Dec 8 1969
From The Space Library
Recording by seismometer on moon of seven external impacts near Apollo 12 landing site since astronauts left moon Nov. 20 was reported by Columbia Univ. scientist Dr. Gary V. Latham, principal investigator for Apollo Program's seismic research. Each impact had produced tremors. Dr. Latham said meteors might have struck Ocean of Storms, whose surface resonated when hit. Lack of internal quakes indicated moon had not been heated substantially for about 4.6 billion yrs. (AP, W Star, 12/9/69, A6)
Edgar L. Piret, U.S. Embassy Scientific Attache in Paris, accepted Prix Pierre Guzman gold medals on behalf of Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins. Award had been established by Mme. Anna Emile Guzman in 1889 for first persons "to find the means of communicating with a heavenly body-Mars excluded" [see Aug. 13]. (AP, W Post, 12/9/69, A23)
Apollo 11 lunar landing had been selected number one foreign news story of year by Japan's Kyodo news service, Associated Press said. Second was President Nixon's decision to reduce U.S. troops in Vietnam, third was Communist China's ninth party congress in Peking. (St. Louis GBD, 12/8/69)
LeRC's 60-mw test reactor at Plum Brook Station, Ohio, completed 100th cycle of operation. It had begun full-power operation in April 1963. Since then it had participated in 1,100 irradiations of experiments in nuclear propulsion, energy conversion, basic radiation effects, and nuclear physics programs. About 30 active irradiation experiments in progress ranged from nuclear fuel material tests to studies of atomic and molecular structure of matter. (LeRC Release 69-72)
Rep. Edgar F. Foreman (R-N. Mex.) introduced H.C.R. 464 for Congressional recognition of Goddard Rocket and Space Museum, Roswell, N. Mex." as memorial to Dr. Robert H. Goddard, "who pioneered in rocket experimentation and contributed to America's success in landing men on the moon." (CR, 12/8/69, H11865)
By vote of 330 to 33 House passed H.R. 15090, $69.9-billion DOD FY 1970 appropriations bill. (CR, 12/8/69, H11865-909)
Princeton Univ. scientists had observed sudden speedup in fastest and youngest pulsar, in heart of Crab Nebula, Walter Sullivan reported in New York Times. With second discovery of periodic phenomenon, astronomers had taken word "glitch" from electronic engineers and astronauts to describe sudden departure from normal pulsar behavior. (NYT, 12/8/69)
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