Jul 13 1965
From The Space Library
NASA invited scientists to propose, by August 15, the various experiments to be included in a continuing Voyager program of exploration of the planets. The Mars Voyager program would begin with a test flight in 1969 followed by an orbiter-lander flight in 1971 with other flights following in 1973, 1975, and beyond. The program would also include missions now under consideration for flights to Venus and other planets. The experiments to be included in the 1971 mission of the landing capsule would be subject to strict sterilization requirements. In following programs, there would be considerable latitude in the choice of experiments. (NASA Release 65-230)
Senate passed the Independent Offices appropriation bill 84-2, with the NASA portion at $5.19 billion as reported out by the Appropriations Committee. Negative votes were cast by Senators Dirksen (R-Ill.) and Young (D-Ohio). (CR, 7/13/65, 16008-27)
President Johnson, asked during a White House news conference if he could give a status report on USAF's Manned Orbiting Laboratory, said: "No, I am not in a position to make a statement on that at this time. The Space Council has had some briefings in connection with the matter. There is a study going on every day in that connection, but I would not want to go further than that now." (Transcript, Wash. Post, 7/14/65)
Vice President Hubert Humphrey and his party, which included Rep. Carl Albert (D-Okla,) and Sen, Fred Harris (D-Okla,), visited NASA Manned Spacecraft Center and were briefed on the Gemini program by Charles W. Mathews; on the Apollo program by Dr. Joseph F. Shea; and on the life support systems by Richard Johnston of Crew Systems. Mr. Humphrey-it was his first visit to MSC-took a "ride" in the Gemini docking trainer with Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr. (Cdr, USN) and then he and his party observed a simulated Gemini liftoff at the Mission Control Center and a portion of a mission. (MSC Roundup, 7/23/65, 1; Houston Post, 7/14/65)
JPL Director Dr. William H. Pickering held up some fuzzy photographs of patches of the moon during a JPL press conference and said this was the best quality to be expected from the MARINER IV television system. The pictures should be better than any ever obtained from earth if the system operated as planned, he said. Each of the MARINER IV pictures would consist of 200 rows of 200 dots. Each dot Would be sent as a number ranging from 0 to 63, designating the darkness of the dot. Reconstruction of the picture would be done by a computer at JPL. Because the first views would scan the planet obliquely, it might not be until the third image that one was received showing any obvious surface features. This, according to Dr. Pickering, might mean that no pictures would be displayed publicly until July 16. (Sullivan, NYT, 7/15/65, 1)
Rains forced Princeton Univ. scientists to postpone launching from Palestine, Tex, of a Stratoscope II balloon and its telescope designed to photograph Saturn and its rings, No new launch date had been set. (Houston Chron, 7/14/65)
A ground firing of the Saturn S-II battleship stage was conducted for 25 sec. at the Santa Susana test site of North American Aviation, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center announced. The firing-longest to date in the S-II program-was one of a series leading to full flight duration runs of nearly 400 sec. Next test, expected within a week, was planned for about two minutes. (FC Release 65-183)
U.S. Weather Bureau, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Central Radio Propagation Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards were merged to form Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA). Creation of ESSA came two months after President Johnson transmitted the reorganization plan to Congress. (30 FR 8819 (1965) )
ComSatCorp had filed applications with FCC for construction of two new earth stations and related facilities, and expansion of a third existing station, One new station would be located at Brewster Flat, Wash, and a second on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, Overall costs of these facilities, including land acquisition, construction, and establishment of related electronic equipment, was estimated at $6 million each, ComSatCorp said it was negotiating to purchase from AT&T the existing earth station at Andover, Me, and asked authority to modify and expand the facility, pending a purchase agreement. (ComSatCorp Release)
