Jun 27 1974
From The Space Library
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, announced his decision to award Thiokol Corp. immediately a 5.5-million, 180-day letter con-tract to develop the space shuttle solid-fueled rocket motors. The definitive contract would be awarded later. Lockheed Propulsion Co. had pro-tested to the General Accounting Office the original, 20 Nov. 1973 con-tract award to Thiokol. GAO validated NASA'S selection procedures 24 June 1974. GAO stated, however, that the NASA cost analysis had contained an overstatement of the cost differential favoring Thiokol's proposal over Lockheed's and recommended the NASA Administrator determine whether the award should be reconsidered. Dr. Fletcher advised the Comptroller General that the decision to proceed with Thiokol was based on the conclusion that the rationale used for the initial selection remained valid. (NASA Release 74-178; 74-180; A&A 1973)
NASA announced plans for a joint mission with Great Britain in June 1975 to launch an x-ray telescope on a British Skylark sounding rocket to study the Puppis A supernova remnant. NASA would design, fabricate, and assemble the flight telescope; the British would integrate the payload into the sounding rocket and provide the high-resolution position-sensitive detector, launch facilities, and operations. The combination of the Wolter Type I glancing incidence telescope and the detector would permit the structural details of the regions responsible for the supernova's soft x-ray emission to be studied with unprecedented resolution. (NASA Release 74-179)
Dr. Vannevar Bush, who directed the development of the atomic bomb and mobilized U.S. scientific and technical resources during World War II, died in Belmont, Mass., at the age of 84 following a cerebral hemorrhage. Dr. Bush was Dean of Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the 1930s, when he developed the Bush differential analyzer, which led to development of the modern computer. He had been President of Carnegie Institution in Washington 1938-1955 and while there had served as Science Adviser to President Roosevelt. In 1938 he was elected Vice Chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and was NACA Chairman 1939-1941. President Roosevelt appointed him Chairman of the National Defense Research Committee in 1940 and Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1941. In that capacity, Dr. Bush organized an unprecedented team of engineers, scientists, industrialists, and military men and oversaw the development of the atomic bomb, radar, proximity fuse, rocketry, and problems of technical warfare. (Washington, W Post, 30 June 74, B8; NAE Release, 19 April 66; 24th, 25th, 27th Ann Rpt of the NACA, 1938, 1939, 1941)
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