etc. However, these uses had actually accounted for only a fifth of transglobal comsat TV volume. A number of poor and developing countries had come to depend heavily on the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization's seven Intelsat comsats. Although major events were still the subject of much global TV traffic, the most extensive and consistent use of commercial comsats was for daily

news.

News packages were sent from one country to another. U.S. networks used almost daily satellite news reports from correspondents in various parts of the world. Spain and Mexico were linked full time by satellite. Madrid also transmitted 15 min of daily news to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela. When events warranted, these countries transmitted news to Spanish TV. France transmitted daily news to Israel, Iran, Jordan, and Martinique as well as several North African countries. News from London was transmitted daily to Australia.

The NYT quoted officials of Communications Satellite Corp., U.S. manager of the Intelsat system, as saying that in 1965 the comsats carried about six TV transmissions a month for a total of less than 6 hours of programming; in 1975, the Intelsat system was handling 400 transmissions a month, more than 200 hrs of programming not including the 200 hrs a month carried on the Spain-Mexico channel. (Brown, NYT, 28 June 75, 43)

29 June: Final joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. simulations for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project crews and flight controllers began at Johnson Space Center and at the Moscow Mission Control Center at 6:30 am CDT. The simulations picked up the count at 47 hrs 10 min into the mission and continued for 56 hrs, covering the joint portion of the mission including rendezvous, docking, crew transfers and joint activities, and undocking of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft. U.S. and Soviet crewmen participated in simulators in their respective countries while both flight-control centers were fully staffed. The U.S. crew would also participate in the countdown demonstration test at Kennedy Space Center on 3 July. (JSC Release 75-61; Ezell et al., The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 314)

30 June: NASA's permanent employment level decreased by 521, or 2.1% during FY 1975, NASA's Office of Personnel reported in "The In-House Work Force." Average age of NASA employees had risen 0.3 yr to age 43 and the average executive age fell 1.3 yr to age 49.6. Average grade of permanent employees remained at GS-11, constant since FY 1973.

New hires and separations were down by 4.4 and 6.5%, respectively. Marshall Space Flight Center had had the only NASA reductionin-force, resulting in 76 separations. The 62 intercenter professional transfers were down from 72 in FY 1974, and the 789 retirements were 30% below the FY 1974 level, although disability retirements continued to rise, totaling 220 in FY 1975-a 147% increase over FY 1970. (Off of Personnel Rpt, "The In-House Work Force," 30 June 75) • The Skylab program was closed out at Marshall Space Flight Center and personnel assigned to the program had been reassigned, the Marshall Star announced. Responsibility for the deactivated offices, including storage of hardware and phaseout of remaining contractual and documentary activities, was assigned to the Administration and Program Support Directorate's Logistics Office. (Marshall Star, 2 July 75, 4)

"After spending some $1.5 billion over more than 10 years, the United States, through the loss of its will to go forward in space, gave up on this next generation of rockets even though the nuclear technology worked," Gary L. Bennett said in a letter to the editor of the Washington Star. Noting that U.S. basic rocket technology was close to 40 yrs old, Bennett wrote, "We have shown no inclination to develop new rocket concepts despite the fact that these concepts have definite terrestrial advantages in terms of energy and employment. It's sad to think that we came so close to realizing our destiny in space and then we gave it all up for a senseless enervating policy of introspection." (W Star, 30 June 75)

NASA announced the award of a $287-million contract to Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., to supply liquid hydrogen for the government's East Coast requirements over a 12.5-yr period beginning 1 July 1975. The liquid hydrogen would be used primarily in Space Shuttle engine testing at the National Space Technology Laboratories and for Space Shuttle launches. (NASA Release 75-192) During June: Activities continued at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project launch in July. During the week of 2-6 June, KSC engineers and technicians checked the Apollo spacecraft for propellant leaks, filled the liquid-oxygen storage tank at the pad, loaded oxygen and nitrogen onto the docking module, and installed conax valves on the Saturn IB first stage.

Spacecraft ordnance was installed 9-13 June and the command module was checked for leaks and prepared for hypergolic loading. Also during the week the liquid-hydrogen tank was filled.

