Dec 6 1985

From The Space Library

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Revision as of 01:21, 17 February 2010

Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and British Defense Minister Michael Heseltine signed a memorandum of understanding for Britain's participation in the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program, Defense Daily reported. The signing came one day after British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had told Parliament that the negotiations over British participation were not finished but that she hoped for a signed agreement before Christmas.

Joining Heseltine at a press conference following the signing, Weinberger said it “emphasizes both the closeness of our alliance and the special nature of our relationship which is a very vital thing” to both countries. “Britain is the leader in many of these technologies and we want very much to have these capabilities placed at the benefit of the program,” he said.

Heseltine explained the signing of the agreement one day after Thatcher's statement to Parliament, saying both he and Weinberger had received communiques overnight from their teams in Washington permitting completion of the agreement. Heseltine said the agreement offered a “very significant opportunity for British industry and for British research capability to be associated with a major and exciting program at the frontiers of human capabilities in many of the technologies of tomorrow.” (D/D, Dec 9/85, 185)

Lockheed Georgia, manufacturer of the C-5B Galaxy, resumed flight testing of the aircraft after it replaced about 12,000 fastener nuts on the plane, the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) Newsreview reported. Lockheed-Georgia grounded the plane after its September maiden flight when quality control inspectors found that construction crews had installed aluminum, instead of steel, nuts on the first eight planes. The mistake slowed production and temporarily halted certain aircraft flight testing.

Col. Thomas Stover, acting C-5B program director for Aeronautical Systems Division, said, “It is important to note that flight safety was never an issue. The concern was for development of maintenance problems 10 to 15 years down the road.” Stover explained that steel nuts were stronger and lasted longer than aluminum nuts and that, although there were about 3.7 million nuts for each C-53, only 35,000 had to be steel.

Lockheed-Georgia spokesman Dick Martin said workers installed the wrong nuts because some engineering drawings, used by supervisors and assembly line workers, were not specific about nut type. He said about 35% of the nuts had to be replaced on the first aircraft.

The Air Force had scheduled the first C-513 for delivery by January 1, and Lockheed-Georgia still expected to deliver the aircraft on time because the company had been four weeks ahead of schedule before the delay caused by the replacement. (AFSC Newsreview, Dec 6/85, 4)

Simulation Technology December 6: NASA announced that a flight simulation laboratory, the Man-Vehicle Systems Research Facility (MVSRF), was in operation at its Ames Research Center to give scientists a new tool to study human factors in operating commercial aircraft.

The MVSRF contributed to flight safety by allowing researchers to simulate the complex set of relationships among pilots, their crews, converging aircraft, the weather, and air traffic controllers. Using the facility, scientists could study the effects of new and increasingly automated technologies on flight crew performance. NASA's human factors researchers worked directly with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airplane manufacturers, and commercial airlines to improve flight safety. For example, with the 727 simulator, NASA scientists researched airplane landings to learn methods that minimized fuel consumption while allowing pilots to maintain safe distances between their planes and other air traffic.

The MVSRF included an exact replica of a Boeing 727 cockpit, a mock air traffic control station, and a cockpit known as the advanced concept flight simulator (ACFS). In both the 727 replica and the ACFS, a computer visual system provided out-the-cockpit window displays of approaching aircraft and landscapes of many U.S. airports. The computer system also depicted clouds and other weather conditions, the glow of the horizon at dusk and dawn, and the varied texture of the area illuminated by the simulated aircraft's landing lights.

Researchers at the MVSRF put the pilots and controllers through created situations, during which the researchers monitored communications among flight crew members and between the crew and traffic controllers. They also read the aircraft's instruments and observed flight control settings while making audio and video recordings that included tracking a pilot's eye movements. (NASA Release 85-162)

NASA announced that Acting Administrator William Graham confirmed the appointment for an indefinite period of Philip Culbertson, associate administrator for space station, to the position of NASA general manager. In that capacity he would assist Graham and have specific responsibility for the Offices of Space Science and Applications, Commercial Programs, Space Flight, Aeronautics and Space Technology, Space Station, and Space Tracking and Data Systems.

