WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Numerous representatives of local, regional and national news media turned out today to view the Pioneer Venus-A spacecraft, now undergoing checkout for launch aboard an Atlas Centaur rocket in May. The spacecraft is to enter orbit around the planet in December and be on station to monitor data from probes being hurled into the Venusian atmosphere by the Pioneer Venus-B spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in August. Briefing the press on the project were Don Sheppard, Chief of Spacecraft Operations at KSC; Ralph W. Holtzclaw, Spacecraft Manager, and Dave Sinnott, Test Integration Manager for Experiments, the latter two both from the Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.