May 2 1964
From The Space Library
Five-segment 120-in. rocket motor for Titan III exploded after 55 sec. during static firing at Edwards AFB, Calif. Explosion caused extensive damage to new $10-million solid-motor test facility, dedicated just three hours earlier by SSD commanding officer Maj. Gen. Ben I. Funk, who had called the new stand "the most sophisticated and highly instrumented facility in the world." Stand was operated for USAF by United Technology Center (UTC), and further tests were shifted to UTC's test facility at Coyote, Calif. Cause of explosion was thought to be failure of casing weld when a "boot" in the bottom of the motor was removed. (M&R, 5/11/64, 16)
More than 2,000 high school juniors and seniors attended Student Space Conference at Northeastern Univ., Boston, where they heard remarks by Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper, Bruce T. Lundin of NASA, John D. Nicolaides of NASA, Nancy G. Roman of NASA, and Isaac Asimov, writer and biochemist (Boston Sun. Globe, 5/3/64)
150th anniversary of U.S. weather observation network, now composed of more than 13,000 stations providing records of U.S. climate. (Commerce Release WB 64-8)
May 2-3: Lewis Research Center conducted drop tests down a main elevator shaft at Cleveland's Terminal Tower, dropping model experimental packages from heights of up to 400 ft to gather data for design of decelerator for LRC's new zero-gravity facility. (LRC Release 64-40)
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