January 1962

January 1: National Bureau of Standards and U.S. Naval Observatory increased the standard frequency transmissions by 2 parts in 1 billion to allow for higher precision in scientific measurements, radio communications and navigation, and satellite tracking.

The United Nations should tax commercial ventures in outer space, the ocean depths, and polar regions to obtain financial support, said Dr. Eugene Staley of the Stanford Research Institute in a memorandum to the United Nations. He also proposed that the U.N. should be given exclusive authority to license and regulate space traffic and satellites relaying telephone and television signals from 1965 onwards.

January 2:Army announced installation of new 102-foot antenna near Fort Dix built in conjunction with DOD’s Project Advent, one link in development of a microwave radio-relay system for global communications using active-repeater satellites in a 22,300 mile-high orbit.

January 3: NASA announced that Mercury Mark II spacecraft would be named “Gemini,” after the third constellation of the zodiac featuring the twin stars Castor and Pollux. Gemini would be a two-man spacecraft used in development of the rendezvous technique, would be 50% larger than the Mercury capsule, and launched into orbit by a Titan II booster.

Mercury capsule installed on top of Atlas booster preparatory for MA-6 manned flight; it was also reported from Cape Canaveral that first American orbital manned flight was now unofficially scheduled for January 23.

Vice President Johnson sent a congratulatory telegram to members of the OSCAR amateur radio satellite team: “For me this project is symbolic of the type of freedom for which this country stands- freedom of enterprise and freedom of participation on the part of individuals throughout the world.” OSCAR I was launched with Discoverer 35 on December 12, 1961.

January 3-10: Soviet cosmonaut, Major Gherman S. Titov, visited Indonesia at the personal invitation of President Sukarno, was then scheduled to go to Burma.

January 4: It was announced at the Manned Spacecraft Center that a large “innertube” or “flotation collar” may be used to keep Mercury capsule afloat after a water landing. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard took part in proving tests conducted on Chesapeake Bay.

Dr. William W. Kellogg of the NAS Space Science Board reported on the study of the planet Venus ut the American Geophysical Union. Bolometer studies of the atmosphere of Venus indicated a temperature of -40’ C (presumably the cloud tops), while temperatures deduced from measurements by large radiotelescopes indicated temperatures of about 300O C (572’ F). A planetary probe could probably answer questions raised on the thickness and nature of Venus’ aorosphere.

January 5: President Kennedy released part of a report submitted earlier by Vice President Johnson, Chairman of the Space Council. The report stated that the U.S. had generated a greater rate of progress in space in 1961 than in any other year but that “it is too early to make definitive comparisons as between our newly developing competence and the capabilities of the U.S.S.R.”

NASA first made public drawings of three-man Apollo spacecraft to be used in lunar landing development program.

Dr. J. P. Kuettner, formerly chief of the Mercury-Redstone program, was named MFSC Manager of the Saturn-Apollo System Integration Program.

January 6: FAA released memorandum dated December 29, 1961, stating that Stanford Research Institute’s radiotelescope was a hazard to air navigation. The first of three such telescopes to be built in the U.S. by SRI extends 90 feet too high for Moffett Field air traffic and 128 feet too high for Palo Alto Airport traffic.

January 7: National Science Foundation re orted that Congress had appro riated $10.8 billion for researct and development in FY 62, wtich included $3 billion for research, $6.7 billion for development, $1billion for facilities, and $100 million for information. NASA spent $1.4 billion, the DOD $6.2 billion.

Executive Director of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Hugh Odishaw, reviewed the prospects in space in first of a series of lectures prepared for the Voice of America. Despite the great promise of practical application of space technology, Odishaw said: “I would contend that the challenges of research dwarf those of adventure and application.” Other members of the Space Science Board were slated for later lectures in this Voice of America series.

It was reported by J. Alsop that experts estimate that the U.S.S.R. could possibly test an antisatellite missile during 1962, and would probably do so in 1963.

January 8:Special hand tools for use in zero-gravity conditions were tested by personnel of the Manned Spacecraft and the Marshall Space Flight Centers. Experiments were conducted in simulated space environment to try out non-torque hand tools drawn from a number of industrial sources.

