Jan 4 1973
From The Space Library
President Nixon announced that Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, and Dr. George M. Low, Deputy Administrator, would remain in the NASA positions during the President's second term of office. President Nixon also accepted the resignation of Gerard C. Smith as Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, U.S. Ambassador, and Chief of the U.S. delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). He announced the resignation of Secor D. Browne as Chairman and of Whitney N. Gillilland as Vice Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board. He submitted to the Senate the nominations of Elliot L. Richardson to be Secretary of Defense and of Secretary of Transportation John A. Volpe to be U.S. Ambassador to Italy. (PD, 1/8/73, 10,12)
Apollo 17 crew are debriefed on this day.
The Federal Communications Commission authorized Western Union Telegraph Co to build the first domestic satellite communications system in the U.S. 'Six other proposals were pending and FCC had indicated it would approve "all qualified applicants.” (Jacobs, WSJ, 1/31/73, 1)
The Senate adopted S.Res. 10, establishing the number of members of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences at 13, and S.R. 12, which elected Chairman and majority members to the Committee. Majority members were Democrats Sen. Frank E. Moss (Utah), Chairman, succeeding Sen. Clinton P. Anderson (D-N. Mex.), who had retired; Sen. Warren G. Magnuson (Wash.) ; Sen. Stuart Symington (Mo.) ; Sen. John C. Stennis (Miss.) ; Sen. Howard W. Cannon (Nev.) ; Sen. James G. Abourezk (S. Dak.) ; and Sen. Floyd K. Haskell (Colo.). (CR, 1/4/73, D6; A&A 1972)
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), with 30 cosponsors, introduced S. 32, National Science Policy and Priorities Act of 1973-reintroducing S. 32 from the preceding Congress. The bill, passed by the Senate but not the House, provided three-year authorization of $1.8 billion for "civilian research and engineering problems of our society.” (CR, 1/4/73, 510312)
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced S. 60 to authorize acquisition and maintenance of the Goddard rocket launching site in Auburn, Mass,, by the National Park Service as tribute to late U.S. rocket pioneer. The first liquid-fueled rocket had been launched on the site by Dr. Robert H. Goddard March 16, 1926. (CR, 1/4/73, S135)
The People's Republic of China was expanding communication lines to rest of world with the aid of American communications satellite technology, the New York Times reported. Communications Satellite Corp., RCA Global Communications, Inc., and Western Union International had provided ground stations that would be operational before the end of 1973, to link Peking and Shanghai via satellite to 63 nations that also had ground terminals. (Lyons, NYT, 1/5/73, 4)
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