Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1965 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1965 21
security.” (Text, Wash. Post, 1/19/65; AP, NYT, 1/19/65, 16; Norris,
Wush. Post, 1/22/65)
January 18: The new Sram (short-range attack missile), cited by President
Johnson in his defense message to Congress, would be expected to
travel 150 mi. from the launching plane to its target. The Sram
would be designed for launching initially from a B-52, but later from
smaller aircraft such as the F-~C or the F-111. It would be launched
toward the rear after the aircraft had passed its target, would climb to
100,000-ft. altitude, powered by its own solid-propellant motor, then
plunge vertically toward its target having allowed the launch plane
time to escape its nuclear warhead detonation. (Watson, Balt. Sun,
1/19/65; Miles, Wush. Post, 1/20/65)
Alfred Gessow, Chief of Fluid Physics Research, NASA, discussed before
the Compressed Gas Association in New York City the problems of
spacecraft deceleration and heating involved in return through the
earth‘s atmosphere. He explained why the blunt shape solved deceleration
and much of the heat problem in returning Mercury
spacecraft from orbit through the atmosphere to earth. Looking
beyond the satellite return speed (Mercury and Gemini) and lunar
return speed (Apollo) , return from interplanetary flight poses the
problem of much higher spacecraft speed (and thus heating). Research
indicates “that the more pointed shape, although it doesn’t show
up too well at the lower re-entry speeds, is better than the blunt nose at
the higher speeds because the bow shock is weaker, thus producing
lower radiant heating losses. Thus, in a very short time scale, but
taking a big leap forward in the velocity-temperature scale, we find
ourselves going into another phase of the blunt vs. pointed nose cycle.
“. . . The switching between slender and blunt shapes is not new in
the race for high speeds ai a! times of history. Going through
history, compact rocks were replaced by slender arrows ; the concept of
powder guns created round cannonballs; the rocket age produced
slender forms again, which ironically, finally got blunt noses. It is
interesting to see how long it took to make such changes empirically
and how rapidly these variations have been made by following
scientific principles. . . .”
(Text)
Japan expected to orbit a satellite within the next three years, New York
Times reported. Although Japan’s progress in the missile field had
been slowed by the limited annual budget allocations of the Defense
Forces, scientific advances, particularly in the field of electronics, plus
stimulus to Japanese industry provided by the Korean War, had
brought marked advances in rocketry and missiles. (NYT, 1/18/65)
The Communist New China News Agency (NCNA) said in a broadcast
that Indonesia had successfully launched a two-stage scientific rocket
Jan. 5 from somewhere in West Java. The rocket was reportedly
made by the Indonesian air force. There were no other
details. (UPI, Miami Her., 1/18/65)
January 19: An unmanned instrument-packed Gemini spacecraft (GT-2)
was launched from Cape Kennedy on Titan II launch vehicle in subor-
bital shot preliminary to U.S.’s first two-man venture. Aboard was an
automatic sequencer which issued orders at precise times en route to
fire the rocket’s second stage, to separate the spacecraft from the rock-