
               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1958

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American
Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915-1960
(Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1961), pp.
94-105.

1958

January 1: Strategic Air Command assigned responsibility for U.S.
operational ICBM capability; while the 672nd Strategic Missile Squadron,
first to be equipped with USAF Douglas Thor IRBM, was activated.

January 4: SPUTNIK I reentered the atmosphere and disintegrated.

---: American Rocket Society and the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel
issued a summary of their proposals for a National Space Establishment.
Preferably independent of the Department of Defense, but in any event not
under one of the military services, this establishment would be responsible
for the "broad cultural, scientific, and commercial objectives" of outer
space development.

January 9: In his state-of-the-Union message, President Eisenhower
reported: "In recognition of the need for single control in some of our
most advanced development projects, the Secretary of Defense has already
decided to concentrate into one organization all antimissile and satellite
technology undertaken within the Department of Defense."

January 11: James H. Doolittle, Chairman of the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics, announced that a special committee on space technology was
formed on November 21, 1957.

January 12: President Eisenhower, in answering the December 10, 1957,
letter of Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin regarding a summit conference
and disarmament proposed that the Soviet Union and the United States "agree
that outer space should be used only for peaceful purposes." This proposal
was compared with the 1946 offer of the United States to cease production
of nuclear weapons and dedicate atomic energy to peaceful uses, an offer
which was not accepted by the Soviet Union.

January 13: Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy testified before the House
Armed Services Committee: "Such long-range programs as the antimissile
missile and the military satellite programs are in the research and
exploratory development stages. They are important and must be pursued, but
they must not distract us from the speedy development of our other missile
systems. To handle them, I am establishing within the Department of Defense
an Advanced Research Projects Agency, which will be responsible to the
Secretary of Defense for the unified direction and management of the
antimissile missile program and for outer space projects."

---: In his budget message to Congress, President Eisenhower stated: "Funds
are provided for an expanded research and development effort on military
satellites and other outer space vehicles and on antimissile-missile
systems, to be carried out directly under the Secretary of Defense." The
budget for fiscal year 1959 showed that $340 million in new obligational
authority was being asked for the Advanced Research Projects Agency. No new
authorizations were sought for the International Geophysical Year, but
estimated obligations for earth satellite exploration of the upper
atmosphere under this program were $8,139,834 for fiscal year 1958 and $21
million for fiscal year 1959.

January 14: NACA issued a staff study entitled "A National Research Program
for Space Technology."

---: Senator Lyndon B. Johnson in a CBS radio address urged the United
States "to demonstrate its initiative before the United Nations by inviting
all member nations to join in this adventure into outer space together."

January 15: 4751st Air Defense Missile Wing to develop and conduct training
program for Bomarc units, and the 864th Strategic Missile Squadron to be
equipped with Jupiter IRBM, were both activated.

January 16: The NACA adopted resolution recommending that national space
program can be most effectively implemented by the cooperative effort of
the Department of Defense, the NACA, the National Academy of Sciences, and
the National Science Foundation, together with universities, research
institutions, and industrial companies of the Nation, with military
development and operation of space vehicles a responsibility of the
Department of Defense, and research and scientific space operations the
responsibility of the NACA.

---: Special Subcommittee on Outer Space Propulsion created by the Joint
Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, Senator Clinton P. Anderson as
chairman.

---: Secretary of State Dulles proposed the formation of an international
commission to insure the use of outer space exclusively for peaceful
purposes.

January 17: First launch of Navy Polaris test vehicle at Cape Canaveral.

January 27: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Director of the NACA, in a speech to the
Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, stressed the importance of a
well-planned and logical space program embracing both civilian and military
uses. He stated that the national space program should be under the joint
control of the Department of Defense, the NACA, the National Academy of
Sciences, and the National Science Foundation; in addition to research
flights, the NACA would "coordinate and conduct research in space
technology in its own laboratories and by contract in support of both
military and nonmilitary projects."

January 28: Thor IRBM successfully fired from Cape Canaveral, flew
prescribed course, and impacted in preselected area.

January 29: The DOD announced plans to establish the National Pacific
Missile Range (PMR) as part of the Naval Air Missile Test Center at Point
Mugu, Calif., the range to be designed for long-range guided missile and
ICBM testing.

January 31: EXPLORER I, first U.S. earth satellite, launched by modified
ABMA-JPL Jupiter-C, with U.S.-IGY scientific experiment of James A. Van
Allen, which discovered the radiation belt around the earth.

February 3: Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin in a letter to President
Eisenhower stated that the Soviet Union "is ready to examine also the
question of the intercontinental rockets if the Western powers are willing
to reach agreement to ban atomic and hydrogen weapons, to end tests
thereof, and to liquidate foreign military bases in other nations'
territories. In that case, an agreement on the use of outer space for
peaceful purposes only would unquestionably meet no difficulties."

---: Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California
Institute of Technology reported that initial data from EXPLORER I showed
that cosmic radiation on its orbit did not exceed 12 times the amount on
earth.

February 4: President Eisenhower directed James R. Killian, Jr., to head a
committee to study and make recommendations on the governmental
organization of the Nation's space and missile program.

February 5: Trial firing of IGY Vanguard (TV-3Bu) satellite failed at Cape
Canaveral, Fla., 57 seconds after launch.

February 6: The Senate passed S. Res. 256, creating a Special Committee on
Space and Astronautics to frame legislation for a national program of space
exploration and development.

February 7: The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was established by
the DOD, and Roy W. Johnson, a vice president of General Electric Co., was
appointed by Secretary of Defense McElroy as its Director. ARPA was placed
in charge of the Nation's outer space program.

February 10: First successful radar returns from Venus (27,530,000 miles
away) detected by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory Millstone Hill. It took 1 year
to process confirmation of this event.

---: Airman 1/C Donald G. Farrell spent the week of February 10-16 in a
space-cabin simulator at SAM, Randolph AFB, Tex.

February 14: "Basic Objectives of a Continuing Program of Scientific
Research in Outer Space," a report by the Technical Panel on the Earth
Satellite Program of the National Academy of Sciences IGY Committee, was
published. It proposed a program of space research extending beyond the
International Geophysical Year.

February 17: In a letter to Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin, President
Eisenhower repeated his plea for the dedication of outer space to peaceful
uses. Denying that this proposal was intended "to gain strategic advantages
for the United States," he stressed the urgency of dealing with outer space
before its use for military purposes had, like nuclear weapons, advanced to
the point where complete international control was almost impossible.

February 18: USAF revealed that an airflow speed of 32,400 mph had been
attained for one-tenth of a second in a wind tunnel test at the Arnold
Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tenn., on an undisclosed date.

February 21: U.S.S.R. fired a single-stage rocket to 294-mile altitude with
3,340 pounds of experiments for measuring ion composition of the
atmosphere, pressure, temperature, micrometeorites, etc., according to the
Soviet IGY Committee.

February 26: James H. Doolittle, Chairman of the NACA, testified before
Senate Committee on Appropriations for "four years ago, about 10 percent of
our activities were associated with space; two years ago, about 25 percent;
and in 1959 we will be devoting almost half of our time on missiles,
antimissiles, and satellites and other space objectives."

February 28: Department of Defense assigned responsibility for land-based
ICBM/IRBM development to the USAF, and directed it to develop Minuteman
solid-propellant ICBM capable of being launched from underground sites.

During February: NACA Langley's PARD conceived and placed in operation the
"opposed gun" technique for studying projectile impacts.

March 5: EXPLORER II launched by Army Jupiter-C failed to orbit due to
failure of last stage to ignite, a joint JPL-ABMA project.

---: H. Res. 496, passed by the House of Representatives, established a
Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration to investigate the
problems of outer space and to submit recommendations for the control and
development of astronautical resources.

March 15: U.S.S.R. Foreign Ministry statement proposed that ban on use of
outer space for military purposes, as suggested by President Eisenhower, be
coupled with the liquidation of foreign military bases in Europe, the
Middle East, and North Africa.

---: Contract awarded for inertial guidance system for the Titan ICBM to
American Bosch Arma by the USAF.

March 17: Second U.S.-IGY satellite, VANGUARD I, launched into orbit with
life expectancy of perhaps a 1,000 years, a highly successful scientific
satellite which proved that the earth is slightly pear shaped. Operating on
solar-powered batteries, it was still transmitting after 3 years in orbit.

---: An experiment testing the behavior of crews under conditions of long
confinement was concluded at Wright Air Development Center, as five Air
Force officers ended a 5-day simulated space flight.

March 18: Dr. Herbert F. York was appointed as Chief Scientist for DOD's
Advanced Research Projects Agency.

March 19: Space program for the United States proposed by the U.S.-IGY
Satellite Panel.

March 21: Two-stage monorail rocket-propelled sled exceeded 2,700 mph at
Holloman AFB.

March 23: Navy demonstrated first dummy test of Polaris missile from
"popup" launcher off San Clemente Island, from submerged launching
platform.

March 26: Third U.S.-IGY Satellite, EXPLORER III, a joint ABMA-JPL project,
successfully launched by Army Juno II, yielded valuable data on radiation
belt, micrometeorite impacts, and temperature before returning to earth on
June 27.

---: President Eisenhower in a brief statement released the President's
Science Advisory Committee's report, "Introduction to Outer Space: an
Explanatory Statement." This report set forth the basic factors making the
advancement of space technology a national necessity and explained to the
nontechnical reader the principles and potentialities of space travel. The
many uses of space technology for scientific and military purposes were
summarized, and a timetable for carrying out these objectives was included.

---: Military telephone and telegraph system using the troposphere to
bounce radio signals over long distances, called "White Alice," was
activated.

March 27: President Eisenhower gave his approval to the plans for outer
space exploration announced by Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy. The
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was to undertake several space
projects including the launching of certain earth satellites and five space
probes as a part of this country's contribution to the IGY program. The Air
Force Ballistic Missile Division was authorized by ARPA to carry out three
lunar probes with a Thor-Vanguard system, and lunar probes utilizing the
Jupiter-C rocket were assigned to the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.

April 2: In a message to Congress, President Eisenhower proposed the
establishment of a National Aeronautics and Space Agency into which the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics would be absorbed. This agency
was to have responsibility for civilian space science and aeronautical
research. It would conduct research in these fields in its own facilities
or by contract and would also perform military research required by the
military departments. Interim projects pertaining to the civilian program
which were under the direction of the Advanced Research Projects Agency
would be transferred to the civilian space agency. A National Aeronautics
and Space Board, appointed by the President and composed of eminent persons
outside the Government and representatives of interested Government
agencies (with at least one member from the Department of Defense), was to
assist the President and the Director of the National Aeronautics and Space
Agency.

---: Original budget request of $340 million in new obligational authority
for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for fiscal year 1959 was raised
to $520 million for advanced research projects in a letter from the
Director of the Bureau of the Budget, Maurice H. Stans, which was
transmitted to Congress by President Eisenhower.

April 3: In a message to Congress on the organization of the Nation's
Defense Establishment, President Eisenhower recommended creation of the
position of Director of Defense Research and Engineering, which would have
a higher rank and replace the present Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Research and Engineering.

April 5: USAF Atlas ICBM was successfully flown from Cape Canaveral, Fla.,
to the impact area some 600 miles away.

April 8: USAF KC-135 Stratotanker ended a nonstop, nonrefueled record
distance jet flight of 10,228 miles, from Tokyo to Lajes Field, Azores.

April 13: SPUTNIK II reentered earth's atmosphere.

April 14: Proposal for a National Aeronautics and Space Agency drafted by
the Bureau of the Budget was submitted to the Congress by the President,
and was contained by the following congressional bills:

S. 3609, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and Senator Styles Bridges

H.R. 11881, Representative John W. McCormack

H.R. 11882, Representative Leslie C. Arends

H.R. 11887, Representative Harry G. Haskell, Jr.

H.R. 11888, Representative Kenneth Keating

H.R. 11946, Representative William H. Natcher

H.R. 11961, Representative Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr.

H.R. 11964, Representative James G. Fulton

H.R. 11996, Representative Gordon L. McDonough

April 15: Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration of the
House of Representatives opened hearings on outer space leading toward
formulation of a national space program.

April 16: Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger flown to world altitude record of
76,828 feet for ground-launched planes, piloted by Cdr. George C. Watkins,
at Edwards AFB.

April 17: Simulated 7-day trip to the moon made by six Navy men in chamber
at Philadelphia Naval Base.

---: British Skylark reached an altitude of 90 miles at Woomera, Australia.

April 23: USAF Thor-Able missile was launched from Cape Canaveral in a
reentry test; flew short of its goal and the nose cone was not recovered.
The nose cone carried a mouse as a biomedical experiment.

April 24: Navy rocket sled attained speed of 2,827.5 mph at China Lake,
Calif.

April 25: First successful launching and erection in space of a 12-foot
inflatable sphere for air density measurements, using a Nike-Cajun booster
system, by NACA Langley's PARD at Wallops Island, Va.

April 27: Pravda reported on Soviet satellite findings that Laika's
heartbeat had taken three times as long as expected to return to normal.
Weightlessness affecting the nerve centers was suggested as the cause. The
Soviet report disclosed that the density and temperature of the atmosphere
at a given altitude were not uniform, and that cosmic ray intensity was 40
percent greater at 400 miles than at 135 miles.

April 28: Vanguard (TV-5) failed to orbit due to malfunction of minor
components in the firing circuit of third stage.

May 1: Scientific findings from the two Explorer satellites disclosed an
unexpected band of high-intensity radiation extending from 600 miles above
earth to possibly an 8,000-mile altitude. The radiation was described by
Dr. James A. Van Allen as "1,000 times as intense as could be attributed to
cosmic rays."

---: Responsibility for the Project Vanguard portion of the U.S.-IGY
scientific satellite program was transferred from Navy to Advanced Research
Project Agency monitorship by the Department of Defense.

May 6-7: Lt. Comdr. M. Ross (USNR) and A Mikesell (Naval Observatory) used
open gondola STRATO-LAB balloon to reach 40,000-feet altitude from Crosby,
Minn.; Mikesell becoming the first astronomer to observe stratosphere, and
it was first flight in which crew remained in stratosphere in open basket
after sunset.

May 7: Flying a Lockheed F-104A Starfighter at Edwards AFB, Calif., Maj.
Howard C. Johnson (USAF) set a 91,249-foot world altitude record for
ground-launched planes.

May 11: Lt. Comdr. Jack Neiman completed 44-hour simulated high altitude
flight at between 80,000 and 100,000 feet in pressure chamber at NAS
Norfolk.

May 14-17: Symposium on "Possible Uses of Earth Satellites for Life
Sciences Experiments" held in Washington, D.C., under sponsorship of
National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, and American
Institute of Biological Science.

May 15: SPUTNIK III placed into orbit by the U.S.S.R. with a total payload
weight of about 7,000 pounds, and called "flying laboratory." (Satellite
almost 3,000 pounds.)

May 16: In level flight over a 10-mile course at Edwards AFB, Calif., Capt.
Walter W. Irwin (USAF), flying a F-104A Starfighter, set a world speed
record of 1,404.19 mph.

May 18: First U.S. full-size tactical nose cone was recovered from the
Atlantic Ocean 4 hours after launching from Cape Canaveral on a Jupiter
missile.

May 20: NACA-USAF Memorandum of Understanding signed, "Principles for
Participation of NACA in Development and Testing of the Air Force System
464L Hypersonic Boost Glide Vehicle (Dyna-Soar I)."

May 24: Gravity load of 83 g's for a fraction of a second withstood by Capt
E. L. Breeding in deceleration of a rocket sled at Holloman AFB.

May 27: First USAF Republic F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber delivered to
the USAF.

---: First launching of production Vanguard satellite vehicle (SLV-1)
generally successful with exception of second-stage burnout which prevented
achievement of satisfactory orbit.

During May: Four-stage rocket launched a 9-pound inflatable sphere to
50-mile altitude at NACA Wallops Island.

---: Dr. Abe Silverstein, Associate Director of Lewis Flight Propulsion
Laboratory, was transferred to NACA headquarters to help plan the
organization and programs of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, subsequently becoming Director of the Office of Space
Flight Programs.

June 3: USAF and NACA jointly announce details on the inertial guidance
system to be used on the X-15 research aircraft, a flight instrument system
to allow the pilot to prevent the aircraft from reentering dense atmosphere
too steeply or too shallow.

June 4: USAF Thor flight tested for the first time from a tactical-type
launcher at Cape Canaveral.

June 8: Test firing of a full-scale upper stage rocket under simulated
altitude conditions was made in an engine test cell at the USAF's Arnold
Engineering Development Center at Tullahoma, Tenn.

June 16: Phase I development contract for Dyna-Soar boost-glide orbital
spacecraft awarded by USAF to two teams of contractors headed by Martin Co.
(Bell, American Machine & Foundry, Bendix, Goodyear, and
Minneapolis-Honeywell) and the Boeing Co. (Aerojet, General Electric,
Ramo-Wooldridge, North American, and Chance Vought).

---: Pacific Missile Range, Point Mugu, Calif., officially established
under Navy management to provide range support to the Department of Defense
and other governmental agencies engaged in missile, satellite, and space
vehicle research, development, evaluation and training.

June 26: Production Vanguard satellite (SLV-2) failed to orbit due to
failure of second stage, but demonstrated structural integrity of tankage
which withstood pressure exceeding design values.

June 27: First successful launching by NACA Langley's Aircraft Research
Division of a Mach 18 five-stage rocket vehicle at Wallops Island, Va.

---: USAF strategic missile squadron successfully completed first military
launch of a Snark intercontinental missile at Cape Canaveral.

June 28: EXPLORER III reentered the earth's atmosphere.

June 30: The NACA reported that 50 percent of its research effort was being
devoted to problems associated with missiles and space vehicles.

During June: Space Science Board of 16 members established by National
Academy of Sciences, with Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner as Chairman, to advise and
assist in formulation of U.S. post-IGY space research program and to foster
cooperation with space scientists in other nations.

---: NACA-USAF meetings concerning applicability of all solid-propellant
launch vehicle (later named Scout) to meet USAF requirements.

---: Recovery of first data capsule at AMR after successful separation from
a Thor IRBM at reentry.

July 1: Japanese Kappa-6tw two-stage rocket flown to 30-mile altitude over
Michikawa Rocket Center, Japan.

July 8: First launching of a 10-inch-diameter spherical rocket motor with
spin stabilization, at NACA Wallops Island.

July 9: Second AF Thor-Able reentry test vehicle was launched, traveling
6,000 miles (no nose cone recovery).

July 17: Nose cone of Jupiter missile successfully recovered after
intermediate range flight.

July 21: Standing Committee on Science and Astronautics established by
House of Representatives.

July 23: Thor-Able reentry test vehicle made another successful 6,000-mile
flight; the nose cone and mouse passenger were not recovered.

July 23-31: Feasibility of creating or destroying cloud formations by
release of carbon black was established in tests conducted off Florida
coast by Navy Weather Service's Comdr. N. Brango and Dr. Florence Van
Straten.

July 24: Senate established Standing Committee on Aeronautical and Space
Sciences.

July 26: EXPLORER IV, fourth U.S.-IGY satellite, successfully launched by
Army Jupiter-C.

---: Capt. Ivan C. Kincheloe (USAF) killed when F-104 crashed at Edwards
AFB. He had been scheduled to test-fly the X-15.

July 26-27: Comdrs. M. Ross and L. Lewis (USN) reached maximum altitude of
82,000 feet in STRATO-LAB HIGH III flight from Crosby, Minn., which set new
unofficial record for strato-spheric flight of 34.7 hours.

July 29: President Eisenhower signed H.R. 12575, making it the National
Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-568). In his statement, he
said: "The present National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) with
its large and competent staff and well-equipped laboratories will provide
the nucleus for NASA. The NACA has an established record of research
performance and of cooperation with the armed services. The coordination of
space exploration responsibilities with NACA's traditional aeronautical
research functions is a natural evolution . . . [one which] should have an
even greater impact on our future."

July 30: President Eisenhower requested $125 million to initiate the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

---: Successful proof tests subjecting humans to over 20 times the force of
gravity were conducted, with NACA's Maxime Faget conceiving concept of the
contour couch on centrifuge at Navy AMAL, Johnsville, Pa. This couch became
integral part of the Project Mercury concept.

July 31: Army Redstone No. 50 successfully fired off Johnson Island in the
South Pacific as part of Project Hardtack.

---: First comprehensive Sputnik data was released by U.S.S.R. to foreign
scientists.

August 1: AFBMD announced development of a complete inertial guidance
system to replace radio inertial system now in use.

August 2: First full-powered flight of USAF Atlas ICBM using both the
sustainer and booster engines.

August 6: Rocketdyne Division of North American announced an Air Force
contract for a 1-million-pound thrust engine.

August 7: First launching of USAF Bomarc interceptor missile from Cape
Canaveral on a signal sent by the SAGE Control Center at Kingston, N.Y.

August 8: President nominated Dr. T. Keith Glennan to be Administrator of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden
as Deputy Administrator.

August 11: Army Redstone No. 51 successfully fired off Johnson Island in
the South Pacific as part of Project Hardtack.

---: After program review and discussions, NACA drafted specifications of
the Scout launch vehicle based upon preliminary designs for a hypervelocity
research vehicle and orbiting system.

August 14: Nominations of Dr. T. K. Glennan and Dr. H. L. Dryden were
approved by the Senate Special Committee on Space and Astronautics.

August 15: Saturn Project initiated by ARPA order to Army Ordnance Missile
Command, and it was assigned to Redstone Arsenal.

---: Dr. T. Keith Glennan confirmed by the Senate as Administrator of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

---: Federal Aviation Agency created with passage by Congress of the
Federal Aviation Act.

August 17: USAF Thor-Able-1 launch vehicle with first U.S.-IGY lunar
payload exploded 77 seconds after launch because of a failure of
first-stage engine.

August 19: Dr. T. Keith Glennan sworn in as Administrator, and Dr. Hugh L.
Dryden as Deputy Administrator, of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration; 40 days later, as of October 1, 1958, NASA was declared to
be ready to function.

---: Navy Tartar surface-to-air missile made successful first flight and
interception at NOTS China Lake, Calif.

August 21: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics held its final
meeting, and invited Dr. T. Keith Glennan, newly appointed Administrator of
NASA, to receive best wishes for the future.

August 24: EXPLORER V successfully launched by ABMA-JPL Jupiter-C and all
stages fired, but orbit not achieved because of collision between parts of
booster and instrument compartment.

August 25: Ninth IAF meeting began at The Hague, which witnessed the first
colloquium on space law.

August 26: Gen. Thomas D. White, USAF, wrote James Doolittle, Chairman,
NACA: "There was regret at the passing of an agency that for 43 years has
set the world's standard in aeronautical research. . . . There has always
been for us in the Air Force, the knowledge that NACA was ready to help in
any aerodynamic trouble."

---: Two mice lived 36 days sealed in a chamber and dependent upon oxygen
production of algae in an experiment at the University of Texas.

August 27: The first Argus experiment (ARPA) was conducted (based upon
October 1957 proposal of N. C. Christofilos of the University of
California, Livermore), in which a small A-bomb was detonated beyond the
atmosphere over the South Atlantic. Launched from the rocketship Norton
Sound, the initial flash was followed by an auroral luminescence extending
upward and downward along the magnetic lines where the burst occurred.

---: Soviet Union reportedly sent two dogs to an altitude of 281 miles and
safely returned them to earth, single-stage rocket boosting a total payload
of 3,726 pounds.

---: President Eisenhower signed Public Law 85-766 which included $80
million for NASA, including $50 million for research and development, $25
million for construction and expenses, and $5 million for salaries and
expenses.

August 29: Second full-powered flight of USAF Atlas ICBM traveled 3,000
miles with radio-inertial guidance.

August 30: The second Argus small A-bomb detonation beyond the atmosphere
was conducted in the South Atlantic.

During August: In 3-week period, 19 five-stage Argo E5 sounding rockets
were launched in USAF-NACA program to measure radiation caused by Project
Argus, rockets reaching 500-mile altitude and were launched from Wallops
Island, AMR, and Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico.

---: Experimental "weightlessness" flights in C-131B aircraft begun at
Wright Air Development Center.

September 2: U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge announced that United States
would propose a plan for international cooperation in the exploration of
outer space to the United Nations.

September 4: President Eisenhower appointed Detlev W. Bronk, president of
the National Academy of Sciences; William A. M. Burden; James H. Doolittle;
and Alan T. Waterman, Director of the NSF, to the National Aeronautics and
Space Council. Additionally, the Space Council including the Administrator
of NASA, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and the Chairman
of the AEC as statutory members.

September 6: The third of the Argus small A-bomb detonations beyond the
atmosphere was conducted over the South Atlantic. Instruments of EXPLORER
IV satellite recorded and reported to ground stations resultant electron
densities, subsequently reported by James Van Allen.

September 7: Black Knight missile of the United Kingdom was launched from
the Australian range at Woomera to an altitude of over 300 miles.

September 8: Unmanned ONR balloon carried telescope and camera to an
altitude of 104,600 feet.

---: Wearing a Goodrich lightweight full-pressure suit, Lt. R. H. Tabor
(USN) completed a 72-hour simulated flight in pressure chamber at NAS
Norfolk, in which he was subjected to altitude conditions as high as
139,000 feet.

September 17: Joint NASA-ARPA Manned Satellite Panel established to make
final recommendation for manned space flight program.

September 24: First senior staff meeting of the newly created National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) held, with Dr. T. Keith Glennan
as Administrator, and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden as Deputy Administrator.

---: KC-135 jet Stratotanker lifted 77,350-pound payload to an altitude of
1.25 miles.

---: First use of Sidewinder aircraft rocket with heatseeker nose, by
Chinese Nationalist F-86's over the Formosa Straits. Chinese Nationalists
claimed 10 Communist planes.

---: General Electric delivered first prototype of MIT-developed Polaris
guidance system.

September 25: Dr. T. Keith Glennan signed proclamation declaring that "as
of the close of business September 30, 1958, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration has been organized and is prepared to discharge the
duties and exercise the powers conferred on it." Entered upon the Federal
Register, this proclamation instituted the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration as of October 1, 1958.

---: First launching of an Exos sounding rocket in USAF-NASA joint effort
from Wallops Island, Va.

September 26: Vanguard (SLV-3) reached 265 miles' altitude and was
destroyed 9,200 miles downrange over Central Africa on reentry into the
atmosphere.

---: Boeing B-52D set a world distance in a closed-circuit record of
6,233.981 miles, with Lt. Col. V. L. Sandacz at the controls.

September 28: Nike-Asp test flight from Navy LSD Point Defiance near Puka
Island reached 800,000 feet, the highest altitude ever reached by
ship-launched rocket, in preliminary test of Nike-Asp for use in IGY solar
eclipse studies.

September 29: United States announced as policy that all measures to
prevent contamination of the moon would be taken in all lunar probes.

During September: Saturn design studies authorized to proceed at Redstone
Arsenal for development of 1.5-million-pound-thrust cluster first stage.

---: Dr. W. Albert Noyes was appointed chairman of U.S. committee to draft
proposals for international cooperation in the space sciences for the
consideration of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).

October 1: First official day of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). Existing NACA facilities, personnel, policies, and
advisory committees were transferred to NASA, and the NACA laboratories
were renamed Research Centers.

---: By Executive order of the President, DOD responsibilities for the
remaining U.S.-IGY satellite and space probe projects were transferred to
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; included were Project
Vanguard, and the four lunar probes and three satellite IGY projects
remaining, which had previously been assigned by ARPA to AFBMD and ABMA.
Also transferred were a number of engine development research programs.

