Aug 17 1962
From The Space Library
U.S. Senate passed Administration communications satellite bill (66 to 11 vote), ending 20-day debate and liberal bloc opposition which had invoked seldom-used anti-filibuster rules. Bill was returned to the House, which had previously passed a slightly different version.
NASA selected Dalmo-Victor Co. and Amelco, Inc., to negotiate for R&D and production services for initial systems of Satan (satellite automatic tracking antenna). New antenna system would orient itself automatically to orbiting spacecraft and would be a major improvement in NASA's worldwide Minitrack system.
NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced appointment of Dr. Howard S. Turner to the Industrial Applications Advisory Committee. Dr. Turner was vice president for R&D of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. and formerly president and a director of Industrial Research Institute.
DOD spokesmen considered there was nothing in the space flights of VOSTOK III and IV that DOD had not anticipated, and that the double flight appeared to have no immediate military significance.
In joint interview of Cosmonauts Nikolayev and Popovich published in Soviet newspaper Izvestia, Major Nikolayev stated: "In an unstrapped condition in the cabin I carried out communications and ate. In a condition of weightlessness one can live and work completely. . . . In accordance with the schedule, we got up, conducted scientific work, maintained communications with the earth, made new entries in the flight log. We also had a special time for rest. In general, we worked and lived just as we do at home." Lt. Col. Popovich said that there had been a lot of work to do in collecting the maximum amount of scientific data. . . . "We were not idle." Reported that launch of NASA's second Mariner Venus probe would be delayed until August 26 or later, because of "unusual" failures in rocket's guidance equipment revealed during prelaunch checkout at Cape Canaveral.
Navy's Polaris A-2 missile, testing components for A-3 version, exploded a few seconds after launching at Cape Canaveral.
Seven newspaper pages were transmitted by facsimile from Westrex Corp. laboratories, New York; to Andover, Maine; to TELSTAR satellite; and back in successful 12-minute communications experiment.
Announced that American Cable & Radio Corp., subsidiary of IT&T, would conduct the first experiments in sending teletype messages between the U.S. and Great Britain via TELSTAR communications satellite. Tests would be made between August 20 and September 7, in cooperation with AT&T and British Post Office Department.
British Air Ministry announced that three U.S. Lockheed U-2 aircraft would be stationed at RAF station at Upper Heyford, England, to conduct high-altitude weather research and atmospheric sampling for radioactive dust in flights over international waters in the North Atlantic area. Announcement said that results of studies would be published and would contribute to the work of technical committees of the United Nations.
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