Mar 21 1963
From The Space Library
Soviet news agency Tass announced launching of Cosmos XIII (apogee: 209 mi.; perigee: 127 mi.; inclination to equator: 64° 58'; period: 89.77 min.). Tass stated that all systems were functioning and that onboard equipment was "intended for continuing outer space research in conformity with the program announced . . . March 16, 1962," but gave no payload weight or specific mission details. In an interview in Guinea, Cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich said that the Soviets plan more tandem manned orbital flights. In response to questions, they said that women sometimes have "physical superiority over men." COSMOS XIII was launched after 89 days of no announced Soviet space flight activity, longest period of space inactivity to date. (UPI, Wash. Post, 3/23/63, A8; Av. Wk, 3/25/63, 26; Tass, Krasnaya Zvezda, 3/22/63, l, AFSS-T Trans.)
USAF announced successful flight-test of Titan II from Cape Canaveral, the missile propelling a. payload "twice as heavy as any other in this country's arsenal more than 6,500 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range." This was eighth successful flight test in 12 attempts. (DOD Release 390-63)
In regular press conference, President Kennedy responded to a question about the pace of the U.S. space program relative to the Soviet Union's: "The U.S. is making, as you know, a major effort in space and will continue to do so. We are expending an enormous sum of money to make sure that the Soviet Union does not dominate space. We will continue to do it. And we will continue to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent any action against the United States. "The fact of the matter is the Soviet today with a nuclear weapon can reach the United States with a missile. So I would have to know in more precise detail than you [the questioner] have described the exact nature of our threat before I suggested what our counteraction would be." (Transcript in Wash,. Post, 3/22/63, A16)
Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., NASA Associate Administrator, testified on the NASA-DOD Gemini Program Planning Board before Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight, House Committee on Science and Astronautics. "The NASA-DOD Agreement on Gemini was put into effect by Secretary McNamara and Administrator Web b on January 21, 1963. This agreement represents another important example of the manner in which both the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are striving to maximize the technological productivity of national space flight programs such as the Gemini. I think it is significant that in announcing the agreement, Mr. McNamara and Mr. Webb emphasized the national character and importance of the Gemini project and reiterated their intentions to insure that Gemini is utilized in the national interest and to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort in this area as in all others .... "I think it is important to point out here that increased DOD participation in the Gemini does not alter the peaceful and experimental character of the program. We are driving forward to advance the technology of manned space flight, including rendezvous and designated docking and to study and understand man's effectiveness under prolonged conditions of weightlessness. In carrying out this program, NASA continues to be solely responsible for the management of the Gemini project. . . ." (Testimony )
Soviet scientists lost contact with MARS I interplanetary probe when it was about 66,000,000 mi. from earth; however, no mention was made of this fact by the Russians until May 16 (see May 16). (Balt. Sun, 5/17/63; Av. Wk., 5/27/63,24)
NASA announced establishment of Office of Assistant Administrator for Technology Utilization and Policy Planning, with Dr. George L. Simpson, NASA Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, filling the post. In new position, Dr. Simpson would continue to be responsible for NASA public affairs duties and would further be responsible for Office of Technology Utilization, formerly Industrial Applications Division, Office of Applications. Realignment was expected to "result in closer coordination of ... industrial applications with [information] dissemination activities. . . " Dr. Simpson's deputy, Julian Scheer, would become Deputy Assistant Administrator for Technology Utilization and Policy Planning. Louis B. Fong, head of Industrial Applications Div., would become Director of Technology Utilization. (NASA Release 63-60)
Dr. Leland J. Haworth of the Atomic Energy Commission was named Director of the National Science Foundation by President Kennedy. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 3/22/63, A15)
DOD announced "clearest data yet obtained of the ionosphere and the dynamics of its formation and dissipation" had been obtained by AFCRL scientists, who matched experimental data from positive ion detector aboard a Thor rocket with theoretical data based on laboratory studies, within error of only two per cent. (DOD Release 388-63)
Article on "The Test Ban" by Stefan T. Possony of the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, printed in the Congressional Record, said "... Currently there is no feasible method of verifying [nuclear] explosions in space. If the Soviets were to launch a space vehicle and explode a nuclear device, at not too great a distance, the United States might gain a good notion of what was going on. But we would not possess the type of evidence which `would stand up in court,' assuming that we could make public use of the evidence we have. Hence, we would be reluctant to move, just as during the Cuban crisis, Washington did not move before there was clear photographic evidence of the presence of Soviet missiles .... "Few people realize that though we are entrusting our security to ICBM's, we never have tested a full assembly of such a missile, i.e., we have not launched an ICBM together with its warhead, nor destroyed a target with an ICBM-launched warhead . . . . "Testing also has a bearing on space propulsion. It is generally agreed that the Orion project which is designed to use small nuclear `bombs' to propel a space vehicle-would allow the lifting of maximal payloads into orbit and permit the deepest penetration into the solar system. Of all propulsion systems it would provide for the most effective utilization of space. However, so far .it seems impractical, because of radioactivity, to launch an Orion assembly from the ground; unfortunately, by using Orion propulsion only from orbit, much of the system s utility would be lost. An all-fusion technology would eliminate the radioactivity and thereby open the road to getting really important payloads into space. "Should the Soviets decide to move into space as a decisive military medium, they may employ Orion techniques even before they are able to eliminate radioactivity .... The brutal twin facts which we cannot circumvent are that space utilization requires maximum energy releases and that nuclear explosions are the method through which maximum energy releases can be produced- produced most cheaply .... "Plowshare explosions may be required for the building of stations on the moon . . . ." (CR, 3/21/63, 4365, 4367, 4368)
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