Sep 14 1964
From The Space Library
NASA announced the next U.S. manned space flight, Project Gemini GT-3, had been delayed into 1965 because of time lost as result of lightning damage to GT-2 launch vehicle and removal of the rocket from launch pad during hurricanes Cleo and Dora. Dr. George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, said GT-2 unmanned suborbital mission would be made in last quarter of 1964. GT-3, with Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John Young as crew members, was scheduled for first quarter of 1965. ( NASA Release 64-233)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientists Saul H. Genatt and Edwin Reid said they had seen "red and blue bands" on the moon last Aug. 25 through a 16-in. telescope at GSFC, Greenbelt, Md. Reid first sighted the bands, which appeared at the crater Aristarchus, then he and Genatt continued to observe them for an hour. Two bands were red and one was blue, Genatt said; the two red bands lay across the southern half of the crater and the blue band lay across the northern half parallel to the other two. The colors were "very strong" at 10:00 p.m., when the men began observations, then gradually faded in intensity until the blue band disappeared at 10:30 and the red bands, shortly after 11:00. Similar sightings had been reported by Lowell Observatory scientists in October and November 1963, and prior to that time, by Soviet astron-omer Nikolai Kozyrev. (Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 9/15/64; Perkinson, Balt. Sun, 9/14/64; A&A 63)
USAF launched Thor-Agena D satellite booster with unidentified payload from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. (M&R, 9/21/64, 11)
President Johnson presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, highest U.S. civilian award, to Clarence L. Johnson, designer of U-2 and A-11 aircraft, and 29 other distinguished Americans in White House ceremony. (AP, NYT, 9/15/64, 26)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb said in New Orleans that progress in development of vehicles for manned lunar flight was "very good." He predicted: "If things work well, we'll be there by late 1969. This would not be possible if it were not for Michoud [NASA Michoud Operations]." At present, he said, 11,505 persons were employed at Michoud Operations and $927 million worth of contracts had been let there since it opened. Mr. Webb was in New Orleans to meet with former members of NASA New Orleans Coordinating Committee, formed in 1961 to assist NASA in establishing Michoud Operations. (N.O. Times-Picayune, 9/15/64)
Communications Satellite Corp. stock had more than doubled in price since being issued to the public in June and was continuing to rise. Michael Getler, in analysis of the situation, attributed rapid price rise to "basically an amazing scarcity of shares for daily trading-in combination with some rather short-sighted short-selling of the issue based in large measure on early, perhaps overly pessimistic, views of its likely performance. . . ." He quoted security consultant George P. Edgar: `The instinct of the public, in this case, has operated better than that of Wall Street. For the most part, professionals have missed ComSat and the public took the ball and ran." . . ." (Getler, M&R, 9/14/64, 18)
Rep. Melvin Price (D.-Ill.), speaking before International Convention of Military Electronics in Washington, criticized cancellation of Pluto nuclear-powered, low-altitude missile project: ". . . Repeatedly, we in Congress were told that it would constitute an outstanding weapons system and would supplement our ballistic missile system, but that the main problem in the Pluto concept was proving the feasibility of the reactor portion of the system. "We know of nothing that has happened in the last few years to change or eliminate the original requirement for Pluto. If the need for Pluto disappeared years ago, the project should have been promptly stopped; if the need still exists, the project should be carried through to completion. . . ." (Finney, NYT, 9/15/64, 10)
President Johnson presented 1963 Harmon International Aviator's Trophies to: Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper, for piloting FAITH 7 Mercury spacecraft to 22 orbits and a safe return; Aviatrix Betty Miller, for making first east-to-west transpacific solo flight by a woman, flying Piper Apache from Oakland, Calif., to. Sydney, Australia; and to Lt. Col. Fitzhugh L. Fulton (SAF), for piloting B-58 Hustler bomber to 85,318- ft. altitude with payload of more than 11,000 lbs. (Wash. Post, 9/15/64)
Space-General Corp. was building new five-ton rocket vehicle for USAF to use in testing recovery and re-entry parachutes at El Centro, Calif., Missiles and Rockets reported. Vehicle, called "Hi-Dive," would be dropped from aircraft at 45,000 ft., slowed down by stabilization para-chutes for firing of rockets to speed it up to mach 5. Test parachute would deploy at 30,000 ft. Delivery was expected next spring. (M&R, 9/14/64, 11)
25th anniversary of Igor Sikorsky's flight in the first practical helicopter in the Western Hemisphere. (Sikorsky Aircraft Div. of UA)
Accidental explosion involving liquid hydrogen demolished small building at NASA Lewis Research Center's Plum Brook Facility; there were no injuries. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/15/64)
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