Oct 31 1980
From The Space Library
The Washington Post reported that SBS was "having a hard time getting off the ground" with launch of its first satellite put off for the third time in a month. Technical problems with the Delta had delayed the launch of SBS 1, built by Hughes Aircraft, first of its kind to offer a high-frequency interference-free signal. Liftoff had been postponed to November 6 because of insulation damage, then to November 12 when a motor bolt broke. The latest problem was a leak in the liquid oxygen system. (W Post, Oct 31180, E-3)
MSFC reported signing a $2,271,391 contract with a small business, OAO Corporation of Beltsville, Md., for design, assembly, delivery, test, and checkout within 18 months of a data-base management system to handle an "immense volume" of instrument data transmitted at "extremely high rates" by spacecraft during missions between 1985 and 1995. The system would accept data at rates up to 50 million bits per second (44,650 pages of computer printout per minute). "Firsts" to be included in the system would be a data bus of fiber-optic cabling for use in a computer configuration and use of lasers to transmit and receive data at the high rates required. (MSFC Release 80-141)
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