Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

August 10 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
told Baldwin there were no “real serious problems” with the aircraft and
said that accelerated testing and training project which began at Nellis
in July was “ahead of schedule.” He conceded, however, that aircraft at
Nellis had not yet carried bomb loads. Flight and combat testing of the
F-lllh was continuing at Edwards AFB and Eglin AFB. (Baldwin, NYT,
8/11/67,1,2)
The universe was 70 billion yrs old-about seven times older than gener-
ally believed, Soviet astrophysicists Iosif Shklovsky and Dr. Nikolay
Kardashov told a Moscow news conference. When it was formed it first
expanded, then remained static for about 50 billion yrs, and now was
expanding again. Scientists said they made their conclusions after
analyzing the red light shift in spectrograms made of quasars-a method
of measuring the distance and velocity of celestial objects. (AI’, NYT,
8/13/67,69)
August 11: NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried
ARC-instrumented payload to 88-mi (141-km) altitude to collect for
analysis meteoritic debris during the peak of meteor shower. Three
deployable module support arms held four module trays each, to entrap
meteoritic debris. Rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily.
(NASA Rpt SRL)
OGO “handlers” were hoping that Ogo ZV (launched July 28) might be
economical enough with its gas supply to permit it to continue for
one year at the peak of its investigative capabilities. Achievement of
one-year performance would enable satellite to gather data on earth,
its upper atmosphere, and its near-space environment during period
of peak solar activity, which occurs every 11 yrs. Ogo ZV’s gas system,
used to supply thrust to series of small attitude-stabilized jets, had been
improved by installation of gas bottle filled with krypton instead of
argon. This increased gas pressure from 3,000 psi to 4,000 psi and
doubled available impulse from 900 to 1,800 pound-seconds. NASA re-
ported that if present gas expenditure rate were maintained they were
assured the minimum 50 days of three-axis stabilized operation that
would permit mission success. (NASA Release 67-210)
* Universities should not rely so heavily on NASA and DOD to advance and
support basic science, Cal Tech president Lee A. DuBridge suggested
in Science. A moderate fraction of these agencies’ budgets was neces-
sarily used to advance basic research, he said, and in the space program
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the resulting technologies are providing a valuable tool for carrying
on scientific investigations which would otherwise be impossible.
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However, it must . . . be stressed that neither NASA nor any other
agency charged with implementing a national-policy goal is intended
to be a philanthropic agency authorized to provide benefactions to university
science departments. They are agencies seeking to get a job
done, and they turn to universities only when the universities can render
a service. . . .” DuBridge urged that Federal Government develop a
more adequate and balanced program for strengthening basic science
by charging “suitable agencies (principally the National Science Foundation)
with this particular task” and providing adequate funds for carry.
ing it out. (DuBridge, Science, 8/11/67,648-50)
Commercial applications of a miniaturized TV aerial developed by USAF
after four years af research were being explored by at least 100 electronic
companies, Jack Gould reported in the New York Times. Firms
believed device, originally developed for military communications, might
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