Nov 6 1964
From The Space Library
NASA launched 295-lb. EXPLORER XXIII (S-55c) meteoroid detection satellite from Wallops Station, Va., aboard a Scout vehicle. The satellite was a cylinder 24-in. in dia. and 92 in. long. Its orbital elements: apogee, 614 mi.; perigee 286 mi.; inclination to equator, 52°; period, 99 min. EXPLORER XXIII was expected to have a useful lifetime of one year. Its primary purpose was to provide accurate knowledge of penetration capabilities of meteoroids and the resistance of various materials to penetration, thus facilitating design of spacecraft. The payload contained primary sensors (pressurized cells) designed to record the rate of meteoroid penetration in two different thicknesses of stainless steel; a capacitor-type penetration detector to determine effects of high-energy radiation; cadmium sulphide cells to record the size of impacting meteoroids; impact detectors capable of detecting three levels of meteoroid momentum; two separate telemeter canisters for storing experimental data and relaying it to ground stations. Also onboard the Scout rocket was an experiment to measure air loads on the structure during its ascent through the atmosphere between 25,000 and 40,000 ft. The spacecraft was the successor to EXPLORER XVI (S-55b), launched Dec. 16, 1962, which made the first statistically significant sampling of meteoroids in near-earth space. (NASA Release 64-272; Wallops Release 64-81; Marshall Star, 11/11/64, 1; NYT, 11/7/64, 9; M&R, 11/16/64, 33)
NASA successfully launched a Javelin sounding rocket from Ft. Churchill, Canada, to an altitude of 444 mi., with instrumented payload to measure the earth's geomagnetic field from the ground to Javelin peak altitude. Data from this experiment would be combined with that obtained from a Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched 90 sec. earlier. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
X-15 No. 2 piloted by John B. McKay (NASA) in planned captive flight. (NASA X-15 Proj. Off.)
NASA Nike-Apache sounding rocket with French sodium-vapor payload was launched from India's Thumba Range to about 192-km. altitude (about 119 mi.). Two ground camera stations photographed sodium vapor released from the rocket to obtain measurements of atmospheric winds, turbulence, and diffusivity. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
NASA Langley Research Center announced, that power supply capability tests were being conducted on two huge magnet coils at the Space Radiation Effects Laboratory. In operation, the magnet coils would be capable of creating a pulling power greater than 3,500 tons. The magnet coils were part of the 600-million electron volt synchrocyclotron which NASA would operate to study the effect on spacecraft and their systems of the particle radiation streaming from the sun or trapped in the earth's magnetic field. (LaRC Release)
NASA announced that space scientists had adopted a new analytical method-neutron activation analysis-to help them determine the presence and quantity of oxygen in alkali metals. General Atomics Div. of General Dynamics Corp. undertook this oxygen-identification problem under a contract from Lewis Research Center. (LRC Release 64-102)
First successful flight of a fully instrumented four-stage Athena re-entry research vehicle was achieved. Launched by SAF and USA from Green River, Utah, the payload covered approximately 417 mi. and impacted nearly on target within the White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex. (UPI, Denver Post, 11/8/64; M&R, 11/16/64, 9, 32) [[ USAF fired a Minuteman missile from]] Vandenberg AFB. It was the 70th Minuteman to be launched from that base. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 11/5/64)
Air Force Systems Command's Research and Technology Div. reported the High Power Facility at the Rome Air Development Center (RADC) was operational. It was designed to evaluate high-power transmitting tubes and radio frequency components, and would support research in plasma physics and engineering where brute force was needed in direct current and pulse radio frequency. (AFSC Release 44 128-139)
Italy's largest private monitoring center said it had recorded radio signals indicating a new Soviet space launch. It speculated that the Russians might have placed a satellite in parking orbit around the earth as a base for a Mars launch. (Phil. Inq., 11/7/64)
The U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space took the following actions: (1) it invited the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee to study and submit a report on "the possibility of establishing a civil world-wide navigation satellite system on a non-discriminatory basis"; and (2) it decided to establish a working group to examine "the desirability, organization, and objectives of an international conference or meeting to be held in 1967 on the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space." (NASA Off. of Int. Aff.; U.N. Doc. A/57-79; NYT, 11/ 8/64, 12)
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