, A-11; W Star, June 21, A-4)
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