Mar 29 1964
From The Space Library
President Johnson told a Texas news conference that he would establish a seven-man advisory board for the U.S. supersonic transport (SST) development. Members of the board would be: Defense Secretary McNamara, Treasury Secretary Dillon, Commerce Secretary Hodges, CIA Director John McCone, NASA Administrator Webb, FAA Administrator Halaby, and New York banker Eugene Black. Asked whether he had given the Supersonic Transport Advisory Board a specific assignment, the President replied: "The executive order will do that. It is being drawn. I wanted you to know that we are doing that. It has not been finalized yet. It may be changed in the details. But we want to have the broad spectrum of the Government interested in it, to get the best judgments of all of our people in an advisory capacity." Asked if we were setting a deadline on the Board's report back to him, the President answered: "No. This will be advisory. I am not asking for a report. I am asking them to advise in connection with the contracts and all the matters covered by the Black report and by the report that I made in connection with the testimony before the Congress. The Congress has already appropriated $60 million. We have already had an evaluation of the various proposals. But we just Want to get this senior group of officials to sit in and counsel with us." (Transcript, NYT, 3/30/64, WSJ, 3/30/64)
Discovery by two astronomers of What they believed to be the most distant object identified to date was announced. Thought to be several billion light-years away, the objectnamed 3C-147-was considered to be from 10 to 20 per cent farther away than 3C-295, previously considered the most distant object. Both objects Were "quasi-stellar radio sources," which produce 100 times the brightness and energy of an entire galaxy of 100 billion stars. Dr. Thomas A. Matthews located the new object by observing its radio emissions with Cal Tech's twin antennas. Then Dr. Maertin Schmidt photographed the object from Mt. Palomar Observatory. (Sullivan, NYT, 3/30/64, 27)
Educator Robert M. Hutchins, writing in the Omaha World-Herald, said of U.S. project to land a man on the moon: "I think it will not be argued that the primary object of this venture is to advance knowledge. It seems rather to be designed as a huge public relations stunt. The "knowledge industry' will restore the prestige we lost when the Russians outdistanced us in space.. . "If we were dedicated to advancing knowledge, we would have had some serious debate about the best way to do it. Is it to improve our colleges and universities or to put on scientific spectaculars?" (Omaha Sun. World-Herald, 3/29/64)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
