Dec 20 1966
From The Space Library
XB-70 research aircraft, flown by Col. Joseph Cotton (USAF) and NAA pilot Van H. Shepard, reached mach 2.53 and 60,800-ft. altitude in flight to generate sonic booms over instrumented sites and test structures at Edwards AFB. (NASA Proj. Off.; UPI, NYT, 12/22/66, 20)
NASA announced sponsorship of four institutes in the summer of 1967 to acquaint about 160 nationally selected undergraduates with problems of space science and engineering. The institutes will be carried out by the following universities and NASA field centers: Columbia Univ. and Goddard Institute for Space Studies (space physics), USC and JPL (spacecraft technology) , Univ. of Miami and KSC (environmental and planetary sciences) , and UCLA and ARC (space physiology). (NASA Release 66-324)
MSFC awarded $7.2-million contract modification to Chrysler Corp. to begin procurement of long-lead-time items for 12 additional Uprated Saturn I 1st stages (S-IB). (MSFC Release 66-295)
Japan's second attempt to orbit a satellite failed when 4th stage of Lambda 4s-2 booster failed to ignite. First failure was Sept. 26. Both launches were conducted from Uchinoura Range, Kyushu Island. (Wash. Post, 12/20/66, A13; UPI, Wash. Post, 12/21/66, A2, A24)
Karl Harr, president of Aerospace Industries Assn., spoke before the Aviation/Space Writers' Assn.: "As we stand at the end of one record year of achievements and at the beginning of a year that we confidently predict will establish new records on all fronts, will historians view this point of time as having any particular significance from an aerospace point of view? After all we're not going to the moon next year and we didn't inject man into space for the first time last year. . . . "I believe historians may come to regard about this point of time as being the point when the aerospace business completed its transition from a matter of only peripheral concern to the total public interest, into the mainstream of American life. . . ." (Text)
West German Defense Ministry ordered limited resumption of flights by F-104G Starfighters-Lockheed-manufactured aircraft which had been grounded since Dec. 6 after 37 pilots had been killed in series of 65 crashes. (AP, NYT, 12/21/66)
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