Jul 28 1964
From The Space Library
NASA's RANGER VII spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy on its flight to the moon. After an almost perfect countdown, Atlas-Agena launch vehicle boosted the 806-lb. spacecraft into a parking orbit around the earth, and then the Agena engines refired to place RANGER VII on its trajectory to the moon. The spacecraft carried six television cameras designed to take and relay to earth closeup pictures of the lunar surface. Flight to moon would take about 68 hours, with the pictures to be taken during the last 15 min. before craft impacted on the moon. The launch-ing was so accurate that, even without the standard midcourse correction maneuver, RANGER VII would hit the moon. However, scientists wanted pictures of the "Sea of Clouds" region and planned to execute mid-course correction to ensure impact and pictures in this area. (NYT, 7/29/64; NASA Release 64-176)
NASA Aerobee 300 sounding rocket with Univ. of Michigan payload to measure electron and neutral particle temperatures in the atmosphere was launched from Ft. Churchill, Canada, to 200-mi. alti-tude. Instrumentation included electrostatic probe, omegatron gage, Bayard-Alpert ion gage, as well as a solar aspect sensor to provide proper attitude. Instrumentation performance was satisfactory, al-though the omegatron made no measurements. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
Unspecified "informed sources" in Paris said that the first foreign base on U.S. territory-a satellite tracking station in Alaska-was to be estab-lished by the European Space Research Organization. It was reported that the establishment of the station had been agreed to in principle by the U.S. State Department, and that a formal agreement was expected to be signed in the near future. ESRO had plans for launching about 400 sounding rockets, 6 small satellites, 8 medium satellites, 7 space probes, and an orbiting astronomical observatory during the following 8 years and would use the station to help track, control, and communicate with these spacecraft. ESRO planned a network of similar stations extending from Alaska across North Pole to the Shetland Islands, Belgium, and Italy. (Simons, Wash. Post, 7/29/64)
The USAF successfully fired a Minuteman ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. (M&R, 8/3/64, 8)
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