Two Presidential citations were among 12 awards presented to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center employees recently, MSFC announced. Ralph Butler of the Aero-Astrodynamics Laboratory had suggested an improved method of measuring local atmospheric conditions by using radio-controlled model airplanes. Franklin Williams of the Saturn V Program Office had made two cost-reduction proposals, one concerning X-ray radiation protection and the other recommending an inexpensive covering for clean room insulation. Butler and Williams saved the Government an estimated $306,000. ( MSFC Release 65-182)
The rash of reports on strange visitations to earth received comment from Walter Sullivan in the New York Times: "Whether or not [flying saucer enthusiasts] are aware of it, this is the time when space probes would be arriving from Mars, if inhabitants of that planet were engaged in a similar effort [to the MARINER IV Mars flyby]. The earth overtakes Mars every two years and two months, coming within a few dozen million miles of it. There was such an approach this spring. The United States and the: Soviet. Union anticipated it by firing vehicles toward Mars last November. If there were any Martians equipped to do so, they would have fired their vehicles toward earth at about the same time." (Sullivan, NYT, 7/13/65)
In spite of recent reports from Portugal, the Azores, and the Antarctic of "strange objects moving through space," USAF's Project Blue Book--in charge of investigating UFO reports-had not yet found any evidence to support the view that flying saucers or anything like them had entered the earth's atmosphere from outer space. 9,118 reports had been investigated since 1947. (Balt. Sun, 7/13/65)
Rep. Donald Rumsfeld urged that more effort be devoted to development of US. inner space capability, because of its military significance: "If the United States is not striving for military control of inner space, it should, because the safety of the nation and of the non-Communist world depends upon it. "The United States can afford to lose the moon race to Russia, which would be a great scientific first but it cannot afford to lose the race for control of the inner space belt, because it will have lost all.' (CR, 7/13/65, A3714)
Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis. ) spoke on the floor of the Senate on potential dangers to universities from Federal research programs and advocated giving more decision -making responsibility on allocation of funds to the universities. (CR, 7/13/65, 16075-77)
US. Space Park at the New York World's Fair had had an attendance of 500,000 persons thus far, a 15% increase over last year's attendance, NASA announced. (NASA Hq. Bull, 1-65-14)
At 10:28 a.m. EDT, a signal from the tracking station at Johannesburg, South Africa, had commanded MARINER IV to turn on the encounter equipment. Obeying the command 12 min, later-the time it took the signal to reach the spacecraft across 134,000,000 mi,-MARINER IV's scan platform with TV cameras and two Mars sensors began searching for the planet; the tape recorder began a 10-hr. warm-up, By 1:10 p.m. the spacecraft's sensors had found the proper angle from which to photograph Mars. On orders from JPL, the Johannesburg tracking station ordered the camera and its light sensor to stop the scan at 7/10 of a degree of the optimum aiming point. Throughout the day, the spacecraft continued transmitting scientific and engineering information via the telemetry system. At 7:50 p.m. the Mars probe made its first "sighting" contact with the planet. The telemetry system then shifted and began sending only information from the scientific experiments. At 8:20 p.m. EDT, the first light from Mars struck the light sensor aligned with the camera and the 25-min, picture-taking sequence began, 21 frames were exposed and recorded on magnetic tape to be telemetered to earth over a 10-day period. Transmission of each picture would require 8 hrs, 25 min, Near the end of the fly-by, signals received at Goldstone tracking station had indicated a malfunction in the tape system. Telemetry received after the pass, however, showed no indication that trouble had occurred. At 10:12, MARINER IV flew behind Mars, remained obscured for 53 min, and re-emerged beyond the planet, its transmitter beaming radio signals through the Martian atmosphere. From this occultation experiment, scientists might be able to gauge the depth, thickness, and component gases of Mars' atmosphere by measuring how much these signals were bent and their speeds changed. Dr. William H. Pickering, JPL Director, told a news conference that signals indicated all instruments on the spacecraft had performed properly during the flyby. (NASA Release 65-227; Sullivan, NYT, 7/15/65; Hoffman, N.Y , Her. Trib., 7/15/65; AP, Balt, Sun, 7/15/65)
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