Aug 9 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced that Landsat 3, an earth-monitoring satellite equipped to measure earth's emitted and reflected radiance, had suffered a failure in its fifth (or thermal infrared) band. Launched Mar. 5 into a near-circular 917km (570mi) high polar orbit, Landsat 3 had returned excellent imagery from its other four bands. NASA engineers believed the thermal-sensor problem had resulted from moisture buildup on a glass screen through which the instrument viewed earth. Efforts to correct the situation had been unsuccessful, and NASA had convened a special review board to examine the problem.
Scientists had hoped to use Landsat 3's thermal data to detect crop stress and to recognize "heat islands" associated with urban and industrial development. However, NASA's heat-capacity mapping mission (HCMM), launched in Apr. into an orbit more favorable to thermal infrared data collection, had been returning excellent day-night data that could serve that purpose. (NASA Release 78-124; DISD, Aug 14/78, 203; AID, Aug 23/78, 236)
JSC and the U.S. Geological Survey jointly announced that the Survey had published a surface-fault map of the southeastern greater Houston area. JSC geologist Uel Clanton and Earl Verbeek of the USES had created the map covering about 200 sq mi to evaluate the magnitude of faulting in metropolitan Houston. The map had displayed 91 faults with a total length of 110 mi, cutting through residential and commercial areas in many cities. Faulting was extensive east and southwest of Hobby Airport and in the Mykawa oil field in both northwesterly and north- easterly directions. The mapmakers had used a combination of aerial photography and ground-level confirmation of faults. (JSC Release 78-35; JSC Roundup, Aug 18/78, 1)
Payload specialist candidates had begun training at MSFC for the late-1980 first Spacelab mission, the Marshall Star reported. The first 5-day session had covered training approach and plans. Trainees were Michael Lampton of the Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; Byron Lichtenberg of the Mass. Inst. of Technology; Ulf Merbold of W. Germany's Max Planck Inst.; Claude Nicollier, a Swiss, from the European Space Technology Center; and Wubbo Ockels of Groenigen Univ. in the Netherlands. One American and one European would fly on the mission; the others would assist on the ground. Later in the training cycle, NASA would select those to fly. (Marshall Star, Aug 9/78, 2)
The Senate had cut $5 million from NASA's $3.87 billion R&D budget for FY79 before passing a package appropriations bill that included the agency, Aerospace Daily reported. The Senate had first rejected by 44-43, then accepted by 45-42, an amendment offered by Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) to cut NASA's budget and reduce budgets of five other departments and agencies by $805 million. Proxmire's move might have spared NASA a far deeper cut, because Sen. William Roth (R-Del.) had proposed a 2% across-the-board cut for all agencies and departments covered by the bill (which, for NASA, would have been $80 million). Proxmire had offered his more selective amendment as a substitute, to which Roth had agreed. The amendment did not specify where NASA should cut its R&D. (A/D, Aug 9/78, 169)
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