Jun 14 1969
From The Space Library
Madrid ceremony marked takeover by Spanish crew of operations at U.S. Deep Space Network tracking facility. Attending were NASA Administrator, Dr. Thomas O. Paine ; Spanish Space Research Council President, Gen. Luis Azcarrago; U.S. Ambassador Robert C. Hill; and Gen. Antonio Perez-Marin, President of Spanish Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial. Dr. Paine sent final U.S. signal to Pioneer VIII (launched Dec. 13, 1967) orbiting sun. Short time later Gen. Azcarrago sent first signal under Spanish control. Dr. Paine said, "Spanish determination to participate in this exciting 20th Century form of exploration reminds us that five centuries ago Columbus, great voyage of exploration was carried out under the flag of Spain." (NASA Release 69-93)
Washington Post published letter from John M. Raymond, Jr." of Washington, D.C., which praised decision of Florida Legislature to ask for return of original name "Canaveral" to Cape Kennedy [see June 6]. "It is for us today a thrilling thought that men will leap to the moon from a cape discovered by Spanish adventurers early in the 16th century-a cape with one of the very earliest American place names to be retained to the present day. Or almost to the present day. Let the NASA center bear the name Kennedy. It is an appropriate tribute to the man who set us on the course to the moon. But let us restore to the cape the proud name it carried for 400 years." (W Post, 6/14/69, A24)
Washington Post commented on DOD's cancellation of MOL program: "While few tears . . . will be shed for MOL, the process by which it fell from grace deserves scrutiny. Many of the suggestions for taming the defense budget have posited some kind of non-Pentagon review mechanism, either inside or outside government. Yet MOL lost its place not through such a review but through intense general pressure, which became focused inside the Pentagon upon this particular item. The choice of which project to save, which to sacrifice, was made by the military on the basis of an obscure bureaucratic struggle with high Darwinian overtones. Like the brontosaurus, MOL came upon the tougher conditions of a new environment and was found unfit to survive. This may be an effective way to exercise a measure of occasional control over a swollen defense budget, but it is a crude way and one not at all guaranteed to leave the right elements intact. Both the spenders and the critics ought to keep looking for a more refined and selective approach." (W Post, 6/14/69, A24)
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