Jul 8 1965
From The Space Library
Transfer of control of SYNCOM II and SYNCOM III communications satellites from NASA to DOD was completed. Under direction of the Defense Communications Agency, the three telemetry and command stations for maintaining precise control and positioning of the satellites would be operated by USAF at locations in the Seychelles Islands, Hawaii, and Guam, Army would be responsible for earth communications facilities used with the Syncom satellites except for two shipboard terminals owned and operated by USN. Army's Strategic Communications Command would continue to man and operate all ground terminals, Syncom II-launched by NASA July 26, 1963-would be maintained at a position between 60° and 80° east longitude; SYNCOM III launched by NASA Aug, 19, 1964 would be positioned between 170° and 174° east longitude, Both satellites were in orbit at 22,300-mi. altitude, NASA would continue to receive reports on the telemetry from the two satellites from DOD and would continuously evaluate their performance in space. (DOD Release 451-65)
A new F-1 engine test stand was used for the first time at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's West Test Area. The 10-sec. initial firing of the 15 million-lb,-thrust engine was primarily for checking out the new facility. On another test stand at MSFC, Chrysler Corp, fired the second Saturn IB booster, manufactured by Chrysler at SFC's Michoud Assembly Facility. The test, scheduled to run for 30 sec., was terminated automatically after three seconds because of a faulty signal from an engine pressure switch. ( MSFC Release 65-178; Marshall Star, 7/14/65, 1)
X-15 No. 2 piloted by NASA research pilot John B. McKay attained a speed up to 3,659 mph (mach 5,19) and an altitude of 212,600 ft., photographed Gamma Cassiopeia with four 35-mm, cameras. Purpose was to verify theoretical data on the physical composition of the stars. (NASA X-15 Proj. Off.; X-15 Flight Log)
NASA announced Pegasus C meteoroid detection satellite was equipped with small aluminum sub-panels that at some future date an astronaut could, if desired, detach and bring back to earth. The panels would provide the first actual samples of meteoroid impact and would have tested some 43 types of thermal coatings, Pegasus C would be launched July 30, 1965, into 332 mi.-altitude circular orbit at 28.9° inclination-close to a nominal manned flight path-rather than into an elliptical orbit like that of PEGASUS I and II. (NASA Release 65-228; MSFC Release 65-175)
NASA had awarded Brown Engineering Co, a $3,630,000 contract for building nine discrete control equipment systems for use with Saturn V launch vehicle. Two of the systems would be installed in a Saturn V systems development facility at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. The other seven would be delivered to Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Launch Complex 39: three systems would be placed in launch control centers; four would be installed on Saturn V mobile launchers. (MSFC Release 65-176)
Referring to a French rocket launching site, comparable to Kennedy Space Center, that would be operating in French Guiana by 1968, Pierre J. Huss said in the New York Journal American: "French experts claim the Guiana location makes it possible to fire toward the east at an angle that makes use of the earth's rotation speed. They say it also offers optimal conditions for launching vehicles to the moon or Mars." (Huss, N. Y. J/ Amer, 7/8/65, 9)
MSFC Director Dr. Wernher von Braun, speaking before the International Christian Leadership World Conference in Seattle, said the two dominant forces shaping the course of human events in our revolutionary age were science and religion. And, Dr. von Braun said, "it is depressing to witness a growing misconception that these two powerful forces are not compatible." On the contrary: science was trying to harness the forces of nature around man, while through religion man sought to control the forces of nature within, Dr. von Braun said science and scientists had been blamed for the desperate dilemma today, because science had utterly failed to provide a practical answer on how to handle the powerful forces it had unleashed. He said the blame for the wrongful use of force could not be pinned on science: "Science, all by itself, has no moral dimension. The same drug that heals when taken in moderation will kill when taken in excess, Only when a society accepts and applies a scientific advance do we add a moral dimension to it." (Marshall Star, 7/14/65, 2)
Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, AFSC Commander, predicted in a luncheon address to participants in the National Youth Science Camp "a revolution in aeronautics within the next 15 years" as a result of advances being made now. Breakthroughs being made in development of more powerful rockets, heat resistant metals, and more sophisticated engines would soon lead to vertical takeoff craft capable of undergoing sustained flight at speeds up to 12 times the speed of sound, General Schriever postulated. (Text; Wash, Eve. Star, 7/9/65)
ComSatCorp requested 26 design-engineering companies to submit proposals by July 20 for architectural and engineering services for construction of a ground station site at Brewster Flat, Wash. The proposed station would provide communications services to Hawaii and nations of the Pacific as part of a global commercial satellite system. The RFP's asked for plans sufficiently detailed to enable interested contractors to bid on construction and to enable the station to be operational by September 1, 1966. (ComSatCorp Release)
Sen. Strom Thurmond (R--S,C,) expressed concern on the floor of the Senate about advances in Soviet strategic weaponry and inserted in the Congressional Record an article which compared Soviet and American development of large solid rocket motors: "First, the development of rockets has received a high priority continuously in the Soviet Union for 20 years, since the end of World War II, "Second, the Soviet effort has been broadly based and produced several generations of vehicles with increasing performance capability, "Third, solid-propellant rocketry is playing a major role in current Soviet operations and in their future plans, "Fourth, U.S. intelligence has suffered a major failure if the Soviet missiles in the May 9 parade were not fake. "An early review of U.S. intelligence and military planning operations by both the Congress and the administration definitely is in order if the Soviets are operating large solid rockets." (CR, 7/8/65, 15359-61)
Soviet astrophysicist Rolan Kiladze had introduced a new theory that every planet's rotation w as caused initially by powerful bombardments by clusters of particles in its path. (Souetskaya Latviya, 7/8/65, 14)
Paul Mantz, veteran pilot who owned and flew a large collection of rebuilt vintage airplanes was killed when a home-built aircraft he was flying for a film sequence crashed near Yuma, Arizona. (Arizona Republic, 7/9/65)
Prof. Wolfgang Pilz. leader of a team of West German scientists helping the United Arab Republic build rockets, had quit the project and returned to West Germany, it w as reported. (Smith, NYT, 7/9/65, 7)
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