Apr 7 1965
From The Space Library
ComSatCorp's EARLY BIRD I communications satellite successfully received, amplified, and returned a television signal to Andover, Me, ground station in an unscheduled communications test, ComSatCorp Vice President Siegfried H. Reiger said that "the picture quality of the test pattern was excellent." (Clark, NYT, 4/8/65; AP, Balt, Sun, 4/8/65)
USAF announced that data from AEC's Snap-10A satellite indicated "an extremely high noise factor" when the ion engine was turned on, making it impossible to determine whether it was operating properly, Scientists said the engine, which on Apr, 2 had operated normally for an hour, would not be tested further until additional analyses were made. The difficulty had not interfered with the major experiment-operation of the Snap-10A nuclear reactor. (UPI, NYT, 4/8/65)
Four airmen emerged with high voices and a hunger for meat after five weeks of confinement in a simulated space cabin at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, Scientists were studying a helium-oxygen atmosphere for possible future space cabin work because it did not produce decompression sickness in astronauts and was less hazardous in terms of spacecraft fires. (Chic, Trib, 4/8/65; M&R, 4/12/65, 10)
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center awarded IBM a 5-yr. $175,125,000 contract for integration and checkout of instrument units for Saturn IB and Saturn V programs. Initially announced in 1964, the contract would give IBM the additional responsibility for structural and environmental control systems and integration of all systems. (MSFC Release 65-79)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb was asked by Rep. Charles R. Jonas (R-N.C.) in NASA appropriations hearing of the Subcommittee on Independent Offices, House Committee on Appropriations, to "set to rest" the rumor that NASA was planning to phase out MSFC in Huntsville, Ala, Mr. Webb explained that during his recent visit to Alabama leading Alabama businessmen had asked "questions about the future and whether the budget was going to be larger, and whether more would come to Alabama, Perhaps injudiciously, I said, 'Unless we can recruit better and more able people for the new phase of our program, you are not going to keep what you have,' . . . "We have a real problem in recruiting the kind of people needed to manage these contracts with American industry to go and live in Alabama, and the image of the State has been one of the problems that we have had. I pointed this out to the businessmen, and pointed out to them also that not only the problem of our recruitment was involved, that the State itself, in my opinion, was missing a valuable opportunity to use these kinds of people to build up its own economy, because the very existence of them there in the various areas could he of great benefit to the State . . ." (Ind. Off. Approp. Hearings [Part 2], 1264-65)
Soviet cosmonaut commander Air Force Lt, Gen. Nikolai Kaminin denied foreign newspaper reports that some of his men had died in unannounced space shots, Kaminin, writing in Krasnaya Zvezda, said: "The names of people who have allegedly died listed in foreign papers are mostly names of nonexistent cosmonauts." He said the aim of the reports "is to weaken the tremendous impressions made by the achievements of Soviet science and technology in space." (AP, Huntsville Times, 4/7/65)
New York World's Fair opened for its second season. It featured NASA-DOD U.S. Space Park, containing two and one half acres of full-scale rockets and spacecraft. Among the exhibits were a full-scale Gemini model, an X-15 model, full-scale reproductions of Tiros, Nimbus, Relay, Telstar, and Syncom satellites, and AURORA 7 Mercury spacecraft. An honorary astronaut card signed by Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (Cdr, USN), the first American in space, and Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom (Maj. USAF), the first astronaut to make two trips into space, was available at the U.S. Space Park to young visitors taking a ride in the full-scale animated Mercury spacecraft on display there. (Press Release)
Dr. Franklin P. Dixon, NASA Director of Manned Lunar and Planetary Mission Studies, told Twin Cities AIAA Chapter in Minneapolis that NASA was "investigating and planning manned missions and experiments beyond the presently approved Gemini and Apollo programs, , "A logical sequence for future NASA manned space flight programs begins with the Gemini and Apollo program base. The next logical development is the Apollo Extension System (AES) which is a stepping stone to advanced Earth-orbital operations, to lunar-orbital surveys, and to lunar surface exploration. The AES Earth-orbital activities are a development phase for an orbital research laboratory or early space station as well as a lunar exploration station, Based on the Apollo Command and Service module technology, we can also develop advanced logistic systems for larger orbiting space stations of indefinite life or for greater expansion of lunar exploration if desired. The advanced orbiting space station can likewise lead to an orbiting launch complex for planetary missions such as Martian flyby and exploration shelters or a lunar base for potential exploitation of the lunar environment... In Earth orbit, the AES can provide for experimental operations in the three major fundamental areas ... (1) flights to conduct scientific research in space requiring man's presence; (2) Earth-oriented applications to increase the nation's strength, and (3) development of advanced technology for support of both manned and unmanned space operations... In the field of Earth-oriented applications of manned space operations, NASA has been conducting studies and investigations jointly with the Departments of Commerce. Agriculture, Interior and Defense to determine how we might apply Apollo's unique capabilities to improve our ability to forecast weather, to communicate globally at high data rates, to make an up-to-date inventory of the world's resources, to monitor air and sea traffic on a global scale, to support a world-wide air-sea rescue service, to make better forecasts of food production and to provide a data-gathering system on a global scale. Experiments are also being evaluated to enhance over-all development of space operations. Biomedical, behavioral and other medical studies would be conducted as well as the development of advanced subsystems and technology for spacecraft..." (Text)
National Science Foundation reported that three New Mexico State Univ. engineers were studying satellites' radio signals in an attempt to determine exact shape of the earth, Under an NSF grant, the engineers had set up and were manning a special tracking unit at U.S. McMurdo Station in Antarctica and were tuned in on three spacecraft in polar orbit that passed near McMurdo 42 times daily, Stanford Univ. scientists had established a unit at Byrd Station to receive information from NASA's Pogo, to be launched later this year. (UPI, NYT, 4/11/65, 2)
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