Feb 2 1968
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
NASA launched two Aerobee 150 sounding rockets from WSMR. First carried American Science and Engineering, Inc., experiment to 86.5-mi (139-km) altitude to collect data on location and flux levels of celestial x-ray sources in 1- to 20-kev range using collimator, proportional counters, aspect camera, and attitude control system (ACS). ACS performance was poor because of timer malfunction; performance of rocket and instrumentation was satisfactory. Second rocket carried GSFC payload to 92.8-mi (149.3-km) altitude to measure spectral irradiance of four early-type stars in 1,100- to 4,000-A interval, using uv stellar spectrometer and STRAP system for attitude control. Rocket, instrumentation, and STRAP performed satisfactorily. Good data were obtained. (NASA Rpt SRL)
Sen. Clinton P. Anderson (D-N.Mex.), Chairman of Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, on behalf of himself and Sen. Margaret C. Smith (R-Me.), ranking member, introduced S. 2918, FY 1969 NASA authorization bill. Measure was referred to Committee. Total authorization of $4.37 billion would provide R&D, $3.677 billion; construction of facilities, $45 million; and administrative operations, $648.2 million. (NASA LAR VII/8)
S-II 2nd stage for fifth Apollo Saturn V mission left Seal Beach, Calif., onboard USNS Point Barrow en route to Mississippi Test Facility (MTF) , where stage would undergo static testing before shipment to KSC. Also onboard ship, to save $6,000 in transportation charges, was F-1 rocket engine. Engine would be unloaded for inspection at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, then transferred to barge for remainder of trip to MTF. (MSFC Release 68-23)
India's Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) was dedicated as international facility by Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. NASA was represented by Assistant Administrator for International Affairs Arnold W. Frutkin, Director of Space Applications Programs Leonard Jaffe, and NASA Wallops Station Assistant Chief of Flight Test Div. Robert T. Duffy. Duffy had served as advisor, and Wallops had assisted by helping to develop range, training scientists and engineers, and lending launching and tracking equipment. TERLS had been established Nov. 21, 1963, by Indian National Commission for Space Research (INCOSPAR) and to date had launched 52 rockets: 17 American Nike-Apaches, 29 American Judi-Darts, and 6 French Centaures. Rockets launched as part of dedication included two Nike-Apaches, one Judi-Dart, and one Centaure. Payloads contained experiments involving French, Soviet, and American collaboration with India. India's Dept of Atomic Energy planned Centaure manufacturing unit at TERLS, and INCOSPAR would build space science and technology center at Veli (near TERLS) to design and develop space research systems, including vehicle, payload, instrumentation, and ground support. Mrs. Gandhi said: "This center represents only one facet of the tremendous industrial and technological revolution in which we are involved. . . . Technology is a key. It is a key to knowledge that opens the door to plenty as well as power. In a sense it is a key to independence, for it was the failure to advance technologically which made Asia and Africa dependent and poverty-stricken." (NASA Release 68-14; WS Release 68-1; India News, 2/2/68, 4; LA Times, 2/3/68; B Sun, 6/30/68)
Cornell Univ.'s association with Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory had been ended by Univ.'s Board of Trustees on recommendation of special committee headed by Univ.'s law professor W. David Curtiss. Reasons cited included overlap and potential conflict between Laboratory's overseas research projects and Univ.'s expanding program of international studies. (Science, 2/2/68, 515)
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