Mar 7 1962
From The Space Library
OSO I (Orbiting Solar Observatory) was successfully launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, marking the seventh straight success for the Thor-Delta booster. The 458-lb. satellite, with an apogee of 370 mi. and a perigee of 340 mi., immediately began sending back signals on the sun's radiation in the ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma ray regions from its position above the filtering action of the earth's atmosphere. By an intricate positioning apparatus, OSO's 13 instruments were focused constantly on the sun with a pointing accuracy of 1 minute of arc. This was the first of a series of OSOs to be launched by NASA in the next 11-year sun cycle.
NASA established the NASA Launch Operations Center at Cape Canaveral, with Dr. Kurt H. Debus as Director. Reporting to the Director of Manned Space Flight at NASA Hq., the new Center would serve all NASA projects launched from Cape Canaveral, absorbing Marshall Space Flight Center's Launch Operations Directorate. Similarly at Point Mugu, Calif., the NASA Test Support Office was redesignated the NASA Pacific Launch Operations Office, with Cdr. Simon J. Burttschell as Acting Director.
D. Brainerd Holmes, NASA’s Director of Manned Space Flight, testified before a subcommittee of the House Science and Astronautics Committee on the very large and complex manned space flight program. The most important step in space capability in 1961, he said, "was not that of awarding particular contracts or making technical decisions, but rather Mr. Webb's carefully planned reorganization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration." Speaking of future launch sites for the Advanced Saturn vehicle as the workhorse of the manned lunar program, he said: ". . it shows our plans for an entirely new concept of launching our large space vehicles. Instead of literally assembling or building the launch vehicles on the pads as we do at present, this arrangement would permit assembly and test at a location remote from the launch pads and under cover, protected from weather. It will be possible to have vertical transfer of the entirely assembled vehicle to the launch pad in a tested condition. This arrangement should offer many advantages in order to permit better and more thorough checkout, and to assure more rapid launching and efficient utilization of each pad. For the extremely tight Schedules that will be required for launch operations in support of orbital rendezvous, this rapid launch capability is highly desirable." Escape-velocity payloads with the nuclear-engine Rift as the 3rd stage on an Advanced Saturn booster would be more than double that of a 3-stage, all-chemical Advanced Saturn and higher than that of the Nova 12-million-pound-thrust vehicle, according to testimony given to a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics by Harold B. Finger, NASA’s Director of Nuclear Systems.
Dr. Homer E. Newell, NASA’s Director of Space Sciences, testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, said: "Because of this great breadth and scope of space science, and because of the many basic scientific problems that it encompasses, our country must have a sound and vigorous space science program if we intend to maintain our position of leadership in world science . . .
"The space science of today is needed to sow the seeds for the harvest of future applications of space knowledge and technology. The weather, communications, and navigation satellites of today grew out of the scientific engineering and research of the past decades. Their perfection, and the development of new applications, will rest upon the space science and engineering of today and the years to come."
USAF launched an unidentified satellite with an Atlas-Agena B from Point Arguello, Calif.
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