May 3 1973
From The Space Library
NASA announced a delay in the launch of Intelsat-IV F-6 scheduled for May 4. Communications Satellite Corp. had said that a minor variation in the receiver gain had indicated the need for additional tests to determine possible causes of the variation. (NASA Note to Editors, 5/3/73)
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, issued a memorandum stating that private communications with astronaut crew members of the Skylab Orbital Workshop (to be launched May 14) would be permitted for morale, operational, and medical reasons. Private calls to families would be permitted once a week, without monitoring or public announcement. Private operational calls could be requested for "extreme operational emergency" and would be announced; paraphrases would be released to the public as appropriate. Private medical conversations would be scheduled daily and not announced. A daily medical bulletin on crew health would be issued to the public. (NASA Release 73-110, attaching memo)
President Nixon sent to Congress United States Foreign Policy for the 1970's: Shaping a Durable Peace. The report recalled agreements made during the May 1972 Moscow Summit Meetings, including the agreement on a joint rendezvous and docking of Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1975. "Since the summit, all of the agreements have been carried out as expected. Our space agencies have conducted preliminary tests of models of the spacecraft docking system and crew training will begin this summer. The Joint Committee on Environmental Protection met in Moscow in September 1972 and planned 30 collaborative projects on a variety of subjects. . . . The Joint Commission on Science and Technology met in Washington in March 1973 and agreed to carry out some 25 projects in . . energy, chemistry, biology, and agricultural research. American and Soviet naval officers will meet this year to re-view the agreement on reducing incidents between ships and aircraft. This process of cooperation has begun to engage an ever widening circle of people in various professions and government bureaus in both countries. Direct contact, exchanges of information and experience, and joint participation in specific projects will develop a fabric of relationships supplementing those at the higher levels of political leadership. Both sides have incentives to find additional areas for contact and cooperation, and I anticipate further agreements patterned on those already concluded." (PD, 5/14/73, 455-653)
The House Committee on Science and Astronautics began hearings on short-term energy shortages. Acting Director Darrell M. Trent of the Office of Emergency Preparedness testified that the U.S. "economy's demand for all types of energy continues to increase at an amazing rate. However, our ability to find and produce domestic supplies of energy is not keeping pace with rising demand." The U.S. was becoming increasingly dependent on foreign supplies. "Except for Alaskan discoveries, additions to domestic petroleum reserves have fallen behind production since 1967. Gas is already in short supply. . . . At current growth rates, demand could double within the next 12 years over what it was in 1970. Because of the growing imbalance between domestic supply and demand, we may have to import as much as 60 percent of all the oil and gas we need in 1985. Such reliance on foreign sources of supply could pose serious problems for our national security. . . . The cost of our petroleum products alone could rise from about $6 billion in 1972 to as high as $45 billion by 1985, with grim implications for our troubled balance of payments." (Transcript)
Western Union Telegraph Co. President Earl D. Hilburn said the company had received letters from seven unidentified companies of intent to order $3 million worth of communications satellite transmission services. Identification would be withheld until all applications had been received. Western Union's WESTAR satellite system was the first U.S. system to be authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. Inauguration of services was set for mid-1974. (Western Union Release)
The Mackay Trophy for 1972 was presented by the Air Force and the National Aeronautical Assn. to Air Force Vietnam war aces Capt. Richard S. Ritchie, Capt. Charles B. DeBellevue, and Capt. Jeffrey S. Feinstein at a Dept. of Defense ceremony. The citation was for disregarding their own personal safety in providing protection for allied forces attacking high-priority targets deep in hostile enemy territory. Also honored was Col. John A. Macready (USAF, Ret.), the only three-time winner of the Mackay Trophy, on the 50th anniversary of the first nonstop flight across the U.S., which he piloted with Lt. Oakley G. Kelly in a Fokker T-2 aircraft May 3, 1923. (NAA News, 6/73, 1)
The United Kingdom and the U.S.S.R. were negotiating for introduction of supersonic transport services in both countries, British Airways Chair-man David Nicolson told a Washington, D.C., meeting of the Aviation/ Space Writers Assn. The U.K. also would begin talks with the People's Republic of China toward inauguration of London-Peking air service before the year's end. (AP, P Inq, 5/4/73)
The retirement of G. Merritt Preston as Manager of the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Projects Office effective June 30 was announced by Dr. Kurt H. Debus, KSC Director. Preston, during 34 years of Government service, had been Assistant Chief of Operations for Project Mercury, Deputy Director of Launch Operations at KSC, KSC Director of Design Engineering, and KSC Director of Center Planning. He had received NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1963 for his Mercury work, two NASA Exceptional Service Medals for Apollo work, and the Spirit of St. Louis Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1969 for meritorious service in the advancement of aeronautics. (KSC Release 85-73)
Award of a $33 982 080 contract to Rockwell International Corp. for lease or purchase of 11 75A Sabreliner aircraft with electronic systems, to flight-test more than 7000 ground navigational aids, was announced by the Federal Aviation Administration. The contract was part of an FAA program to replace 47 DC-3s and T-29s with 21 modern, light, twin-turbine-powered aircraft for flight inspection. (FAA Release 73-78)
French hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific was "a moral outrage and a diplomatic embarrassment," a Washington Post editorial said, "but it is also a political fact, and one likely to become more rather than less important as the 1970s unfold." As a strategic weapon the French nu-clear striking force was relatively elementary, lacking warheads to fit into long-range missiles, multiple warheads, long-range missiles, and missile-carrying submarines. "As a political force, however, the force de frappe is quite real. As [the late President Charles] de Gaulle intended, it is virtually certain to give France a larger voice in the evolution of European affairs than it otherwise would have." (W Post, 3/5/73, 26)
May 3-4: European Space Research Organization (ESRO) representatives met with U.S. space officials in Washington, D.C., to negotiate a draft Intergovernmental Agreement and draft a NASA-ESRO Memorandum of Understanding. Both agreements would cover U.S.-European cooperation in sharing costs of space shuttle development. The European countries, through ESRO, would fund and develop the $300- to $400-million Spacelab, a supporting system important to realization of the space shuttle's full potential. The Spacelab would facilitate joint-use programs with U.S. and foreign astronauts. (NASA Release 73-191)
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