Jul 25 1966
From The Space Library
Boosted Arcas 2 rocket was successfully launched for first time from WSMR. Equipped with new Marc 42A1 1st stage, rocket carried 16lb. payload to 90-mi. (145-km.) altitude. (Tech. Wk., 8/1/66, 10)
SURVEYOR I bounced two to three inches upward on first impact with lurain June 2, JPL announced. According to data returned by 620-lb. spacecraft, signals generated by strain gauges indicated the three shock-absorber legs had all landed simultaneously on a horizontal surface. Eight-inch-diameter circular footpads rebounded clear of surface before settling on moon. Spacecraft exerted pressure of about 0.5 psi on lurain after it came to rest. Pressure of footpads at impact was about 8 psi. (AP, Wash. Post, 7/25/66, A3; Wash. Eve. Star, 7/25/66, A12; AP, NYT, 7/25/66, C3; Tech. Wk., 8/1/66, 9)
GEMINI X Astronauts John W. Young and Michael Collins flew from KSC to MSC for reunion with families and continued debriefing. News conference had been set for Aug. 1. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 7/25/66, A12)
Editorial on five years of "outstanding service" by NASA Administrator James E. Webb appeared in Technology Week: ". . . it is time to state . . . our belief that Mr. James E. Webb has done an outstanding job as NASA Administrator. He has presided over an explosive growth of the agency which would have overwhelmed a less capable administrator; he has met and solved some exceedingly thorny management problems; he has dealt effectively with some of the world's most temperamental scientists; he has successfully steered the space agency's budget through the perils of both Administration and Congressional financing; he has given the space program a nationwide base of facilities and political strength; and, most important of all, he has forged a team which is writing an unparalleled record of technical accomplishment.. . ." (Coughlin, Tech. Wk., 7/25/66, 152)
Ludlow King, head of Ludlow King Associates and former executive of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., had been appointed as a consultant to NASA. He would study means of making relationship between NASA and industry more effective. (NASA Ann.)
MSFC had selected Boeing Co. and Westinghouse Electric Corp. for parallel feasibility studies of reflector satellite to provide illumination over land masses at night, Technology Week reported. Studies, which would be worth about $120,000 each for 90-day effort, would be made for NASA and DOD. (MSFC PAO; Tech. Wk., 7/25/66, 16)
General Electric Co. announced "successful initial running" of 600,000 lb.-thrust GE4 turbojet engine developed under FAA contract. Engine "was started and accelerated to idle speed on July 18, and run up to 100 per cent speed on July 20, nine days ahead of the contract testing date. . . ." GE was competing with Pratt & Whitney Div., United Aircraft Corp., for Government contract to build engine for SST. (GE Release)
Tribute was paid in Aviation Week to "some of the men whose efforts played a significant role in bringing the Surveyor program through its technical and managerial morass" to success: W. Eugene Giberson; Robert Garbarini; Benjamin Milwitzky; Rep. Joseph E. Karth (D-Minn.); Fred Adler; Leo Stoolman; James D. Cloud; John Bozajian; Richard Cheng; Robert Roney; Ralph Colbert; Theodore F. Gautschi; Edward Pfund; Marshall Johnson; Richard Gunter; Robert J. Parks; Fielding Hedges; Thomas Lund; Donald Zimmet; Richard Davis; R. L. Roderick; Richard Iverson; R. E. Sears; and George Kerster. (Av. Wk., 7/25/66, 21)
"Businesslike international negotiations" in Geneva to draft treaty ensuring peaceful exploration of space received comment in New York Times: ". . . Space law will help confine national rivalries within the edges of the atmosphere, beyond which all men must work together in the gigantic task of exploration, a task to which there is no conceivable end." (NYT, 7/25/66,26)
General aviation (nonairline) pilots in 1965 flew record 2.6 billion miles in 16.7 million hours with 95,442 aircraft, while achieving lowest fatal accident rate in history, according to FAA's "Selected General Aviation Statistics." The 8% increase during 1965-largest annual increase since 1954 -included 382 million more miles and one million more hours than in 1964, with "business flying" continuing to be busiest segment of general aviation operations. (FAA Release 66-72)
Boeing Co.'s board of directors approved building 747 jet aircraft capable of carrying 350-490 passengers at speeds up to 600 mph. (UPI, Wash. Post, 7/26/66, A12)
About 80 US. companies were experimenting with crystal fibers to produce strong lightweight materials for aerospace use, the Wall Street Journal reported. Laboratory tests had shown that tiny crystal fibers added to metals and plastics produced rigid, almost unbreakable plastics and featherweight metals that remained hard under temperature and pressure extremes. (Martin, WSJ, 7/25/66, 1)
US. domestic airlines flew 25 per cent more revenue passenger miles during first six months of 1966 than during comparable 1965 period, according to Air Transport Assn. report. Nearly 30.2 billion revenue passenger miles were flown during first half of 1966 by scheduled trunk, local service, and helicopter carriers compared with 24.1 billion revenue passenger miles during first half of 1965. (Av. Wk., 7/25/66)
During week of July 25: Patent was granted to Wolfgang G. Offik, senior staff engineer for Chrysler Corp., for escape system to rescue workers from booster-launch gantry in case of explosion or fire. Equipment included series of rescue cabins, each suspended in its own cable at a different level in front of gantry. In emergency, workers and astronauts still outside spacecraft would enter cabins and drop in them into underground shelter, protecting them from flames on gantry and on ground. (Jones, NYT, 7/30/66,29)
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