Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 August 24
“We shall demonstrate that-despite all his problems, quarrels, and
distractions-man still retains a capacity to design his fate, rather than be
engulfed by it.
“Failure to complete our work will be interpreted by our children and
grandchildren as a betrayal of conscience, in a world that needs all of its
resources and talents to serve life, not death. . . .” (PD, 8/28/67,
1204-5; Hamilton, NYT, 8/25/67,1)
* NASA test pilots Fitzhugh Fulton and Donald Mallick flew XB-70 No. 1 to
mach 2.27 and 58,000-ft altitude in flight at Edwards AFB to check out:
(1) three pacer airspeed calibration points; (2) photos of the tufted
right upper canard; (3) boundary layer noise data; (4) stability, con-
trol, and handling qualities; (5) bypass close unstart of left inlet; (6)
nose ramp flutter data; and (7) radar airspeed calibration. (NASA Proj
off)
* Ten cosmonauts were practicing parachute jumps over the water, indicating
that future Soviet space missions might attempt American-style splash-
downs, Krasnaya Zvezda reported. All previous Soviet manned space
missions had come down on dry land. ( UPI, NYT, 8/25/67,29)
Soviet aircraft would drop bombs into two large areas of the Pacific from
Sept. 2-10 in series of seismic tests which would aid Soviet study of
world oceans and research into forecasting tidal waves and earthquakes.
Tass asked foreign governments to warn their ships not to enter first
area from 1O:OO a.m. to 6:OO p.m. local time, Sept. 2-5; or second area
during same hours Sept. 5-10. (Reuters, NYT, 8/25/67, 12)
* Republic Aviation Gorp. offered $10,000 each to 12 well-trained men willing
to spend 270 consecutive days in 28-ft-long simulated space chamber.
Applicants had to be qualified psychologists, microbiologists, or systems
engineers. Tests, at Wright-Patterson AFB under $646,434 USAF grant,
would try to determine how men would react during a long space voyage.
(AP, NYT, 8/25/67,16)
August 25: Dr. Homer E. Newell, NASA Associate Administrator for Space
Science and Applications, would become NASA Associate Administrator
Oct. 1, NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced. He succeeded
Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., who became Deputy Administrator Dec. 21,
1965. In his new position, Dr. Newell would work closely with Webb and
Dr. Seamans on the planning, development, and conduct of the space pro-
gram. D. D. Wyatt, Assistant Administrator for Program Plans and
Analysis, would report directly to Dr. Newell. (NASA Release 67-228)
* NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried Lockheed
Missiles & Space Co. experiment to ‘76-mi (125-km) altitude to determine
x-ray spectra in the 0.3- to 3-kev energy range of several previously
discovered cosmic sources and to search for variation with galactic
latitude of diffuse x-ray background. Rocket and instrumentation per-
formed satisfactorily. (NASA Rpt SRL)
Mariner V spacecraft had traveled more than 114 million mi of its 216-
million-mi flight to Venus and was now closer to Venus than to earth,
NASA announced. JPL officials said spacecraft’s star tracker had been
successfully updated for the first time Aug. 24. This electronic change
of the tracker’s “look-angle,” commanded by the spacecraft’s on-board
computer, would occur three more times during the flight. (NAS4 Release
67-229)
* Prof. Jacques-Emile Blamont of the University of Paris would receive the
International Academy of Astronautics’ ( IAA) 1967 Daniel and Florence
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