Apr 3 1974
From The Space Library
The U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 638 from Baykonur Cosmodrome into orbit with a 30-km apogee, 189-km perigee, 89.5-min period, and 51.8° inclination. The spacecraft was identified by Maj. Gen. Vladimir A. Shatalov, chief of cosmonaut training for the U.S.S.R, at a 9 Sept. ceremony at Johnson Space Center as an unmanned test of docking systems and rendezvous for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project mission. The spacecraft reentered 13 April. (GSFC SSR, 30 June 74; Transcript; SF, Sept 74, 394)
Rep. Olin E. Teague (D-Tex.) introduced H.R. 13961 to amend the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 to authorize NASA to contract for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite services. (CR, 3 April 74, H2584; NASA LAR, XIII/43)
Indonesia would build a domestic communications satellite system including two satellites and 50 earth stations, the Indonesian Post and Telecommunications Directorate General announced to the press. Each satellite could serve as backup for the other and would have 12 transponders. Each transponder would be able to serve 12 telephone lines or 1 color TV channel.
The press later reported that Malaysia and the Philippines were planning to join the Indonesian system. The satellites would be put into orbits that would allow point-to-point telephone connections within each country and among the three countries. Construction of the system was expected to cost $90 million and take two years. (Jakarta Domestic Service and Hong Kong AFP, FBIS-Indonesia, 18 April 74, N1-2)
Pan American World Airways, Inc., and Trans World Airlines, Inc., each petitioned the Civil Aeronautics Board for subsidies. Pan Am sought a $195-million-a-year mail subsidy because of a pending financial crisis following six years of losses, including an expected net loss of $65 million in 1974. In addition to a huge debt, Pan Am had been hit by foreign competition, sharp drops in traffic, overcapacity (half-empty Boeing 747 transports) , and soaring costs, including a $200-million annual increase in fuel costs. TWA asked a temporary subsidy to offset fuel costs, estimating 1974 international losses would be $47 million-in contrast to a 1973 profit of $19.5 million.
On 2 April the Dept. of Justice and Dept. of Transportation had discouraged Pan Am and TWA discussions of pooling transatlantic opera-tions as an economy measure, telling CAB that discussions were premature. (O'Hanlon, Fortune, Oct 74, 123-7, 212-6; CAB Doc Section, Docs 26560 & 26563; W Star-News, 3 April 74, B9)
Johnson Space Center had awarded a $6 598 000 cost-plus-fixed-fee con-tract to Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., for Apollo Soyuz Test Project and space shuttle orbiter software development, JSC announced. (JSC Release 74-62)
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