Sep 29 1978
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA Administrator Robert Frosch announced that, upon signature by the President of the Inspector General Bill (or on October 1, 1978, whichever was later), NASA would establish an Office of Inspector General consisting of the present NASA management audit office and the NASA office of inspections and security. Pending nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate of a NASA inspector general, Robert Allnutt would act in that position. (NASA anno Sept 29/78)
LaRC announced that Dr. Donald "Deke" Slayton would present a portrait of Virgil (Gus) Grissom on loan from NASA to the Grissom Library, Newport News, Va. The library, opened in 1961, had been named in honor of Grissom in Aug. 1961 after his historic flight as pilot of the Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) suborbital mission. Grissom, who had lived in nearby Stoneybrook Estates from 1959 to 1962, had kept in touch with the library by working with the children's summer reading program. He had been killed in Jan. 1967 with Edward White II and Roger B. Chaffee in an Apollo spacecraft fire during tests at KSC. Grissom and Slayton, who were among the original seven astronauts selected by NASA in 1959, had trained and worked at LaRC during the Mercury program. (LaRC Release 78-52)
In an interview on NASA's 20th anniversary, JSC director Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., said that speeding up the space program would require private capital. "Production in space will become an important part of our competitive position and have a great deal to do with the balance of trade." Speculating on the future at JSC, Kraft said he believed it "highly probable that we'll see a well developed space industry in the next ten years. I have an intuitive feeling that the thing is going to mushroom on us." First major project for JSC would be to make the Space Transportation System operational: "If we're going to make this thing a routine operation, it's got to go in a more matter-of-fact manner, more like an airline operation, than we've seen in the past." For the first 6 or 10 Space Shuttle flights, center employees could expect a level of activity similar to that during Apollo and Skylab "but after that point we're going to have to phase into this new mode." He emphasized he wasn't implying airline pilots would fly the Space Shuttle: "It will still require highly trained astronauts because it is a very complex vehicle. With development of the transport system, we will see anew kind of astronaut-techniques will go into space very rapidly. The need for specific talent and skills will develop." Kraft predicted that, in the next few years, the U.S. would "recognize a need for permanency of man in space. The best way to do that is with a space station. We will probably develop a permanent space station that would be carried up as modules in the Space Shuttle." (JSC Roundup, Sept 29/78, 4)
JSC announced that technicians had installed four radiator panels and a flash evaporator system (FES) in a chamber of Building 32 to prepare for Nov. tests of the Space Shuttle heat rejection system. Radiator panels that would reject heat and maintain a livable temperature for Space Shuttle crews would contain Freon 21 flowing continuously through system loops, picking up heat throughout the ship and depositing cold; heat would be pumped to a central location and vented into space. From 14 000ft to orbit, the FES would cool the ship; in orbit, it would supplement panels that would open and, using ship's maneuvers, reflect heat. The Nov. tests would close off the 120-ft-high chamber and pump liquid nitrogen through tubes in the black walls, dropping temperatures to - 320°; infrared lamps would then increase temperatures to the level required in space. This would be first testing of all system components as a unit. (JSC Roundup, Sept 29/78, 1)
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