October 2: Executive Board of the International Council of Scientific
Unions (ICSU) proposed a plan to establish a Committee on Space Research,
which became known as COSPAR.

October 4: Vandenberg AFB, first operational ICBM base in free world, was
dedicated.

---: Jet transatlantic passenger service inaugurated by British Overseas
Airways.

October 7: NASA formally organized Project Mercury to: (1) place manned
space capsule in orbital flight around the earth; (2) investigate man's
reactions to and capabilities in this environment; and (3) recover capsule
and pilot safely. A NASA Space Task Group organized at Langley Research
Center drew up specifications for the Mercury capsule, based on studies by
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics during the preceding 12
months, and on discussions with the Air Force which had been conducting
related studies.

October 8: U.S.S.R. supplied telemetry code of SPUTNIK III to other IGY
members, covering only radiation measurements.

--: In MAN HIGH III balloon launched from Holloman AFB, Lt. Clifton M.
McClure attained a near-record altitude of 99,900 feet.

October 11: PIONEER I, U.S.-IGY space probe under direction of NASA and
with the AFBMD as executive agent, launched from AMR, Cape Canaveral, Fla.,
by a Thor-Able-I booster. It raveled 70,700 miles before returning to
earth, determined radial extent of great radiation belt, first observations
of earth's and interplanetary magnetic field, and first measurements of
micrometeorite density in interplanetary space.

October 12: Naval Research Laboratory rocket firings in Danger Island
region of the South Pacific from U.S.S. Point Defiance, reached 139, 148,
152, and 150 miles altitude to chart solar spectrum in the utraviolet and
X-ray portion.

October 14: NASA requested transfer of Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the
space activities of Army Redstone Arsenal to NASA.

October 15: First of a series of three X-15 experimental rocket-powered
manned research aircraft was rolled out at the Los Angeles plant of North
American Aviation, Inc., in the joint USAF-USN-NASA program.

October 21: Three weeks after NASA officially began operating, prospective
contractors were invited to a briefing at NASA headquarters on development
of 11/2-million-pound-thrust engine.

---: First launching of two USAF Bomarc missiles within less than 10
seconds of each other at Cape Canaveral; launches signaled from SAGE at
Kingston, N.Y., and both missiles scored successful intercepts against
different target aircraft.

October 23: NASAwith the Army as executive agentattempted to launch a
12-foot-diameter inflatable satellite of micro-thin plastic covered with
aluminum foil known as BEACON. Launched from AMR by a Juno Ia modified
Redstone, the payload prematurely separated prior to booster burnout.

October 26: Pan American World Airways began regular daily jet service
between New York and Paris using Boeing 707's.

October 30: William M. Holaday appointed by the President to be Chairman of
the NASA-DOD Civilian-Military Liaison Committee (CMLC).

During October: Air Force awarded contract Pratt & Whitney for Centaur
vehicle with hydrogen-burning chamber based on research of Lewis Research
Center between 1953 and 1957. Centaur project later transferred to NASA.

November 6: Army completed Redstone flight testing with a perfect 250-mile
shot.

November 7: Bidders conference held by NASA on manned-satellite capsule for
Project Mercury.

November 8: Second U.S.-IGY space probe under direction of NASA with Air
Force as executive agent, PIONEER II, was launched from AMR. Unseparated
third and fourth stages reached an altitude of about 1,000 miles and flew
some 7,500 miles before burning out.

November 14: First launch of a 3,750,000-cubic-foot plastic balloon at
Holloman AFB; payload was parachute test vehicle for development of
high-Mach parachute systems.

November 15: First meeting of COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) proposed
bylaws and rules for the approval of the ICSU, at London.

November 19: United States and 19 other nations jointly introduced
resolution in U.N. General Assembly calling for creation of ad hoc
committee to bring about full international cooperation in the peaceful
uses of outer space.

November 21: NASA formed new Special Committee on Life Sciences to provide
advice on human factors, medical, and allied problems on NASA's manned
space vehicle program.

November 26: Project Mercury, U.S. manned-satellite program, was officially
named by NASA.

November 28: USAF Atlas made its first successful operational test flight
in a 6325 statute-mile flight, landed close to its target.

During November: NASA requested DX priority for 1.5-million-pound-thrust
F-1 engine project and Project Mercury.

---: Second International Symposium on Physics and Medicine of the
Atmosphere and Space was held at San Antonio, Texas.

December 3: President transferred the functions and facilities of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
Calif., from the Army to NASA. JPL built, designed, and tested upper
stages, payloads, and tracking systems for the first IGY Explorer
satellites.

---: NASA and the Army reached an agreement whereby ABMA and its
subordinate organizations at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., would be
responsive to NASA requirements.

---: DOD announced details of Project Discoverer, series of polar orbiting
satellites.

December 5: Modified Navy Terrier rocket with camera launched to an
altitude of 86 miles from Wallops Island, providing a 1,000-mile composite
photograph of a frontal cloud formation.

December 6: The third U.S.-IGY space probethe second under direction of
NASA and with the Army as executive agentwas launched at 12:45 a.m., from
AMR by Juno II rocket. The primary mission of PIONEER III, to place the
scientific payload in the vicinity of the moon, was not accomplished
although an altitude of 63,580 miles was achieved and it discovered that
radiation belt was comprised of at least two bands.

December 9: The first meeting of the new NASA Inventions and Contributions
Board was held to evaluate scientific or technical contributions and to
recommend monetary awards.

December 10: First domestic jet airline passenger service, by National
Airlines between New York and Miami.

December 12-16: SMALL WORLD balloon with four passengers failed in
transatlantic attempt, lifting from Canary Islands and landing at sea
northeast of Barbados.

December 13: U.N. General Assembly adopted resolution bringing into being
an 18-member Ad Hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

---: Squirrel monkey Gordo made 1,500-mile flight in nose cone of Army
Jupiter with no known adverse effect, but float mechanism failed and nose
cone was not recovered.

December 16: Two Thor shots, one from Cape Canaveral and one from
Vandenberg AFB, were successful. Intermediate range ballistic missile
portion of PMR was inaugurated with successful firing of USAF Thor from
Vandenberg AFB.

---: MATS C-133 Cargomaster lifted 117,900 pounds of cargo to 10,000 feet,
a weight-lifting record, at Dover AFB, Del.

December 17: NASA awarded contract to Rocketdyne of North American to build
single-chamber 1.5-million-pound-thrust rocket engine.

---: Project Mercury announced as name of U.S. man-in-space program by
NASA.

December 18: Plastic balloon flight No. 1,000 launched by the Balloon
Branch of the Missile Development Center at Holloman AFB, a series
beginning in July 1950.

---: Entire USAF Atlas boosted into orbit communications relay satellite,
PROJECT SCORE or the "talking atlas." A total of 8,750 pounds were placed
in orbit, of which 150 pounds was payload.

December 19: President Eisenhower's Christmas message beamed from PROJECT
SCORE satellite in orbit, the first voice beamed in from space.

---: BOLD ORION (WS-199) launched from B-58 Hustler traveling at about
1,100 mph over Cape Canaveral, Fla.

December 20: White Sands Proving Ground announced missile range firing
record: 2,000 "hot" firings in 1 year.

---: First Titan test launch exploded on the pad at Cape Canaveral.

---: New voice and teletype messages were received and rebroadcast on
command by PROJECT SCORE satellite, and a series of experiments were
continued in subsequent days.

December 23: First Atlas-C fired successfully at AMR.

December 24: Dr. Herbert F. York, Chief Scientist of ARPA, was named as
Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the Department of Defense
by President Eisenhower.

December 27: Federal Council for Science and Technology to be headed by Dr.
James R. Killian, Jr., was approved by President Eisenhower.

---: PIONEER III data indicated that the earth is surrounded by two bands
of radiation.

December 31: PROJECT SCORE ceased transmissions, concluding 12 days of
operations and 97 successful contacts.

---: IGY scheduled to close, but in October 1958 the International Council
of Scientific Unions, meeting in Washington, approved extension of IGY
through December 1959 under name of International Geophysical
Cooperation1959 (IGC-59) and also approved establishment of Committee on
Space Research (COSPAR) to continue international cooperation in the
scientific exploration of space. National Academy of Sciences is U.S.
adhering body to COSPAR.

During December: National booster program developed by NASA and DOD to
provide basis for long-range planning.

---: First vacuum tank for use in ion and plasma electric propulsion
research received at NASA Lewis Research Center, three more of which were
later put to research, and two large models to be completed by 1962.

During 1958: NASA Langley research scientists, Paul Purser and Maxime
Faget, conceived Little Joe research rocket; the Scout vehicle system was
conceived from PARD's multistage hypersonic solid-propellant rocket
program.

---: Twistor and other thin-film semiconductors were developed suitable as
memory elements.

---: NASA Lewis Research Center completed 14 years of extensive research on
all U.S. turbojet engines.

---: NASA Lewis Center successfully demonstrated first use of fluorine gas
to provide reliable ignition for practical hydrogen-oxygen engine (20K
thrust); same year first throttling of hydrogen-fluorine thrust chamber
demonstrated over wide range.

---: First year that the total number of transatlantic air passengers
exceeded the number of sea passengers.

---: Experimental tests for launching satellites via rocket fired from
fighter aircraft conducted by Navy Project Pilot.

For further information contact Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1959


SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American
Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915-1960
(Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1961), pp.
106-17.

1959

January 2: U.S.S.R. launched LUNIK I into a solar orbit, with a total
weight of a reported 3,245 pounds, the first man-made object placed in
orbit around the sun. It was called MECHTA ("dream") by the Russians

---: Defense officials indicated fiscal year 1960 budget would begin major
integration of long-range missiles into weapons arsenal and replacement of
manned aircraft on a large scale.

January 4: Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Pacific Missile Range declared
officially operational for firings.

January 5: LUNIK I transmissions ceased 373,125 miles from earth.

January 8: NASA requested eight Redstone-type launch vehicles from the Army
to be used in Project Mercury development flights.

January 9: NASA-DOD agreement signed for a "National Program To Meet
Satellite and Space Vehicle Tracking and Surveillance Requirements" for
fiscal year 1959 and fiscal year 1960.

January 12: NASA announced selection of McDonnell Aircraft Corp., as source
for design, development,and construction of Mercury capsule.

January 15: First successful castings of molybdenum made at U.S. Bureau of
Mines Laboratory at Albany, Oreg.

January 19: The AEC demonstrated a 5-watt radioisotope thermoelectric
generator (designated SNAP 3) to President Eisenhower as an example of the
potential use of radioisotopes and static thermoelectric conversion for
providing long-lived electric power for space.

January 23: Dr. T. Keith Glennan, NASA Administrator, announced appointment
of chairmen of 13 new research advisory committees to provide technical
counsel from industry, universities, and government organizations.

January 28: Nike-Cajun successfully launched 12-foot-diameter test
inflatable sphere to a height of 75 miles over NASA Wallops Island, the
sphere inflating satisfactorily.

---: One hundred ten candidates were selected by NASA in the first
screening for Project Mercury astronauts from Air Force, Navy, and Marine
Corps test-pilot schools.

January 29: First jet passenger service across the United States begun by
American Airlines with Boeing 707's.

During January: Rocketdyne demonstrated 1-million-pound-thrust
liquid-propellant rocket combustion chamber at full power.

February 2: First annual report on Aeronautical and Space Activities,
covering all U.S. activities during the year 1958, was forwarded to the
Congress by the President.

February 6: First test launch of USAF Titan ICBM (A-3) from Cape Canaveral.

February 11: Army announced that a weather balloon, launched at the Signal
Research and Development Laboratory, Fort Monmouth, N.J., had established a
world altitude record of 146,000 feet.

February 17: VANGUARD II (SLV-4), the fifth U.S.-IGY satellite,
successfully launched payload containing photocells designed to produce
cloud cover images for 2 weeks; processing or wobbling prevented
significant interpretation of data.

---: USAF Committee presided over by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Associate Director
of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Cambridge, Mass.,
recommended that the USAF continue to take a positive approach to UFO's,
investigate reported sightings by all scientific means, and keep the public
fully informed of existing policy. Of the unknown objects sighted, it
reported, no scientific evidence supports the conclusion that the objects
were spacecraft.

February 19: Monorail two-stage rocket-research sled attained 3,090 mph, or
roughly Mach 4.1, at Holloman AFB.

February 20: NASA awarded $105 million in contracts for 1959 projects (15
satellites).

February 23: Navy revealed development of steerable molybdenum nozzle used
in the solid-propellant Polaris missile.

February 28: DISCOVERER I, ARPA satellite weighing 1,450 pounds,
successfully launched into polar orbit by USAF Thor-Agena A booster from
Pacific Missile Range; stabilization difficulties hampered tracking
acquisition.

March 1: "Poor man's rocket," Scout, was jointly announced by NASA and AF.
The concept of Scout originated at Langley Research Center in 1958, based
upon extensive experience with staged solid-propellant rockets.

March 3: PIONEER IV, fourth U.S.-IGY space probe, a joint ABMA-JPL project
under direction of NASA, was launched by a Juno II rocket from AMR and
achieved earth-moon trajectory, passing within 37,000 miles of the moon
before going into permanent solar orbit. Radio contact was maintained to a
record distance of 406, 620 miles. It was the first U.S. sun-orbiter.

---: NASA's Langley Research Center launched first in a series of six-stage
solid fuel rocket research vehicles, the world's first, from Wallops
Island, Va., to a speed of Mach 26 in a reentry physics program.

March 4: British National Committee on Space Research, H. S. W. Massey as
chairman, held its first meeting.

March 6: Radio signals received from PIONEER IV from a distance of 406, 620
miles from earth, a new communications record.

March 7: First French Veronique sounding rocket launched from Columb Bechar
to an altitude of 104 km (64.6 mi.).

March 10: First captive flight of X-15 (No. 1) under modified B-52 with A.
Scott Crossfield in the cockpit; additional captive flights were made on
April 1, April 10, and May 21.

March 11: NASA granted $350,000 to National Academy of Sciences-National
Research Council for program of research appointments in theoretical and
experimental physics to stimulate basic research appointments in
theoretical and experimental physics to stimulate basic research in the
space sciences.

March 12: Second British Black Knight rocket reached 350-mile altitude at
Woomera, Australia.

March 12-14: Second meeting of COSPAR held at The Hague, the Netherlands.

March 13: The President announced the establishment of the Federal Council
for Science and Technology to promote closer cooperation among Federal
agencies in planning their respective research and development programs.

---: From an altitude of 123 miles boosted by an NRL Aerobee-Hi rocket,
fired from White Sands, N. Mex., the first ultraviolet photos of the sun
were taken and recorded.

March 14: National Academy of Sciences delegate to COSPAR transmitted to
COSPAR President the offer of NASA to carry experiments by scientists of
other nations in U.S. space vehicles.

March 15: Army Redstone ejected miniature TV camera which transmitted
pictures of its target impact area.

March 17: First flight launching of a spin-stabilized 20-inch-diameter
spherical rocket, by NASA Langley's PARD at Wallops Station, Va.

---: ARPA announced that DISCOVERER I was no longer in orbit.

March 18: Army Signal Corps and RCA announced development of micromodules
for electronic devices which ultimately could permit 500,000 components to
be packed into a cubic inch of space.

March 19: Deputy Secretary of Defense Quarles announced that three atomic
blasts were fired in space (Project Argus) in 1958, using modified X-17
rockets.

March 20: MIT announced successful radar signal returns from Venus had been
performed on February 10 and 12, 1958, return signals being one
ten-millionth as strong as transmission signals.

March 24: NASA announced that Wallops Station had made over 3,300 rocket
firings since 1945.

April 2: Seven astronauts were selected for Project Mercury after a series
of the most rigorous physical and mental tests ever given to U.S. test
pilots. Chosen from a field of 110 candidates, the finalists were all
qualified test pilots: Capts. Leroy G. Cooper, Jr., Virgil I. Grissom, and
Donald K. Slayton, (USAF); Lt. Malcolm S. Carpenter, Lt. Comdr. Alan B.
Shepard, Jr., and Lt. Comdr. Watler M. Schirra, Jr. (USN); and Lt. Col.
John H. Glenn (USMC).

---: Lt. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander AFBMD, was named Commander of
Air Research and Development Command.

---: USAF Bold Orion ballistic missile test launched from B-47 jet bomber.

April 7: AEC Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory announced development of
plasma thermocouple for direct conversion of energy from a nuclear reactor
into electricity, offering potential auxiliary power source for space
applications.

---: First operational flight of USAF Snark to target on AMR.

April 8: Reentry body of USAF Thor-Able recovered at the far end of the
Atlantic Missile Range: first recovery after an ICBM range flight by AFMTC
task force.

April 13: DISCOVERER II satellite successfully placed into polar orbit by
Thor-Agena A booster, but capsule ejection malfunctioned causing it to
impact in vicinity of Spitsbergen on April 14 instead of vicinity of
Hawaii. It was first vehicle known to have been placed in a polar orbit and
was the first attempt to recover an object from orbit.

---: VANGUARD (SLV-5) failed to achieve payload orbit because of loss of
second-stage pitch attitude control.

April 16: First Thor IRBM launched by British crew at Vandenberg AFB.

April 17: United States formally requested that the United Nations
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space convene in New York on May 6.

April 20: NASA announced acceptance of proposals by the Canadian Defense
Research Telecommunications Establishment for continuing joint rocket and
satellite ionospheric experiments of a nonmilitary nature.

April 23: Fourth recovery of a data capsule at AMR, USAF Thor 1,500-mile
accuracy test flight.

---: President announced the resignation of Richard E. Horner, Assistant
Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development, to become
Associate Administrator of NASA effective July 1st.

---: First test flight of USAF GAM-77 Hound Dog at AMR.

April 24: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden and Loftus E. Becker appointed to assist
Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in the forthcoming meetings at the United
Nations of the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

April 27: Meeting of DOD working group on Project Mercury search and
recovery operations was held at Patrick Air Force Base, with major emphasis
placed on the first two ballistic Atlas shots, and command relationships.

---: The 1958 Annual Report of the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics, the 44th and final report of NACA established in 1915, was
submitted to Congress by the President. It contained historical sections by
Jerome C. Hunsaker and James H. Doolittle.

---: DX priority (highest national priority) assigned to Project Mercury.

April 28: NASA announced the signing of a $24 million contract with Douglas
Aircraft Co., Inc., for a three-stage Thor-Vanguard launching rocket called
Delta.

April 29-30: Symposium sponsored by the Space Science Board of the National
Academy of Sciences, NASA, and the American Physical Society, held in
Washington to review space research findings and the objectives of future
research programs in the space sciences.

During April: The Tiros meteorological satellite program was transferred
from the Department of Defense to the responsibility of NASA for the
national meteorological satellite program. At the same time, a Joint
Meteorological Satellite Advisory Committee was established.

May 1: NASA's Administrator announced the naming of Goddard Space Flight
Center under construction near Greenbelt, Md., in commemoration of Robert
H. Goddard, American pioneer in rocket research. Dr. Harry J. Goett was
appointed Director in September.

---: Smithsonian Optical Tracking Station at Woomera, Australia,
successfully photographed VANGUARD I earth satellite at the apogee of its
orbit, nearly 2,500 miles from earth. Compared to taking picture of golf
ball 600 miles away, this feat was repeated on May 3 and 4.

May 3: Dr. Otto Struve of the University of California was appointed
Director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, to be located at
Green Bank, W. Va.

May 4: National Bureau of Standards released details on the effect on the
ionosphere of the high-altitude nuclear shots called Teak and Orange on
August 1 and 12, 1958, over Johnston Island.

May 6: NASA created a committee to study problems of long-range lunar
exploration to be headed by Dr. Robert Jastrow.

---: ABMA Jupiter IRBM made successful 1,500-mile flight at Cape Canaveral
and was declared operational by the USAF.

---: NASA awarded contract to Convair for development of Vega launch
vehicle for deep space probes and satellites.

May 6-June 25: Ad Hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space of U.N.
met in session at U.N. headquarters in New York.

May 12: NASA announced training program for seven Project Mercury
astronauts to provide them with technical knowledge and skills required to
pilot the Nation's manned orbital capsule.

---: University of Minnesota scientist under ONR contract launched unmanned
balloon to 100,000 feet, where first positive measurement of intense solar
protons associated with a solar flare was made.

---: USAF Thor launched GE Mark 2 nose cone 1,500 miles down AMF, recovered
data capsule contained photograph of the earth from 300-mile altitude.

May 13: British plan for launching an earth satellite was revealed by Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan before the House of Commons.

May 14: Use of moon as relay station for intercontinental transmission made
from Jodrell Bank, England, to the USAF Cambridge Research Center at
Bedford, Mass.

May 15: Lt. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of ARDC, unveiled first
reentry vehicle ever to be recovered a full intercontinental range flight.

May 18: NASA announced formation of Committee on Long-Range Studies headed
by John A. Johnson to fulfill charge of National Aeronautics and Space Act
of 1958 (sec. 102), calling for "establishment of long-range studies of the
potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the
problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities
for peaceful and scientific purposes."

May 26: ABMA static fired a single H-1 Saturn engine at Redstone Arsenal,
Ala.

May 27: First flight test of USAF Bomarc B long-range interceptor missile.

May 28: Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky of Harvard University named special
assistant to the President for science and technology, replacing Dr. James
R. Killian, Jr.

---: Army Jupiter IRBM launched a nose cone carrying two living
passengersAble, an American-born rhesus monkey, and Baker, a South
American squirrel monkey, to a 300-mile altitude, and both were recovered
alive. The medical portions of the experiment were carried out by the Army
Medical Service and Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Army Ordnance Missile
Command, with the cooperation of the USN School of Aviation Medicine and
the USAF School of Aviation Medicine.

June 1: Rhesus monkey Able died from effects of anesthesia given for
removal of electrode instrumentation, autopsy revealing no effects from
flight on May 28, at Army Research Labortory, Fort Knox, Ky.

June 3: Moon relay transmission of President Eisenhower's voice by
recording was made from Millstone Hill Radar Observatory, Westford, Mass.,
to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.

---: DISCOVERER III failed to achieve orbit.

June 5: Construction at Cape Canaveral for the Saturn begun.

June 6: Army announced that sea urchin eggs fertilized before Jupiter nose
cone flight continued to grow normally.

June 8: X-15 (No. 1) research airplane made its first glide flight with A.
Scott Crossfield as pilot, after being carried by the B-52 mother ship to
an altitude of 38,000 feet.

---: Mail carried by missile as 3,000 letters were delivered by a Regulus I
from the submarine Barbero to NAS Mayport, Fla.

June 9: First Polaris-carrier nuclear submarine launched at Groton, Conn.,
the George Washington.

June 12: Scientific subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of
Outer Space proposed creation of a center to promote international
cooperation in outer space research.

June 17: First USAF test firing of an experimental escape capsule.

June 18: Six U.S. Navy enlisted men began an 8-day experiment in a
simulated space cabin at the Air Crew Equipment Laboratory of the Naval Air
Material Center at the Philadelphia Naval Base.

June 22: VANGUARD (SLV-6) satellite designed to measure the radiation
balance of the earth, its atmosphere, and the solar energy flux, failed to
go into orbit.

June 23: USAF Arnold Engineering Development Center was directed by ARDC to
prepare operating and design requirements for a "Large Space Environments
Test Facility" for testing and developing military space weapons.

June 25: DISCOVERER IV failed to achieve orbit.

June 29: NASA welcomed announcement of United Kingdom approval of proposals
for cooperative scientific research in space with the United States pending
formal arrangements.

During June: NASA issued Research Memo (4-17-59L) entitled "Airplane
Measurements of Atmospheric Turbulence at Altitudes between 20,000 and
55,000 feet for Four Geographic Areas," analyzing data acquired by Lockheed
U-2 aircraft over western United States, England and Western Europe,
Turkey, and Japan.

---: Deployment of first USAF operational Thor IRBM squadron to the United
Kingdom.

---: Operating velocity of Mach 6 was achieved in AEDC wind tunnel with a
40- by 40-inch test section at Tullahoma, Tenn.

July 1: The first experimental reactor (Kiwi-A) in the nuclear space rocket
program operated successfully at full temperature and duration at Jackass
Flats, Nev.

July 6: Comdr. M. Lee Lewis (USN) killed in accident shortly before
scheduled launching of high-altitude balloon at St. Paul, Minn. He is
credited with originating the Rockoon concept.

July 7: Four-stage Argo D4 rocket with an ARDC Javelin payload fired from
Wallops Island to an altitude of 750 miles, first in a series of USAF-NASA
launchings to measure natural radiation surrounding the earth.

July 8: As developmental planning for Project Mercury evolved, NASA
notified the Army that to reduce the variety of launching vehicles to
Jupiter missile would not be used for Project Mercury tests.

July 9: NASA Lewis Research Center operated a research model of an ion
rocket in a newly completed electric-rocket test facility designed for
basic investigations into the problems associated with a reliable ion
rocket with a minimum life of 1 year.

July 10: A 10-page report of Soviet, British, and United States scientists
recommended that satellites be used to detect nuclear explosions in space.

July 11: ONR STRATOSCOPE I balloon with camera to photograph the sun was
launched from St. Paul, Minn., to an altitude of 81,250 feet.

July 13: Largest plastic balloon to date (6 million cubic feet) launched by
Office of Naval Research with 173 pounds of instruments, at Fort Churchill,
Canada.

July 14: U.N. Assembly Document No. A/4141, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee
on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, was released.

July 16: NASA, with Army as executive agent of a joint ABMA-JPL project,
attempted Explorer satellite launch with Juno II booster, but it was
destroyed 51/2 seconds after launch by range safety officer.

---: Second largest reflector telescope in the world, the 120-inch
telescope at the Lick Observatory, was dedicated.

July 20: NASA selected Western Electric Co. to build worldwide network of
tracking and ground instrument stations to be used in Project Mercury.

July 21: A full-scale USAF Atlas ICBM nose cone recovered for the first
time after flight down the AMR.

July 24: USAF Thor data capsule recovered near Antigua which contained
movie film showing nose cone separation.

July 29: Two-stage Nike-Asp fired from Naval Missile Facility, Point
Arguello, the first of 12 designed to record radiation 150 miles up and
also the first ballistic missile fired from this new facility.

During July: Project Mercury astronauts completed disorientation flights on
three-axis space-flight simulator, the MASTIF (Multiple Axis Space Test
Inertia Facility), at NASA Lewis Research Center.

---: Portion of Chincoteague (Va.) Naval Air Station transferred to NASA
for use in connection with Wallops Station rocket range.

August-December: Conference of the International Telecommunications Union
which was held at Geneva, Switzerland, allocated radio frequency bands for
space and earth-space use.

During summer: Under joint sponsorship of National Science Foundation and
the Office of Naval Research, Princeton University scientists successfully
photographed sunspots with unprecedented clarity by means of 12-inch solar
telescope, STRATOSCOPE I, mounted on a balloon platform at an altitude of
near 80,000 feet. (See July 11 and 13.)

August 3: First flight test of Navy Subroc antisub missile from NOTS, China
Lake, Calif.

August 7: EXPLORER VI, popularly called the "Paddlewheel Satellite,"
launched by NASA Thor-Able 3, contained 14 experiments, and a photocell
scanner which transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud
cover from a distance of 17,000 miles. Placed in highly elliptical orbit
(26,000 miles out, 156 miles in), it gave a broad sample of readings.

---: Comdr. M. Ross (USNR) and R. Cooper (High Altitude Observatory) flew
STRATO-LAB open gondola balloon to 38,000 feet for solar studies with a
coronagraph.

