NASA SP-4015 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1970 Chronology on Science, Technology, and Policy Text by Science and Technology Division Library of Congress Sponsored by NASA Historical Office Scientific and Technical Information Office 1972 NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Washington,l3.C. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-60308 Price: Paper cover-$3.10 domestic postpaid or $2.75 cents GPO Bookstore Stock Number 3300-0424 Foreword This volume provides an immediate reference to aerospace-related events of 1970, enabling all of us to broaden or to refresh our crowded memories. As part of NASA%chronology series it is intended to help his- torians and other analysts in preserving historical accuracy and preci- sian. Perhaps the Apollo 13 problems that resulted in using the lunar lander Aquarius as a “lifeboat” will be the most readily recalled of the 1970 events. Yet, as this volume clearly indicates, there were many signifi- cant milestones in space and aeronautics. The lunar samples returned by Apollo I2 and 12 were intensively studied in the United States and 16 other countries; the last two Apollo missions scheduled were canceled; the feasibility of reusable space shuttles as a means of reducing the cost and expanding the versatility of space operations was examined in greater detail; the Skylab program to evaluate man’s adaptation to the space environment proceeded toward its launchings in early 1973. Divi- dends continued to be returned from our scientific satellites already in orbit: Pioneer VIcompleted six orbits of the sun, providing data on solar weather on the far side of the sun; Oao IIbegan transmitting ultraviolet spectral data on some 25 000 stars; Ogo III, IV, V, and VImade sky sur- veys which could correlate geophysical data from other satellites, sounding rockets, and ground-based instruments. Among the 38 new payloads launched by the United States were the first prototype satellite for an operational weather system, ITOS, and three Intelsat communica- tions satellites. Japan and China both launched their first satellites dur- ing 1970. In aeronautics, research and development on the supercritical wing culminated in the first flight tests. And the X-24 “lifting body” made its first flight early in the year and moved into supersonic flight in October. Other kinds of events are also included in this chronology. Dr. Cyril A. Ponnamperuma of the Ames Research Center reported the first posi- tive identification of amino acids of extraterrestrial origins, found in the meteorite that fell near Murchison, Australia, in 1969. Numerous entries evidence increasing international cooperation in and mutual benefits from space activities. The overall space program was being evaluated during all of 1970-at perhaps the very peak of our technological and scientific achievements in exploration, in basic science, and in application to earth-bound needs. Questions of the basicevalueof and the need for space activities in rela- tion to needs for solutions of problems on earth were being explored in all sectors of our national life. The space frontier has been crossed and men, their thoughts and their machines, are no longer bound to our home planet Earth. The accessibility of space will have a place in man’s life and thinking for all his future. Even against a backdrop of the broad range of earth-bound problems-poverty, pollution, world peace, and iii disruptive changes besetting most social institutions-man’s new perspective on his place in a dynamic universe is a basic challenge. We appear to have been in an escalating scientific and technological revolu- tion during the 20th century, its intellectual stimulus and constructive values perhaps best symbolized by the intense space venture of the past decade. The space program as a human enterprise, gaining new knowledge and skills and applying them to practical purpose, seems a symbol much needed in a world beset by doubts and fears and frustrations and with many difficult problems yet to solve. Homer E. Newell Associate Administrator National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 17, 1971 iv Contents PAGE... Foreword ...................................................................... 111 NASA Associate Administrator Homer E . Newel1 Illustrations .................................................................... vii Preface ......................................................................... ix January ......................................................................... 1 February ....................................................................... 35 March ........................................................................... 71 April ............................................................................ 107 May ............................................................................. 161 June ............................................................................. 189 July .............................................................................. 223 August .......................................................................... 255 September ..................................................................... 283 October ........................................................................ 323 November ..................................................................... 357 December ...................................................................... 383 Appendix A: Satellites. Space Probes. and Manned Space Flights. a Chronicle for 1970 ............................................ 415 Appendix B: Chronology of Major NASA Launches. 1970 ......... 439 Appendix C: Chronology of Manned Space Flight. 1970 .......... 443 Appendix D: Abbreviations of References ............................ 447 Index and List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ..................... 451 V Illustrations PAGE Itos I Improved Tiros Operational Satellite prepared for mating to its launch vehicle and later waiting atop the first “super-six” Thor-Delta before Jan. 23 launch ....................................... 24 Japan’s first satellite, Ohsumi, prepared for Feb. 11 launch ........ 48 Three lifting bodies active in NASA-USAF research program: HL- 10, M2-F3, and X-24A ..................................................... 56 Totality of March 7 eclipse of the sun, above Wallops Station, passing over tracking antenna, and during Nike-Cajun sounding rocket launch ................................................................ 80 Moon’s shadow moving up across the Eastern Seaboard from the Gulf of Mexico during March 7 eclipse: photographed by Ats 111 .............................................................................. 81 Dr. Wernher von Braun sworn in March 13 as NASA Deputy Asso- ciate Administrator for Planning by Administrator Thomas 0. Paine ............................................................................ 89 Feb. 17, 1958, visit by Vice President Nixon to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, celebrating Explorer I launch with JPL and Cal Tech officials Dr. Clark B. Millikan, Dr. Lee A. DuBridge, Dr. William H. Pickering, Dr. Jack E. Froelich, V. C. Larsen, and Robert J. Parks .............................................................. 104 NASA Deputy Administrator George M. Low conferring April 10 with Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Dale D. Myers on launch status of Apollo 13 ................................... 117 Launch of Apollo 13 toward the moon from Kennedy Space Cen- ter April 11 and the service module that ruptured 56 hours later, endangering the flight ...................................................... 120 Officials consulting in Manned Spacecraft Center’s Mission Oper- ations Control Room as Apollo 13 astronauts worked to bring the spacecraft home ....................................................... 122 Apollo 13 LM Aquarius photographed from the CM just after jetti- son April 17 .................................................................. 123 Crew of Apollo l3-Fred W. Haise, Jr., James A. Lovell, Jr., and John L. Swigert, Jr.-arriving safely onboard recovery ship April 17 ........................................................................ 124 Mission officials congratulating each other in MSC Mission Opera- tions Control Room after safe Apollo 13 splashdown ............. 124 Apollo 11 Astronauts Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and NASA Administrator Paine, representing Neil A. Armstrong, standing with the Gen. Thomas D. White Space Trophy present- ed by Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans April 29 .. 155 City of Chicago welcoming Apollo 13 astronauts with ticker tape and cheers May 1 ........................................................... 163 vii PAGE Demonstrations of down-to-earth uses of Fluorel fireproofing material developed for spacecraft, which were presented at May 6-7 MSC conference .................................................. 168 Space Orbiter Shuttlecraft model after air-drop test at White Sands Missile Range May 27 ............................................. 182 The speakers’ table at NASA’s June 3-5 space station briefing for ESRO officials in Paris ...................................................... 193 Rep. George P. Miller examining an Apollo oxygen tank with NASA Administrator Paine and Langley Research Center Direc- tor Edgar M. Cortright June 16 before the Senate Space Com- mittee hearing on the Apollo 13 accident ............................. 205 Full-scale model of the lunar roving vehicle in June practice exer-