Sep 25 1963
From The Space Library
NASA launched two-stage Aerobee 150A sounding rocket from Wallops Island, Va., with 185-lb. payload of U.S. Japanese instrumentation to measure electron density and temperature in the ionosphere. Payload was lofted to 139-mi. altitude and no recovery operation was involved. Purpose of experiment was to compare simultaneous measurements made by two different methods: instruments supplied by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and radio-frequency resonance probe developed by Japan's Radio Research Laboratory. (Wallops Release 63-85; NASA Release 63-211)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb, speaking before annual meeting of Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association in Houston, quoted President Kennedy's proposal for U.S.-U.S.S.R. negotiations toward joint lunar exploration: "The President's statement has captured the imagination of the peoples of the world. In itself, cooperation in space activity between the great antagonists of the Cold War is a thrilling prospect. But the significance of this possibility is not limited to space; rather, it lies equally in the fact that cooperation in space is one more step toward cooperation on Earth, toward the banishment of the fear of the annihilation of life as we know it. "The President's statement received weight and conviction from the fact that the United States has a powerful space capability; and from the fact that this Nation is well on its way to achieving preeminence in this new environment. "This national strength in space represents a massive and productive effort on the part of the United States during the past five years, an effort whose potential value is only now beginning to emerge . . . . "While proceeding with the development. of the launch vehicles and spacecraft of the future, more than 90 per cent of it under contract with American industry, we have also learned the essentials of space operations, and achieved a degree of reliability which has produced many specific achievements in space. "In 1958, the United States had five successful flights, but for each success we had two failures. By 1961, out of 54 flights, the success ratio was 83 per cent. In the first eight months of this year every NASA launch has succeeded, with the exception of one small Scout rocket launched from Wallops Island . . . ." (Text)
Eugene Wasielewski, Associate Director of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in address before Scientific Research Society of America in Paoli, Pa., emphasized accomplishments of NASA during its first five years "While it is easy for me to say that NASA has, as an organization, launched over 50 satellites, of which 30 were put into orbit by Goddard . . ., I am sure that you must all realize the tremendous research and development effort that was required to put these spacecraft into orbit. "Certainly Goddard . . . owes much to the successful development of the Delta launch vehicle which has given us 20 successes in 21 shots . . . ." (Goddard News. 10/7/63. 6)
Louis B. C. Fong, Director, Office of Technology Utilization, addressing the American Management Association, Inc., said "NASA's activities in space operate across all of the interfaces in the total transition process which starts with basic research and advances through applied research, development, engineering design, test and fabrication to ultimate production. Industry must be ready to determine in which phase it should act and direct space technology to an industrially oriented goal. "Resistance to new ideas and new technologies is part psychological; a good deal of it is practical when new expenditures have to be justified to stockholders in terms of an upward sales curve. Often it is economic, since to implement a new technology may result in a tremendous impact upon a way of life of a major industry-e.g., oil vs. coal, transistors vs. tubes, solid state physics vs. conventional circuit design, diesel vs. steam engines, etc. . . . "Companies must organize to accept this data; must be geared to use what is helpful; must work to break down the barriers between one division and another. For economic survival, the time lag can no longer be accepted as standard operating procedure in the laboratory-to-consumer cycle . . . "The accepted business patterns of the past must change if you singularly as a company and we collectively as a national business enterprise are to stay in the race." (Text)
Sixty Eastern and Western scientists meeting at 11th Pugwash Conference on disarmament and world security endorsed President Kennedy's proposals for international scientific cooperation in space and other areas. The scientists also proposed U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R. conduct joint study of seismic phenomena, with hope that this study would lead to banning of underground nuclear tests. Conferees endorsed appeal of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko for agreement barring orbital atomic weapons. (Binder, NYT, 9/26/63, 11)
Study memorandum identifying U.S. "stamp la " inserted in Congressional Record by Sen. Frank E. Moss (D.-Utah). In the memo Frank Ballard, principal engineer of Sperry Utah Co., noted Communist bloc has issued at least 18 postage stamps identifying Soviet space successes, whereas U.S. has issued only two stamps associated with its space program, and these in limited editions. ". . . In the face of the existing world struggle, it is imperative, even urgent, that we utilize all available media of communication to advertise the forces of democracy. The U.S. `stamp lag' is self-evident. We must engage in a vigorous program calculated for optimum utilization of the vast potentialities of the U.S. postage stamp. As a start, I should like to suggest a chronological documentation of the entire space program beginning with the suborbital flight through individual Mercury orbital flights. Gemini and Apollo . . . ." (Study Memorandum, CR, 9/25/63, 17044-45)
Communist China's press agency Hsinhua announced that more than 1,000 Chinese and foreign scientists met. in Peking to celebrate establishment of center for the World Federation of Scientific Workers devoted to the "advancement of science in Asian, African and Latin American countries." (NYT, 9/26/63, 5).
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