Dec 6 1979
From The Space Library
Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., U.S. Air Force chief of staff, told the annual meeting of the Military Operations Research Society that the priority of the Space Shuttle program had "shifted to matters of national defense," the Santa Barbara News Press reported [see October 30]. Whatever else the Shuttle does and whatever other purposes it will have, "the priority, the emphasis, and the driving momentum now has to be those satellite systems which are important to national security," said Allen, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Emphasizing the "change from what had been true a year or so ago," Allen said the change was "apparent and accepted now, and it's a change which will, if there are additional technical difficulties. . ., become more and more significant." The Shuttle, he said, was "quite critical for concerns of national defense and for... verification of treaties... Confidence in the Shuttle and its reliability must be sufficiently high for us to place what is a substantial amount of the security of the nation on the performance of that system." (Santa Barbara News Press, Dec 6/79, 14)
NASA reported that researchers from JPL and the U.S. Geological Survey had carried out measurements using radio noise from distant quasars that indicated rapid increase in southern California's width.
Dr. Arthur E. Niell of JPL’s astronomical radio-interferometric Earth survey team reported an increase of 20.3 centimeters (8 inches) over 7 months between JPL and NASA's Goldstone deep-space station about 193 kilometers (120 miles) away. At the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Niell and J.C. Savage of the U.S. Geological Survey described making simultaneous recordings at the two radiotelescopes of radio noise from quasars and comparing the signals' time of arrival using extremely precise clocks. Changes in distance between the telescopes could be measured with accuracies of 5 centimeters (2 inches) or less, and could be important to the Survey's earthquake prediction mission. (NASA Release 79-166)
NASA reported results of a 22-month government-industry study of possible damage to electrical equipment from release of carbon fibers in fires after accidents to civil aircraft. R. R. Heldenfels, LaRC director for structure, told a conference at LaRC that public risk from use of carbon fibers on civil aircraft was so small as to be insignificant.
The President in July 1977 had directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy to study potential problems of using carbon-composite materials and to provide a plan for federal action if needed. NASA got the assignment to assess risks of such use in civil aviation, with support from the National Bureau of Standards, some DOD laboratories, and private firms. Other federal agencies studying the problem were DOC, DOT, DOE, and EPA.
The perceived risk was that breakdown of composite materials in burning would put into the atmosphere short lengths of carbon fiber thought to be hazardous to electrical equipment because of their high heat resistance and electrical conductivity; their extreme light weight would allow them to float for miles before touching electrical equipment, causing short circuits or malfunctions. (NASA Release 79-171; LaRC Release 79-85)
NASA announced that it had selected 33 scientific investigations for 4 satellite missions scheduled for launch in 1982-1985. The investigations, 23 from the United States and 10 from 6 other nations, would be in climate and upper-atmosphere research. The 23 U.S. investigations represented 11 universities, 1 private organization, and 2 government agencies. Foreign countries represented were Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Each country would fund its own investigations; the cost of the U.S. studies would be about $5 million over the next five years, including instruments. Spacecraft used would be the earth radiation budget satellite, two polar-orbiting NOAA metesats, and Spacelab 3. (NASA Release 79-165)
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