Dec 15 1962
From The Space Library
Joint U.S.-Norwegian-Danish Nike-Cajun sounding rocket launched from Andoeya, Norway, with instrumented experiment to probe the ionosphere and the Northern Lights. Third in a series, the sounding rocket reached an altitude of near 68 mi.
JPL scientists said MARINER II's earth-seeking sensor had unaccountably gained strength since the probe passed Venus Dec. 14, enabling Goldstone Tracking Station to receive signals from the probe for perhaps another month—or distance of nearly 80 million mi. from earth. Internal temperatures close to boiling point of water were reported from the probe.
Power supply onboard RELAY communications satellite remained too low to operate the satellite's instrumentation properly.
Two-month Project Firefly series of 27 upper atmosphere chemical releases was completed by USAF Cambridge Research Laboratories, ending four-point basic research program aimed at learning more about the ionosphere.
Article in Komsomolskaya Pravda stated that one of MARINER II's main missions was to learn temperatures of Venutian atmosphere and surface but that Soviet radioastronomers already had answered these questions. Experiments by Pulkovo Observatory determined that Venutian surface was between 300° C and 400° C, and Venutian atmosphere was within limits of 0° C to 100° C and therefore, that Venus should be defined as a "red hot planet."
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