Aug 24 1964
From The Space Library
MSC Public Affairs Officer Paul Haney said it was doubtful that there would be a manned space flight this year- The two-man Project Gemini flight (GT-3) had previously been planned for late 1964- However, lightning damage at Cape Kennedy where Titan II launch vehicle was being prepared for GT-2 unmanned flight would cause mini-mum delay of three weeks in GT-2, Haney said. Length of time GT-3 would be delayed would depend upon how long GT-2 would be delayed. (UPI, NYT, 8/25/64; Maloney, Houston Post, 8/25/64)
SYNCOM III might be in position to relay television pictures from Japan as soon as the first week in September, NASA said. The satellite was drifting eastward on the equator at rate of about 483 miles per day. (AP, Balt. Sun, 8/25/64)
NASA announced it would purchase 102 additional J-2 rocket engines for Saturn IB and Saturn V launch vehicles at cost of about $165 million. Contract would be negotiated by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center with Rocketdyne Div. of North American Aviation, Inc. (NASA Release 64-211)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center announced Sylvania Electronics Systems-East had been selected to negotiate $13 million contract for transportable ground station ("Advanced Technological Satellite Transportable Ground Station"). Sylvania would design, fabricate, install, test, and check out the system, which featured two-extremely low noise amplifiers: one a maser and the other a parametric amplifier. These amplifiers operate at temperatures in the range of -440° F and prevent spacecraft signals being overshadowed by heat-induced noise generated inside the receiver. (GSFC Release G-23-64)
NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr, said in an address before Veterans of Foreign Wars, Cleveland: "Today, because of vigorous United States space effort, the early Soviet leadership has been largely overcome. We now must demonstrate our determination to drive ahead toward unchallenged and enduring preeminence in space. . . . "To be secure in the world today a great nation must maintain a posture of strength.. . . "Space research and national security are also intertwined because of the potential uses to which the fruits of our research can be put. Because the consequences of nuclear war are potentially so disastrous for the human race, economic competition has assumed increasing importance as a measure of the strength of competing ideologies. More-over, scientific and technical research and development have become the basic elements in this competition. . . ". . . for nations which are today still floundering amidst conditions less tolerable than those of Colonial America, great hope for more rapid progress lies in the new ideas, techniques and methods which are arising from our research and development in space. "If we can employ the scientific knowledge and technical ideas developed in our space program to help the impoverished nations help themselves, and thus reduce their requirement for direct financial aid, how much better for them and for ourselves. "Our greatest hope for national security, of course, lies in achieving in the world a degree of international amity which can lead to enduring peace. Here, again, the exploration of space offers great promise, for in the acceptance of this greatest of all challenges, man can join in shooting rockets into space, instead of shooting them at each other. "Our national leaders have recognized that if we are to arrive at an understanding with the Soviet Union which will permit the exploration of space to become a mutual project, for the benefit of all mankind, we must maintain a driving national effort in space to insure a technological balance that will make this possible. . . . " (Text)
Dr. Orr E. Reynolds, Director of NASA Biosciences Div., told Missiles and Rockets that it probably would be 1971 or 1973 before US. landed Automated Biological Laboratory (ABL) on Mars: "I think it would be awfully optimistic to think that we could fly a fully integrated laboratory system to the Martian surface in 1969. I would like to hope such a mission would be feasible in 1971, and the 1973 launch window would also provide a good opportunity" Other unnamed NASA officials were said to have considered launch of ABL with Saturn V booster in 1971 as improbable, citing the high cost and "problems with sterilization methods which have to be solved." ABL missions would be part of the Voyager planetary program. (M&R, 8/24/64, 15)
August 24: FAA announced purchase of runway traction device to enable engineers to predict stopping distances for aircraft on wet or slippery runways. Designed and developed by J. I. Thompson Co., the equipment consisted of hydraulically operated mechanism mounted on aircraft tire and towed behind specially equipped truck; special controls permitted technicians to duplicate actual speed, skid, and braking effects of aircraft landing on slick runways. (FAA Release T 64-44)
August 24-28: International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences held its fourth Congress in Paris. At the Congress, Harold B. Finger, Manager of AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office and Director of NASA Nuclear Systems and Space Power, made presentation on nuclear space propulsion systems: . . . Space propulsion using nuclear energy offers a capability for accomplishment of high energy increment, high payload missions in space beyond the capability of the chemical combustion propulsion systems when considering practical operating limitations. Work now underway in the United States indicates that nuclear rockets can be anticipated for earliest use in the space program. Reactor tests being conducted during this year should provide a firm technical basis for system development. Electric propulsion using the nuclear reactor energy source offers promising storable propellant performance if light-weight, long-life power supplies can be developed. Technology investigations are now underway to evaluate the feasibility of achieving the required performance. This work will simultaneously provide the information that is required to provide large amounts of electric power for non-propulsive purposes in space. Beyond these systems, a host of new and advanced concepts have been proposed. These are not well enough defined or evaluated to assure that their high performance potential can actually be achieved. Some research work is underway on these systems." (Text)
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