Nov 14 1972
From The Space Library
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, visited Kennedy Space Center for briefings on KSC plans for 1970s. Programs included Apollo 17, Skylab, U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo Soyuz Test Project, space shuttle, applications programs, and Viking unmanned Mars missions for 1975 launch. Dr. Fletcher's visit included Vehicle Assembly Building, to see Saturn V Orbital Workshop and Saturn IB launch vehicle for Skylab. (KSC Release 320-72)
More than 70 students from six continents would witness Apollo 17 launch and visit major U.S. science centers during Dec. 17 tour sponsored by NASA in cooperation with Dept. of State, NASA announced. Students 15 to 17 yrs old with top academic ratings had been selected by their governments on NASA invitation. U.S. tour would give students broad view of work in science and space. Tour would include Washington, D.C.; Tennessee Valley Authority; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Marshall Space Flight Center; Manned Spacecraft Center; Ames Research Center; Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and facilities of National Bureau of Standards, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and United Nations. Project also was supported by U.S. Information Agency and National Science Teachers Assn. (NASA Release 72-219)
Successful "freezing" of orbiting solar research satellite during first space hibernation operation undertaken in Europe had been reported by European Space Research Organization (ESRO), Christian Science Monitor said. ESRO center at Darmstadt, West Germany, had rendered TD-1A satellite, launched for ESRO by NASA March 11, nonoperational during partial solar eclipse. Hibernation enabled satellite to preserve full power intact until it emerged from eclipse. (Reuters, CSM, 11/14/72)
NASA launched Aerobee 170 sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range, carrying Goddard Space Flight Center solar physics experiment. Rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (SR list)
Florida Governor Reubin Askew had been asked by citizens group to restore name of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy by executive order, Miami Herald reported. (Markham, M Her, 11/14/72)
Documentary film "Moonwalk One" was reviewed by New York Post. Film traced Apollo 11 lunar landing and first moonwalk by Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong "from Stonehenge to Africa, Cape Kennedy to Houston, to the sun and its mighty flame-storms to camper-sightseers on the Florida shore, to the moon itself and the return." It was "documentary so vast and so beautiful and fascinating that its opening outside the big commercial theaters is a shocking sin of omission" Film, made by Francis Thompson Inc., was highlight of "New American Filmmakers Series" at Whitney Museum in New York. (Winsten, NY Post, 11/14/72)
November 14-17: Dept. of Transportation held conference at its Systems center in Cambridge, Mass., to discuss plans for stratospheric observations, laboratory experiments, and computer simulations in program to assess impact of supersonic air traffic on climate and life. Emphasis was on argument by Dr. Harold S. Johnston of Univ. of California at Berkeley and Dr. Paul J. Crutzen of Univ. of Stockholm that nitrogen oxides from supersonic transport exhaust could seriously deplete stratosphere ozone that absorbed much of harmful ultraviolet rays. Some scientists and engineers attending conference had agreed with theory but many had said it was essential to prove theory wrong. Dr. Harold F. Blum of State Univ. of New York at Albany had said that if additional uv got through stratosphere increase in skin cancer would occur, but he could not estimate amount of increase. Dr. Alan J. Grobecker, SST assessment program manager, said if chain reaction in which nitrogen oxides continuously removed ozone according to Johnston-Crutzen theory was very slow effect might escape notice. SST program studies would include use of high-flying U-2 and Concorde supersonic transport aircraft to make stratospheric observations and quick-freeze samples of air in stratosphere for laboratory analysis. (Sullivan, NYT, 11/19/72, 50; DOT PIO)
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