Dec 12 1961
From The Space Library
Discoverer XXXVI was launched by the USAF into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with a piggyback 10-pound Oscar (orbiting satellite carrying amateur radio) satellite aboard in addition to the Discoverer payload. Oscar was the first satellite built by private citizens to be put in orbit, transmitted Morse signal to world amateur radio operators.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research was inaugurated at Boulder, Colo. To include the facilities of the High Altitude Observatory of the University of Colorado, to be governed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a corporation of 14 universities from coast to coast, and to be financed by the National Science Foundation, the center would provide a national attack on weather research, including the use of tools such as rockets, balloons, and computers too expensive for any one university to finance.
USAF Atlas launched from Atlantic Missile Range carried piggyback package of 28 dummy fuel cells in a study of how metals evaporate on reentry.
Army announced that track radar for Nike-Zeus antimissile missile had successfully tracked an Atlas ICBM on November 22 from Ascension Island as well as [Echo I]] 1,500 miles from Earth.
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