Dec 28 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced that 11 of its 16 launches scheduled for 1979 would be reimbursables (launched by NASA for other agencies or corporations). Paying customers included DOD, NOAA, the United Kingdom, Western Union Corp., ComSatCorp, and RCA. As in 1978, most of the 1979 launches would emphasize use of space for the direct benefit of people: communications, environmental, and meteorological information.
Activities in 1979 would include the first launch and orbital flight of the Space Shuttle; Jupiter and Saturn encounters by two Voyager spacecraft; and the Pioneer 11 flyby of the rings of Saturn. NASA would launch the Space Shuttle from KSC into its first orbital flight Sept. 28 with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen as crew. They would land 53hr later at DFRC.
The 1979 schedule would begin with two launches Jan. 25: DOD's spacecraft charging at high altitudes, (SCATHA) from Cape Canaveral, and a stratospheric aerosol and gas experiment (SAGE-A) from Wallops Flight Center. In April NASA would launch NOAA-A for NOAA and Navy-20 for DOD from Vandenberg AFB. It would launch in May FltSatCom-B from Cape Canaveral, and UK-6 for the United Kingdom from WFC; Westar-C in July and INTELSAT V-A in Aug., both from Cape Canaveral for ComSatCorp; in Sept., its third high-energy astronomy observatory HEAD-C from Cape Canaveral, and its Magsat-A from Vandenberg; in Oct., the solar maximum mission (SMM-A) from Vandenberg. NASA would launch INTELSAT V-B from Cape Canaveral for ComSatCorp in Nov.; in Dec., NOAA-B for NOAA from Vandenberg, and RCA-C for RCA from Cape Canaveral. (NASA Release 78-196)
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