May 23 1977
From The Space Library
President Carter announced the nomination of Dr. Robert A. Frosch, 49, associate director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Mass. since 1975, to head the Natl. Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dr. Frosch would succeed Dr. James C. Fletcher, who resigned May 1 after 6yrs as administrator of the agency.
A native New Yorker, Dr. Frosch had earned A.B., A.M., and Ph.D degrees from Columbia Univ. From 1973 to 1975 he was asst. secretary general of the United Nations and assistant head of its environmental program. From 1966 to 1975 he was asst. secretary of the Navy for research and development, working on naval-research projects at the Hudson Laboratories of Columbia Univ. where he had been director from 1956 to 1963. Dr. Frosch had received the Arthur S. Flemming award in 1966 and the Navy's distinguished public service award in 1969. (NASA release 77-107; NYT, May 24/77, 19)
MSFC reported results of a gamma-ray detector launched on a balloon May 11 from the Natl. Scientific Balloon Facility at Palestine, Tex., to study sources of bursting and pulsating x-rays and gamma rays during an 18hr flight. MSFC scientists headed by Dr. Charles Meegan, principal investigator and associate of the Natl. Research Council, had sent a 420 000m3 (15 million ft3) balloon carrying an array of 12 large-area detectors with total payload weight of 590kg (13001b) to an altitude of 39km (126 000ft) to transmit data back to the launch site for recording. High winds had interrupted the successful mission and brought the balloon down with some payload damage. Investigators would use the data for the scheduled June 30 launch of NASA's high-energy astronomy observatory (HEAD). (MSFC Release 77-93)
NASA announced that the Arizona Dept. of Transportation and 2 federal agencies had demonstrated solar energy potential by using an array of solar cells to power a dust-storm warning system in central Ariz. The state had installed the system over an 80mi area on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson, and west on Interstate 8 near Casa Grande, to help motorists avoid accidents in low-visibility conditions resulting from blowing dust. In normal mode, the signs would display directional information; when dust storms struck, the message would change to give motorists the radio frequencies on which storm-alert instructions would be available.
The state agency (working with LeRC, which had managed the applications project for the Energy Research and Development Administration) would replace propane-fueled 60w generators at 40 signs in the system with solar arrays, halving the cost. Each sign would use solar electricity to power the lighting, changeable-message feature, and radio communications activated by a link from Phoenix when dust storms were imminent. (NASA Release 77-106)
MSFC reported that Teledyne Brown Engineering Co. had built for Shuttle tank testing at the center an "upper reaction structure" resembling a mammoth doughnut, 42ft in diameter, 12ft high, and weighing 124 500kg (137tons), so large that the manufacturer had to remove a wall at its plant to get it out of the building. The structure, riding on a special 32-wheel lowboy trailer with a 16-wheel dolly, would block roads during a 3 to 4hr trip from the builder to the MSFC test stand where Bendix personnel would install it at the 46m (150ft) level, to support the structural test article simulating the external tank and to record test loads and stresses. (MSFC Release 77-94)
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