Apr 3 1963
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)
Aerobee 150A rocket launched from NASA Wallops Station carried instrumented payload to 147-mi. altitude in experiment to flight-test components of equipment for EOGO satellite and to measure propagation of VLF signals through ionosphere. Flight was joint project of Stanford Research Institute and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (Wallops Release 63-32; NASA Rpt. of Sounding Rkt. Launching)
U.S.S.R, reported LUNIK IV had covered 216,000 km. (134,150 mi.), more than half the distance to the moon, during its first 24 hours of flight. Tass announcement said several measurements had been made to establish spacecraft's trajectory but did not indicate whether the "automatic station" was on course. Telemetry data indicated onboard instruments were operating normally, and internal pressure and temperature were within prescribed limits. There still was no description of the probe's mission. Article in Izvestia by Soviet geologist Aleksandr Khabakov said that "a soft landing on the moon of a container with instruments and auxiliary apparatus seems to be technically feasible." (NYT, 4/4/63,18; Izvestia, 4/4/63, EOS Trans.)
In press conference, President Kennedy was asked: "By when do you think we will be first in space, and in view of Russia's current lunar probe LUNIK IV, do you think we will beat the Russians with a man to the moon?" He replied: "I don't know. We started well behind. Quite obviously they had a tremendous advantage in big boosters and we are Still behind, because obviously we haven't gotten our new boosters yet, which we won't get until 1964,'65 and '66. We will have to wait and see but I can assure you it is an uphill race at best, because we started behind, and I am sure the Russians are making a major effort. Today's indication of what they are doing makes me feel that their program is a major one, and it is not spongy, and I think that we would have to make the same ourselves. "So I would say we are behind now, and we will continue to be behind, but if we make a major effort we have a chance, I believe, to be ahead at the end of this decade, and that is where I think we ought to be." Questioned about his reaction to General Eisenhower's charge that the national budget could be reduced by billions of dollars and that enormous sums were being wasted in the space program (letter to Congressman Charles A. Halleck made public March 29), President Kennedy said . The United States Congress almost unanimously made a decision that the United States would not continue to be second in space. We are second in space today because we started late. It requires a large sum of money. I don't think we should look with equanimity upon the prospect that we will be second all through the sixties and possibly the seventies. We have the potential not to be. I think having made the decision last year, that we should make a major effort to be first in space. I think we should continue to do so. "President Eisenhower-this is not a new position for him. He has disagreed with this at least a year or year and a half ago when the Congress took a different position. It is the position I think he took from the time of Sputnik on. But it is a matter on which we disagree. It may be that there is waste in the space budget. If there is waste, then I think it ought to be cut by the Congress, and I am sure it will be. But if we are going to get into the question of whether we should reconcile ourselves to a slow pace in space, I don't think so. "This Administration has concentrated its attention since it came into office on strengthening our military. That is one of the reasons why you could not possibly put in the cut which has been recommended, nine or ten billion dollars, without cutting the heart out of the military budget. The fact of the matter is when we came into office, we had 11 combat-ready divisions and we now have 16. We increased the scheduling on Polaris, nearly double per year. We increased the number of planes on the 15-minute alert from 33 per cent of our strategic air force to 50 per cent. In a whole variety of ways-in the Navy we have added about 46 vessels, and strengthened ourselves in defense and space . . . ." (Transcript, Wash. Post, 4/4/63)
Dr. Edward C. Welsh, Executive Secretary of National Aeronautics and Space Council, said in speech before American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in New York City that launching of LUNIK IV was an initial step "in a very well organized man-on-the-moon program." He warned that U.S.S.R. would "employ its growing space competence for military purposes if it finds such action is effective. We must be ready to handle such a threat." Dr. Welsh disputed former President Eisenhower's recent charge that "enormous sums of money" were being wasted in the National space program. "Mr. Eisenhower is consistent. He was wrong about the space program two, three, four years ago, and he is wrong now." (NYT, 4/4/63,19)
Morris Topper, Nasa Director of Meteorological Systems, testified before House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Applications and Tracking and Data Acquisition. He discussed the Tiros meteorological satellite system and described the Nimbus advanced meteorological satellite, first of which would be launched in 1963, and said: "Each one of these five elements---orientation, coverage, direct local readout, lifetime and growth potential, represents a major advance over Tiros. Nimbus, including all these; represents an extremely large step for ward beyond the Tiros capability. The Nimbus technical difficulties of the past were associated with the development of these five elements. We now believe that our major difficulties are behind us. . " He described the meteorological sounding rocket program, and said: "In the large meteorological sounding rocket program, it is planned to fire approximately 45 per year. These will be distributed at various latitudes to measure the atmospheric structure in the various climatic regions from the Arctic to the Tropics. "The small meteorological sounding rocket program is aimed at providing a standardized flight article which will meet the requirements at an overall minimum cost. Approximately 100 rockets will be launched per year in this program ." (Testimony)
D. Brainerd Holmes, NASA Director of Manned Space Flight, discussed the manned space flight program before Yale Chapter of Sigma XI, New Haven, Conn., and said: "In two centuries, the United States has grown from a small collection of settlements here along the Atlantic seaboard to a great nation of almost 200 million people spread across a continent. We have dug canals, dammed rivers, built railroads, launched ships, constructed highways, and flown aircraft. We have constructed buildings, bridges, and a nationwide grid of electrical power. We have developed a system of industry, , agriculture and distribution by which our people are provided with food, clothing, automotive transportation, and other necessities and conveniences in such volume that the United States has assumed an unprecedented position of wealth and power in the world. "Some historians explain this growth in terms of challenge and response. Under this interpretation, which appeals to me, the frontier and external danger have provided stimuli for growth. Now, however, with the frontier gone and the external danger, we hope, decreasing, we are entering a new period of change. What will now spur us to further growth? "Exploring space can provide such a challenge. Here is an endeavor, clearly in the American tradition, which will unleash again the urges to build and explore-and which will employ for a great national purpose the tremendous productive capacity of our economy." (Text)
Charles W. Frick resigned as Apollo Project Manager at NASA Manned Spacecraft Center to accept a position with industry. MSC Director Dr. Robert R. Gilruth appointed Robert O. Piland as Acting Project Manager. (MSC Release 63-72)
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