Apr 13 1965
From The Space Library
Establishment of a Joint Meteorological Satellite Program Office (JMSPO), to identify, compile, and coordinate requirements from the military services and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for use of meteorological satellites, was announced by DOD, JMSPO would continually review the NASA meteorological satellite program and would define military applications of the national system and the DOD technical efforts to support the national program. (DOD Release 229-65)
At a news conference, astronomers at Moscow's Sternberg Institute of Astronomy repudiated the Tass report that radio signals had been received from a "super civilization" in outer space. The astronomers explained that their studies had been based on a radio signal from a point in space called CTA-102-a designation of the California Institute of Technology for a quasi-stellar radio source, Signals had been picked up from CTA-102 systematically in fluctuating strength that followed a regular 100-day pattern. They said that although no other radio emission from outer space had the same periodicity, it was too early to tell whether the radio signals were artificially made by intelligent beings or whether they came from a natural source. The Soviet astronomers appealed to their Western counterparts to help study CTA-102 to determine whether the signals were artificially or naturally made. (AP, Balt. Sun, 4/14/65; Post News Service, Houston Post, 4/14/65)
NASA had awarded Douglas Aircraft Co. $2,697,546 contract modification to test Saturn V instrument unit and S-IVB stage instrumentation in a space environment. The test program would be conducted in Douglas' 39-ft.-dia. space simulator at Huntington Beach, Calif, and would simulate a typical Saturn V flight from launch to earth orbit and injection into lunar path. Tests would begin in early 1966. (MSFC Release 65-88)
Reported that Dr. William I. Donn of Columbia Univ.'s Lamont Geological Observatory, Dr. Wilbur G. Valentine of Brooklyn College, and Dr. Bertram D. Donn of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center had challenged presently accepted ages of the earth (4.5 billion yrs,) and the sun (5 billion yrs,). They had asserted that the oldest of continental rocks were so very ancient that the sun's and the earth's ages allowed too little time for continent formation by earthly processes and from earthly materials. Two alternative explanations were proposed: (1) either the sun and the earth must be much older, perhaps by a half-billion years or more; or. (2) the original continents were thrown down upon the planet's surface when objects from space-hundreds of miles across in size-crashed into the earth. Research results had been published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. (Abraham, Phil, Eve, Bull., 4/13/65)
Brig. Gen. Joseph S. Bleymaier (USAF), Deputy Commander for Manned Space Systems of AFSC's Space Systems Div., announced at a Washington, D.C, luncheon for Aviation/Space Writers that two used Gemini spacecraft would be flown by USAF in tests for a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). This would be the first time that a Mercury or Gemini spacecraft had been flown twice. Both Air Force flights would be unmanned and would test the effect of cutting a hatch into the heat shield on the capsule's blunt end. (NYT, 4/15/65, 8)
Second General Dynamics-USAF F-111A developmental aircraft made its sixth flight, lasting 1 hr, 30 min, Wings were swept at 16°, 26°, and 70°. (Av. Wk, 4/19/65, 27)
Soviet astronomers were seeking increased research funds. At a meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, physicist Lev A. Artsimovich reportedly assailed what he called the inadequacy of the observational equipment available to Soviet astronomers and noted that the U.S. had more large telescopes than did the U.S.S.R. He accused those charged with making appropriations of underestimating the importance of astronomy, while overestimating the importance of and being overly generous to nuclear physics: "At the present time, expenditures on astronomical work in our country are no more than a few percent of the investments in elementary particle physics, Our progeny will probably be surprised that we divided in such strange proportions the efforts directed to investigate the great world of stars and the artificial world of elementary interactions [of nuclear particles]." (NYT, 4/13/65)
"Award of the [$40 million] contract [for 28 Atlas SLV-3s] reflects plans by the Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to use the Atlas in a variety of future space missions," Robert Zimmerman said in an article in the San Diego Union, He continued: "Its versatility as a launching vehicle lies in the ‘plug-in’ concept which allows electronic instruments for various missions to be installed on the basic booster as requirements for the mission may dictate, "Before the Atlas was standardized into the SLV-3 it would take a year to 18 months to equip one booster for a particular mission, Now, an SLV-3 can be outfitted for any mission in three to four months." (Zimmerman, San Diego Union, 4/13/65)
According to official sources, both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had exploded certain of their own satellites in orbit to prevent their falling into other hands, but neither nation was known to have attempted to knock down a spacecraft belonging to the other. (Clark, NYT, 4/4/65, 1)
Commenting on blockade to prevent Negroes from using North Merritt Island ocean beach-federally-owned property released for public use by NASA-Dr. Kurt H. Debus, KSC Director, said: "If difficulty should continue to arise in implementing a basic public policy of non-discrimination, the Kennedy Space Center would be obligated to withdraw the beach from public use." (Miami Her, 4/13/65)
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