Oct 29 1976
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MSFC announced that it had modified its Saturn facilities to accommodate Space Shuttle work, having completed remodeling of a giant test stand used in the 1960s for static test firing of the Saturn V first stages. The stand would be used in structural tests of the liquid hydrogen tank portion of the Shuttle external tank; the hydrogen tank measured 29.3 m long and 8.5 m in diameter. Stand modifications included work platforms, changes in the stand structure including pressurization, and an instrumentation and control system. Holddown arms were removed and a flame deflector that channeled rocket exhaust away from the area was taken from under the stand. Liquid-oxygen storage facilities used for Saturn had been converted for liquid-hydrogen storage needed for Shuttle testing, instead of building new storage. The contract with Algernon Blair of Montgomery, Ala., by the Huntsville Div., Corps of Engineers, was for approximately $4 million. (MSFC Release 76-195)
MSFC announced selection of the Bendix Corp., Teterboro, N.J., for negotiations leading to award of a $7 007 210 cost-plus-award-fee contract for installing, activating, disassembling, and removal of special equipment at MSFC for Space Shuttle structural and dynamic ground tests. The contract would run from 15 Nov. 1976 through Dec. 1979. MSFC responsibilities in developing the Space Shuttle covered three areas: the main engine powering the orbiter, which uses three of these engines; the external tank holding propellants for the main engines during launch and ascent; and the solid-fuel rocket boosters to be jettisoned after burnout and recovered by parachute for future use. MSFC would make structural tests of the external tank and boosters, development tests to prove design concepts of the main engine and external tank, and dynamic tests simulating flight conditions to be encountered by the Shuttle during launch. (MSFC Release 76-196)
Two Landsats, launched in 1972 and 1975 to monitor earth resources, had been tested for the job of census taker by NASA and the Bureau of the Census, NASA announced. Public Law 521, signed by President Ford 18 Oct. 76, required a complete U.S. census every 5 yr instead of once every 10 yr; the satellites, if their performance in 1980 in regional readouts and verifications should prove satisfactory, would permit significant savings in manpower, the Bureau said. Landsat images, although not detailed enough to count people or houses, could serve to identify geological, agricultural, and societal features, especially residential patterns of growth. Satellite images of areas of Md. and Tex. had been processed in 1975 to identify land cover typical of transition from rural to urban use; conventional census boundaries overlaid on the images enabled a computer to identify urban fringe zones in the test areas, verified by actual census statistics, the Bureau said. (NASA Release 76-176)
NASA's aviation safety reporting system (ASRS) received nearly 1500 reports in its first 3-mo operating period, which ended in mid-July, NASA announced. As a result of information in the reports, NASA forwarded 130 alert bulletins to the Federal Aviation Administration. Pilots and aircrew members submitted 62% of the reports, and air traffic control personnel 34%, indicating broad support for the program within the aviation community. About 99% of the reports included reporter identification that would permit NASA to follow up on the data if necessary; follow-up was used in more than 150 cases. Twelve of the reports concerned aircraft accidents and were forwarded to the Natl. Transportation Safety Board and the FAA as required; none of the reports contained information relating to a criminal offense. All other reports had the reporters' names removed, as specified in the agreement between NASA and the FAA, before the information was forwarded. Review of the information so far had revealed some "less obvious problems" with the national aviation system, NASA said, and analysis would proceed shortly: problems included equipment malfunction, communications breakdown, flight operations, and personnel workloads. (NASA Release 76-177)
A mysterious radio signal apparently emanating from the Soviet Union had been so powerful that it had disrupted maritime, aeronautical, telecommunications, and amateur radio operations throughout the world for months, the New York Times reported. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission had forwarded four complaints to the USSR Ministry of Post and Telecommunications since 25 Aug., but had not received an answer. Colin Thomas of Leeds, England, worldwide coordinator of interference reports for the Intl. Amateur Radio Union, said that amateurs in Sweden, Norway, West Germany, the U.S., and Australia had complained of the interference; protests by the British Home Office to the USSR had not received a reply, he said. The Intl. Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland, to which the matter was referred, said it had no power to enforce treaties against interference but tried to mediate such situations. An FCC spokesman said complaints had been received almost daily since early July; direction-fording equipment had confirmed the source of the signals as the eastern side of the Baltic Sea. An extremely wideband signal pulsing 10 times per second was causing the interference, which had generated complaints from every type of shortwave user. What generated the signals, what type of intelligence they might be carrying, and what the purpose was, remained unanswered questions, the NYT said. (NYT, 30 Oct 76, 5)
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