Nov 21 1963

From The Space Library

President Kennedy visited San Antonio and Houston. In San Antonio, he participated in the dedication of the new $6-million Aerospace Medical Health Center at Brooks AFB. "Too many Americans make the mistake of assuming that space re­search has no value here on earth. Nothing could be further from the truth," the President said, and then went on to enumerate some of the advances in medical science and technique that had come from space research. Referring to the reduced NASA budget passed by the Senate the previous day, the President said : "There will be pressures for our country to do less and temptations to do something else. But this research must and will go ahead. That much we know. That much we can say with confidence and conviction . . . . "Our effort in space is not, as some have suggested, a competi­tor for the national resources needed to improve our living stand­ards. It is instead a working partner and coproducer of those resources." (Wicker, NYT, 11/22/63; Biker, N.Y. Herald Tribune, 11/22/63)

USAF Outstanding Unit Award was presented to the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine for having "formulated new scientific concepts and performed original research of great national and international significance." Award was made dur­ing ceremonies in which President Kennedy dedicated the school's new facilities at Brooks AFB, Tex. (Air Force Magazine, 1/63, 84)

First rocket to be launched from India was achieved as the result of the coordinated efforts of France, India, and the U.S. The Nike-Apache, launched from Thumba, the site near the southern tip of India that would become an international rocket launching facility for IQSY experiments, reached an altitude of 106 mi., and was the first of four sodium-vapor experiments to determine speed and direction of upper atmosphere winds. (NASA Release 63-105; NASA Rpt. of S. Rkt. Launching, 12/12/63)

GSFC announced that under a $2 million contract now under final ne­gotiation, Sperry Rand Corp.'s Univac Div. would deliver eleven Model 1218 computer systems to manned space flight tracking stations for operation by July 1964. These computers would automatically summarize telemetry from the spacecraft, provide summaries for display in the mission control center so that the con­trollers can select and examine certain data on a real-time basis, and prepare the telemetry data for final processing in the more elaborate computers at GSFC and MSC. During the Mercury pro­gram, controllers at the tracking stations had to select data manu­ally. (GSFC Release G-26-63)

Text of U.S.-U.S.S.R. agreement on legal principles of space explo­ration was released at the U.N. in New York. The document would be brought before the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on Nov. 22. Even if approved, the state­ment of principles would not be legally binding on U.N. members. The plan was for two treaties based on the principles to be sub­mitted to member nations early in 1964. The treaties would cover (1) rescue and return of astronauts and space vehicles, and (2) liability for death, injury, or damage caused on earth by space vehicles. (Wash. Post, 11/22/63; Text, NYT, 11/22/63, 18)

British scientist Dr. John F. Berridge of Univ. of London reported at the cosmic dust conference in New York sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences that he had found material in meteorites that closely resembled the kinds of clays formed by water action on earth. This would argue that the meteorites were once part of a body large enough to have its own atmosphere and hence its own weather. This supported previous findings by Dr. Bartholomew Nagy of Fordham Univ., who also claims to have found fossil-like objects in meteorites. (Sullivan, NYT , 11/22163, 32)

Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, Scientific Adviser to the Presi­dent, defended himself and his staff against charges by Dr. Philip Abelson the previous day. Testifying before the Senate Commit­tee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences in favor of continuing NASA's graduate training program, Dr. Wiesner said of Abelson : "His statement is so inconsistent that it's hard to answer. He accused me of being a czar . . . but also said I haven't done much." Wiesner defended his staff against Abelson's charge that they were not outstanding scientists : "A Nobel Prize winner is not necessarily the best man to advise the President." (Wash. Post, 11/22/63)

Testifying before the House Select Committee on Government Re­search, Dr. Vannevar Bush said : "The spectacular success of applied research during the war led to a fallacy entertained by many. It is that any problem can be solved by gathering enough scientists and giving them enough money .. . . It is folly to thus proceed. The great scien­tific steps forward originate in the minds of gifted scientists, not in the minds of promoters. The best way to proceed is to be sure that really inspired scientists have what they need to work with, and leave them alone. "If the country pours enough money into research, it will inevi­tably support the trivial and the mediocre. The supply of scien­tific manpower is not unlimited. "In any broad program of research the keyword in regard to any one aspect of the program is 'relevance.' It is a good word to have in mind in examining any research program. Com­petent directors of research know what it means. Probably `conducive to progress toward the main object of a program' is as good a definition as any. Just finding out something new is not by itself sufficient justification for research. It needs to mean something when we find it. "When scientific programs are judged by popular acclaim we inevitably have over-emphasis on the spectacular. That is just what we have today. The deeply important scientific advances moving today are not easy to understand. If they were they would have been accomplished long ago. Outstanding scientific progress, which will most affect the lives and health of our chil­dren, is not grasped by many." Objecting to the practice of the government and the armed forces of utilizing universities in the management of secret pro­grams, Bush said : "It should never be forgotten that the main task of the univer­sities is to educate men. The country will need skilled profes­sional men in the future as much as it will need new knowledge. As we now go we are not meeting this challenge sufficiently. Every research program placed in a university should be so ordered that its product is not only new knowledge but skilled educated men." (Text)

The House Republican task force on space and aeronautics issued a 15-page report on the Administration's space pro- gram. Main criticism was that the military space program was mg neglected. "Too little progress has been made toward the de­velopment of a strategic space capability. In fact, the tendency of the present Administration is in the opposite direction-away from any military capability in space whatsoever other than con­ventional unmanned missiles." Meanwhile, the report charged, the civilian space program "has grown so big so fast that waste and inefficiency have been all too inevitable." Although NASA was taking some steps to tighten controls, it "could and should do more." In international space agreements, the report charged that the U.S. had given more than it received in the agreements reached with the Soviet Union. Furthermore it contended that the Administration was usurping the powers of Congress by entering into a series of space agreements without submitting them to the Senate for its advice and consent. Finally, the report expressed concern over rising costs of Federal R&D and its com­petition with industry. "Competition between Government and industry in research and development appears to be increasing rather than decreasing, with industry operating at a natural and unnecessary disadvantage. This apparent imbalance should be corrected." (NYT , 11/22/63, 21)

The old question of whether sun spots affect human behavior received new empirical evidence. Drs. Howard Friedman, Robert O. Becker, and Charles H. Bachman of the State Univ. of New York and Syracuse Univ., reported on a study they had made in which the daily admission rate in seven New York psychiatric hospitals was compared with the daily variation in the earth's magnetic field over a period of four years. The comparison revealed that "the greater the intensity of the earth's magnetic field due to 'sun spots' and other natural interference coming out of the cosmos, the higher the rate of psychiatric hospital admis­sions." The effect was explained by the fact that all creatures with central nervous systems operate on self-generated, direct-current electricity. The same is true of radio transmitters and receivers. In both cases the electric impulses must travel through the earth's magnetic field. This magnetic field is normally smooth flowing. Only when it is disturbed does radio trans­mission suffer. The doctors reasoned that the same thing might occur in the human nervous system. The doctors concluded: "Speculatively, the results are in keeping with the conception of the behavior of an organism being significantly influenced, through the direct-current control system, by external force fields Attention is thus invited to a hitherto neglected dimension in the complexity of psychopathology specifically, and perhaps generally in all human behavior." (UPI, Wash. Post, 11/22/63)

Donald K. Slayton was sworn into his Civil Service ap­pointment as Assistant Director for Flight Crew operations, MSC. His resignation from the USAF had become effective the previous day. (MSC Release 63-242)

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