Aug 14 1965
From The Space Library
COSMOS LXXVIII was launched by the Soviet Union, Tass announced. Initial orbital parameters: apogee, 329 km. (204.3 mi,) ; perigee, 209 km. (129.8 mi.) ; period, 89.8 min.; inclination, 60°. Equipment "for continuing the exploration of outer space" was functioning normally. (Tass, 8/14/65)
NASA Lewis Research Center project officials said tracking data from JPL's Deep Space Network on Aug, 11's successful Atlas-Centaur launch from Kennedy Space Center, NASA, had indicated precise guidance system accuracy for lunar and planetary trajectories, Less than one-tenth of the midcourse correction capability in the Surveyor model payload would have been needed to put the spacecraft on the final trajectory for a soft landing at a preselected site on the moon. With the success of this mission, Centaur was first U.S. launch vehicle to qualify operationally an all-inertial guidance system for deep space application. (NASA Release 65-271)
Potential of the Saturn IB was noted in the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "The payload potential of the Saturn IB boosters now under production at Michoud seems to have escaped general attention in discussions about space missions and the rocket assemblies assigned or assignable to carry them out. These and other factors are significant in connection with efforts under way, just coming to light, to intrude on, supplant or degrade the S-IB in the Apollo or other programs for which it is fitted. "The first of the 'new Saturns,' or intermediate Saturns, of the Chrysler Corporation's Space Division has reached Cape Kennedy for the initial lift-off in tests and flights that will lead to human exploration of the moon. "Payload requirements vary of course for different objectives of this 12-shot series. Regardless of what is first put aloft, the I-B assembly is designed to send into desired orbit 36,000 pounds of functional vehicle-not to mention the 30,000 pounds of a burned-out second-stage, should that lagniappe be added. "This rating compares with the 26,000-pound payload Soviet spacemen boosted into orbit last July 16; with 21,000 pounds sent into orbit by the [[Titan III-C] June 18; with the rated 25,000-pound payload capacity of the Titan III-C; with the 22,000-pound payload rating of the 'old Saturn'; with the 18,000-pound payload dispatched by an 'old Saturn' a year or two ago; and with 4,000 pounds orbited by the Atlas." (CR, 8/19/65, A4674)
The first stage of the first Saturn IB launch vehicle to be flown arrived at Kennedy Space Center, NASA, aboard the barge Promise. This was the first transit of the new Port Canaveral locks, due for formal dedication Aug. 21. (Brevard Sentinel, 8/15/65)
Photographs of Mars returned by NASA MARINER IV showed surface features which could be interpreted as possible Martian canals, wrote Eric Burgess, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in London in a letter to the Society, Burgess interpreted a dark, 30-mi.-wide streak shown on photograph No, 11 as a rift valley. This surface feature occurred at the same location on Mars where some astronomers claimed to have seen canals, Burgess said the photograph revealed that the escarpments passed through the rim of a large 100-mi.-wide Martian crater, indicating that this particular rift valley appeared after the formation of the crater. (L.A. Times, 8/16/65)
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