Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 January 10
and French are already well ahead of the US. . . . Calm consideration
would appear even more mandatory for the Government, saddled as it
is with a war and a budget whose income side long ago since has lost
touch with outgo. . . . A late blooming success is far better than a dis-
mal early failure.” (UPI, NYT, 1/11/67, 73; WSJ, 1/17/67,18)
* President Johnson, in his State of the Union address before joint session
of Congress, deferred decision on deploying a Nike-X antimissile missile
system despite evidence that U.S.S.R. was building a defensive system
near Moscow. “We have a solemn duty to slow down the arms race . . .
if that is at all possible, in both conventional and nuclear weapons and
defenses. . . . I realize any additional race would impose on our peoples
and on all mankind for that matter, an additional waste of resources with
no gain in security to either side.” The President said he intended to seek
international agreements “bearing directly on this problem.” He did not
mention the US. space program in his address. (PD, 1/16/67, 26-39)
January 10-11 I Dr. George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for
Manned Space Flight, discussed achievements and objectives of US.
space program in a series of lectures at the Univ. of Sydney Summer
School, Australia. After emphasizing intimate interrelationship between
NASA’s unmanned and manned programs, Dr. Mueller assessed Mercury
and Gemini flights: “In the Mercury program, we established man’s
capabilities in short space flights and we laid the foundation for manned
space flight technology. In the Gemini program, we gained operational
proficiency, learned about man’s capabilities in flights lasting up to
two weeks, and developed new techniques.” The Apollo program, he
said, was proceeding on schedule, and several alternative post-Apollo
programs were under consideration: “( 1) Direct economic benefits,
with emphasis on extensive earth-orbital activities; (2) Lunar explora-
tion and science; (3) Planetary exploration and science; (4) Maximum
effort aimed at pre-eminence in earth-orbital, lunar, and planetary ac-
tivities; (5) Balanced combination of economic benefits, lunar and
planetary exploration, and science.” (Text)
January 11-14: NASA launched ComSatCorp’s Intelsat ZZ-B comsat from
ETR by three-stage Thrust Augmented Improved Delta booster into el-
liptical transfer orbit in preparation for geostationary orbit. Transfer
orbit had 22,904-mi (36,875-km) apogee; 185-mi (298-km) perigee;
10-hr 54-min period; and 26” inclination. On Jan. 14 ComSatCorp
fired apogee motor transferring satellite into geostationary orbit over
the Pacific.
Scheduled to enter commercial service Jan. 27, Zntelsat ZI-B would
provide 24-hr communications service between US. and earth stations
in Hawaii, Japan, and Australia; assist in fulfilling Project Apollo com-
munications requirements; and provide military communications be-
tween Hawaii and Japan, and Thailand and the Philippines for
National Communications System (NCS) . It was second satellite in Com-
SatCorp’s INTELSAT 11 program to place two comsats in synchronous
orbit-one over the Pacific, one over the Atlantic; first satellite
Zntelsat ZZ-A-was launched by NASA Oct. 27,1966, but failed to achieve
synchronous orbit because apogee motor malfunctioned. Subsequent