Dec 4 1970
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced modifications to 2nd stage (S-11-9) of Saturn V launch vehicle scheduled to boost Apollo 14 toward moon. Accumulator, compartment to suppress pogo-effect oscillations felt on previous Apollo flights, had been installed in liquid-oxygen line feeding the center engine and filled with helium gas to cushion pressures of fluid flowing through line. Three -acceleration-actuated modules would be installed on center cross-beam structure as backup to initiate cutoff of center engine if oscillations were excessive. J-2 engine propellant-utilization valve had been redesigned from motor driven to pneumatically, actuated, to bypass much onboard stage electronic circuitry, simplify propellant utilization, and enhance stage's reliability. (NASA Release 70-207)
Ground-test version of Saturn Workshop for Skylab program was shipped to Michoud Assembly Facility from McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. Huntington Beach, Calif. Workshop would arrive at Michoud Dec. 17 and undergo testing until Dec. 30, when it would be shipped by barge to MSC for further tests. (MSFC Release 70-246)
Buddy secondary life support system (BSLSS) to be carried by Apollo 14 astronauts during surface EVA was described by MSC Roundup. If water cooling system in one of backpacks failed, astronauts could retrieve BSLSS from MET cart and attach the 21/2-m (81/2-ft) hoses to their portable life support systems (PLSS). Tether snapped to waist restraint straps of astronauts' spacesuits would prevent damage to hoses or spacesuits during return to LM. By sharing water supply between two crewmen, BLSS stretched time that emergency oxygen would last from 30 min to 60 min. (MSC Roundup, 12/4/70, 1; NASA Release, 12/13/70)
New York Times editorial said Senate vote to delete SST funding from DOT appropriations bill was "major event in the new environmental politics. Citizens' organizations and individual conservationists collided head on with an entrenched economic interest group, strongly backed by the political and the propaganda resources of the Nixon Administration-and the conservationists triumphed." Public would be watching "to see that this useless, wasteful and potentially dangerous project is not artificially resuscitated with a tranfusion of tax money behind closed doors of a conference committee." (NYT, 12/4/70, 46)
Senate vote to deny Federal funds for SST development (see Dec. 3] dealt "'severe blow." to Fairchild Hiller Corp.'s growth plans over next decade, Washington Post said. Company was largest subcontractor to Boeing Co. for building SST prototypes and had projected revenues of more than $2.5 billion for next decade for building sections of 500 aircraft. (W Post, 12/4/70, C9)
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