May 7 1962
From The Space Library
In speech in New Orleans, NASA Administrator James E. Webb reviewed the National Launch Vehicle Program, which "recognizes all the requirements of our nation in space, and includes the vehicles to fulfill them." He pointed out that of the ten launch vehicles "in the National Launch Vehicle Program, the two smallest rockets [Scout and Delta], and the four most powerful ones [Centaur, Saturn, Advanced Saturn, and Nova], have been, or are being, developed by NASA. The four of intermediate Size are adaptations of Air Force missile carriers, Thor, Atlas, and Titan." Mr. Webb pointed out the proximity to New Orleans of NASA’s Michoud Plant and the Mississippi Test Facility.
"Now that we have crossed the threshold of space," he concluded, "the benefits that can be gained for all mankind, the assurances to our national security that can be obtained, and the stimulus to our well-being that can be produced, are looming large on the horizon. . .. The important thing now is to make sure we are not behind in any area vital to our national security or our national leadership." NASA announced at Cape Canaveral MA-7 launching, scheduled for May 15 or afterward, would be delayed several days because of check-out problems with the Atlas booster.
In Voice of America broadcast, Dr. Christian J. Lambertsen of the University of Pennsylvania said that there is an increasing recognition of the role man can play in space exploration because "there are aspects of exploration which no machine yet conceived can carry out." He pointed out that "the only computer capable of all functions such as remembering, recognizing, learning, thinking, reasoning, judging, integrating, reacting, communicating, and logically altering a previously programmed sequence of events is man himself." He then reviewed the medicophysiological factors to be overcome for manned space flight, and he warned that. "even the practicability of truly extended flight outside the earth's atmosphere is not yet assured." Maj. Gherman S. Titov in San Francisco press conference continued to chide U.S. space program. He said that if he was asked to join a U.S. astronaut in a cooperative space mission: "I would be a bit afraid because there have, been quite a lot of failures in your program." And, he remarked, the MR-3 capsule was "not even good enough for flying in orbit."
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