Aug 14 1966
From The Space Library
August 14-30: NASA's photographic spacecraft LUNAR ORBITER I became first US. spacecraft to enter lunar orbit-only 15 mi. off target-after 92-hr., 236,319-mi. flight from ETR. Orbital parameters: apolune, 1,152 mi. (1,854 km.); perilune, 119 mi. (192 km.); period, 3 hrs. 37 min.; inclination, 12'. JPL reported drop in spacecraft's apolune Aug. 17 to 1,150 mi. (1,851 km.), and rise in perilune to 126 mi. (202.8 km.); moon's gravitational field was considered cause of orbital variations. After taking engineering photos transmitted to JPL Aug. 18-20, spacecraft was injected into close-in orbit by retrothrust maneuver initiated Aug. 21 for medium-and high-resolution photography of lurain. Tracking experts said 36-mi. (58-km.) perilune was "within a city block" of where it should be. Spacecraft's cameras had exposed 211 dual frames of film to photograph nine potential Apollo and Surveyor landing sites during mission's photo acquisition phase, announced complete on Aug. 30. Readout was expected to be completed by Sept. 15. Medium-resolution camera returned good images; however, except for an excellent photo of moon's far side, all exposures made with the high-resolution camera were disappointing. Camera's malfunction was attributed Aug. 25 to spurious signal generated by spacecraft's film transfer motor at 31-mi. perilune. Signal was tripping high-resolution camera shutter and causing film smear; LUNAR ORBITER 1's perilune was lowered to 23 mi. (37 km.) to eliminate signal. Unprogrammed photograph of earth, commanded Aug. 23 and received at NASA's tracking station at Robledo de Chavela, Spain, Aug. 25, showed appearance of earth's terminator-line dividing sunlit and shadowed portion of planet-from distance of about 240,000 mi. (386,400 km.). Spacecraft also photographed SURVEYOR I landing site. (NASA Proj. Off.; NASA Releases 66-228, 66-230, 66-233; Wilford, NYT, 8/15/66,1,23; 8/16/66,15; 8/19/66,1; 8/20/66,8; 8/21/66,1; 8/22/ 66, 8; AP, NYT, 8/24/66, 15; NYT, 8/25/66, A5; 8/26/66, 13; AP, NYT, 9/1/66,2; O'Toole, rash. Post, 8/15/66, A1, A13; 8/19/66, A l; 8/20/66, A l; 8/21/66, A l; AP, Balt. Sun, 8/18/66; Av. Wk., 8/29/66, 18)
Coordinated NASA Nike-Cajun sounding rocket series was launched from NASA Wallops Station, Churchill Research Range, Point Barrow, Alaska, and Natal, Brazil, in GSFC experiment to study atmospheric parameters of wind, temperature, pressure, and density as. August 25: First picture of earth from the vicinity of the moon, taken by NASA's LUNAR ORBITER I. summer maximum of noctilucent cloud sightings approached. Rocket and instrumentation performances were satisfactory. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
The critical voices raised during Aug. 8-9 Senate debate on the NASA portion of the Independent Offices Appropriation bill (H.R. 14921) indicated the US. space program was in `political trouble," concluded New York Times editorial. "Fundamental questions are being asked about whether this country should have gotten involved in the moon race in the first place, and invidious comparisons are being drawn about the dividends from money spent in space and those that might have been realized had those same funds been used to meet urgent human needs. . . . "There are important and useful things to be done in a post-Apollo space program, but it is doubtful in the extreme that the nation should go on indefinitely paying five billion dollars or more annually for such a program.. . ." (NYT, 8/14/66, E10)
Capt. Chester M. Lee (USN, Ret.), Operations Planning Chief in Mission Operations, NASA Office of Manned Space Flight, was appointed Assistant Mission Director, Apollo. (NASA Ann., 9/15/66)
Successful test firing of supersonic Chaparral, USA's newest air defense guided missile system, was conducted at WSMR. One of two weapon systems selected by USA for new air defense battalions, Chaparral met all test objectives when it intercepted Firebee target missile in continuing series of development firings. (AF News Bureau, NYT, 8/14/66, 16)
Hurricane seeding plans for Project Stormfury-joint USN-ESSA hurricane control study program-were announced. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 15, 17-plane force would be on alert in Puerto Rico to seed storms with silver iodide and then monitor temperature, atmospheric pressure, and structure of cloud. Project Stormfury was begun in 1961 : experiments had been performed on hurricanes Esther in 1961 and Beulah in 1963, and on tropical cumulus clouds in 1963 and 1965. (DOD Release 654-66)
Comment in the Washington Sunday Star called US. SST program a "dubious" venture moved by extraordinary pressures: "This is a project the taxpayer should view with more than a little interest, if not apprehension, for its cost is coming out of his pocketbook and the price tag is escalating. Industry may repay the cost some day, but no one is sure just when. The SST, in fact, has become a symbol of national prestige. If we do not produce such a plane, American leadership in the aircraft industry will sustain a loss of face from which it could not recover. Perhaps it is impossible to back away from the situation. But the American public is at least entitled to know what kind of mare's nest this rivalry has got us into, and the hazards that must be faced." (Wash. Sun, Star, 8/14/66, C1)
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