Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

April 26 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
Sun Marc0 ZZ was second Italian satellite to be launched under May 31,
1962, cooperative agreement between NASA and Italian Space Commis-
sion (ISC) . First satellite, Sun Murco I, was successfully launched from
NASA Wallops Station Dec. 15, 196LE. San Marco was a mutual program
of NASA and ISC with no exchange of funds. NASA supplied launch vehicle
and provided personnel training and tracking and data acquisition
services. ISC was responsible for design, fabrication, and testing of pay-
loads and for launching of satellite built by Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali
(CRA) of the Univ. of Rome. (NASA Proj Off; NASA Release 67-93; WS
Release 67-17)
0 NASA test pilot William H. Dana made successful emergency landing of
X-15 No. 3 at Edwards AFB after low pressure developed in fuel pump.
( AP, B Sun, 4/27/67)
0 Ashes of Soviet Cosmonaut Col. Vladimir M. Komarov were buried in the
Kremlin wall in a military funeral attended by Premier Aleksey N.
Kosygin, President Nikolay V. Podgorny, and other high Government
leaders and scientists. Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin, in a brief speech,
pledged that Soviet cosmonauts would “continue the cause’’ for which
Komarov gave his life. A NASA spokesman said plans to send US. Astro-
nauts L. Gordon Cooper and Frank Borman to funeral had been aban-
doned because U.S.S.R. denied permission, saying it was an internal
Soviet affair. (AP, W Star, 4/26/67, A24; NYT, 4/27/67, 3; UPI, W
Post, 4/27/67, A4)
Rep. William F. Ryan (D-N.Y.) , in statement on the House floor, charged
that NASA refused to release the Phillips Report because “the truth concerning
NASA’s failure properly to supervise Apollo operations and
incredible mismanagement on the part of NASA’s major Apollo contractor
is highly embarrassing.” He said that if NASA failed to officially release
the report by April 29, he would make the full text available to the
press. “In a democracy no agency should be permitted to withhold critical
information for its own protection. On the contrary, the public
which, at a tremendous cost is financing NASA’s efforts in space, has a
right to know how its money is being spent.” (CR, 4/26/67, H4733)
New York Times praised Senate ratification of the space law treaty April 25
and called for increased international cooperation in space: “Ideally,
the probing of space and the planets would be the province of a World
Space Organization affiliated with the United Nations, financed by the
contributions of all nations desiring to participate, and drawing upon
the technical manpower and knowledge of all nations. This international
organization could be the owner of the moon and other solar
bodies, arranging for the exploitation of resources found there, and
using any extraterrestrial profits for the benefit of all men.
“It will take much time before such an ideal can be reached. But even
now the more sober spirit evident in Moscow and Washington opens the
door to greater bilateral cooperation. Both nations have technical
knowledge in this field that they could exchange to their mutual advantage.
Their space tracking and rescue facilities could be coordinated
into a single world system; they could agree on a division of labor that
would eliminate such duplication as is represented by Surveyor and
Lunar Orbiter. The result could easily be major savings in money and
increased safety for all astronauts, regardless of nationality.” (NYT,
4/26/67)
0 James Smith McDonnell, founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corp., received
128