Nov 2 1970
From The Space Library
NASA's M2-F3 lifting-body vehicle, piloted by NASA test pilot William H. Dana, successfully completed third flight from FRC. Captive portion-usually conducted on separate flight-was completed at 9100-km (30 000-ft) altitude to verify B-52/adapter/heavy-weight M2-F3 compatibility, check out propellant system, and check out jettison system. Flight portion followed air launch from B-52 aircraft at 13 700-m (45 000-ft) altitude to expand launch envelope, study transonic configuration, investigate lateral phugoid present on M2-F2, check out reaction control system, and evaluate nose window requirements. (NASA Proj Off)
NASA and U.K. Science Research Council (SRC) signed agreement for NASA to launch fifth U.K. satellite in 1973. UK-5, carrying six scientific experiments, would be launched by NASA Scout booster into orbit with 555-km (435-mi) altitude, where it would study cosmic x-ray sources. Satellite would be U.K.'s first employing magneticcore data storage, pulse-code-modulation telemetry, and gas-jet attitude-control system that could be programmed by ground command. U.K.'s Ariel I (launched April 26, 1962), Ariel II (launched March 27, 1964), and Ariel III (launched May 5, 1967), had been launched by NASA under cooperative agreements. Fourth satellite, UK-4, would be launched into near-polar orbit in 1971. (NASA Release 70-195)
Kenneth W. Gatland, Vice President of British Interplanetary Society, told press in London that U.S.S.R. had been testing satellite designed to destroy U.S. military satellites. Claim, he said, was substantiated by studies from Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. Cosmos CCCLXXIII (launched Oct. 20) had been a target; Cosmos CCCLXXIV (launched Oct. 23) had been orbited to same altitude as Cosmos CCCLXXIII and then exploded, apparently on ground command. Six large fragments had been identified. Gatland said objective could have been to destroy Cosmos CCCLXXIII with the fragments or to use radiation from a nuclear explosion to make it inoperable. Cosmos CCCLXXV (launched Oct. 30) had been test of same system. (AP, B Sun, 1113/70, A2; W Star, 11/3/70)
Battelle-Northwest Laboratories team under Dr. Franklin E. Roach was investigating "diffuse galactic light" to measure material between stars, UPI reported. Dr. Roach hoped to determine where dust was clumping and coalescing in early stages of star formation. (NYT, 11/2/70)
Report to NATO by Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird placed number of Soviet land-based ICBMs ready for use or under construction at about 1400, AP said. Figure-increase of about 100 ICBMS over Laird's estimate given to Congress earlier in year-put U.S.S.R. about 350 ICBMs ahead of U.S. Laird had also reported that U.S.S.R. had about 30 missile-launching nuclear submarines of Polaris class operational or under construction and warned that U.S.S.R. could overtake U.S. in production by 1974. (W Post, 11/2/ 70, A11)
Editorials commented on U.S.-U.S.S.R. space talks. New York Times: "The first concrete steps toward arranging direct Soviet-American cooperation in space would be important under any circumstances. But the timing of last week's [Oct. 26-27] agreement aimed at standardizing both nations' space ships... makes that development doubly welcome. The talks succeeded when most aspects of Washington-Moscow relations are roiled by tensions ranging from the Middle East to the continued imprisonment in Russia of two American generals whose plane strayed across the Turkish border." (NYT, 11/2/70)
Christian Science Monitor: "While not wishing to minimize the long road which still lies ahead before America and Russia have peacefully resolved all their major disagreements, we see the new space pact as an extraordinary heartening development. It has created a new bond, a new mutual interest, a new feeling of joint participation. It is from the multiplication of such ties that international peace and friendship grow. And from such a vision of space togetherness there can come a stronger desire for greater brotherliness on earth." (CSM, 11/2/70)
Milwaukee Journal: "The economic benefits and savings of international co-operation are obvious. The intangible benefits, however, are just as great, particularly defusing space of the rivalries and antagonisms that have been so destructive on earth. NASA must be commended for its efforts so far, and urged to press on in this important business." (Milwaukee Journal, 11/2/70)
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