Jun 14 1971
From The Space Library
Status of space shuttle technology was described by MSFC propulsion engineer Gerald M. Thompson during AIAA/SAE Seventh Propulsion Joint Specialist Conference at Salt Lake City, Utah. Because "shuttle propulsion technology has been vigorously pursued in a totally organized approach for several years," no major technology work remained to be done before shuttle main engine development phase began. Designs with strong technical bases were ready to proceed. However, if hydrogen propulsion was selected for air-breathing engines that would return shuttle stages to landing fields on mission completion, additional technology development would add about one year to schedule. Main engine development was to begin in 1971, with flight certification targeted for March 1978. (MSFC Release 71-103)
Plans for joint experiments in which ATS-F (scheduled for May 1973 launch) would be used from September 1973 to May 1974 to explore technical, economic, and educational practicality of regular TV trans-missions to low-cost ground receivers in remote areas of U.S. were announced by NASA, HEW, and Corp. for Public Broadcasting. Experiment would begin with transmission of educational and health pro-grams to ground receivers in Rocky Mountain region and Alaska. NASA was designing 15-w transmitters to operate in 2500- to 2690-mhz band and would provide access to ATS ground station. Other ground transmission and receiving facilities would be provided by HEW and CPR. (NASA Release 71- 105)
Aerobee 150 sounding rocket was launched by NASA from WSMR carrying Univ. of Hawaii solar astronomy experiment. Rocket and instruments functioned satisfactorily, (SR list)
Japanese Space Development Committee's First Technical Div., which had been investigating performance of Mu-4 carrier rocket that orbited Tansei satellite Feb. 16, had recommended that plans for launching first "full-fledged" scientific satellite during summer 1971 be approved, Space Business Daily reported. Recommendation followed assessment of malfunctions during launch and orbit which caused mission to fall short of its programmed objectives. Satellite, which had orbited earth 96 times to date, had malfunctions of its solar battery performance measuring device, control command device, and stabilization device. (SBD, 6/14/71, 228)
Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.)-who had been Vice President under President Johnson addressed Space Seminar of Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation at KSC: "One of the reasons that I have been active in the Space Program is because I believe that this program did some-thing for all of the things I thought were important in life." Space program was "pioneer in beginning to make the discovery in environmental control." It had proved men could live in pure environment and "that there's a relationship between the living space that we have and the number of people that can be there . . . [and] that you can have clean water and clean air. And it's proven to us that you can work together." Space program had helped produce computer and had developed satellite monitoring system. Possibly "one of the greatest efforts for world peace has come right out of the science and technology of space research." Sen. Humphrey recalled his role as negotiator of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: "I went to Moscow when it was signed. I have the pen that President Kennedy used to sign the treaty ... he said, 'I give you this pen, Hubert, because it's your treaty.' " He had been in Moscow when Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong made first moon walk. "I was in the offices of Pravda and Izvestia . . . and a dispatch came through from Reuters . . noting that the launch had been successful, and I had said to the editors of Pravda, `Why don't you run this as a headline?' There was nothing in their paper that indicated that our launch had taken place. And when I went to Izvestia the same afternoon I said `Look, the launch has taken place and I see nothing in your headlines in your papers.' I am happy to tell you that they were somewhat embarrassed and the next morning, at the National Hotel, under my door was a copy of Pravda and Izvestia with front page stories saying that there had been a successful launch." When Neil Armstrong "touched down that Sunday night . . . the only information that I was able to get was out of the Voice of America through the United States Embassy because the Russians had blacked out." (CR, 6/18/71, H5484-7)
Representatives of Bankers Trust Co. and Bank of America told Senate Banking and Currency Committee investigating financial condition of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. that they would not make further loans to Lockheed without Government guarantee. (Samuelson, W Post, 6/14/71, A21
Role of radioelectronics in space was described in Pravda by Soviet Academician V. Andreyanov: "Radioelectronics might be called the nervous system of cosmonautics. It links our planet by living threads with the spacecraft and apparatuses when they fly to Mars, work on the moon, or study the earth and circumterrestrial space, like the Salyut station. In less than 15 years, research into space and the nearest planets has not only stimulated the development of many fields of science and technology but has also been accompanied by the emergence of new fields of knowledge and technical methods. A `spacification' of the sciences had been noted. Concepts which were earlier unusual have also appeared in radioelectronics: space radio communications, space telemetry and television, space radionavigation, and radio methods for studying celestial bodies and interplanetary space." (FBI5-Sov-71-123, 6/23/71, L5)
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