Jun 24 1963
From The Space Library
President Kennedy sent to Congress a request to add $60,-000,000 to the FY 1964 budget to finance detailed design studies on the supersonic transport. aircraft. In his June 14 letter to Congress on the aircraft, the President had set a total ceiling of $750 million for Government support of the project, with $250 million additional to come from the aircraft industry, and with part of the Government investment to be recovered through royalty payments. (NYT, 6/25/63, 55)
Soviet Premier Khrushchev, opening session of World Woman's Congress in Moscow, warned that third world war would "be a rocket nuclear war of extermination.... [destroying] much of what we generally call civilization." Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was stellar attraction at Communist-dominated congress. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 6/24/63 A-20)
Reported that NASA Administrator Webb and Defense Secretary McNamara were considering proposal that USAF perform military experiments during first 12 Gemini space flights, Aviation Week and Space Technology reported. (Av. Wk., 6/24/63, 25)
NASA announced selection of Lear Siegler to negotiate contract for design study of "psychophysical information acquisition processing and control system" (Piapacs). Proposed system, mounted in pilot's garment and headgear, would replace present system of sensors attached to pilot and would permit continuous acquisition of psychological and physical data. NASA pilots would test system in flights of aircraft including F-104, Jet Star, and X-15, at NASA Flight Research Center. (NASA Release 63-139; FRC Release 13-63)
NASA and DOD negotiation of agreement giving NASA authority to purchase its own Atlas-Agena launch Vehicles was reported by Missiles and Rockets. NASA had signed agreement, and DOD approval was "expected shortly." (M&R, 6/24/63,9)
John Stack, pioneer of aircraft development over 34 years with NACA and NASA, now director of engineering for Republic Aviation Corp., interviewed on supersonic transport development in U.S. News and World Report. Asked how much had been done on U.S. supersonic transport to date, he said " . . You could almost take it off the shelf today. The technology is there. It's just a matter of pulling it together and putting it into the airplane you want. We were doing research on the problems of supersonic transport. down at Langley Research Center all through the late 1950's. We knew then that it. was feasible. There was no fundamental scientific obstacle. "In December of 1959, at the request of E. R. Quesada who was head of the Federal Aviation Agency and President Eisenhower's aviation adviser, we made a presentation on development of a supersonic transport. Mr. Quesada recommended that work get underway. He didn't get the money he asked for, but supersonic- transport development was established as a national policy. "The Kennedy administration came in, in 1961, and Najeeb Halaby replace Mr. Quesada at the FAA. He pushed ahead with the development program. Congress appropriated a total of $31 million for the project in 1961 and 1962. This year, 1963, was to be the prototype year. "... as you know, the day after Pan American Airways announced that it was placing an order for six of the British-French Concorde supersonic transports President Kennedy said there will be a supersonic transport program. " . If we wait another year [for Congressional appropriations], we will be in a serious position in this competition. . . ." (U.S. News, 6/24/63; CR, 7 /9/63,11621-22)
Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate for an additional five -year term. Dr. Gerald F. Tape was also confirmed to finish out the remaining three years of Dr. Leland J. Haworth's term on the Commission. Dr. Haworth had resigned to become Director of the National Science Foundation. (NYT, 6/25/63, 48)
USAF contract award to Avco Corp. for production of re-entry vehicles was announced by DOD. $1.3 million contract was awarded by AFSC Ballistic Systems Div. (DOD Release 901-63)
Address by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, AEC Chairman, before Conference on Higher Education in Chicago inserted in Congressional Record by Rep. Barrett O'Hara, in which he said "The most important source of creative evolution in the future will continue to be, as it has been in the past, fundamental scientific research-the kind of investigations that give us a better understanding of the true nature four world . . . . "We have inherited a revolutionary philosophical concept of man as an architect of his environment, a concept that seemed to flower only about two centuries ago. Men gained confidence in this idea when their economic energy and inventions brought unparalleled modifications of life through the industrial revolution. In the period starting some two decades ago, which may be designated as the beginning of the third revolution, Western man became irrevocably dedicated to the concept of creative evolution. The future of the third revolution-of man's power to mold the world to his liking-is almost unlimited." (Text, CR, 6/24/63, A3993-95)
Maj. Gen. Leighton I. Davis, Commander of AFMTC, in an interview with Electronic News. stated that the recent Soviet tandem space flight added urgency to a strong U.S. military space program: "The thinking that goes with the exploitation of space for peaceful purposes is inconsistent and incompatible with the thinking necessary to exploit the military and defense aspects of space." Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo are "not technical weapon systems with any military potential." They require "long check-out time, lack quick reaction time, and don't have the degree of maneuverability in space needed for a weapon system." (Electronic News, 6/24/63)
Medical investigation of the 4,565 general aviation accidents in the U.S. in 1961 was inadequate, a group of USAF doctors reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Physicians should autopsy the dead and examine survivors with the aim of making flying safer, the medical officers asserted, but this is done only for military and commercial airline accidents-not for general aviation, where often only a single investigator from FAA or CAB visited the crash. (NYT, 5/24/63, 6)
June 24-July 10: Fourth Annual Aviation Education Workshop, sponsored by Mississippi State Dept. of Education various aviation interests, military services, and NASA, was held at Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. Robert F. Thompson, Head of NASA Manned Spacecraft Center's Flight Operations Recovery Branch, was principal speaker June 26, with addresses on "Tracking, Search and Rescue Procedures" and "Past and Future Programs of Manned Space Flight." (MSC Release 63-104)
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