Dec 12 1973
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(New page: NASA test pilot John A. Manke made the seventh flight and second powered flight of the X-24B lifting body, launched from a B-52 aircraft from Flight Research Center. Primary ob...)
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NASA test pilot John A. Manke made the seventh flight and second powered flight of the X-24B lifting body, launched from a B-52 aircraft from Flight Research Center. Primary objectives of flight-envelope expansion to mach 0.95, stability and control at mach 0.9, and performance survey with aileron bias at 11° and secondary objectives of fin- and rudder-pressure survey and an acoustic noise and vibration experiment were met. (NASA prog off)
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, said in a speech before The Pilgrims in London that the 1973 energy crisis should become "the economical equivalent of the Sputnik challenge of 1957. Only this time, the giant step for mankind will be one that America and its closest partners take together." He proposed "that the nations of Europe, North America and Japan establish an energy action group of senior and prestigious individuals, with a mandate to develop within three months an initial action program for collaboration in all areas of the energy problem." (Text)
Czechoslovakian astronomer Dr. Lubos Kohoutek, disembarking from a three-day comet-watch cruise aboard the liner Queen. Elizabeth 2, told the press in New York that his viewing of the comet he discovered, Kohoutek, had been hampered by clouds and seasickness. He said he believed he had seen the comet with his naked eye "just above the horizon before 5:30 a.m." (Reuters, C Trib, 12/13/73)
Unidentified astronomers were quoted as saying Comet Kohoutek was not likely to become visible to the naked eye for at least another week. After it rounded the sun Dec. 28, it would appear in the evening sky after sunset. It might be fragmented by solar gravity and solar radiation with the comet and its tail becoming more brilliant. A Naval Observatory astronomer predicted the comet would be no brighter than Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965 or Comet Bennett in 1970. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory astronomers did not expect Kohoutek to be visible without binoculars during the current week. (AP, NYT, 12/13/73)
Office of Management and Budget Director Ray L. Ash said in a letter to Rep. Ralph S. Regula (D-Ohio) that immediately upon the establishment of the proposed Energy Research and Development Administration, OMB would urge the ERDA Administrator to undertake "a thorough review of all NASA personnel and facilities that might be closed because of NASA'S post-Apollo 'scaling down.' " Ash said he had been "concerned for some time about the possible loss from government service of these valuable skills and resources." (CR, 12/14/73, E8084)
The Cost of Living Council, following a court order, directed five aero-space firms to pay a 17-cent hourly wage increase that had not been paid in 1971 and 1972. The increase, to some 108 000 workers, had been delayed by the Administration's Pay Board in 1971 because it exceeded the Government's anti-inflation guidelines. The Council said payments could total $75 million to $85 million and could ultimately affect 250 000 workers, since many other firms followed pay practices of the five large companies. The companies were Boeing Co., Lockheed Aircraft Corp., McDonnell Douglas Corp., Rockwell International Corp., and LTV Aerospace Corp. (W Post, 12/13/73; WSJ, 12/13/73)
The Air Force announced contract awards: a $5 992 290 cost-plus-fixed-fee award to General Dynamics Corp. for automatic-flight-control technology to enhance the maneuvering performance of fighter aircraft and a $5 406 500 fixed-price-incentive contract for A-7D aircraft mission simulator, aerospace ground equipment, spare parts, and data. (DOD Release 597-73)
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