Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

October 24 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
0 Commercial service via Pacific I1 comsat, launched by NASA from ETR
Sept. 30, would begin Nov. 4 ComSatCorp announced. (ComSatCorp
Release 67-52)
0 Overall NASA aeronautics program was undergoing “expansion and change
to meet the ever growing needs” of air transportation industry and
general aviation, NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr.,
told the Aero Club in Washington, D.C.: “Less than 1400 direct man.
years were applied to our aeronautical effort in 1962 and only $15
million in R&D funding was applied to support their activities. The
trend has now been clearly reversed and in [FY 19671 twice the man-
power (27.2 directs) and three times the funding ($45.7 million) were
applied to NASA’s aeronautical program.” Although FY 1968 program
had not been clarified, NASA planned to increase aeronautical R&D fund-
ing to $81.4 million, he said.
Major aeronautical advances in the past had been exploited by DOD,
he noted, which bore development costs and proved out designs before
adoption by commercial aviation. Since solutions for many problems
could no longer rely heavily on precursor military development, NASA
would continue NASA-mtablished role to conduct broadly applicable
basic aeronautical research and solve specific problems with reimburse-
ment for special costs. In addition, Dr. Seamans said, NASA would
attempt to reduce aircraft noise by modifying engines on existing air-
craft, developing quieter engines, and revising operational procedures ;
cooperate with FAA and industry to solve safety and utility problems of
general aviation; and conduct extensive R&D programs for V/STOL, super-
sonic, and hypersonic aircraft. (Text)
0 Fred Friendly, Columbia University professor and consultant to Ford
Foundation, delivering Granada Lecture in London, warned that communications
satellites’ promise of international LLcommon market” of
high-quality TV was threatened by commercial and government avarice.
In US., he said, TV “can make so much’money doing its worst, it cannot
afford to do its best.” Consequence had been that early promise of
quality programs had been lost while educational TV, which could fill
breach, had been “under-funded, undernourished and under-observed.”
But even in nations where TV was nationalized, tendency would be for
governments to seek profits from it to offset other communications defi-
cits, he said. Thus, he argued, “a promising world village, linked by
satellites,” could be turned into “an electronic slum,” because ambitious
corporations and separate governments insisted on going their own
ways, concerned more with earnings, national appetites, and images
than with what their satellite systems carried. What was required, he
suggested, was “an electronic Magna Charta” guaranteeing rights of
public to quality TV. (Friendly, W Post, 10/25/67, D14)
October 25: Last NASA Arcas sounding rocket in series of seven was launched
from Barking Sands, Hawaii, to 36-mi (59-km) altitude, in NOTS experi-
ment to measure incident solar uv irradiance in support of Ogo lV’s
mission. All experimental objectives were obtained. Rocket and payload
performed satisfactorily. (NASA Rpt SRL)
0 USAF launched unidentified satellite from WTR using Titan 111-B booster;
satellite reentered Nov. 5. (Pres Rep 1967)
0 A 2,000-mph USAF SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft on routine training flight
from Beale AFB, Calif., crashed near Lovelock, Nev. Its two crew mem-
bers ejected safely. Aircraft, built for USAF by Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
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