Feb 6 1963
From The Space Library
NASA announced it would use TV to monitor Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper during his Project Mercury space flight MA-9. Slow-scan television monitoring equipment has been installed at Cape Canaveral and aboard tracking ship to be stationed in South Pacific; third monitor might be established in Canary Islands. Television pictures received at Cape Canaveral could later be fed into U.S. networks, it was reported. (UPI, Wash. Post, 2/7/63,A4)
NASA requested industry proposals for design and construction of a “prototype six-month life support system for four men”-a 2,600- cu.-ft. cabin in which four-man crews would make simulated space flights lasting six months. Proposals were due at NASA Langley Research Center by Feb. 26. (UPI, Wash Post, 2/7/63, A13)
Titan II ICBM flown 6,500 mi. down AMR with heaviest payload ever to travel that far on a U.S. rocket vehicle. This was first Titan II launch conducted by an all-USAF crew. (DOD Release 166-63; UPI, Wash. Post, 2/7/63, A2; M&R, 2/11/63,13)
D. Brainerd Holmes, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator and Director of Manned Space Flight, said that spectacular “ ‘firsts’ in space are not truly accurate measurements of technical and scientific progress. The question of who is first in space will be decided by the total accomplishment and the total ability of each nation to sail this uncharted sea. Dramatic events, such as the first flight of a man in orbit, or the first landing on the moon, make up only a part of this assessment . . . .” Holmes was addressing Sidwell Friends School Forum, Washington, D.C. (Text)
Senator Estes Kefauver (D.-Tenn.), Chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee told the Senate that NASA proposed regulations would “waive the Government’s rights to patents on taxpayer-financed research and development in most cases” and urged the proposal be killed. (AP, Chattanooga Times, 2/7/63)
Speaking in New York at a special seminar at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. Wernher von Braun, MSFC director, told scientists that benefits from America’s space program would far outweigh the cost. The revenues from communications satellites alone would, by 1975, exceed the cost of NASA’s program in that area. There would also be benefits on which no price tag could be placed, such as discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts and the accomplishments of the weather satellites. Dr. von Braun said that man himself is a very important link in space exploration, and that the value of placing a man on the moon cannot be debated. “Instrumented equipment can do the job if one knows exactly what he is seeking,” he said. “However, if one doesn’t know. then automated equipment is not quite good enough.” (Goddard News, 2/25/63, 2)
Presentation on Project Gemini, prepared by Drs. Stanley C. White and George B. Smith of NASA Manned Spacecraft Center and presented at Lectures in Aerospace Medicine Series, SAM, said that present Gemini “flight program includes the performance of manned extra-vehicular operation. The accomplishment of this maneuver requires the opening of the hatch over the astronaut who will venture outside. During this period, the cabin pressure is lost, and both astronauts are dependent upon the suit for prime environmental protection. “. . . The program as it is now planned would start out with flights of two-days duration and move forward to flights of up to two weeks duration upon successful completion of the first phase. Ultimately, the more complex 14-day duration mission, the inter-vehicular rendezvous, and the extra-vehicular manned operation goals would be achieved. The intermediate steps offer an excellent opportunity to study the man, the vehicle, the man-machine interface, and to accomplish other bioscience experiments while the program moves toward its final objectives . . . . (Text, MSC Fact Sheet 134)
The consuls of 19 foreign nations were the guests of the Manned Spacecraft Center at a special program arranged to familiarize them with the Center’s activities and goals in space. (MSC Space News Roundup, 1/8/64,2)
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