Jul 10 1969
From The Space Library
Apollo 11 countdown began at KSC at 8:00 pm EDT in preparation for launch toward moon at 9:32 am EDT July 16. (Apollo 11. Status Rpt)
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos CCLXXXIX from Plesetsk into orbit with 324-km (201.3-mi) apogee, 208-km (129.2-mi) perigee, 89.6-min period, and 65.4° inclination. Satellite reentered July 15. (GSFC SSR, 7/15/69; SBD, 7/15/69, 5)
Four-stage Pacemaker rocket launched from NASA Wallops Station carried 58-lb instrumented payload to 65,000-ft altitude and reentered atmosphere at 7,000 mph. Primary objective was to evaluate performance of carbon phenolic, synthetic resin, as ablative material. Secondary objective was to evaluate performance of low-density ablative materials-pyronne foam, polymer blend, and phenolic nylon-for possible use on manned lifting-body reentry vehicles. (WS Release 69-12; WS PIO)
American Academy of Achievement presented 1969 Gold Plate "Man of Achievement" Awards to Dr. William H. Pickering, JPL Director, and to Apollo 8 Astronauts William A. Anders and Frank Borman. (LA Her-Exam, 6/19/69; AFJ, 6/21/69, 30)
Sen. Spessard L. Holland (D-Fla.), for himself and Sen. Edward J. Gurney (R-Fla.), introduced S.J.R. 133 "to redesignate the area in the state of Florida known as Cape Kennedy as Cape Canaveral." Measure was referred to Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. (CR, 7/10/69, 57819)
National Geographic Society cartographer and "backyard stargazer" David Moore was one of few amateur astronomers selected by NASA to help nearly 200 professionals who had volunteered to attempt sightings of Apollo 11 spacecraft, Washington Evening Star said. Through telescope in yard of his Wheaton, Md., home he would watch for "small brilliant flashes when rocket engines are turned on or 'burned' or .. when waste water is ejected from the spacecraft." In ejection, water froze instantly and resultant ice crystals flared in sunlight. NASA had credited Moore with one of few sightings of earthbound Apollo 10. (Radcliffe, W Star, 7/10/69, D2)
Apollo 11 and current nationwide water shortage were "two illustrations of man's efficiency in achieving the thrills of life and man's inefficiency in not achieving the necessities of life," Drew Pearson said in Washington Post. "At Cape Kennedy, the United States is about to launch the most carefully rehearsed, most expensive, most unnecessary project of this century by which man will reach a piece of drab, radioactive, lava-like real estate hitherto romantic because of distance-the moon. The launching will succeed because a vast amount of money and the best scientific brains in America over a period of seven years have been lavished on this moon shot. Meanwhile, up the Atlantic Coast, the Capital which voted the $20 billion to reach the moon is desperately short of the second essential to man's life-water-all because of lack of planning, lack of foresight, and lack of money-the same ingredients which have put the moon shot on the verge of success." (W Post, 7/10/69, F11)
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