Sep 25 1965
From The Space Library
A half-length 260-in,-dia, solid rocket motor generated 3.5 million pounds thrust during a successful two-minute test firing at Aerojet-General's Dade County, Fla, facilities. Firing tested strength of the maraging steel motor case, structural integrity of the cast propellant, the insulation, and the ablative nozzle; it demonstrated that massive quantities of solid fuel could be controlled under firing conditions. Test was part of the national large solid motor technology program initiated by USAF in 1963 and transferred to NASA in 1965. (NASA Release 65-295, 65-311; LRC Release 65-65)
NASA launched a second Aerobee 150A sounding rocket from Wallops Station containing French-built radio propagation experiments designed for later flight on France's FR-1 satellite. The 197-lb, payload reached peak altitude of 120 mi. (192 km,) during the eight-minute flight, First launch had carried an identical payload Sept, 17. (Wallops Release 65-61)
Super Guppy, a five-story-high aircraft designed to carry large rocket sections, made a safe emergency landing at Edwards AFB after part of its aluminum skin peeled off during a high-speed dive. No one was injured. Aircraft was undergoing flight tests for certification by FAA. (AP, Wash, Post, 9/26/65)
Launch of Gemini VI from Eastern Test Range on a two-day mission no later than Oct, 25 was announced by NASA. It would be man's first attempt to rendezvous and dock with an orbiting spacecraft, Pilots for Gemini VI were Astronauts Walter M. Schirra (Capt. N) and Thomas P. Stafford (Maj., USAF). Backup pilots were Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom (Maj. USAF) and John W. Young (Cdr, USN). This would be Schirra's second space flight. His first was Oct. 3, 1962, a six-orbit flight in Mercury spacecraft SIGMA VII (NASA Release 65-307)
Dr. Donald Young and Dr. Ralph Pelligra of NASA Ames Research Center had been studying "the use of high caloric diets for prolonged space flights on the theory that it may be possible for astronauts to use their own fatty deposits as a source of energy." It might be possible that future astronauts would prepare for spaceflight by eating "certain types of fats that would build up in their bodies," thus providing them with "storage depots of their own fat" that could serve "as a backup if food supplies were limited." (UPI, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/26/65)
Apollo Extension Systems (AES) schedule was summarized by James J. Haggerty, Jr., in the Journal of the Armed Forces: "NASA has worked up a tentative AES schedule. It calls, first, for perhaps three or four 14-day earth-orbital missions, using a basic Apollo spacecraft only slightly modified, starting in 1968. This phase would be followed by extended earth-orbital (45-day) missions at the rate of five or six a year in 1970-71 and 14-day lunar exploration missions at the rate of one or two a year in 1970-71." (Haggerty, J/Armed Forces, 9/25/65, 23)
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