Apr 24 1970
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Communist China launched her first earth satellite (designated Chicom I by NORAD) from Shuang-ch'eng-tsu, east of Lop Nor nuclear test site. The 173-kg (380.6-lb) satellite entered orbit with 2387-km (1483.2-mi) apogee, 439-km (272.8-mi) perigee, 114-min period, and 68.4° inclination, broadcasting telemetry data and revolutionary song "Dung Fang Hong" ("The East is Red") on frequency of 20.009 megacycles. Launch made Communist China fifth nation to orbit satellite with own booster. Radio Peking, announcing launch on evening newscast, credited feat to Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung's leadership. (GSFC SSR, 4/30/70; SBD, 4/28/70, 271; UPI, W Star, 4/25/70, A1; Newsweek, 5/4/70)
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos CCCXXXV from Kapustin Yar into orbit with 398-km (247.3-mi) apogee, 249-km (154:7-mi) perigee, 91-min period, and 48.4° inclination. Satellite reentered June 22. (GSFC SSR, 4/30/70; 6/30/70; SBD, 4/28/70, 272)
Testimony on Apollo 13 mission was given before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences by Dr. Thomas O. Paine, NASA Administrator; Apollo 13 Astronauts James A. Lovell, Jr., and John L. Swigert, Jr.; Dr. Rocco A. Petrone, Apollo Program Director; and Apollo Flight Director Glynn S. Lunney. Astronaut Fred W. Haise, Jr., was unable to attend. Dr. Paine said: "The Apollo 13 mission was a failure. We did not succeed in America's third lunar landing attempt and we were therefore unable to explore the moon's Fra Mauro formation. This hilly region remains a high priority objective in our lunar program.... We cannot yet say which of the remaining Apollo missions will be sent there. Although the Apollo 13 mission failed, we regard the recovery actions that followed... as a gratifying success which will contribute greatly to the nation's space flight competence." There was no reason "why this setback should be-or should be made to be-the occasion for a major change in the course of the nation's space program. We have clearly demonstrated the basic soundness of the Apollo system and of our operational procedures.... From a technical standpoint, there is no question but that we are prepared to move forward in the 1970's with the space program we have outlined to you. . . ." Dr. Paine said President Nixon "fully shares this view." (Testimony)
Dr. Petrone testified: "This long arduous voyage continuously presented the challenge to balance the spacecraft systems required to perform necessary functions against the availability of consumables, of water, electrical power, oxygen, and the lithium hydroxide to remove the carbon dioxide. The options available to flight and ground crews in every case permitted acceptable courses of action to be selected. During this emergency situation, the remaining systems performed in an outstanding manner meeting the unusual demands placed upon them. At the same time, the flight and ground crews demonstrated exceptional confidence in meeting these sets of unusual circumstances." Mission ended with "set of consumables which were within about two percent of what we had predicted back at 63 hours or about seven hours after the problem occurred," Lunney told Committee. "If the consumable posture... had worsened or if we had absorbed another failure. . we would have had to resort to scheduling communication times with the crew." Although probably within 12 hours to 24 of running out of most critical consumable, water, "had we proceeded into... duty cycling the communications gear onboard, we probably could have stretched that period." Astronaut Lovell described crew's feelings during crisis: "We soon realized that our only hope of survival was to go into Aquarius, power up its systems and use the systems and the consumables on board... for a return home. And it was here that we realized that it was now a case of survival." Spacecraft was on trajectory that "would have entered us in a sort of permanent orbit, some . 230. . .thousand miles [370 000 km] in apogee, and maybe a thousand [1600 km] or so in perigee.... Again, the ground came through, and gave us... the free trajectory burn, which was required to get us back to earth. My main concern at this point was to get this spacecraft back within the earth's atmosphere." (Transcript)
Apollo 13 crew debriefing takes place on this day.
LeRC Special Projects Div. had begun systematic evaluation of lift fan-in-wing configurations for VTOL aircraft in $750000 V/STOL wind-tunnel facility, Lewis News said. Concept was one of several being studied for use in VTOL aircraft. Current studies were to determine variation in fan thrust and efficiency as horizontal airflow over fan increased. Subsequent tests would use more efficient version of existing rotor to study effect of devices to prevent boundary-layer separation during change to horizontal flight and louvers to direct exhaust rearward. October tests of three small fans in longitudinal array would simulate installation in actual aircraft. Noise-measuring capability was being added to facility. (Lewis News, 4/24/70, 1)
Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R-Md.), told press he had forwarded file on NASA ATS-F and ATS-G contract with General Electric to Senate Committee on Government Operations for referral to its permanent Investigating Subcommittee. (Rovner, B Sun, 4/25/70, A14)
Tests to determine full capabilities of satellite communications were being conducted by AFSC Rome Air Development Center engineers with orbiting Les VI (launched Sept. 26, 1968) and Tacsat I (Feb. 9, 1969), AFSC announced. Using two parabolic antennas and new equipment at Verona Test Site near Griffiss AFB, N.Y., engineers simulated traffic conditions of a comsat system being used simultaneously by hundreds of separate stations. Simulation permitted measurement of number of possible communications circuits through satellite before actual construction of stations. Tests were being conducted with terminals on ground, aircraft, surface vessels, submarines, and land vehicles, with participation by U.K., Canada, and Netherlands. (AFSC Release 72.70)
MSC announced selection of Wackenhut Services, Inc., for negotiation of $1.2-million, one-year, cost-plus-award-fee contract for security, safety, fire protection, and emergency ambulance services at MSC. Contract would cover July l, 1970, through June 30, 1971, with two one-year options. (MSC Info Sheet)
Gen. James Ferguson, AFSC Commander, discussed role of military in current controversies over cost and efficiency of F-111 and C-5A aircraft during Seventh Space Congress at Cocoa Beach, Fla.: "If we in military development have been remiss, I would say it is because we not only failed to fully communicate the difficulties involved in pushing the state of the art, but we also neglected to stress the uncertainties between known design parameters on paper and the hardware that ultimately results. To the intense competition for finite resources, and to a flood of paper studies, we reacted with over optimism and neglected to properly qualify the normal uncertainties of development or the technical risks involved." Advancing state of the art was "synonymous with working beyond the boundaries of the certain and the known. As long as we operate at these outer limits of science and technology, performance, schedule and cost are inevitably going to be, at best, elastic parameters. The alternative is to stand pat with the F-4, the B-52, and the C-141. Such an alternative would be hardly supportable in even a static world." (Text)
AIAA Board of Directors meeting in Denver Colo., created two new committees: Technical Committee on Application of Aerospace Technology to Society would report through Technical Activities Committee (TAC); Committee on International Cooperation in Space Flight would "foster international cooperation in space activities among the engineers and scientists of the world." (A&A, 6/70, 76)
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