Mar 24 1980
From The Space Library
The White House issued a statement on President Carter's presenting the Goddard Trophy of the National Space Club to NASA's Voyager team, for the "outstanding achievement in advanced spaceflight programs contributing to American leadership in space." NASA Administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch would accept the trophy on behalf of the Voyager team for its successful planetary mission to Jupiter. The award was established in 1958 to honor Dr. Robert Goddard (1882-1945), considered the father of modern rocketry; receipts in previous years included Wernher von Braun, John Glenn, the Apollo 11 crew, the Skylab astronauts, and the Viking project team. (WH Anno, Mar 24/80)
Defense Daily reported that DOD's plans to let civilian aircraft and ships use its NavStar global-positioning systems to obtain navigation signals with 200-meter accuracy had met with difficulty. Tests showed that the "coarse" signal, considered insufficiently accurate to be militarily useful, was much more accurate than DOD thought. DOD was studying techniques to deny use of the "precise" NavStar signal to others and to degrade coarse-signal accuracy that "could provide improved capabilities to an adversary." (D/SBD, Mar 24/80, 119)
Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that NASA scientists and engineers were "concerned that political maneuvering, as opposed to thoughtful planning, was playing too strong a part" in FY81 budget cuts affecting NASA science and applications programs.
Delay in bringing NASA's program before a House appropriations subcommittee scheduled to meet March 25 could force the agency off the hearing schedule for weeks, further endangering approval of the $300 million Space Shuttle supplemental for FY80. NASA and congressional observers feared administration efforts to delay announcement of federal program cuts until after primary elections set for the coming week. (Av Wk, Mar 24/80, 21)
FBIS carried a Tass report that Soyuz T separated from Salyut 6, which was continuing to fly "in the automatic regime" after completing a joint program. More trials of new Soyuz systems -- power unit, orientation and position control systems, and computer complex-would proceed during further flight of that spacecraft. Tass reported later that Soyuz T made a soft landing March 26 to end a 100-day flight. (FBIS, Tass in English, Mar 24, 26/80)
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