Apr 7 1969
From The Space Library
NASA's Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV ), piloted by NASA test pilot Harold E. Ream, successfully completed six-minute flight at Ellington AFB. LLTV flights had been suspended since Dec. 8, 1968, crash. (AP, B Sun, 4/8/69, A3; 4/7/69, A9)
MSFC announced engineer Chester B. May would be member of oceanologist Dr. Jacques Piccard's six-man crew on Gulf Stream Drift Mission, scientific undersea journey aboard submersible vessel Ben Franklin (PX-15 ). Vessel would drift with Gulf. Stream current from Miami, Fla." to Halifax, Nova Scotia, from four to six weeks beginning in June. May would study vessel's operation and evaluate analogies between it and future NASA space station. Mission, covering 1,450 nm, would be conducted at 1,000-ft average depth, with periodic excursions to 300 ft and 2,000 ft. PX-15, designed by Dr. Piccard, would remain submerged throughout journey. Crew would experience space station characteristics: isolation, confinement, and stressful environment. (Release 69-100; Marshall Star, 4/9/69, 1)
"World's only jet-powered personal jet propulsion system"-jet belt developed by Bell Aerosystems Co. under DOD sponsorship-made its first free flight near Niagara Falls International Airport. Device would provide quick-response, individual aerial mobility. (DOD Newsfilm Release 185-69; AFJ, 6/14/69, 20)
In U.S.'s Annual Review of National and Co-Operative International Space Activities, Soviet Government report said Soviet scientists had paid "great attention" to developing methods of detecting signs of life on other planets. "With the development of space research, the problem of detecting life on the celestial bodies closest to the earth by means of space craft is becoming a priority matter. The considerable difference between conditions on the surface of the moon, Venus and Mars and those in which terrestrial life exists makes it necessary for us to extend our knowledge of the limits within which terrestrial life and life in general can exist. In this connexion Soviet scientists are investigating the possible limits of the existence of life. The absence of systematic processes for the movement of matter on the moon obviously makes active life on its surface impossible. On Mars, where free liquid water is probably absent, life is possible using matter transfer by frost, ice in the soil, water vapour and the wind. Examination of the temperature limits for the existence of life gives rise to a number of considerations which allow us not to exclude the possibility of the existence of life, in for example, the polar regions of Venus." (Text)
Space Publications, Inc." reported its poll of Senate showed 48 Senators opposed to or "leaning against" deployment of proposed Safeguard ABM system; 46 for or leaning toward deployment; and 6 uncommitted, of which 4 had record of voting for former Sentinel system and 2 against. (SBD, 4/7/69, 167)
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