Nov 5 1964
From The Space Library
MARINER III (Mars 64) was launched into interplanetary orbit from Cape Kennedy with an Atlas-Agena D launch vehicle, but space-craft communications failed when fairing did not jettison, preventing solar panel deployment. The Agena stage pushed the MARINER In into a parking orbit around the earth and coasted to the proper position for injection into a Mars trajectory. The Agena again ignited 32 min. after launching and sent the spacecraft toward Mars. Tracking data indicated that the second-stage Agena D booster shut down four seconds early on the second burn. MARINER III's four solar panels, designed to use power from the sun to recharge the spacecraft's batteries, were prevented from deploying by failure of nose fairing to jettison. Further, the spacecraft did not align itself properly with the sun so that the communications antennas would be properly pointed. In addition to TV equipment for taking pictures of the Martian surface, MARINER III carried instruments to study radiation, space dust, and magnetic forces near Mars and in unmapped space after swinging past the planet. This launch marked the first use of the USAF's new Agena D upper stage and also the first U.S. space mission requiring a second igniting of the Agena D. (NASA Releases 266, 288; KSC Release 206-64; MSC Roundup, 11/11/64, 7; Sullivan, NYT, 11/6/64, 16; Chic. Trib., 11/6/64; Balt. Sun, 11/6/64, 1; H HN-48 )
NASA. launched a 110-lb. instrumented payload to measure upper atmospheric day-glow emissions from Wallops Station, Va., aboard a four-stage solid-propellant Javelin (Argo D-4) sounding rocket. Day-glow studies were extended to higher altitudes than previous observations and tests of instrumentation being considered for future orbital missions were conducted. The payload, containing a spectrophotometer, ultra-violet photometers, and a rotating filter wheel photometer, was carried to an altitude of 548 mi. as scientific data were telemetered to ground receivers for 17 minutes. Impact occurred in the Atlantic 930 mi. from the launch site. (Wallops Release 64-79; NASA Rpt. Sm-)
NASA successfully launched a Javelin sounding rocket from Ft. Churchill, Canada, to an altitude of 522 mi., with instrumented payload to measure the earth's geomagnetic field from the ground to Javelin peak altitude. Data from this experiment would be combined with that obtained from a Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched 90 sec. earlier. This was the first Javelin launched from the Churchill Research Range. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
Lockheed-Georgia Co., Dawsonville, Ga., announced completion of the nation's first facility for subjecting space hardware to the simul-taneous exposure of atomic radiation and extreme cold. The company planned to produce extreme cold through the use of liquid hydrogen which would be at -427° F. Equipment would consist of an insulated 1,000-gal. liquid-hydrogen tank mounted on a railroad flatcar that could be rolled by remote control into the nuclear reactor radiation target area. (AP, NYT, 11/8/64, 26)
Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced jointly that scientists at the National Magnet Laboratory, using a giant water-cooled magnet, had produced the strongest continuous magnetic fields generated by man to date-up to 255,000 gauss. Maximum fields were maintained for periods of a minute. (AFOSR Release, 11/64, 2S)
George H. Arthur, Deputy Director of the International Telephone and Telegraph Aerospace Laboratory at Nutley, N.J., predicted that the Russians would go to the moon before 1970 and make a manned circumlunar mission in two and one half years. He said the United States would also be able to, get to the moon by 1970 if it had as much success with its developmental program in the Saturn IB and Saturn V as it had with Saturn I. (Balt. Sun., 11/5/64)
Abraham S. Bass, Chief of the Technical Assistance Branch in NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, speaking at the Liquid Missile Propellants Symposium in Hershey, Pa., pointed out that development and operation of the prime and auxiliary rocket engines required by NASA'S manned and unmanned space exploration programs would push propellant production in the U.S. to unanticipated heights. NASA'S liquid hydrogen requirement was expected to rise to 14 million lb. per quarter, or 28,000 tons/year, during 1967. (Av. Wk., 11/23/64, 64; NASA Proj. Off.)
Dr. Donald F. Hornig, President Johnson's Special Assistant for Science and Technology, arrived in Moscow with a six-man group that would make a two-week tour of scientific and industrial institutions in Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk, and Novosibirsk to study Soviet methods of planning and coordinating scientific research. (NYT, 11/6/64, 19)
Navy Secretary Paul H. Nitze formally approved the retirement of Marine Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. The retirement was set for Jan. 1. (N.Y. Her. Trib., 11/5/64; NYT, 11/5/64, 11 )
November 5-6: NASA launched four grenade-bearing sounding rockets over an 18-hour period for meteorological studies in the upper atmosphere. Launched from Wallops Island at about six-hour intervals, the Nike-Apache two-stage solid-propellant rockets carried payloads containing 12 special explosive charges which were ejected and detonated in the four flights at altitudes ranging from 25 to 59 miles. The series of flights was designed to provide information on variations in wind directions and speeds, atmospheric densities, pressures, and temperatures over a 24-hr. period. (Wallops Release 64-80)
NASA launched four Nike-Cajun sounding rockets within 18 hours from Wallops Island, Va., with grenade payload to obtain temperature, wind, density, and pressure measurements up to 55.9 mi. All rockets and instrumentation performed excellently. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
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