Apr 20 1965
From The Space Library
NASA had awarded a $3,135,977 contract modification to the Boeing Co. for preparatory work leading to dynamic testing of the Saturn V moon rocket at NASA MSFC, Boeing would perform engineering services for the Saturn V dynamic testing program and would sup- ply instrumentation equipment for the test stand. (MSFC Release 65-94)
NASA Ames Research Center had let a $1,382,000 contract to the American Machine and Foundry Co. for fabrication of an advanced flight simulator which could simulate nearly all flight situations for aircraft and spacecraft except cases involving either high acceleration forces on the pilot or aerobatics. Designed by the Research Facilities and Equipment Div, at Ames, the simulator would have "six degrees of freedom," the capability to move in all possible axes of motion: fore and aft, vertical, and side-to-side; also pitch, roll, and yaw. It would be unique in having 100 ft. of lateral motion. This would be needed to simulate supersonic transport (SST) flight since the crew would be far forward of the center of rotation of the aircraft. (ARC Release 65-12)
North American Aviation Co.'s XB-70A experimental bomber reached altitude of 59,000 ft. and speed of 1,500 mph on its tenth flight from Edwards AFB, Duration of flight was 1 hr. 39 min., of which 1 hr, 14 min, was at supersonic speed, boosting its total supersonic flight time to 5 hrs. 5 min. (AP, Wash. Eve, Star, 4/21/65, A7)
The X-15 research aircraft was praised by William Hines in an article in the Washington Evening Star: "The United States spent nearly a quarter-billion dollars to produce three copies of the X-15, unromantically known as 'No, 1,' `No. 2,' and 'No. 3.' Modifications, maintenance and operation charges have by now pushed the bill close to a third of a billion. "By any rational standard, the X-15 has been worth every penny. It has given the United States far more than mere supremacy in the flight record books; it has provided a foundation for advanced aeronautical technology that could have been obtained in no other way." (Hines, Wash. Eve, Star, 4/20/65)
Dr. Werner R. Kirchner, vice president and manager of AerojetGeneral Corp.'s solid rocket operations, announced that a new solid fuel multipulse rocket engine containing several charges of propellant that could be separately fired by electrical signal had successfully completed its first series of test firings. The rocket could zip, glide, and dart about much like a bird, he said, or could lie dormant in space a year and then be restarted on command. Key to multipulse firings was described as a lightweight thermal barrier separating each charge. Aerojet had conducted demonstration firings of six flight-weight configurations in the company-funded program. (AP, Denver Post, 4/21/ 65; Au, Wk., 4/19/65, 30)
Donald E. Crabhill of the Bureau of the Budget discussed "Space Programs and the Federal Budget" before the National Space Club: "What are some of the significant factors to be pointed out in the relationship between the space program and the budget? "The first is, of course, the matter of growth in the funding for space and the current absolute amount of funds allocated to space programs, including not only NASA, but also DOD, AEC, and activities in this area by other agencies. In FY 1957, approximately $150 million was expended by the Federal Government on space programs, In FY 1960, the total was still below $900 million, In FY 1966, the tenth year of the space age, the President's budget provides for space expenditures of $6.9 billion, "Where does this amount stand in relation to amounts in the administrative budget for other programs? It is less than the total amounts to be spent in 1966 on national defense; on health, labor, and welfare programs; and on interest on the national debt, But it is greater than that to be spent for any other function of Government, Space expenditures of all agencies will be greater in 1966 than those for international affairs and finance, for agriculture, for natural resources, for commerce and transportation, for housing and community development, for veterans benefits and services, or for other general Government, "The space program has not been, since it was initiated, and is not today, a budgetary underdog. "The second specific point to be made is that the budget process by its very nature is an exercise in priorities... . A great many merely desirable projects get deferred throughout the Government every year under the press of the budgetary process, "In the past, this pressure has not been felt as severely in the space area as it has in most others because of the emphasis that has been given to creating in a hurry a vast capability to operate in space. The space program has been very successful in meeting this aim. In fact, it has been so successful that space is now coming of age with other Government programs, We will soon have a technical capability to do a great many more space missions than we as a nation will probably want to pay for... "There is one other point that, as a budget examiner, I feel I must mention, Funding and schedule estimates for space programs have been historically quite unreliable. Cost estimates have tended not so much merely to grow, but to multiply! At the same time, schedules have tended to slip, slip, slip. "This was an understandable situation while the space program was new, but we have had enough experience that there will be considerable resistance from now on to escalation in price and radical slips in schedule of the next generation of space projects. The more detailed planning we are doing now, the phased project procurement processes, and the experience we have gained in the technology and the techniques of space operations must be expected to show returns in better ability to make good cost and schedule estimates in the first place, and then to meet the cost and schedule targets that are approved." (Text)
Three American scientists were honored by the American Geophysical Union during an honors meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.: Norman F. Ness of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center received the John Adam Fleming Award for research done by means of instruments aboard NASA's EXPLORER XVIII satellite; Gordon J. F. MacDonald of the Univ. of California at Los Angeles was given the James B. Macelwane Award for work on a variety of subjects ranging from the center of the earth to the solar corona; Hugo Benioff, professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, was awarded the William Bowie Medal for "unselfish cooperation in research." (Wash, Eve, Star, 4/21/65)
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