Dec 3 1964
From The Space Library
Speaking at Georgetown Univ.'s 175th anniversary convocation, President Johnson said: "For almost the first time the interdependence of nations is not a remote goal or a ringing slogan. It is a fact which we neglect at our peril. "Communications satellites, atomic rockets and jet transports have made distant capitals into close neighbors. Our challenge is to trans-form this reality into an instrument for the freedom of man. "Today the cost of failure to communicate is not silence or serenity but destruction and dissolution." (Text, Wash. Eve. Star, 12/3/64)
President Johnson directed that contracts of engine and airframe manufacturers working on a projected supersonic transport plane, which expired Nov. 30, be extended. Four firms were affected: the Boeing Co., and Lockheed Aircraft Corp., which had airframe contracts; and the General Electric Co., and the Pratt & Whitney Div. of the United Aircraft Corp., which had engine contracts. (AP, Wash. Post, 12/4/64)
A joint British-American group of communications engineers was preparing recommendations for a communications base in the Seychelles Islands, northeast of Madagascar. Station would fill a wide gap between Atlantic and Pacific stations in the present worldwide chain of receiving-transmitting stations for satellites. Existing network, set up by the U.S. Navy, had to rely on shipboard stations for Indian Ocean coverage. British responsibility would be limited to the real estate involved while the U.S. would build and equip the station and furnish most of the operating personnel. (Watson, Balt. Sun, 12/31/64)
Eighteen top business leaders accompanied by NASA officials toured NASA Michoud Operations as part of a Life magazine-sponsored visit of space facilities across the country. They were briefed by Dr. Wernher von Braun, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and Dr. G. N. Constan, Michoud manager. (N.O. Times-Picayune, 12/4/64)
Alamogordo, N. Mex., sonic boom test site for supersonic air-liner program was repaired 24 hours after it was battered by the boom from an F-104. A spokesman for the FAA said: "The damage was not as extensive as we first feared. We are still on schedule, and should complete the tests as planned in February." (Av. Wk., 12/14/64, 31)
USN nuclear submarine Stonewall Jackson passed its first missile-firing test by shooting a Polaris A-3 more than 2,000 mi. to an ocean target area. The firing was the 18th success in 19 A-3 training launchings from sub-merged submarines. (UPI, NYT, 12/3/64, 83)
It was announced that President Johnson had designated December 1964 as United States International Aviation Month to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a division of the United Nations. The ICAO was responsible for making the international rules and setting international standards for all civil aviation activity, including the field of general aviation. (NAA Release)
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