Jan 26 1973
From The Space Library
Cosmos 546 was launched by U.S.S.R. from Baykonur Cosmodrome into orbit with 613-km (380.9-mi) apogee, 574-km (356.7-mi) perigee, 96.5-min period, and 50.6° inclination. (GSFC SRR, 1/31/73; SBD, 1/29/73; 131)
President Nixon transmitted to Congress Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1973. The plan abolished the National Aeronautics and Space Council, including the position of Executive Secretary, and the Office of Science and Technology, including the posts of Director and Deputy Director. NASC had been created under the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, enacted July 29, 1958. Provisions of the plan would take effect July 1 unless Congress acted against the plan.
In his transmission message the President said NASc had "met a major need during the evolution of our nation's space program. Vice President Agnew has served with distinction as its chairman for the past four years. At my request, beginning in 1969, the Vice President also chaired a special Space Task Group charged with developing strategy alternatives for a balanced U.S. space program in the coming years. As a result of this work, basic policy coordination can now be achieved through the resources of the executive departments and agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, augmented by some of the former Council staff." In streamlining the Federal science establishment, the Administration was "firmly committed to a sustained, broad-based national effort in science and technology." The research and development capability of executive departments and agencies had been upgraded. The National Science Foundation had "broadened from its earlier concentration' on basic research support to take on a significant role in applied research as well" and had "matured in its ability to play a coordinating and evaluative role within the Government and between the public and private sectors. I have therefore concluded that it is timely and appropriate to transfer to the Director of the National Science Foundation all functions presently vested in the Office of Science and Technology, and to abolish that office."
The President also announced his intention to ask Dr. H. Guyford Stever, NSF Director, to take on the additional post of Science Adviser to advise and assist the Administration "on matters where scientific and technological expertise is called for" and to act as the President's representative in selective cooperative programs in international science, "including chairing such joint bodies as the U.S. U.S.S.R Joint Commission on Scientific and Technical Cooperation.” (PD, 1/29/73, 75-8; NASA Leg Off)
Hardware for Skylab inspace experiments proposed by U.S. high school students was shipped to Kennedy Space Center. Student winners in the Skylab Student Project national competition had worked with NASA specialists in designing the equipment, which was built and assembled at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The experiments were in astronomy, biology, space medicine, and physics. (MSFC Release 73-8)
ERTS 1 Earth Resources Technology Satellite (launched July 23, 1972) had returned valuable imagery and digital tapes from the spacecraft's multispectral scanner to the Brevard County, Fla., Planning Dept., Kennedy Space Center reported. John W. Hannah, Brevard Development Administrator and principal investigator in the Brevard ERTS experiment, had said interpretation of the images would yield information on beach erosion, street development patterns, landscape disturbances, identification of land use, and land drainage patterns. (KSC Release 14-73)
Dr. Rocco A. Petrone, Apollo/ASTP Program Manager, became Marshall Space Flight Center Director on the retirement of Dr. Eberhard F. M. Rees. The appointment had been announced Dec. 22, 1972. (MSFC Org Ann 0101)
Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.), for Sen. Lloyd M. Bentsen (D-Tex.), introduced S.J.R. 37 to designate Manned Spacecraft Center the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in honor of the late President. The resolution text said President Johnson had been "one of the first of our National leaders to recognize the long-range benefits of an intensive space exploration effort." During his presidency he had borne the "ultimate responsibility for the development of the Gemini and Apollo programs which resulted in man's first landing on the moon.” (CR, 1/26/73, 51344)
Manned Spacecraft Center announced the award of a $1 375 484 cost-nofee contract to the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for technical support for guidance, navigation, and control in the space shuttle program. The Laboratory would develop and evaluate mission requirements, integration of guidance, navigation, and control with avionics and the shuttle, failure de- tection, navigation techniques, and guidance policies. (MSC Release 73-11)
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