Aug 26 1966
From The Space Library
NASA officials revealed at Hq. news briefing that data accumulated thus far from LUNAR ORBITER I indicated the moon's shape departed from that of a perfect sphere with a bulge of about « mi. at its north pole, a depression of about 1/8 mi. around the Northern Hemisphere, a W-mi. bulge around the Southern Hemisphere, and a depression of about 1/8 mi. at the South Pole. Conclusions were based on assumption moon's density was uniform. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 8/27/66, A3; Av. Wk., 8/29/66, 1%)
USAF Titan III-C carrying eight Initial Defense Communications Satellite Program (IDCSP) repeaters destroyed itself some 80 sec. after launch from ETR's Launch complex 41. Preliminary observations indicated breakup of payload fairing at about 85,000-ft. altitude; trouble detecting system sensed erratic behavior of rocket and triggered device that destroyed it. Available data showed "no abnormality in any of the vehicle's other systems." Detailed study of telemetry and film record would be necessary before cause of fairing malfunction could be determined. Launch was attempt to duplicate June 16 mission of identical Titan III-C that placed seven IDCSPs and one gravity-gradient satellite into random, near-synchronous equatorial orbits as part of worldwide military communications system which would eventually include 23 comsats. (Wash. Eve. Star, 8/26/66, Al; UPI, NYT, 8/27/66, 14; AP, Wash. Post, 8/27/66, A3)
Four sounding rockets-an Aerobee 150A, two Nike-Tomahawks, and a Nike-Apache-were launched by NASA from Wallops Station at predetermined intervals between 2:13 p.m. EDT and 3:11 p.m. EDT in conjunction with passage of EXPLORER XXXII satellite. Objective of series was to correlate measurements of properties, characteristics, and conditions of upper atmosphere obtained by rocket-borne experiments with similar measurements made by EXPLORER XXXII, second U.S. Atmosphere Explorer, launched May 25. Project was conducted by GSFC under overall direction of OSSA. (Wallops Release 66-45; NASA Rpt. SRL)
President Johnson spoke at AEC's National Reactor Testing Station in Arco, Ida. (where world's first electricity from nuclear power had been produced), on his hopes for compromise agreements preventing spread of nuclear weapons and ensuring peaceful uses of space. He urged recognition "that at the heart of our concern in the years ahead must be our relationship with the Soviet Union. . . . "1 believe that the Soviets share a genuine desire to enlarge the area of agreement. This summer we have been negotiating. . . a treaty that would limit future activity on celestial bodies to peaceful purposes. This treaty would, for all time, ban weapons of mass destruction, not only on celestial bodies, but also in orbit around the earth.. . ." He announced that treaty negotiations would resume Sept. 12, and continued: . . . Peace will not dramatically appear from a single agreement or a single utterance or a single meeting. It will be advanced by one small, perhaps imperceptible, gain after another, in which neither the pride nor the prestige of any large power is deemed more important than the fate of the world." (Text, Pres. Doc., 9/5/66, 1160-64)
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