Marshall
Highlights for 1973
The appointment of new Center director and the end of an
era in launch vehicles were two of the more significant events
of 1973 at the Marshall Center.
Dr. Rocco A. Petrone assumed the duties of MSFC director
January 26, replacing Dr. Eberhard Rees who retired after
serving as director since March 1970. Dr. Petrone came to
the Marshall Center from the Office of A Manned Space Flight
at NASA Headquarters where he had served since 1969 as director
of the Apollo Program.
It was "homecoming" for Dr. Petrone. He had
begun his extensive career in rocket development in 1952
while stationed at Redstone Arsenal with the Army. Since
that time he has served with the Army and later NASA at
Cape Canaveral. Washington, D. C. and the Kennedy Space
Center.
At 12:30 p.m. on May 14, AS-513 lifted off from the Kennedy
Space Center carrying America's first space station - Skylab
- into Earth orbit. That launch of the Saturn V marked the
end of an era in the history of Saturn launch vehicles -
launch vehicles developed by the Marshall Center.
Although problems with Skylab developed early in the flight
the launch of AS-513, like the 12 previous Saturn V launchings,
was successful.
The Saturn V history is a glorious one. It began Nov.
9, 1967 with the launch of AS-501, an unmanned vehicle.
The first manned Saturn V carried the Apollo 8 astronauts
on their memorable Christmas orbit of the Moon. Perhaps
the most famous Saturn V flight however was that of AS-506
which was launched July 16, 1969 and carried the crew of
Apollo 11 into lunar orbit. Four days after the launch,
on July 20, Neil Armstrong took his historic "one small
step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
Three other launchings of Marshall-developed rockets took
place in 1973 - the three manned Skylab launchings. Saturn
IB rockets SA-206, 207 and 208 were successfully launched
from KSC, sending the three Skylab crews into Earth orbit
where they later rendezvoused with the Skylab space station.
Only one more Saturn 1B launch is planned, that in 1975 for
the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).
Several other significant events occurred at MSFC in 1973,
including further development of the Space Shuttle. MSFC
is responsible for design and development of three major
elements of the Shuttle system, the three main engines that
will power the Orbiter, the external tank which will hold
the propellants for the engines during launch and ascent
to orbit and the solid rocket boosters.
During the past year, the Martin Marietta Corp., Denver
Division. was selected for negotiation of a contract for
the design, development, test and evaluation of the external
tank, and the Thiokol Chemical Corp. of Brigham City, Utah.
was selected for negotiation of the same type for the solid
rocket motors, which are a part of the solid rocket boosters.
In conjunction with the Shuttle, the European Space Research
Organization (ESRO) announced in 1973 that their organization
would design, develop and manufacture a Spacelab to be launched
by the Shuttle The Spacelab agreement, signed in March,
represents a major step in the sharing of space costs between
the U. S. and European countries.
Spacelab efforts in the U S will be managed by the Marshall
Center. NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight assigned the
Spacelab lead center role to Marshall shortly after the
NASA-ESRO agreement was signed.
The Marshall Center civil service personnel strength dropped
slightly during 1973. There were 5,348 permanent civil service
workers at the start of the year and as of December 15 that
total Had dropped to 5,030. The MSFC payroll for the year
totaled $104,268,000.
The number of support contractors for MSFC also dropped
during the year. There were 3,678 at the start of the year
and 3,477 as of December 15.
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