Feb 25 1965
From The Space Library
President Johnson visited NASA Headquarters, accompanied by Vice President Humphrey, for a briefing on the MARINER IV project and to congratulate and express appreciation to NASA officials and members of the Mariner and Ranger project team. The President recalled that he had sponsored legislation in 1958 that had created NASA: "I think it is really incredible that we have come so far. It was only seven years ago this month that we were deliberating and debating and still seeking to come to grips with the realities of the space age." Mr. Johnson told NASA officials that the people of America and the whole world were "deep in your debt." (NASA Announcement 65-43; Simons, Wash. Post, 2/26/65: Sehlstedt, Balt. Sun, 2/26/65; Young, Chic. Trib., 2/26/65; Mohr, NYT, 2/26/65, 10)
USAF launched Thor-Agena D launch vehicle from Western Test Range with unidentified satellite payload. (U.S. Aeron. & Space Act., 1965, 1351 ComSatCorp announced decision of DOD that continuation of its present program to secure satellite services, presumably with Ford Motor Co.'s Philco Corp. Div., was superior to that proposed by ComSatCorp. The satellites involved would make up "initial" DOD system: ComSatCorp might bid to supply advanced satellites, ComSatCorp hoped its separate commercial system would be afforded some DOD non secret traffic. Some military men had argued that, since the Government would build its own system for secret communications, it should also use these facilities for non secret transmissions. This had caused ComSatCorp to raise the question of the degree to which the Government should enter the communications business in competition with private enterprise, President Johnson had established policy in a report to Congress, ". . . a system tailored for the military's exclusive use, does not alter the policy under which . . . the Government will use the commercial satellite system for the transmission of the bulk of its traffic between the United States and various overseas areas." ( WSJ, 2 /25/65)
NASA had granted an exclusive patent license, the second it ever issued, to Exactel Instrument Co. for a "line-following servo system." The device, which "remembers" a given graph curve, could measure one characteristic of a physical situation and read out resulting characteristics in specific quantities. President of Exactel, Eugene A. Glassey had invented the servo-system while an employee at NASA Ames Research Center. Issuance of the exclusive license on a Government-owned patent to a private individual was part of NASA's continuing effort to make aeronautical and space inventions available for commercial development as rapidly as possible. The only previous exclusive licensing was to Union Carbide in 1963 for a nickel-based alloy invented by a NASA scientist. (ARC Release 65-6)
NASA Kennedy Space Center awarded a $41 million cost-plus award-fee supplement to the Chrysler Corp. for support services on the Saturn I and Saturn IB space programs. Chrysler would provide prelaunch, launch, and post-launch services at Complexes 34 and 37 through June 30, 1968. (KSC Release 43-650)
DOD's Hibex, the high acceleration experimental booster, was successfully tested at White Sands Missile Range, N.Mex. (M&R, 3/8/65, 11)
Douglas DC-9, a twin-jet airliner, made its maiden flight. The short-to-medium-range transport, expected to benefit smaller airports, flew from Long Beach, Calif., to Edwards AFB in two hours and 13 min. The plane had a wing span of 87 ft. and used about 3,500 ft. of the runway in taking off. Its cabin could accommodate up to 90 passengers. The DC-9 was expected to go into passenger service early next year. Orders or options for 121 of the planes had been received by Douglas, of which 24 were placed by Eastern Air Lines. (UPI, NYT, 2/26/65, 58; 2/26/65, 37)
Dr. C. Stark Draper, head of the Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, and Theodore C. Achilles, a former ambassador to Peru and presently vice chairman of the executive committee of the Atlantic Council of the U.S., were sworn in as consultants to NASA. Dr. Draper would be a technical consultant on a part-time basis; Achilles would be available for consultation on NASA's university program. (NASA Release 65-66)
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