Jun 12 1967
From The Space Library
Venus IV unmanned probe was successfully launched by U.S.S.R. on a four month journey toward Venus. Tass announced that the 2,438 lb spacecraft heaviest Venus probe ever orbited, had been launched into a parking orbit and then injected on a trajectory "close to the prescribed one." All onboard equipment was functioning normally. There was no indication whether spacecraft-launched two days before scheduled launch of NASA's MARINER V Venus flyby mission-would attempt a flyby of the planet or a soft-landing. (NYT, 6/13/67, C19; AP, W Post, 6/13/67, A11; Nordlinger, B Sun, 6/13/67)
Cosmos CLXV was launched by U.S.S.R. into orbit with 1,542-km (958-mi) apogee; 211-km (131-mi) perigee; 102.1-min period; and 81.9° inclination. Equipment was functioning normally. (UPI, W Star, 6/13/67, A70)
Rep. William F. Ryan (D-N.Y.), speaking on the House floor, urged Congress to reopen its investigation of NASA, with particular emphasis on management policies and procedures. He said the Phillips Report indicated NASA "has had grave difficulty in enforcing standards of workmanship, implementing safety and inspection procedures and in properly supervising contractor costs and time schedules. The results of more recent reviews of North American and reviews of other contractors have again not been made public. Under such unsatisfactory conditions, accidents and failures can well be expected. Congress should be less concerned with the technical cause of a particular fire and more with the space agency's lack of control over its own program. It is with this in mind that I have regretted the untimely close of the congressional hearings and requested further substantive investigation into the area of NASA management. . . .' (CR, 6/12/67, H7033)
Although ARC was the smallest NASA field center, Newsweek said, it was producing "some of the agency's biggest ideas." Summarizing ARC history, the article noted that when center opened in 1940 it had been primarily a site for testing warplane aerodynamics. "Ames still maintains its original wind tunnel-the world's largest-as well as 29 others, [but aeronautics] . . . represents only a quarter of the effort at Ames today. Most of the scientists are otherwise engaged in pure research in such fields as planetology, exobiology . . . and chemical evolution. ". . . the center's laboratories enable more than a thousand scientists, engineers and technicians to pursue as wide a variety of problems as their imaginations and the broad guidelines of the space program permit. The problems now range from designing a new hard space suit to studying the effect on mice of reproducing in a 2G environment." (Newsweek, 6/12/67)
ERC awarded MIT a three-year, $7.9-million contract for R&D of high-performance gyroscopes and accelerometers "to guide and control the vehicles planned for the complex aeronautical and space missions of the 1970s and 1980s." It was anticipated that instruments would make possible systems which would navigate advanced supersonic aircraft to intercept runway landing beams without present runway aids; provide highly precise pointing references for satellites; and guide interplanetary vehicles on missions lasting one year or more. (NASA Release 67-155)
NASA awarded Aerojet-General Corp. a two-year, $17-million contract extension for R&D work on SNAP-8 nuclear reactor electrical power system. (NASA Release 67-156)
NASA was consulting with Aerospace Industries Assn. (AIA) and with individual aircraft companies on a proposed research program which would support areas of general aviation, Technology Week reported. At the request of several users, NASA had identified a number of technical areas where the application of advanced technology seemed warranted but emphasized that NASA's efforts should be with aircraft designers and it should have no responsibility for the application of technology. (Tech Wk, 6/12/67, 3)
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