Sept 11 1975
From The Space Library
NASA launched a two-stage solid-propellant Nike-Hawk sounding rocket from Wallops Island, carrying an 84-kg payload to a 164-km altitude. The flight, to demonstrate successful mating of a surplus Hawk engine with the Nike M-88 first stage, also tested a newly developed recovery system for both the single-stage Hawk and the Nike-Hawk vehicle. The system, designed for both land or air recovery, could return up to 136 kg of payload by parachute. The sounding rocket carried a Univ. of Pittsburgh high-resolution photoelectron spectrometer to measure daytime photoelectron energy distribution with a very high-energy resolution. The payload impacted 178 km downrange and was retrieved by the research vessel Annandale. (WSC Release 75-10)
NASA was considering resuming exploration of the moon in 1980, using a low-cost unmanned satellite to map the entire lunar surface from orbit, Goddard Space Flight Center scientist Marius B. Weinreb told United Press International in a telephone interview. The proposed satellite, together with a small communications relay satellite, would gather information needed by scientists to organize the vast amount of data collected during the Apollo lunar landing missions.
One mission of the satellite would be to provide a detailed chart of the lunar gravitational field, including field variations, to tell scientists more about the composition of the moon and perhaps about its origin and evolution. Previous Lunar Orbiters had merely mapped and photographed the lunar surface. Although scientists had learned much from Apollo data about the gravitational field of the moon's near side, they knew little about the far side. The proposed satellite equipped with instruments including x-ray and gamma-ray sensors and its accompanying high-orbiting comsat, which would remain in range of both the satellite and the earth at all times, would send back to earth data on the entire lunar surface.
Weinreb told UPI that NASA administrators had considered including the proposed project in the FY 1977 budget. Budget restrictions might prevent NASA from initiating new projects. (UPI, NYT, 11 Sept 75, 11; interview, Weinreb, 13 June 78)
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