Nov 10 1968

From The Space Library

On nationwide "Meet the Press" TV interview, Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., commented on NASA budget cuts: "We've built up a fantastic technology [but] talented people are starting to leave. . . . We should let it be known that we are in this for the future, not just one flight." Cost of manned missions was justified in quest for knowledge not only outward, but earthward, too. Astronauts were "looking at portions of the earth that had never been documented be­fore. A crew can see something and respond to it, on earth or the moon." Fellow Apollo 7 crewman R. Walter Cunningham said never had Soviet crewmen "functioned in the same operational conditions as we." U.S.S.R. was putting fewer higher trained persons in orbit, "main­ly as biological specimens." (AP, W Post, 11/11/68, A2; AP, B Sun, 11/11/68, A5)

NASA announced it soon would begin series of test flights at LaRC of XC-142 tilt-wing VTOL aircraft on loan from USAF, to determine opera­tional problems in airport terminal areas during poor visibility. XC-142, for which Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc., was prime contractor, was propeller-driven and powered by four GE turboshaft engines. NASA also was testing Ryan Aeronautical Co.'s XB-5A, which it had modified as XV-5B, and Hawker Siddeley P-1127 vectored jet VTOL aircraft. (NASA Release 68-194)

In New York Times Walter Sullivan described "The Sun-Spot Menace to Astronauts." Apollo 7 and U.S.S.R.'s Soyuz III served as reminders that sunspots were reaching their 11-yr peak. If eruptions were particu­larly severe, protons were hurled out at almost speed of light. These could penetrate spacecraft. While Apollo 7 astronauts were never in danger, Soviet spacecraft placed in orbits reaching north beyond lati­tude 51° might "nudge zone" within which protons ejected by sun "rain fiercely on the atmosphere." Major flare had occurred Oct. 30 just after Soyuz III returned to earth. If astronauts had been in orbit -particularly if they had been outside spacecraft-they could have been subjected to hazardous radiation. Many warnings preceded this event. For moon journey it should be possible to postpone or cut short flight if sun looked ominous. In any miscalculation, radiation exposure to astronauts inside spacecraft would be severe only during most in­tense outbursts. However, on prolonged journeys to other planets there would be no escape. "It may therefore be necessary to design the space­craft so that a portion of its interior will be shielded from such radia­tion." (NYT, 11/10/68, 7E)

November 10-17: Zond VI automatic space station was successfully launched by U.S.S.R. and placed on lunar trajectory from parking orbit of another satellite to explore outer space and test spacecraft sys­tems, Tass announced. All equipment was functioning normally. Specu­lation, later confirmed, was that spacecraft would attempt to circle moon on same route taken by Zond V Sept. 15-21. On Nov. 14 Tass announced that Zond VI had circled moon at minimum distance of 2,420 km (1,503.8 mi) and had conducted studies of physical charac­teristics of near lunar space before continuing its journey back to earth. Zond VI reentered and softlanded in a predetermined area in Central Asia Nov. 17. Unlike Zond V, which had plunged directly through upper atmosphere, Zond VI skipped across outer layers of atmosphere to reduce its reentry speed and then resumed its descent with aerody­namic forces. Announcing recovery, Tass said Zond VI had for first time tested a "more complex and promising method of the return of space­craft from interplanetary trajectories-the method of controlled descent with the use of aerodynamical lifting force (aerodynamical quality) of the descending craft. . . "The braking of the descending apparatus in the atmosphere .. . was effected along a trajectory with two immersions in the atmosphere. During the first immersion . . . the second cosmic speed . .. [11 km per sec, 24,607 mph] was reduced to 7.6 kilometers a second (17,000 mph) through aerodynamical braking. In doing so, the descending ap­paratus . . . was oriented through the onboard control system in such a way that it, passing through the dense layers of the atmosphere, left them and next continued along the ballistic trajectory until the second immersion . . . [in which] the further lowering of the descending ap­paratus was also effected along the trajectory of controlled descent with the use of aerodynamical qualities which ensured its return to the Earth in the pre-set district." Zond VI was sixth spacecraft in Zond series [see Sept. 15-21]. (AP, W Star, 11/11/68, 1; NYT, 11/15/68, 8; GSFC SSR, 11/15/68, 11/30/68; Winters, B Sun, 11/19/68, 1; Kamm, NYT, 11/19/68, 1; SBD, 11/19/68, 71-2)

• November

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

• December