Mar 12 1976
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Tests completed in flight on the two Mars-bound Viking spacecraft showed that each had 2 ovens of the organic chemistry experiment in good working order. JPL spokesmen said they were confident the instruments would carry out the investigations planned on the Mars surface later in the year. Earlier data indicated that one oven on each spacecraft might have failed, but investigators would not be certain until the Mars landings, scheduled for early July and Sept. The ovens-3 on each Viking lander-were designed to heat surface samples to 500°C to release organic matter in the soil for analysis by the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer on each lander. (NASA Release 76-43)
Dr. Bruce T. Lundin, director of Lewis Research Center, received the 1976 Astronautics Engineer Award from the National Space Club at its 19th annual Dr. Robert H. Goddard memorial dinner in Washington. The award, made by a group of judges including former NASA scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun, was for outstanding leadership in development and operation of the Centaur high-energy rocket stage, and the Atlas-Centaur and [[Titan-Centaur]] launch vehicles. The Atlas-Centaur launched all NASA's Surveyor spacecraft in the 1960s and many others such as OAOs, the recent INTELSATs, Mariners, and Pioneers. The Titan-Centaur, largest U.S. rocket, launched West Germany's Helios spacecraft toward the sun and the Viking spacecraft to Mars. A NASA employee since 1943, Dr. Lundin became director of LeRC in 1969 after a year and a half at NASA Hq as Deputy Associate Administrator and Acting Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Technology. As leader in the development and operation of the Centaur vehicle, he built the Centaur staff at Lewis and made the decisions that set the character and style of the whole project. (Lewis News, 19 Mar 76, 1; LeRC Release 76-11)
First of 4 U.S.-West German rocket launches to investigate the source of the aurora borealis, in a study called Project Porcupine, would be fired to an altitude of 500 km from northern Sweden, NASA announced. Two identical 250-kg payloads would be flown at twilight `between 17 Mar. and 4 Apr. when moonlight interference would be at a minimum; a second pair of rockets would be launched in 1977. The instrument packages would have 12 quill-like booms sticking out to gather data for aurora-probe experiments beyond the orbits of the U.S. Skylab and USSR Salyut space stations. At about 450 km altitude, canisters of barium would be exploded to identify magnetic-field lines and plasma drifts; a NASA jet from Ames Research Center would be in flight over Greece to photograph the clouds released from the rockets. Data from Project Porcupine would be compared with energetic-particle and magnetic-field data gathered by NASA's Ats 6. The payloads, largest and most complex to be fired on sounding rockets, would be the first flown on the new Aries rocket, modified from Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile parts provided by the U.S. Air Force. Project Porcupine would be part of the 1976-78 International Magnetospherie Study, a 40-nation effort to explore the upper atmosphere. (NASA Release 76-44; NYT, 28 Mar 76, 21)
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