Nov 1 1963

From The Space Library

In address at a space exploration symposium at New York Uni­versity, Dr. Eugene M. Emme, NASA Historian, reviewed the birth of the space age and its first half decade. Referring to the impact of space exploration upon society, he said : "Space exploration-with all of its novelty and drama and future potential for society-continues to jar the intellect, stir the emotions, and stimulate actions among peoples everywhere . . . . Our children, of course, have no doubt whatever that man will soon set foot on the surface of the moon, and then the nearby planets; it is only a question of exactly how soon. The rest of us old folks, conditioned as we are to the scientific and tech­nological realities of the recent past, have a little difficulty com­prehending either the reality or the significance concerning the mobility of mankind in space today and tomorrow . . . . "To the historian, the closing of the present kindergarten era of astronautics, with its tender philosophy, offers the germ for a new renaissance in the mind and spirit of mankind. It could well be a renaissance for mankind as was sparked with the new geography of Columbus and Magellan and the new astronomy of Copernicus and Galileo which helped loosen Europe from the Dark Ages; or when the new biology of Darwin for the physical organism, the challenges of Marx and the new psychology of Bergson and Freud for the conscious man assisted the great in­tellectual stimulus of the late nineteenth century as well as the humanitarianism and the technological boom of the twentieth century . . . ." (Text; Airpower Historian 1/64, 6-10)

Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory was dedicated by ARPA and USAF in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Largest radar-radio telescope of its kind in the world, A10 is a 1,000-ft-diameter bowl con­structed in a natural bowl formed by several mountain peaks. As a radiotelescope, it should detect radiation from galactic sources considerably more distant than any yet detected. As a radar, it would be the most sensitive instrument yet built for ionospheric research. Dr. Thomas Gold, head of the astronomy department of Cornell Univ., which built and would operate the new facility, predicted that it would help make clear "the grand architecture of the Universe." (DOD Release 1358-63; Schmeck, NYT, 11/2/63, 9)

Titan II was launched 5,700 mi. down AMR in test of vibration levels prior to its employment as a booster for Gemini manned space flights. Also along on the flight was a pickaback capsule of in­struments to study the exhaust plume of the missile. (UPI, NYT, 11/2/63, 9)

DOD announced that the Army would begin in November a series of "graduation firings" of the Pershing ground-to-ground solid- Sill, missile by tactical units. Firings would be from Fort Sill, Okla. (DOD Release 1442-63)

Army Nike-Zeus was successfully fired from White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Continuation of tests were to aid in development of the more advanced Nike X system. (DOD Release 1444 63)

Chinese Communists claimed they had shot down an American-built, Nationalist-Chinese-operated U-2 reconnaissance aircraft near Shanghai in East China. This was the second U-2 the Chinese Communists claimed to have shot down over their territory. (NYT, 11/2/63, 6)

Defense Documentation Center (DDC) for Scientific and Technical Information was transferred from operational control of USAF to Defense Supply Agency (DSA), effective this date. Physical loca­tion remained at Cameron Station, Alexandria, Va. DDC was previously known as Armed Services Technical Information Agency (ASTIA). (DOD Release 1371-63)

Columnist William S. White, writing in the Washington Evening Star, charged that Premier Nikita Khrushchev was being sup­ported in his efforts to slow down the U.S. space program by "one of the strangest coalitions we have ever known" in Con­gress, made up of conservatives who want to save money and liberals who want to spend the money on welfare. "The conservatives . . . ought to ponder what they are about here. For apart from the almost indescribable strategic and scientific sig­nificance of this program, there is the bottom fact that it is al­ready nearly indispensible to the American economy and may later become indispensible in the absolute sense. "Automation, when fully launched, will create huge pools of unemployables. Politically, these must and will be cared for, under any foreseeable regime, Republican or Democratic. Is it not better to spend the money for space than to speed the day when all this money and more will have to be thrown about for the most gigantic-and also permanent-leaf-raking schemes in the world's history ? "The space program is the precise opposite of economic crack­potism. It is sensible conservatism's greatest future weapon against just such crackpotism." (Wash. Eve. Star, 11/1/63)

• November

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