Jan 25 1967
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos CXXXIX into earth- orbit with 210-km (130-mi) apogee; 144-km (89-mi) perigee; 87.5-min period; and 50ø inclination. Equipment functioned satisfactorily. Satellite reentered same day. (W Post, 1/26/67, El; GSFC SSR, 1/31/67)
XB-70 No. 1 research aircraft was flown by NASA test pilot Fitzhugh Fulton and North American Aviation, Inc., test pilot Van Shepard to mach 1.41 and 35,000-ft altitude to obtain data on stability and control maneuvers. (NASA Proj Off)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb, testifying at Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences' hearings on aeronautical R&D, recommended establishing a "civil aircraft technology" to counteract growing divergence between requirements for civil and military aircraft systems. Webb observed that most modern military aircraft could not be readily redesigned into economical commercial systems : "When unit costs were low and interaction between the elements of the design were small, a manufacturer could afford a substantial element of uncertainty to developing a new airplane, since it was not too difficult or costly to correct deficiencies exposed during flight operations. . . ." With the complexities of modern aircraft, however, deficiencies would lead to "major escalations in cost and could mean financial disaster for a commercial venture. . . . Economics thus require the designer to take an increasingly conservative approach in applying new and advanced concepts. . . ." This conservatism was causing an increasing gap between "the advanced technology that research indicates is possible and the technology actually being used in commerce. To assure pre-eminence in aeronautics, advanced technology must continually be incorporated into new designs. . . ." Webb said NASA was working closely with Dept. of Transportation and FAA to identify and solve critical and specialized civil aviation technology requirements. He cited major efforts in supersonic transport field, including work on second-generation propulsion, sonic boom phenomena, and aircraft handling qualities; and study of jet engine noise-suppression problems. (Testimony)
Orbiting satellites could survive Van Allen radiation belts 10 to 100 times longer than originally estimated if their outer shells were shaped like spheres, Dr. Charles Mack, MIT Lincoln Lab, suggested at AIAA'S Aerospace Sciences Meeting in New York. Basing his prediction on results from new MIT-developed technique to simulate Van Allen belts, Dr. Mack said that radiation would always strike the surface of a sphere at wide angles, improving the chances of scattering and thereby decreasing the amount of absorption. Ideal spacecraft would be 10-ft-dia sphere with instrumentation in the core, Dr. Mack said. Most current satellites were smaller and carried instruments near surface. New York Times writer John Wilford reported that GSFC planned to have MIT-type simulator in operation by 1969. (Wilford, NYT, 1/26/67, 10)
The Washington Post commented on NASA's FY 1968 budget: "Exploration of the moon. Giant orbiting space stations, with as many as a dozen men living and working in them for as long as a year. Unmanned landings on Mars. "These are the goals the United States has set for itself in outer space in the 1970s. With a budget request for fiscal 1968 of $5.05 billion, more than $500 million of it for dramatic new programs to carry us beyond a manned landing on the moon, President Johnson has made it clear that the United States is in space to stay, no matter what the Soviet Union does or does not do. . . ." (W Post, 1/25/67, A18)
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