Sep 29 1970
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched Molniya I-15 comsat into orbit with 39 300-km (24 420-mi) apogee, 480-km (298-mi) perigee, 11-hr 46-min period, and 65.5° inclination. Tass. said objective of mission was continued operation of long-range telephone and telegraph radiocommunications and transmission of Soviet Central Television programs to stations in Orbital network. (Spacewarn, 10/20/70, 2; GSFC SSR , 9/30/70; UN Gen Assembly Release 70-29113)
Black Brant IV sounding rocket launched by Brazilian space team for NASA from Natal, Brazil, carried MSC experiment to study energetic particles in South Atlantic Anomaly region. Rocket and instruments functioned satisfactorily. Launch was second in two-rocket series; first had been launched Sept. 25. (SR list; MSC Release 70-105)
General Electric Co. said it would not challenge NASA decision to reverse award of $50-million contract for ATS-F and ATS-G [see Sept. 5]. In statement to press, Leon L. Farnham, General Manager of Spacecraft Programs at GE Valley Forge Space Technology Center, said GE still thought NASA decision was wrong but that the "further delay [of a court challenge] would be injurious to NASA and the total space program." (Jones, W Post, 9/30/70, D9)
Washington Post editorial on Luna XVI: ". . the flight of Luna 16 is a major achievement for the Soviet Union. Its scientists have concentrated in recent years on a system of landing and retrieving unmanned spacecraft, an activity that the United States had not emphasized, and Luna 16 shows that the system works." In long-term space exploitation "it seems to us that the manned approach will be most useful. Men will be out there some day, following; the trail marked by the Apollo craft, and in the meantime the American effort can properly be devoted to finding a way to get them out of the earth's atmosphere more cheaply and to making the best possible uses of earth-orbiting space stations and laboratories." (W Post, 9/29/70, A18)
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