Nov 21 1966
From The Space Library
NASA successfully conducted second rocket-launched test [see Nov. 5] of a Mars entry parachute as part of an advanced technology effort to investigate possible parachute landing systems for Voyager program. Two-stage Honest John-Nike rocket launched from WSMR ejected parachute at 120,000-ft. altitude. Parachute descended to earth 40 min. later carrying 200-lb. payload with instrumentation for measuring shock of parachute opening and its oscillation characteristics. Experiment series was managed by LaRC . (NASA Release 66-298)
MSFC awarded North American Aviation, Inc., a $141-million, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to provide 30 F-1 rocket engines, beginning in November 1967, and varied support services. (NASA Release 66-297)
NASA Aerobee 150 launched from WSMR to 102-mi. (164-km.) altitude carried GSFC experiment to obtain ultraviolet spectral scans of bright stars from 1110 A to 4000 A. Rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
Commenting on success of [Project Gemini]] in developing techniques and experience vital for manned lunar landing, William J. Coughlin said in Technology Week: "Gemini technology will . . . be applied to the manned scientific space stations still to come. This fanning out of technology from the direct-line effort to effect a manned lunar landing is a dramatic demonstration of the rapid maturing of the national space program." (Coughlin, Tech. Wk., 11/21/66, 50)
Final glide flight of M2-F2 lifting body vehicle before installation of XLR11 8,000-lb.-thrust rocket engine [see Dec. 30] was made at Edwards AFB with Capt. Jerauld R. Gentry as pilot. Purposes of flight, 14th in unpowered series, were testing of stability and control and determination of vehicle performance characteristics. (NASA Proj. Off.)
Reported that USAF Titan II launch vehicle, which launched 12 out of 12 missions in the Gemini series, was expected to win a USAF incentive fee of over $2 million for Martin Co., the prime contractor for two-stage booster. (Av. Wk., 11/21/66, 28)
U.S.S.R. had orbited an atomic clock of the ammonia type in COSMOS XCVII, launched Nov. 26,1965, a brief article in Pravda disclosed. Soviet Academician N. G. Basov, explaining possible uses of an ammonia frequency standard in a satellite, said it `permits carrying on communications with space devices, control over them, and transmission of telemetric information for very great distances. In addition, there is in this case a considerable increase in the operating precision of program timer devices and systems for determining the trajectory of the satellite's movement." (Av. Wk., 11/21/66, 36)
Beryllium ball floating in electrostatic field and spinning at some 60,000 rpm was part of new electrostatic gyroscope (Esg) being flight-tested by USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB aboard C-124 Globemaster aircraft. Instability formerly found in the spinning gyroscope had been eliminated in Esg since there was virtually no friction between the sphere and its cavity. Sphere would spin for three years without power source. (AFSC Release 221.66)
Pressure for early action to establish Canadian domestic comsat system was rising, both within the Canadian government and in telecommunications and broadcasting industries, Aviation Week reported. Government advisory team was planning to complete report by end of 1966 making recommendations to Canadian Cabinet on technical aspects of system and on controversial policy issues. Team was under direction of Dr. J. H. Chapman, deputy chief superintendent, Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment, Dept. of National Defence. (Av. Wk., 11/21/66, 35)
Guy Warner Vaughn, president and chairman of Curtiss-Wright Corp. and among first to apply mass-production techniques to aviation industry, died in New Rochelle, N.Y., at 82. (NYT, 11/22/66, 39M)
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