January 9: Associate Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr moderated a panel discussion on “Reliability-The Key to Space Operations,” at the 8th National Symposium on Reliability and Quality Control in Washington. Panelists John H. Rubel, Assistant Secretary of Defense; Dr. C. Stark Draper, Head of the Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT; Dr. Simon Ramo, Exec. VP of Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc.; and Dr. Jack A. Morton, VP Device Development, Bell Telephone Laboratories discussed means of comprehensive, planned efforts to increase the Nation’s percentage of success in space launchings and operations.

January 10: NASA announced that the Advanced Saturn launch vehicle, to be used for manned flights around the moon and for manned lunar landings with rendezvous technique, would have five-engined first and second stages. The first stage (S-IC) would be powered by five F-1 engines (total of 7.5 million pounds thrust) and the second stage (S-II) would be powered with five 5-2 engines (total of 1 million pounds thrust). A third stage (S-IVB) with a single J-2 engine would be used on escape missions.

X-15 No. 1 piloted by Cdr. Forrest Petersen (USN) made its first forced landing in 47 flights when its rocket engine failed to ignite in mid-air after two attempts. X-15 was brought down without incident at Mud Lake, Nevada.

NASA and AEC awarded 5-yr contract for the development of the Nerva engine to Aerojet-General Corp. At same time, Aerojet- General signed a subcontract with Westinghouse Electric Corp. for nuclear portions of the development which began in 1955.

January 11:At SAM symposium on aerospace medicine, Lt. Col. Burt Rowen (USAF), Chief of Bioastronautics at AFFTC, presented heartbeat and breathing records of Maj. Robert White during X-15 record

speed flight of November 9, 1961. “When the President’s Scientific Advisory Committee fist became aware of the high heart and respiration rates [of pilots in high-performance aircraft] they became concerned with the question of success of the Mercury program. . . But now this has come to be regarded as normal.”

At Eighth National Symposium on Reliability and Quality Control in Washington, W. T. Sumerlin of the Philco Corp. estimated that 3,000 engineers and others were now devoting full time to this new field.

E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. announced it had awarded grants totaling $1,693,300 to 161 American universities and colleges to strengthen the teaching of science and related subjects, to promote fundamental research, and to aid facilities for education or research in science and engineering.

January 12: John Jay Ide, European representative of NACA (1921-40, 1946-50) and U.S. representative at numerous international air law and commerce conventions, died in New York. He was a founder and fellow of the IAS, a board member of the NAA, and an honorary member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Mr. Ide had contributed to world aviation in making known the results of NACA research and in acquiring information on European progress, as well as helping the establishment of transatlantic commercial air routes.

January 13: USAF Discoverer 37 launched from Vandenberg AFB but did not attain orbit.

NASA launched 2-stage Aerobee sounding rocket from Wallops Station to an altitude of 130 miles to obtain planning data for future solar physics projects.

Dr. Hans-Georg Clamann, Chief of Space Medicine at SAM, submitted that a mountain peak near the south pole of the moon may be the ideal location for a lunar base. Continuous sunlight would provide support for growing vegetation.

Reported from New York that three-day US.-British discussions on U.N. problems had devoted considerable time to problems of “the law of outer space.” U.S. representatives indicated that the U.N. resolution of December covering “international cooperation and the peaceful uses of outer space” had extended international law to space. In view of this, the U.N. resolution destroyed any argument that surveillance satellites violate international law, as orbiting satellites are legally no different from operating a destroyer in international waters.

January 14:National Science Foundation released comprehensive report on “Education and Professional Employment in the USSR” by Nicholas DeWitt of the Harvard Russian Research Center.

January 15: “Big Shot” suborbital inflation test of 135-foot diameter sphere in Echo program was conducted from AMR. The 44-inch cannister containing the uninflated balloon that would be larger and more rigid than Echo was separated at altitude from a specially stabilized Thor booster which carried both TV and 16-mm movie cameras. These cameras monitored the separation of the cannister and inflation of the “balloon satellite,” showed the rapid inflation that ripped the balloon apart at 250-miles altitude; capsule with movie film re-entered and was later recovered by skin divers.

In regular press conference, President Kennedy announced that he had asked his Science Advisory Committee, in cooperation with the Federal Council for Science and Technology, to report “as quickly as possible on the specific measures that can be taken within and without the Government to develop the necessary and well-qualified scientists and engineers and technicians to meet our society’s complex needs-government, educational and industrial.” He prefaced his announcement with a review of the declining number of scientists and engineers educated in the United States since 1951.

