May 9 1977
From The Space Library
Australia's Minister for Science J.J. Webster announced that his department had studied the technical feasibility of installing a temporary NASA satellite-tracking laser in the western area of the continent for use in geodetic research, mapping, and earthquake prediction. NASA would operate the laser for about a yr, beginning in mid-1978, but neither government had made a final commitment. The proposed site in western Australia would be part of a future network of tracking lasers scattered around the world for use by geologists and geophysicists, in conjunction with NASA's Seqsat and existing lasers such as the one near Canberra at the Orroral Valley satellite-tracking station, to gather data for use in research such as refining the measurement of the shape of the earth. (NASA Release 77-92)
Kennedy Space Center reported it had loaned its hyperbaric chamber to the Univ. of Fla. College of Medicine at Gainesville, for use in research. KSC had installed a hyperbaric (or recompression) chamber in its operations and checkout building to treat astronauts affected by decompression sickness (the "bends") during manned altitude-chamber tests of the Apollo spacecraft. Conditions such as the bends, embolisms, carbon monoxide poisoning, or gas gangrene might require administration of hyperbaric oxygen (under increased pressure in a sealed chamber) for periods up to 24hr.
The end of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 had ended NASA's immediate need for the altitude or the hyperbaric chambers, but KSC had kept them for possible use in Space Shuttle training. (KSC Release 101-77)
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