June 1980
From The Space Library
Republic Airlines said June 9 that its representatives had signed a pact with Summa Corporation and the estate of Howard R. Hughes, Jr., under which it would purchase Hughes Airwest for $38.5 million. Acquisition would occur next fall, if legal and other regulatory problems were solved. (W Star, June 10/80, C-10)
United Airlines began a six-month test June 11 of air-to-ground telephone service for passengers, using a standard 12-button wall model installed on one of the airline's DC-10s. The firm was conducting the test with Sky Tel, a subsidiary of Page-America. The caller would press buttons for connection with the ground station nearest to flight path, where an operator would place the call. The charge would be $10 plus cost of the call. (W Post, June 11/80, B-2)
The FCC authorized the ComSatCorp to begin construction of a $15 million ground station on Saipan, in the western Pacific Ocean, to bring the first satellite communications to the northern Mariana Islands. The ComSatCorp owned and operated station would provide direct communications between the northern Marianas and the United States, Hawaii, Guam, Japan, and other points in the Pacific. (W Star, June 12/80, B-7)
FBIS carried Tass reports on the continuing flight of Salyut 6 with its international crew, Bertalan Farkas of Hungary and Valery Kubasov, working with longtime occupants Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin. Preparing Soyuz 35 for return to Earth, the cosmonauts carried into it containers of materials on which research had been completed: exposed rolls of film, space navigation charts, flight logs, biological objects, and substances produced in materials experiments. Used-up equipment would be taken into the "living compartment." The crew had shot a film about their joint operations, including development of plants in weightlessness and production of metal alloys and castings.
Tass reported June 3 that the descent module of Soyuz 35 had landed safely near Dzhezkazgan and that the Intercosmos crew were well. The Soyuz 36 that took them to Salyut 6 was still attached to it; on June 4, the Salyut 6 crew moved Soyuz 36 to the other docking port to make room for another craft. On June 5 at 1719 Moscow time the Soviet Union launched Soyuz T2 carrying Lt. Col. Yuri Malyshev and, as flight engineer, veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Aksyonov, tenth crew to visit Salyut 6 since its launch. An unmanned Soyuz T launched in December 1979 had docked with Salyut 6 and remained for more than three months, testing new automated features. Before docking with Salyut 6, the crew turned the Soyuz toward the Sun to test its solar batteries, one of the new features.
On June 6 Soyuz T2 docked with Salyut 6 at 1858 Moscow time. Tass said that the approach was automated up to within 180 meters, after which it was controlled by the crew. Konstantin Feoktistov explained that "earlier, during manual approach the station was... automatically aligned with the ship and was always directed toward it with its docking unit ... [the crew] regulated the longitudinal speed and made sure that it went in straight. This time the station was immobile: the craft approached from the side... A quarter turn was made around the station and it came on to the axis level. The manual control system worked well. We think the crew was even better." Later reports mentioned a malfunction of some automated part and the need for an unplanned manual docking.
The visiting cosmonauts performed "dynamic operations" including a photographic turn around the station, which had not been possible before.
After a four-day mission, Malyshev and Aksyonov undocked Soyuz T2 June 9 and returned to the spot near Dzhezkazgan where the previous Soyuz crew landed. Popov and Ryumin remained in Salyut 6, which logged its thousandth day of flight June 24. Progress 10 was launched June 29. (FBIS, Tass in English, June 1-29/80; NY Times, June 10/80, (2; AID, June 10/80, 219; Av Wk, June 23/80, 18)
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