Aug 7 1962
From The Space Library
President Kennedy, in ceremony at the White House, presented the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service to Robert R. Gilruth, Director of NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, and five other recipients of the award for 1961.
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, writing on the U.S. space program in The Saturday Evening Post, stated that he did "not see the need for continuing this effort of such a fantastically expensive crash program. . . .
"Why the great hurry to get to the moon and the planets? We have already demonstrated that in everything except the power of our booster rockets we are leading the world in scientific space exploration.
"From here on, I think we should proceed in an orderly, scientific way, building one accomplishment on another, rather than engaging in a mad effort to win a stunt race." House Committee on Science and Astronautics approved a bill to revise space research patent laws. Bill allowed private companies to retain title to patents earned under Government contract, with Government retaining a license to use such inventions without cost.
House Committee on Science and Astronautics recommended that Project Anna mapping satellite program be transferred from jurisdiction of DOD to NASA. The satellite was designed to give extremely accurate measurements of the shape of the earth, its magnetic field, and distances from one point to another on earth.
Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S. "can be the leader in the establishment of a communications satellite system to serve the communications needs of the world, thus demonstrating our technical capabilities and our desire to utilize these capabilities for the benefit of all mankind. . . . I urge that the Committee report the bill favorably."
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Department of Defense "strongly supports the objective of establishing a civil communications satellite system as expeditiously as practicable." Dr. Wernher von Braun, Director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said in an interview in General Electric Forum that the U.S. space program would be paying for itself within another 10 years. "The real payoff does not lie in mining the Moon or in bringing gold back from the Moon, but in enriching our economy and our science in new methods, new procedures, new knowledge, and advanced technology in general." General Electric announced that control system for first Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) had successfully completed its first simulated space flight test.
USN launched first flight model of advanced Polaris missile (A-3) capable of 2,880-mi. range. Among innovations in A-3 were bullet-shaped nose (rather than rounded shape of earlier models), and guidance system about one third the size and weight of the ones in earlier Polaris models and the smallest and lightest yet developed for U.S. ballistic missiles. Launched from land pad at Cape Canaveral, the missile fell short of its planned range ("in excess of 1,975 miles") because of second stage malfunction. Test was termed "partially successful." Announced that Georgia Nuclear Laboratories' nuclear reactor had been licensed by AEC to operate at one megawatt. Laboratories would participate with Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. in development of NASA’s Rift rocket stage.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the pending communications satellite bill, Washington lawyer Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., stated that the bill would "give away not only billions of taxpayers' money already spent to develop both space and space communications, but also the vast unknown discoveries of the future." Another Washington lawyer, Benjamin V. Cohen, testified that the bill was "filled with pitfalls" and advised that its enactment now would be "premature."
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