Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

February 22 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
February 22: USAF launched unidentified satellite WTR using Thor-Ageha
D booster; satellite reentered Mar. 11. (Pres Rep 1967; GSFC SSR,
3/15/67)
Illustrations of the predictive ability of the contemporary engineer we~e
made by ARC’S Simulation Sciences Div. chief, George A. Rathert, Jr., at
Moffett Field Scholarship Night Banquet for Bay Area Joint Engineers
Council: “. . . FAA pilots were experiencing certain characteristics of
the supersonic transport on simulators at the Ames Research Center 15
months before the FAA asked for bids on the design studies. You will
recall Astronaut Gordon Cooper having to manually control the attitude
of his space ship during a reentry retrofiring to successfully complete his
mission. Engineering test pilots at Ames were studying problems of
coping with manual control of a simulated spacecraft reentering with
partly failed control systems more than nine years ago.” (Text)
* Soviet antimissile defense system could not prevent all enemy missiles from
reaching their targets, Marshal Andrey A. Grechko, acting Soviet Defense
Minister, and Marshal Vasily I. Chuikov, head of Soviet civil defense
program, wrote in Zzvestiu article commemorating Soviet Armed Forces
Day. Their assertion contradicted statement by Gen. Pave1 A. Kurochkin,
head of Frunze Military Academy, at Feb. 20 news conference: “If
enemy missiles fly, they will not arrive in MOSCOW.” (Anderson, NYT,
2/23/67,1)
0 France would launch 330-lb Saros comsat-138 lbs heavier than ComSat-
Gorp’s INTELSAT 11 comsats-in 1970 from new French Guiana launch site
using ELDO’S Europa booster, Reuters reported. Saros would provide
direct telephone, radio, and television communications between France
and French-speaking countries. (Reuters, W Post, 2/23/67, A3)
February 23: GSFC selected Radiation, Inc., for negotiations on a $1-million,
cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop Versatile Information Processor
(VIP), an advanced telemetry system for the Nimbus D meteorological
satellite. System would process, format, and store in the spacecraft
scientific data obtained from experiments and monitor temperatures,
pressures, power supply, and control system. (NASA Release 67-34)
February 24: Astrobee 1500 sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops
Station in third flight test carried 110-lb instrument package to 1,495-mi
(3,007-km) altitude before impacting 690 mi downrange in the Atlantic.
No recovery was attempted. The 11,600-lb solia-fueled rocket-most
powerful sounding racket in U.S.-transmitted 30 min of data on flight
characteristics. From preliminary examination of data test appeared
successful, but scientific data on cosmic noise effects were lost because
rocket’s spin rate was too high for proper deployment of experimental
antennas. Astrobee 1500 was being developed by NASA “to provide
a research rocket capable of carrying heavy scientific payloads to
high altitudes, with a relative ease-of-handling. . . .” First launch
attempt (April 8, 1963) failed 16 sec after launch because of a nose-
fairing failure; second attempt (Oct. 21, 1964) was successful. (WS
Release 67-5)
* USAF launched an unidentified satellite from WTR using Titan 111-B
booster; satellite reentered Mar. 6. (Pres Rep 1967; GSFC SSR, 3/
15/67)
Phoebus 1B reactor was operated for 45 min-30 min at 1,500-mw design
power-in test conducted by AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office
at NRDS, Jackass Flats, Nev. Primary purpose of test, part of Rover
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