Apr 7 1964
From The Space Library
President Johnson ordered prompt removal of NASA tracking station from Zanzibar shortly after President Abeid Karume requested that the U.S. remove it before the end of this month. President Karume made the request to Frank Carlucci, U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Zanzibar, and reportedly told Carlucci that the action was a result of statement by U.S. Ambassador-to-Kenya William Atwood at New York press conference that Red China and East Germany were trying to turn Zanzibar "into a kind of non-African state to be used as a staging base for political maneuvers" on the African continent. NASA announced in Washington that the loss of the station would have no adverse effect on the U.S. manned space program. The station had been on a stand-by basis since end of Project Mercury, would have been of "minimum use" in Project Gemini and not used at all in Project Apollo. (Simons, Wash. Post, 4/8/64; Smith, NYT, 4/8/64, 11; Sehlstedt, Balt. Sun, 4/8/64)
NASA announced closing the command and control station for Relay communications satellites at Nutley, NJ., and moving the operation to the Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (Stadan) at Blossom Point, Md.. The move was made to consolidate personnel and equipment and save operation costs. (NASA Release 64-77)
Soviet news agency Tass announced that a human being had stayed for 25 days in pressurized cabin, breathing a combination of oxygen and helium. Test results Were said to be good, although a test subject with a bass voice became a tenor and scientists were still testing for the right proportion of helium to use. Reason for using the mixture was to enable future space travelers to "better endure pressure fluctuations and high temperatures in a space ship cabin," Tass said. (AP, NYT, 4/8/64)
House Committee on Government Operations' Military Operations Sub-committee heard testimony from NASA witnesses regarding military communications satellites. In response to questioning, Leonard Jaffe, Director of Communications and Navigation Programs in NASA Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) and Robert F. Garbarini, Director of Applications in OSSA, said NASA had not participated in current DOD-ComSatCorp negotiations for possible DOD use of commercial comsat channels. ComSat Act of 1962 designated NASA as technical advisor to ComSatCorp. "We are aware of the negotiations and we expect to be informed so that we can respond under the act," Jaffe said. (Av. Wk., 4/13/64, 32)
Striking United Iron Workers forced contractors to lay off 500 other workers at Cape Kennedy. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman said the walk-out was "definitely crippling some of the most crucial of our projects and three good size jobs are completely shut down." (UPI, NYT, 4/8/64)
Lt. Col. Yuri A. Gagarin said in Moscow press conference that he and other Soviet cosmonauts were training for new space flights. "When we go and who will go-that we do not know. We Will wait and see." (AP, NYT, 4/8/64, 10; AP, Wash. Post, 4/8/64, C6)
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