Jun 13 1968
From The Space Library
USAF Titan III-C booster launched from ETR inserted eight Initial Defense Communications Satellite Program (IDCSP) jam-resistant repeater satellites into separate, random, near-synchronous, 21,000- mi-altitude equatorial orbits. Addition of 8 comsats to 18 IDCSP comsats launched since June 16, 1966, was expected to boost average satellite-availability time between Vietnam and Hawaii from 92% to 98% for top-priority messages and from 60% to 85% for lower priority and to considerably extend expected lifetime of communications system. (W Post, 6/14/68; AP, P Inq, 6/14/68, 2; Pres Rpt 68)
Ogo V mission, launched from ETR March 4, was adjudged successful by NASA. Initial results provided first evidence of electric fields in bow shock. Other data indicated presence of electric field discontinuities in solar wind and observations of new particle and field phenomena. Performance of three-axis stabilization system had been excellent and, except for several unexplained transmitter anomalies, performance of other subsystems was satisfactory. During first three months in orbit Ogo V had accumulated over 47,000 hr of experiment operations and was continuing to provide high-quality data for 21 of 24 onboard experiments. (NASA Proj Off)
NASA Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched from Kiruna, Sweden, carried Max Planck Institute (Germany) experiment to 114.2-mi (183.5-km) altitude to measure micrometeorites and electrical fields in ionosphere. Preliminary analyses indicated good data were received. Rocket and instrumentation performance was satisfactory. (NASA Rpt SRL)
NASA Associate Administrator for Organization and Management Harold B. Finger received AIAA's James H. Wyld Propulsion Award-including certificate and $500 honorarium-for "outstanding achievement in the development of the technology required for a nuclear flight propulsion system." Award was presented at Honors Luncheon during 4th Propulsion Joint Specialist Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. (AIAA Release)
Chicago Tribune criticized "ridiculously small" congressional cuts in NASA FY 1969 authorization bill: "Of all the ways in which the government has found to spend taxpayers' money, the space program is the most expendable. . . . It is irrelevant to the war in Vietnam . . . irrelevant to the problems of poverty, crime, violence, and urban decay." It could be "scrapped in its entirety without seriously affecting any of the critical problems we face today." However, "today's space research does have a bearing on tomorrow's defense. It is better to keep the machinery running in low gear than to shut it down and then try to start it up again." (C Trib, 6/13/68)
U.N. endorsement of nuclear nonproliferation treaty had "turned back the doomsday clock," said New York Times editorial. Broad support for it would impose political restraints on all nations and reinforce national leaders in resisting demands for nuclear arms development. Treaty put "a particular duty" on U.S. and U.S.S.R. to "move rapidly to check their own dangerous nuclear arms race and to find new ways to prevent international conflicts." (NYT, 6/13/68, 46)
Sen. John S. Cooper (R-Ky.) led bipartisan drive in Senate to deny DOD FY 1969 funds to begin deployment of Sentinel ABM system. There was "no present threat to American security from a Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile attack," he said, and it was "difficult to believe they would invite the certain destruction of their country by a nuclear attack upon the U.S." when they attained the capability. Coalition hoped to postpone Sentinel deployment for at least one year by striking approximately $600 million for further R&D (Finney, NYT, 6/14/68, 18; AP, W Post, 6/14/68, A28)
June 13-15: NASA successfully accomplished first radar tracking of asteroid Icarus, which passed close to earth once every 19 yr. Using 85-ft-dia and 210-ft-dia antennas at Goldstone Tracking Station, scientists followed Icarus' approach and June 14 flyby of earth at 3,945,000 mi and 66,215 mph, logging 151/2 hr of radar contact to obtain data on asteroid's size, velocity, rotation, and composition. Preliminary results of observations by Harvard Univ. and Univ. of Arizona suggested asteroid might be composed of iron and have two- to four-hour rotation period. (NASA Release 68-106; LA Times, 6/16/68; Pasadena Independent Star-News, 6/16/68; Glendale News-Press, 6/18/68; Sullivan, NYT, 6/27/68, 41)
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