May 23 1966
From The Space Library
Debate began in Senate on authorization of NASA budget for FY 1967. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-Me.) said: “It is important to note that the pressures creating the great surges in progress -whether it be in science, technology, exploration, or economic and social development-come from outside forces and considerations. . . . “It is these forcing functions which mainly set the pace of progress and development. Space is no exception. Indeed, the great surge in space research and exploration is a classic example of this historical pattern. It was these forcing functions which set in motion the revolution in science and technology which has brought us to the era we know as the Space Age. And it is these forcing functions which today and tomorrow will determine our future course and our future policies in space. . . . “The decisions which confront us today are those which will determine whether the history of the last half century will repeat itself a. few years hence, and whether we will once again experience a bitter awakening to the fact that others have seized the initiative in the more advanced space missions of the future. Indeed, in today’s cold war arena, the question boils down to whether this Nation can afford such a luxury, in terms of our very survival. For it is clear that future leadership in this scientific and technological competition-which has such great economic, military, and political significance-will not be easily held, nor would it be easily regained once lost.” (CR, 5/23/66)
Important information on one of several x-ray sources, observable only from space, had been obtained by experiments on March 8 sounding rocket flight from WSMR, NASA announced. Initial results from data analyzed revealed that the angular size of the x-ray source in the constellation Scorpius, Sco X-1, could not exceed 20 arc-seconds. This discovery disagreed with widely held view that this source represented an ancient nearby (Milky Way) supernova. It strengthened current speculation that the sources in Scorpio and many of the other x-ray sources are an entirely new class of celestial objects characterized by small angular size which are either undetectable or star-like in visible light or radio emission. The detail with which the angular size of this x-ray source was measured was more than 20 times greater than any previous measurement [see June 17-18]. (NASA Release 66-125)
USAF launched unidentified satellite from WTR with Thor-Agena D booster. (US. Aeron. & Space Act., 1966, 150)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced appointment of William B. Rieke, NASA Assistant Administrator for Industry Affairs and former president of Lockheed Aircraft International, Inc., as Acting Assistant Administrator for Administration. Mr. Rieke would assume new duties beginning May 30, replacing John B. Young who resigned to become an assistant to BOB Director. (NASA Release 66-131; NASA Ann.)
NASA semiannual procurement report revealed continuing sharp upsurge in use of incentive contracts. During six-month period, NASA had awarded 41 new incentive contracts and converted two cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts to incentive awards. Target value of all incentive contracts as of Dec. 31, 1965, was $2.184 million-more than three times the total at the end of first half of FY 1965. (Text)
A NASA Contract Administration Services Representative’s office-headed by Donald R. Mulholland, Deputy Director of NASA’s western Operations Office-had been established at headquarters of AFSC’s Air Force Contract Management Div. (AFCMD), Los Angeles, Calif. New office, which completed network of representatives’ offices in major DOD centers, would “provide liaison between AFCMD and NASA elements on contract administration services support. . . .’ (NASA Hq. Bull., 5/23/66)
International Galabert Astronautical Prize was awarded jointly to MSFC Director Dr. Wernher von Braun “for the whole of his work in the United States, particularly on the Saturn project,” and to French space technicians Jean-Pierre Causse, of the Centre National Etudes Spatiales (CNES), and Roger Chevalier, of the Societe pour l’Etude et la Realisation d’Engins Balistiques (SEREB) , “as symbols of the French space effort.” The $4,000 prize would be presented at October meeting of International Astronautical Congress in Paris. (French Embassy; Reuters, NYT, 5/24/66, 11)
Britain’s W. J. Strang, deputy technical director of the Anglo-French Concorde SST project, dropped all references to the Concorde’s being “the world’s first supersonic transport” from the prepared text of an address before the Aviation/Space Writers’ Assn. in New York. When asked about this omission, Bernard A. Darrieux of France’s Sud Aviation Co. replied that French aviation experts who had visited the U.S.S.R. and who were informed of Soviet plans said there was a “strong possibility the U.S.S.R. may be first.” (Norris, Wash. Post, 5/24/66, A28)
Astronaut Scott Carpenter decided not to attend Second International Congress on Oceanography in Moscow after learning that the US. ocean research vessel U.S.S. Silas Bent had been denied permission to dock at Leningrad in connection with the conference. Carpenter, who had participated in the Sealab II experiment in living and working underwater, would have attended as an aquanaut and would have been the first astronaut to visit Moscow. NAS had designated Silas Bent to respond to Soviet invitation for oceanographic ships to visit Soviet ports during Congress so delegates could visit them but Soviet Foreign Ministry had refused permission. (AP, Balt. Sun, 5/24/66)
NASA Apollo Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) descent engine, Phase II, test began at Arnold Engineering Development Center. (AEDC)
May 23-25: Harsh indictment by A. V. Cleaver, chief engineer for rockets at Rolls-Royce, of European politicians and civil servants involved in the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) opened the sixth annual European Space Symposium at Brighton, U.K.: “I believe the future of ELDO is extremely bleak, unless Europe as a whole and the United Kingdom in particular, adopts an entirely fresh approach to its problems.. . . Europe could have made a better showing if her politicians had been of equal caliber to her technical men, insofar as their grasp of 20th century realities was concerned. . . . The lesson is this: at any time, the leading nations are those preeminent in technology, usually in the technology of transport.” Cleaver noted that the European nations in ELDO had, among them, about 120% of the US’s population and more than 50% of the US. gross national product, and should be doing far more than the present one-twentieth of the US. space effort. (Coleman, Av. Wk., 5/30/66, 32)
Optimistic assessment of prospects for exploring Mars during the next decade and finding some form of life there was presented by scientists at the AAS-sponsored symposium on “The Search for Extraterrestrial Life” in Anaheim, Calif. Carlos De Moraes, director of planetary program studies for Martin Co., visualized a series of space flights from 1969 to 1979 and culminating in the landing of two 3,500-lb. “space buses.” First flight, in 1969, would be of an 850-lb. spacecraft that would provide televised mapping of the Mars surface and take measurements of the atmosphere. After a series of intermediary flights, the space buses would land in 1979 and release both automated biological laboratories and roving vehicles that would explore and gather samples at points away from the immediate landing area. Dr. Norman H. Horowitz of JPL noted that “any form of life, however primitive, found on Mars would be of immense scientific value.” He said that no matter how bleak the picture, the possibilities of life on Mars should be explored to the fullest because that planet appeared to be the likeliest site for life beyond the earth.. GE engineers P. G. Thome and Ernest J. Merz described giant clamshell under development that would be part of a system launched by a Saturn V booster in 1973. The thick disc-shaped object would open like a giant mollusk when landed on Mars, releasing devices that would start gathering information on atmosphere, weather, soil, and life. Information would be telemetered back to earth. Disc could be powered by radioisotope-fueled generator that could keep it in operation for up to six months. (Texts)
Speculating about meetings with intelligent beings from or on another planet, Harold D. Lasswell, Yale Univ. professor of law and political science, asked: “Would earthlings unite or wage interstellar war? Would we have to kow-tow to a more advanced civilization, or dominate an inferior one? Suppose they had no more, or even less, feelings of love and responsibility? Might meeting with an advanced society push man further toward creating a culture of frantic fun?” (Ap, Balt. Sun, 5/26/66)
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