Mar 27 1968
From The Space Library
Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin-who became first man in space when he orbited earth once in U.S.S.R.'s Vostok I April 12, 1961-and engineer Col. Vladimir S. Seryogin were killed when their MiG-15 jet aircraft crashed northwest of Moscow during training flight. Gagarin, who had been commander of Soviet Corps of Cosmonauts and officer in charge of cosmonaut training, was second cosmonaut to die in an accident. Cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov had died when Soyuz I crash-landed after reentry April 24, 1967. Bodies of Cosmonaut Gagarin and Col. Seryogin would be cremated and buried in Kremlin wall. (UPI, W Star, 3/28/68, 1; Reston, W Post, 3/29/68, 1)
First launch of British Aircraft Corp.-built Skylark sounding rocket from ESRANGE near Kiruna, Sweden, carried London Imperial College experiment to 105-mi (170-km) altitude to investigate relationship between auroral events and polar "electrojet." Rocket and instrumentation performance was satisfactory. (SBD, 4/4/68, 199)
USAF was testing thermal preconditioner with promethium-147 radioisotope heat source to reduce aircraft guidance-system errors caused by temperature changes, AFSC announced. Unit, which eliminated warmup time required by orthodox heaters, had been developed by AEC and USAF. (AFSC Release 7.68)
Rep. Henry S. Reuss (D-Wis.), Chairman of House Committee on Government Operations' Research and Technical Programs Subcommittee, released Scientific Brain Drain from the Developing Countries (dated March 28). Immigration to U.S. of scientific manpower from develop. ing countries had more than quadrupled in past 12 yr. Report, based on Subcommittee hearings held Jan. 23, said, "the long-sustained U.S. foreign aid program has devoted substantial sums and given high priority" to educating and training professional manpower. When these countries "suffer an emigration drain of the very skills and talents they are attempting to increase, an important part of the foreign aid program is undermined." (Text; NYT, 3/28/68, 33)
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