Oct 17 1966
From The Space Library
NASA had begun study of how to keep two or more small monkeys in earth orbit for up to one year to assess long-term effects of weightlessness on primates and evaluate problems related to humans undertaking extensive work in space. Industrial firms had been asked to submit by Oct. 27 "preliminary design study" for Orbiting Primate Spacecraft capable of being carried into earth orbit during Apollo program. LaRC would manage study. (NASA Release 66-273)
France's Dragon sounding rocket was successfully launched from Norwegian range on Andoeya Island by Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). (Tech. Wk., 10/31/66, 13)
At dedication of Sherman Fairchild Technology Center, Germantown, Md., plans to use Nimbus B meteorological satellite-scheduled for launch late in 1966-in elephant-tracking experiment were revealed in speech prepared for delivery by MSFC Director Dr. Wernher von Braun and read in his absence by MSFC PAO Director, Bart J. Slattery, Jr. Satellite would home in on 25-lb. portable transponder strapped to back of an elephant. Experiment would test use of satellites to monitor wildlife, learn more about animal migration, and develop means of protecting species threatened with extinction. (Wash. Eve. Star, 10/18/66, A14; Wash. Post, 10/18/66; Balt. Sun, 10/18/66)
Mew studies of Martian atmosphere had rekindled hope of finding life on Mars, Dr. Lewis D. Kaplan of JPL reported at Western meeting of American Chemical Society in San Francisco. French scientists Drs. Pierre and Janine Connes of the Observatory of Haut-Provence, using improved spectroscopic equipment designed by Dr. Connes, had found concentration of hydrogen compounds around Mars 1,000 times greater than in earth's atmosphere. Dr. Kaplan, who analyzed observations obtained, said the hydrogen compounds-considered necessary to life probably included methane derivatives and perhaps methane itself. Methane appears on earth as gaseous hydrocarbon product of decomposed organic matter and is known to be produced by anaerobic bacteria not requiring the oxygen essential to most life on earth. Dr. Kaplan's work was sponsored by NASA and by France's Centre National Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Meudon Observatory. (AP, NYT, 10/18/66, 9)
Boeing Co. announced it had awarded $10 million in subcontracts during planning phase (Phase II-C) of Government-sponsored SST design competition. Phase II-C was being conducted under 18-mo. Government-industry cost-sharing contract which would end Dec. 31. Boeing and Lockheed Aircraft Corp. had submitted final airframe designs to FAA Sept. 6. (Boeing Release)
Plan for 500-mph, 80-passenger Vtol air-bus service, developed by MIT's Flight Transportation Laboratory to ease transportation congestion on the East Coast in the 1970's, was announced by the Commerce Dept. (UPI, NYT, 10/18/66, 76)
During week of October 17: House Committee on Government Operations, in report based on August hearings by Subcommittee on Military Operations, urged a ten-to twenty-fold expansion of DOD's initial comsat system by increasing number and improving performance of both satellites and ground terminals. "Neither the Communications Satellite Corporation nor the other commercial carriers need fear they will lose the Defense Department as a good customer" as a result of this expansion, the report said. (Av. Wk., 10/24/66, 29)
NASA's Advanced Manned Missions program office issued RFPs on $300,000, nine-month analysis of economic potential of orbiting manned natural resources laboratory. It was specified that firms interested "must possess strong economic expertise at the national and international levels and must not be involved in the production of space or experimental hardware." Replies were due at NASA Hq. Nov. 21. (Av. Wk., 10/24/66,28)
MSC Director of Medical Research and Operations Dr. Charles A. Berry received AIAA's 1566 John Jeffries Award "for outstanding contributions to the advancement of aeronautics through medical research." Presentation was made at AIAA Military Aircraft Systems Meeting in Dallas. (MSC Roundup, 10/28/66, 1)
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