Feb 17 1966
From The Space Library
French-built instrumented scientific satellite, DIAPASON 1 (D-IA) , was successfully launched from Hammaguir Range with three stage Diamant booster. Initial orbital data: apogee, 2,753.5 km. (1,710 mi.); perigee, 503.1 km. (312 mi,); period, 118.6 min.; inclination, 34.04°. Designed with a three-month lifetime, the 20-in.-dia., 49-lb. satellite would transmit information on earth‘s magnetic field and test France’s tracking stations. Bretigny Tracking Center near Paris was receiving satellite’s radio transmissions normally. This was second launch of a French-made satellite by France’s Diamant booster. First was Nov. 26, 1965, when A-I satellite carrying radio and radar transmitter, but no scientific equipment, was orbited. ‘‘(French Embassy Release; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 2/17/66, A l; Wash. Post, 2/18/66, A13)’’
NASA launched 49-lb. payload with ionosphere experiment for Rice Univ. to 116-mi. (186-km.) altitude from NASA Wallops Station with Nike-Apache sounding rocket to test theory that intense electrical currents flow at high altitudes over the earth and are strongest at about 120-mi. altitude. Data from magnetometer designed to detect magnetic field caused by the currents were telemetered from the payload to ground stations at Wallops during flight. ‘‘(Wallops Release 66-11; NASA Rpt. SRL)’’
NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Edgar M. Cortright, testifying before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics’ Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications, stressed importance of selectivity in planning space science program: “We have been looking at Apollo applications for some time to identify those areas of scientific activity where the man can be a real asset to the experiment, and the areas that interest us most are astronomy; natural resources, which is looking down at the Earth with various types of detectors; biology, which is concerned with long-duration weightless flight, from both a fundamental biological point of view and in preparation for longer flights; and, of course, continued lunar exploration. . . . man is not an asset in space science experiments in all cases. You have to be extremely selective to find those cases where he will be an asset, and they do exist. We think that astronomy in the seventies is one such area; also biology, Earth resources, and continued lunar exploration. But in the particles and fields work it is unlikely that man will be an asset, and it is unlikely that he will play the major role in applications where what we really want is long lifetime.” ‘‘(NASA Auth. Hearings, 57-8)’’
NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Dr. George E. Mueller told the Business Council in Washington, D.C., that ‘‘so far as overall manned space flight manpower is concerned, we have passed our peak” in engineering, we’re “reaching our peak in manufacturing,” and we’re “at our peak in total manpower costs.” He added: “One of the anomalies of the space program is that we must begin to ‘go out of business’ before we fly our first operational vehicle. . . . By the time manned flights begin, the employment level will be quite low in comparison with the peak, which occurred in 1965. . . .” Commenting on post-Apollo plans, he said: “The budget for the coming fiscal year permits NASA to hold open the option for a program to procure additional flight vehicles beyond those now programmed, so as to employ the Apollo hardware and capabilities at least through 1971. If we do not exercise this option, in the decision for the [FY] 1968 budget we will have to begin a phase down of the manned space flight activities and the ‘mothballing’ of some of our facilities.” ‘‘(Text)’’
AEC Chairman Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg predicted at Univ. of Texas lecture that if man decided to colonize the moon or planets, he would need nuclear energy to make the environments habitable for human beings and large nuclear reactors to provide “planet conditioning”-an outer space version of air conditioning. In addition, reactors could furnish power “to extract water from the rock, to help produce synthetic food and to extract minerals and other materials from the surface.” Dr. Seaborg said he foresaw in the more immediate future the use of nuclear power plants on manned orbiting laboratories: “. . . it is desirable to operate these stations at the relatively low altitudes of between 100 and 200 nautical miles. For these low orbits the smaller exposed area of nuclear power systems results in greater reductions in the atmospheric drag-and in the pounds of propellant required to keep the station in its assigned orbit. An unmanned scientific or defense system which has to operate close to the Earth will similarly have the advantage of low atmospheric drag if nuclear power systems are used.” ‘‘(Text, AEC Release)’’
Program to seek basic principles of sonic booms-including flights over US. communities-was being prepared by a top-level, four man Government committee, Evert Clark reported in the New York Times. Program hoped to obtain at least preliminary answers before Sept. 1 so that limitations on boom making could be written into SST development contracts. Committee members: Dr. Donald F. Hornig, Director of Office of Science and Technology (OST) and Presidential science adviser; Dr. Nicholas Golovin, OST; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; and Dr. John R. Dunning, dean of Columbia Univ.’s School of Engineering and Applied Science ‘‘ (Clark, NYT, 2/18/66, 8)’’
