Nov 28 1973
From The Space Library
The U.S.S.R. launched two Cosmos satellites from Plesetsk. Cosmos 611 entered orbit with a 481-km (298.9-mi) apogee, 269-km (167.2-mi) perigee, 92.0-min period, and 71.0° inclination and reentered June 19, 1974. Cosmos 612 entered orbit with a 346-km (215.0-mi) apogee, 205-km (127.4-mi) perigee, 90.0-min period, and 72.8° inclination and re-entered Dec. 11. (GSFC SSR, 11/30/73; 12/31/73; 6/30/74; SBD, 11/30/73, 160)
President Nixon submitted to the Senate the nomination of James W. Plummer, Vice President of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. and Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. and General Manager of Lockheed Missiles & Space Co.'s Space Systems Div., to be Under Secretary of the Air Force. He would succeed John L. McLucas, who became Secretary of the Air Force July 19. (PD, 3/12/73, 1378, 1381)
The next 10 yrs in transportation could be the decade of the hovercraft, Jane's Surface Skimmers said in its 1973-74 edition. Editor Roy Mc-Leavy noted that' the Soviet Ekranoplan already carried 900 fully armed troops at more than 350 km per hr (220 mph) over almost any surface. Hovercraft production would almost certainly develop into "one of the world's major industries." U.S. Navy surface ships might cost as much as $50 million; France was studying "hoverfrigates", and the U.S.S.R. was joining in "this more sophisticated approach to naval strategy." (AP, W Post, 11/29/73, A32)
November 28-30: The U.S.S.R. Joint Commission on Scientific and Technical Cooperation held its second session in Moscow. The first session had been held in Washington, D.C., March 19-21. At the opening meeting, Chairman Vladimir A. Kirillin of the Soviet State Committee for Science and Technology said useful work had been done by the Joint Commission, particularly in power engineering and chemical catalysis. Dr. H. Guyford Stever, National Science Foundation Director and Presidential Science Adviser, said he was certain that U.S.-Soviet cooperation in science and technology represented a major contribution to the progress of all mankind. An accord signed Nov. 30 called for more specific scientific cooperation. Dr. Stever said hundreds of scientists would be exchanged before the Commission's next meeting, scheduled for Washington, D.C., in October 1974. (Tass, FBIS-Sov, 11/29/73, B7; Wren, NYT, 12/1/73, 6)
November 28-December 1: An International Colloquium on Mars was held at Cal Tech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory by NASA, the American Astronautical Society, and the American Geophysical Union to evaluate new ideas stimulated by the successful Mariner 9 mission to Mars (launched by NASA May 30, 1971). Four hundred scientists from 10 countries participated in the program, which discussed Martian surface history and evolution, atmospheric history as related to interactions with the surface, and future exploration of Mars. (NASA Release 73-255; JPL PIO)
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