Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

October 26 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
nine experiments. All experiments were performing well and spacecraft
was transmitting satisfactory data. The 59941 spacecraft, launched from
ETR Oct. 18, had received 1,500 commands. It was 3,OOOth object in
orbit since Sputnik I in 1957; 100th satellite orbited in 1967; and 50th
satellite orbited by Delta launch vehicle in 53 attempts. (NASA Release
67-273)
* Senate and House adopted conference report on amended NASA FY 1968
appropriations bill (H.R. 124;74) totaling $4.6 billion, and legislation
was cleared for President’s signature. Report approved $3.925 billion for
R&D, decrease of $152.1 million from authorization and decrease of
$356.5 million from budget; report approved $35.9 million for Con-
struction of Facilities, decrease of $14.6 million from authorization, and
decrease of $21.3 million from budget; report approved $628.0 million
for Administrative Operations, decrease of $20.2 million from authoriza-
tion, and decrease of $43.3 million from budget.
Rep. James G. Fulton (R-Pa.) , ranking minority member of House
Committee on Science and Astronautics, on floor of House, said that
“Voyager and NERVA 11 programs should be funded this fiscal year.
Voyager is the only major planetary exploration program this Nation
will have in the 1970’s. If this program is abandoned, we will be abdi-
cating our responsibilities. . . . This is particularly significant follow-
ing the recent Russian Venus IV soft landing on the planet Venus.”
Sen. Gordon L. Allott (R-Col.) , ranking minority member of Senate
Committee on Appropriations’ Space Appropriations Subcommittee, was
forced to accept no specific funding for Voyager and Nerva programs
(in final version) but said in statement read by Sen. Margaret C. Smith
(R-Me.) on floor of Senate that “agreement was reached to add $15.5
million to [R&D] over the House figure.” He added that the agreement
would provide that NASA’s Administrator “may reprogram
funds . . . with approval of the appropriate committees of the Con-
gress.” He added: “. . . conferees share this belief, that this country
must move ahead now in [RW] leading to interplanetary exploration.”
(CR, 10/26/67, H14036-8, S1545-8)
* Dr. Harvey H. Nininger, leading authority on meteorites and tektites, was
honored at Meteoritical Society’s 30th annual meeting at ARC by publi-
cation of special issue of the Journal of the.Geochemica1 Society and by
presentation -of Society’s annual Leonard Medal. First to propose, in
19@, that tektites came from moon, Dr. Nininger later proved that
coesitea quartz-like material created by very high pressures-could
be found in meteoroid craters. Presence of coesite was currently being
used to determine whether a crater was formed by meteorite impact (ARC
Release 67-21)
Qctober 27: NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR reached
99-mi (160-km) altitude in flight to measure, with moderate and high
resolution, spectral irradiance of Venus (1,OOO to 3,000 A), and star B
Oriones (Rigel). No data were acquired from Venus because tracker
was ineffective; Rigel was acquired and five-second exposure sequence
was completed. (NASA Rpt SRL)
* U.S.S.R. successfully launched two Cosmos satellites with two boosters:
Cosmos CLXXXV entered orbit with 888-km (552-mi) apogee, 522-km
(324-mi) perigee, 98.7-min period, and 64.1” inclination. Cosmos
CLXXXVI, launched into orbit with 235-km (146-mi) apogee, 2Og-h
(130-mi) perigee, 88.7-min period, and 51.7” inclination, later docked
320