Jul 2 1968
From The Space Library
USAF had attributed March 3 UFO reports over eastern U.S., including 70 eyewitness accounts, to reentry of booster rocket or other launching components of Zond IV spacecraft launched by U.S.S.R. March 2 on apparently unsuccessful mission. Despite March flurry, there had been sharp decline in UFO reports; they were reaching USAF at one-fourth the monthly rate of 1967. As of previous weekend, 156 UFO reports had been received since Jan. 1, 1968; 21 were attributed to astronomical objects, 19 to aircraft, 10 to balloons, 8 to satellites, and 22 to other known causes. There were 35 cases pending and 41 as yet unidentified. (Sullivan, NYT, 7/2/68, 1)
West Germany's major aerospace companies-Messerschmitt-Bölkow, Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke of Bremen, Hamburger Flugzeugbau, and Dornier-formed subsidiary to coordinate all long-range aircraft and space projects. They met under auspices of West German government which had been urging greater concentration of the nation's aerospace capacity. Experts termed new organization nucleus of eventual merger of the four companies to increase West German competition in world markets. (Shabecoff, NYT, 7/3/68, 12)
NASA awarded contracts valued at $579,000 to Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. and $568,313 to Northrop Systems Laboratories to build and test nonflight demonstration models for Orbiting Primate Experiment, as continuation of preliminary conceptual design studies made during 1967. Research had been begun to gain better understanding of physiological changes anticipated in long manned flights. To assess effects of weightlessness on relatively high order mammal, NASA was studying experiment which might place two unrestrained rhesus monkeys in orbit and return them for detailed examination after extended period to isolate weightlessness as a variable while maintaining all other factors near normality. Postflight examinations could reveal changes resulting from absence of gravity. Orbiting Primate Experiment was part of NASA'S Human Factors Systems program to provide technology required to support man in space during extended periods. (NASA Release 68-119)
Univ. of Virginia announced it would use $100,000 NASA grant to finance construction of 40-in astrometric telescope at its observatory south of Charlottesville, Va. Additional funding would come from estate of Leander McCormick, who provided funds for its 26-in telescope built in 1882. (AP, W Star, 7/3/68, A20)
U.S. patent No. 3,390,853 was issued to North American Rockwell Corp. mechanical engineer Raymond P. Wykes for inflatable drag balloon (ballute) to be released behind reentry vehicle or lifting-body vehicle at end of a cable which pulled spacecraft's wings out from its body on reentry and slowed it down for landing. Patent No. 3,390,492 was issued to General Electric Co. engineer Edwin T. Myskowski for glass deep-submergence module in titanium alloy frame usable as laboratory or living quarters on ocean floor in anchored or mobile form. (Patent Off pio; Jones, NYT, 7/6/68, 25)
N. Whitney Matthews, Chief of GSFC's Spacecraft Technology Div., died in Alexandria, Va., at age 52. Pioneer in space research, he had been with NASA 10 yr and had helped see Goddard through planning stages- He had worked with Projects Vanguard, Ariel, and Echo and with number of Explorer programs. He had specialized in electronic and solid-state instrumentation and control circuitry. (W Post, 7/5/68, B8)
In editorial critical of June 25 NAS report on sonic boom, Washington Evening Star said: "There comes a time when the convenience of the few and the profit of the even fewer simply have to be made secondary to the sanity of the many. That time is arriving in the sonic boom business. There is no imaginable excuse for unleashing the boom against defenseless citizens." (W Star, 7/2/68, 3)
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