Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 July 10-13
Island Newsday series by AP writer Howard Benedict. US., he said,
was quietly developing a strong military space capability because: (1)
U.S.S.R. “is vigorously pushing for a military space capability”;
(2) Titan I1 and Minuteman missiles “are threatened by new warhead
guidance system 10 times more accurate than any previous system”;
(3) Polaris missiles deployed at sea “are threatened by new satellite
reconnaissance devices” that may soon be able to locate submerged
submarines; (4) US. missiles designed to penetrate Soviet defenses
were threatened by potential Soviet capability to neutralize and destroy
them before they reached enemy territory; and (5) “world strategic
situation has been changed sharply by Red Chinese achievements in
nuclear explosives and by steadily decreasing costs which will permit
other nations to deploy missile forces.”
DOD was developing “fantastic” weapons *and military equipment,
Benedict noted: “reconnaissance satellites that will spt a soldier hiding
in underbrush or a missile buried underground; satellites to locate sub-
merged submarines; communications satellites that will enable infantry-
men . . . to converge on strategy; rockets to knock down enemy satel-
lites; laser and radiation beams to pulverize space or ground targets;
rocket-borne nuclear bombs to destroy missile warhead rockets with
great power and versatility; and manned spaceships that will take off
and land like conventional airplanes.” USAF’S Manned Orbiting Labora-
tory (MOL) program, he said, would determine whether man is more
effective at performing tasks currently done by unmanned satellites and
whether space itself could become a battlefield. (Benedict, LI Newsday,
7/10-13/67)
July 11 : MSC engineer Caldwell 6. Johnson was granted patent for a cocoon-
like escape device for orbiting astronauts. Device, which would be
stored in an external compartment on the spacecraft, consisted of an
insulated zippered nylon bag with a retrorocket. Astronaut would don
his pressure suit with oxygen supply, seal himwlf in the bag, and fire
retrorocket to thrust toward a landmark on earth. He would then inflate
a bladder to shape the bag into a sphere for stability during reentry.
Sphere would deflate during reentry, notifying astronaut when it was
time to deploy parachute for safe landing. (US. Patent Off; MSC Round-
up, 7/7/67,8; Jones, NYT, 7/15/67,29)
Second Saturn V booster’s 1st and 2nd stages were mechanically mated
at ICSC in preparation for AS-502 unmanned mission to test Apollo
spacecraft’s reentry heat shield. Booster’s 3rd stage was added July 13;
instrument unit, July 14. (KSC Proj Off; Marshall Star, 7/12/67, 1)
NASA contract awards: (1) Brown and Root-Northrop Corp. were se-
lected for negotiations of a one-year, $10-million, cost-plus-award-fee
contract to provide jointly operational support services to MSC’S lab-
oratory and test facilities; (2) Graham Engineering Corp. and LTV
Range Systems Div. were selected for competitive negotiations of a
one-year, $10-million, cost-plus-award-fee contract for facility support
services at MSC. (NASA Releases 67-180, 67-181)
* First aerial drop in test series to develop and qualify Earth Landing Sys-
tem (ELS) for heavier Block I1 Apollo spacecraft was conducted by
Northrop Ventura at El Centro, Calif. Tests were studying the use of
a two-stage reefing system for three main ELS chutes and larger diameter
drogue parachutes for the ELS. Block I Apollo spacecraft used only a
singlestage reefing. (NAA Skywriter, 7/21/67,1,2)
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