Nov 13 1962
From The Space Library
USAF announced it had placed in orbit 1.47-lb. Tetrahedral Research Satellite (TRS), launched piggyback aboard unidentified satellite using Thor-Agena vehicle. TRS was orbited to map radiation in space and radio its findings back to earth. NASA communications and telemetry stations were supporting this USAF project.
Tass reported interplanetary probe MARS I began broadcasting scientific data on command from earth. The Mars probe, about two million mi. away from earth, was reported functioning normally.
Rocket-powered instruments will be traveling as far as Jupiter by 1975, Robert J. Parks, director of JPL Planetary Programs, said in interview. Parks said by 1975 the planets Mars and Venus probably would have been studied "quite closely" by instruments.
Congressman Joseph E. Muth (Minn.), chairman of space sciences subcommittee, said in press interview that planned mission schedule for Saturn launch vehicle "doesn't appear to be the best way to use a vehicle on which we have spent so much money." Mr. Muth said the powerful vehicle might prove useful in "speeding up the interplanetary research program, which may not be ambitious enough." Albert J. Evans, NASA Deputy Director of Aeronautical Research, told IATA Public Relations Conference in Washington: "Our understanding of aerodynamics has reached the point where it appears certain that in time an efficient supersonic transport can be developed. . . . There is no question as to whether there will be a supersonic transport; the only question is whose. Right now part of my job is to see that the United States is the first to develop a commercially competitive supersonic transport. . . .
"In the hypersonic region, the X-15 has given tremendous focus to our efforts. The X-15 has such capability that it will be used in furthering certain space research programs. Already we are making radiation measurements—piggy-back experiments along with the hypersonic research program. Our results with the X-15 have been so encouraging that I think we must soon look beyond the transport that goes to Mach 2 or 3, and begin laying the groundwork for the generation to follow. . . ." Signals from Venus-bound MARINER II interplanetary probe opened 17th annual meeting of American Rocket Society in Los Angeles.
November 13-14: More than 500 leaders from business, industry, government, and finance participated in New England Regional Conference on Science, Technology, and Space in Boston, sponsored by MIT and NASA. Dr. Howard W. Johnson, Dean of MIT School of Industrial Management, told conference that the "impact of space is largely the impact of space research and development on the economy, one of the important features of the last 20 years. . . ." In 1941, he said, R&D spendings amounted to .7 of 1% of gross national product, or $900 million. Today largely because of space R&D, about 3% of gross national product, or $16.5 billion, goes for R&D.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
