Oct 2 1966
From The Space Library
ESSA III (Tos-A), third meteorological satellite in TIROS Operational Satellite (Tos) series and first to include Advanced Vidicon Camera System (Avcs), was successfully launched for ESSA by NASA from WTR using three-stage Thor-Delta booster on mission to provide daily global cloud-cover photos. Satellite achieved nearly polar, sun synchronous orbit with 922-mi. (1,486-km.) apogee; 858-mi. (1,381km.) perigee; 114.5-min. period; and 101ø inclination. It was expected to transmit first photos to Gilmore Creek, Alaska, receiving station Oct. 3. An advanced version of the cartwheel configuration, 325-1b. ESSA III carried two Avcs systems to provide cloud coverage and an infrared sensor (IR) to measure earth's heat balance. Launch was first for Thor Delta booster from WTR. ESSA financed, managed, and operated the Tos system; GSFC was responsible for procurement, launch, and initial checkout of spacecraft in orbit. First two satellites in system-ESSA I and ESSA II -were launched Feb. 3 and Feb. 28, respectively. (NASA Proj. Off.; AP, NYT, 10/3/66, 11; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 10/3/66, A12)
NASA ended series begun Sept. 30 of ten Nike-Cajun sounding rockets carrying acoustic grenades launched at six-hour intervals from Natal, Brazil, and NASA Wallops Station to gather meteorological information on atmosphere between 20-mi. and 60-mi. altitude. Grenades were ejected and detonated at programed altitudes to study diurnal variations in winds, temperatures, densities, and pressures. Launchings completed international series of experiments for meteorological research in the upper atmosphere carried out under Nov. 15, 1965, agreement between Brazilian Space Commission (CNAE) and NASA. (NASA Release 66-265; Wallops Release 66-52)
Zenith Radio Corp. demonstrated experimental systems for displaying television pictures which substituted laser beam for conventional cathode-ray tube. Small nozzle placed on one wall projected television image on opposite wall in same fashion as movie projector. Clarity of images produced by laser beam was only slightly below that of conventional TV sets. (Kotulak, Chic. Trib., 10/3/66)
NAS Council approved statement urging scientists to "help maintain ICSU's [International Council of Scientific Unions'] nonpolitical traditions by avoiding controversial nonscientific activities while participating in union-sponsored meetings." (NAS-NRC-NAE News Report, 10/66, 11)
President of the Republic of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos was seeking to postpone Asian summit conference on Vietnam from Oct. 18 to Oct. 24 to allow time for comsat, scheduled for launch over Pacific Oct. 19 by NASA for ComSatCorp, to become operative. Comsat would assure worldwide mass media coverage of event. (Reuters, Wash. Post, 10/3/66)
"The answer to the housing problem lies on the way to the moon," technologist and Southern Illinois Univ. research professor Buckminster Fuller told Wolf Von Eckardt of the Washington Post. Much of the complex apparatus used in development of closed ecological systems for long manned space flights could be used in terrestrial housing, Fuller said. He envisioned enclosing the necessary machinery in a "little black box. . . . We are investing $7 billion in it. It weighs 500 pounds. We can probably mass-produce it for $2 a pound. "That means we can give all the things they need foremost in a house -water, heat, cooling and waste regeneration-for $1000. And we can give it to them without tying them down to real estate with its wastefully expensive water pipes and sewers . . . with high-pressure sprays and chemical regeneration, a man can quench his thirst and clean himself for a long time with just a glass of water. "[It] . . . also solved the pollution problem. . . ." (Von Eckardt, Wash. Post, 10/2/66, G11)
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