Apr 1 1966
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
Vice President Hubert Humphrey, speaking to a group of Life magazine executives visiting KSC, remarked: ". . . the space program has added greater meaning to our lives. I have talked to a great many Americans recently about the benefits of the space program, and I have found that my fellow Americans get a thrill and a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction out of this great undertaking of our nation. "Our young people have a new frontier to explore. And this comes at a time when we thought all the frontiers were gone. They have new and exciting places to go out in the universe, new ideas to bring home and enrich their lives, new challenges to hone their character. "Yesterday our horizon was limited by the globe of earth, and today, as a result of this new frontier, our horizons are as limitless as the universe itself." (Text)
NASA announced transfer of project management of the - first hydrogen-fueled rocket engine-from MSFC to LRC and of Headquarters program authority from NASA OMSF to OSSA. RL-10, which had powered Saturn 1's 2nd stage (S-IV) in six successful flights prior to conclusion of MSFC's Saturn I program July 30, 1965, also powered Centaur upper stage launch vehicle, managed by LRC. (NASA Release 66-74)
Soviet Defense Minister Rodion Y. Malinovsky told Communist Party Congress meeting in Moscow that Soviet "anti-aircraft defense means assure the reliable destruction of any aircraft and many enemy rockets . . . calmly and confidently we are guarding the peaceful toil of our people especially now that the construction of our blue belt defense has been completed. . . ." US. military experts believed the "blue belt" defense referred to by Malinovsky was the Soviet nuclear submarine force. (Gwertzman, Wash. Eve. Star, 4/7/66, A3)
Astronomers in six European countries-Denmark, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and West Germany-had agreed to share the expense of constructing $7-million observatory on Lasilla, a mountain peak several hundred miles north of Santiago, Chile. (Reuters, NYT, 4/2/66, 27; Reuters, Wash. Post, 4/2/66, A16)
Launch of U.S.S.R.'s LUNA X spacecraft indicated Soviet goals and techniques for reaching moon were similar to those of US., according to William Hines in Washington Evening Star, and raised question whether U.S.S.R. would attempt manned lunar landing in November 1967 to mark 50th anniversary of Bolshevik revolution. Lack of evidence that Russians had developed a large booster comparable to US's Saturn V suggested they would use earth orbit rendezvous method to reach moon, Hines said. (Wash. Eve. Star, 4/1/66, A1)
ComSatCorp's third annual report revealed that EARLY BIRD 1, operating since June 28, 1965, as the first commercial communications satellite, 125. had earned $2,138,577 as of Dec. 31,1965. Report omitted any corporate earnings statement, explaining that "with Comsat's singular structure and its newness-we are not yet able to present the corporate financial statements in a conventional mode." With FCC approval, "the Corporation has adopted the accounting practice of deferring all revenues and expenditures until the commencement of full operations." Financial statement showed, however, that $9,677,000 had been spent for "the construction of the Early Bird satellites, the cost of the launch in April [6] 1965 and expenditures for satellite system equipment." By the end of 1965, 75 of EARLY BIRD 1's 240 two-way voice channels had been leased-64 by AT&T, nine by Canadian Overseas Telecommunication Corp., and one each by ITT and RCA. Corporation also earned $8,083,745 in income from temporary investments, compared with $4,312,714 in 1964. Report noted that membership of International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (Intelsat) had grown from 20 to 48 countries during 1965, and cited plans to launch two improved satellites in late summer of 1966 "to provide communications support" for NASA's Apollo program. (Text)
During week of April 1: Pulsed laser beam communications system which could penetrate cloud of plasma or charged gases surrounding spacecraft during reentry and avoid communications blackout was patented by General Electric Co. engineers Dr. Kiyo Timiyasu and James R. Whitten. Principal use of invention would be in line-of-sight communications between earth stations and spacecraft, but two land stations not in line of sight also could exchange information by using cloud reflections. (Jones, NYT, 4/2/66, 32)
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