Jun 2 1973
From The Space Library
NASA launched an Aerobee 170A sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range carrying an American Science and Engineering, Inc., payload to a 175.4-km (109.0-mi) altitude to collect data on the solar spectra. The rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (GSFC proj off)
Soviet journalist Victor Louis discussed U.S.S.R. plans for the Tu-144 supersonic transport aircraft in a New York Times article. The aircraft was scheduled to go into regular passenger service in 1975, when it was expected to begin carrying 120 million passengers annually. Soviet territory was so sparsely populated that "fewer people will be troubled by noise than in Europe or the United States." Soviet statistics showed 3500 internal airfields in the U.S.S.R. Soviet aircraft flew to 63 major cities throughout the world-operating between Moscow and Santiago, Chile, and eastward between Moscow and Jakarta. SST watchers had calculated that the U.S.S.R. would not sell more than 20 Tu-144s initially. "Ten are estimated to be sufficient to satisfy [Soviet national airline] Aeroflot's demands for its internal and international European, African and Asian routes, and perhaps a further ten would be taken up by the Czechs . . . and other countries of Eastern Europe." Gen. Aleksey A. Tupolev-who had taken over Tu-144 planning after the death of his father, Tu-144 designer Andrey N. Tupolev-had predicted 50 times more air passengers by the year 2000 and talked of aircraft that would cruise in the stratosphere and carry 1000 persons at speeds of 10 060 km (6250 mi) per hr. (NYT, 6/2/73, 31)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
