Jul 25 1962

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Space News for this day. (2MB PDF)

NASA Wallops Station launched Aerobee sounding rocket with GSFC-University of Colorado 208-lb. payload to an altitude of 68 miles, experiment orienting an ultraviolet spectrophotometer in the direction of the Sun to study wave-length profile as a function of attitude and to calibrate instrumentation for future satellite flights.

NAS Committee on Atmospheric Sciences submitted three-volume report on "The Atmospheric Sciences, 1961-70" to Dr. Jerome Wiesner, Special Assistant for Science and Technology to the President. Prepared under Dr. Sverre Petterssen of the University of Chicago and Dr. C. Gordon Little of the National Bureau of Standards, the report recommended: (1) a tripled funding of scientific research in the atmospheric sciences over the next 10 years; (2) university output of doctorates in the atmospheric sciences be increased by a factor of at least four or five; (3) universities must broaden and strengthen their programs to become national centers of academic and scientific excellence; and (4) Government research agencies must develop more rigorous research and educational programs.

Two-stage Caleb rocket successfully air-launched over PMR from Navy F4H Phantom jet piloted by Lt. A. Newman (USN), Caleb reaching an altitude of 1,000 miles with 120-lb. NRL payload designed to measure ion composition of the earth's upper atmosphere. Project Hi-Hoe, of which this shot was a part, was a series of inexpensive air-launched high-altitude probes under development by the Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake.

NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston invited eleven firms to submit research and development proposals for the lunar excursion module (LEA intended for use in lunar orbital rendezvous (LOR) flights of the multimanned Apollo spacecraft.

Thor booster carrying nuclear warhead for atmospheric test (Operation Dominic) was destroyed on pad at Johnston Island; reportedly there were "no injuries to personnel" and "no hazard from radioactivity." Lockheed Propulsion Co. announced successful static firing of 12-inch-diameter, solid-propellant (polycarbutene) motor at —75°. Spokesman said: "In more than 100 firings of polycarbutene motors ranging from 4 inches to 120 inches in diameter, and under environmental conditions from plus 200° to minus 100° we have a record of 100 percent success." In speech to the 1962 Boys Nation, NASA Administrator Webb spoke of the future of the space age: "There is an intimate connection between the space effort and the future of this nation." Mr. Webb was made an honorary member of Boys Nation and was presented a plaque for his "interest in the youth of the nation." Senator John L. McClellan addressed the Senate on S. 2631, designed to prevent strikes which would "obstruct our vital missile, space, and other programs, the success of which are indispensable to national prestige, security, and well-being." Pope John XXIII at Vatican summer palace stated to several thousand pilgrims that U.S. TELSTAR satellite had "helped strengthen brotherhood among peoples," its use "marked a new stage of peaceful progress." President Camel Abdel Nasser formally opened a jet aircraft factory, according to official Egyptian sources.

July 25-26: NA SA witnesses testified before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics on the subject of economies in the space program.

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