Apr 26 1974
From The Space Library
The U.S.S.R. launched Molniya 11-9 communications satellite from Plesetsk into orbit with a 40 700-km apogee, 599-km perigee, 12-hr 17.0-min period, and 62.9° inclination. The satellite would help provide a system of long-range telephone and telegraph radio communications in the U.S.S.R. and would transmit Soviet central TV programs to the Orbita network. (GSFC Wkly SSR, 25 April-1 May 74; Tass, FBIS-Sov, 30 April 74; Ul ; SF, Sept. 74, 395)
Data from Pioneer 10, launched 2 March 1972 toward a 3 Dec. 1973 en-counter with Jupiter, had indicated that sulfur was one possible element in the surface composition of Jupiter's moon Io, Marshall Space Flight Center announced. Scientists at MSFC had studied the reflective properties of Io and concluded that sulfur was one of the few materials that could have the high reflectivity and strong absorption features observed. The theory would be tested by measuring the changes in reflectivity of sulfur at different wavelengths and temperatures and observing the reflectivity change of Io in the fall when Jupiter would be in the evening sky. (MSFC Release 74-72)
Wallops Station, Wallops Island, Va., was renamed Wallops flight Center to describe its mission and operations more accurately. The Center had responsibility for development and launch of scientific payloads, using boosters ranging from the small Arcas to the four-stage, solid-propellant Scout. The installation had been established in 1945 as the Pilotless Air-craft Research Station of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and had served as a base for launching small rockets. After NASA had been established in 1958, it became known as Wallops Station and assumed an expanded mission in support of space flight programs. (NASA Ann, 25 April 74)
NASA had awarded the Planning Research Corp., Huntsville, Ala.; a one-year $6-million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, with an additional one-year $10-million option, to provide design engineering support services for development, test, and mission operations primarily in support of the space shuttle at Kennedy Space Center, KSC announced. (KSC Release 75-74)
NASA had selected International Business Machines Corp. Federal Systems Div. for a $636 000 one-year contract, with options for renewal, to pro-vide system engineering and software development support to the Design Engineering Directorate at Kennedy Space Center for space shuttle launch processing systems. IBM would help provide a flexible, reliable, and cost-effective means of system-testing, launch operations control, and status monitoring of the space shuttle, ground support equipment, and facilities during ground operations. (NASA Release 74-104)
The U.S.S.R. was believed to have orbited between 8 and 10 radar-carrying satellites in the last four years that could monitor surface ship traffic around the globe, Thomas O'Toole said in a Washington, Post article. Intelligence sources believed the satellites were still experimental and part of an effort to monitor submerged Polaris submarines. One radar satellite, Cosmos 626, launched 27 Dec. 1973 into an orbit 264-km high, separated into two parts 11 Feb. One part moved to a higher 382-km orbit and was thought to be the power supply for the orbital radar, using polonium 210, a "hot" source of radioactive heat that could generate as much as 2000 kw of electricity by thermoelectricity. (W Post, 26 April 74, Al)
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