Apr 18 1966
From The Space Library
ComSatCorp filed with FCC a $31,985,000 fixed-price contract with TRW Systems, Inc., for research, development, and production of six advanced synchronous satellites for global commercial satellite service. Cylindrical, 240-lb. satellites would have 1,200 two-way voice channels and five-year operational life and would handle all types of communications. (ComSatCorp Release)
Supersonic transport and rocket flights in the next few decades could raise the average surface temperature of the earth by almost half a degree by spewing tons of chemical pollutants into the atmosphere, said Dr. Gordon J. F. MacDonald, UCLA planetary and space physicist, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Heavy burning of coal, oil, and gas introduced by the industrial revolution in the 19th century and the automotive revolution in the 20th had increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by about 15 per cent, MacDonald estimated. The carbon dioxide created a layer of gas that allowed heat from the sun to reach the earth but stopped it from escaping when it was re-radiated back from the earth. This was the "greenhouse effect," which raised the temperature below the layer and lowered the temperature above the layer. "Four hundred supersonic aircraft flying four flights a day on intercontinental routes, would affect surface temperatures as much as the whole industrial and automotive revolutions have to date," Mac Donald said. (Getze, L A . Times, 4/18/66)
Striking members of International Union of Electrical Workers (AFL-CIO) picketed all gates of Kennedy Space Center, NASA, in wage dispute with United Technology Center, builder of solid-fuel boosters for USAP Titan III launch vehicle. UTC had about 175 workers at KSC, one-third of whom were IUEW members. Some 300 of a total force of 366 construction workers honored the picket lines and failed to show up for work on the Saturn V mobile service structure and Vertical Assembly Building (VAB). Strike was first at KSC during 1966, but the ninth in 27 mos. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 4/18/66, A l; AP, NYT, 4/19/66)
A new nuclear particle-the most massive and most stable yet found had been discovered by physicists at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Three and a half times as heavy as the proton, the particle was a `nucleon resonance' known simply as N*3245." The number "3245" stood for 3,245 million electron volts, the amount of its energy. According to Dr. Alan D. Krisch of Univ. of Michigan, nucleon resonances "may be `excited' or highly energetic states of protons and neutrons . . . and can be produced only in accelerators. They are not observed in nature." Krisch, along with John R. O'Fallon, Keith Ruddick, and Steven W. Kormanyos of Univ. of Michigan, and Lazarus G. Ratner of ANL, made the discovery using Argonne's 13.5-billion electron volt (Bev) zero gradient synchrotron. They said this "abnormally stable" particle has a lifetime of one ten-thousandth of a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second, which is "longer than that of any of its family of nuclear particles." Krisch suggested N*3245 may have "an unusually high spin which prevents it from decaying easily." Discovery was reported in Physical Review Letters. (Phys. Rev. Letters, 4/18/66, 709; Amer. Inst. of Physics Release, 4/18/66)
Capt. Robert F. Freitag (USN, Ret.), Director of Field Center Development, NASA OMSF, speaking in Washington, D.C., before the Community Development Conference of the 16th District of Texas, said that the magnitude and importance of the investment in the space program dictate that informed citizens from all walks of life participate in a national dialogue on decisions involved: "We in NASA do not feel that the planning of our space programs is the prerogative of NASA alone. . . . The budget for the coming fiscal year permits NASA to hold open the option for a program to procure additional flight vehicles beyond those now programmed, so as to employ the Apollo hardware, facilities and capabilities at least through 1971. If we do not exercise this option in the decision for the 1968 budget, we will have to begin a phase-down of the manned space flight activities and the `mothballing' of some of our facilities. At a small fraction of the initial cost we can continue and we can expand our operations in space for the next ten years and more. These operations will have tremendous implications for our national security and for our position of world leadership, in addition to the benefits of scientific advancement and the betterment of man's life on Earth. . . . In the area of national security, our expenditures in space probably represent the cheapest insurance policy the nation can buy for the future." (Text)
April 18,19: Press commented on $525-million order from Pan American World Airways, Inc. (Pan Am), for 25 Boeing 747 aircraft [see April 13]: Order had cast doubt on market value for Anglo-French Concorde SST, according to Andrew Wilson in Washington Post. BOAC Chairman Sir Giles Guthrie had said his corporation would meet with Boeing representatives during week of April 18 to discuss purchase of about six new jets. 490-seat Boeing 747 would reduce operating costs by as much as 37 per cent, and Pan Am order, Wilson said, "makes it inevitable that B.O.A.C. will follow suit." (Wash. Eve. Star, 4/15/66, C-3; Wilson, London Observer; Wash. Post, 4/19/66, C7)
"The 747 concept promises to be as revolutionary in relation to the current generation of jets as the initial 707s were to the piston-powered transports they superseded," Aviation Week editorialized. "Biggest technical advancement will come from the new generation of high bypass ratio, high temperature, large turbofans typified by the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft JT9D. This new gas turbine cycle promises as much improvement in load-carrying capacity and operating economy as the original turbofan gained over the straight turbojet. It is the real root of the economic and technical revolution embodied in the 747 concept." (Hotz, Av. Wk., 4/18/66, 21)
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