Sep 22 1968
From The Space Library
NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried NRL experiment to 117.4-mi (188.9-km) altitude to obtain UV photographs of sun's disk and white light photographs of outer solar corona in conjunction with measurements made by others during total solar eclipse. Payload contained two externally occulting coronagraphs, with Univ. of Colorado solar pointing control. Solar pointing control operated properly, with exceptionally steady pointing; white light corona and streamers were recorded in both coronagraphs with excellent resolution. xuv heliograph and spectroheliograph were recorded with excellent resolution. (NASA Rpt SRL)
Washington Sunday Star commented on resignation of NASA Administrator James E. Webb: "The abrupt announcement, which was notably lacking in the customary ceremonial niceties, was the final confirmation that NASA'S honeymoon is definitely over. The relationship between the space agency and Congress must rank as perhaps the longest, and in many ways the happiest, official honeymoon on record. For six years, hardly a frown or a cross word came between the blossoming agency and the guardians of the nation's treasure. The amiable and loquacious Webb proved himself an able administrator who knew his way around in the bureaucratic jungle. Through Mercury and Gemini programs, NASA virtually had only to ask, and Congress was ready to give. Then came the Apollo tragedy." But Jan. 27, 1967, fire did not cause the change of heart. "It was . . . a catalyst that speeded the process. But a growing coolness was bound to develop . . . for the basic economic fact is that America simply cannot continue to meet NASA'S ever-expanding economic demands-not, at least, without a critical weighing of those demands against the nation's existing domestic, diplomatic and military obligations. . . . "Long before the tragedy that threw the timetable into a shambles, the conflict between America's technical ability to move men into space and America's ability to pay the freight could be seen by those who cared to look ahead. . . . Congressional reluctance to commit the nation to further, open-ended expenditures in manned space flight is therefore inevitable. But equally inevitable is the dismay-and in some cases the bitterness-of NASA officials. Webb and his lieutenants can take justifiable pride in what has been accomplished in the brief span of the space age. . . . They have solved problems quickly and accurately that men have never faced before. In the process, they pulled together a scientific and technical team unequalled in the peacetime history of this country. Now they are watching that massive army disband. . . . "Man will someday go to the planets and beyond. But that day must wait until the breakdown of nationalistic barriers makes possible a truly united world space program. Meanwhile, the United States should concentrate on the development of more sophisticated machines, less costly rocket systems and closer cooperation between the military and civilian space programs to avoid wasteful duplication. America's space effort must not end with the Apollo program. It must be diverted into equally exciting and frequently more rewarding channels of unmanned space exploration." (W Star, 9/22/68, C1)
Associated Press roundup of comment by space authorities on U.S.S.R.'s Zond V mission: NASA Administrator James E. Webb: "The most important demonstration of total space capability up to now by any nation." Rep. Olin E. Teague (D-Tex.) , Chairman of House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight: Hoped U.S.S.R. achievement would "cause some stir in Congress. . . . The Russians again did something we have not done. We slept until the Sputnik. That may be what we're doing now." Sir Bernard Lovell, Director of U.K.'s Jodrell Bank Experimental Station: "I think it is a very considerable achievement and I expect that a human being will be placed in a similar spacecraft in a matter of months." Heinz Kaminski, Chief of West Germany's Bochum Observatory: "Still in this year or at latest in first quarter of 1969 a three-man spacecraft of the Soyuz type will circle the moon. After that [in a later flight) they will land on the moon." In Moscow, unidentified Western expert on U.S.S.R.'s space program said that, because of seasonal factors, best time for Soviet manned lunar circumnavigation would be no later than early November-or spring 1969. "They are now in a position to send a man around the moon and back to earth, without landing him on the moon. They might try one more unmanned shot, just to be sure, and then they could send up a man." (AP, NYT, 9/23/68, E8)
In This Week, Erik Bergaust discussed improvements in safety made by NASA since Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo fire. Though NASA leaders in Washing- ton and at MSC believed this was "doing the job, other experts in and out of NASA privately are expressing their doubts," he said. They felt "NASA had been slow to correct [and] . . . its solutions have been more political than practical." Experts insisted, "that while progress has been made, there have been very few significant improvements in NASA'S own management. . . . reports circulating in Washington [since] the accident indicated the conditions that led to the Apollo fire may not have been corrected." (This Week, W Star, 9/22/68, 7)
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