Nov 23 1973
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Recent discoveries had brought the number of kinds of molecules detected in the Milky Way galaxy to 23, the New York Times reported. Many were precursors to the chemistry of life and almost all were termed "organic" compounds because it had long been thought that they could be produced only by living organisms. While it had later been shown that they could be synthesized, scientists had been surprised that the simpler molecules, at least, had been formed in deep-space vacuum. Univ. of Minnesota scientist Dr. Philip M. Solomon had said, "The question of how far chemical evolution in the interstellar medium has proceeded toward biochemistry is not yet answered, but it has clearly gone much further than anyone would have estimated five years ago." (Sullivan, NYT, 11/23/73, 1)
NASA launched two sounding rockets. An Arcas from Antigua, West Indies, carried a Goddard Space Flight Center meteorological experiment to measure ozone distribution in the upper atmosphere, monitor anomalous ultraviolet absorption, and extend the data base for a climatology of stratospheric ozone in the tropics. The launch was in conjunction with an overpass of the Nimbus 4 satellite (launched April 8, 1970), but the mission was unsuccessful because of the rapid fall rate, caused by ab-normal parachute performance, and because of the lack of radar track. (NASA Rpt SRL)
An Aerobee 200A from White Sands Missile Range carried a Univ. of Hawaii solar physics experiment to a 228.4-km (141.9-mi) altitude. The rocket performed satisfactorily but, because of failure of the solar-pointing-attitude reaction control system, the experiment was unsuccessful. (GSFC proj off)
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