---: USAF launched 39-inch weather balloon with radar reflector (Robin)
from rocket at 50-mile altitude.

August 10: USAF canceled research program to develop exotic chemicals fuels
for proposed Mach 3 B-70 bomber and F-108 interceptor.

August 13: DISCOVERER V placed into polar orbit by AF Thor-Agena A, but
reentry capsule not recovered due to postejection malfunctions.

August 14: With Army as executive agent of ABMA-JPL Project, Beacon
satellite launched by Juno II failed to go into orbit.

---: While EXPLORER VI satellite was passing over Mexico at an altitude of
about 17,000 miles, it successfully transmitted a crude picture of a
sunlit, crescent-shaped portion of the North Central Pacific Ocean. The
area of earth photographed was 20,000 square miles.

August 17: First of NIKE-ASP sounding rockets to provide geophysical
information on wind activity between 50 and 150 miles high was launched
successfully from NASA Wallops Station.

August 19: DISCOVERER VI satellite orbited successfully, but reentry
capsule not recovered.

August 21: Launching of Mercury capsule mockup from Wallops Station to test
the escape and recovery systems; emergency escape rocket accidentally fired
30 minutes before scheduled firing of the Little Joe booster.

---: NASA established Bioscience Advisory Committee, headed by Dr. Seymour
S. Kety, to study U.S. capability in space-oriented life science research
and development and to recommend future NASA role in this area in terms of
a national space program.

August 24: USAF fired Atlas-C 5,000 miles and recovered nose cone camera
with photographs of one-sixth of earth's surface taken from 700 miles up,
near Ascension Island.

August 25: NASA Western Operations Office, Santa Monica, Calif., made
responsible for liaison, administrative, and management support west of
Denver, Colo., for rapidly expanding NASA research and development
activities.

---: Reflected signals off the moon successfully received at the University
of Texas from the Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern, England.

August 27: Satellite tracking station at Woomera, Australia, successfully
photographed EXPLORER VI at a distance of 14,000 miles.

---: First British Commonwealth Symposium on Space Flight began in London.

August 29: Navy technician withstood record 31 g's in centrifuge at AMAL,
Johnsville, Pa.

August 31: Tenth IAF meeting opened in London.

September 1: USAF Atlas ICBM officially declared operational and taken over
by the Strategic Air Command, at Vandenberg AFB.

September 2: Dr. Theodore van Krmn named chairman of a committee to
establish an International Academy on Astronautics.

September 4: ONR SKYHOOK unmanned balloon launched from Sioux Falls, S.
Dak., by Raven Industries, establishing new unofficial altitude record of
148,000 feet for unmanned balloon.

September 9: NASA boilerplate model of Mercury capsule successfully
launched on an Atlas (Big Joe) missile from AMR and recovered in South
Atlantic after surviving reentry heat of more than 10,000F.

---: First launch of operational AF Atlas ICBM from Vandenberg AFB was
successful, and second Atlas ICBM fired from Cape Canaveral the same day.

September 12: Russia's LUNIK II launched with a total payload weight of
858.4 pounds, became the first manmade object to hit the moon on the
following day. Its launching coincided with the departure of Premier Nikita
Khrushchev for the United States in turboprop Tu-114.

September 15: First static test firing of USAF Minuteman, a second
generation solid-fuel ICBM.

---: Premier Khrushchev presented President Eisenhower with a replica of
the Soviet coat of arms impacted on the moon on September 13.

September 16: Army Jupiter launched with NASA biomedical experiment from
Cape Canaveral, destroyed by a range officer after fishtailing.

---: Full-sized USAF Minuteman ICBM model launched from underground silo.

September 17: ARPA-Navy TRANSIT IA navigation satellite was successfully
launched by Thor-Able booster, but did not orbit due to third-stage
malfunction.

---: First powered flight of X-15 (No. 2) research airplane, released from
its B-52 mother ship approximately 36 minutes after takeoff (Interim
Thiokol-RMD XLR-11 engines), A. Scott Crossfield as pilot.

September 18: VANGUARD III, sixth U.S.-IGY satellite, successfully injected
into orbit, marking the end of Vanguard launching activities. VANGUARD III
provided comprehensive survey of magnetic field, lower edge of radiation
belts, and accurate micrometeorite impacts.

---: Secretary of Defense McElroy issued order entitled "Satellite and
Space Vehicle Operations," assigning basic responsibilities.

September 22: Nuclear submarine Patrick Henry launched at Groton, Conn.

---: NASA renamed High Speed Flight Station at Edwards, Calif., to be NASA
Flight Research Center, consistent with mission responsibility for all but
STOL and VTOL flight research at low-speed ranges conducted at NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

September 23: Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Dr. Herbert F.
York, announced reorganization of military space and missile program, with
major role going to Air Force. Four ARPA space projects were to be
transferred to the services.

September 24: NASA Atlas-Able-4 launch vehicle, minus its payload,
undergoing static tests at AMR, exploded while being prepared for the
launch of a 375-pound satellite into a lunar orbit in October.

September 28: Pictures taken from satellite EXPLORER VI over Mexico at
19,500 miles altitude on August 14, were released by NASA. Picture showed
crescent shape of the sunlit portion of the earth and crude cloud-cover
image.

During September: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, took
part in a number of discussions with European scientific community to
assess space interest there and to indicate NASA's desire to work out
possible cooperative space research programs.

October 1: NASA personnel total reached 9,347.

October 2: AFMTC Commander Maj. Gen. Donald N. Yates, appointed Department
of Defense representative for Project Mercury support operations.

October 4: NASA LITTLE JOE launch vehicle carrying a boilerplate Mercury
capsule with a dummy escape system successfully launched from Wallops
Station, Va.

---: LUNIK III, Russia's translunar earth satellite began photographing
trip around the moon, while Premier Khrushchev was visiting Peiping.

October 6: EXPLORER VI ceased transmissions.

---: USAF launched an Atlas ICBM and a Thor IRBM at their full range from
Cape Canaveral.

October 8: PIONEER IV reached first aphelion (estimated 107,951,000 miles)
in its orbit around the sun at 8 p.m., e.s.t. Since launch on March 3,
PIONEER IV was tracked by JPL's Goldstone tracking station to 407,000 miles
from earth.

October 13: EXPLORER VII, the seventh and last U.S.-IGY earth satellite,
and now under direction of NASA with the Army as executive agent, launched
into an earth orbit by modified Army Juno II. By late December, data from
the satellite indicated possible relationships between solar events and
geomagnetic storms, and revealed information about trapped radiation and
cosmic rays near the earth. With launching of this ABMA-JPL project, all
experiments for the U.S.-IGY space program had been successfully placed
into orbit.

---: USAF Bold Orion launched from B-47 near Patrick AFB passed within 4
miles of EXPLORER VI at an altitude of 160 miles in test firings.

October 14: First successful flight test of Nike-Zeus at WSPG.

October 17: A second powered free flight of the X-15 (No. 2) research
airplane accomplished most planned objectives.

October 18: LUNIK III provided man's first look at 70 percent of the
backside of the moon, 2 weeks after launch, by transmitting automatically
taken pictures. Pictures were released on October 26.

October 21: The President by Executive Order indicated that the Development
Operations Division of ABMA would be transferred to NASA, subject to the
approval of Congress.

October 26: USSR released photo of the far side of the moon taken by LUNIK
III.

October 28: 100-foot-diameter inflatable sphere launched on a suborbital
test flight from NASA Wallops Station, Va., to an altitude of 250 miles by
a first Sergeant-Delta rocket; aluminum-coated Mylar-plastic sphere to be
used as passive electronic reflector in Echo was developed by NASA
Langley's Space Vehicle Group under the direction of William J. O'Sullivan.

October 29: USAF Atlas successfully launched from Cape Canaveral carrying a
nose-cone camera which took a series of photographs of the earth's cloud
cover from a 300-mile altitude.

November 2: President Eisenhower announced his intention of transferring
the Saturn project to NASA, which became effective on March 15, 1960.

November 4: NASA launched a second LITTLE JOE from Wallops Station, to test
the Mercury escape system under severe dynamic pressure; launch vehicle
functioned perfectly, but the escape rocket ignited several seconds too
late.

November 5: Third powered flight of the X-15 (No. 2).

November 7: USAF DISCOVERER VII satellite placed into polar orbit, but
capsule recovery not achieved.

November 9: Entire outer Van Allen radiation belt broke up and disappeared
for several days, according to data analysis from EXPLORER VII reported at
AAAS meeting in New York, December 29, 1960.

November 10: Five-stage sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops Island
to an altitude of 1,050 miles to measure density of electrons in upper
atmosphere.

---: The AEC's SNAP 2 Experimental Reactor (SER) achieved initial design
power of 50 thermal kilowatts in developmental tests at the Atomics
International, Santa Susana, Calif., test site. SER, the first reactor
designed for use in space, was being developed for Air Force surveillance
satellite systems.

---: Air Force placed contracts for Dyna-Soar project with Boeing and
Martin.

November 11-22: Under sponsorship of COSPAR, an internationally coordinated
program of scientific rocket soundings of the upper atmosphere was
conducted. The U.S. contribution included 10 rocket firings.

November 13: National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research
released select photographs from the more than 1,000 taken of the sun on
Stratoscope balloon flights over Minnesota on July 11, August 17, and
September 4.

November 14: World's largest balloon (107 cubic feet) launched from
Stratobowl near Rapid City, S. Dak., by Winzen Research, reaching maximum
altitude of near 118,000 feet with a 1-ton payload suspended.

---: New Aerospace Medical Center dedicated at Brooks AFB, Tex.

November 16: Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (USAF), made record parachute
jump from open balloon gondola at an altitude of 76,400 feet (EXCELSIOR I).

November 17: Based on September decision that all department of Defense
satellite and space vehicle programs would be assigned to the military
service of primary interest, various projects were assigned. Discoverer,
Midas, and Samos were transferred from ARPA to the Air Force.

---: Pending formal transfer of the Saturn project, the Associate
Administrator of NASA requested the Director of Space Flight Development to
form a study group with membership from NASA, the Directorate of Defense
Research and Engineering, ARPA, ABMA, and the Air Force to prepare
recommendations for the development, and selection of upper stage
configurations.

November 18: Nike-Asp sounding rocket fired from NASA Wallops Station
emitted sodium vapor at 50-mile altitude to 150 miles, revealing powerful
windshear effects.

---: NASA-DOD memorandum of understanding signed providing for interim
management of Project Saturn pending its formal transfer to NASA.

November 19: Second sodium-vapor-trail experiment in Nike-Asp launch from
Wallops Island was not successful.

November 20: DISCOVERER VIII satellite successfully placed into polar
orbit, but capsule was not recovered.

---: Polaris test missiles successfully launched from launching ship,
Observation Island, off Cape Canaveral.

November 26: Pioneer lunar probe was lifted normally by Atlas-Able 4 launch
vehicle, but failure of plastic fairing covering payload (at 45 seconds
after launch) caused payload to break away.

November 27: Hiller X-18 tilt-wing research transport made first flight at
Edwards AFB.

November 28: During severe geomagnetic storm, two Geiger tubes on EXPLORER
VII found anomalies in the outer radiation zone at about 1,000-km altitude,
which appeared to be correlated in space and time with optical emissions
from the atmosphere below. Very intense narrow zones of radiation were
detected over a visible aurora during one orbit.

November 28-29: Comdr. M. Ross and Dr. C. B. Moore flew ONR STRATO-LAB HIGH
IV balloon to an altitude of 81,000 feet, using a 16-inch telescope and
spectrograph, and observing water vapor in the atmosphere of the planet
Venus.

During November: Prototype Goodrich full-pressure Mercury astronaut suits
(modified Navy Mark IV) were delivered to NASA. Navy Air Crew Equipment
Laboratory (NACEL) of Philadelphia fitted suits and indoctrinated the
astronauts on their use.

---: Cooperative space efforts were discussed with Soviet scientists
attending the American Rocket Society meeting in Washington, D.C.

December 1: 12 nations (including United States and U.S.S.R.) assigned
Antarctic Treaty promoting scientific research and barring any military
activity in the area.

---: New Bureau of Naval Weapons, consolidating the Bureau of Ordnance and
the Bureau of Aeronautics, began functioning.

---: USAF reduced order for the B-70 bomber to only two prototypes.

December 2: Construction of a missile tracking station on Roi Namur Island
near Kwajalein in the Central Pacific was announced by DOD.

December 4: Third LITTLE JOE (II), successfully launched at NASA Wallops
Station as part of Project Mercury development program, carried a monkey
named "Sam" 55 miles into space which was recovered safely.

December 7: Unofficial altitude record of 98,560 feet set by Navy McDonnell
F4H carrier jet at Edwards AFB, Comdr. L. E. Flint as pilot.

---: Administrator of NASA, Dr. T. Keith Glennan, offered services of U.S.
worldwide tracking network in support of any manned space flight the
U.S.S.R. might plan to undertake, in a speech before the Institute of World
Affairs in Pasadena, Calif.

---: Nine nations including the Soviet Union approved a new charter for
COSPAR at The Hague, which opened membership in COSPAR to all national
academies of science engaged in space research, and created a
nine-representative executive board. The U.S.S.R. had not participated in
COSPAR deliberations since November 1958.

December 8: Maj. Gen. Don R. Ostrander (USAF) named Director of NASA's
Office of Launch Vehicle Programs and responsible for launch vehicle
development and operations.

---: Brig. Gen. Austin W. Betts (USA) was named Director of ARPA to replace
Acting Director, Gen. D. Ostrander (USAF).

December 9: USAF Goodyear unmanned balloon launched from Akron, Ohio, to an
altitude of 100,000 feet, where radar photographs of the earth's surface
were taken.

---: Kaman H-43B established new helicopter altitude record of 30,100 feet.

December 10: U.S. Ambassador Lodge presented a resolution to the Assembly
of the United Nations recommending that an international conference on the
peaceful uses of outer space be convened in 1960 or 1961.

December 11: Capt. J. Kittinger (USAF) flew EXCELSIOR II balloon from
Holloman AFB to an altitude of 74,700 feet and bailed out, establishing
stable free fall for 55,000 feet.

---: New world speed record for 100-km closed course set by Brig. Gen. J.
H. Moore (USAF) in F-105B, at 1,216.48 mph.

---: NASA discontinued multistage Vega vehicle program to reduce number of
rocket vehicles and to exploit reliability factor in future satellite and
space projects.

---: Transmitters of VANGUARD III, launched on September 18, became silent
after providing tracking signals and scientific data for 85 days. Satellite
was expected to remain in orbit 40 years.

December 12: First Titan ICBM launching testing second stage was
unsuccessful at AMR.

---: United Nations created permanent 24-nation committee to study Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space and to arrange for an international conference.

December 14: Lockheed F-104C piloted by Capt. J. B. Jordan (USAF) climbed
to new world's record for jet aircraft of 103,389 feet.

December 15: Convair F-106A broke straightaway course record at 1,525.95
mph, piloted by Maj. J. W. Rogers (USAF).

---: NASA released detailed comparison of United States and U.S.S.R. space
sciences programs prepared by Dr. Homer E. Newell, which pointed up the
importance of leadtime in vehicle technology.

Mid-December: NASA team completed study design of upper stages of Saturn
launch vehicle.

December 17: Launching of NASA-AFBMD Thor-Able space probe designed to
boost 90-pound payload to explore space between Earth and Venus was
postponed.

December 18: Atlas ICBM made second successful 6,325-mile flight at AMR.

December 19: The Chairman, AEC, in a letter to the Administrator of NASA,
proposed a flight test objective be established for the nuclear rocket
program and proposed a technical program and division of agency
responsibilities to achieve those objectives.

December 20: Dr. Melvin Calvin reported that molecules in meteorites
resembled basic constituents of genetic material found on earth.

December 22: In a United States-Canadian cooperative project, NASA launched
the first four-stage Javelin sounding rocket from Wallops Station to an
altitude of 560 miles to measure the intensity of galactic radio noise.

December 27: NASA proposed joint space efforts with other nations to
promote international cooperation in space research.

December 30: U.S.S. George Washington, the first fleet Polaris submarine,
was commissioned.

---: Scientists associated with EXPLORER VII experiments reported their
preliminary findings in a press conference at NASA Headquarters, which
indicated sporadic burst of radiation from the sun could influence manned
space flight.

December 31: Mercury astronauts completed basic and theoretical studies in
their training program and started practical engineering studies.

---: More than 100 drop tests of boilerplate Mercury capsules had been
completed from aircraft to test and develop the parachute system.

---: Approximately 300 U.S. research rockets were launched during the
30-month IGY/IGC-59 period: 221 of these were launched during the IGY. This
compared with the some 400 U.S. research rockets fired during the entire
preceding 12-year period from the beginning of high-altitude rocket
research circa 1945 to July 1, 1957.

---: The IGY/IGC-59 program ended, but international cooperation in
geophysics was to continue without a formal name under the sponsorship of
International Council of Scientific Unions. NASA continued to make data
from scientific satellites and space probes available to the world
scientific community utilizing COSPAR and World Data Centers established
during the IGY.

During December: National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W.
Va., placed its 85-foot equatorially mounted radio telescope in full
operation and continued construction of its 140-foot telescope which was
planned for operation in 1961. All qualified U.S. astronomers have access
to these facilities sponsored by the National Science Foundation, with
priorities determined by the scientific merit of their respective projects.

---: USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB proposed curriculum for Space
Research Pilot Course in defining training needs for 1960-65.

---: Briefing on the orbiting Astronomical Observatory Satellite (AOS)
program was given for interested members of industry at NASA headquarters.

During 1959: Lewis Research Center developed general method for automatic
computation of theoretical rocket performance for propellant combinations
involving up to 10 chemical elements; method permitting rapid performance
calculation for virtually any conceivable fuel-oxidant combination.

---: Pratt & Whitney conducted thrust chamber tests of high-energy upper
stage rocket engine using liquid hydrogen (RCIO).

---: Previous experience led NASA Lewis Research Center to design and
construct experimental high-temperature jet engine which demonstrated
feasibility of gas turbine operation at inlet gas temperatures up to
2,500F, almost 1,000 above conventional gas-turbine engine. This test
engine had a cooled turbine.

---: Aeromedical Laboratory completed development and testing of the
full-pressure pilot suit for use by pilots of the X-15.

---: The National Science Foundation sited a national observatory on Kitt
Peak, Ariz., 40 miles southwest of Tucson, for construction of a 36-inch
reflector and an 80-inch telescope, and a 60-inch solar telescope. The
solar telescope is scheduled for completion in 1961 and will be several
times larger than the largest instrument of its kind in existence.

---: NASA Lewis Research Center first operated hydrogen fluorine thrust
chambers at simulated high-altitude conditions obtaining unusually high
performance.

---: Aeromedical Field Laboratory at Holloman AFB began training of
chimpanzees for flights in ballistic and orbital flights for Project
Mercury.

---: School of Aviation Medicine undertook to evolve a system for
maintaining animals in sealed, self-contained ecological systems under a
variety of physical conditions, such as weightlessness, acceleration,
vibration, and spinning.

---: Transatlantic air passengers totaled 1,367,000 persons on scheduled
flights and 173,000 on charter and special flights for the year, as
compared to 884,000 sea passengers.

For further information contact Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1960

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American
Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915-1960
(Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1961), pp.
118-35.

1960

February 25: First test launch of Army's Pershing tactical missile from
Cape Canaveral.

February 26: First USAF Midas test launch with Atlas-Agena from AMR failed
when a malfunction at staging damaged Agena.

---: Establishment of Project Mercury tracking networks in Australia was
sanctioned by joint agreement.

February 27: 100-foot-diameter inflatable sphere successfully launched on
third suborbital test to an altitude of 225 miles, from NASA Wallops
Station, Va. Radio transmissions were reflected via the sphere from
Holmdel, N.J., to Round Hill, Mass.

---: Atmosphere entry simulator at NASA Ames Research Center completed
first successful launch and recovery of test model launched at satellite
speed of 17,000 mph. First proposed by A. Eggers in 1955, it had previously
provided important information at ballistic speeds. Throughout 1959-60,
Ames scientists contributed to understanding of flight characteristics at
altitudes over 100 miles, using low density research apparatus.

During early 1960: NASA Lewis Research Center completed flight safety
research program involving over 30 full-scale experimental crashes and
laboratory studies leading to improved criteria for survivability.

March 1: NASA announced establishment of the Office of Life Sciences to
provide focal point for broad-based scientific study of life processes
provided by the space exploration program, not to duplicate existing effort
in military laboratories. Dr. Clark T. Randt was named as Director.

---: House Science and Astronautics Committee voted $915 million for NASA
in fiscal year 1961.

March 8: First USAF Atlas flight using inertial guidance system.

March 9: Navy fired Polaris 900 miles in successful test of flight control
equipment.

March 10: Office of Reliability and Systems Analysis was established in
NASA Headquarters to conduct program design to evaluate and improve
operational reliability of launch vehicles and payloads. Landis S. Gephardt
was named as Director.

March 11: PIONEER V, NASA space probe, successfully launched by
Thor-Able-4, the start of a historic flight to measure radiation and
magnetic fields between Earth and Venus, and to communicate over great
distances. Managed by AFBMD and Space Technology Laboratories for NASA,
PIONEER V carried experiments designed by various civilian and governmental
scientists.

March 13: PIONEER V transmitted radio signals from a distance of more than
409,000 miles, a new communications record.

---: Lunar atlas published by the USAF, representing a comprehensive
collection of high-quality photographs of the visible surface of the moon
prepared by G. P. Kuiper.

March 15: Saturn project officially transferred to NASA and ABMA.

---: George C. Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala., named by
Executive Order of the President.

March 16: Ban on nuclear weapons being placed in orbit around the earth in
the future proposed by the representatives of the Western nations at the
Geneva Disarmament Conference.

March 17: VANGUARD I still in orbit and transmitting on its second
anniversary after traveling 131,318,211 miles. NASA reported that VANGUARD
I orbit was being altered by solar pressure.

---: X-15 (No. 2) passed stress flight test.

March 18: PIONEER V reported on command to NASA Headquarters at 2 a.m. from
1,002,700 miles away and transmitting seven kinds of scientific readings.

---: Princess Margaret of England commanded PIONEER V 1,040,000 miles away
and received answer 25 seconds later.

March 19: United States-Spanish agreement on Project Mercury tracking
station in Canary Islands was announced (1 of 16 similar agreements with
other nations).

March 22: USAF Titan fired 5,000 statute miles and data capsule recovered.

March 23: Explorer satellite launched by Juno II but did not orbit.

---: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories disclosed controlled thermonuclear
fusion was achieved by Scylla II device for less than a millionth of a
second at about 13 million degrees centigrade.

March 25: Aerobee 150-A, a new type, fired from new launch tower at Wallops
Station, reached an altitude of 150 miles and achieved rocket performance
objectives as well as micrometeorite impact counts.

---: First flight and first powered flight of the X-15 (No. 1) in the
NASA/USAF research program, NASA's Joseph A. Walker as pilot.

---: First launch of missile from a nuclear submarine when a Regulus I was
fired from the Halibut off Oahu, Hawaii.

---: DOD formally announced high priority for Midas project.

---: Signals received from a distance of 2 million miles from PIONEER V.

March 28: Two of Saturn's first-stage engines passed initial static firing
test of 7.83 seconds duration at Huntsville, Ala.

---: NASA announced selection of Aero-jet-General to build the power
conversion equipment for the SNAP-8 (System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power),
and to integrate the reactor into an operational system. SNAP-8 is a joint
NASA-AEC project.

March 29: Naval Weapons Annex, Charleston, S.C., was opened, providing
capability for missile final assembly and loading of submarines.

---: First fully guided flight of Polaris from Observation Island.

During March: NASA let contract with Naval Ordnance Test Station, Inyokern,
Calif., to study the feasibility of controlling the direction of thrust
from a nozzle by injecting gas or liquid into the nozzle expansion cone.

April 1: First known weather observation satellite, TIROS I (Television
Infra-Red Observation Satellite), launched into orbit by Thor-Able, and
took pictures of earth's cloud cover on a global scale from 450 miles above
until June 29. TIROS I was hailed as ushering in "a new era of
meteorological observing."

---: Fourth suborbital Shotput test of the 100-foot-diameter sphere later
known as Echo was launched from NASA Wallops Station to an altitude of 235
miles and inflated successfully.

April 2: LUNIK I completed first orbit around the sun.

April 4: Project Ozma initiated to listen for possible signal patterns from
outer space other than natural "noise," at the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory at Green Bank, W. Va.

April 6: Four Saturn's first-stage engines successfully tested at
Huntsville, Ala.

---: SPUTNIK III reentered the earth's atmosphere.

April 7: Maj. Gen. Donald N. Yates (USAF) named Deputy Director of Defense
Research and Engineering for Ranges and Space Ground Support.

April 12: First production model of McDonnell-built Mercury capsule was
delivered to NASA.

April 13: Navy TRANSIT I-B launched into orbit by Thor-Able-Star with
navigation payload experiment at Cape Canaveral. Flight demonstrated the
first engine restart in space and the feasibility of using satellites as
navigational aids.

---: Cancellation of U.K. Blue Streak as IRBM project.

April 14: First underwater launch of Polaris missile, from an underwater
tube off San Clemente Island, Calif.

---: William M. Holaday's resignation as Chairman of the Civil-Military
Liaison Committee accepted by the President.

---: One week in self-sustained simulated space capsule environment
concluded by C. A. Metzgen at USAF Aerospace Medical Laboratory.

April 15: DISCOVERER XI launched from Vandenberg AFB and stayed in orbit,
reentry capsule was not recovered.

April 17: PIONEER V transmitted telemetry a distance of 5 million miles
from earth.

April 18: Scout test vehicle, with live first and third stages, fired from
Wallops Station, but vehicle broke up after first-stage burnout.

---: NASA selected Avco Manufacturing and General Electric to conduct
engineering and development studies on an electric rocket engine.

April 19: NASA announced negotiation of a contract for development of a
spacecraft solar powerplant, Sunflower I, with Thompson-Ramo-Woolridge.

---: ONR Aerobee-Hi made series of X-ray photographs of the sun from an
altitude of 130 miles.

April 20: Spin of TRANSIT I-B was reduced from 170 to 4 rpm by ground
control.

April 22: Radar beam transmitted along electron lines of the earth's
magnetic field extending into the exosphere, first confirmation of theory
and work of Roger M. Gallet of the National Bureau of Standards and Henry
G. Booker of Cornell University. Echo reflected from the earth successfully
received 0.2 of a second later after traveling 37,000 miles, perhaps
offering a new tool to study the effect of solar eruptions on the earth's
magnetic field and a new long-range surveillance method using radar.

April 23: NASA fired first of five Aerobee-Hi sounding rockets from Wallops
Station in program to measure ultraviolet radiation.

---: NASA announced that Robert E. Gottfried of GSFC had successfully
"repaired" faulty diode in PIONEER V (5.5 million miles from earth) by
reworking of telemetry.

April 26: IRAC Table of Frequency Allocations (official allocation of
frequency table for United States and possessions) was approved, related to
frequency assignments for space research based on 1959 ITU Conference in
Geneva, Switzerland.

---: NASA announced selection of Douglas Aircraft for construction of
second (S-4) stage of initial C-1 Saturn launch vehicle.

April 27: Completion of technical review of Dyna-Soar program announced by
the Air Force.

---: NASA signed contract with Aeronutronic, a division of Ford Motor Co.,
for development and production of the first survivable capsule for landing
instruments on the moon.

