Jan 19 1970
From The Space Library
NASA's HL-10 lifting-body vehicle, piloted by Maj. Peter C. Hoag (USAF), reached 25 600-m (84 000-ft) altitude and mach 1.3 during powered flight after air-launch from B-52 aircraft at 13 700-m (45000-ft) altitude west of Rosamond, Calif. Purpose of flight, 32nd in series, was to obtain stability and control data. (NASA Proj Off)
Modularized equipment transport system (METS) to be used by lunar explorers starting with October 1971 Apollo 14 mission was described by MSC Chief of Crew Systems Div. Robert E. Smylie in interview at AIAA's annual Aerospace Sciences meeting in New York. Two-wheel, rickshaw-like cart would double walking range on moon and increase sample collection. Other plans to improve astronauts' mobility included more flexible spacesuits, modified LM that could stay more than two days on moon, and improved backpack to allow astronauts to work outside spacecraft for more than six hours at a time. Cart, 7.6 cm (30 in) high, weighing 9 kg (20 lbs), had been designed with attachments for cameras, tools, and scientific equipment. It would be carried to moon folded in compartment outside LM. (Wilford, NYT, 1120/70, 46)
Apollo 12 commander Charles Conrad, Jr., received award of excellence from Governor's Committee of 100000 Pennsylvanians at ceremonies in Pittsburgh. Conrad, cited for excellence in science and technology, was born in Philadelphia. Ceremony climaxed day during which Conrad and Apollo 12 Astronauts Alan L. Bean and Richard F. Gordon, Jr., toured Pennsylvania. (P Bull, 1/19/70, 1/20/ 70)
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew completed 12-nation Asiatic goodwill tour which began Dec. 26, 1969. On return to Washington, D.C., he was accompanied by Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford and wife, who had joined tour at Bangkok, Thailand, Jan, 3. Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan and wife had accompanied Agnew party as far as Afghanistan and had returned to U.S. Jan. 9. During tour Vice President distributed chips from Apollo 11 moon rock to government representatives and passed out foreign flags that had been carried to moon aboard Apollo 11 spacecraft. (Off of VP; Naughton, NYT, 1/13/70, C3)
Second fragment of Lost City, Okla., meteorite weighing 277.8 g (9.8 oz) had been found by farmer Philip Halpain in Lost City pasture, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory announced. It had been flown to Richland, Wash., for analysis of short-lived radioactive byproducts of radiation in outer space. (McElheny, Boston Globe, 1/20/70)
USAF ordered that C-5As, world's largest aircraft, be limited to carrying 50% of intended capacity until each could be fitted with wing strengthening braces. Senate Armed Services Committee announced it would investigate C-5A structural soundness before authorizing further funds for aircraft's production. (Homan, W Post, 1/20/70, A3)
FAA Deputy Administrator David D. Thomas announced his resignation and retirement, effective Feb. 15. He had joined FAA as air traffic controller in 1938 and had worked his way up to second-ranking job in agency. Following resignation of Gen. William F. McKee in 1968, Thomas had served as acting FAA administrator for eight months. (NYT, 1/19/70,71; UPI, W Post, 1/20/70, A12)
Kansas City Times editorial commented on effect of budget cuts on future of NASA programs: Cutback of 50 000 employees, many in production jobs, would not alone be critical. "The real damage would come with the loss of key scientific personnel and teams engaged in shaping the medium and long-term future of the U.S. space effort. Lucrative opportunities in education and industry await such people, and they are not about to fritter away their talents and careers in trying to hold together an underfunded program whose goals are either limited or uncertain." (KC Times, 1/19170, 28)
Aviation Week & Space Technology quoted from article by Soviet Academician Boris N. Petrov that had appeared in July 1969 Space World. Communist Party First Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev had praised manned orbital platform as possible "cosmodrome in space, a launch platform for flights to other planets. There will emerge great scientific laboratories for the study of space technology and biology; medicine and geophysics, astronomy, and astrophysics." Platform was "the main highway into space for man." (Av Wk, 1/19/70, 18)
Pace of U.S. space exploration program had been "critically slowed and its direction is in serious doubt," William J. Normyle said in Aviation Week & Space Technology. "Manned and unmanned pro grams are being severely curtailed by the Nixon Administration's refusal to commit itself to a firm post-Apollo plan while beset with social and economic problems." (Av Wk, 1/1970, 16)
January 19-21: AIAA held eighth Aerospace Sciences meeting in New York. At banquet Jan. 20, $10000 Goddard Award was presented to Gerhard Neumann, Vice President and Group Executive of GE Aircraft Engine Group, for "pioneering achievements in the development of high performance aircraft gas turbine engines, including the invention of the variable stator compressor system that is making possible an engine generation of both subsonic and supersonic engines, and for leadership in fostering the development of the high bypass turbofan." AIAA Sylvanus Albert Reed Award of $500 was presented to Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb, Jr., Head of 8-Foot Tunnels Branch at LaRC, for "the imaginative use of wind tunnel experimentation for the solution of aerodynamic problems for the improvement of aerodynamic performances of transonic aircraft." AIAA Space Science Award of $500 was given to Dr. Carl E. McIlwan, Univ. of California at San Diego physicist, for ordering radiations trapped in earth's geo- magnetic field and for outstanding investigations of these radiations. Newton A. Lieurance, ESSA Director of Aviation Affairs, received $500 Robert M, Losey Award for outstanding contributions to the science of meteorology as applied to aeronautics. Dr. Wilmot N. Hess, ESSA Director of Research Laboratories, received $500 G. Edward Pendray Award "for an outstanding contribution to the literature in the field of space physics by synthesizing and reflecting in a single text the results of a decade of research on 'The Radiation Belt and Magnetosphere.' " (AIAA Release; Langley Researcher; 1/23/70, 1)
AIAA Board established Committee for International Cooperation in Space with Dean Francis H. Clauser of Cal Tech as chairman. Committee would give AIAA contact point with aerospace men and societies in countries around the world through IAF and other international groups. (A&A, 8/70, 25)
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