Mar 18 1964
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
COSMOS XXVI scientific earth satellite was launched into orbit. Soviet news agency Tass said the satellite's initial orbital parameters were: apogee, 403 km. (250 mi.) ; perigee, 271 km. (168 mi.) ; period, 91 min.; angle of inclination to the equatorial plane, 49°. Onboard scientific equipment, radio system, and instrumentation were said to be functioning normally. (Tass, Krasnaya Zvezda, 3/19/64, 1, ATSS-T Trans.)
First in series of 16 Judi-Dart meteorological sounding rockets was launched by Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Committee (SUPARCO) under cooperative agreement with NASA, from Pakistan's Sonmiani Range near Karachi. This was first launching planned as a direct contribution to the International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) a multinational effort by scientific groups to obtain and correlate information on the Indian Ocean area's oceanic and atmospheric conditions. The NASA-SUPARCO project was designed to gather data on the dynamics of air circulation at 100,000 to 200,000 ft. above West Pakistan's coast during the coming year. Pakistan purchased the Judi-Dart rockets and chaff payloads from the U.S. for assembly and launch from Sonmiani Range; NASA loaned to Pakistan for one year the radar needed for tracking the chaff-thousands of tiny metallic threads released at peak altitude-and was training Pakistani personnel in radar equipment operation. (NASA Release 64-64; Wallops Release 64-28)
NASA Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched from Ft. Churchill, Canada, with Rice Univ. instrumented payload reached 94-mi. altitude in successful experiment to measure light intensities and particle fluxes. Rocket performed excellently and instrumentation-two photometers, two scintillators, three Geiger counters, and two magnetometers-functioned properly except for one scintillator, which failed at nose cone ejection. The Sammy II instrument package was designed and developed by Rice University's Satellite Techniques Laboratory. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
Rep. Olin Teague (D.-Tex.), chairman of Subcommittee on NASA Over-sight of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, held special hearings "to emphasize our interest in seeing that there is progress" in advanced propulsion systems. At opening session, representatives of four industrial firms recommended development of nuclear rocket power be accelerated and amplified. Officials testifying were George H. McLafferty, United Aircraft; William C. House, Aerojet-General; Dr. Woodrow E Johnson, Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory; and Dr. Theodore B. Taylor, General Dynamics. (SBD, 3/19/64, 433; M&R, 3/23/64, 12)
House passed and sent to the Senate $1.6 billion military construction authorization bill for FY 1965 (H.R. 10300). Discussing the bill on the floor, Rep. William H. Bates (R.-Mass.) observed: "This year, research, development, testing, and engineering for our Federal Government projects will approximate $15 billion. This represents about 17 percent of our entire Federal budget and a much larger percent of those funds over which we actually have control. "In the various military services in fiscal year 1965, we will spend approximately $7.6 billion on research, development, testing and engineering. In the bill before you today about $90 million is set aside for research and development facilities. . . (NASA TAR III/50; CR, 3/18/64, 5356)
Dr. Raymond L. Bisplinghoff, NASA Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Technology, testified before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. He mentioned that NASA'S Advanced Research and Technology program encompassed more than 2,000 separate tasks and projects, and highlighted a few areas for illustration. ". . . Considerable effort is concentrated on commercial supersonic transports, a subject of NASA research for many years. Various aircraft configurations embodying widely differing design features have resulted from this research. All of these designs appear promising, particularly with regard to supersonic performance. In September 1963, at the Langley Research Center, the results of preliminary design studies and of related NASA in-house research programs were presented to all interested government agencies and major aircraft manufacturers. In general, it was concluded that a supersonic transport for airline use is technically feasibly. It was stressed, however, that additional research will be required in order to raise the level of technology to the point where a supersonic transport can be designed which is economically attractive to the airlines. . ." (Testimony)
In testimony before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Director of NASA Office of Tracking and Data Acquisition Edmond C. Buckley said: "We assure a thorough coordination between NASA and DOD in the planning, implementation, and use of ground instrumentation facilities through several mechanisms and procedures. . . . "I feel that the planning within NASA and the cooperation between NASA and DOD is such that both NASA and DOD are achieving an optimum utilization of the existing ground facilities and of the currently planned augmentations to these facilities. I can assure you that this type of coordination will continue. "I would like to emphasize one point, however. The planning for the support of a mission involves so many trade-offs and compromises in launch vehicles, trajectories, weight, complexity, and cost that the fundamental responsibility must lie in the hands of the agency responsible for the program. This is not only true in the case of NASA projects, but it is equally true that DOD has to have full responsibility for the planning and trade-offs on such projects as Discoverer, Dyna-Soar, and the up-coming Manned Orbiting Laboratory. These projects are so complex and the things we are trying to do are so new that divided responsibility would most seriously jeopardize the possibility of mission success. . . . (Testimony)
Dr. Eugene G. Fubini, Assistant Secretary of Defense (Deputy Director, DDR&E), disclosed in testimony before House Committee on Government Operations, Subcommittee on Military Operations, that DOD planned to use one of the Syncom communications satellites for experimental communications, probably between Hawaii and the Philippines. (Finney, NYT, 3/19/64, 14)
Dr. William A. Mrazek, Director of MSFC Propulsion and Vehicle Engineering Laboratory since 1956, was appointed chief engineer of Saturn launch vehicle project in MSFC Industrial Operations. (Marshall Star, 3/18/64, 1)
Eleanor Pressly, head of Vehicle Section, Spacecraft Integration, Sounding Rocket Div. at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and winner of a 1963 Federal Women's Award, was guest speaker at Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson's White House luncheon for "women-doers." (Wash. Post, 3/17/64)
Dr. Kurt H. Debus, Director of John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA, announced U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife would administer for NASA the entire buffer zone Merritt Island lowlands, nearly 40,000 acres. (KSC Release 34-64)
Dr. Norbert Wiener, 69, died in Stockholm. Considered the "father of automation" and one of the world's ranking mathematicians, Dr. Wiener was prof. of math at MIT from 1932 to 1960. (AP, NYT, 3/19/64, 1)
In the U.S. for speaking tour, Sir Bernard Lovell, Director of Britain's Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, told the Boston Globe: ". . I am terribly impressed by the dynamic effort this country is making to be first in. space. It appears to me the signs are extremely favorable so far as the West is concerned in the stake it has in America's space program. . . . "This is the greatest challenge man has ever faced. If you're going to be the leading power in the world, you simply can't afford to come in second. . . ." Sir Bernard said press reports quoting him as saying the U.S.S.R. had given up going to the moon were "completely erroneous. "I have every reason to believe the Russians are trying to get to the moon every bit as fast as the Americans are." (Leland, Boston Globe, 3/19/64)
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