April 29: Milestone achieved in completion of interim or formal agreements
concluded for all oversea Mercury tracking stations.

---: NASA press conference with participating scientists reporting on the
correlation of data received from EXPLORERS VI and VII, and PIONEER V
during the solar storm on March 21.

---: All eight engines of the Saturn engine were fired for the first time
at Huntsville, Ala.

During April: Seven Mercury astronauts completed training session at the
Navy Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory, Johnsville, Pa.

May 4: Lewis Research Center began testing of high-energy hydrogen-oxygen
engines in an altitude test facility capable of subjecting an entire
propulsion system to a space environment. On June 17, LRC began similar
testing of hydrogen-fluorine engines.

May 5: NASA held a press conference on high-altitude weather research using
Lockheed U-2 aircraft, one of which was reportedly lost on May 1 over
Turkey.

May 8: 150-watt transmitter on PIONEER V interplanetary spacecraft was
commanded at 5:04 a.m. e.d.t., and operated satisfactorily while it was
8,001,000 miles from earth, another communications record.

May 9: First production model of Project Mercury spacecraft was
successfully launched from NASA Wallops Station to test escape, landing,
and recovery systems. Known as the "beach abort" shot, the Mercury capsule
reached 2,540 feet before parachute landing and pickup by Marine helicopter
returned it to Wallops' hangar 17 minutes after launch.

May 10: Submarine U.S.S. Triton completed 41,519-mile submerged cruise
around the world.

May 12: Speed of Mach 3.2 and 78,000-foot altitude attained in X-15 (No. 1)
with interim engines by NASA's Joseph A. Walker. This was the first
remote-launch operation (100 miles from release from "mother" aircraft to
landing site at Edwards AFB).

May 13: Echo satellite, a 100-foot passive reflector sphere, failed to
orbit with first complete three-stage Thor-Delta launch vehicle.

May 14: Founding of the International Academy of Astronautics announced by
the IAF and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation.

May 15: SPACECRAFT I weighing 10,000 pounds launched into orbit by the
U.S.S.R., the first successful effort to orbit a vehicle large enough to
contain a human passenger, although efforts to recover the space capsule
failed.

May 19: TIROS I weather satellite spotted a tornado storm system in the
vicinity of Wichita Falls, Tex.

---: X-15 (No. 1) flown to 107,000 feet, its highest altitude to date, by
Maj. Robert M. White (USAF), at Edwards AFB.

May 20: Atlas ICBM fired 9,040 statute miles from AMR to Indian Ocean,
longest known flight of an ICBM to date. Missile attained an apogee of
about 1,000 miles.

May 21: First public showing of F-1 engine mockup.

May 24: MIDAS II test satellite successfully launched into orbit from AMR
by an Atlas-Agena launch vehicle, a test of an USAF surveillance system
designed to provide warning of long-range missile launching, the first
anti-missile early-warning satellite.

May 27: Rate of spin of TIROS I satellite was increased by ground command.

---: ONR Aerobee-Hi launched to 135-mile altitude carrying eight telescopes
to map sky by means of ultraviolet light, from WSPG.

May 30: NASA established Office of Technical Information and Educational
Programs (OTIEP) in Headquarters to carry out pertinent requirements of the
National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and related functions. Shelby
Thompson of AEC was named as Director.

May 31: 100-foot inflatable sphere launched from NASA Wallops Station to an
altitude of 210 miles to test payload configuration carrying two beacon
transmitters, a development flight of Project Echo.

---: NASA disseminated telemetry calibration for EXPLORER VII to members of
the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR).

---: NASA selected Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation to
develop a 200,000-pound-thrust engine utilizing hydrogen and oxygen
propellants. This engine is second only to the F-1 in single-thrust chamber
level.

June 1: Navy assumed operational responsibility PMR.

June 2-3: Panel on Science and Technology of the House Committee on Science
and Astronautics held its second meeting in Washington.

June 5: Winzen Research launched 107-cubic-foot balloon from NAS Glynco,
Ga., for cosmic ray studies; after 10 days of flight the balloon
disappeared over the Pacific on a westerly heading.

June 7: Contract for ion engine development was awarded by NASA to Hughes
Aircraft.

June 8: Complete eight-engine static firing of Saturn successfully
conducted for 110 seconds at MSFC, the longest firing to date.

---: XLR-99 engine mounted in X-15 (No. 3) during test-stand runs by the
contractor exploded, which damaged aircraft but did not injure contractor's
test pilot in the cockpit.

June 14: AEC's SNAP-2 Experimental Reactor (SER) reached 147,300
kilowatt-hours of operation at design temperatures and power during which
1,000 hours of continuous operation was attained.

---: NASA announced creation of Launch Operations Directorate (LOD) to
become operational on July 1, to be headed by Dr. Kurt Debus of Marshall
Space Flight Center, who headed the Army launch operations of EXPLORER I
and the first American payload to orbit the sun, PIONEER IV.

---: Small explosive charge ignited flare package on side of Titan ICBM at
AMR, causing first missile fatality (J. G. Sibole) in 10 years of missile
launchings at Cape Canaveral.

June 15: Saturn static test firing of 121 seconds successful at MSFC.

June 22: Navy TRANSIT II-A, an experimental navigation satellite with two
payloads (navigation and radiation measurement), successfully launched into
orbit by Thor-Able-Star vehicle. This was the first time that two
instrumented satellites have been placed into orbit at the same time.

June 24: 500-w SNAP mercury-Rankin cycle-turbine alternator package
endurance test was successfully terminated at 2,500 hours of operation at
design conditions, by AEC.

June 25: Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit civilian organization to manage
engineering, research, and development aspects of missile and military
space programs, was established by the USAF.

June 26: Six-minute message received by Jodrell Bank, England, was last
communication received from PIONEER V, then 22.5 million miles from earth
moving at a relative velocity of 21,000 mph. Since March 11 when launched,
PIONEER V traveled some 180 million miles, and it would fly 18 million
miles closer to the sun than any manmade object.

June 28: The Smithsonian Institution awarded its highest honor, the Langley
Medal, to Robert H. Goddard posthumously.

---: U.S.S.R. announced that it would conduct new series of long-range
missile shots into the Pacific, July 5-31, 1960.

June 29: DISCOVERER XII failed to go into polar orbit.

---: TIROS I ended its operational life time, transmitting a total of
22,952 picture frames of the earth's cloud cover and completing 1,302
orbits since launch on April 1.

July 1: NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, with Dr. Wernher von
Braun as its Director, officially opened with formal transfer to NASA from
ABMA, at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala.

---: First complete Scout launch vehicle fired from NASA Wallops Station,
but fourth stage separation and firing was not accomplished.

---: Pacific Missile Range (PMR) Facility established at Eniwetock,
Marshall Islands.

---: First operational version of Titan ICBM failed to launch at Cape
Canaveral.

July 4: Soviet Tass announced that Russia last month successfully launched
a new 4,400-pound-thrust rocket carrying a rabbit and two dogs to a
reported altitude of 124.8 miles.

---: Piper Comanche set a world distance record in a closed circuit of
6,921.28 miles, Max Conrad as pilot.

July 8: Second experimental reactor (Kiwi-A Prime) in the Project Rover
nuclear rocket program was successfully tested at full power and duration
at Jackass Flats, Nev.

July 11: NASA selected Hughes, North American, Space Technology Laboratory,
and McDonnell to study designs for the first lunar soft-landing spacecraft.

---: Dr. Ivan A. Getting of Raytheon was named first president of the
Aerospace Corp.

---: Bell Telephone outlined to FCC a plan for worldwide service based upon
a network of 50 satellites in polar orbit at 3,000-mile altitude.

July 12: Mistran (Missile trajectory measurement system) for AFMTC
initiated by USAF contract with General Electric.

July 17: First of three NASA experiments carried by USAF balloons, carrying
a NASA capsule containing 12 mice to 130,000-foot altitude for 11 1/2
hours, in support of study of effects of heavy primary cosmic ray
particles.

July 18: Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., formerly chief engineer of RCA Missile
Electronics and Control Division, was named Associate Administrator of NASA
to replace Richard E. Horner.

July 20: Two Polaris (A-1X) test missiles successfully launched from
submerged submarine, the George Washington, marking a major milestone in
the Navy ballistic missile program.

July 21: NASA fired a Nike-Cajun sounding rocket from Fort Churchill,
Manitoba, Canada, containing an instrumented payload to measure data on
energetic particles during a period of low solar activity.

July 22: First flight of NASA's Iris sounding rocket successful, designed
for 100-pound payloads to altitudes of about 200 miles, from Wallops
Station.

July 23: Second of USAF-NASA balloon flights carrying NASA life science
experiment to an altitude of over 130,000 feet for 11 1/2 hours.

July 24: Donald Piccard established Class I world altitude record of 3,740
feet in plastic balloon HOLIDAY, from Minneapolis, Minn.

July 26: End of series of Army Bell HU-1 Iroquois helicopter flights which
established four new world records.

July 28-29: First NASA-Industry Program Plans Conference held in
Washington, D.C.

July 29: Project Apollo, advanced manned spacecraft program, was first
announced at NASA's Industry Conference.

---: Atlas launch vehicle carrying unmanned Mercury capsule exploded 65
seconds after launch from AMR.

---: The 300-kw(e) static reactor electric power system attained first
criticality. SNAP 10, utilizing thermoelectric conversion with no moving
parts, was being developed for satellite application.

July 31: Dr. John F. Victory, the first employee of NACA hired in 1915 and
recently assistant to the Administrator of NASA, retired after 52 years of
continuous Government service, including many important contributions in
formulating national air policies and in establishing aeronautical research
facilities and programs.

August 2: NRL Aerobee reached 90-mile altitude from WSPG with instruments
to measure ultraviolet spectrum of the sun.

---: Army Ordnance five-stage Strong-arm sounding rocket launched from
Wallops Station, reaching an altitude of 300 miles, although fifth stage
did not function.

August 3: First Sparrowbee sounding rocket launched from Wallops Station,
lifting 56-pound University of Michigan payload to 260-mile altitude.

August 4: X-15 (No. 1) rocket airplane with interim engines established new
unofficial world speed record of 2,196 mph, with Joseph Walker, NASA test
pilot, at the controls. This topped Captain Apt's speed of 2,094 mph
attained in the X-2 on September 27, 1956.

August 5: NASA and the Department of Defense announced the settlement of
patent infringement claim by the estate of the late Robert H. Goddard,
which had been pending since 1951, for $1 million $765,000 by USAF,
$125,000 by USA, $100,000 by NASA, and $10,000 by USN).

---: IGY data released indicated that upper atmosphere's density becomes
twice as great in December as in June.

August 6: While over Blossom Point, Md., simultaneously with a Class 1
solar flare, TRANSIT II-A satellite transmitted 6 minutes of clear
reception showing history of development of ultraviolet and X-ray emission
in relation to ionospheric behavior and to solar-radio noise.

August 10: DISCOVERER XIII launched successfully into polar orbit.

August 11: First manmade object recovered from an orbiting satellite, the
85-pound instrumented capsule of DISCOVERER XIII recovered from the ocean
off Hawaii after 16 orbits. Silken 50-star American flag it carried was
presented to the President on August 15.

August 12: X-15 (No. 1) with interim engines and with Maj. Robert M. White
(USAF) at the controls, established a new altitude record for a manned
vehicle of 136,500 feet. This topped Captain Kincheloe's record altitude of
126,200 feet attained on September 7, 1956, in the X-2 rocket research
aircraft.

---: NASA's ECHO I, the first passive communications satellite,
successfully launched into orbit by a Thor-Delta. It reflected a radio
message from the President across the Nation, thus, demonstrating the
feasibility of global radio communications via satellites. The
100-foot-diameter aluminized Mylar-plastic sphere was the most visible and
largest satellite launched to date.

---: USAF Atlas carrying radiation experiments in nose cone was fired 5,000
miles from Cape Canaveral, but nose cone was not recovered.

---: Navy Polaris missile fired 1,000 miles down AMR.

August 13: Army announced completion of a project for mapping lunar landing
sites.

August 15: NASA announced selection of Plasmadyne Corp. for contract
negotiations on a 1-kilowatt electric arc jet rocket engine.

---: Two pilots sealed in "space cabin" for 17-day simulated flight to the
moon, at SAM, Brooks AFB, Tex.

August 16: Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (USAF), parachuted from EXCELSIOR
III balloon at 103,000 feet, falling 17 miles before chute was employed at
17,500 feet, a new parachute record.

---: 11th Congress of the IAF opened in Stockholm.

August 17: ECHO I visible to sky-watchers and provided reflection for
numerous long-range radio transmissions by private and governmental
research agencies in the United States.

August 18: ECHO I utilized for transatlantic communications when carrier
signal was received by the French Telecommunications Establishment (CNET).
Subsequently, voice and music transmissions were received by the University
of Manchester at Jodrell Bank and other British Installations.

---: USAF DISCOVERER XIV launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB,
Calif.

---: USAF-Army COURIER IA communications satellite failed to orbit due to
premature shutdown of first stage of Thor-Able-Star.

August 19: SPACECRAFT II launched into orbit by the U.S.S.R. weighing 5
tons and carrying a biological payload including two dogs.

---: Second time a manmade object was recovered intact from earth orbit and
the first midair recovery of an object from space, when USAF C-119
transport snared the 300-pound capsule of DISCOVERER XIV at 10,000 feet,
Capt. H. F. Mitchell (USAF) as pilot of the C-119.

---: Wirephoto of President Eisenhower transmitted from Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
to Dallas, Tex., via ECHO I satellite.

August 21: U.S.S.R. announced safe recovery of biologic payloads of
SPACECRAFT II after 17 orbits, and reported that 2 dog passengers were in
excellent physical condition. This was the first successful recovery of
life forms from orbit.

August 22: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory reported that solar
pressure was pushing ECHO I's perigee 1 1/2 miles closer to the earth every
24 hours.

August 23: Bell Laboratory technicians successfully transmitted a voice and
music message from New Jersey to Jodrell Bank, England, via ECHO I.

---: Aerobee-Hi with 208-pound payload launched from NASA Wallops Station
118-mile altitude.

August 24: ECHO I first went into earth's shadow with its two tracking
beacons still operating. Since going into orbit on August 12, it had
relayed hundreds of telephonic experiments and transmissions.

August 26: Construction begun on the world's largest radar at Arecibo,
P.R., capable of bouncing signals off Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, with
Cornell University as the prime contractor under direction of ARPA and
USAF.

August 30: First Industry Conference conducted by NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center.

August 31: Joint NASA-AEC Nuclear Propulsion Office (NPO) created at
Germantown, Md., with Harold B. Finger as Manager.

During August: NASA suspended work on geodetic satellite program pending
determination of whether it was to be a civilian or military program.

---: USAF Atlas squadrons became operational at Warren AFB, Wyo.

September 5: McDonnell F4H-1, Phantom II Navy fighter flown 1,216.78 mph on
500-km closed course for a new record, Lt. Col. T. H. Miller (USMC) as
pilot.

September 8: ONR announced that radio signals had been received from the
planet Saturn and a star 3,000 light-years away by the University of
Michigan's 85-foot radio telescope.

---: President Eisenhower formally dedicated the NASA George C. Marshall
Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala.

September 10: X-15 flown at more than 2,100 mph and to 80,000 feet.

September 13: NASA and DOD announced the creation of the Aeronautics and
Astronautics Coordinating Board "to review planning, avoid duplication,
coordinate activities of common interest, identify problems requiring
solution either by NASA or the Department of Defense and insure a steady
exchange of information." Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA,
and Dr. Herbert F. York, Director of Research and Engineering of DOD, were
named co-chairmen of the Board.

---: DISCOVERER XV placed into polar orbit.

---: NASA gave bidders briefing to industry representatives on Project
Apollo study contract at Space Task Group, Langley AFB, Va.

---: Bilateral agreement with South Africa ratified providing for
construction of new tracking station in South Africa.

September 13-14: First meeting of the NASA Advisory Committee on Space
Biology, chaired by Dr. Melvin Calvin.

September 14: Recovery capsule of DISCOVERER XV located from aircraft, but
bad weather prevented surface pickup before it sank.

September 15: Two USAF pilots, Capt. W. D. Habluetzel and Lt. J. S.
Hargreaves, completed a 30-day, 8-hour, and 24-minute simulated round trip
to the moon in the space cabin simulator at the School of Aviation
Medicine, Brooks AFB, Tex.

September 16-22: 27 research rockets were launched by U.S. scientists as a
part of the COSPAR International Rocket Interval for 1960.

September 19: Atlas ICBM fired 9,000 miles from Cape Canaveral to the
Indian Ocean in 50 minutes, the second record distance flight.

---: NERV (Nuclear Emulsion Recovery Vehicle) experiment successfully
launched from Point Arguello, Calif., by an Argo D-8 rocket, the first NASA
launching at PMR. NERV instrumented capsule reached an altitude of 1,260
miles before landing 1,300 miles downrange where it was picked up by Navy
ships 3 hours later. It reached the highest known altitude that any manmade
object had attained to be recovered successfully from space.

September 20: Aero Commander 680F set a world class altitude record of
36,932 feet for light aircraft, Jerrie Cobb as pilot.

September 21: USAF Blue Scout rocket fired from Cape Canaveral placed
instrumented payload 16,600 miles above the earth, the first of 11 such
tests, but no data were received due to radio malfunction.

September 22: President Eisenhower's address to the General Assembly of the
United Nations pointed to the importance of international agreement on
measures to "enable future generations to find peaceful and scientific
progress not another fearful dimension in the arms race, as they explore
the universe."

September 25: Atlas-Able 3 lunar orbital probe of NASA failed to achieve
trajectory because of malfunction in one of the upper stages.

---: McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II Navy fighter flown record 1,390.21 mph over
100-km closed course at Edwards AFB, Comdr. J. F. Davis as pilot.

September 26: NASA and Weather Bureau issued joint invitation to scientists
of 21 nations to participate in meteorological research connected with
future Tiros satellite.

---: Heat balance between atmospheric pressure areas near the earth's
surface and temperature readings in space, reported as a result of
experiments in EXPLORER VII launched October 13, 1959, by Dr. Verner E.
Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

---: Formal meeting of the DOD-NASA Aeronautics and Astronautics
Coordinating Board (AACB).

September 27: Parachute designed to slow reentry speed of space capsules
successfully tested at a speed of 2,000 mph after rocket boost to 30-mile
altitude, over Eglin AFB, Fla.

---: Massive Soviet news buildup for this as "a day in the history of the
world," while Premier Khrushchev was at the U.N. General Assembly meeting
in New York. Rumored space spectacular did not apparently take place.

September 30: To date, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory had
photographed approximately 17,200 satellite passages with the Baker-Nunn
Optical Network, and had recorded 17,000 visual observations by Moonwatch.

---: Soviet test pilot K. K. Kokkinaki established world speed record of
2,148.3 km/hr in delta-wing E-66 jet aircraft over 100-km closed course.

---: Formal agreements for all NASA tracking stations, planned at present,
were either concluded or near conclusion.

October 1: First BMEWS (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) station
went into operation, at Thule, Greenland.

October 2: JPL announced that 85-foot receiving antenna for space tracking
at Woomera, southwestern Australia, would be operational by November 1.

October 3: ONR STRATOSCOPE balloon carrying equipment to photograph the
halo around the sun was launched at 80,000 feet in a series of
high-altitude coronascope flights.

October 4: COURIER I-B active communications satellite successfully placed
into orbit by Thor-Able-Star launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral. After
completing one orbit it received and recorded a transcribed message to the
United Nations by President Eisenhower transmitted from Fort Monmouth,
N.J., and retransmitted it to another earth station in Puerto Rico. This
marked the 100th launch of the Douglas Thor, military and scientific
combined, and a Thor record of 60 percent of the U.S. satellites boosted
into orbit.

---: Second complete NASA Scout vehicle fired successfully to its predicted
3,500-mile altitude and 5,800-mile impact range, from Wallops Station.

October 7: AEC briefing held at the Nevada Test Site at Jackass Flats,
Nev., for representatives of 26 companies for proposals to study the
requirements for a National Nuclear Rocket Engine Development Facility.
Existing test facilities are fully committed to the development of nuclear
reactors.

---: Fdration Aronautique Internationale meeting at Barcelona, Spain,
accepted first rules to govern establishment of official records for manned
spacecraft. The first record to be recognized must be at least 100 km, and
later records must exceed existing record by 10 percent. Four categories
for records are duration of flight, altitude without orbiting earth,
altitude in orbit, and mass lifted above 100 km.

October 10: Interagency meeting on the establishment of an operational
meteorological satellite system was held at NASA Headquarters.

October 11: USAF SAMOS I launched from Vandenberg AFB, but failed to orbit.

October 12: Dr. T. Keith Glennan, NASA Administrator, announced that
communications satellites developed by private companies on a commercial
basis would be launched by NASA at cost to assist private industry in
developing a communications network.

---: Heavy-equipment parachute drop record of 41,740 pounds, from Lockheed
C-130 Hercules transport to ground at El Centro, Calif.

October 13: USAF Atlas launched at AMR placed nose cone containing three
black mice 650 miles up and 5,000 miles downrange at 17,000 mph. Nose cone
was recovered in target area near Ascension Island, the three mice
surviving the flight in "good condition."

---: Transmitter of EXPLORER VII failed to stop as programmed.

---: Camera mounted in nose of Atlas photographed stars at 700-mile
altitude, providing first color picture of the earth from 600-mile
altitude.

October 15-18: Four operational-type Polaris missiles successfully launched
from submerged Patrick Henry off the Florida coast.

October 17: Project Mercury weather support group established at NASA's
request in the Office of Meteorological Research of the Weather Bureau.

October 18: Second Iris rocket rose to 140 miles with a payload of 125
pounds from Walloops Station.

October 19: Kiwi-A No. 3 static test of nuclear rocket propulsion was
successfully conducted at AEC Nevada test site, resulting in NASA-AEC call
for bids for industrial development phase of Project Rover on November 1,
1960.

---: NASA announced award of preliminary design contracts for solid-fuel
rockets with thrusts between 2 and 15 million pounds to Aerojet-General,
Grand Central, and Thiokol.

---: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden received the Elliot Cresson Medal of the Franklin
Institute.

October 21: FCC received formal application of American Telephone &
Telegraph for authority to operate a communications satellite.

October 23: COURIER I-B stopped transmitting, but radio tracking beacon
continued to function. In 18 days it had transmitted 118 million words.

October 24: Titan ICBM fired 6,100 miles, 100 miles longer than any
previous shot, with tactical-type nose cone.

October 25: NASA selected Convair, General Electric, and Martin to conduct
individual feasibility studies of an advanced manned spacecraft as part of
Project Apollo.

October 26: USAF DISCOVERER XVI successfully launched with new payload, but
failed to go into polar orbit.

October 27: Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) changed its name
to the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences.

October 31: DOD ordered a stepup in development of the mach 3 B-70
supersonic bomber.

---: USAF announced consideration of proposals for "aerospace plane"
capable of scooping up tons of oxygen in upper atmosphere before space
flight, then reentering for landing as an airplane.

During October: Construction of space simulator began at Rye Canyon
Research Center of Lockheed for study of disintegration of materials at
simulated 800,000 feet at temperature of -320o F.

---: Structures Research Division of NASA Langley continued ablation
studies begun in 1956 with electric arc-powered jet, achieving 9,000o F for
105 seconds on an illustrative test.

November 2: Lunar atlas prepared for USAF by group under technical
direction of G. P. Kuiper was released, an "Orthographic Atlas of the Moon"
charted 5,000 base points combined with best available photos and grids.

November 3: EXPLORER VIII launched into an elliptical orbit from AMR by
four-stage Juno II, containing instrumentation for detailed measurements of
the ionosphere. This was the 10th time that JPL-developed upper stage
rocket clusters had successfully placed satellites or deep space probes
into orbit.

November 4: New results in sustaining hydrogen fusion for 1 millisecond at
60o F reported by University of California scientists.

November 5: Operational date of first Minuteman squadron advanced a full
year to July 1962 by USAF.

November 6: U.S.S.R. published atlas on the far side of the moon based on
LUNIK III photographs.

---: Japanese Space Development Council recommended initiation of basic
studies for launching an earth satellite.

November 8: USAF Blue Scout Junior with radiation-study payload reached
24,500-mile altitude, but second stage did not burn full program.

---: NASA LITTLE JOE test flight of Mercury capsule, capsule did not
separate from booster.

November 9: NRL Aerobee-Hi collected data on ultraviolet radiation in the
night sky 131 miles above WSPG.

---: Post Office Department transmitted a "speed mail" letter from
Washington to Newark, N.J., by bouncing microwave transmission off ECHO I.

Early November: NASA-DOD Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating Board
(AACB) and cognizant members agreed that NASA could drop the tracking light
geodetic satellite and utilize other space projects to obtain geodetic data
for the scientific community.

November 10: Advanced Polaris (A-2) successfully launched on record
1,600-mile flight at AMR.

---: Department of Defense placed Navy's SPASUR (Space Surveillance
Detection Net) and the Air Force's SPACETRACK (National Space Surveillance
Control Center) under the North American Air Defense Command for military
functions. NASA would assume SPACETRACK's function of passing on
information on space vehicles to the world's scientific community.

November 12: DISCOVERER XVII placed into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB,
restartable Agenda B second stage successfully flown for the first time.

---: Navy announced development of techniques for low-cost
satellite-launching facilities from airplanes, barges, ships, or from
underwater.

November 14: Capsule DISCOVERER XVII ejected after 31 orbits and
successfully snared at 9,000 feet by USAF C-119 aircraft, the second such
recovery in midair of a space object.

---: IGY Warning Center reported that solar flares were causing "extremely
severe" magnetic disturbance of the earth's atmosphere, an event detected
by EXPLORER VII and later analyzed as greatest burst of solar radiation in
the satellite's 13 months of operation.

---: DOD announced that NASA, USAF, USA, and USN were jointly building a
geodetic satellite to map the earth accurately.

---: USAF reported that printed messages and weather maps had been sent up
to 900 miles by bouncing radio signals off meteor trails.

---: First letter carried by satellite mail (31 orbits and a distance of
about a million miles), a letter from USAF Chief of Staff to the Secretary
of Defense carried in capsule recovered from DISCOVERER XVII.

November 15: X-15 (No. 2) with new XLR-99 engine (57,000-pound thrust)
flown to nearly 80,000 feet and 2,000 mph on first test flight by A. Scott
Crossfield at Edwards AFB, Calif. Earlier interim engine, XLR-11 with
one-quarter of the thrust of the XLR-99, had pushed the X-15 to new world
speed and altitude records of 2,196 mph and 136,500 feet.

---: Prof. A. Gib DuBusk, geneticist at Florida State University, reported
that bread mold specimens, rocketed to 1,200-mile altitude on Argo D-8
capsule on September 19, had shown 30 times as many changes as control
cells.

---: USAF Mace-B flight tested 1,000 miles.

---: Data capsule fired 5,000 miles downrange from AMR by Atlas ICBM, which
was recovered 1 hour later.

---: Aerobee-Hi launched to 145-mile altitude from NASA Wallops Station,
Va.

November 17: NASA established Test Support Office at the Pacific Missile
Range (PMR), to function under Launch Operations Directorate, Marshall
Space Flight Center.

---: Last test of Polaris (A-1, 1,300-mile series) from AMR unsuccessful.

---: U.S. proposed upper atmosphere rocket probes from Woomera Rocket Range
in Australia.

