Oct 16 1964
From The Space Library
NASA announced the first electric-rocket engine space flight (July 20) had been so successful that a second test would not be necessary. In Sert I (Space Electric Rocket Test), electron-bombardment engine using mercury propellant produced an ion beam developing .0055 lb. of thrust. (NASA Release 64-264; LRC Release 64-93)
NASA Langley Research Center announced that a foam generator developed for possible use in recovery at sea of instrument packages returned from space had been patented. Attached to instrument pack- ages, generator mixes chemicals to produce almost instant plastic foam as it parachutes to water landing, filling a bag which keeps the payload floating on the surface awaiting recovery. (LaRC Release, 10/16/64)
U.S.-Japan telecommunications cable broke at the peak of traffic from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, including sound track for films telecast from Tokyo and sent via SYNCOM III communications satellite. Japanese officials estimated earliest repair date as Oct. 23. (NYT, 10/17/64, 13)
NASA received patent for life preserver carried by Mercury astronauts on all orbital space flights. Invented by MSC engineers Mathew L Radnofsky and Glenn A. Shewmake, life-preserver was called "Ram's Horn" because of its shape: main part fits across wearer's chest and hook-like ends fit over the shoulders (Jones, NYT, 10/17/64, 35)
Hovercraft, also known as GEM's (ground effect machines) , probably will be regulated by Coast Guard, Civil Aeronautics Board, and Federal Maritime Commission, according to tentative positron statements released jointly by nine Government agencies. (AP, NYT, 10/17/64, 46; M&R, 10/26/64, 45)
Archeological relics dating as far back as 3,500 B.C. were being uncovered at future site of man's rocket launchings to the moon-Merritt Island, Fla. (NASA Space Sheet, 10/16/64)
Communist China announced it had detonated its first nuclear device. Three minutes before the nuclear detonation an earthquake occurred in Mongolia, precluding the possibility of detecting the nuclear explosion by AFCRL's four automatic seismic stations in northeastern U.S. (OAR Review, 1/65, 15; Reuters, NYT, 10/17/64, 10)
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