Aug 3 1969
From The Space Library
At Andrews AFB, on return from world tour, President Nixon said: "In Bucharest I noted that so many, particularly of the young people, held up a newspaper picture of the astronauts landing on the moon, and everywhere we went it was the same. Some way, when those two Americans stepped on the moon, the people of this world were brought closer together. .. I really feel in my heart that it is . . . the spirit of Apollo, that America can now help to bring to all relations with other nations. The spirit of Apollo . . . can bring the people of the world together in peace." (PD, 8/4/69, 1071-2)
New York Times published interview in which Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. President Llewellyn J. Evans expressed concern over possibility of failure in future space missions. "It has been one big gamble up to this point. This country must come up with rescue hardware. It would be shocking if someone got stuck in orbit someplace." He saw need for four space facilities: space station in earth or lunar orbit, shuttle for travel between earth and space laboratory, space "tug" to go between non-atmospheric orbits, and rescue vehicle. (Kampel, NYT, 8/3/69, F7)
New York Times editorial commented on Apollo 11 lunar landing and Mariner VI Mars mission: "Future generations may well regard the last two weeks of July 1969 as the most revolutionary and significant fortnight of the entire twentieth century. Not for 300 years has any comparable quantum leap in man's knowledge of the cosmos taken place in so brief a time." (NYT, 8/2/69, 10)
There was no question that manned Mars mission could be "organized, equipped and flown, possibly by 1985 or 1986," William Hines said in Washington Sunday Star. "But the cost of such a flight would be tremendous." Apollo had cost $25 billion over eight years. Project Mars "would cost four times as much over a period twice as long." Taxpayers and legislators "should listen to the professional pitchmen of space with a dubious ear, demanding facts instead of the sort of rhetoric Dr. George E. Mueller delivered on Apollo 11 splashdown day." (W Star, 8/3/69, C4)
August 3-4: Photos of Mars taken from 65,000-mi altitude by NASA's Mariner VII were received by JPL and shown live on TV. Although pictures were clear, canals were barely visible as dark splotchy areas, indicating they were not sharply defined features as previously believed. Viewers saw 100-mi-wide, 750-mi-long dark streak identified as Agathadaemon canal, Cerberus canal in light Plateau Elysium area, and Martian south pole with craters filled with substance resembling snow or ice. Pictures showed white grid pattern around Nix Olympica, identified by Mariner VI photos as 300-mi-wide crater. Absence in Mariner VII photos of bright streak on Tempe desert near Mars north pole that had been visible in Mariner VI photos suggested meteorological phenomenon similar to earth's seasonal changes. South polar cap, which was 2,500 mi across in Mariner VII photos, shrank to 250 mi across in Martian summer and increased to 3,500 mi across in winter. (Auerbach, W Post, 8/5/69, Al)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
