Jun 26 1965
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced at a press conference during the 23rd annual Hampton County (S.C.) Watermelon Festival that the Gemini V manned space flight would be an eight-day mission-the time required to fly to the moon, explore its surface, and return to earth. Webb also disclosed that NASA would announce next week the selection of six scientist astronauts. Speaking at "Mendel Rivers Day" ceremony, Webb pointed out that Congressman Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, "has steadily supported the Nation's effort to build strength in space." Webb also said: "Thoughtful students of national power and its uses are increasingly aware that America's security as well as her leadership of the Free World, depends directly upon our progress in mastering and using space, "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration cooperates closely with the Department of Defense, to ensure that the technological progress we make in developing the peaceful uses of space will be drawn upon as needed to help keep the peace-in space and on earth, "As you can readily understand, the development of military space systems follows those basic research fields which provide the scientific understanding and technological capability to make such systems possible. It is NASA's job, as the space research and development agency, to provide this basic knowledge and know-how," Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young accompanied Webb to this festival. (NASA Release; Text; Aerospace Historian, 10/65, 111-14)
20th anniversary of the United Nations celebrated in San Francisco, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in an address to the General Assembly: "The movement of history is glacial, On two decades of experience none can presume to speak with certainty of the destiny of man's affairs. But this we do know and this we believe: Futility and failure are not the truths of this organization brought into being here 20 years ago, "Where historically man has moved fitfully from war toward war, in these last two decades man has moved steadily away from war as either an instrument of national policy or a means of international decision. . . "The promise of the future lies in what science, the ever more productive industrial machine, the ever more productive, fertile and usable lands, the computer, the miracle drug and the man in space all spread before us. The promise of the future lies in what the religions and the philosophies, the cultures and the wisdoms of 5,000 years of civilization have finally distilled and confined to us-the promise of abundant life and the brotherhood of man." (Text, NYT, 6/26/65)
Thirteen NASA astronauts left NASA Manned Spacecraft Center for an area near King Salmon AFB, Alaska, for a week-long study of a large volcanic ash flow believed to be similar to the surface of the moon. The ash was deposited in 1912 from a volcanic eruption and is the largest flow of its type in the world. (AP, NYT, 6/22/65, 2)
An S-IVB facility vehicle and an S-II simulator arrived in New Orleans aboard the USNS Point Barrow enroute to NASA Kennedy Space Center, Both the S-IVB and were upper stages of the Saturn V launch vehicle. The S-IVB would also serve as the second stage of the Saturn IB booster. (MSFC Release 65-161; Marshall Star, 6/30/65, 2)
Sealab described as having some interesting "physiological" similarities to the proposed USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, was scheduled to begin the middle of August by the Office of Naval Research. In the experiment, part of a long-range project to determine how effectively man could work under the sea, two diving teams of ten men each would descend to the Pacific Ocean bottom off La Jolla, Calif. Two of the divers were expected to stay on the bottom for 30 days, living and sleeping in specially-designed, 57-ft, long quarters about 210 ft, below the surface. It was anticipated that Cdr. M. Scott Carpenter (USN), presently on loan from NASA, would be leader of the first team. (Anderson, Chic. Trib., 6/27/65)
The solar boat had been found feasible by Army engineers after extensive tests, NANA reported. It was a lightweight craft that operated solely by sunlight falling on power-generating cells. The Army said: "The solar propulsion boat may have potential military application where it is necessary to operate quietly and without using conventional fuel." (NANA, Detroit News, 6/27/65)
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