January 1975
From The Space Library
Opportunities and Choices in Space Science, 1974, a report published by the Space Science Board of the National Research Council, recommended that NASA undertake the Large Space Telescope as the only new space research start in FY 1976. The telescope should be followed by a series of permanent national and international observatories in orbit. The report also recommended that, budget permitting, NASA undertake in 1977 a lunar-polar mission, a Pioneer-Jupiter orbiter, a Mariner-Jupiter-Uranus mission, and a solar maximum mission. However, NASA should compare the importance of the Pioneer-Jupiter orbiter with the Mariner-Jupiter-Uranus mission if current FY 1977 budget estimates would not support both missions. Other recommendations included an immediate reevaluation of strategy for missions to explore the outer solar system during the next decade and for returning a Martian surface sample to earth instead of landing an unmanned laboratory to perform analyses as current plans propose.
The report strongly endorsed the High Energy Astronomical Observatories (HEAD), Pioneer-Venus mission, and Mariner Jupiter-Saturn mission as vital to the nation's space science efforts. (Text)
Contracts involving $25 000 or more awarded by Marshall Space Flight Center during the month totaled nearly $200 million. Among them were awards to Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., Inc., for $67 500 to develop the capability of predicting radiant heating at the base region of the Space Shuttle, and for $49 971 to continue a two-phase study of flow effects on Space Shuttle plume simulation. Lockheed also had received $59 740 to continue analyses of Apollo Telescope Mount data obtained during the Skylab mission. A $29 945 contract had gone to Northrop Services, Inc., to continue studies on Space Tug recovery of a spinning satellite.
The U.S. Army Engineer Div., Al a., had received two contracts. A $2-million contract had been awarded for construction at MSFC of the structural test facility for the Solid Rocket Booster and a $2.93-million contract has been awarded for construction and modifications' to the Dynamic Test Facility for vibration testing of the Space Shuttle in the vertical positions. The contracts also included a $152.6-million award to Martin Marietta Corp. for the design, development, test, and evaluation of the Space Shuttle external tank, including six flight units and test hardware.
MSFC had awarded the Dept. of Commerce $60 000 for an atmospheric measuring program. Bendix Corp. had received $99 736 for a Skylab control-moment gyro anomaly investigation, and the University of New York had received $36 253 to continue data analysis of a Skylab zodiacal light experiment. (MSFC Release 75-39)
- 1975
- January
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