Use of personal radar units by astronauts to counteract optical illusions which they might encounter while assembling a space station or exploring the moon was recommended by Cambridge Univ. Prof. Richard L. Gregory, author of Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, in a New York press interview. Gregory believed astronauts might experience spatial distortion when seeing spacecraft’s structural elements gleaming luminously in sunlight or sharply etched against a jet black background. In addition, he thought they might experience reversed depth perception which would cause distorted images. Gregory recommended aiding astronauts with tones, heard through earphones, of a variable pitch which would be determined by a beam from radar unit each man would wear. Variations in pitch would indicate distance to different objects and astronaut’s rate of approach or retreat from them. Gregory was conducting his research at New York Univ. on a senior foreign scientist fellowship financed in part by NASA. ‘‘(Osmundsen, NYT, 2/17/66,31; Houston Chron., 2/16/66)’’
Dr. Wilmot N. Hess, Chief of Laboratory for Theoretical Studies at GSFC, received one of the Arthur S. Flemming Awards presented annually to 10 outstanding young men in Government service. (NASA Notice) Certificate promoting the late Dr. William Randolph Lovelace II, to rank of major general in US. Air Force Reserve was presented to his eldest daughter, Mrs. John Sellman, at USAF Satellite Test Annex, Sunnyvale, Calif., by M/G Ben I. Funk, AFSC’s Space Systems Div. Cmdr. Dr. Lovelace, former NASA Director of Space Medicine, died with his wife and their pilot in an aircraft accident near Aspen, Colo., December 1965. ‘‘(AFSC Release 43.66)’’
Question whether “superrockets" for the Apollo manned space program should have liquid or solid stages was no longer debatable, said William Hines in the Washington Evening Star; the solids had been “forced through studied neglect to default.” He continued: “This is not to suggest, however, that the whole liquid-solid debate is moot. “Between Saturn I -B]]’s 35,000-pound orbital capability and Saturn V’s 250,000 pounds is a huge gap; between Atlas-Centaur’s 2,300-pound escape capability and Saturn V’s 95,000 pounds is a gap that is even greater, proportionately. “A wide variety of scientific and manned payloads can be envisioned as fitting within these gaps. A flexible booster system based on large solid rockets of varying lengths and flight characteristics could fill the gaps quickly and at reasonable cost; liquid systems could not.” ‘‘(Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 2/17/66, A6)’’
T . R. May, vice president of Lockheed-Georgia Co., disclosed plans to build commercial version of the C-5A military fan jet which could carry up to 900 passengers and thus reduce fares drastically. May, speaking at an Air Force Assn. seminar in Salt Lake City, said Lockheed “fully expects” to have the aircraft, designated the L-500, “flying commercial routes” in the early 1970’s. Lockheed-Georgia Co. had received a $1.4-billion DOD contract Sept. 30,1965, to develop and build the C-5A -a military carrier that would be world‘s largest aircraft. Delivery was scheduled for mid-1968. ‘‘(DJNS, Wash. Eve. Star, 2/18/66, D1; NYT, 2/18/66, 53M)’’
FAA proposed a series of changes in cockpit procedures and crew training on the Boeing 727 jet aircraft that had had four fatal crashes since August 1965-all as the aircraft were preparing to land--“to assure ourselves that an aircraft coming in visually at night will not suffer the consequences of the . . . others.” Changes, designed to ensure crew awareness of their descent rate, were discussed at an all-day meeting of experts from FAA and 17 airlines operating the Boeing 727, FAA Deputy Director of Flight Standards Cliff W. Walker said: “We do not know what caused these accidents. We have searched, searched, searched . . . and we have not found any cause to be suspicious of the 727’s airworthiness.” ‘‘(Hudson, NYT, 2/18/66; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 2/18/66, A2; Simons, Wash. Post, 2/18/66, A1)’’
Soviet Tu-114 -world’s largest aircraft-crashed on takeoff from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for Brazzaville, Congo Republic, when its wing hit a snow bank. Unofficial Soviet sources said 48 of 70 persons aboard were killed. Tass reported the ‘‘catastrophe” was “caused by sharp worsening of weather conditions.” It was the first known crash of a Tu-114, which could carry 220 passengers, had longest range of any commercial aircraft, and had been in regular service about eight years. (Tass, 2/18/66; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 2/18/66, A5; AP, NYT, 2/18/66, 1)’’
U.S.S.R. charged at 17-nation disarmament conference in Geneva that the crash of an American nuclear bomber in Spain in January was “flagrant violation of international law and of the 1963 Moscow Treaty” which banned all but underground tests. U.S.S.R. claimed flight violated the treaty because “it is common knowledge that the most important purpose of this treaty was to prevent radioactive contamination of the atmosphere, outer space, and water. . . . The southern coast of Spain and adjacent sea areas have been radioactively contaminated by American nuclear weapons.” U.S. chief delegate William C. Foster rejected the allegations as “false” and countercharged that U.S.S.R. was guilty of a “propaganda” maneuver. ‘‘(Wash. Post, 2/18/66, A16)’’
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