May 8 1962
From The Space Library
May 8-10: Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space sponsored by NASA was held at Century 21 Exposition in Seattle, Wash.
May 8: In message to the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space at Seattle, President Kennedy noted that the U.S. was already "working hand in hand with scientific groups of fifty nations.
"Ours is an open society and the benefits of our space program will continue to flow throughout the world. It is my hope that the Soviet Union will cooperate constructively in the proposals which we have made so that all peoples will gain in the improvement of weather observation, communications systems and the manifold output of the peaceful application of space technology." X-15 No. 2 flown at 3,511 mph and to about 73,000 feet by Major Robert A. Rushworth (USAF) with 103 seconds of rocket power in heat resistance test. Temperature of tail surface was reported to have reached near 1,250° F.
First launch of Atlas-Centaur was unsuccessful; vehicle exploded 55 seconds after launch over Cape Canaveral. Flight plan called for starting 15,000-lb.-thrust liquid-hydrogen second stage at 300-mile altitude.
NASA selected three companies for negotiation of production contracts for major components of the Apollo spacecraft navigation and guidance system in support of MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory initial development of the complex Apollo navigation-guidance system, a contract let last August. Companies selected from 21 bidders, which will work under Manned Spacecraft Center contract were: A.C. Spark Plug Division of General Motors Corp. to fabricate the inertial guidance with associated electronics, ground support, and checkout system, and to assemble and test all components of the system; Raytheon Company to manufacture on-board digital computer; and Kollsman Instrument Corp. to build the optical subsystems including a space sextant, sun finders, and navigation display equipment.
NASA scientists Theodore P. Steelier and James E. Mulligan reported at COSPAR meeting that "a complex series of solar events" in November 1960 caused the inner Van Allen radiation belt to "dump" its captive high energy particles along the earth's magnetic field. This event disrupted a rocket experiment, but it detected an ultraviolet aurora with almost no visible counterpart. Indications were that the inner belt was soon refilled and returned to "normal." Edmond C. Buckley, NASA’s Director of Tracking and Data Acquisition, told the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space meeting in Seattle that JPL's successful radar tracking of Venus over a two-month period in 1961, which resulted in a 200-times improvement in the measurement of the Astronomical Unit, was actually a by-product, though an important one, of a rigorous systems test of the Deep Space Net and of several prototype pieces of equipment that had been developed for the Net by JPL.
Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences reported out Communications Satellite Bill S. 2814, which was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee.
U.S.S.R. turned down proposal to show FRIENDSHIP 7 capsule in the "space medicine" section of the Leningrad Medical Exhibition next month. It was stated that the spacecraft would have "no purpose in a medicine exhibit."
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