Nov 5 1975
From The Space Library
"Clear and immediate benefits to society" that NASA could produce would justify a 25% increase in its budget, said Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.), chairman of the House subcommittee on Space Science and Applications, urging the space agency to come up with plans for such a program. Noting that the Administration had been considering across-the-board cuts in the Federal budget, Rep. Fuqua said the President and the Office of Management and Budget should reconsider the NASA cuts, as returns from the space program should give it higher priority than nonproducing areas of the budget.
The subcommittee's three-volume report, "Future Space Programs," called for new space systems for educational and medical services, and for new earth-survey satellites to provide maritime, agricultural, geological, and demographic data. The report stressed that the agency should offer both short-term and long-term plans. The latter should include plans for lunar bases, orbital colonies, extraterrestrial communications, planetary and stellar exploration, satellite solar power, and disposal of nuclear waste.
Chairman Olin E. Teague (D-Tex.) of the House Committee on Science and Technology endorsed the subcommittee report, which he said contained "sensible recommendations," noting particularly the concept of space-based generation of electrical power. Growth of the nation, said Teague, "is fundamentally dependent upon our continuing its number one ranking in science and technology." (W Post, 6 Nov 75, A10; NYT, 6 Nov 75, 51; SBD, 6 Nov 75, 28-30)
HASPA-the Navy's high-altitude superpressured powered aerostat failed to reach its predicted altitude when the balloon-inflation mechanism malfunctioned. When fully extended, HASPA had measured 101.5 m long and 20.4 m in diameter. The launch at Kennedy Space Center had been planned as a 3- to 5-hr flight; during launch, the mylar container was inflated with the helium contained in the upper third and restrained there by a collar that would drop away to give the gas room to expand with altitude. The mechanism failed and the balloon inverted at 11.26 km, releasing the helium through a vent in the nose of the balloon, which impacted at KSC a half hour after launch. HASPA had been designed to function as a low-level satellite for a variety of payloads. (Spaceport News, 14 Nov 75; ETR P10, interview, 5 Nov 75)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
