Nov 20 1981
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA launched RCA Satcom 4 from the ESMC on a Delta at 8:37 p.m. EST into a transfer orbit with 19.356-kilometer apogee. 100-kilometer perigee, and 25.5 ° inclination. The objective of the commercial communications satellite was to transmit video programs to cable television (CATV) systems throughout the United States. The 500-kilogram box-shaped craft, fourth in a series of large 24-transponder communications satellites, managed by a subsidiary of RCA, carried a payload-assist module (PAM) to put it into geosynchronous orbit at 132 °W, joining three other RCA satellites providing television, voice, and high-speed data to all 50 states and Puerto Rico. More than 4,000 Earth stations had direct access to these spacecraft.
GSFC had project-management responsibility for the launch vehicle; RCA Americom, which managed the Satcom program, including spacecraft acquisition and tracking, telemetry, and command systems, would reimburse NASA $22 million for the launch and launch support. (NASA Release 81-172; NASA MOR 0-492-206-81-04 [prelaunch] Nov 18/81, [postlaunch] Jan 27182)
NASA announced that it had completed plans for the reorganization of its Office of Space Science and Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications into a new Office of Space Science and Applications to take over responsibilities of the former offices, except for the technology utilization program, which would go to the government and industry affairs division of the Office of External Relations.
Andrew J. Stofan, formerly acting associate administrator for space science, would be acting associate administrator of the new group; Samuel W. Keller, formerly deputy associate administrator for space and terrestrial applications, would be deputy associate administrator. (NASA Release 81-182)
Science magazine said that Congress was in a "stir" because the administration planned to let a U.S. company sell materials for an advanced communications satellite to an Arab consortium that included the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Ford Aerospace would sell satellite parts to the French firm Aerospatiale, which was under contract to build three communications satellites for a group called Arabsat, composed of 22 governments, among them Libya. Syria, South Yemen, and the PLO. Libya has been "an avowed enemy" of the United States. The $135 million contract would cover satellites similar to but less sophisticated than the one Ford Aerospace was building for global communications system INTELSAT: Arabsat would offer 8,000 simultaneous two way telephone conversations and one television channel. These services would cost less if bought directly from INTELSAT, but the Arab group apparently preferred to operate its own system.
The matter came up November 3 during hearings before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, when Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said that he knew nothing about the deal; the next day, Secretary of State Alexander Haig also said that he knew nothing about it. The Arms Export Control Act required State Department approval of exports of high-tech items, even those having no direct military application. (Science, Nov 20/81, 891)
NASA reported that it would join a sounding-rocket program with Canada's National Research Council to study a cleft or wedge-shaped opening over the Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) in Earth's magnetic field. From November 25 to December 21, researchers would launch five rockets carrying experiments into the cleft region to record effects ranging from disrupted communications to pipeline corrosion and long-term weather patterns. Ground-station equipment would be installed at the launch site, Cape Parry, N.W.T., and at Sachs Harbor about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north.
Data from the project, called CENTAUR (cleft energetics, transport, and ultraviolet radiation), would define mechanisms causing particle acceleration in the cleft and would aid in studying ion flow, aurora] arcs, and plasma instabilities. WFC would manage launch and tracking and acquisition of experiment data. (NASA Release 81-180; WFC Release 81-18)
DFRC said that it was readying Shuttle orbiter Columbia for its return to KSC on its Boeing 747 carrier plane. DFRC was deservicing the orbiter after its 54-hour second flight, draining liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuels, removing pyrotechnic devices, and purging toxic chemical and fuel cells used in the propulsion systems. DFRC would attach a tailcone to the orbiter covering its three main engines and two orbital-maneuvering engines.
The ferry flight would take two days, with a refueling and overnight stop at Bergstrom Air Force Base near Austin, Texas, or Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene. Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, manager of the orbital flight tests, would accompany Columbia back to KSC. (NASA Release 81-181; ARC Release 81-34)
The Soviet Union launched India's satellite Bhaskara 2 into an orbit with 557-kilometer apogee, 514-kilometer perigee, 95.2-minute period, and 50.7' inclination. It carried television and microwave radiometers to study Earth's natural resources. Tass said that India and USSR stations were receiving data. (FBIS, Tass in English, Nov 20/81)
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