Dec 6 1976
From The Space Library
NASA announced "an unusual agreement" with McDonnell Douglas Corp., under which the firm would build a solid-fuel upper-stage rocket as a commercial venture, to be available for use in future Space Shuttle missions. The firm would build and market the product using its own funding and initiative, at no direct cost to NASA or the U.S. government, except when the government might be a purchaser; NASA agreed that it would not knowingly fund or formally solicit development of competitive or alternate upper-stage systems. McDonnell Douglas would market the stage hardware and services either directly to users, or through NASA; NASA would not be committed to buy any hardware or services from McDonnell Douglas. The Delta rocket, workhorse of NASA's expendable launch-vehicle program, which had carried most of the comsats and metesats now in geosynchronous orbit, would be phased out along with other expendable vehicles after the Space Shuttle became operational. After the Shuttle had carried payloads into low earth orbit, the upper stage would put the payloads (weighing up to 1110 kg) into a transfer orbit, where a kick motor would insert them into geosynchronous orbit. (NASA Release 76-198)
MSFC announced that two of its employees had manufactured a precision quartz ball that would be used by the National Bureau of Standards as a density measure. John Rasquin and Jack Reed of the Materials and Processes Laboratory in MSFC's Science and Engineering Directorate made the precision sphere, which is 90 mm in diameter and weighs 290 g. NBS had selected quartz as the homogeneous material for its standard because it could be made with a high order of purity, had great temperature stability, and was ideal for use in an interferometer because of its precisely known optical properties. MSFC originally made two clear quartz spheres for NBS that were unsatisfactory because of their high transparency, as the interferometer required a highly reflective surface; NBS exposed the spheres to gamma radiation for 4 mo to make them opaque by changing their molecular structure, but the radiation induced minute internal stresses that altered the contour. The spheres, returned to MSFC, were reworked by Rasquin and Reed to NBS specifications of 1 x 10-6 deviation in radius. One of the spheres had been completed and the other was about 50% complete. (MSFC Release 76-209)
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