Marshall Highlights for 1974

The appointment of a new director, a major reorganization and associated personnel reductions, the end of the Skylab mission and further development of a variety of programs highlighted 1974 at the Marshall Center.

Dr. William R. Lucas was named in March to succeed Dr. Rocco A. Petrone as director of the Marshall Center. Dr. Petrone accepted the post of associate administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Lucas, who has been in the science and management areas at MSFC and its predecessor organizations for 22 years, assumed his duties in June after serving as deputy director for four years.

Richard Smith was named deputy director in November.

The major reorganization and streamlining of the center became effective May 30.

The total number of permanent civil service personnel at the Marshall Center dropped from 4,980 in January to 4,357 as of Dec. 14. The number of support contractor personnel also declined, with 2,297 at the beginning of 1974 and 1,904 as of Dec. 14.

The total direct payroll for the Marshall Center was $106,144,265.47 for calendar year l974.

The record-breaking Skylab mission, composed largely of Marshall-developed hardware, came to a close Feb. 8 with the splashdown of the Skylab 4 astronauts.

Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, visited the Marshall Center twice in 1974 once in April and in November, each time to present special Skylab awards.

Development of major programs of the future continued to go forward during 1974, with the next flight mission scheduled being the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in July, 1975.

U.S. and Soviet spokesmen report that all aspects of the ASTP are on schedule. Joint crew training was conducted in the U.S.S.R. June 23-July 15 and in the United States Sept. 9-30.

The launch vehicle for the Apollo, Saturn IB-210, was removed from storage at the Vehicle Assembly Building, Kennedy Space Center, in September for the beginning of post-storage checkout.

Soyuz 16, the Soviet ASTP forerunner, completed a successful mission before the end of the year with a safe landing on Dec. 8.

A Space Shuttle Main Engine component was first hot fired on April 14 at Santa Susana, Calif., in a successful run of a preburner assembly.

Shuttle model acoustic tests were underway by the first of September at the Marshall Center. Also in September, $6.1 million was earmarked for Shuttle facilities at the Marshall Center.

A contract was awarded in November to Algernon-Blair Industrial Contractors Inc., of Atlanta for the modification of the S-IC test stand at the Marshall Center for the structural testing of the Shuttle's External Tank.

A contract for the construction of the Spacelab, being developed by European countries, was awarded by the European Space Research Organization to ERNO-VFW-Fokker on June 5.

In May the Marshall Center issued requests for proposal on six studies related to the Space Tug, a reusable stage to be carried in the Shuttle, and in July the contracts for these six studies were issued.

The Marshall Center began a project in January aimed at developing solar energy technology. MSFC was named in September the lead NASA Center for carrying out the agency's responsibilities under the Solar Heating and Cooling Act of 1974.

Test operation was begun as construction was completed in early June on a house using only solar energy for its heating and cooling needs. By early December, the house was collecting enough solar energy to fulfill its heating requirements, with air conditioning capability having also been demonstrated earlier in the year.