Jul 20 1967
From The Space Library
NASA test pilot William H. Dana flew X-15 No. 3 to 84,000-ft altitude and 3,682 mph (mach 5.51) at Edwards AFB. Purpose of test flight was to check (1) cold-wall heat transfer, (2) wavy panel heat transfer, (3) boost guidance, (4) PCM, (5) horizontal tail loads, (6) nose gear loads, and (7) tip-pod accelerometer. (NASA Proj Off)
NASA's MARINER V Venus probe, launched June 14 from ETR, had traveled 55,327,194 mi of its 216-million-mi flight to Venus and was continuing to operate normally,. JPL project officials announced. On July 23 central computer and sequencer would change amount of data transmitted from 33 1/3 bits per second (bps) to 8 1/3 bps to meet slower transmission requirements of rapidly increasing communications distance. New transmission rate would remain in effect for duration of flight. (NASA Release 67-194)
NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried Univ. of Minnesota experiment to 131-mi (210-km) altitude to measure composition of atmosphere and determine temperature in altitude range 62-124 mi (100-200 km) using three mass spectrometers. Two of three spectrometers did not function properly; however, data obtained appeared satisfactory. (NASA Rpt SRL)
ComSatCorp announced NASA would launch fourth satellite in the INTELSAT II series Sept. 20. Plans called for satellite to be launched from ETR into synchronous orbit over the Pacific to increase communications capability and serve as a backup against interruption of satellite communications service. (ComSatCorp Release)
Recent cuts in NASA's 1968 budget were due in part to lack of Congressional understanding of the US. space program, NASC Executive Secretary Dr. Edward C. Welsh told AIAA's Joint Propulsion Conference in Washington, D.C. "Many members of the Congress understand" certain areas of the space program, but "not enough of our legislators seem to have sufficient comprehension of the vast benefits flowing from space activities. And if many members of Congress and very many of their constituents don't know about these benefits, then they may well feel justified in cutting back on the amount of money to be spent. . . ." To help increase understanding, Dr. Welsh recommended that the space industry avoid "confining their advertising to superlatives" about products and communicate the overall benefits of the space program. (Text)
A. O. Tischler, director of OART's Chemical Propulsion Div., received AIAA's 1967 Wyld Propulsion Award for leadership and management of rocket programs. He was cited for his "outstanding contributions to the research and development of Liquid Rocket Propulsion Systems and overall management of the NASA Liquid Rocket Propulsion Program." (NASA Release 67-186)
Rep. William F. Ryan (D-N.Y.), speaking on the House floor, suggested that SST program was progressing too rapidly. ". . . it is not clear why the United States is so anxious to rush into a costly program of SST development involving many unsolved problems and great economic risk on the strength of a nebulous national prestige. It may well be that our prestige will lose a great deal more if we show ourselves to be a nation whose commitments and investments are based largely on a hysteria about our `image'-largely and simply because the British and French are building the Concorde-unable to wait and learn from their experience-and unable to take the advice of a multitude of technical and economic experts within our own country as to the inadvisability of this effort. . . ." (CR, 7/20/67, H9128)
European leaders had realized in recent months that only they could close the "technology gap" between their countries and the US., Dr. Donald F. Hornig, Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, told New York Times reporter Evert Clark. Dr. Hornig reached this conclusion after a 16-day tour of six European capitals. The belief that US. had created the gap and should therefore assume the burden of closing it "has entirely disappeared," he said. "What we found [on the tour] was a realistic approach, a realization that most of these things are basic problems, ones they have to tackle themselves." This realization was "a most important advance" that represented an "enormous closing of the understanding gap" and meant that discussion of the many problems making up the larger technological gap "has now come down to earth." (Clark, NYT, 7/21/67,15)
Barry Goldwater, 1964 Republican presidential candidate, told National Retail Hardware Assn. in San Francisco that he believed U.S.S.R. had orbited military weapons: "We have every reason to believe that the Russians have a weapon in orbit that can be called down at any time against any target." Goldwater said he could not prove his statement, but that information from Soviet technical journals indicated it was accurate. (AP, B Sun, 7/21/67)
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