Nov 1 1964
From The Space Library
NASA launched Nike-Apache sounding rocket from Ft. Churchill, Canada, with instrumented payload to obtain comparison of electron density profile with wind profile and to measure electron temperature. Sodium vapor ejected as scheduled and Langmuir probe functioned well. Launch was to have been one of four spaced through a single night, but high winds and subsequent cloud cover forced cancellation of the other three. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
Experiment conducted by National Bureau of Standards' Central Radio Propagation Laboratory had found that nitrogen molecules rather than oxygen molecules destroy helium ions in the earth's atmosphere. Chief experimenter E E Ferguson explained that the results meant helium concentration in upper atmosphere was increasing, upsetting steady-state theory based on helium-ion-oxygen molecule reaction. However, Ferguson said, recent samplings of upper atmosphere by sounding rockets did not uphold the laboratory findings: 100-to-1,000 times less helium was present than would have been expected if helium had been con-tinuously increasing. (Simons, Wash. Post, 11/1/64)
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