Apr 22 1980
From The Space Library
Aerospace Daily reported that malfunction of a portable life-support system caused a flash fire April 18 at JSC in which Robert Mayfield (employed by the contractor, Hamilton Standard Division, United Technologies) was hospitalized with second-degree burns. The system included two tanks of oxygen pressurized at 3,000 pounds per square inch. The fire started during a performance test when a regulator was switched to the extravehicular activity mode. Extensive damage occurred to a test spacesuit and the life-support system as well as the clean room at JSC's crew systems laboratory. Mayfield was reported in stable condition April 20. JSC had appointed a board to investigate the accident. (AID, Apr 22/80, 289)
Aerospace Daily reported an Aerospace Corporation study for the U.S. Air Force on the risk that a large active satellite might collide with debris from inactive satellites or launchers. Probability of collision for a large satellite on a 1,000-day mission in low orbit (500 to 1,500 kilometers up) was high because of the great concentration of debris at those altitudes. As the objects were moving in different directions, velocity for any satellite would be at a maximum. Collision in synchronous orbit was less likely to the extent that the objects were all moving in the same direction; however, debris in those orbits tended to collect at certain points because of Earth's gravity. (AID, Apr 22/80, 294)
The Washington Star said that the FCC would call for restructuring of ComSatCorp to differentiate between its regulated and its competitive activities. ComSatCorp, now sole U.S. representative in two global satellite communications systems, would have to put all its competitive operations, including research and development, into a separate subsidiary.
Restructuring would answer complaints that ComSatCorp, a congressional creation, could use its unique monopoly status in global communications systems to is advantage in highly competitive ventures it is considering. With two other major companies, it was starting a long-distance telephone system to compete with AT&T; it also had considered a satellite-to-home subscription television service to compete with the three major television networks [see April 8].
ComSatCorp already had a subsidiary, Comsat General, that handled its competitive activities; the FCC said that a sharper separation was necessary between the two: Comsat Laboratories and other research and development, for instance, should be put into the subsidiary to avoid the possibility of cross subsidies. A newly purchased environmental monitoring firm, Environmental Research & Technologies Inc., would have to be in the subsidiary, FCC said.
The parent company would include only those activities relating to INTELSAT and INMARSAT (International Maritime Satellite Organization), international systems in which ComSatCorp acts as U.. S. representative. (W Star, Apr 22/80, C-6; W Post, Apr 23/80, B-1; ComSatCorp Releases 80-22, 80-23, 80-24, 80-25)
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