May 9 1963
From The Space Library
207-lb. instrumented payload carried 125 mi. high by Aerobee 150A sounding rocket launched at Wallops Island, Va., by NASA and Australian scientists. Designed and built by Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, experiment was designed to measure VLF radio noise above E region of ionosphere and was similar to experiment conducted under nighttime conditions April 12. (Wallops Release 63-48; NASA Release 63-99)
Titan II ICBM launched from Cape Canaveral by USAF, falling short of 5,500-mi. target because of premature second-stage engine cutoff. (DOD Release 663-63; UPI, NYT, 5/10/63,14)
Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R.-Me.) and NASA Administrator James E. Webb were co-hosts at luncheon at Senate for three women accorded national recognition for space age accomplishments-Marcia S. Miner, student at American Univ. and winner of National Rocket Club's 1963 Goddard Memorial Scholarship Award; Dr. Nancy C. Roman, Chief of Astronomy and Solar Physics in NASA Geophysics and Astronomy Program and 1962 winner of Federal Women's Award; and Eleanor C. Pressly, Head of Vehicles Section, Sounding Rocket Branch, in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Spacecraft Integration and Sounding Rocket Div., and 1963 winner of Federal Women's Award. (NASA Release 63-94)
L/Gen. Thomas P. G. Gerrity (USAF), DC/S for Systems and Logistics, told American Ordnance Association in Washington that "the worst blot on the Air Force-Industry image is inaccurate estimating of costs and schedules. In these areas we simply have to do a better job at the outset of each program and we have to conduct accurate and timely reviews to be sure that program growth and cost overruns are anticipated and separately identified . . . ." (A-N-AF Journal & Register, 5/18/63, 38)
Dr. Wernher von Braun, Director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, said in interview that plans for 360-ton, four-man space- craft to fly from earth to Mars were in "quite an advanced stage." Emphasizing that execution of such plans was not yet approved and funded by NASA, he described nuclear-electric powered spacecraft and said it was "projected for beyond the 1970 s."
A technical services contract was awarded by the Manned Spacecraft Center to Lockheed Electronics Company to provide R&D support for Apollo. The contract involves vehicle instrumentation and communication systems to be used in the early flight phases of the program. (MSC Fact Sheet #96)
Brig. Gen. Gerald F. Keeling, ARSC Deputy Chief of Staff for Production and Procurement, said m address to American Ordnance Association meeting in Washington: "The fact that we will buy or USAF] more than eight billion dollars worth of weapon systems, supplies, and services this fiscal year and will administer approximately 70,000 contracts for government purchases, which are administered by 57 field organizations, provides some idea of the sheer magnitude of AFSC's procurement management task. "A large majority of our funds is involved in weapon system acquisition contracts .... For the past two years the Air Force has undertaken a program of surveying certain selected contractors and related weapon systems. Two types of surveys are con ducted. One type--called the Industrial Management Assistance Survey-looks at a particular contractor's internal organization, management and operating practices as they affect all the Air Force contracts being performed. Nine of these surveys have now been completed. The second type is called the Systems Program Management Survey and looks at all aspects of a particular aerospace system at a given point in time, including an examination, as appropriate, of the prime, associate prime and major subcontractors involved. We have now completed 20 of this second type of survey... "Altogether, we have identified some 37 prominent deficiencies in major areas of contractor management . . . ." (Text)
May 9-10: During this night, TELSTAR II was tested from Andover, Maine, and Pleumeur-Bodou, France, ground stations. (NASA TELSTAR II Prog. Rpt. No. 4)
