Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

March 22 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
trical cord powering a work lamp outside oxygen-filled pressure chamber
apparently developed a break in its plastic insulation, allowing wire to
create an electrical arc against the aluminum floor. (AP, NYT, 3/23/67,
31 )
* Noise problems arising from commercial jet aircraft operations, and the
Government’s attack on these problems were described by OST Director
Dr. Donald F. Hornig in appearance before House Committee on Science
and Astronautics’ Advanced Research and Technology Subcommittee
[see Feb. 11. He stated: “At the request of the Chairman of the Presi-
dent’s Advisory Committee on Supersonic Transport, Secretary Mc-
Namara, I assumed responsibility for defining and directing an inter-
agency sonic boom program. Its goal is to determine the potential sources
of difficulty or additional costs associated with commercial operation
of supersonic transports.” OST, said Hornig, had framed “action pro-
gram” with FAA, NASA, and Depts. of Commerce and of Housing and
Urban Development-responding to President Johnson’s Transportation
Message of Mar. 2, 1966. He added: “. . . NASA’s aeronautics research
program in the sonic boom problem areas is both broadly conceived
and well defined to provide technical support to the FAA and to the
aerospace industry in the national SST Development Program.” (Text)
NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Dr.
Homer E. Newel1 told House Committee on Science and Astronautics’
Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications that NASA did not know
whether U.S.S.R. was adequately sterilizing its interplanetary space-
craft. “If we find . . . that . . . [Soviet] sterilization procedure is
many orders of magnitude less good than ours, then we will be able to
relax in our standards simply because there will be no value in our going
through an expensive process only to find that they have already con-
taminated the planet.
“However, we do not know at the present time, and there is reason
to believe that their procedures may well turn out to be adequate.”
(Transcript, 446)
North American Aviation, Inc., and Rockwell-Standard Corp. announced
agreement on proposal to merge into new corporation called North
American Rockwell Corp. Proposal was subject to approval by direc-
tors and stockholders of each company. ( WSJ, 3/23/67)
* A record 45-million takeoffs and landings were recorded in 1966 by
FAA% 304 airport tra5c control towers. Figure represented 12% in-
crease over 1965. ( FAA Release 67-24)
* Dr. Eugene G. Fubini, an IBM vice president, told IEEE meeting in New
York that too many scientists and engineers-as prime movers of
change-were not sufficiently attentive to the results of their discov-
eries and inventions. “Historically, scientists and engineers have under-
estimated or ignored the social and moral consequences of their work.
Don’t continue to make that mistake,” he warned.
Dr. Charles H. Townes, MIT provost, received IEEE’s 1967 Medal
of Honor for his “significant contributions in the fields of quantum
electronics which have led to the maser and the laser.” (Lieberman,
NYT, 3/26/67, F1; Av Wk, 3/13/67,97)
March 23: NASA had discarded crew assignments for three manned Apollo
missions originally scheduled for 1967 but postponed shortly after
Jan. 27 fire, MSC Director of Flight Crew Operations Donald K. Slayton
told the press at MSC. “We don’t have any crews assigned o5cially to
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