Jun 26 1973
From The Space Library
Johnson Space Center's selection of a United Aircraft Corp. Pratt & Whitney Div. TF33-P-7 engine for use on the space shuttle orbiter in atmospheric flight was announced by NASA. The engine was similar to those used on the Air Force C-141 Starlifter transport air-craft. The USAF would secure 25 engines for NASA use during horizontal flight-testing of the orbiter and for ferry flight when the shuttle was operational. (NASA Release 73-121)
The House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight held a hearing on the General Accounting Office's June 1 report on space shuttle program costs. NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator Willis H. Shapley testified: "NASA believes that the results of our cost benefit analyses are important and valid elements supporting the decision to develop the space shuttle, even though the principal justification for the space shuttle is in the new capabilities it will pro-vide. In our view, the GAO review, which we welcome as an independent review and check of what we have attempted to do, has not found or demonstrated any substantial reasons for questioning the correctness of the decision which has been made to proceed with the development of the space shuttle." The Subcommittee concluded, following their testimony by NASA and GAO representatives: "a) The five noneconomic issues cited by GAO as major considerations in the decision to develop a space shuttle are valid and proper elements in the original decision to proceed and in the future evaluation of the progress and pace of space shuttle development. b) Cost, performance and schedule goals and estimates are both a valid and essential element in the decision making process of the Congress and the GAO studies in these areas . . . must have sufficient depth to encompass all major cost considerations. c) The fragmentary arguments with respect to costs advanced by GAO reports are so incomplete as to fail to validate the GAO conclusions drawn from them. d) That GAO should continue review of the space shuttle program development in conjunction with the legislative and oversight activities of the responsible committees of Congress with emphasis on evaluation of cost, performance and schedule as the space shuttle development program progresses." (Transcript)
Maj. Gen. Vladimir A. Shatalov, U.S.S.R. director of cosmonaut training, denied Western press reports of recent Soviet space failures and said there would be manned Soviet launches before the 1975 U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo-Soyuz mission, during a Moscow interview with U.S. correspondents. Of Soyuz 2 (launched April 3 and reported to have disintegrated in space) he said, "This craft this time was not intended for manned flight. The experiment was successfully completed and we are satisfied with the results." Salyut 2 had had a "much more narrow purpose" than Salyut 1 (launched April 19, 1971, as a space station). Salyut 2 was "intended to finalize some design peculiarities. As soon as it fulfilled its task, it finished its existence." Several manned space flights were planned as part of the Soviet space program and to test design changes in the Soyuz spacecraft for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). The U.S.S.R. was considering admitting Western journalists to their space facilities for the first time and the establishment of a press center at Baykonur Cosmodrome, but newsmen would not be permitted beyond 7 km (4.3 mi) of the launch site. (UPI, Intl Herald Tribune, 6/27/73; B Sun, 6/27/73, A2)
Flight Research Center announced the award of a cost-reimbursable $1 600 000 contract to the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to provide software for an improved control system for NASA's digital fly-by-wire experimental aircraft. The system would advance digital fly-by-wire technology by replacing the single-channel digital system undergoing flight tests with a dual system that used hardware developed originally for the Apollo program. (FRC Release 15-73)
The Univ. of California at Davis successfully completed a 15-wk, NASA-sponsored study to determine how astronauts on extended space missions would cope with isolation [see May 18]. Six male students, in groups of three, lived in 3- by 5-m (11- by 17-ft) rooms with bathrooms and closets. Interior lighting was controlled to interchange day-night cycles and provide long periods of uninterrupted light barely bright enough to read by. Each room was monitored by closed-circuit TV. The students, selected from 100 volunteers, were paid $1600 each to participate. Dr. Don A. Rockwell, codirector of the study, said it had proved that, while space explorers should be able to live without sex for extended periods, they needed someone outside their spacecraft to whom "they could blow their tops" from time to time. (AP, W Post, 6/27/73)
A Los Angeles Times editorial commented on the success of the May 14- June 22 Skylab 1-2 mission: "By overcoming the initial difficulties which plagued the mission, and going on to complete most of the experiments assigned to them, the men of the first Skylab mission have made an impressive contribution toward the goal of putting space technology to work here on earth." (LA Times, 6/26/73)
The Air Force announced award of a $1 700 000 definitive contract to United Aircraft Corp. Pratt & Whitney Div. for fabrication of an advanced gas dynamic laser for the airborne laser laboratory of the Air Force Special Weapons Center at Kirkland Air Force Base, N. Mex. (DOD Release 320-73)
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