August 1974
From The Space Library
Flight Research Center began wake vortex studies with a Boeing 747 to test different configurations and mechanical devices for suppressing the formation or reducing the strength of vortices. Wind-tunnel and water-channel tests had indicated that engine-induced turbulence and span-load tailoring by flap modification would permit reduction of standard separation distances between aircraft. Removing the outboard flap on a model of a Boeing 747 and adding a trailing spline reduced the wing-tip vortex so that the separation between a Boeing 747 and a following Learjet or DC-9 could be reduced from 8 to less than 3 km. During inflight tests, lowering the inboard flap 30° dissipated the normal wing-tip vortex as a second vortex flowing in a counter direction formed. Flight testing would continue into September. (FRC X-Press, 13, 27 Sept 74; NASA Release 74-230)
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) awarded a $42 847 797 contract to Rockwell International Corp. Space Div. to design, develop, fabricate, launch, and operate three prototype satellites in the Navigation System Using Time and Ranging (NAVSTAR) Global Positioning System (GPS). With a Naval Research Laboratory NAVSTAR technology satellite, the prototypes would provide positioning signals to support development and test of user equipment for all military services. Plans called for refurbished Atlas F space boosters to launch the spacecraft into 20 200-km orbits in 1977. (ASFC Newsreview, Aug 74, 16)
Federal research and development support of space programs had declined steadily in proportion to civil projects from 1969 to 1975, the National Science Foundation reported in its Analysis of Federal R&D Funding by Function, Fiscal Years 1969-1975. Energy and environment programs had outpaced other major civil programs, while space programs had been reduced more than any other R&D function in the period. In FY 1975, the space budget was 13% of the planned $19.6-billion Federal R&D funding, a decline from 23.9% in 1969. Manned space flight, including the space shuttle, would account for more than half the 1975 total. (NSF Report 74-313)
The combined calculated weight at launch of the U.S.S.R.'s Soyuz 4 (launched 14 Jan. 1969) and Soyuz 5 (launched 15 Jan. 1969) had indicated that the spacecraft had carried propulsion systems far in excess of requirements for an earth orbital mission, David Woods reported in Spaceflight. The 1.97-km-per-sec velocity requirement of such active docking vehicles as Soyuz 4 had matched the total velocity requirement of 1.94 km per sec of Apollo 11 (launched to the moon 16 July 1969), indicating that these early Soyuz spacecraft had been capable of manned lunar missions, Woods deduced. (SF, Aug 74, 300-302)
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