Aug 13 1962
From The Space Library
August 13-17: Lunar Exploration Conference of more than 250 teachers and scientists conducted at Blacksburg, Va., by Virginia Polytechnic Institute in cooperation with National Science Foundation and NASA Langley Research Center. Major discussion topics were "The Moon as an Earth Satellite," "Studies of the Lunar Surface," and "Lunar Flight Exploration."
August 13: Cosmonaut Nikolayev, by 10:00 PM Moscow time, had orbited the earth 40 times and had passed the million-mile mark in VOSTOK At this time, his companion Cosmonaut Popovich in VOSTOK IV completed 24 orbits of the earth and logged 621,000 miles of space flight. Sohio Research Center calculated the two spacecraft were separated by 1,793 mi. at about 8:00 PM EST.
President John F. Kennedy, in nationally televised address, commented on the "extraordinary achievement of the Soviet Union" in double manned flights of VOSTOK III and IV. He stated that the U.S. was behind the U.S.S.R. in space exploration, and that it would "be behind for a period in the future. . . . [But] we are making a major effort now, and this country will be heard from in space as well as in other areas in the coming months and years." Congressman George Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, spoke on the House floor in acknowledgment of successful Soviet space flights of VOSTOK III and IV. Senator Alexander Wiley acknowledged the event on the Senate floor and pointed to need for advancing the U.S. space program.
Dr. Eberhard Rees, Deputy Director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, was quoted as stating that Soviet dual-flights VOSTOK III and IV came "six months to a year" earlier than he had expected.
Soviet scientist Ram Bayevsky, writing in Pravda, said that miniaturized equipment was recording brain and eye reactions of Cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich. Other instruments reported were two recorders to register information when radio transmissions ceased (during re-entry) and when the spacemen left their cabins; microphones, in the form of thin rubber tubing, to register breathing; electrodes on the Skin to record heart reactions and to follow eyeball muscles.
John Hodges, director of Canada's Regina Observatory, said in an interview that VOSTOK III and IV were orbiting in space at a time when millions of meteorites were bombarding the earth's atmosphere in an unusually heavy concentration, and that scientists and astronomers were keenly interested in the outcome of meteorites colliding with the Soviet spacecraft.
Despite Soviet announcement that U.S.S.R. had developed a "new calculation technique" for launching space vehicles as "a matter of routine," U.S. space experts were reported to agree that the U.S.S.R. had not surpassed the U.S. in application of electronic computers to space technology.
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center officials commented that flights of Soviet spacecraft VOSTOK III and IV would not affect programing of U.S. Project Gemini two-man orbital flights, scheduled to begin in 1964.
U.S.S.R. had declined the offer of U.S. networks to use TELSTAR satellite for relaying live telecasts of orbiting Soviet cosmonauts, said Russell Tornabene, Chairman of the U.S. joint network committee coordinating transatlantic TELSTAR programs.
In an interview with Tass, Soviet medical scientist Dr. Georgi Arutyunov stated that Cosmonauts Nikolayev and Popovich were supplied with sandwiches, pastries, cutlets, roast veal, chicken filets, fruit, water, coffee, and various fruit juices—in addition to special foods in tubes similar to those supplied on earlier space flights.
Filibuster on communications satellite bill (H.R. 11040) continued in Senate, with opponents filing between 75 and 100 amendments by noon. An amendment submitted by Senator Wayne Morse would permit "the enlargement of NASA so we can apply to the satellite system the contract, lease, and license system which has permitted the Department of Defense to do such a remarkable job with defense contracts. . . ." USAF Atlas F missile flown 5,000 miles from Vandenberg AFB carrying a special package of cameras to help locate and correct propulsion problems encountered in previous tests, the missile meeting all test objectives.
Reported that responsibility for all U.S. Space bioscience programs, including animal flights, would be given to NASA as result of informal agreement between Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and NASA Administrator James E. Webb.
India's first satellite-tracking station had been opened at Uttar Pradesh State Observatory, Nainital, one of 12 such stations established by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Gen. Bernard A. Schriever (USAF) stated in interview with Space Business Daily that the U.S. was ahead of the U.S.S.R. in basic space sciences, but that U.S.S.R. led in space boosters and in bioastronautics.
Ten Air Force pilots emerged from simulated space cabin in which they had spent the last month, participating in psychological test to determine how long a team of astronauts could work efficiently on a prolonged mission in space. Project director Earl Alluisi said the experiment had "far exceeded our expectations." University of Maryland announced its Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics had received $18,179 grant from NASA, for work on an interplanetary space probe to measure solar winds and study interplanetary plasma (mixture of ions and electrons).
Reported that USAF had contracted with Westinghouse Research Laboratories for modification for a solid-state fuel cell to determine its technical feasibility for aerospace applications and to evaluate the cell in comparison with other space power systems.
Construction of a new institute of medical radiology in the U.S.S.R. was nearing completion, it was reported. Institute's purpose was to study the biological effect of ionizing radiation, the potentially poisonous effect of radioactive substances, possible means of protecting human beings and animals against radiation of all types, ways of using radioactive isotopes and other radiation sources for diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, and effects of radioactive fallout.
Speaking before the Lunar Exploration Conference in Blacksburg, Va., Nobel physicist Dr. Harold C. Urey said that modern space science indicated the moon and the earth originated independently. It appeared likely that the moon was drawn into earth orbit early in the history of the solar system, some time after both bodies had been essentially formed in their present sizes and masses. He said that science now tended to disprove two widely accepted theories on the moon's origin: (1) that the moon had been broken from the earth by tidal action, and (2) that the moon and earth had originated together in one gaseous cloud.
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