Oct 6 1964
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. announced routine launching of COSMOS XLVII artificial earth satellite "for the further investigation of cosmic space." Orbital data: apogee, 413 km. (256 mi.) ; perigee, 177 km. (110 mi) ; period, 90 min.; and inclination to the equator, 64.77°. COSMOS XLVII de-orbited Oct. 7. (Tass, Pravda, 10/7/64, 1, ATSS-T Trans-; GSFC SSR, 10/15/64)
Final S-I booster in Saturn I rocket program was static-fired at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for its second and final time. The 156-sec. test was "entirely satisfactory." This S-I stage, the second one built by Chrysler Corp. for NASA, would power the last (SA-10) Saturn I launch vehicle. First Saturn I booster was static-fired at MSFC in April 1961. Today's firing ended about three-and-a-half years of testing in which R&D and flight vehicles underwent a total of 55 firings for cumulative time of 3,867 sec. (Marshall Star, 10/14/64, 1)
USAF launched Thor-Able-Star rocket toward polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., but did not disclose payload or mission. It later was revealed that the Thor-Able-Star placed three satellites in orbit. (, NYT, 10/7/64, 19; SBD, 10/8/64, 202; HHN-4 8 )
NASA announced appointment of Jennings Pemble Field, Jr., as Director of Gemini Program Control in NASA Office of Manned Space Flight. In this position Field would be responsible for Gemini program costs and budget. Field was an executive of MC Industries, Inc.; from 1954 to 1963 he was with Bendix Corp., and from 1940 to 1954 he was a commissioned officer in U.S. Navy. (NASA Release 61 257)
Soviet Government had rejected the space agreement negotiated in Geneva by Dr. Hugh L. Dryden and Soviet Academician Anatoli A. Blagonravov last June, Howard Simons reported in the Washington Post. After the negotiators had returned to their respective countries, Simons reported, U-S.S.R. notified U.S. in July that it chose to reject the agreement. NASA officials had no comment on the report, but other sources (unnamed) said the tentative agreement had called for exchange of information and publication of a book about space medicine and bioscience by Soviet and U.S. experimenters. U.S.S.R. refusal was based on insistence that topics be covered by either U.S. or Soviet author, although Blagonravov had agreed to U.S. proposal that each topic be covered by a Soviet and a U.S. author. This was said to be first instance of exercising the usual option to reject the space agreement reached by negotiating teams. (Simons, Wash. Post, 10/6/64)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb remarked at Univ. of Notre Dame that the establishment of its new Aero-Space Science and Engineering Department placed Notre Dame "in a vigorous and growing group of the nation's leading educational institutions. . . "What is happening this fall at this university is in some ways symbolic of what is happening all over the nation. For the space program has been a catalyst to science, to engineering, to research, and to education at all levels. The power of the modern rocket has given man a new, and in many ways, an unlimited tool for probing the mysteries of the universe. . " (Text)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb said in address at Annual Management Banquet of the National Management Association, in South Bend, Ind., that the "most important trend in NASA's procurement activity today . . . is our effort to use more incentive contracts. "Three years ago we had no incentive contracts. Today we have 52 totaling more than half a billion dollars. And we expect to raise that to one billion before the end of this year. . . "So far we have experimented with a new type of incentive contract called the award fee . . . So far our experience with this type of incentive contract has been good; and efficient contractors who appear to be saving the government money have earned extra profits for themselves. The award fee contract is especially applicable to service contracts where targets are difficult to fix. We feel that the award fee has motivated contractors to perform better, to cut costs, and to make quick corrections when they have been deficient. Contractors, in turn, have expressed their satisfaction with this new procedure." (Text)
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