Mar 22 1965
From The Space Library
In NASA FY 1966 authorization hearings before the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, NASA Administrator James E. Webb testified: "Among the hard decisions and difficult choices which had to be made in the preparation of this budget was the decision to terminate the programs to develop the M-1 large liquid hydrogen fueled engine, the large 260-inch solid propellant motor, and the SNAP-8 nuclear electric power supply. The reduction in the requests for space technology activities amounting to about $48 million when compared with fiscal year 1965, results mostly from these terminations. However, as this Committee knows, there is pending before it notification of a plan to reprogram $16,950,000 of 1965 funds so that these projects can be carried forward into 1966 to appropriate developmental points at which important segments of the engineering data for which the projects were originally planned can be obtained for incorporation in our total bank of technological and engineering knowledge." Mr. Webb was questioned by Sen, Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.) on when the first U.S. extravehicular activity was planned, and he replied: "Within the next year. We are not sure on which GEMINI flight we will do it as yet." Senator Mondale asked: "When do we plan our first rendezvous maneuver?" and Mr. Webb replied: "Within the next year, maybe the latter part of this year." (Testimony; NASA Auth. Hearings, 623, 663)
Testifying before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics Subcommittee on Space Sciences, NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Homer E. Newell said that since success of any program was measured by the nature of the data provided, NIMBUS I had more than achieved design objectives: ". . during its three and one-half weeks of life, Nimbus took 12,137 individual frames of AVCS pictures, an estimated l,930 APT cycles, and over 6,880 minutes of HRIR data. Hurricanes Cleo, Dora, Ethel, and Florence were observed and Typhoons Ruby and Sally in the Pacific were located by this spacecraft... "The launch and successful operation of Nimbus I has proved the success of the basic Nimbus spacecraft design. It has also given NASA a better insight as to what additional modifications will be required in the system design for the next Nimbus flight. As mentioned previously, the primary limitation of the first Nimbus flight was the result of the failure of the Agena B vehicle to inject the spacecraft in the proper polar, near-circular orbit and the failure in the spacecraft solar paddle rotation mechanism. The first of these failures resulted in less than complete global cloud coverage and the second reduced spacecraft lifetime. . . ." (Testimony; NASA Auth. Hearings, 928-35)
Telemetry data from RANGER IX indicated that the probe was on such an accurate course toward the moon that JPL engineers decided to delay for one day a planned mid-course correction, RANGER IX began its 245,500-mi. trip to the moon Mar. 21, and was 144,488 mi. from earth at 9 p.m. EST. (UPI, Wash. Daily News, 3/22/65; Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 3/22/65; AP, Phil. Eve. Bull., 3/22/65)
More than 900 representatives of news media had been accredited, making the GT-3 mission of Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young the most intensely covered event in the history of space exploration. Nearly 1,200 newsmen had requested credentials from NASA. (Wash. Eve. Star, 3/23/65)
In an editorial in Aviation Week and Space Technology, editor Robert Hotz said: "The trail-blazing mission of the Soviet Voskhod II still is continuing as these lines are written, but it has already opened a new chapter in the history of man's conquest of space. It also has emphasized again that, unless some drastic changes are made, this history will be written primarily in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet with only an occasional U.S. footnote technically necessary. . . . "All of this Soviet progress again emphasizes strongly the ultra-conservatism of the U.S. manned space flight program and the utter inadequacy of the tiny step-by-step approach that sounds so convincing when defending under-funded programs. This approach is sounding more and more idiotic in the face of Soviet space achievements. . . . "Each Soviet manned space flight makes it clearer that the Russians are widening their lead over the U.S. in this vital area. It also makes it clear that the many billions the American people have poured willingly into our national space program for the purpose of wresting this leadership from the Soviets are not going to achieve that goal under the present management. . . ." (Hotz, Av. Wk., 3/22/65, 11)
Reporting on public reactions to the two-man Gemini flight scheduled for Mar, 23, Samuel Lubell said in an editorial in the Washington Daily News: "In recent weeks more than half of the persons interviewed said funds for moon trips would be the part of the Federal budget they would cut first. Another third named space exploration in general. This interviewing took place before Russia's space exploit of last Thursday." (Lubell, Wash. Daily News, 3/22/65)
NASA Langley Research Center scientists Arthur L. Newcomb, Jr., Nelson J. Groom, and Norman M. Hatcher reported their work on an infrared sensing instrument to help a spacecraft determine which way was up, at the IEEE national convention. The device described was sensitive to the difference between infrared radiation in space and that emitted by a planetary or lunar body ; it employed a mechanically-driven system of mirrors to scan the region of space in which it was operating. Radiation gathered by the mirrors was focused into four germanium lenses, each containing a thermistor sensitive to infrared. When the scanning mirror crossed the horizon of a planet, the increase or decrease registered on the thermistor and generated an electronic signal that could be processed through a series of special circuits to provide a stabilizing or control command to the spacecraft. The new sensor concept was expected to be useful for weather and communications satellites, as well as for space probes and other types of spacecraft. (LaRC Release)
