Mar 21 1966
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched COSMOS CXIII with scientific instruments aboard for investigation of outer space, Tass announced. Orbital parameters: apogee, 327 km. (203 mi.); perigee, 210 km. (130 mi.); period, 89.6 min.; inclination, 65°. All systems were reported to be functioning normally. ‘‘(Tass, 3/21/66)’’
NASA announced final results of Feb. 23 test firing of 260-in.-dia. solid propellant rocket motor by prime contractor Aerojet-General Corp. in bade County, Fla.: maximum chamber pressure was recorded 40 sec. into test, with peak thrust level of more than 3.5 million lbs.; motor burned 114 sec. near peak thrust before tapering off; total useful thrust time was 129.9 sec.-only .1 sec. more than engineering predictions; maximum chamber pressure was 601 lbs. psi compared with predicted 604 lbs. psi. Only difficulty was delayed operation of quenching system which caused charring damage to nozzle expansion cone. Program was managed by LRC. ‘‘(NASA Release 66-61)’’
Twelve astronauts were selected for future NASA missions and two others assigned earlier were shifted to a different mission. Prime crewmen for the Apollo earth-orbital mission scheduled in the first quarter of 1967 were Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee; backup crew was James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart, NASA civilian employee. Prime crewmen for the Gemini XI mission scheduled in the last quarter of 1966 were command pilot Charles Conrad, Jr., and pilot Richard F. Gordon, Jr.; backup crew was Neil A. Armstrong, command pilot, and William A. Anders, pilot. James A. Lovell, Jr., and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., backup crew for the Gemini XI mission, were reassigned as backup crew for GEMINI IX, Original GEMINI IX backups Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan became prime crewmen for that mission after the Feb. 28 deaths of Astronauts Elliot M. See, Jr., and Charles A. Bassett II. ‘‘(NASA Release 66-67)’’
NASA and DOD signed memorandum of agreement establishing Manned Space Flight Experiments Board (MSFEB) to coordinate scientific, technological or nonmilitary experiments on DOD and NASA flight missions. Board would recommend approval or disapproval, assignment, and relative priority of experiments submitted, after screening, by sponsoring NASA or DOD Program Offices. Dr. George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, would act as chairman; other members would be Dr. Homer E. Newell, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications; Dr. Mac C. Adams, NASA Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Technology; Daniel J. Fink, DOD Deputy Director for Strategic and Space Systems; and Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, AFSC Commander. ‘‘(Text, NASA NMI 1154.4, 4/27/66)’’
NASA Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched from Andoeya, Norway, carried scientific payload to estimated 133-km. (82.6-mi.) altitude. Experiment, conducted by GSFC and Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (NDRE), was designed to obtain measurements at high spectral resolution of D-region composition, using a new spectrometer based on ion cyclotron resolution principles. Instrumentation functioned properly,. and clamshell nose cone ejected at programmed 55 sec. ‘‘(NASA Rpt. SRL)’’
Secretary of Commerce John T. Connor announced appointment of Dr. George S. Benton, Chairman of Dept. of Mechanics at Johns Hopkins Univ., as director of ESSA’s Institutes for Environmental Research. Dr. Benton, an authority in atmospheric, oceanographic, and hydrological sciences, would assume his new duties in July. ‘‘(Dept. of Commerce Release 66-60)’’
Merger of NASA Apollo Applications program with the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was urged in a report by the House Committee on Government Operations’ Military Operations Subcommittee: “Inasmuch as both programs are still research and development projects without definitive operational missions, there is reason to expect that with earnest efforts both agencies could get together on a joint program incorporating both unique and similar experiments of each agency. . . . Such a merger should be effected within the existing scale of priorities which accords to the military experiments greater urgency.” ‘‘(H.R. No. 1340, 46)’’
President Johnson announced appointment of five new members to four year terms on President’s Science Advisory Committee: Dr. Ivan L. Bennett, director of dept. of pathology, Johns Hopkins Univ.; Dr. Sidney D. Drell, professor of physics, Stanford Univ.; William R. Hewlett, president, Hewlett-Packard Co.; Dr. Charles P. Slichter, professor of physics, Univ. of Illinois; and Dr. Charles H. Townes, provost, MIT. ‘‘(Pres. Doc., 3/28/66, 421)’’
Rocket Propulsion Research Laboratory at AFSC’s Arnold Engineering Development Center was completed. ‘‘(AEDC)’’
Lockheed-California Co. revealed that F-104 Starfighter had taken off from a Zero Length Launch (Zell) platform in 1963 at Edwards AFB, using a Rocketdyne booster rocket in combination with aircraft’s General Electric J-79 engine. After 80-min. flight, Lockheed’s pilot Ed Brown said of no-runway takeoff: “It was one of the easiest. . . I ever made.” The secret tests, conducted under contract to the German Air Force, had been made public following Luftwaffe announcement that new series of Super Starfighter Zell tests would be carried out at Lagerlechfeld Base, near Munich. ‘‘(Lockheed Release, 3/21/66)’’
A space rescue service, “preferably under cooperative auspices of the United States and the Soviet Union,” was urged in a New York Times editorial: ‘‘Its function would be to send space craft, on very short notice, to aid a space vessel marooned in orbit and incapable of returning to earth under its own power. In some cases the need might be for additional rocket fuel or replacement parts; in others the primary. function might be to save lives by taking aboard the crew of a disabled capsule. “. . . with relatively little development, tow-trucks of the cosmos may be a regular part of the safety arrangements for each new step on the road to the moon.” ‘‘(NYT, 3/21/66, 30M)’’
Reporting on a January Thiokol Chemical Corp.-sponsored Trendex poll on public opinion of the U.S. space program, William Coughlin wrote in Missiles and Rockets: “Some 77% of those interviewed now favor the program as against only 20% opposed to it. This is a dramatic gain from 1963, when only 59% were in favor of the lunar landing and 39% were opposed. . . . “In the four cities in which the latest poll was conducted-Cincinnati, Syracuse, Pasadena and Des Moines-the public appears to be far ahead of the Administration in its assessment of the importance of military space. The response was: defense and security, 38%; scientific and non-military benefit, 35%; and opportunities for economic growth and employment, 18%.” ‘‘(Coughlin, M&R, 3/21/66, 46)’’
GEMINI VIII Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott returned to their families in Houston after debriefing at KSC. ‘‘(AP, NYT, 3/22/66, 18)’’
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