Jun 24 1973
From The Space Library
Skylab 2 Astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr., Paul J. Weitz, and Dr. Joseph P. Kerwin were greeted by President Nixon and Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev at the San Clemente, Calif. White House. The astronauts were en route to Ellington Air Force Calif, Tex., after their successful June 22 splashdown off San Diego. (PD, 7/2/73, 876)
Newspaper editorials commented on the success of the May 14-June 22 Skylab 1-2 mission. New York Times: "This first group of astronauts did much more .. . than demonstrate man's biological capability to live and work in space for four weeks. They proved that men in space can do what machines cannot do, they can repair their vehicle." It was conceivable that "when all the Skylab data are available, the field of solar astronomy may be advanced as radically as lunar astronomy has been in recent years. At Skylab's completion "a strong economic and scientific case will doubt-less have been made for creating one or more permanent manned stations in space. Any such orbiting laboratories should surely be United Nations ventures in international cooperation, not new instruments for senseless and expensive national rivalries." (NYT, 6/24/73)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: It had been shown that "enterprising spacemen can do more than routine work for long periods of time. They can deal with the unexpected, correct serious malfunctions and adjust routine to changed circumstances. In space, as on earth, things do not always go well. There, as here, adversity is the true test of men. The Skylab pioneers have met that test with distinction." (P Inq, 6/24/73)
The U.S.S.R. announced the start of operations at the world's first nuclear station within the Arctic Circle. The plant, in the Kola Peninsula, had been designed to bolster the electrical supply, of a rich mining region. (NYT, 6/25/73)
June 24-25: The status of the joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo Soyuz Test Project for a July 1975 launch was described in a joint communique dated June 24 and released June 25 from San Clemente, Calif., at the close of summit meetings between President Nixon and Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev: "Preparations for the joint space flight . . . are proceeding according to an agreed time-table. The joint flight of these spaceships for a rendezvous and docking mission and mutual visits of American and Soviet astronauts in each other's spacecraft are scheduled for July 1975." (PD, 7/2/73, 840-48)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
