Oct 1 1967
From The Space Library
Ninth anniversary of NASA, established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Dr. Homer E. Newell became NASA Associate Administrator. His appointment had been announced Aug. 25. Dr. Newell would be replaced as Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications (Sciences) by Dr. John E. Naugle. (NASA Release 67-228; NASA Ann, 10/20/67; Hines, W Star, 10/3/67, A4)
NASA announced that solar radiation and magnetic properties around planet Venus as well as in interplanetary space would be studied as MARINER V (launched June 14) approached closer to Venus. Flight plan would take spacecraft within 2,500 mi of surface of Venus Oct. 19. NASA hoped to acquire valuable information to supplement that learned from Mariner II, which in 1962 had detected no radiation belts and no magnetic field at miss distance of 21,600 mi. Added investigations included: properties of solar wind; electron count by radio beam passing through Venus' atmosphere; study of so-called "solar plasma cavity" on dark side of Venus; and investigation of unexplored region 54 million mi from sun. (NASA Release 67-248)
Introduction to current US. research on use of spacecraft to study oceans, "United States Activities in Spacecraft Oceanography," was published by National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development and jointly prepared by NASA, Naval Oceanographic Office, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, and ESSA. Scientists reported on progress in photographic and spectral scanning; when done from orbital locations, scanning yielded data equivalent to that obtained by thousands of globally distributed ocean-surface sensors. "Although data acquired from space will initially appear coarse compared with measurements from surface platforms, a sensing system with global coverage reporting as often as desired, and with increasing scope and accuracy will offer unique opportunities for broad unified synoptic analysis," study reported. (Text)
New York Times editorial praised success of NASA's Surveyor V, launched Sept. 8 : "If present indications are confirmed, Surveyor 5 has made one the fundamental scientific discoveries of the century . . that earth's natural satellite is made up of the same kind of material as is the earth. Surveyor 5's historic finding, if backed by later experiments, must force new consideration of the possibility that the moon was torn from the earth. . . . Certainly much more evidence is required . . . [but] Surveyor 5 has performed a notable feat. Moreover it has demonstrated again how much can be learned from instruments delivered by relatively inexpensive unmanned rockets without the great dangers and huge costs required to send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth." (NYT, 10/1/67, 12E)
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