Nov 2 1979
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced a new five-year development program to retain U.S. leadership in satellite communications and assigned LeRC to work with private industry, DOD, and other NASA centers to launch a sophisticated communications satellite in 1985 or 1986. Daniel J. Shramo, LeRC director of space applications, explained that NASA in 1973 had "phased down" its work in communications satellite technology because of budget pressures and "the strong capabilities present in the private sector." Industry since then had been improving antenna performance, increasing the number of circuits per satellite, and decreasing satellite weight per channel. Technical studies already under way at LeRC should result in a communications satellite system capable of transmitting data anywhere regardless of population size or electronic sophistication. (NASA Release 79-143)
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