Jun 6 1966
From The Space Library
NASA's OGO III (OGO-B) Orbiting Geophysical Observatory was successfully launched from ETR with Atlas-Agena B booster into orbit with 75,874-mi. (122,157-km.) apogee; 183-mi. (295-km.) perigee; 48.6-hr. period; and 31ΓΈ inclination. Third of seven spacecraft in NASA's OGO program and first to successfully operate three-axis stabilized in highly elliptical orbit, OGO III weighed 1,135 lbs.; it carried 21 experiments-largest number ever carried by US. scientific spacecraft-to study solar wind, solar flares, magnetic field disturbances, radiation belt particles, aurora events, ionization, and variations in atmospheric density. OGO program was managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (NASA Proj. Off.; NASA Release 66-132; AP, NYT, 6/8/66, 15; AP, Wash. Post, 6/7/66, A7)
GEMINI IX-A Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan, resting aboard U.S.S. WASP, received tributes from around the world. President Johnson, telephoning from his Texas ranch, said: "We are very proud of both of you. I have been watching off and on over the weekend and saw your return this morning. "You have made all of us more aware of what performance under pressure is all about and that includes courage. . . ." Tass science commentator said the Soviet people "give their due" to the courage of the astronauts and congratulate them on their safe return to earth. He praised the flight as an "achievement of American astronautics." Jodrell Bank Experimental Station director Sir Bernard Lovell said the success of SURVEYOR I and GEMINI IX-A had made the week one of the greatest for American science. "It seems that the Russians will have to stage a spectacular development in order to recapture the lead which they apparently possessed a week ago." (Kilpatrick, Wash. Post, 6/7/66, AP; Balt. Sun, 6/7/66)
Sun-powered laser developed by Dr. C. Gilbert Young of American Optical Co. under USAF sponsorship had been successfully operated in earth's atmosphere, producing one watt of power in continuous, highly intense beam of invisible infrared light. A slender, one-inch-long rod of yttrium-aluminum-garnet crystal (Yag), laser was connected to telescope which trapped, focused, and delivered sun's rays-which replaced conventional lamp and electrical apparatus needed by other lasers for "initial boost"-to crystal rod. Laser's beam could carry messages between spacecraft and could be used as intense satellite beacon. (AIP News 6)
FAA's "Staff Study-General Aviation Occupant Load Factor" report showed that general aviation (nonairline) aircraft in the US. carried 39.4 million travelers in 1965, while domestic airlines carried 84.6 million passengers. Estimates were based on information gathered by all of FAA's flight service station facilities during August 1965. (FAA Release 66-54).
June 6: U.N. World Meteorological Organization announced award of annual prize for outstanding work and international collaboration in meteorology to Prof. Tor Bergeron of Sweden. Noted for pioneering new techniques in air-mass analysis, weather forecasting, and physics of precipitation, Professor Bergeron would receive a gold medal and $1,200. (NYT, 6/7/66, 12)
Mrs. Jane Marshall, editor of aeronautics bibliographies and education sourcebooks for National Aerospace Education Council, was named 1965 winner of National Aeronautic Association's Frank G. Brewer Trophy for "her contributions to enlarged aerospace horizons for those who teach our nation's youth." (Natl. Aeronautic Assn. News)
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