Aug 3 1966
From The Space Library
X-15 No. 2 was flown to 3,443 mph (mach 4.85) and 249,000-ft. altitude by Maj. William J. Knight (USAF) on star-tracking mission. (X-15 Proj. Off.)
Two tape recorders in NASA's NIMBUS II meteorological satellite had failed but spacecraft continued to transmit daytime and nighttime cloud-cover photos. Loss of first recorder, used to store data from Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer (Mrir) , would prevent scientists from receiving information on earth's heat balance, water vapor, and temperatures in the atmosphere. Failure of second recorder, used in measuring satellite's engineering performance, would force NIMBUS II to transmit information each time it passed a ground station instead of storing it for more convenient playback. Since its launch by NASA May 15, NIMBUS II had met all mission objectives and transmitted more than 200,000 weather photos on a global scale. (NASA Release 66-203)
First manned Apollo mission might be launched in late 1966, predicted Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom during news conference held by Apollo crew and backup crew at North American Aviation, Inc.'s Downey, Calif., facility. Mission was officially scheduled for 1967. (Transcript)
Senate Committee on Appropriations reported FY 1967 Independent Offices Appropriation bill (H.R. 14921) , which included $4,991,600,000 appropriation for NASA: $4,246,600,000 for R&D; $95,000,000 for construction of facilities; and $650,000,000 for administrative operations. (NASA LAR V/126)
Tokyo Univ.'s Institute of Space and Aviation announced successful launch of Japan's first television-equipped sounding rocket: 1.4-ton rocket carried 22-lb. TV camera to 200-mi. (322-km.) altitude. (UPI, Wash. Post, 8/4/66)
NASA modified existing cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts with North American Aviation, Inc., and IBM Corp. for Apollo program services with new agreements totaling $252.6 million: under $145.6 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract extended through December 1968, NAA would provide 52 additional J-2 engines for launch vehicles as well as support services; IBM would receive $107 million under multiple-incentive con-. tract, extended through February 1970, for design, development, implementation, maintenance, and operation of MSC's Real Time Computer Complex (RTCC). (NASA Release 66-205; MSFC Release 66-176)
Dr. Leonard Roberts, a specialist on reentry heat shielding at LBRC, was named Director of the Mission Analysis Div., NASA Office of Advanced Research and Technology, effective Sept. 1. He would succeed Clarence A. Syvertson, who would become Assistant Director for Astronautics at ARC. (NASA Release 66-198)
US. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals rejected a challenge to the validity of a key patent in laser development granted to Dr. Charles H. Townes, former provost of MIT, and Dr. Arthur L. Shawlow, Stanford Univ., in 1958. Plaintiff R. Gordon Gould, a Columbia Univ. graduate student when Dr. Townes was doing research there, argued that he had initiated a critical portion of the laser design-the mirror principle-in November 1957. The patent for his idea, granted after the Townes Shawlow patent, was held by a subsidiary of Control Data Corp. (NYT, 8/6/66, 10)
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