Sep 8 1976
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the rollout of Orbiter 101 had been set for 17 Sept. at the Rockwell Int'l Space Div. assembly plant at Palmdale, Calif. [see 11 Aug.]. First of NASA's Shuttle spacecraft of the assembly line, OV-101 was not yet scheduled for orbital flight: its first job, beginning in Jan. 1977, would be as a test vehicle. It would be launched from a modified Boeing 747 jetliner on which it was riding piggyback, in a series of approach and landing tests at Dryden Flight Research Center. It would then be ferried early in 1978 to Marshall Space Flight Center for ground vibration tests. Mated in a test stand to the 46-m external tank as if for an actual launch, Orbiter 101 would undergo extended vibration and stress loading equal to that experienced during a launch phase, when all the main engines-OV-101's three main engines and the two solid-fuel boosters-would produce up to 30 million newtons of thrust. After the testing at MSFC, Orbiter 101 would be returned to Calif: to be prepared for space flight; Orbiter 102 would be used in initial orbital flights from Kennedy Space Center, scheduled for 1979.
Under construction since June 1974, the Orbiter's main parts came from various contractors: crew module and aft fuselage from Rockwell at Palmdale, mid fuselage (cargo bay) from General Dynamics in San Diego, wings from Grumman Aerospace in N.Y., and tail assembly from Fairchild Republic in N.Y. Orbiter's three main engines (each providing 211 500 kg of thrust at launch) were constructed by Rockwell's Rocketdyne Div. under contract to MSFC. (NASA Release 76-143; Marshall Star, 8 Sept 76, 1)
President Ford named Shuttle Orbiter 101 the Enterprise, over the objections of NASA officials who preferred the name Constitution and had planned the Orbiter rollout ceremonies for 17 Sept., Constitution Day. NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher had paid a 45-min visit to the White House to brief the President on the Shuttle program and to discuss the naming. The name Enterprise, illustrious in U.S. naval history, had been given to the first nuclear-powered carrier, to a World War if carrier, and to an American sloop in the Revolutionary War. The name Constitution had met with objections that the Shuttle was considered an international effort in which several countries would participate. Aviation Week magazine commented on the "power of an aroused involved public-especially in an election year" in getting nearly 100 000 fans of the TV series Star Trek to sign letters and petitions asking the White House to have the first Orbiter named Enterprise (after the space ship in the series) rather than Constitution, the name favored by NASA officials. Av Wk said the officials were concerned about commercialization of the name Enterprise in association with the TV show. The Washington Star in an editorial said it was "pathetic" that the public desire for drama in outer space had not been killed by the mundane discoveries on Mars, Venus, and the moon, and predicted that "nothing exciting will happen in the real-life Enterprise,", even though the naming incident confirmed a public desire "to associate space with adventure and suspense." (W Post, 9 Sept 76, E-9, A-2; W Star, 19 Sept 76, E-1; Av Wk, 13 Sept 76, 26; 27 Sept 76, 11; Marshall Star, 15 Sept 76, 1)
Lewis Research Center announced award of a $73.6 million contract to General Dynamics Corp.'s Convair Div. for 8 Atlas-Centaur launch vehicles to be used in NASA missions over the next 4 yr. Launches would include INTELSAT V comsats, High Energy Astronomical Observatory (HEAD) satellites, FLTSATCOM satellites for a worldwide DOD communications system, and the Pioneer Venus mission to provide details on the Venus atmosphere. The fixed-price incentive contract would run from 3 Sept. 1976 through Sept. 1980; work would be done at the contractor's plant in San Diego, Calif. (NASA Release 76-154)
The Space Segment Board for Aerosat met at Frascati, Italy, to review proposals for development, production, launch, and 7 - yr operation of two satellites (see 22 Jan.]. The space segment of the Aerosat program, conducted jointly by the European Space Agency, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and the government of Canada, would provide an experimental system of satellite communications between transoceanic aircraft and the ground, leading to guidelines for an operational system to be established by the Intl. Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). During the program, two satellites would be launched into geostationary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean, separated by about 25° longitude, with a 7-yr lifetime; the first launch would occur in 1979, and the second 8 mo later. The space board, representing ESA, Canada, and Comsat General Corp., reviewed the proposals submitted by General Electric, Radio Corp. of America, and TRW; all were reported to be of "a commendably high technical standard," but the price submitted by GE was below that of the other two. The board therefore authorized negotiation with GE toward award of a fixed-price contract. (Comsat General Release CG 76-120; ESA release 10 Sept 76)
8-17 September: About 70 French officials, mostly from the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), and about 140 Soviet representatives of the Cosmic Research Institute at Moscow and the Intercosmos Council of the Soviet Academy of Sciences met in Leningrad to review current joint programs and to discuss new collaborations, especially a joint investigation (possibly in 1983) of atmospheric and surface characteristics of the planet Venus. Under a new protocol of 1975, the two countries were to work together in 11 specific areas including lunar and planetary studies. France had provided some of the equipment carried on Venera 9 and Venera 10 to study the Venusian atmosphere; on the future mission, a Soviet Venus orbiter would drop French-supplied pressure balloons to within 55 km of the planet's surface. Joint projects included space biology experiments supplied by France for Cosmos 782, and a French spacecraft called Signe 3 to be launched by the USSR late in 1977 and used with a Prognoz satellite for localizing and studying gamma-ray sources. The meeting marked the tenth anniversary of the signature of an intergovernmental agreement between France and the USSR on space cooperation. (Av Wk, 27 Sept 76, 26; FBIS, Tass in English, 9 Sept 76)
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