Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

March e13
ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
sodium vapor payload, and electron density using Langmuir probe. In
two cases no wind data were collected due to nonejection of sodium
vapor; Langmuir probe experiment performed satisfactorily. ( MSA Rpt
March 10: Cosmos CXLVZ was launched by U.S.S.R. into orbit with 310-km
(193-mi) apogee, 190-km (118-mi) perigee, 89.2-min period, and 51.5”
inclination. Fquipment functioned normally. Satellite reentered Mar. 18.
(Tech Wk, 3/20/67,13; GSFC SSR, 3/31/67)
NASA had awarded Western Electric Co. a $1,453,000 contract for operation
of ground services at KSC connected with Delta launch vehicle guidance
system. (NASA Release 67-53)
* Director of Laboratories (DOL) agency was established within AFSC Hq.
“to provide policy and technical direction” to all phases of its eight
laboratories’ programs and monitor their operations. ( AFSC Release
50.67)
March 11 : NASA officials dedicated at Corpus Christi, Tex., a 30-ft-dia dish
antenna which would be used to receive signals from Apollo spacecraft.
Operational responsibility for Corpus Christi tracking station, previously
used for Gemini support, had been transferred from DOD to NASA in 1966.
(UPI, NYT, 3/13/67,60)
The Vatican had authorized the Roman Catholic apostolic delegate in U.K.
to sign the International Treaty on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, AP
reported. Unanimously approved by the U.N. General Assembly Dec. 8,
1966, treaty was signed simultaneously by representatives of 62 nations
Jan. 27 in Washington, D.C., London, and Moscow, and was kept open
for additional signatures in those capitals. (AP, P Znq, 3/12/67)
March 12: Apollo program was six months behind schedule because of Jan.
27 accident, but time could be made up later, MSFC Director Dr. Wernher
von Braun told Stuttgart, West Germany, audience. In Stuttgart to receive
gold Boelsche medal for scientific achievement, Dr. von Braun said: “We
have in no way lost our chance to fulfill the mission given to us: the
landing of a man on the moon in this decade. I admit that the time has
become tight. If further snags develop, this decade may run out . . .
[but] we are firmly resolved not to take any undue risks.” (AP, B Sun,
3/13/67; UPI, C Trib, 3/13/67)
Technology gap was beginning to strain U.S.-European relations, Henry
R. Lieberman wrote in the New York Times. Western Europeans, he
said, expressed fear that “a widening gulf threatens to leave them
further and further behind as the United States assumes command of
the future by its grip on the ‘high technologies’-computers, micro-
electronics, space, communications, nuclear energy, aircraft.”
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara had suggested that Euro-
peans’ complaint “is that we are so surpassing them in industrial develop-
ment that we will eventually create a technological imperialism.”
Noting that Europeans’ frustration and resentment might cause in-
creased nationalism, Lieberman cited recent warning by Vice President
Humphrey: “Unless we are careful, our concept of the Atlantic partner-
ship can be eroded by the fear and concern about the power of the
American capital and technology.” (Lieberman, NYT, 3/12/67, 1)
* U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos CXLVIZ into orbit with 317-km (197-mi) apo-
gee, 198-km (123-4 perigee, 89.5-min period, and 65” inclination.
Equipment functioned normally. Satellite reentered Mar. 21 (UPI, NYT,
3/14/67,3; GSFC SSR, 3/31/67)
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