Dec 20 1984
From The Space Library
Scientists at the University of Chicago announced that a U.S. experiment to analyze the dust of Halley’s Comet was riding aboard the Soviet Union's Vega -1 spacecraft. It was the first known Soviet-U.S. cooperative space venture since The docking of the manned Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft in 1975. The cosmic dust analyzer-and a twin that would be launched aboard Vega-2-were built by university scientists under the leadership of John Simpson, one of the preeminent astrophysicists in the United States, who had designed; experiments for more than 30 space missions over the past 25 years. The joint project was born at an international symposium in Holland in . September 1983, where Simpson outlined vastly improved comet dust measuring methods. About a month later, he said, the Soviets surprised him by inviting him to put the analyzer aboard their Vega. Simpson received Reagan administration approval and about $300,000 in NASA funds, which touched off a frantic search for components. "We scoured the U.S. and within two weeks got all the pieces," Simpson said.
Plugging U.S. electronics into a Soviet spacecraft required unusual cooperation. Moscow shared telemetry coding data, and Simpson was able to conduct high-speed computer analysis of Soviet rocket launch characteristics to aid in designing the dust analyzer so it could survive blastoff and flight. "On May 7, we walked into the Soviet space lab with working instruments," which were then bolted aboard the Soviet spacecraft by U.S. scientists, he said. Simpson said that he had received computer tapes from the instrument during Soviet tests of the device while it awaited launch from the Baykonur cosmodrome and added that the Soviets had invited him to be on hand in Moscow when the comet encounter would begin in March 1986. (W Post, Dec 21/84, A-1; NY Times, Dec 21/84, A-1)
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