In NASA press conference in New York City, Dr. Abe Silverstein, Director of the Lewis Research Center, outlined factors in NASA’s nation-wide recruitment of 2,000 scientists, engineers, and technicians: (1) NASA had already interviewed 4,000 candidates in other cities and hoped to screen another 1,000 in New York; (2) salaries in industry tended to be higher than in Federal employment but NASA offered better postgraduate experience as an opportunity to acquire national or international reputation; (3) NASA manpower drain on the annual pool of 40-45,000 engineering graduates was small; and (4) the new specialists trained in the space program during the next decade would be an effectiveargument for much of the cost of the entire space effort.

January 16: In speech to the American Astronautical Society, Dr. Edward C. Welsh, Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, submitted that Russia could match the U.S. in space “only if we place short-run convenience ahead of our nation’s future. . . . There are those who seem to take for granted that a country like Soviet Russia, with less than half the per capita income of the United States, can afford a major successful space program, while we can not.”

Rep. George P. Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, spoke to the American Astronautical Society on the broad benefits derived from the space program. He said: “Space exploration is of such immense importance to man’s total knowledge that it will benefit and alter the course of his existence in ways no more foreseeable today than those which resulted from the invention of the wheel. . . . One of the major benefits being gleaned from this vast effort to conquer space is the stimulus which it is providing for scientific research in new and uncharted areas”.

January 17: X-15 (No. 3) flown to 3,715 mph and 133,000 ft. in test of new autopilot control system, NASA’s Neil Armstrong as pilot.

January 18: Administration budget for FY 1963 presented to Congress by President Kennedy. NASA requests totaled $3,787,276,000, with $2,968,278,000 going to research, development, and operations, and $818,998,000 to construction. DOD requests totaled $51.64 billion, with $6.843 billion going to research, development, test, and evaluation.

In a NASA press conference following the presentation of the Administration’s budget to Congress, Mr. James Webb, NASA Administrator, commented on the general attitude toward NASA’s appropriation request: “I would say that the people I’ve talked to have felt that we ought to go forward with the effort at about the level the President has recommended. I have seen no indication as we have had advanced discussion with some of the leaders, like the Chairman of the House Committee, Congressman Miller, the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Kerr, and with some of the Appropriations members; we have seen no disposition on their part to just simply throw up their hands and say, ‘No, sir.’ Each one of them has said that what you have makes sense and we are going to look it over very carefully, of course, but nevertheless there has been no tendency to start out with a reaction that it was simply out of line with reality. . . . Under those circumstances my judgment is that there will be a good, strong, vigorous debate, just as there was when this agency was formed, and that when the issues are clearly out on the table, and the success of the very active flight program that we are now conducting makes itself felt, that there will be support for the program and that we will end up with about the recommendations of the President.”

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center selected Rohr Aircraft Corp. to negotiate for the manufacture and erection of three 85-foot diameter parabolic antenna systems to be located at Pisgah National Forest (Rosman, N.C.), Fairbanks, Alaska, and an undetermined location in eastern Canada. When completed, these facilities in addition to similar system completed at Gilmore Creek, Alaska, wodd serve as the core of NASA’s wideband satellite instrumentation network. They would receive and record telemetry from large “second generation” satellites including Nimbus and the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO).

January 19: At NASA press conference,scientists described preliminary scientific results obtained by Explorer XII: based on study of 10 per cent of the data, it now appears that instead of the two radiation belts (previously called the inner and outer Van Allen belts) there is one magnetosphere extending roughly from 400 miles above the earth to 30,000 to 40,000 miles out. In this magnetosphere there is only a handful of matter but a very wide range of charged particles trapped by the earth’s magnetic field. Density of electrons is now considered to be 108 cm2/sec as opposed to the 10” derived from previous satellites. Radiation levels of protons in the lower portion of the magnetosphere were found to be the same as reported by previous satellites, so that the magnetosphere still poses a radiation problem to extended manned flight. At about 10 earth radii the magnetosphere ends abruptly. Above it is an extended area, about 20,000 km. across, of electromagnetic turbulence and featuring very low ener particles on the order of 1 to 20 kilovolts. Beyond this is thought to be true interplanetary space.

