Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 November 20
“Since both Surveyor and its Centaur booster encountered enormous
problems in the early stages of development, the eventual success of the
program demonstrated the skill, perseverance, and determination of the
NASA-industry-university team.” (CR, 11/20/67, H15619)
a Soviet jet transport, 11-62, carrying delegation of Soviet aviation experts
who would negotiate final technical details of proposed Moscow-New
Yorkair link with FAA, landed at Dulles International Airport after 11-hr
flight from Moscow to Washington.
As a result of increasing complaints about jet noise and FAA’s lack of
authority to regulate it, Port Authority of New York had insisted that
noise measurement tests be made on 11-62 at Dulles before initiation of
direct Moscow-to-New York flights. New York Port Authority had done
pioneering work on noise problem.
Operational safety of 11-62 and alternate landing sites at Washington,
D.C., Philadelphia, and Boston had already been approved by FAA for
joint use by Pan American Airways and Aeroflot, official Soviet airline.
(Hoffman, IT‘ Post, 11/21/67, A4; B Sun, 11/21/67, A8)
NASA appointed Vincent L. Johnson Deputy Associate Administrator for
Space Science and Applications (Engineering). Johnson’s former position
of Director of Launch Vehicle and Propulsion Programs was filled
by Joseph B. Mahon, former Agena Program Manager and Deputy
Director of Launch Vehicle and Propulsion Programs. (NASA Release
67-289)
The US. should expect “an early Soviet attempt to send a large payload
around the moon and recover it on earth,” Rep. George P. Miller (D-
Calif.) , Chairman, House Committee on Science and Astronautics, said
in releasing committee report: “Review of Soviet Space Program,” pre-
pared by Dr. Charles S. Sheldon 11, Chief of Library of Congress’ Science
Policy Research Div. This 1957-67 review drew comparisons with
the corresponding program in US. Rep. Miller commented: “At the
same time that space efforts in the United States appear to be slacken-
ing, the pace of Soviet space flight has picked up by about 60 percent
this year over the corresponding ten months total of last year. The strong
technological base the Russians are building through a sustained, long-
term commitment to space [assures them] sophisticated and intricate
planetary probes . . . unmanned or manned space platforms . . . [ap-
plication of] aerospace technology systems management to a great
variety of industrial and social purposes here on earth.”
Committee report gave “no simple, direct answer” on “whether there
is a space race” but suggested “at the present time both the Soviet Union
and the United States have put large resources of somewhat similar
size into very broadly based programs of great strength.”
Competition in overall space capability, especially on weight lifting
and thrust of launch vehicles used by US. and U.S.S.R., was illustrated :
“In connection with the NASA Administrator’s August 1967 pronounce-
ment on the expected large Soviet rehicle [Saturn V class], he made
a plea for support of an American nuclear stage to mount on Saturn V
in order to leapfrog the Russians. A month later, Leonid Sedov in Mos-
cow stated his belief in the importance of nuclear propulsion for the very
large rockets which will soon be needed.” (Text; NASA SP4007, 212;
Committee Release, 11/20/67)
In the last decade, the Nation acquired vast new knowledge, wrote NASA
Administrator James E. Webb in Aerospace Technology’s Seventh An-
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