Sep 16 1977
From The Space Library
NASA announced that a fourth group of 20 Shuttle astronaut applicants would report to JSC Sept. 19 for a week of physical examinations and individual interviews. All of this group were pilot applicants, one a civilian. Of the others, 12 were USAF; 4, U.S Navy; 3, U.S Marine Corps. A final group would report to JSC in mid-Nov. (NASA Release 77-192)
NASA announced that ARC had awarded two San Francisco Bay area firms a $2.5 million contract for managing construction of a major modification to the largest wind tunnel facility in the western world. Turner Construction Co. and Lord Electric Co. would modify the ARC 40-by 80-ft wind tunnel built in 1944 by adding a new 80- by 124-ft (24 by 36m) test section and increasing drive power from 36 000hp to 135 000hp. The modifications should enable ARC to handle new types of aircraft, especially large helicopters and vertical- and short-takeoff and landing aircraft. (NASA Release 77-191)
Two balloonists attempting a transatlantic crossing from Bar Harbor, Maine, on or about Sept. 19 would carry a lightweight satellite-tracking beacon like the one that helped save Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo when their balloon ditched near Iceland on Sept. 12. The FAA had required Charles E. Reinhard and Charles A. Stephenson to carry the device as an air traffic control aid and in case of a need for search and rescue. This type of beacon had previously gone around the world on a polar flight, and another rode a 33ft sailboat on a 600mi trip through the Bermuda Triangle east of Fla., both successfully tracked by a Nimbus satellite. The balloonists would cover the cost of the beacon; NASA would take no part except for use of the satellite link and ground systems, which would operate 24hr anyway. (NASA Release 77-194)
NASA announced it had awarded to McDonnell Douglas Aeronautics Co. a contract to build spinning solid upper stages for the Space Transportation System. The contract, amounting to about $9 million, had resulted from previous NASA agreements with Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas that the firms could design, test, and market the stages independently. Bids had been limited to those two firms because they, had agreed to develop the stages with private funds. The contract called for delivery by Dec. 1979 of the first SSUS with all hardware, logistics, and services necessary to. demonstrate the craft and inject it into proper orbit. Three other stages would launch INTELSAT Ys, advanced commercial comsats. Later deliveries would be assigned to, other missions. (MSFC Release 77-1.70; NASA Release 77-196)
FBIS reported that the USSR had signed an agreement with Intersputnik, an international organization formed by 9 socialist countries in 1971, that the group would work out of Moscow and create favorable condition, for its activity in < the USSR. Organizers of Intersputnik to use satellites and ground stations for international communications were Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Cuba, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the USSR, and Czechoslovakia. (FBIS, Tass in English, Sept 16/77)
FBIS reported a Tass interview with Boris Petrov, chairman of the Intercosmos council, on the high points of the program, including cooperation with capitalist countries in exploration of space. France 11 yr ago was the first capitalist country to cooperate; India's satellite Aryabhata had orbited on a Soviet booster 2yr ago; Soviet-Swedish cooperation was developing; and the U.S. and USSR would work together on space biology, medicine, meteorology, environment, and the moon and planets. (FBIS, Tass in English, Sept 16/77)
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