May 22 1963
From The Space Library
New York City honored Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper with tickertape parade. At city luncheon honoring Major Cooper, NASA Administrator James E. Webb, and the entire Project Mercury team, Major Robert Wagner presented Major Cooper and Mr. Webb with city's Medal of Honor and scroll acclaiming MA-9 space flight. Major Wagner said: ". . . It is remarkable how such a feat not only unites our own country in prideful pleasure, but also gives satisfaction to the rest of the world-to friend and foe alike. This is not man against man, but man against the elements, man against the forces of nature, man armed with the power of knowledge . . . ." (NYT, 5/23/63; CR, 5/29/63, A3487)
At regular press conference, President Kennedy was asked: "Did the astronauts raise with you ... their desire for another Mercury flight? Do you have any opinion yourself, tentative or otherwise, as to the desirability of another Mercury flight?" President Kennedy replied: "I think they feel that it's worthwhile. I haven't discussed it with Mr. Webb. NASA should make the judgment and will make the judgment, and I would not intervene. But they do feel that a flight is useful and that the experience of Major Cooper has indicated that the time between the last Gemini flight as scheduled-the Mercury flight and the new Gemini flight, which is a period of almost 18 months-they feel may represent a gap which could be filled very usefully by another Mercury flight. "This will be a matter which I think they're going to be talking about this week with Mr. Webb and which I will discuss with him next week. But the final judgment must be NASA's." (Transcript, NYT, 5/23/63,18)
NASA launched Scout rocket from Wallops Island, Va., with RFD-1 (re-entry flight demonstration-1) payload for AFC. 480-lb. mockup nuclear reactor traveled 800-mi. suborbital trajectory and reentered southwest of Bermuda, but initial recovery attempts were not successful. Purpose of flight was to obtain data for designing space nuclear reactors that disintegrate upon atmospheric re-entry. This was first of series of AFC flight tests to evaluate safety of aerospace nuclear power systems in operation. (Wallops Release 63-49; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 5/23/63)
Two Nike-Apache sounding rockets launched from Ft. Churchill, Canada. The flights were part of a series of experiments to measure winds and temperatures of the upper atmosphere. (NASA Rpt. of S. Rkt. Launching, 6/14/63)
Maj. Robert S. Sowers (USAF), Capt. Robert MacDonald (USAF), and Capt. John T. Walton (USAF) named by General Curtis E. LeMay (USAF) as recipients of 1962 MacKay Trophy "for the most meritorious flight of the year." The fliers established new transcontinental speed records on March 5, 1962, in B-58 Hustler. (DOD Release 724-63)
Cosmos XVII launched into orbit by U.S.S.R. (apogee, 488 mi.; perigee, 161 mi.; period, 94.82 min.; inclination, 49°02' to equator). As with previous Cosmos satellites, Tass said scientific equipment "intended for continuing the study of interplanetary space ... was mounted on board.' (Tass, Izvestia, 5/23/63, 1, AFSS-T Trans.)
FAA Administrator Najeeb E. Halaby announced at Aviation/Space Writers Association meeting in Dallas that he had submitted recommendation to President Kennedy on U.S. prospects for supersonic transport aircraft development. (Jackson, L.A. Herald-Examiner, 6/22/63)
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