May 30 1973
From The Space Library
The Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences favorably reported H.R. 7528, a $3.046-billion FY 1974 NASA authorization bill, $28 million lower than the $3.074-billion House bill passed May 23. The Senate authorization-$30 million above NASA's requested $3.016 billion-would be NASA's lowest since FY 1962 and the lowest percentage of the total Federal budget-less than 1.2%-in 12 yrs. It would provide $2.231 billion for research and development, $34 million more than NASA's request but $24 million less than the House' bill; $110 million for construction of facilities, as requested but $2 million less than the House bill; and $705 million for research and program management, as requested but down $2 million from the House bill.
The Senate Committee would retain Skylab funding at NASA's re-quested $233 million and space shuttle funding at $475 million. It concurred with the House addition of $7 million for Earth Resources Technology Satellite program funding and added $5 million to space applications funding to replace NASA's instrumented Convair 990 air-craft, lost in an April 12 crash. (CR, 5/30/73, S9866; S Rpt 93-179)
Successful applications of earth resources surveying by satellite were described by representatives of agriculture and the lumber, oil, and aerospace industries at a Johnson Space Center press briefing sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Lockheed Electronics Co. earth 'resources coordinator Gordon R. Heath said surveys from Earth Resources Satellites would provide lumbermen "a continuous flow of up-to-date information which has never before been avail-able to them," a new management tool for timber lands. "And better management will balance supply and demand . . . and help stabilize lumber prices." Lumber company executive James B. Webster said the development of earth resources surveying was "one of the most important events in the history of man." Incipient damage to trees from insects and forest fires had previously been impossible to detect. "And what we've got here is ... a system which will permit us to know what's happening all over the world, with all the world resources at any given time."
Dr. Richard Phelps, technical information director for an agricultural firm, said a photo taken over a northern California area by ERTS 1 (launched by NASA July 23, 1972) had been "a tremendous help" in complementing information from ground sources on farm crops. "It's still very difficult for us to realize that we can obtain so much detail from an electronically reconstituted print transmitted from a satellite as far away from the earth as Wichita, Kansas, is from Houston." (Transcript)
A fire retardant suit that filled with foam at impact, designed by a NASA contractor, saved the life of racing driver Swede Savage when his car crashed into a retaining wall during the Indianapolis 500 automobile race. Associated Press said later that it was a "miracle" Savage had not burned to death. "The fire was so intense it seemed to illuminate the overcast skies." (Washington Post, 5/31/73, D6)
Newspaper editorials commented on the repair of the Skylab Workshop by Skylab 2 astronauts as the mission, begun May 14, continued to pursue its objectives of photographing and studying the solar atmosphere.
The Philadelphia Inquirer found "vast excitement in the Skylab adventure beyond potential dividends and the high drama of the suspense itself." The astronauts' repair of the Workshop "tells us, all jokes aside, that Americans have managed an accomplishment of delicacy, complexity and force that would have been beyond the imagination of all but a few visionaries a decade ago. That tells us, all doubts aside, that America can do wonders when it sets its mind to it." (P Inq, 5/30/73)
New York News; "We hope the lesson learned will not be lost on those who decry the 'expense' of manned space exploration. If we had relied on 'push-button robots instead of human ingenuity, it's a good bet Skylab would have ended up a complete washout." (NY News, 5/30/73)
Christian Science Monitor: "Much of the technology spurred by space has applications nearer home. For example, modest solar-energy devices have already arrived on the market for home and commercial use after solar-energy pioneering in space. But even without such applications the Skylab venture would represent a remarkable manifestation of the problem-solving talent especially needed now that Americans are waking up to problems they hardly knew they had." (CSM, 5/30/73)
San Francisco Chronicle: "Who could feel anything short of total admiration for the undeniable courage of the astronauts for venturing into an oven of 125 degrees Fahrenheit [325 kelvins] to carry out their endangered mission? The coolness and confidence of men who reckon the limits of what they can do and then run the risks of approaching those limits while their defective vehicle is speeding in space at 17,500 [28 200 kilometers] an hour are something to celebrate." (SF Chron, 5/30/73)
President Nixon submitted to the Senate the nomination of John W. Barnum to be Under Secretary of Transportation succeeding Egil Krogh, Jr., who had resigned. Krogh, former assistant to President Nixon's Chief Domestic Adviser John D. Ehrlichman, had resigned while under investigation for his role in the Watergate activities. (PD, 6/4/73, 717, 727; Time, 5/14/73, 22)
Associated Press quoted military sources in Brazil as saying the Brazilian Air Force had decided to buy $100-million worth of U.S. jet fighter aircraft. The order-for 48 Northrop F-5Es-was about double Brazil's two most recent orders for arms from France, 16 Mirage Ills at $3 mil-lion each in 1970 and $2-million worth of French missiles more recently. (NYT, 5/31/73, 17)
A Reuters report that the British government was secretly developing "death ray" weapons using powerful laser beams was published by the Christian Science Monitor. A Ministry of Defense spokesman had con-firmed that work had been in progress for the navy, Royal Air Force, and army for some time and "we also have a close exchange of information with the United States on this subject, which is highly classified." (CSM, 5/30/73, 2)
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