it was the year the Space Shuttle made
its transition from orbital flight tests
to commercial operations a new Landsat
satellite is returning extremely sharp
pictures of Earth and its resources
cooperation with several other countries
and infrared astronomy sometimes
launched and the ad once is a winged
aircraft showed what it could do at the
Oshkosh air show
more than eight days in space as part of
the test program to check out space
shuttle Columbia systems the crew
started and we started the orbital
maneuvering engines turned the orbiter
toward and then away from the Sun for
thermal testing and successfully
operated the remote manipulator arm
picking up and moving various parts of a
space science payload they also carried
experiments to monitor solar flares
medical and materials processing and the
effects of zero gravity on flying
insects as suggested by high school
student table no see after 384 hours and
a one-day delay because of bad weather
Columbia landed at the Army's White
Sands Missile Range in New Mexico
approximately 12 weeks later astronauts
Tom Mattingly and Henry Hartsfield
piloted Columbia on its fourth and final
test flight the spacecraft's nearly
flawless performance marked a fitting
end to the orbital flight test program
making it possible to certify the space
transportation system as a fully
operational carrier on July 4th after
seven days in orbit Columbia made a
perfect landing on a concrete runway
another first the president and mrs.
Reagan were there to watch the landing
and greet the crew November 11th and
Space Shuttle five the first operational
flight to commercial communication
satellites were hauled into orbit one
for satellite business systems and one
for Telesat of Canada their deployment
was a complete success
space shuttle had delivered as promised
Columbia and the four astronaut crew
landed back on earth at 9:33 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time on
remember 16 another milestone event the
completion and rollout of the second
Space Shuttle Orbiter took place in July
christened challenger the new orbiter is
scheduled for its first mission
challenger travelled overland to NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Facility where it
was mounted on top of the 747 Carrier
aircraft and flown to the Kennedy Space
Center Florida to ready for its first
one
looking farther into the future nASA has
selected eight companies to prepare
Space Station mission studies the
studies will contribute to the
development of specific mission
requirements and overall architectural
options which will be incorporated in
NASA studies of a shuttle tended
permanent orbiting facility the
companies are expected to identify and
analyze the scientific commercial
national security and space operational
missions that could be most efficiently
conducted by a space station 1982 was
also a busy time for unmanned spacecraft
two satellites for Western Union were
launched called Westar four and five
these communication satellites relay a
variety of radio television programs as
well as transmit complete editions of
magazines to regional printing plants US
News and World Report time people and
Sports Illustrated all dreams west on
other unmanned launches included an
annek for communication satellite
operated by Telesat of Canada RCA
Americans except comm four and five
at 5:00 around the country the various
elements of the space telescope are
being worked on and assembled at the
PerkinElmer plant in Connecticut the 92
inch telescope mirror has been finally
buffed and polished a wide field camera
is being built and tested at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena these
mock-ups of the Space Telescope's parts
give an idea of its size it's here at
the Lockheed plant in Sunnyvale
California that it will be assembled at
the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Alabama astronauts practice working
around the Space Telescope in a tank
filled with water to simulate the
gravity free space environment the Space
Telescope will be placed into orbit from
the shuttle payload Bay in 1985 it's
designed to be an international
observatory located in space for the
study of the universe and is expected to
provide new advances in astronomy and
physics an infrared astronomical
satellite will soon be launched from the
Western Test range in California it's
shown here undergoing tests at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory iris as it is
called is a
International project that includes NASA
the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
the new Earth orbiting instrument with
its 68 infrared detectors will be used
to witness the birth of new stars and
the death of old ones iris will probe
through space searching for celestial
phenomena that are invisible to our eyes
but glow in the infrared
pioneers 8 & 9 launched in 1967 and 1968
and orbiting the Sun since that time
passed within 1 and 1/2 million miles of
each other on October 7th in space terms
a close encounter they like the two
unmanned pioneers that followed them
pioneers 10 and 11 continued to return a
stream of new information about our
solar system to earthbound scientists
the spacecraft have traveled billions of
miles from Earth passing safely through
rocky asteroid and radiation belts along
the way these are some of the last
photographs of Mars they were taken by
the Viking one orbiter and processed
this past spring at NASA's Jet
Propulsion lab more than 50 thousand
photographs have been taken by the
Viking spacecraft since 1976 the two
Vikings were launched seven years ago as
they arrived at Mars
the lander portion of the spacecraft
separated and touched down soft play on
the Martian surface leaving the orbiters
circling above the planet the Viking one
Lander continues to send back valuable
