Mar 10 1977
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(New page: NASA launched Palapa 2 (formerly Palapa-B), an Indonesian telecommunications satellite, from the Eastern Test Range at Cape Canaveral on a Delta at 2316 GMT, into a transfer orbit with...)
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NASA launched Palapa 2 (formerly Palapa-B), an Indonesian telecommunications satellite, from the Eastern Test Range at Cape Canaveral on a Delta at 2316 GMT, into a transfer orbit with 36 499km apogee, 231.2km perigee, and inclination of 24.6°. Palapa 2, second Indonesian domestic comsat, would use its apogee kick motor Mar. 12 to move into synchronous orbit above the Indian Ocean. Forty ground stations throughout the archipelago would link the islands with the 2 satellites, each capable of handling 4000 phone calls or 12 simultaneous color TV channels. (MORs M-492-208-77-02, [prelaunch] Feb 2/77, [postlaunch] Apr 12/77; NASA Release 77-23; FBIS, Jakarta Domestic Service in Indonesia, Mar 11/77)
MSFC reported it had established a project office responsible for managing all Space Telescope activities. Manager and deputy would be William C. Keathley and James C. McCulloch. (MSFC Release 77-38)
NASA planned to send a roving laboratory over the Martian surface during the next Mars landings, Nature reported. Dr. Gerald A. Soffen, chief Viking project scientist, said that, although no future Mars missions were officially scheduled, the outlook was favorable given the scientific success of, and public enthusiasm for, the two Viking landers. Speaking at a Paris conference to disseminate Viking information, Soffen invited U.S. and foreign scientists to participate in examining Viking data and in developing experiments for the next generation of Mars missions. (Nature, Mar 10/77, 112)
President Carter had suggested the U.S. and USSR "forgo the opportunity to arm satellite bodies and also forgo the opportunity to destroy observation satellites," the W Post reported. Recent Soviet antisatellite experiments had alarmed Pentagon officials, who revealed that the U.S. military space program budget for FY 1978 was $478 million greater than the FY 1977 appropriation. (W Post, Mar 10/77, A-11)
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