Apr 9 1962
From The Space Library
Astronaut John H. Glenn was awarded the Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society "for extraordinary contributions to scientific knowledge of the world and beyond as a pioneer in exploring the ocean of space." Awarded only 20 times since it was struck in 1906, the Hubbard Medal honorees have included Adm. Robert E. Peary, Charles A. Lindbergh, Roald Amundsen, and Adm. Richard E. Byrd.
Aerospace Medical Association, meeting in Atlantic City, heard research papers indicating new findings about space radiation. Dr. Sol M. Michaelson, of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, said preliminary evidence from animal tests indicates the possibility that one type of radiation exposure—mild amounts of microwave—might enhance recovery from x-ray damage because it generated increased activity in the bone marrow. Maj. Robert W. Zellmer (USAF), of the School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, Texas, said tests on rats indicated the possibility that seriously excessive G forces, such as experienced during launch and re-entry of a spacecraft, might also give some protection against radiation.
USAF launched its fifth unidentified satellite employing an Atlas-Agena B booster, from Point Arguello, Calif. In Washington, the State Department said the satellite would be registered with the U.N. if it went into orbit and stayed in sustained orbit.
President Kennedy nominated Dr. J. Herbert Holloman to the new post of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Science and Technology. Dr. Holloman was general manager of the General Engineering Laboratory of GE in Schenectady, N.Y.
An Atlas ICBM blew up on the pad during launching at AMR. The missile had been heavily instrumented in an effort to determine causes of difficulties on recent flights.
Joint AEC-DOD announcement designated a second nuclear test area in the Pacific, this one centering on Johnston Island and enclosing an area with a radius of 470 mi. on the surface, expanding to an area with a radius of 700 mi. at 30,000 ft. and above. Ban on entering the area would become effective April 30.
U.S. space experiments with regard to the moon may well give scientists new information on "how the Earth and the planets and the Sun were formed," Dr. Gordon J. F. MacDonald, Associate Director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics of the University of California, said in a Voice of America broadcast. The seismometer to be landed on the moon by NASA’s Ranger, for example, would help determine whether there are "moonquakes" some eight times more frequent than earthquakes, as there should be if the moon contains the same concentration of radioactive elements as the earth.
European Broadcasting Union ended a 20-nation conference in Seville, Spain, with an announcement that preliminary arrangements bad been made for an international television service by use of communications satellites. Three U.S. television networks—CBS, NBC, and ABC—would join with USIA to operate the system from the U.S., transmitting from Andover, Maine, and the European receiving station would be the British General Post Office Facilities in Cornwall, which would relay the signals to other members of the European Broadcasting Union.
U.S.S.R. Presidium of the Supreme Soviet declared April 12, anniversary of the first Soviet space flight, to be a national annual holiday in Russia. In announcing ceremonies for Cosmonautics Day in the Soviet Union, Leonid Korneyev reviewed the U.S.S.R.'s space program from its beginning in April 1932, with the formation of a group to study jet propulsion. Between 1932 and 1941, Korneyev pointed out, the U.S.S.R. had developed 118 different liquid-fuel rocket engines.
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