Jun 4 1975
From The Space Library
A House of Representatives and Senate conference committee reported out H.R. 4700, the FY 1976 and transitional-period NASA authorization bill, after resolving the disagreeing votes of the two Houses.
In addition, for the transition period 1 July through 30 Sept. 1976, the conference committee recommended a total authorization of $925 150 000. (H.R. Comm. Rpt 94-259; CR, 4 June 75, H4874-77)
The Central Intelligence Agency reported to the Senate Appropriations Committee on its secret monitoring of the Soviet space program and on the safety risks that might exist during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission, the Washington Post reported. Details of the report, which was requested by en, William Proxmire (D-Wisc.), would be made public by the committee within a few weeks. (AP, W Post, 5 June 75, A3)
A new medical diagnostic system known as time-delay spectrometry, using high-frequency sound waves, had been developed by scientists at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The new technique passed continuous, varying high-frequency sound waves through the body; the waves were received and displayed as pictures on a cathode-ray-tube screen. Existing ultrasound systems had operated less effectively, sending into the body a pulse of sound waves and timing the echo after the waves were reflected from the body's various internal organs.
A picture from the JPL system looked like an x-ray and took shape in 2 to 4 min. Bones, muscles, organs, and differences in soft tissue could be clearly seen. The varying pitch of the sound waves and the differences in frequency response and absorption properties of various body tissues would aid the diagnostician in discriminating between, for example, a cyst and a tumor.
JPL researchers were planning to evaluate the system's usefulness in hospital applications, first by demonstrating its ability to detect and identify tumors in the female breast. (NASA Release 75-162)
Marshall Space Flight Center announced the selection of Bendix Corp. Guidance Systems Div. for negotiations leading to a contract for integrated electronic assemblies for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster. The cost-plus-incentive-fee contract would cover design, development, test and evaluation, and fabrication of assemblies and assorted test equipment for the first 6 Shuttle flights. The initial contract would call for 33 units, including flight articles, spares, and development and test versions, with delivery to begin in 1976.
Each Solid Rocket Booster would have two assembly units, one forward and one aft. Ignition commands would route from the Orbiter through the aft assembly to the forward assembly. During launch, the aft assembly would route commands from the Orbiter to the thrust-vector control system. The forward assembly would release the nose cap and frustum, jettison the solid rocket nozzle, detach the parachutes from the Solid Rocket Booster, and turn on recovery aids. (MSFC Release 75-106)
The Christian Science Monitor quoted Dr. H. Guyford Stever, National Science Foundation Director, on the future role of science: Dr. Stever said that scientists should stop looking back to days when research money flowed freely and science was valued for its own sake. Scientists must face the fact that" `the social environment in which science is performed has changed.' " Scientists were bewildered as they watched research support tightening and jobs dwindling, and public questioning of the values of basic research grants. Yet science would become involved, as never before, in the economic success or failure of this country and the world. Society wanted research effort devoted to solving mankind's problems of food, energy, and environment. Dr. Stever noted that the era was long gone when the scientific community could conduct its affairs as " a pure search for truth apart from serious considerations of its human consequences. From now on the drive to understand nature. . must be seen to be carried on in the public interest and not merely to satisfy the private curiosity of an intellectual elite.' " (Cowen, CSM, 4 June 75, 25)
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