Jun 19 1977
From The Space Library
The moon landing effort was possible only because the U.S. had laid the basic theoretical groundwork in the 1940s and 1950s, the W Post reported, quoting Richard C. Atkinson, new head of the Natl. Science Foundation. The man who "probably controls more basic research spending than anyone else in the world" said that Americans should not hope science would come up with an overnight solution to the energy crisis that would preserve their current lifestyle-"Science just doesn't operate with those turnaround times," he said. The fact that many people expected such solutions indicated "a basic incomprehension of what science is all about," an ironic byproduct of the mind-boggling scientific achievement in the past 20yr. "After Sputnik ... there was a big rush to catch up here ... They put in a lot of high-powered curricula ... Now we have a small core of students really well educated in science and a huge group that just [drops out] ... Those people never have any exposure again. Even college graduates now are really poorly informed on science matters." Liberal education, Atkinson said, should include solid grounding in basic sciences so that citizens could understand issues like the fate of nuclear reactors and the gene-manufacturing possibilities of recombinant DNA. "I worry," he said, "that the nation may turn to applied research so strongly that it neglects basic research, and basic research remains our fundamental commitment." (W Post, June 19/77, C-4)
June 19-20. Newspapers carried reports of the first manned flight of the Space Shuttle orbiter Enterprise June 18, riding piggyback on its Boeing 747 transport during the 54-min trip over DFRC, and carried to a landing. The orbiter, designed for reuse as many as 100 times, remained attached to its carrier by 3 struts, two aft and one on the nose, for its investigation of structural flutter on the crafts brakes and flaps. Flying under the control of JSC in Houston, the two astronauts (Fred W. Haise, the civilian commander, and rookie USAF Lt. Col. Charles Gordon Fullerton) rode the piggyback craft to 15 000ft at 209mph for most of the flight.
Earlier unmanned tests of the piggyback orbiter in Feb. and March had gone smoothly; since then, engineers had installed control systems, guidance instruments, and power units whose repeated malfunctions had delayed the manned tests originally scheduled to begin May 26. The June 18 test had been delayed for 24hr by problems with the entry hatch and by the failure of guidance-system computers. The astronauts reported trouble with a cabin-pressure valve and with radio communications, and said they had experienced more airframe surface noise than expected. NASA had scheduled a second "manned inert" test for June 28, with the first free flight set for late July or early Aug. (W Star, June 19/77, A-6; C Trib, June 19/77, 1-3; NYT, June 19/77, 19; W Post, June 19/77, A-18; June 20/77, A-6)
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