Sep 23 1963

From The Space Library

SYNCOM II communications satellite relayed transmis­sion of speech and teletype between Fort Dix, N.J., and moving ship Kingsport about 40 mi. west of Lagos, Nigeria. This was first such transmission via a communications satellite to a moving ship at sea. This was first in series of experiments designed to test shipboard equipment and reception in fringe areas. (NASA Release 63-213)

USAF announced launching unidentified satellite with Thor-Agena D launch vehicle from Vandenberg AFB. (AP, NYT, 9/25/63, 14) )

President John F. Kennedy wrote a letter to Rep. Albert Thomas (D.-Tex.) "I am very glad to respond to your letter of September 21 and to state my position on the relation between our great current space effort and my proposal at the United Nations for increased cooperation with the Russians in this field. In my view an ener­getic continuation of our strong space effort is essential, and the need for this effort is. if anything, increased by our intent to work for increasing cooperation if the Soviet government proves willing. "As you know, the idea of cooperation in space is not new. My statement of our willingness to cooperate in a moon shot was an extension of a policy developed as long ago as 1958 on a bi­partisan basis, with particular leadership from Vice President Johnson, who was then the Senate Majority Leader .... Our specific interest in cooperation with the Soviet Union, as the other nation with a major present capability in space, was indicated by me to Chairman Khrushchev in Vienna in the middle of 1961, and reaffirmed in my letter to him of March 7, 1962 .... So my statement in the United Nations is a direct development of a policy long held by the United States Government. "Our repeated offers of cooperation with the Soviet Union have produced only limited responses and results But. as I said in July of this year, there are a good many barriers of suspi­cion and fear to be broken down before we can have major progress in this field. Yet our intent remains: to do our part to bring those barriers down. "At the same time, as no one knows better than you, the United States in the last five years has made a steadily growing national effort in space . "This great national effort and this steadily stated readiness to cooperate with others are not in conflict. They are mutually supporting elements of a single policy. We do not make our space effort with the narrow purpose of national aggrandizement. We make it so that the United States may have a leading and honor­ able role in mankind's peaceful conquest of space. It is this great effort which permits us now to offer increased cooperation with no suspicion anywhere that we speak from weakness. And in the same way, our readiness to cooperate with others enlarges the international meaning of our own peaceful American program in space. "In my judgment, therefore, our renewed and extended pur­pose of cooperation, so far from offering any excuse for slackening or weakness in our space effort, is one reason the more for moving ahead with the great program to which we have been committed as a country for more than two years. "So the position of the United States is clear. If coop­eration is possible, we mean to cooperate, and we Shall do so from a position made Strong and solid by our national effort in space. If cooperation is not possible-and as realists we must plan for this contingency too-then the same Strong national effort will Serve all free men's interest in Space, and protect us also against possible hazards to our national security. So let us press on . . . ." (Letter, 9/23/63)

Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, NASA Deputy Administrator, said in Missiles and Rockets interview that Soviet Academician Anatoli A. Blagonravov had informed him that "once the two nations have landed instrumented payloads on the Moon discussions of cooperation in a manned lunar-landing program should begin." Dr. Dryden added that "it's the first time they have indicated interest in a joint effort. "The climate has changed. It is Somewhat more favorable." (M&R, 9/23/63, 14)

USAF announced launching Titan II ICBM from underground Silo in test flight from Vandenberg AFB. (AP, NYT, 9/25/63,14) *France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales announced France would Send a cat into space from rocket launching site in Sahara. (Reuters, Wash. Post, 9/24/63)

First child born to space traveler-Tanya Titov, daughter of Maj. Gherman Titov (VOSTOK II orbital space flight) and wife Tamara. (AP, NYT, 9/25/63, 8)

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