Jun 2 1976
From The Space Library
NASA announced selection of IBM Corp., Gaithersburg, Md., for award of a $24-million 44-mo cost-plus-award-fee contract to supply a Space Shuttle data-processing complex for the mission control center at Johnson Space Center. The complex would consist of 3 computers and peripheral equipment for support of the Shuttle program; work to be performed would include design, fabrication, delivery, installation, and checkout of the computer complex and associated software. Control Data Corp. of Minneapolis also submitted a proposal. (NASA Release 76-104; JSC Release '76-37)
The USSR would probably put men on the moon within 10 yr to do more ambitious exploration than that done by U.S. astronauts, according to a report on Soviet space programs 1971-1975 by the Science Policy Research Division of the Library of Congress's Congressional Research Division. Dr. Charles S. Sheldon, II, chief of the Science Policy Research Division, stated in the report that the USSR did not abandon lunar plans when Apollo 11 got to the moon in July 1969, but that the Soviet program had been plagued with "hardware and systems ... quite inadequate by our standards." In a summary of Dr. Sheldon's report, the Washington Star noted his statement that the "race for the moon" was closer than many believed at the time; "the Soviets probably wanted to send the first manned flight around the moon by November 1967, when a test failed." Although a Soviet Apollo would probably not appear for the next 3 yr, Dr. Sheldon said, "within the decade there will probably be a Soviet landing on the moon that will be a generation beyond the Apollo flights . . . ." Describing the extensive Soviet military uses of space in addition to scientific and economic purposes, the report noted "the seriousness and steadiness with which the Russians are adding to their space facilities and their space operations, building versatility and experience in depth." The report did not mention the absence of this element in the U.S., the Star noted. The report would be published later in 1976 by the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, for which it was prepared. (W Star, 2 June 76, A-3)
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