tennas at Goldstone to receive radio signals generated from pulsar sources those recently discovered astrophysical sources which mysteriously transmit precise radio pulses. In addition, wide baseline interferometer radio astronomy experiments were conducted by using the 85-foot antennas at Goldstone and in Australia. The 210-foot antenna also supported the Apollo 8 lunar mission. In addition to the three 85-foot Deep Space Network stations which provided joint support to the Apollo missions, the 210-foot antenna was used to make sure that monitors received any marginal spacecraft transmissions from the vicinity of the moon. In early December, NASA initiated procurement action for two 210-foot antennas planned for construction in Spain and Australia. These antennas, together with the Goldstone 210-foot antenna, are neeeded to meet the flight requirements of the future planetary missions, such as the Viking and the Jupiter-bound Pioneer flyby missions. The planned procurement schedule calls for these antennas to be operational in 1973. NASA. It connects foreign and domestic tracking stations, instrumentation ships, launch areas, test sites, and mission control centers. NASCOM consists of circuits provided by land lines, underseas cables, high frequency radio, and communications satellites. During this period, NASA established special diverse communications routes at the Manned Space Flight Network stations to support the manned Apollo missions. The communications services for the Apollo 7 and 8 missions were the most reliable routes available, whether by satellite, cable, or land line. The diverse routes provided back-up service to the tracking stations to assure continuous program support in case the primary service failed or malfunctioned. Also becoming part of NASCOM were new, highly reliable submarine cable circuits between Capetown and Ascension Island and new communications satellite service to the tracking station in Santiago, Chile. These replaced existing but less reliable high frequency radio communications. In addition, new equipment was being installed in the network to automatically monitor and test high-speed data lines. This equipment should assure full use and reliability of the data system. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS NASA's international cooperative projects and support programs became more diversified during the period and foreign participation in these programs increased. COOPERATIVE PROJECTS Cooperation with foreign space research institutions and regional space organizations was highlighted by NASA's launching of the ESRO I (Fig. 7-1) and HEOS I satellites built by the European Space Research Organization; by an agreement with Germany on a project to release an artificial ion cloud at an altitude of approximately 20,000 miles above the earth; by agreements with Mexico and Brazil for earth resources survey experiments; by continuing sounding rocket work; and by the selection of additional foreign experimenters to take part in studies of lunar surface samples. In all, seven new cooperative agreements were completed with Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Norway, and Sweden. Canada On September 29, the Canadian-built Alouette I satellite completed its sixth year of successful operation in orbit. Alouette II, which was launched in November, 1965, completed its third year of successful performance. These satellites sound the ionosphere from above to measure hour-to-hour electron densities of the ionosphere, to determine electron densities at the spacecraft altitudes, to monitor VLF noise in the 1-10 kc/s range, and to measure |