Oct 26 1970
From The Space Library
White House announced appointment of R/A Don A. Jones as Acting Director of National Ocean Survey and of Dr. John W. Townsend as Acting Associate Administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAH) until offices were filled under provisions of NOAH reorganization plan. Adm. Jones was member of ESSA Commissioned Officers Corps and had been Director of Coast and Geodetic Survey since 1965. Dr. Townsend had been ESSA Deputy Administrator since 1968, Chief of NASA Space Sciences Div. 1958-1959, and GSFC Assistant Director and Deputy Director 1959-1968. (PD, 11/2/70, 1457)
Federation of American Scientists held Washington, D.C., news conference to protest extensive advertising campaign by American Security Council asserting U.S.S.R. had taken lead in strategic nuclear weaponry. Dr. Herbert Scoville, Jr., head of FAS Strategic Weapons Committee presented chart showing U.S. had 1710 long range missiles and 550 strategic bombers, for total of 2260 delivery vehicles. Soviet force had 1518 missiles and 150 bombers, or 1668 delivery vehicle total, and was building 390 additional vehicles. (Beecher, NYT, 10/27/70, 13)
October 26-27: U.S.-U.S.S.R. talks on possibilities for compatible rendezvous and docking arrangements in space were held in Moscow between NASA delegation headed by MSC Director, Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, and Soviet Academy of Sciences team headed by Academician Georgy I. Petrov. In exchange of basic information on docking systems NASA officials described Gemini and Apollo techniques, procedures, and docking adapters and Skylab project. Soviet team described plans for future system similar to Apollo's, with tunnel between spacecraft to accommodate docking apparatus. Agreement was reached that 12 specific technical elements required further joint study, including guidance systems for rendezvous, docking hardware, coordinate systems, and reference markings. Teams agreed on November exchange by mail of supplementary technical information and subsequent meeting in March or April to organize three joint working groups, to meet alternately in U.S. and U.S.S.R. to develop compatible hardware and procedures. (Transcript, NASA background press briefing, 10/29/70)
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