Jul 20 1973
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Skylab 3, scheduled for launch July 28 as the second manned mission to crew the Skylab Workshop, would be extended from 56 days to 59 days to provide a better recovery posture, NASA announced. Splash-down would be 6:26 pm EDT Sept. 25, in the Pacific Ocean 547 km (340 mi) southwest of San Diego. A comprehensive review of the medical findings of Skylab 2 (launched May 25) had indicated that a 59-day mission was medically feasible. The medical data obtained on Skylab 3 would be reviewed at mid-mission point and weekly reviews would be scheduled for the remainder of the flight. Following each review, approval for continuation of the flight would be made for the next seven days by Skylab Program Di-rector William C. Schneider. Simulated T-zero ignition and liftoff with the fully fueled Saturn IB and Apollo spacecraft on its launch pad was successfully completed in the Skylab 3 countdown, begun July 15. (NASA Release 73-136; KSC Re-lease 163-73)
Fourth anniversary of Apollo 11's first manned lunar landing July 20, 1969. Reps. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.) and Lou Frey, Jr. (R-Fla.), entered tributes in the Congressional Record. Fuqua said: "Since July of 1969 when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the lunar surface our national space program has had an ever-increasing wealth of technology and new knowledge and practical information of direct benefit to the people of the Nation and of the world." In remembering the first lunar landing, "we need to be reminded of the need for strong support for our national space program today and in the years ahead. ' Frey said: "The people of our space program are not resting on the laurels of this great achieve. ment but are pressing on with the Skylab and the space shuttle to make space an ever-increasing contributor to the well-being of our Nation and the world." (CR, 7/20/73, E4957, 4961)
Dr. Charles A. Lundquist, Assistant Director of the Smithsonian Institu-tion's Astrophysical Observatory, had been named Director of Marshall Space Flight Center's Space Sciences Laboratory, MSFC announced. Be-fore joining the Smithsonian, Dr. Lundquist had been Chief of the Physics and Astrophysics Branch in MSFC's former Research Projects Div. He had been transferred to MSFC in 1960 from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. (MSFC Release 93-99)
The Senate confirmed Skylab 2 astronaut Cdr. Paul J. Weitz, Jr. (USN), for permanent promotion to the grade of captain. (CR, 7/20/73, 514273)
The Air Force announced the award of a $2 352 060 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to General Dynamics Corp. for advanced development of con-ceptual hardware for an undesignated lightweight fighter aircraft. (DOD Release 364-73)
The National Science Foundation published Selected Characteristics of Five Engineering and Scientific Occupational Croups, 1972 (NSF 73-306). The bulk of the 1.735 million persons in the five major occupational groups were engineers (72%). Physical scientists accounted for 11% and social scientists, life scientists, and mathematicians, about 9% each. Engineering continued male-dominated with men making up nearly 99%; women had made their greatest penetration in mathematics, more than 27%. (Text)
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