Oct 14 1968
From The Space Library
NASA successfully launched two Nike-Cajun sounding rockets two hours apart from Point Barrow, Alaska, to 80-mi (128.8-km) altitudes. Purpose of launches was to obtain data on variation of temperature, pressure, and wind profile by detonating 19 grenades per rocket at prescribed times and recording sound arrivals on ground. Data would be compared with data from two launches to be conducted from Churchill Research Range Oct. 15. Rockets and instruments performed satisfactorily; sound arrivals were recorded for all grenade ejections. Good data were anticipated. (NASA Rpts SRL)
NASA FY 1970 budget request, totaling $4.698 billion, was submitted to Bureau of the Budget. Subsequently, Acting Administrator Thomas 0. Paine met with BOB Director Charles J. Zwick, and BOB staff members held budget hearings with NASA officials. (NASA Off of Admin)
Special committee of National Academy of Sciences had nominated Duke Univ. biochemist Dr. Philip Handler, Chairman of National Science Foundation's National Science Board, to succeed Dr. Frederick Seitz as NAS president. Election by mail ballot would be held in December. (NYT, 10/14/68, 33)
Barron's editorial criticized concentration of space funding on manned lunar program rather than on military: "Congress in its wisdom already has curtailed funds for manned flights after the lunar landing-the so-called Apollo Applications Program-and it could usefully wield an even sharper axe. The money might far better go toward the military exploitation of space, which, for the past seven years, has suffered from dangerous neglect. Thus, out of the vast sums spent on space, at most one dollar in six has had a military bearing. In turn, with the possible exception of the Manned Orbital Laboratory . . . nearly every cent of the so-called military budget has gone for hardware with a passive or defensive aim, notably satellites for reconnaissance, communications, navigation and weather forecasting. In striking contrast, the Soviet Union has developed and tested . . . a weapon aptly known as Scrag, which can hurl a guided missile carrying a nuclear payload of 15 megatons or more into a partial orbit (hence, fractional) round the earth. To anyone in his right mind, FOBS constitutes a gross violation of the outer space treaty, which prohibits the placing of nuclear warheads in orbit. However, according to the confused legal eagles in the State Department and Pentagon (if not to some future hapless populace which finds itself on ground zero), anything less than a full orbit goes. . . . In the interest of survival, here is one balance the U.S must move swiftly to redress. . . . The first duty of government is to protect its people. Neither the Kennedy nor the Johnson Administration has honored that trust." (Barron's, 10/14/68, 15)
Christian Science Monitor editorial listed purchases bought by $32.4 billion spent on national space program in past 10 years: manned-spacecraft program that should put men on the moon within a year; unmanned-satellite program of 234 major launches; stable of space rockets ranging from workhorse Scout with thrust of 88,000 lb, to Saturn V with 7,500,000 lb of thrust; facilities at NASA's 15 installations worth over $2.5 billion; staff of 35,000 NASA employees, including some of the nation's top scientists, physicists, and engineers; industrial work force that peaked at more than 400,000 (now down to about 200,000) ; global tracking network stretching around the world that can track, receive telemetry, control, and communicate with vehicles as far away as other side of sun; aeronautics program largely unpublicized but constantly growing; advances in technology that have developed new electronic parts, power sources, alloys, adhesives, lubricants, and highly reliable hardware components. "This is just a bare-bones receipt for the American tax payers' $32 billion. But it represents an investment that is already producing a civilian 'spinoff' of incalculable value." (CR, 10/14/68, E9524)
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