Feb 7 1977
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(New page: NASA revealed the contents of the space and aeronautics exhibit that would appear in the U.S. pavilion at the 32nd Paris Air Show, under the theme "The Continuous Challenge: 50 Years Since...)
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NASA revealed the contents of the space and aeronautics exhibit that would appear in the U.S. pavilion at the 32nd Paris Air Show, under the theme "The Continuous Challenge: 50 Years Since Lindbergh." NASA planned to display concepts of space communities and their construction; living, farming, and manufacturing in space; and solar-power stations in space, together with a 3-screen presentation of the 50yr of flight since Lindbergh. A 2.4m Shuttle model would include the European Space Agency's Spacelab, part of a major international cooperative space program, in its cargo bay.
Also on display would be the Galileo 2 flying laboratory, its interior configured to simulate the reusable Spacelab with facilities for space experiments in medicine, manufacturing, astronomy, and production of pharmaceuticals. A life-size model of Mars landscape viewed by the Viking lander would demonstrate space exploration, and Landsat stereo photographs of earth would show the increasingly routine use of space to survey crops and natural resources, monitor pollution and weather, and collect global weather data. Other models and presentations would show the scope of NASA programs such as government-industry work to halve fuel consumption by transport aircraft and to develop safer, more efficient, and more environmentally acceptable civil aircraft. (NASA Release 77-20)
MSFC announced award of a 15-mo contract worth $99 663 to Desert Research Institute-part of the Univ. of Nevada system-for development and fabrication of a prototype particle generator for possible use in the Atmospheric Cloud Physics Laboratory (ACPL), a payload scheduled for an early Shuttle or Spacelab flight. The generator would form nuclei with diameters of a hundredth to a thousandth of a micron (one thousandth of a mm) upon which water would condense to form clouds. Researchers would use the zero-gravity environment on Shuttle flights to perform cloud-physics experiments leading to an understanding of microphysical processes in the atmosphere, and to eventual prediction, alteration, and control of weather. (MSFC Release 77-19)
MSFC announced that a special hammer developed in the 1960s for Saturn fabrication had solved a major problem of manufacturing external tanks for the Space Shuttle. Martin Marietta Aerospace, prime contractor for the tanks, in welding four large sections of a liquid-oxygen container at the Michoud Assembly Facility, had found that peaking of the weld joints left some areas as much as 5° out of tolerance. The special tool MSFC had created for removing distortions in component welds would not impact a surface in the usual sense but, when in contact with the metal, would send a hydrodynamic force uniformly into the thickness of the metal when an electrical charge dumped into the hammer's coil created an expanding magnetic field. The field would exert an evenly distributed three-dimensional force that would remove the distortions without leaving hammer marks on the target.
After Robert M. Avery of MSFC's Materials and Processes Laboratory showed how to use the tool at the Michoud facility, the contractor was able to remove most of the distortions during the week of demonstration. Two working hammers would remain at the plant for future use. (MSFC Release 77-21)
U.S. aviation experts had changed their minds about the USSR's MiG-25 "Foxbat" interceptor plane and now considered it superior to western planes of its type, the Chicago Tribune reported. New Scientist magazine had quoted aviation experts who had examined the Foxbat flown to Japan last Sept. by defecting pilot Viktor Belenko; their conclusions were completely opposed to earlier assessments that described the Foxbat as crude and outdated.
Shortly after its landing in northern Japan, the Foxbat had been described as a "manned rocket" less advanced than previously thought. The magazine said that U.S. officials now considered it unsurpassed in ease of cockpit maintenance and a masterpiece of standardization unmatched in the U.S. The experts said they were impressed not only with the speed and rate of climb, but also with the electronics on the Foxbat, now believed to have the most powerful airborne fire-control radar in the world as well as a highly sophisticated computerized flight communications system that could perform most of the missions without the pilot [see Jan. 26]. U.S. and Japanese experts had examined the Foxbat for 2mo before returning it to the USSR; Belenko, now in the U.S., was still being debriefed. (C Trib, Feb 7/77, 1-2)
February 7-25: The Soviet Union launched a manned Soyuz spacecraft from its Baykonur space center at 9:12 local time (1612 GMT) to try for a rendezvous with the Salyut 5 space station, following an unsuccessful docking attempt last Oct. Soyuz 24 carried as commander Col. Viktor V. Gorbatko, who had flown on Soyuz 7 in Oct. 1969 as part of a 7-man mission using 3 Soyuz spacecraft, and rookie engineer Lt. Col. Yuri Glazkov, who became the 39th cosmonaut launched into space. Lt. Gen. Vladimir Shatalov, chief of cosmonaut training, described the Soyuz 24 mission as routine, adding that the scientific and economic possibilities for using the Soyuz-Salyut combination were "inexhaustible." Orbit parameters reported Feb. 8 were: 281km apogee, 218km perigee, 89.2-min period, 51.6° inclination. This first manned launch of the year was part of a USSR program of earth-orbital research using the Soyuz capsules on a one-mission basis, according to NY Times reporter Christopher S. Wren, who noted that the USSR had continued manned flights while the U.S. was waiting until the Space Shuttle became available in 1979 or 1980. Thomas O'Toole reported in the W Post that the cosmonauts might stay in orbit as long as 2mo; both pilots had been trained for space walks, and the choice of an all-Air Force crew indicated that Soyuz 24 might be a military mission.
Tass reported successful docking and occupation of the Salyut 5; it later described housekeeping and biological experiments, plus communications with ocean-going vessels, studies of crystal growth and surface tension, and use of an infrared radiometer for long-distance nighttime observation of earth's surface and temperatures. The cosmonauts continued exercising with special equipment to measure body functions. On Feb. 21, they tried a new system for recharging the space station atmosphere: Tass said the air was satisfactory, but the test would verify the system for future prolonged flights. A multifunctional system would supply compressed air to control stabilization or to compensate for leaks in the compartments. Tass announced Feb. 23 that the crew had begun preparations for leaving the station.
(The unexpectedly early termination of the Soyuz 24 mission recalled reports that the Soyuz 21 mission ended ahead of time because the Salyut 5 environmental-control system had produced an "acrid odor" that "became unbearable" [A&A 76, Oct 18]:)
A commentary recorded by Gen. Shatalov for broadcast Feb. 24 on the Moscow Domestic Service noted "a whole series of cyclones and strong winds with snow" over the landing site in Kazakhstan. However, the cosmonauts landed safely at dusk Feb. 25 on a farm near Arkalyk on the Kustanay steppe, and were brought to the local airport by helicopter and flown from there to Baykonur. They held a press conference at Baykonur Feb. 24, in which Glazkov called the Salyut 5 spacecraft "a fine old work horse" that had brought them home safely. (NYT, Feb 9/77, 11, B6; W Post, Feb 8/77, A16; Feb 9/77, A12; C Trib, Feb 9/77, 1;12; FBIS, Tass in English, Feb 7-26/77; Moscow Dom Svc Rusn, Feb 10-25/77; Moscow Intl Svc Rusn, Feb 9-25/77; W Star, Feb 25/77, A4)
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