March 1963

From The Space Library

Comet Ikeye, discovered by Japanese amateur astron­omer Kaoru Ikeye, was most brightly visible in western horizon for about a week before its brightness began to fade as it drew closer to the sun. (Wash. Daily News, 3/12/63)

Testimony of Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara before House Committee on Armed Services Feb. 2 was released, in which Secretary McNamara said: "A substantial amount of funds [for FY 1964] is requested for DYNA-SOAR. I mention this only to say . . . that technology as it applies to space advances so rapidly that we must expect many changes in programs be­fore they are completed. I personally believe that rather sub­stantial changes lie ahead of us in this DYNA-SOAR. "I say this, in part, because of the GEMINI development. GEMINI is a satellite project carried on up to the resent time by NASA, on which has been spent to date about $300 million, and for which they will request $300 million in 1964, toward a total pro­gram cost of $800 million; it will provide a capsule capable of carrying two men into earth orbit . . . "GEMINI is a competitive development with DYNA-SOAR In the sense that each of them are [sic] designed to provide low earth orbit manned flight with controlled re-entry. DYNA-SOAR does it one way, and with flexibility, and GEMINI another . . . . "[The NASA-DOD Project Gemini joint planning committee] ... insure that the military requirement for near-earth orbit is properly taken account of in the GEMINI project. "We don't have any clear military requirement, or any known military requirement, per se. But I think we do have a require­ment for environmental testing and experimentation in near­ earth orbit. "We are very much interested, therefore, in the Gemini project. When we become more familiar with it and understand its po­tential I suspect it will have a great influence on the future of DYNA-SOAR .... "I guess that we will find that GEMINI has a greater military potential for us, even though a rather ill-defined military po­tential, than does DYNA-SOAR, and, moreover, that it will be avail­able much sooner than DYNA-SOAR . . . . "I think the DYNA-SOAR project can work out satisfactorily. The real question is, what do we have when we finish it. It will cost to complete, in total, including funds spent to date, some­thing on the order of $800 million to a billion dollars. The ques­tion is, do we meet a rather ill-defined military requirement better by proceeding down that track, or do we meet it better by modify­ing GEMINI in some joint project with NASA . . . ." (Hearings on H.R. 2440, pp. 465-67)

Space Orientation Center, designed for briefing Mar­shall Space Flight Center visitors and new employees and opera­ted by the Historical Office, was opened at MSFC. (Marshall Historian; Huntsville Times, 3/6/63)

Entire issue of Astronautics and Aerospace Engineering devoted to launch operations, including detailed summary articles by Dr. Kurt Debus, Director of LOC, on "Launching the Moon Rocket," George F. von Tiesenhausen on "Toward the Orbital Launch Facility," and Arnold W. Frutkin on "International Cooperation in Space Research." Transit navigational satellite program was classified, with no further information to be released until fully operational system is placed in orbit, Astronautics and Aerospace Engineering re­ported. (A&AE, 5/63, 141)

Army Transportation Corps loaned 20 sea-going barges to NASA for use in space vehicle development program. Barges would be used initially for transporting supplies from Marshall Space Flight Center to Mississippi Test Operations; later, they would be fitted with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks to store the pro­pellants for fueling Saturn S-IC static-test boosters. (Marshall Star, 3/6/63, 1)

Industry proposals to define advanced nuclear space propulsion Sys­tems for 1970's were submitted to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The mission-oriented studies would analyze post-Nervy developmental engine systems for maximum operational use and flexibility in U.S. space program. (Av. WE, 3/18/63, 53)

Canadian government. authorized four additional satellites for iono­spheric research in joint U.S.-Canadian space program. (M&R, 3/11/63,9)

Mrs. George C. Marshall, widow of the soldier and statesman for whom NASA Marshall Space Flight Center was named, donated to the center the Executive Order naming NASA's Huntsville, Ala., facility and the fountain pen used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for signing it. (Chattanooga Times, 3/10/63)

A group of British scientists, belonging to the British Astronomical Association, was engaged in the accurate measurement of lunar craters, utilizing the Mercury computer at Manchester. By the end of this month, the group had measured the depths of more than 200 lunar craters and was in the process of studying data on numerous others. (Space Intelligence Notes, Oct., 1963)

Study by Comptroller General Joseph Campbell reported that lack of "timely guidance" by DOD was largely responsible for failure of nuclear-powered aircraft project. Conceived in 1946 and de­clared technically feasible in 1951, project was canceled by Presi­dent Kennedy in 1961 after DOD and AEC had spent more than $1 billion on the project, which did not reach the prototype stage. GAO's report said that DOD "agrees that the program suffered con­siderably from lack of prompt decisions and from frequent changes in emphasis and goals." (Wash,. Post, 3/9/63; Av. Wk., 3/18/63,25)

Dr. G. A. Tokaty, former chief of the aerodynamics laboratory of the Zhukovsky Academy and later chief rocket scientist of the Soviet Government in Germany (1946-47), published an article on "Soviet Space Technology" in Spaceflight, magazine of the British Interplanetary Society. Article submitted that the "So­viet Government have manifested their keen interest in the [space field throughout the entire history of their existence [since 1917] " and reviewed this history in interesting detail to 1961. (Space­flight, 3/63, 59-64)

The development and operation of the first plastic laser was re­ported by the Radio Corp. of America. The experimental device is made with a fiber of transparent material of the same type used in making many familiar clear plastics. Employing a newly discovered physical effect, it produces coherent. pulses of intense crimson light at the highest visible frequency yet known to have been attained by a laser. The unique laser mechanism that is employed may permit the development of plastic lasers that emit coherent light over the visible spectrum from infrared through ultraviolet. The way may now be opened for the use of still other materials that resist laser action when contained in inorganic crystals. Some of these materials may be capable of producing coherent light at yellow, green, blue, and other frequencies. (Data Supplied by Radio Corp. of America; MSFC Space Information Digest, 4/15/63)

Radio and optical astronomers of the Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories announced the discovery of what prob­ably are the brightest objects in the universe observed so far. Their brilliance, they believe, may make it possible to penetrate two to three times deeper into space than was considered possible with present-day telescopes. Five of these super-bright celestial bodies have so far been recognized. Radio astronomers detected them by their radiations of energy in the longer wavelengths, at radio frequencies. They were identified in the third Cambridge (England) Catalogue of Radio Sources as 3C-48, 3C-196, 3C-286, 3C-147, and 3C-273. The objects are so bright that they had been thought to be nearby stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy, but there is now growing evidence that they are very distant galaxies involved in titanic explosions. The study of such distant objects is vital to cosmologists in determining the kind of universe we live in-whether it will continue expanding, stop expanding, or will eventually contract. (NYT, Western Edition, 3/26/63, Wm. L. Laurence)

NASA scientists discovered a new "hot spot in the sky" over Wallops Island, Va., where in winter the temperatures 34 to 60 mi. above the earth reach more than 75° F and winds blow at speeds approaching 400 mph. Currently there is no existing scientific theory to account for the super-high-altitude, jet-stream­like wind and hot air that seems to blow over Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis during the winter. Details of the discovery were distributed this month in a NASA technical note entitled "Preliminary Measurements of Temperatures and Winds Above 50 KM (31 mi.) over Wallops Island." Authors of the pamphlet are Dr. William Nordberg and Wendell Smith, of the Goddard Space Flight Center. (Balt. Sun, 3/31/63)

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