Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1979-1984

786 Pages·2007·12.52 MB·English

ASTRONAUTICS AND
AERONAUTICS, I9794984
A Chronology
by Bette R. Janson and Eleanor H. Ritchie
THE NASA HISTORY SERIES
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Office of Management
Scientific and Technical information Division
Washington, DC 1990
NASA maintains an internal history program for two principal reasons. (1) Spon-
sorship of research in NASA-related history is one wiy in which NASA responds
to the provision of the National Aeronautics and :Space Act of 1958 that re-
quires NASA to “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemina-
tion of information concerning its activities and the results thereof.” (2)
Thoughtful study of NASA history can help agency managers accomplish the
missions assigned to the agency. Understanding NASA’s past aids in understan-
ding its present situation and illuminates possible future directions. Selection
of items for inclusion in the chronology is the responsibility of the History
Office employee assigned to assemble them; omission or manner of treatment
has no relationship to agency policy.
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (paper
cover). Library of Congress catalog number 656038
Preface
Astronautics ana' Aeronautics for 159-1984 completes the series of annual
chronologies of events in aeronautics, aviation, and space science and explora-
tion prepared by the History Division of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration since 1961. The concluding volume of the series, Astronautics
and Aeronautics for 1985, was published in 1988.
The present volume was written by Bette R. Janson and Eleanor H. Ritchie
under the editorial supervision of the director of the NASA History Division.
Items for inclusion in this volume were collected by Eleanor H. Ritchie and
Lee D. Saegesser of the NASA History Division.
As with any work of this nature, its extensive scope has made the use of
primary sources prohibitive. Thus, entries are based largely on normally reliable
secondary sources. All entries are followed by their sources to provide resear-
chers guides for further investigations.
Sylvia D. Fries
July 1989
Director, NASA History Division
Washington, D.C.
...
111

Contents
Page
...
Preface .....................................................
Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1979 ........................ 1
Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1980 ........................... 101
Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1981 ........................... 247
Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1982 ........................... 319
Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1983 ........................... 389
Astronautics and Aeronautics. 1984 ........................... 457
Appendix A ................................... ..... 527
Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1979 ..... 529
Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1980 ..... 549
Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1981 ..... 571
Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1982 ..... 599
Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1983 ..... 625
Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flight. 1984 653
Appendix B
Major NASA Launches. 1979-1984 ........................ 683
Appendix C
Abbreviations of References ...................... . 699
Index ................................................... 707
The NASA History Series ........................ .... 777
1979
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS,

Januapy
January I: The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (IN-
TELSAT) announced that this week it would complete taking over all of its
own managerial and operational activities, performed by the U.S. Com-
munications Satellite Corporation (ComSatCorp) since INTELSAT’s foun-
ding in 1964. ComSatCorp had been handing back responsibilities gradually
since 1973 and would continue to provide technical and laboratory services
under contract. Jobs done by ComSatCorp had included procuring spacecraft
and launch services, operating and maintaining facilities, carrying out
technical studies, and performing research and development. This would be
the first time in INTELSAT history that it would incorporate all of its own
executive functions, both administrative and technical. (INTELSAT Release
79-1-1)
January 2: Wire services reported that an explosion that damaged a Space
Shuttle engine during test firing at Bay St. Louis, Miss., on December 27
might delay the first Shuttle launch, now scheduled for the end of September.
Further tests would await determining the cause of the accident-apparently
failure of a valve in a high-pressure pump feeding oxygen to a combustion
chamber. The engine had completed 255 seconds of a 52-second test firing
when the pump exploded, damaging the engine, and NASA would also need
3 to 4 weeks to repair damage to the test stand. Last September, when NASA
announced delay of the first launch, originally scheduled for March,
Associate Administrator John F. Yardley warned of further delays “if unfore-
seen problems arise or the tests are not entirely successful.” (NY Ernes, Jan
2/79 [UPI], A-13; W Post, Jan 4/79 [AP], A-2)
January 3: George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) announced that
the five “payload specialists” selected last July to operate experiments on the
first Spacelab mission in 1981 would begin training January 9 at seven cities
in the United States and two in Canada. Selection and training of non-NASA
scientists to fly in space was a “famous first” for NASA; the scientists chosen
by their colleagues having experiments aboard the Spacelab would be the first
noncareer astronauts and would include the first Western Europeans and the
first non-U.S. citizens to fly on a U.S. space mission. Three payload
specialists were Europeans: Ulf Merbold of West Germany, representing
Max-Planck Institute of Stuttgart; Claude Nicollier of Switzerland, represen-
ting Europe’s Space Technology Center (ESTEC); and Wubbo Ockels of the
Netherlands, representing Groenigen University. U.S. selectees were Michael
L. Lampton of the University of California at Berkeley and Byron K.
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS JANUARY 19m
Lichtenberg of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since Oc-
tober 1978, the five had been in Europe learning to operate experiments
designed by European scientists. Two of the selectees would actually fly on
Spacelab 1, and the other three would operate the experiment equipment on
earth.
Spacelab 1 would carry 40 instruments, about equally divided between
NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) experiments in terms of weight,
volume, and power requirements; fields of investigation would include solar
physics, space plasma physics, stratosphere and upper-atmosphere physics,
biology, medicine, astronomy, earth observation, materials processing, and
technology areas, such as thermodynamics and lubrication. After leaving
MSFC, the trainees would visit Redondo Beach (Calif.), the Johnson Space
Center (JSC), Philadelphia, Boston, and Montreal (Quebec) and Toronto (On-
tario) in Canada; return to JSC in Houston; visit Pa10 Alto, Calif; and be back
at MSFC in Huntsville on March 22. (MSFC Releases 79-1, 79-4)
MSFC reported that a delegation from the People‘s Republic of China (PRC)
visiting the United States since November would arrive at MSFC January 5
to investigate peaceful uses of space technology. Following up a visit to the
PRC last July by Presidential Science Advisor Dr. Frank Press, the Chinese
delegation, accompanied by NASA representatives, had visited several NASA
centers and U.S. aerospace industry establishments. Among items of interest
to the visitors at MSFC would be the Space Shuttle orbiter Enterprise, cur-
rently undergoing tests.
The PRC representatives were to be in the United States until mid-January
and had concluded an informal agreement on developing a civilian com-
munications system for the PRC and on buying equipment to receive Earth
resources data from Landsat remote-sensing satelllites. NASA Administrator
Dr. Robert A. Frosch headed the U.S. delegation, and Dr. Jen Xin-min, direc-
tor of the PRC’s Academy of Space Technology, headed the PRC delegation.
(MSFC Release 79-2)
Januaiy 7: The Nav York Ernes reported that a huge international scientific
project supported by 147 nations would begin this week. The $500 million
Global Weather Experiment (GWE), part of the Global Atmospheric Research
Program (GARP), would be a joint effort of the World Meteorological
Organization and the International Council of Scientific Unions, financed by
the meteorological group. It would expand the existing World Weather Watch,
now generating more than 40,000 daily observations, by using 10 satellites, 50
research vessels, 110 aircraft, 300 high-altitude c onstant-level balloons, and
300 instrumented ocean buoys, in addition to other measuring devices.
The widely dispersed instruments and large numbers of scientists would
study seasonal weather cycles in Earth’s atmosphere and would gauge the
practical limits of present technology for weather forecasting, to compile what
would be the most complete record of global weather data ever attempted.
A