May 9 1964
From The Space Library
U.S. delegation to international Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) presented annual report of U.S. activities in space. Presented by Richard W. Porter of National Academy of Sciences, the chief of U.S. delegation, the report said 900 small rockets and 100 large rockets for weather and scientific studies were fired by U.S. in 1963, and 56 satellites were successfully launched by the U.S. Porter said Project West Ford copper dipoles placed in space in May 1963 for communications experiments had not interfered with astronomy as had been feared; however, "no further experiments of this kind are now contemplated by the United States." (Levin, AP, 5/9/64)
Soviet annual report to COSPAR listed 21 satellite and 114 rocket launchings for 1963. Omitting any mention of when U.S.S.R. might launch major space-craft, report said past manned space flight had "set some new problems before scientists requiring immediate solution for successful preparation and realization of more prolonged space missions. . . ." A major question to be answered was whether it was "possible for an astronaut, after two or three weeks stay under conditions of weightlessness, to endure satisfactorily stresses acting on an organism during re-entry." Also studies must be made of methods to safeguard astronauts' cardio-vascular systems. Longest section of report was on medical and biological problems of manned space flight; it offered evidence that U.S.S.R. was paying increasing attention to weightlessness and other problems of manned space flight. Soviet report was first such version ever submitted in English and was thought to be strikingly free of propaganda. Possibly significantly, report referred to U.S. space research in correlation with Soviet re-search; for example, findings of MARS I were said to correlate with find-ings of U.S. EXPLORER X and MARINER II. (AP, 5/9/64; Simons, Wash. Post, 5/13/64)
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