Feb 4 1977
From The Space Library
NASA announced a yr-long schedule of test runs and captive-flight tests on the first-built Space Shuttle orbiter, Enterprise, that would take place at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. Called approach and landing tests (ALT), the series of flights with a modified Boeing 747 serving as a ferry aircraft and airborne launch platform would begin with several taxiing tests with the orbiter atop the carrier; following would be six inert-captive flights in which the jumbo jet would carry the unmanned orbiter to a 7620m (25 000ft) altitude. Unmanned flights would verify performance of the two vehicles in mated flight. Then would come a series of captive-active flights with the orbiter's systems powered up and the Enterprise manned by 2 astronauts. The first orbiter off the assembly line arrived at DFRC Jan. 31 from Rockwell International's Palmdale plant; upon completion of ALT, the carrier would take the prototype to Marshall Space Flight Center for ground vibration tests. After these tests, NASA said, the Enterprise would return to Palmdale to be prepared for orbital flight in the early 1980s. The orbiter now under construction (OV-102) would be the first used in actual orbital-flight tests, now scheduled to begin in mid-1979; six test flights would demonstrate the orbiter's capabilities in earth orbit before the start of operational flights, scheduled to begin in 1980. (NASA Release 77-16)
Two giant crawler-transporters that had ferried Saturn V rockets to the launch pad at KSC and were scheduled for similar work in the Space Shuttle program had been designated National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks, Today newspaper reported. At ceremonies held Feb. 3 beneath one of the vehicles, more than 100 persons watched the unveiling of a plaque noting the creation of the 18th national landmark identified since the Am. Society of Mechanical Engineers began singling them out in 1973.
Present at the ceremony were KSC employees who had helped build the pair of 2.7-million-kg platforms; ASME officials and members from across the U.S. on their way to a national meeting in southern Fla.; and former astronaut Donn F. Eisele, who had been command-module pilot on the 1968 Apollo 7 flight that resumed moonshots more than a yr after the fatal fire in an Apollo training exercise. Eisele had since become a manager for Marion Power Shovel Co., the Ohio firm that built the transporters at a cost of $14 million. Ray Clark, KSC director of design engineering, accepted the plaque from Dr. Stothe P. Kezios, president elect of ASME, with the comment that the transporters were "barely broken in" with mileage on each at just over 800km; they might accumulate 10 times that amount carrying Shuttle equipment during their second yr of operation, he added. (Today, Feb 4/77, 10A)
JSC announced award of a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract worth $9 083 303 to Northrop Services, Inc., for operation and maintenance at JSC of life sciences and engineering laboratories and the lunar curatorial facility, effective Feb. 1, 1977, and expiring Jan. 31, 1978. (JSC Release 77-08)
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