May 27 1977
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
MSFC announced it had issued requests for proposals to build a tethered satellite system for launch on an orbiting Space Shuttle. The idea had been to provide long-duration measurement, observation, or performance time in earth's atmosphere between 80 and 120km altitude, where density would be insufficient to support the flight of aircraft or balloons, but too thick for free-flying satellites. Exploration here had been limited to short-term flight of sounding rockets or low-level satellites.
One concept had been to use a 100km cable to "troll" a tethered satellite from an orbiting Shuttle; the pull of gravity, with constant tension on the cable, would keep the captive craft at the end of its string, oriented toward earth. Typical missions for a tethered satellite would be global mapping of earth's magnetic or gravity fields; cargo transfer between space vehicles; retrieval of satellites or space debris without Shuttle maneuvering; transfer of large amounts of energy to a remote experiment, or from a remote (possibly hazardous) power source to a space station. MSFC would manage tethered satellite activity for NASA's Office of Space Flight. (MSFC Release 77-82)
A NY Times editorial said that criticism of the Apollo-Soyuz mission on the basis that the U.S. learned too little and the USSR too much was misguided: the U.S. space program from its beginning was open "to any Russian who reads American publications." It was the Soviet program that was secret, and only because of Apollo-Soyuz had American observers been able to visit key Soviet space installations. Proposed cooperation in space would cost comparatively little and bring considerable benefit from sharing costs and improving relations. (NYT, May 27/77, A-24)
Science magazine said the stir caused by Aviation Week's claim [see May 2] that the USSR had tested a charged-particle beam capable of neutralizing U.S. strategic missiles had been "the sensation of the week" in Washington, giving rise to secret briefings for congressmen, an "infrequent" statement from the CIA, and even a presidential assurance that the U.S. was not in jeopardy. Av Wk responded that the president had been "screened from vital technical developments" by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Science said Av Wk has made use of technical and intelligence information "too esoteric for easy evaluation" that Science had been unable to verify independently.
An article in Nature magazine on the same subject said Av Wk had based its charges of Soviet weapons testing on "hydrogen with traces of tritium in the upper atmosphere-which could mean almost anything." (Science, May 27/77, 957; Nature, May 26/77, 304)
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