Apr 8 1966
From The Space Library
OAO I Orbiting Astronomical Observatory was launched by NASA from ETR with Atlas-Agena D booster into parking orbit and then into planned circular orbit. Orbital parameters: 505.4-mi. (813.3-km.) apogee; 493.2-mi. (793.7-km.) perigee; 101-min. period; and 35ø inclination. Satellite's solar panels and instrumented booms would be deployed April 10. First of four spacecraft scheduled for NASA's OAO program, OAO I largest, heaviest, and most electronically complex unmanned spacecraft ever developed by US-weighed 3,900 lbs., carried 10 telescopes, and contained 44,000 separate parts and 30 mi. of electrical wiring. It carried four scientific experiments to provide astronomers with their first sustained look at the universe from above the earth's atmosphere, including Univ. of Wisconsin broad-band ultraviolet telescope package and detection devices to study the ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Through its complex ground command spacecraft attitude control system, OAO I would be aimed at individual objects in space with precision never before attained by an orbiting satellite. Information from experiments would be radioed back to earth in the form of digital data for analysis by experimenters. OAO program was managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (NASA Release 66-60; NYT, 4/9/66, 7; NYT, 4/10/66, 10E)
NASA Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops Station reached 99-mi. (159-km.) altitude and impacted 64 mi. downrange in the Atlantic. Objectives of flight were to compare five ionospheric plasma probes using stable ionosphere as a laboratory for evaluating the probes and to check relevant theories of probe operation. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
FAA established a Noise Abatement Staff to direct the agency's participation in the Government campaign to bring relief to areas disturbed by aircraft noise. Objectives of staff, to be directed by Raymond A. Shepanek (Capt., USNR) , former FAA aeronautical inspector, included development of aircraft noise measurement standards, formulation of aircraft noise standards, development of air traffic procedures and aircraft operating procedures to minimize noise, and initiation of research programs to provide for alleviation of the various features of aircraft noise. (FAA Release 66-33)
Prospect of using a computer to simulate vast changes in weather and climate was discussed by Walter Orr Roberts, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo., in an editorial in Science. Roberts suggested that with data from World Weather Watch an experiment proposed by the National Academy of Sciences for observing the world's weather continuously in three dimensions--"an adequate computer, and a global mathematical model, a vast array of experiments on weather and climate-modification can be `performed' by numerical computation rather than in nature. The beneficial consequences can be evaluated and compared to the expected costs. The full effect and the potential hazards can be determined without risk to life and property. . . ." World Weather Watch system was being studied by ESSA and World Meteorological Organization. (Roberts, Science, 4/8/66, 159)
U.S. Government's increased interest in transatlantic cooperation on scientific research was attracting attention in Europe, Victor K. McElheny reported in Science. "The most dramatic of the suggestions made recently is that of sending an `artificial comet' spacecraft toward Jupiter or close to the sun, or to use such a spacecraft to investigate the belt of asteroids between Jupiter and Mars. . . ." McElheny said NASA Administrator James E. Webb was planning to visit West Germany and other European nations to discuss details of the project and to emphasize "that the U.S. is not thinking necessarily in terms of bilateral collaboration with individual countries, of the sort exemplified by current U.S. launching of satellites for Britain, Italy, and France. "Where it can, the U.S. prefers to work with multinational European organizations, such as the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) or the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) . . ." (McElheny, Science, 4/8/66, 190-191)
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