Nov 28 1963
From The Space Library
President Johnson delivered a personal Thanksgiving Day message to the American people via TV and radio, less than one week after he assumed the duties of the Presidency upon the assassination of President Kennedy. "All of us have lived through seven days that none of us will ever forget . . . . "A great leader is dead; a great nation must move on. Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose . . "And to honor his memory and the future of the works he started, I have today determined that Station No. 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range and a NASA launch operations center in Florida shall hereafter be known as the John F. Kennedy Space Center. "I have also acted today with the understanding and the support of my friend, the Governor of Florida, Farris Bryant, to change the name of Cape Canaveral. It shall be known hereafter as Cape Kennedy." (AP, Wash,. Post, 11/29/63)
SYNCOM II successfully performed a velocity correction maneuver, using the lateral 11202 jet to correct a westward drift of .104° per day. The jet performed as expected; drift after correction was - .0045° per day. (GSFC Historian)
President Johnson signed the Executive Order establishing the John F. Kennedy Space Center : "WHEREAS President John F. Kennedy lighted the imagination of our people when he set the moon as our target and man as the means to reach it; and "WHEREAS the installations now to be renamed are a center and a symbol of our country's peaceful assault on space; and "WHEREAS it is in the nature of this assault that it should test the limits of our youth and grace, our strength and wit, our vigor and perseverance-qualities fitting to the memory of John F. Kennedy; "Now, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, I hereby designate the facilities of the Launch Operations Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the facilities of Station No. 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range, in the State of Florida, as the John F. Kennedy Space Center; and such facilities shall be hereafter known and referred to by that name." (Marshall Star, 12/11/63, 2)
Soviet news agency Tass announced that U.S.S.R. would launch a test series of "new, improved types of rocket boosters for spacecraft" and designated two areas in the Pacific Ocean (Area I in the vicinity of 10° N latitude and 170° W longitude, Area II near 35° N latitude and 170° E longitude) as impact areas to be avoided by ships and aircraft from Dec. 2, 1963, through Jan. 25, 1964. (Pravda, 11/29/63, 1, AFSS-T Trans.)
President Johnson signed H. J. Res. 809, joint resolution making continuing appropriations for FY 1964 and for other purposes through Jan. 31, 1964. (P.L. 88-188) (NASA Leg. Act. Rpt. 11/195)
ComSatCorp announced that John A. Johnson, NASA General Counsel since NASA was formed in 1958, would become its Director of International Arrangements. NASA in turn announced that Mr. Johnson would be succeeded as General Counsel by Walter D. Sohier, Deputy General Counsel. (Wash. Eve. Star, 11/29/63; ComSatCorp Release; NASA Release 63-259)
DOD announced that the Nike-Zeus antimissile missile had scored another successful interception against an ICBM. This 10th successful Nike-Zeus interception was from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, the target a Titan I ICBM launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Don refused to state the date on which the interception took place. (Don Release 1519-63; Wash. Post, 11/30/63)
Rep. Robert E. Jones (D.-Ala.) inserted in the Congressional Record an article by Eugene Patterson, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, in which Mr. Patterson noted with approval remarks by Dr. Wernher von Braun on the lunar program viewed as a " 'capital investment into the next few decades of space exploration, both military and civilian.' " Patterson concluded : "It will be an incredible American performance if the United States shrinks back now from the space age into which von Braun dragged us, kicking and protesting, and in which he is now having to struggle to keep us." (CR, 11/29/63, A7320)
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