May 13 1963

From The Space Library

House Committee on Science and Astronautics, considering NASA budget authorization for FY 1964, began meeting in execu­tive session. From March 4 to May 10, Committee had held 60 hearings with 170 appearances by NASA witnesses. (NASA AC, "Status of Leg.," 5/17/63)

USAF Selected General Electric Co. and Philco Corp. with Space Technology Laboratories (jointly) to compete for development of DOD medium-altitude communications satellite. Under two­ month contracts, each contractor would propose technical ap­proach, refine cost estimates, and develop internal management structures. Then, should DOD decide to proceed with such a com­sat system employing 20-30 satellites, one of the contractors would be selected to conduct development phase of USAF portion. (DOD Release 674-63)

Plans for modular Mars spacecraft as presented by D. M. Ham­mock, Assistant Chief of Spacecraft Technology Div., NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, were described in Missiles and Rockets. Six-man crew would undertake 400-day expedition to Mars in three-module spacecraft-Mars mission module, Mars excursion module, and earth entry module. Hammock said NASA was evaluating merits of manned space stations, permanent lunar bases, and Mars expedition as follow-on to Project Apollo, and that technology needed for Mars spacecraft would be simpler in many ways than that required for lunar base or space station. (M&R, 5/13/63,34)

US' Titan II successfully launched from silo at Vandenberg AFB in test flight down PMR. (M&R, 5/20/63,16)

In Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly, article en­titled "Trackless Void: The U.S. Space Program Had Better Come Down to Earth", said " . Like Columbus, we have been told time and a in, the United States today lives in an age of discovery. Like Columbus, the United States must not fail to seize its moment of greatness. "While popular and plausible, the comparison strikes Barron's as unfortunate. To begin with, in contrast to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Columbus raised the funds for his epoch-making voyage at least partly from private sources. Far from setting out to discover America, moreover, the admiral and his financial backers merely sought to find a shorter-hence more profitable-route to the Indies; their primary aim was to make money, not history. Finally, though Washington has chosen to ignore the inconvenient fact, the conquest of the new world yield Spain, after a short-lived fling at glory, four centuries of economic and political decay. "The parallel to Columbus can be pushed too far, not only by friends of the space program but also by its foes. Nonetheless, the lessons of the past, coupled with some contemporary wisdom on the subject, underscore the need for a sweeping reappraisal of the current U.S. space program. For example, lawmakers now sus­pect that NASA's skyrocketing budget (from which, according to the administration, not 1 cent can be cut without courting dis­aster) is designed to serve political as well as scientific ends. In turn, scientists, who know how to weigh alternatives, have grown increasingly skeptical of the overwhelming emphasis which Wash­ington has placed upon landing a man on the moon. Thereby, they claim, the United States has ignored far less costly and more fruitful avenues of lunar exploration, while neglecting other promising ventures in space. The time has come, we submit, to ask `Is this trip necessary?"' (CR, 5/28/63, A3428-3429 )

W. C. Mentzer, United Air Lines Vice President, told Wings Club in New York that projected British-French supersonic air­liner was a challenge to U.S. If this country accepts challenge, it must be prepared to accept "two specific obligations ... : First, to develop an intelligent long-term program of subsidy, and sec­ond, to encourage an economic environment in which the super­sonic transport eventually may thrive." (NYT, 5/14/63)

Informed Nationalist Chinese sources reported by UPI to have con­firmed Tokyo reports that China's pilots were still flying U-2 reconnaissance flights over Communist China. (UPI, Wash. Post, 5/14/63)

May 14 1963