Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

February 8 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
tems had been perfected and were ready for operational use; and gravity
field definition had been improved to allow more accurate orbit deter-
minations and the computation of orbits of any given accuracy with a
smaller amount of tracking data. (NASA Proj Off)
NASA turned Essa ZV meteorological satellite over to ESSA for operation in
accordance with NASA-Dept. of Commerce agreement. Essa Iv was
launched by NASA Jan. 26 from WTR. (NASA Release 67-10)
The Washington Post praised space law treaty transmitted to Senate by
President Johnson Feb. 7: “The new treaty is an eminently sensible
limitation on the military exploitation of outer space. The great powers
must continue. their efforts until the problems of proliferation also have
been met. And then they must go on to search for a means of thermo-
nuclear disarmament that will rescue mankind from the threat of an-
nihilation.” ( W Post, 2/8/67)
a White House had received a letter from an unnamed scientist suggesting
that it conduct its own investigation into Jan. 27 accident at KSC which
killed three Apollo astronauts, Karl Abraham reported in Philadelphia
Evening Bulletin. Scientist, who was not identified, felt NASA had not
sufficiently heeded warnings of fire hazards presented by use of pure
oxygen atmosphere. (Abraham, P EB, 2/8/67)
February 8-28: NASA’s Lunar Orbiter ZZZ, launched from ETR Feb. d, became
third US. spacecraft to enter lunar orbit; four days later it was suc-
cessfully transferred to final close-in orbit for photography. Orbital
parameters: apolune, 1,145 mi (1,847 km) ; perilune, 34 mi (55 km) ;
inclination, 20.93’; and period, 3 hrs 29 min. Spacecraft performed
357 attitude changes, responded to 2,866 commands, and recorded no
micrometeoroid hits. A total of 211 medium- and high-resolution photos
were taken before mission’s photo acquisition phase was terminated
Feb. 24 because of a malfunction in the priority readout system. Readout
would be completed March 6. Among photos transmitted, described by
JPL officials as of “excellent quality,” was a picture of Hygius Rille, a
deep gorge similar to the Grand Canyon. The rille-not considered by
NASA as a potential landing sitecould not be seen distinctly through
earth-based telescopes, but through Lunar Orbiter Ill’s cameras it a p
peared clearly as a deep steep-walled ditch with one large central crater
and numerous smaller ones. Pictures taken of the Sea of Tranquility
confirmed that the site was probably smooth enough for manned land-
ings: they showed a thin scattering of craters, some as small as three
feet in diameter, and only a few ridges steep enough to upset a landing
spacecraft. (NASA Proj Off; AP, NYT, 2/16/67; W Star, 2/21/67, A4;
upi, W Post, 2/23/67, A3)
February 9: NASA Javelin sounding rocket launched from Ft. Churchill car-
ried Rice Univ.-instrumented payload to 467-mi (752-km) altitude to
measure ratio of fluxes of auroral zone precipitated protons, and alpha
particles, fluxes and spectra of lowenergy protons and electrons, and
energy spectrum of protons with energies of 100 to 500 kev. Rocket and
instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (NASA Rpt SRL)
a Feb. 15 launch of third satellite in ComSatCorp’s INTELSAT 11 series was
postponed by NASA until mid-March to study recent failure in a Scout
launch vehicle’s FW4S motor. INTE~SAT-11 comsats were launched by
Thrust-Augmented Improved Delta boosters which used motors similar
to FW4S. (NASA Release 67-24)
February 10: Three Apollo astronauts died in Jan. 27 flash fire at KSC because
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