Feb 24 1975
From The Space Library
Design and fabrication of the first Space Shuttle Orbiter was progressing well, with all major structural elements-forward fuselage, tail, wings, mid fuselage-scheduled for final assembly in mid-1975, NASA Deputy Director of the Space Shuttle LeRoy E. Day told the Canadian Science Writers Association in Toronto, Canada. The main rocket engine, the most difficult development item, was being built on a 10-yr technology base in which government and industry had invested nearly $100 million. During 1974, initial component engine firings had been made, and firings of the first integrated subsystems test bed engine were scheduled for July.
The emphasis for the expendable external tank had been on simplified low-cost production. An inexpensive spray-on insulation had been developed to protect the aluminum skin from excessive temperatures during ascent.
In summary, NASA and its contractors were making steady progress, holding within cost and schedule commitments. The first Orbiter would be rolled out in 1976, with its first captive flight on the back of the Boeing 747 aircraft scheduled for the second quarter of 1977. The first approach and landing tests, in 1977, would be made by separating the Orbiter from the 747 at about 8500 m, permitting the Orbiter to glide down and land on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base. The second Orbiter would be used for the first orbital flight in 1979, with six developmental flights scheduled before the Space Shuttle became operational in 1980. (Transcript)
The recent detection of water vapor, and therefore oxygen, on Jupiter by Univ. of Arizona scientists aboard NASA's C-141 Airborne Infrared Observatory [see 12 Feb.] could stimulate additional support for a probe mission to obtain more detailed information, Aviation Week and Space Technology reported. Scientists had already known that the proportions of helium and hydrogen on Jupiter were approximately the same as on the sun. The additional information that oxygen existed on Jupiter would strengthen the belief that the planet's composition was similar to that of the sun, and that the sun and the planet had been formed from the same raw material. The conclusion was important to many scientists who believed that earth's atmospheric composition had evolved from one similar to Jupiter's. If this were true and if Jupiter's atmosphere had changed little from its primitive state, then the Jovian atmosphere could serve as a laboratory for studying the evolution of life on earth. This new information could influence NASA scientists charged with making recommendations for new starts. (Av Wk, 24 Feb 75, 58)
Tokyo Univ.'s Institute of Space and Aeronautics launched Srats (Taiyo)-Solar Radiation and Thermospheric Structure Satellite from Uchinoura Space Center at 2:25 pm local time after a 10-day delay because of faulty instrumentation. The three-stage MU3C liquid-fueled launch vehicle placed the 86-kg spacecraft into an orbit with a 3130-km apogee, 247-km perigee, 120.2-min period, and 31.5° inclination. The purpose of the satellite was to observe solar and cosmic phenomena. By 25 Feb. the satellite was reported to be functioning normally, with two NASA tracking stations-one in Ecuador and one in Chile reporting signals from Srats. (Kyodo, FBIS-Japan, 18-26 Feb 75)
24-27 February: The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics held its 11th annual meeting and technical display in Washington, D.C. "Frontier Technology and Shuttle Country" was the theme of the session chaired by Grant L. Hansen of General Dynamics Corp. An Aerospace Day was observed 27 Feb.
Sessions were held in four areas: transportation efficiency, national defense, space applications, and frontier technologies. The more than 500 attendees of the technical sessions listened to papers on computers in aerospace, short-haul aircraft systems, advanced communications, and satellite technology.
Harris M. Schurmeir, Jet Propulsion Laboratory's manager of the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn 1977 project, delivered the von Karman Lecture 24 Feb., "Planetary Exploration: Earth's New Horizon." Schurmeir said that, despite American virtuosity in the unfolding drama of solar-system exploration, the never-abating high launch rate of the Soviet Union would make them competitors if the U.S. failed to exercise its mission options in the late 1970s and 1980s.
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