Aug 7 1965
From The Space Library
Operation Firefly ended as some 3,000 fireflies snared by Rockville, Md., children were turned over to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. An extract of the firefly's lamp would be used in a life detection instrument under development at GSFC. Goddard's "Firefly" instrument would contain a mixture of all the contents of the insect's glow system except ATP (adenosine triphosphate), a high-energy compound essential to all life as it is known on earth. Thus, when the instrument encountered a live microorganism in space, the ATP contained therein would complete the circuit and a glow would be produced. (GSFC Release G-19-65; Wash, Post, 8/7/65)
M/Gen. Samuel C. Phillips (USAF), director of the Apollo program in the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight, addressed the American Bar Association's Seminar of the Committee on the Law of Outer Space in Miami Beach: "In many respects, the Gemini IV flight of Jim McDivitt and Ed White could well be viewed as a turning point in the American manned space program. The success of this mission has given us greatly increased confidence that we will be able to carry out our national goal of a manned landing on the moon in this decade, "It is a pleasure to report that the Apollo Program is also moving ahead very rapidly, and we are meeting our key milestones on schedule. The progress on Apollo is especially rewarding since it is the largest and most complex single research and development project ever undertaken. This is a crucial year for Apollo, but our prospects look good and we are becoming increasingly confident that the lunar landings will take place before the end of 1969." (Text)
Paul P. Haney, Chief of Public Affairs for NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, addressed Oklahoma members of the American Legion to open their state convention: "Although we are not pursuing any military objectives as such, every once in a while somebody turns over a rock and finds something which could be of immense military value. "As Detroit learned to produce millions of cars in a hurry by production line development and thus was able to convert without a bobble to tank production in World War so could our entire manned space flight program be converted." (AP, Houston Post, 8/8/65)
Soviet aircraft designer Andrei N. Tupolev wrote in the magazine Aviatsiya i Kosmonavtika that one of his assistants, Aleksey Cheryomukhin, had built and flown "the world's first helicopter capable of flying and not just jumping into the air for several seconds." Cheryomukhin's first flight took place in November 1930, Tupolev said, and by 1932 he was flying his aircraft, designated Ea-1, to 2,000-ft, altitude, "I am very sorry that we did not publish Cheryomukhin's records at the time," Tupolev added. It had been generally believed that Russian-born Igor L. Sikorsky had developed the first successful helicopter in the U.S. during the midnineteen-thirties. (UPI, NYT, 8/7/65, 34)
Gleb Chebotarev, head of Leningrad's Theoretical Astronomy Institute, said the solar system extended far more than 21 trillion miles from the sun-nearly 6,000 times the distance from the sun to Pluto, the most distant planet now known, UPI reported. Estimate of the solar system's size was based on mathematical calculations of the gravitational interaction of the sun and various stars. (UPI, Wash, Post, 8/7/65, A2)
August 7-9: 13 Nike-Cajun sounding rockets were launched from Wallops Station, Va.; Point Barrow, Alaska; and Churchill Range, Canada, to implement studies of atmospheric phenomena and conditions at about 100-mi. altitude, Onboard each was a grenade experiment (an ejected explosive that detonated as the rocket climbed) and/or a sphere experiment (an ejected mylar ball that inflated and drifted for tracking by radar). The 26-in.-dia. metalized mylar spheres were developed by the Univ. of Michigan. (Wallops Release 65-48; SBD, 8/11/65, 199)
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