Jan 22 1980
From The Space Library
NASA announced that, after five years of studying Earth resources and environment from an altitude of 920 kilometers (570 miles), Landsat-2 ceased operation when its primary flight-control mechanism failed because of wear. A two-month effort to use other on-board devices to keep the craft pointed at Earth had failed, and NASA staff had put it into an engineering-test mode that would allow further study of the attitude-control problem.
Landsat-2, launched in 1975 with a one-year :lifetime, was second of a remote sensing series that could also collect data from beacon platforms in remote areas. A major asset of the Landsat system was its repetitive observation, as often as every nine days with two satellites, which would permit immediate detection of short-term changes. Landsat-1, launched in 1972, was retired early in 1978; Landsat 3, launched in March 1978, would continue to furnish data to more than 400 U.S. and foreign Earth-resources programs. NASA planned to launch a fourth and more advanced Landsat in 1981. (NASA Release 80-9)
JSC reported signing of a letter contract with Martin Marietta Aerospace for development and production of an in-orbit tile-repair kit to be used on the Space Shuttle. The letter preceded an official award of contract and authorized the firm to go ahead with design and development of the kit. Estimated value of the contract was $2.1 million. (JSC Release 80-004)
ESA reported from the Villafranca tracking station near Madrid that its international ultraviolet explorer (Iue) had detected comet Bradfield January 11. The comet, named for the Australian amateur astronomer who discovered it in 1979, made its closest approach to Earth January 22 and would be visible in the northern hemisphere by the end of January. (ESA Info Bltn 2)
ESA noted the second anniversary January 26 of Iue, now in a synchronous orbit 18,000 miles above the Atlantic, far beyond Earth's atmosphere and the cloud cover or interference from background light that hinder observations on Earth. The ultraviolet-sensitive television cameras and processors supplied by the Science Research Council (SRC) had garnered "a wealth of information" both physical and chemical on astronomical objects, because the strongest characteristic emissions of many of the most common atoms and ions lie in the ultraviolet.
More than 500 scientists from 20 nations were studying 12,000 ultraviolet spectra of planets, stars, the interstellar medium, and galaxies. ESA said that it expected the spacecraft to exceed its design life of three years, which was fortunate because observation time requested by astronomers was already more than double that available. The sponsoring agencies (ESA, SRC, and NASA) had decided to keen Iue operating as long as feasible. (ESA Info Bltn 4)
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