Aug 21 1973
From The Space Library
The Air Force launched an unidentified satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base by a Titan IIIB-Agena booster into orbit with a 39 132-km (24 315.5-mi) apogee, 392-km (242.6-mi) perigee, 11-hr 41-min period, and 63.3° inclination. The press later reported that the spacecraft would test techniques to be used in the USAF satellite communications system that provided polar coverage for the Strategic Air Command bombers. (UN Reg; Av Wk, 9/10/73, 17)
The U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 579 from Plesetsk into orbit with a 307-km (190.8-mi) apogee, 174-km (108.1-mi) perigee, 89.3-min period, and 65.4° inclination. The satellite reentered Sept. 3. (GSFC SSR, 8/31/73; 9/30/73; SBD, 9/6/73, 10)
Discovery by use of NASA'S OAO 3 (Copernicus) Orbiting Astronomical Observatory that the density of the universe was much lower than expected was announced on the first anniversary of the satellite's launch. Princeton Univ. scientists Dr. John B. Rogerson and Dr. Donald G. York reported they had used OAO 3's telescope to determine the relative abundance of deuterium (a heavy form of hydrogen) in interstellar gas to be one deuterium atom for every 100 000 atoms of gas. Knowing what fraction of hydrogen became deuterium and accepting the theory that deuterium had been created moments after the "big bang" believed to have started the expansion of the universe, the scientists had calculated the amount of matter created and the average density of the current universe. The extremely low density indicated that there was not a relatively large amount of invisible mass in the universe. (NYT, 8/21/ 73, 13; A&A 1972)
The Federal Communications Commission's Common Carrier Bureau petitioned the FCC to force Communications Satellite Corp. into an immediate 25% rate cut. The Bureau, representing consumers in the eight-year-old FCC investigation of ComSatCorp, said that increasing satellite traffic and the use of more efficient plant had increased ComSatCorp's annual earning rate from 10% in 1971 to about 25%. (Aug, W Star-News, 8/25/73, Al; FCC PIO)
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