Aug 3 1964
From The Space Library
Rep. Carl Albert (D.-Okla.), speaking on the House floor, praised the team of scientists and technicians that made the successful RANGER VII lunar flight possible, and said that the "validity of the space program has been reconfirmed. . . ." Also in the House, Rep. Louis C. Wyman (R.-N.H.) said the transmission of lunar photographs was "a great tribute to the scientific progress of our experts in America's space program," and RANGER VII was "a highly technical success . . . in the right direction; namely, the use of machines" rather than man in space exploration. He added that Project Apollo need not be called off, but he felt Congress should "hold back on the appropriations for Apollo space vehicle procurement until we have established that man can rendezvous in space by completing successfully the present Gemini program. . . ." He also advocated elimination of a target date for U.S. manned landing on the moon. (CR, 8/3/64, 17203)
NASA announced Col. Lawrence W. Vogel (U.S. Army) replaced Col. R. P. Young as NASA Executive Officer. Colonel Vogel was detailed to NASA from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (NASA Announcement 64-172)
Results of decompression experiments with mice in atmospheres of helium-oxygen, nitrogen-oxygen, and argon-oxygen were reported in Missiles and Rockets. Performed by group at Purdue Research Facility, experiments showed mice survived decompression markedly longer in helium-oxygen atmosphere than in air. In one experiment, eight mice decompressed in helium-oxygen atmosphere survived an average of 6.1- min. longer than six mice decompressed in air. Extrapolation of these results might indicate desirability of helium-oxygen atmospheres in spacecraft for prolonged manned flights; the extra minutes of survival would provide safety margin, in case of accidental decompression, for crew to take necessary emergency measures. (M&R, 8/3/64, 32)
Discussing President Johnson's July 24 announcement of the SR-71 mach 3 aircraft under development for SAC, Robert Hotz editorialized in Aviation Week: ". .. The SR-71 was, of course, the A-11 [YF-12A] with still another designation pasted on its titanium skin. But many congressmen were fooled, and unthinking daily newspapermen and wire service reporters failed to catch the deception and spread the news across the nation of the "new' billion-dollar aircraft program. "The inception of this program also was conveniently shifted from 1959 in the Eisenhower Administration to 1963 in the Kennedy Administration. Anybody familiar with aircraft development cycles knows that if this program were really started in 1963, it would be impossible to deliver operational aircraft to Strategic Air Command in 1965, as President Johnson stated. . . ." (Av. Wk., 8/3/64, 11)
Preliminary survey of public reaction to sonic booms in Oklahoma City, disclosed by FAA, indicated that 10-20% of those interviewed expressed "varying degrees of negative reactions" and about 4% made formal complaints. In the six-month test program which ended July 30, 1,253 sonic booms were created over the city. (Clark, NYT, 8/4/64)
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