Jun 28 1978
From The Space Library
NASA declared the launch of two satellites had been successful, Japan's direct broadcast satellite BSE and ESA's orbital test satellite Ots 2. A Delta had launched BSE into a synchronous transfer orbit from ETR at 5:01pm EST Apr. 7, 1978, with 35 923km apogee, 166.1km perigee, 27.2° inclination. Satellite performance was satisfactory during the transfer orbit. The boost motor had fired at 7:34pm EST Apr. 8 to move the satellite over the South Pacific to a position at approximately 110 °E above the equator south of Japan. All subsystem functional checks had indicated satisfactory satellite status.
NASA had launched Ots B (Ots 2 in orbit) at 6 59pm EDT May 11 from ETR on a Delta into a synchronous transfer orbit with 35 946km apogee, 183.6km perigee, and 27.4° inclination. Satellite performance was satisfactory during the transfer orbit. The boost motor had fired at 8am EDT May 13, to move the satellite over the South Atlantic to a position 10°E above the equator. All subsystem functional checks had indicated satisfactory satellite status. This was the first flight of the Delta 3914 (Castor IV) configuration since failure of the OTS-A mission in Sept. 1977. (MOR M-492-212-78-01 [postlaunch] and M-492-210-78-02 [postlaunch], both June 28/78)
MSFC reported that a new 0.8km (0.5mi) antenna range had operated satisfactorily in testing Space Shuttle antennas for range safety. The new range had a 27.4m (90ft) transmit tower and a 22.8m (70ft) model test tower. Antenna tests had begun in May on a 1/15-scale model of the Space Shuttle orbiter, external tank, and two solid-fuel rocket boosters installed in the tower.
Engineers had measured radiation patterns of the six range-safety antennas (two on the ET and two on each of the 2 SRBs) to ensure that a signal from the range-safety officer would reach the vehicle at any altitude. The range-safety antenna system was interconnected to immediately relay to the ET and both SRBs a destruct signal received on any one of the six antennas. Future Shuttle tests possibly requiring antenna-pattern measurements included the teleoperator retrieval system, 25kw power module, large space structures, and satellite power systems. (Marshall Star, June 28/78, 1)
ESA reported it had agreed to sign June 30 the first license it had granted for use of one of its patents: the Italian electronics company SELI would get industrial-production rights to an ESA-patented computer terminal that could display two texts written in different alphabets side by side on the same screen. Under the agreement, SELI would have exclusive production rights to the terminal for 2yr.
This invention was an example of technological spinoff from space activities put to practical use. One version of the system, the "Eurab terminal," could display on the same screen one text in Arabic and another in Latin characters; although originally developed for Arabic, the system could display any alphabet. The Eurab terminal could show the Arabic alphabet with vowels included, making reading easier and unambiguous, and leading to wider use of Arabic in airports, banks, schools; television programs, or wherever display screens might be used. (ESA Release June 28/78)
The Chicago Tribune reported that the USSR had launched Soyuz 30 June 27 carrying a Soviet commander, Pyotr Klimuk, and the world's first Polish cosmonaut, Miroslaw Hermaszewski. Soyuz 30 would dock with the Salyut 6/Soyuz 29 complex occupied since June 15 by Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalenok and Alexander Ivanchenkov. Hermaszewski had been trained under the Soviet Union's ongoing Intercosmos program to include eastern European countries in the Soviet space effort.
The international crew would study the manufacture of semiconductor materials under conditions of weightlessness, assess the effect of spaceflight on humans, observe and photograph land and oceans, and carry out technical experiments with individual onboard systems and the orbital complex as a whole. (C Trib, June 28/78, 1-3; FBIS, Tass in English, June 28/78)
The Washington Star reported that, despite Soviet efforts to suppress news of the incident, western sources said that in Feb. a Soviet cosmonaut had narrowly avoided hurtling off to his death in space. The near-mishap had occurred during an unauthorized spacewalk by cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko on the record-breaking 96-day orbital; flight aboard the Salyut 6 space station. Only cosmonaut Georgy Grechko had been slated to make a spacewalk; however, both cosmonauts had been wearing a new type of spacesuit that included a radio and an hr's supply of oxygen, with only a simple tether to the spacecraft to keep the cosmonaut from drifting away. During the Grechko spacewalk, after the Salyut had passed over the western Pacific and was out of range of Soviet ground stations, Romanenko (who was untethered) had jumped out of the open hatch. Why he did this remained unknown, although a U.S. space official speculated he might have gotten "space rapture." Grechko had been able to grab the end of Romanenko's safety line just before it passed out of his reach. (W Star, June 28/78, A4)
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