Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 August 11
accommodate public preference for small antennas without sacrificing
picture quality. Inventor Edwin M. Turner, attached to the Air Force
at Wright-Patterson AFB, told the press that the “heart” of the minia-
turized antenna was the use of transistors. (Gould, NYT, 8/12/67, 27)
August 12: GSFC scientists were predicting that NASA’s Echo I comsat, launched
Aug. 12,1960, would decay from orbit during the next year, AP reported.
Once a perfect sphere 100 ft in dia, balloon had deflated and its speed in
orbit was steadily decreasing. It had been launched to demonstrate that
large inflatable spheres could be used as passive communications re-
flectors in space. (AP, H Post, 8/13/67; Volker, M News, 8/12/67)
* AIAA Board of Directors endorsed hobbyists who built model rockets from
paper, plastic, and balsa wood, but warned against the hazards of ama-
teurs mixing their own fuels and experimenting with homemade metal
rockets. Action preceded the National Model Rocket Championship con-
test scheduled to open in Mankato, Minn., Aug. 15. AIAA, which had for
many years withheld endorsement of any type of nonprofessional rocket
experiments, recommended that model rocketry be conducted only with
adult supervision. (Wilford, NYT, 8/14/67,37)
* US. and Australia were engaged in a joint program to build a highly tech-
nical installation in the Australian desert to intercept information trans-
mitted by Soviet reconnaissance satellites, UPI reported. On Aug. 11, DOD
statement said only that US. was “cooperating with the Australian gov-
ernment in a space defense research project.” US. officials admitted
privately, however, that project was a “ferret” installation to detect
radar, electromagnetic radiation, and other electronic impulses em-
anating from Soviet satellites. ( UPI, W Star, 8/12/67)
August 14: President Johnson, in a message to Congress on communications
policy, announced that he was appointing a 15-man task force headed by
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Eugene V. Rostow to
formulate “a national communications policy.” Among questions the
group would examine were: (1) how soon would a domestic satellite
system be economically feasible? (2) should a domestic system be
general purpose or specialized? and (3) should there be more than
one system? Task force’s report was due in one year. The President also :
(1) reaffirmed US. commitments made in 1962 and 1964 in support of
the development of a global system of comsats “to make modern commu-
nications available to all nations”; (2) pledged US. support to the con-
tinuation of the INTELSAT consortium, saying, “we seek no domination
of satellite communications to the exclusion of any other nation-or
group of nations”; (3) stated that US. “should take no action in the
establishment of a domestic [comsat] system which is incompatible with
our support for a global system”; and (4) urged U.S.S.R. and the na-
tions of Eastern Europe to join INTELSAT. “Here is a rare opportunity to
join in an activity to bring benefits to all nations and loss to none.” He
suggested there might be an eventual linkage between Soviet Molniya
system and INTELSAT system.
The President concluded: “Historians may write that the human race
survived or faltered because of how well it mastered the technology of
this age.
“Communications satellites now permit man’s greatest gifts-sight,
expression, human thoughts and ideaeto travel unfettered to any por-
tion of our globe. The opportunity is within our grasp. We must be pre-
pared to act.” (PD, 8/21/67, 1146-54; WSJ, 8/15/67)
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