Sep 7 1977
From The Space Library
NASA reported that Kenneth Souza of ARC and Dr. Eugene Benton of the Univ. of San Francisco had returned to the U.S. from Moscow Sept. 2 with the biological samples carried on the USSR biosat Cosmos 936 [see Aug. 30]. This mission was the first to subject laboratory rats to artificial gravity in the weightlessness of space. NASA would send the samples (tissue from the rats and live fruit flies, processed and packed in dry ice at the mobile landing site in Siberia) with radiation records to U.S. laboratories at the Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; Univ. of Wash., Seattle; Univ. of San Francisco; Univ. of Southern Calif.; and ARC, for analysis. (NASA Release 77-182)
NASA announced that JSC's space and life sciences directorate payload to be managed by the Hq Office of Applications on the second flight of Shuttle Orbiter 102 (sister ship to the Enterprise used in recent approach-and-landing tests at Dryden Flight Research Center) in 1979 would investigate earth resources, environmental quality, and severe storms. The instrumentation and other hardware carried on the second flight would be reusable, to permit adjusting or modifying it for later flights at relatively low cost. The first orbital flight would mainly record performance and monitor space immediately around the orbiter for contamination; the monitor would fly on all 6 orbital flight tests in 1979 and 1980. NASA had estimated the cost of payload hardware, science and technical integration, and mission support at about $10 million. The 6 orbital test launches from Kennedy Space Center would aim at preparing the Shuttle for regular operations by May 1980. (NASA Release 77-181; JSC Release 77-48)
ESA announced that NASA would launch the orbital test satellite OTS, ESA's first comsat, from Cape Canaveral Sept. 13 or 14 on a Delta. The European launcher Ariane would launch the operational European comsat system to follow OTS between 1981 and 1990, carrying domestic telephone, telegraph, and telex traffic besides relaying Eurovision TV. OTS would operate in the 11- and 14-GHz bands, an advantage over the European 4- and 6-GHz links subject to radio interference in regional service. OTS's original June launch date had slipped because a motor prematurely separated from the vehicle sitting on a launch stand in May. NASA had redesigned the bolt that failed, and had replaced the damaged motor and vehicle booster. (ESA. Release Sept 7/77; MOR M-492-210-77-01 [prelaunch] Sept 8/77; NASA Release 77-168)
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