Aug 12 1960
From The Space Library
X-15 (No. 1) with interim engines and with Maj. Robert M. White (USAF) at the controls, established a new altitude record for a manned vehicle of 136,500 feet. This topped Captain Kincheloe's record altitude of 126,200 feet attained on September 7, 1956, in the X-2 rocket research aircraft.
NASA's ECHO I, the first passive communications satellite, successfully launched into orbit by a Thor-Delta. It reflected a radio message from the President across the Nation, thus demonstrating the feasibility of global radio communications via satellites. The 100-footdiameter aluminized Mylar-plastic sphere was the most visible and largest satellite launched to date.
USAF Atlas carrying radiation experiments in nose cone was fired 5,000 miles from Cape Canaveral, but nose cone was not recovered.
Navy Polaris missile fired 1,000 miles down AMR.
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