Aug 9 1973
From The Space Library
Marshall Space Flight Center announced the award of identical, parallel, $800 000, 17-mo contracts to Itek Corp. Optical Systems Div. and Perkin-Elmer Corp. for competing preliminary designs and pro-gram definition of the Large Space Telescope (LST) . The large, multi-purpose, orbiting, optical astronomical facility would be launched by the space shuttle, which also would return it to the earth for major maintenance and refurbishment. The LST would use a 3-m (10-ft) primary mirror and-because of its size, quality, and location above the earth's atmosphere-would be able to resolve objects 10 times smaller and 100 times fainter than those observed by ground telescope. (MSFC Release 73-110)
Ames Research Center earth resources survey aircraft were monitoring tussock moth damage to Douglas fir trees in Washington and Oregon at the request of the Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources. Two flights over the Blue Mountain area, covering parts of each state, would help determine damage done by the moths, which also attacked Ponderosa trees. (NASA Release 73-149)
NASA launched two sounding rockets. A Black Brant IVB, launched from Wallops Island, carried an Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center payload to a 603.5-km (375-mi) altitude to flight-test a modified version of the Black Brant IVB. The rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily, A Black Brant VC, launched from White Sands Missile Range, carried a Harvard College Observatory experiment to a 268.8-km (167-mi) altitude to collect data on solar activity to collaborate with data collected by the Apollo Telescope Mount instruments aboard the Skylab Orbital Workshop (launched May 14), now manned by the Skylab 3 crew (launched July 28). A capsule containing film was parachuted to the earth and recovered 160 km (100 mi) from the launch site. One detector failed but the experiment was 80% successful. The rocket performed satisfactorily. (NASA proj off; Reuters, B Sun, 8/10/73, A6)
August 9-16: The U.S.S.R. launched its Mars 7 probe from Baykonur Cosmodrome at 10:00 pm local time (1:00 pm EDT) into an earth parking orbit from which it was inserted into a trajectory toward Mars. The parameters of the trajectory were as planned, Tass reported. Mars 7 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft launched by the U.S.S.R. to-ward Mars during the month-long window when the earth and Mars were in alignment for a space launch. Mars 4 and 5 were launched July 22 and 25. Mars 6 was launched Aug. 5. Mars 7, which would reach its destination in mid-March 1974, was similar in design and mission to Mars 6. Both spacecraft-intended for exploration of Mars, near-Mars space, and the interplanetary medium-carried Soviet- and French-built scientific equipment. All four Mars probes would carry out research in combination. Tass said Mars 4 would perform experiments using instruments on Mars 6 while Mars 5 would work in conjunction with Mars 7. On Aug. 10, at 4:00 am Baykonur time (7:00 pm EDT, Aug. 9), Mars 4 was 6 432 000 km (3 997 000 mi) from the earth; Mars 5, 5 067 000 km (3 148 000 mi) from the earth; Mars 6, 1 535 000 km (954 000 mi) from the earth; and Mars 7, 102 000 km (63 000 mi) from the earth. Tass reported that all spacecraft were proceeding according to their programs. A midcourse correction of the Mars 6 trajectory Aug. 13 and of the Mars 7 trajectory Aug. 16 put the flight paths "within the pre-set limits." Tass said onboard systems of all four probes were functioning normally and measurements were being made of physical characteristics of interplanetary space. (GSFC SSR, 8/31/72; FBIS-Sov, 8/10/73, LL; 8/16/73, Ll ; 8/17/73, Ll ; SBD, 8/13/73, 217)
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