May 16 1962
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (4MB PDF)
Second and third joint Japanese-U.S. space probes successfully launched from NASA Wallops Station, the second Nike-Cajun reached 76-mile altitude and the third and last, a night shot, reached 80-mile altitude.
U.S. delegate to the 17-nation disarmament conference in Geneva, Charles C. Stelle, urged the Soviet Union to divorce the question of preserving space for peaceful uses from its demands for elimination of foreign military bases and rockets designed to deliver nuclear weapons. The Soviets have insisted as a first step of disarmament the total elimination of vehicles capable of carrying nuclear bombs and of foreign bases.
NASA announced that "unidentified objects" on film of X-15 flight on April 30, mentioned by Joe Walker at Seattle, were actually bits of ice flaking off the fuel tank area.
John Glenn is interviewed. Click here to listen to the interview.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell L. Gilpatric, in Armed Forces luncheon address in San Francisco, stated that he was reluctant to identify DOD contributions to the national space program as "The Military Space Program," because "there is only one unified national program, not two or three or four.
"We are mindful of the stated U.S. national objective of using space for peaceful purposes only, and we [DOD] support this policy completely and wholeheartedly. . . . We are well advised in buying technological insurance even while earnestly hoping that space will be used only for peaceful purposes." Since the U.S. must avoid technological surprise in the military space area and there is no guarantee that the U.S.S.R. will cooperate on the peaceful use of space, Gilpatric announced that DOD has decided to develop manned orbital rendezvous space systems for inspecting other satellites to determine intent and neutralizing if hostile, and then land at predetermined locations on earth. These would be separate, he Said, from NASA’s Gemini and Apollo Programs.
In reviewing the evolution of the U.S. space program, Gilpatric pointed out that the "division of labor" between NASA and DOD in space was based "partly in logic, partly in pragmatic assessment. . ." In testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Air Force Chief of Staff LeMay requested additional funds to speed the development of the RS-70. Asking for nearly three times the Administration's budget request, or $491 million, LeMay said that limiting funds "would lose more than a year" beyond the 1967 target date for the first three prototypes. "This program has been slowed down at least four years. We have delayed and delayed until there is practically no risk in it now." House voted approval of plan to create a White House Office of Science and Technology to coordinate Federal research and development programs now approaching expenditures of $12 billion per year.
Proposals to ban orbiting of nuclear weapons, and to seek international agreement on space activities irrespective of other disarmament measures were included in the final report of the second American Assembly—British Institute for Strategic Studies at Brighton, England.
Reported that the Soviet Union was seeking through diplomatic channels to establish a space satellite tracking station in Australia, offering assurances that the station would not be used for military purposes or for the introduction of weapons.
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