Aug 9 1962
From The Space Library
Third balloon in radiation-experiment series conducted by Ames Research Center was launched from Goose Bay, Labrador. In two hours, the balloon had carried its payload of two monkeys, four hamsters, and instruments to an altitude of 65,000 feet, where it was to catch prevailing winds and drift westward across Canada.
USAF launched two Atlas D missiles in quick succession from Vandenberg AFB toward impact area 5,000 miles away. Officials said the tests, the first demonstration of a multiple countdown capability, were successful.
Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of Air Force Systems Command, testified before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics that the revised USAF solid-propellant development program would cost considerably less than the $60 million originally planned. He said that current program review ordered by Secretary of Defense and NASA Administrator had shown that solid-fuel program was larger than necessary to demonstrate the feasibility of the boosters. Once approved by the Secretary and the Administrator, the new master plan for solid-propellant boosters would limit the program to feasibility study, since neither DOD nor NASA had specific mission requirements for their application.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Estes Kefauver reiterated his belief that the communications satellite bill (H.R. 11040) "proposed the most gigantic giveaway in the history of this country. It would turn over to a governmentally created private monopoly the benefits of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money which have been invested in the development of space and satellite communications technology. . . ." Establishment of NASA Industrial Applications Advisory Committee announced, with Earl P. Stevenson (former president and chairman of the board of Arthur D. Little, Inc.) as chairman. The committee would assist in transferring new scientific knowledge from NASA’s research and development programs to industry.
USAF announced awarding of Distinguished Service Medals to Lt. General Thomas P. Gerrity (USAF), formerly commander of Air Force Systems Command's Ballistic Missile Division (AFSC/AFBMD) and now Deputy Chief of Staff for Systems and Logistics; and Maj. General Osmond J. Ritland (USAF), formerly head of AFBMD and AFSSD and currently Deputy for Manned Space Flight, AFSC.
Congressional Record reprinted monograph on "U.S. Space Legal Policy—Some Basic Principles," by Robert D. Crane, director of the Space Research Institute at Duke University. Mr. Crane urged U.S. initiative in the formulation of space law, which "can serve not only to promote scientific research and economic progress and to facilitate the growth of a free and peaceful world order, but to implement on a higher moral level American military and political strategies . . ."
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