Sep 17 1973
From The Space Library
The liquid-fueled "core" vehicle of the Titan-Centaur launch vehicle was moved from the Vertical Integration Building to the Solid Motor Assembly Building in the Titan complex at Kennedy Space Center. Twin 26-m (85-ft) solid-fueled-rocket strap-on boosters would be attached to the core. The Titan-Centaur, scheduled to be launched on its proof flight in January 1974, mated the Titan III core vehicle and its twin solid-fueled rockets with the Centaur high-energy liquid-fueled final stage. The 49-m (160-ft), 3610-kg (7959-lb) configuration was designed to carry heavy payloads on orbital and planetary missions, such as the Viking Mars mission and the joint U.S. and West German Helios mission to the sun, during the mid- and late 1970s. The liftoff thrust of the twin solid-fueled boosters was 10.8 million newtons (2.4 million lbs). On its proof flight the Titan-Centaur would carry a mass model of the Viking spacecraft and a 66-kg (145-lb) Space Plasma High Voltage Interaction Experiment (SPHINX) spacecraft, to measure in orbit for one year the interaction of space plasmas with high-voltage surfaces. The main purpose of the flight would be to demonstrate that the launch vehicle and launch facilities could support operational missions and that the Centaur could perform an operational two-burn mission and an operational, three-burn mission carrying a payload to a synchronous al-titude of 35 888 km (22 300 mi). The effort to integrate the Titan with the Centaur had begun in the mid-1960s when NASA recognized the need to fill a performance and cost gap between the Atlas-Centaur and Saturn launch vehicles. (KSC Release 215-73)
NASA'S hydrogen injection program-to decrease automobile and aircraft engine pollution by injecting hydrogen gas into the gasoline and air mixture before combustion-was described by Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, in a speech before the Economic Club of Detroit. The program, being carried out by Jet Propulsion Laboratory with assistance from Lewis Research Center, was "an exciting experimental effort to bring old and new technology to bear on one of the major problems of modern society." In Phase 1, begun in April for conclusion in December, small amounts of hydrogen gas were being injected into a lean gasoline and air mixture to be burned in a standard automobile engine, first in a laboratory and later in an operating automobile with bottled hydrogen carried in its trunk. Preliminary laboratory tests had shown "a significant reduction in pollution without an increase in fuel consumption. In fact, our preliminary figures indicate that hydrogen injection may even produce a fuel saving. This comes both from the direct effect of the hydrogen on the combustion process and from the better atomization of the fuel mixture." Work was progressing at LeRC on a laboratory model of a generator in which the hydrogen would be produced from gasoline and water. Phase 2 would attempt to solve engineering problems in integrat-ing the hydrogen injection system, generators, and fuel controls into a smooth-running automobile. (NASA Activities, 10/15/73, 183-4)
Representatives of major U.S. automobile manufacturers began visiting Jet Propulsion Laboratory for demonstrations of a NASA-developed sys-tem to enable the automotive industry to meet legal limitations on auto-mobile engine emissions [see above]. JPL engineers had had promising results in reducing pollution while increasing engine efficiency in laboratory tests of the system, but the work was in its early stages. Dr. William H. Pickering, JPL Director, had said automotive company representatives had been invited "to assess the utility of the system with a view to the possibility that they might wish to work cooperatively with us." (NASA Release 73-184; Witkin, NYT, 9/17/73, 1)
Continued Soviet harassment of intellectual U.S.S.R. dissidents was causing a reaction that could retard development of scientific exchanges and trade between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., Aviation Week & Space Technology reported. Little effect was expected on the joint Apollo Soyuz Test Project mission scheduled for July 1975 launch, however. (Av Wk, 9/17/73, 11)
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