Jun 9 1972
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 492 from Baikonur into orbit with 316-km (196.4-mi) apogee, 202-km (125.5-mi) perigee, 89.7- min period, and 65° inclination. Satellite reentered June 22. (GSFC SSR, 6/30/72; SBD, 6/26/72, 241)
Award of estimated $1.8 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to Itek Corp. Optical Systems Division for three multispectral camera systems was announced by Manned Spacecraft Center. Cameras would be used on MSG's earth resources aircraft in conjunction with Skylab missions. Airborne multispectral photographic system would obtain photos from altitude of 378 km (235 mi), each showing more than 20000 sq km (8000 sq mi) of earth's surface. Photos would be used in assessing urban and metropolitan growth and land use patterns and in inventorying crop, range land, and forest resources. Contract called for first delivery by Jan. 29, 1973; second by Mar. 26, and third by May 21. (MSC Release 72-130)
NASA launched two sounding rockets from White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex., Black Brant VC carried Univ. of California galactic astronomy experiment. Nike-Apache carried California Institute of Technology galactic astronomy experiment. Rockets and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (SR list)
NASA announced that NASA Assistant General Counsel Arthur D. Holzman had been detailed to Federal City College in Washington, D.C., to develop seminar courses in government. Courses would provide minority group students with background in government management and enhance their competitive position in government service. Assignment of Holzman was made under Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970, which provided for temporary exchanges of personnel between Federal agencies and state and local governments and institutions of higher learning. (NASA Release 72-125)
Atomic Energy Commission's Los Alamos, N. Mex., Meson Physics Facility linear proton accelerator produced its first beam at full design energy of 8000 mev. (AEC Release P-171)
Science agreements signed during U.S.-U.S.S.R. summit meetings May 22-26 were praised in Science article: "Taken together, they represent not only a significant expansion of programs already in existence, but forays into areas hitherto unexplored." Agreements were designed to "insulate cooperative scientific endeavors from the stresses of inter-national politics by putting authority into the hands of appropriate government agencies rather than the foreign ministries." In space agreement, "NASA is operating on the assumption that the joint docking is only the first in a series of increasingly ambitious mutual experiments-serving both the causes of economy and international understanding-which could conceivably lead to something as grandiose as a joint landing on Mars 20 years hence." (Holden, Science, 6/9/72, 1106-8)
Washington Post editorial criticized May 27-June 4 TRANSPO '72: "On three of the nine days of America's first, federally financed and operated international transportation exhibition, horrified crowds watched death in the sky." Air show-in which aerobatics stunt man, racing pilot, and Air Force pilot had been killed-"helped swell Transpo's attendance to an impressive 1.5 million." But "we hope that neither the attendance nor the as yet unspecified sales figures will mislead anyone to believe that Transpo 72 was the kind of hit that calls for an instant repeat performance." That kind of exhibition "should not need to be linked to an aerial circus. Nor would there be any reason to place it way out at Dulles airport unless . . . some form of rapid transit transportation is first built to get us there." (W Post, 6/9/72)
June 9-16: Hugh O'Brian Foundation sponsored annual space seminar at Kennedy Space Center for youths from 50 states and several foreign countries. Dr. Kurt H. Debus, KSC Director, discussed Skylab mission with honor students selected in competition among 10 000 U.S. high schools, under program administered by NASA, National Assn. of Student Councils, and National Secondary Principals Assn. Dr. Debus said Skylab program would be first space venture "to prove and make it very, very clear in people's minds that space is here to stay and that they need space to achieve a tool to help mankind to survive." Sixty-five youths watched June 13 launch of Intelsat-IV F- 5. (0 Sen, 6/11/72, 6/15/72; M Her, 6/18/72)
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