1971 Aeronautics and Space Highlights (NASA Film)

In this year-end film, NASA looked back on 1971 in aeronautics and space and previewed what was coming. The highlights, as the film presented them:

Mars from orbit

Three earlier Mariner spacecraft had flown past Mars, giving only fleeting glimpses from no closer than 2,000 miles. On November 13, 1971, Mariner 9 fired its braking rocket and became the first of the series to go into orbit around Mars. Circling the planet twice a day and coming within 850 miles of the surface, it was to photograph and gather data for at least three months, mapping 70 percent of the surface and examining the two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. Mars, with its clouds, seasonal changes and polar ice caps, seemed the most Earth-like planet, and scientists hoped Mariner 9 would show whether it was evolving or decaying and offer clues to the history of Mars, Earth and the solar system.

Watching the Sun and Earth's surroundings

NASA launched three uncrewed scientific satellites to learn how the Sun affects our environment:

• IMP (Interplanetary Monitoring Platform), the eighth in its series, explored interplanetary space and the outer edge of Earth's magnetosphere, and gave warning of solar flare radiation that could endanger astronauts headed for the Moon.
• SOLRAD, launched with the Naval Research Laboratory, studied the Sun's radiation and the disturbances that can disrupt long-range communications and navigation.
• OSO 7, the latest Orbiting Solar Observatory, sent back images of the Sun's disk and inner corona as it sought the direct effects of solar flares on the environment, weather and communications.

A small scientific satellite investigated the causes of worldwide magnetic disturbances in the magnetosphere, the huge teardrop-shaped region formed by the solar wind blowing against Earth's magnetic field.

Nearly 300 sounding rockets were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, in 1971, carrying experiments from scientists around the world into the region above the atmosphere but below orbiting satellites. And on its eighth flight, Stratoscope II, a four-ton telescope lifted by a giant balloon, sought sharper pictures of galaxies, nebulae and Saturn from above the blurring atmosphere; it could tell apart two objects 30 miles apart from 1,000 miles away.

Earth resources

Aircraft tested cameras and sensors for future Earth-resources satellites and the Skylab space station. As a side benefit, high-altitude infrared photos taken during the 1971 growing season, analyzed by Purdue University and the Department of Agriculture, showed how widely southern corn blight had spread. At the request of Jamaica's government, survey flights looked for why much of the island's 200 inches of rainfall never reaches its cities, and early analysis supported the idea that undersea springs carry some of it offshore. A pair of converted high-altitude aircraft at NASA's Ames Research Center simulated future satellites for studying agriculture, forestry, geology, oceanography and urban development.

Aeronautics

• A plane with a new supercritical wing, flown at NASA's Flight Research Center in California, changed the airflow over the wing to allow faster, longer, cheaper flight.
• The YF-12, capable of 2,000 miles per hour, made 25 test flights in a joint NASA–Air Force program studying propulsion, engine restarts in flight, heating and structural dynamics.
• The wingless M2 lifting body was dropped over a California dry lake eight times, a forerunner of craft like the proposed shuttle that would return from space and land like an airplane.
• The X-14B vertical takeoff and landing plane, fitted with an onboard digital computer, began flying at Ames as a flying simulator of proposed aircraft, while the OV-10A Bronco tested ideas for short takeoff and landing planes for intercity travel.
• To reduce noise, NASA and American Airlines spent 50 hours testing steeper landing approaches with higher altitude and lower power, and the Lewis Research Center worked on an engine 15 to 20 decibels quieter than existing ones.
• Langley Research Center, with the Air Force and FAA, repeatedly flooded runways at airports around the country to learn how long jets take to stop on wet pavement.

Apollo 14 and 15

On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American launched into space. Ten years later, on January 31, 1971, he flew again as commander of Apollo 14, the third Moon landing, with astronauts Mitchell and Roosa. The mission began large-scale scientific use of the Moon, returning 94 pounds of rock from the ancient hills of Fra Mauro that were revealing a story 3.5 billion years old about the early history of the Moon and other planets.

Apollo 15, in July, was to be the most extensive lunar exploration yet. After training at the Rio Grande Gorge in New Mexico, astronauts Scott and Irwin landed their spacecraft Falcon near Hadley Rille in the foothills of the Apennine Mountains, drove the lunar rover more than 16 miles and brought back 180 pounds of rocks and deep core samples. From lunar orbit the crew released a small subsatellite, and on the way home Al Worden stepped outside to retrieve film from two mapping cameras.

Skylab

Dale Myers, NASA's director of manned spaceflight, reported that 1971 had been a big year for Skylab, the first U.S. space station: its hardware was taking shape, qualification testing was under way, and major elements were in final manufacturing and checkout. To him, its chief importance was the chance to learn more about people's ability to live and work in space.

Sources

• NASA, "1971 Aeronautics and Space Highlights" (film). https://images.nasa.gov/details/1971%20Aeronautics%20and%20Space%20Highlights
• NASA's published transcript is machine-generated and garbles several names; this page uses the standard spellings Roosa, SOLRAD, OSO 7, Stratoscope II, YF-12, X-14B, Hadley Rille, braking rocket and corn blight.