Jan 31 1965
From The Space Library
Seventh anniversary of the first U.S. satellite, EXPLORER I. In defiance of the original predicted lifespan that should have ended some two years ago, the satellite continued to pass overhead every 104 min., with perigee of 214 mi. and apogee of 983 mi. Trajectory plotters at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center believed EXPLORER I would plunge into the atmosphere and burn in 1968. It had slowed down since launch but had logged 904 million mi. around the earth. (Marshall Star, 1/27/65, 1, 6)
Japan launched Lambda III-2, the largest rocket that country had yet developed. The 62-ft., three-stage rocket attained an altitude of 620 mi. and impacted northwest of the Mariana Islands, some 1,130 mi. from the launch site at Tokyo University's space center on Kyushu. (M&R, 2/8/65, 8)
In an interview on the eve of his retirement as Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Curtis E. LeMay discussed the role of the military in space: "Developing military capabilities in space is a task that I think we ought to accept as an unavoidable requirement. It is the only way that we can establish control over corridors of access to our country that would otherwise be open to exploitation by aggressor forces. . . . "I am confident that man will prove useful in this medium. Just as he has adapted aircraft to tasks no one could foresee in 1903, he will undoubtedly discover uses for space systems over the years ahead that go far beyond the observation and inspection functions we envision at this time." (AP, Haugland, Balt. Sun, 2/1/65)
Tass had reported that Soviet astronomers believed the upper layer of the moon's surface was saturated with meteoric matter distinguished chemically and in mineral content from deeper layers. "Highly accurate and reliable" observation had been made by a Gorky University team headed by Vsevolod S. Troitsky, the Soviet Union's leading authority on radio emanations of the moon. (Shabad, Louisville Courier-Journal, 1/31/65)
Two U.S. physicists, Prof. Robert V. Pound of Harvard and Assistant Professor Glen A. Rebka, Jr., of Yale, were awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London for gravitational red shift experiments reported in 1960 that confirmed Einstein's principle of equivalence, one of the basic assumptions of the general relativity theory. (NYT, 2/1/65, 12)
Smithsonian Institution disclosed architectural plans for a national air and space museum to be built in Washington, D. C., opposite the National Gallery of Art. Designed by Gyo Obata, a St. Louis architect, the building would be modern in concept with an internal design that would provide a sweeping vista of exhibit areas. Smithsonian officials hoped to receive Congressional authorization to build the museum at a cost of $42 million. (NYT, 1/31/65)
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