Dec 18 1961
From The Space Library
Dr. Robert Jastrow, Chief of Theoretical Division and Director of the Institute for Space Studies, Goddard Space Flight Center, making the 25th annual Wright Brothers' Lecture before the Institute of Aerospace Sciences, reviewed progress in the space sciences, said the most exciting and fruitful area thus far had been investigation of "solar control over the atmosphere of the Earth, causes of weather activity in the lower atmosphere, and the structure of the upper atmosphere." NASA announced that the first station in a network of data-gathering stations for use with second-generation satellites had been completed near Fairbanks, Alaska. Site for the second of the $5 million installations, each with a high-gain antenna 85 feet in diameter, was announced to be Rosman, N.C., 40 miles southwest of Asheville.
USAF awarded an additional $52 million contract to North American Aviation for development of a prototype B-70 bomber, bringing to $267 million the amount allocated for the B-70.
Capsule from Discoverer XXXVI was ejected from orbit after 6 days and a record of 64 orbits, landed in the Pacific near Hawaii, was kept afloat by 3 USAF pararescue men until arrival of Navy destroyer.
USAF Minuteman ICBM successfully fired from a silo and traveled 3,600 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range, the second consecutive successful silo launching.
Successful test of a new way to steer large-size rockets was announced by United Technology Corp., an experimental method called liquid thrust vector control (TVC), in which a gas or liquid is sprayed into the exhaust path of a rocket engine, deflecting the exhaust and thereby turning the vehicle. The test was made with a 450,000-pound-thrust solid-fuel engine.
DOD summary statement on the X-15 program stated that to that date there had been 45 flights of the X-15, with planned performance achieved on 42 and the prime research objectives achieved on 40. The 98-percent launch success record of the X-15 was attributed to (1) use of alternate modes for subsystems and (2) the presence of a pilot to detect malfunctions in subsystems. This compared to a 43-percent launch record for an unmanned missile with no alternate modes in subsystems.
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