Oct 28 1965
From The Space Library
Soviet Union launched COSMOS XCIV artificial earth satellite carrying scientific instrumentation to continue the space exploration program. Orbital parameters: apogee, 293 km. (181.9 mi.) ; perigee, 211 km. (131 mi,) ; period, 89.3 min,; inclination, 65°. Equipment was operating normally. (Tass, 10/28/65)
USAF launched Thor-Agena D launch vehicle from WTR with an unidentified satellite. (U.S. Aeron, & Space Act., 1965, 153)
In a memorandum report to President Johnson on Gemini VI NASA Administrator James E. Webb said: "This is to report to you that the Titan II booster which we expected to use on October 25 to launch GEMINI VI, carrying astronauts Schirra and Stafford, is now being removed from the launching pad. We have examined carefully the question of whether this booster could be used for the launching of Gemini VII into a 14-day orbit, and our studies show that the Titan booster which we have especially prepared for Gemini VII is more suitable. This is the reason for the change from the booster now on the pad to the one especially designed for the Gemini VII launch. "Also, we have examined a number of ways to speed up the accumulation of the information which the GEMINI VI rendezvous flight was designed to give us, We find that it may be possible to take advantage of the work we have already done in mating the GEMINI VI to its booster and to the launching facility and thus save considerable time in its re-erection, If we can launch Gemini VII without serious damage to the launching pad, there is some possibility that we could immediately re-erect the GEMINI VI spacecraft and booster and launch it in time to rendezvous with Gemini VII before the 14-day flight comes to an end." (Text; Pres. Doc., 11/1/65, 734)
Presidential Press Secretary William D. Moyers announced from the Texas White House that the U.S. would launch GEMINI VI and Gemini VII about 10 days apart and have them rendezvous in space. The double launching would probably take place in January with the two spacecraft scheduled to maneuver within a few feet of each other but without touching. Astronauts Walter M. Schirra (Capt., USN) and Thomas P. Stafford (Maj., USAF) would be in GEMINI VI, whose Oct. 25 mission was canceled after an Agena vehicle with which they were to dock exploded in space, In Gemini VII, set for a 14-day orbital journey, would be Astronauts Frank Borman (Maj. USAF) and James A. Lovell (LCdr. N). (Pomfret, NYT, 10/29/65, 1; Chapman, Wash, Post, 10/29/65, Al)
Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, Director of NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, said in a telephone interview with the New York Times that the proposal to fly the GEMINI VI and Gemini VII spacecraft on a dual flight originally had been made by Walter F. Burka and John F. Yardley of McDonnell Aircraft Corp., the spacecraft's manufacturer. This might permit rendezvous, but no docking, earlier than if NASA waited for the Agena malfunction to be found and corrected. If the launching pad, the Titan booster, and GEMINI VI could not be made ready in time to catch the Gemini VII in orbit, "we would not have lost anything but the trying," Dr. Gilruth said. As for the risk of having two manned spacecraft flying a few feet apart, "That's no more dangerous than two fighters up there flying with each other," he added. (Clark, NYT, 10/29/65, 13)
Dr. Edward C. Welsh, Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, said in an address to the American Ordnance Association: ". . In the case of the most recently announced space project, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, we again have an example of a highly valuable exchange of technology and experience by two operating agencies of the Government. In this instance, NASA's considerable success in manned space flight and in the development of spacecraft will assist the Air Force substantially in carrying out the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project, Such interagency cooperation will tend to improve rather than impair the peaceful image which this country has established, "Since I have mentioned the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, it is worth pausing right now to challenge forthrightly those who have asserted or intimated that it has something to do with a weapons race. We expect misinterpretations of that sort to come from unfriendly countries and sometimes from ignorant domestic critics. However, I was disappointed to find that a few otherwise well informed publications and individuals have asserted that the MOL is a weapons carrier and a project contrary to our peaceful progress in space, "I assert as positively as I can that the MOL is not a weapons system, is not a means by which aggressive actions can be perpetrated, and is in no way in conflict with the established peaceful policies, objectives, or methods of the United States. Rather, it is a program that will increase our knowledge of man's usefulness in space and will relate that ability to our national defense." (Text)
Months-long breathing of pure oxygen at the pressure used in Gemini spacecraft might damage the lungs and interfere with blood cell manufacture in the body, reported Col. Harold V. Ellingson (USAF) at a meeting of the American College of Preventive Medicine in Chicago, For that reason, he said, pure oxygen would not be used in Air Force manned orbiting laboratories in which astronauts would remain in space 30-90 days, Instead a mixture of oxygen and helium was being considered. Colonel Ellingson, Commander of the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, emphasized he was not referring to brief orbital trips such as the Gemini flights, but to missions of one to three months duration. (Lewis, Wash. Post, 10/28/65, G3)
A Group Achievement Award was presented at NASA Langley Research Center's annual awards ceremony to Eugene Schult, Head of the Scout Project Office, in recognition of "the outstanding Scout vehicle success record during the past eighteen months." (LaRC Release)
Recording of powerful radio waves by U.S.S.R.'s instrumented space probe Zond II had been reported to a conference of Soviet astronomers by Vyacheslev Slish, according to Tass, which said the astronomer had no "plausible theory" to account for the radio beam, which was said to have been 100 times stronger than anything expected from man's present knowledge of space. (NYT, 10/29/65, 13)
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