Sep 21 1971
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 439 from Plesetsk into orbit with 278-km (172.7-mi) apogee, 208-km (129.3-mi) apogee, 89.3- min period, and 65.4° inclination. Satellite reentered Oct. 2. (GSFC SSR, 9/30/71; 10/31/71; SBD, 10/1/71, 101)
General Dynamics Corp. released F-lll program status report. Aircraft had amassed total of 115 209 hrs on 44 463 operational and test flights. Airframe static tests had been successfully completed with some standards exceeded by 20%. Tests on structural fatigue life of aircraft were continuing. Tactical Air Command versions of F- 111 were being tested through 16 000 hrs, or four service lives, and would soon be assigned to service units. Strategic Air Command version of airframe had successfully passed one of four service-life tests required. To date, 356 F-ills had passed proof tests begun in 1969 and 291 of these were back in service. F-111 had accumulated better safety record at 100 000 hrs than any other Century Series fighter; 15 had been destroyed, contrasting with 40 F-104s. USAF, Boeing Co., and Convair Aerospace Div. team had completed successful series of launches of short-range attack missile (SRAM) to be used on FB-llls and B-52 bombers. During launches from WSMR, F-111 had demonstrated ability to launch five SRAMS in rapid succession at five different targets. (Text)
Attempts by four Soviet aquanauts to break 59-day record for underwater isolation were terminated after 52 days. Men had been evacuated from oceanographic laboratory Chernomor at 15-m (50- ft) depth after violent storm on Black Sea broke power and communications cables of submarine's chamber. Izvestia said Nov. 11 that experiment had been pronounced successful because of medical and oceanographic findings, although it had failed to exceed record set by U.S. Project Tektite I April 15, 1969. (Shabad, NYT, 11/12/71, 10; A&A 1969)
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