Jun 2 1970
From The Space Library
Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, on goodwill trip to U.S.S.R., watched TV broadcast of Soyuz IX launch during party in his honor in Moscow and was told by Cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy that mission was "especially in honor of your trip here." Armstrong later presented moon fragment and small Soviet flag carried on Apollo 11 mission to Soviet Premier Aleksey N. Kosygin. Kosygin said he would "always cherish this gift as a symbol of a great achievement." He told Armstrong, "The Soviet peoples are second to none in admiring your courage and knowledge." (UPI. W Star, 6/2/70, A]; AP W Post, 6/3/70, A19)
NASA's M2-F3 lifting-body vehicle, piloted by NASA test pilot William H. Dana, successfully reached mach 0.7 after air launch from B-52 aircraft at 13 700-m (45 000-ft) altitude. Objectives of glide flight first in M2-F3 series-were to check out pilot, evaluate center-fin modification, determine aileron characteristics, evaluate stability augmentation system modifications, and evaluate speed brakes. (NASA Proj Off)
NASA launched three Aerobee 150 sounding rockets. Two from WSMR carried MIT experiment to study stellar spectra and Johns Hopkins Univ. experiment to study UV spectra. One launched from Woomera Rocket Range, Australia, carried Univ. of Wisconsin experiment to conduct x-ray studies. (SR list)
Review of Apollo 13 accident was nearing completion and understanding of accident was good, LaRC Director Edgar M. Cortright, Chairman of Apollo 13 Review Board, told press at MSC. Final report had been delayed pending completion of "critical tests being carried out which will help pin down some of the details of what took place." One of the key tests at MSC was related to special detanking and checkout procedures before launch. Tests had found faulty thermal switches and "demonstrated that if these thermal switches, had failed . . . the temperatures . . . in the heater tube assembly could have exceeded 1000 degrees F. [800 K] in some spots," hot enough to bake teflon-coated wares and destroy insulation. Actual flight tank at Beech Aircraft Corp. would be "cycled back through the same series of detanking operations that took place on the 02 tank ... from Apollo 13." Other tests were being conducted at MSC, ARC, and LeRC on "the ignition and combustion processes in the tank." Preliminary data suggested explosion resulted from failure of switches before launch and overheating of heater tube during detanking which destroyed insulation and sparked fire in tank. (Transcript)
MSFC announced negotiation of $1.8-million supplemental agreement with IBM for Saturn-launch-vehicle programming computer requirements and development of computer programs through December 1972 and $2-million modification to contract with Martin Marietta Corp. for Skylab payload integration. Modification was for systems integration for multiple docking adapter (MDA). (MSFC Releases 70109,70-110)
Dr. Alfred J. Eggers, Jr., NASA Assistant Administrator for Policy, delivered Minta Martin Lecture "Interactions of Technology and Society" at Stanford Univ. Lecture had also been delivered by Dr. Eggers at MIT on May I and at Johns Hopkins Univ. on May 21. Wendell Willkie's "One world" was rapidly becoming Buckminster Fuller's Spaceship Earth, socially, economically, technically and environmentally, Dr. Eggers said. "It is essential, therefore, that we begin to view the earth in all its finite reality and recognize that 'exponential projections' of the society of man and his works on earth are not only undesirable (if not impractical), but indeed they become unreal carried into the indefinite future. Accordingly, we do better to think in terms of the ultimate equilibrium we would like to see man achieve with and on spaceship earth, and from this vantage point we are drawn naturally to considerations of how best to approach and find the desired equilibrium." Population projections thus "would be expected to evolve . . .in accordance with satisfying the requirements of dynamic stability of the society of man in relation to his environment both natural and artificial. Technology, from earth-based to space-based, must play a massive role in this evolution because it will be crucial to effective earth resources management and distribution, and yet it must. be compatible with the earth's environment." (Text; A&A, 10/70, 38-50)
Discovery that blazing stars collided at rate of one every four months in heart of at least one kind of galaxy was reported from evidence obtained by Stratoscope II balloon-borne optical telescope March 26-27. Princeton Univ. physicist Dr. Martin Schwarzchild said collisions might be source of brightness fluctuations in Seyfert galaxies -rare heavenly masses with small, dense nuclei that radiated light and radio energy and bright lines produced by hot gases in motion. Stratoscope II had observed Seyfert galaxy at range of 30 light years from earth. (Lannan, W Star, 62/70)
NASA announced publication of The Moon as Viewed by Lunar Orbiter (NASA SP-200). Book by Leon K. Kosofsky of NASA Apollo Lunar Exploration Office and Farouk El-Baz of Bellcomm, Inc., contained stereoscopic and other photos of Aristarchus, Schroter's Valley, Rimae Parry, and Tobias Mayer Dome-lunar craters and valleys. Photos were taken on five Orbiter missions preparatory to Apollo flights. (NASA Release 70-82)
June 2-19: U.S.S.R.'s Soyuz IX, carrying Cosmonauts Andrian G. Nikolayev and Vitaly I. Sevastyanov, was launched from Baikonur at 12:09 am Baikonur time into orbit with 249-km (154.7-mi) apogee, 236-km (146.6-mi) perigee, 89.3-min period, and 51.6° inclination. Tass said cosmonauts would conduct extensive program of scientific and technical research in "solitary orbital flight," including medical and biological research on effects of space flight on man, studies of earth's geography and atmosphere, research into "physical processes in near-earth space," and checkout of spacecraft systems. Launch and pictures of crew in spacecraft were televised in Moscow about one hour after liftoff. Five hours after liftoff Tass reported cosmonauts were "coping well with conditions of weightlessness and carrying out the flight program." Only anomaly had been dirtying of windows from engine fired for midcourse maneuver after fifth orbit, Tass said. Systems were functioning normally and Nikolayev had begun "experiments linked with the investigation of human peculiarities as an element of the control system in different dynamic operations." Tass issued daily bulletins that described routine of space flight chores and experiments: "While one cosmonaut runs a vacuum cleaner, the other brews coffee or shaves." Cosmonauts performed strenuous physical exercises each day in special "load suits," practiced manual maneuvers of spacecraft, and photographed earth and sun. By June 8 Soyuz IX had completed 100 orbits and 147 hrs of flight-record for man-hours in space in Soviet space program with all systems functioning satisfactorily and with crew demonstrating it could "withstand well the complex impact of the factors of space flight and retain high efficiency." Insomnia, only problem reported by crew, had been overcome. On June 19 Tass announced Soyuz IX had softlanded 76 km (47 mi) west of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, after orbiting in space for 17 days 16 hrs 59 min and setting new world record for manned space flight endurance. Tass said that crew had "fully fulfilled its programs of research" and that preliminary medical examination showed cosmonauts "had withstood the prolonged space flight well." Most important part of program; Tass said, was medical biological experiments on effects of prolonged flight on man. (GSFC SSR, 6/30/70; SBD, 6/2/70, 152; Mills, B Sun, 62/70, A1; 6/20170, A1; AP, NYT, 6/3/70, 18; UPI, W Star, 6/7-8/70; 6/12/70)
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