Mar 19 1968
From The Space Library
NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried ARC payload to 98.7-mi (159-km) altitude to check Solar Pointing Aerobee Rocket Control System (SPARCS) and map flight-path magnetic field. Rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (NASA Rpt SRL)
FRC engineers had used small, inexpensive, radio-controlled model spacecraft to evaluate concepts for possible advanced spacecraft recovery systems in over 100 successful flights, FRC's planning engineer Robert D. Reed revealed. In status report to AIAA's 2nd Flight Test, Simulation and Support Conference in Los Angeles, Reed said flight tests of models, including heavy volume and slender lifting-body vehicles, with various advanced flexible-wing and gliding-parachute recovery systems, were being tested to determine their suitability for ground landings. (FRC Release 9-68)
NASA Associate Administrator for Tracking and Data Acquisition Gerald M. Truszynski, in statement before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, summarized 1967 activities and technical problems and presented FY 1969 funding requirements for tracking and data acquisition program. He explained that FY 1968 funding limitations had made it necessary to defer important equipment procurement affecting network reliability and recounted efforts to realize savings and reduce operating costs. (Testimony)
NASA Manager for Space Nuclear Propulsion Milton Klein explained to Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences that AEC's nuclear space power work would "establish technology in advance of missions, with specific system development undertaken as mission requirements dictate." He presented a sampling of AEC's activities as it worked closely with NASA and DOD "to keep in focus the types and likely timing of future mission needs." (Testimony)
ESSA had received its first meteorological photos from U.S.S.R.'s Cosmos CCVI, launched March 14, Space Business Daily reported. All seven pictures were "good quality." (SBD, 3/20/68, 109)
D. P. Nerry warned in Data that space research, candidate to help alleviate many national problems, was "placed on a back burner of the nation's stove of priorities. . . . For the sad fact is that after landing men on the moon this nation will only have a cursory space program." Nerry called for assessment of new outlook on space for 1970s. "If, for example, Congress should decide that there should be a permanent large-scale reduction in the resources allocated to space, NASA then should be firmly advised to plan accordingly." But if slowdown would be temporary, NASA should plan to pursue space exploration "vigorously" at end of present delays. Nerry urged that press employ "strong debate and factual reporting" to provide "a reappraisal of U.S. emptiness in space in this Guns-Butter Society." (Nerry, Data, 3/19/68, 7)
March 19-20: More than 100 scientists and engineers attended Saturn I Workshop design review board meeting at MSFC to discuss results of previous reviews. Workshop, scheduled for launch in 1970, would consist of Saturn IV-B stage modified for living and working in space for better understanding of permanent, man-made, island-in-space requirements. (MSFC Release 68-45)
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