Marshall Highlights for 1975

The year 1975 was a busy one for the Marshall Center, one in which a lot of achievements were realized without - in many cases - a lot of fanfare.

The launch of the American crew for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project by the Marshall Center's 32nd and last Saturn rocket received world-wide attention. SA-210 performed flawlessly.

The Space Processing Applications Rocket (SPAR) launch on Dec. 11, on a much smaller scale, scarcely noted publicly, was equally successful. The Black Brant VC sounding rocket carried the materials processing payload to an altitude of about 225 kilometers (140 miles) to give it some five minutes of near-zero-G during the descent. The payload was recovered intact.

One other launch carried a Marshall Center payload - a 10,000,000 cubic-foot balloon released at Palestine, Tex., on June 22. The gamma ray detector instrument package reached an altitude of about 40 kilometers (125,000 feet). The payload was separated from the balloon, lowered by parachute, recovered intact and returned to MSFC.

Personnel strength at the center continued the downward trend which began after the peak of the Saturn project. Reduction-in force notices went to 214 employees in January but the number actually separated in March was only 69. Dr. W. R Lucas, center director, said later that no further manpower reductions were foreseen for 1975.

Women moved into the spotlight with International Women's Year, Federal Women's Day, notable activities of the National Secretaries Association (International) and women scientists designing experiments on materials processing in space. Throughout the year the "Marshall Star" featured 24 women professionals employed at MSFC.

The Marshall Center observed its 15th Anniversary in July - and marked the sixth anniversary of that first lunar landing - recalling Neil Armstrong's "The Eagle has landed." The annual employee picnic was held in September.

A number of intermediate goals were reached in the Space Shuttle Program, some of which were major milestones. By year's end fixtures for manufacturing External Tanks were nearing completion at the Michoud Assembly Facility.

The first main engine, the Integrated Subsystem Test Bed (1STB), was completed by the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International in March, a month ahead of schedule. It was ignited June 7 and a main chamber firing was conducted June 24 under the Marshall Center's direction at the National Space Technology Laboratories.

Work advanced on a number of major Shuttle tasks. including work by Martin Marietta Corp. on the External Tank Solid Rocket Boosters by Thiokol Corp., and other hardware. (The first Orbiter neared completion at Palmdale, Calif., under direction of the Johnson Space Center, and the contract for the Shuttle landing strip was awarded by the Kennedy Space Center.)

The Marshall Center was assigned definition responsibility or the Atmospheric, Magnetospheric and Plasmas in Space (AMPS) project, a task team was formed and a manager appointed. Parallel definition studies are being made under contracts totaling $1 million awarded in November.

Energy was a big item at Marshall during 1975, with a Solar Heating and Cooling Task Team established to carry out assignments from the Energy Research and Development Administration. Later in the year, the Advanced Mineral Extraction Task Team was established here.

MSFC became the lead NASA center for the agency's standardization program for procuring electronics parts. The first NASA Standard Parts List (NSTL) was prepared for distribution to all NASA centers and contractors in operation at the center.

Phasing out of the Skylab Program and shipment of the backup Orbital Workshop to the National Air and Space Museum at Washington came in the same year as new emphasis was placed on future manned space stations - to be further investigated under two contracts to be awarded in the spring.

Ground was broken in January for an X-ray Telescope Test Facility, and in December a contract was awarded for industry to provide the X-ray source system.

Two contracts were awarded for further studies of an "Earth Orbiting Teleoperator System," and the X-ray telescope for the U. S. British "Skylark" project was shipped to Australia for launch in the spring of 1976.

Progress on Spacelab was made during the year, and two more Concept Verification Testing projects were completed in the center's General Purpose Laboratory. Also showing progress were the Space Telescope, High Energy Astronomy Observatory and Gravitational Redshift Space Probe projects.

The Laser Geodynamic Satellite (Lagcos) was shipped to the West Coast in May for testing, and development and demonstration of Flat Conductor Cable took an up swing.

More knowledge of weather processes is the goal behind an effort to define and design an Atmospheric Cloud Physics Laboratory (ACPL) envisioned as a payload in Spacelab on early Shuttle missions. Two firms were selected for negotiation of parallel tracts.

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