 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration presents Aeronautics and Space Report. 1967 marked the end of the first decade since Sputnik. It was an eventful year in space. A year when this country's biggest rocket was flown for the first time. A year when the moon was mapped in its entirety. And a year when remarkable color pictures of the Earth were received from a globe-orbiting satellite. These are the highlights. There were three successful surveyors this year helping prepare the way for Americans who would land on the moon. These three-legged craft hurled 235,000 miles from Earth and sat down gently on the moon. Their job? photograph large areas of the lunar surface. This the surveyors did and more. Upon a signal from Earth, an arm on Surveyor 3 with a small shovel attached extended out to this unknown soil, retrieved a scoop full and placed it on one of the spacecraft's landing pads. Surveyor's camera then took a look at the moon material in color. Other instrumentation has chemically sampled the soil. But the surveyors were not alone. Three picture-taking lunar orbiters gave scientists a different perspective as they circled above the moon. Again pictures, pictures from a distance and pictures close up. Pictures revealing the lunar surface in remarkable detail. The kind of detail needed before men land there. Explaining what we've learned from the two spacecraft, NASA's Assistant Director for Lunar Flight Programs, Captain Lee Scherer. There are three major accomplishments of the Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter programs. They have demonstrated that we have the technical competence to do a significant exploration of the planets with automated spacecraft. They have shown us that the moon is a complex and scientifically interesting place for further exploration by man. And they have paved the way for that first man landing. This will be accomplished along the equatorial belt of the moon. In this zone, the eight smoothest sites have been selected from orbiter photography. In the four of these, surveyors have landed. The next step is that historic moment when man first sets foot on the lunar surface. It will be a launch vehicle like this Saturn V that will one day boost astronauts toward the moon. In this important first flight test on November 9, all systems worked flawlessly. Separations occurred as programmed, stages untried in space, fired on command. Shown here in animation, the all-important re-entry to duplicate a return trip from the moon. It too exceeded its requirements. The spacecraft skipped in and out of the Earth's atmosphere to slow it down, blazing in at nearly 25,000 miles per hour, simulating a lunar return. Finally, a landing in the Pacific within sight of recovery ships. A textbook flight from liftoff to splashdown. Saturn V and its million component parts worked and worked well. 1967 was a year when three astronauts were lost during a ground test of the Apollo command module. Since then, the spacecraft has been redesigned, a quick opening hatch for emergency exits, special covers and guards for panels, fireproof containers for potentially flammable materials, and new electrical circuit designs. New Apollo spacecraft is ready, and so are the men who will make the first flight, astronauts Shira, Cunningham, and Isley. 1967 was an especially busy year for other unmanned space explorers. Bio-satellite carried out the first biological research in space under controlled conditions. 13 experiments were chosen to study how various life processes are affected by the space environment. These earthly space travelers included frog eggs, wheat seedlings, wasps, and flower beetles. The main objectives of the mission were to study the effects of weightlessness and radiation upon living organisms. After two days in space, the bio-satellite capsule re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, snatched in mid-air by plane, and rushed to Hawaii to waiting scientists. It was learned from the flight that several types of plants are dependent upon a continuous gravity field. However, most of the data from the various experiments, including those for radiation, are still being studied. Three observatory-type spacecraft were launched during the year. This is OGO, orbiting geophysical observatory, In addition to giving scientists a better understanding of interplanetary and galactic space, OGO's many experiment hours of data may eventually unlock some of the mysteries of the Earth's environment. Two spacecraft in the orbiting solar observatory series are studying the Sun and its influence on the Earth. The Sun is the nearest star to our planet, and the only one we can study in detail. Here's an ultraviolet view, as never before seen. It indicates solar heat in excess of a million and a half degrees. Orbiting solar observatories will also serve as watchdogs for future space travelers, enabling those on the ground to advise astronauts of solar activity, warning them when they should come in out of possibly hazardous solar storms. Complementing the observatory satellites, two interplanetary monitoring probes, explorers 34 and 35. The two are part of a solar flare prediction capability to aid the lunar landing program. They are also reporting on the magnetosphere, which protects the Earth from radiation. The reliable Atlas-Agena launch vehicle was used this year to launch the second and third in a series of five applications technology satellites. The spider-shaped spacecraft are being used to test out experimental systems for improving weather forecasts, radio television, and communications of all kinds. Up till now, airplanes flying over mid-ocean have been out of radio range for periods of an hour or more. With ATS technology, airlines can keep in touch at all times. And