Nov 27 1968

From The Space Library

NASA. FY 1970 budget request of $3.878 billion was agreed on in meeting between President Johnson and NASA Acting Administra­tor Thomas 0. Paine. (NASA Off of Admin)

NASA awarded Allis-Chalmers $3,500,000 contract to flight-qualify Mul­timission Fuel Cell Assembly, an improved fuel cell electrical power system for Apollo Applications (AA) program. System had been devel­oped under three previous NASA contracts since 1962. Allis-Chalmers would produce two assemblies for use in qualification program and two for delivery to MSC. (NAsA Procurement Off; MCS Roundup, 12/6/68, 1)

U.K. became first nuclear power to ratify nuclear nonproliferation treaty. At Washington, D.C., ceremony, British Charge d'Affaires Ed­ward E. Tompkins handed instruments of ratification to Director C. Foster of U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. (NYT, 11/28/68, 9)

Soviet journal Aviatsiya i Kosmonavtika (Aviation and Cosmonautics) said Soviet scientists had concluded "basis of a linked system for pro­viding man with vital necessities on board spaceship will be the cultiva­tion of higher plants. . . . Scientists believe that artificial soil could be used for space plant growing." Once spacecraft left earth gravitation field, "plants will be fixed in special holders and sprayed with concen­trated solutions containing all necessary substances." (UPI, NYT, 11/29/68, 22)

USN's Sealab III was carried by barge to San Clemente Island, Calif. It would be lowered 600 ft to Pacific Ocean bottom to serve as working and living quarters for five teams of 8 to 10 men setting up underwater trolley line, building dry and lighted hut on sea floor, starting lobster farm, and training porpoises and sea lions to fetch and carry. Sealab III, submerged to three times depths of Sealab I and Sealab II, was final experiment in Sealab program. (AP, W Star, 11/28/68, A36)

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