Apr 25 1971
From The Space Library
First flight-model Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was installed on board Apollo 15 LM on test stand at KSC. LM would be moved to Vehicle Assembly Building May 8 to be mated to Saturn V booster and CSM. Complete Apollo 15 vehicle would be rolled out to launch pad May 11. (MSFC Release 71-71; Marshall Star, 4/28/71, 1)
At press conference following Soyuz 10 landing Cosmonaut Aleksey S. Yeliseyev described Salyut 1 as "overwhelming. It was a little like a train entering a railroad terminal. That's how we felt as our rather big Soyuz eased up to the station. "The rendezvous maneuver began from a long distance away. At first we could not see the orbital station and we corrected our orbit to get closer. We first saw the Salyut from a distance of about 15 kilometers [9 mi]. At that distance we were able to see the station through a special optical device. At first it looked very tiny, just a black spot .. . of small size. The station flashed special light beacons for easier recognition. From that moment on we kept it constantly in view as we proceeded with the rendezvous maneuver. "As we approached the station, we kept looking at the station through instruments. It was quite an imposing sight. Then the docking took place. All the time we kept the required components of the station in the field of vision of our television and optical devices. Then we separated and circled the station, looking at it from all sides and shooting movie film of it. "It was an overwhelming sight: There was this structure in flight, with a tremendous amount of apparatus and all sorts of antennas." (Shabad, NYT, 4/26/71, 1; 4/27/71, 30)
Cosmonaut Konstantin P. Feoktistov later said that in future, "it will become necessary to learn to dock a relatively small transport space-ship with a high flying multipurpose laboratory. . . . it is already necessary to look for more national technical solutions, in particular of docking units, as much depends on their design and perfection. A new version of docking units was tested during the flight." Cosmonaut Boris Yegorov said "operations of docking and rendezvous lead to a considerable emotional burden on the cosmonauts. Medical men and engineers are looking for and finding the most rational combination of man and automatic equipment in such a complex maneuver in orbit. . . . quite a few problems of engineering and cosmic psychology must be solved to achieve the best possible coordination of man and automatic equipment " Soviet comments on its space station program had shifted in emphasis to possible future docking experiments between Salyut satellites and manned spacecraft and had "left open the question of whether .. . Soyuz 10 . . . succeeded in doing all it set out to do," Anthony Astrachan later suggested in the Washington Post. Comments by Feoktistov strongly suggested that the Soyuz-Salyut experiment was only prelude to creation of permanent orbital lab. (W Post, 4/26/71, Al)
Texas A&M Univ. scientists had irradiated five grams of lunar soil to determine whether its elements, apparently soluble in water, were absorbed in growing lettuce plants, AP reported. Laboratory plants growing in moon soil mixture had grown better than those in ordinary soil. Dr. Paul Baur, Jr., botanist working at MSC, had said if plants took up activated elements from lunar soil they could be detected on x-ray plates. "This may give us new clues to the fertilizer requirements of plants." (W Star, 4/25/71, A16)
NASA launched two Nike-Apache sounding rockets from TERLS. One carried India-Japan experiment to study ionosphere. Mission was partial success. Second rocket carried Indian experiment to study luminescent clouds. Mission was unsuccessful. (SR list)
Interview with Chien Wei-chang, professor of engineering at Chinghua Univ. in Peking who had worked at JPL from 1940 to 1946, was published in Washington Post. Asked if he had had anything to do with China's earth satellite program, Chien had replied, "What do you think?" (Roderick, AP, W Post, 4/25/71, A26)
U.S.S.R. was "clearly a big jump ahead" of U.S. in "post-moon race operations," Detroit News editorial said. "Credit must be given the Russians for having the shrewdness to go all out for orbital space stations when they realized, as they must have done before Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon . . . that they were sure to lose the moon race. We shall have to watch for a few years because the decision has been made to slash the space budget" (Detroit News, 4/25/71, 4M)
KSC tourist facilities were described in New York Times travel section: "In these days of popular denigration of space exploration, the tourist is likely to approach this vast space-age outdoor science museum in a defensively skeptical frame of mind. Three or more hours later he is likely to leave the center convinced that it was a valuable and exciting experience." I{SC was "one of the least commercialized major tourist attractions of the world." NASA was "selling ... on tapes and in guide lectures, but not offensively and not at the expense of information you want." There was little evidence of security "and the guides emphasize that you may photograph anything you see." (Friedlander, NYT, 4/25/71)
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