Britain's Blue Streak Rocket, first stage of the European Launcher Development Organization's ( ELDO ) satellite project, was successfully launched to an altitude of 150 mi. from Woomera, Australia. (Reuters, Wash. Post, 3/23/65)
Reasons for choosing the moon crater Alphonsus as the target for RANGER IX were given by David Hoffman in an article in the New York Herald Tribune: "First, they are just plain curious. Rangers 7 and 8 photographed two lunar seas and taught scientists that all such ‘maria’ are pretty much the same. Now scientists want pictorial coverage of the moon's rugged highlands. "Alphonsus' walls rise 7,000 to 10,000 feet above its crater floor, and in the basin thus formed astronomers have observed reddish gas seeping from the surface. The question, then, is whether Alphonsus is really a lunar equivalent of a live volcano. "Second, some space experts believe Apollo astronauts, as they descend on the moon, may encounter an emergency. That emergency might force them down in the moon mountains instead of onto a flat lunar plain. Accordingly, NASA wants to know surface roughness of the smoothest part of the moon mountains. "Third, there are some who believe the smoothest areas on the moon actually lie within the great craters (Alphonsus' diameter is 70 miles). If this proves true, astronauts might select a crater floor as their touchdown point, assuming there is no volcanic activity." (Hoffman, N.Y. Her. Trib., 3/23/65)
Theo E. Sims, Manager of NASA Langley Research Center's Project Ram, reported results of reentry communications blackout research before the IEEE national convention in New York. Sims said significant progress had been made toward understanding the fundamental nature of the blackout problem and suggested that vehicle shape selection, signal frequency choice, use of static magnetic fields, and material addition to the flow field were all possible solutions. Flight experiments, he indicated, had shown the materials addition technique to be useful at speeds up to 12,000 mph, and an experiment to be flown on the first manned Gemini spacecraft would attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of water addition at even higher speeds. (LaRC Release)
NASA's actions in releasing foreign satellite information were criticized in a report by the House Committee on Government Operations, based on study by its Foreign Operations and Government Information Subcommittee. Committee stated NASA had deleted from its biweekly Satellite Situation Report certain Soviet launches because they were designated as secret information by NORAD. "NASA has not once challenged these security classifications, blindly accepting the military decision. . . ." Compounding the problem, NASA had "publicized the facts about Soviet failures [ Sept. 15, 1962, letter from Administrator Webb to Senate and House space committees] after those facts had been carefully deleted from its routine report of satellite information, . NASA has ignored two clear requirements of law-the requirement for civilian control over nonmilitary space activities and the requirement for the fullest possible flow of public information, By yielding, automatically, to the military judgment on what the American people shall know about Soviet space activities, NASA fails to implement its legal mandate. By playing an on-again, off-again secrecy game, NASA tends to confuse the American public. ... "Therefore, the committee recommends that, in every possible instance consistent with the dictates of national security, NASA exercise its right to challenge military-imposed restrictions by requiring justification and, thus, carry out the mandate to keep the American people informed. . . ." ( House Rpt. 197)
FAA issued a special regulation banning unauthorized aircraft of U.S. registry from the designated recovery and associated areas "during the time determined to be necessary for the safe conduct of the Gemini flight and recovery operations." (FAA Release 65-21)
AFSC's 6595th Aerospace Test Wing assumed responsibility for Atlas launches into the Air Force Western Test Range in support of the Army Nike antimissile program and the USAF Advanced Ballistic Reentry Systems (Abres) program. (AFSC Release 46.65)
Newsweek reported that plans to capture world's speed record with YF-12A "mystery plane" had been blocked by Defense Secretary McNamara because he felt Congress might press for mass production of the jet-a move he opposed, Present record was held by U.S.S.R. (Newsweek, 3/22/65)
"[Dr. Robert H.] Goddard's dream was the object of derision 39 years ago. Who, we must wonder, is the dreamer today who is being ignored? Where is he? What is he working on that will change this world so vastly 39 years from now? . , " These were queries in an editorial by William J. Coughlin in Missiles and Rockets. Coughlin lamented the fact that much of the U.S. technological progress in the missile/space field was directly keyed to a race with the Soviet Union. He said that "if we do not provide the atmosphere and support required for the acceptance of bold new challenges, the onward pace of U.S. science and technology will falter, then stop." (M&R, 3/22/65, 46)
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