Jul 8 1980
From The Space Library
WFC observed the 35th anniversary of the launch on July 4, 1945, of its first research rocket, a 17-foot Tiamat. Since it became a rocket range, Wallops Island had seen the launch of about 12,000 research vehicles of from 1 to 7 stages, sent as high as 19,000 miles above the Atlantic at speeds over 38,000 mph, and the launch of 19 satellites. From Wallops, rhesus monkeys Sam and Miss Sam rode into space on a Little Joe booster in 1959-60 to test the Mercury spacecraft before Alan B. Shepard took it into space; first test of the Echo balloon also occurred here.
Early research at Wallops collected aerodynamic data at transonic and low supersonic speeds as part of the push to break the sound barrier; today, the launches gathered data on space, aeronautics, and characteristics of aerospace flight and tested ideas and devices for future spaceflight.
NASAs predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), put its Pilotless Aircraft Research Station on Wallops Island under the direction of LaRC; its mission was aeronautical research to supplement wind-tunnel and laboratory work at LaRC. When NASA came into being in 1958 and took over LaRC and other field centers and research facilities, it put the Wallops station directly under NASA Headquarters and renamed it Wallops Flight Center in 1974. (WFC Release 80-8)
NASA had no plans to carry tourists into outer space, the Washington Star said, even though its offices around the United States had floods of requests for rides since the Space Shuttle project was unveiled in 1977. At least 15,000 people had tried to book seats, and 1,200 new requests arrived each week. "Non-astronauts may be aboard some missions to conduct experiments," said Chester M. Lee, NASAs director of Space Transportation Systems, "but we're not ready to book tourists. There is absolutely no provision or thought for non-working passengers." (W Star, July 8/80, A-2)
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