Aug 16 1966
From The Space Library
NASA successfully launched 550-lb. Project Scanner instrument package from Wallops Station to 380-mi. (612-km.) altitude on 13.5-min. suborbital flight: two-channel radiometers measured infrared energy emitted from earth's horizon by carbon dioxide and water vapor; starmapper telescope provided attitude orientation data. Managed by LaRC , Project Scanner was advanced research program to obtain data for designing and developing improved horizon-scanning instrumentation for space missions. (Wallops Release 66-43)
USAF launched two unidentified sate1lites"with Atlas-Agena D booster from WTR. (U.S. Aeron. & space Act., 1966, 154)
AFSC Commander Gen. Bernard A. Schriever received National Aviation Club's (NAC) 1966 Award of Achievement for his "significant contributions to the creation of the Air Force strategic missile force." The award would be presented Aug. 16 in Washington, D.C. (Tech. Wk., 8/8/66, 13)
More than 1,000 sheet metal workers out of 1,300 staged strike at KSC to protest NASA's permitting nonunion workers to install plumbing and sheet metal on Saturn V mobile service tower. Confined to construction jobs, strike was not expected to seriously affect major schedules unless prolonged. (AP, NYT, 8/17/66, 18)
North American Aviation, Inc., received a one-year, $48,223 contract from MSFC to "investigate the best methods and hardware for performing manned Mars and Venus flybys with maximum use of Apollo/Saturn systems . . . as a stepping stone to manned landing missions." (MSFC Release 66-187)
General Dynamics Corp. was being issued a $5,723,878 increment to a previously awarded (USAF) contract for work on design and development of an unspecified standard launch vehicle. Contract would be managed by AFSC's Space Systems Div. (DOD Release 701-66)
Senate Judiciary Committee reported S. 1603, Federal Inventions Act of 1966. Bill would "establish a uniform national policy concerning property rights in inventions resulting from the expenditure of public funds for experimental, developmental, or research work," superseding present law governing NASA patent policy. (NASA LAR V/145; Text)
In Houston Post Edward W. O'Brien cited need for definition of future national space effort, pointing out that the mighty industry government team that has been mobilized for manned flight is tapering off." Employment, at the peak, had been 400,000; by the end of 1967, total would be 200,000; by 1968, only 100,000. What the U.S. must soon determine is "whether this unique assembly of brainpower and mechanical skill should be held together, or whether it should be applied elsewhere to better public advantage." (Houston Post, 8/16/66)
In scheduling manned space flights, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Dr. George E. Mueller told the National Space Club in Washington, D.C., crew safety was the principal consideration, followed by accomplishment of program goals. He pointed out the open-ended" aspect of Apollo mission scheduling and expressed confidence that lunar landing would be achieved before the end of the decade based on present program posture. During question and answer session, Dr. Mueller said that while NASA and its contractors had studied possible methods of rescuing astronauts in space and would continue to do so, the cost, complexities, and uncertainties made it appear to date that the money and effort would be better spent in making flights safer in the first place. He added: "We don't exactly have instant rescue for people flying around in airliners and this is a large segment of the population." (Text, Clark, NYT, 8/17/66, 16)
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