Oct 20 1964
From The Space Library
U.K. successfully launched its second Blue Streak rocket booster from Woomera, Australia, in development test. Blue Streak was slated to serve as first stage of ELDO's multistage launch vehicle. (M&R, 10/26/64,11)
USAF space medicine team, in paper delivered to seminar at Brooks AFB, reported on experiment with 12 volunteers committed to "absolute bed rest" for four weeks, in attempt to simulate conditions of extended space flight. After the period, subjects showed marked increase in tendency toward fainting, but when protected with antigravity suits this tendency nearly disappeared. Heartbeat rates were faster in stand-up test after the bed rest than in similar test before it. High gravity loads in centrifuge did not adversely affect the subjects after their long rest. The volunteers lost about one-fifth of a gallon of their total blood volume, and increase in calcium loss was apparent, but was not considered hazardous. (Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 10/21/64)
Rear Adm. Francis D. Boyle, Deputy Director of Defense Communications Agency's Communications Satellite Project Office, told National Space Club in Washington of DOD plans for a military comsat system. He said Titan III-C launch vehicles would orbit up to 24 comsats during the first six months of 1966, placing six to eight satellites in orbit each launch. Orbiting at more than 22,000 mi., the satellites would be "approximately synchronous." (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 10/21/64)
Lt. Col. John D. Peters (USAF) engineer at Arnold Engineering Development Center, said in San Antonio that the four-legged landing gear designed for Apollo's Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was "needlessly risky" and should be replaced by an inflatable "doughnut" to cushion the LEM's landing. Tube at LEM's base could be inflated just before landing, would allow a safe landing even if exact nature of lunar surface is unknown. (Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 10/20/64; SBD, 10/22/64, 283)
Communications Satellite Corp. requested bids from 15 companies for research data and consultant services for defining design and performance requirements of ground terminals for global comsat system. (ComSat-Corp Release)
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