Feb 10 1965
From The Space Library
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center announced four women were among the applicants being considered for the new scientist-astronaut program. They would receive the same consideration as the male applicants. In the past, because of the requirement that applicants have either a test pilot rating or at least 1,000 hrs. in jet aircraft, women were not seriously considered. MSC had forwarded the names of just over 400 applicants to the National Academy of Sciences, which would make recommendations on selection of 10-15 scientist-astronauts. (Maloney, Houston Post, 2/11/65)
At an AEC FY 1966 authorization hearing, Rep. Melvin Price (D-Ill.), acting chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, attacked "wasteful, irresponsible vacillation" in developing nuclear power systems for use in space. He cited the Snap-50 project which "in 1962 had a development objective through flight test. About a year ago, the flight test objective was dropped for a complete flight system ground test. This year, we have had another change in objective, dropping the complete system ground test and cutting back to component test objectives. It thus appears we are moving rapidly backward in this program. ..." Rep. Price said millions of dollars were being spent to develop these power sources for DOD and NASA but that the projects were often stopped short of flight testing because of lack of funds. He mentioned "several specific construction items which were not approved by the Budget . . . [because] there was no indication of a user for the finished product. . . . "The concern of the Committee is that this seems to be a pattern that happens on so many of these projects. Usually when it starts, you put several more millions in for a few years and then finally cut it off completely. . . . We are just worried about this pattern. If we thought it was going to end with the same result, it might be wise to cut it off earlier rather than later. . . . I have a pretty deep feeling we are back on this requirements merry-go-round." (Transcript)
Detection of the existence of life on Mars could be accomplished by a manned Mars-orbit mission without the necessity of a Mars landing, according to two NASA Ames Research Center officials in a Copley News Service interview. Alvin Seiff, Chief of Ames' Vehicle Environment Div, and David E. Reese, Jr., Assistant Chief of that division, said life on Mars could be detected from as far away as "several hundred thousand feet" from the planet's surface. "We think we could get good accuracy during even hypersonic flight around Mars. . . . We don't need to land men on Mars to find out what goes on there. We can find out about its atmosphere and whether life exists there through the use of a variety of instruments we now have at hand," Seiff said. Seiff and Reese were in Denver attending AAS Symposium on Unmanned Exploration of the Solar System. (Macomber, CNS, San Diego Union, 2/10/65)
Hughes Space Systems Div, at El Segundo, Calif., signed a contract with NASA to propose designs of a beacon that could be placed on the moon as a guide for safe landing for moonbound Apollo astronauts. The beacon would be landed on the moon with a Surveyor spacecraft. (UPI, Phil. Eve. Bul., 2/10/65)
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