Dec 7 1961
From The Space Library
NASA postponed its projected manned orbital flight from December 1961 until early in 1962 because of minor problems with the cooling system and positioning devices in the Mercury capsule, Dr. Hugh Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, said in a Baltimore interview. "You like to have a man go with everything just as near perfect as possible. This business is risky. You can't avoid this, but you can take all the precautions you know about." Plans for the development of a two-man Mercury capsule were announced by Robert Gilruth, Director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center. The two-man capsule, to be built by McDonnell Aircraft Corp., would be similar in shape to the Mercury capsule but slightly larger and two to three times heavier. Its booster rocket was announced to be the USAF Titan II, scheduled for flight test early in 1962. One of the major objectives in the two-man capsule program would be a test of orbital rendezvous, in which the two-man capsule would be put into orbit by the Titan II and would attempt to rendezvous with an Agena stage put into orbit by an Atlas rocket. Total cost for a dozen two-man capsules plus boosters and other equipment was estimated at $500,000,000. Program name later announced as Gemini.
Power run completed the test series on the Kiwi B–lA reactor system being conducted at the Nevada Test Site by AEC's Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Fourth in a series of test reactors in the joint AEC–NASA nuclear rocket propulsion program, Kiwi B–lA was disassembled for examination at the conclusion of the test runs.
Second Atlas ICBM launched by SAC crew, from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Preproposal conference on the contract for design, research, development, fabrication, and testing of the Reactor-in-flight-test (Rift) vehicle was held at Marshall Space Flight Center. This vehicle would test-fly the [[Nerva] nuclear engine now under development. Twenty-nine firms were invited to attend this preliminary conference at which they were furnished general information on the project. Interested firms would then have 30 days to file information on their capabilities and experience. Then a smaller number of firms would be invited to submit detailed bids. Purpose of the two-step evaluation was to enable firms not in a competitive position to avoid the expense of entering detailed proposals.
United States and Soviet delegates to the United Nations informally discussed the question of the political makeup of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and on a possible joint resolution in that Committee.
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