Mar 15 1968
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
NASA launched two Aerobee sounding rockets from WSMR. One carried American Science & Engineering, Inc., payload to 96.2-mi (154.8-km) altitude to obtain high-resolution x-ray pictures of active regions on sun and general x-ray emission of solar corona. Ten percent loss in rocket performance suggested sustainer ruptured; instruments performed satisfactorily. Data would be degraded by pointing control failure. Second rocket carried GSFC payload to 95-mi (152.8-km) altitude to collect data on x-rays from Crab Nebula and its proximity, using six collimated x-ray detectors. Rocket and instrumentation performance was satisfactory. Entire payload was recovered in excellent condition. (NASA Rpt SRL)
NASA Nike-Tomahawk sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops Station carried GSFC payload to 180-mi (290-km) altitude to verify performance of quadrupole ion mass spectrometer in D and E regions of ionosphere and measure electron density using CW propagation technique. Rocket and telemetry performed satisfactorily and good results were obtained from spectrometer, but propagation experiment was lost at 43.4-mi (70-km) altitude. (NASA Rpt SRL
NASA's HL-10 lifting-body vehicle, flown for first time Dec. 22, 1966, made its second flight, following vertical tail fin modifications to direct more airflow over its control surfaces. Piloted by Maj. Jerauld R. Gentry (USAF) , HL-10 was air-launched from mother ship flying at 45,000-ft altitude and 400 mph. Rocket engine for craft was not used during 41/2-min flight and 6,000-lb HL-10 was piloted through "U" pattern to make a 220-mph glide landing. Built by Northrop Corp.'s Norair Div., HL-10 was flight-tested in joint NASA-USAF study of potential as spacecraft capable of maneuvering in flight to a ground landing under pilot control. (FRC Release 8-68)
At background briefing on Apollo 6 mission, NASA Apollo Program Mission Director, William C. Schneider, described flight planning activities for Apollo missions up to landing on the moon. Apollo 6 mission, originally scheduled for launch March 21, would be postponed until April because of "erratic behavior" in service module's helium check valves. Since Apollo 5 had been so successful, Apollo 6 objectives had been "downgraded to secondary" and primary objective would be to evaluate launch vehicle. New optimum injection method in which S-IVB would be launched toward moon would be used but rest of mission would be basically same as Apollo 5, he said. NASA would continue mission planning, "so that we have the option to select a lunar orbit mission if as a result of previous flights we felt it was technically the best thing to do." (Transcript; Sehlstedt, B Sun, 3/16/68, 1)
Univ. of Illinois sociologist Alexander Vucinich in Science described problem of relationship of science to morality which prompted leading Soviet scientists to search for broader cultural autonomy of science. "Moral law has become a by-product of science; science, in official Soviet ideology, is a structural component of Soviet society, while the moral code is only a superstructural derivation." He traced growth of critical reassessment made by individual members of Soviet Academy of Sciences who looked to "the broader cultural effects of modern science and the ongoing technological revolution" under stimulation of considerable relaxation of political and ideological controls which resulted from Stalinist policies. (Vucinich, Science, 3/15/68, 1208-12)
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