Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1965 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1965 17
January 14: MARINER IV had functioned in space for more than 1,100 hr.
on its 6,000-hr. flight to Mars, and had flown 81.3 million mi., leaving
some 245 million mi. to be travelled before the spacecraft would encounter
Mars next July. The earth-MARINER distance was 8,342,946
mi. at 9 a.m. EST with the spacecraft travelling 9,276 mph relative to
the earth and 69,462 mph relative to the sun. (NASA Release 65-12,
1/14/65]
Vincent R. Lalli of NASA Lewis Research Center described to the 11th National
Symposium on Reliability and Quality Control in Miami Beach
the R&QA procedure applied at Lewis to engine subsystems of the Sert-I
(Space Electric Rocket Test) spacecraft to establish reliability standards
for equipment never flown in space before. He said an experimental
assembly of components, or “electrical breadboard,” was built
for electrical stress measurements ; once the analysis of stresses during
operation was complete, safety factor could be defined. “Stress” did
not refer to mechanical stress but to all physical factors-fatigue, corrosion,
current, temperature, etc.-that could degrade or destroy equipment.
Lalli pointed out: “The real uniqueness of this process is revealed in
the stress analysis area where the role of the reliability engineer is
extended beyond the analytical approach into obtaining transient experimental
stress data.” ( LRC Release 654)
Houston Chronicle reported that preliminary funds for the unmanned
exploration of Mars would be included in the NASA FY 1966 budget.
On Oct. 30, 1964, the Space Science Board of NAS had recommended
to NASA that Mars be the next goal because it was the likeliest of the
planets to be inhabited by living things and would therefore be of
greiter scie~tific importance ihm the moon or proposed manning
orbiting laboratories.
(Mackaye, Houston Chron., 1/14/65)
The Enrico Fermi Medal was conferred on Vice Adm. Hyman G. Rick-
over (USN) by President Johnson. Adm. Rickover, the first nonscien-
tist to receive the award, was cited for “engineering and administrative
leadership in the development of safe and reliable nuclear power and
its successful application to our national security and economic
needs.” He was also credited with almost single-handedly convincing
Congress and DOD to start the nuclear submarine program. (UPI,
NYT, 1/14/65, 14)
In London, 10,000 British. aircraft workers marched to protest the ru-
mored intention of the Labor Government to curtail production of
British military planes. Defense Minister Denis Healey reportedly
recommended that development and production of the TSR-2 (tactical-
strike-reconnaissance) aircraft be canceled and that Britain buy
F-lll’s from U.S., thus cutting defense costs. Two other projects
subject to cancellation were the P-1154 vertical-takeoff fighter and a
short-takeoff fighter, both at a less advanced stage of development
than the TSR-2. Leaders of the British aircraft industry, which em-
ployed slightly more than one per cent of the nation’s work force, said
such a cutback would cause widespread unemployment in the
industry. (Lewis, NYT, 1/13/65, 9; Lewis, NYT, 1/15/65; Farns-
worth, NYT, 1/16/65)