Sep 19 1978
From The Space Library
NASA reported that about 7da after a Delta rocket was scheduled to launch Nimbus-G into polar orbit from WTR, the second stage of the Delta would separately release two chemicals. Project Cameo (chemically active materials ejected in orbit) would consist of a single 90sec release of lithium over northern Scandinavia and a separate release of barium over northern Alaska, to study solar energy and plasma flows and electric fields in Arctic regions. Release of the lithium would create a huge bright-red cloud visible from Greenland, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe for a maximum of 5min. Release of the barium would create a bluish white cloud visible from the Soviet Union, Canada, and northwestern parts of the U.S. for a maximum of a half hr. NASA had timed the releases during Arctic twilight or early morning, to ensure best lighting for ground-based and aircraft photography to pinpoint the position and configuration of each cloud as a function of time.
Primary objective of the barium experiment was to trace the flow of plasma (ionized particles) in and above the earth's ionosphere, with particular emphasis on the transition in earth's electric field between the polar ice cap and the auroral zone over Alaska and Canada. Primary objective of the lithium experiment was to detect electric fields oriented parallel to the earth's magnetic field. (NASA Release 78-142)
LaRC announced that Dr. Donald "Deke" Slayton would be guest speaker Oct. 5 at a NASA-LaRC colloquium and a public lecture to commemorate NASA's 20th anniversary. Slayton, one of the original seven astronauts selected in 1959 for Project Mercury and the only one still active in the space program, was orbital flight test manager for JSC's Space Shuttle Project Office. He had been chief astronaut and director of flight crew operations before going into space in July 1975 with the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. Title of Slayton's colloquium lecture would be "The Space Shuttle"; his public lecture, "Manned Space Flight: Past Triumphs, Future Challenges." (LaRC Release 78-47; Langley Researcher, Sept 22/78, 2)
JSC announced it had signed a contract with Itek Optical Systems Division of Lexington, Mass., for the Space Shuttle orbiter camera payload system. The $4 890 000 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract would cover the first flight system with an option for a second. Planned for spaceflight on pallets and test racks built by NASA or ESA in the orbiter's 15 by 65ft cargo bay, the system would be a flexible photographic array for earth-imaging surveys, remote sensing, and supplementing nonimaging systems. The second option (to produce a large format camera for the USGS) would, if exercised, increase the contract value by $1.5 million. (JSC Release 78-42)
MSFC reported that the final airdrop test of a system to retrieve Shuttle solid-fuel rocket boosters by parachute had demonstrated that the system could save the boosters for reuse. The sixth and final airdrop Sept. 12 had successfully tested a main parachute under forces exceeding those expected during flight. A test vehicle released at about 6100m (20 000ft) altitude from beneath the right wing of a B-52 aircraft had deployed a test parachute when vehicle speed reached about 660km per hr (410mph).
Although actual booster recoveries would use three main parachutes each, the test had used only one because the test vehicle weighed only about a third as much as a booster would during recovery, and the B-52 aircraft could lift only 22 700kg (50 0001b). Use of only one parachute had sufficed for the main parachute structural test, however, as it had sustained the necessary load. Actual weight of the boosters to be recovered after Shuttle launches would be about three times the present world-record weight of 24 948kg (55 0001b) for parachute recovery; each empty booster would weigh about 78 000kg (172 0001b) during descent. MSFC engineers had conducted all six drop tests at the National Parachute Test Range, El Centro, Calif. (Marshall Star, Sept 19/78, 1)
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