Sep 30 1965
From The Space Library
X-15 No, 1 was flown by Capt. William J. Knight (USAF) to an altitude of 76,000 ft., at a speed of 2,761 mph (mach 4,06). (NASA X-15 Proj. Off.; X-15 Flight Log)
USAF launched Atlas-Agena D launch vehicle from Western Test Range with unidentified satellite payload. (U.S. Aeron. & Space Act, 1965, 152)
President Johnson signed into law the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 (PI, 89-220) in White House ceremony. He said: "... In recent decades, we have achieved technological miracles in our transportation. But there is one great exception. "We have airplanes which fly three times faster than sound. We have television cameras that are orbiting Mars. But we have the same tired and inadequate mass transportation between our towns and cities that we had 30 years ago. "Today .. , an astronaut can orbit the earth faster than a man on the ground can get from New York to Washington. Yet, the same science and technology which gave us our airplanes and our space probes, I believe, could also give us better and faster and more economical transportation on the ground. And a lot of us need it more on the ground than we need it orbiting the earth... "The High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 really gives us, for the first time in history, a coordinated program for improving the transportation system that we have today, and making it a better servant to our people... " (Text, Pres, Doc., 10/4/65, 329-30)
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara directed USAF to proceed immediately to develop and produce the C-5A transport plane. Gross weight of aircraft would be nearly 350 tons-twice that of present largest military cargo plane. It would be able to carry loads of a quarter million pounds 3,200 mi., and loads of 100,000 lbs. nonstop across the Pacific Ocean. It would be more than 230 ft, long, 63 ft. high at the tail, have a 220-ft, wing span, and be able to land on unprepared airfields of 4,000 ft, Development cost and initial production order for 58 planes, including engines, would be about $2 billion. Aircraft would be bought under new contracting concept under which both the airframe and engine manufacturers would receive contracts covering not only development but also production. USAF had selected Lockheed Aircraft Corp. to develop and produce the C-5A. Four new fan-jet engines for the aircraft, each capable of 40,000 lbs, thrust, were being developed and would be produced by General Electric Co. (DOD Release 663-65)
General Dynamics/Convair was being awarded a $2,198,000 firm fixed-price contract by U.S. Army for designing, furnishing, and installing an operational TV system for Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center, NASA. (DOD Release 664 65)
ComSatCorp asked FCC for authority to build four new satellites to provide communication services for the Apollo project as well as for other commercial uses. (ComSatCorp Release)
Highlights of report by Civil Service Commission Chairman John W. Macy, Jr, to President Johnson on Government savings during FY 1965 resulting from employee suggestions showed that one of the top suggestion awards went to NASA personnel. The $1,400 award to MSFC aerospace technologists Emmett L. Martz, John L. Burch, and William L. Kimmons was for their design which reduced by $133,438 the cost of certain bearings in Saturn launch vehicle's guidance system. NASA was among the five nondefense Government agencies that exceeded the million-dollar mark in savings from adopted suggestions. (Pres, Doc, 10/4/65, 335)
NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Technology Alfred Eggers, speaking to the Aviation Space Writers Association in Washington, D.C., said one of the basic programs now underway in OART was to establish a mission capability flexible enough to satisfy most mission requirements for the balance of the century, Describing the capability as a "platform" that could support whatever mission the Nation wanted, he cited the present indecision over the mission that should be undertaken after the lunar landing, Given the difficulty of obtaining a consensus from the American public and government in the matter, the only useful alternative was to develop such a platform. He said the present OART program would enable this country to go to Mars, Venus, the asteroids, or the moons of Jupiter before the end of the 20th century. (Text)
Jet airline pilots would no longer be required to wear oxygen masks when flying above 35,000 ft, according to a FAA rule effective as of this date, Under the new rule, the requirement for one pilot at the controls to use oxygen would apply now only above 41,000 ft, where the time element would be much more critical in case of sudden decompression. (FAA Release 65-84)
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