August 1969
From The Space Library
Pace magazine published articles by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, also NASC Chairman, and by NASA Administrator, Dr. Thomas O. Paine. Dr. Paine said, "To improve conditions in our society we need to create more wealth through greater productivity based on new technology. We should be restless and dissatisfied with our slowness in overcoming social ills, and I hope that the space program will continue to spur us onward here. If we can go to the moon, why can't we build great and shining cities? Why can't we eliminate ignorance, crime and poverty? If our space program highlights such questions and helps form a national commitment to find new solutions, it will have served the nation well. Our space advances should embolden the nation to proceed forward with increased confidence in these other areas. Our Apollo Program has demonstrated anew what Americans can accomplish given a national commitment, capable leadership and adequate resources. "Man's future in space is limitless. We have embarked on a new stage of evolution that will engage all future generations of men. We face the unknown in countless areas: What are the effects of sustained zero and artificial gravity? Of time-extending flight at nearly the velocity of light? Of societies genetically selected for extraterrestrial living? "We must find the answers. We must move vigorously forward in space. The practical benefits alone justify this venture, but there are many other compelling human reasons. Progress in space should continue to spur us onward to find new solutions to our age-old problems here on Spaceship Earth. We must make the blue planet Earth a home base, worthy of men who will set forth one day on journeys to the stars." Vice President Agnew said: "With the remarkably successful Apollo moon-landing program on the verge of culmination, we are now faced with a need to define just what we should proceed to do to make use most effectively of the results of our past and continuing space-exploration investment. Wealthy as our economy is, rich as our technology has become, we must plan carefully in order to meet a wide range of urgent national requirements. . . . It is our hope that, with a carefully reasoned set of goals adequately funded by the people through their Congress, the nation and the world will reap the maximum possible benefit from mankind's most ambitious undertaking. We must keep our horizons wide and our sights high. Despite its many internal domestic priorities, this nation should never turn inward, away from the opportunities and challenges of its most promising frontier." (Pace, 8/69, 2-4)
Four hundredth anniversary of Mercator's map of the world, published in Rhenish city of Duisberg in 1569 by Gerhard Kremer (known by his Latin name Gerardus Mercator). Map translated earth's sphere into plane on chart on which straight line drawn by navigator cut across all meridians at same angle. Mercator projection was still standard for worldwide sea navigation and for aeronautical charts despite its distortion of northern latitudes. (NYT, 8/17/69; EH)
"Technologically and managerially, Apollo was difficult," Englebert Kirchner said in Space/Aeronautics editorial. "Politically and socially, it was simple. Just the reverse is true about the great problems of our society. What is making these so hard to solve is not technology but serious disagreement about goals and priorities, about what is good for whom, who is to get what and who should pay for it. The space program does not hold the answer to these questions. Trying to find them in Apollo will only distort and therefore belittle an incomparable achievement. Apollo took us to the moon, to that shining disk in the sky that looks so unbelievably distant. Isn't that enough?" (S/ A, 8/69, 27)
AFSC News review editorial commented on Apollo 11 : "If, like the early Viking s or Columbus at the shores of the New World, Amundsen at Antarctica, Hillary at the peak of Mt. Everest-our astronauts stood alone with their thoughts on unknown soil, they were not alone. With them was the invisible presence of the most extensive, highly trained, professionally competent, and thoroughly dedicated task force we have known. We in the Air Force Systems Command salute the astronauts on their accomplishment. We are proud that we have been able to contribute to their magnificent achievement" (AFSC News review, 8/69, 2)
- July 1969
- August
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