Oct 24 1968
From The Space Library
X-15 No. 1, flown from Edwards AFB by NASA test pilot William H. Dana, successfully reached 255,000-ft altitude and 3,682 mph (mach 5.04) in 199th and last flight of program. Purpose was to conduct WTR experiment and check out fixed alpha cone and fluidic probe. Flight scheduled for Dec. 20 was later canceled because of adverse weather. It was not rescheduled because NASA announced completion of program [see Jan. 21 and Dec. 201. (X-15 Proj Off; NASA Release 68-221; AP, W Post, 10/25/68; SBD, 10/29/68, 289)
Boosted Arcas II sounding rocket launched by NASA from Kiruna, Sweden, carried Uppsala (Sweden) Ionospheric Observatory payload to 65.2-mi (104.3-km) altitude. Objectives were to measure electron density profile, distribution of positive and negative ions and secondary x-rays in D region and lower E region of ionosphere during auroral glow, quiet arc, and violent and pulsating auroral conditions and to study its effects on radio wave propagation. Rocket was launched in conjunction with three others. Rocket performance was 12% below predicted. Experimental results were successful. (NASA Rpt SRL)
NASA was negotiating with General Electric Co. for data management system costing in excess of $750,000 for 15 mo. It would be used to monitor data from Barbados Oceanographic Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX ) , in which NASA would assist ESSA during 1969. Data from satellites, five to seven ships, many buoys, and from high in atmosphere to bottom of ocean would be processed by system. (NASA Release 68-251)
Rep. Alphonzo Bell (R-Calif.) told American Astronautical Society meeting in Los Angeles: "In evaluating space spending as a budget priority, it is vital to consider the relationship of space to defense. . . . Both Russia and the United States have advance surveillance capacity. . . . As long as the threat of nuclear war from any source continues, Russia and the United States will be producing ever more sophisticated orbital 'spies in the skies'. . . . That is why the space program of the United States never is going to be abandoned. It will always be high on the list of spending priorities. The reason is not charming, but basic. We need to be in space to protect ourselves. . . . In the somewhat more distant future the harvest of human rewards . . . now only beginning . . . will prove that space research and space applications justify a continuing high priority." (Text; Aero Daily, 10/29/68)
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