Oct 11 1976
From The Space Library
Moon rocks-prime celebrities 5 yr ago-had become has beens, wrote reporter James P. Sterba in the New York Times. Astronauts had brought back from the six moon missions about 382 kg of lunar material; Dr. Michael C. Duke, curator of moon rocks at Johnson Space Center, claimed to know the disposition of every gram. Fragments returned from Apollo 11 went to 137 heads of state and 51 U.S. governors; chunks returned by Apollo 17 in Dec. 1972 had been dispensed to nations and states. Scientists in 15 nations, 26 states, and the Virgin Is. had been studying samples under NASA-sponsored research grants, and their findings would fill a shelf 1.5 m wide. "We know more about the composition of the moon than we do about the earth," Dr. Duke said, although less than 20% of the lunar samples had been circulated for research and exhibits. Lately the calls for samples to exhibit had dwindled, and the number of scientists studying them had been halved. Security had remained tight because of the efforts of rock collectors to obtain samples; however, the moon rocks had lost ground in public interest compared to the Mars rocks being turned over by Vikings 1 and 2, Sterba wrote. (NYT, 11 Oct 76, 27)
Inspection by U.S. Air Force and Japanese technicians of the MiG-25 Foxbat Soviet interceptor plane landed in Japan by a defecting pilot early in September revealed a minimum of innovation and an approach that relied on "brute force," reported Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine. Examination of the Foxbat revealed a standard ejection seat, although the pilot had told U.S. interrogators none was carried because of a desire to hold down the weight of the steel-frame aircraft (about 14 000 kg with wings, tail surfaces, and afterburners removed). The number of cockpit instruments was about half those used in the F-4EJ built in Japan under license. None of the avionics in the MiG-25 used solid-state circuitry, relying instead on vacuum tubes; fatigue cracks in the airframe had been repaired by rough welding techniques. Despite the design deficiencies, however, the MiG-25 was "a formidable opponent," Av Wk noted. (Av Wk, 11 Oct 76, 18)
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