Sep 21 1978
From The Space Library
INTELSAT announced it would hold open its offer of a new satellite system for world maritime communications, since its board of governors had authorized continued development of a maritime communications package to be carried on a number of its INTELSAT V international comsats as well as further discussions on provision of maritime services by a global-satellite system of three modified INTELSAT V satellites and three European MARECS satellites, beginning in 1981. Observers expected that the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT), after its formal establishment, would eventually take over maritime communications.
The board also had authorized Ford Aerospace and Communications Corp. to continue studies on maritime-communications equipment sets for its fifth, sixth, and seventh INTELSAT V satellites. Although the packages could not increase international communications capacity, they would offer the equivalent of 30 voice circuits for maritime shore-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications and would, improve the quality of on demand voice, telex, telegraph, and data communications.
Aerospace Daily reported that the choice between NASA's Space Shuttle and ESA's Ariane to launch INTELSAT V had been put off until Dec. The board had apparently voted on at least two options, one of which was a compromise using both launch vehicles. The board had deadlocked, because of "a lot of abstentions," said one source. (INTELSAT Release 78-27-1; AID, Sept 25/78, 110)
Soyuz 29 cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalenok and Alexander Ivanchenkov had set a space endurance record in Salyut 6 Sept. 20 after more than 96da aloft, the Washington Post reported; the USSR had not indicated how much longer their flight would last. At 9:17am Moscow time (2:17am EDT), the two had surpassed the previous record of 96da 10hr, set by Soyuz 26 cosmonauts Georgy Grechko and Yuri Romanenko Feb. 11 aboard the same spacecraft. The two missions had been similar, consisting of scientific experiments and maintenance activities. Grechko and Romanenko had broken the 84day 1hr 16min endurance record set in 1978 by Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue. (W Post, Sept 21/78, A-16; W Star, Sept 20/78, A-13; FBIS, Tass in English, Sept 20/78; Av Wk, Sept 25/78, 13)
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