Mar 18 1975
From The Space Library
"The expertise and facilities of LeRC [[[Lewis Research Center]]], as well as other NASA centers, are being considered by ERDA [Energy Research and Development Administration] as part of its overall definition of a total institutional structure required to carry out the nation's energy R&D program," Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, and Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., ERDA Administrator said in a letter to Representative Charles A. Mosher (R- Ohio). The letter was a reply to correspondence from members of the Ohio congressional delegation and Cleveland busineSSMEn and industrialists to President Ford calling for increased use of LeRC talent to meet the nation's energy crisis.
Dr. Fletcher and Dr. Seamans noted that the newly established ERDA was the lead Federal agency for managing national energy R&D. ERDA intended to use the expertise and facilities of other Federal agencies where it was feasible and in the national interest with respect to cost, timeliness, and program management.
LeRC, NASA's lead center for aerospace propulsion and power, was already involved in ERDA-sponsored projects in solar heating and cooling, wind energy, and topping cycles to increase the efficiency of coal-fueled steam plants. But LeRC would continue its main task to work on propulsion technology, conducting energy research in support of ERDA "when it was consistent with the requirements of its principal mission within NASA." (Text, letter to Mosher from Fletcher and Seamans, 18 March 75)
A New York Times editorial commented on Mariner 10. Men had become so blasé that even near-miracles were taken for granted. Consider Mariner 10, which had traveled nearly a billion miles since its launch in 1973: The spacecraft had taken the first close-up photos of Venus and provided us with sharp pictures of a large part of Mercury's surface during its three flybys of that planet. "In a world where so much that is manufactured is shoddy, faulty in conception, or the end result of workers who could not care less, it is worth remembering that men can also build durable, reliable and trustworthy mechanisms like Mariner 10 whose historic contribution to knowledge has substantially enhanced man's understanding of the solar system." The Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology and its contractors, responsible for Mariner 10 and its superlative performance, have every reason for pride in their creation, the Times said. (NYT, 18 March 75, 36)
NASA announced establishment within the Office of Center Operations of the Office of Safety and Environmental Health under the acting directorship of Reuben P. Prichard. The new office, which would have agency-wide functional responsibility for all safety matters, except systems safety, and for environmental health, would also be the focal point for agency coordination on policy and program matters pertaining to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Transferred to the new office were environmental health functions formerly assigned to the Office of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health. (NASA anno, 18 March 75)
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