Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 November 24
commands to maneuver spacecraft. Used to teach deaf and retarded
people, machine helped deaf person to correct his speech by “seeing” his
voice, and NASA scientists would use this project and similar studies to
categorize and encode speech patterns. ( ERC Release 67-39)
November 25: Spectrometer aboard NASA’s Os0 IV, launched Oct. 18, had
obtained spectral data providing complete picture of corona over whole
face of solar disc, Harvard College Observatory Director Professor Leo
Goldberg said. Primary purpose of satellite, to obtain high-resolution
spectral data, had been achieved. Goldberg said that 4,000 uv photos of
the sun, made above earth’s atmosphere, would provide three-dimen-
sional information on sun’s structure, temperature, and density, and on
how they vary with height. Previously, scientists could study solar flares
only by observing them at the sun’s rim during eclipse. Goldberg said
interpretation of uv photos, still being-transmited to earth, should also
be related to unsolved problems about sun’s chemical composition and
in turn to theories of sun’s origin and evolution. (Weily W Post,
11/26/67, A6; AP, W Star, 11/26/67, A17)
* U.S.S.R. successfully launched Cosmos CXCIII. Orbital parameters :
apogee, 354 km (220 mi) ; perigee, 203 km (127 mi) ; period, 89.9
min; inclination, 65.7’. Satellite reentered Dec. 3. (AP, NYT, 11/26/67,
46; GSFC SSR, 12/15/67)
* National Policy Panel of U.N. Assn. of the U.S.A. published report
“Stopping the Spread of Atomic Weapons.” Report favored proposed
treaty ending spread of nuclear weapons, urged US. to open its peaceful
nuclear reactors to inspection by IAEA, recommended specific interna-
tional facilities and arrangements for handling explosions for peaceful
purposes, asked for a fairer balance between nuclear and nonnuclear
nations, and called for inclusion of U.N. guarantee (based on US. and
U.S.S.R. power) against “nuclear blackmail.” Panel report’s “underlying
theme” was that some nations might refuse to sign if the two major
powers avoided treaty terms designed to meet concern of nonnuclear
states that “special units be created wit& International Atomic Energy
Agency to assure that technical, industrial innovations in civilian nuclear
energy be made available on a pooled, non-discriminatory basis.” (Fin-
ney, NYT, 11/26/67,12; Marder, W Post, 11/26/67,1)
* Dr. Jack E. Froehlich, 46-year-old scientist and rocket pioneer, was
drowned with his nine-year-old son, Mark, in a boating accident. He
had been president of National Engineering Science Co. and, during
1959, had been at JPL as a project manager for Explorer I. (Pasadena
Star-News, 13/27/67]
November 26: U.S.S.R.’s long-held superiority in large boosters had given
it an advantage over US. in nuclear warhead protection, according to
Pentagon sources. The advantage would become significant both offen-
sively and defensively because of present developments in ABM de-
fenses-developments designed to destroy incoming warheads in outer
space with intensive x-ray emissions. Soviet scientists could easily
add more shielding to their warheads to halt x-ray bombardments from
U.S. antimissile missiles, article noted, but US. was handicapped by
weight limitations of its lower-thrust boosters. “Some officials,” article
said, “are concerned that the hardness of Russian warheads will lessen
seriously the protective capability of the Pentagon’s planned [ABM sys-
tems] . . . [and] that US. offensive missiles now need more protection
. . . to survive Russian anti-missile explosions and reach their targets.”
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