Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

June 21 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1%7
noted that, because of sun’s influence on the ionosphere, SSTS with
VHF radios might be subject to communications blackouts during the
1,200 mi of a transatlantic flight when they were too far from land for
line-of-sight VHF reception. Use of satellites to relay communications
might be a possible solution to the problem, he suggested. (Schmeck,
NYT, 6/22/67,6)
* MSFC had awarded three parallel contract~94,000 to Boeing Co.;
$95,000 to TRW, Inc.; and $%,OOO to General Electric Co.-for further
project definition work on the Voyager program. Objectives of the
contracts, effective through Oct. 15, were to furnish,NASA with current
data on Voyager spacecraft systems design and perform engineering
study tasks. (MSFC Release 67-129)
* U.S.S.R., East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland withdrew
from live international telecast scheduled for June 25 [see Feb. 71 for
political reasons. U.S.S.R. charged that Western broadcasters were
conducting “a slanderous campaign” against the Arab nations in the
current Middle East crisis. (Gent, NYT, 6/22/67, 67M)
* Astronomers at Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz, Calif., were beginning
a new study of star movement against the background of galaxies so
distant they appeared to be fixed in space, Lick astronomer Dr.
Stanislavs Vasilevskis told a Santa Cruz news conference. “The Lick
proper motion study will open a new approach to research in astronomy
using modern electronic equipment.’’ A primary purpose of the study
would be to gain further information on the rotation of the earth‘s
galaxy, he said. Completely automated equipment installed at Lick for
the study was financed by $367,120 NSF grant. (AP, NYT, 6/25/67,12)
June 22: Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences voted to
report $4.851 billion NASA authorization bill (S. 1296)-$249 million
less than $5.1 billion NASA had requested for FY 1968. Committee
reductions included $120 million from Apollo Applications (AA) pro-
gram and $71.5 million-total amount requested-from Voyager pro-
gram. Responding to Committee report, NASA Deputy Administrator
Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., issued a statement saying that the affected
programs were of “first-rank importance to mankind. The scientists
of this country have expressed deep concern that the United States is
not making enough progress in the exploration of the planets.
“We feel that many members of Congress will want to give further
consideration to the President’s recommendations” for the AA program.
(Reistrup, W Post, 6/24/67)
House completed general debate on NASA N 1968 authorization bill
(H.R. 10340) and was scheduled to resume discussion of bill June 27
when amendments would be considered and final vote taken. During
debate Rep. Delbert L. Latta (R-Ohio) criticized the $444.7 million
recommended by Committee on Science and Astronautics for the Apollo
Applications (AA) program: “. . . we could spend [that money]
toward research and possible cure of cancer, stroke, and heart disease,
rather than some nebulous undefined program that will take place
when-and I emphasize this point-and after we get to the moon. This
money is to be spent on hardware after we get to the moon. No cine
knows when we are going to get there . . - [and] if we spend this
money perfecting these vehicles and this hardware today, it might be
out of date when we get to the moon. . . .” Rep. Olin Teague (D-Tex.) ,
Chairman of House Committee on Science and Astronautics’ Subcom-
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