Mar 16 1974
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(New page: The Air Force launched an unidentified satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base by a Thor-Burner II booster into an orbit with an 878-km apogee, 781-km perigee, 101.4 min period, and 9...)
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The Air Force launched an unidentified satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base by a Thor-Burner II booster into an orbit with an 878-km apogee, 781-km perigee, 101.4 min period, and 98.9° inclination. The press later identified the satellite as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). (Pres Rpt 74; SBD, 26 March 74, 138; Av Wk, 25 March 74, 22)
The velocity of NASA's Mariner 10 interplanetary space probe, launched toward Venus and Mercury 3 Nov. 1973, was successfully changed by 17.8 m per sec along the sunline of the spacecraft by the third trajectory correction maneuver. A 51.1-sec burn of the onboard engine at 7:54 am EDT changed the trajectory from a sun-side flyby of 12 359 km to a dark-side flyby of 860 km on 29 March. Mariner 10 had continued to per-form satisfactorily since its 5 Feb. encounter with Venus despite anoma-lies [see 8-31 Jan.] . A down-link transmitted power problem apparently corrected itself and the received power levels at Deep Space Network sites were back to normal. The return of power would permit real-time TV pictures from Mercury at the 117-kilobit data rate. Spacecraft attitude-control gas, used at an increased rate during a 28 Jan. maneuver, was being conserved by rotating the solar panels to maintain roll control. (NASA MOR, 21 March 74)
U.S. officials were increasingly concerned by strong pressure from developing countries, backed by the U.S.S.R., to restrict the use of satellites to broadcast TV programs from one country directly to the home sets of another, the Washington Post reported. Old cultures were afraid of being "irremediably debased by the 'hard sell' techniques so commercially lucrative in the 'advanced' societies." As the world's sweep-wing F-14 began integration of the two Tomcat squadrons into the Enterprise's air wing. Two more squadrons would be assigned to a carrier in the Mediterranean or Atlantic. (Middleton, NYT, 21 March 74, 29)
NASA announced two Kennedy Space Center contract awards for space shuttle facilities. Morrison-Knudsen Co., Inc., had been given a $21 812 737 contract to construct a space shuttle runway with overruns, apron, taxiway, and access roads. The runway-to be completed within 850 days after the notice to proceed-was to be built northwest of the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Reynolds, Smith, and Hills received a $1 463 000 fixed-price contract to design modifications to Launch Complex 39 and Mobile Launcher 3 for shuttle operations. Complex 39, Apollo and Skylab launch site, would next be used for a manned flight in 1975, for the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. (NASA Releases 74--66, 74-67)
The British government announced that it was seeking new talks with France on the Concorde supersonic airliner after heavy losses were predicted for each airliner built. Official estimates had indicated that Britain would lose $450 million to $517 million in producing 16 air-craft and, even with a selling price of $40.25 million to $47.5 million, losses would rise until sales reached 70 or more. (Reuters, B Sun, 19 March 74, C9)
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