April 1966
From The Space Library
Dr. Raymond L. Bisplinghoff, Special Assistant to NASA Administrator James E. Webb and AIAA President, sought to define the role of a professional and of a professional society in an editorial in Astronautics & Aeronautics. ". . . in my reading of the history of science and technology, I have been impressed by the key role of individuals who related science and technology to social needs. I would suggest that they are the professionals, and that a true profession deliberately exercises science and technology to meet social needs. "Unlike most professional and technical societies, AIAA composes a wide variety of engineers and physical and life scientists. Yet definite social concerns bind us in a single profession-society's expressed need to transport goods and people by atmospheric flight and to explore space. (A&A, 4/66, 30-31).
Three US. airlines-all claiming to be Nation's oldest-celebrated their 40th anniversaries : United Airlines, April 6; Western Airlines, April 17; and Trans World Airlines (TWA), April 17. (UPI, NYT, 4/3/66)
Study of buoyant Venus probes that could avoid the high temperatures close to the planet's surface by staying in static equilibrium at higher and cooler altitudes was published in Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. Report, by F. R. Gross of the Goodyear Aerospace Corp., said probes would be launched by Saturn I-B boosters, have isotensoid shape, and trail behind the instrument package. To withstand reentry heating, the balloons would be constructed from high-temperature fabrics or films now under development. To permit use of conventional instrumentation, probes would be designed to reach equilibrium at altitudes where the ambient temperature was 160° F. Weight analysis had shown that in the minimum temperature atmosphere, worthwhile biological and atmospheric experiments could be performed. (J/Spacecraft, 4/66, 582-7)
CAB study revealed that in 153 U.S. air carrier accidents between 1955 and 1964 caused by or resulting in fire, 297 of 1,955 fatalities would not have occurred had fire been prevented. 1,628 persons died of impact forces, and 30 for other reasons. All fire victims were involved in 13 of the accidents. Report recommended strengthening of structures to withstand impact, improvement of onboard and ground fire-fighting and rescue equipment, continued improvement of exit facilities, development of emergency communication systems, and more detailed passenger briefings. (CAB, BOSP, 7-6-3)
Men and women engaged in the national space program should reverse defensive and apologetic attitudes toward the commitment to space exploration, according to Aerospace Industries Assn. President Karl G. Harr, Jr., addressing American Astronautical Society annual meeting in San Diego. "If we were the only nation in the world that had the capability to proceed into this new dimension, we should do it," Harr said. "We should do it as part of a national renaissance on all fronts; for a great society . . . cannot confine its attention to certain challenges selected under past conditions, but must . . . move comprehensively to accept the challenge of the future. ". . . As the huge challenge of space generates and consumes and then regenerates our material and human resources, so does it widen the scope of the environment in which our citizens will exist and make their contribution in the years ahead." (Aerospace, 4/66, 7-9)
Commentary on numerous reports of UFO sighting: Sir Bernard Lovell, director of Britain's Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, said UFO's were "purely American phenomena." What people really see "is most likely weather balloons, meteorites, fireballs, re-entry of nose cones or other space debris. No trained observer or astronomer has ever reported such a sighting." Philadelphia Evening Bulletin: "Sir Bernard Lovell, the eminent British astronomer who runs the Jodrell Bank space observatory, believes that seeing UFOs . . . is strictly an American phenomenon. "Maybe he is right, but IF Americans are seeing UFOs, and IF there are visitations from outer space, it may be that the terrestrial visitors believe that only America is worth investigating." (Phil. Eve. Bull., 4/26/66)
Rev. Francis J. Heydon, professor of astronomy at Georgetown Univ., said that people "are seeing things," but that reports of flying saucers would "doubtless increase. The phenomenon of flying saucers is 100 percent imagination." Roscoe Drummond, Washington Post: "History is littered with examples of the most eminent scientists who were dead certain that things couldn't be done . . . and wrote with great displays of scientific evidence to prove that they couldn't be wrong. We need more objective investigation than we have been getting. The scientific unbelievers may be right-but they could be totally wrong. They have been before." Howard Simons, Washington Post: ". . . scientists point out that even traveling at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second, whoever it is that is buzzing America in a flying saucer or saucers would have to have left the nearest galaxy 50,000 years ago." (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 4/25/66, A2; Wash. Eve. Star, 4/18/66; Drummond, Wash. Post, 4/6/66, A25; Simons, Wash. Post, 4/24/66, A25)
“Space Rendezvous, Milestone on the Way to the Moon” article appears in National Geographic Magazine
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