Apr 14 1975
From The Space Library
Flight Research Center pilots began flight tests as part of a cooperative industry-government program to measure noise levels of five business-class jet aircraft during various landing approach maneuvers. Object of the tests was to define noise characteristics for this class of aircraft and the effectiveness of alternate landing approach procedures in reducing community noise levels. Using a Rockwell Sabreliner, Grumman Gulfstream II, Gates Learjet, Beech-Hawker 125 provided by the National Business Aircraft Association, and Lockheed Jet Star provided by NASA, FRC pilots flew four landing approaches over a microphone array. A normal 3° approach provided baseline information; a 3° decelerating approach with engines at reduced power, a 4° approach with normal power, and a two-segment approach starting with 6° angle and shallowing into a 3° approach provided additional data. (NASA Release 75-103)
1430 April: U.S. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight crews, accompanied by 32 members of Working Group l, met in the U.S.S.R. with their Soviet counterparts for the final training session in Soviet Russia before the scheduled July launch. U.S. astronauts included prime crew members Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton; backup crewmen Alan L. Bean, Ronald E. Evans, and Jack R. Lousma; and support crewmen Karol J. Bobko, Robert L. Crippen, and Eugene A. Cernan.
During practice sessions similar to those held in the U.S. 7 Feb.1 March, the participants practiced communications skills, transfer procedures, joint activities, and contingency situations, using the Soyuz simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Center in Star City.
On 19 April the crews visited the mission-control center at Kaliningrad and, on 28 April, became the second group of westerners to visit the Baykonur cosmodrome (French President Charles de Gaulle had been the first western visitor when he witnessed the launch of Cosmos 122 on 25 June 1966). At Baykonur the U.S. crewmen saw the actual flight hardware as well as the primary launch pad 2 km away, and the prime and backup crews each spent an hour in the Soyuz spacecraft. The astronauts later reported to the press that they had found no significant differences between the actual spacecraft and the simulators used during training. (Ezell et al., The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 278-280; JSC Releases 75-22, 75-25; W Post, 30 April 75, A21; SBD, 18 April 75, 273; A&A 66, 223)
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