Prime crew members-Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton-and backup crew members-Jack R. Lousma, Alan L. Bean, and Ronald E. Evans-arrived at KSC on 10 June for command and docking-module crew compartment fit and functional checks. The crew also familiarized themselves with stowage arrangements. (Spaceport News, 12 June 75, 5; 26 June 75, 3)

• Development of the Spacelab by the European Space Agency for NASA's Space Shuttle continued.

An annual Spacelab status review 4-5 June attended by Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, and Roy Gibson, ESA Director General, established schedule milestones, determined readiness for the preliminary design review, and discussed arrangements for the first Spacelab flight. They also discussed plans for the instrumentpointing system and the first Spacelab payload, follow-on Spacelab procurement by NASA, and terms and conditions for use of the Space Shuttle-Spacelab system.

On 6 June, the recommendations of 10 teams-which had met at Marshall Space Flight Center in May to discuss Spacelab systems, avionics, structures, environmental control and life support, software, test and integration, and payload operations and accommodations were presented to the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight for concurrence. At the same time ESA was preparing similar recommendations at the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC).

Beginning on 9 June, combined NASA-ESA teams met in Noordwijk to consider the 1772 review-item discrepancies prepared by both agencies and, after 2.5 days, had processed all of them. (Spacelab Newsletter 75-2, 3 July 75)

• Goddard Space Flight Center's Goddard News reported that the John C. Lindsay Memorial Award, given annually to a GSFC employee in recognition of an outstanding contribution to science and technology, had been presented to Dr. Norman F. Ness. Dr. Ness had received the award for his pioneering work in the investigation of magnetic fields of planetary bodies and the interaction of the solar wind with these magnetic fields. Dr. Ness, who had been a participating scientist on the Explorer Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP) satellites and Mariner 10, and Pioneer satellites, spearheaded the first measurements of the earth's distant magnetic fields and magnetic tail. He was also the first to explore the moon's magnetic field. On the Mariner 10 flybys of Jupiter, Dr. Ness made the surprising discovery of a small, but measurable, intrinsic magnetic field. (Goddard News, June 75, 1) • The Air Force continued its development of the remotely piloted vehicle (RPV), the Air Force Systems Command's Newsreview reported. The Air Force awarded three 1-yr firm-fixed-price contracts for definition studies of an advanced remotely piloted vehicle and associated elements. Rockwell International Corp. received $699 684; Boeing Aerospace Co., $646 750; and Northrop Corp., $499 614, to produce designs of an RPV for use in the 1980s. The system was expected to provide an improved cost-effective capability of carrying out electronic warfare, reconnaissance, and strike missions. The three companies would define the vehicle and its avionics, options of launch and recovery, ground-support elements, and systems maintenance to permit rapid mission turnaround.

The Newsreview reported the award of a $100 000 contract to Aero Co. to study the feasibility of using parafoils, half the size of a C-5 aircraft wing, to recover RPVs returning from missions. Aero Co. would design and build for flight testing two 12- by 24-m parafoils— high-glide parachutes that, when deployed like a parachute, take on airfoil characteristics, descending at a rate of 1 m forward for each 0.3-m loss in altitude. (AFSC Newsreview, June 75, 1)

July 1975

1 July: Marshall Space Flight Center observed the 15th anniversary of the transfer of personnel, facilities, and responsibilities from the Department of Defense's U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency to NASA. The center had been formally dedicated at a ceremony 8 Sept. 1960 attended by President Dwight D. Eisenhower; Dr. T. Keith Glennan, NASA Administrator; Alabama Governor John Patterson; MSFC Director Dr. Wernher von Braun; and Mrs. George C. Marshall, widow of the statesman, soldier, and Nobel Peace Prize winner for whom the center was named.

With the transfer had gone responsibility for continued development of the Redstone and the Saturn I; soon to come would be the Saturn IV and V launch vehicles that would carry U.S. astronauts into earth orbit and, eventually, to the moon. More than 100 000 employees in 12 000 companies across the U.S. worked during the peak of developing the Saturn family and its 31 launches with 100% launch success rate. MSFC developed the Lunar Roving Vehicle that carried moon-based astronauts several km from the landing site across rugged lunar terrain.

