Mar 31 1966
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched LUNA X unmanned spacecraft toward the moon “to test a system insuring the setting up of an artificial moon satellite with the aim of exploring near-lunar outer space and also testing systems installed aboard for placing the station in a selenocentric or near lunar orbit,” Tass announced. Spacecraft was following a trajectory close to the calculated one and onboard equipment was functioning normally. ‘‘(Pravda, 4/1/66, 1, USS-T Trans.; Tass, 3/31/66; Loory, Wash. Post, 4/1/66, A3)’’
Fifth Saturn I-B booster (S-IB-5) was successfully captive-fired by Chrysler Corp. for 2½ min.-longest duration firing-at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Stage would be shipped to Michoud Assembly Facility for post-static-test checks and would be used in checking out the Apollo spacecraft, perfecting rendezvous and docking techniques, and training astronauts in preparation for manned lunar landing. ‘‘(MSFC Release 66-69)’’
B/G J. C. Maxwell (USAF), FAA deputy administrator for supersonic development, told a Washington meeting of Aerospace Industries Association’s Public Relations Advisory Committee that total cost of delivering the first American SST for airline service may exceed four billion dollars. He explained: “The SST program has been, and still remains, a high risk program. That fact, combined with the sheer magnitude of the development cost, is why the Government is participating in the program to develop an aircraft aimed solely at a civil market.” Adding that the cost estimate was "considerably more than the total net worth of the major aircraft manufacturers combined,” Maxwell said: “Our philosophy for financing the SST program beyond the prototype construction and flight test phase is to encourage industry and the financial community to assume as much responsibility and risk as practicable. We eagerly look forward to the day when we can turn the whole program over to private enterprise. Conceivably, this could occur when the prototype has flown and proven out the design. If all goes well-and the work performed by the airframe and engine manufacturers during the past nine months gives us cause for optimism-the SST prototype will take to the air in late 1969 or early in 1970 to begin an intensive period of testing. At about this time, production development will get underway with the first production model rolling off the line early in 1973 followed by type certification and entry into commercial service by 1974.” Although the British-French Concorde was expected to be in airline service by 1971, Maxwell said this three-year time lag would be offset by the U.S. SST’s advantages: (1) cruising speed of mach 2.7, compared with Concorde’s 2.2; (2) 250-passenger capacity, compared with Concorde’s anticipated 140 passengers; and (3) growth potential of titanium construction contrasted with volume-limited aluminum of Concorde. ‘‘(Text)’’
Pratt & Whitney Div.’s entry in SST engine competition-the JTF-17A-was operated for the first time at P&W’s Florida Research and Development Center, W. Palm Beach, Fla. Twin-spool turbofan “was started and operated for the programmed time.” ‘‘(P&W Release’’
FAA had submitted to aircraft manufacturers a new supersonic transport (SST) financing plan, reported William Chapman in the Washington Post. Manufacturers, who claimed they could not afford to pay 25% of expected $1-billion cost of next building stage, would be able to contribute a lighter share of development costs than they had been paying under the 75-25% cost-sharing plan arranged by President Kennedy. ‘‘(Chapman, Wash. Post, 3/31/66, H8)’’
Australia’s Minister of Supply Denham Henty announced that U.S., U.K., and Australia would cooperate in experiments with U.S. Redstone rockets at Woomera Range to study effects of rocket reentry into the atmosphere. ‘‘(Reuters, Wash. Post, 4/1/66, A20; Reuters, NYT, 4/1/66,24)’’
Japanese Transportation Ministry announced a seven-year program to establish system of navigation satellites to be launched in 1972. A new ministry, the Satellite Navigation Research Office, would begin to develop electronic equipment, ground stations, and control systems as soon as the government’s budget for FY 1966 was approved by the current session of the Diet. R&D program would be carried out entirely by Japanese scientists. ‘‘(NYT, 4/1/66, 59M)’’
Growing “impatience, mistrust, and hostility of news media and congressmen toward NASA” was reported by William Hines in the Washington Evening Star: “Newsmen have long contended that the initials NASA stand for ‘Never A Straight Answer,’ and on at least one occasion a high-ranking official was publicly called to account by a reporter for consistent telling of inconsistent stories. . . . If the situation continues unaltered, the space administration may soon replace the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency at the bottom of the capital’s credibility list.” ‘‘(Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 3/31/66, A14)’’
NAS President Frederick Seitz told Charter Assembly of the Aerospace Science and Technology Branch of the Research Society of America, Bolling AFB, he believed the scientific community would pursue the interests of science far more effectively if it recognized its unique opportunity to make the space program scientifically valuable by lending support to those components “which do have a significant bearing on scientific knowledge.” He believed the knowledge we could gain of the solar system through the space program represented “a major contribution to our heritage of knowledge, fully as important as the knowledge of the earth we have gained in the last 500 years through the exploration which began with Henry the Navigator’s systematic explorations of the coast of Africa.” (Seitz, Science, 6/24/66)
Col. Donald Boyer Phillips (USA, Ret.), military aviation pioneer, died of pneumonia at age 74 in Alexandria, Va. Colonel Phillips, native of Washington, D.C., had designed, built, and flown his first glider in 1905. When he retired in 1947, he had flown in nearly 90 types of planes. ‘‘(Wash. Post, 4/4/66, B2)’’
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