Feb 11 1964
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced at Hq. press conference that U.S.-U.S.S.R. communications experiments with ECHO II balloon satellite would begin after Feb. 21. In response to question, Mr. Webb said failure of attempts to acquire lunar photographs had not adversely affected Apollo schedule: ". . . up to this time we have not had to make any changes in the program due to this, nor do I think we will." Asked whether 1969 date for manned lunar landing was a "deadline" or a "planning date", Mr. Webb said: "The view President Kennedy had ... was that he was setting a dead-line by which he wanted this nation to get the job done, and he was providing resources for us to plan the flight in 1967, or early 1968, giving some leeway for intractable technical problems, for unknown and unforeseeable things, and also to avoid having to put into parallel development systems that would be more expensive if done that way. . . "Now, the 1967, early 1968 target date that we were setting was to mobilize the effort, to press forward with it, but not to do so in such a way as to run this cost up from $20 billion to something much higher. "So we were thinking of it as pretty much of a deadline that it was in the interests of this nation to meet. "Now, with the cuts last year of $600 million and the reorganization of the effort to all-up systems testing, the cancellation of a number of Saturn flights, things of this kind, I think you've got to think of it somewhat differently. I think the target date for the flights, which is a tight date but still attainable, is mighty close to the January 1, 1970 period. ". . . I believe we can do it within the latter six months of 1969 if we proceed vigorously under the plan we have presented to the Congress. But again we don't have any leeway. . . We have lost that, and we've got no more than what I'd call a fighting chance to do this by January 1, 1970." Mr. Webb discussed NASA relationship with Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, manager of NASA's lunar and planetary exploration programs. The current three-year contract "expires next June and we have now for some months been examining together with the California Institute of Technology ways and means to make a better relationship from their standpoint and from NASA's standpoint." Mr. Webb said NASA was seeking a reorganization of JPL to achieve a "hard-headed type of industrial management." (Finney,. NYT, 2/12/64; Loory, N.Y. Her. Trib., 2/12/64; Simons, Wash, Post, 2/12/64; M&R, 2/17/64, 16)
NASA announced that failure of RANGER VI spacecraft to take pictures of the moon may have been caused by unscheduled turn-on of cruise telemetry from the TV system at about the same time as Atlas booster separation. For unexplained reason, telemetry turned on for about one minute and relayed measurements in the TV system, including battery voltages and temperatures. It was possible that TV system could have turned on at the same time; if so, severe electrical arcing would have occurred and damaged the system. However, TV telemetry turned on 17 min. after separation from Agena stage as scheduled, and nothing at that time indicated any abnormalities in the TV system. Tracking data showed that RANGER VI impacted the moon within 20 mi. of its target and within one third of a second of the predicted arrival time. (NASA Release 64-33)
Spokesman for European conference on satellite communications, meeting in Rome with U.S. and Canadian delegations, said conference had reached agreement on principal points of the U.S. proposal to establish an international comsat system. "They are now discussing the details, upon which the accord isn't so extensive." (NYT, 2/12/64, 13)
Communications Satellite Corp. announced six companies had responded to its request for proposals for designing international commercial communications satellite. AT&T and RCA submitted a joint proposal, Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge, Inc., submitted proposal with ITT as principal subcontractor; Hughes Aircraft Co. and Philco Corp. submitted individual proposals. ComSatCorp Was evaluating the proposals. (WSJ, 2/12/64)
Army Corps of Engineers awarded two NASA contracts for work to be performed at NASA Mississippi Test Facility: $3,801,146 contract to Chaney and James Construction Co., Inc., for construction of booster storage building, RP-1 dock, and booster transfer dock; and $2,401,542 contract to Farrell Construction Co. for construction of main canal. (DOD Release 128-64)
Annual report of NORAD indicated U.S. orbited 60 payloads in 38 launches during 1963, compared with 17 by U.S.S.R. (AP, CSM, 2/11/64)
Construction workers at Cape Kennedy refused for a second day to cross picket lines of Railroad Telegraphers Union, and some of the other 9,000 union members at Cape Kennedy honored the picket lines. Later, at request of National Labor Relations Board, U.S. District Court issued temporary injunction ordering withdrawal of the picket lines against Florida East Coast Railway. (UPI, Wash. Post, 2/12/64; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 2/12/64; UPI, Wash. Post, 2/13/64)
None of the supersonic transport bidders was willing to assume the prescribed share of cost of the joint Government-industry-funded SST program, John P. MacKenzie reported in Washington Post. Under plan presented by President Kennedy, SST would cost $1 billion, with Government paying 75% of the cost and manufacturers paying remaining 25%. MacKenzie said none of the six bidding manufacturers had met the 25% participation challenge, and "some manufacturers said the plane could not be developed for $1 billion." Officials were reported to be studying independent report by Eugene R. Black, former president of the World Bank, which unnamed sources said recommended Government finance 90% of the development cost. Report also was said to have proposed transferring SST program from FAA to an independent agency, slowing pace of the SST development and avoiding international "race" with U.K.-France Concorde development (MacKenzie, Wash. Post, 2/11/64; N.Y. Her. Trib., 2/13/64; Newsweek, 2/17/64)
Experimental hot-electron propulsion system had completed 1,000 hrs. of testing at RCA David Sarnoff Research Center without degradation of components or performance, RCA announced. (NYT, 2/11/64, 53; M&R, 2/17/64, 21)
Comparison of amount of earth's heat resulting from radioactive breakup of elements uranium, thorium, and potassium was discussed in Science. Half of all potassium heat was released in about first quarter of earth's lifetime, while heat from uranium and thorium was released at a more even rate. (Sci. Serv., NYT, 2/11/64, 28)
USAF successfully launched 30th Minuteman ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, a routine training launch by SAC crew. (M&R, 2/17/64, 13)
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