Oct 4 1968
From The Space Library
NASA-USAF review board report said failure of Nimbus B mission May 18 had been caused by improper installation of yaw-rate gyro 90° from design position in Thorad-Agena launch vehicle. Board recommended revision of test procedures which failed to discern error and redesign of gyro mounting brackets to make improper installation impossible. Repeat mission, Nimbus B2, would be launched in spring 1969 because of flight's importance to meteorological research. (NASA Release 68-171; UPI, H Chron, 10/5/68)
President Johnson signed H.R. 17023 as P.L. 90-550, Independent Offices and Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 1969, which included NASA appropriations of $3.995 billion. Conference report on bill had been adopted by Senate Sept. 25 and by House Sept. 19. (PD, 10/14/68, 1484)
At NASA Pasadena (Calif.) Office third annual awards ceremony, Dr. John E. Naugle, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, said: "During the next few years . . our efforts in astronomical observations, in space applications and in planetary exploration, should receive priority. . . . In astronomy, perhaps more than in any other scientific discipline, major progress has been achieved when a new observing technique is used. In the next several years we will provide our astronomers with such new observational tools-telescopes and detectors in space above the absorbing and obscuring effect of the earth's atmosphere. .. . we envision a complementary program using both manned and automated observational platforms leading to permanent observatories in space in the next 10 to 15 years. On the other hand, OAO, OSO, and the small astronomy satellite will carry the burden of automated observation, while the Apollo Telescope Mount provides us with early experience in the contribution man can make in astronomy. Before very many years, it should be possible for us to move into astra-type systems in which we combine the best of both techniques, i.e., long-term automated instruments in orbit of a cost and complexity which justify their being serviced and maintained by man. . . . "Although . . . post Apollo plans are much more modest than previously announced, even at these reduced levels, it should be possible to carry out some important near-earth and extended lunar missions following the Apollo landings. However, there remains no clear picture as to the future of manned space flight beyond the use of the launch vehicles and rockets left over from Apollo. The resolution of the future goals of manned space flight must await the . . . next administration." (Text)
NASA's Oso IV spacecraft (launched Oct. 18, 1967) had obtained valuable new data on three-dimensional structure of sun's atmosphere, Leo Goldberg, Robert W. Noyes, William H. Parkinson, Edmond M. Reeves, and George L. Withbroe of Harvard College Observatory's Solar Satellite Project reported in Science. During five weeks of experiment operation-before electronic failure of instrument detection system-more than 100 solar flares were recorded. More than 4,000 UV images in 52 different wavelengths over wide range of temperatures and heights in solar atmosphere were obtained. Most of emission lines represented had not been observed before with spatial resolution on solar disk. New instrument was being prepared for flight on OSO-G in 1969, to have twice spatial resolution and 10 times time resolution of instrument on Oso IV. (Science, 10/4/68, 95-9)
ComSatCorp, on behalf of INTELSAT, awarded Hughes Aircraft Co. $72- million contract for Intelsat IV advanced comsats. Hughes would deliver within 22 mo four flight spacecraft, one prototype, associated spacecraft test equipment, and necessary ground equipment. (ComSatCorp Release 68-52; WSJ, 10/7/68, 3)
AFsC's Space and Missile Systems Organization awarded Philco-Ford Corp.'s Space and Re-Entry Systems Div. $7,805,000 fixed-price-incentive-fee contract for development, production, and launch of two comsats for NATO. First satellite would be launched from ETR in late 1969 by Thrust-Augmented Thor-Delta booster into 20,000-mi-altitude synchronous orbit. Second would be backup. (AFSC Release 145.68)
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