Aug 8 1962
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
NASA launched Aerobee 150A sounding rocket from Wallops Station, its 256-lb. payload lofted to 92-mi. altitude and 60-mi. distance. Efforts to recover the payload were not successful, but scientists were able to analyze data telemetered during flight about performance of an attitude control system as well as four scientific experiments: to measure solar flux in two ultraviolet spectral regions; to measure radiation emerging from the top of the earth's atmosphere; to obtain ultraviolet photographs of Venus from outside the earth's atmosphere; and to study distribution of atmospheric atomic hydrogen and Lyman Alpha radiation. Also flight-tested was an experimental, transistorized telemetry system.
Maj. Robert A. Rushworth (USAF) piloted X-15 No. 2 in flight to record pattern of aerodynamic heating at moderately low speeds, relatively low altitudes, and moderate angle of attack, the steel-skin craft withstanding temperatures up to 900° F. Maximum altitude was about 90,000 ft., maximum speed about 2,895 mph (mach 4.39) in series of maneuvers near Hidden Hills, Calif., to build up heat on airplane's surface. After successful 8-min. flight, Maj. Rushworth reported observing particles of insulation floating between twin panes of X-15's windshield, while climbing at 70,000-ft. altitude.
Special subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics conducted hearings on solid propellants. Chairman David King of Utah was quoted as saying he wanted the hearings to be detailed enough to commit DOD and NASA to a definite plan for solid-propellant rockets.
Testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Thomas F. Dixon said that NASA was "giving solid rockets equal consideration with liquid rockets in decisions on future launch vehicle designs. . . . We have provided the Air Force with our requirements for an advanced technology or feasibility demonstration program on large solid rocket motors pertinent to the development of solid rocket-powered launch vehicles.
"To make an informed choice of propulsion between liquid propellant engines (where the technology is fairly well in hand) and solid propellant motors (where it is not), it is necessary to advance the technology of large solid motors to the point of actual demonstration firings. The demonstration program we have proposed will allow us to make a wise choice between the two types of propulsions because a better understanding of costs and schedules as well as developmental problems will be available." U.S. Senate passed S. 2771 to establish a Commission on Science and Technology, which would coordinate Government research and development programs with those of business and industry and would establish coordinated systems of information storage and retrieval.
NASA Flight Research Center released photographs of a mysterious floating object taken during Maj. Robert M. White's July 17 record-breaking flight of the X-15. Pictures, extracted from film taken by movie camera in tail of X-15, showed gray-white object of undetermined size tumbling above and behind the aircraft. NASA officials reported that it was "impossible to identify or explain the object's presence at this time." National Geographic Society and Lowell Observatory announced preparation of an atlas, "A Photographic Study of the Brighter Planets," containing "the most detailed and revealing pictures obtained since telescopes were perfected especially for observing the planets rather than the distant stars." Bidders' conference held at NASA Hq. NASA requested proposals from field centers and industry for two lunar logistics studies—one of a spacecraft bus concept which could be adapted for initial use on the Saturn C-1B and later use on Saturn C-5 launch vehicles; and one of a variety of payloads which could be soft-landed near manned Apollo missions, the latter study to determine how man's stay on the moon might be extended, how man's capability for scientific investigation of the moon might be increased, and how man's mobility on the moon might be increased. Contract proposals were requested by August 20.
NASA had awarded $141.1 million contract to Douglas Aircraft Co. for design, development, fabrication, and test of Saturn S-IVB stage to be used as upper stage of three-stage Advanced Saturn (C-5). Contract called for eleven S-IVB units, including three for ground tests, two for inert flight, and six for powered flight. S-IVB uses NAA’s J-2 liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen engine generating 200,000 lbs. of thrust.
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center announced contract award to Pratt and Whitney, to investigate the feasibility of variable thrust in RL-10 rocket engine. The study was not directed toward any specific mission but would have wide application in future space flights.
AEC and Westinghouse Electric Corp. announced a joint study program to determine technical feasibility of a 1,000,000 kw nuclear power plant using a single, closed-cycle water reactor.
Reported that RCA had proposed unification of all U.S. international communications carriers into a single privately owned and independently operated company, to expedite development of a global communications service.
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru told Indian Parliament that India had agreed to have a rocket launching station on her territory under U.N. auspices for international use.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
