May 22 1978
From The Space Library
NASA reported it had successfully conducted the second of two chemical-cloud experiments from WFC at dawn on May 22; it had launched the first at 5:29am EDT May 20. The launches had been designed to measure turbulence transport in the stratosphere by observing chemical vapor trails at an altitude of between 15 to 50km (9 to 31mi). Two-stage Nike sounding rockets had released vapors of titanium dioxide particles in spurts at 10-sec intervals, forming a series of dashes similar to an aircraft contrail; ground cameras had recorded the dispersion of the vapor trails. (WFC Release 78-4, 78-b; NASA Release 78-73)
French and West German space officials had told a House committee that increasing costs would limit use of the U.S. Space Shuttle and the European Spacelab, Av Wk reported. A NASA official had admitted that Spacelab could have been built less expensively under a single nation's management, but denied that Space Shuttle operational costs had increased prohibitively.
Wolfgang Finke, director of West Germany's Dept. of Space and Transportation, told the House Committee on Science and Technology that not only had the price of conventional launches increased steadily, but also "the new Space Transportation System will not revolutionize the cost of space transportation. On the contrary, the estimates for the fare of a Shuttle roundtrip and the fringe costs going with it went up considerably, putting a real brake on our more ambitious plans to utilize the new system." As for Spacelab, Finke said the results of a West German materials-processing experiment would need a series of experiments for confirmation, with a cost level "well above the range of traditional materials research costs." Hubert Curien, president of the French space agency, said that "anticipated cost of Spacelab experiments now reaches such heights that their funding raises very serious problems for national budgets and constitutes a very severe limitation." Finke noted in conclusion that administrative costs of international cooperation had increased costs of the overall project. A NASA official agreed that if Spacelab had been built in the U.S. under one management, total cost would have been less. (Av Wk, May 22/78, 28)
Av Wk reported that U.S. Air Force ground controllers had begun to bring the second NavStar global-positioning system satellite up to full operational status, after its successful launch on an Atlas F May 13 from Vandenberg AFB. The 9551b spacecraft had gone into an 85 x 10 900nm elliptical orbit, and its solid-fuel rocket motor had fired 2days later, putting it in a circular orbit; thrusters would shift it to its final station. Modifications of the rubidium-vapor atomic clocks had delayed launch of NavStar 2 for a day; when ground tests indicated a malfunction of the NavStar frequency-divider circuit, the USAF had ordered modifications of all three clocks on NavStar 2 to prevent a similar occurrence in orbit. The USAF planned to launch a third NavStar from Vandenberg in Aug. (Av Wk, May 22/78, 24)
Av Wk reported that the House of Representatives had committed the U.S. to membership in Inmarsat, the $200 million 40-nation international maritime-satellite organization, and had designated ComSatCorp as the U.S. representative. The Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee had completed hearings and was expected to approve similar legislation shortly. A protracted controversy had gone on within the government and among international telecommunications carriers over the entity or combination of entities that should represent the U.S. in an organization to own and operate a global satellite-communications system for ships. Other nations had not encountered this problem, because their communications entities were all government agencies anyway.
Two documents establishing Inmarsat had opened for signature Sept. 3, 1976: a statement of organization policies and structure, and an operating agreement calling for initial $200 million capitalization. The U.S. and other participating governments would sign the former; ComSatCorp, under the House-passed legislation, would sign the latter. The 40 nations planning to join would divide investment initially according to anticipated usage, later according to actual usage. ComSatCorp would finance $34 million, the U.S.'s initial 17% of the capitalization. Nations that would account for 95% of the initial investment had to sign by a July 3, 1979, deadline, or the Inmarsat documents would be void. As the documents would take effect 60days after, by Sept. 3, 1979, Inmarsat would be either operative or dead. (Av Wk, May 22/78, 21)
U.S. share of the 102-nation INTELSAT organization had dropped from its 61% starting point in 1964 (when 19 nations had joined to establish a global communications consortium) to 25.1%, Av Wk reported. Charges that the U.S. had dominated INTELSAT had caused friction in the organization since its inception. The 1964 interim agreements had ensured U.S. majority ownership of not less than 50.6%; expanded membership and traffic patterns had decreased U.S. control as well as the friction. Other ownership shares under the new allocation were those of the United Kingdom, 10.8%; France, 5.98%; Brazil, 4.23%; and Japan, 3.68%. The 1964 interim consortium had been capitalized at $200 million; the 1971 agreements had boosted the figure to $500 million, including members' net capital contributions and the outstanding contractual capital commitments. The amount had reached $900 million in 1976 to finance INTELSAT V satellites. (Av Wk, May 22/78, 56)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
