May 29 1980
From The Space Library
NASA launched NOAA-B from the Western Space and Missile Center (WSMC) into an elliptical orbit of 1,453-kilometer apogee, 273-kilometer perigee, 72.9° inclination, and 90.4 minute period, instead of the planned circular orbit at 470-540-kilometer altitude. Malfunction of the Atlas F launch vehicle put the $15 million payload where it could not carry out its planned mission, and NASA expected it to remain in orbit only about six months. Attempts by NASA and NOAA to correct the orbit were unsuccessful. A replacement called NOAA-C would be sent up in about five months. (NY Times, May 30/80, B-6; W Star, May 30/80, A-7; W Post, May 30/80, A-9; NASA Release 80-82; NASA Lily Actv Rpt, June 2/80)
NASA announced selection of Ford Aerospace to negotiate a contract for overall system-design engineering on preliminary operations requirements and test-support system for the Space Telescope. Work under the $9.2 million contract should be done by December 1983, to support the space-telescope mission. Ford Aerospace would run the system for six months before turning it over to NASA.
The system located at GSFC would control telescope attitude, point it, and monitor the on-board systems 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. Besides engineering design, hardware and software, and support for facility construction, the contract covered design of the project operations-control center plus required software and hardware. Ford Aerospace would provide testing, integration, installation, maintenance, documentation, training, and operating services for the system, including launch on the Space Shuttle. (NASA Release 80-80)
KSC reported on steps taken by NASA to ensure survival of an endangered species, the manatee or sea cow, whose entire U.S. population estimated at about 1,000 lived in Florida waters. Brevard County, site of KSC, had the highest incidence of manatee deaths in the state. KSC included the site of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge containing hundreds of species of plants, birds, mammals, and reptiles; 12 of the latter were endangered, more than in any other single site in the 48 states. About 20% of the nation's manatees spent part of the year on the Space Center, and KSC activities had been arranged for minimum interference with the indigenous wildlife.
Aerial surveys over KSC furnished information about group migratory habits, feeding grounds, and times for scheduling work in areas when the manatees would be elsewhere. Space technology provided tracking devices to monitor the routes traveled by individual animals. Ships that recovered spent Shuttle boosters docked in the Banana River, a prune manatee feeding ground. NASA had fitted its ships with a propulsion unit to maneuver them without use of large propellers found to be highly dangerous to the slow-moving and air-breathing manatee; the unit proved to be better at retrieving booster parachutes without tangling the lines. (KSC Release 95-80)
NASA said MSFC's Spacelab program office had ordered a second Spacelab instrument-pointing system from ESA and Dornier Systems of West Germany for delivery by the end of 1983. The major Spacelab subsystem was valued at about $20 million. The number of experiments currently planned for Spacelab that needed highly accurate pointing required NASA to buy a second unit to supplement the one NASA would receive as basic Spacelab equipment provided by ESA. Earlier this year ESA had signed a contract with NASA for a second Spacelab unit; each basic unit would now have its own pointing system.
Mounted on a Spacelab pallet in the Shuttle cargo bay, the instrument pointing system (IPS) gimbaled in three directions offered highly accurate pointing to scientific instruments weighing from 200 to 2,000 kilograms, belonging to disciplines such as astronomy, solar physics, high-energy astrophysics, or Earth observation, and needing more stability than the Shuttle provided. It could lock on and track targets such as stars, solar flares, or specific items of interest on the Earth's surface without being affected by slight changes in Shuttle attitude. (NASA Release 80-79; MSFC Release 80-75; ESA Info 14)
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