Sep 29 1977
From The Space Library
NASA launched INTELSAT IVA F-5 from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas Centaur that exploded less than a minute after launch, dropping the 33321b spacecraft into the Atlantic Ocean. This INTELSAT and an identical craft scheduled for launch in Nov. were to replace two INTELSAT IVs now in orbit over the Indian Ocean and provide 6000 telephone channels and 2 television channels for use by 40 countries, compared to 4000 telephone and 2 TV channels offered by the INTELSAT IV spacecraft.
At 60sec into the flight a range safety officer destroyed the secondary Centaur stage which had separated prematurely from the Atlas. Failure of the $49.4 mission was similar to the Sept. 13 explosion of a Delta rocket carrying a $42 million orbital test satellite (OTS) NASA was launching for ESA. (NASA Release 77-214; W Post, Sept 30/77, A-3)
An investigation concluded that a leak in the high-pressure gas generator system had ignited combustibles in the Atlas 35sec after launch, damaging engine components and terminating the flight. (MOR E-491-633-77-04 [postlaunch] Jan 5/78)
FBIS reported that the USSR had launched space station Salyut 6 into an orbit with 275km apogee, 219km perigee, 89.1 min period, 51.6° inclination. A control center near Moscow would process information from the station aided by tracking stations on Soviet territory and on Soviet Academy of Sciences ships in the Atlantic. Onboard systems were functioning normally. (FBIS, Tass in English, Sept 29/77)
Rockwell International reported that George W. Jeffs, its president for space operations, had told the House subcommittee on space science and applications that the U.S. needed "bolder and more imaginative steps" toward space industrialization, and called on the federal government to demonstrate an aggressive "make it happen" program with a theme of Power from Space.
Space industrialization funding in the 1980 budget, Jeffs said, should approach $500 million for building-block phases leading to manufacturing, communications, or space power centers operational by the yr 2000.
Such funding would speed up the goal by at least 5yr and would encourage increased private investment. "As dramatic and technically rewarding as our space missions have been," he concluded, "they were more significant for creating enormously promising opportunity." (Rockwell Release SP-5)
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