Apr 26 1978
From The Space Library
The Marshall Star reported that 6 American and 2 British scientists would compete for the 2 experimenter seats on the second flight of the Shuttle-borne Spacelab experiments in 1981. The experimenters, called payload specialists, would be employed by the payload sponsor and would differ from NASA's pilots and mission specialists in being selected and trained for a specific mission. Four selected from the group of 8 would train to operate the mission's 13 scientific investigations; NASA would choose 2 of the 4 to fly on the 7- to 12-day mission, The investigators working group (IWG), scientists representing 13 experiment teams for the U.S. and the United Kingdom charged by NASA with directing Spacelab scientific investigations, had selected the candidates for payload specialist. MSFC would manage the training programs for all 4 payload specialists. The Spacelab 2 finalists would be the second group of candidates for flight assignments; 10 Spacelab 1 payload-specialist finalists had been selected in Dec. 1977 to compete for 2 flight positions.
Finalists for the Spacelab 2 payload-specialist positions were Loren Acton, Lockheed's Palo Alto research laboratory; John-David Bartoe, Naval Research Laboratory; John Harvey, Kitt Peak National Observatory; Bruce Patchett, Astrophysics Research Division of Appleton Laboratory; N. Paul Patterson, Ball Brothers Research Corporation; Dianne Prinz, NRL; George Simon, Sacramento Peak Observatory; and Keith Strong, Mullard Space Science Laboratory. (Marshall Star, Apr 26/78,4)
MSFC announced it had completed acoustic testing of NASA's second high-energy astronomy observatory HEAO-B, first in a series of environmental tests on the satellite before its launch scheduled for Nov. HEAO's prime contractor, TRW Systems, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., performed the test that simulated sound pressure generated during launch. HEAO-B, second of 3 large unmanned orbital observatories designed to study x-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays emitted by stars and star-like objects throughout the universe, had been moved into TRW's thermal-vacuum chamber for further testing in June. (Marshall Star, Apr 26/78, 2)
MSFC announced it had established a project office to develop an atmospheric cloud physics laboratory (ACPL) as a cargo for Spacelab in the early 1980s, so that scientists could for the first time study cloud physics without gravitational disturbances. Comparisons between earthbased observations had frequently not correlated with occurrences in actual clouds. The ACPL facility would permit observation of the processes of freezing, thawing, collision, electric charging, and temperature changes, photographing them as frequently and for as long as necessary. NASA had planned to send up the first ACPL mission on Spacelab 3, tentatively scheduled for June 1981. (Marshall Star, Apr 26/78, 3)
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