May 7 1963

From The Space Library

TELSTAR II communications satellite placed in elliptical orbit (6,717-mi. apogee, 604-mi. perigee, 225.3-min. period, 42.7° in­clination to equator). Thor-Delta vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral boosted the satellite into orbit for its 17th straight success, an unmatched record for U.S. satellite-launching vehicles. TELSTAR it included design changes aimed at protecting it from radiation damage which affected lifetime of its predecessor, TELSTAR I. With apogee nearly twice that of TELSTAR I, it would provide longer periods of communications between U.S. and Western Europe than did TELSTAR I. Like its predecessor, TELSTAR II was designed and built by AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories at AT&T expense, launched by NASA with AT&T reimbursing NASA for Delta vehicle, launching, and tracking services. Initial com­munications test, TV transmission from Andover, Me., to Goon­hilly Downs, England, via the satellite on its fourth orbit, was successful. (NASA Release 63-83; NASA TELSTAR II Prog. Rpt. No. 2 ; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 5/7/63)

Aerobee 150A sounding rocket carried 153-lb. instrumented payload to 139-mi. altitude in experiment from Wallops Island to study spectral emission lines in upper atmosphere and measure their intensity as function of altitude, thus determining distribution of certain molecular and atomic species in upper atmosphere. Experiment was designed by The Johns Hopkins Univ. under NASA research grant administered by Goddard Space Flight Cen­ter. (Wallops Release 63-46)

NASA Ames Research Center announced award of contracts to NAA Space and Information Div. and Space Technology Laboratories (STL) for studies of manned Mars landing-and-return missions. Each contract called for nine-month studies to determine require­ments for possible Mars missions and to decide what research would be required during next several years to implement such a flight program. Other studies of manned Mars missions were being managed by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Manned Spacecraft Center, emphasizing use of Apollo-class booster and spacecraft; Ames-managed studies emphasized Mars­ landing mission with no restrictions as to type of vehicle and spacecraft. (Ames Release 63-21)

Dr. Theodore von Karman, distinguished U.S. physicist, died in Aachen, Germany, four days before his 82nd birthday. As early as 1906, Dr. von Karman established basic principles that led to design of light and efficient aircraft structures. Among his important scientific contributions were studies of air turbulence, which influenced early aircraft design, and theory of boundary layers, which led to pioneer construction of wind tunnels. He was responsible for many scientific theories leading to develop­ment of supersonic jet aircraft and rocket engines. Dr. von Kar­man in 1930 became Director of Cal Tech's Guggenheim Laboratory, which in 1944 became Jet Propulsion Laboratory. As JPL Director he pioneered in U.S. rocket propulsion, led devel­opment of Jato. Chairman of NATO's Advisory. Group for Aero­nautical Research and Development (AGARD) since 1951, he was recipient of more than 20 honorary doctorate degrees and was in 1963 first recipient of National Medal of Science, which cited him "for leadership in the science and engineering basic to aeronautics, for distinguished counsel to the armed services and for promoting international cooperation in science and engineering." Dr. von Karman was born in Budapest, became U.S. citizen in 1936. (NYT, 5/8/63; AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 5/8/63, 135)

Sir Bernard Lovell, Director of Jodrell Bank Experimental Sta­tion, England, announced his opposition to USAF's orbiting of 400,000,000 copper needles (Project West Ford) and said: "There is grave danger that projects of this sort may eventually bring the present rate of progress in astronomical research to an end." (AP, NYT, 5/8/63,3)

At Third International Conference on Atmospheric and Space Elec­tricity, held at Montreux, Switzerland, Elden C. Whipple, Jr., of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Planetary ionosphere Branch proposed that rocket be fired through thunderstorm to determine effect, if any, of such storms on earth's ionosphere. (Goddard Release)

Rep. Ben F. Jensen (R.-Iowa) inserted in Congressional Record a Washington Post article which said that majority opinion ex­pressed by 25 U.S. Nobel Prize Winners criticized "waste" and "inefficiency" in America's "crash program" to land man on moon by 1970. (Eisele, Wash. Post, in CR, 5/7/63,7424)

Washington Post editorial said of U.S. manned lunar program: "We may not get to the moon first, or we may not get to it at all­ but that will not mean all has been in vain. In trying to reach such a spectacular goal, we are developing the rockets that will place us in the forefront of the space age, and in developing the scientific and engineering skills required to achieve this purpose we are enormously expanding the country's capacity to achieve scientific goals as yet unspecified. The skills and talents nurtured at NASA will be making their contribution to the knowledge, the comfort, the convenience and the survival of the United States long after moon landings have been accepted as a commonplace or abandoned as an impossibility. The world was altered by the voyages of Columbus, even though they failed of their planned objectives. And the world is being altered before our very eyes by a new struggle to master man's environment. Enterprises such as this are not to be judged by the ordinary criteria of scientists, economists or sociologists. They are not to be weighed on the balance against some other more practical and more appropriate or more feasible endeavor. Such heroic enterprises move by their own laws, abide by their own rules and set their own precedents and when they are over, leave humanity with its knowledge mul­tiplied, its future expanded, its horizons widened, its outlook sharpened and its hopes uplifted by a new sense of man's unend­ing and unlimited possibilities." (Wash. Post, 5/7/63; CR, 5/8/63,7491)

Col. Charles Yeager, Chief of USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, Edwards AFB, Calif., visited U.S. Capitol and was honored in tributes by Congressmen on House floor. (CR, 5/7/63, 7406­09)

May 8 1963