Nov 27 1967
From The Space Library
In apparent sharp increase in testing, U.S.S.R. would launch fourth 1967 test series of "carrier rockets" into the Pacific between Nov. 28 and Dec. 30, according to Tass announcement. Aircraft and ships were warned not to enter either of two 129-km (80-mi) -wide target areas northwest and south of Midway Island, a US. possession, between noon and midnight local time each day, Tass said. UPI quoted observers on Soviet aims: to test new and bigger Soviet rockets needed to send a man to the moon and bring him back, and to expand recent Soviet experiments on the landing of space capsules at sea. UPI said series would include launchings of 3,000-4,000 mi on down-range course from the Soviet Union, change from maximum of 6,000 mi for past launchings. Past announcements by U.S.S.R. on three 1967 "carrier-rocket" series had termed all three "successful." (UPI, W Star, 11/27/67, AS)
Former Vice President and current leader for Republican Presidential nomination, Richard M. Nixon, on TV said it was "very likely . . . some of those appropriations [for the space program] are excessive." Referring to the space program as "a sacred cow," he called for the President to be "a balance wheel" in evening off the pressure from "vested interests." He defended a congressman's right when representing an area with important space business to fight for more funds. (SBD, 11/29/67,140)
November 27-29: American Astronautical Society's Astronautics International Conference was held in New York City. Coupling a plea for constructive realism with a denunciation of U.S.S.R.'s mere lip service toward international space cooperation, NASA Assistant Administrator for International Affairs Arnold W. Frutkin discussed ways for understanding "international space cooperation." No Russian attended the conference, two speakers and one cosmonaut declined invitations. Frutkin explained that cooperation meant "joint projects, jointly undertaken, jointly carried out, and jointly profitable." Realistic projects practicing space cooperation on an international scale were cited by Frutkin to be: NASA's program; ESRO/ELDO complex for combining "ten European nations in spacecraft development and seven nations in large vehicle development;" and INTELSAT satellite telecommunications consortium, including "some sixty nations in day-to-day operational space communications traffic." He included in US. benefits from the NASA cooperative program "gold flow [for] foreign purchase of space hardware and services," Canadian ionospheric investigations, West German barium cloud technique, Italian atmospheric density measurements, and French global wind circulation studies. Frutkin referred to ESRO's program as "a true pooling of resources [which] goes well beyond the NASA cooperative program. In ESRO, "common facilities have been planned, financed and operated on an international basis by an international governmental agency." MSC Director Dr. Robert R. Gilruth discussed manned space flight "from Mercury to Apollo." He said Mercury defined man's survivability in space, Gemini defined man's operational capability, and Apollo would be first in utilizing space for manned exploration. "To progress in ten short years from exploring survivability to utilization on the most difficult exploration mission ever undertaken implies a rate of change in technical capability which has no real parallel in history," he said. Deep space and lunar operations would be faced as "two new major dimensions to our space capabilities." Space explorers would be coping with the need for huge amounts of energy, extremely precise navigation to hit target and reentry corridor, and radiation protection that could include the intensities generated by solar flares. Lunar explorers would require a vehicle designed to operate entirely outside earth's atmosphere, descend to and ascend from lunar surface, and propel reliably while exhibiting "relative sophistication of a throttleable engine." Man returning from first lunar exploration trip would have accomplished "an age-old dream [of visiting] his nearest neighbor in space [and found] a key to the riddle of Earth`s relation to its nearest neighbor [and] a chance of understanding the creative forces that formed his own home-Earth." "For the first time he will have soared beyond the confines of Earth's gravity and felt the pull of a foreign planet [and] personally viewed our whole planet as a small bluish ball only four times the span of the lunar disk. These experiences may well produce profound changes in man's attitude towards himself and his world comparable to those wrought by Galileo's dramatic demonstration of the Copernican theory, changes which should tend to inspire man to place the affairs of his very small house in order." (Text)
NASA's Apollo Applications program (AAP) Director Charles W. Mathews listed basic objectives for AAP: long-duration space flights of men and systems based on unique capabilities of man, habitability, biomedical and behavioral considerations, and systems development; scientific investigations in earth orbit based on solar astronomy, earth observations, and stellar astronomy; applications in earth orbit based on meteorology, earth resources, and communications; and extended lunar exploration. "The activities involved in [UP] represent major steps in the utilization of our space capability. The results . . . can serve to establish the direction of future space exploration and applications. In particular, increased knowledge on the effective integration of men into the total system should accomplish much in determining the character, systems configurations and operational approach in future programs. The ability to capitalize on the large investments already made in the Apollo Program affords the opportunity to carry on this work in [AAP] in an efficient and economical manner." (Text)
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