Feb 8 1972
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Apollo 16 spacecraft, returned to Vehicle Assembly Building Jan. 27 for replacement of command module fuel tank damaged during testing, was rolled out to Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39, Pad A. Spacecraft would be mated with Saturn V booster Feb. 11 and was to begin flight readiness test Feb. 29 in preparation for April 16 launch toward moon. (KSC Release 26-72)
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, presented NASA's FY 1973 authorization request before House Committee on Science and Astronautics as hearings opened. He emphasized importance of space program to U.S. national economy: "Scientific knowledge, scientific exploration, and the practical applications of aeronautics and space are enormously important in their own right. But perhaps most important of all is the need for the United States to have a continuously advancing technology. To meet the pressing social problems of our times requires above all a sound economy operating at a high level of employment to generate the tax revenues required at all levels of government. To maintain such an economy in a competitive world, we must increase our productivity year after year, decade after decade. The only way in the long term to keep increasing our productivity is through advancing our technology. "I know of no other activity which has done and can do as much to keep the United States strong in advanced technology as NASA's prgrams in space and aeronautics." Economic necessity for advanced technology; "the direct practical benefits of space applications and improved aircraft, including their significance for national defense; and ... the human and future practical values of increased under-standing of the earth, sun, moon, planets, and universe-these are the basic reasons for maintaining a strong national program in space and aeronautics." Dr. Fletcher said that NASA's FY 1973 program "moves forward in that it fully supports President Nixon's decision to proceed with the development of the Space Shuttle, the keystone to the Nation's future in space; it continues our .major ongoing space programs; and it provides a 50 percent step-up in our work in aeronautics. It is realistic in that it supports these objectives within a fiscal year 1973 budget approximately equal to that of last year, and under a plan that does not commit the Nation to higher total NASA budget levels in future years." (Transcript)
Intelsat-IV F 4 launched by NASA Jan. 22 for Communications Satellite Corp. on behalf of International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium-was adjudged successful by NASA. Satellite had been launched into satisfactory transfer orbit and subsequently placed into synchronous orbit at 165° east longitude, from which it was drifting to station over Pacific at 174° east longitude. (NASA proj off)
Manned Spacecraft Center announced issuance of requests for proposals for development of concepts, construction of hardware, and testing of thrust chamber for space shuttle orbit maneuver engine (OME) . Two firms would be selected, each to receive one- year, $275 000, firm-fixedprice parallel contract. (MSC Release 72-33)
President Nixon, in message to Congress outlining 1972 environmental program, said: "The time has come to increase the technological resources allocated to the challenges of meeting high-priority domestic needs." Temptation "to cast technology in the role of ecological villain must be resisted-for to do so is to deprive ourselves of a vital tool available for enhancing environmental quality. . The difficulties which some applications of technology have engendered might indeed be rectified by turning our backs on the 20th century, but only at a price in privation which we do not want to pay and do not have to pay." Technology "must be wisely applied so that it becomes environmentally self-corrective. This is the standard for which we must aim." President said he had requested in budget $23-million increase in research and development funds for reducing aircraft noise and additional $88 million for development of "broad spectrum of new technologies for producing clean energy." These would include "new or increased efforts on fusion power, solar energy, magnetohydrodynamics, industrial gas from coal, dry cooling towers for power plant waste heat, large energy storage batteries and advanced underground electric transmission lines." He also proposed establishment of $100-million Voluntary Fund for Environment by United Nations to which U.S. would contribute "fair share . on a matching basis over the first 5 years" to improve global environment. "We are now growing accustomed to the view of our planet as seen from space-a blue and brown disk shrouded in white patches of clouds. But we do not ponder often enough the striking lesson it teaches us about the global reach of environmental imperatives. No matter what else divides men and nations, this perspective should unite them." (PD, 2/14/72, 218-27)
Adapted, ultrasensitive, fast-scanning, infrared optical equipment developed by NASA to test miniaturized electronics circuits was being used by B. F. Goodrich Co. to test automobile and aircraft tires. Goodrich equipment permitted, for first time, effective nondestructive tire testing, much less expensive than destructive testing. Real-time cathode-ray-tube picture of heat in tires was produced as tires spun in testing device. Hot spots, indicating design or construction flaws, appeared as bright areas. Sensitive I8 camera read heat from 600 000 points on each tire every second, presenting view as if tire were not spinning. Equipment could be used in testing other products and in quality control for electronic circuitry, carbon dioxide gas-laser research, and void detection in honeycomb structures. (NASA Release 72-24)
House passed H.R. 10243 to establish Office of Technology Assessment for Congress by vote of 256 to 118. Office would identify and consider impacts of technological application. (CR, 2/8/72, H865-7)
February 8-11: NASA and European Space Conference (ESC) Joint Experts Group met in Neuilly, France, to identify potential areas for European participation in U.S. post-Apollo space program. In statement issued Feb. 11 Group said NASA, "noting President Nixon's approval on Jan. 5, 1972, to proceed with development of the space shuttle," had encouraged European participation in shuttle development. NASA expected that European participation would be "within the context of a broader program which included multilateral European responsibility for development of a major element such as reusable space tugs to provide access to geosynchronous and other orbits" beyond shuttle's capability or "shuttle-borne orbital laboratories" for research by U.S. and European scientists. Group recommended calendar for actions to permit governmental decisions consistent with July 1 NASA commencement of shuttle development. (NASA Note to Editors, 2/11/72)
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