Oct 23 1973
From The Space Library
Two fuel tanks on the Saturn IB launch vehicle scheduled to launch the Skylab 4 astronauts toward a Nov. 10 rendezvous with the Orbital Workshop (launched May 14) buckled slightly after fueling at Kennedy Space Center. The dome-shaped top sections of the tanks sank after ground crews pumped 163 cu m (43 000 gal) of kerosene fuel into the Saturn IB's four giant tanks and then drained some off to prevent expansion or overpressurization. A plastic cover protecting the tanks from a rainstorm prevented air from rushing into the aluminum tanks as the fuel was drained. The resulting vacuum buckled the tanks inward. Metallurgy experts were flown to KSC from Marshall Space Flight Center to assess the problem. (W Star-News, 10/24/73, A23; AP, B Sun, 10/24/73)
A five-week Ames Research Center experiment to determine women's qualifications for space flight had shown women to be as physically fit for travel in weightlessness as men, NASA announced. The experiment-in which 8 of 12 Air Force flight nurses had two weeks of total bed rest in weightlessness simulation, while 4 acted as ambulatory controls-was one of a series to investigate responses to space flight conditions, looking forward to use of the space shuttle by other than pilot-trained astronauts. NASA emphasized that the test was to determine women's qualifications for space flight and did not represent a commitment to add women to the astronaut corps. Dr. Harold Sandler, head of the experiment team, said the bedridden nurses were weaker after the experiment and showed a 50% reduction in their tolerance to various stresses. "But the same is true of men astronauts." (NASA Release 73-218; AP, P Inq, 10/25/73)
Resignation of NASA Associate Administrator for Astronautics and Space Technology Roy P. Jackson, effective Oct. 26, was announced. Jackson would rejoin Northrop Corp. as Corporate Vice President, Program Management. He had joined Northrop in 1953 and left to become NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and Space Technology Nov. 2, 1970. (NASA Release 73-221)
The 1973 Nobel Prizes in physics and in chemistry were awarded in Stockholm. The $122 000 physics award went to two Americans and one Briton for step-by-step proof of how electrons tunneled through conductors to form superconductors of electricity. The winners were Japanese-born Leo Esaki, International Business Machines Co. scientist; Norwegian-born Ivar Giaever, General Electric Co. scientist; and Brian Josephson of Cambridge Univ. in England. The $120 000 chemistry award went to Ernst O. Fischer, Munich Technical Univ. scientist, and Geoffrey Wilkinson of London's Imperial College of Science and Technology for "pioneering work, performed in-dependently, on the chemistry of the so-called sandwich compounds" which attached rings of carbon compounds to transitional metals like titanium and vanadium. (O'Toole, W Post, 10/24/73, A19; FonF, 10/21-27/73, 882)
Rockwell International Corp. and Admiral Corp. announced plans to merge. RIC would absorb Admiral for approximately $100 million in a stock exchange. The proposal required approval by directors of both companies and by Admiral shareholders. (W Post, 10/24/73)
Dr. Margaret Burbidge, Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England, would resign in November to return to the U.S. as a Univ. of California astronomy professor, the Chicago Tribune Press Service re-ported. Dr. Burbidge would be succeeded by Dr. A. Hunter, Royal Greenwich Observatory Deputy Director. Announcing Dr. Burbidge's resignation, the British Science Research Council had said she preferred to return to her own research rather than devote a major share of her time to administrative matters. Dr. Burbidge had criticized the Royal Observatory telescope at Herstmonceux, England, because cloudiness made it almost useless. (C Trib, 10/23/73)
A Los Angeles Herald-Examiner editoral commented on NASA'S 15th anniversary [see Oct. 1] : "A decade and a half ago, the Congress charged NASA to explore outer space and to adapt space-related advances for immediate general use. Both mandates have been fulfilled, and NASA officers predict hundredfold advances over the next 10 years. We sa-lute NASA on its 15th anniversary. When the question is asked 'If we can go to the moon, why can't we . . . ?'-chances are, the answer is `We can!' " (LA Her-Exam, 10/23/73)
A Chicago Tribune editorial commented on the increase in reports of un-identified flying objects [see Oct. 21] : "We read about an Indiana farmer who heard of the UFO upsurge and who joked with his family about little green men from some distant nebula hanging around. The next thing he knew, one of the UFOS was hovering . . . above the family conveyance and following it. Chased the family all the way home. No, you won't catch us joking about these little guys with the crablike hands and the pointed ears. We're going on record: We like crablike hands and pointed ears." (C Trib, 10/23/73)
B/G William J. Kennard (USAF, Ret.), former air surgeon of the Military Air Transport Service, died at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., at age 67. He had served from 1959 to 1967 as Executive Vice President of the Aerospace Medical Assn. and managing editor of Aerospace Medicine. (W Post, 10/26/73, C8)
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