Dec 13 1979
From The Space Library
NASA announced that JPL had selected Martin Marietta Aerospace and Hughes Aircraft's Space and Communications Group for award of $500,000 contracts for study of an unmanned Venus mapper to fly in the mid-1980s. Upon completion of the study in summer 1980, NASA might choose one company to develop a Venus-orbiting imaging radar (VOIR) spacecraft for a two-month gravity study of the planet followed by a 120-day radar mapping sequence, if Congress approved the mission. (NASA Release 79-176)
INTELSAT reported that it would turn off INTELSAT 3 F-3 this date after 10 years of service that gave the organization the first truly global telecommunications system. The INTELSAT 3 series of nine communications satellites was built by TRW Systems Inc., three of them having failed to orbit or destroyed at launch; INTELSAT 3 F-3 was the last of the series in operation. Original design life was five years.
Launched into synchronous orbit in February 1969, the communications satellite operated over the Indian Ocean until July 1972, carrying among others a worldwide telecast of Prince Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales. It was placed on standby in May 1977, and its mechanically despun antenna stalled in April 1979, more than 10 years after launch, rendering it inoperable. As it had enough fuel remaining to push it 4,000 to 5,000 kilometers further out into space, INTELSAT would turn off spacecraft electronic systems and activate small propulsion motors to put it where it would need 4 to 5 million years to return to its old altitude, drifting at the rate of a meter a year. (INTELSAT Release 79-28-1)
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