May 25 1962
From The Space Library
NASA launched Aerobee research rocket with 213-lb. payload containing four scientific experiments from Wallops Station. Reaching an altitude of almost 125 statute miles, the nose cone was recovered by an S-62 helicopter some 52 miles down range.
In speech before the Aviation and Space Writers Association meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Harry Goett, Director of GSFC, reviewed the events in the life of scientific satellites after they are placed into orbit. Once in orbit, he said, a scientific satellite "does not have striking news value. . . .
"Except for manned space projects there is no single personality on whom the spotlight can be concentrated; the job of putting together the cosmic jigsaw puzzle of space from the bits and pieces obtained from our satellites is one that engages the effort of many people throughout the scientific community; and this jigsaw puzzle goes together so gradually that there are no singular events which merit a headline. I suspect that there are Nobel prizes in the making, but it is going to be difficult to determine who should get the medal." Dr. Goett, reviewing the scientific accomplishments in space, said that the general public needs to understand this part of the space effort "on the basis of its real accomplishments and potentialities." He said that this was a real challenge to the space writers.
In speech at the Seattle World's Fair, Secretary of State Dean Rusk urged that activities in space be subjected to international law and supervision before it is too late. Without international regulation, he said, "the frontiers of space might be pierced by huge nuclear-propelled dreadnaughts, armed with thermonuclear weapons. The moon might be turned into a military base. Ways might be found to cascade radioactive waves upon an enemy. Weather control might become a military weapon. . . ." One year ago, President Kennedy m his address to Congress declared the national space goal of "landing an American on the moon in this decade." Velery Lutsky, Soviet astronomer of the Moscow Planetarium, said in English-language Radio Moscow broadcast to North America, that the flight of AURORA 7 made it "more urgent" that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. cooperate m space exploration.
Consolidation Steering, Committee of the Board of the American Rocket Society (ARS) and the Council of the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences (IAS) completed preliminary "Principles of Consolidation" for a proposed new society to be known as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
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