Culbertson had held his current position since August 1, 1984, coinciding with the establishment of the Office of Space Station. Since November 1981 he had been associate deputy administrator, serving as senior staff advisor to the administrator and the deputy administrator and directing the formulation of policy, strategy, and planning for the space station. From 1979 to 1981 he served as assistant for the Space Transportation System (STS), providing continuous assessment of STS development, acquisition, and operations status and otherwise advising the administrator and deputy administrator on STS matters requiring policy decisions.

His earlier NASA assignments included the positions of deputy associate administrator for STS/technical, assistant administrator for planning and program integration, director of advanced manned missions, and manager of the institutional assessment conducted in 1977. He also served as the NASA representative in the 1979 antisatellite treaty negotiations and in 1976 and 1977 was detailed to the Executive Office for a five-month period as Executive Director of the President's Committee on Science and Technology.

Culbertson received a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, after which he spent four years as a research associate at the University of Michigan, where he received his M.S. degree in aeronautical engineering. (NASA anno., Dec 6/85)

NASA announced that, during mission 51-L scheduled for launch no earlier than January 22, 1986, it would release from the Space Shuttle a free-flying payload called Spartan-Halley to observe Halley's Comet. Scientists believed that comet exploration was a search for the beginnings of earth, because comets were the most unaltered samples of the early solar system.

Spartan-Halley was the only NASA satellite dedicated solely to observing Comet Halley. During these observations, January 24 through 31, the comet would be in its most active period as it headed towards its closest approach to the sun on February 9. The objective of the Spartan-Halley mission was to measure from earth orbit the ultraviolet spectrum of Comet Halley using twin spectrographs designed and built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory, for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

Spartan-Halley's cameras and instruments would analyze the active comet, looking for hydrogen and oxygen atoms and carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur molecules. If the spacecraft detected these elements, it might indicate more complex compounds could be present in the ice and dust that made up the comet's nucleus.

Goddard Space Flight Center developed Spartan-Halley, a modified Spartan-2 spacecraft, to be a research carrier. The spacecraft consisted of the spectrographic instrumentation, attitude control cameras (which also provided science photography), a microprocessor, associated electronics, a sunlight baffling system, and a service module. The January mission would be the first for the Spartan-2 type carrier, a completely reusable spacecraft to be reflown later on several other missions. Following completion of the January mission, the Space Shuttle's robot arm would retrieve Spartan-Halley and store it in the cargo bay. (NASA Release 85-161)

The Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Space News Roundup conducted an interview with Christa McAuliffe, selected by NASA to be the teacher in space, and her backup, Barbara Morgan. When asked to give her impressions of JSC, McAuliffe said, “Big. Very big . . . But that's one of the messages we want to get across. There are, what, 100 astronauts in the program, but thousands of employees here .. . And we've gotten so much information. When I'm 62, I'll finally read the last piece of paper that I bring back from here.” The Roundup reporter questioned the two teachers about the national attention they had received, the effect it had on them, and the possibility of moving into different careers after the flight. McAuliffe commented, “Oh, but you're talking to a teacher. I didn't choose my career so I could get monetary rewards. My God, I never would have gone into teaching . . . A year of this is going to be fun and I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I see it as an extraordinary year out of my life . . . We don't see this as a stepping stone to something else. When I go into a radio or TV station, I am looking at everything that is happening and I can't wait to tell my kids what happens in a TV studio, because I have never been in one before.” Morgan then said that one of the funny things that had happened since beginning their training was that, “all of a sudden we are being asked questions as if we are the experts on the Space Shuttle.” McAuliffe agreed, noting that she received a phone call from a reporter asking her what she believed was the cause of a problem the previous summer with the orbiter Challenger.

In answer to the question, “What message will you take to people after this experience?” McAuliffe said, “That space is for everybody. It's not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts. That's our new frontier out there, and it's everybody's business to know about space.” (JSC Roundup, Dec 6/85, 3)

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