May 28 1963

From The Space Library

Letter from David Sarnoff, RCA Board Chairman, to Leo D. Welch, Communications Satellite Corp. Chairman, was disclosed by Drew Pearson in Washington Post. Referring to new tech­nology of transoceanic transistorized cables, Sarnoff said "In my view, the transistorized cable does not alter the funda­mental premise that early development of an operational communications satellite system is vital to our national prestige and to continued U.S. leadership in both communications and space technology. "Nevertheless, a second premise-that the facilities of a global satellite system will be needed to meet the expected growth of commercial demand for oversea communications services beyond 1965-now needs careful reevaluation in terms of the possible effects upon the [Communications] Satellite Corporation of this latest technological breakthrough. . . . "One transistorized cable, laid across the North Atlantic, could connect areas possessing nearly 90 percent of all the world's present telephones . . . . "One new transistorized cable will have a capacity almost double that of all existing transoceanic cables. . . . "We should now consider an amendment to the resent law which would enable the satellite corporation to acquire through purchase the international telephone and telegraph facilities and operations, both present and planned, of all American carriers. "Unification of all the Nation's international communication facilities and operations-satellites, cables, and radios-would in my opinion assure the satellite corporation's commercial suc­cess, best serve our overall national interests, provide the most flexible and economical service to the public, and maintain America's leadership in world communications . . . ." (Wash. Post, 5/28/63; Letter, 4/2/63, in CR, 5/28/63, 9207-09)

Eric Sevareid, in Washington Evening Star column titled "If Columbus Had Never Sailed," discussed the debate on landing men on the moon "It was two years ago this week end that President Kennedy sent his special message to the Congress in which he said that he himself believed we `should go to the moon.' It has taken two years to develop the beginnings of a national debate on the ques­tion, among Congressmen, scientists and editorialists. "I say the beginnings of a debate because, on its public plane at least, the argument has not yet come into its true focus. The true question is not whether we should try to land men on the moon-the nature of this political world as well as the nature of men's curiosity and the unquenchable spirit of science make it inevitable that we try-but how we go about it .... "This is only the beginning. Anyone has only to let out his imagination a short notch to see the ultimate possibilities--to see humanity's push into space transforming this society, dominating its intellectual pursuits, absorbing its resources, altering the train­ing of its youth and its moral and religious concepts, upsetting the priorities for the its social and humanitarian efforts on terra, firma, "Those who scold the worriers say that to cancel the moon voyage would be as if Ferdinand and Isabella had cancelled Columbus' voyage which opened the New World. They are more often right than they know. What is at stake are not only the new marvels to be found, but also the profound transfiguration of the source of the search. "After the voyage of Columbus the Old World was never the same, in political, economic, military, social, religious or intel­lectual terms. After the first men walk upon the moon, Old Earth will never be the same and the change will begin in the two societies, Russia and America, now competing for the cataclysmic honor of commencing the alteration." (Wash. Eve. Star, 5/28/63, A13)

Stanford Research Institute report, prepared under Aerospace Industries Association grant, criticized industry-Government aerospace relationship" as inefficient, full of overregulation and ineffective administration by Government and "over-manage­ment" by industry. Report said its findings were of national significance because aerospace industry's output represents three per cent of gross national product and even greater share of manu­facturing volume and employment. (Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 5/29/63, A4)

A. Adzhubey, Chief Editor of Izvestia, wrote an open letter to Wil­liam R. Hearst, Jr., publisher and owner of the New York Jour­nal-American, denying the New York newspaper's report that Several cosmonauts had died in space flight. One of the cosmonauts reported dead, Petr Ivanovich Dolgov, "actually did die but not in 1960 as the newspaper claims, but in 1962, ... when together with Major Yvgeny Andreyev, he made an unprecedented parachute jump from the stratosphere." Col. Dolgov and Maj. Andreyev received the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" for their test jump from the stratosphere balloon "Volga." The other "Soviet cosmonauts" reported missing by the Jour­nal-American were: A. Belokonev, I. Kachur, A. Grachev, and G. Mikhaylov. These men were not cosmonauts, said Adzhubey, but instead technical workers "who test various kinds of equip­ment, instruments, and clothing used both in space flight and in high-altitude aviation." None of them made space flights and they are all alive and well. (Izvestia, 5/28/63, 2, ATSS-T Trans.)

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