Sep 17 1965
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
NASA launched an Aerobee 150A sounding rocket from Wallops Station, Va, with 150-lb, payload containing French-built radio propagation experiments designed for later flight on the FR-1 satellite. It reached 114-mi. (183-km,) peak altitude during an eight-minute flight. (Wallops Release 65-59)
OGO I (Orbiting Geophysical Observatory) spacecraft had completed its first year of operation in space Officially classified as a failure when a major objective-three axis stabilization-was not achieved, the 1,200-lb, satellite launched Sept, 4, 1964, had exceeded its one-year design lifetime and was still transmitting valuable data from 16 experiments, OGO I's scientific objectives were to conduct time-correlated measurements of space phenomena to help in the understanding of earth-sun relationships. Although its scientific usefulness was lessened when the earth-run stabilized orientation was not achieved, 16 scientific papers had been presented by experimenters on findings of their instruments aboard OGO I. ( NASA Release 65-294)
NASA requested that final proposals for scientific experiments for the 1971 Voyager missions to Mars be submitted by Nov, 19, Selection would be made by July 1, 1966. All 1971 Voyager experiments on the landing craft would be subject to strict sterilization requirements. (NASA Release 65-297)
King Constantine of Greece invited Astronauts Leroy Gordon Cooper (L/Col., USAF) and Charles Conrad, Jr. (LCdr. USN) , their wives, and other U.S. officials in Athens for the 16th International Astronautical Congress, to a royal palace banquet. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Director Dr. Wernher von Braun and JPL Director Dr. William H. Pickering were among the guests. (AP, Phil, Eve. Bull, 9/17/65)
The task of effecting a soft landing on the moon had been placed on the agenda of space projects in the U.S.S.R., Academician Leonid Sedov, leader of the Soviet delegation to the 16th IAF Congress, said at a press conference, He added: "Such a landing has already been worked out on the ground." (Tass, 9/17/65)
A simple, two-door pneumatic tube device for garbage disposal during the two-week Gemini VI manned space flight scheduled for December was being considered by NASA Manned Spacecraft Center officials, the Houston Post reported. The astronauts would open the first door, stuff in the material to be disposed of, close the first door, and open the second door, Space being a nearly perfect vacuum, the material would be forced out of the tube. (Houston Post, 9/17/65)
USAF Chief of Staff Gen. J. P. McConnell told a meeting of the Air Force Association in Washington, D.C., that "any reports of the impending demise" of the flying Air Force were "slightly exaggerated," In fact, he added, a wide variety of new and better aircraft was needed to meet "the ever-changing nature and scope of the threat to our national interests." (Text)
David Sarnoff, Chairman of the Board of RCA, warned the Conference on World Peace Through Law that communications progress would beget serious problems: "By the end of the decade there will be not only one communications satellite but many; not a single global satellite system but possibly several in competition with one another; not a sole operating agency dealing with many nations, but many nations with their own operating agencies pursuing different satellite communications plans and objectives, "As the number of satellites multiplies in space, a corresponding number of problems will multiply on earth... When we can communicate instantly to everybody, everywhere, we will set in motion a force whose ultimate political, social and economic impact upon mankind cannot be calculated today." (Text)
Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. (USMC, Ret.), would make a three-week goodwill trip to Western Europe in October, the White House announced. (UPI, Wash. Post, 9/18/65)
Commenting on how swiftly man had moved into the space age, an article in the Baltimore Sun said: "Travel in space.remains and will remain dangerous-a work for none but the brave, the skilled and the dedicated. There will be moments of breathless drama, many of them, as when the first man arrives on the moon, and of tragedy. But short of those moments, travel in space near the earth is beginning to be routine." (Balt, Sun, 9/17/65)
Decision to proceed with the MOL received comment in Science: "Some proponents of MOL believe that, as insurance against 'technological surprise' and as a test of improved methods of intelligence gathering, the project will lead to greater stability in relations between the United States and the Communist world. But skeptics fear that L will carry the arms race into space, Despite a long hunger, the Air Force has never before been permitted a role in manned space flight, a function heretofore reserved exclusively for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration." (Science, 9/17/65, 1357)
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