May 16 1977
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the 10th annual U.S. industrial film festival had presented the Chairman's Special Award, Best of Festival, to NASA's motion picture "Universe." Finalists among 970 movies from 5 nations were the NASA film, the Smithsonian Institution's "To Fly," and IBM's "Parade of the Tall Ships." Produced for NASA by Graphic Films, "Universe" had also received an Academy Award nomination, a CINE gold-eagle rating, and awards from the San Francisco and Golden Gate Festivals. It would be the U.S. entry in a number of international film festivals during 1977. (NASA Release 77-96)
The Natl. Aeronautic and Atmospheric Administration announced it would conduct a pilot project this summer with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to improve accuracy of crop forecasting, based largely on the amount of solar radiation, available moisture, and air temperatures for a given area. Using devices on NOAA spacecraft to measure cloud cover and relate it to the amount of sunlight reaching ground-based pyranometers, NOAA and USDA :investigators would compare hourly readings from the Goes I geostationary satellite with measurements from a network of pyranometers across the Great Plains, to determine the amount of solar energy available to crops in any given period.
The researchers emphasized solar energy as a vital factor in plant photosynthesis and in evapotranspiration (loss of water directly from the soil by evaporation and from plants by transpiration). A Great Plains Agricultural Council representing land grant colleges in Texas, N.M., Okla., Colo., Kans., Nebr., S.D., N.D., Wyo., and Mont., and the USDA agencies serving those states had requested the pilot project as an aid in the production of corn, wheat, and sorghum. (NOAA Release 77-122)
Aviation Week reported that NASA had chosen "key missions" for the six orbital flight tests of the Shuttle and had assigned payloads as well as the weight and volume available for additional experiments. Chester M. Lee, director of Space Transportation System operations, would give Associate Administrator John E. Naugle a list to begin assigning experiments on the basis of the key payloads. For the first mission (tentative schedule, March 1979) the Shuttle would carry only a developmental flight-instrumentation unit that would also ride on other flight tests. On the second mission (July 1979), the first true Shuttle payload would be an instrumented pallet for scientific research amounting to only a small weight in the payload bay but offering the NASA program office a first research opportunity on the Shuttle.
On subsequent missions the Shuttle would carry (Sept. 1979) a remote manipulator built by Canada to maneuver a payload on the end of a jointed arm, plus a scientific payload; (Dec. 1979) a large spin-stabilized upper stage to boost an undetermined spacecraft payload into a higher orbit; (Feb. 1980) an interim upper stage for attachment to Skylab, to boost it into a higher orbit, or an alternate payload such as the long duration exposure facility; (March 1980) a possible classified payload (such as the USAF Teal Ruby system for detecting and tracking aircraft from space) plus a GSFC-designed multimission spacecraft. The seventh orbital mission set in May 1980 would probably be a NASA-ESA Spacelab launch, unless another flight test was needed. NASA noted that unforeseen circumstances could change the key-payload schedule for the first orbital flight tests. (Av Wk, May 16/77, 13)
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