Oct 25 1972
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 526 from Plesetsk into orbit with 480-km (298.3-mi) apogee, 272-km (169.0-mi) perigee, 92-min period, and 70.9° inclination. Satellite reentered April 8, 1973, (GSFC SSR, 10/31/72; 4/30/73; SBD, 10/26/72, 250)
Oscar 6, amateur radio satellite launched Oct. 15 as pickaback payload on Noaa 2, was operating satisfactorily and providing worldwide communications relay. Traffic through satellite's transponder had been particularly heavy over U.S. and Europe and use by stations in U.S.S.R. and Czechoslovakia had been reported. Anomaly in switching of experiment control logic had been overcome by use of ground command. Satellite's temperatures were higher than had been predicted. (NASA proj off)
Plans for illuminating night launch of Apollo 17, scheduled for 9:53 pm EST Dec. 6, were released by NASA for photographic fans. Spacecraft would be surrounded on launch pad by 72, 20-kw xenon searchlights and 2, 60-kw xenon searchlight banks that would provide 225 foot-candles of light. Light from Saturn V 1st- stage booster engines would not increase illumination until liftoff, when some 7500 foot-candles emitted and reflected would create almost daylight exposure. Searchlight illumination for inflight coverage would not be available beyond first 18 m (60 ft) of flight. (NASA Release 72-208)
Launch, by Italy, of NASA Small Astronomy Satellite B (SAS-B) had been postponed from Nov. 2 to Nov. 16, at earliest, because of malfunction of Scout launch-rocket gyro package, NASA announced. Package was being replaced with spare system and telemetry encoder had been returned to U.S. for repairs. (NASA Note to Editors)
French Cabinet agreed in principle to mass production of Anglo-French Concorde supersonic transport aircraft and medium-range European Airbus. (Agence France Presse, FBIS-France, 10/26/72, T3)
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 31
