Oct 28 1966
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
USAF's OV3-II research satellite was launched from Vandenberg AFB by Scout rocket into orbit with 991-mi. (1,595-km.) apogee; 198-mi. (319-km.) perigee; 104-min. period; and 82ΓΈ inclination. Launch was planned so satellite would be in orbit during Nov. 12 South American. solar eclipse to provide data on charged particle variations in extreme upper atmosphere before, during, and after eclipse. Satellite, designed to remain active in space at least one year, would also extend knowledge of electron and ion density structure found in outer radiation belt by NASA's DISCOVERER XVII. (Vandenberg AFB PIO; UPI, Phil. Sun. Bull., 10/30/66)
First manned Apollo spacecraft (AS-204) would be orbited in first quarter of 1967, NASA announced. Mission would verify spacecraft systems performance and crew operations. NASA had hoped for December launching, but modification of environmental control system (Ecs) would necessitate further ground testing of spacecraft. Prime crew would be Virgil I. Grissom, command pilot; Edward H. White II, senior pilot; and Roger Chaffee, pilot. Backup crew would be James McDivitt, command pilot; David R. Scott, senior pilot; and Russell L. Schweickart, pilot. (NASA Release 66-284)
NASA awarded Boeing Co. a $4.5-million contract modification for design and procurement of Saturn V 1st stages. Hardware included propellant ducts and valves and pressurization switches and gauges. (NASA Release 66-283)
General Electric Co. successfully tested prototype GE4 turbojet engine at 52,600 lbs. thrust-believed to be record for air-breathing engines of all types. GE4 was developed in FAA competition with Pratt & Whitney Div., United Aircraft Corp., for SST engine contract. (GE Release 66-51)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb said in a speech at Mills College, Oakland, Calif., that the "complex interdevelopment of technological power and of the social organization necessary to control, direct, and exploit it . . . is a central element of the space age. . . . The success of our space program is helping to prove to ourselves and to the world that we have the will and the capacity to establish far-reaching, difficult goals and bring them surely to fruition. This kind of proof is a major basis for national prestige and international cooperation." (Text)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded $1,071,205 contract for construction of foundations at ERC to Coleman Bros. Corp., Boston. (MSC Roundup, 10/28/66, 8; DOD Release 879-66)
Recent "booming" in Chicago area precipitated editorial comment in Chicago Daily News: "We grant that the supersonic age is upon us. But it is also an age of human beings with human rights. One of these is the right not to be buffeted around by sonic booms, and it is evidently going to take eternal vigilance to keep that right from being obliterated in the name of some totally unsupportable need." (Chic. Daily News, 10/28/66)
Plan to shift headquarters of USN's manned spacecraft recovery fleet (Task Force 140) from Norfolk to Houston was under study by DOD, fleet commander R/Adm. Conrad Abhau told AP. Abhau said he and his staff had been absent from Norfolk on recovery operations 40 per cent of the time during the past 12 mos. (AP, Wash. Post, 10/29/66, E16)
FCC had granted ITT World Communications, Inc., permission to provide facilities on U.S.S. [Weightless Analysis Sounding Probe|WASP]] for televising recovery of Gemini 12 spacecraft; three-day mission was scheduled for Nov. 9 launch. TV signals would be transmitted by EARLY BIRD 1 for relay. (Wash. Eve. Star, 10/29/66, A16)
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