would you give us your latest ETA for London? Number 162, this is Goddard test control over. Goddard test control from number 162, Roger, allowed and clear a perfect signal. This conversation between a Pan Am jet pilot and mainland United States took place when the plane was halfway from New York to London. The communication traveled from the ground to the satellite and finally to the airplane. ATS can also relay color TV and multiple telephone calls from around the globe. Color pictures of the Earth show the changing cloud pattern over the world for an entire day, giving weathermen a view in color of developing storms. While the ATS were checking out possible advanced application systems, NASA launched six more operational satellites, three ESSA satellites for the Weather Bureau and three IntelSAT spacecraft for the Communication Satellite Corporation. On June 14, a 540-pound spacecraft called Mariner was launched toward the planet Venus. After traveling through space for nearly three and one-half months and covering a distance of 219 million miles, Mariner 5 flew by Venus. The highly successful Mariner transmitted data about the Venusian atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetic fields, and the energy levels of cosmic rays. In Pasadena, the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory talked about the results. Here's Dr. William H. Pickering. On October 19 of this year, Mariner 5 flew past the planet Venus at a distance of about 2,500 miles above the surface. This was the second successful Mariner mission to the planet. The path of the Mariner is shown by this model. And between these two points of the path around the planet, Mariner was out of sight of the Earth. This was done deliberately so that we could observe the effect of radio signals passing through the atmosphere of the planet Venus. By observing the effect of the atmosphere on the radio signals, we were able to learn a great deal about the atmosphere of the planet to show, for example, that it is exceedingly dense at the surface, that it is mostly carbon dioxide. San Marco is the name of a cooperative effort between NASA and the Italian Commission for Space Research. A launch pad anchored off the coast of Kenya, Africa, was the site of the scientific launching. The successful San Marco reported on the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere and investigated the causes of interference with long-range radio transmissions. More than 360 sounding rockets were used to probe the regions of the lower and middle atmospheres. Many of these experiments were in cooperation with other nations. Interested scientists from all over the world bring their experiments to NASA's Wallops Island, Virginia, sounding rocket station for launching. NASA continued broadly applicable basic research in aeronautics during 1967. Supersonic aircraft technology was of particular interest. This effort included the operation of test planes like this XB-70. The XB-70 is being used to study the flight dynamics associated with supersonic speeds. The huge bird-like plane duplicates the size and speed of the SST. Although primary interest has been on materials, propulsion, and flight dynamics, work in such areas as fuels, radiation factors, and sonic boom is also continuing. One thing the XB-70 cannot simulate is the variable sweep feature of the SST, which allows the plane's wings to fold close to the fuselage for supersonic travel and then swing back to normal position for landing. The F-111 can, however, and NASA is using this plane to provide much of the experience needed to study the variable sweep characteristics of supersonic transports. To study speeds in excess of 3,500 miles per hour, the hypersonic X-15 rocket airplane is used. The usual Jet Black X-15 took on a new appearance this year, as it was painted with a special ablative coating to withstand the searing heat beyond Mach 7. On October 3rd, Major William Knight set a new speed record with the newly painted rocket plane, 4,534 miles per hour. As usual, the X-15 is carried aloft by a giant B-52. When a desired altitude is reached, the X-15 drops away and maneuvers on its own. Major Knight and all the test pilots at the Flight Research Center mourned the recent death of Major Michael J. Adams in a fatal crash of one of the X-15s, the first fatality since the program began in 1959. A so-called HL-10 lifting body was successfully tested this year at the Flight Research Center. Lifting body craft are being studied as one possible means of flying future spacecraft back to Earth after a mission, rather than parachuting into the ocean. Their stubby design will allow an astronaut to maneuver his spaceship back through the Earth's atmosphere and then land like a conventional airplane. Jet aircraft noise is a national problem. NASA's effort is part of a nationwide program with other government agencies and industry is threefold. While studies are going on to improve existing engines, the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland is designing a completely new engine designed to be quiet. Across the country, at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, a specially instrumented jet is being operated in a way to decrease the ground exposure to noise. This involves flying the plane in at a steep approach and letting the distance reduce the noise on the ground. Eventually, all the known noise control techniques will be combined in an effort to produce a truly quiet engine. Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, Mariner, Oso, Explorer, BioSatellite, XB-70, Saturn V, Aeronautics and Space Highlights in 1967, a year of continued research and exploration. There's been an Aeronautics and Space Report presented by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.