Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 September 15
spacecraft, that only the thermal shield was damaged. Within about
a week, spacecraft was operating without any apparent effect from
incident. Since photographing Mars in July 1965, Mariner IV had
been used for engineering experiments and acquisition of scientific
data. (O’Toole, W Post, 9/16/67, A7; NASA Proj Off)
USAF launched unidentified satellite from WTR using Thor-Agena D booster;
satellite reentered Oct 4. (Pres Rep 1967)
* Findings of 14mo study by Denver Research Institute (DRI) , under NASA
contract, of methods governing acquisition of new technology in 62
firms in four industries-electric batteries, printing and reproduction,
industrial controls, aqd medical electronics-were summarized in
Science. Report, ‘The Channels of Technology Acquisition in Commer-
cial Firms and the NASA Dissemination Program,” concluded that (1)
few organizations were vigorously seeking to acquire new technological
know-how from space research; (2) little had been done to increase
the technical awareness of the manufacturer outside the space and
military fields; and (3) the technologist faced with an immediate
problem was inclined to use information in standard manuals two to
five years behind the state of the art. The report noted that ‘Lmost
individuals felt it too di5cult to retrieve relevant material from the
mass of government publications and indicated that they expected
to learn of important government-developed technology through trade
and professional channels. In several firms, those interviewed felt it
wasn’t really practical to keep up with and use government technology
unless one’s firm had government R&D contracts.” (Greenberg, Science,
9/15/67,1016-18)
* William Markowitz, physics professor at Marquette Univ., summarized
his study of the reported flight dynamics of UFOS (unidentified flying
objects) in Science. Study was made because of letter in Oct. 21, 1966,
Science by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, consultant to USAF’S Project Blue Book,
urging investigation of residue of puzzling UFO cases by physical and
social scientists. Markowitz’s findings: (1) the control of reported
UFOS by extraterrestrid beings is contrary to the known laws of
physics and (2) the data published do not justify the holding of in-
vestigations. He added that he would not believe that earth had ever
been visited by any extraterrestrial until he was shown such a visitor.
(Markowitz, Science, 9/15/67,’1274-79)
* A Soviet astronomer, V. Makarov, had said UFO reports were not all hoaxes,
according to the magazine Technica Molodezhi. The astronomer added
that he did not believe they were full of little men from far out in
space either. Previously, UFOS had been written off by Soviet com-
mentators as inventions of the foreign press or the hallucinations
of disturbed persons. Mr. Makarov wrote that “the files of some
private persons and organizations dealing with these phenomena either
as their 05cial job or out of curiosity are filled with considerable
information. Whatever they may be, we cannot say that some phenomena
which are still hard to explain exist in reality.” Mr. Makarov said
data had come from radar stations, pilots, and scientists “about whose
common sense and honesty we have no right tg be doubtful.” (NYT,
9/14/67)
September 16: The likelihood of aircraft collisions and ship collisions would
be reduced considerably by an advanced navigation satellite, NASA’s
Eugene Ehrlich, chief of NASA’s Navigation and Tra5c Control program,
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