Jan 10 1967
From The Space Library
US. space program could benefit from experience and scientific research in the Antarctic, group of NASA officials headed by MSFC Director Dr. Wernher von Braun concluded after studying US. installations and activities at McMurdo Station since Jan. 3. Interest in the Antarctic was based on research being conducted there which was applicable to space flight and on way Americans worked under conditions of stress, isolation, and extreme cold-conditions similar to those on the moon and in space flight. The group also observed minute fungi and algae growing in Antarctic and studied methods being used to detect living organisms, as preparation for detecting and studying such growths possibly existing in harsh environments of other planets. (Durdin, NYT, 1/15/67, 87)
MSFC had exercised one-year $10,451,092 renewal option of cost-plus- award-fee contract with Mason-Rust Co. for continued support services at Michoud Assembly Facility. (MSFC Release 67-6)
Designs of both American SST and Anglo-French Concorde would have to be modified to meet standards proposed by their potential customers, International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) Director General Knut Hammarskjold asserted. He advised that aircraft be modified to meet all of the organization's requirements, even if it meant postponing delivery date. The Wail Street Journal later commented: "Since IATA'S members include most of the world's major airlines . . . Mr. Hammarskjold's words plainly deserve attention. . . . [He] appears to have shot a large hole in the SST supporters' main argument for haste. It is that the British and French are already well ahead of the US. . . . Calm consideration would appear even more mandatory for the Government, saddled as it is with a war and a budget whose income side long ago since has lost touch with outgo. . . . A late blooming success is far better than a dismal early failure." (UPI, NYT, 1/11/67, 73; WSJ, 1/17/67,18)
President Johnson, in his State of the Union address before joint session of Congress, deferred decision on deploying a Nike-X antimissile missile system despite evidence that U.S.S.R. was building a defensive system near Moscow. "We have a solemn duty to slow down the arms race . . . if that is at all possible, in both conventional and nuclear weapons and defenses. . . . I realize any additional race would impose on our peoples and on all mankind for that matter, an additional waste of resources with no gain in security to either side." The President said he intended to seek international agreements "bearing directly on this problem." He did not mention the US. space program in his address. (PD, 1/16/67, 26-39)
January 10-11 Dr. George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, discussed achievements and objectives of US. space program in a series of lectures at the Univ. of Sydney Summer School, Australia. After emphasizing intimate interrelationship between NASA's unmanned and manned programs, Dr. Mueller assessed Mercury and Gemini flights: "In the Mercury program, we established man's capabilities in short space flights and we laid the foundation for manned space flight technology. In the Gemini program, we gained operational proficiency, learned about man's capabilities in flights lasting up to two weeks, and developed new techniques." The Apollo Program, he said, was proceeding on schedule, and several alternative post-Apollo Programs were under consideration: "(1) Direct economic benefits, with emphasis on extensive earth-orbital activities; (2) Lunar exploration and science; (3) Planetary exploration and science; (4) Maximum effort aimed at pre-eminence in earth-orbital, lunar, and planetary activities; (5) Balanced combination of economic benefits, lunar and planetary exploration, and science." (Text)
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