Jan 3 1964
From The Space Library
RELAY I communications satellite continued transmitting despite an onboard timer set to turn it off after one year. Electrolytic solution was supposed to have eaten through main power lead to switch off transmission power. NASA and RCA experts speculated erosion Was slowed because environmental temperatures were cooler than anticipated. Launched into orbit Dec. 13, 1962, RELAY I has been used for 2,000 communications experiments with more than 290 hours of transmission time, most of which was wide-band transmission or TV. (NASA Release 64-1)
AEC announced preliminary evaluation of mockup space reactor re-entry flight (RFD-1 ), conducted May 22, 1963, with a Scout booster, indicated that "space reactors can be designed to break apart and disintegrate when they re-enter the earth's atmosphere." During re-entry, telemetry recorded disassembly events and measured heating rates at critical points on the reactor "until blackout of radio-frequency occurred-just before disassembly of the reactor. The data on the temperature rises and the times of the disassembly events transmitted by the telemetry system were essentially as predicted." Test results were still being evaluated by Sandia Corp. and Atomics International in an effort to substantiate the conclusions inferred from optical tracking of re-entry. (AEC Release G-1)
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center announced selection of RCA to build and install ultrahigh-vacuum chamber and associated equipment at MSC, the fixed-price contract totaling $245,000. (MSC Release 64. 11)
Seven noctilucent clouds visible in southwest U.S. in past six months probably were caused by PMR rocket launchings, according to Dr. Aden B. Meinel and Carolyn P. Meinel in Science magazine. The Meinels, astronomers at Univ. of Arizona's Stewart Observatory (Tucson), described cloud appearing Nov. 2 at mean altitude of 35 mi. By measuring speed and direction of cloud's drift, Meinels traced it back to vicinity of PMR, just as they had traced 44-mi. altitude cloud of June 15. Dr. Meinel and colleagues had described the clouds in Science last September, tentatively linking the June 15 cloud to Scout launching at PMR. Now, despite fact that no firing was announced for Nov. 2, Meinels concluded that "the coincidence of the clouds of June 15 and 2 November 1963 with a drift vector indicating origin from the Pacific Missile Range would appear to remove the probability of a fortuitous occurrence that could be argued from one cloud alone:' (Science, 1/3/64, CSM, 1/6/64)
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