Feb 5 1963
From The Space Library
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center confirmed that Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper’s MA-9 space flight would be delayed because of “electrical wiring problems in the launch vehicle control system which are peculiar to Atlas 130-D,” the vehicle for MA-9 spaceflight. (MSC Release 63-20)
NASA announced it would negotiate contract with Fairchild Stratos Corp. for two meteoroid detection satellites to be launched by Saturn I vehicles. Once in orbit the two-ton satellite would extend its two “wings” totaling 96-ft. length and providing area of more than 2,000 sq. ft. exposure to possible meteoroid hits. Aluminum skin of wings would be electrically charged ; penetration of skin by meteoroid would trigger an electrical pulse which would be recorded and radioed back to earth. First of the satellites was scheduled for launch in late 1965. (NASA Release 63-24)
House Committee on Science and Astronautics held its organizational meeting, with Chairman George P. Miller of California announcing names and ranking of committee members. (Newport News Daily Press, 2/6/63)
Maj. Gen. O. J. Ritland (USAF) told news conference in conjunction with aerospace medicine conference at SAM that, “this nation needs a [manned] laboratory in space” and that such a laboratory was within state of today’s technology. Under USAF concept, of “Mods” (Military Orbital Development Systems), he said, permanent manned stations would orbit in space and would be remanned and resupplied by spacecraft similar to Gemini. (AP, Balt. Sun, 2/6/63)
Adm. Sergei Gorshkov, Commander-in-Chief of Soviet Navy, wrote in Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) that U.S.S.R. had successfully fired missiles from underwater submarines during training exercises last year. He said “radical re-equipment” had provided Soviet navy with submarines and surface vessels armed with missiles capable of striking anywhere in the world. (AP, Wash. Post, l/6/63, A15)
System to determine composition of moon’s crust by explosions on lunar surface was described by Francis E. Lehner, senior project engineer on lunar seismology, Cal Tech. Under development for NASA by Lehner and Dr. Robert L. Kovach, geophysicist at JPL, system was designed to be sent to moon in unmanned instrument package weighing about 50 pounds . . . . “We propose to obtain subsurface information about the moon by touching off a series of small explosive charges and then with one or more geophones placed at some distance from the explosives detect the resulting waves that have penetrated into the crust and have been refracted again to the surface. “A geophone converts a mechanical wave into an electrical one that may be amplified and recorded. Different kinds of rock formation, and cracks and layers of material will affect the wave patterns, which can be amplified and radioed back to earth.” (CTPS, Chicago Trib., 2/6/63)
First intra-agency technical conference on optical communications and tracking held at GSFC with representatives of NASA'S field centers and installations attending. Purpose of the conference was to provide for an exchange of technical information on laser optical and tracking programs at each of the centers. (Goddard News, 2/25/63,2)
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