Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 March 23
any missions at the present time. There’s not much point in worrying
about crew assignments until we know what we’re going to do.” Backup
crew for AS-204 mission had been Astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr.,
Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham; prime crew for A!3-205/208
mission had been James A. McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweick-
art; for AS-503, Frank Borman, Michael Collins, and William Anders.
(UPI, W Star, 3/24/67, A2; AP, W Post, 3/24/67, A6; Wilford, NYT,
3/24/67,1,15)
* US. officials were studying possibility of live television coverage via Zntelsat
II-C comsat of Latin American summit conference in Punta del Este,
Uruguay, April 12-14, which President Johnson was scheduled to attend,
Benjamin Welles reported in New York Times. Live coverage would
require air-lifting a portable ITT ground station to conference site because
necessary ground stations for picking up satellite signals did not yet e&t
in Latin America. Use of ComSatCorp’s Intelsat ZI-C, launched by NASA
March 22, would not only enhance interest in meeting, officials said, but
would also dramatize US. technological and political support for
Latin America. (Welles, NYT, 3/24/67)
L~RC Director Dr. Floyd L. Thompson had been selected as one of 10
public servants to receive National Civil Service League’s 1967 Career
Service Award for his pioneering efforts as an engineer, scientist, and
administrator in advancing the science of aeronautics and space flight
in the US. Award would be presented to Dr. Thompson April 21 at
Annual Career Service Awards banquet in Washington, D.C. (NASA
Release 67-69)
* NASA Wallops Station employee James C. McConnell had been awarded
$l,OOO for his invention “A Method of Plating Copper on Aluminum”
by NASA Inventions and Contributions Board. Award was part of agencywide
program to encourage and reward NASA employees for meritorious
inventions and contributions.
A second Wallops employee-Joseph W. McAllister-had been named
one of the 1967 Economy Champions under President Johnson’s national
economy program for his “Device to Salvage Power Line Guy Anchors.’’
An economy champion was a Government employee whose achievement
or adopted suggestion during FY 1967 had shown first-year measurable
benefits of $10,000 or more. (WS Releases 67-9,67-10)
* Rep. Dante B. Fascell (D-Fla.) introduced in the House a bill (H.R. 7798)
to strike commemorative medals in honor of Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom,
Edward H. White 11, and Roger B. ChaHee who died in the Jan. 27 Apollo
flash fire. (CR, 3/23/67, H3301)
* US. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R. Llewellyn E. Thompson and Soviet Foreign
Minister Andrey A. Gromyko met briefly in Moscow for “preliminary
discussions’’ aimed at mutual agreement not to deploy antimissile missile
systems, US. Embassy announced. (AP, W Post, 3/23/67, A12)
* Shortage of US.-manufactured high-reliability components because of the
demands of the Vietnam war was one of the reasons Canada was postponing
the launch of her Isis-A satellite from fall 1967 to 1968, Dr. John H.
Chapman, Deputy Superintendent of the Defence Research Telecommunications
Establishment, told Toronto Globe & Mail. Isis-A would
measure characteristics of the ionosphere. (Toronto Globe & Mail,
3/24/67,29)
* A correlation between earthquakes and the forces exerted on the earth by
the sun and moon was reported by Dr. Alan Ryall, Director of Univ. of
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