Apr 5 1973
From The Space Library
The U.S.S.R. launched Molniya II-5 communications satellite from Baykonur Cosmodrome into orbit with 39828-km (24 748.0-mi) apogee, 525-km (326.2-mi) perigee, 717.7-min period, and 65.2° inclination. The satellite would help provide a system of long-range telephone and telegraph radio communications in the U.S.S.R. and transmit Soviet central TV programs to the Orbita network. (GSFC SSR, 4/30/ 73; Tass, FBIS-Sov, 4/6/73, L1; SBD, 4/6/73, 205)
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, and Apollo 17 Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt attended an awards ceremony at Kennedy Space Center honoring KSC personnel and contractor employees for their contributions to the Apollo 17 mission (launched Dec. 7, 1972). (KSC Release 54-73)
NASA research to improve general-aviation-aircraft flight control systems and increase the use of new flight equipment was described by Flight Research Center and Langley Research Center engineers at the Society of Automotive Engineers Business Aircraft Meeting in Wichita, Kan. FRC flight tests of a new attitude-command-control system aboard an experimental aircraft had shown that a flight-path control system similar to an automobile's steering system was a great improvement over conventional control systems. Use of the new system, plus an improved flight display tested by FRC, could reduce the general-aviation workload throughout most flights. Astronautics Corp. of America was developing a low-cost flight director under NASA contract. The Univ. of Kansas would evaluate its economical, separate, surface-stability-augmentation flight control system on a modified commuter aircraft under a NASA grant. Laic was developing structural design technology to provide the greatest chance of pilot and passenger survival in a crash. Full-scale aircraft crashes were simulated by using a 60-m (200-ft) pendulum to swing instrumented aircraft into the ground at controlled angles and speeds. Resulting data were used to design aircraft to absorb more of the crash forces without destroying the cabin areas. NASA stall and spin studies at LaRC used a vertical wind tunnel, unique in the U.S., to develop data for designing aircraft with improved spin recovery characteristics. (NASA Release 73-63; FRC Release 7-73)
Lewis Research Center scientists and the U.S. Coast Guard were developing an ice information system to reduce multimillion-dollar annual losses from ice that blocked commercial shipping on the Great Lakes, NASA announced. The system would use aircraft, or eventually satellites, with sensors to gather information on ice thickness, type, and distribution. The information would be relayed in map form to ice breakers and cargo vessels. (NASA Release 73-66)
Long-operating orbital stations with changing crews would mark the main trend of Soviet cosmonautic development in the near future, Maj. Gen. Vladimir A. Shatalov, director of cosmonaut training and veteran of three space flights, said in a Moscow press interview. Along with spacecraft to deliver scientists and technicians, instruments, fuel, and food in orbit, the stations opened unseen possibilities for global meteorology, observations of the world's oceans, long-distance communications, and geological survey. (Tass, FBIS-Sov, 4/5/73, L3)
The Federal Aviation Administration released Aviation Forecasts, Fiscal Years 1973-1984. Airline passenger traffic was expected to increase 10% annually, passing the 500 million mark in 1984. The number of hours flown by general-aviation aircraft would increase from 27.7 million in FY 1973 to 46.6 million in FY 1984 and the general-aviation fleet from 136 000 to 217 000 aircraft. U.S. airline passenger enplanements would increase from 200.4 million to 524 million in FY 1984, with international passengers increasing from 21.3 million to 62.8 million and domestic from 179.1 million to 4612 million. Revenue passenger miles recorded by U.S. air carriers were expected to reflect a continuing long-term trend of increased average passenger trip length; the FY 1984 total of 500.5 billion was expected to more than triple the FY 1973 figure of 162.1 billion. The air carrier fleet would increase by 1000 additional aircraft, bringing the total fleet to 3600, of which 60% would be wide-body aircraft accounting for 80% of available seat miles.
