May 4 1966
From The Space Library
NASA selected Control Data Corp. and IBM for competitive negotiations of a $15-million contract to furnish a large-scale digital computer complex at URC. (NASA Release 66-102)
Soviet physicist Peter Kapitsa, who had received the 1966 Rutherford Prize for Physics May 3 in London, told a press conference that US.-U.S.S.R. rivalry was good, stimulated research, and produced variety of solutions to different problems. Kapitsa said he thought the Soviet space program was ahead of US., but could not prove it. (Wash. Post, 5/5/66, A20)
NASA had selected ARINC Research Corp. and Im/Federal Electric Corp. for competitive negotiations leading to $1,750,000, one-year, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to provide technical support for Saturn launch vehicle reliability program at MSFC. (NASA Release 66-104)
May 4: A Space Sciences Division in the Engineering and Development Directorate, a consolidated medical directorate, and title changes for key management positions became effective at MSC. Medical Research and Operations Directorate would be headed by Dr. Charles A. Berry, formerly Chief of Center Medical Programs. Medical directorate would include Biomedical Research Office, Medical Operations Office, and Occupational and Environmental Medicine Office. Addition of medical directorate brought the number of Center directorates to five. The four Assistant Directors would be known as Directors: Director of Administration, Wesley L. Hjornevik; Director of Flight Crew Operations, Donald K. Slayton; Director of Engineering and Development, Dr. Maxime A. Faget; and Director of Flight Operations, Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. (MSCI 1130.1; MSC Roundup, 5/27/66, 1,2)
Astronauts returning to earth after long space flights in sterile environment might have to take bacteria pills, suggested Dr. T. D. Luckey, Univ. of Missouri Medical School, at American Society for Microbiology convention in Los Angeles. Dr. Luckey suggested that astronauts’ sterile air, food, and water eventually could dangerously reduce the amount of bacteria in their systems, resulting in bacterial illness when they returned to earth. Pills could restore normal degree of immunity to terrestrial bacteria. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 5/4/66, A12)
Time intervals of less than a billionth of a second were measured for first time in a laboratory by Dr. Arnold Shastak, Office of Naval Research. Dr. Shastak reported that such intervals might be significant in determining the frequency of electromagnetic waves and in research into structure and distribution of particles in atomic and molecular systems. (Henry, Wash. Eve. Star, 5/4/66, A27)
Aviation/Space Writers’ Assn. named William Hines of the Washington Evening Star recipient of the Robert S. Ball Memorial Award for excellent writing. Cited for his continuing coverage of NASA’s MARINER IV Mars probe, Hines would receive a trophy and $300 at the Association’s annual meeting in New York May 24-26. (AP, NYT, 5/5/66, 6; AP, Wash. Post, 5/5/66, B2)
JPL Director Dr. William H. Pickering received 1965 Spirit of St. Louis Medal for “outstanding service to the US. in directing the research, design development, and successful operation of the Ranger unmanned lunar reconnaissance spacecraft and the Mariner interplanetary spacecraft.” Presentation, by ASME and the City of St. Louis, was made at National Transportation Symposium in San Francisco. (Av. Wk., 5/16/66, 23)
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