Apr 30 1965
From The Space Library
S-IVB stage of the first Saturn IB launch vehicle-first piece of flight hardware from Douglas Space Systems Center at Huntington Beach-had been shipped aboard NASA barge Orion to Douglas Sacramento Test Flight Center for flight readiness testing. The stage, 58 ft. long and 2L5 ft, in dia, had single Rocketdyne J-2 engine, developing 200,000 lbs, thrust. (MSFC Release 65-104)
NASA had awarded $300,000 grant to the Dept. of Interior's Bureau of Mines for a three-year research program on the potential use of lunar materials to support manned exploration of the moon. The research team, utilizing data from NASA's unmanned lunar programs, would study the possible production, processing, and uses of materials on the moon for the construction, supply, and operation of manned lunar bases. Faculty consultants and graduate students from Univ. of Minnesota would assist as part of the Bureau's program to develop future capabilities at educational institutions. (NASA Release 65-144)
NASA Flight Research Center awarded separate lifting body study contracts to McDonnell Aircraft Co. and Northrop Norair. The two separate six-month studies would investigate a vehicle concept whose sole mission would be the basic research involved with reentry of a manned lifting body from orbital flight, Preliminary objectives included determination of problem areas and their influence on design, Both contracts were fixed price; McDonnell received $152,496 and Norair $150,000. (FRC Release 11-65)
James E. Webb, NASA Administrator, addressed meeting of Eurospace in Washington, D.C. "Launch vehicle and propulsion requirements for more distant applications have led us to establish the feasibility of nuclear reactors for space propulsion purposes, and continuing attention will be given to this field. Data obtained in 10 years of extensive technical effort have now experimentally verified the analytical predictions of performance for this type of propulsion. And, of course, the supporting technologies which would be necessary for difficult and distant future missions must also be considered, the power sources, including fuel cells, radio isotope sources, reactor power plants, vastly improved communications technology, pointing and orientation technology, highly reliable and long-lived componentry, and life support systems, including closed ecological systems, In this wide range of prospects for the more distant future, we are not committed to a particular line of development nor to given systems. We are too early in the space age to make such commitments... ." (Text)
C. Leo De Orsey, financial advisor and attorney for the seven original astronauts and acting president of the Washington Redskins football team, died. (UPI, Houston Chron, 5/1/65 ; AP, NYT, 5/2/65, 89)
Operational control of U.S. weapons to intercept and destroy armed satellites had been assigned to the Space Defense Center at Colorado Springs, Denver Post reported. The Space Defense Center included the Space Detection and Tracking Systems (Spadats), which recorded the launches of all space vehicles, foreign and domestic, and logged precise orbital data until they decayed in the earth's atmosphere. (Partner, Denver Post, 4/30/65)
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