Dec 9 1964
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
X-15 No. 3 was flown by NASA pilot Milton O. Thompson to 91,000-ft. altitude at maximum speed of 3,545 (mach 5.3) mph to check air flow around the nose, heating caused by skin friction, and boundary layer air flow at different velocities and angles of attack. (NASA X--15 Proj. Off.; NYT, 12/11/64, 34)
The last in a series of 11 tests of the F-2 Apollo service module engine was successfully conducted by NASA Manned Spacecraft Center engineers at White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex. The engine was fired for 20 sec. and then shut down for a five-min. "purge" before a 100-sec. test firing. The F-2 rocket engine would be expected to bring astronauts back to earth from the moon. (Lee, Houston Post, 12/10/64)
FCC postponed a decision on the question of who would own and operate the ground stations to be set up as part of the communications satellite system and called for further filings on the issue. Detailed arguments Were due Jan. 5, and reply comments on Jan. 18. It was estimated it would take the FCC a minimum of six Weeks to evaluate all comments. The carriers that had filed protests to exclusive ComSatCorp ground station ownership were American Telephone and Telegraph Co, International Telephone and Telegraph Corp., Radio Corp. of America, Western Union International, and Hawaiian Telephone Co. (Av. Wk., 12/14/64, 27; AP, N.O. Times-Picayune, 12/10/64)
A committee had been set up by Prime Minister Harold Wilson to review Britain's future in space, it was announced. The committee would examine the merits of a national satellite-launcher program based on the Black Knight rocket as well as Britain's commitment to the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) which would hope to start launching satellites two or three years from now. The space committee's report would be expected in February. (MacLeod, CSM, 12/9/64)
A unique optical system known as a laser range finder was announced by RCA's Aerospace Systems Div. and U.S. Army Electronics Command. The unit operated by sending a very narrow beam pulse of red light toward the target at the speed of light. After reflection from the target, the red light of the laser beam was received and sensed by a phototube in the range finder. An electronic counter measured the elapsed time between the transmitted pulse and the return reflection and converted the elapsed time instantaneously into a measure of distance. Similar systems had suffered from loss of alignment with use between the receiving telescope, which sensed the reflected laser light, and the sighting telescope by which the receiver was aimed at the target. The new design combined these two telescopes into one unit that allowed a lighter, more precise, and more rugged system to be fabricated. (Marshall Star, 12/9/64, 5-6)
Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin told the Soviet parliament that expenditures for defense would drop by four per cent or 500 million rubles ($555 million) in 1965. He also declared that his government had acted after being informed by American officials that U.S. planned to reduce its military budget in the coming year. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said later that the embassy had no knowledge that such information had been given to the Soviet government. In his budget message, Premier A. N. Kosygin told the Supreme Soviet that "people of science must do a lot for us to be able to provide more material benefits for the satisfaction of the population's growing requirements," complained that the opportunities for doing this "have been by no means exploited." After calling for scientific breakthroughs to the production process in chemistry, electronics, transistor technology, and biology, Kosygin said: "There are major shortcomings in scientific research planning. Our plans do not make use in good time of all that is progressive and useful in research discoveries. For this reason, scientific discoveries and technical inventions not infrequently become outdated and lose their practical worth. "Utilization of the latest achievements of science and technology should be made one of the main criteria in the appraisal of economic plans and their fulfillment. Unfortunately, many people employed in industry continue to regard further capital investments as the main and only source of increased output and do not really strive hard for the rapid introduction of scientific and technical achievements, which could produce a considerably greater effect than additional capital investments. Scientific and technical progress opens new horizons for a radical improvement in quality and an expansion of the range of goods produced." (Av. Wk., 12/28/64, 16; Tanner, NYT, 12/10/64; WSJ, 12/10/64)
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