November 19: Albert Hibbs of JPL reported that EXPLORER I had also
discovered clouds of cosmic dust in its orbit, information found by
continued examination of data obtained during 4 months of payload
transmission after launch on January 31, 1958. EXPLORER I remained orbit.

November 21: Mercury Redstone flight test (MR-I) at AMR terminated prior to
liftoff because of faulty ground-support circuitry which had not been noted
on some 60 previous Redstone firings.

---: 500-pound capsule of USAF launched to 32-mile altitude and recovered
intact by means of drag balloon and parachute known as the "Ballute"
system.

November 22: India and United States announced joint program of some 40
high-altitude balloon flights from India, starting in December.

---: Aerobee-Hi fired to 105-mile altitude from NASA Wallops Station with
four stellar spectrometers developed for an experiment by the University of
Rochester's Institution of Optics.

---: National Science Foundation announced that the National Center for
Atmospheric Research, operated by a group of universities, would be sited
at Table Mountain, near Boulder, Colo. Walter Orr Roberts was named as
Director of this NSF Center which will do fundamental research and serve as
a coordinating center for a network of atmospheric investigations.

---: ARPA technical advisory group established to facilitate exchange of
information between technical management and research personnel on Project
Defender.

November 23: X-15 (No. 2) flown on second test flight with XLR-99 engine by
A. Scott Crossfield, restarting the engine in flight for the first time.

---: TIROS II weather satellite launched by Thor-Delta at AMR, the 14th
successful U.S. satellite launched to date in 1960.

---: In a letter to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical
and Space Sciences, NASA Administrator Glennan defined low-altitude (orbits
of 2,000 to 6,000 miles) active communications satellite development to
"stimulate those developments which promise early benefits to our
citizens."

---: Plastic balloon launched from Sioux Falls, S. Dak., with University of
Michigan instrument package designed to take cloud pictures to compare with
those taken by cameras in TIROS II.

November 25: NASA scientists increased the speed of spin of TIROS II by
means of ground radio command.

November 27: Report of the President's Commission on National Goals was
released, which stated that the United States "should be highly selective
in our space objectives and unexcelled in their pursuit. Prestige arises
from sound accomplishment, not from the merely spectacular, and we must not
be driven by nationalistic competition into programs so extravagant as to
divert funds and talents from programs of equal or greater importance...."

November 28: Discussions on creation of an European space research
organization undertaken by scientific representatives of Belgium, Denmark,
France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland,
and the United Kingdom, with an observer from Spain.

---: TIROS II had successfully transmitted 998 pictures to receiving
stations at Fort Monmouth, N.J., and San Nicholas Island, Calif., 85
percent of narrow angle and 5 to 10 percent of the wideangle pictures
having some value.

November 28-December 3: Space Research Symposium sponsored by Argentina in
which Dr. Hugh Dryden and other U.S. scientists participated.

November 30: TRANSIT III-A navigation satellite, with two instrumented
payloads, was destroyed 40 minutes after launch from AMR by Thor-Able-Star
booster.

During November: Under arrangements of the AACB (Aeronautics and
Astronautics Coordinating Board), NASA will utilize existing NASA tracking
stations for initial Centaur development vehicles and switch to the Advent
network (which is to be planned, funded, and constructed by DOD) when
Centaur is operational, perhaps as early as the fourth of 10 development
launchings of Centaur.

December 1: SPACECRAFT III launched by U.S.S.R., weighing over 5 tons and
carrying a biological payload in its "space cabin."

---: USAF delivered to JPL the first 1:1,000,000 scale map of the lunar
landing site selected by NASA, the second in a continuing series of
1:1,000,000 charts prepared on USAF contract in response to NASA
requirements.

---: Army Nike-Zeus A-ICBM missile with guidance successfully test fired
from WSPG.

---: Delegates of 11 Western European nations approved an agreement aimed
at establishing an organization for space research. Proposed
intergovernmental agency would concentrate on satellites rather than
rockets for launch vehicles.

December 2: First of new series of static firings of Saturn considered only
50 percent successful in 2-second test at MSFC.

---: Human tissues exposed to heavy radiation during 50-hour flight of
recovered DISCOVERER XVII capsule according to USAF.

December 3: Moscow Radio reported that SPACECRAFT III descended along an
"uncalculated trajectory" and burned up in the dense atmosphere.

---: Titan ICBM exploded in its silo at Vandenberg AFB during night fueling
operations.

---: Senate Committee on Science and Astronautics issued staff study
entitled "Policy Planning for Space Communications," which stated that the
United States "must have a unified policy which effectively coordinates all
our diverse and extensive resources in this area."

December 4: American Bar Association's "Report to NASA on the Law of Outer
Space" was released, which contained collation of legal opinion on the
broad spectrum of space activities.

---: Attempt to launch a Beacon satellite with a four-stage
solid-propellant Scout from Wallops Station did not succeed due to failure
of second stage.

December 5: Polaris A-2 successfully test fired 1,400 nautical miles down
AMR.

---: USAF completed Snark R&D program with a 5,000-mile flight from Cape
Canaveral.

December 6: Civil Service Commission approved new examination for career
professional positions in aerospace technology, part A covering work in the
physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics, and part B covering work
in the life sciences and related systems.

December 7: DISCOVERER XVIII launched into polar orbit by new Thor-Agena B
from Vandenberg AFB, carrying surveillance-system equipment and human
tissue in recovery capsule.

---: X-15 (No. 2) flown on final contractor's test flight by a Scott
Crossfield, making two midair engine shutdowns and restarts.

December 7-10: Series of upper atmosphere sounding rockets from NASA
Wallops Station, sodium vapor being ejected at about 212 miles altitude and
a lithium flare released near peak altitude of about 450 miles to measure
wind velocities and temperatures.

December 9: X-15 made first flight with ball-shaped "hot nose," reaching
50,000 feet and 1,254 mph, NASA's Neil Armstrong making his second
familiarization flight.

---: Tory IIA reactor, part of AEC-USAF Pluto program to demonstrate
feasibility of nuclear ramjet propulsion, achieved criticality of 1-watt
nominal power, and later in day was run up to 200 watts.

December 10: 300-pound capsule of DISCOVERER XVIII caught at 14,000 feet by
USAF C-119 crew, after making 48 polar orbits. Capsule contained human
eye-lid tissue and blood and bone marrow to study effect of radiation in
space. This was the second DISCOVERER capsule catch by C-119 crew headed by
Capt. Gene Jones, while precision of the entire operation beginning with
launch 3 days previous was considered the most successful to date.

December 11: SAM scientists reported that human tissue recovered from the
capsule of DISCOVERER XVII after about 50 hours on 31 orbits (November 14),
survived radiation in space, including that generated by one of the largest
solar storms ever observed.

December 12: SAM scientists at Brooks AFB reported that biological
specimens including human tissue recovered from the capsule of DISCOVERER
XVIII two days ago, showed far less radiation effects than specimens
recovered from DISCOVERER XVII in November.

---: Initial flight test of new guidance system of Army Pershing missile
successful.

December 13: North American A3-J Vigilante set a world altitude record with
1,000 kilogram payload of 91,450.8 feet, Comdr. Leroy Heath (USN) as pilot.

---: Palaemon, a 180-foot barge built to transport the Saturn launch
vehicle from MSFC to Cape Canaveral by water, was formally accepted by MSFC
Director from Maj. Gen. Frank S. Besson, Chief of Army Transportation.

December 14: USAF B-52G completed 10,000-mile nonstop flight without
refueling in 19 hours and 45 minutes, at Edwards AFB, which broke world and
jet distance records over a closed course without refueling.

December 15: Atlas-Able launch vehicle with NASA cislunar spacecraft
exploded 70 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral.

December 16: Scientists from Great Britain and NASA completed a series of
meetings leading to planning for British scientific satellite to be flown
on a Scout vehicle.

---: Atlas-D with Mark 3 nose cone fired 4,384 nautical miles into Eniwetok
Atoll in first SAC launching from Vandenberg AFB.

---: AEC-NASA Nuclear Propulsion Office announced selection of TALANT
industrial team proposal to conduct study of the requirements for a
National Nuclear Rocket Engine Development Facility.

December 17: National Science Foundation announced grants totaling $22.7
million to support summer institutes for 20,000 teachers of science,
mathematics, and engineering in high schools and colleges.

December 19: Unmanned Project Mercury spacecraft launched by modified
Redstone booster (MR-1) in a suborbital trajectory, impacting 235 miles
downrange after reaching an altitude of 135 miles and a speed of near 4,200
mph. Capsule was recovered about 50 minutes after firing.

---: Secretariat of COSPAR released official Soviet data on 27 U.S.S.R.
rockets launched in a series of high-altitude experiments from a research
ship in the Pacific, and a total of 73 rocket launchings in the first half
of the year 1960.

December 20: USAF DISCOVERER XIX successfully launched into polar orbit
from PMR carrying Project Midas test payload.

---: President-elect Kennedy announced that Vice President-elect Lyndon B.
Johnson would chair the National Aeronautics and Space Council.

---: Founded in 1912 by Glenn. L. Martin, the Martin Co. delivered its last
airplane, a P5M-2, to the Navy, having produced more than 12,000 aircraft
and entering the missile-space business with the NRL Viking research rocket
in 1948.

---: Second stage of near-operational Titan ICBM failed to ignite over Cape
Canaveral.

December 21: Space Technology Laboratories was selected by NASA for
contract negotiations for an orbiting geophysical observatory (OGO)
satellite program. To be managed by GSFC, OGO will be NASA's first
standardized satellite, often referred to as the "streetcar" satellite,
capable of placing 50 different geophysical experiments on any one flight.

---: Eight-engine cluster of Saturn successfully static fired for 65
seconds at MSFC, the firing generating 1,300,000 pounds of thrust.

December 22: Nuclear submarine Robert E. Lee fired Polaris A-1 IRBM 1,300
miles in an Atlantic shot.

December 23: Goddard Space Flight Center scientists, Robert Jastrow and
Robert Bryant, reported that atmospheric drag acting on ECHO I during the
severe solar storm of November 12, was increased by about a factor of two.
Scientists had previously noted the rise and fall of the density of the
upper atmosphere, and the heating effect of a solar flare had been noted on
the orbit of SPUTNIK III in 1959.

December 25: Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced selection of Blaw-Knox
Equipment, Hughes Aircraft, North American Aviation, and Westinghouse
Electric to study feasibility of a large space-tracking antenna.

December 26: Successful firing of a solid-propellant rocket motor using
"building block" method was announced by NASA.

December 27: EXPLORER VIII ceased transmitting ionospheric measurement data
acquired in 20,866,706 miles and 694.3 orbits, which produced more than 700
miles of magnetic tape since launch on November 3.

December 28: U.S. Weather Bureau sent TIROS II cloud-cover picture to
Australia, which was taken over the Indian and South Pacific Oceans and
served as a basis for forecasting a break in severe heat wave.

December 29: Dr. T. Keith Glennan offered his resignation as Administrator
of NASA, to be effective January 20, 1961.

December 31: To date, the United States had successfully launched 31 earth
satellites (9 of 16 still in orbit were still transmitting) and 2 deep
space probes into orbit around the sun. The U.S.S.R. had launched seven
satellites (one of which remained in orbit) and one deep space probe. The
U.S.S.R. had also launched one lunar impact mission (LUNIK II), while LUNIK
III had passed once around the moon and then went into earth orbit before
decaying.

During 1960: World Data Center A, Rockets and Satellites, of the National
Academy of Sciences, continued to provide a means for international
exchange of scientific data.

---: JPL turned the Army Sergeant missile over to Sperry Gyroscope Co. as
production contractor.

---: Through a contract with the University of Chicago, the USAF's
Aeromedical Field Laboratory and Missile Test Center developed a system for
ascertaining the types and intensities of primary cosmic particles in
space.

---: NASA launching record for the year: 22 major space flight attempts,
over two-thirds of which were fully successful.

---: World's scheduled airlines (excluding U.S.S.R. and Communist China)
carried 108 million passengers during the year according to ICAO, the first
year air passenger traffic exceeded 100 million persons.

For further information contact Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov



               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of January-March 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 1-13.

                                JANUARY 1961

January 1: White House statement of President Eisenhower issued, stating
that "the early establishment of a communication satellite system which can
be used on a commercial basis is a national objective."

---: Project Ice Way was established near Thule by the Geophysics Research
Directorate of the Cambridge Research Laboratories to test the feasibility
of landing heavy aircraft on ice runways. The tests, completed in June
1961, demonstrated the strength and other engineering qualities of the ice
runways constructed of natural sea water or reinforced with strands of
Fiberglas.

Early January: Because of the danger of a power drain in connection with
remote (tape recorder) operation, the wide-angle camera of Tiros II was
turned on only for direct readout, while satellite passed over Fort
Monmouth and Point Arguello.

January 3: NASA's Space Task Group, charged with carrying out Project
Mercury and other manned space flight programs, officially became a
separate NASA field element.

---: NASA awarded contract to General Electric for an investigation of
means of storing solar heat energy in satellites.

January 4: Ablation model test with electric arc attained 4,000 F for 105
seconds at Langley Research Center, one of a series of tests begun in
September 1960.

January 5: Turbofan-powered B-52H Boeing bomber, with two prototype Douglas
Skybolt air-launched 1,000-mile-range ballistic missiles under each wing,
was rolled out of the factory at Wichita, Kans.

January 7: USAF Blue Scout I reached near 1,000-mile altitude with 90-pound
data capsule from Atlantic Missile Range.

January 9: Jet Propulsion Laboratory awarded contract to Beckman
Instruments for design studies on equipment to analyze the surface of the
Moon.

---: Japanese scientist associated with Radio Research Laboratories of the
Japanese Ministry of Communications began studies of space communications
at NASA's Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Tracking Station.

January 10: President-elect Kennedy received report of special nine-man
committee on the national space program. Chairman of the committee was Dr.
Jerome B. Wiesner of MIT.

---: A Polaris missile of the advanced A-2 design was fired from Cape
Canaveral 1,600 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. It was the third
success in as many firings for the new Polaris designed to operate at a
range over 1,700 miles.

January 11: President-elect Kennedy announced that Jerome B. Wiesner of MIT
would be special assistant to the President for science and technology.

January 12: President Eisenhower in his state of the Union address to
Congress reviewed U.S. progress in space exploration, stating, "These
achievements unquestionably make us pre-eminent in space exploration for
the betterment of mankind."

---: Joint DOD-NASA release outlined actions of the Aeronautics and
Astronautics Coordinating Board (AACB) since its creation in September
1960.

---: First Italian launching of scientific sounding rocket in cooperative
program with United States, a Nike-Cajun launched from a range in Sardinia
to a height of over 100 miles, and released a cloud of sodium vapor visible
for many miles.

January 13: Convair B-58 Hustler, jet bomber powered by four GE J-79
engines, broke six world speed records, Maj. H. J. Deutschendorf, U.S. Air
Force, as pilot. On first closed-course run, the Hustler averaged 1,200.194
miles per hour, and it averaged 1,061.808 miles per hour on both runs
carrying a payload of 4,408 pounds and a crew of three.

---: NASA announced that a Life Sciences Research Laboratory would be
established on February 1 at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,
Calif.

January 15: NASA began negotiations with French Commission for Spatial and
Scientific Research for conducting a cooperative Franco-American space
program.

January 16: FCC first allocated radio frequencies to private industry (ITT)
for experiments in bouncing signals off the Moon and artificial satellites.

---: In the message of President Eisenhower accompanying his budget for
fiscal year 1962, it was said: "In the program of manned space flight, the
reliability of complex booster capsule escape and life support components
of the Mercury system is now being tested to assure a safe manned ballistic
flight into space, and hopefully a manned orbital flight in calendar year
1961. Further test and experimentation will be necessary to establish if
there are any valid scientific reasons for extending manned space flight
beyond the Mercury program."

---: Final assembly of first Saturn flight vehicle (SA-1) was completed.

January 17: First invention award under the authority of the National
Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 given to Dr. Frank T. McClure of the
Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins for his satellite Doppler
navigation system, the $3,000 award being presented by NASA Administrator
Glennan at NASA headquarters.

January 19: Report of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of
Sciences stated that life in some form on other planets of the solar system
may possibly exist, but that evidence of this is not available today.

---: Iris rocket, new solid-propellent single-stage sounding rocket, failed
to attin programmed flight from Wallops Island, reaching only 86 miles'
altitude instead of 160 miles.

January 19: NASA selected Hughes Aircraft Co. for placing of a major
subcontract by Jet Propulsion Laboratory to build seven Surveyor spacecraft
designed for soft landings on the Moon.

---: Marshall Space Flight Center awarded contract to Douglas and Chance
Vought to study launching manned exploratory expedition into lunar and
interplanetary space from Earth orbits.

---: Federal Communications Commission allocated a radio frequency to the
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. to establish the first space satellite
communications link between Europe and the United States on an experimental
basis, a program calling for NASA launching of a series of experimental
communication satellites capable of relaying telephone calls, television
programs, and other messages across the Atlantic.

---: NASA announced indefinite suspension of the programming of the
wide-angle camera in Tiros II, the experimental weather observation
satellite launched on November 23, 1960.

January 20: United States and United Kingdom signed formal agreement
covering minitrack station at Winkfield, England.

---: Under NASA contract, United Technology Corp. successfully completed
ground tests of three 15,000-pound thrust segmented solid-propellent
rockets. Each was made up of three 1,000-pound sections which were joined
prior to firing.

---: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) awarded contracts to North
American Aviation and Ryan Aeronautical to develop paraglider recovery
system for the Saturn booster, based upon concept developed by Francis M.
Rogallo of NASA's Langley Research Center.

---: Headline news in Moscow was detailed Tass announcement that Strelka,
one of two female dogs recovered from orbiting Spacecraft II in August
1960, had given birth to six puppies in good health. Pravda had announced 3
weeks earlier that one of the satellite-passenger dogs had given birth.

January 23: Final test flight of USAF Atlas D traveled 5,000 miles to
target down Atlantic Missile Range, representing 35 successes, 8 partials,
and 6 failures in 49 test launchings for D model.

---: NASA selected United Aircraft to make feasibility study of ion rocket
application for long space flights.

January 24: NASA outlined specifications for a low-altitude active
communications satellite Project Relay at Goddard Space Flight Center.

January 25: NASA awarded contract to Lockheed for a spaceship refueling
study.

---: NASA distributed to the world scientific community, through COSPAR, a
detailed description of the next planned Beacon satellite experiment.

---: NASA revealed it had selected 12 women airplane pilots to undergo
tests to determine space flight research capability.

---: Assembly of Ranger I was completed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

---: Titan II selected as launch vehicle for Dyna-Soar I by USAF.

January 29: NASA announced establishment of Goddard Institute for Space
Studies (GISS) in New York City, which would be an extension of the
Theoretical Division of Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. It will
be headed by Dr. Robert Jastrow.

January 30: President Kennedy stated in his state of the Union address to
Congress: "This administration intends to explore promptly all possible
areas of cooperation with the Soviet Union and other nations to invoke the
wonders of science instead of its terrors. Specifically, I now invite all
nationsincluding the Soviet Unionto join with us in developing a weather
prediction program, in a new communication satellite program, and in
preparation for probing the distant planets of Mars and Venus, probes which
may some day unlock the deepest secrets of the universe."

---: James E. Webb nominated as Administrator of NASA by President Kennedy.

January 30-February 2: Conference of 12 European nations held at Strasbourg
to discuss a British and French proposal for a European satellite launcher
development program.

January 31: USAF Samos II, a 4,100-pound test satellite containing
photographic equipment, placed in orbit by Atlas-Agena A from Point
Arguello, Calif.

---: Mercury-Redstone (MR-2) flight from Atlantic Missile Range shot
Mercury capsule containing chimpanzee named Ham to 157 miles altitude and
418 miles down range. Capsule with life-support equipment functioned well
but flight was 42 miles higher and 125 miles farther than programmed. Ham
was recovered in good health.

---: An eight-engine static test firing of the Saturn test booster (Sa-T1)
for 113 seconds was completed at Marshall Space Flight Center.

During January: International Committee on Geophysics, successor
organization to the IGY, meeting in Paris, endorsed proposal for Quiet Sun
Year during 1964-65. (IGY had been selected for its intense sunspot
activity.)

---: NASA internal studies of a manned lunar landing program were
completed. Studies considered both the direct ascent based on a large
Nova-type launch vehicle and the rendezvous method of earth orbit using a
number of Saturn C-2's.

---: Experiments with Echo I were discontinued except for occasional
checks, having provided for innumerous communications since launch on
August 12, 1960.

---: Wind tunnel testing of model of the first Saturn (SA-1) began at
Arnold Engineering Development Center at Tullahoma, Tenn.

---: Explosions of Centaur engines at Pratt & Whitney led to suspension of
testing.

                               FEBRUARY 1961

February 1: Life Sciences Laboratory established by NASA at Ames Research
Center to augment, lead, direct, encourage, and coordinate biomedical
research related to the space program.

---: X-15 (No. 1) flown to 49,780 feet by John B. McKay, NASA test pilot,
at Edwards, Calif.

---: USAF Minuteman successful on first test launch from AFMTC, a
three-stage solid-propellent ICBM with full guidance, all tested on its
first launching.

---: The space surveillance system (Spasur) was formally commissioned at
the Naval Weapons Laboratory, Dahlgren, Va., under the operational control
of the North American Defense Command.

February 2: NASA-AEC Space Nuclear Propulsion Office invited industry to
submit proposals for participation in development of Nerva (nuclear engine
for rocket vehicle application), a part of Project Rover initiated in 1955
by USAF-AEC.

---: Nomination of James E. Webb to be Administrator of NASA reported
favorably by the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

---: Dr. T. Keith Glennan was named consultant to the Senate Committee on
Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

---: NASA announced that it would negotiate with Boeing Co., Chance Vought
Corp., and Martin Co., for tanks for five first-stage Saturn launch
vehicles. It later announced additional selection of Chrysler Corp.

February 4: Sputnik IV launched into orbit by U.S.S.R., a 7.1-ton payload,
but mission of flight was not announced.

---: Plans to launch a Japanese Kappa 6 sounding rocket within a year
announced by Yugoslavia.

February 5: Orientation of Tiros II made it impossible to obtain Northern
Hemisphere pictures and malfunctions made remote picture taking
undesirable, so that use of satellite's cameras was suspended until orbit
precession again made Northern Hemisphere pictures possible.

February 6: NASA Aerobee-Hi successfully reached 96 miles above Wallops
Station in test of behavior of liquid hydrogen in zero gravity for Lewis
Research Center hydrogen propulsion development.

February 7: X-15 flown to unofficial record 2,275 miles per hour by Maj.
Robert White, U.S. Air Force.

February 7-8: Meeting of NASA and contractor personnel held at NASA
headquarters to review Centaur development program.

February 8: When asked at press conference about U.S. man-in-space plans,
President Kennedy stated: "We are very concerned that we do not put a man
in space in order to gain some prestige and have the man take a
disproportionate risk . . . even if we should come in second in putting a
man in space, I will still be satisfied if when we finally put a man in
space his chances of survival are as high as I think they must be."

February 8: NAA delivered X-15 No. 2 with XLR-99 engine to NASA for the
initiation of the NASA flight research program.

February 9: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory reported that Earth is a
slightly irregular ellipsoid according to new calculations.

---: James E. Webb confirmed by the Senate as Administrator of NASA.

---: Gen. Thomas D. White, USAF Chief of Staff, ordered space surveillance
functions transferred from Air Research and Development Command to the Air
Defense Command at Ent Air Force Base, Colo., as technology in this field
moved from research and development to an operational stage. The ADC
established Spadats (space detection and tracking system).

February 10: Voice message sent from Washington to Woomera, Australia, by
way of the Moon. NASA Deputy Administrator Dryden spoke on telephone to
Goldstone, Calif., which "bounced" it to the deep space instrumentation
station at Woomera. The operation was held as part of the official opening
ceremony of the deep space instrumentation facility site in Australia.

---: First static test of prototype thrust chamber of F-1 engine achieved a
thrust of 1,550,000 pounds for a few seconds, at Edwards, Calif.

---: Three-day meeting of Satellite Panel of the World Meteorological
Organization concluded at Washington, D.C., minus participation by the
Soviet member.

February 10-11: Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences
worked out recommendation that "scientific exploration of the Moon and
planets should be clearly stated as the ultimate objective of the U.S.
space program for the foreseeable future." This report was submitted to the
President on March 31 and was released publicly on August 6.

February 12: Sputnik VIII launched into Earth orbit by U.S.S.R., from which
it placed 1,419-pound Venus probe on its course.

February 13: USAF Gam-83B, modification of Navy Bullpup, a solid-propellent
air-to-surface missile, was successfully launched at supersonic speed by an
F-100 Supersabre.

February 14: NASA Nike-Cajun rocket launched from Wallops Station, carrying
60-pound payload ejecting explosive charges, which fired at intervals from
20- to 80-mile altitude to provide data on density of the atmosphere.

---: Last of second series of static firings of Saturn completed at
Marshall Space Flight Center for 110 seconds, approximately full duration.

---: President Kennedy congratulated Premier Khrushchev on the Soviet
Union's "impressive scientific achievement" in launching a space probe
toward the planet Venus.

---: NASA selected Flight Propulsion Department, General Electric, for
negotiation of 18-month contract to study heatflow characteristics of
fluids in nuclear powerplants.

---: NASA and United Kingdom agreed to establish joint program to test
communications satellites to be launched by NASA in 1962 and 1963 in
Projects Relay and Rebound.

February 15: U.S.S.R. reportedly made first photos of solar eclipse from a
vehicle in space, in report later released on May 28.

---: James E. Webb was sworn in as NASA Administrator.

February 16: NASA Explorer IX placed in orbit by four-stage Scout booster
from Wallops Station, the first satellite launching from Wallops, and the
first satellite boosted by a solid-fuel rocket. Explorer IX was a 12-foot
diameter sphere after inflation at orbital altitude.

---: NASA and France agreed to establish joint program to test
communications satellites to be launched by NASA in 1962 and 1963 in
Projects Relay and Rebound.

February 17: "Polka dot" Explorer IX found in orbit by visual and
photographic means after failure of radio beacon delayed confirmation of
orbit.

---: USAF Discoverer XX placed in polar orbit with 300-pound recovery
capsule from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

---: NASA negotiated $400,000 contract with G. T. Schjeldahl Co. to design,
develop, fabricate, and test rigidized inflatable spheres for Project Echo,
the passive communications satellite program.

---: The last successful communication with the U.S.S.R. Venus probe was
made.

February 18: USAF Discoverer XXI fired into polar orbit, and Agena B
restarted in flight after first orbit.

February 20: Navy told the House Committee on Science and Astronautics that
Polaris could be used as a mobile satellite launch vehicle.

February 21: NASA Space Task Group selected John H. Glenn, Jr., Virgil I.
Grissom, and Alan B. Shepard, Jr., to begin special training for first
manned Mercury space flight.

---: Navy Transit III-B with Lofti piggyback satellite placed into orbit by
Thor-Able-Star launch vehicle, but satellites did not separate.

---: USAF canceled recovery operations of Discoverer XX capsule due to
technical difficulties.

---: NASA awarded contract to G. T. Schjeldahl Co. for nine inflatable
spheres for Echo program.

---: Titan ICBM completed 5,000-mile flight, the 20th success in 29 tests.

---: MA-2 launch from Cape Canaveral, trajectory providing rugged test of
the Mercury capsule.

February 22: French Veronique launched capsule containing rat (Hector) to
95-mile altitude, recovered successfully.

