it was a year of preparation especially
for the reusable space shuttle
astronomers were able to point an
orbiting telescope at stars while aiming
and making corrections much like
ground-based observatories
pioneer spacecraft arrived at venus and
landed on that planet's shrouded surface
the voyagers continued their journey
toward jupiter and saturn
with the department of energy nasa built
a wind generator for a small new mexico
town
and in aeronautics a wide range of
research projects to improve both
general and commercial aviation
if all goes according to schedule scenes
like this a reusable space shuttle
making its final approach to land will
be a common sight beginning next fall
many of the tests and much of the
training to prepare for that historic
first flight took place in 1978
47 year old john young veteran of two
gemini and two apollo space flights will
be commander for the first manned
shuttle mission
here he practices making landings in a
space shuttle simulator at the johnson
space center with robert crippen the 40
year old astronaut who will fly with
young as pilots
anticipating the space shuttle's flight
schedule in the years ahead nasa
selected 35 new candidate astronauts in
1978 to begin training as shuttle
mission specialists and pilots
the 35 including six women were chosen
from nearly 8 000 applicants and will be
training until mid 1980
enterprise was flown in its now familiar
plane on plane berth from california to
nasa's marshall space flight center in
huntsville alabama
for the first time all the major
components of the space shuttle
transportation system came together for
testing
when completely assembled the shuttle
orbiter will sit astride two recoverable
solid rockets
and atop a giant external fuel tank
the entire system was subjected to
vibrations similar to those that will
occur at launch
at the thigh call corporation facility
in utah a shuttle booster that will
produce about 2.65 million pounds of
thrust at launch was successfully test
fired again
each of the space shuttle's three main
engines that will provide the orbiter
with its primary power from launch pad
almost to earth orbit were also
successfully tested
work is continuing on the second shuttle
orbiter at the rockwell plant in
california this is the spacecraft that
will actually make the first flight with
astronauts young and crippen at the
controls
looking farther ahead marshall space
flight center engineers have been
studying problems that astronauts may
face during future shuttle missions and
they are doing it underwater
this is one of the few ways that near
weightless maneuvers can be practiced
here on earth
1978 was a very busy year for space
science
one of the most ambitious missions
involved two pioneer spacecraft that
were launched toward a rendezvous and
landing on this planet
venus
scientists believe that by studying the
weather of venus they can learn about
our weather here on earth
the pioneer orbiter spacecraft is
programmed to circle venus every 24
hours studying the upper fringes of the
venusian atmosphere as it travels along
the second spacecraft the multi-probe is
made up of a space bus with four
data-gathering spheres that plunge down
simultaneously to different parts of
venus returning valuable information
about its 900 degree surface and carbon
dioxide environment
this is a computer representation of the
atmosphere of jupiter
two unmanned voyager spacecraft are on
route to jupiter now
the first voyager will reach the planet
in march 1979
followed by the second spacecraft four
months later
then on to saturn
at the time of closest encounter on
november 12 1980 voyager 1 will have
traveled 1.4 billion miles through space
the voyager missions make it possible
for scientists to go back in time and
sample the conditions from which the sun
and planets including the earth are
believed to have formed
iue
international ultraviolet explorer is a
telescope in space which is operated
effectively in real time by astronomers
on the ground
visiting astronomers at the goddard
space flight center can have the
telescope pointed decide what data to
take and modify their measurements as
they observe
with craft like iue scientists can begin
thinking in terms of observatories in
space as facilities
also launched in 1978 the second in a
series of high energy astronomy
observatories he 02
the 7000 pound spacecraft carries a
large x-ray telescope with four major
experiments which can be pointed at
specific objects to study them in detail
the high energy explorers are giving
astronomers a different view of our
universe and helping us to better
understand it
the space telescope moved through
another manufacturing phase this year at
the corning glassworks in upstate new
york and is scheduled for deployment by
the shuttle orbiter in 1983.
