Sept 18 1975
From The Space Library
President Gerald R. Ford presented the 1974 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest science award, to 13 distinguished American scientists. Among those honored during the White House ceremony was Dr. Rudolf Kompfner of Bell Telephone Laboratories Research Communications Div., who received the award for his invention of the traveling wave tube and for major contributions to communications satellites and to optical communications.
Dr. Linus C. Pauling received the award for his contributions in the fields of structural chemistry, molecular biology, immunology, and genetic diseases. Dr. Pauling, two-time winner of the Nobel Prize, had been long bypassed for the national award, despite repeated recommendations of a scientific advisory committee, because of his outspoken criticism of much of American foreign policy. Victor Cohn of the Washington Post reported that the award signaled "an end to a White House war on unfriendly scientists conducted during the Johnson and Nixon administrations." President Ford told the 200 persons attending the ceremonies that, looking back over 240 yr of the nation's history, we owed a great debt to science and to all the men and women who have "carried on the scientific enterprise of this country." The whole spirit of science one that urged us to innovate, to explore the unexplored, and to answer the unanswered-was the true spirit of America. Although scientific priorities had changed over the years, the "Nation's commitment to that most basic of all inquiries-basic research has not diminished. . . . Our Nation's future and that of the world depends on the creativity and the genius of men and women such as these we honor today." (PD, 22 Sept 75, 1027-28; Cohn, W Post, 18 Sept 75, Al; NYT, 19 Sept 75, 23)
The National Aeronautic Association announced the selection of Clarence L. Johnson to receive its Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy for 1975. Johnson, retired from Lockheed Aircraft Co. after 42 yrs with the company, would receive the award for his "vital and enduring contributions over a period of 40 years to the design and development of military and commercial aircraft." As head of Lockheed's Advanced Development Projects, he had played leading roles in the development and design of more than 40 of the world's finest aircraft including the World War II fighter bomber, the P-38; the Constellation and Super Constellation; the first U.S. operational jet, the F-80; the high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance aircraft; and one of the first business jets, the Jet Star.
The trophy had been awarded annually for significant public service of enduring value to aviation in the U.S. (NAA News, 18 Sept 75) (r) The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics announced that James B. Lazar, NASA's Chief of Electric Propulsion and Flight Experiments Branch in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, and Roderick W. Spence of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory would receive the James H. Wyld Propulsion Award. The award was given annually in recognition of "outstanding leadership of this nation's advanced propulsion programs in the separate fields of nuclear and electric rocket propulsion." Lazar had been responsible for NASA's electric propulsion program, providing NASA with the option for a highly reliable, efficient, and flight-proven space propulsion system.
Dr. Spence had directed design and development of the nuclear rocket reactors at the Los Alamos laboratory, providing the foundation of technology for the nation's nuclear rocket program. (AIAA Release 18 Sept 75)
A giant washing machine capable of doing 318 kg of laundry would help to develop economical and efficient methods of cleaning and refurbishing the Space Shuttle solid-rocket booster parachutes, and to identify the problems encountered during the process, Kennedy Space Center's Spaceport News reported. The washer-2 m wide by 2 m high and 10 m long, and holding 23 668 liters of water-would wash a 23-m 318-kg 80-gore parachute. Once washed, the parachute, 136 kg heavier, would be taken by monorail to a drying area. A team of five technicians was required to complete the 4-hr process. (KSC Spaceport News, 18 Sept 75, 6)
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