Aug 1 1979
From The Space Library
As decided earlier in 1979 [see June 30], NASA took the first steps to take ATS 6 out of geostationary orbit and boost it to a higher altitude to keep it from colliding with other spacecraft. On the evening of July 30, NASA fired the minus-pitch attitude-control thruster; the firing was successful, but ATS lost Earth acquisition because of intermittent telemetry problems. In order to reacquire Earth, the spacecraft was put in a Sun-acquisition mode the morning of July 31; boost procedures resumed about 1:30 p.m. and proceeded as planned, with completion expected in about 30 hours.
Since its May 1974 launch, the five-year-old communications satellite had exceeded its planned lifetime by three years, but three of its four stationkeeping thrusters had failed, and the fourth was shaky. GSFC would use the remaining thruster to lift ATS to a level several hundred kilometers higher, where it would remain in orbit indefinitely. (NASA Release 79-81; NASA Dly Actv Rpt Aug 1/79)
NASA announced that it would accept on an annual basis applications to become Space Shuttle astronauts; the 1979 time for civilian applications would begin October 1 and end December 1. Successful applicants would report to JSC for a year's astronaut training, after which NASA would choose pilot and mission-specialist candidates to be assigned by the Astronaut Office to jobs that would continue to train them in their scientific or technical field. NASA now had 27 selectees, including 11 scientists, available as Shuttle crew; 35 more candidates were in training to qualify for selection. The number of candidates to be selected in 1980 would depend on mission requirements. (NASA Release 79-101; JSC Release 79-50)
NASA announced that JPL had selected TRW's Space Systems Division, Redondo Beach, Calif., to negotiate a contract estimated at $80 million for designing, building, and testing one of two spacecraft to explore the Sun's polar regions in the 1980s. A second spacecraft would be developed by ESA. The solar-polar mission sponsored jointly by NASA and ESA would study the Sun, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields in uncharted areas of the solar system. The four-year mission would begin with launch of both spacecraft by the Space Shuttle in 1983; a gravity-assist flyby of Jupiter in 1986 would put the craft over the solar poles in 1986 and again in 1987. This would be the first mission using spacecraft out of the plane in which Earth and other planets orbit the Sun. JPL would manage the project for NASA's Office of Space Science. The TRW contract covered the spacecraft system and ground-support equipment, integration of the science payload, tests and launch preparation, and spacecraft-system support during the mission. (NASA Release 79-100)
FBIS carried a Tass report that "local monitoring services" had revealed launch of a "carrier rocket" by the People's Republic of China, "with the aim of putting into orbit an artificial satellite." The satellite was not orbited because the carrier rocket malfunctioned and "fragments fell on the territory of the PRC," the dispatch said, adding that this was PRO's fourth abortive attempt to launch a sputnik. (FBIS, Tass in English, Aug 1/79)
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