May 20 1969
From The Space Library
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Click here to listen to Apollo 10 Mission Audio T+53.31 through T+54.01 May 20 1969
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Click here to listen to Apollo 10 Mission Audio T+54.57 through T+55.25 May 20 1969
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Click here to listen to Apollo 10 Mission Audio T+55.25 through T+55.59 May 20 1969 Press Conference
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Click here to listen to Apollo 10 Mission Audio T+56.32 through T+57.49 May 20 1969 Charles Berry Press Conference
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Click here to listen to Apollo 10 Mission Audio T+57.49 through T+58.21 May 20 1969 Charles Berry Press Conference
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Click here to listen to Apollo 10 Mission Audio T+58.30 through T+70.22 May 20 1969 (Long silences removed)
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U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos CCLXXXII from Plesetsk into orbit with 321-km (199.5-mi) apogee, 201-km (124.9-mi) perigee, 89.7-min period, and 65.4° inclination. Satellite reentered May 28. (GSFC SSR, 5/31/69; SBD, 5/22/69, 98)
NASA'S HL-10 lifting-body vehicle, piloted by NASA test pilot William H. Dana, reached 50,000-ft altitude and mach 0.9 after air-launch from B-52 aircraft at 45,000-ft altitude north of Four Corners, Calif. Flight objectives were to complete pilot checkout and to obtain stability and control data. (NASA Proj Off)
Dr. Thomas O. Paine, NASA Administrator, said to press representatives in Houston he was "surprised and disappointed" by May 19 speech of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) suggesting slowdown in U.S. space program after lunar landing and exploration. "He is wrong," Dr. Paine said. "The United States should not weakly yield technological supremacy in space to the Soviets. We should not ground our astronauts after Apollo." He told press he did not want Apollo 10 astronauts in flight to moon to hear news of speech and would not include item in news reports sent up to spacecraft. (W Post, 5/21/69, Al2)
Dr. Thomas O. Paine, NASA Administrator, presented paper "Space-Age Management and City Administration" at 1969 National Conference on Public Administration in Miami: "Mobilizing modern science, technology and management to accomplish bold ventures in space is clearly far simpler than better organizing the extraordinarily complex human interactions that comprise a modern metropolis. NASA's spectacular advances in space are undoubtedly exacerbating public frustration with urban failures, but . . . they are encouraging the nation to tackle its more complex human problems with greater confidence on a bolder scale. If America can go to the moon, it can indeed do much better here on spaceship earth. "NASA's range of management approaches is nearly as broad as the range within an urban complex." Urban manager, like NASA manager, "can and should directly manage only a limited part of the complex interacting human enterprise for which he has responsibility. For the important remainder he must structure a 'Darwinian Discipline' system to encourage essential contributions from industry, from universities, and from the entrepreneur, the free wheeler, the scientist, the brilliant innovator, the gifted teacher, and other committed individuals. . . . The greatest single achievement of the space age may have been the formation of NASA; the rest followed as the energies and talents of America were released and given direction." (Text)
Stacked spacecraft and Saturn V launch vehicle for Apollo 11, first lunar landing mission, rolled out to Launch Complex 39, Pad A, at KSC. (KSC Hist Off; McGehan, B Sun, 5/21/69)
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin editorial on Apollo 10 color TV pictures: "Of all the visions man sees from his new and precarious vantages in space, the most compelling is still the planet from which he comes. In the eye of Apollo 10's color TV camera, Earth is indeed the fairest object, the 'oasis' the Apollo 8 astronauts saw last Christmas on Earth's first manned mission to the moon. "For a stranger entering the solar system from the outer reaches of the Universe, surely Earth's mist-shrouded blues, browns and reds would be a goal to satisfy the utmost yearning. Set against the cold blackness of space, it would be a prize to draw bold and venturesome inhabitants of other planets across incredible distances. It would be a goal courageous strangers would endure incredible hardships to win. . . . "The awe expressed by the intrepid Apollo 10 astronauts . is further reminder that the greatest space prize presently within man's comprehension is already in his keeping. And it is one to leave man wondering whether beings on other planets strive and dream as he does. For the moment certainly, it would not seem so. For what people on another planet could resist the vision in the eye of Apollo 10's TV camera?" (P Bull, 5/20/69)
Baltimore Sun noted Apollo 10's first day in space enabled men to be "as near as they will ever come to being in two places simultaneously-there in their own living rooms with their television sets before them and, at the same moment more than 22,000 miles away, observing the planet on which they live. "What we saw with such marvelous cold clarity was, of course, a round and mottled swirl of blue, brown and white, a small fragment of the cosmos which until less than a decade ago had fixed absolute limits upon all of mankind's history. Now suddenly we saw it as a unity, a whole, as the habitation common to all of us, just as it would be seen by a non-human visitor approaching it as the astronauts are approaching the moon, silent, mysterious and seemingly lifeless and motionless. The observer had to remind himself that this was indeed the earth he knew. . . ." (B Sun, 5/20/69)
Philadelphia Inquirer cited possible danger to Apollo spacecraft from "drifting junk" in space. "One notable sidelight to the Apollo 10 flight came in a report that the spaceship brings the number of man-made objects in space to 1691. Although the chance of Apollo 10 colliding with any of the objects is infinitesimal, it is significant that there is so much hardware floating around in space 12 years after Sputnik I. . . . "U.S. and Soviet scientists should find ways of bringing back or destroying rockets and satellites and their separate components after they have become inoperable. If some sort of solution isn't found, it may not be long before a tragic collision will occur." (P Inq, 5/20/69)
NASA announced it had invited commercial and educational broadcast organizations interested in experimental use of Applications Technology Satellites (ATS) to send representatives to June 13 briefing at NASA Hq. to learn possibilities for working with ATS. ATS I (launched Dec. 6, 1966) and ATS III (launched Nov. 5, 1967) were in orbit but had largely filled basic technical assignments. Their facilities could be made available for additional experiments. Third ATS, scheduled for August launch, might be available for additional experimental use on completion of technical missions assigned. (NASA Release 69-74)
AIA released results of survey which showed expected decline of 4.5% in aerospace industry employment between September 1968 and September 1969, from 1,416,000 to 1,353,000, because of continuing decline in civilian space program and decreasing sales of civilian aircraft. Employment in aircraft production and R&D plants was expected to decline 4.6%, transport aircraft employment, 7%; general-aviation aircraft employment, 0.3%; and missile and space employment, 5.7%. Helicopter and nonaerospace employment, including oceanographic research, was expected to increase slightly. Scientists and engineers would continue to account for 16% of total aerospace employment. (Text)
USAF announced issue of $1,616,000 initial increment to $5,370,750 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract with Lockheed Aircraft Corp. for prototype development and testing of system to improve navigation and guidance of space vehicles. (DOD Release 415-69)
Lockheed Aircraft Corp. laid off 700 workers and reassigned 1,800 others as result of May 19 USA cancellation of contract for AH-56A Cheyenne helicopter. Company's stock fell $2.50 per share to $32.37 on New York Exchange. (AP, B Sun, 5/21/69, A6)
At Wings Club luncheon in New York world aviation leaders honored 80th birthday of aeronautical pioneer Igor I. Sikorsky and presented him with silver goblets and tray. (ASIA, 7/69, 110)
Sen. George Murphy (R-Calif.) introduced S. 2204, bill to establish National Oceanic Agency. It was referred to Senate Commerce Committee. (CR, 5/20/69, S5403)
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