Jul 11 1975
From The Space Library
NASA announced the appointment of Donald P. Hearth as Director of Langley Research Center, effective in September. Hearth, Deputy Director of Goddard Space Flight Center since 1970, would replace Dr. Edgar M. Cortright, who is leaving NASA to pursue other interests.
Prior to being at GSFC, Hearth had served 3 yr as Director of Planetary Programs at NASA Hq. He came to NASA in 1962 from the Marquardt Corp. where he managed research on hypersonic propulsion and flight systems. Before that, he had been an aeronautical research scientist at Lewis Aeronautical Laboratory of NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. (NASA anno 11 July 75)
Didier Ratsiraka, President of the Supreme Council of Revolution of the Malagasy Republic, said in a radio broadcast to Malagasy citizens that his government would ask the U.S. to close its satellite tracking station there if the U.S. did not "raise concrete and satisfactory proposals before July 14." Ratsiraka said that "To avoid possible maneuvers of sabotage, the government has taken necessary measures to place the station under control of the armed forces from this day." People's Republic of China's Hsinhua news agency quoted Ratsiraka as saying that the U.S. was reluctant to fulfill its obligations under the agreement signed in October 1963 by the U.S. and Malagasy governments, being in "flagrant violation of the written engagements." (FBIS-PRC, 15 July 75, A3)
NASA announced the beginning of a cooperative NASA-university industry program to flight-test a low-cost flight-control system that would improve ride quality, reduce pilot workload, and improve flight safety. The control system--developed and ground-tested by the Univ. of Kansas-was being installed on a Beechcraft 99 commuter airliner for a flight-test program under the direction of NASA's Flight Research Center. Nearly a third of the aircraft's control surfaces were controlled by the new automated avionics system, with two-thirds remaining under direct control of the pilot. Any failures in the automated control system could be easily overridden by the pilot, eliminating the need for redundancy in the attitude-control system and permitting mechanization at a much lower cost.
With automated controls off, the separate surfaces responded to the pilot's commands and the control system was essentially that of the Beechcraft airplane. The flight-test program would include functional tests, envelope expansion, system optimization, and quantitative and qualitative evaluation by the three test pilots. (NASA Release 75-207; FRC Release 22-75)
The Senate passed resolution, S. Con. Res. 47, setting aside the week of 16-22 July as "United States Space Observance Week." (CR,11 July 75, 512438)
Marshall Space Flight Center announced award of a $5 768 612 cost plus-incentive-fee contract to Sperry Rand Corp. for design, development, test, and delivery of 37 multiplexer-demultiplexers (MDM) for the Space Shuttle rocket boosters. The MDM, an electronic device that permitted sending or receiving more than one message, signal, or unit of information on a single communication channel, was housed in the Solid Rocket Boosters' integrated electronics assembly. It would process signals for such functions as ignition, thrust vector control, release of nose cap and frustum, jettison of solid rocket motor nozzles, detachment of parachutes, and turn-on of recovery aids. (MSFC Release 75-154)
The midwest's Central Telephone and Utilities Corp. Cengas Div. surveyed heat loss from homes and commercial buildings in five Nebraska and South Dakota communities using an aerial technique developed with NASA support. In the survey-taken on cold clear nights during winter 1974-75-an aircraft equipped with a thermal infrared scanner flew at 488 m, making successive runs over strips three city blocks wide. The scanner surveyed the roof-surface temperatures, which were recorded on magnetic tape. After the flight, ground-based equipment converted the data to strips of film for printing on photographic paper. The resulting imagery, called thermograms, were silhouettes of individual buildings in which warm roofs appeared in light tones and cool roofs in dark tones. Property owners were notified of the results. (NASA Release 75-201)
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