Sep 7 1973
From The Space Library
NASA held a Skylab solar activity briefing at Johnson Space Center, while Skylab 3 Astronauts Alan L. Bean, Dr. Owen K. Garriott, and Jack R. Lousma completed their 42nd day working aboard the Skylab 1 Orbital Workshop. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Joseph Hirman said that a flare photographed by the Skylab 3 crew was about 17 times the cross-sectional area of the earth and "optically the biggest flare we've had during ATM and perhaps the biggest for this entire year." Within 30 min after the event "high energy protons made it from the Sun to the earth as a consequence of this flare." Confirmation had also been given by x-ray satellites and by short-wave fade-out and other ionospheric disturbances on the ground of a very intense x-ray event. Within two days, with the arrival of subsequent particles, an aurora would be visible at the latitude of Chi-cago and enough geomagnetic activity would occur to disrupt power lines in high latitudes. Hirman said that the flare had created enough energy to "run everything in the United States and the rest of the world combined for 500 years." (Transcript)
The Dept. of Defense and Grumman Aerospace Corp. had agreed on a new price for 50 F-14 jet fighter aircraft, nearly $10 million below that estimated earlier, the Washington Star-News quoted informed sources as saying. Deputy Secretary of Defense William P. Clements, Jr., had written Sen. Howard W. Cannon (D-Nev.), Chairman of the Sub-committee on Tactical Air Power of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, that DOD would need $693 million rather than the $703 million it had requested in its FY 1974 budget. (Kelly, W Star-News, 9/7/73, Al2)
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