Dec 9 1976
From The Space Library
America's Bicentennial year might be called the "Year of the Communications Satellites," NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher told participants at the Conference on Satellite Communication and Public Service meeting at GSFC. Recalling that Alexander Graham Bell had unveiled the telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial exactly a century ago, Dr. Fletcher quoted an observer's statement that, of all the gifts young America had received on its 100th birthday, the telephone proved to be the most valuable; in 1976, of NASA's 19 launches, 13 had been communications satellites, which might prove the most valuable gift received by the U.S. on its 200th birthday. Comsats were in use by 107 countries or territories on 6 continents, Dr. Fletcher said, and more than a billion people-one of every 4 on earth-could witness an international event as it happened "live by satellite." Not only had Comsats been able to do current jobs better and cheaper, they had also opened new possibilities for public service. Development of small inexpensive simple earth stations would permit sending needed information to millions of people without present access to it, Fletcher said; very large antennas and high transmitter power in space would make it possible to use receivers on earth "not 30 feet in diameter, or even 10 feet, but the size of your watch crystal," he added. To get the larger, heavier spacecraft into orbit, Fletcher predicted use of the Space Shuttle, making "runs to space on a regular schedule, carrying people and cargo for communications, scientific research, earth resources inventory, materials processing, and other tasks." Use of the Shuttle would reduce the cost of putting a satellite in orbit from more than half to less than a quarter of the total cost of design, construction, and launch. Fletcher called on members of the conference to help NASA define the public purposes to be served by "an imaginative space program" that would involve users in its development from the outset. (Text; NASA Release 76-202)
The U.S. Navy, in the last days of the Ford Administration, had awarded a $159.9 million contract to Rohr Marine, Inc., for design of a new type of warship that would ride on an air bubble at three times the speed of conventional ships. The 3000-ton prototype of the "surface effect" ships would ride on an air bubble trapped by sidewalls and bow and stern seals; the high speed would result from not having to push through water as conventional vessels do. The Navy had experimented with a 100-tan test vehicle that reached speeds of more than 165 km per hr, a new Navy surface-speed record, in tests last June near Panama City, Fla. Although critics had questioned the need for a ship that speedy, the Navy had said its primary roles would' be antisubmarine warfare and sea-to-shore hauling of people and cargo. The Navy had also successfully fired an antiship missile from an experimental air-cushion vessel traveling at about 111 kph. (W Post, 10 Dec 76, A-2; W Star, 10 Dec 76, B-12; B Sun, 10 Dec 76, 6)
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