Nov 14 1963
From The Space Library
X-15 No. 1 was flown to 3,286 mph (mach 4.75) and 90,800-ft. altitude by Capt. Joseph Engle (USAF), his second X-15 flight. The X-15 was put through two sharp rolling turns to test aircraft stability at high speeds and as part of the pilot's familiarization training. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11/15/63; X-15 Project Office)
An MSC operations team finished a study at Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc., that indicated an astronaut could effect rendezvous in space using only his piloting skill and simple spacecraft radar. Although Apollo flight would have automatic guidance and navigation equipment and continuous assistance from ground tracking stations, developers of backup systems needed to know the minimum with which the astronaut could operate. (MSC Release 63-238)
MIT scientists reported the first observation of the elements of water in space. Supported by a. USAF 84-ft. parabolic radio telescope, a digital computer, and a radiation measuring device, the scientists detected hydroxyl radicals (OH) in space. Since the free hydrogen atom was detected in space in 1951, this means that the constituents of water have now been detected. MIT would now study the Milky Way on the frequencies absorbed by the hydroxyl radical and compare the resulting map of the dust and gas clouds with that already constructed from observation on the hydrogen absorption line. Information gained was expected to add greatly to knowledge of the structure and dynamics of the cosmos. (NYT, 11/14/63, 47)
The Chemistry and Energy Conversion Division at the Lewis Research Center began a major study of the feasibility of using thin-film solar cells for space power applications. (Lewis Chronology, 11)
President Kennedy was asked in his weekly news conference about the significance of the Soviet antimissile missile shown in Moscow for the first time on Nov. 7. He replied : "I don't think there is any doubt that they have an anti-missile, as do we. The problem, of course, is what you do with saturation. I don't think the Soviet Union or the United States have solved the problem of dealing, as I said before, with a whole arsenal of missiles coming at us at maximum speed with decoys. That, up to now, has been the impossible task." (Wash. Post, 11/15/63)
FAA's Miami air route traffic control center began area positive control (APC) radar separation service to jet aircraft flying above 24,000 ft., bringing 22 out of 25 FAA centers into the APC network and covering 90% of continental U.S. Centers at Great Falls, Mont., and Boston will join in 1964 and the St. Louis center would be phased out. The next step in the program would be to lower the APC floor from 24,000 ft. to 18,000 ft. (FAA Release 63-97)
Dr. Wernher von Braun, Director of NASA'S Marshall Space Flight Center, said in Kansas City that there was no conflict between science and religion. "Science stands to better understand creation. Religion stands to better understand the creator. Science seeks to harness the forces of nature around us; religion and ethics seek to harness the forces of nature within us." (Kansas City Times, 11/15/63)
U.K. announced it had established a space research station for satellite observation at the Sembawang naval air station in Singapore. (UPI, Wash. Daily News, 11/15/65)
Dr. Fred L. Whipple, Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, stated his conviction that a belt of comets never seen from earth lies near the path of the planet Pluto. It was this comet belt, he though, that accounted for the disturbances in the orbit of the planet Neptune. Pluto had sometimes been credited with this effect, but Dr. Whipple said that Pluto could scarcely weigh as much as the earth, while the objects producing such an effect would have to weigh ten times as much as the earth. (Science Service, NYT, 11/14/63, 3)
London Daily Herald reported Rolls Royce, Ltd., had submitted proposals to the British government for sending space probes to the moon and Mars by 1970, by converting the Blue Streak booster to use of liquid hydrogen. (UPI, Wash. Post, 11/15/63)
SAC crew launched a Titan I ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in a routine training launch. (AP, Wash,. Post, 11/15/63)
Soviet scientists reported that radio soundings had indicated that the surface of the moon was "hard and extremely porous," in contrast to other theories that the moon was covered with a thick layer of dust. (UPI, Wash. Daily News, 11/14/63; Izvestia, 11/15/63, 6, AFSS-T Trans.)
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