Apr 11 1964
From The Space Library
President Johnson announced at White House press conference: "The world record for aircraft speed, currently held by the Soviets, has been repeatedly broken in secrecy by the United States aircraft A-11. The President has instructed the Department of Defense to demonstrate this capability with the procedure which, according to international rules, will permit the result of the test to be entered as a new world record. "The Soviet record is 1,665 miles an hour. The A-11 has already flown in excess of 2,000 miles an hour." (Transcript, NYT, 4/12/64, 64)
NASA Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched from Ft. Churchill, Canada, with Univ. of Alaska instrumented payload attained 107-mi. altitude and obtained data on the visible aurora and on vacuum ultraviolet emissions. This information was supplemented by data from two electron particle detectors. Three photometers and two vacuum ultraviolet detectors also were included in the payload. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower said in Saturday Evening Post article: "As a Republican I believe in what has been called the 'conquest of space,' but which I prefer to think of as a thorough exploration of a new scientific frontier to improve our living here on earth. This is an ex-ploration we should pursue vigorously with a step-by-step program in line with our means and our needs. That was the aim of the space pro-gram as initially undertaken during my Administration: On the advice of eminent scientists we conceived a long-range effort, not a stunt, with costs to be stabilized around two billion dollars a year. That hardly could be called picayune by any reasonable standards. "But now, under the Democrats, this program has been blown up out of all proportion. With hysterical fanfare our space research has been presented as a crash effort, as a "race to the moon' between the United States and Russia which we must win at all costs. And the costs are tremendous: They now are running well over five billion dollars a year. The Government now has more than 73,000 engineers and scientists working on the nonmilitary space program, either on the federal payroll or employed under contract. This swollen program, costing more than the development of the atomic bomb, not only is contributing to an unbalanced budget; it also has diverted a disproportionate share of our brainpower and research facilities from other equally significant problems, including education and automation. "We are breezily assured that the cost and dislocation brought about by this moon race are worthwhile for the new 'prestige' they will bring us. There is no way of telling how true that may be, but we can be sure of one thing: The voyage to the moon will set a new record for a trip taken on borrowed money." (Sat. Eve. Post, 4/11/64, 17-19)
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