Sep 23 1970
From The Space Library
Roy P. Jackson, Vice President and Assistant General Manager of Northrop Corp. Aircraft Div., was named NASA Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Technology, effective Nov. 2. Dr. George M. Low, Acting NASA Administrator, also announced appointment of Oran W. Nicks, who had been Acting Associate Administrator of OART, as Deputy Director of Langley Research Center, effective Nov. 2. Vincent L. Johnson was named Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, effective immediately. (NASA Release 70-155)
Dr. George M. Low, Acting NASA Administrator, accepted Franklin Institute's William M. Vermiyle Medal on behalf of NASA at Philadelphia ceremony. Award cited NASA for "a decade of unprecedented managerial, scientific and technological achievement culminating in the incredible triumph of landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to earth." NASA was first organization to receive medal; previous awards for outstanding contributions in industrial management had been made only to individuals.. (Franklin Institute Release)
Convair engineers presented results of "Phase A" experiment module concepts study during meeting at MSFC of NASA representatives and Convair Aerospace Div. of General Dynamics Corp. Meeting was also attended by French representatives of ESRO. Module would be extension of space station that could be outfitted on ground and transported into space by shuttle vehicle. Program technical director Max E. Nein said module was attractive to European scientific community because country desiring to participate could either build module complete with experiment package or build experiment package for integration into U.S. module. (MSFC Release 70196 President Nixon approved H.R. 16539, amending National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 to provide that Secretary of Transportation shall be member of NASC. (PD, 9/28/70, 1273)
White House announced that President Nixon had asked Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr., and Fred W. Haise, Jr., to visit Iceland, Switzerland, Greece, Malta, and Ireland as his personal representatives. Mission would include visit to 21st International Astronautical Congress in Constance, Germany, where astronauts would address session in October. They would be accompanied on tour by Mrs. Lovell and Mrs. Haise; Swigert was bachelor. Group would depart Oct. 1 and return Oct. 15. (PD, 9/28/ 70, 1258)
Agreement under which 50 astronauts and wives would share $100 000 for each program in series of TV documentaries on U.S. space program had been announced by David L. Wolper, President of Wolper Productions Inc., and Louis Nizer, New York attorney for astronauts, AP reported. (W Post, 9/23/70, B4)
Baltimore Sun editorial on Luna XVI: "No machine yet within our conceiving, no matter how many tasks it can perform with high precision, can replace direct human observation. Nor can it reproduce the actual human experience, in all its variety, of conditions on remote objects and the effects of those conditions on body and mind. It cannot equal man's power to see for himself, let alone end the instinctive desire to do so. Luna 16, however, promises to provide an immensely useful tool for the ever deeper study of the planetary system, and one which may ultimately reduce the great dangers of man's own exploratory travels." (B Sun, 9/23/70)
September 23-25: "Fort Bliss Oldtimers"-group of rocket pioneers which included many of 118 former Germans who came to U.S. with Dr. Wernher von Braun after World War II to continue rocketry development-held reunion in Huntsville, Ala., and visited MSFC. (MSFC Release 70-191; MSFC PAO)
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