Feb 6 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had appointed Dr. John Klineberg deputy associate administrator in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST), where he would be responsible under the OAST associate administrator for general management and direction of OAST programs. Klineberg had come to Ames Research Center in 1970 from CalTech; while at ARC, he had done fundamental research on transonic flow, particularly on viscous effects and boundary-layer separation. After joining the OAST Aerodynamics and Vehicle Systems Division at Hq in 1974, Klineberg had managed aeronautics research on short- and reduced-takeoff-and-landing (STOL), vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL), and rotorcraft vehicles. Appointed in 1976 to the OAST Aircraft Energy Efficiency Office, he had been responsible for aerodynamics and active-controls elements of that program. (NASA anno Feb 6/78)
Av Wk reported that the Carter administration had planned an intensive $400- to $500-million program of killer satellite technology to overcome the USSR's 10-yr lead. The USAF Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., announced it had sought proposals for an air-launched space booster usable in an antisatellite program. Vought Corp. had undertaken work on killer-satellite technology under a $58.7-million contract. Such a non-nuclear warhead system could consist of small rocket tubes clustered around an optical-sensor package containing a small digital computer; this device would use the rocket-propulsion tubes as the kill mechanism. In the antiballistic-missile mode, a warhead's terminal homing device would detect the target, and the computer would govern maneuvers by firing the tube-mounted rockets. Once the device approached within range of the target, the rocket tubes would separate and fire into the path of the object, destroying it.
President Carter revealed that the U.S., in addition to the "hot-metal" kill mechanism, had been working on lasers as possible spaceborne defense against Soviet killer-satellite attacks. At the same time the USSR had pushed forward with laser-equipped killer-satellite systems, the U.S. had jeopardized its negotiating position in upcoming killer-satellite limitation talks by failing to convene a cabinet-level interagency group to decide between State Dept. and DOD negotiating strategies, marked by differences in opinion on verification and on impact on U.S. systems proposals. (Av Wk, Feb 6/78, 18)
Av Wk reported that the Research Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany had sent NASA a financial deposit to reserve space on Spacelab flights in 1981 and 1982. ESA, also interested in space on two near-term flights, had not yet made the small deposit required for inclusion in mission planning. FRG also had placed an order with NASA for space on the Shuttle for 25 "getaway special" small payloads, most of them space-processing experiments that would lead to larger processing activities on later Shuttle/Spacelab missions. (Av Wk, Feb 6/78, 15; Feb 27/78, 13)
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