Mar 26 1963
From The Space Library
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson reviewed his first 26 months in office on ABC television interview. Referring to his participation in major national decisions, he referred to pushing ahead with the large rocket booster program and the accelerate space program decisions in which he participated as Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council. (Wash. Post, 3/27/63; Wash. Eve. Star, 3,/27/63)
USAF Project Stargazer balloon flight from Alamogordo, N.M., canceled because of high surface winds. Balloon was equipped with small aluminum gondola for pilot, Capt. Joseph Kittinger, Jr. (USAF), and civilian astronomer, William C. White, for a 24-hour observation with 12.5-inch gyroscopic telescope above 90 per cent of the earth's atmosphere. (UPI, Wash. Daily News, 3/26/63)
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center announced beginning of NASA Apollo environmental control system tests in Garrett-AiResearch Los Angeles. ECS would provide life supporting atmosphere in command module of Apollo spacecraft. Tests would include simulating prelaunch, ascent, orbital, and re-entry pressure conditions on the system. (MSC Release 63-61)
Dr. S. Fred Singer, Director of National Satellite Weather Center, told House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Applications and Tracking and Data Acquisition that re ports from Tiros weather satellites were being used by Soviet scientists in their weather research. Launching of a weather satellite "is probably an immediate Soviet objective." (NASA Leg. Act. Rpt. II/46, 3/28/63; Wash. Eve. Star, 3/27/63)
DOD announced Dr. Theodore von Karman had been selected to receive the second annual Thomas D. White National Defense Award, established in 1962 by Air Force Association to be conferred on U.S. citizen for outstanding contribution to national defense. (DOD Release 420-63)
Award of $358,076,923 contract by USAF for design and manufacture and testing of X-20 (Dyna Soar) manned space glider to the Boeing Co. was announced by Senators Warren G. Magnuson and Henry M. Jackson (D.-Wash.) . Contract covered airdrop tests of the X-20 from B-52 aircraft and an orbital flight from Cape Canaveral expected in 1965. (AP, NYT [West. Ed.], 3/27/63)
Britain's Postmaster General, John Bevins, dismissed as unrealistic the idea of his country's going it alone in putting communications satellites into orbit. He did not say which course the Government would choose, except that he ruled out an all-British system. A satellite system, he said, cannot be established unless other countries are willing to put ground stations on their own territories and unless they are willing to put traffic over the system. (NYT, Western Edition, 3/27/63)
Ernie Smith, who made first civilian airplane flight to Hawaii from Oakland, Calif., on July 15, 1927, died in San Francisco. 2,393 mile flight took 25-hrs. 26-min. (AP, Wash. Post, 3/27/63)
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