Oct 12 1977
From The Space Library
NASA's Space Shuttle orbiter Enterprise successfully went through its fourth free flight with its streamlined 570016 tailcone off, in- creasing drag and reducing the altitude achievable by its 747 carrier (to about 18 000ft) as well as the distance it could glide after separation. Three previous free flights, tailcone on, had lasted about 5.5min each; this time the Enterprise, fitted with 16 000lb of dummy engines with nozzles 8ft in diameter, wide enough for a man to stand upright in, would have a glide time of only about 3 min.
Pilots Joe H. Engle and Richard Truly, alternating at the controls of the orbiter, brought it to a stop on a runway at Edwards AFB after recording a touchdown speed of 212mph and 5000ft of landing roll. NASA's goal had been no more than 9000ft of landing roll, showing that the orbiter could land at any major airport in the world. Fitzhugh L. Fulton, pilot of the 747 carrier plane, said the aerodynamic resistance created by the dummy engines had caused "heavy shaking" on both the orbiter and the 747 during the hr-long ascent to launch altitude. Tom McMurtry, copilot of the 747, said the turbulence resembled "what you might get in a commercial airliner . . . only we couldn't change altitudes to get away from it as an airline pilot does." NASA officials said the last free flight, scheduled for Oct. 26, would end with the microwave landing system controlling the touchdown. (DFRC Release 31-77; postflt rept, free flt 4, SpSh orbiter ALT; NYT, Oct 13/77, A18; W Post, Oct 13/77, C-11; LA Times, Oct 13/77, 1; JSC Roundup, Oct 14/77, 1; W Star, Oct 13/77, A-10; C Trib, Oct 13/77, 1-13)
JSC announced that another set of 20 Shuttle astronaut candidates would report to the center Oct. 17 for physical examinations and individual interviews. All of this group would be mission specialist applicants, 8 of them women. Applicants screened at JSC so far had totaled 140, 77 of them pilots and 63 mission specialists; the 17 women were all mission specialist applicants. (JSC Release 77-59; NASA Release 77-218)
NASA announced that Dr. David R. Scott, director of Dryden Flight Research Center, would leave the agency Oct. 30 to form with others a firm in Los Angeles specializing in technology transfer. Deputy Director Isaac T. Gillam would be acting director until a replacement was selected. Before becoming director of DFRC in 1975, Dr. Scott had been deputy director since 1973. He had left the astronaut corps in 1972, having flown on Gemini 8, Apollo 9, and as spacecraft commander of Apollo 15 (fourth manned lunar landing, during which he was first to visit the moon's Hadley rille and Apennine mountains). He had also been technical assistant to the Apollo program manager at JSC and special assistant in the Apollo spacecraft program office. (NASA anno Oct 12/77; NASA Release 77-217; DFRC Release 34-77)
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