Ranger III lunar shot postponed because of technical difficulties with Atlas booster rocket.

In speech before the Builders and Contractors Exchange, Thomas F. Dixon, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator, pointed out that one fourth of the total NASA appropriation for FY 1963 was for construction of facilities. This construction does not include that to be undertaken by other Government agencies or by the thousands of private industries, educational mstitutions, and others with a role in the space effort.

NASA received patent (3,016,693) for electrothermal rocket invented by John R. Jack and Wolfgang E. Moeckel of Lewis Research Center.

Department of Defense authorized USAF to proceed with development of a mobile mid-range ballistic missile (MMRBM).

An unnamed Soviet scientist, called “chief designer of Soviet spaceships,” was reported by Tass as saying that U.S.S.R. planned to establish an “industrial undertaking” on the moon.

January 21: NASA announced the launching of two Arcas meteorological sounding rockets from Kindley AFB, Coopers Island, Bermuda, the first of a series of tests to measure the structure and denrihy of the atmosphere in support of an atmospheric re-entry experiment utilizing a Scout rocket fired from Wallops.

January 22: Reported from AMR that MA-6 launch would be delayed until January 27 at the earliest, due to difficulties in the oxygen system of the Mercury spacecraft.

Fuel tank of the Atlas booster of Ranger III was repaired from inside in 48 hours, first such repair while booster was upright on the pad. Effort of General Dynamics/Astronautics crew was necessitated by fuel leak.

January 23: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center announced the selection of Motorola, Inc., Military Electronics Division, of Scottsdale, Ariz., as contractor for research and development on the Goddard range and range-rate tracking system. Intended for tracking satellites in near-space and cislunar space, the system will measure spacecraft position to within a few feet and velocity to within fractions of a foot per second by measurements of carrier and side-tone modulations.

Institute of the Aerospace Sciences awarded: the Louis W. Hill Space Transportation Award, carrying a $5,000 honorarium, to Robert R. Gilruth, Director of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center, for his “outstanding leadership in technical development of spacecraft for manned space flight”; the Lawrence B. Sperry Award to Douglas G. Harvey for design, development, and testing of the first two nuclear auxiliary powerplants placed in orbit; and the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award to Alfred J. Eggers, Jr., chief of Vehicle Environment Division at Ames Research Center, for his work on solving problems of space vehicle re-entry and alleviating heat problems at hypersonic, satellite, and escape speeds.

National Academy of Sciences’ Space Science Board report on the atmospheres of Mars and Venus released. Prepared by William W. Kellogg of RAND and Carl Sagen of the University of California, it reported that available evidence suggests the existence of life on Mars and that space flights during the next decade would probably resolve this question.

It was reported by Dr. Sigmund Fritz of the Weather Bureau that TIROS III had spotted fifty tropical storms during the summer of 1961.

Construction contract for Saturn umbilical tower (Launch Complex 34, Cape Canaveral) was awarded by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to Consolidated Steel. Cost of the 240-ft. steel tower was estimated at $504,900.

January 24: NASA announced Aerojet-General Corp. had been selected as the contractor for design and development of the M-1 liquid- hydrogen engine. To develop 1,200,000 pounds of thrust, the M-1 would be used in the Nova vehicle as propulsion for the 2nd (4M-1 engines) and 3rd (1 M-1 engine) stages. Target date for the operational use of the engine was 1965, total cost of the contract expected to be $90,000,000.

Mr. John Stack, Director of Aeronautical Research, NASA, speaking before the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences in New York, advocated a variable-wing, variable-fuselage configuration for the nation’s supersonic transport aircraft. Not only were these practicable for the state of the art but the only way he saw to gain the necessary subsonic vs. sonic flight characteristics and load flexibility to make the aircraft economically usable.

Composite I, the Navy’s 5411A satellite package, was launched from AMR but failed to achieve orbit when the 2nd stage of the Thor-Able-Star booster rocket misfired.

January 26: Explorer X detected a “shadow” on the side of the earth facing away from the sun; in this shadow there is an absence of the solar “wind”, a belt of plasma moving out from the sun at about 200 miles per second but deflected around the earth by the earth’s magnetic field and creating a cone-shaped “shadow” some 100,000 miles across a t its larger end. The Explorer X findings were reported to the annual meeting of the American Physical Society in New York by Dr. Bruno Rossi of MIT.

