May 2 1968

From The Space Library

House passed, by 262-to-105 vote, NASA FY 1969 authorization bill (H.R. 15856) of $4.031 billion, including $3.383 billion for R&D, $45 million for construction of facilities, and $602 million for administra­tive operations. NASA had requested $4.37 billion. House cut $142.4 million from Apollo Applications program-leaving $252.2 million, $186.4 million less than NASA had requested for orbiting workshop and lunar exploration. Administrative operations allocation was cut by $43.5 million, making total of almost $186-million reduction in $4.217- billion authorization recommended by House Committee on Science and Astronautics. During floor debate Rep. Olin E. Teague (D-Tex.), Chairman of House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight, answered Apollo Applications program critics' charge that NASA's Orbiting Workshop would duplicate USAF's Manned Orbiting Laboratory, explaining that projects differed in nature and purpose. MOL objectives were to develop, operate and evaluate special­ized experiments and military equipment requiring manned space opera­tions, and DOD would draw on NASA experience in systems involved in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. MOL was "example of utilization by an­other department . . . of NASA-developed space technology." (CR, 5/2/68, 113229-661; Sehlstedt, B Sun, 5/3/68, 1; Lannan, W Star, 5/3/68; Griffin, H Chron, 5/3/68; SBD, 5/3/68, 15; Aero Daily, 5/7/68)

Nike-Tomahawk sounding rocket launched by NASA from Churchill Re­search Range carried Univ. of New Hampshire-Univ. of California at San Diego payload to 161-mi (258-km) altitude. Objectives were to measure electric field, ionospheric currents, auroral light intensity and location, and proton and electron fluxes in 1- to 10-key region while pay­load was passing through or close to visible auroral display. Rocket and instruments performed satisfactorily; useful data were obtained from all experiments. Launch was last in series of four [see April 30]. (NASA Rpt SRL)

New Tanay earth station near Manila participated in U.S.-Philippines commercial satellite television inaugural with telecast between Wash­ington, D.C., and Manila via landline to satellite earth station at Brews­ter Flat, Wash. Facility functioned through Intelsat-II F-2 at 22,300- mi altitude over. Pacific. (ComSatCorp Release 68-22)

NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr. George E. Mueller, at dedication of Grissom and Chaffee Halls at Purdue Univ. said, "The pressing sociological problems besetting this nation will re­quire a high order of technological skill to solve." Space program was contributing to "fundamental solution" of problems of poverty and human welfare by bringing "advancement in economic and technologi­cal growth." Space flight would help public understand ability of indus­try, science, and government to work together to mobilize resources. Honoring late astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and Roger B. Chaffee, Dr. Mueller predicted space program would "help to shape our future" and U.S. would continue "to rely upon the vision and dedication" of such men. Conquest of space would be "our most enduring memorial to these men." (Text)

NASA Administrator James E. Webb delivered first of three McKinsey Foundation lectures, "Reflections on Government Service," before Co­lumbia Univ. Graduate School of Business: "Our society has reached a point where its progress and even survival increasingly depend upon our ability to organize the complex and do the unusual. We cannot do the things we have to do except by employment of large aggregations of power in highly specialized forms." Present technological revolution was "the most decisive event of our times." Great issue of the age was whether U.S. could, within frame­work of acceptable institutions, "organize the use and development of advanced technology as effectively as. the USSR with its totalitarian system of allocating and utilizing human and material resources." Webb believed capabilities of U.S. system had "immense advantage over all other systems." (Text)

U.S. military sources in Saigon said USAF F-111A aircraft had been re­stricted to training flights in Thailand. Three aircraft had been lost on war zone flights since being sent to Southeast Asia in mid-March. (UPI, W Star, 5/2/68, 1)

Arthur E. Raymond of RAND Corp. presented Lester D. Gardner lecture at MIT, reviewing "Air Transport History and a Glimpse into the Fu­ture": "Looking back, one sees, ever since the 1920s, nothing but rapid progress in speed, range, reliability, operating altitude, carrying capac­ity, and volume of operations . . . but seldom if ever in human affairs does this kind of growth continue without a slowing at some point. . . . The days are gone forever when airplanes could be de­signed and purchased without simultaneously making provision for solving the problems introducing them will create." For "practical, util­itarian air-transport systems," he saw little advantage in speeds above those currently associated with SSTs or ranges above those associated with subsonic jets. He foresaw coupling of these speeds and ranges. He saw little advantage in larger payloads than would be carried in Boeing 747 or C-5 aircraft because of terminal congestion and high aircraft cost. (A&A, 7/68, 60-9)

Donald A. Hall, designer of Lindbergh aircraft, Spirit of St. Louis, died in San Diego, Calif., at age 69. (NYT, 7/3/68, 33)

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