Apr 15 1970
From The Space Library
Soviet Premier Aleksey N. Kosygin sent message to President Nixon: "We follow with concern the flight of the spacecraft Apollo 13 in which failure developed. I want to inform you the Soviet government has given orders to all citizens and members of the armed forces to use all necessary means to render assistance in the rescue of the American astronauts." Italian Defense Ministry ordered Italian armed forces to be ready to give immediate help as needed if Apollo 13 splashed down in Mediterranean. Reuters reported that U.K. Prime Minister Harold Wilson pledged help of Royal Navy ships for possible recovery work and that French President Georges J. Pompidou made similar offer of his navy. (UPI, W Star, 4/15/70; Reuters, W Post, 4/16/70)
USAF launched unidentified satellite from Vandenberg AFB by Titan IIIB-Agena D booster into orbit with 386.2-km (240-mi) apogee. 136.8-km (85-mi) perigee, 89.7-min period, and 110.9° inclination. Satellite reentered May 6. (GSFC SSR, 4/30/70; UPI, NYT, 4/17/70, 48; Pres Rpt 71)
U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos CCCXXXIII into orbit with 226-km (140.4-mi) apogee, 211-km (131.1-mi) perigee, 88.8-min period, and 81.3° inclination. Satellite reentered April 28, (GSFC SSR, 4/30/70)
Concept of using LM to help return space crew to earth in case of serious trouble aboard CM had been worked out in 1964 and was practiced during Apollo 9's 10-day orbit March 3-13, 1969, LM chief designer Thomas J. Kelly told New York Times. "But I can't say we foresaw exactly this type of failure, with everything out." Kelly said he had flown from Massachusetts, where he had been taking course at MIT, to Grumman Aerospace Corp. plant at Bethpage, N.Y., to help answer questions about how to deal with Apollo 13 emergency. (Witkin, NYT, 4/16/70)
International reaction to Apollo 13 emergency continued: Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, General Secretary of World Council of Churches, said in Geneva that people of world were praying for astronauts. In Santa Ninfa, Sicily, devastated by earthquake in January, Mayor Vito Bellafore said, "After the first Apollo success people did lose interest; it seemed that it was only a mechanical exercise. Now we see again the human drama, and all of our worry is for those three lonely men." London Times said Apollo 13 would leave "scar on the American space program." Best outcome of accident would be "greater sense of deliberation in the exploration of space." (Lyons, NYT, 4/16/70,1)
Editorial comment as damaged Apollo 13 attempted safe return to earth: New York Times: "An emergency in a space craft on the voyage between earth and moon was bound to occur sometime. The enormous hazards of the long journey through the most hostile of environments, the ever present possibility of failure by one or more of the millions of components contained in an Apollo vehicle, the ubiquitous threat of human error, all these combine in lunar flights to make them the most dangerous expeditions human beings have ever undertaken. In retrospect, the remarkable fact is not that such ominous peril has arisen in the now-aborted trip of Apollo 13, but that the actually hazardous trips to the moon and back by Apollos 8, 10, 11, and 12 were accomplished in safety," (NYT, 4/15/70)
Washington Post: "Lindbergh gave up a continent, as the astronauts gave up a planet, because he had measured the risks and found them reasonable, for all the possibility of disaster lurking around the corner-it does so every day for men and nations. So if we are going to apply the glories, we must confront the dangers along the way. All we can do now, as that unlikely looking craft limps back from the moon, is to hope that the men who ride in it and the men in Houston who guide it can find what Lindbergh found. 'Somewhere in an unknown recess of my mind,' he wrote 'I've discovered that my ability rises and falls with the essential problems that confront me. What I can do depends largely on what I have to do to stay alive and on course.' " (W Post, 4/15/70)
Baltimore Sun: "The safety record of the Apollo program has, except for one hideous ground accident, been a perfect one. Perhaps we have too easily assumed that therefore all expeditions would begin and end without serious and unforeseen breakdown, without the torments of suspense when the line between splendid accomplishment and bitter tragedy is drawn very fine. The truth is, of course, that exploration, especially in a realm new to man, can never be free of deadly hazards. But the astronauts and the men associated with them in their ventures have always known it." It was clear astronauts were equal to emergency, "but they remain at the mercy of machinery which in some still unexplained way has failed them. The rest of us can only wait from desperate hour to hour, trusting that superlative skill, universal hope and fervent prayers will prevail over cruel chance." (B Sun, 4/15/70)
As U.S. and U.S.S.R,. opened strategic arms limitation talks (SALT) in Vienna, thoughts of delegates and local citizens were on Apollo 13. Washington Post later said mission was "a symbol of the space age that reflects the arms control problem at these talks. The rocket that put men into space also is the device that can rain death for millions by one superpower upon the other." (Roberts, W Post, 4/16/70, A10)
Researchers at Ohio State Univ. headed by physiologist Dr. Harold S. Weiss had received grants totaling $452975 to study artificial atmospheres inside space vehicles, UPI reported. They were trying to eliminate undesirable side effects on astronauts from breathing pure oxygen. (NYT, 4/16/70, 30)
NASA announced award of one-year, $40 000, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with two one-year options to Computing and Software, Inc., for support services for biomedical programs at FRC. Work would include design of life-support systems for advanced research flight vehicles. (NASA Release 70-57)
Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Development of House Committee on Science and Astronautics transmitted to parent committee The National Institutes of Research and Advanced Studies: A Recommendation for Centralization of Federal Science Responsibilities. Report, result of 10-mo study by subcommittee, recommended immediate establishment of National Institutes of Research and Advanced Studies (NIRAS) to consolidate Federal responsibilities for basic research and graduate education. NIRAS would be independent agency below cabinet level with administrator appointed by President subject to Senate confirmation. NSF, whose charter was basis for NIRAS, would be distributed in new centralized agency, with education programs at undergraduate level or below transferred to HEW Office of Education. Basic research programs determined to be no longer relevant to individual agency missions would be considered for transfer to NIRAS. Committee also recommended increase of OST staff with director given Cabinet status and responsibilities extended. (Text)
F-111 wing carry-through box underwent 16 000th hour of ground testing-four times estimated number of hours aircraft would actually fly in 10 yrs-at Fort Worth Div. of General Dynamics. Corp. Box had to withstand four times the number of maneuver loadings anticipated during decade of service operation at rate of 400 flight hours per year. (PD, 4/20/70, 525-6)
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