Oct 31 1966
From The Space Library
NASA launched four-stage Pacemaker rocket from Wallops Station to test performance of spacecraft heat shield design. First two stages lifted 135-lb. payload to 75,000-ft. altitude. As payload began to fall back to earth, last two stages were fired to drive it downward at about 6,800 mph. Information was obtained by tracking and photography and from the payload itself, which was recovered after parachute descent into Atlantic. (Wallops PAO; UPI, NYT, 11/1/66)
Japan successfully launched four-stage Mu-1 rocket from Uchinoura Space Center, Kyushu Island, to test 1st-stage fuel combustion and booster propulsion. The 70-ft.-long solid-fueled launch vehicle was launched at 69ΓΈ inclination and impacted in Pacific after 3-min. 20-sec. flight. Scientists called test a success." Mu was scheduled to orbit Japan's first satellite by 1968. (AP, NYT, 11/1/66)
October 31: SST design proposal evaluations were submitted to FAA by 235-member Government team and 30 domestic and foreign airlines; FAA Administrator William F. McKee would study evaluations and make recommendation; President Johnson would make final decision by Jan. 1, 1967. (Wash. Post, 11/1/66, B7)
A revolution in 1970's of air transport industry that would "change its scope and character even more than the switch from piston-engine equipment to jets did in the 1960s," was predicted by Robert Hotz in Aviation Week. Transformation would be stimulated by the "sharp spur of advanced technology arriving in the midst of changing economic and social problems." Hotz observed that "no other major business in the industrial history of the world has had to cope with such a series of technical revolutions in such a short time span as the airlines." (Hotz, Av. Wk., 10/31/66, 21)
U.S.S.R. planned to build two additional satellite tracking stations in Cuba and had sited one near Santiago, Aviation Week reported. (Av. Wk., 10/31/66, 23)
USAF had awarded Boeing Co. $142.3-million firm fixed-price incentive contract to develop and produce AGM69A Short Range Attack Missile (Sram) to be carried by FB-111 bombers and adaptable to late model B-52 bombers. (DOD Release 925-66)
Franco-Soviet cooperative space agreement was being viewed with skepticism by French scientists who foresaw effort would break down for same lack of Soviet candor that had stymied useful information exchange between US. and U.S.S.R., Aviation Week reported. In addition, French Communists were protesting to Kremlin that high Soviet sanction of President De Gaulle's space program was weakening Communist political stature in France. (Av. Wk., 10/31/66, 23)
Cost-sharing dispute between DOD and NASA over use of ETR was reported by Aviation Week. DOD wanted NASA to pay share of continuing costs possibly as much as $100 million annually-instead of only expenses for launches. (Av. Wk., 10/31/66, 25)
Discussing the manned spaceflight program in press interview at Texas Technical College, physicist and atomic scientist Dr. Edward Teller said: . . . to get to the moon first is not important, but who stays there and exploits the knowledge to be gained from the moon is more important." Teller, attending symposium on arid and semi-arid land, said US. should settle a colony of scientists on moon to determine feasibility of using it as a base for reaching Mars. (AP, Balt. Sun, 11/1/66, 8)
NASA was planning total of 11 lunar landing missions, reported Technology Week, citing procurement request issued by MSC. Number of missions was included as guideline for firms asked to submit bids on development of crew recovery quarantine equipment. (Tech. Wk., 10/31/66, 3)
FAA predicted flying activity at the 303 airports with FAA control towers would break all records in 1966: an estimated 45.1 million landings and takeoffs were foreseen-a 19 per cent increase over 1965. (FAA Release 66-95)
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