Feb 11 1969
From The Space Library
Initial thermal and vacuum testing of flight model of SERT II (Space Electric Rocket Test ) in preparation for fall 1969 launch had been completed, LeRC announced. SERT II, second flight test in development of ion propulsion for space use and first LeRC orbital spacecraft, would be launched from WTR by Thorad-Agena booster into 621-mi (999.4-km) circular orbit to evaluate inflight performance of electron-bombardment engines for six months or more. SERT I had carried first ion thruster to operate in space on suborbital mission July 20, 1964. (LeRC Release 69-2)
Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched by NASA from Churchill Research Range carried Southwest Center for Advanced Studies payload to 85.1-mi (137-km) altitude for comprehensive investigation of auroral disturbances during active auroral event. Rocket and instruments functioned satisfactorily and payload was recovered as planned. (NASA Rpt SRL)
In Bonn during European tour, Apollo 8 Astronaut Frank Borman addressed enthusiastic crowd of 1,500 students and government officials after film showing on lunar mission in Beethoven Hall: "I believe this research will teach us that we are first and foremost not Germans or Russians or Americans but earthmen." Borman met West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger at lunch and later discussed space research with Scientific Affairs Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg. He attended evening reception given by West German Air and Space Research Institute. (Falbe, B Sun, 2/12/69)
U.S.S.R. had ordered 100 space pens developed for U.S. astronauts and 1,000 special pressurized ink cartridges which enabled pen to write in weightlessness according to pen's inventor, Paul C. Fisher. When he presented models of pen to Soviet Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov at German trade fair in 1968, Leonov said Soviet cosmonauts were writing with grease pencils during space flights and incurring difficulty with their flaking. (UPI, W Post, 2/13/69, D24)
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