May 26 1981
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(New page: NASA announced the establishment of two new divisions within the Office of Space Transportation Systems and the disestablishment of the Expendable Equipment Division. L.M. Weeks, NASA ...)
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NASA announced the establishment of two new divisions within the Office of Space Transportation Systems and the disestablishment of the Expendable Equipment Division. L.M. Weeks, NASA Headquarters deputy associate administrator for Space Transportation Systems, said the change would direct increased attention and impetus to the widebody Centaur program recently approved by NASA.
A new Upper Stage Division would manage the widebody Centaur, the inertial Upper stage (IUS), the spinning solid upper stage (SSUS), and the solar electric propulsion system (SEPS) proposed for use on the Galileo and solarpolar missions. Frank van Rensselaer, director of the former Expendable Equipment Division, would direct the new upper Stage Division. Jerry Fitts would direct a new Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank (SRB/ET) Division. (NASA anno May 26/81)
Press reports said that two the cosmonauts who occupied orbiting space station Salyut 6 for 75 days had returned safely at 4:38 p.m. Moscow time in Soyuz T-4 to a landing site in Kazakhstan. Col. Vladimir Kovalenok, flight commander, and flight engineer Viktor Savinykh had two sets of visitors during their mission: Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Mongolian cosmonaut Jugderdemidyn Gurragcha of Soyuz 39 in March and Leonid Popov and Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu of Soyuz 40, just a week ago.
The New York Times said that this was the final mission for Salyut 6, which would probably be abandoned. Launched in 1977. it had been the base for nearly four years of record-setting tests of human endurance. Last week, Popov said that the Soviet Union would also retire the old-model two-person Soyuz spacecraft used for the past 14 years in favor of the Soyuz T, a three man version more maneuverable and sophisticated, with four successful flights, including the one just ended. (NY Times, May 27/81, A-1; W Post, May 27/81, A-14)
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