December 1973

From The Space Library

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Current revision

NASA employee retirements totaled 215 during the month, including 37 at Headquarters, 58 at Marshall Space Flight Center, 50 at Langley Research Center, 22 each at Goddard Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center, 18 at Kennedy Space Center, and 8 at Lewis Research Center. Among retirees were Dr. Homer E. Newell [see Dec. 26], NASA Associate Administrator; Dr. Robert R. Gilruth [see Dec. 28], NASA Director of Key Personnel Development; Vincent L. Johnson [see Dec. 26], Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Sciences; Dr. Charles A. Berry [see Dec. 21], NASA Director of Life Sciences; General Counsel Arthur D. Holzmann; William T. O'Bryant, Director of Lunar Programs in the Office of Space Science; C. Dixon Ashworth, Manager of the Astronomy and Solar Observatory Programs; Director Adelbert O. Tischler of the Low Cost Systems Office; and Dr. Hermann H. Kurzweg, Research Council Chief in the Office of Science and Technology. (NASA Off Personnel; NASA Off Comptroller)

Space program objectives would be served by broadening NASA'S charter, Daniel J. Fink-Vice President of General Electric Co., General Manager of GE Space Div., and 1974 President of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics-said in an Astronautics & Aeronautics article. By 1973 the U.S. "had attained or surpassed all the objectives set forth" in the Space Act of 1958; now NASA'S emphasis should shift from space techniques to "mission management and the science and applications technologies, allowing industry to assume fuller responsibility for subsystem design and development." Congress also should charter NASA "to design and manage a broad-based, goal-oriented science program" to maximize the return from the achieved capability in lunar, planetary, and astronomical exploration. NASA would best fill its role if given "clearly defined responsibilities in nurturing space applications until they reach the most efficient hand-over point; if it is directed toward system integration and management rather than subsystem engineering and design; if it becomes the executive agency for an integrated space-science program; if it maintains its role as the advanced space-systems application-technology house for all users; and if it remains the active working partner of the aerospace industry in all programs, domestic or international, cooperative or competitive. (A&A, 12/73, 16-19)

The present total electric power demands of the U.S. could be supplied by solar energy plants with a 2000-km (1240-mi) total area, assuming 30% efficiency, Associate Director Walter E. Morrow, Jr., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory said in a Technology Review article. "This is about 0.03 per cent of the U.S. land area devoted to farming and about 2 per cent of the land area devoted to roads; and it is about equal to the roof area of all the buildings in the U.S." (Tech Rev, 12/73, 31-43)

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• 1974