Aug 15 1967
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator James E. Webb, testifying at a closed hearing before House Committee on Appropriations' Subcommittee on Independent Offices and Department of Housing and Urban Development, said NASA hoped to keep an approximate $5.5-billion annual budget following a manned lunar landing. ". . . we believe it would be wise to keep the budget approximately level, approximately at where it is now or even going up a half billion dollars a year, and use this capability for some further landings on the moon, for ability to move around, for synchronous orbital work with large stations using men for a multiplicity of other purposes related to the earth, and further studies in space. . . ." "This is very much what the Russians are doing. They are developing a very large number of options and maintaining the ability to select those that are most useful to them at a particular time and move rapidly with it and creating the image that they are out in front with respect to all these modern technologies." Webb said he believed four recent launchings of large unmanned spacecraft by U.S.S.R. were "preparations for manned flights shortly to come. I believe they are flights to work out the difficulties that resulted in the death of their cosmonaut." (Transcript, pp. 8,34)
Selection of NASA's sixth astronaut class [see Aug. 4] indicated that astronaut "glamour" grew with each new peril, Neal Stanford reported in Christian Science Monitor. "Scientists . . . compete more intensively for the few scientist-astronaut jobs open than do jet pilots in the military services for the pilot jobs available. "The glamour has not entirely gone out of space flying. What has happened is that its perils have become more apparent, its scientific opportunities more exciting, and its financial rewards less considerable. "There have been 6 selections of astronauts, 4 of flier astronauts, and 2 of science astronauts. In this sixth and latest selection 939 [sic] scientists applied for the 11 positions open. In the previous selection of pilot astronauts only 403 applied for 19 positions open. . . ." (Stanford, CSM, 8/15/67)
Proposal to operate a 55-passenger STOL airliner in the greater New York area as a three-year demonstration project had been advanced to Federal, state, and city transportation officials, Robert L. Cummings, president of New York Airways, told New York Times. Developed jointly by New York Airways, McDonnell Douglas Corp., and Cutler-Hammer, Inc., proposal called for four-engine turboprop that could cruise at speeds ranging from 50-250 mph and land on strips 1,200-1,400 ft long. Financing the estimated $12-$15-million demonstration project would probably require "some sort of contract operation, presumably with a Government agency," Cummings said. (NYT, 8/16/67,66)
August 15-17: Divers Arthur Pachette and Glen Taylor set records for longest and deepest underwater excursions outside a protective capsule in series of three saturation dives in Gulf of Mexico. Sponsored by Ocean Systems Inc., and Esso Production Research, tests studied new deep diving system designed to enable men eventually to walk and work on the ocean floor at depths of 1,000 ft or more. During tests divers descended 636 ft in a steel hull sphere, donned rubberized "wetsuits" and, breathing a helium-oxygen gas mixture, worked on a dummy oil well outside the capsule for nearly seven hours. Ocean Systems spokesman said they experienced no decompression problems and were able to manipulate nuts and bolts and replace valves. In Westinghouse Electric Corp. tests in June, divers descended to 600 ft in similar operation, but did not remain at the depth long enough to achieve saturation-condition in which the body tissues become completely saturated with gases contained in breathing mixture. (Wilford, NYT, 8/25/67,19; Aero Tech, 8/28/67,22)
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