Mar 1 1982
From The Space Library
A robot craft, Venera 13, fifth from the Soviet Union to land on Venus, sent the first color pictures of that planet's surface and scooped up a soil sample for the most detailed analysis to date of Venus chemistry, Tass reported.
A module detached from Venera 13 plunged through Venus's dense carbon dioxide atmosphere to an area called Phoebe, south of its equator. A Venera 14 identical lander was scheduled to arrive March 5 at an area east of the Phoebe site. Soviet mission planners had consulted scientists and radar maps from the U.S. Pioneer Venus project in deciding where to aim the Veneras; they promised to share Venera data at future international scientific conferences. U.S. scientists familiar with the Soviet plans said that the Veneras were equipped for "much more sophisticated" studies of Venus soil chemistry than previous probes; these were the first craft able to drill into the crust, ex-tract a sample, and analyze it, as the Vikings had on Mars.
Pioneer Venus I had been orbiting Venus since December 1978, mapping the planet by radar. Pioneer Venus 2 deployed five probes to sample the planet's atmosphere, only one of them surviving to transmit an hour of data on surface temperatures. Soviet studies of Mars failed, but Venera 9 and Venera 10 in 1975 transmitted the first images from the Venus surface, and Venera 11 and Venera 12 in 1978 collected data on radioactive soil. After separation and landing, Venera 13 had survived to send surface data relayed by the mother ship for 127 minutes. (FBIS, Moscow, Tass in English, Mar 1/82, Mar 2/82; NY Times, Mar 2/82, C-1; W Post, Mar 2/82, A-10)
NASA announced the crews for the fourth, fifth, and sixth Shuttle flights. On STS-4, Thomas K. Mattingly would be commander, and Henry W. Hartsfield, pilot. Scheduled for launch early: in July, the seven day STS-4 would be the last of four orbital flight tests to verify Shuttle hardware and soft-ware. Mattingly, 47, orbited the Moon 10 years ago on Apollo 16 Hartsfield, 48, was a rookie.
STS-5, a five-day mission planned for mid-November to deploy commercial communications satellites, would be the first to use mission-specialist astronauts. Vance D. Brand, 50, who was command-module pilot on 1975's Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous, would be mission commander. This would be the first spaceflight for Robert F. Overmyer, 45, the pilot. Mission specialists would be Dr. Joseph P. Allen and Dr. William B. Lenoir. Columbia would be the spacecraft for both STS-4 and STS-5.
STS-6, planned for January 1983, would be the first flight of the orbiter Challenger, a two-day mission to deploy NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), one of an eventual two-satellite system providing comprehensive voice and data coverage between orbiting shuttles and the ground. Commander would be Paul J. Weitz, 49, who was pilot on Skylab 1; copilot would be U.S. Air Force Col. Karol J. Bobko, 44, another rookie. Donald H. Peterson and Dr. Story Musgrave would fly as mission specialists.
NASA would no longer assign Shuttle backup crews; its pool of experienced pilots at JSC would readily permit interchange of crewmen. (NASA Release 82-33; JSC Release 82-012; W Post, Mar 2/82, A-9)
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