Sep 9 1970
From The Space Library
Arab PFLP guerrillas hijacked BOAC VC-10 jet with 105 passengers and crew of 10. Aircraft was ordered to land at Beirut to pick up commando and then was flown to desert airstrip where two other hijacked aircraft were being held [see Sept. 61. U.N. Security Council asked immediate release of all hostages held. U.S. sent six USAF transports with medical teams to base at Incirlik, Turkey, for possible use in evacuation of hostages. (FonF, 9/1016/70,653-5)
NASA announced it was establishing Earth Resources program regional activity at MTF to complement and supplement automated and manned Earth Resources programs at GSFC and MSC, Robert O. Piland, Deputy Director for Science and Applications at MSC would direct new activity stressing research in applications of remote-sensing techniques and using data from earth resources experiments on aircraft flying out of Houston, ERTS planned for 1972 launch, and manned orbiting Skylab spacecraft scheduled for 1972 launch. Estimated 75 Government and contract personnel would be employed at MTF center by July 1, 1971, with planned growth to 185 over next two years. (NASA Release 70-147)
Cancellation of Apollo 15 and 19 had eliminated six more astronauts from chance at moon trip, NASA Director of Flight Crew Operations Donald K. Slayton said in MSC interview. Of 49 astronauts on flight status, 39 had not yet flown in space. Many would not have opportunity for at least five years because of NASA budget cutbacks. Five astronauts had resigned since Apollo 11 lunar landing and further resignations were "very possible." Slayton said he would not deter astronauts from resigning. "The facts of life are, we don't need them." (UPI, NYT, 9/10/70, 54)
FAA and Eastern Air Lines demonstrated "smokeless jet" at National Airport in Washington, D.C. Boeing 727 with JT8d engines modified to reduce carbon particulates by 75% took off with thin trail of smoke. Pratt & Whitney engineer Gerald R. Daly, who designed pollution-fighting equipment, explained that modified engines reduced smoke but did not eliminate it. (Latham, W Post, 9/10170, A27)
USN had "taken the wraps off" highly sophisticated $l2-million control center being constructed for NATO comsats at Naval Radio Receiving Station near Chesapeake, Va., New York News reported. "The site joins a widespread network controlled from Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers, Europe, in Casteau, Belgium." (NY News, 9/9/70)
UPI said it had learned U.S. had agreed to sell 16-18 new F-4 Phantom jet fighter-bombers to Israel "in apparent response to the Soviet supported buildup of Egyptian anti-aircraft missile defenses along the Suez Canal." Sale, with 6 Phantoms already purchased by Israel earlier in year, would come close to filling Israel's request for 25 supersonic jets. (P Inq, 9/10/70, 3)
Wall Street Journal editorial on Apollo program cutback: "Although the Soviet Union has never said so, it appears that its officials decided some time ago that their [space] program was too much of a drain on resources and had to be slowed. At a time when the U.S. Government's budget is sinking deeper into the red, it's certainly reasonable that this nation too should start getting a grip on its priorities." (WSJ, 9/9/70)
Aircraft hijacking was discussed by David Hoffman in Washington Post: "That hijacking entails much more today than the Havana detour, a side trip costing passengers frayed nerves and the airline $3000, has begun to sink home in official Washington. It has now become an instrument of international policy, a play within a play about the cold war. Quite apart from whether a treaty might help, there exists no treaty. That testifies to the concern of governments, this one included." (W Post, 9/9/70, A15)
September 9-11: Lunar Science Institute in Houston, Tex., sponsored seminar on moon findings. At meeting on future of Apollo, scientists proposed crater Tycho near moon's south pole and Descartes, hilly region near Ocean of Storms, as sites for two of remaining four Apollo program lunar landings. Cal Tech geologist Dr. Leon T. Silver said, "If you had only two missions left to make, you'd send one of them to Tycho." Tycho offered samples from area of one of last collisions of large meteor with lunar surface, samples from moon's original southern hills, and samples from deep within moon that had come to surface after impact that had created Tycho. Flight path to and from Tycho would enable astronauts to photograph and examine almost half visible face of moon from lunar orbit. Astronauts could leave scientific instruments less than 1609 km (1000 mi) from moon's south pole, to give earth-bound scientists listening post on lunar region that would otherwise go unexplored. Surveyor VII photos had shown Tycho landing to be strewn with many varieties of rocks. Difficulty with Tycho landing was that Apollo crew might have to use so much fuel getting to it that they would not have enough to return if they encountered difficulty on approach, Astronaut Charles M. Duke, Jr., said. Donald K. Slayton, MSC Chief of Flight Crew Operations, said NASA was studying possibility of Tycho landing: "Our position so far is that Tycho is a bad place.... But, if we can figure the reasonable way to do it ... and decide it's a reasonable place to go, then Tycho becomes a candidate for landing.:" Descartes, second site favored by scientists, contained relatively young volcanic material and also crust on surface away from volcanic highlands that might be as old as moon itself. It was thought to be one of two Apollo sites where moonquakes might be occurring; other was hills of Fra Mauro, Apollo 14 landing site. Dr. Alfred E. Ringwood of Australian National Univ. told seminar he had concluded from study of Apollo 11 and 12 lunar samples that moon once had heat source 160-480 km (100-300 mi) beneath surface that was emitting 1500 K (2200°F) temperatures. Heat had emanated from abundance of radioactive minerals in moon's depths, he proposed, and partially melted moon's inner rock, which then flowed to lunar surface through pores or forced its way upward as it expanded where pores did not exist. Upswelling rock, Dr. Ringwood said, caused lunar features visible on moon's face. He speculated that moon had lost most of its radioactivity and heat 2 billion yrs earlier. Dr. Charles P. Sonnett, ARC scientist, said he had found "little bumps" of magnetism along lunar surface when studying signals from instruments left on moon. Bumps suggested that radioactive heat was coming to surface and causing parts of moon to behave as if they had magnetic field. Moon was "strong and rigid to depth of 200 mi [322 km]," Dr. Sonnett said, "but I believe that all you need is a porosity of about 10 per cent in that crust to have a warmer and more plastic material leak to the top." Dr. Rolf Meisner of Univ. of Hawaii said analysis of data from Apollo 12 lunar seismometer led him to believe that moonquakes could not be caused by breaks in moon's crust but were caused by warm gases escaping from beneath lunar surface in response to earth's increased gravitational pull. He had recorded 14 moonquakes, all of which seemed to come from about 240 km (150 mi) east-southeast of seismometer in Fra Mauro hills, where Apollo 14 was to land in February 1971. Dr. Thomas Gold, Cornell Univ. astronomer, argued that lunar maria contained dust and not lava. Lack of electrical activity of surface material and the way Apollo moonquake detectors had reacted to tremors and impacts could mean there was deep deposit of powder. Acoustical signal from Apollo 12 lunar seismometer was "compatible with a deep layer of a very homogenous nature in which the speed of sound is uniform." (O'Toole, W Post, 9/12/70, A3;9/13/70, A27; Hill, H Chron, 9/13/70)
September 9-10: Space Station Utilization Conference was held by NASA at ARC. Some 450 scientists invited to plan potential functions of manned orbital research station had included 60 representatives of foreign universities and industrial firms. (ARC Astrogram, 8/27/70, 1; ARC PAO; KC Star, 8/19/70)
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