Dec 14 1973

From The Space Library

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Current revision

A NASA C-45 aircraft equipped as a remote-sensing platform flew from Redstone Arsenal Airstrip, Ala., on the first flight in a series to study geological phenomena and water quality. The aircraft, obtained free from the Army and equipped by Marshall Space Flight Center with multispectral cameras and other fittings, covered three sites in Alabama with high- and low-altitude multispectral photography. The aircraft later would be used to investigate water resources, agriculture, land resources, ecology, and archaeology. It would also support the Earth Resources Technology Satellite and the Skylab earth resources experiment package. A thermal scanner would be added to the air-craft's equipment early in 1974. (MSFC Release 73-201)

First results of Skylab earth resources experiments were reported by Skylab Program Deputy Director John H. Disher at an American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics Capital Section luncheon meeting in Washington, D.C.: "Perhaps the most significant of these so far in terms of economic value is the identification of a potential mineral deposit some 12 miles [19 kilometers] north of Ely, Nevada, which was not previously discernible from ground or aircraft surveys. Other early results have been the identification of the path of citrus fruit fly infestations in Mexico, successful use of remote sensing for snow mapping, and demonstration of the use of imagery from orbit for inventory of vegetation patterns in California. The high spatial resolution provided by the Skylab film systems is particularly applicable to studies of regional planning and land use in urbanized areas, and photographs of the Baltimore-Washington area and 12 other cities are being used by the Department of the Interior to test their use for updating the 1970 census. Other examples of high spatial resolution such as the identification of fields of an acre or smaller and the detection of impounded water have further indicated the need for a selective, high resolution capability for future earth survey systems." (Text)

Sen. Barry M. Goldwater (R-Ariz.) received the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy [see During October] at a Washington, D.C., dinner commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first aircraft flight, made Dec. 17, 1903. Honored guests included Prof. Willy Messerschmidt, German aircraft designer, and 85-year-old Grover Loening who had flown with Orville Wright in 1913 and 1914. (McCardle, W Post, 12/15/73, D1)

The theory that comets might be growing from material dispersed through the solar system as quickly as they were being destroyed by the sun was advanced in Nature by astrophysicists Dr. Hannes O. Alfven and Dr. Asoka Mendis of the Univ. of California at San Diego. The predominant view, that comets like Kohoutek that approached the sun for the first time had probably remained in the outer fringes of the solar system since formation of the sun and the planets, was offered by Dr. L. Biermann of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich. Many astronomers hoped the Dec. 28 closest approach of Kohoutek to the sun would indicate which theory was correct, Walter Sullivan said later in the New York Times. (Nature, 12/14/73, 400- 402, 410-11; NYT, 12/24/73)

Lockheed Aircraft Corp. announced it was in danger of running out of cash in 1974 and might have to seek new short-term credits against already built trijet aircraft on which airline customers had obtained agreements to delay delivery. Lockheed said it had retained an investment-banking firm, Lazard Freres & Co., to help find a solution to its financial difficulties, including a possible merger with a healthier company. Lockheed disclosed that it had already drawn $20 million more than the $250 million in Government-guaranteed loans granted to it in 1971 to save the firm from bankruptcy. (Witkin, NYT, 12/15/73, 1)

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