Nov 3 1966
From The Space Library
XB-70 No. 1 experimental supersonic bomber, piloted by L/Col. Joseph Cotton (USAF) and NASA test pilot Fitzhugh Fulton, reached mach 2.1 and 60,000-ft. altitude during two-hour flight to evaluate sonic booms and conduct noise measurements for FAA. Flight was first since June 8 crash of XB-70 No. 2 near Barstow, Calif. (XB-70 Proj. Off.; UPI, Chic. Trib., 11/4/66)
USAF Titan III-C booster launched from ETR released unmanned Gemini spacecraft on reentry trajectory and inserted canister containing nine experiments and three satellites into high, circular orbit in successful mission marking first flight test of hardware for DOD's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). Power flight of Titan III-C was close to planned parameters. Modified Gemini spacecraft was released at 125-mi. altitude in test to determine whether new heat shield with hatch could withstand reentry temperatures. Traveling 17,500 mph, spacecraft followed 5,500-mi. trajectory, landing only seven miles off target in the Atlantic. Recovery was made by U.S.S. LaSalle. Titan III-C's transstage restarted twice to achieve planned 184-mi.-altitude circular orbit and release 38-ft. experimental canister, proving booster's ability to launch long payload. Canister OV4-III-ejected OV4-IR and OV4-IT comsats and OV1-VI satellite, which achieved separate, circular orbits. Launch, sixth in series of 12 designed to qualify composite Titan III-C for operational service, was characterized by USAF officials as a "major step" in the MOL program. (Wilford, NYT, 11/4/66, 1, 10; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 11/3/66, A l; AP, Wash. Post, 11/4/66, A l; Av. Wk., 11/14/66, 30; U.S. Aeron. & Space Act., 1966, 158)
Decisions on the direction of post-Apollo activities in space would require a "two-pronged effort by the part of our economy interested in the evolution of space products," suggested Boeing Co. vice president George H. Stoner before AIAA Forum on "After Apollo, What Next?" in Washington, D.C.: ". . . industry must assist NASA and the federal government in formulating succeeding national space goals for the research that will produce fruitful progress toward understanding our universe and toward building a store of knowledge about specialized space techniques. . . . Industry and government agencies other than NASA must explore and continue to find ways to compete successfully in the world market place and in the international technological race on the large scale development projects that characterize our modern society. . . ." Stoner offered several specific suggestions for post-Apollo activities: (1) communications satellites that would take advantage of the natural access to anywhere on earth provided by spacecraft; (2) applications of space-based activities to ballistic missile defense; (3) expansion and refinement of equipment for survey of earth affairs from space; (4) dramatic reduction of launch costs; and (5) continuing exploration of space and its technologies by NASA astronauts and scientists to learn more about our universe. (Text)
Apparent inactivity in Soviet manned space program might reflect "growing dismay over the tremendously high cost of astronautics where men are involved," wrote William Hines in the Washington Evening Star. "The Russians may feel they have better things to do with their money, just as the United States would have if the Kennedy `moon message' of 1961 had not been hung like an albatross around the national neck as a commitment involving American prestige before the world." Cost of [Project Gemini]] was about $700,000 per man hour. (Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 11/3/66, A12)
November 3: 1966 Nobel Prizes for chemistry and physics were awarded to Drs. Robert S. Mulliken, Univ. of Chicago, and Alfred Kastler, Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, respectively. Professor Mulliken was cited for "his functional work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method"; Professor Kastler, for "the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms." (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 11/3/66, A l; Wiskari, NYT, 11/4/66, 1, 28)
U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency announced plans for a "field exercise" in Arizona, Nevada, and California, to test methods of identifying underground nuclear explosions. Project, which would begin in late 1966 and continue through May 1967, would develop methods by which international inspection teams might police a ban on underground nuclear tests. (UPI, Wash. Post, 11/4/66, A23)
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