May 6 1971
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 410 from Baikonur into orbit with 288-km (179-mi) apogee, 203-km (126-mi) perigee, 89.2-min period, and 65ø inclination. Satellite reentered May 18. (SBD, 5/7/71, 39; GSFC SSR, 5/31/71)
Sen. Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass.) introduced S. 1805, "to provide relocation assistance, training assistance, and interest supplements to adversely affected workers separated from their employment because of the termination of defense and space contracts." (CR, 5/6/71, S6341)
After meeting with President Nixon at White House, Secretary of the Treasury John B. Connally, Jr., announced President's intention to send to Congress request for legislation providing $250 million in loan guarantees for Lockheed Aircraft Corp. (PD, 5/10/71, 738)
Administration officials had been "playing politics with some of the most sensitive secrets that come into the Pentagon-namely, the intelligence gleaned from our space photography," Jack Anderson said in Washing-ton Post. Satellite reconnaissance intelligence, known by code name "Tango-Kilo" was so tightly guarded that some DOD intelligence analysts could not get clearance. "Yet Defense Secretary Mel Laird and CIA Chief Richard Helms have been giving out selective T-K intelligence to favorite senators to win support for the defense budget." (W Post, 5/6/71, F7)
Federation of American Scientists issued report Is There an R&D Gap? Report examined DOD charges that U.S.S.R. R&D expenditures exceeded those of U.S. and would result in Soviet assumption of technological superiority. Conclusion reached was: "This entire episode has been a classical numbers game featuring selective disclosure, questionable assumptions, exaggeratedly precise estimates, misleading language, and alarmist nonsequiter conclusions." There was "no claim, much less any evidence" that U.S.S.R. was spending more than U.S. on military technological advances as measured by "military technology base-research, exploratory development and a fraction of advanced development." No one had claimed to be able to measure Soviet expenditures in this category. "These expenditures would amount to a few billion at most and be most difficult to estimate. Necessary expenditures become progressively larger as one moves from research on basic technological discoveries to development of weapons. This shows the extreme difficulty in making meaningful comparisons on a financial basis of efforts to protect against technological surprise. Neither the funding nor numbers of personnel involved are a sensible measure of original technological advance. Of far greater importance is the organization and application of available intellectual and other resources," (Senate Com on Armed Services, Hearings on FY 1972 Auth; Science, 8/29/71, 707-9)
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