Aug 9 1982
From The Space Library
NASA announced that it would try to salvage the two solid-fuel rocket boosters that sank in the Atlantic June 27. Underwater cameras carried by the Scarab 2, a remotely controlled submersible vehicle operated by technicians from Ocean Search, Inc., Lanham, Md., from the deck of the United Space Boosters recovery ship U7C Freedom, showed the boosters on the ocean floor, broken up by the impact. The debris had no built-in lifting points, but the Scarab could attach recovery lines to the sunken objects for hydraulic lift by the salvage ships.
Vessels used for recovery would include, besides the Scarab, the UTC Freedom and UTC Liberty (the designated booster-recovery ships). A remote station on a recovery ship would navigate Scarab, using bridge displays to show range and bearing, heading, depth, and pitch-roll of the submersible. Radar had located the boosters at about 3,500 feet, too deep for humans in hardshell diving suits to inspect; Scarab could operate in underwater currents up to 0.5 knots at 6,000 feet using three television cameras and one still camera with six quartz-diode floodlights to illuminate the ocean-floor.
The solid-fuel rocket boosters' parachutes failed to open properly because explosive bolts on half the parachute risers fired prematurely. Premature firing separated half of the risers from each main parachute, allowing the parachutes to stream instead of filling with air. NASA did not know why the explosive bolts fired prematurely. (Av Wk, Aug. 9/82, 20; Spaceport News, Aug 19/82, 1 & 2; W Post, Aug 2/82, 3)
NASA said that it had selected eight companies to negotiate fixed-price contracts of less than $1 million each for space-station mission studies. The companies were Boeing Aerospace, General Dynamics, Grumman Aerospace, Lockheed, Martin Marietta Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell, and TRW.
The eight-month studies to be covered by the contracts would identify and analyze the scientific, commercial, national security, and space operations missions that could be conducted most efficiently by a space station. Contractors would use the studies to develop alternative concepts for the station, with specific mission requirements and architectural options to be incorporated in NASA's Shuttle-tended permanent orbiting facility. (NASA Release 82-121; MSFC Release 82-75)
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