February 23: NASA Administrator James E. Webb and Deputy Secretary of
Defense Roswell Gilpatric signed letter of understanding confirming the
national launch vehicle program, the integrated development and procurement
of space boosters by NASA and DOD. It was agreed that neither DOD nor NASA
would initiate the development of a launch vehicle or booster for use in
space without written acknowledgement of the other agency.

---: Proposed DOD Directive entitled "Development of Space Systems" was
submitted to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military services for
comment by March 2.

---: Tiros II completed 3 months in orbit, continuing useful observations
beyond original estimate of useful life.

February 24: NASA Juno II launched S-45 I ionosphere beacon satellite which
did not achieve orbit due to malfunction shortly after booster separation.

February 25: Paul F. Bikle set world glider altitude record of 46,267 feet
in Schweizer 1-23-E sailplane, beating record of 42,100 feet set by W. S.
Ivans in 1950. Bikle is Director of NASA Flight Research Center, Edwards,
Calif., which is conducting the X-15 flight research program.

February 26: Sputnik IV, launched on February 4, reentered the Earth's
atmosphere.

February 27: FCC-NASA memorandum of understanding for delineating and
coordinating civil communication space activities signed. It stated that
"earliest practicable realization of a commercially operable communication
satellite system is a national objective."

---: NASA released "Evaluation of U.S.S.R. versus U.S. Output in Space
Science," a study prepared for the House Committee on Science and
Astronautics.

February 28: NASA Administrator James E. Webb stated that President Kennedy
had ordered a thorough review of the Nation's space programs.

During February: Acoustic test chamber for recording sound of rocket
operations and to study human stress limits completed at Environmental
Simulation Laboratory, Naval Missile Center, at Pacific Missile Range.

---: Japanese space science survey team toured NASA facilities.

---: Bell Telephone Laboratories and General Electric conducted a "phase
stability" experiment on Echo I, the results indicating that the sphere was
keeping its "roundness" much longer than anticipated.

---: NASA-USAF returned X-15 No. 1 to contractor (NAA) for installation of
final engine of 57,000-pound thrust.

                                 MARCH 1961

March 2: Tass announced that radio contact with the Soviet Venus probe
could not be established on February 27.

---: The fourth firing of an advanced Polaris A-2, and the first from a
ship, was made by the U.S.S. Observation Island as she cruised at 8 knots,
10 miles offshore from Cape Canaveral.

---: The President's Scientific Advisory Committee on Project Mercury
visited Atlantic Missile Range for a briefing.

March 3: USAF Blue Scout II carried 172-pound payload to 1,580 miles
altitude from Atlantic Missile Range.

March 6: First NASA Agena B vehicle entered checkout of systems and
subsystems at Lockheed, Sunnyvale, Calif.; vehicle scheduled to launch
Ranger I.

---: Department of Defense decision indicated that perfected military space
vehicles would be assigned to each service which demonstrated an
operational need for them, thus giving USAF major responsibility for
military space development.

---: Direct-mode pictures by Tiros II camera were resumed after a month of
inoperation. The quality of the pictures showed some slight improvement,
supporting the theory that foreign matter may have been deposited on the
lens and was gradually evaporating.

---: Equipped with turbofan engines, B-52H made its first flight at
Wichita, Kans.

March 7: First flight model of Saturn booster (SA-1) installed on static
test stand for preflight checkout, Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville.

---: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center selected Chance Vought Corp. to
build 42 fuel and liquid oxygen tanks for the Saturn booster program.

---: Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force, flew X-15 a record speed of 2,905
miles per hour, topping his mark of 2,275 miles per hour set on February 7
with interim engine.

March 9: U.S.S.R. launched 5-ton Sputnik IV into orbit and recovered dog
passenger, the second time this feat was performed.

---: Harold B. Finger was appointed Assistant Director for Nuclear
Applications in NASA's Office of Launch Vehicle Programs, and continued as
Manager of the AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO).

---: Dr. Harold Brown, of University of California's Lawrence Radiation
Laboratories, was named Director of Research and Engineering for the
Department of Defense, to succeed Dr. Herbert F. York.

March 10: NASA announced first success in immediate detection in real time
of radar signals off planet Venus by Jet Propulsion Laboratory Goldstone,
as part of 2-month research program.

---: NASA and Navy jointly established development program to increase
payload capability of Scout vehicle by 40 percent by improved performance
of third- and fourth-stage engines.

---: NASA awarded contracts to Convair, Lockheed, and North American for
studies of space vehicles beyond the Saturn class, having first-stage
thrust of 6 to 12 million pounds.

---: National Meteorite Symposium held at Arizona State University, Tempe,
Ariz.

March 13: Soviet astronomers claimed to have discovered the presence of
oxygen in the atmosphere of Venus. Dr. Brian Warner of the London
Observatory correlated and reinterpreted spectrographic data gathered
earlier by Soviet Astronomer Nikolai Kozyrev.

---: An Atlas intended for 9,000-mile flight into the Indian Ocean plunged
into the Atlantic only 200 miles from Cape Canaveral.

March 14-15: United States and United Kingdom signed formal agreement
covering Mercury tracking stations on Bermuda.

Mid-March: Up to this time, approximately 78 percent of the wide-angle
photographs relayed from Tiros II (weather satellite) were considered
usable for current weather analysis.

March 15: NASA and United Kingdom's Space Sciences Committee agreed on
experiments to be included in the second United Kingdom satellite (launched
by NASA's Scout), the experiments being galactic noise, atmospheric ozone,
and micrometeoroids.

March 16: Scientists from Fordham University and Esso Research announced
that they had discovered waxy compounds inside a fragment of a meteorite
found near Orgueil, France, in 1864.

---: NASA Robert H. Goddard Space Flight Center officially dedicated at
Greenbelt, Md., dedication address delivered by Dr. Detlev Bronk, President
of the National Academy of Sciences. It was the 35th anniversary of Dr.
Goddard's successful launching of the world's first liquid fuel rocket.
Mrs. Robert H. Goddard accepted the congressional medal honoring her
husband.

March 17: Vanguard I completed third year in orbit and was still
transmitting. Vanguard I provided much useful data on orbits, including the
slight pear-shape of the Earth and the effect of solar pressure. Vanguard
also provided the second stage for the Able, Delta, and Able-Star, as well
as the third stage of Scout, pioneering solid-propellant stages used in
Polaris and Minuteman.

---: First Northrop T-38 supersonic jet trainer was delivered to USAF Air
Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base, Tex.

March 18: Little Joe 6 fired Mercury spacecraft from Wallops, resulted in
limited test of escape system because of unprogrammed sequence.

March 19: Problems with the shutter of the wind-angle camera of the Tiros
II were noted, but later disappeared and did not significantly affect data
from this camera.

---: Tiny particle of matter from another galaxy hit upper atmosphere of
the Earth over New Mexico at a speed close to that of light and split with
great force. Resultant particle shower numbered between 20 and 40 billion
pieces, according to scintillation counters at the Volcano Ranch Cosmic Ray
Research Center near Albuquerque, N. Mex.

March 20: Charles J. Dolan named Associate Director of NASA's Langley
Research Center. He had been associated with the NASA Space Task Group
since its formation at Langley in November 1958.

March 20-21: Representatives of NASA and the French Committee for Space
Research agreed on cooperative space science program in meeting at
Washington, D.C.

March 22: National Academy of Sciences' Geophysics Research Board announced
preliminary plans for an International Year of the Quiet Sun (IQSY) during
1964-65.

---: Dr. Edward C. Welsh, a former aid to Senator Symington, was nominated
by the President to be the Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics
and Space Council.

March 23: Responding to inquiry by the chairman of the House Science and
Astronautics Committee, President Kennedy stated in a letter: "It is not
now nor has it ever been my intention to subordinate the activities of
[NASA] to those of the Department of Defense . . . there are legitimate
missions in space for which the military services should assume
responsibility . . . [and there are] major missions, such as the scientific
unmanned and manned exploration of space and the application of space
technology to the conduct of peaceful activities, which should be carried
forward by the civilian space agency."

---: The first World Meteorological Day was observed by 50 nations under
sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization.

March 24: Mercury-Redstone successfully flew capsule in 115-mile flight
test at Atlantic Missile Range.

---: Tiros II completed 4 months in orbit and continued to provide useful
cloud picture and radiation data. Signal from Tiros II was used on 1,763d
orbit to trigger dynamite to break ground for new RCA Space Environment
Center at Princeton, N.J.

---: NASA and United Kingdom's Department of Science and Industrial
Research signed agreement covering data acquisition unit in Falkland
Islands for "topside sounder," a joint United States-Canada project.

March 25: NASA Thor-Delta fired Explorer X (P-14) into highly elliptical
orbit (apogee of 148,000 miles, perigee of 100 miles) with instruments to
transmit data on the nature of the magnetic fields and charged particles in
this region of space where the Earth's magnetic field merges with that in
interplanetary space.

---: Prof. Martin Schwarzschild, of Princeton University, named by the
National Academy of Sciences to receive the Henry Draper Medal for his work
as director of ONR's Project Stratoscope (produced clear photos of the
structure of the surface of the Sun).

---: U.S.S.R. launched Spacecraft V, a more than 5-ton payload, and
recovered capsule containing a dog named Little Star. This was apparently a
repeat of the March 9 shot.

March 26: NASA Aerobee research rocket with University of Michigan payload
shot to 252-mile altitude from Wallops Station.

---: Pravda article stated that the day was "not far distant when a Soviet
human being will rocket into space."

March 27: Budget Director David E. Bell made known to Joint Economic
Committee of Congress that the new administration would request for fiscal
year 1962 $125.67 million more for NASA (in addition to previous $1,110
million) and $65 million more for the National Science Foundation
(additional to $210 million).

March 27: President Kennedy initiated actions to speed up the development
of large boosters.

---: Dr. Carl Sagan, of the University of California, suggested that the
seeding of the atmosphere of Venus with algae might alter its atmosphere to
support human life.

---: Its instruments recording a magnetic impulse, Explorer X became the
first satellite to measure the shock wave generated by a solar flare.

March 28: USAF Dyna-Soar System Project Office personnel visited NASA
headquarters for review of technical and management programs.

---: President Kennedy requested Congress for $2 million so that NASA could
aid FAA in development of supersonic transport aircraft. President also
asked for $12 million increase in FAA budget.

---: NASA Goddard scientists reported that Explorer X had encountered
magnetic fields considerably stronger than expected in its elongated orbit
which carried it 112,500 miles from Earth (almost halfway to the Moon),
although it would take several weeks to analyze acquired data.

---: Soviet press conference at Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, at
which Biochemist N.M. Sisakian announced that all six of Strelka's pups, on
exhibit, were developing normally: "Our research on these animals, just
completed, has proved that no dangerous consequences to the functioning of
the organs have stemmed from the space flight. This problem has an
important bearing on our preparations for man's orbiting."

---: Alexander Topchiev, Vice Chairman of the Soviet Academy of Science,
stated in Moscow that Western reports that some Soviet astronauts had
perished in space flight attempt were "a complete fabrication . . .
entirely and absolutely unfounded." Occasion was press conference at the
Academy of Science on the subject of the imminent flight of man into space,
at which four space dogs and six offspring were televised.

---: Draft DOD directive on "Reconnaissance, Mapping, and Geodetic
Programs" (5160.34), relative to development of military space systems, was
sent to the services for comment.

March 29: At 280th session of disarmament conference at Geneva, Arthur H.
Dean presented U.S. proposal that a system of space satellites for
patrolling a ban on nuclear testing be fully operational 6 years after
ratification of such a ban. Such a space patrol could "open up a new
frontier of knowledge for the benefit of mankind."

March 30: Reactor-in-flight-test system (Rift) study, a part of the
NASA-AEC program on nuclear rockets, was briefed by contractors at NASA
headquarters.

---: USAF Discoverer XXII failed to achieve orbit.

---: NASA-USAF-USN rocket research X-15 flown to 169,600 feet by Joseph A.
Walker, NASA pilot, the highest altitude ever reached by man and which
included 2 minutes of weightlessness at the top of his climb. The X-15,
powered by XLR-99 rocket engine designed to thrust it to 50 miles altitude
and speeds of up to 4,000 miles per hour, was only run at three-quarters
throttle.

March 30: USAF announced reduction of the B-70 program contract commitments
to North American, Westinghouse, and other firms. Five major subcontracts
were canceled and four others sharply reduced.

March 31: NASA selected GE's Space Sciences Laboratory and Avco Corp. for
negotiation of contracts to study feasibility of magneto gas dynamic
electric rocket or thermal arc jet rocket engines.

---: By this date, all stations of NASA's worldwide Mercury tracking
network were operational.

---: Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences submitted its
recommendation of February 10-11 that "scientific exploration of the Moon
and planets should clearly be stated as the ultimate objective of the U.S.
space program for the foreseeable future."

During March: Announced that National Institutes of Health scientists were
growing organisms found inside of a meteorite that fell at Murray, Ky.,
around 1950; first reported instance of living material, perhaps
extraterrestrial, grown in a laboratory.

---: In an experiment at Boeing, biologist J.D. McClure spent 26 hours in a
sealed environment with atmosphere recycled through algae to retain 21
percent oxygen content.

---: Marine helicopter crews conducted extensive tests to perfect water
recovery of Mercury capsule at Langley Air Force Base.

---: Personnel of NASA's technical and international programs participated
in task force study of methods for increasing effectiveness of U.S.
international scientific activities.

---: It was reported that the Institute of Space Technology at Stuttgart,
Germany, had developed inexpensive static test stand and fired steam motors
producing 30 tons of thrust.

For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of April-June 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 14-30.

                                 APRIL 1961

April 1: Dr. Charles A. Roadman named as Acting Director of the NASA Office
of Life Sciences to succeed Dr. Clark Randt, who resigned effective this
date.

---: Secretary of Defense McNamara issued directive (5160.34) assigning
research, development, and operational responsibilities for DOD
reconnaissance, mapping, and geodetic programs. The USAF was assigned
responsibility for reconnaissance satellite systems as well as research and
development of instrumentation and data processing associated with these
satellite systems. The U.S. Army was assigned responsibility for
establishment and management of a worldwide master geodetic control system,
and necessary R. & D. and library support, while the USAF was made
responsible for launch and recovery of geodetic payloads. The U.S. Navy was
assigned responsibility for R. & D. and operation of all oceanographic and
geodetic programs at sea.

---: USAF reorganized its research and development activities, creating the
Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) to replace parts of the Air Research and
Development Command and the Air Materiel Command, to be commanded by Lt.
Gen. Bernard Schriever. Also separately created was the Office of Aerospace
Research (OAR) to function as a separate air command reporting directly to
Chief of Staff, USAF.

April 3: Naval Research Laboratory reported that Lofti, small piggyback
satellite on Transit III-B launched on February 21, demonstrated that very
low frequency radio signals pass through the ionosphere into space, thus
opening new area for communications development.

April 4: Three astronauts selected for Mercury-Redstone flight (MR-3) were
ordered to take refresher course in Navy centrifuge at Johnsville, Pa.

April 6: Six hundred mice placed in altitude chamber for 6-week
environmental exposure at Armour Research Foundation.

---: Marshall Space Flight Center announced that 1,640,000 pounds thrust
was achieved in test of F-1 rocket engine thrust chamber static firing at
Edward, Calif., a record thrust for a single chamber.

---: United States and United Kingdom signed formal agreement covering
tracking station on Canton Island.

April 7-14: NASA participated in Committee on Space Research symposium held
in Florence, Italy.

April 8: USAF Discoverer XXIII placed into polar orbit from Pacific Missile
Range but reentry capsule stayed in orbit.

April 10: President Kennedy requested Congress to approve legislation
making the Vice President Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space
Council.

April 10: Radar tracking of planet Venus for 7 weeks by Jet Propulsion
Laboratory scientists had proved "astronomical yardstick" of 93,498,125
miles as the distance between the Earth and Sun (within 1,000 miles of
error).

---: Attempt to recover capsule from Discoverer XXIII unsuccessful.

---: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory reported that Echo I satellite
may remain in orbit another 3 years.

---: Rumors swept Moscow that U.S.S.R. had placed a man into space.

April 12: U.S.S.R. announced that Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin had successfully
orbited the Earth in a 108-minute flight in a 5-ton Vostok (East), the
first man to make a successful orbital flight through space.

---: President Kennedy, in his regular press conference, stated that "no
one is more tired than I am" in seeing the United States second to Russia
in the space field. "They secured large boosters which have led to their
being first in Sputnik, and led to their first putting their men in space.
We are, I hope, going to be able to carry out our efforts, with due regard
to the problem of the life of the men involved, this year. But we are
behind . . . the news will be worse before it is better, and it will be
some time before we catch up."

---: USAF Blue Scout II was fired with test equipment for detection of
high-altitude nuclear tests.

---: Announced in Moscow that a new State Committee for Coordinating
Research Work was created, to be headed by Lt. Gen. Mikhail V. Khrunichev.

April 13: A.T. & T. stated that it hoped to orbit experimental
communications satellite by May 1962, and would share use or ownership of a
satellite system with other common carriers.

April 14: In response to questioning by the House Science and Astronautics
Committee, Associate NASA Administrator Seamans repeated the general
estimate of $20 to $40 billion as the cost for the total effort required to
achieve a lunar landing, that an all-out program might cost more, and that
1967 could be considered only as a possible planning date at this stage of
such a complex task.

---: Gigantic ceremony in Red Square in Moscow honoring Maj. Y. A. Gagarin,
the first cosmonaut.

April 17: Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Government Operations,
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey as chairman, submitted report on "Coordination
of Information on Current Research and Development Supported by the U.S.
Government." It recommended innovations be developed to aid the management
and conduct of research.

---: Construction of dynamic test stand for Saturn completed at Marshall
Space Flight Center.

---: USAF Cambridge Research Laboratories' balloon was launched from
Vernalis, Calif., maintained constant altitude of 70,000 feet for 9 days
with payload of 40 pounds.

April 19: Preliminary data from Explorer X disclosed at NASA indicated that
solar winds blow the Sun's magnetic field out past the orbit of the Earth.

---: Dr. Thomas Gold, of Cornell University, submitted that water exists on
the Moon, perhaps shielded from evaporation by a layer of ice below the
surface, in a paper given at American Physical Society.

---: Lincoln Laboratory's radar system near El Campo, Tex., began 32-day
radar contact with the Sun, ending on July 7. Variations in solar activity
were determined to have a corresponding effect upon the reflectivity of
radio waves transmitted to the Sun from Earth.

---: Scientists from the United Kingdom and NASA announced agreement on the
scientific instrumentation of a second United Kingdom satellite to be
launched by NASA with a Scout vehicle.

---: Polaris fired more than 1,100 miles from submerged U.S.S. Robert E.
Lee.

April 20: National Academy of Sciences issued report by its Space Science
Board which stated that "the history of geographic exploration on Earth
tells over and over again of the deaths of bold explorers. . . . To ignore
this in the far more difficult and hazardous areas of man in space is
foolish. Men will perish in space as they have on the high seas, in the
Antarctica, in the heart of Africa, and wherever they have ventured into
unknown regions."

---: House and Senate approved bill to permit Vice President of the United
States to serve as Chairman of the National Space Council.

---: Dr. John R. Winckler, of the University of Minnesota, reported at the
American Geophysical Union, that the first direct sampling of a cross
section of solar material had revealed that particles of heavier elements
of the sun ejected by solar flares have been captured in the vicinity of
the Earth in study of emulsions flown by balloons and rockets during the
solar activity of the fall of 1960. Tracks of helium, carbon, nitrogen, and
oxygen had been detected.

April 21: USAF-USN-NASA X-15 flown to controlled-flight record speed of
3,074 miles per hour by Maj. Robert White (USAF) at Edwards, Calif. This
was the first flight of X-15 with full throttle.

---: NASA fired Nike-Asp rocket carrying aluminum thermite and sodium
pellets to an altitude of 34-miles, one of a series of sodium cloud firings
in connection with similar launchings in Italy.

---: Dr. W. O. Roberts, Director of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research (NCAR), announced that a national balloon flights facility would
be established to encourage upper atmospheric research.

April 22: NASA fired first seven-stage Trailblazer rocket from Wallops
Station, first three stages firing meteorite to 175-mile altitude and next
four stages back through the atmosphere in a high-speed reentry experiment.

---: Italian Air Force personnel fired Jupiter IRBM in training launch at
Cape Canaveral.

April 23: Tiros II completed 5 months in orbit. Useful radiation
observations ceased due to detector malfunctions, but radiation electronics
and tape recorder continued to function, and TV cameras continued to
operate as well as on day of launch.

April 24: Dr. Leonard S. Sheingold, director of applied research at
Sylvania Electronic Systems, was named by the President to be Chief
Scientist, USAF.

April 25: Mercury-Atlas (MA-3) launched unmanned Mercury spacecraft in
orbital test from Atlantic Missile Range, which was destroyed at 16,000
feet by range safety officer, while Mercury capsule was boosted by escape
tower rockets above Atlas and subsequently recovered intact.

---: President Kennedy signed legislation making the Vice President
Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council.

---: Official Soviet report described preliminary weightlessness training
of the Soviet cosmonauts as follows: "It was established that all selected
cosmonauts possess a good ability to endure weightlessness up to 40
seconds, the cosmonaut can eat food liquid, semiliquid, and solid; can
perform delicate coordinated acts, such as writing or purposeful hand
motions; can maintain communication by radio; can read; and, besides, can
orient himself visually."

April 27: Javelin launched 70.6-pound payload to altitude of 475 miles in
beginning of Goddard Space Flight Center program to measure the density of
eletrons in the ionosphere.

---: Explorer XI, a gamma-ray satellite, was successfully launched into
orbit by NASA Juno II from Cape Canaveral.

---: NASA Ames Research Center measured the intensity of radiation from the
hot gas over the nose of a model flying through the air at 42,300 feet per
second. This speed was in excess of parabolic atmospheric entry speed and
the data are significant in relation to development of lunar spacecraft.
The speed, 11,100 feet per second higher than maximum air speed obtained
previously, was achieved by firing the model from a light-gas gun into a
highspeed jet of air flowing in the opposite direction from a shock-driven
wind tunnel.

---: F. W. Reichelderfer, Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau, testified
before the House Appropriations Committee that getting the same information
contained in the cloud structure photographs taken by the Tiros I weather
satellite would have required thousands of weather ships over the Pacific.
With Tiros I, he said, "for the first time man had a complete look at the
weather over a large segment of the Earth's surface."

April 28: Little Joe 5-B launched Mercury spacecraft from Wallops Station,
which provided abort test under severe atmospheric flight conditions.

---: Simulated countdown of Mercury-Redstone 3 was completed successfully.

---: First manned balloon launched from and landed back aboard a naval
vessel, a Stratolab High test flight over U.S.S. Antietam in the Gulf of
Mexico (6,000 feet).

April 28: Final NASA report on the study proposed for Saturn for use as
Dyna-Soar booster was presented to the Air Force.

---: World altitude record for aircraft of 113,891 feet (34,714 meters)
flown by G. Mussolov in Soviet E-66A.

April 29: Saturn booster firing of 30 seconds using timer at predetermined
setting was successful in flight qualification test.

During April: The Navy reactivated the former NACA hydrodynamic research
facilities at Langley Research Center, to conduct R. & D. on hydrofoils,
air-cushion vehicles, hydroskis, catamarans, STOL seaplanes, torpedoes, and
underwater rockets. NASA continued investigations at other facilities of
Langley of ditching and water landing of space vehicles.

                                  MAY 1961

May 1: NASA Administrator Webb issued a statement concerning the 2-year
Mercury manned space flight program, which said, in part: "NASA has not
attempted to encourage press coverage of the first Mercury-Redstone manned
flight. It has responded to press and television requests, with the result
that over 100 representatives of the press, radio, and TV are now at Cape
Canaveral. . . . We must keep the perspective that each flight is but one
of the many milestones we must pass. Some will completely succeed in every
respect, some partially, and some will fail. From all of them will come
mastery of the vast new space environment on which so much of our future
depends."

---: May Day parade in Red Square, Moscow, reviewed by Maj. Yuri Gagarin
beside Premier Khrushchev.

---: Tiros operations at Belmar, N.J., terminated to begin move of
equipment to Wallops Station, Virginia.

May 2: Manned Mercury-Redstone (MR-3) launch postponed because of rain
squalls in the recovery area.

---: USAF Bomarc B area defense missile destroyed Regulus II target missile
flying at mach 2, in test at Eglin Gulf Test Range.

May 3: First silo launching of an ICBM, a USAF Titan at Vandenberg Air
Force Base.

May 4: ONR Stratolab High V balloon launched from carrier Antietam in Gulf
of Mexico reached world altitude balloon record of 113,600 feet, remaining
above 104,000 feet for 2 hours 11 minutes, Comdr. Malcolm D. Ross, U.S.
Naval Reserve, as pilot, and Lt. Comdr. Victor G. Prather, Medical Corps,
U.S. Navy, as observer.

---: House Science and Astronautics Committee approved $126.6 million
additional to the President's space budget, marking most of the increase
for the Apollo program.

---: First part of MR-3 firing countdown began at T-640 minutes (7:30 a.m.
eastern standard time) and held at T-390 minutes until final countdown
began at 11:30 p.m. eastern standard time.

May 5: Freedom 7, manned Mercury spacecraft (No. 7) carrying Astronaut Alan
B. Shepard, Jr., as pilot, was launched from Cape Canaveral by
Mercury-Redstone (MR-3) launch vehicle, to an altitude of 115.696 miles and
a range of 302 miles. It was the first American manned space flight.
Shepard demonstrated that man can control a vehicle during weightlessness
and high G stresses, and significant scientific biomedical data were
acquired. He reached a speed of 5,100 miles per hour and flight lasted 14.8
minutes.

---: Saturn static firing of 44.17 seconds duration to test-fire detection
system at engine position No. 2 was successful, the second SA-1 flight
qualification test at Marshall Space Flight Center.

May 5: In-house testing of Ranger I spacecraft completed at Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.

May 8: Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Mercury astronaut, was awarded NASA's
Distinguished Service Medal by President Kennedy in a special White House
ceremony. It was followed by an informal parade to the Capitol by the seven
astronauts for lunch, and a press conference at the State Department
auditorium.

May 9: Senator Robert S. Kerr, chairman of the Senate Aeronautical and
Space Sciences Committee, told a group at the National Radio and Television
Convention that President Kennedy accepted the views of NASA and
congressional leaders in approving the manned Mercury-Redstone flight of
May 5.

May 9-10: Twenty-four Arcas-Robin weather sounding rockets fired within 24
hours by AFPGC at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

May 11: Jet Propulsion Laboratory briefed NASA headquarters on the Venus
radar tracking experiment, after 2 months of intensive study begun on March
10.

---: U.S.S.R's Izvestia headlined the result of Soviet radar probes of
planet Venus, a report which said that the Venusian day was from 9 to 11
Earth days, and that the astronomical unit (mean distance from the Earth to
the Sun) was computed at 149,457,000 kilometers (92,812,797 miles). These
figures were at variance with detailed study by scientists of JPL and MIT.

---: Static test of 111 seconds duration of Saturn booster was successful,
the final SA-1 flight qualification test of the S-I stage.

May 12: USAF announced plans to institute special course for the
instruction of space pilots at Edwards Air Force Base, and it was activated
in June.

May 13: NASA legislative program for the 87th Congress was submitted (S.
1857 and H.R. 7115), asking for authority to lease property, authority to
acquire patent releases, elimination of the CMLC, replacement of semiannual
reports to Congress with an annual one, and authority to indemnify
contractors against unusally hazardous risks.

