Nov 10 1975
From The Space Library
Marshall Space Flight Center had awarded contracts worth $500 000 each to Martin Marietta's Denver Division and to TRW Systems Group, to define the Spacelab payload called AMPS (atmospheric, magnetospheric, and plasmas in space). The definition studies would emphasize flexibility, low cost, and an evolutionary approach to environmental research.
One of the first payloads considered for Spacelab, AMPS had been conceived as a manned orbiting scientific laboratory to study the nearspace environment of earth and the effects on it of changes in incident solar energy and of emissions from earth. Instrumentation would include a laser beam to define the composition of the various constituents of earth's atmosphere. Missions would last from 7 to 30 days, with extensive involvement of the scientist crews in conducting the experiments. (MSFC Release 75-239; SBD, 20 Nov 75, 108)
The U.S. space program was an adventure whose potential benefits were undefinable and incalculable, NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher told the National Academy of Engineering. Speaking on the "Outlook for the Space Program," Dr. Fletcher noted that the public and the Congress were "now" oriented, and that concentration on immediate benefits might jeopardize "the vast potential" of the national space program. Admitting that "NASA's present actions seem to speak louder than its words," in that its money had been spent on current needs rather than on tomorrow's goals, Dr. Fletcher said this did not result from lack of vision but from "accommodation with current constraints." Projects to be considered for NASA's future should include satellite systems to beam solar energy to earth; a permanent manned space station in orbit, as a forerunner of the space colony that had been proposed; exploration of the planets expanded to interstellar missions; and making contact with another intelligent race-"the most significant achievement of this millennium." (Text; NASA Release 75-294)
A 25-member delegation from the Soviet Union, headed by Professor K. D. Bushuyev, U.S.S.R. technical director for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in July, had begun work at the Johnson Space Center on a joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. report on the mission. Cosmonaut Aleksey S. Yeliseyev, who had been U.S.S.R. flight director for ASTP, was a member of the delegation, which had been scheduled to remain at JSC until November 21. Dr. Glynn S. Lunney, who had been U.S. technical director for ASTP, headed the NASA group working with the Soviet specialists. (JSC Release 75-95)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