looking from space with instruments in
space we can see the universe in ways
that are impossible from the ground
bringing us closer to even greater
discoveries in cosmic astronomy
there was continued and increased
emphasis on applications in 1978
landsat 3
a remote sensing spacecraft was orbited
efforts like these over the next decade
will try to develop a capability to
watch and understand what's happening on
the surface of the earth land and water
and to put all that data together in
such a way that it can be used as
management information for the global
environment
before it's so far unexplained short
circuit the first csat collected data
for 99 days
what it returned during that time were
images of sea ice waves coastal
conditions and various land forms
it also measured sea surface wind speeds
and temperatures
project scientists expect it will take
more than a year and a half to process
the data collected by csat
this is beth a perfectly healthy child
of a nasa employee at the johnson space
center in houston texas
she is shown here testing out the fit
and mobility of an isolation suit that
can be used by a youngster with a rare
disorder known as severe combined immune
deficiency disease
because of his inability to fight off
even the most common germs
seven-year-old david has had to be
confined in sterile isolation since
birth
the nasa developed isolation suit now
allows david to get out and at least do
some of the things normal children enjoy
ben abruzzo and maxie anderson
two of the three men that crossed the
atlantic using a helium-filled balloon
stopped by the goddard space flight
center to meet some of the people who
monitored their flight with the help of
the nimbus-6 satellite
on their first attempt the nimbus-6
beacon made it possible to alert air sea
rescue when they became lost in a heavy
storm
so for the second try ben abruzzo said
they decided to take along an extra
beacon on the second flight uh because
of uh
the fact that we knew that the only link
we had with the world on the first
flight was a satellite transmitter we
had two and again the uh information
came to us in flight telling us
of our course and our uh position
it confirmed
the weather data that
our
base station had and allowed us to
change altitudes
properly so that we were able to
complete the flight successfully and in
fact
on the tail end of it we changed
altitude and vectored ourselves onto a
very close
destination
proximity of paris
last january the first large operational
wind generator to be used in the united
states in several decades began
producing electricity
the place clayton new mexico population
about 2900
the project is funded by the department
of energy and managed by nasa's lewis
research center in cleveland the 100
foot high wind generator is capable of
producing 200 kilowatts that feed
directly into clayton's utility system
about enough to electrify 60 homes
the research is aimed at improving
performance and helping determine the
future cost of electric power generated
by wind systems
in aeronautics the emphasis is on basic
research and basic technology preparing
the way for future advances in aviation
at the same time nasa continues to
develop technologies to the point where
industry can take them up
one of the major research efforts
involves using full-scale wind tunnels
and other facilities to improve crop
dusting aircraft
studies of house spraying is affected in
the wake behind the airplane handling
qualities fuel efficiency and overall
airplane performance are the goals
see those vertical fins on the wingtips
of this small business jet
those are called winglets and they were
invented by dr richard t whitcomb of
nasa's langley research center what the
winglets do is reduce the drag on the
plane as it moves through the air saving
fuel in the process
just about any plane can benefit from
the largest jet cargo tankers to small
cross-country planes like this one made
for the home built market
again and again engineering research
pilot jim patton forces his single
engine plane into a stall spin
what he and the data gathering engineers
on the ground are trying to do is
improve the design for wings and tail
sections of airplanes to make them more
resistant to stall spins
this type problem accounts for about 30
percent of crash fatalities in small
private airplanes
combinations of wind tunnels simulators
radio controlled model flights and
full-scale tests are used to gather the
needed data
this is an experimental xv15 tilt rotor
aircraft being put through its paces in
the 40 by 80 foot wind tunnel at nasa's
ames research center
the plane's engines are designed to tilt
from vertical to horizontal in mid
flight making it possible for the craft
to take off hover and land like a
helicopter and it can cruise at the
speed of a fast subsonic airplane
this research is an attempt to develop
more economical short-haul intercity
transportation
at ames they are also flying this
experimental jet called the qsra meaning
quiet short-haul research aircraft a
plane that can operate at lower noise
levels than most of today's small
aircraft carry the same payload as a 727
jet and be able to land on a runway as
short as 1500 feet
at the lewis research center engineers
are working to reduce noise and air
pollution on aircraft engines that will
one day be used for short-haul commuter
type planes aircraft in the 300 to 500
mile range was customarily land at
smaller airports
to move ahead in research and
development and plan the aircraft of 15
to 20 years from now nasa's dryden
flight research center in california has
been test flying the yf-12
an airplane that cruises at three times
the speed of sound being studied are
heating flight stability and control and
structural dynamics all factors that
have great impact on the design and
performance of future aircraft
there were two anniversaries in 1978
that need to be noted
75 years ago orville and wilbur wright
made the first successful powered flight
in an airplane
it was also just 20 years ago that the
space program officially began an
extension of the basic wright brothers
flight
1978 a year of progress in both
aeronautics and space research
this special report brought to you by
nasa the national aeronautics and space
administration