Jun 15 1962
From The Space Library
Two-stage Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched from Wallops Island with 95-lb. payload to 89-mile altitude with GSFC experiment to measure electron density and electron collision frequency in the ionosphere under undisturbed conditions.
NASA launched first two of six tests of the performance of the Canadian Black Brant sounding rocket. The first carried a payload to an altitude of 58 miles above Wallops Station, the second reached 62 miles altitude.
U.S. Weather Bureau announced that the formation of the season's first hurricane would be detected by one or all of its battery of ships, planes, radar, and Tiros weather satellites. Last year TIROS III discovered Hurricane Esther as it was forming in the Atlantic Ocean. Altogether, the Weather Bureau said, TIROS III had seen 5 hurricanes and one tropical storm in the Atlantic, two hurricanes and a tropical storm in the eastern Pacific, and 9 typhoons in the central and western Pacific. In preparation for 1962 season, the Weather Bureau arranged to transmit satellite cloud-photographs by photo-facsimile to warning centers in San Juan, New Orleans, and Miami, where they will be used in forecasting and tracking tropical storms.
At Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences hearing on the Administration's FY 1963 budget request for the space program, Dr. Harold Brown, non Director of Research and Engineering, testified that DOD is "developing the technologies which contribute to military and unmanned orbital systems able to rendezvous with satellites and then land at pre-selected locations on earth." Dr. Brown assured the committee that DOD has "no intention to pre-empt those areas which are within the proper purview" of NASA.
President Kennedy congratulated labor and management at U.S. missile sites for achieving a new low in work stoppages. According to the President's Missile Sites Labor Commission, only 1 man-day per 1,100 man-days worked was lost during the year ending this date, while 1 man-day per 96 man-days worked was lost during the 1956-1961 period. The President expressed confidence that the commission would continue to receive cooperation of labor and management "in making sure that our missile and space programs go forward . . . as economically as possible."
Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences unanimously approved authorization for NASA in FY 1963 of $3,749,515,250. Also authorized was $71 million supplemental authorization for FY 1902, including $55 million for expansion of Cape Canaveral and $16 million for real estate at the Mississippi test facility.
NASA announced appointment of Bob P. Helgeson as Chief of the Nevada Extension of NASA-AEC Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO-N), effective August 1. As Chief of the Nevada Extension, Helgeson will direct construction and operation of Nuclear Rocket Development Station (NRDS), national site for testing nuclear rockets.
Astronaut Donald K. Slayton underwent physical examination by heart specialist Dr. Paul Dudley White in Boston.
Postlaunch Memorandum Report of the 2nd Manned Orbital Space Flight (Mercury Atlas 7/Aurora 7) is issued on this date.
Static testing of U.K.'s Blue Streak was completed after more than 400 tests since August 1959.
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