Sep 23 1971
From The Space Library
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, addressed annual meeting of National Security Industrial Assn. in Washington, D.C.: "I am impressed with the soundness of this new space program for the Seventies and I urge you to support it. I also believe very much that our country needs it." Among program's strengths were: it had congressional backing; it was well planned and well balanced to meet basic national needs, including national security; it stressed earth orbit as "new realm of prime importance and great opportunity, where America's capacity for world leadership will be tested not only in this decade but in the decades to follow." Program promoted economic progress based on new technology, was essential to President Nixon's peace policies based on international cooperation, and was "already part of America's destiny, as all of you can testify who watched the Apollo 15 operations on international television," NASA had been "impressed and encouraged" by President's call for new programs to ensure maximum enlistment of technology in meeting challenge of peace and by President's promises to present those programs in next session of Congress, "Technology, in my judgment, has made this country great and will keep it great. It is certainly true that we need adequate political controls and, if possible, social controls to keep technology the servant of man, and not his master. But nevertheless new technology we absolutely need to assure jobs and a better life for all Americans in the decades ahead." Dr. Fletcher felt recent shuttle studies had "reinforced the general belief that America's future in space in the remainder of the 20th Century depends in large measure on our skill and our determination in defining and developing the shuttle." (Edited text)
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew said in speech that U.S.S.R.'s Foxbat fighter aircraft was "now operational in Egypt and cannot be matched in performance by anything we have in operation." (Text)
NASA conducted second successful test of Viking Mars gander free- flight, development parachute system at DOT Joint Parachute Test Facility at El Centro, Calif. First test had been conducted Sept. 3. (FRC PTO)
Spencer M. Beresford, NASA General Counsel, testified before House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight during hearing on H.R. 4545, Chapel of the Astronauts bill. NASA had agreed to consider request by Chapel of the Astronauts, Inc., to purchase up to seven acres (three hectares) of land adjacent to KSC Visitor Information Center for construction of "nondenominational, nonsectarian, nonprofit public facility for worship or meditation and a memorial to the astronauts." NASA was then "actively engaged in the defense of a law suit arising from the reading of portions of the Bible by the crew of Apollo 8 while in space." Wishing to avoid a further suit, NASA had sought assurance that Chapel of the Astronauts, Inc., purpose was "truly nondenominational?" Corporation had complied with NASA's request for assurance. "It is my professional opinion that . . if present plans for the Chapel are followed and it is operated with sound discretion, the Chapel Corporation, NASA and the United States Government are as secure from successful legal attack as is possible." (Proceedings)
Izvestia published interview with Soviet aircraft designer Andrey N. Tupolev and Aleksey A. Tupolev, Tu-144 test pilot Mikhail V. Kozlov, and Tu-144 navigator Georgey N. Bazhenov on Tu-144 Sept. 6 visit to Bulgaria. Kozlov said aircraft had flown regular air route, "but we flew almost three times as fast and twice as high as the other planes." Although difficulties "did not arise, we did seem to sense a dislocation, a lack of coordination between the future-which is what the TU-144 represents-and the present, even the past-those principles which are followed by the `ground' which controls (the flight of) the plane." Tu-144 had flown air route on automatic pilot. Aleksey Tupolev said aircraft was designed for 30 000 flying hrs. "This is 10 years of work for a supersonic aircraft. Every system and every structure is designed for this." (FBIS-Sov-71-187, 9/27/71, Ll)
Miniature computer, the size of an automobile battery, was being developed by Honeywell Aerospace Div. to pilot satellite to beam educational TV to India under NASA and Indian government project to start in 1973, AP reported. Computer would use as much electricity as 30-w light bulb. (NYT, 9/23/71, 14)
U.S. and U.S.S.R. ended fifth round of SALT in Helsinki. New York Times sources said some progress had been made toward agreement on freeze that would maintain ICBM arsenals of both nations at about current levels. SALT would resume in Vienna in mid-November. (Hamilton, NYT, 9/24/71, 1)
September 23-24: Fortieth anniversary of American Institute of Physics was observed at AIP annual meeting Sept. 23 and at breakfast of AIP officers and governing board members Sept. 24. Dr. Frederick Seitz, Rockefeller Univ. President and former NAS President, spoke on "Four Decades of AIP" at annual meeting. (AIP Newsletter, 10/71)
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