1971

From The Space Library

Johnson Space Center Press Releases. (7MB PDF)

During Winter: Only "small fraction" of defense, space, and atomic energy funding during 1950s and 1960s had been spent on science and technology per se, Gabor Strasser, former technical assistant to Presidential Science Adviser Edward E. David, Jr., said in Science Policy Reviews. DOD, NASA, and AEC funding had accounted for "about two-thirds of our entire Federal budget" but bulk of "these huge expenditures" had gone for "such `unscientific' things" as plants, materials, labor, tooling, and production. With approach of mid-1970s "emphasis is shifting ... toward alleviation of domestic social and environmental problems, or . . . improvement of our `quality of life.' The goals are not so science-and-technology sensitive as going to the moon, as MIRV's or as phased-array radars have been." Major change affecting current scientific and technical activities was "approach required to tackle today's emerging problems." Advancement of state of the art was less important than "integration of existing science and technology with what is already known and yet to be found out in sociology, economics, politics, management and institutional arrangements." (Battelle Sci Pol Rev, Fourth Quarter 71, 3-12)

NASA published Mariner-Venus 1967, Final Project Report (NASA SP-190). In foreword, Project Manager Glenn A. Reiff said Mariner 5 (launched June 14, 1967, toward Oct. 19, 1967, flyby of planet Venus), apart from significant contributions to knowledge of deep space, had achieved secondary objective, "to gain engineering experience by converting a spare Mariner-Mars 1964 spacecraft into one that could be flown to Venus," with substantial savings. Cost of mission had been 10% less than anticipated. (Text)