Apr 9 1973
From The Space Library
Appointments of Philip E. Culbertson as Director of the new Mission and Payload Integration Directorate in the Office of Manned Space Flight and of Capt. Robert F. Freitag (USN, Ret.) as Deputy Director of the Advanced Programs Directorate, OMSF, were announced by NASA. Culbertson, formerly Director of Advanced Manned Missions, would be responsible for planning, direction, and coordination of payload activity and for management of the interface between users and the space shuttle, sortie lab, and tug. Freitag would participate in planning future manned space flight systems and in early development work. (NASA Hq WB, 4/9/73, 6)
Soviet test pilot Aleksander Fedotov had flown an advanced MIG-23 jet fighter aircraft at 2599 km per hr (1615 mph) in a closed-circuit flight of 100' km (62 mi), to beat his own October 1961 Class C, Group III aircraft record of 2401 km per hr (1492 mph), the U.S.S.R. announced. Tass said details of Fedotov's flight were being submitted to the International Aeronautical Federation in Paris. (NYT, 4/9/73, 49; NAA Record Book)
Flight Research Center technologist Kenneth W. Iliff--a 32-year-old, wheelchair-bound victim of bulbar and paralytic polio in his youth-had been selected by NASA as the agency's Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee of the Year, FRC announced. Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, had nominated Iliff, to receive the same award for the entire Federal Government. Iliff would receive his doctorate from the Univ. of Southern California at Los Angeles in June, had helped develop advanced analytical techniques for NASA, including an optimal parameter estimation. (FRC Release 9-73)
Two European space consortiums were in competition to develop the manned Spacelab to be flown on the U.S. space shuttle, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported. Groups led by ERNo-vFw-Fokker and Messerschmitt-Boeklow-Blohm GmbH were in Phase B studies to define Spacelab (sortie lab) costs and configurations. The studies would end in July to allow the European Space Research Organization to decide on supporting Spacelab development. ERNO planned to offer two Spacelab configurations. One would be certain of meeting the established cost criteria. The second would be more expensive but technically more advanced. The Mss system used a common support system of a single module housing all general-purpose subsystems, with separate individual payload systems inserted as needed. Scientific payloads could be prepared independently of launch cycle constraints. One set of payload experiments could return to earth and another set be slid into place within two weeks. (Av Wk, 4/9/73, 22)
NASA launched an Aerobee 170 sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range carrying a Naval Research Laboratory astronomy experiment to a 197:8-km (122.9-mi) altitude. The rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (GSFC proj off)
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