Jul 1 1975
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Marshall Space Flight Center observed the 15th anniversary of the transfer of personnel, facilities, and responsibilities from the Department of Defense's U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency to NASA. The center had been formally dedicated at a ceremony 8 Sept. 1960 attended by President Dwight D. Eisenhower; Dr. T. Keith Glennan, NASA Administrator; Alabama Governor John Patterson; MSFC Director Dr,: Wernher von Braun; and Mrs. George C. Marshall, widow of the statesman, soldier, and Nobel Peace Prize winner for whom the center was named.
With the transfer had gone responsibility for continued development of the Redstone and the Saturn I; soon to come would be the Saturn IV and V launch vehicles that would carry U.S. astronauts into earth orbit and, eventually, to the moon. More than 100 000 employees in 12 000 companies across the U.S. worked during the peak of developing the Saturn family and its 31 launches with 100% launch success rate. MSFC developed the Lunar Roving Vehicle that carried moon-based astronauts several km from the landing site across rugged lunar terrain.
MSFC was also responsible for the Skylab 1 Orbital Workshop. Launched into earth orbit 14 May 1973, Skylab 1 carried other MSFC developments including solar-observation instruments, the docking adapter, and many experiments. Three three-man crews occupied the space station for a total of 171 days.
To date, as the last Saturn booster was preparing to carry three U.S. astronauts to an earth-orbital rendezvous with two Soviet cosmonauts for the joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, MSFC was heavily involved in development of the Space Transportation System, including the Space Shuttle, Space Tug, Spacelab, and related payloads. MSFC employees were also working on the development of solar heating and cooling systems and other applications projects.
In a message to MSFC Director Dr. William P. Lucas, President Gerald R. Ford said that "From its inception, the Marshall center has continued in the forefront of this Nation's tremendous advancement in the exploration of space. We look forward to more vital contributions ... from the Marshall center in the years ahead as the United States continues to lead the way in using space for the benefit of all mankind." (MSFC Releases 75-131, 75-140; Historical Origins of The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, MSFC Historical Monograph No. 1, Dee 1960)
Rockwell International Corp. Space Div. was studying the economic and technical feasibility of using a rotating flywheel for electrical storage in commercial, utility, and transportation applications. The 9mo study for the Energy Research and Development Administration was based on technology developed for a prototype spacecraft energy-momentum flywheel that Rockwell had built for NASA's Langley Research Center. The small prototype spinning at speeds up to 35 000 rpm could provide 2500 w of electrical power as well as spacecraft attitude control.
In the flywheel concept, electric motor generators would spin up specially constructed flywheels which kinetically stored energy by their rotation. When electrical power was needed, the rapidly spinning flywheels would drive generators. A significant application of the flywheel would be to store energy for electric utility companies; the flywheels, spun up during off-peak hours, would drive power producing generators during peak-demand periods, (Rockwell Int'l Release SP-18)
NASA announced award of a $46.8-million cost-plus-award-fee contract to International Business Machines Corp. for developing and testing the Space Shuttle avionics software system. IBM would design, develop, test, and maintain the avionics software for the data processing system on the Shuttle Orbiter that would include electric and electronic systems for guidance, navigation, and control capability; communication; computation; displays and controls; instrumentation; and electrical power distribution and control for the orbiter, external tank, and solid-rocket boosters. (JSC Release 75-63)
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