Oct 17 1963

From The Space Library

U.S.-France Aerobee 150A sounding rocket was launched from Wallops Station Va., in cooperative program between NASA and the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES)

to study Very low frequency (VLF) radio wave propagation in the ionosphere. The French were developing a technique to measure simultaneously electronic and magnetic VLF field strength and electron densities. If successful the technique would be used in a scientific satellite. The 197-lb. payload rose 116 mi. and transmitted seven min. of data before impacting 59 mi. down­ range. This was repeat of unsuccessful attempt two days earlier when Aerobee 150A failed on launch. (Wallops Release 63-95) )

OD launched two unidentified satellites and Tetrahedral Research Satellite TRS n) using Atlas-Agena D launch Vehicle. 3-lb. TRS n was to measure charged particle intensity in Van Allen belts. (Pres. Rpt. on Space, 1963, 1/27/64)

NASA and DOD announced joint agreement to coordinate studies and actions concerning a manned orbital research and development station. The Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating Board (AACB) would be the means by which the joint appraisals would be carried out. If the eventual findings were that such a program was required, the NASA Administrator and the Secretary of De­fense would submit a joint recommendation to the President, in­cluding a statement as to which agency should have project responsibility. If the President agreed to proceed with the pro­gram, a joint NASA-DOD board would be set up to establish objec­tives and approve specific experiments. (NASA Release 63-231; DOD Release 1380-63)

NASA announced that TIROS Vi weather satellite was no longer sending usable cloud-cover pictures, after 13 months of successful opera­tion and some 67,000 pictures. (NASA Release 63-232)

By acclamation, the United Nations adopted a resolution barring weapons of mass destruction from outer space. A request for a roll call vote by Mexico was ignored. Thus, the attitudes towards East-West agreements of Cuba, Albania, and France were not revealed on this resolution. (Fleming, L.A. Times, Wash,. Post, 10/18/63, A-3)

Sen. J. W. Fulbright (D.-Ark.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor on the NASA FY 1964 appropriations bill: "There is, I believe, a dangerous im­balance between our efforts in armaments and space on the one hand and employment and education on the other. The proposed appropriation for NASA, in my opinion, reflects this imbalance. I believe that is should be substantially reduced. I further be­lieve that any funds which are withheld from the space program should be reallocated to programs of education and employment which are before Congress this year. "The question before us, as I have said, is not whether we should or should not send a manned rocket ship to the moon but whether the project is so vital and so urgent as to warrant the indefinite postponement of other national efforts." (CR. 10/17/63, 18777)

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