Apr 12 1965
From The Space Library
Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from White Sands, N. Mex, carried instrumented payload to 125 mi. (200 km,) altitude, Payload was a spectroheliograph to obtain a monochromatic picture of the sun. Experiment was conducted by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (NASA Rpt, SRL)
ComSatCorp announced that clear test signals transmitted via EARLY BIRD between Andover, Me, and stations in Goonhilly Downs, England; Pleumeur Bodou, France; and Raisting, W. Germany, had demonstrated that communications satellite's equipment to receive messages from the European stations was functioning properly, as was its receiver tuned to the Andover station. (AP, Chic, Trib., 4/13/65)
AEC granted a full-term, ten-year operating license to NASA's Plum Brook Reactor Facility, NASA announced. The Plum Brook Reactor, which produced 60,000 kw, of thermal power at peak operation, was being used in basic research relating to development of a nuclear rocket and of systems and components for space nuclear auxiliary power. The Facility is part of NASA Lewis Research Center. (LRC Release 65-27)
USAF had awarded to General Dynamics a fixed-price-incentive-fee contract covering initial procurement of 431 F-111 aircraft, DOD announced. The contract was expected to exceed $15 billion. (DOD Release 228-65)
Tass announced: "Scientists of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute believe they have received perhaps the first evidence that we are not alone in the universe." The report referred to a strange pattern in signals emanating from a radio source believed being beamed at earth from another civilization, During the past year, the Soviet announcement continued, Soviet scientific listeners have noted that the signals come and go like the radio equivalent of a revolving beacon. Every hundred days the signals get strong and then fade out again. The Tass announcement quoted Dr. Nikolai Kardashev as saying: "A super civilization has been discovered." Dr. Kardashev had first announced a year ago that he thought the radio signals from a source known as CTA-102 came from intelligent beings, Tass indicated that radio astronomers at Britain's Jodrell Bank station had also observed CTA-102. (Loory, N.Y, Her. Trib., 4/13/65; Simons, Wash, Post, 4/13/65)
A spokesman for Britain's Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope Observatory said concerning the Tass report that radio signals from CTA-102 might come from intelligent beings in outer space: "We have made measurements on these sources and confirmed that they are very weak and very small. But there is no observational evidence at Jodrell Bank to show any variation in the signal strength received. We would have to scrutinize carefully the Russian evidence before making any further statements." (AP, Balt. Sun, 4/13/65)
Fourth flight of General Dynamics' second USAF F-111A developmental aircraft lasted 1 hr, 40 min, Speeds ranged from 138 to 354 kt., with wings swept at 16°, 26°, and 70°. Landing gear and flaps were worked up and down during the flight, Fifth flight of the aircraft lasted 2 hr, 10 min, and attained a speed of mach 0.8 and an altitude of 27,000 ft, Wings were swept at 16°, 26°, and 70°. (Av, Wk, 4/19/65, 27)
In a Missiles and Rockets editorial, William J. Coughlin questioned NASA's wisdom in drawing up mission requirements for lunar exploration. The article said: "Dr. Homer E. Newell, NASA associate administrator, told Congress last year: 'Ranger will play an important role in the support of Project Apollo,' ... "Not a single change has been made in any part of the Apollo system or in the program's operational plan as a result of the Ranger findings, None is contemplated. The reason for this is simple. The Block III Rangers were incapable of producing any such data... , "The case for Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter as supports for the Apollo program ... is not a very strong one, , "Dr. Newell sees them as part of what he calls the 'total program for exploring the Moon.' . . . [He said] in the following statement to Congress: 'You will have a lunar landing. That lunar landing will involve a few hours of stay on the Moon, a look that the astronauts can make, a few collections of samples, maybe some simple tests, and maybe the implacement by the astronauts of monitors to be left on the lunar surface,' "After their departure, Dr. Newell sees the instruments carrying on, Lunar Orbiter wheels overhead. Surveyor explores areas on the moon which Man would have difficulty in reaching. ... "We suggest that if anyone proposed exploring the Antarctic in such a manner, he would be clapped in the pokey as a nut, Man is going to the Moon and he is going to explore it. Expenditure of billions of dollars on instruments remotely controlled from Earth to do the same job is folly." (M&R, 4/12/65, 46)
Chickens exposed to one half to three times the earth's gravity had contracted chronic acceleration sickness in tests conducted at the Univ. of California, Dr. Russell R. Burton, a veterinarian at the University conducting experiments as part of a program supported by NASA and the Office of Naval Research, said there was great variation among the chickens in susceptibility to the sickness: "Some chickens will show symptoms after a few days at 1.5g, but others not until many months at 3g, and, of course, some never exhibit any of the symptoms. However, once the sickness develops, symptoms are the same." Sick fowl developed enlarged adrenal glands and their digestive functions became abnormal. Some chickens' legs were paralyzed as a result of increased gravity forces. Objective of the tests was to determine effects of artificially altering body weight, Interest in increased gravity fields stemmed from greater fields present on other planets such as Jupiter, which has gravity 2½ times that on earth. (Av. Wk, 4/12/65, 79)
Robert Hotz, editorializing in Aviation Week and Space Technology, said that it could be a "dangerous mistake" to defer development of earth-orbital operational capabilities until financial and technical peak loads of Apollo had been passed: "The Soviets obviously have chosen the earth-orbital approach to their lunar landing mission. Therefore, they necessarily must develop rather fully their hardware and operational techniques in this area as a vital prelude to their lunar landing attempts and not as a postlude, in the manner of current U.S. planning. They also have made little attempt to conceal their primary military interest in the development of manned spacecraft operations in the earth-orbital area. "Thus, it is entirely possible that unless U.S. policy is drastically changed soon, the Soviets may have an opportunity to achieve the technical surprise in space that they so narrowly missed in the race to an intercontinental ballistic missile." (Av. Wk., 4/12/65, 21)
Pravda announced the birth of Russia's third "space baby": a son to Cosmonaut Valery F. Bykovsky and his wife Valentina. (UPI, Wash, Daily News, 4/13/65)
Week of April 12: European Space Research Organization (ESRO) selected Laboratoire Central de Telecommunications (LCT), a wholly-owned French subsidiary of International Telephone and Telegraph Corp., as prime contractor for development of Esro 1 polar ionosphere satellite. The $3-million contract awarded called for development and production of one prototype and two flying satellites-one a backup-to gather information on ionospheric and particle conditions in the northern polar region. (Av, Wk., 4/12/65, 37; Av, Wk, 4/19/65, 30)
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