MSFC was also responsible for the Skylab 1 Orbital Workshop. Launched into earth orbit 14 May 1973, Skylab 1 carried other MSFC developments including solar-observation instruments, the docking adapter, and many experiments. Three three-man crews occupied the space station for a total of 171 days.

To date, as the last Saturn booster was preparing to carry three U.S. astronauts to an earth-orbital rendezvous with two Soviet cosmonauts for the joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, MSFC was heavily involved in development of the Space Transportation System, including the Space Shuttle, Space Tug, Spacelab, and related payloads. MSFC employees were also working on the development of solar heating and cooling systems and other applications projects.

In a message to MSFC Director Dr. William P. Lucas, President Gerald R. Ford said that "From its inception, the Marshall center has continued in the forefront of this Nation's tremendous advancement in the exploration of space. We look forward to more vital contributions . . . from the Marshall center in the years ahead as the United States continues to lead the way in using space for the benefit of all mankind." (MSFC Releases 75-131, 75-140; Historical Origins of The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, MSFC Historical Monograph No. 1, Dec 1960)

• Rockwell International Corp. Space Div. was studying the economic and technical feasibility of using a rotating flywheel for electrical storage in commercial, utility, and transportation applications. The 9mo study for the Energy Research and Development Administration was based on technology developed for a prototype spacecraft energy-momentum flywheel that Rockwell had built for NASA's

Langley Research Center. The small prototype spinning at speeds up to 35 000 rpm could provide 2500 w of electrical power as well as spacecraft attitude control.

In the flywheel concept, electric motor generators would spin up specially constructed flywheels which kinetically stored energy by their rotation. When electrical power was needed, the rapidly spinning flywheels would drive generators. A significant application of the flywheel would be to store energy for electric utility companies; the flywheels, spun up during off-peak hours, would drive powerproducing generators during peak-demand periods. (Rockwell Int'l Release SP-18) NASA announced award of a $46.8-million cost-plus-award-fee contract to International Business Machines Corp. for developing and testing the Space Shuttle avionics software system. IBM would design, develop, test, and maintain the avionics software for the dataprocessing system on the Shuttle Orbiter that would include electric and electronic systems for guidance, navigation, and control capability; communication; computation; displays and controls; instrumentation; and electrical power distribution and control for the orbiter, external tank, and solid-rocket boosters. (JSC Release 75-63) 2 July: Ats 6 Applications Technology Satellite arrived at its new operating station at 35° east longitude over equatorial East Africa where it would relay communications from the docked Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft during the July Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission. Upon completion of ASTP, Ats 6 would be used by India to transmit educational TV programs to several thousand remote villages.

The satellite had experienced a malfunction in a drive circuit of one of the three momentum wheels used to control spacecraft attitude. A group of hydrazine gas thrusters was being used as a backup system for stabilization while ground controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center were analyzing the problem and developing remedies. (NASA Release 75-194)

Prof. Hyron Spinrad, Univ. of Calif. astronomer, had photographed a galaxy 5 to 10 times larger than the Milky Way. Prof. Spinrad photographed the galaxy, designated 3C123, using the 120-in telescope at Lick Observatory and a new device that filtered out backlighting. The huge galaxy was moving away from earth at a speed of about 4.3 trillion km per year. (AP, B Sun, 2 July 75, A3) Three high-speed F-104G aircraft formerly belonging to the German Air Force arrived at Flight Research Center to be used for research purposes. FRC had been flying F-104As, an early version of the same aircraft, but replacement parts were becoming scarce. Parts for the F-104G would be available through the 1980s. The three aircraft left Jever Air Force Base in West Germany on 27 June and made stops in Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador before arriving at FRC. (X-Press, 18 July 75, 4)

3 July: The Washington Post reported that NASA had turned down a request by Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wisc.) to postpone the ApolloSoyuz Test Project (scheduled for launch on 15 July) until the U.S.S.R. brought back the two Soyuz 18 cosmonauts who had been docked with the orbiting Salyut 4 space station since 26 May 1975. Sen. Proxmire said that the Soviet Union would be unable to maintain ground control of two manned missions simultaneously. He had based his judgment