Oct 1 1978
From The Space Library
President Jimmy Carter attended the Congressional Space Medal awards [see Sept. 22] ceremony Oct. 1 at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle landing facility. The White House press release of his remarks included the following: " . . . We are here today to recognize and honor six American pioneers of the farthest and highest of all frontiers, the frontier of space. We honor them for individual human qualities, dedication, skill, extraordinary courage. But we do more than that. What those men have done is the most visible part of a vast and continuing collective accomplishment of many people. Tens of thousands of Americans, many of you, including scientists, engineers, administrators, skilled workers, others, have contributed directly to the success of the American space enterprise. They in turn have had the support of an entire nation and the good wishes of an entire planet. The glory that belongs to the six recipients this afternoon of the Space Medal of Honor belongs equally to those who helped them, and in a real sense, to all humanity who prayed for them and who supported them.
"It is fitting that these ceremonies take place today on the 20th anniversary of the founding of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. And it is, of course, fitting that they take place here where the ships that took men to the moon were launched and where we will take our next great step into space with the first flight of the Space Shuttle, which I sincerely hope will be before my next birthday. . . .
In the last analysis, the challenge of space takes us very close to the heart of things. It brings us face to face with the mysteries of creation, of matter, of energy, of life itself. The men we honor today met that challenge and they were equal to it. Our nation met that challenge and was equal to it. And in the final two decades of the 20th century, Americans will reach out once more to the beauty and to the mystery of space, and once again, America, you and l, will be equal to that great task." (White House Release Oct 1/78)
Wallops Flight Center announced that NASA, the Army's Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory (ASL), the Air Force Geophysical Laboratory (AFGL), and the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada would undertake a joint scientific and technical support program to study the total solar eclipse of Feb. 26, 1979, last observable North America in this century, and its effect on earth's atmosphere and ionosphere. Aimed at improving predictions of atmospheric responses to a variety of disturbances, the program would include sounding rockets to be launched from a NRC/ASL small rocket site at Cochinour and from the NASA/ASL large rocket site on the Chucuni River, both in Canada, that would obtain measurements necessary for a quantitative description of the middle-atmosphere response. NASA would be lead agency for the U.S.; NRC would provide construction, ground- and flight-safety systems, launch coordination, and other launch-site support.
WFC had planned 7 launches during the eclipse: 3 payloads with joint experiments for the Univ. of Illinois and the Univ. of Bern, Switzerland; 1 payload with experiments for Cornell Univ. and NRL; 1 payload for the Univ. of Pittsburgh; and 2 payloads for Penn. State Univ. Site preparation had begun in June; launchers would be installed in Sept. WFC would provide mobile instrumentation systems to support launching, tracking, and data acquisition. (WFC Newsletter, Oct 1/78, 5)
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