Jul 16 1976
From The Space Library
NASA announced selection of Hamilton Standard Division, United Aircraft Corp., for negotiations leading to award of contract for development and production of space suits to be used by men and women during Space Shuttle flights. The basic cost-plus-award fee contract would cost about $15 million through Sept. 1980. The suit system, consisting of a basic suit and built-in support system including breathing atmosphere and cooling components, would be adjustable instead of custom-made for each astronaut (as in earlier programs) and would come in small, medium, and large sizes to fit candidates varying in height from 1.5 to 2 m. Hamilton Standard would provide hardware and spares needed for 7 suits and support equipment, as well as training, manpower, and equipment needed to support the program at NASA field centers. Johnson Space Center would have technical direction of the contract. (JSC Release 76-46)
NASA announced that its Nimbus 6 weather satellite would be monitoring the cross-country progress of a 1914 Dodge participating in the Bicentennial world antique auto race that began 15 June in Istanbul, Turkey, and wound through l 1 countries in Europe. Having crossed the Atlantic by ship, the four entrants-all American-were scheduled to rally 16 July at Times Sq., New York City, to begin the final leg of the race New York to San Francisco-that would recreate the first leg of the Great Race of 1908. The tracking device carried on the Dodge belonging to Ed Schuler of Morrison, Ill., had been checked out last May on a run from Ill. to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Md. The device, a rugged self-powered unit normally carried on balloons, buoys, and ice packs, is one of more than 800 such instruments assigned to experimenters since the launch of Nimbus 6 in mid-1975. Valued at about $1800, the device would be returned to GSFC after the race for checkout and future use on another platform. A similar device used in 1971 to track a light plane that flew around the global poles had previously been carried around the world on a balloon that came down in Central Africa, where a French member of the World Health Organization found it hanging in a tree and returned it to NASA; after the airplane trip, the unit served another year on a buoy before' being retired from service. A 1914 Model T Ford originally scheduled to carry the tracking device [see 15 Feb.] was withdrawn from the race by its owner. (NASA Release 76-126)
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