Jan 2 1965
From The Space Library
NASA had compromised the scientific value of the interplanetary research program by spending too little on the Deep Space Net communications system, according to Frank Drake, Prof. at Cornell Univ., in Saturday Review article. Drake noted that MARINER IV would only be able to relay 22 photos of Mars back to earth and that these would be of lesser quality-all because of communications limitations: ". . . one concludes that the space program could well use an array containing a hundred or more 85-ft. antennas. One array might cost $40,000,000, still only a few per cent of what will almost certainly be spent on planetary exploration in the next ten years." (SR, 1/2/65)
Soviet cosmonaut Col. Vladimir Komarov, who commanded the three-man spacecraft VOSKHOD I on its orbital flight, told a Havana newspaper: "I believe I will take part in a similar trip-if not to the moon, then to another place." Komarov was a member of the Soviet delegation in Havana for celebration of the sixth anniversary of Fidel Castro's revolution. (New Orleans Times-Picayune, 1/3/65; AP, Hartford Courant, 1/3/65)
Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., received the first patent for a satellite communication system with its own orbit pattern. The satellite would linger for a considerable period over each of two widely separated areas; while hovering virtually stationary, it could relay television and radio programs within its range, and also store programs from one area to play later on the other side of the globe. (Jones, NYT, 1/2/65; Chic. Trib., 1/3/65)
U.K. was said to be considering the possibility of a licensing agreement with the U.S. that would enable British manufacturers to make parts of late-model aircraft produced in the U.S. American planes under consideration were: McDonnell Aircraft Corp's F4C (Phantom II) carrier-based attack aircraft; F-111 low-level strike aircraft made by General Dynamics Corp. and Grumman; and C-141 and Orion, both made by Lockheed Aircraft Corp. (Farnsworth, NYT, 1/3/65, 13)
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