Jan 26 1965
From The Space Library
USN fired a Hydra-Iris sea-launched sounding rocket. to 184-mi. altitude carrying a 100-lb. payload. The rocket was launched from a point about 1,400 mi. east of Montevideo, Uruguay. Mission was to measure radiation intensity within the inner Van Allen radiation belt. (M&R, 2/8/65, 8)
The first J-2 liquid-hydrogen rocket engine built to flight configuration was delivered to Douglas Aircraft Co., Sacramento, for installation and testing in the Saturn S-IVB battleship stage. The 200,000-lb.-thrust engine had been recently accepted by NASA from Rocketdyne Div., North American Aviation, Inc. (Marshall Star, 1/27/65, 1, 6)
Dr. John D. Nicolaides, Chairman of Notre Dame's Aerospace Engineering Dept, formerly Special Assistant to the NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, told National Space Club at a Washington, D.C., luncheon that we must realize we were "not yet first in the race for space supremacy. . . . The [Soviet] lead in both numbers and weights of unmanned launchings continues to increase. They are publishing just as many scientific papers as we are and they are just as good." Nicolaides added that he was not including their work in life sciences "which is well ahead of ours by virtue of the simple fact that they have been experimenting in space." Dr. Nicolaides said he was alarmed by the U.S.S.R.'s "extensive planetary program." They started early and continued a truly massive effort compared to ours, he said. "They are launching their heavy spacecraft at each opportunity to both Mars and Venus, while we have abandoned Venus completely and are only studying scientific measurement on Mars in 1971. . . ." (MSC Newsletter, 2/65)
USAF selected Thiokol Chemical Corp. and Lockheed Propulsion Co. to develop and test new 156-in.-dia. solid-propellant motors during 1965. Lockheed would develop two of the three motors. The first would be a flight-weight motor with thrust in excess of three million pounds. The second motor would be in the one-million pound-thrust class and would incorporate a submerged nozzle. Both motors would use advanced liquid injection thrust vector control to explore methods of guiding huge motors of this size. Thiokol's Wasatch Div. of Brigham City, Utah, would develop the third motor. This flight-weight motor would have a thrust of over 320,000 lb., and incorporate a deeply submerged nozzle permitting the total motor length to be under 21 ft. ( DOD Release 52-65)
At the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Honors Convocation in New York, awards were made to men who had made valuable contributions to development of the aerospace industry: Dr. Eugene N. Parker, associate professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute of Nuclear Studies, Univ. of Chicago, received the Space Science Award "for distinguished individual research on the causes and properties of the solar wind." Arthur E. Raymond, responsible for the design of the Douglas DC series of commercial transports received the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award. He was honored for "numerous and distinguished contributions to the aeronautical sciences and the development of aircraft during the last 30 years." Igor L. Sikorsky and Michael Gluhareff were given the 1964 Elmer A. Sperry Award. Mr. Sikorsky was cited as a helicopter pioneer for "the concept and development of a new form of aerial transportation capable of carrying and placing large external loads over any terrain." Mr. Gluhareff was honored for his engineering contributions in the development of the multipurpose helicopter. Dr. Wallace D. Hayes, professor of aerospace engineering at Princeton University, received AIAA's fourth annual Research Award for his leading role in the development of supersonic and hypersonic flow theory. Sir Frank Whittle, British engineer, was named first recipient of the Goddard Award for his "imagination, skill, persistence, and courage in pioneering the gas turbine as a jet propulsion aircraft engine, thus revolutionizing military and commercial aviation for all time." Harry F. Guggenheim, who had supported aerospace endeavors, received a special commendation for his "contributions, encouragement, and personal participation in the development of aviation and rocketry." (NYT, 1/21/65, 53M; NYT, 1/27/65, 58; NYT, 1/9/65, 50; Av. Wk., 1/25/65; Av. Wk., 1/11/65, 13; Langley Researcher 1/29/65)
An article by Omer Anderson on U.A.R. rocket program was inserted in the Congressional Record by Rep. Silvio Conte (R-Mass.). Based on interviews with German scientists just back from Egypt and with West German defense ministry officials who debriefed them after their return, the article said: "Egypt's missile program is considerably further advanced than is generally realized in the West. "Some of these scientists who have returned to West Germany say that Nasser will have the missiles to devastate wide areas of Israel by late 1967 and that he will have rockets with a 1-ton payload by the end of 1965. "West German defense ministry experts who have questioned the returning rocket scientists regard their assessment of Nasser's rocket potential as entirely realistic and possibly too conservative. "The scientists say Nasser has accelerated greatly his rocket program since the first test firing of four missiles on July 22, 1962." (CR, 1/26/65, 1160)
Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge Space Technology Laboratories chosen as the winner in a two-year design competition to produce the rocket engine for Apollo Lunar Excursion Module (LEM). The liquid-propellant engine was designed to vary its power output between a low of 1,000 lb. thrust and a high of 10,000 lb. (NYT, 1/29/65)
