Aug 25 1966
From The Space Library
NASA's Apollo/Saturn AS-202 mission was successfully launched from ETR's Complex 34 at 1:16 p.m. EDT: 56,000-lb. unmanned Apollo spacecraft (011) was boosted into suborbital flight by Uprated Saturn I launch vehicle generating 1,600,000 lbs. thrust in second flight test of major spacecraft systems; second performance check of Command Module (CM) heatshielding; and third flight test of Uprated Saturn I . Liftoff and powered flight were as programed. After spacecraft separation, 21,500-lb.-thrust Service Module (SM) propulsion engine burned 3 min. 35 sec. to boost spacecraft to 706-mi. (1,128.6-km.) altitude. SM's engines ignited three more times to test rapid restart capabilities, with last burn separating SM. CM reentered earth's atmosphere at more than 19,900 mph. Maximum temperature of spacecraft's surface was calculated to be about 2,700øF; temperature inside CM was 70øF. Main parachutes deployed at 23,850-ft. altitude, lowering CM to splashdown in Pacific Ocean some 500 mi. southeast of Wake Island-200 mi. from target-at 2:49 p.m. EDT. Recovery was by aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet. Apollo heat shield well withstood high heat-load test, and the spacecraft was in "stable condition 1." Officials said that during flight, minor problem developed in unit which was to cool drinking water and various electrical components. They did not consider problem serious. NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Dr. George E. Mueller told postflight press conference that "the results of today's flight-once examined-will provide us with the information necessary" to make a final decision whether to commit the next Apollo flight to a manned mission. (NASA Release 66-213; NASA Proj. Off.; Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 8/26/66, A4; AP, Wash. Post, 8/26/66, A3; Wilford, NYT, 8/26/66, 1)
X-15 No. 1 was flown to 3,511 mph (mach 5.00) and 257,500-ft. by NASA test pilot John B. McKay to conduct series of high-altitude scientific experiments: micrometeorites and extraterrestrial dust were collected in special container in wing-tip pod; intensity and spectral distribution of daytime sky conditions measured; and horizon scanner, electrical loads, and wing-pod flutter checked out. (X-15 Proj. Off.)
Rep. Joseph E. Karth (D-Minn.), chairman of the Space Sciences Subcommittee of the House Science and Astronautics committee, said at a luncheon of the Aviation/Space Writers' Assn. in Washington, D.C., that the war in Vietnam and the needs of "the Great Society in general" would keep the space budget from expanding soon. He said the budget of "More than $6 billion" that NASA planned to ask Congress for in January 1967 (`is financially not in the cards for the near future." (Text)
Lawrence Levy, founder and president of Allied Research ASSOC., Inc., and former Defense Adviser to US. Ambassador to NATO, was sworn in as a consultant to NASA Administrator James E. Webb on "cooperation with western Europe and future space programs. . . . (NASA Release 66-231)
NASA selected Martin Co. for negotiation of $3-million, incentive-fee contract to build 11 experimental spacecraft equipped with parachute payloads "to investigate parachute designs and techniques for landing instrumented capsules on Mars." Four would be launched by high altitude balloon systems and seven by Honest John-Nike rockets under . LaRC's Planetary Reentry Parachute Program. (NASA Release 66-229)
A phased-out Bomarc missile, serving as target for USAF and USN missiles, exploded shortly after it was fired from Vandenberg AFB. (UPI, Wash. Post, 8/27/66, A3)
Gov. Edmund Brown of California told aerospace executives meeting in Los Angeles of plans to create state-level Office of Science and Technology to provide liaison between Government and industry in using aerospace skills to solve civilian problems. Five state contracts had been let for preliminary study of the problems, using the aerospace systems engineering" approach. Brown said state's studies not only demonstrated that the systems analysis concept would work" but also that "in some cases it was the only concept that would cut through the red tape and the customs arising from generations of solving social problems in the same old ways." (Sederberg, L.A. Times, 8/26/66; CR, 8/29/66, 20129-30)
U.S.S.R. began rocket test series in the Pacific Ocean. (Tass, 9/6/66)
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