Apr 15 1963
From The Space Library
Memorandum titled "Space Race with U.S.S.R." from Dr. Edward C. Welsh, Executive Secretary of National Aeronautics and Space Council, to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, was made public. Dr. Welsh said U.S. space program was in the building stage this year and few space spectaculars could be expected in 1963; U.S.S.R. may attempt the following in 1963: manned orbital mission of eight days, manned orbital rendezvous mission, close-up photographs of planet Mars (with MARS I probe), and several unmanned lunar soft-landing probes. Memorandum had been written before launching of Soviet probe LUNIK IV, believed by many scientists to have been an unsuccessful attempt to soft-land on the moon. (Test; Av. Wk., 4/15/63, 38)
Hughes Aircraft Co. and Space Technology Laboratories had been selected by NASA for negotiation of contract for design, development, fabrication, assembly, and testing of four Pioneer interplanetary spacecraft. Award of contract, expected to be more than $10 million, would be made to one of these two companies in about a month. (NASA Release 63-74)
FAA concluded two day conference (April 12 and 15) on supersonic transport aircraft with British and French aviation owls in Washington. This was first in series of meetings to develop inter national certification standards for supersonic transports, result of joint effort planned last February in Europe by FAA Administrator Najeeb Halaby and his British and French counterparts. Subjects discussed included: "(1) system worthiness standards and new areas requiring coverage, (2) flight, service and reliability testing, (3) sonic boom and noise, (4) handling qualities and performance, and (5) structural problems." (FAA Release T63-20)
Discovery of new atomic particle, Phi-meson, was reported in Physical Review Letters by the two groups of researchers-Brookhaven National Laboratory ,Long Island, and Univ. of California's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley. New particle had been predicted by Dr. Jun John Sakurai last December, based on research by team from these two institutions and on speculation by nuclear theorist Dr. Murray Gell-Mann, Prof. of Physics at Cal Tech. (NYT, 4/15/63,1,14)
Dr. Arthur R. Kantrowitz, Vice President of AVCO Corp., interviewed in U.S. News & World Report, said the moon was "set up as the priority target in our space program" because, at the time of the decision, "it was the most obvious goal .... But I think that, while it does provide us with a center for vigorous activity, it precluded other imaginative things that we might be doing, because it absorbs so much of our funds .... "I am one of those who favor, as our next objective, the permanent manned station in a low orbit around the earth .... It would give us a chance to learn to live and to work in space. It would give us a chance to achieve a larger vision of the potentialities of space .. . . A laboratory like this would enlarge man's horizons in an important way. . . ." Dr. Kantrowitz said there was "certainly a possibility of going to the moon via a manned orbital station," and that this might be the Soviet method. Asked if U.S. should be working on this approach in addition to L OR, he said: "If we had two approaches, I would be willing to bet that it would accelerate our moon program, because there is a chance that either of these approaches will run into serious difficulties. Having two baskets for our eggs would seem to me to be a much more reasonable thing. Note that before the expensive later phases are reached by either approach a choice may be necessitated for economic reasons. "Furthermore, we might find after we're deeper into the space program that there are more exciting things to done than landing a man on the moon." (U.S. News, 4/15/63, 64-66)
India's Defense Production Minister K. Raghu Ramiah said India would manufacture missiles with help of U.S.S.R. (N.Y. Herald Trib., 4/16/63)
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