Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

January 8 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
January 8: Explosive growth of world’s population in the 20th century was
an instinctive preparation of mankind for challenges of space travel
and resettlement on other planets, Soviet scientist Igor M. Zabelin con-
tended in Pravda. “. . . two very striking facts-the explosive growth
of mankind and the exploration of space-do not coincide by accident.
Some inner motivations are leading mankind to new and unknown shores
and, therefore, it is gathering its strength and reorganizing [its social
structure] .,’ This explosion was imperative to supply the manpower nec-
essary for the space age, he asserted, because the solar system could
not be conquered with “only three billion human beings.” (Anderson.
NYT, 1/9/67,1)
0 New York Times questioned FCC’s ability to investigate adequately the
organization of a domestic comsat system. “The questions faced by the
Federal Communications Commission and Congress . . . go far beyond
the obvious ones of whether Comsat’s present monopoly in the interna-
tional satellite field should be extended to the new area or whether pri-
vate corporations should be empowered to launch separate systems for
television or press transmission. . . .
“Perhaps the most worrisome aspect of the tangle . . . is the inca-
pacity of the F.C.C. to grapple with such problems in total terms. . . .
[It] has neither the research staff nor the funds to discharge its planning
responsibilities with anything approaching adequacy. The country must
now look to it for decisions it is ill-equipped to give on the organization
of a new satellite system and on the future of noncommercial TV.”
(NYT, 1/8/67, 12E)
January 9: William M. Magruder, Lockheed Aircraft Corp., had been selected
to receive Flight Safety Foundation’s 1967 Richard Hansford Burroughs
Test Pilot Award, Aviation Week reported. (Av Wk, 1/9/67, 13)
January 10: US. space program could benefit from experience and scientific
research in the Antarctic, group of NASA officials headed by MSFC
Director Dr. Wernher von Braun concluded after studying US. installa-
tions and activities at McMurdo Station since Jan. 3. Interest in the
Antarctic was based on research being conducted there which was appli-
cable to space flight and on way Americans worked under conditions of
stress, isolation, and extreme cold-conditions similar to those on the
moon and in space flight. The group also observed minute fungi and algae
growing in Antarctic and studied methods being used to detect living
organisms, as preparation for detecting and studying such growths pos-
sibly existing in harsh environments of other planets. (Durdin, NYT,
1/15/67, 87)
MSFC had exercised one-year $10,451,092 renewal option of cost-plus-
award-fee contract with Mason-Rust Co. for continued support services
at Michoud Assembly Facility. ( MSFC Release 67-6)
Designs of both American SST and Anglo-French Concorde would have to
be modified to meet standards proposed by their potential customers,
International Air Transport Assn. ( IATA) Director General Knut Ham-
marskjold asserted. He advised that aircraft be modified to meet all of
the organization’s requirements, even if it meant postponing delivery
date.
The Wail Street Journal later commented: “Since IATA’S members
include most of the world’s major airlines . . . Mr. Hammarskjold’s
words plainly deserve attention. . . . [He] appears to have shot a large
hole in the SST supporters’ main argument for haste. It is that the British
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