Mar 1 1967
From The Space Library
Lewis Research Center awarded two one-year award-fee contracts totaling $22,500,000-$17,665,000 to General Dynamics Corp. and $5,171,000 to Honeywell, Inc. - for management and sustaining engineering services on Centaur launch vehicle. (NASA Release 6743)
Dr. Louis B. Arnoldi, former Command Surgeon of Air Force Logistics Command, had been named NASA Director of Occupational Medicine, succeeding Dr. Harold H. Stoddard, who resigned. (NASA Release 67-45)
Special NATO council began study to define and analyze technology gap separating US. and Western Europe. Project, initiated by Italian Foreign Minister Amintore Fanfani, would reactivate cooperation within NATO and lead to cooperative programs to close the gap. (Mooney, NYT, 3/2/67,12)
March 1-2: Lunar Orbiter III continued transmitting photos of the lunar surface [see Feb. 8-28]. On March 2-during 149th orbit-final photographic readout was interrupted when film failed to advance in the camera system. Efforts to clear the jammed film and continue readout were unsuccessful. Photographic data had been received on all but 29 of 211 frames, including six of the 12 primary Apollo landing sites and 29 of 31 secondary areas. NASA Hq. program and project officials and LaRC engineers would make an on-site analysis of telemetry time histories and engineering tapes at JPL to determine exact cause of failure. (NASA Proj Off; NASA Release 6746)
NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., testified in support of NASA's FY 1968 budget authorization before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. He reviewed 1966 accomplishments and discussed future spaceflight activities: "We completed 22 missions during 1966 successfully out of 29 attempts, or a 76% success. This record is somewhat lower than the previous year, but it is marked by qualitative advances greater than any before. "The FY 1968 request represents the first true post-Apollo decisions. . . . The combination of the 1971 Mariner flights and the initiation of a continuing, major Voyager program" represented effective translations into action of President's Science Advisory Committee's recommendation that planetary exploration be given a high priority in the post-Apollo period. "During FY 1968 we will be decreasing somewhat our application of manpower effort on the manned space flight programs with a considerable shift in effort from the Apollo to the Apollo Applications part of that activity. We will be increasing our total effort in space science and applications programs, particularly in the build-up of the Voyager program activity . . . [and devoting] more effort to our advanced research and technology activities. . . ." Emphasizing that he was "not prepared nor willing to state that a manned lunar landing cannot be achieved before 1970," Dr. Seamans admitted there was a high probability that Apollo program would have to operate on a delayed schedule. "An important contributor to . . . success will be adequate resources and the flexibility to apply them when needed. . . . We cannot say today that the $2.6 billion requested for Apollo is not enough [but] we can say it is not too much. . . . It cannot be reduced and still accomplish the objectives we have defined." (Testimony; Transcript, 118)
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