FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1966
1966 - 0050.PDF
40 FLIGHT International, 6 January Spaceflight VOYAGER POSTPONED The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration has postponed the first unmanned Voyager planetary flight from 1971 to 1973, and has scheduled three new Mariner flights to Venus and Mars. Under the original schedule the initial Voyager Mars-orbiting flight in 1971 would have been fol- lowed by the landing of instrumented capsules in 1973; and there would have been no further flights by Mariner space- craft. The changes are being made "to obtain the greatest possible return from the funds available for Fiscal Year 1966, those anticipated for Fiscal Year 1967 and from the store of information now available from previous missions." NASA's planning for its interplanetary programme is now based on the following timescale: 1967 The back-up spacecraft for the Mariner 4 mission will be modified for a flight to Venus in the middle of the year. Launched by Atlas Agena, the spacecraft will take three to four months to reach the planet and will carry improved versions of the scientific experiments flown on previous Mariners. An approach to the planet closer than the 21,600 miles achieved by Mariner 2 will be attempted. 1969 Two developed versions of the Mariner spacecraft will be launched on nine-month missions to Mars. These space- craft will be heavier than earlier Mariners, and will be launched by Atlas Centaurs. The scientific payloads have not yet been determined. 1973 Although Voyager missions will not be finally com- mitted until a decision is made to proceed to hardware development, NASA is considering the launch of two identical Voyager spacecraft to Mars early in the year, using a single Saturn V vehicle. Under this plan both spacecraft would orbit the planet and release large capsules which would land on the surface to search for evidence of life which may exist there and make other scientific studies of the Martian surface. Three companies are completing preliminary design con- tracts for the Voyager spacecraft, with final reports due to be submitted by January 31. NASA will continue to concen- TRW Systems is to develop and build the spacecraft fiu- the global communications satellite system to be set up by the Intermtional Tele- communications Satellite Consortium. The proposed TRW satellites (mock-up below) will be 56in in diameter, 37in high and will weigh 2341b. They will be spin-stabilised and could be launched either singly or in groups depending on the launch vehicle selected. The specification called for satellites able to operate either at synchronous height or in a phased system at medium altitude. (News item, page 37) trate on studies of the Voyager capsule design, and intends to begin capsule procurement late in 1966 or early in 1967 with requests for industry proposals on preliminary design con- tracts. The current studies are being made by the Jet Propuj. sion Laboratory with support from the Langley and Ames Research Centers. Studies of details of the overall Voyager mission, including the feasibility of using a Saturn V as launch vehicle, are also being continued by the Administration. Both Mariner and Voyager projects will be managed by JPL. COSMONAUTS' SPACE SICKNESS "A vestibular-vegetative reaction of the sea-sickness type" was experienced by Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov during their orbital flight aboard the Voskhod 1 spacecraft in October 1964. Announcing this on December 12, 1965, the Soviet news agency Tass reported that Vladimir Komarov, the third crew-member, had felt no discomfort associated with space sickness after 24 hours of weightless flight. Komarov had been in training for several years, while the other two men had trained for only three months before the flight. "As distinct from the other Soviet cosmonauts," Tass stated, "Yegorov and Feoktistov could not get rid throughout the flight of illusory sensations of the positions of their bodies in weightlessness. One of them imagined he was half-crouched and facing downwards, while the other thought he was hanging up- side down. These illusions remained both when their eyes were open and shut. This was something no other Soviet cosmo- nauts had experienced during previous flights. Feoktistov and Yegorov also felt giddy. It is typical that this sensation was not accompanied by involuntary movements of the eyes, as in the case of coriolis accelerations. "Symptoms of space sickness were felt by Yegorov on the second orbit. He had a poor appetite and feeling of nausea. These sensations grew and reached their peak by the seventh hour of the flight (fifth orbit). The vegetative disorders ceased almost completely after sleep. Similar symptoms were experi- enced by Feoktistov, but they were less marked. . . ." SOVIET "SPACE VEHICLE LANDING TESTS" An intriguing series of Soviet rocket tests, extending until June 1, 1966, was announced by Tass on December 14 in the following communique: — "Between December 16, 1965 and June 1, 1966, the Soviet Union will carry out tests of a variant of a system for landing space vehicles. Some elements of the booster rockets will fall in the area of the Pacific with the following co-ordinates: 43° 44'N, 179° 07^; 44° 17'N, 177° 49^; 42° 01'N, 176° 04TV; 41° 33'N, 177° 22^. To ensure safety, the Soviet Government asks the governments of other countries using sea and air lanes in the Pacific to instruct the appropriate authorities that ships and planes should not enter this area of the ocean and airspace daily in the first half of the day from midnight to noon local time." On December 15 Tass announced: "The Soviet Union has completed ahead of schedule its programme for test-firing booster rockets into a Pacific area centred at 0° 5'S and 163° 45^ which was announced on November 25 last. Tass is authorised to announce that the area is free to navigation and air flights as from today." Brazil launched the first sounding rocket from its Natal Range in a joint programme with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration on December 15. The launching was conducted by the Brazilian Space Activities Commission (SNAE). Instrumentation for the rocket payload and the tele- metry ground support equipment was constructed by Brazilian technicians at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. A Life Sciences Laboratory is now in operation at NASAs Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. The three main areas of NASA's life science research are exobiology (the detection of life outside the Earth's environment), environ- mental biology (the interactions between man and other bio- logical systems with the space environment), and biotech- nology (concerning the engineering support of man and the effective nitegration of man into the spaceflight system).
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