Operations at airport control towers were expected to rise from 56.8 million to 112.5 million. Annual production of U.S. civil aircraft would jump from 10 005 in FY 1973 to 24 465 in FY 1984, with general aviation accounting for most of the gain. Annual air carrier aircraft production would increase from 205 to 265, while the general aviation figure would soar from 9800 to 24200. (FAA Release 73-60)
The National Academy of Engineering announced election of 70 members, including Director Edgar M. Cortright, Jr., of Langley Research Center; Dr. Eberhard F. M. Rees, Marshall Space Flight Center Director; Ames Research Center engineer Robert T. Jones; Robert J. Parks, Assistant Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director for Flight Projects; and Communications Satellite Corp. President Joseph V. Charyk. (NAE Release, 4/5/73)
Award of a $6 826 250 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to Boeing Co. for advanced development of an integrated aircraft propulsion control system was announced by the Air Force. (DOD Release 165-73)
April 5-26: NASA's Pioneer 11 (Pioneer-G), second Jupiter probe, was successfully launched into an excellent trajectory from Eastern Test Range at 9:11 pm EST by a three-stage Atlas-Centaur-TE-M-364-4 launch vehicle. Eighteen hundred persons watched the nighttime launch after touring the Kennedy Space Center Flight Training and Vehicle Assembly Buildings, where Skylab was being prepared for a mid-May launch.
Pioneer 11 sped away from earth at a velocity of 51800 km per hr (32 200 mph), equaling the speed of Pioneer 10 (launched March 2, 1972, and still heading toward Jupiter), which flew faster than any previous man-made object. The primary objective was to obtain precursory scientific information beyond the Mars orbit with emphasis on investigation of the interplanetary medium during the 609- to 825-day journey, the Asteroid Belt, and Jupiter and its environment. The secondary objective was to advance the technology for long-duration flights to the outer planets.
The 259-kg (570-1b) spin-stabilized spacecraft carried 12 scientific experiments to measure magnetic fields, plasma, cosmic rays and charged particles; the electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared ranges; and the asteroid-meteoroid population. During the encounter trajectory with Jupiter, the spacecraft would provide the best possible information on the radiation environment, provide good viewing conditions of Jupiter before periapses, and obtain a short occultation of the spacecraft by Jupiter. The spacecraft also carried a pictorial plaque identical to the one carried on Pioneer 10 for identification of its origin by any possible intelligent beings of another solar system.
Six hours following launch the large number of thruster pulses used to precess the spacecraft and point the antenna toward the sun provided the impulse to deploy fully one of the two radioisotope thermoelectric generators that had failed to deploy completely at first. The magnetometer boom was deployed and the spin rate stabilized at 5.4 rpm. On April 6 four science instruments-the helium vector magnetometer, charged particles experiment, geiger tube telescope, and meteoroid, detector-were turned on.
An April 11 midcourse correction moved the target point at Jupiter from slightly ahead of the planet as it moved on its orbit, and above the equatorial plane, to slightly behind the planet and below the equator. The adjusted course would allow several mission choices: to make an equatorial pass either close to or distant from the planet to inspect one or more of its moons; to pass over the flattened pole of the planet; to fly on to Saturn in 1980, or, like Pioneer 10, to leave the solar system and escape into interstellar space. The option chosen would depend on Pioneer 10 findings during its pass of Jupiter in December. Nine of the twelve experiments were turned on and were operating normally.
The control center for Pioneer 11 was transferred April 16 from Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the Pioneer Missions Operations Center at Ames Research Center. On April 26 Pioneer 11, traveling at 9.34 km per sec (20900 mph), was 14 350 000 km (8920000 mi) from the earth. A second midcourse correction was made. The operation of all spacecraft subsystems was normal and 11 of the 12 experiments were transmitting good data. Six to seven hits had been recorded by the meteoroid detector. The infrared radiometer remained to be turned on. The spacecraft was expected to enter the Asteroid Belt in August 1973 and reach Jupiter in December 1974.
The Pioneer program, begun in 1958, was directed by Ames Research Center. Pioneer 6 and 7 (launched Dec. 16, 1965, and Aug. 17, 1966, to study the heliocentric space environment) and Pioneer 8 and 9 (launched Dec. 13, 1967, and Nov. 8, 1968, to study interplanetary phenomena) continued to supply data from heliocentric orbit on solar plasma, magnetic and electric fields, and cosmic rays. (NASA prog off; NASA Releases 73-41, 73-72; ARC Release 73-43; KSC Release 61-73)
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