Sep 10 1976
From The Space Library
Scientists using a NASA S-band radar obtained the first detailed pictures of the surface of Venus, NASA announced. Installed at the Arecibo radar observatory in Puerto Rico under a $3-million NASA contract, the S-band system was 50 times more sensitive than equipment previously available for radar observations of Venus. Optical telescopes had been unable to penetrate the dense cloudcover of Venus, but the Arecibo radar had produced high-quality photograph-like images with a clarity like that of optical photographs of the moon taken from earth. Data were obtained during a series of daily 2-hr observations in the months before and after the close approach of Venus to the earth in late August 1975.
Radar echoes of the signal from a powerful transmitter operating at a 12.6-cm wavelength were measured for strength, precise frequency, and time of arrival by a 330-m radiotelescope at Arecibo and an auxiliary 30-m telescope about 10.5 km distant; the two telescopes constituted an interferometer that enabled mapping of areas with detailed definition and precise location of the echoing regions. Venus features as small as 19 km could be distinguished. In the area about 10.25 million sq km mapped by the radar, scientists had observed a large basin bordered by ejecta suggesting its formation by impacts like those that created the maria on the moon, as well as a very bright area "about the size of Oklahoma" tentatively named Maxwell (for the 19th-century physicist) which appeared to result from processes internal to Venus possibly a large eruption of lava-with long parallel ridges unlike features on either the earth or the moon. (NASA Release 76-153; NYT, 10 Sept 76, A-1)
Part of a Soviet satellite-the rocket body from Cosmos 854, tracked by North American Air Defense Command radar-had fallen in Montana earlier this week, DOD sources reported. The rocket body, which had not been recovered, looked like a meteor as it passed over Washington State and Idaho and fell south of the Canadian border. DOD said debris from Soviet space vehicles had dropped on the U.S. previously, but usually in small pieces. (W Star, 10 Sept 76, A-5; Av Wk, 13 Sept 76, 30)
The European Space Agency announced selection of General Electric Co. to produce and launch two satellites for the Aerosat program [see 8 Sept.], saying that the GE bid was "significantly below" that of the other two contenders, the RCA Corp. and TRW Inc. A GE spokesman estimated the value of the contract at $60 million, half to be spent in the U.S. and half to go to a consortium of foreign companies known as the Cosmos Group, which had formed a bidding team with GE. (NYT, 11 Sept 76, 33)
A British Airways Trident 3 collided with an Inex-Adria McDonnell Douglas DC-9 near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, at 11:34 am local time in good weather; the midair collision killed 176 persons. Three major airways converged over Zagreb, and four air-traffic controllers had been arrested and were being held on suspicion of responsibility for the disaster. Crash recorders from both aircraft and cockpit voice recorders were to be used in an initial hearing to show whether the Yugoslav transport, taking German tourists from Split to Cologne, was being controlled in the Serbo-Croat language instead of in English (the official international aviation language). Zagreb control had cleared the DC-9 to climb to the point where the collision occurred; a British Airways official said after hearing a tape that the Trident crew may not have seen the DC-9 or known of its approach. (Av Wk, 20 Sept 76, 32)
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