May 21 1968
From The Space Library
NASA announced it would launch two Mariner spacecraft, F and G, on flyby missions to Mars in 1969. Project responsibility was assigned to JPL; LeRC would be responsible for launch vehicle. Deep Space Network stations would provide tracking and communications during launch period scheduled between mid-February and mid-April. Spacecraft would reach Mars between end of July and mid-August. Arrival dates of two spacecraft would not be less than five days apart. Atlas-Centaur combination would for first time be used as launch vehicle for planetary exploration. Spacecraft would weigh approximately 900 lb. Mariner III (Nov. 5, 1964) weighed 575 lb. (NASA Special Release)
NASA announced that Dr. Mac C. Adams, Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Technology, would resign July 1 to return to private industry. He would be succeeded by James M. Beggs, Director of Purchases and Traffic, Westinghouse Electric Corp., who would join NASA June 1. Bruce T. Lundin, Associate Director for Development, LeRC, was named NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Technology. Commenting on Dr. Adams' departure, NASA Administrator James E. Webb said, "He brought to NASA strong man- agement and engineering competence . .. [and] gave us brilliant leadership in critical times." (NASA Release 68-92)
USAF grounded 42 F-111As to repair defective hydraulic valve. Aircraft had been under restrictions since May 8 accident at Nellis AFB, Nev., of which defective valve was "the most probable cause." Twelve earlier model F-111As not containing defective part were not grounded. Actuator valve problem was suspected in third F-111A crash in Thailand, attributed to capsule of sealant lodged in flight control system. Modifications should be completed in June. (DOD Release 472-68; AP, NYT, 5/22/68, 5; AP, W Star, 5/22/68, A20)
Scientists from Stanford Univ. and Univ. of California, using telescope at Lick Observatory atop Mt. Hamilton, Calif., and telescopes on Kitt Peak, Ariz., had found one of four recently discovered pulsars flashed visible wavelengths of light at half the rate of its radio pulse. Discovery was disclosed by Univ. of California at Berkeley astronomer, Dr. David Cudaback, at pulsar meeting in New York sponsored jointly by NASA Institute for Space Studies and Belfer Graduate School of Science, Yeshiva Univ. (Sullivan, NYT, 5/21/68, 14; 5/22/68, 24; 5/26/68, 12)
Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.), addressing IEEE Region Six Conference in Portland, criticized order of priorities by which "survival" was superseded by "our desire to explore new technological frontiers. . . . We must rationally decide if our goal of promoting the well-being of man is better served through huge expenditures to beat the Russians to the moon or through developing methods to feed a hungry world. It is a very black mark on our sense of values and a contradiction of man's quest for progress when one part of the world competes for the moon while the other part competes for a loaf of bread." (Text)
Arthur C. Clarke, co-author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, told Los Altos Morning Forum proposed Federal cuts in NASA budget would curtail progress in "medicine, agriculture, weather forecasting, communication and other endeavors." NASA budget now was "smaller than the amount American women spend on cosmetics in a year." (Anderson, San Jose Mercury, 5/23/68)
Soviet space experts Dr. Georgii Pokrovskii and Aleksandr Yavnel believed automatic docking of Cosmos CCXII and CCXIII April 15 had brought U.S.S.R. closer to day when it could establish large permanent earth-orbiting stations and planetary laboratories. In Moscow interviews, they claimed docking had cleared way for launching segments of large spacecraft by individual rockets, then assembling them in common orbit. (Macomber, St. Louis G-D, 5/21/68)
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