Aeronautics And Space Report 1977

Enterprise joosten go ahead fellow we have a couple of updates to your pre-flight cue cards the altitudes pays the lowest okay we're ready to copy separation is that to 3.0 next one 18.0 rolled out on final at 8.3 and then one point Niner i suggest you go ahead and start your engines and begin your taxi it's called Enterprise first of the space shuttle orbiters the beginning of a new space transportation system a craft that can carry up to 65,000 pounds into space and land back on earth like an airplane five times two astronauts were carried piggyback atop this 747 jet and released five times they brought the huge spaceship in four powerless landings we the gear is coming down at 270 you're coming doors open then there are coming down look down here copy beach party big birdy sorry summing up the years work for all four of the astronaut crewman astronaut Gordon Fullerton we're at the end of the approach and landing test phase of this program but it's it's really not an errand at the beginning it's just a small step really accomplished or getting the orbiter into space and then in that aspect I'm looking forward to more of the same exciting times as we continue on toward that first orbital flight enterprise will not be the first shuttle into space but this one will be shown here being assembled by Rockwell International it is simply designated orbiter 102 102 is undergoing construction right now in Palmdale and it's scheduled to be shipped the middle of next year over the DFR see where will perform a hot fire test on it we will made it to the 747 and flied to florida in preparation for launch into orbit in march of 1979 after about 24 hours in orbit on 102 it also will land here at the FRC on the lake bed in the manner similar to the test flights that we've just completed on the approach and landing test also completed this year the 154 foot long 27 and one half foot wide external fuel tank for the shuttle designed and assembled by Martin Marietta at NASA's Michoud assembly facility near New Orleans the external tank will fuel shuttles three main engines on the way to orbit another major milestone for the new space transportation system was the successful test firing of one of the two fire calls solid rocket motors that will also help boost the Shuttle Orbiter into space this animation shows how they work during launch the two solid rocket boosters strapped to each side carry their own propellants and burn for about two minutes before separating their onboard parachutes will then bring them back to earth for recovery and reuse the large external fuel tank continues feeding the shuttle engines for an additional six minutes separating just before the shuttle reaches orbit this is the only part of the shuttle system that will not be used again when NASA announced it was recruiting between 30 and 40 new astronauts more than 8,000 hopeful candidates responded including over 1,500 women the Johnson Space Center in Houston is in the final screening process to select from this group both mission specialists and pilots for future space shuttle flights to get a feel for handling large structures in space engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center have been practicing underwater the closest you can come for long periods of time to simulating the weightlessness of space it's anticipated that the shuttle will make the building of large space structures possible as well as the Assembly of heavier satellites and instruments to better observe Earth and provide improved communications even solar satellites could be constructed to beam the sun's energy to earth if it becomes an economic and reasonable alternative to some of our ground-based energy resources many of the early shuttle flights are already booked with confirmed payloads according to NASA's director of pricing launch agreements and customer engineering services Mike Smith this payload section of the shuttle under construction gives some idea of the space available on earth now were sold out on flights through 1980 and have firm tight assignments through 1981 typical of these flights are the launch of a long-duration exposure facility for NASA on flight 7 and its retrieval on flight 17 we have a full manned space lab line on flight 11 and a Jupiter orbiter probe flying on flight 26 we have numerous communication satellites being launched for Telesat Canada comsats satellite business systems corporation and India in the early 8081 time period manufacturer the first flight unit has begun on Spacelab shown here in mock-up space lab is unique because it represents a cooperative venture by NASA and the European Space Agency to be built in self-contained modules the space lab will be placed inside the shuttle payload section there from one to four payload specialists will attend to a variety of experiments while working in a shirtsleeve environment space lab is expected to make significant contributions to science medicine industrial processing and other fields in space science two unmanned voyager spacecraft like this are now on their way toward the planets jupiter and saturn their journey could last over a decade with investigations of more than a dozen major planetary bodies including uranus the program is designed to yield valuable new information about the origins of the solar system and formation of the earth one of the ways that will do this is with pictures dr. Bradford a Smith is associate professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona and team leader of the imaging experiment on Voyager we begin our observations of both Jupiter and Saturn approximately a hundred days before we arrive at the planet themselves during that period of time we're constantly looking at the planet each planet both Jupiter and Saturn rotates in approximately ten hours so every ten hours as we're approaching these planets over that hundred day period we will see the whole surface of the planet rotating beneath us as we get closer and closer the resolution gets higher we see smaller and smaller features and as we get very close we we finally get so close that we can't see we don't have enough pictures to cover the entire surface of the planet but we will select out particular features of great interest observed during that so-called Observatory phase and these features will be targeted for close examination as we fly by the voyagers will eventually leave the solar system each carrying a cosmic greeting card in the form of a copper record called the sounds of Earth they were assembled by a group of prominent scientists and educators the record begins with 115 photographs and diagrams in analog form that described mathematics chemistry geology and biology of earth and our location the pictures are followed by spoken greetings in 60 languages Shalom hola saludos a todos se llama llama Darren scallion hello from the children of planet Earth the sounds of weather sir birds and other animals and almost 90 minutes of music from around the world finally here in part is the text of a printed message from the President of the United States on the chance that someone is out there this is a present from a small distant world a token of our sounds our science our images our music our thoughts and our feelings we are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours we hope someday having solved the problems we face to join a community of galactic civilizations this record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe how stars produce the energy that makes them burn so bright and then how they transmit this energy through millions of miles of space losing very little intensity along the way is of great interest to scientists to study the stars he 01 high-energy Astronomy Observatory was launched in august already heels instruments have found a gigantic star whose x-ray radiation increases violently over a period of time then returns to normal eyo one will be joined in its task of mapping the sky for x-ray sources by two other observatories in the future NASA continued applying the technology and science learned in space to improve systems for managing the earth and managing our business here on the ground this includes further use of our remote sensing capabilities which enable us to look at the whole earth or large regions of the earth in ways not previously possible Landsat satellites 1 & 2 for instance are helping us understand the condition of agricultural crops forests and groundwater observations that make it possible to predict and manage more efficiently most of NASA's launches this year were paid for by other users and other countries these included launches for the European Space Agency Japan Indonesia and Italy not all the launches were successful however both the Delta and an atlas rocket failed shortly after liftoff the first unsuccessful launch in three years for the Delta and since 1975 for the Atlas more and more NASA is working with other government agencies such as the Department of Energy NASA's understanding of rotating machinery solar cells and heat transfer is being applied to the development of windmills and better turbines the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland for example is gathering information on as many electric vehicles as possible and is also working to improve nickel zinc batteries NASA is also applying solar energy technology to new developments that may bring it into effective use as part of the National Energy Program efforts to apply technology to make aviation safer more economical cleaner and quieter continued this year at several NASA field centers energy efficiency to curb airplane fuel consumption has high priority areas of study include engine research improved shapes computerized flight control systems and lighter stronger aircraft structures these crash tests at the langley research center are an attempt to find out what happens when a general aviation airplane does just that the highly instrumented plane and dummies should help aircraft manufacturers build even safer airplanes in the future the spin tests look at a different safety problem the problem of spins and stalls and general aviation airplanes in part of the project researchers are trying to determine the effects of tail design on spin characteristics a new research aircraft which combines features of both helicopters and conventional airplanes the XV 15 tiltrotor completed its first phase of flight testing these short and vertical takeoff and landing aircraft may one day improve intra-city transportation 1977 an important year for both Aeronautics and Space Research with much of the technology finding down to earth uses