December 1976

From The Space Library

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Current revision

The Air Force Systems Command announced that former astronaut Maj. Gen. Michael Collins had been appointed mobilization assistant to the AFSC commander. The position was the top Air Force Reserve post in AFSC. Collins, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a reserve major general 10 Mar. 1976, would continue to serve as director of the National Air and Space Museum. (AFSC Newsreview, Dec 76, 10)

Images from Landsat had reinforced the theory that mankind had created his own deserts through overgrazing of livestock, according to Joseph Otterman, a Landsat data user at Tel Aviv University. Satellite and other data had shown that overgrazed land on one side of the fence along the Israel-Egypt armistice line consistently measured several degrees cooler than the other side; the denuded land, reflecting more sunshine, retained less heat than vegetated land. The warmer land heated the overlying air, causing it to rise, form clouds, and rain; lack of this "heat mountain" effect over the denuded land encouraged formation of deserts. (CSM, 15 Dec 76)

Further press comment on Soviet "hunter-killer" satellites appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and New York Times, prompted by reports of the piggyback launch of Cosmos 881 and 882 on 15 Dec. Columnist Nicholas von Hoffman noted Pentagon denials that the USSR had used laser beams to destroy an American satellite and claims that the Soviets had been practicing knockouts only on their own targets; but the physical safety of the U.S. was "more in jeopardy now than ever," he concluded, adding that "of course, we'll put our money into aggressive basic research efforts to stop the Russian hunter-killer satellites." Thomas O'Toole in the Washington Post described the launch and recovery of two Soviet satellites said by intelligence experts to be larger, newer versions of the hunter-killer craft, flown into orbit and back to base after circling the earth once, a move the experts said was to prevent China's tracking the craft by radar. O'Toole said the Soviets were believed to have carried out 16 experiments in the past 9 yr in which unmanned spacecraft followed target satellites into space and blew them- selves up to remove the targets from orbit; these tests stopped in 1971, but resumed in Feb. 1976 after the launches of China 5 and China 6. The two Soviet spacecraft followed an unusual flight path, similar to those taken by manned Soyuz satellites, and were also unusual in returning to earth after so brief a flight. The New York Times reported the launch on 27 Dec. of Cosmos 886, which "apparently attempted to intercept" Cosmos 880, launched 9 Dec. "The hunter satellite never came closer than one mile to its target . . . and finally disintegrated on its third orbit," the NYT noted, adding that Cosmos 880 was still in orbit. The NYT story went on to describe the Cosmos 881 and 882 launch, "at first thought to have been such a test," as actually connected with the manned space program. No effort had been made to interfere with U.S. space vehicles, and the 27 Dec. launch-the USSR's fourth test of a satellite interceptor this year-had been classified as a failure by intelligence sources, the NYT said. (C Trib, 4 Dec 76, 1-7; W Post, 18 Dec 76, A-1; NYT, 31 Dec 76, A6)

"One of the environmental disasters of the century" was the appearance of water hyacinth in the Sudan's Nile river basin, reported an international conference of scientists representing the U.S., the Democratic Republic of the Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Federal Republic of Germany, Indonesia, and Mozambique, after a meeting sponsored by the Natl. Academy of Science's Board on Science and Technology for International Development, and by the Sudan Agricultural Research Council. Besides choking watercourses and interfering with fishing and navigation, water hyacinth flourishing in warm river waters around the world had proved to harbor carriers of bilharzia and malaria. Measures suggested for control included herbicides, biological intervention, exchange of information and trade restrictions, and stimulation of economic incentive to harvest the plants. The report cited a NASA discovery that water hyacinth was a possible source of biogas production, and recommended harvesting to exploit this resource as well as using the plant for water buffalo fodder. (NAS News Report, Dec 76, 2)

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