Nov 10 1976
From The Space Library
The Marshall Star reported that a former student research assistant at MSFC, now a member of the faculty at Alabama A&M Univ., would be principal investigator in a study to develop remote-sensing applications for resources study and management, under a $35 000 grant from NASA and MSFC. The research effort would catalog the transportation network of Ala., including highways, railroads, water systems, and airports, and would devise a system for storing information in quickly retrievable form that could readily be updated. Dr. Oscar Montgomery, who had worked on the study at the outset, had graduated from A&M and had received a Ph. D. from Purdue Univ., returning to A&M in the department of natural resources and environmental studies. He and other researchers at A&M would identify and assist users of remotely sensed data in Ala., develop university facilities and skills to handle, process, and interpret such data, and support "ground truth" and related activities of the Earth Resources Office at MSFC. The grant, part of the Minority Institutions Research Program, would provide remotely sensed data obtained by aircraft or spacecraft to the Ala. Development Office and other state agencies. (Marshall Star, 10 Nov 76, 4)
The Air Force Systems Command announced completion of 3 yr of test and evaluation on a production-engineered version of a laser-guided bomb kit designed for easy mounting on standard unguided bombs. AFSC noted that, during the Southeast Asia conflict, laser-guided bombs were 200 times as likely to reach the target as manually released unguided bombs, and had outscored computer-aimed bombs by 50 to 1. The USAF described the LCB as "one of the most effective technological advances" in weaponry, one LGB costing less than 12 standard unguided bombs and offering additional savings in fewer missions flown, fewer crew losses, increased storage life, and greater reliability. (OIP Release 241.76)
10-11 November: The mysterious high-power radio signal that had interrupted international communications for months disappeared suddenly on 2 Nov., officials at the Federal Communications Commission reported, but resumed as unexpectedly 10 Nov., the foreign minister of Norway told his parliament. Personnel at the Rogaland radio station on Norway's west coast began receiving the signals again from a shortwave transmitter they thought was located near Kiev in the Soviet Ukraine. The FCC said in Oct. that hundreds of complaints had been received about the interference, heard through a wide range off high frequencies from about 6 to 28 mhz, like a rapid ticking 10 times per sec. The signal had disrupted ship-to-shore, aeronautical, telephone, and amateur and international broadcast services around the world, particularly in Europe and across the North Atlantic. The USSR had never acknowledged that the transmissions originated there; a spokesman at the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., said he did not know what was causing the interference. (W Star, 9 Nov 76, 1; W Post, 11 Nov 76, A32; NYT, 11 Nov 76, 5)
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