Oct 16 1975
From The Space Library
NASA launched the first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-A, at 6:40 pm EDT for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aboard the 106th successful Delta from Kennedy Space Center. Transfer orbit elements were: apogee, 36 795 km; perigee, 200 km; inclination, 23.7°; period, 650.9 min. Apogee boost motor fired at 10:51 am EDT 17 Sept. had put the spacecraft into a synchronous orbit at 36 200 km altitude, where it would drift to its scheduled position approximately 50° N. When the GOES- A had been moved to position and checked out, it would be designated Goes 1 and turned over to NOAA for operational use.
GOES was the first operational version of the prototype synchronous meteorological satellites (Sms 1, launched 17 May 74 into geostationary orbit at 75°W, and Sms 2, launched 6 Feb. 75 and positioned at 115°W).
Sms 1, originally stationed over the eastern Atlantic in support of the Global Atmospheric Research Program, had provided the first near-continuous daylight coverage of a major hurricane (Carmen) in Sept. 1974. The day-night time-lapse motion pictures produced from Sms 1 images had aided understanding of hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as the total weather pattern in the Atlantic. Sms 2, from its station over the equator, had viewed the western half of the U.S., including Hawaii. Other NOAH satellites in polar orbit (Essa 8, NOAA 3, and NOAA 4) had collected global data for transmission to ground stations in Alaska and eastern U.S. This information has been available worldwide to any individual or agency with equipment that could receive the transmissions.
Goes 1 would provide NOAA scientists with images of a quarter of earth's surface at 30-min intervals, day and night. The satellite would also collect and relay nonvisual environmental data transmitted from thousands of manned and unmanned remote-sensing facilities on land and sea. Its radiation sensors would monitor solar activity and transmit its findings to NOAA's Environmental Research Laboratories in Boulder, Colo., for use in predicting solar storms that would affect radio communications on earth. Goes 1 would also transmit weather maps and other material from NOAA's station at Wallops Island, Va., in a format suitable for use by ground stations at regional forecast centers. (NASA Release 75-270; KSC Release 251-75; MORs E-60875-03, 22 Sept and 17 Sept 75; KSC Spaceport News, 31 Sept 75,1; NOAA Release 75-188)
The Ancient Mariner-a power package built as a backup for the unit flown past Venus on Mariner 5 in 1967-was still going strong after more than 5 yr of operating in a space environment, the Boeing Space Center at Kent, Wash., said. Function of the package had been to transform raw power collected by solar panels into electric current acceptable to the spacecraft. NASA had asked Boeing to find out if electronic units like this could stand the rigors of long-distance space flights such as a 12-yr Grand Tour of the outer planets.
Boeing put the Mariner instrument in a test chamber-part of an extensive vacuum and space simulation facility-in which temperature had been fixed at 1.6°C and other conditions had been made to conform with those in space. The duplicate had performed perfectly, outlasting much of its ground-support equipment and all but one of the technicians originally assigned to the experiment. The test had proved that flight hardware could stand temperatures as much as 30°C cooler than those encountered on missions already completed, and that similar electronic packages had a life expectancy of more than 5 yr, far longer than the period for which they had been designed. (Newport News Times-Herald, 16 Sept 75, 15)
Goddard Space Flight Center announced selection of PMI Facilities Management Corp. for a 2-yr $3 500 000 cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide processing, preparation, retrieval, reproduction, and distribution of space-science data for the National Space Science Data Center. PMI would also maintain, upgrade, develop, and implement plans for improved data-handling information systems, and would provide scientific analyses and programming, prepare reports, maintain files, order supplies and equipment, and operate photographic and microfilm equipment.
The Data Center served as a NASA-wide depository for spacescience data and a means of analyzing and disseminating this information beyond that provided by principal investigators. (GSFC Release G- 24- 75)
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