Nov 20 1962
From The Space Library
Sparobee sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops Station with 90-lb. payload to measure electron and neutral particle temperatures at 75 to 225-mi. altitudes. Vehicle reached peak altitude of 214 mi. and payload impacted in Atlantic Ocean about 217 mi. away. Secondary objectives were measurement of ion and neutral particle density and flight testing of newly designed Thermosphere Probe system. Experiment was joint project of University of Michigan and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA named Adm. Walter F. Boone (USN, Ret) as Deputy Associate Administrator for Defense Affairs. Primary responsibility of the newly-created post was to strengthen the flow of technical and management information between NASA and DOD.
Office of Aerospace Research announced scientists at. Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories (AFCRL) would conduct the "most thorough study of atmospheric ozone ever made," a concentrated one-year series of observations with more than 700 balloons carrying sensitive ozone meters into the upper atmosphere. New 11-station network, from Canal Zone to Greenland, would participate in project. To begin in January 1963, project was expected to yield data on nature of ozone.
Dr. Eugene B. Konecci, Director of NASA Biotechnology and Human Research, told conference of Manufacturing Chemists' Association that nuclear rocket fuel ". . . may eventually make it an attractive matter to bring lunar ore to the earth for processing. . . " Nuclear fuel would reduce the cost of each pound of payload.
USAF Nuclear Effects Research Laboratory dedicated at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Lab was designed to simulate effects of nuclear explosions on ballistic missile systems; study effects of radiation on people and electronic systems; simulate magnetic and radiation effects of high-altitude nuclear explosions; and conceive radiation experiments for space probes.
Dr. Andrei S. Severny, Soviet astronomer who heads the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory whose 102-in. telescope is the largest outside of California, reported a partial theory on cause of solar flares—solar flare convulsion is brought about by a release of the accumulation of magnetic energy. Based on observations of changes in the strong magnetic fields, Dr. Severny's interpretation of flares is based on technique developed by Dr. Horace D. Babcock and his son at Mount Wilson in California. Skeptical of Severny's thesis, a colleague of the Babcocks, Dr. Robert Howard, was reported in Russia to challenge the Soviet data.
Lockheed Aircraft Corp. and International Association of Machinists (IAM) union agreed to Federal Mediation Service request that they resume negotiations. The request came after the union had set Nov. 28 as strike deadline.
Soviet astronomer Vladimir K. Prokofief reported that he had discovered traces of oxygen in the atmosphere of the planet Venus, based on observations from the spectrum of sunlight reflected from the Venutian cloud cover.
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