Nov 15 1967
From The Space Library
Listen to interviews conducted on this day with Robert Seamans and Glynn Lunney
NASA X-15 (No. 3) crashed in Mojave Desert when the aircraft "exceeded its structural limitations during the final portions of the reentry maneuver," X-15 Accident Investigating Board suspected. X-15's pilot, Maj. Michael J. Adams, did not use ejection system and was killed, the first fatality in the 191 flights since the three X-15s started their flight operations, June 8, 1959. Usual flight plan called for aircraft to ascend at a sharp angle after being dropped by B-52 aircraft. After engine burnout, plan called for coasting up into high thin air, then dropping back in pancake style into thicker air for reentry. According to a NASA spokesman, the aircraft had risen to about 260,000 ft and encountered trouble on the way down. "There apparently was some sort of control malfunction as the pilot attempted to pull out of his descent," spokesman said. Radar and telemetry data received during flight were excellent, data being received down to an altitude of 60,000 ft. Speed and altitude records for winged aircraft4,534 mph, by Maj. William J. Knight (USAF) , and 354,200 ft, by NASA's Joseph A. Walker (who had since died in crash of XB-70 No. 2 and F-104 aircraft) -had been set by X-15. Two crash landings of X-15 aircraft had occurred; pilots had survived and aircraft had been restored to flight status. X-15 No. 3 pilot, Maj. Adams, 37, had finished USAF training in 1952, flown in combat in Korea, and graduated with honors from Aerospace Research Pilots School. Although assigned to MOL program, he had requested transfer to X-12 operations. Board was continuing att6mpt to determine the probable cause. (FRC Release26-67; AP, NYT, 11/16/67,15)
In message transmitting to Congress annual report on US. participation in U.N. for 1966, President Johnson cited successful negotiation of space law treaty as an "outstanding accomplishment . . . which bans weapons of mass destruction from space and calls for peaceful cooperation in its exploration and use." He also cited success of U.N. Development Program in providing economic assistance and approval of charter for U.N. Industrial Development Organization to help new nations create industries best suited to their needs. He commended U.N. representatives' unnoted work to fight ignorance, hunger, and disease, and to promote economic and social development. (PD, 11/20/67, 1568-9)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb, at Chicago meeting of American Petroleum Institute, spoke on space program's technological and social benefits in assessing developing capabilities which would "serve our nation's future needs." He called attention to "special equipment that will automatically monitor ground, underseas cable, or satellite circuits carrying high-speed traffic [and] the entire international communications network structure of the world . . . more valuable today than it was just a few years ago." He also pointed out that "the rocket technology that carried Surveyor to the moon provided astronomers with an improvement in resolution beyond that provided by Ranger by another factor of 1000. That is 1000 times more detail than the Ranger results which themselves were 1000 times better than anything before." Webb said the U.S.S.R. was "building a rocket bigger than Saturn V, I feel sure." He explained that the Saturn V-Apollo system "permits us to operate out as far as the moon with large payloads of about 100,000 pounds." He compared U.S.S.R. and U.S. exploration of the planet Venus: "The Russians sent a capsule weighing 845 pounds into the atmosphere of Venus and we made a close flyby. But in many ways the Mariner [U.S.] data are more complete. It reaches down to about 6 miles from the surface of Venus, while the Venus 4 [U.S.S.R.] data appear to have stopped at about 15 miles up." Webb explained how NASA's system for making the most of the Nation's technological capabilities uses "a Government-industry-university research base and provides a direct channel for industry to apply new knowledge to industry problems." He referred to work on campuses of 200 universities: ". . . the number of scientists, engineers, researchers, technicians and graduate students participating in NASA activity has grown to about 10,000. Of these, about 1000 are involved as scientific or engineering investigators." Webb concluded that "at any foreseeable budget level NASA will maintain the base of knowledge that will determine the ability of this country to plan, undertake and accomplish successfully new and difficult aeronautical and space objectives." (Text)
In testimony before House Committee on Interstate Commerce's Transportation and Aeronautics Subcommittee, Rep. John W. Wydler (R-N.Y.) , member of House Committee on Science and Astronautics, urged passage of H.R. 3400 to allow Secretary of Transportation to prescribe aircraft noise abatement regulations. Rep. Wydler cited complaints from churches whose religious services had been interrupted; doctors whose patients' mental and physical health had been impaired; schools whose classes had been disrupted; and individuals whose lives had been inhumanly intruded upon by jet aircraft noise. Passage of the bill was imperative, he said, because aircraft noise had become "something that dominates the lives of those who have to live with it to the point where it actually destroys the way in which they are living." Secretary of Transportation Alan S. Boyd told Subcommittee that DOT was trying to find a solution to the problem, but he admitted his disbelief that "there will ever be such a thing as a quiet airplane. Despite our far longer experience with the problems of truck noise and railroad noise, we have not been able to produce quiet vehicles in those modes of transportation." However, he believed that "we will be able, by technological and regulatory means, to reduce the impact of aircraft noise exposure for the majority of Americans who are . . . subject to excessive noise exposure." He said bill was "the mechanism by which we can assure future aircraft are substantially quieter than our present generation [of aircraft] ." (Transcript)
Sentinel System-Communist Chinese-oriented ABM system-would be located in accordance with DOD's survey of areas with optimum advantages for the area-defense weapons and their radars; DOD identified the first 10 areas chosen for survey: Albany, Ga.; Chicago, Ill.; Dallas, Tex.; Grand Forks AFB, N. Dak.; New York City; Oahu, Hawaii; Salt Lake, Utah; Seattle, Wash.; Boston, Mass.; and Detroit, Mich. List was not complete, and areas were not final choices. Sentinel System would give protection to all U.S. cities and, because of long range of Spartan missile, relatively few batteries could protect entire country against the kind of light and relatively unsophisticated attack that the Communist Chinese might be capable of by the mid-70s, DOD announcement said. (DOD Release 1088-67)
Fog-dispersal methods would be tested by World Weather, Inc., under Air Transport Assn. contract, with costs defrayed by 33 ATA member airlines. The $100,000 contract would explore seeding warm fog-above 32° F-with new materials to cause water droplets to combine into larger drops and become precipitation. Materials would be dispensed into fog from aircraft or from ground equipment. United Air Lines had started successful cold-fog seeding program in 1963, using dry ice pellets, and program now involved several airlines and seeding operations at 17 airports. Warm-fog seeding at Sacramento, Calif., would be technically managed by UAL Meteorology Manager W. Boynton Beckwith; tests would run to Feb. 29, 1968. (ATA Release)
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