Jan 15 1964

From The Space Library

President Johnson sent to Congress his proposed $5304 billion authorization for NASA in FY 1965, $600 million less than NASA earlier had requested. The proposed legislation (H.R. 9641) was introduced in the House by Rep. George P. Miller (D.-Calif.) and referred to Com­mittee on Science and Astronautics. Of this sum, $641,000,000 would be for administrative operations; $281,000,000 for construction of fa­cilities; and $4,382,000,000 for research and development. Of R&D amount, $3,011,900,000 would be for manned space flight-$2,677,­500,000 for Project Apollo; $308,400,000 for Project Gemini; and $26,000,000 for advanced missions. At press conference on the budget, NASA made public its plans to request $141 million supplemental appro­priation for FY 1964,, to restore some of the budget cut by Congress. The NASA position, as expressed by Associate Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr.: "We have now been cut back to a point where we'll have to admit we cannot carry out the [lunar landing] program in this dec­ade without the full support of Congress for the supplemental and for our 1965 request." Of supplemental request, $31 million would be for Apollo spacecraft development and the rest for Saturn launch vehicle. (NASA LAR III/7; Finney, NYT, 1/16/64, 1; WSJ, 1/16/64; Dodd, Chic. Trib., 1/16/64)

Nike-Apache launched from Wallops Island, Va., in flight to measure light intensity and particle fluxes from 150,000 ft. to apogee. Good data were received throughout the flight, but experiment was only partially successful because Nike-Apache reached only 56.1-mi. altitude. (NASA Rpt. SRL)

USAF launched Titan II rocket from AMR on successful 5,000-mi. flight to test its ability to function both as an ICBM and as booster for Project Gemini manned spacecraft. The Titan II carried Gemini malfunction detection system and damping device to counteract vibrations. (M&R, 1/20/64, 11)

Senator Clinton P. Anderson (D.-N. Mex.), Chairman of Senate Commit- tee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, addressed National Capital Sec­tion of AIAA and questioned whether hazard of intense solar radiation in the 1968-70 period might postpone Project Apollo lunar flight. He pointed out that 1968-70 is period of maximum solar activity in the 11-year solar cycle, and radiation intensity might require "very substan­tial shielding for the Apollo capsule." This raised question of Whether heavy shielding imposes too great a weight penalty on Apollo. Citing recent scientific recommendation that there was "relatively low prob­ability" of Apollo crew's encountering solar flare, he questioned whether maintaining the schedule would be worth such a gamble. (Finney, NYT, 1/16/64, 1; SBD, 1/16/64, 80-81)

Army Corps of Engineers awarded $2,295,220 contract for Saturn S-II stage test-site development at NASA Mississippi Test Operations to C. H. Leavell and Co. and Peter Kiewit and Sons, Inc., DOD announced. (DOD Release 50-64)

Bendix Products Aerospace Div. was awarded $99,973 NASA study contract for shock absorbing device to permit soft landing on moon, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center announced. Bendix would test various sizes and shapes of crushable aluminum honeycomb structures to determine per­formance characteristics under lunar environmental conditions. (MSC Release 64-9)

Three airframe manufacturers and three engine manufacturers submitted initial design proposals for the U.S. supersonic transport, FAA Deputy Administrator for Supersonic Transport Development Gordon M. Bain announced. The airframe manufacturers: Lockheed Aircraft, Boeing Co, and North American Aviation, • engine builders: Curtiss-Wright, General Electric Co., and Pratt & Whitney Div. of United Aircraft. (FAA Release 64-4)

Rep. Harold M. Ryan (D.-Mich.) said on House floor that if NASA's pro­posed electronics research center were located in Michigan it "would provide a stimulus to the heartland of America, and bring into geo­graphical balance the national capability in the field closely related with the electronic industry. "It is important that the resources of our part of the country be taken into consideration and the fact recognized that they are not presently being used to their fullest capacity.. . ." (CR, 1/15/64, 434-35)

France's preparations for hydrogen bomb development in the South Pacific were reaching unexpectedly large proportions, New York Times reported. Gaston Palewski, French Minister for Scientific Re­search, had recently said in Papeete that "France has engaged herself in Polynesia for a very big task." Test site and military installations were being constructed at Mururoa in the Tuamotu Islands, 720 mi. southeast of Tahiti. French sources indicated France would become a thermonuclear power by late 1967 or early 1968. (NYT, 1/16/64, 4)

January 15-16: Series of four sodium-vapor experiments was launched on Nike-Apache sounding rockets from NASA Wallops Station in sunset-to­-sunrise comparative measurements of winds and turbulence in the upper atmosphere. First two rockets were launched at sunset, third at mid­night, and fourth at sunrise. First flight was unsuccessful because Nike-Apache reached only 28.4-mi. altitude instead of desired 118 mi. The remaining three rockets fired successfully, their 70-lb. payloads ejecting sodium vapor trails from about 25-mi. to as high as 123-mi. altitudes, Pink and reddish clouds were visible for several hundred miles. Photographic observations of the clouds would be analyzed by Geophysics Corp. of America, which provided payloads for the GSFC-managed project. (NASA Release 64-7; Wallops Release 64-5; NASA Rpts. SRL)

Mid-January: Work on test site for Project Apollo at White Sands Missile Range was halted by strike of operating engineers. (SBD, 1/15/64, 72)

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