Dec 18 1969
From The Space Library
Selection of investigators and investigation areas for 1973 Viking mission to Mars was announced by NASA. LaRC would manage overall project and be responsible for lander portion of spacecraft. JPL would manage orbiter portion and be responsible for tracking and data acquisition. Viking, follow-on to 1964-1965, 1969, and 1971 Mariner Mars flights, would consist of two instrumented spacecraft in Mars orbit, each of which would detach landing capsule for softlanding on Mars. Mission objectives included detection of life if it existed. (NASA Release 69-166)
Hot firing of twin RL-10 Centaur engines marked first use of LeRC's new Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, B-2 stand, at Plum Brook Station, Ohio [see Oct. 7], and first Centaur tests at Plum Brook since structural tests in mid-1960s. Since then, Centaur, configured with 1st-stage Atlas, had launched seven Surveyor spacecraft to moon, two Mariner spacecraft to Mars, one OAO, and one ATS. (LeRC Release 69-76)
NASA announced appointment of John A. Whitney as Assistant General Counsel for Procurement Matters. (NASA Release 69-167)
Planned U.S. participation in 1971 Paris Air Show was announced in Washington, D.C." by Secretary of Transportation John A. Volpe and Secretary of Commerce Maurice H. Stans. DOT would coordinate exhibition of U.S. aircraft on flight line. (DOT Release 26669)
Senate and House cleared for President's signature H.R. 15090, $69.6-billion DOD FY 1970 appropriations bill. (CR, 12/18/69, S17181-6, H12706-8)
Tom Wicker commented in New York Times on suggested detonation of nuclear device on moon [see Dec. 15]. "Aside from the obvious questions about the effects of nuclear fallout in the moon's atmosphere, what might be the total environmental consequences of such an explosion-for the moon itself, for those who will be visiting it from earth, for other objects in the solar system?" Past performances had indicated "some unexpected and probably unwelcome result." Indus and Ganges River irrigation systems had contaminated soil in India with salt that rose from earth with water and Aswan Dam was spreading disease with irrigation waters in Egypt and damaging fertile Nile delta by interfering with ancient silting process. In U.S, oil leaks from ocean floor set off by scientific drilling techniques had ruined Santa Barbara, Calif." coast. "Monstrous engines" of Boeing 747, Concorde supersonic airliner, C-5A Galaxy jet, and SST would "spew their poisons on mankind." Could man master anything that really mattered? "Certainly not nature, and least of all himself; rather it is altogether likely that if the Biblical flood someday engulfs the earth, it will flow from seeded clouds. That might even be a fitting end." (NYT, 12/18/69, 46)
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