Oct 7 1968

From The Space Library

U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos CCXLVI into orbit with 317-km (197-mi) apogee, 145-km (90.1-mi) perigee, 89.1-min period, and 65.3° inclination. Satellite reentered Oct. 12. (InteraviaAirLetter, 10/8/68, 11; GSFC SSR, 10/15/68)

NASA Administrator James E. Webb issued order dissolving Apollo 204 Review Board established Jan. 27, 1967, to investigate accidental Apollo fire of that date. (Text)

Resignation of James E. Webb as NASA Administrator, announced Sept. 16, became effective. Deputy Administrator, Dr. Thomas 0. Paine, as­sumed duties as Acting Administrator. (NAsA Off of Administrator; Off of Acting Administrator)

In National Observer, Peter T. Chew criticized Americans as "uncertain, timid farers in space." During "19-month interregnum in manned space flight" occasioned by Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo fire, "Americans have become obsessed with the race question at home and the Vietnam Wai abroad. . . . If some doomsayers are to be believed, the vast U.S. space science and technology establishment put together during the last decade will be systematically dismantled once the manned Apollo land­ing has been accomplished because NASA has 'no clear mandate' to go on; cornfields will reclaim the great rocket and spacecraft-testing sites . .; the solar system will become the exclusive playground of Soviet cosmonauts." Yet NASA's mandate to explore space "for the bene­fit of all mankind" had been set down in legislation establishing the agency and did not end with the moon. If anything, "the moon is the first stepping stone." Dr. Wernher von Braun "stands almost alone among the country's leaders in his ability to express in understandable terms just why we are going to the moon-and beyond.. . To critics of the space program he replies, 'Man was born with an insatiable nosi­ness about his natural environment. . . . it seems to pay off hand­somely, but often in the most unexpected way, to keep satisfying his curiosity about the world around him." (Natl Obs, 10/7/68)

NASA announced it had awarded Technical Information Services Co. $4.3-million cost-plus-award-fee contract for continued operation of NASA's Scientific and Technical Information Facility at College Park, Md. Contract would extend through November 1969 with two one-year options. Current contractor was Leasco Systems and Research Corp. (NASA Release 68-173)

Newsweek said NERVA project had "become one more casualty of cut­backs in the space program." Workers at Nevada test site "say only a skeleton staff will be left on the project by spring." (Newsweek, 10/7/68)

Sen. Stuart Symington (D-Mo.) said on Senate floor: "I am now confident . . . serious consideration should be given to canceling the entire Air Force F-111 series. . . . If the plane is fundamentally un­sound-and that would now appear to be the case-its termination would prevent the loss of additional billions of dollars-and what is more important, save the lives of many pilots." He said October report of Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of Senate Committee on Armed Services "points up the grave security deficiencies that have re- suited from the Department of Defense forcing the Air Force and Navy to put all the eggs of their aircraft development into one unfortunate basket." (Text; CR, 10/7/68, S12148-51; Witkin, NYT, 10/8/68, 18; W Post, 10/8/68, All)

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