NASA approved Saturn G-5 development program and authorized NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to direct its development. “Satellite Communications Corporation” bills were introduced by Senator Robert Kerr (S. 2650) and by Rep. George Miller (H.R. 9696), which would amend the NASA Act by adding a new section which would declare that it is “the policy of the United States to provide leadership in the establishment of a worldwide communications system involving the use of space satellites.’’ The section would create a “Satellite Communication Corporation” which would be privately owned and managed, and which would develop and operate a communications satellite system.

Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory at Fort Monmouth announced development of a super-powered laser with a peak power of more than 3 million watts. The laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is 300 times as powerful as lasers in general laboratory use. It has potential in the fields of communications, range-finding, space vehicle guidance and special-purpose illumination.

January 26: Ranger III was launched from AMR; excessive acceleration by the Atlas 1st-stage booster caused the 727 lb payload to pass 22,562 miles in front of the moon on January 28 instead of impacting as had been planned. Failure of a high-gain antenna to home on the earth rendered signals too weak to provide usable television photographs from the ones Ranger took of the moon as it flew by. Ranger III went into a solar orbit. The flight proved many of the systems within the payload, including the mid-flight guidance mechanism.

During hearings of the Joint Senate and House Economic Committee, Senator Paul H. Douglas stated that “the public has never really had a chance to consider” the space program and that one third of the members of the American Astronautical Society had indicated in a poll that “a manned landing on the moon was not desirable.” Budget Director David Bell stoutly defended the space program. Senator Sparkman questioned Senator Douglas: “I wonder whether Congress felt the same way when it put up money for Samuel Morse” to develop the telegraph.

January 27: With the countdown at T-29 minutes, NASA postponed the first US. manned orbital flight until February 1 because of cloud cover at the launching site that would have precluded adequate tracking of the vital first minutes of the flight. Astronaut John H. Glenn had been in the Mercury capsule atop the Atlas launch rocket for more than 5 hours when the launch was postponed.

January 29: NASA announced selection of three firms to submit final proposals on the design and development of the Rift (Reactor In Flight Test) rocket stage that would flight-test the Nerva nuclear rocket engine. The firms were General Dynamics/Astronautics, Lockheed Missile and Space Company, and Martin Marietta Corp. When selected, the contractor would be re- sponsible for designing the Rift stage, fabricating and assembling it at the Michoud Operations Plant, and conducting tests and checkouts related to eventual flight test. The three firms were selected from five who submitted initial bids on January 3, following a first-phase preproposals conference at Marshall Space Flight Center on December 7 attended by 33 firms.

The last test model of the USAF Titan I ICBM was successfully fired from AMR. It was the 47th Titan I launching from Cape Canaveral, of which 34 were successes, 9 partial successes, and 4 failures.

January 30: NASA announced at Cape Canaveral that the manned MA-6 launch would be postponed until February 13 because of “technical difficulties with the launching booster.” John A. Powers, NASA press spokesman, quoted Astronaut John Glenn as saying: “Sure, I’m disappointed, but this is a complicated business. I don’t think we should fly until all elements of the mission are ready. When we have completed all our tests satisfactorily then we’ll go.”

January 31: President Kennedy submitted the 1961 “U.S. Aero- nautics and Space Activities” to the Congress. In the preface, he said: “During 1961, major attention was devoted to establish- ing our policy objective of space leadership and to accelerating our efforts toward achieving that objective.”

It was reported by Irene Fischer of the Army Map Service that three experimental methods measured the mean distance from earth to the moon as 238,866 miles, a figure accurate within about a mile. A fourth method gives a figure accurate within about 8 miles. The 238,866-mile distance is 9 miles more than the previously accepted figure used for decades and based on direct observation of the parallax of the moon at its mean distance from the earth.

Nike-Zeus with three solid-fuel stages successfully flight-tested at White Sands Missile Range.

Explorer I completed its fourth year in orbit with a life expectancy of several more years.

The first J-2 engine of Block I series of Saturn C-1 was successfully test-fired by Rocketdyne Div., North American Aviation.