September 1976
From The Space Library
Ames Research Center's Astrogram published an interview with the center's first female aircraft mechanic: a co-op student, Maria-Elena Sanchez, enrolled in a airframe and power mechanics course at the College of San Mateo. She was one of four females in the program, whose total enrollment was about 200. As a mechanic at ARC, Ms. Sanchez was performing general maintenance and upkeep on Lear jets and the Cessna 402; for her work at Ames, she was receiving both monetary compensation and college credit. The college program required a student to attend for about 30 mo a school approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, then pass a written, oral, and practical test to receive a license in Airframe and Power Plant Mechanics. Ms. Sanchez, who held a commercial pilot's license and had been flying since 1971, said she hoped to complete the program and obtain the A&P license within a yr. (ARC Astrogram, 9 Sept 76, 1)
The Marshall Space Flight Center announced 3 Sept. the start of hot-firing tests of the steering system for the Space Shuttle solid-fuel rocket booster (SRB). First series of tests, which would continue into Oct., would confirm design of the thrust-vector control steering system developed by MSFC engineers as part of the center's responsibility for SRB design and development. The system under test would provide power to move the nozzle of the SRB in any direction, steering the Shuttle in the first 120 sec of flight during SRB burn. Data from the first series of tests would be evaluated to refine the. system design; after any needed modifications, a second series of tests would certify the system. Thrust-vector control units would be provided in 1978 to Thiokol Corp., MSFC contractor for the SRB solid-fuel rocket motor, for testing under actual firing conditions. (MSFC Release 76-163)
MSFC announced it had delivered the first production case segment for the SRB motor to Thiokol's Wasatch Div. in Utah on 27 Sept., beating the schedule by 3 days. All case segments for the first motor were to arrive at Thiokol by the end of 1976. The delivered segment, almost 4 m in diameter and 4.2 m long, weighed more than 5990 kg. Eleven segments would be used in each motor; joined, the segments and nozzle would measure more than 38 m long, over three fourths of the total SRB length. (MSFC Release 76-173)
MSFC announced 30 Sept. that personnel of the Rocketdyne Div., Rockwell Intl. Corp., had fired a developmental test engine for the Space Shuttle for 650 sec, longest test to date. The same engine had been fired for 300 sec 2 days earlier. The tests, at the Natl. Space Technology Laboratory in Bay St. Louis, Miss., would produce component- and system-operation data from extended-duration firings at increasing power levels. (MSFC Release 76-174)
Johnson Space Center announced on 21 Sept. modification of a cost-plus-award-fee contract with IBM, Gaithersburg, Md., to cover software for ground-based computing and data-processing systems at JSC. IBM would develop computer programs for Space Shuttle vehicle management and flight operations, and related scientific and medical operations. Value of the modified contract would be $19 463 000. (JSC Release 76-59)
NASA contracted 22 Sept. with Aeronutronic Ford Corp. for support services for the Mission Control Center and other ground-based data systems at JSC, including data hardware and software systems engineering and maintenance, as well as logistics, reliability, and quality assurance. The cost-plus-award-fee contract would cost about $46 550 000 from July 1976 through 30 Sept. 1978. (JSC Release 76-60)
JSC announced 24 Sept. selection of Hamilton Standard Div. of United Technologies Corp. for negotiations leading to award of a contract for development and production of a portable oxygen system for Space Shuttle crew and passengers. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, costing about $1.9 million, would run from 13 Nov. 1976 to 13 July 1979. The system, designed to meet four special Shuttle needs (emergency oxygen in case of cabin-atmosphere contamination, prebreathing before spacewalks, life support during rescue, and emergency oxygen after landing in case of landing-area contamination), would be capable of operating independently or connected to the Shuttle oxygen system. The contract would call for delivery of ten units and 50 recharge kits for NASA use in certification, training, and flight, plus ground-support equipment and manpower; it would contain options for 62 additional units and 310 recharge kits. (JSC Release 76-61)
A giant Air Force antenna at Hamilton, Mass., that had shared in transatlantic communications with the Jodrell Bank Observatory in England by way of moon reflections would be dismantled and moved to Westford, Mass., for use by the Lincoln Laboratory of MIT in radar studies of earth's upper atmosphere, the AFSC Newsreview announced. The big dish, nearly 46 m in diameter, had been used by the USAF Geophysics Laboratory since 1962 for ionospheric and radioastronomy studies, as well as in auroral studies using satellite beacons. Continuing USAF research at Hamilton's Sagamore Hill Observatory would use the facility's 25.6-m antenna and smaller receivers. (AFSC Newsreview, Sept 76, 10)
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