Mar 7 1980
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) reported that test pilot John Manke had made test flights in the Gossamer Albatross, part of a joint DFRC LaRC program using the human powered vehicle to collect data on large lightweight craft. Manke's first flights were human powered, as he pedaled a bicycle-like arrangement to turn the propeller; for later flights, under the direction of veteran Albatross pilot Bryan Allen who had flown it over the English Channel, he used small battery-powered samarium cobalt motors providing about 0.7 horsepower.
Manke reached an altitude of 15 to 20 feet, more than he " felt comfortable with," and reported that the Albatross was nothing like anything he had flown before, requiring concentration to keep it going straight. Short flights did not require an extra amount of legpower to keep it going but longer flights would be "an exercise in exercise." (FRC X-Press, Mar 7/80, 3)
Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine reported the launch March 3 of a DOD ocean surveillance system from Vandenberg Air Force Base on an Atlas F into a 1,115-kilometer by 1,053-kilometer (715 by 654 mile) orbit with 107.1-minute period, and 63.5' inclination. The report said that, on the basis of earlier tests, the system would use three spacecraft carried into orbit on a mother satellite and dispersed into parallel orbits with latitude as well as time/distance separation. (Earlier clusters developed by the NRL under codename Whitecloud were launched April 30, 1976, and December 8, 1977, into orbits having parameters nearly identical to those of last week's launch.)
The feasibility of using multiple satellites to eavesdrop on and direction-find USSR ships and submarines was first demonstrated by three NRL spacecraft launched December 14, 1971, and dispersed into separate orbits. The 1976 and 1977 missions that preceded the March 3 launch incorporated a 107-minute orbital period to allow about 1,666 miles between successive cluster passes. From a 700-mile altitude the spacecraft could receive signals from surface vessels more than 2,000 miles away, offering overlapping coverage on successive passes. Similarity of displacement distances perpendicular to the orbital planes of the 1976 and 1977 clusters indicated the use of interferometry to pinpoint the location of Soviet vessels. Deployment of the active satellites by the carrier normally occurred over a period of days; late last week, NORAD was still logging the mission as a single spacecraft. (Av Wk, Mar 10/80, 18)
Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals had upheld a FCC authorization of January 1977 that allowed Satellite Business Systems (SBS) to own and operate a specialized all-digital domestic communications satellite system. AT&T, Western Union, AmSatCorp, and the U.S. Justice Department had appealed the FCC ruling. SBS had proceeded to develop the system, its first satellite scheduled for launch in October 1980. (Av Wk, Mar 10/80, 22)
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