Nov 11 1982
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(New page: NASA launched the fifth flight (STS-5) of Space Shuttle Columbia on time at 7:19 a.m. EST from KSC with a four-man crew, largest ever to take off from ...)
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NASA launched the fifth flight (STS-5) of Space Shuttle Columbia on time at 7:19 a.m. EST from KSC with a four-man crew, largest ever to take off from Earth at the same time. Feeling none of the motion sickness suffered by three of the first four Shuttle crews, the astronauts were so busy preparing for deployment from orbit of the first of two communications satellites that they had no time for chitchat with mission control. Astronaut Joseph Allen took off his shoes and socks to work barefooted inside the Shuttle cabin: "it's like having four hands," he explained. He and William Lenoir maneuvered the first of twin satellites (one U.S., the other Canadian) into space at 3:17 p.m. EST, while Vance Brand and Robert Overmyer flew the 100-ton Shuttle, positioning Columbia to avoid smearing its windows with exhaust from the satellite engine. The astronauts would use the same procedures November 12 to deploy the Canadian satellite on a similar flight path.
The first commercial cargo carried by the Shuttle was a 21-foot-tall cylinder worth almost $50 million, owned by Satellite Business Systems (SBS), a firm begun as a partnership of Aetna Life & Casualty, Comsat General Corporation (a subsidiary of Communications Satellite Corporation-ComSatCorp), and International Business Machines (IBM), Boeing, General Motors, and General Electric were among its more than 300 clients who used SBS satellites to transmit coast-to-coast computer traffic and telephone calls. Transmissions to SPS satellites were at 14GHz, twice as high as frequencies used by other U.S. communications satellites and were relayed at 12GHz to avoid interference.
President Reagan held a telephone conversation with the astronauts at 10:26 a.m. November 11, repeating his request to an earlier crew to "pick me up and drop me off in California" He added that "if more of us could see [the earth] from that angle we might realize that there must be a way to make it as united in reality here on earth as it looks from outer space." Brand replied, "We're in total agreement on that one." (NASA MOR M-989-82-05 [prelaunch] Nov 5/82, [postlaunch] Dec 7/82; USA Today, Nov 12/82, lA; W Post, Nov 12/82, A-1, D-8)
Charles (Pete) Conrad, who commanded Skylab's first mission and was now a vice president for marketing at McDonnell Douglas, said that pieces of Skylab that crashed in 1979 over western Australia after five years in orbit would go on sale, with proceeds to NASA, for the support of Viking 1, the Mars lander still sending messages from the surface of that planet. The Skylab pieces fitted into colorful posters were expected to raise from $150,000 to $500,000. Conrad had been a member of the Apollo 12 mission that landed on the Moon as well as commander of the Skylab mission in 1973. (W Post, Nov 12/82, A-10)
LeRC said that it had developed a device called MIAMI (micro-wave ice-accretion measurement instrument) to warn airplane pilots of dangerous ice buildup. This was the only device able to measure actual ice thickness and rate of accretion, besides giving a warning. Unlike other such instruments, MIAMI was imbedded in, instead of projecting from, the surface under study; projecting probes tended to collect ice and confuse detection of how much was actually forming on the surface. The microprocessor in the device could tell the difference between ice and other substances (oil, dirt, grease, insects) and signal only the formation of ice. (LeRC Release 82-56)
LeRC also reported the completion of a five-year $39-million program of engine improvements to conserve fuel in commercial jet aircraft through identifying areas for cost-effective refurbishment and of performance loss. The specific goal was to reduce fuel use by up to 5% for current jet engines. Much of the cost would be repaid by contractors Pratt & Whitney and General Electric; under the reimbursement feature of the program, repayments over a 10-year period would be based on sales of improved components. So far, NASA had recovered nearly $1 million from the contractors, with a potential of $19 to $20 million. (LeRC Release 82-57)
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