Mar 7 1972

From The Space Library

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Current revision

Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, compared NASA FY 1973 budget program with FY 1972 plans in testimony before opening session of House Committee on Appropriations' Subcommittee on Department of Housing and Urban Development- Space-Science-Veterans hearings on FY 1973 budget: "We have reconfigured our plans so that a substantially higher level of appropriations will not be required in future years to complete the programs in our FY 1973 budget" and to continue "useful and significant ... new projects in space science, exploration, and practical applications, in advanced technology, and in aeronautics." FY 1972 program would have required NASA appropriations in future years to approach $4 billion per year. Run-out costs to complete program as planned would have risen to $3.7 billion in FY 1973 and $3.95 billion in FY 1974. Revised program estimated run- out costs at $3.37 billion in FY 1974, $3.3 billion in FY 1975, $3.2 billion in FY 1976, and $3.1 billion in FY 1977. NASA could "by properly phasing-in the start of needed future new programs hold NASA appropriations in future years to approximately the current total appropriations level in current dollars." Previous program would have committed U.S. to "higher NASA budget in future years, or to the waste from termination of programs in midstream," but revised plan would "give the Nation a good, viable, and balanced program in aeronautics and space at a cost it can afford." Dr. Fletcher believed "realistic long-term plan in which the Nation's commitment is limited to budgets of approximately the current size is the proper posture for NASA from the standpoint of responsible management" and "should go far in alleviating the concerns that have been expressed that in embarking on the new space programs of the 1970's we are committing the Nation to a program that it cannot afford. "To achieve this posture, we have had to make some basic changes in our planning and accept yet another stretch-out of the period over which our continuing and long-term objectives in space exploration and space science will be achieved." Principal change has been in space shuttle program. Shuttle now planned would cost $5.5 billion, about half what configuration envisaged year before would have cost. Second significant change was cutback in planned program for explora- tion of outer planets, reducing plans to explore all five outer planets on Grand Tour missions in late 1970s to new focus on Jupiter and perhaps Saturn, with less expensive spacecraft. Third significant change was termination of nuclear engine for rocket vehicle application (NERVA) program, now including in budget request $8.5 million for defining with Atomic Energy Commission smaller nuclear rocket engine and making trade-off studies of preferred propulsion system for missions to distant planets some time in I980s. Final major change was increased emphasis on aeronautics, in response to strong urgings of committees of Congress. (Transcript)

Tenth anniversary of Oso 1 Orbiting Solar Observatory, first U.S. satellite devoted entirely to studying sun. Satellite had carried 13 experiments to collect data on solar radiation in ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma ray regions. After one year of operation it had provided more data on behavior and composition of sun than any single ground-based observatory and all previous rocket, balloon, and satellite flights combined and had measured 75 solar flares and subflares. Oso l had stopped operating Aug. 6, 1963, exceeding 6- mo design lifetime by almost 11 mos. (GSFC PAO; A&A 1963)

MSFC announced it had extended interim contract with North American Rockwell Corp. Rocketdyne Div. for space shuttle main engine design. One-month, $1-million extension was awarded pending completion of review by General Accounting Office of original $500-million contract awarded July 13, 1971. Review had been requested Aug. 3, 1971, by competing contractor United Aircraft Corp. Pratt & Whitney Div. (MSFC Release 72-23; A&A 1971)

NASA launched two Nike-Tomahawk sounding rockets from Poker Flat Rocket Range, Fairbanks, Alaska, carrying Goddard Space Flight Center fields and neutral winds experiments. Rockets and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (SR list)

Photographic equipment carried by U.S.S.R.'s Mars 2 and Mars 3 spacecraft in Mars orbit were described by Tass: "Automatic devices take pictures on the film which is automatically processed after photo-graphing and then, on command from earth, the pictures are sent by television channels to the flight control centre." Each spacecraft carried two "photo-television devices with wide- angle and long-focus objectives. . . . all units and elements are placed together in one rigid body with the objective fixed outside and in the wide-angle camera-together with the objective and a device for changing colour filters." Pictures were taken synchronously and transmitted with "an optico-mechanical television device." (FRms-Sov, 3/8/72, Ll)

Progress made in 1971 strategic nuclear arms talks with U.S.S.R., and on many subjects from scientific cooperation to trade, indicated that "1972 will be a year of substantial developments in bilateral cooperation," Secretary of State William P. Rogers said in Washington, D.C., news conference. (Marder, W Post, 3/8/72, A2)

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