Sep 6 1970
From The Space Library
Arab extremists of Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked Swissair DC-8, TWA Boeing 707, and Pan Am Boeing 747 with passengers and crews. Attempted seizure of fourth aircraft, El Al Israeli Airlines plane, was prevented; security guards on plane shot and killed one hijacker and wounded other. Swissair and TWA aircraft were flown to desert airport at Zerqua, Jordan. PanAm 747 was flown to Beirut, refueled, and then flown to Cairo where it was blown up on runway after evacuation of passengers and crew. Passengers were later flown to Rome on another aircraft. PFLP held occupants of the two aircraft in Jordan as hostages for imprisoned commandos in Israel, U.K., Switzerland, and West Germany. PFLP spokesman in Beirut said TWA and Pan Am aircraft had been seized "to give the Americans a lesson" for supporting Israel. (FonF, 9/3-9/70, 637-8) "
First data from three-week NASA-Purdue Univ. study to detect corn blight infestation using sensing devices aboard aircraft had shown blight could be identified from aircraft in both severe and earlier stages, NASA announced. Color photos and multispectral scanner pictures and data had shown signature keys to crop disease, southern leaf blight. MSC's RB-57F aircraft was providing coverage, from 18 300-m (60 000-ft) altitude, of area from Michigan City, Ind., to Evansville, Ind. Purdue, Univ. of Michigan, and USAF aircraft covered area at lower altitudes. Successful identification by remote sensing could warn farmers of approaching blight or of presence of blight in crops before they would be otherwise aware of it. (NASA Release 70-148)
Work of Grover Moreland, "Neil Armstrong of the rockcutters, the man entrusted with... stretching the first precious lumps of moon matter into as many research laboratories as... possible... without losing a particle," was described in Washington Sunday Star magazine Sunday. Moreland had prepared 60 or 70 thin sections from Apollo 11 samples and 15 or 20 from Apollo 12. They were studied under petrographic microscope for mineral content and origin and under electron probe for detailed chemical analysis. He shaved sections as thin as 0.15 mm (0.006 in) and had perfected method of impregnating porous matter with plastic to prevent crumbling. (Schaden, Sunday, 9/6/70, 14-5)
Battle over choice of undersea cables and comsats had begun at FCC, Washington Evening Star said. AT&T was urging quick decision authorizing sixth Atlantic cable. ComSatCorp's satellite facilities in Atlantic area were operating at 50% of capacity and company could benefit from more volume if existing five undersea cables became overcrowded. (Aug, W Star,. 9/6/70, C5)
Press comment on Apollo program cutback: Washington Post editorial: "There has rarely been a major program that has gone up the hill and down again as fast as has the manned space program. Just a year ago NASA was riding high on the success of Apollo 11. Now it is scratching operations and scrambling for money to keep even a portion of the original program and its; progeny in business. This, in our view, is bad because if it is carried too far it threatens to turn the entire manned space effort into the most spectacular (and most expensive) stunt in history instead of the first step in a genuine effort to learn a little more about some of the secrets of the universe. NASA's decision to focus on the future rather than on a full study of the moon will help at least to keep the option of a worthwhile space program open." (W Post, 9/6/70, B6)
Richard D. Lyons in New York Times: When U.S. politicians first proclaimed national effort to land men on moon influential scientific leaders had scoffed. "A decade later the scythe of discontent with Apollo has swung full circle. Now it is the politicians who are attacking the program while the scientists' wring their hands over lack of support." Nixon Administration had "not been kind to the space program, although the President repeatedly stated that he supports it enthusiastically. The main reason is money, or the lack of it, which was almost no object when Apollo was born." (NYT, 9/6/70, 4:7)
End of "galloping science" was predicted by Kenneth W. Boulding of Univ. of Colorado in Washington Post: "The scientific revolution and science-based technology represent a kind of takeoff from the old world of classical civilization. The 'flight' of development cannot go on forever. At some point there must be a re-entry into Spaceship Earth. This re-entry will present acute difficulties. If, however, we have a clear view of the nature of the problem, a certain optimism about our power to solve it. is entirely reasonable. The one great cause for optimism indeed is the clear fact that the evolutionary potential of the human nervous system is very far from having been exhausted and that there is no nonexistence theorem at present about continued human learning." (W Post, 9/6/70, B1)
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