May 14: AEC's Tory II-A-1 experimental powerplant for atmospheric ramjet
vehicles underwent first power tests, a part of USAF Project Pluto.

May 15: In testimony before House Appropriations Committee, Hugh L. Dryden
revealed that simulated free-flight speeds just under 30,000 miles per hour
had been achieved at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

---: National Aeronautic Association announced selection of Vice Adm.
William F. Raborn, Jr., to receive the Robert J. Collier trophy for his
direction of the Polaris missile program.

---: Test firing of GE plug-nozzle engine developed 50,000 pounds of
thrust.

May 15-17: Final reports of study contracts on Project Apollo presented by
the three contractors at Langley Research Center and Space Task Group.

May 17: An HSS-2 helicopter, flown by Comdr. Patrick L. Sullivan and Lt.
Beverly W. Witherspoon, set a new world class speed record of 192.9 miles
per hour for 3 kilometers at Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Conn.

May 18: First test inflation of 135-foot rigidized inflatable balloon
satellite in dirigible hangar, conducted by NASA Langley Research Center
and G. T. Schjeldahl Co. at Weeksville, N.C.

---: NASA selected RCA to construct the Relay experimental communications
satellite to test the feasibility of transoceanic telephone, telegraph, and
television communications using an active repeater satellite.

---: Announced by NASA Institute of Space Studies in New York that first
major project, a 2-month seminar on the origin of the solar system, would
be held in fall 1961.

May 19: Soviet Academy of Sciences revealed that the pulse rate of Maj.
Yuri A. Gagarin had risen to 158 beats a minute in his Vostok flight,
according to a report circulated by Tass.

---: Second Minuteman test launch was destroyed by range safety officer 90
seconds after lift.

May 19-20: Cape Canaveral opened to the general public for the first time
in its history.

May 20: Unconfirmed signals were received on the frequency used by Soviet
Venus probe launched February 12, according to Sir Bernard Lovell, of the
Jodrell Bank Experimental Station.

May 22: Gen. Curtis E. LeMay nominated by the President to be Chief of
Staff, USAF.

May 23: Tiros II completed 6 months in orbit, transmitting over 31,000
photographs of which over 75 percent have been classified as fair to good
for meteorological analysis.

---: In a brief ceremony, a bust of Samuel P. Langley was presented by Paul
Garber, Curator of the National Air Museum, to the NASA Langley Research
Center, during which Dr. Langley's first demonstration of mechanical flight
with his "Aerodrome" model in 1896 and his scientific contributions to
astrophysics (i.e., the thermopile and the bolometer) were reviewed by
Garber and Deputy NASA Administrator Dryden.

---: "Workshop: Telemetry in Europe" at National Telemetering Conference in
Chicago brought seven European representatives together with American
scientists in working out unofficial preliminary standardization planning
on bands, means, and frequencies.

---: New 20-inch wind tunnel at the Aeronatical Research Laboratory at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base announced as capable of testing at mach 14,
at 200,000-foot altitude, and at 2,500 F.

May 24: FCC endorsed the ultimate creation of a commercial satellite system
to be owned jointly by international telephone and telegraph companies and
announced that it was calling a meeting on June 5 to explore "plans and
procedures looking toward early establishment of an operable commercial
communication satellite system."

---: Launching of NASA ionosphere beacon satellite (S-45 II) at Atlantic
Missile Range unsuccessful when Juno II power supply failed and prevented
ignition of second stage.

---: Operational Atlas raised from emplacement and fired in an operational
test exercise at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

May 24: Three Navy F4H Phantom II fighters, competing for the Bendix
Trophy, bettered the existing record for transcontinental flight from Los
Angeles to New York. The winning team of Lt. R. F. Gordon, pilot, and Lt.
(jg.) B. R. Young, RIO, averaged 870 miles per hour on the 2,421.4-mile
flight and established a new record with a time of 2 hours 47 minutes.

---: Comdr. P. L. Sullivan, U.S. Navy, and Lt. B. W. Witherspoon, flying an
HSS-2 helicopter, set another new world class speed record with a mark of
174.9 miles per hour over a 100-kilometer course between Milford and
Westbrook, Conn.

---: National Rocket Club President H. A. Timken announced proposal to
Secretary of the Treasury Dillon to consider a special series of savings
bonds and savings stamps to finance the U.S. space program, to be known as
series S bonds for space.

May 25: In his second State of the Union Message President Kennedy reported
to Congress regarding the space program: "With the advice of the Vice
President, who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined
where we [United States] are strong and where we are not, where we may
succeed and where we may not. . . . Now is the time to take longer
strides-time for a great new American enterprise-time for this Nation to
take a clearly leading role in space achievement which in many ways may
hold the key to our future on Earth." President Kennedy set forth an
accelerated space program based upon the long-range national goals of
landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth; early
development of the Rover nuclear rocket; speed up the use of Earth
satellites for worldwide communications; and provide "at the earliest
possible time a satellite system for worldwide weather observation." An
additional $549 million was requested for NASA over the new administration
March budget requests; $62 million was requested for DOD for starting
development of a solid-propellant booster of the Nova class.

May 25: At NASA press conference following President Kennedy's call to
Congress for an accelerated space program, NASA Administrator Webb pointed
out that the long-range and difficult task of landing a man on the Moon and
returning him safely to Earth before the end of the decade offered a chance
to beat Russia.

---: X-15 flown to record speed of 3,300 miles per hour by NASA test pilot,
Joseph Walker, at Edwards Air Force Base.

---: Kaman H-43-B Huskie helicopter flown to claimed altitude record of
25,814 feet by Capt. W.C. McMeen (USAF), bettering Russian record of 24,491
feet established on March 26, 1960.

---: Prerecorded voice message successfully transmitted from NRL to BTL via
Echo I, the quality of the transmission being virtually as good as previous
experiments.

May 26: USAF B-58 Hustler flown from Carswell Air Force Base, Tex., to Le
Bourget, Paris, in record 6 hours 15 minutes, covering distance from New
York to Paris in 3 hours 20 minutes. This flight commemorated the 34th
anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing on May 20-21,
1927, and the opening of the 24th Paris International Air Show.

---: Atlas E fired successfully from Atlantic Missile Range.

May 26-27: First National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space, held at
Tulsa, Okla., at which leading American space scientists and technologists
appraised the current and future applications of space science and
technology for human welfare. It was sponsored by NASA and the Tulsa
Chamber of Commerce, with the Aerospace Industries Association, Aerospace
Medical Association, American Astronautical Society, American Institute of
Biological Sciences, the American Rocket Society, the Electronic Industries
Association, Frontiers of Science Foundation (Oklahoma), and the Institute
of the Aerospace Sciences as cosponsors.

May 26-June 4: Freedom 7, Mercury spacecraft in which Alan B. Shepard, Jr.,
made his space flight on May 5, was a major drawing card at the Paris
International Air Show. Details of the spacecraft and of Shepard's flight
were related to about 650,000 visitors.

May 27: Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, Chairman of the Space Science Board of the
NAS, stated: "Since, as space activity becomes more difficult and advanced,
the space effort will be limited by our knowledge of space at any time,
leadership in space science must soon become one of the controlling factors
in acquiring space leadership generally." Berkner spoke at the first
National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space held at Tulsa, Okla.

May 29: Atlas booster 111-D, to be used for Ranger I, was erected on the
launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

May 30: U.S.S.R. revealed first details concerning Cosmonaut Gagarin's
orbital space flight on April 12, when application was made to the
International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) to have flight made an official
world record: Duration, 108 minutes; maximum altitude, 203 miles; launch
site, cosmodrome at Baikonur (near Lake Aral); landing site, near village
of Smelovka in Seratov region; launch booster, six-engine rocket with total
boost of 20 million horsepower.

May 31: Three-week meeting of the executive council of the U.N. World
Meteorological Organization in Geneva concluded, at which 18 national
representatives (including A. A. Zolotoukhin of the U.S.S.R.) discussed
general basis for international use of weather satellites. Dr. Francis W.
Reichelderfer, Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau, was a U.S. representative.

During May: Army Chemical Corps Biological Laboratories completed
preliminary tests of microorganisms in a simulated space vacuum at the
National Research Corp.

---: Complete system studies of the Apollo spacecraft system that were
begun in November 1960 were completed by three industrial contractors.

                                 JUNE 1961

June 1: NASA awarded contract for developing means of sterilizing space
vehicles to Wilmont Castle Co.

---: AEC and NASA jointly announced plans for Kiwi B reactor test at
Jackass Flats test site in Nevada.

---: NASA announced that a two-stage Saturn C-1 will be used for the first
10 research and development flights.

June 2: Collapse of a lock in the Wheeler Dam below Huntsville on the
Tennessee River interdicted the planned water route of the first Saturn
space booster from Marshall Space Flight Center to Cape Canaveral on the
barge Palaemon.

---: Deputy Premier Mikhail Khrunichev, chief coordinator of the Soviet
Union's man-in-space program, died in Moscow.

June 3: Dr. Edward R. Sharp, former Director of Lewis Research Laboratory
(1942-61), was presented NASA's first Outstanding Leadership Medal by Dr.
Hugh L. Dryden.

---: USAF B-58 which established Atlantic crossing record to Paris of 3
hours 19 minutes crashed after takeoff from Le Bourget Airport, killing its
three-man crew. Maj. Elmer E. Murphy, pilot, had recently been awarded the
Louis Bleriot Speed Trophy for record speed flight of 1,302 miles per hour
in January.

---: Aerojet-General test-fired large solid-propellent rocket motor which
generated a half million pounds' thrust, at Sacramento, Calif.

---: A leading Istanbul newspaper, Milliyet, reported Turkish newsmen's
reactions after seeing movies of both the Shepard and Gagarin space
flights: "When the film was over the journalists asked the Soviet consul
general: "In the Shepard film we followed all phases of his space flight,
but in yours we followed only Khrushchev. . . . Why don't you show your
space flight too?' The Tass correspondent on behalf of the consul general
answered: '. . . We are mainly interested in people's excitement and
reaction. This is what we wanted you to see.' Gagarin may have gone into
space, but this is not the impression of the journalists who saw both
films: Shepard really went into space, not Gagarin, and in front of the
whole world, too."

June 4: Nationwide Gallup poll released which showed that 38 percent of
those questioned thought the United States led in space research, while 38
percent thought the U.S.S.R. led. The same balance also was tabulated on
which Nation will be the first to place a man on the Moon.

---: Northrop disclosed "porous wing" plane under development for USAF,
modified version of WB-66D based on inhalation concept (eliminating up to
80 percent of the frictional drag) proposed by Werner Pfenninger. Work on
drag reduction by means of increasing the laminar flow by boundary layer
suction had been performed at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in the late
1930's by Albert E. Doenhoff and Ira H. Abbott.

June 5: Huge Saturn launch complex at Cape Canaveral dedicated in brief
ceremony by NASA, construction of which was supervised by the Army Corps of
Engineers. Giant gantry, weighing 2,800 tons and being 310 feet high, is
largest movable land structure in North America.

---: Two pilots sealed in 8- by 12-foot simulated space cabin for 17-day
round trip to the Moon, at the School of Aerospace Medicine, San Antonio,
Tex.

June 6: Biomedical results of Mercury-Redstone space flight of Alan B.
Shepard, Jr., publicly reported at a special conference in Washington
sponsored by NASA, National Institutes of Health, and the National Academy
of Sciences. Shepard's heart reached a maximum of 138 beats per minute
during the flight.

---: NASA Agena B management meeting was held at Marshall Space Flight
Center with representatives from MSFC, NASA headquarters, AFSSD, LMSD, JPL,
and GSFC.

---: USAF Aerobee-Hi with Cambridge Research Laboratory payload designed to
trap space dust, reached 101 miles over White Sands Missile Range.

June 7: In address at George Washington University, NASA Administrator Webb
stated that the exploration of space was an important part of man's
"driving, restless, insatiable search for new knowledge."

---: Research Analysis Corporation established by U.S. Army as a nonprofit
advanced research organization to replace ORO of Johns Hopkins University.

---: AEC-NASA jointly announced plans to negotiate with an industrial team
for a first-phase contract for the development of the Nerva nuclear rocket
engine. Team selected for the Nerva part of Project Rover consisted of
Aerojet-General Corp. and Westinghouse Electric Corp.

---: NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced creation of a new Office of
Programs to be headed by D. D. Wyatt, and the renaming of the Office of
Administration under Albert F. Siepert.

June 8: Small rocket lift device demonstrated publicly for the first time
at Fort Eustis, Va., a rocket belt developed by Bell Aerosystems, which
lifted Harold M. Graham in a controlled free flight to an altitude of 15
feet and a standup landing 150 feet from his starting point.

---: USAF Discoverer XXIV failed to achieve orbit.

---: NASA announced accelerated recruiting of qualified scientists and
engineers at its field centers to fill anticipated manpower requirements in
the expanded space exploration program. During 1960 NASA interviewed 3,000
persons on 100 college campuses.

---: Astronomers of Lick Observatory positioned 36-inch refractor telescope
so as to intersect the path of Echo I at its predicted point of maximum
elevation. Prediction of Goddard Space Flight Center was confirmed at exact
time and within 10 minutes of arc.

June 9: NASA press conference revealed that data from Vanguard III (during
November 15-17, 1960) and Explorer VIII (also during November 1960)
indicated that high-velocity clouds of micrometeorites moved near the
Earth, perhaps in a meteor stream around the Sun. This new data was just
revealed from completed analysis.

---: Echo I completed its 3,697th orbit after 9 months. When this first
passive communications "balloon satellite" was launched on August 12, 1960,
it was not expected to have a long life span.

June 10: National Bureau of Standards broke ground for new research
facility at Gaithersburg, Md., which will include a mega-pound deadweight
testing machine to provide measurement standards for multimillion rocket
thrust requirements.

---: NASA Ad Hoc Task Group, created on May 25 to survey launch vehicles
and their development schedules pertinent to the manned lunar landing
program, reported its findings.

June 12: British and Soviet scientists were still unable to identify
signals received since May 17 as being transmitted from the Soviet Venus
probe launched on February 12.

---: Reuters reported that the United States pays about $140 per hour for
use of the Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, while the U.S.S.R. pays
nothing. Sir Bernard Lovell explained that "the Americans occupy the
telescope for long periods, where the Russians scarcely use it."

---: NASA's Incentive Awards Committee determined that Dr. Henry J. E.
Reid, Director Emeritus of the Langley Research Center, would receive
NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal.

June 13: NASA Engineer Test Pilot Joseph A. Walker, who hit record altitude
of 169,600 feet on March 30 and record speed of 3,300 miles per hour on May
25 in the X-15, received the 1961 Octave Chanute Award at IAS meeting in
Los Angeles.

June 13-25: Freedom 7 Mercury capsule displayed to approximately 750,000
visitors at the Rassegna International Electronic and Nuclear Fair at Rome,
Italy.

June 14: NASA's Plum Brook nuclear test reactor at Sandusky, Ohio, went
critical for the first time. This reactor was begun in September 1956, and
the facility presently has a staff of 100 persons, headed by Dr. Theodore
M. Hallman.

---: NASA and the Argentine Comision Nacional de Investigaciones Espaciales
signed a memorandum of understanding for a cooperative space science
research program using sounding rockets.

---: Four-stage Javelin fired to 560-mile altitude from Wallops Island,
testing extension of two 75-foot antenna arms on radio command at altitude,
a test flight in the United States-Canadian Alouette satellite development.

June 15: Search for U.S.S.R. Venus probe "lost" since February was ended at
Jodrell Bank radiotelescope, as visiting Soviet space scientists, Alla
Masevitch and Jouli Khodarev, prepared to leave. The U.S.S.R. Venue probe
was last commanded on February 12.

---: President Kennedy presented the Robert J. Collier Trophy to Vice Adm.
William F. Raborn, Jr., who had directed the development to the Polaris
IRBM.

June 15: President Kennedy directed the National Aeronautics and Space
Council to undertake a full study of the Nation's communications satellite
policy, stated that leadership in science and technology should be
exercised to achieve worldwide communications through the use of satellites
at the earliest practicable date. While no commitments as to an operational
system should be made, the President stated that the Government would
"conduct and encourage research and development to advance the state of the
art and to give maximum assurance of rapid and continuing scientific and
technological progress."

June 16: USAF Discoverer XXV placed into polar orbit by Thor-Agena B, at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

---: NASA Ad Hoc Task Group, established to determine the main problems,
the pacing items, and the major decisions required to accomplish the manned
lunar landing mission, reported its findings. The direct ascent mission was
used in this intensive study with less detailed consideration of the
rendezvous method.

June 18: Senate Government Operations Subcommittee on National Policy
Machinery released report on "Science Organization and the President's
Office." This study recommended that a new Office of Science and Technology
be created in the Executive Office of the President.

---: Skindivers parachuted north of Hawaii to recover the capsule of
Discoverer XXV, which carried samples of common and rare metals.

---: Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet awarded 7,026 honors to those
associated with the flight of the spaceship satellite Vostok I: Nikita S.
Khrushchev received the Order of Lenin and a third Gold Hammer and Sickle
Medal for "guiding the creation and development of the rocket industry,
science, and technology" which "opened up a new era in the conquest of
space;" 7 outstanding scientists and designers received a second Gold
Hammer and Sickle Medal; 95 designers, officials, and technicians received
the title of Hero of Socialist Labor; and 6,924 workers, designers,
scientists, and technicians received various orders and medals (Order of
Lenin, 478 persons; Order of the Red Banner of Labor, 1,218; Order of the
Red Star, 256; Order of the Badge of Honor, 1,789; and medals to 3,183
other persons).

June 19: Harmon International Aviator's Trophy for 1961 announced as going
to three winners for the first time-X-15 rocket research airplane pilots:
A. Scott Crossfield, of North American; Joseph A. Walker, of NASA, and Maj.
Robert A. White, U.S. Air Force.

---: NASA announced contract with the National Research Corp. to determine
whether six types of microbes can sustain simulated exposure to the space
environment including ultrahigh vacuum, ultraviolet radiation, and
fluctuating temperatures.

---: Yuri Gagarin reported in Pravda that "I was in the center of a whirl
of flames" when his Vostok spacecraft reentered the atmosphere on April 12.
His book, "Road to Outer Space," was being serialized in Pravda.

---: Legislature of the State of Alabama considered investment of $3
million in establishing a Space Research Institute at Huntsville as a joint
University of Alabama and Auburn University center.

June 20: Nuclear Vehicles Project Office established at Marshall Space
Flight Center, Col. Scott Fellows, U.S. Air Force, named as Chief.

June 21: Five-year agreement on scientific cooperation signed in Moscow by
representatives of the academics of science of the U.S.S.R. and Red China,
according to Tass.

---: NASA Administrator Webb accepted one of the three President's Safety
Awards for accident prevention during 1960. He pointed out that NASA's
activities involved test flying of experimental aircraft, untried highly
explosive fuels, high-voltage electricity, and highly pressurized air and
superheated temperatures, in addition to rocket and spacecraft tests and
launching and the operation of two nuclear reactors and a cyclotron.

---: Hypersonic wind tunnel at Douglas Aircraft became operational at El
Segundo, reportedly the largest industry-owned tunnel in the United States
(36 inches long, 6-inch diameter, capable of mach 10).

---: USAF Mace B made 1,100-mile guided flight, ending its R. & D. phase.

June 22: Deputy NASA Administrator Dryden sent an explanatory letter to
Chairman Robert S. Kerr, of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space
Sciences, on the broad scientific and technological gains to be achieved in
landing a man on the Moon and returning him to Earth. Dr. Dryden pointed
out that this difficult goal "has the highly important role of accelerating
the development of space science and technology, motivating the scientists
and engineers who are engaged in this effort to move forward with urgency,
and integrating their efforts in a way that cannot be accomplished by a
disconnected series of research investigations in several fields. It is
important to realize, however, that the real values and purposes are not in
the mere accomplishment of man setting foot on the Moon but rather in the
great cooperative national effort in the development of science and
technology which is stimulated by this goal." Dr. Dryden pointed out that
"the billions of dollars required in this effort are not spent on the Moon;
they are spent in the factories, workshops, and laboratories of our people
for salaries, for new materials, and supplies, which in turn represent
income for others. . . . The national enterprise involved in the goal of
manned lunar landing and return within this decade is an activity of
critical impact on the future of this Nation as an industrial and military
power, and as a leader of a free world."

---: Mercury-Redstone booster for MR-4 flight was erected on pad 5 at
Atlantic Missile Range.

---: K. Kordylewski, of the Cracow Observatory in Poland, was reported to
have photographed two cloudlike objects, possibly natural satellites of the
Earth.

June 23: NASA-DOD Executive Committee for Joint Lunar Study and a Joint
Lunar Study Program Office established by letter directive to work out and
define support requirements for the U.S. manned lunar landing program.

June 23: NASA-USAF-USN X-15 flown to 3,603 miles per hour (mach 5.3),
record for manned aircraft by Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force, which was
faster than a mile per second. Losing cabin pressure at 100,000 feet, White
was able to pilot the X-15 safely because of full-pressure suit. This was
the fifth powered NASA flight with the XLR-99 engine.

---: Joint study was undertaken by NASA and DOD to make recommendations on
the launch site to be used for the manned lunar exploration missions. A
report of this study was completed in July.

---: Nike-Cajun sounding rocket fired from Eglin Gulf Test Range by
Cambridge Research Laboratory with micrometeorite counting payload.

---: Director of Marshall Space Flight Center directed that further
engineering work on Saturn C-2 configuration would be discontinued, and
that efforts would be applied to clarification of the Saturn C-3 and Nova
concepts.

---: Tiros II completed 7 months in orbit, still providing useful data.

June 24: President Kennedy assigned Vice President Johnson the task of
unifying the Nation's communications satellite programs, in a letter which
stressed urgency and "highest priority" for the public interest.

---: Mercury capsule was modified for MR-4 flight, with observation window
replacing two viewports and with improved manual control system.

June 26: In an interview in U.S. News & World Report, NASA Administrator
Webb stated that "the kind of overall space effort that President Kennedy
has recommended . . . will put us there [on the Moon] first." This
achievement, costing between $20 and $40 billion, "probably toward the $20
billion level . . . will be most valuable in other parts of our economy."
Mr. Webb said that the U.S.S.R. did have an advantage in being able first
to orbit a multimanned spacecraft around the Earth and also around the
Moon.

---: A Navy YFNB barge was obtained by NASA to serve as a replacement for
the Palaemon in transporting of the Saturn booster to Cape Canaveral.

June 27: Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee unanimously
approved the administration's $1,782,300,000 budget for NASA in fiscal year
1962.

---: Eberhardt Rechtin, of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, questioned the Soviet
calculations on the rotation speed of the planet Venus and the astronomical
unit, and suggested that the Soviet scientists may have been influenced by
earlier MIT studies (1958). Completion of extensive radar studies of Venus
by Jet Propulsion Laboratory Goldstone, he submitted, provided more
accurate information. The differing figures as reported are-U.S.S.R.
(1961): 9 to 11 days' rotation-A.U. 92,812,797 miles Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (1961): About 225 days' rotation-A.U. 92,956,000 miles.

---: Eight-engine static test of Saturn SA-T2 of 29.9 seconds' duration
successful at Marshall Space Flight Center.

June 28: First showing of new Soviet aircraft in flight rehearsal for an
air show on July 9 in Moscow (first major air show since 1956), one a large
delta-wing jet bomber perhaps comparable to the B-58, as well as a
turboprop Bear Tu-114 carrying missiles.

June 28-July 21: A Planning Task Force of the National Academy of Sciences
Committee on the Atmospheric Sciences met in a series of six separate
conferences in Boston to lay out a 10-year plan to guide long-range use of
Government research funds.

June 29: First launching of three active satellites in one shot, and the
first launching of a satellite with nuclear power, when a Thor-Able-Star
launched Transit IV-A (equipped with an atomic radioisotope-powered battery
of the Snap series), and two accompanying satellites, Injun and Greb III,
from Atlantic Missile Range. Transit IV is forerunner of a navigation
satellite system, while Injun gathers data on the radiation belts, and Greb
III gathers data on X-ray radiation from the Sun.

---: NASA awarded contract to Pratt & Whitney for development of space
radiators and condensors for the Lewis Research Center.

June 30: In Scout launching of micrometeorite counter satellite (S-55) from
Wallops Station, third stage did not ignite, and the vehicle was destroyed.

---: Dr. Henry J. E. Reid, senior staff associate and former Director of
the Langley Research Center, retired after over four decades of Government
service. He began as a junior engineer at Langley in April 1921, became
Director in 1926, in which capacity he served for 34 years.

---: Navy announced that Injun and Greb satellites placed in orbit with
Transit IV-A had not separated and were thus not functioning at full
efficiency.

During June: National Academy of Sciences established the Geophysics
Research Board (GRB) in 1960 in response to a request from the
International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). By June 1961, it had
four active panels to consider specific international Year of the Quiet Sun
(IQSY); International Exchange of Scientific Data; and Solid Earth
Problems.

---: Dr. von Karman and some of his associates organized the Astronautics
Foundation, Inc., in Washington, D.C., to enable U.S. individuals and
corporations to support through this non-profit foundation various
cooperative international activities.

---: Boeing began modification of B-52 to carry aloft and release the
Dyna-Soar manned space glider.

---: Army Redstone missile completed its 8-year military test program (41
successes in 45 launchings).

---: NASA entered letter contract with RCA for four additional Tiros
weather satellites to extend the program.

For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of July-September 1961
                                 JULY 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 31-51.

July 1: Weather Bureau announced that cloud cover pictures taken by Tiros I
went on public sale at the National Weather Records Center, Asheville, N.C.

---: The space detection and tracking systems (Spadats) began NORAD
operations as scheduled, a system which "detects, tracks, and identifies
manmade objects in space and consolidates and displays information
regarding such objects."

---: First anniversary of Marshall Space Flight Center as a NASA center,
and NASA Administrator Webb visited the Huntsville facility.

---: U.S. Air Force reorganized its headquarters staff to reflect creation
of Air Force Systems Command (AFSC), which made the Deputy Chief of Staff
for Development, Lt. Gen. Roscoe C. Wilson, Deputy Chief of Staff for
Research and Technology.

July 5: NASA announced awarding of study contract of Douglas Aircraft Co.
for the development of orbital placement techniques and engineering design
for Project Rebound inflatable spheres.

---: NASA awarded contract with Boeing to investigate the development of
large Saturn-Nova class rockets employing different combinations of liquid
or solid types of fuel.

---: Israel fired a multistage solid-propellant Shavit (Meteor) II rocket
to an altitude of 80 kilometers, releasing a sodium-cloud meteorogical
payload.

---: Major Gagarin, speaking in Helsinki, Finland, stated that the
U.S.S.R.would launch another manned space vehicle sometime before the end
of the year.

---: French Foreign Ministry announced that West German Government had
agreed in principle to participate in 12-nation program to construct launch
satellites.

July 7: USAF Discoverer XXVI orbited from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
carrying instrument capsule to be recovered after 32 polar orbits and 4
days. Of the 25 previous Discoverers, 17 had gone into orbit and 15 carried
recovery capsules, of which 5 had been recovered.

---: The second static firing of the Saturn SA-T2 test booster was
successfully completed at Marshall Space Flight Center in an eight engine
test of 119 seconds' duration.

---: Atlas E, launched from Cape Canaveral, established distance flight
record of 9,050 miles, its nose cone landing 1,000 miles southeast of Cape
Town, South Africa.

July 9: Massive Soviet air show over Tushino Airport in Moscow, on Soviet
Air Force Day, which demonstrated that U.S.S.R. had continued development
of all classes of military aircraft.

