May 27 1967
From The Space Library
Listen to an interview conducted on this day with astronaut Wally Schirra
Venus is devoid of water and, therefore, of life, Dr. Gerard P. Kuiper, Univ. of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, told New York Times reporter Richard D. Lyons in a telephone interview. `We now know that Venus is a dead planet. The astronomical literature is full of references to water clouds and ice crystals. These two things are definitely wrong. The complete absence of water means that the chemistry of Venus is totally different from the chemistry here." Practical absence of water in the Venus atmosphere provided new information on the constitution of the planet, Dr. Kuiper said: "It is probable now that the Venus clouds are dust and that a substantial fraction of the high surface temperature must be attributed to internal heat reaching the planet's surface through a thin solid crust." Dr. Kuiper's conclusions were based on astronomical observations made May 13 from a specially fitted NASA-owned Convair 990 jet aircraft which flew at 37,000-ft altitude over Canada. His theory conflicted with one set forth in 1966 by Johns Hopkins Univ. astrophysicists Drs. William Plummer and John Strong that surface temperatures of Venus were low enough to support life in certain areas. (Lyons, NYT, 5/28/67,21)
The frontier of space is limited only by man's "ability to maintain individual freedom and yet join many minds in concerted action," NASA Administrator James E. Webb said at the Celebration of The Prelude to Independence in Williamsburg, Va. "It is the essential requirement for each of us to do what we can as individuals and as groups to make our system of representative government work, and then work better. More and more this means that each of us must find a way to reach through complexity and organized prejudice to trusted sources of information and organized facts. We must not do less than to make sure we understand the fundamentals in the many important disciplines of human activity. Without this understanding of at least the fundamentals . . . today's citizen cannot play the role only he can play in representative society, cannot bridge the gap from the old to the new, from one discipline to another. Without this capability, a citizen today cannot be a fully effective participant in a free society. Indeed, without this basic understanding on a large scale at all levels our nation is likely to forfeit the capability of collectively responsible action, and with it, the basis for an effective free society. . . ." (Text)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb had been encountering a "storm of criticism" since the Jan. 27 Apollo accident, but "odds are he'll see his job through," Business Week concluded in an article summarizing Webb's career. It noted some of Webb's accomplishments as NASA Administrator: ". . . Webb has steered steadily growing budgets-from $1-billion in 1961 to this year's $5-billion-among the Congressional reefs. He runs a NASA organization of nearly 35,000 people in 16 facilities that stretch from Boston to Cape Kennedy, from Houston to the West Coast-and a worldwide network of tracking stations. At the same time, he has had to deal directly or indirectly with nearly 21,000 contracting companies, which employ about 400,000 people. . . ." Article concluded that Webb had been "bruised, not beaten" by the controversy surrounding the Apollo accident. ". . . odds-makers in Washington are betting that when the smoke clears Webb will emerge still at the helm of NASA. Further, they think NASA still may meet its deadline of a moon landing before 1970." (B Wk, 5/27/67, 71-7)
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