Jan 8 1965
From The Space Library
FAA announced that contracts for industry study in the supersonic transport program had been extended an additional two months. (AP, Balt. Sun, 1/9/65)
Dr. Richard Shorthill of Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories reported that from 400 to 800 "hot spots" were observed on the moon during the eclipse of December 18, 1964. The lunar face had been scanned at infrared wavelengths from the Helwan Observatory near Cairo, Egypt. Recent impacts from meteors, which would create rocky craters slower to cool after the sunlight was obscured, might account for the "hot spots." It was already known that prominent craters from which rays radiated in all directions, such as Tycho, were slow to cool, compared to the normal surface, which was thought to be Carpeted with dust. While the total number of slow-cooling locations would remain uncertain until the tape-recorded results had been plotted by computer, Dr. Shorthill felt that if the technique produced an inventory of young craters, it would help in spotting new ones when they occurred and in estimating the rate at which the moon and the earth were bombarded by debris from space. (Sullivan, NYT, 1/9/65)
Application for patents on a recoverable single-stage spacecraft booster was filed with the U.S. Patent Office by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Invented by Philip Bono, a space engineer at Douglas Missile and Space Systems Div., the booster was called Rombus (Reusable Orbital Module-Booster and Utility Shuttle) and would have the capability of placing approximately 1 million lb. in circular orbit 175 mi. high and could be reused 20 times. Rombus would have its own propulsion for orbiting, deorbiting, and landing retrothrust, would employ eight strap-on, jettisonable liquid hydrogen fuel tanks. The vehicle resulted from a NASA-funded study but was not presently being developed. (Marshall Star, 1/13/65, 1-2; Seattle Post-Intelligence, 1/8/65)
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