Jun 2 1964
From The Space Library
At his news conference, President Johnson stated, in reply to a question about reconnaissance of Cuba by means of planes and satellites: "I will say this: that we, at the time of the Cuba missile crisis, attempted to work out an agreement for inspection and that was refused. This nation, in order to protect its people, must have a knowledge of what is taking place and we propose to keep informed. As to what offers the best method, we will have to determine that." (NYT, 6/3/64, 25)
The Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences approved authorization of $5,246,293,250 in the next fiscal year for NASA. This figure would be $52,482,750 more than was voted by the House, but still $57,706,750 less than the budget requests. The Senate Committee's recommendations included restoration of budget cuts by the House from the unmanned Surveyor program, the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory program, and funds for tracking network operations. (Wash. Post, 6/3/64;Av. Wk., 6/15/64,30)
In Senate debate, Senator Frank Lausche (D.-Ohio) criticized NASA's refusal to divulge to congressional space committees its documents concerning the selection of Boston as the site of the Electronic Research Center. He called NASA's consideration of requests of other states for the installation "a mere front" hiding the fact that the decision had already been made. Senators Keating and Javits (R.-N.Y.), and Case (R.-N.J) joined Lausche in criticizing NASA's refusal to divulge the contents of its site selection studies. (CR, 6/2/64, 11951-52; UPI, Boston Globe, 6/2/64)
NASA. named two companies to enter competitive negotiations for providing instrumentation support services at the Merritt Island Launch Area and the NASA facilities located within the Cape area. The two companies were Federal Electric Corp. of Paramus, NJ., and Chrysler Corp., Florida Missile Operations, Cape Kennedy, Fla. The total period of performance would be for three years, at a cost of $4.5 million. (KSC Release 80-64)
NASA engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center were puzzled by the question of how a colony of fleas managed to infiltrate a special chamber which was supposedly protected against invasion even by bacteria. The chamber had been designed and installed to test, under conditions simulating those of space, optical equipment to be placed on board the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory. One possible explanation for the presence of the fleas suggested that they entered concealed in the fur-lined parkas worn by technicians adjusting equipment inside the low-temperature chamber. (Wash. Daily News, 6/2/64)
NASA Flight Research Center awarded a $1.2 million contract to the Norair Div. of the Northrop Corp. of Hawthorne, Calif., for the design and construction of two full-scale lifting body research vehicles. The two research vehicles (the M-2 and HL-10) were to be used initially by NASA for full-scale wind tunnel testing and for free flight tests as manned subsonic gliders. (FRC Release 14-64)
Representative H. R. Gross (R.-Iowa) told the House that Breene M. Kerr, son of the late Sen. Robert S. Kerr (D.-Okla.) and recently named Deputy Assistant Administrator for Technology Utilization of NASA, would have to exercise great care to avoid conflicts of interest in his new job. He warned that Kerr's new assignment "will require some serious thinking on his part if he is to avoid actions that may tend to confuse the Kerr financial interests with the interests of the government" (Mollenhoff, Des Moines Register, 6/3/64)
In a House debate over the patent policy for the proposed Water Resources Research Center, Rep, Chet Holifield (D.-Calif.) criticized current DOD and NASA patent policies. He urged that the policy be revised to permit any industry to "use any kind of a device or any kind of a patent procedure which is paid for by federal funds." (CR, 6/2/64, 12045)
The FAA awarded contracts totaling $6 million each to the Boeing Company and Lockheed Aircraft Corp. for the design of a supersonic transport. In addition, contracts totaling $5 million each were awarded to the General Electric Co. and the Pratt & Whitney Division of United Aircraft Corp. for designs for the engines of the transport. Boeing and Lockheed would do extensive design work, wind tunnel testing, and structural studies aimed at refining designs to conform to the technical and economic requirements established by the FAA. The two engine contractors would develop detailed preliminary layout designs. (AP, NYT, 6/3/64, 16 ; FAA Release 64-55)
Alexander Kuzin, Soviet member of U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, said that contaminations by short-lived radioactive substances were disappearing. By the end of the current year, it would be practically impossible to trace any such contamination of the earth, Kuzin said in a speech reported by Tass. (AP, NYT, 6/4/64, 4)
A $100-million issue of Communications Satellite Corp. stock was put on the market and almost immediately sold out. Five million shares were involved in the stock issue. The maximum allotment was 50 shares per customer from each security house, but the average was only about 15 shares because of the great public demand. The par value of the stock was $20 per share, and it closed at around $23 after having reached a high of $27 in the first few minutes of trading. (NYT, 6/3/64, 59)
June 2-3: New, improved solar cell was described at Conference of Photo-voltaic Specialists by Joseph Mandelkorn, head of group at NASA Lewis Research Center that developed the solar cell. The new cell was made of pure silicon with small amount of aluminum added. Before 1960, solar cells were made of silicon with small amount of phosphorus added. In 1960, Mandelkorn discovered that substituting boron for phosphorus made cells with greater radiation resistance; these cells were used on TELSTAR I, whose orbit passed through Van Allen radiation belts. The newest cells, even more radiation resistant, were expected to have useful lifetime of 25-50 times that of silicon-phosphorus type. (LRC Release 64-51)
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