Mar 12 1962
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R. had shown a "change in attitude in recent weeks" on cooperating with the U.S. on development and use of a weather satellite system, Dr. Francis W. Reichelderfer, Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau, testified before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics.
Orbital data from satellites have suggested that scientists do not really know the shape of the earth, Dr. George P. Woollard, Director of the Geophysics and Polar Research Center of the University of Wisconsin, said in a Voice of America broadcast. Such studies have indicated that the earth may have not only the "flattened 'tomato shape' that has been assumed since the time of Isaac Newton but also a superimposed 'pear shape.' " Citing the number of forces that can operate on a satellite, thus requiring extremely careful analysis of its data, Dr. Woollard pointed out that the Committee on Geodesy of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences had recommended the launching of a specially instrumented geodetic-research satellite to resolve some of the questionable areas of influence on magnetic readings.
U.S. News and World Report carried article on "Red Space Failures," pointing to official U.S. policy with regard to Soviet launchings: "No Soviet feat [in space] has ever been publicly challenged in Washington and no failure publicly announced." It reported that while Premier Khrushchev was at the United Nations in September 1960, "a Soviet cosmonaut was sent more than a hundred miles into space and killed" ; that in a five-month period in 1960-61, four Soviet space probes were fired toward Mars and Venus, but failed; and that during the same period "a dozen other Soviet space shots went awry."
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