September 1977
From The Space Library
INTELSAT announced it would award Hughes Aircraft Co.'s electron dynamics division a $126 099 contract to identify traveling-wave tube structures in the 4GHz frequency range with high reliability and uniform performance for use in future INTELSAT comsats. (INTELSAT Release 77-24-M)
ESA announced it had received a delegation of 9 telecommunications experts from the PRO's Electronics Society visiting Europe Sept. 12-Oct. 20 to see the principal national space facilities and industrial firms of ESA member nations. The visitors, headed by Lei Hung of the Electronics Society council, would discuss all aspects of communications satellite programs and would give ESA and European industrialists their first opportunity to 'meet with people from PRC in the space business. (ESA Release Sept 13/77)
The Natl. Aeronautic Assn. reported Dr. Paul MacCready, U.S. aeronautical engineer famous for his manpowered Gossamer flying machines, had claimed the Kremer Competition prize offered through the Royal Aeronautical Society of 50 000 British pounds (about $86 000 U.S.) for having completed on Aug. 23 the required course of clearing a start/finish line 10ft high, flying a figure 8 around 2 pylons a half-mile apart, and completing the flight over the same loft-high finish line.
The Gossamer Condor, a craft made of corrugated cardboard, balsa wood, aluminum, piano wire, styrofoam, transparent tape, and cellophane, with a 96ft wingspan but weighing only 771b, was powered by Bryan Allen, an experienced hang glider and bicycle racer, who transferred energy through bicycle pedals to a propeller. The Kremer prize was the largest ever offered for a single aeronautical achievement. Dr. McCready's claim was subject to RAS approval upon submission of flight documentation. Although the NAA, as RAS contact in the U.S., had distributed numerous copies of the Kremer rules, only 2 other vehicles had been constructed and actually flown in the U.S., one a solo manpowered craft like the Gossamer Condor, the other a multiman-powered triplane built by engineering students at MIT. (NAA newsletter Sept 77)
The Natl. Aeronautic Assn. reported that Pan American Airways would mark the 50th anniversary of its first flight Oct. 28 by attempting a world-record round-the-world, over-the-poles flight in less than 48hr with a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Carrying an official observer to certify record performance, the 747 would leave San Francisco, fly over the North Pole to London, then to Cape Town, South Africa, over the South Pole to Auckland, New Zealand, and back to San Francisco, a distance of 26 642 statute mi. A Boeing 707 had flown the polar route in 1965 in a record 62hr 27min 35sec. In May 1976 Pan Am's 747 had set an east-west record, a bicentennial flight covering 23,137mi over a New York-Delhi-Tokyo-New York route in 46hr 50sec. That flight had carried 98 passengers, many of whom would be aboard the polar flight in Oct. Pan Am's first flight had taken place Oct. 28, 1927, when a Fokker F-7 trimotor lifted off a dirt runway at Key West, Fla., for an hr-long flight over 90 miles of ocean to Havana, Cuba. (NAA newsletter Sept 77)
NASA announced its yrs-old promise that scientists would operate their own equipment in earth orbit would become a reality, with selection of payload specialists for the first Spacelab mission in 1980 not by NASA but by scientists participating in the mission. One of the two payload specialists would be a representative of the European Space Agency (ESA), developer of Spacelab. A special panel from an international Investigators Working Group had interviewed 19 U.S. candidates at MSFC and would soon interview candidates in Europe. The entire working group would select four trainees for a two-yr program at MSFC; one pair would fly on Spacelab 1. (NASA Release 77-189)
NASA Activities reported on international cooperation in space. Dr. Alan M. Lovelace last year had signed an agreement with the USSR Academy of Sciences, effective May 11 when signed by academy president A.P. Aleksandrov, to study joint operation of Shuttle and Soyuz-Salyut spacecraft in scientific and applications "objectives of merit," and the potential uses of a space platform and developing such a platform bilaterally or multilaterally. By the end of 1978, within a yr of beginning work on space-platform proposals, two study groups would bring in recommendations. The publication cited U.S.-USSR cooperation in rocket instrument tests during Aug., the U.S. biological experiments carried on a Soviet launch, and the arrangement for delivery to NASA of 7 lunar soil samples from the Soviet Luna 24 mission.
NASA's mandate called for "cooperation by the United States with other nations and groups of nations ... and in the peaceful application of the results of that cooperation." Best known current example would be Spacelab, funded by 10 member nations of ESA, and the concurrent development by Canada of the Shuttle's remote manipulator system. NASA's Landsat program had made data available to 130 countries, 7 of which had agreed to set up ground stations for direct reception of Landsat information. A joint NASA-AID project based on Ats 6 broadcasts of instructional TV to some 5000 remote villages in India had sent special films and live discussions to 27 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Other joint efforts included solarterrestrial studies, solar probes, infrared astronomy, the Space Telescope, and a satellite-assisted global search-and-rescue project. A major benefit to the U.S from such cooperation would be a favorable balance of payments resulting from foreign purchases of data from reimbursable launches. (NASA Activities, Sept 77, 14)
The Naval Research Reviews reported on satellite use in the oceanic biology program of the Office of Naval Research, covering biodeterioration (growth of fouling and boring organisms), sound in the ocean (marine mammals), dangerous marine organisms, and special projects. Sound in the sea, second major research area in the program, had centered on whales and seals, especially sounds produced by whales. Navy scientists had implanted radio transmitters in large whales such as blues, fins, and grays, to track them by boat, plane, or satellite. Knowledge of whale behavior and movements would be valuable to designers and operators of naval equipment. (NR Rev, Sept 77, 6)
FBIS reported on the 28th congress of the Intl. Astronautical Federation in Prague, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. Chairman Marcel Barrere of France reviewed at a press conference the "tempestuous impact of space exploration on the planet's industry," mentioning the joint U.S.-USSR approach to a manned flight project using the Shuttle and the Salyut orbital station. Presentations at the congress had included papers on the search for extraterrestrial civilizations, the U.S. scientists reporting on the Voyager mission, and the USSR on remote probes of planetary atmospheres for signs of gas exchange between soil and atmosphere. (FBIS, Tass in English, Sept 24/77, Sept 28/77)
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