imaging and meteorological data every
week
the fourth earth scanning Landsat was
launched from California on July 16th
Landsat 4 is designed to continuously
collect accurate information on earth's
resources information useful in land use
planning exploration and agriculture an
onboard thematic mapper recorded these
views which should help urban planners
better manage and monitor urban sprawl
into the surrounding countryside after
completing its three-year mission
Landsat 4 is designed to be retrieved by
the space shuttle
this is Medicine Bow Wyoming sighted the
dedication of two wind powered
generators on September 4th the project
is a joint endeavor of NASA's Lewis
Research Center the Department of Energy
and the Bureau of Reclamation one unit
was built by the Hamilton standard
company and is nearly 400 feet high it's
capable of producing 4 megawatts of
electricity the second unit constructed
by the Boeing engineering and
construction company is powered by a
rotor 300 feet in diameter and can
produce 2.5 megawatts of electricity
when operating together the pair of wind
turbines will provide enough energy to
meet the needs of 3,000 homes in the
Rocky Mountain area the Lewis Research
Center has been working on experimental
ion electric rocket engines for more
than two decades electric engines
produce minut amounts of thrust and do
it more efficiently than conventional
chemical rockets one experimental
electric engine cert 2 has been tested
for 11 years and journeyed more than a
billion and a half miles through space
ion propulsion systems are especially
attractive for possible Comet and
asteroid rendezvous missions exploration
of the outer planets station keeping of
communication satellites and orbital
platforms
the next space test of an ion rocket
engine will take place in 1983 the Lewis
Center has also been working on earth
applications of solar power for example
a solar electric powered medical clinic
has been designed and several
constructed for the US Agency for
International Development built by the
solar X corporation they're being
installed in remote villages in Guiana
Ecuador Kenya and Zimbabwe the medical
system package includes a refrigerator
sterilizer examination light two-way
radio and numerous interior and exterior
lights all powered from the Sun
scientists from the university of
southern california are applying
space-related computerized image
analysis techniques to the earthly
treatment of arteriosclerosis and
stenosis of the arteries diseases that
affect thousands of Americans to
calculate the degree of disease present
the computer first indicates the edges
of the artery with black lines the white
lines which just appeared are the
computer's best estimate of where the
walls of the artery would be if there
were no disease precedent using these
guidelines and statistics such as the
degree of narrowing
for the patient's file these same
techniques were used to enhance
significant areas of the planet Saturn
for scientific study from pictures taken
by the Voyager spacecraft research and
technology
case in point the rotor systems research
aircraft
flying laboratory looks like a cross
between the airplane in a helicopter and
can fly like both the main objectives of
the research are two flight tests
advanced rotor concepts to increase
performance lower noise and vibrations
and improve flight control systems the
our sra is a valuable tool for testing
out the new rotor concepts the bell
xv-15 is another research aircraft that
holds great promise for both military
and civilian use it can hover like a
helicopter or cruise like a turboprop
airplane once the 25-foot prop rotors
are rotated forward it can fly at speeds
up to 350 miles per hour the xv-15 flow
proof of concept and extensive
operational demonstration flights for
the military in 1982 including the one
shown here for the Navy
after practicing carrier takeoffs and
landings at the Navy's North Island Base
in San Diego the tiltrotor went through
sea trials on the USS Tripoli
the xv-15 is generating a lot of
interest for use in search-and-rescue
operations as an economical way to
supply offshore oil rigs and is an
intercity transport
a wind tunnel at the Lewis Research
Center in Cleveland is one of the places
research is being done to design highly
efficient propellers for future aircraft
the unusually shaped propeller has many
blades which spin at speeds greater than
those of conventional props when applied
to commercial transport aircraft
researchers believe it will result in
fuel savings of as much as 30% over
conventional turbofan-powered planes
while operating at similar speeds and
altitudes the Lewis Center also has an
icing research tunnel to study problems
associated with aircraft flying into
conditions that cause ice to build on
plane surfaces the main objective is to
provide for more efficient more
lightweight ice protection systems that
can be applied to general aviation
aircraft helicopters and future
commercial transports
to NASA Aeronautics
for the 1982 Experimental Aircraft
Association National Convention in
Oshkosh Wisconsin
NASA's Langley Louis and Ames Research
Center's participated in the eight day
event with people and equipment
highlighted at the world's largest
annual aviation
when NASA's research and advanced
technology
in civil-military
600,000 people saw massive pilot Tom
McMurtry from the Dryden Flight Research
Facility would be a weakling 81 airplane
and rotated to a big angle of up to 60
degrees
variety of aircraft
missions of Shuttle Orbiter Columbia to
space science applications and aircraft
research this country's aeronautics and
space efforts moved forward on many
fronts in 1982
this special report brought to you by
NASA the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration