Dec 4 1974
From The Space Library
The NASA space shuttle Cost and Review Committee recommended program changes to Dr. James C. Fletcher, Administrator, to reduce rising costs. It also reported design changes made necessary by thermal weight constraints. The committee, headed by NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight John F. Yardley, recommended delaying the second shuttle orbiter flight, refurbishing the first test orbiter earlier than planned instead. Deferrals of three months to two years were recommended for components of the second shuttle launch complex at Kennedy Space Center, which had originally been scheduled for completion about the time of the first shuttle flights. Also recommended was a delay in the development of improved spacesuits and port-able life support systems for extravehicular activities from the space shuttle. Instead, EVAS would use Apollo-style hardware. Emergency barriers on shuttle runways and a building at KSC for installing fairings and parachutes on solid-fueled rocket motors were judged unnecessary. Some tests were recommended for cancellation.
Design changes to accommodate thermal and weight constraints included payload doors of a graphite epoxy composite that expanded less when heated and weighed 400 kg less than the aluminum composite originally planned for use. Solid-fueled-rocket separation motors that would provide a higher thrust level for a shorter time when separating the large solid-propellant boosters from the orbiter after launch were found to cause no orbiter damage-solving a possible problem anticipated with the original separation motors. The committee also recommended switching to a new thermal coating material for the external liquid-hydrogen and liquid-oxygen tank to prevent tank overheating during launch. (NASA prog off, interview, 22 Sept 75; Av Wk, 9 Sept 74, 9-10; NASA Off of Admin, Daily Appointments Calendar)
Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator, was presented the 1974 Rockefeller Public Service Award for Administration by President Ford at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. As Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight at NASA Hq., Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight Center, and then MSC Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program before becoming NASA Deputy Administrator in 1969, Dr. Low had been responsible for development of the Mercury and Gemini programs, an original planner of the Apollo program, and negotiator for the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo Soyuz Test Project. He had joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1949 and moved to NASA when it was established in 1958.
Dr. Robert M. White, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also received one of the five $10 000 awards, for physical resource development and protection. Established by John D. Rockefeller II in 1952 to honor excellence in the career Civil Service, the awards were administered by the. Princeton Univ. Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. (PD, 9 Dec 74, 1528-9; Marshall Star, 11 Dec 74; NASA Activities, 15 Dec 74, 8; NASA Biog)
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