Sep 30 1968
From The Space Library
NASA Aerobee 150 MI sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried GSFC experiment to 126.5-mi (203-km) altitude to obtain solar extreme UV spectra from 40 to 390 A and from 10 to 390 A using BBRC-SPC 300D solar pointing control and recovery system. Despite better than expected performance, no solar spectrum was detected. (NASA Rpt SRL)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb delivered John Diebold Lecture on Technological Change and Management at Harvard Univ. Graduate School of Business Administration. Speaking on "NASA as an Adaptive Organization," he emphasized "how as well as what" in NASA'S buildup of capabilities and learning to "apply new ways of organizing and administering human and material resources."
Capabilities demonstrated during one week-second week of November 1967-in launching Ats III, Surveyor VI, Saturn V, and Essa IV represented "better than 90% of everything we would need to carry out almost any mission that even the most daring have placed on our space agenda for the next decade." Measurements made by experimental spacecraft plus ESSA's 24-hr-per-day operations were providing handsome returns in understanding and predicting weather. "This is one way our country says to every other country, every day, that we as a people want to use our new power over the forces of nature in a joint effort with them, with benefits to both of us, and not to threaten or to coerce them to follow some pattern laid down by us." Magnification capability of Ranger and Surveyor opened way "for lunar and planetary investigations of a type and scope undreamed of before we learned to use the rocket technology." Saturn V launch "demonstrated that we can have .. . the big-booster capability and the launch rate capability in which we have been behind the U.S.S.R." Utility of Essa IV was "far beyond any we can achieve in any other way. It works . .. all around the world, and feeds information into something like 296 stations in the United States and about 86 in 45 other countries. It is truly a working bird. . . . "I do not believe our Nation could have long continued as a great power if we had not built up the means to conduct operations in space. . . . I believe we would have sacrificed our chances to keep pace in the technological competition that is the crucial test of our times. . . . We would have denied to ourselves the tools and the knowledge necessary . . [for] problems that beset us and the rest of mankind the benefits that surely will follow from the full development of space applications." (Text; IV Post, 10/13/68, B5)
World's largest commercial jet-360- to 490-passenger Boeing 747 with mach 0.84 to 0.90 cruising speed-was rolled from factory for first time in ceremony at Everett, Wash. The $20-million aircraft was scheduled for first flight in December 1968 and first passenger service, with Pan American World Airways, Inc., one year later. (Boeing PIO; AP, W Post, 9/30/68, A22; 10/1/68, A9; Witkin, NYT, 10/1/68, UPI, W Star, 10/1/68, A6)
USAF announced it had called for proposals from eight aircraft companies for contract definition of advanced tactical fighter aircraft designated FX, highly maneuverable, single-place, twin-engine jet with initial operational capability in mid-1970s. Engine development contracts had been announced Aug. 27. Maiden flight was expected in 1972. FX would have significantly better air-to-air performance than any known fighter aircraft. (DOD Release 891-68)
Newsweek commented on break-up of European Launcher Development Organization: "The seven-nation . . . [ELDO] which never really got off the pad, will be buried early in October. Efforts to get Britain to remain only made clear the reason for her withdrawal: France refused to accept Britain as a member of Euromart and the British pulled out. The Netherlands backs Britain's move in the face of De Gaulle's stubbornness, and Italy has already expressed reservations about the project. If Western Europe wants launchers for scientific space exploration in future, it will have to buy them from the U.S." (Newsweek, 9/30/68, 20)
Gen. William F. McKee (USAF, Ret.), President of. Schriever and McKee Associates, had been sworn in as consultant to NASA Administrator James E. Webb, NASA announced. Former FAA Administrator and former NASA Assistant Administrator for Management Development, Gen. McKee would advise NASA on management, aeronautics, and coordination with other Government agencies. (NASA Release 68-169)
Dr. Hubertus Strughold retired as Chief Scientist of Aerospace Medical Div., at Brooks AFB, Tex. He had been associated with USAF aerospace medical program since 1947 and was known as father of space medicine. (Brooks AFB PIO; AFSC Newsreview, 10/68, 3)
House, by voice vote, passed H.R. 12012 to encourage worldwide interest in U.S. developments and accomplishments in military and related aviation and equipment by authorizing Federal sponsorship of an International Aeronautical Exposition in U.S. (CR, 9/30/68, H9254; NASA LAR VII/101)
LeRC began 18-mo program to flight-test advanced inlets and exhaust nozzles for supersonic transport engines. Tests, conducted in modified USAF F-106B jet aircraft, would study performance of nozzles and inlets in transonic speed range. (NASA Release 68-163)
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