Dec 17 1965
From The Space Library
JPL announced that PIONEER VI, launched Dec. 16, had made final vernier adjustment relative to pointing the high-gain, narrow-beam antenna toward the earth. Spacecraft was 230,000 mi. from earth; all systems were functioning normally. (NASA Pioneer Proj, Off.; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 12/18/65, A3; AP, NYT, 12/19/65, 67)
COSMOS C containing scientific equipment, was launched by the Soviet Union into circular orbit at 650-km. (403,7-mi.) altitude, with 97.7-min. period and 65° inclination, Onboard equipment was functioning normally. (Komsomolskaya Pravda, 12/18/65, ATSS-T Trans,)
NASA announced management assignments in the Apollo Applications area: MSC would be responsible for development and procurement of all standard and modified spacecraft (Command, Service, and Lunar Excursion Modules), astronaut activities, flight operations, and integration of experiments in the command and service modules; MSFC would be responsible for development and procurement of launch vehicles, integration of experiments into the Lunar Excursion Module, Saturn instrument units, and S-IVB stages (top stages of both Saturn IB and Saturn V vehicles) ; KSC would assemble, check out, and launch Apollo Applications space vehicles and their associated payloads. Proposals for possible Apollo Applications experiments were expected to be submitted by the world scientific community, industry, other Government agencies, and the entire NASA organization. (NASA Release 65-381)
On arrival at KSC, Astronauts Schirra and Stafford personally thanked the 400 men responsible for the successful Gemini VI launching. The astronauts would undergo medical examinations and debriefings for three days and then fly to MSC for a reunion with their families. (AP, Wash. Eve, Star, 12/18/65, Al; UPI, NYT, 12/18/65, 16)
NASA officials released clear, detailed, color and black and white photographs of the Gemini VII-VI rendezvous taken by the Gemini VI astronauts. (UPI, Wash, Post, 12/18/65, El)
Jerome Lederer, director of the Flight Safety Foundation, Inc., received the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy at the Aero Club's annual Wright Brothers Memorial Dinner in Washington, D.C, He was cited for "35 years of distinguished service and unceasing devotion to increasing the safety of flight throughout the world ..." (NAA News; AP, L.A. Times, 11/27/65)
National Science Foundation announced that a party of U.S. scientists had landed on an icecap 630 mi. from the South Pole to establish a station that would study Antarctic weather; the earth's magnetic field; naturally-produced, very-low-frequency (VH) radio waves; and the aurora australia. Project was sponsored by NSF. (AP, NYT, 12/18/65, 16)
NASA's decision to divert funds from its basic science research program to Project Apollo as a budgetary expediency was criticized by the New York Times: "[NASA] is sacrificing scientifically important projects whose sole defect is that they lack the spectacular publicity value of Project Apollo, which already consumes most of NASA's huge appropriation. "We believe this is an irrational set of priorities, the result of the public-relations approach. There is no compelling scientific reason why a man should be landed on the moon by 1969 rather than in 1971 or 1973. . . ." (NYT, 12/17/65, 38)
A 160-ft,-tall Saturn I rocket had been erected in display of missiles and space vehicles at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Orientation Center. (FC Release 65-305)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
