Apr 14 1965
From The Space Library
MARINER IV set a distance record for communications from American spacecraft. The Mars probe transmitted data from 54 million miles out, exceeding the record of 53.9 million miles set by MARINER II in 1963. (AP, San Diego Eve, Trib, 4/14/65; NASA Releases 65-111, 65-117)
ComSatCorp's EARLY BIRD I communications satellite reached its permanent station over the Atlantic Ocean: apogee, 22,243 mi. (35,811 km.) ; perigee, 22,224 mi. (35,780 km,) ; period, 23 hrs, 56 min, 57 sec.; inclination, .085°; location, 28.0° west longitude. (ComSatCorp)
In a "topping out" ceremony, signifying that the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Merritt Island Launch Area had reached its maximum height of 525 ft, a 38-ft, four-ton steel beam inscribed with emblems of the companies and Government agencies participating in the building's construction and autographed by contractor and Government personnel, was hoisted into place in the upper reaches of VAB's steel skeleton, Scheduled for completion in 1966 as an integral part of Launch Complex 39, VAB would have 7.5 acres of floor area, would be 525 ft, tall, 518 ft. wide, and 716 ft, long, Within the 129 million cu, ft, of the structure, Apollo-Saturn V launch vehicles would be assembled in an upright position in a controlled environment. (KSC Release 86-65)
NASA launched from Wallops Island a four-stage Journeyman (Argo D8) sounding rocket with 130 lb. Univ. of Minnesota payload. Firing was timed to correspond closely with passage of the OGO I satellite in an unsuccessful attempt to compare and correlate radiation belt electron and PROTON measurements. Sounding rocket reached peak altitude of 1,031 mi.; experiment package impacted in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,200 mi, downrange. Telemetry indicated proper functioning of instrumentation during the 26-min, flight, but no useful data were returned because the nose cone covering the payload failed to eject and the experiment package was not exposed to energetic particles in the radiation belt. (Wallops Release 65-21; NASA Rpt. SRL)
First of four Stellar Acquisition Flight Feasibility (Staff) flights planned by USAF failed 73 sec, after launch of the experiment aboard a Polaris A-1 booster. The experiment's Stellar Inertial Guidance System (Stings) was operating open-loop and was not guiding the missile, which had to be destroyed when it veered off course. Stings had been locked onto the star Polaris and had tracked properly through the first 54 sec, of flight until time of second-stage ignition, when the trouble with the launch vehicle apparently developed. Period during which the Stings operated was time of highest dynamic pressure; data received were termed excellent, Main purpose of the Staff flight was to test a telescope-like device intended to allow a Stings to take a reading from Polaris after piercing the earth's cloud cover and to plot an exact trajectory to a target area. (M&R, 4/19/65, 9)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb told the Harvard Business School Club of New York: "The impact of the space program cannot be described just by a recital of the flow of technology to industry. The NASA system of management, for example, has efficiently mobilized for research and development in aeronautics and space some 400,000 men and women and is utilizing some 20,000 industrial companies under prime and subcontract arrangements, We are handling about 250,000 procurement actions a year, and over 150 universities are involved in the scientific, engineering, and training programs required for the rapid solutions and high standards the program requires," He continued: "It should be emphasized that our space program is not a crash effort. It is a planned, deliberate development over a ten-year period. "Through our programs at NASA, we are proving out important new mechanisms through which investments made in science and technology can pay substantial dividends. The social, economic, and political forces at work in our society today are dependent, as never before, on developments in science and technology." (Text)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb said at the Boy Scout Launch O-Ree in New York City that the "future will be determined in large measure by the kind of talented and dedicated youth found in the Boy Scouts, Science and technology, which form the basis for the national space program, are pioneering areas within which many of you can find opportunities for satisfaction and service." (Text)
Dr. Frederick Seitz, President of the National Academy of Sciences, speaking at the end of Purdue Univ's three-day symposium on "Science and Public Policy-Evolving Institutions," warned that the present system of Federal grants might be "disastrous" to some areas of science if not modified, "The man with the big, obvious project tends to get his Federal grant today, but the lonely individual with an off-beat idea does not fare so well," he said. Dr. Seitz favored a large-scale, supplementary system of Federal grants for research in science and the humanities that would permit the individual university to determine how the grant would be disposed. "Block grants would enable a university administration to draw upon talents of its faculty and administrators in deciding how funds for a certain area of research are allocated," he argued, Dr. Seitz said that such a Federal grant-giving agency would be patterned after the National Science Foundation and might fulfill the role envisioned for the National Humanities Foundations proposed in bills currently before Congress. (Sullivan, NYT, 4/15/65, 30)
Dr. Joseph F. Shea, Apollo Program manager at NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, announced at a press conference at North American Aviation's Tulsa facilities that the Tulsa plant would build 16 Apollo service modules. Apollo contract work there totaled more than $61 million. (Leslie, Tulsa Daily World, 4/15/65)
"Positive action must soon replace delay and procrastination" on the development of an American supersonic airliner, Sen. A. S. (Mike) Monroney (D-Okla,), Chairman of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee, told a Washington, D.C, meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Monroney said that U.S. failure to build the plane could "choke off" 375,000 jobs within several years. Sen, Monroney added that if U.S. carriers did not fly supersonic planes as early as foreign airlines, it could mean a loss of $1 billion a year in passenger revenues, "If we capitulate, it would mean the eventual loss of technical superiority and a second class airline industry," he said. (NYT, 4/15/65, 15)
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas told Philadelphia Rotary Club members that money being spent to put a man on the moon could be better spent ending water pollution in the United States, He claimed that costs for equipping the Nation with adequate sewage disposal was about equal to that of sending a man to the moon in the Apollo project. (AP, Galveston News-Tribune, 4/15/65)
Arthur E. Jenks, retired FAA official, received the Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award for 1965 at a luncheon in Washington, D.C., given by the Society of Automotive Engineers in conjunction with its annual meeting. The award, sponsored by the Flight Safety Foundation, was presented to Jenks because of his "contributions to improving the techniques for flight checking the accuracy of air navigational aids and improvement of landing aids on and around airports." (FAA Release 65-30)
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