Jun 2 1981
From The Space Library
MSFC said that NASA's third high-energy astronomy observatory, HEAO 3, used the last of its attitude-control thruster gas and was powered down, completing a mission begun in September 1979 to study pulsars, quasars, exploding galaxies, and black holes in space, whose high energy output could not be studied with Earth-based telescopes due to atmospheric interference. With 20 months of operation in orbit, HEAO 3 was the third of its type to perform for more than twice its design lifetime. It would reenter and burn up later this year. (MSFC Release 81-69; NASA Release 8177)
Lewis Research Center (LeRC) said that it had awarded four contracts totaling more than $7 million for design and development of a modified Centaur launch vehicle and components to be used as a Shuttle upper stage.
A $1.545 million contract with Teledyne Industries called for five digital computer units and nine remote multiplex units. A $1.593 million contract with Honeywell was for three inertial-measurement groups, part of an automatic navigation and guidance system. A $3.412 million contract with General Dynamics was for design and development of two modified Centaur vehicles. A $.933 million contract with United Technologies Corporation would cover building four RL10-3-3A rocket engines, two of which would provide primary thrust for one Centaur. Work under these contracts would continue through September 1981; they were all to support the Galileo mission to Jupiter, scheduled for launch in 1985, and the international solar-polar mission in 1986.
The Centaur for these missions would resemble the one used over the past 15 years as an upper stage for Atlas and Titan boosters on Mariner missions to Mars and Venus, Pioneer missions to Jupiter and Venus. Viking and Voyager missions, and the cooperative Helios missions with West Germany. It had carried low Earth-orbit missions for NASA, such as the HEAO series and commercial and military geosynchronous satellites. (LeRC Release 81-26; NASA Release 8175)
DFRC said that its newly refurbished Canberra bomber would be the test airplane for an atmospheric-turbulence measurement program to gather data on sudden wind changes creating abrupt and uneven pressures on different areas of an aircraft. Engineers would use the information to improve aircraft design and operation, with special attention to approach and takeoff during strong winds and unstable atmospheric conditions.
Project engineers chose the B-57B because of its ability to withstand high g forces; its wings were extremely rigid and strong enough to recover from upsets during severe turbulence. Its cockpit held two crewmen, so that a meteorologist could fly as observer during the tests. Wen Painter, project manager for the program, said that scientists do not fully understand wind shear phenomena and expect the flight tests to produce valuable data.
The B-57B would fly at Edwards Air Force Base, Denver, Oklahoma City, Huntsville, Cape Canaveral, and Wallops Island, all of which exhibited distinctive types of turbulence. Other NASA centers participating in the study would be ARC, LaRC, and MSFC. (DFRC Release 81-21)
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