Oct 18 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced that Dr. Robert Frosch, NASA administrator, and Roy Gibson, ESA director general, had met in Paris Oct. 7 at ESA's annual Spacelab program meeting, during which NASA and ESA had signed three memoranda of understanding on the use of data transmitted by Landsat-2 and 3, Nimbus G, and SEASAT. The memoranda covered acquisition, preprocessing, and dissemination to national Earthnet stations (the European ESA network) of data transmitted by the spacecraft. They also dealt with acquisition and transmission of oceanographic data from microwave systems onboard SEASAT by the SEASAT Users Research Group Europe, under auspices of the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (Earsel), to study possible inclusion of microwave detectors on future European satellites. (NASA Release 78-158; ESA Release Oct 9/78)
Two experiments for HEAD-C had been delivered to the prime contractor, TRW, Redondo Beach, Calif., and the third was expected the following wk, MSFC reported. Scheduled for launch in late 1979, HEAD-C would survey gamma-ray emissions and study cosmic-ray particles from space. Like the first high-energy astronomy observatory launched in 1977, HEAD-C would be a scanning mission to perform sky surveys. The HEAO-B scheduled for launch in November 1978 would be a pointing mission, focusing on selected X-ray sources.
The two delivered experiments were a high spectral-resolution gamma- ray spectrometer (experiment C-1) and a heavy-nuclei experiment (C-3). Arriving Oct. 23 would be C-2, the European-produced experiment on isotopic composition of primary cosmic rays. Mechanical integration of the experiments would begin as soon as KSC returned mechanical ground-support equipment it was using to prepare for HERO-B's launch. Meanwhile, TRW would check out individual experiments to assure the devices had arrived in good working condition. Following mechanical integration, TRW would make individual data runs through late Nov. Electrical integration would begin after KSC returned the computer equipment now supporting the HERO-B launch. (Marshall Star, Oct 18/78, 1)
MSFC reported that NASA had awarded Edward Buckbee, director of the Alabama Space and Rocket Center, its distinguished public service medal, highest award to persons outside the federal government, in a ceremony Oct. 17 in Washington, D.C. NASA Administrator Robert Frosch presented the medal to Buckbee for informing the public through the Alabama Space and Rocket Center of NASA's programs and activities, and for contributing to public understanding of the complexity of space and rocket technology. Buckbee had been a MSFC employee before joining ASRC. (Marshall Star, Oct 18/78, 1)
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