Sep 16 1971
From The Space Library
Discovery of six amino acids of extraterrestrial origin in Orgueil meteorite that fell in France in 1964 was announced by ARc team of scientists at annual meeting of American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C. Findings further supported "pattern of chemical evolution" theory adopted by Dr. Cyril A. Ponnamperuma and ARC team after their discovery, announced June 18, that identical amino acids and pyrimidines existed in Murray meteorite that fell in Kentucky in 1950 and Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969. Theory held that specific set of amino acids and other life chemicals found in three meteorites might be part of basic pattern leading to origin of life. All three meteorites were believed to have come from asteroid belt and to date from formation of solar system, about 4.5 billion yrs ago. (NASA Release 71-177)
President Nixon was host to Apollo 15 astronauts and families at White House dinner. (PD, 9/20/71, 1288)
Najeeb E. Halaby, Pan American World Airways President and Chairman, discussed space shuttle at Symposium of Society of Experimental Test Pilots in Los Angeles: "NASA has already shown that it appreciates the contributions airlines can make to the program, by having airlines participate with space contractors in the development of the space shuttle" to "make the eventual space shuttle work more like a standard airliner than a quarterly experiment." Since it took less energy to orbit objects than to fly them across U.S., "there's no reason why the cost of Space Shuttle operations should not become as low or lower than that of jets." Pan Am's "most glamorous vision" was "Space Shuttle as an air transport, carrying passengers from New York to Tokyo-or Peking-in 45 minutes, or from Los Angeles to Rome in 40." "We can visualize a rocket-powered vehicle with 100 passengers . . launched vertically in a suborbital trajectory at the precise azimuth for its intended destination, re-entering the atmosphere without excess g-forces, gliding unpowered to an altitude where its conventional jet engines will be started, then landing on a runway like a conventional airliner." (Text)
Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched by NASA from Wallops Station carried GCA Corp. experiments. Payloads ejected trail of sodium and lithium during ascent from 80-km (50-mi) to 170-km (105-mi) altitude and then ejected barium at 170-km altitude. Both trails produced glowing, colored clouds over mideastern U.S. coastline. Data on wind conditions were obtained by photographing motion of vapor trails and clouds from cameras aboard ARC Convair 990 aircraft. (WS Release 71-18)
Senate confirmed nominations of Apollo 14 commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., as Alternate U.S. Representative to 26th session of U.N. General Assembly and of Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, former AEC Chairman, and Dr. T. Keith Glennan, former NASA Administrator, as U.S. Representative and Alternate to 15th session of General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency at Geneva. (CR, 9/16/71, S14433)
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