Apr 26 1963

From The Space Library

USAF launched Blue Scout rocket from Pt. Arguello, Calif., with unidentified payload. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 4/26/63)

USAF launched unidentified satellite from PMR using Thor-Agena vehicle. (UPI, Chic. Trib., 4/27/63)

USAF successfully launched advanced Atlas ICBM with new type of nose cone more than 5,000 mi. down AMR. (Astro. and Aero. Eng., June 1963, 7)

NASA announced formation of Research Advisory Committee on Bio­technology and Human Research, chaired by Dr. Charles I. Bar­ron, flight surgeon and president of Aerospace Medical Association. Committee would report to Dr. Raymond L. Bisplinghoff, Director of NASA Office of Advanced Research and Technology, through Dr. Eugene B. Konecci, Director of Biotechnology and Human Research in OART. (NASA Release 63-82)

NASA Acting Director of Office of Applications, Leonard Jaffe, ap­peared before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sci­ences, reviewing NASA programs of communications systems, meteorological systems, and future applications satellites. Describing division of responsibility between public interest NASA) and Communications Satellite Corp., Mr. Jaffe said that ` eventually, perhaps" NASA would find way to develop necessary power for bouncing radio and TV signals off satellites to "a very large area of the earth." Such transmissions would be beyond scope of ComSatCorp. and beyond its charter as common carrier for broadcasters. Yet ComSatCorp. might benefit from NASA ­developed technology, particularly in development of tremendous power supplies. Under Communications Satellite Act, Mr. Jaffe said, NASA retained responsibility to cooperate with ComSatCorp. and to advise other Federal agencies on the subject, such obliga­tions requiring NASA to maintain independent research capabilities in communications satellites. (Testimony; Wash,. Post, 4/27/63 Testifying before Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space, Sciences, Edmond C. Buckley, Director of NASA Office of Tracking and Data Acquisition, described basic support job that tracking and data acquisition provide to NASA's flight. projects, indicate major additional resources required, and concluded that "the success of the [space flight] mission depends on our ability to communicate, to receive telemetered data, to track, and to com­mand." (Testimony)

Senator Wallace F. Bennett (R.-Utah) announced he had asked Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences to investi­gate complaint. from three scientists that NASA was using "coer­cion" to recruit scientists. (AP, Wash. Post, 4/27/63)

Floyd L. Thompson, Director of NASA Langley Research Center, announced he had formally accepted on NASA s behalf custody of 110 acres of Government land. at Oyster Point, Newport News, Va., for use as site of Space Radiation Effects Laboratory being estab­lished by NASA. (Langley Release)

NASA Langley Research Center announced award of contract to Univ. of Virginia for developing "research apparatus and techniques for laboratory studies of drag on satellites." Under one-year contract, U. of Va. would develop suitable laboratory equipment and make laboratory measurements of molecular im­pact forces exerted on samples of spacecraft materials. (Langley Release)

NASA Ames Research Center selected three companies for negotiation of contracts to study solar probe project-General Electric Co. Missile and Space Div., Martin-Marietta Co., and Philco Corp. Each contract would call for four-month study providing "infor­mation in depth for the procurement of any future Solar Probe spacecraft, should the program become fully authorized." (Ames Release 63-49)

World Meteorological Organization, meeting in Geneva, agreed to establish "world weather watch" using U.S. and Soviet. meteoro­logical satellites and a network of meteorological centers, in at­tempt to make possible long-range -weather predictions on global scale. www would use world centers, regional centers, and na­tional centers, world centers being located in Washington, Moscow, and in as-yet-undetermined site in Southern Hemisphere. Re­gional centers-in New York, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Frank­furt, Brasilia, Nairobi, and Melbourne would (1) select data for analysis and forecasting on global scale and pass it on to world centers, and (2) disseminate appropriate data to national centers. Costs of program were expected to be covered by international organizations, but, WMO also appealed to national governments. (Reuters, Wash,. Post, 4/27/63)

Dr. Philip H. Abelson, Director of Carnegie Institution's Geophysics Laboratory and editor of Science, criticized costs of landing men on the moon in this decade: "What we are witnessing is the ex­ Administration ion of a new, sophisticated form of the prewar Public Works Administration. Science is being used as a `front' for technologi­cal leaf-raking. . . ." Dr. Abelson was speaking at Univ. of Maryland. (Wash. Eve. Star, 4/27/63, Al)

U.S. and Japan exchanged notes summing up agreement to increase missile defenses in Japan. (Chic. Trib., 4/27/63)

Apr 27 1963