Apr 1 1974
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Construction of the $22-million runway for the space shuttle was begun at Kennedy Space Center after a brief ground-breaking ceremony at the construction site northwest of the Vehicle Assembly Building. Dr. Debus, KSC Director, said the shuttle would lead to a "new era of international transportation to and from space" and the "boom and bust of the 1960s of this community and the activities of the government will be changed to a more steady-more reliable-situation."
The 90-m wide, 4600-m long, 40-cm thick runway would accommodate a 75 000-kg spacecraft returning from space at a 15° to 20° angle and at a speed of nearly 295 km per hr. More than 8000 km of grooves in the surface would permit drainage and prevent hydroplaning while landing in the rain. To reduce the speed of the returning shuttle, astronauts would have the help of brakes, parachutes, and a net at the end of the runway. The runway was scheduled for July 1976 completion. (Spaceport News, 4 April 74, 1, 5; McElheny, NYT, 2 April 74, 22)
Marshall Space Flight Center began a six-month study of the feasibility of adapting the backup Skylab Apollo Telescope Mount to fly on the space shuttle for solar observations. NASA anticipated that modified ATM instruments positioned in the shuttle payload bay could provide low-cost scientific returns on early shuttle flights. (MSFC Skylab Off, interview, Jan 75; Covault, Av Wk, 15 April 74, 24.-5)
A New York Times editorial noted that, within a matter of hours, instrument readings from Mariner 10's 29 March close flyby of Mercury had "made all previous scientific writing and theorizing about Mercury obsolete. Where nearly complete ignorance had existed earlier, there is now a large, diverse and important body of hard information.. . Even if the crippled spacecraft is unable to continue to transmit data it will have earned an indelible place in the history of space exploration." (NYT, 1 April 74, 30)
The U.S.S.R.'s three-week Cosmos 605 mission-launched 31 Oct. 1973 with several dozen mammal, reptile, insect, fungal, and bacterial life forms aboard-had yielded major data on organism reaction to pro-longed weightlessness, Soviet Academy of Sciences member Oleg G. Gazenko was quoted as reporting. Although the rats had remained active in space, their food intake had been lower than that of an earth-based control group. After the flight the space rats' oxygen requirements had declined 10% to 20%. Evidence also indicated that, although the level of salts in the organisms had remained unchanged, they had redistributed. The space animals were sluggish immediately following space-craft recovery but their memory and coordination remained unimpaired. Capillary blood showed major changes in content, and bone marrow cells were markedly reduced in number. Organs taken from a group of rats that had undergone autopsy within 24 hrs of spacecraft' recovery showed no major pathological changes except for a marked weight reduction in the lymphoid glands and a small increase in the adrenal glands. The changes were viewed as stress reaction to flight conditions. A degree of atrophy had been noted in the hind muscles. Most of the disorders disappeared in a second group of rats during a 25-day observation period before autopsy. Mushrooms grown aboard Cosmos 605 were greatly deformed, with long twisted stems and large root systems. (Av Wk, 1 April 74, 40)
Available geosynchronous orbit "parking space" for communications satellites to serve the continental U.S. was fast approaching saturation with authorized and applied-for comsat systems operating in the 4- to 6- gigacycle band, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported. This saturation was expected to provide added incentive for second-generation domestic comsats to shift to the new 11- to 14-gc band, permitting spacecraft to orbit closer to the existing comsats. (Av Wk, 1 April 74, 59)
Transformation of the European Space Research Organization into the European Space Agency, originally scheduled for 1 April, had been postponed, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported. The delay would allow representatives of member governments additional time to resolve the remaining areas of disagreement and decide on a Director-General. The postponement was not expected to affect ESRO'S Spacelab program. Legal actions taken by ESRO would be equally binding under the new agency's charter. (Av Wk, 1 April 74, 21; 22 April 74, 19)
Analysis by Hale Observatories astronomers of light from the diffuse halo around the nearest quasar, known as BL Lacertae, indicated that it was an ancient galaxy whose core was undergoing a series of catastrophic explosions, the New York Times reported. The implication was that all quasars, the brightest and most distant visible objects in the universe, represented some explosive phase in the later history of a galaxy. Before the study, BL Lacertae had been thought to be a variable star in the constellation Lacerta, part of the Milky Way. Instead the study had showed it to be a massive object 1 billion light years from the earth with visible light whose brilliance fluctuated radically. (NYT, 1 April 74, 21)
The Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory had awarded contracts to three companies to make configuration studies for an advanced fighter technology integration (AFT!) aircraft, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported: $750 000 to McDonnell Douglas Corp., $608 000 to Rockwell International Corp., and $597 000 to Fairchild Republic Co. The studies were the first step in designing a small, low-cost, high-technology demonstration aircraft in the initial phase of the USAF'S AFT! program. (Av Wk, 1 April 74, 22 )
1-5 April: Data from Pioneer 10 taken during its 3 Dec. 1973 encounter with Jupiter had indicated that the upper atmosphere of the planet was 400 K (260°F) , about 480 K (520° F) hotter than previously calculated. Dr. Arvydas J. Kliore, Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist, said at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Temperatures deeper down in the atmosphere rose to as much as 700 K (800°F) , the highest temperature found so far on any planet in the solar system. The findings suggested that the surface temperature could reach 5800 K (10 000°F) , the surface temperature of the sun. The surprising heat might be explained by heavy dust layers in the upper levels of the atmosphere that absorbed solar radiation or absorbed heat radiating away from the surface of the planet.
Dr. Fred L. Whipple, retired Director of the Smithsonian Astro-physical Observatory, said that methyl cyanide and hydrogen cyanide, two compounds always identified with interstellar dust, had been found in abundance in Comet Kohoutek. The discovery marked the first time the chemicals had been identified with a comet and the first time they had been seen in space inside the solar system. "It . . . increases the suspicion that comets were formed . . . out at about 30 trillion km or halfway to the nearest star." (W Post, 5 April 74, A29; 7 April 74, A3)
The second Meeting of Signatories of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) was held in Acapulco, Mexico. The delegates determined that a 1.106226% investment share would entitle a signatory or group of signatories to representation on the Board of Governors. (INTELSAT Release 74-17; INTELSAT PAO, interview)
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