Apr 21 1963
From The Space Library
Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, Science Advisor to the President, said in speech before Federation of American Scientists in Washington that the field of education was "probably the most back ward field in our modern society" and that scientists were largely to blame. Pointing to "widespread lack of understanding" about science and technology, he said "It is surprising that we scientists and technologists in universities who, in a sense, have made major contributions to the great revolution through which we are living, have failed to apply our methods to our own profession. "Modern teaching aids have been rarely employed either in general education or in the universities. The process of invention has been almost ignored. The most highly developed devices in common use are still the old-fashioned textbooks, the blackboard, the written examination . . . ." (Simons, Wash. Post, 4/22/63)
Dr. Homer E. Newell, NASA Director of Space Sciences, spoke at American Nobel Memorial Foundation dinner, New York "Because of the NASA policy of no exchange of funds, and of insisting on a mutuality of interest in entering into . . . cooperative programs, various national programs grow up with a viability that they might otherwise not have. They are not little NASA programs implanted on foreign soil. They are genuinely national programs, with strong national support, and vigorous national participation. They serve to strengthen the science and technology of the cooperating country in a way that only such direct involvement. can. Moreover, in the case of scientific programs, since a universal element of these efforts is an agreement that scientific results will be made generally available to the scientific literature, the entire world community of nations benefits." (Space Quotes, 9/15/63)
Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., said in nationwide TV interview that U.S. could and would land a man on the moon "We need no big, new scientific breakthroughs to complete this, we feel. We do not need the discovery of something as large as atomic power or anything like this in order to make the moon flight. Most of the technical details are known. It is now a lot of very hard and long engineering spade work and test procedure to prove out all these details and put them all together on the lunar mission." ("Meet the Press," NBC-TV, 4/21/63; AP, Wash,. Post, 4/22/63)
Sir Bernard Lovell, Director of Britain's Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, said in article in New York Times Magazine "The challenge of space exploration and particularly of landing men on the moon represents the greatest challenge which has ever faced the human race. Even if there were no clear scientific or other arguments for proceeding with this task, the whole history of our civilization would still impel men toward the goal. In fact, the assembly of the scientific and military with these human arguments creates such an overwhelming case that it can be ignored only by those who are blind to the teachings of history, or who wish to suspend the development of civilization at its moment of greatest opportunity and drama." (NYT Magazine, 4/21/63, 12f)
22-orbit MA-9 flight of Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper was reported delayed from planning date of May 7 until at least May 21 because of difficulties in Atlas booster's guidance system. (Hines, Wash. Sun. Star, 4/21/63)
ASA Plum Brook Research Reactor, Sandusky, Ohio, reached full power for the first time. 60.000 kilowatts of thermal energy were produced at end of two-month-long approach to power. The reactor is scheduled for basic research experiments associated with NASA's plans to develop a nuclear rocket for interplanetary exploration. (Lewis Chronology, 2; LRC Release 63-20)
NASA announced award of study contract to Bendix Systems Division to compare behavior of soils in earth environment with that in vacuum chambers simulating lunar temperatures and pressures approaching lunar atmosphere.' Results of 10-week study would assist in planning additional soil behavior research for planning possible future lunar roving vehicles. (NASA Release 63-78)
NASA contract to High Voltage Engineering Corp. of Burlington, Mass., for laboratory study of meteoroid impact effects on space vehicle components was reported. (Boston Sun. Herald, 4/21/63)
Air terminal system run by Port of New York Authority-including New York International and LaGuardia Airports in New York, Newark and Teterboro Airports in New Jersey, and two commercial heliports in Manhattan-set records in all categories of air traffic in 1962, the Authority reported. (NYT, 4/24/63) Tass announced Bruno Pontecorvo, Italian-born physicist who had been leading member of British Harwell Nuclear Research Institute before defecting to U.S.S.R. in 1950, had been awarded Lenin Prize for his pioneering research with neutrinos. (AP, Wash. Sun. Star, 4/21/63)
