Oct 21 1965
From The Space Library
Second Aerobee 150 sounding rocket with experiment to obtain measurements of comet Ikeya-Seki was launched by NASA from Wallops Station, Va. The 205-lb. payload, consisting primarily of an Ebert-Fastie scanning spectrometer and an attitude control system for pointing the instrumentation at the comet, was boosted to peak altitude of 117 mi. (Wallops Release 65-69)
NASA announced it would negotiate a contract extension with IBM for continued support of the Real-Time Computer Complex at MSC. The extension was expected to cost about $80 million and would contain provisions for converting to incentive arrangements. (NASA Release 65-336)
NASA had awarded a contract to the Univ. of Iowa for preparation of an Injun spacecraft to be used in a dual satellite launch in 1967. The Injun Explorer would be teamed with a 12-foot inflatable Air Density Explorer and flown on a single Scout launch vehicle in the same way EXPLORERS XXIV and XXV were orbited Nov. 21, 1964. The contract, valued at $1,070,488, covered construction of the Injun spacecraft, preparation and integration of the onboard experiments, and integration with the Air Density Explorer spacecraft as a single Scout payload. Dr. James A. Van Allen of the Univ. of Iowa would be the principal scientific investigator. (NASA Release 65-338; LaRC Release)
U.K. Minister of Aviation Roy Jenkins and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara had signed a memorandum of understanding approving a joint project for development of an advanced lift jet engine, DOD announced. Development work would be performed by Rolls Royce, Ltd., and a U.S. contractor yet to be chosen. Engines of this kind would be used for takeoff and landing of V/Stol aircraft. (DOD Release 732-65)
French and Soviet scientists ended a one-week conference on possible cooperation in space programs, but did not issue a communique. Howard Simons in the Washington Post quoted "informed sources" as saying the subject of a French-Russian communications satellite had been raised by the Soviet Union and that the French were lukewarm to the idea but had not rejected it. (Wash, Daily News, 10/21/65, 22; Simons, Wash, Post, 10/29/65, A6)
Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, former Air Force Chief of Staff, was awarded the 1965 Collier Trophy, U.S. aviation's highest honor, in a ceremony at the Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C. General LeMay was cited for "development of high performance aircraft, missiles, and space systems which in 1964 significantly expanded the frontiers of American aeronautics and astronautics." (NAA News, 10/18/65; Raymond, NYT, 10/22/65, 1)
Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade was opened by Dr. James A. Van Allen, head of the Univ. of Iowa's physics and astronomy department. Dr. Van Allen discussed "Space Science, Past, Present, and Future" at the Univ. of Maryland. Series of seven lectures was designed "to foster better understanding between industry and local universities in an effort to create a research community in the Washington [D.C,] area equivalent to the Harvard-MIT complex in the Boston area." (Wash. Post, 10/3/65, B2)
Evaluation of the Soviet space effort should be done in terms of Russian rather than U.S. requirements and considerations, suggested William Hines in the Washington Evening Star: "To look at things from the Russian angle for a change may provide a new view of the whole space race." Hines suggested that the orbits of the Molniya satellites were egg-shaped because with 12-hr. periodicity "the Molniya-type satellite stays over the homeland about two-thirds of the time and comes back at exactly the same time each day." He said that the U.S.S.R. probably had no weather satellites "because it does not need this branch of the weatherman's art," A possible reason that there were no polar-orbiting Soviet photographic reconnaissance satellites like the U.S.'s Samos was that they were not needed. No Saturn V-type launch vehicle development was evident, Hines concluded, possibly because "Russia's approach to [lunar landing] is not necessarily . . . the same as America's. . . . A revealing hint along this line is contained in a recent issue of Moscow News. ... The author puts forward the suggestion that a lunar landing and return mission might be organized using two spacecraft rather than one, each of which could be launched by a rocket smaller than Saturn V." (Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 10/21/65, A14)
1965 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded jointly to Julian Schwinger of Harvard Univ., Richard Feynman of Cal Tech, and Shinichero Tomonaga of Japan. The three scientists were cited for "their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequence for the physics of elementary particles." The Nobel chemistry prize went to Prof. Robert Burns Woodward of Harvard for "his meritorious contribution to the art of organic synthesis." (Wash. Eve. Star, 10/21/65, A4)
Technical program of the first autumn meeting of the National Academy of Engineering, held in New York, was a Symposium on Ocean Engineering. (NAE Release)
Click here to listen to a press conference recorded on this day about orbital mechanics and the rendezvous of Gemini 6 and Gemini 7.
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