Jan 3 1963

From The Space Library

Both U.S. communications satellites, TELSTAR I and RELAY I, came to life. TELSTAR I, silent since Nov. 23, responded to signals sent by Bell Telephone Laboratories; later in the day, RELAY I, silent since first being orbited Dec. 13, responded twice to television test patterns sent from New Jersey and Maine. (Wash. Post, 1/4/63, Al)

NASA was tentatively planning to extend one-day MA-9 flight of Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper (Maj.,USAF) from 18 to 22 orbits (27 to 34 hours), John Finney of New York Times reported. Scheduled for April 1963, MA-9 would be last flight in Project Mercury. (NYT Co., Atlanta Constitution, 1/3/63)

Rep. Bob Wilson (R.-Calif.) speaking for Republican Party’s Advisory Committee for Space and Aeronautics, charged Kennedy Administration had failed to build a strong military space program and recommended USAF be given authority to undertake an immediate military space program with priority over NASA’s manned lunar landing program : “Very little of the hardware developed by NASA can be used militarily. But the Kennedy Administration tends to lead the public to believe that the opposite is true . . . . [NASA projects such as Mercury and Apollo] could no more be converted to competitive military space systems than could a Liberty ship into an aircraft carrier or a truck into a tank . . . .” (AP, Boston Herald, 1/4/63)

British sources reported U.S. would disclose details of its space launch vehicles to European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) in exchange for cooperative work on joint space projects.

(Manchester Guardian, Wash. Post, 1/3/63)