Date
.
Jan. 22, 1969
NASA launched OSO 5 successfully.
NASA Acting Administrator Thomas O. Paine approved follow-on
OSO missions I, J, and K with a first launch scheduled for
early 1973.
Mar. 1969
Goddard Space Flight Center announced
the opportunity to participate with experiment proposals in
solar physics for an improved OSO.
Aug. 4-15, 1969
The Joint Institute for Laboratory
Astrophysics hosted an OSO workshop to put OSO data into the
context of the whole spectral range of solar data.
Aug. 9, 1969
NASA launched OSO 6
successfully.
Feb. 1970
NASA chose seven experiments for
OSO-I from 30 proposals.
Apr. 1, 1970
Goddard issued a request for
proposals (RFP) for the OSO-I-K spacecraft (1 prototype and
3 flight-ready spacecraft).
June 1, 1970
Ball Brothers Research Corp., Hughes
Aircraft, and TRW, Inc., responded to the OSO RFP.
Aug. 8, 1970
Goddard modified its RFP to read one
protoflight and two flight-ready spacecraft.
Sept. 14, 1970
The three interested companies
resubmitted their proposals.
Nov. 1970
Thirty-six scientists submitted
proposals for OSO-J investigations.
Dec. 1970
NASA announced that it had chosen
Hughes Aircraft as the prime contractor for the follow-on
OSO contract.
Feb.-Mar. 1971
NASA scientists study the OSO-J
proposals.
May 14, 1971
NASA awarded Hughes the OSO
contract.
June 1971
NASA Headquarters announced its
recommendations for OSO-J experiments.
Sept. 29, 1971
NASA successfully launched
OSO-7.
Late 1971
Because of expected budget cuts by
Congress, NASA Headquarters managers identified the
follow-on OSO missions as a possible candidate for
termination or postponement.
Mar. 1972
NASA Headquarters managers decided to
defer any activity on OSO-J and K until the budget situation
had been better defined but to continue with OSO-I.
Late Mar. 1972
Hughes informed NASA of a project
cost overrun with OSO-I.
June 9, 1972
NASA changed the launch readiness
date for OSO-I from November 1973 to June 1974, primarily
for fiscal reasons.
Sept. 26, 1972
NASA announced that OSO-J and K would
not be funded in FY 1973.
Feb. 1974
Because of FY 1975 budget cuts, NASA
postponed the launch of OSO-I.
June 21, 1975
NASA successfully launched OSO 8, the
last of the OSO series.