Apr 6 1968
From The Space Library
USAF launchcd two Orbiting Vehicle research satellites pickaback from Vandenberg AFB by Atlas-F booster. OV 1-13 entered orbit with 5,789-mi (9,316.2-km) apogee, 346-mi (556.7-km) perigee, 199.5-min period, and 100.5° inclination to determine flexibility of cadmium sulfide solar cells in space and to measure proton/electron energy spectra and angular distribution of electrons. OV 1-14, launched to obtain high-resolution measurements of proton/electron flux, spectra, decay, and time variations, entered orbit with 6,173-mi (9,934.2-km) apogee, 348-mi (560.0-km) perigee, 207.8-min period, and 100.0° inclination. (UPI, C Trib, 4/8/68; SBD, 4/9/68, 220; GSFC SSR, 4/15/69; Pres Rpt 68)
Third anniversary of launch of 85-lb (Early Bird), world's first commercial comsat, owned by INTELSAT and managed by ComSatCorp. Originally designed as experimental-operational satellite with 18-mo life expectancy, comsat launched by NASA into 22,300-mi-altitude synchronous orbit over Atlantic, was still providing service between North America and Europe with 100% reliability. Intelsat I had received and transmitted more than 200 hr of TV and thousands of telephone calls, data and record messages, and other general communications without satellite service outage. TV use of Intelsat I increased from 31 programs consuming 31 hr leased time in 1965 to 160 programs and 125 hr in 1967. Highlights of TV broadcasts included live coverage of Atlantic splashdowns of Gemini spacecraft, sports events, public affairs, and news programs. (ComSatCorp Release 68-16)
New York Times editorial on Apollo 6 mission: "What was illustrated . . . was the extraordinary difficulty of assuring that every one of the literally millions of components in such an extremely complicated system as the Saturn 5 works perfectly. But the complexity of the total Apollo mechanism for the planned manned voyage to the moon . . . is even greater. . . . This fact argues for a slow but sure approach to future Apollo tests, rather than an adventuresome policy aimed primarily at completing the job by the end of 1969. "Regrettable as were Saturn 5's deficiencies as demonstrated in this week's test, they provide a useful warning against renewed overconfidence and the costs it could again impose." (NYT, 4/6/68, 36)
In New Republic, Louis J. Halle wrote "Why I'm for Space Exploration." It was less than 12 yr since life on earth had emerged "from our planet's atmospheric envelope into outer space." He was puzzled to find "marked lack of enthusiasm . . . at the prospect of man's liberation from this earthly prison." Many, he felt, were moved by "spiritual horror" at notion of looking beyond earth. "Now . . that we are at last beginning to escape from our native confines, there is no telling what light we may find in the larger universe to dissipate the darkness of our minds." There was also possibility "that we may begin to populate new planets as, after 1492, we began to populate a new continent. Suddenly man's fate seems boundless." (AF/SD, 7/68, 51-4)
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