Feb 17 1965
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
NASA's RANGER VIII spacecraft, equipped with six television cameras to photograph part of the moon's surface, was successfully launched from Cape Kennedy by an Atlas-Agena B. Seven minutes after lift-off, the spacecraft and the Agena stage went into a parking orbit some 115 mi. above Africa; the Agena engines were cut off. For the next 14 min., the combination coasted at 17,500 mph. Second burn of the Agena lasted 90 sec., increased the velocity to 24,476 mph, and freed the 808.8-lb. RANGER VIII from the major pull of the earth's gravity. Several minutes after injection, RANGER VIII was separated from Agena, which entered an elliptical orbit. About an hour after launch, RANGER VIII received and obeyed the command to deploy the solar panels that would convert solar energy to electrical power for its equipment. About 3½ hrs. after launch, RANGER VIII completed its orientation maneuvering, achieved attitude stabilization, and pointed a high-powered antenna toward earth. The projected impact area was the Sea of Tranquility, a dark area relatively free of crater rays, near the shadow line on the three-quarter moon, Lower-angle lighting was expected to give more contrast and better definition of detail than was in the photographs made by RANGER VII. A small rocket aboard the craft would be fired later to correct a moon-miss error on either side of the target; tracking calculations showed that the path of the vehicle would miss the edge of the moon by only 1,136 mi., well within the correction capability. (NASA Release 65-25; AP, Benedict, Wash, Post, 2/18/65; UPI, Chic. Trib., 2/ 18/65; AP, Houston Post, 2/18/65; Appel, NYT, 2/18/65, 1)
X-15 No. 2 was flown by Maj. Robert A. Rushworth (USAF) to 95,100 ft. altitude at a maximum speed of 3,511 mph (mach 5.27) to obtain data for several research programs. (NASA X-15 Proj. Off.; X-15 Flight Log)
NASA and DOD announced a memorandum of agreement to establish a Delta launch capability at the Western Test Range (WTR) . Costs would be shared, based on the estimated use of the vehicle by each agency. Existing USAF Thor-Able-Star launch sites would be adapted for Delta use wherever practicable. Launch pads and blockhouses would be used on a shared basis, with each agency responsible for its own missions. NASA would exercise launch vehicle control over all WTR Delta launches. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and USAF Space Systems Division would be responsible for carrying out the agreement. NASA would be responsible for developing an improved Delta launch vehicle to meet both agencies' mission requirements for use at both WTR and ETR. DOD was planning to phase out the Thor-Able-Star]] and use the improved Delta for payloads carried by this vehicle class. (NASA Release 65-51)
Hearings on NASA budget authorization for FY 1966 began before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. Of the $5.260 billion requested for FY 1966, $4,576 billion was for research and development; $74.7 million was for construction of facilities; and $609.4 million was for administrative operations. Administrator James E. Webb testified: "This budget . . . supports an on-going successful research and development effort and the use of this knowledge to develop and test operating systems designed to give us what we need to know for national security, for applications in meteorology, communications, and other working satellite systems, and from which to make any decisions which may be called for in the future. "An important fact that underlies the President's 1966 budget decisions is that the program is now operating at a level of 51/4 billion dollars instead of at the optimum level of 53/4 billion originally recommended by President Kennedy or the 'fighting chance' level recommended last year by President Johnson. This means that we cannot accomplish the 15 Saturn V-Apollo flights now included in the program within the period of this decade. If all 15 flights are required to succeed in the lunar landing, then this will not be done before 1970. However, our overall major milestones are being met and we still have a reasonable opportunity for success on a flight earlier than the 15th and thus within this decade. In effect we will be launching toward the moon on earlier flights than we thought a year ago would be possible, but we simply cannot predict which flight will be the first either to orbit the moon or to land there. "What we can say is this: the systems of equipment for the utilization of men for flights of all kinds out as far as the moon are now rapidly proceeding toward tests that will work out any imperfections; and our fast-developing knowledge of both the space environment and the capabilities of this equipment gives us more confidence than we had a year ago that we are on the right track and proceeding on a reasonable basis for the development of machines of this size and power. . . . "In preparation of this budget, the President has faced two important facts. The first of these is that the central core of NASA activities as planned in 1961 is proceeding with excellent results. . . . "The second major fact faced by the President was the necessity for a continued emphasis on supporting research and development... "Bearing these two facts in mind, this budget and this request for authorization call for an operating level which is approximately the same as that approved by Congress for fiscal years 1964 and 1965. This means that the work planned in 1961 for accomplishment in this decade must be spread out over a longer period, and the cost for the total will be increased... "The essential funds to give us some opportunity to make the lunar landing within this decade are included, as are funds for studies toward further use of the Saturn launch vehicles and the Apollo-LEM manned space flight systems in the period following the lunar landing. By 1969, we will have the capability to launch 6 Saturn-IB's and 6 Saturn V's per year. In the unmanned area, we have begun planning for a Voyager-Mars mission in 1971 with the possibility of a test flight in 1969; funds are included in the budget for expansion of this design effort during fiscal year 1966. Development and hardware procurement could then he initiated in fiscal year 1967 if appropriate... ," (Testimony; 1966 NASA Auth. Hearings, 5-14)
Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, NASA Deputy Administrator, testified before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics on NASA's activities in the field of international cooperation : "Nineteen sixty-four was a year in which other nations emerged clearly as friendly competitors and valuable collaborators in space science and engineering and demonstrated by emulation their endorsement of our view that energetic efforts in these fields are essential contributors to the betterment of human society, I am thinking of such things as the energetic space programs of France, the demonstrated competence of Canada and Italy, the entry of the British aircraft industry into spacecraft engineering, the formal establishment of the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) and the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) , and finally of the successful first test flight of a large new booster by ELDO. ... "A year ago I reported our plans for including foreign experiments on NASA satellites under arrangements by which foreign experiments, selected in open competition with domestic proposals, are sponsored and financed by the experimenter's national space authority. One such experiment flew in 1964-a British ion mass spectrometer on EXPLORER XX, the U.S. fixed-frequency topside sounder. Six additional experiments were selected for flight, bringing the total to thirteen, with ten more under active consideration, We now have opened virtually all categories of NASA spacecraft, including Gemini and Apollo, to foreign participation on this cooperative basis, Indeed, we are now inviting foreign biomedic experts to a working conference in Houston, next April, to learn directly of the opportunities and constraints which apply to this program. ... "A noteworthy development was the fact that ESRO became the first foreign space agency to seek a ground station on American territory. After conducting a site survey and finding a suitable location near Fairbanks, Alaska, ESRO has formally requested the Department of State to begin negotiations for an agreement. The ESRO station is projected as an element in a network of tracking and data acquisition facilities. ... France is establishing a North/South fence from France through the Canary Islands, Algeria, Upper Volta, Congo Brazzaville, and South Africa, with an injection-monitoring station in Lebanon. This chain will also serve ESRO, which expects to have additional stations at SpitsberGen. Brussels, and in Australia and the South Atlantic. Both the ESRO and French networks will be entirely compatible with NASA's, to maximize possibilities for mutual assistance. This is to our advantage, and we encourage it. ... "Let me bring you up to date on the status of our cooperation with the Soviet Union, You will recall that we have a series of agreements with the Soviet Academy of Sciences providing for three coordinated projects-in meteorology, in surveying the geomagnetic field, and use of ECHO II for communications tests. The project involving the observation and use of ECHO II is completed. The Soviet side observed the critical inflation phase of the satellite optically and forwarded the data to us; although not including radar data, which would have been most desirable, -Communications via ECHO II between the U.K. and the U.S.S.R. were carried out in only one direction instead of two, at less interesting frequencies than we would have liked, and with some technical limitations at the ground terminals used. On the other hand, the Soviets provided very complete recordings and other data of their reception of the transmissions." (Testimony; NASA Auth. Hearings, 15-37)
Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr, NASA Associate Administrator, told the House Committee on Science and Astronautics: "I feel that our record over the past calendar year is evidence of the success we have had in building a team that is dedicated to effective management. The space flight record for 1964 is impressive by several standards: number of flights, percent of success, and variety of missions. The graph (spaceflight mission record) shows that, in terms of percentage, our 1964 success record is nearly the same as the high achieved in 1963; 83 percent compared with 85 percent in 1963. However, we more than doubled the number of successful missions from 1963 to 1964, from 11 to 25. . . . "Other significant measures of the pace and rate of change in our space program have been our performance in terms of spacecraft operations and data return. These performance indicators are at the heart of a successful space program. "For example, in 1964 an average of 54 experiments were functioning in space throughout the year; this is an improvement of over 35 percent from 1963, when we averaged 40 working experiments. "The