Aug 3 1975
From The Space Library
Space expenditures resulted in tangible economic benefits, according to a report, "The Economic Impact of NASA R&D Spending," being prepared for NASA by Chase Econometric Associates, Inc., the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Using methods developed for regular national economic forecasts, Chase predicted that, if NASA's research and development budget were increased by $1 billion for the 1975-84 period, the U.S. gross national product (GNP) would swell by $23 billion or 2% over the normal rate of growth. Labor productivity in the nonfarm areas of the economy would rise more than 2% over the normal growth rate, and more than one million jobs would be created, reducing the unemployment rate by nearly 0.4% by 1984.
According to Chase, the key to NASA's domestic economic importance was in the agency's widespread technological advances that benefited a wide range of industries. Although the technological benefits were readily visible, NASA's influence on the nation's economy was more subtle, taking about 5 yr to work its way through the system. (Text, NASA Final Rpt, CR 144351, April 76; Holland, P Inq, 3 Aug 75)
Appointment of Dr. S. Ichtiaque Rasool, special assistant to the NASA Deputy Associate Administrator, to be the Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science became effective. In that position Dr. Rasool would be primary adviser to Dr. Noel W. Hinners, Associate Administrator for Space Science. He would also serve as chairman of the Space Science Steering Committee, responsible for drawing skills and resources of the nation's scientific community into NASA programs. Dr. Rasool had joined NASA in January 1965 as senior research scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies; in 1971 he was named Deputy Director for Planetary Programs, serving until 1974 when he became special assistant to the Deputy Associate Administrator. (NASA anno, 22 Aug 75)
3 August-6 November: Ariel 5, a U.S.-U.K. cooperative satellite launched 15 Oct. 1974 to study galactic and extragalactic x-rays, detected weak cosmic x-ray emissions from the constellation Orion on 3 Aug. The emissions, subsequently confirmed by NASA's Explorer 53 (SAS 3 Small Astronomy Satellite launched 7 May 1975), steadily increased in intensity until they were five times greater than any observed to date. New York Times reporter Walter Sullivan quoted Dr. Terry Matilsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist, as saying that when the emissions were first observed "we couldn't believe it." Sas 3-operated by Goddard Space Flight Center-was able to pinpoint the location of the emissions to within 1 or 2 arc-min. With this clue scientists hoped to explain the phenomenon using ground-based optical and radio telescopes. Observatories around the world had been alerted and were trying to pinpoint the source.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported MIT's Dr. Saul A. Rappaport as speculating that the emissions probably had been caused by masses of material falling from a large star into an extremely dense neutron star or black hole. The falling matter would heat up enough to emit bursts of x-rays and visible light.
Dr. Noel Hinners, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science, reported 6 Nov. to the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Science and Applications that the Explorer 53 observations had identified the optical counterpart of the x-ray emissions as a faint, otherwise normal-looking star that had brightened 100 times over previous observations. Dr. Hinners repeated Dr. Rappaport's theory and told the subcommittee that, because a similar brightening of this star had been observed in 1917, it was being classified as a recurrent nova. (1977 NASA authorization hearing transcripts, vol 1, part 1; Sullivan, NYT, 17 Aug 75, 21; AP, P Inq, 31 Aug 75)
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