Jun 25 1975

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Marshall Space Flight Center announced the award of two 9-mo contracts for parallel design studies of a biological holding facility for Spacelab.

Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. received $242 640 and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. received $177 360 to develop conceptual designs of habitats for live `biological specimens supporting life-sciences space flight research programs. The habitats--consisting of the structure and the environmental-control, food and watering, waste-management, lighting, and instrumentation systems-were to be suitable for a wide variety of specimens with emphasis on the adult rhesus monkey and the adult laboratory rat. (MSFC Release 75-133)

25 June-3 July: The countdown demonstration test, a step-by-step dress rehearsal for the July Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, was successfully completed at Kennedy Space Center. The rehearsal culminated in actual fueling of the Saturn IB and a simulated launch of the Apollo at 3:50 pm EDT on 2 July. The cryogenic propellants loaded for the "wet" portion of the test were off-loaded and the final portion of the count repeated with crew members Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton aboard the spacecraft. A second simulated ignition and liftoff occurred at 2 pm EDT on 3 July.

During the test, a leak detected in Brand's spacesuit was traced to one of the pressure-sealing slide fasteners. Modifications were made and the spacesuit was successfully retested. (Spaceport News, 26 June 75,1; KSC Release 115-75; Ezell et al., The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 314)

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