Aug 2 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had turned over Goes 3, third in a series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, to NOAA for operation on July 5, 1978, at 1600Z. Since its launch on June 16, NASA engineers, wishing to ensure proper operation, had completed an orbital checkout in 14da, rather than the 30da required for previous GOES missions. Goddard Space Flight Center's newly installed GOES test laboratory had accelerated the schedule by allowing full-time communications with Goes 3; NAAA's Wallops Island facilities had been available to previous missions only part-time. Engineers had checked out Goes 3 during its westward drift at 2 deg/day toward its operational station at 135°W, and had corrected the orbit inclination from 1.7° to the specified 1°.
First pictures from the satellite's visible and infrared spin scan radiometer (VISSR), received June 29, were of excellent quality. More than 521b of the initial 801b load of hydrazine was available, enough for more than 5yr of normal operations. A minor problem with the spacecraft data-handling equipment that relayed signals from earth based data-collection platforms had resulted from interference by VHF equipment that could be turned off during most of the mission. The GOES laboratory would monitor operating data to detect any variables in performance with time and temperatures.
NASA had advised NOAA that, based on preliminary analyses, the spacecraft was operating under no constraints. According to NAAA's plan for final positioning, Goes 3 would replace Goes 1 at 135 °W longitude; Goes 1, relocated over the Indian Ocean, would support the first CARP global experiment. (NASA MOR E-612-78-01 [postlaunch] Aug 2/78)
Marshall Space Flight Center announced that its test engineers had successfully completed the first series of live firing tests of the Space Shuttle's main propulsion system, with all major test objectives achieved. Rockwell International's Space Systems Group had conducted the test program for MSFC. The test version of the propulsion system had consisted of three Shuttle main engines mounted on an orbiter aft fuselage with a flight-type external propellant tank and associated systems. The first series of tests (Apr. 21, May 19, June 15, and July 7, 1978) had recorded systems operation at thrust levels from 70 to 90% of rated power for up to 100 sec; in the final test, engines were throttled down from 90% thrust to 70% and back up to 90%. The Shuttle would be the first spacecraft with throttleable engines.
After removal from the test stand at the National Space Technology Laboratories, the engines had undergone modifications for more firings later in 1978. The next test series would run the engine at rated power levels (357 000lb, or 1.67 million newtons at sea level) for more than the 500sec required to lift the Shuttle into orbit. Results of the tests would verify main propulsion system operation before the first manned orbital flight, scheduled for 1979. (Marshall Star, Aug 2/78, 1)
Work on the dynamics test stand had begun in preparation for the next series of Space Shuttle mated vertical ground-vibration tests, the Marshall Star reported. After changing the configuration inside the stand from a "hanging" to a "sitting" arrangement, MSFC engineers would adjust the platform to fit the vehicle assembly. For the first series of tests, the orbiter and external tank had been suspended from airbags on a truss structure high in the stand, to simulate the Shuttle after the solid-fuel rocket booster had separated and before external-tank jettison. The next series would test the ET, orbiter, and SRBs mated in the liftoff configuration; the SRBs would sit on a hydrodynamic support system to which the ET and orbiter had been attached. (Marshall Star, Aug 2/78, 1)
GSFC reported that faint radio signals from 10 million billion miles away had given astronomers the first proof of the long suspected presence of methane (natural gas) outside the solar system. GSFC scientists had detected methane in three locations in deep space: in the Orion A gas cloud, and in gas clouds surrounding variable star RX Boo and carbon star IRC-plus-10216. "The discovery of methane outside our solar system could have an important role in determining the abundance of carbon in the universe," noted Dr. Kenneth Fox. Methane previously had been detected only on earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and its moon Titan, Neptune, and Uranus.
The discovery had confirmed that interstellar space was not devoid of complicated molecules; at least 40 types of molecules had been discovered suspended in space, and the findings were important to scientists attempting to construct models of the origin of the universe. Dr. Fox and Dr. Donald Jennings had searched for the emissions for 3yr using radiotelescopes at the Natl. Radio Astronomy Observatory at Greenbank, W. Va., Kitt Peak near Tucson, Ariz., and the Haystack observatory in Westford, Mass. "Methane now appears to be one of the most abundant molecules in Orion A, perhaps second only to hydrogen [the most abundant gas in the cosmos]," Fox said. Fox and Jennings planned to map the source of methane in Orion A for its precise location and any associations with stars or stellar objects. (Goddard News, Aug 2/78, 2)
Aerospace Daily reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee had approved a FY79 $4.359 billion funding bill for NASA, restoring $20.5 million cut by the House-passed companion bill for development of the teleoperator retrieval system (TRS) that NASA wanted to use to reboost or deorbit Skylab. Although the full committee had not changed the NASA funding approved earlier by Sen. William Proxmire's subcommittee, Proxmire indicated that when the omnibus bill reached the Senate floor, he would move to cut all its appropriations, including NASA's, by 2%. The Appropriations Committee also approved a second FY78 supplemental funding bill that included $58.7 million to acquire the Navy's fourth and fifth Fleet Satellite Communications (FltSatCom) spacecraft, as recommended earlier by the defense subcommittee. (A/D, Aug 2/78, 138)
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