Apr 12 1962
From The Space Library
NASA was studying the problem of falling fragments from orbital objects and the possibility of injury or damage to persons or property on earth. Four fragments from the Atlas booster that put Astronaut John Glenn into orbit were recovered on earth, the first pieces known to have re-entered from an orbiting object without burning up. Statistically the chances of injury to anyone on earth would be extremely small, especially since the orbits are over water about 80% of the time. NASA pointed out that some 100 meteorites weighing two pounds or more struck the U.S. every year, yet there had never been a report of anyone being struck by one.
USAF Blue Scout launched from Cape Canaveral but second stage did not fire.
NASA would begin an education program in the fall of 1962 to provide financial support for 10 doctoral candidates in science and engineering at each of 10 U.S. universities, NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced to the Institute of Environmental Sciences in Chicago. Students would receive a stipend of $2,400 per year, expenses up to $1,000 per year, and the university would be reimbursed for tuition, fees, and other expenses. Grants would be for one year, renewable to a maximum of three years. Mr. Webb said NASA expected the program "will increase considerably in years to come." NASA awarded $1,000 to NASA engineers for inventions contributing to the advancement of aeronautical and space science and technology. Langley Research Center's Henry J. E. Reid, Jr., and H. Douglas Garner split a $1,000 award for conceiving a simple, lightweight attitude control system to control the axis of a spinning vehicle. Goddard Space Flight Center's James S. Albus received a $1,000 award for his digital solar aspect sensor that has been flown in several Explorer satellites.
Army launched the full three-stage Nike-Zeus antimissile missile from Point Mugu, Calif., in its first successful flight test with all stages.
U.S. Navy claimed a new record for an aircraft speed climb when an F4H-1 Phantom II piloted by LCdr. Del W. Nordberg sped from a standing start to 98,425 ft. (30,000 meters) in 371.43 sec. at Point Mugu, Calif.
National holiday in the Soviet Union, the anniversary of orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin. In ceremony in the Kremlin's Congress Hall, Cosmonaut Gagarin declared: "We are on the threshold of more new space launchings. When these space ships return to earth, the Soviet people will have more holidays to celebrate." Premier Nikita, S. Khrushchev and Cosmonaut Titov also made short speeches, while Mstislav V. Keldysh, President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, made the major address.
Pravda editorial extolled the future of communism as demonstrated by Soviet space achievements as follows: "The successes of the Soviet conquerors of space reflect the great achievements of the Soviet people in the development of the mighty productive forces of our homeland, the indisputable advantages of socialism, and its superiority over the capitalist system. The most reasonable representatives of the western world cannot fail to admit that socialism, as Comrade Khrushchev put it, is indeed the reliable launching pad from which the Soviet Union launches its spaceships.
"Only a year has passed since a Soviet man heralded the dawn of the space age by making his first flight into interplanetary space, but this year has been packed with great events. The 22nd CPSU Congress adopted a party program which gave wings to the Soviet people and marked out the clear prospects for building communism. Guided by the historic decisions of the congress and the new party program, our Soviet people will exert every effort to foster the building of a communist society, the bright future of all mankind . . . ." In Tass statement, Cosmonaut Gherman S. Titov described Cosmonautics Day as a "holiday of labor and man's victory over the forces of nature."
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