Dec 13 1971
From The Space Library
Apollo 16 spacecraft was rolled out from I{SC Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39, Pad A, in preparation for manned lunar landing mission scheduled for launch March 17, 1972. Rollout was watched by about 10 000 persons at KSC. (UPI, NYT, 12/14/71, 12; KSC Release 263-71)
First photos of solar flare spouting from far side of sun were taken by Oso\\SO 7 (launched Sept. 29, 1971). Photos also showed for first time effects of massive eruption of sun traveling through its outer corona. Tongues of ionized gases were shown shooting up to 61/2 million km (4 million mi) from solar surface. NRL Director Capt. Earle W. Sapp said later that OSOs were increasingly helpful in forecasting sun's weather to predict effect of solar storms on navigation and communications equipment. (Lyons, NYT, 1/11/72, 26)
NASA's TF-8A jet aircraft equipped with supercritical wing, flown by NASA test pilot Thomas C. McMurtry, successfully completed 27th flight from FRC. Purposes of flight were to obtain wing pressure distributions at low angles of attack and to obtain stability and control characteristics at design conditions. Pressure distributions were obtained from mach 0.90 to 0.99 at 14 000-m (46 000-ft) altitude. Stability and control data were obtained at mach 0.99 at 14 000-m altitude. (NASA Proj Off)
NASA announced establishment of two new positions in DART. Dr. Seymour C. Himmel, LeRC Director of Rockets and Vehicles, was appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for Technology. George W. Cherry, Director of OART's Aeronautical Operating Systems Div., was appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs. (NASA Re-lease 71-246; NASA Ann, 12/15/71)
President Nixon referred to Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner at dinner with Prime Minister Marcello Caetano of Portugal and President Georges Pompidou of France during meetings of French and U.S. heads of state at Angra do Heroisimo, The Azores: "When I arrived at the airport on the Spirit of '76, a Boeing 707, I saw parked in front of me a Concorde which had carried the President of France. Our Ambassador to France, Mr. Watson, pointed out that he had come from France at a speed three times as fast as we had come from the United States. I do not speak in envy; I only wish we had made the plane ourselves." (PD, 12/20/71, 1661-4)
Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard, whose resignation had been accepted by President Nixon on Dec. 11, said at DOD news conference that new orders for military equipment were "leveling off" after declining sharply following 1967-1968 peak period due to Vietnam war. Total defense spending, Packard said, was less than 7% of current GNP and probably would remain so for several years. Wall Street Journal said later that Packard would become Chairman of Hewlett Packard Co., electronics firm he had helped to found in 1941. (Transcript; WSJ, 12/14/71, 14)
U.S.S.R.'s largest and most advanced space tracking ship, 40 800 000-kg (45 000-ton), 230-m (760-ft) Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, had been unveiled in Odessa Harbor, New York Times reported. Ship was equipped with 100 antennas, including four large parabolic antennas for deep space communications, and could operate at sea for up to one year. (Shabad, NYT, 12/14/71, 11)
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