House Committee on Science and Astronautics began a two-day seminar with a panel discussion on science and technology, with specific reference to aeronautics. Speaker of the House John W. McCormack opened the seminar. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences began executive hearings on the subject of launch vehicles. (NASA LAR IV/17)
In U.S. launch vehicles hearings before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, NASA Administrator James E. Webb discussed recent study by the Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating Board's Launch Vehicles Panel: "In considering the merits of canceling certain vehicles in order to provide quantity production of the remaining vehicles, the Launch Vehicle Panel of the AACB evaluated several alternatives against a forecast of DOD's and NASA's needs over the next 10 years. This space-mission forecast served as a basis for determining the number of launch vehicles required and the cost of producing the various combinations of these launch vehicles. "The result of the study is particularly interesting in that it shows a cost difference of less than 1 per cent among the alternative options. This difference is less than the accuracy of the data used in the analysis. The results indicate that any economies that might be realized by increased quantity production of boosters would be lost through cost of adapting specific mission spacecraft to a new vehicle where the costs of such work have already been incurred. . "The major advantages of the recent comprehensive study ... as distinct from previous reviews, were the development of much improved methods for estimating the costs of launch vehicles considering the effects of quantity production, variety of vehicles, and in-plant workload; the use of an inclusive or overall forecast as a basis for determination of both DOD and NASA space missions against which total launch vehicles costs could be calculated; and the value of the results of the study to NASA to confirm our judgment on the use of the SATURN IB for the APOLLO and VOYAGER missions. . we are making extensive use of DOD-developed launch vehicles and will continue to do so for some time to come. However, a wider variety of first-stage boosters and upper stages is required by NASA space missions than by those of the DOD. We have requirements for a wider range of variety of size, payload, and velocity for our missions. We have been carefully investigating our future vehicle needs; optimum vehicle configurations; and the most promising advanced propulsion methods to be sure that our program will provide the options that the country will need in making decisions to undertake future missions. , we are utilizing the channels and procedures established by the DOD-NASA launch vehicle agreement and by the AACB to coordinate the needs and activities of NASA and the DOD to assure the most effective national launch vehicle program. However, we are presenting to the Congress, in our budgets each year, the specific booster needs we have over and above those which can be met by DOD-developed systems. . . ." (Hearings . . . National Space Launch Vehicles, 6-19)
USN began tests of two new air-cushion vehicles variously called hydro-skimmers, hovercraft, or ground effects machines. The craft were lifted a few feet above the surface by cushions of air trapped beneath their hulls and were driven at speeds up to 50 knots by aircraft propellers. The vehicles would be tested during the next three to six months to determine their potential usefulness and operational suitability for naval operations. (Baldwin, NYT, 1/31/65, 88)
Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) Administrator Najeeb E. Halaby told the House Science and Astronautics Committee that designs of U.S. manufacturers for the proposed supersonic airliner "demonstrated clearly the feasibility" of building a plane that would prove as profitable, if not more so, over transcontinental or greater ranges as current jet airliners. Presidential Committee to evaluate SST program would begin its extensive critical review late next month. (Clark, NYT, 1/27/ 65, 19)
Sen. A. S. Monroney (D-Okla.) suggested in a speech before the Aero Club of Washington that the experimental RS-70 bomber be used as a test plane for U.S. supersonic transport program. Monroney was interested in more extensive use of the RS-70 for civil airliner studies than had been made by NASA. He said use of the RS-70 could produce savings in both development and construction costs of the proposed airliner. (Sehlstedt, Balt. Sun, 1/27/65)
William C. Foster, Director of U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, said in testimony before House Foreign Affairs Committee that radioactive leakage from Soviet underground nuclear test Jan. 15 was apparently accidental. The radioactive fallout apparently did not violate the intent of the 1963 nuclear test-ban treaty. (FonF, 1965, 61)
The British Defense Ministry announced that its fleet of Valiant bombers would be scrapped because of weakened structure caused by metal fatigue. Valiant was the first of the three "V" types of jet bombers built by U.K. following World War They had been in service nine years and only about half the original force remained in service as reconnaissance or tankers. This would not affect Britain's contribution to NATO or its proposal for an Atlantic nuclear force. (NYT, 1/27/65)
Richard E. Horner, former Associate Administrator of NASA (1959-60), was installed as 1965 president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. (Av. Wk., 2/8/65, 13)
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