Jan 8 1975
From The Space Library
Twenty-five spacecraft on twenty-four vehicles were scheduled for launch by NASA during 1975, NASA announced. The 25 spacecraft included 14 for NASA programs, 10 for other organizations, and 1 as a cooperative program with a foreign government. Highlighting the year would be the 15 July launch of an Apollo spacecraft carrying Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton as the U.S. contribution to the joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
Apollo would rendezvous and dock with Soyuz 19 - launched 7 hr earlier than Apollo and carrying Aleksey A. Leonov and Valery N. Kubasov - allowing both crews to exchange visits and perform joint scientific experiments.
The two sets of Viking spacecraft, scheduled for 11 and 21 August launches, would journey through space for a year before arriving in the vicinity of Mars. There each set of spacecraft would separate into an orbiter and a lander to make orbital and surface investigations of the Martian environment.
Other NASA spacecraft would include ERTS-B Earth Resources Technology Satellite and SMS-B Synchronous Meteorological Satellite, in January; GOES-C Geodynamic Experimental Ocean Satellite, in March; OSO-1 Orbiting Solar Observatory, Nimbus-F experimental meteorological satellite, and Explorer 53 (SAS-C Small Astronomy Satellite), in May; GOES-A Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, in June; Explorers 56 and 57 Dual Air Density Explorers, on a single booster in July or August; Explorer 54 (AE-D Atmospheric Explorer), in September; and Explorer 55 (AE-E), in December.
The 10 spacecraft to be launched by NASA for other organizations included 5 comsats for Communications Satellite Gorp. : Intelsat-IV F-1 in February, Intelsat-IVA F-1 and F-2 in July and October, and Marisat A and B in April and July. Other reimbursable launches would include Telesat-C (Anik 3) for Canada in March, COS-B Celestial Observation Satellite in July for the European Space Agency, Symphonie-B experimental comsat in September for France and West Germany, RCA-A (RCA-satcom 1, in orbit) comsat in December for RCA Corp., and ITOS E-2 Improved TIROS Operational Satellite in late 1975 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Helios-B would be launched late in 1975 as a cooperative effort with West Germany. The schedule called for 18 of the 24 launches to be made from Kennedy Space Center, 5 from Western Test Range, and 1 from San Marco. For the launches NASA would use a Saturn IB, 3 Titan-Centaurs, 5 Atlas-Centaurs, and 15 Thor-Delta launch vehicles. (NASA Release 75-5; KSC Release 180-74)
The Department of Defense announced the award of a $1 500 000 cost- plus-incentive-fee contract to General Dynamics Corp. for launch services for the Atlas E and F vehicles at Vandenberg Air Force Base. (DOD Release 8- 75)
