Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

September 14 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
September 14: Richard J. Keegan, Chief of the Procurement Division, GSFC,
was appointed to new position of NASA Assistant Director of Procurement
(Policy and Review). (NASA Ann)
The Institute for Strategic Studies of London, England, had said that the
US. was way ahead of the Soviet Union in missiles, but that the Russians
were closing the gap, reported New York Times. The Institute’s
annual report, “The Military Balance,” said deployment of a limited
ballistic defense system around Moscow had increased protection of
Soviet land-based ICBMS. The new Soviet defense system now being installed
along the eastern Baltic coast-the so-called Tallin Line-might
be primarily an extension of radar coverage. The report also noted a
“probable reduction in the combat effectiveness” of the Chinese armed
forces because of the domestic upheaval. (NYT, 9/15/67)
NASA Arcas sounding rocket was launched from Barking Sands, Hawaii, to
38-mi (6O.km) altitude in NOTS experiment to measure incident solar
ultraviolet irradiance in support of Ogo ZV’s mission. First of a series
of seven, rocket failed to attain experimental results because of parachute
malfunction. (NASA Rpt SRL)
France delayed the signing of an agreement with Britain and West Germany
for development of a European “airbus” to carry 250-300 passengers
in the 197Os, reported Reuters. Officials insisted that there were
only “minor differences’’ and that the agreement, reached last July,
would be approved. Britain’s Rolls-Royce Company would supply the
engine, the RB-207, to be constructed in cooperation with the French
firm of SNECMA and MAN of West Germany. France would build the
aircraft. (Reuters, W Post, 9/15/67)
September 15: Ats Z (Advanced Technical Satellite) was used experimentally
to relay weather photographs of current storms to the US. Weather
Bureau’s National Hurricane Center in Miami and other hurricane
watchers in the Caribbean. The satellite was launched by NASA into its
synchronous orbit on Dee. 7, 1966, and was positioned over Christmas
Island in the Pacific at an altitude of 22,cpoO miles. The satellite had
been used as a testbed for advanced meteorological, communications, and
satellite control systems, and also had made scientific measurements of
its orbital environment. Photographs were recorded and radioed to
earth by the Essu Y weather satellite while passing over the storm area.
The collected photographic data were then compiled as a mosaic and
gridded by computers at ESSA before delivery to the Goddard Space
Flight Center ground station at Mojave, Calif., for radio transmission to
the Ats 1. The satellite then retransmitted the gridded data to earth by
means of its weather fascimile (WEAFAX) experiment. Any ground
station equipped with the relatively inexpensive Automatic Picture
Transmission receivers could read out the pictures. Mosaics would be
transmitted daily on an experimental basis in this manner between 9 and
10 pm, EDT. WEAFAX was a joint NASA-ESSA experiment. (NASA Release
67-243)
0 Mariner IV, launched Nov. 28, lW, survived apparent micrometeoroid
shower. Spacecraft’s cosmic dust detector registered 17 hits within
15 min, while MGriner ZV traveled between orbits of earth and Mars.
Spacecraft was 29.6 million miles from earth and had traveled about
1.4 billion miles in its 1,020 days of flight. Micrometeoroid shower
had caused temporary change in spacecraft’s attitude but no loss of
power. Scientists concluded, from one-degree temperature drop inside
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