Aug 12 1964
From The Space Library
X-15 No. 3 flown by NASA pilot Milton 0. Thompson in flight to test and measure heating effect of atmospheric friction on certain aircraft structural components. Aircraft reached altitude of 81,000 ft. and traveled at 3,511 mph (mach 5.32) in the 7-min. flight near NASA Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. (NASA X-15 Proj. Off.; CR, 8/20/64, 20046)
Senate-House Conference Committee on H.R. 11296 filed its Con-ference Report on the Independent Offices Appropriation Bill for FY 1965. Committee recommended $5,250,000,000 NASA appropriation, which was $50,000,000 less than Senate-passed bill had provided and $50,000,000 more than House Committee had recommended. One amendment, regarding use of funds for a manned lunar landing by U.S. and another country, was reported in disagreement. (House Rpt. 1781)
Fourth birthday of ECHO I passive communications satellite, still orbiting the earth in its visible path. G. T. Schjeldahl Co., builders of the 100-ft. sphere for NASA, said ECHO I's supply of gas had long ago leaked out through holes made by micrometeoroids, but even so, ECHO I had "dem-onstrated the practicability of employing large inflatable and erectable reflectors to rebound intelligent signals beamed at it." (Schjeldahl Re-lease; Wash. Post, 8/11/64)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center announced selection of GE Command Systems Div. to negotiate contract for additional spacecraft tracking system for Stadan (Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network) sta-tion at Fairbanks, Alaska. The new system, known as Goddard Range and Range Rate System because it was originally developed by GSFC engineers, was designed to provide improved tracking data for space probes, satellites, and launch vehicles traveling in elliptical or synchro-nous orbits. Two previously completed systems installed at Rosman, N-C., and Carnarvon, Australia, had proved highly successful in tracking EXPLORER XVIII (IMP) . (GSFC Release G-21-64)
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Arthur Sylvester denied statement made yesterday by Communications Satellite Corp. President Joseph Charyk that DOD had demanded, at the last minute, unmeetable conditions for military-civilian comsat cooperation. Sylvester said: "The Department of Defense stated at the outset of negotiations that it would require assurance that the international agreement be so drafted as to protect the technical and security requirements of the national communications system." (AP, NYT, 8/13/64,17)
IBM Corp. said newly developed mathematical methods would permit great increase in use of computers to design and test aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft. Designers now could "simulate flight 15 to 20 times faster than ever before possible on a general-purpose digital com-puter." IBM had used the new technique to help design and evaluate guidance computer for Gemini spacecraft. (NYT, 8/13/64)
General B. A. Schriever, AFSC, said in keynote address at Ninth Symposium on Ballistic Missile and Space Technology, U.S. Naval Training Center, San Diego: ". .. technology is a key to our nation's future. This is true not only in the military area but also in the economic area. Technology is vital not only to our security and survival, but also to our growth and general well-being. Technology must be utilized to support national objectives. "Those of us who are responsible for the national security must ensure that technical progress does in fact serve national military policy effectively. To meet this responsibility there are three things we must do. "First, we must advance the state of the art as the necessary first step toward new capabilities. . . . "Second, we need to identify the technological opportunities during the next ten to fifteen years and relate them to national security objectives. . . "[Third, we need] a means of presenting alternatives clearly so that decisions can be made promptly and with a high degree of con-fidence. . . ." In this regard, he discussed new AFSC Hq. activity to facilitate decision-making process: PROM (Program Management, Re-sources Management, and Objectives Management) . (Text)
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