Jun 30 1972
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched three satellites. Intercosmos 7, launched from Kapustin Yar, entered orbit with 550-km (341.8-mi) apogee, 260-km (161.6-mi) perigee, 92.7-min period, and 48.4° inclination. Objective of mission was "to continue joint studies of the sun's ultra- violet and X-ray radiation and the influence of the radiations on the structure of the earth's upper atmosphere." Spacecraft carried equipment designed and built by specialists from East Germany, U.S.S.R., and Czechoslovakia. It reentered Oct. 5. Cosmos 497, launched from Plesetsk, entered orbit with 787-km (489.0-mi) apogee, 271-km (168.4-mi) perigee, 95.2-min period, and 71° inclination. Meteor 12 weather satellite was launched from Plesetsk to obtain "meteorological information necessary for swift forecasting." Orbital parameters: 904-km (561.7-mi) apogee, 888-km (551.8) perigee, 81.2° inclination, and 102.8-min period. (GSFC SSR, 6/30/72, 7/31/72; 10/31/72; Tass, FBIS-Sov, 6/30/72, Ll; 7/12/72, Ll; Sov Aero, 7/3/72, 7; 7/10/72, 15; SF, 12/72, 46)
NASA announced award of $83 645 871 cost-plus-award-fee contract to TRW Systems Inc. for development of two automated High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO) satellites to study high-energy radiation from space. First HEAO would be launched in late 1975; second would be launched 18 mos later. (NASA Release 72-133)
Clocks were turned back one second at midnight Greenwich Mean Time at Royal Greenwich Observatory, England; Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.; National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colo.; and NASA tracking stations around the world. Radio time signals worldwide inserted extra second. Action was taken to align clocks and signals with atomic time scales adopted internationally in 1967 as official time measurement. Under atomic scale, 9 billion internal vibrations of cesium atom equaled atomic second. Because earth was rotating at relatively slow rate, occasional addition of one second to GMT was necessary. Adjustment was particularly important to seamen who navigated by earth time and position. (AP, W Post, 6/21/72, 2; W News, 6/28/72, 7)
Marshall Space Flight Center announced plans to implement Center re-organization, pending NASA Hq. concurrence. Reorganization, necessitated by changing MSFC roles and missions, included elimination of Program Management (PM) with major program offices reporting to Office of MSFC Director; creation of Space Science Projects Office to furnish management and technical direction to High Energy Astronomy Observatory and Large Space Telescope projects, reassignment of Michoud Assembly Facility to Saturn Program Office; redesignation of Administration and Technical Services Directorate as Administration and Program Support; and consolidation of Contracts Office with Purchasing Office to become Procurement Office. (MSFC Release 72- 82)
Soviet scientists writing in magazine Zemlya I Vsellennaya had suggested that canals on Mars were optical illusions created by dark features of Mars surface relief, Tass reported. Scientists-using data from U.S. Mariner 9 and U.S.S.R. Mars 2 and 3 spacecraft (all three launched in May 1971 and still in orbit around Mars)-had said large-scale pictures of Mars showed no signs of canals, but showed planet was pockmarked with craters. They had concluded Mars surface relief was about 300 million yrs old and that craters were destroyed twice as fast as those of moon because Mars atmosphere encouraged erosion. (FBIS-Sov, 7/5/72, L4)
Four officials retired from Lewis Research Center: Irving I. Pinkel, Director of Aerospace Safety Research and Data Institute, who had begun working at Langley Memorial Aircraft Laboratory in 1940 and transferred to LeRC (then named Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory) in 1942; Irving Johnsen, Chief of Chemical Propulsion Div., who had transferred to LeRC in 1943 after three years at Langley; Newell D. Sanders, Chief of V/STOL and Noise Div., who had served at Langley, Lexc and NASA Hq. since 1938; and Leslie F. Hinz, Chief of Finance Div., who had joined LeRC in 1942. (Lewis News, 6/16/72, 1)
NASA announced that joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. rendezvous and docking mission would be designated Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). (PAO memo)
European Sounding Rocket Range (ESRANGE) in Kiruna, Sweden, was handed over officially by European Space Research Organization to Swedish authorities. Ownership had been transferred to Sweden following December decision by ESRO Council to abandon sounding rocket activities. (SR, 9/72)
Navy F-14 fighter aircraft crashed into Chesapeake Bay during test flight from Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. Cause was unknown. Pilot, listed as missing, was identified by Navy as William H. Miller, who had piloted first F-14 to crash, Dec. 30, 1970. (AP, NYT, 7/2/72, 10)
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