Jul 15 1968
From The Space Library
President Johnson formally asked Senate to ratify space rescue treaty endorsed by U.N. General Assembly Dec. 19, 1967, and signed by 43 nations April 22, terming it "another step toward stable peace on this threatened earth." Astronaut assistance and return agreement looked "beyond the old divisions of history and ideology to recognize the challenge of common peril and the benefits of common action. . . . Our laws and treaties must always keep pace with our science. But the value of this Agreement goes beyond the protection it offers to those who venture into space." It also "helps protect the peace of this planet. Surely two nations who aspire to the stars can realize the common danger and act in the common interest here on earth." (Text; W Post, 7/16/68, A9; AP, W Star, 7/16/68, A8; Nordlinger, B Sun, 7/16/68, 1)
Harvard College Observatory scientists Dr. George R. Huguenin and Dr. J. H. Taylor became first U.S. scientists to identify a new pulsar when they discovered HP 1506 in northern sky near Little Dipper. Pulsar, similar to four pulsars discovered in 1967 by U.K. scientists, had pulse rate of one every 0.7397 sec, each lasting 0.020 sec. Pulse rate of other four pulsars ranged from 0.25 to 1.4 sec, with each pulse lasting 0.020 sec. Harvard scientists used National Radio Astronomy Observatory antenna at Green Bank, W. Va. (Sullivan, NYT, 7/19/68, 20)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb, discussing implications of FY 1969 budget reductions at AAS Symposium in Denver, Colo., said he did not find public support for space program declining. Rather, "many people who in the years following 1961 ascribed to the space program a separate, special, top priority status are now realizing, as the national leadership in the space program has understood all along, that the space program must be regarded as only one of a number of essential activities of high priority to which the country must devote substantial resources. . . . The investments made in NASA may well add greatly to the value of investments we will have to make in these other fields." NASA was "very much in business, and it will stay in business. We are accepting the challenge of the time and will continue a hard-hitting, technically sound program aimed at the most important objectives of the future." But he described cutbacks as well as elements of strength "We are doing all we can to avoid terminating completely such important activities as the unmanned planetary exploratory program, but it is not likely that we will be able to proceed with the Titan/Mars 1973 missions." Saturn I Workshop would be delayed and, "for a number of years to come, missions to use the manned space flight capabilities developed in the Apollo program will be very limited." Reductions to a budget already "sharply reduced will have many very serious effects on the U.S. position in aeronautics and space. They are only the most recent in a series of cutbacks and, in effect, constitute something like final ratification of a decision . . . that the United States will not, at this time, take the steps necessary to continue the advances of the recent years." Outlining NASA's program, Webb said two flyby missions to Mars in 1969 were largely paid for. "Even at our reduced levels, I believe we can follow the 1969 missions with two orbiter missions in 1971, but will probably have to postpone for another year the start of work on the two Titan-launched orbiter and lander missions which we had hoped to fly in 1973." The 1969 missions "were initiated three or more years ago. We are approaching the end of our approved flight programs. The number of new projects started each year has sharply dwindled since 1966 and we will soon see years go by when we will have very few flights. We may see a gap of 2 years in our manned flight program after the landing on the moon, and a second gap, equally long, after the Saturn I Workshop. "Perhaps the most fundamental decisions ahead lie in the field of large launch vehicles. Can we gap the production of Saturn V or will we have to terminate it?" Question required reexamination of uses of Titan III and of possible development of new, less costly launch vehicles. "Especially important" in this period was continuation of broad program of advanced research for future national needs, including broad university program. (Text)
Sen. Gordon Allott (R-Colo.) told AAS Symposium: ". .. in the thirty minutes I spend talking about the space program this morning four Tiros satellites . . . will have monitored 10 cloud covers above 40 million square miles of the earth's surface. . . . During this same period, the Goddard Space Flight Center . . . will have received 340 minutes of data from 37 active satellites; and the NASA communications network around the globe will have sent and received over 750 messages dealing with information obtained from these satellites. . . . "Already the beneficial changes wrought by man's incredible inventive genius have made their mark. When NASA launched Early Bird for Comsat three years ago, for example, it boosted the capacity of the transatlantic telephone system by 50%. The AIAA has already estimated that this new industry will be grossing $200 million by 1975. . . "Obviously, this is not all. Too often, it seems, those interested in giving an accounting of the $30 billion invested in the space program stop once they have demonstrated technological spin-off or . . . unmanned communication and weather satellites. The crowning achievement of the space program has really been what man himself, in space, has accomplished during this past decade. For man has ventured into the hostile, mysterious world of space." (CR, 7/18/68, S8901-3)
Martin Marietta Corp. planetary scientist Allan R. Barger, who was doing theoretical work on balloon-borne Venus probe, told AAS that U.S.S.R. data released after Oct. 18, 1967, Venus probe was incorrect. Soviet report had set planet's surface temperature at about 520° F and surface pressure at about 18 times that on earth. Barger said his conclusions, based on analysis of Soviet report and on data gathered by NASAS's Mariner V space probe as it flew by Venus' upper atmosphere, set planet's surface temperature at about 890° F and pressure at 100 or more times that on earth. (Denver Post, 7/15/68)
USAF's Arnold Engineering Development Center was conducting research with 5-million-w arc heater to determine temperature and pressure limitations of ablative materials used to prevent military reentry vehicles from burning up on encountering earth's atmosphere. Military reentry vehicles had to withstand conditions similar to high-speed reentry of interplanetary vehicles on return to earth, far more severe than those to be met by lunar astronauts. Data had been produced for civilian and military agencies. (AFSC Release 117.68)
House Committee on Government Operations' Special Studies Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Porter Hardy, Jr. (D-Va.), ordered NASA to make every effort to cut escalating costs of its June 16, 1967, contract with Boeing Co. for technical integration and evaluation in assembly of Apollo spacecraft's three modules with Saturn V launch vehicle. Contract, negotiated by NASA in drive to improve safety after Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo fire, had been listed tentatively as costing $20 million; NASA officials now placed cost of carrying work through 1968 at $73.4 million. (Transcript; UPI, W Post, 7/16/68, A6)
Food, land, and raw material shortages might compel man to establish mining operations on other planets and to grow food in space stations, according to Dr. K. A. Ehricke, North American Rockwell Corp. scientist. He said farms growing food in chemicals could be established in earth-orbiting stations fertilized by chemicals produced on Mars and other planets. (AP, NYT, 7/15/68, 6)
Boyd C. Myers II, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Operations, Office of Advanced Research and Technology, became NASA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Administration. (NASA Release 68-125; AP, NYT, 7/16/68, 7)
July 15-16: Commercial air service between U.S. and U.S.S.R. was inaugurated with Moscow departure July 15 of Ilyushin-62 aircraft belonging to Soviet flag carrier Aeroflot. Aircraft, carrying 97 Soviet officials and commercial passengers, landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York July 16, after 13-hr 17-min flight via Montreal (including 1 hr 35 min circling New York area because of air traffic). U.S. flag carrier, Pan American World Airways, flew two Boeing 707 aircraft from New York to Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport via Copenhagen July 16. First carried U.S. officials and press; second carried revenue passengers. (W Star, 7/15/68, All; 7/16/68, A7; Witkin, NYT, 7/17/68, 28)
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