Apr 23 1962
From The Space Library
NASA’s RANGER IV was launched by Atlas-Agena from AMR, went into parking orbit, and was put into proper trajectory to the moon by restart of the Agena B booster. Failure of a timer in the RANGER IV payload caused loss of both internal arid ground control over the vehicle. Analysis of the trajectory indicated that the payload would probably skim the leading edge of the moon on April 25 and be pulled by the moon's gravity to a crash-landing on the far side of the. moon, but that none of the experiments would operate and no data would be received.
U.S. and U.S.S.R. scientists have agreed on a proposal to establish a "world weather watch" for improved collection, analysis, and dissemination of world weather information by means of conventional weather techniques and weather satellites. Dr. Harry Wexler, Director of Research, U.S. Weather Bureau, and Dr. Viktor A. Bugaev, Assistant Director of the Hydrometeorological Service, U.S.S.R., drafted the plan at the World Meteorological Organization headquarters in Geneva. Plan would call for expanded and improved weather observation by both conventional and satellite means, the establishment of world and regional weather centers to collect, analyze, and disseminate weather information, including participation by underdeveloped countries through pooling of their resources to develop regional weather forecasting centers. Soviet participation was indicated by Dr. Konstantin T. Logvinov, Deputy Director of U.S.S.R.'s Hydrometeorological Service. He indicated possibility of Soviet weather satellites, although he said U.S.S.R. was not as advanced as U.S. in this area—"We are just learning from American experience"—and establishment in U.S.S.R. of a ground station to receive cloud-cover photos from satellites. The proposed global weather plan was to be submitted to the World Meteorological Organization May 22 and then to the U.N.
First International Symposium on Rocket and Satellite Meteorology opened in Washington, D.C. Attended by some 500 delegates from more than 20 nations, the conference was sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and the Committee on Space Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions. It was hoped that the symposium would lead to an international sounding rocket program during the International Year of the Quiet Sun in 1964-65.
National Council of the Federation of American Scientists adopted a policy statement that space activities should be classified only when there are compelling military reasons.
In Voice of America broadcast, Dr. Leo Goldberg of the Harvard College Observatory reported that the accumulation of knowledge in solar physics is proceeding "at a fantastic rate, due to the inherent importance of the subject coupled with a sudden fusing of new instrumental techniques and theoretical ideas." Dr. Goldberg noted that sun spots in the photosphere have been the object of intense study since Galileo but that "observations have not yet been synthesized to provide even an accurate description of their physical nature, let alone the mechanism of their origin." Crediting high-altitude rockets for initial detection and occasional study of bidden solar radiation, detailed study requires continuous observation of the sun on a 24-hour basis, which "can only be accomplished with the aid of one or more satellite observatories." National Academy of Sciences awarded the J. Lawrence Smith Medal for outstanding achievement in the investigation of meteoric bodies to Dr. Harold C. Urey of the University of California of San Diego. The award was based upon Dr. Urey's many publications on the chemical composition of meteorites, only one of his most recent fields of interest. He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934. After World War II he launched into speculations concerning the origin of the solar system, the cosmic abundance of the elements, the composition and structure of the moon and the planets, the latter work depending upon his chemical analysis of meteorites.
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