Jun 27 1963
From The Space Library
X-15 No. 3 piloted by Maj. Robert A. Rushworth (USAF) to 285,000-ft. altitude and 3,425-mph speed (mach 4.89) in 13-min. flight. X-15 was launched from B-52 mother ship over Delamar Lake, Nev., its engine burning 80 sec. Maj. Rushworth qualified for military astronaut wings by piloting the rocket research aircraft to altitude higher than 50 mi. Purpose of flight was to familiarize 38-year-old Major Rushworth with comparatively high-altitude flight. (FRC Release 14-63; NASA Release 63142)
About 1/3 of the U.S.-1,072,000 sq. mi.-was brought under FAA's positive separation control system for high-speed aircraft flying on instruments and over 24,000-ft. altitude. Latest addition was 285,000 sq. mi. of the Midwest when new Air Traffic Control Centers were activated at Kansas City and Denver. Most of the U.S. was scheduled to be under the system by the end of 1963. (FAA Release 63-61)
NASA announced three personnel appointments to Headquarters: Earl D. Hilburn, Vice President. and General Manager of Curtiss Wright Corp. Electronics Div., as Deputy Associate Administrator (for DOD-manned space flight centers; Robert F. Garbarini, Chief Engineer of Sperry Gyroscope Co. Air Armament Div., as Director of NASA Office of Applications; and Robert W. Long, President of Long Construction Co., as consultant on construction matters to Dr. Robert. C. Seamans, Jr., NASA Associate Administrator. (NASA Release 63-141)
Sen. Ernest Gruening (D.-Alaska) criticized NASA on the Senate floor for its indifference to training and use of women astronauts in the manned space program. Also he inserted in the Congressional Record a recent article in Life by Clare Boothe Luce, in which she said: "The astronaut of today is the world's most prestigious idol. Once launched into space he holds in his hands something far more costly and precious than the millions of dollars' worth of equipment in his capsule; he holds the prestige and the honor of his country .... But the astronaut is also something else: he is the symbol of the way of life of his nation. "In entrusting a 26-year-old girl with a cosmonaut mission, the Soviet Union has given its women unmistakable proof that it believes them to possess these same virtues. The flight of Valentina Tereshkova is, consequently, symbolic of the emancipation of the Communist woman. It symbolizes to Russian women that they actively share (not passively bask, like American women) in the glory of conquering space.' (CR, 6/27/63, 11228-30)
USAF launched Minuteman ICBM from AMR in 4,000-mi. flight down Atlantic Missile Range in successful test. (DOD Release 929-63)
Centaur space vehicle arrived at Lewis to begin series of environmental tests in the center's space power chamber. (LRC Release 63-49, Lewis Chronology 96)
Senate unanimously confirmed Gen. Curtis E. LeMay (USAF ) to be Chief of Staff, USAF, for a one-year term, beginning July 1, 1963. (CR, 6/27/63,11204-5)
Senate unanimously passed a joint resolution authorizing a special medal to be struck in honor of Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois (Ret.), one of the first military pilots in the U.S., chief of the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, and Chief of the Air Corps from 1931 to 1935. (CR, 6/27/63, 11203)
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