volume of information brought back from space, measured in millions of data points per day, shows a tenfold increase over previous years: in 1964 we were collecting about 57 million bits of information each day from our flight missions. . . ." Dr. Seamans listed NASA management accomplishments during the past year "to find new techniques and new methods to carry out our jobs." Among them: establishment of Mission Analysis Div. from the Hq, Office of Advanced Research and Technology at Ames Research Center; conducting the joint DOD-NASA Launch Vehicle Cost Study; growth of incentive contract program ("over $1 billion are under active incentive contracts") ; and application of phased project planning. "The budget presented here has already undergone critical review by NASA’s management, the Bureau of the Budget, and the President. It does not provide any contingency funds for the approved missions; it is predicated on a cost reduction program that will require us to operate more efficiently; it represents a carefully pared program priority list. In summary: "First, NASA is dedicated to the accomplishment of the present approved missions and projects in terms of cost, schedule, and technical performance. "Second, new effort is needed to maintain a position of leadership in aeronautics and space. This includes the definition of a new program for exploration of the planets commencing with Mars in 1971; the research and design necessary for effective extension of present Apollo and Saturn capabilities for manned flight; integration of the Centaur stage with the Saturn launch vehicle for planetary and other unmanned payloads; initiation of an advanced solar observatory satellite; and utilization of a prototype XB-70 aircraft for aeronautical research. "Third, an aggressive research and advanced development effort must be maintained in many fields, including chemical and nuclear propulsion, to assure the nation meaningful options and alternatives in the selection of future aeronautical and space goals and the ability to react decisively to external pressures and opportunities..." (Testimony; NASA Auth. Hearings, 37-51)
Experimental solar still stations were being tested by Dr. Everett D. Howe, director of the Univ. of California at Berkeley's Sea Water Conversion Laboratory, it was reported. The small stills were located on islands in the South Pacific, where climate was favorable for testing solar distillation. The stills, made of light plastic and concrete or of metal and glass, produced two to five gallons of pure water a day. Knowledge gained from the operation might eventually help the thousands of persons in non-industrial countries where water was in short supply and fuel and energy for such things as distillation of water was scarce. (NYT, 2/17/65, 28)
A new extraterrestrial mineral, previously unknown in nature and christened sinoite (silicon oxynitride, Si2N20). had been discovered, NASA Ames Research Center announced. Discovered in a meteorite which had fallen near the village of Jajh deh Kot Lalu in Pakistan in 1926, the mineral was grey in color and occurred in rough rectangular crystals. Scientists who made the discovery were Dr. Klaus Keil of NASA Ames Research Center; C. A. Anderson, Hasler Research Center, Goleta, Calif.- and Dr. B. H. Mason, American Museum of Natural History, New York. The meteorite had been made available for study by New York's Museum of Natural History. (ARC Release 65-5)
Joan Merriam Smith, who flew solo around the world last year, was killed when a private plane she was piloting crashed in the mountains 45 mi. from Los Angeles. ( UPI, NYT, 2/18,765, 42)
The largest balloon ever constructed completed a successful 26-hr. flight over western U.S. Launched at Chico, Calif., by AFCRL, the 450-ft.long polyethylene balloon lifted a 450-lb. instrumented payload to a record 142,000-ft. altitude. At float altitude, the balloon became oblate, or pumpkin-shaped, with dimensions of 330-ft. diameter and 270-ft. height. Payload consisted of instruments to measure atmospheric temperature, density, and pressures; telemetry equipment; and a command receiver for control of the flight. It was parachuted to earth and recovered near Logandale, Nev. (OAR Release 2-65-6)
Soviet Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky said during a Moscow press conference held in connection with the 47th anniversary of the Red Army that the U.S.S.R. was armed with intercontinental and global rockets whose nuclear warheads were equal to 100 million tons of TNT. He claimed strategic rocket troops now formed the backbone of the Soviet armed forces so that the effectiveness of the Soviet air force had been sharply increased by supersonic planes equipped with nuclear-tipped, long-range rockets. He said the Soviet navy was now built around atomic submarines of virtually unlimited range that were equipped with powerful missiles. New Soviet antiaircraft defenses were capable of reaching targets flying at any speed at any altitude, He claimed that the Soviet Union had undertaken several measures toward the relaxation of international tension, among them a reduction of $555 million in military spending for the current year. (Sovietskaya Moldaviya, 2/18/65, 1, ATSS-T Trans.; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 2/17/65; Wash. Post, 2/18/65)
The Jodrell Bank Observatory, British tracking station, was visited by a group of six Soviet scientists led by Mstislav V. Keldysh, president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. (AP, Boston Globe, 2/17/65)
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