Dec 1 1959

From The Space Library

Twelve nations signed a treaty making the Antarctic continent a preserve for scientific research, immune from political and military strife. Signatories were Argentina, Australia, Great Britain, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, Belgium, Japan, South Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Legal experts have suggested that the Antarctic Treaty provided a precedent for similar agreements demilitarizing the moon and other bodies in space.

U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Legal Problems of Space Exploration: A Symposium, 87th Congress, 1st Session (1961), pp. 1297-1303.

New Bureau of Naval Weapons, consolidating the Bureau of Ordnance and the Bureau of Aeronautics, began functioning.

USAF reduced order for the B-70 bomber to only two prototypes.

S. Rept. 1014, Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, “Project Mercury: Man-in-Space Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration” published.