---: Capsule of Discoverer XXVI snatched at 15,000 feet during final
descent after 32 polar orbits. Midair recovery by C-119, Capt. Jack Wilson,
U.S. Air Force, as pilot, was fourth so performed. Capsule carried
undisclosed payload.

July 9: National Science Foundation released forecast of the Nation's
science needs for the next decade, which predicted that United States would
need nearly twice as many scientists in 1970 (168,000) as today (87,000).

---: Reported that Navy had been launching telephone poles with rocket
boost in test of floating launching requirements.

July 10: National Science Foundation policy document entitled "Investing in
Scientific Progress" was released, which showed dollar and manpower
investments needed by United States in decade 1960-70 to ensure fulfillment
of the Nation's research capabilities.

July 11: NASA announced that a complete F-1 engine had begun a series of
static test firings at Edwards Rocket Test Center, Calif.

July 11-12: Cosmonaut Gagarin visited England.

July 12: NASA Tiros III weather satellite successfully launched into
near-circular orbit by Thor-Delta from Cape Canaveral.

---: Midas III (missile defense alarm system) launched into polar orbit
from Pacific Missile Range, with record 1,850-mile-high orbit and was
heaviest U.S. satellite launched to date. Second-stage Agena B was
restarted at apogee of first orbit.

---: Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that construction was underway on
the first large space simulator in the United States capable of testing
full-scale spacecraft of the Ranger and Mariner classes with the three
primary space effects-solar radiation, cold space heat sink, and a high
vacuum equivalent to about one part in a billion (1:1,000,000,000) of the
atmospheric pressure on the Earth.

July 13: Mercury-Redstone 6 was static tested for 30 seconds at Marshall
Space Flight Center to ensure satisfactory operation of the turbopump
assembly.

July 13-14: Two Nike-Cajun rockets launched University of New
Hamsphire-Goddard Space Flight Center payloads from NASA Wallops Station.

July 14: Advanced Polaris fired 1,600 miles down Atlantic Missile Range
with all-inertial guidance system.

---: Simulated Mercury-Redstone 4 flight test held at Atlantic Missile
Range.

July 16: Vice President Johnson announced that the National Aeronautics and
Space Council had reached unanimous agreement on the national
communications satellite policy, and unspecified recommendations
transmitted to President Kennedy.

July 17: NASA announced selection of RCA Astro-Electronics Division to
build seven capsules for experimental ion propulsion engines.

---: A joint tenancy agreement for NASA and DOD use of the Atlantic Missile
Range was signed by Commander, Atlantic Missile Range, and the Director of
Launch Operations, NASA.

July 18: FAI (Federal Aeronautique Internationale) officially recognized
the first space flight records claimed by U.S.S.R. and the United States:

Yuri Gagarin (April 12, 1961): Duration in orbital flight, 108 minutes;
greatest altitude in Earth orbital flight, 203 miles; greatest mass lifted
in Earth orbital flight, 10,395 pounds.

Alan Shepard (May 15 1961: Altitude without orbit, 115.696 miles; greatest
mass lifted without Earth orbit, 4,031.7 pounds.

---: United States-U.S.S.R. talks began on bilateral agreement on
commercial air flights between New York and Moscow.

---: Saturn SA-T2 booster successfully static tested for 111 seconds at
Marshall Space Flight Center.

July 18-20: NASA-Industry Apollo Technical Conference held in Washington,
D.C., which assembled Apollo requirements with participation of Space Task
Group, representatives of other NASA Centers, and the three Apollo study
contractors-General Dynamics/Astronautics, General Electric, and Martin.

July 19: Mercury-Redstone (MR-4) with manned Liberty Bell 7 capsule
canceled within minutes of launch because of adverse weather.

---: NASA and Weather Bureau invited over 100 of the world's weather
services to participate in the Tiros III satellite experiment by conducting
special ground-based observations synchronized with passes of the
satellite.

---: Tiros III photographed tropical storm Liza in the Pacific Ocean,
pinpointing its location for meteorologists.

July 20: NASA and DOD, following an exchange of letters between the
Administrator of NASA and the Secretary of Defense, established a joint
study to determine the national large launch vehicle needs for the next
decade, considering the requirements of both NASA and DOD.

July 21: MR-4 Liberty Bell 7, manned by Mercury Astronaut Virgil I.
Grissom, made successful 15-minute, 118-mile-high and 303-mile-long flight
down Atlantic Missile Range, premature blowout of escape hatch flooding
capsule and making helicopter pickup of Grissom difficult. Capsule sank in
18,000 feet of water after warning light indicated helicopter engine was
overheating and the capsule was cast loose. This was the second successful
manned suborbital space flight.

---: President Kennedy signed NASA's fiscal year 1962 authorization bill
providing for a total of $1,784,300,000.

---: USAF Discoverer XXVII destroyed by range safety officer 60 seconds
after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

---: At the request of Senator Paul H. Douglas, the membership of the
American Astronautical Society was polled by the University of Illinois
Observatory as to their opinion regarding the "scientific value" of the
U.S. space program to land on and return one or more men from the Moon.

---: USAF processed 44 test pilots through the Dyna-Soar selection program,
and reportedly both USAF and NASA test pilots would participate in the step
I suborbital flight program.

July 22: Astronaut Virgil Grissom was awarded the NASA Distinguished
Service Medal by Administrator Webb at conclusion of MR-4 press conference
at Cape Canaveral.

July 23: Red Star (Krasnaya Zvezda) of the U.S.S.R. stated Tiros III and
Midas III launched on July 12 were comparable to the U-2: "A spy is a spy,
no matter what height it flies."

July 23: NASA Administrator Webb, in congressional testimony, pointed out
that the Tiros cloud-cover program was known to the entire world, involved
no surveillance, and promised great benefit to all nations. He pointed out
that data from Tiros satellites had been made available to all, including
the Soviet Union.

---: Central Aero Club of the U.S.S.R., in seeking to place Gagarin's
flight in the record books, revealed to FAI Astronautics Documentation
Subcommittee, meeting in Paris, that Gagarin rode his spacecraft to Earth
rather than parachuting.

July 24: White House issued statement by President Kennedy on
"Communication Satellite Policy," which outlined governmental
responsibilities for research and development "to give maximum assurance of
rapid and continuous scientific and technological progress," and which
affirmed that "private ownership and operation of the U.S. portion of the
system is favored" within eight policy requirements. The President's
statement said that through this country's leadership, communications
through the use of space satellites should be developed "for global benefit
at the earliest practicable date." He invited "all nations to participate
in a communication satellite system in the interest of world peace and
closer brotherhood among peoples throughout the world." And, during present
phase of research and development, "no arrangements between the Government
and private industry [should] contain any commitments as to an operational
system." In conclusion, the President said that "I am anxious that
development of this new technology to bring the farthest corner of the
globe within reach by voice and visual communication, fairly and equitable
available for use, proceed with all possible promptness."

---: Dr. Edward R. Sharp, Director Emeritus of the NASA Lewis Research
Center since his retirement in January, died. Joining NASA in 1922, Dr.
Sharp was the first Manager of the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in
1941, and became its Director in 1947. He had received the U.S. Medal for
Merit from President Truman in 1947.

---: Joint FAA-DOD-NASA "Commercial Supersonic Transport Aircraft Report,"
prepared by a joint task force, said that the development of a commercial
transport airplane to fly three times the speed of sound (mach 3) was
feasible and could be developed by 1970-71.

July 25: NASA reported that one of the Tiros III cameras was inoperative,
but that a duplicate camera was producing high quality pictures. Over 3,500
cloud cover pictures had been transmitted since the launching of Tiros III
on July 12.

---: Titan ICBM with self-contained inertial guidance fired 5,000 miles
down Atlantic Missile Range.

July 26: Cosmonaut Gagarin participated in anniversary celebration in
Havana of July 26 revolutionary movement of Fidel Castro.

July 27: Third USAF Minuteman missile successfully flown on 4,000-mile
flight down Atlantic Missile Range.

---: France announced plans to launch its first satellite by the end of
1964.

July 28: NASA and the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. signed a
cooperative agreement for the development and testing of two, possibly
four, active communication satellites during 1962. A.T. & T. would design
and build the TSX satellites at its own expense, and would reimburse NASA
for the cost of the launchings by Thor-Delta vehicles at Cape Canaveral.
Relationship between this contract and the overall NASA communications
satellite program aimed at early development of an operational system was
explained at a NASA press conference.

---: NASA invited 12 companies to submit prime contractor proposals for the
manned lunar Apollo spacecraft by October 9.

---: NASA representatives meeting with Arnold Engineering Development
Center (AEDC) fixed the guidelines for the Centaur propulsion system
testing program.

---: Interviewed in the Netherlands West Indies, en route Brazil, Maj. Yuri
Gagarin said that his next assignment would be a flight to the Moon. Asked
about U.S. efforts, he reportedly stated that "there is a place on the Moon
for everybody."

July 29: Chief of Japanese Weather Bureau, Kiyoo Wadachi, reported that 30
observations from Tiros III had been received from the United States.

---: World press reported opposition of astronomers to proposed USAF
placement of 350 million needles into a 2,000-mile-high Earth orbit to test
their feasibility as reflectors for global communications.

July 30: Draft text of program of the Soviet Communist Party to be
presented to its 22nd Congress in October was released in English by Tass,
official Soviet press agency. This new program, the first proposed since
the one submitted by Lenin and adopted in 1919, made no direct or indirect
reference to space exploration. On the role of science, it stated: "The
Party will do everything to enhance the role of science in the building of
Communist society, it will encourage research to discover new possibilities
for the development of the productive forces, and the rapid and extensive
application of the latest scientific and technical achievements, a decisive
advancement in experimental work, including research directly at
enterprises, and the efficient organization of scientific and technical
information and of the whole system of studying and disseminating
progressive Soviet and foreign methods. Science will itself in full measure
become a productive force . . . ."

July 31: NASA's Tiros II transmitted photograph of a major storm off the
south tip of Africa. Launched on November 23, 1960, Tiros II was expected
to only have a useful lifetime of about 3 months.

---: NASA awarded contract to the University of Michigan to continue to
provide research instrumentation for measurement of temperatures and winds
at altitudes up to 150 kilometers with Nike-Cajun and other sounding
rockets.

---: NASA provided for transfer of funds to ONR for balloons, launching
services, and related expenses in connection with high-altitude
measurements of electron, low-energy proton, and alpha-particle spectrum of
primary cosmic radiation to be conducted by the University of Chicago from
Uranium City, Saskatchewan, Canada.

July 31: At Cape Canaveral with the President's Missile Sites Labor
Commission, Secretary of Labor Goldberg made public President Kennedy's
message praising the voluntary, no-strike, no-lockout pledges covering
labor-management relations at missile and space sites. The President's
message stated that "the Nation cannot afford the luxury of avoidable delay
in our missile and space program. Neither can we tolerate wasteful and
expensive practices which add to the great financial burden our defense
effort already places on us."

---: Atlas E fired from Atlantic Missile Range with simulated atomic fuel
cores to demonstrate dispersal on reentry into the atmosphere of the
radioactive material in an atomic space generator.

---: Vice Adm. T. G. W. Settle (Ret.) stated in Washington that Navy blimps
should have been used in recovery of Mercury capsule, a proposal submitted
to Navy 2 years ago, and which would have avoided recovery difficulties of
Liberty Bell 7 and Astronaut Grissom. Settle pointed out that Navy had
announced the end of its lighter-than-air program in June 1961.

During July: Langley Research Center simulated spacecraft flights at speeds
of 8,200 to 8,700 feet per second in approaching the Moon's surface. With
instruments preset to miss the Moon's surface by 40 to 80 miles, pilots
with control of thrust and torques about all three axes of the craft were
able to learn to establish orbits 10 to 90 miles above the surface, using a
graph of vehicle rate of descent and circumferential velocity, an
altimeter, and vehicle attitude and rate meters, as reported by M. J.
Queijo and Donald R. Riley of Langley Research Center.

---: "Celestial simulator" at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in final checkout,
an "instant universe" chamber which can duplicate white light and infrared
point sources of solar system bodies likely to be used for navigation and
attitude control of spacecraft.

---: U.S.S.R. has scheduled "at least two more manned space flights this
year, one to circle the Earth, the other perhaps the Moon," according to
Dr. Grigori A. Tokaty, head of Northhampton College of Advanced Technology,
London, England. Former director of Russia's long-range rocket group,
Tokaty also stated that the U.S.S.R. was planning to establish "one or two"
unmanned lunar stations in 1962.

---: U.S.S.R. claimed three new world aircraft weight-lifting records for
the Tu-114, in a flight from Vnukovo Airfield in which a 30,035-kilogram
load was carried to an altitude of 41,125 feet, I. Sukhomlin as pilot.

                                AUGUST 1961

August 1: NASA directed Marshall Space Flight Center to enter contract
negotiations with contractors for procurement of five operational
Atlas-Centaur vehicles. These launchings were planned to begin in second
quarter of 1964.

---: NASA Ranger I launch from Atlantic Missile Range postponed at T minus
15 minutes because of failure of ground-support equipment.

---: NASA Apollo briefing held at Space Task Group for all prime
contractors interested in submitting bids.

August 2: NASA headquarters announced that it was making a world-wide study
of possible launching sites for Moon vehicles; the size, power, noise, and
possible hazards of Saturn-Nova type rockets requiring greater isolation
for public safety than presently available.

---: Dr. Sydney Chapman of the British Royal Observatory reported at
Langley Research Center-National Research Foundation-Virginia Polytechnic
Institute conference that evidence suggested existence of a third radiation
belt surrounding the Earth-except for areas above the poles-at altitudes
between 20,000 and 28,000 miles.

---: USAF announced that two Lockheed U-2 aircraft would begin series of
air-sampling flights from Okinawa.

August 3: USAF Discoverer XXVIII (total payload weight of 2,100 pounds)
launched but did not attain orbit.

---: Tiros II transmitted photograph of a major storm in the Northwest
Pacific Ocean.

August 5: Segmented solid-propellent rocket engine fired by United
Technology Corp. at Sunnyvale, generating over 200,000 pounds of thrust in
80-second firing. Developed under NASA contract, center section of engine
contained over 55,000 pounds of propellant, the largest single piece yet
manufactured in the United States.

---: First Saturn (SA-1) booster began water trip to Cape Canaveral on Navy
barge Compromise after overland detour around Wheeler Dam.

August 6: U.S.S.R. launched Vostok II into orbit carrying Maj. Gherman S.
Titov. Spacecraft weighed 13 pounds more than Vostok I (April 12) and
progress of Cosmonaut Titov's flight was reported continuously of Radio
Moscow.

---: In press conference at Hyannis Port, Mass., U.S. Ambassador to the
U.N. Adlai Stevenson, said: "Russia's scientific contribution to the
conquest of outer space commands our admiration. Orbiting a new astronaut
for a longer period of time is another step forward . . . this event
[Vostok II] sharpens the need for some international action to regulate the
use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and to keep the arms race from
spreading to that field. The President has recently announced his proposal
for cooperative sharing of communications and weather satellites. We hope
the Russians won't delay longer in joining us in cooperation."

August 6: February report of the Space Science Board of the National
Academy of Sciences was released recommending exploration of the Moon and
planets "as the official goal of the U.S. space program and clearly
announced, discussed, and supported."

August 7: Reported from Moscow that Major Titov has successfully landed in
Vostok II after 17 orbits and 25 hours, 18 minutes, the first test of man's
reaction to prolonged weightlessness. This was the second manned orbital
flight, the first manned flight of more than one orbit.

---: A joint message issued by Tass for the Soviet Party's Central
Committee, the Cabinet, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet said: "Our
achievements in the exploration of outer space are placed at the service of
peace and scientific progress, for the benefit of all people on our
planet."

---: Two U.S. Air Force officers were sealed in space simulator for 17-day
test of man's reaction to almost pure oxygen at 350,000 feet altitude, at
School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, Tex. Emerging on
August 25, Lts. B. Appel and J. Slider had eaten dehydrated food, drunk
water processed from the atmosphere and their own body wastes, and were
pronounced in good physical condition.

August 8: Over 100 foreign weather services were invited jointly by NASA
and the U.S. Weather Bureau to participate in the Tiros III experiment for
a 9-week period beginning today. The program provides cooperating services
with an opportunity to conduct special meteorological observations
synchronized with passes of the satellite.

---: Atlas F successfully fired 5,000 miles from Atlantic Missile Range.

August 9: NASA selected MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory to develop the
guidance-navigation system for Project Apollo spacecraft. This first major
Apollo contract was required since guidance-navigation system is basic to
overall Apollo mission. The Instrumentation Laboratory of MIT, a nonprofit
organization headed by C. Stark Draper, has been involved in a variety of
guidance and navigation systems developments for 20 years.

---: Enormous reception for Cosmonaut Gherman S. Titov in Red Square,
Moscow. That evening at a Kremlin reception, Premier Nikita Khrushchev made
an impromptu speech in which he asserted that the Soviet Union could
construct a rocket with an explosive warhead equivalent to 100 million tons
of TNT.

---: Dr. Clifford C. Furnas, chancellor of the University of Buffalo, was
appointed Chairman of the Defense Science Board by Secretary McNamara.

August 10: X-15 (No. 1) on its first flight with new XLR-99 engine was
flown to 2,735 miles per hour by Comdr. Forrest S. Petersen, U.S. Navy, at
Edwards Air Force Base.

---: In regular press conference, President Kennedy stated that "we are
spending as much money and devoting as large a percentage of scientific
personnel, engineering, and all the rest as we possibly can to the space
program. We are constantly concerned with speeding it up. We are making
what I consider to be a maximum effort."

---: In passing NASA fiscal year 1962 appropriations, Congress cut
$226,686,000 requested for salaries and expenses to $206,750,000.

August 11: Thomas F. Dixon of North American Aviation was appointed
Director of NASA's Office of Launch Vehicle Programs (OLVP), effective
September 18, 1961. He replaced Maj. Gen. Don R. Ostrander, U.S. Air Force,
who returned to military duty as Vice Commander of AFBSD (AFSC), having
served as first Director of OLVP since December 16, 1959.

---: Project West Ford received approval in National Aeronautics and Space
Council policy statement released at the National Academy of Sciences by
Presidential Scientific Adviser Jerome B. Wiesner. Conceived at MIT's
Lincoln Laboratory, project proposed placement of 350-million copper
threads (0.7-inch long and 0.001-inch diameter) into a 5-mile wide and
24-mile long belt around the Earth from a satellite, which would serve as
reflector antennas for extremely short wave lengths (8,000 megacycles),
perhaps expanding usable frequency channels.

---: Vostok II press conference held in Moscow, featuring President of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences, Matislav Keldysh, and Cosmonaut Maj. Gherman S.
Titov.

---: NASA announced negotiation of a contract with Hughes Aircraft for
construction of three experimental synchronous communications satellites.

---: Aerojet-General Corp. announced first successful underwater launching
of a liquid-fueled rocket, an Aerobee fired from a water test basin at
Azuza, Calif.

---: NASA Langley Research Center awarded contract to Marquardt Corp. to
increase structural wind tunnel testing temperature from 600 to 2,000F.

August 12: Echo I completed first year in orbit, still clearly visible to
the naked eye, after 4,480 orbits and traveling 138 million miles. Echo I
provided basis for over 150 communications experiments, recent ones
indicating only a 40-percent reduction in transmission reflection caused by
the changed shape. Echo I provided significant data on atmospheric drag and
solar pressure.

---: Aerobee 150-A fired with liquid hydrogen experiment from Wallops
Island.

---: Record six Polaris missiles fired underwater in 1 day by U.S.S.
Abraham Lincoln.

August 14: Navy barge Compromise, carrying first Saturn booster, stuck in
the mud in the Indian River just south of Cape Canaveral. Released several
hours later, the Saturn was delayed only 24 hours in its 2,200-mile journey
from Huntsville.

---: Swedish scientists fired a U.S. Arcas rocket to 55.8-mile altitude
from Arctic Circle test range at Vidsel.

August 15: Explorer XII (S-3) placed into highly eccentric orbit by
Thor-Delta from Atlantic Missile Range, which would provide detailed
evaluation of behavior of energetic particles between 170- and 50-000-mile
altitude. Under Goddard Space Flight Center, this "windmill" satellite
carried six experiments developed by Ames Research Center, State University
of Iowa, University of New Hampshire, and Goddard Space Flight Center.
Several days were required to confirm orbit.

August 15: Sir Bernard Lovell, director of the radiotelescope at Jodrell
Bank, England, expressed concern in an interview about the USAF Project
West Ford, to place 350 million small pieces of wire into an orbital band
encircling the Earth at a height of 500 to 1,000 miles. Sir Bernard stated
that "the published intention of the plan is to provide a reflector for
radio communications from one side of the Earth to the other. Those of us
who have studied this notice it is being carried out under the auspices of
the USAF and not the NASA. . . ."

---: Dr. Frank B. Voris, captain, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy, Navy liaison
officer to Project Mercury since 1958, reported aboard as Assistant
Director for Aerospace Medicine in NASA's Office of Life Science Programs.

August 16: F-1 rocket engine tested in first of firing series of the
complete flight system.

---: The International Academy of Astronautics, meeting in Paris, named Sir
Bernard Lovell, Director of Jodrell Bank radio-telescope, as the first
winner of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim International Astronautics
Award.

---: Centaur vehicle C-1 was tested and accepted by Marshall Space Flight
Center.

August 16-18: General meeting of the International Astronomical Union at
the University of California, Berkley.

---: International Hypersonics Conference held at MIT.

August 17: NASA announced that Explorer XII had successfully completed
first orbit, radioing data on magnetic fields and solar radiation from an
apogee of nearly 54,000 miles and perigee within 170 miles of the Earth.

---: Tiros III spotted two storm cells about 500 miles south and southwest
of Hawaii, reports which alerted Honolulu and Guam of these previously
unknown potential typhoons.

---: President Kennedy signed into law the bill providing NASA
appropriations for fiscal year 1962 of $1,671,750,000.

---: USAF Blue Scout launched from Atlantic Missile Range, radio contact
lost during the fourth stage with payload intended to reach 140,000 miles
into space.

August 18: NASA announced that analysis of Project Mercury suborbital data
indicated that all objectives of that phase of the program had been
achieved, and that no further Mercury-Redstone flights were planned.

---: Announced that NASA had decided to add 15 Agena B vehicles to the
original Agena B program.

August 19: Controversy over Project West Ford aired at International
Astronomical Union meeting at Berkeley, Calif.

August 21: NASA held a news conference on Explorer XII, at which the great
amount of continuous coverage on interrelated data in its eccentric orbit
was pointed out.

---: DC-8 jet airline flown beyond mach 1 in experimental flight by Douglas
Aircraft.

August 22: University of Michigan astronomers reported reception of natural
radio signals from the planet Mercury.

---: Republic of China announced plans to initiate a rocket research
program.

August 23: Ranger I test satellite of unmanned lunar spacecraft, launched
from Atlantic Missile Range by Atlas D-Agena B into low parking orbit, but
did not attain its programed eccentric orbit.

---: Maj. Gherman S. Titov, in his serialized account of his orbital flight
in Pravda, described the state of weightlessness.

---: Saturn H-1 engine drop-tested into salt water at Cape Canaveral, then
returned to Marshall Space Flight Center for inspecting, cleaning, and
static firing.

August 24: NASA announced decision to launch manned lunar flights and other
missions requiring Saturn and Nova class vehicles from expanded Cape
Canaveral facilities. Based upon national space goals announced by the
President in May, NASA plans called for acquisition of 80,000 acres north
and west of AFMTC, to be administered by the USAF as agent for NASA and as
a part of the Atlantic Missile Range. Decision followed intensive NASA-DOD
survey for launching facilities, including trajectory advantages,
overflight or booster impact hazards, air and water transportation,
instrumentation support, and cost, time, and land availability advantages.
Expansion of Cape Canaveral was noted as first of three major steps in
accelerating the U.S. space program, the remaining two steps being a manned
space flight research center, and a booster fabrication and test facility.

---: Mercury-Atlas 4 launch postponed.

---: NORAD charts showed that flight of Vostok II was tracked continuously.

August 25: Explorer XIII (S-55A) placed into orbit by NASA Scout from
Wallops, a micrometeorite counting satellite developed by Langley Research
Center and Goddard Space Flight Center.

---: NASA announced selection of Blaw Knox Co. to conduct second-phase
feasibility study for a 240-foot diameter deep space tracking antenna for
Jet Propulsion Laboratory's deep space instrumentation facility at
Goldstone, Calif.

August 26: Explorer XIII, popularly referred to as the "beer can satellite"
because of its micrometeorite counting structure, completed its 15th orbit.

---: Aerojet-General fired largest solid-fuel-rocket motor to date, over
one-half million pounds of thrust, at Sacramento, Calif. The motor weighed
over 70 tons and was made in several segments which were joined together at
the static test site.

---: Northrop T-38 (Talon) jet flown 842.6 miles per hour to claim world
speed record for women, by Jacquelin Cochran at Edwards Air Force Base,
Calif.

August 27: In a letter to the President, 35 members of Congress urged that
a decision on the Nation's satellite communication system be delayed to
determine "whether such a system should be publicly or privately owned and
under what circumstances."

---: The Soviet Communist Party organ, Pravda, explained why Russian space
techniques and the names of spaceship designers were kept secret as
follows: "A corrupt capitalist society, by it very nature, is extremely
capable of turning the greatest peaceful achievements of mankind into the
total means of destruction of mankind. This is why it is risky to open even
the smallest loopholes in the world of Soviet rocket technique for the
gentlemen who are lagging considerably behind as far as their technique is
concerned, but who become militarily agitated and distracted from an honest
program of general and complete disarmament and who mumble something about
the right of inspection of neighbors' orchards and storerooms. That is why
the wonderful group of heroes who insured the mastering of the cosmos
remain nameless until now."

August 28: NASA selected Vitro Engineering Co. for negotiation of a design
contract for an engine maintenance and disassembly building, one of the
facilities to be a part of the National Nuclear Rocket Development Center.

---: Lt. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of Air Force Systems Command,
said that plans to orbit a monkey in Discoverer XXII (March 30) were
canceled at the last minute, and that such plans had not been rescheduled.

---: Reported that Martin Co. originally required 75,000 man-hours to
produce the first Titan I's, which had now been reduced to 19,000 man-hours
per Titan. Man-hour rate for the first five Titan II's averaged 35,000
man-hours on each one.

---: Lt. Hunt Hardisty, U.S. Navy, pilot, and Lt. Earl H. DeEsch flew an
F4H Phantom II over the 3-kilometer course of Holloman Air Force Base, N.
Mex., and averaged 902.769 miles per hour for a new world's record for
speed at low altitude.

August 29: NASA announced that Explorer XIII launched on August 25 had
reentered the atmosphere. Transmitting considerable data on
micrometeoroids, spacecraft was last heard on August 27 by the Minitrack
facility at Antofagasta, Chile.

---: NASA Associate Administrator Seamans announced the addition of four
additional Ranger spacecraft, bringing the total to nine, the number of
Rangers to be launched in this phase of the lunar exploration program.
"This new third phase of the Ranger program is a part of the general
acceleration of the program to land an American on the Moon by 1970," said
Dr. Seamans.

---: Ranger I completed 100 orbits, transmitting data on all engineering
devices and eight scientific experiments. It was expected to come down
soon.

August 30: USAF Discoverer XXIX launched into polar orbit with 300-pound
data capsule, from Pacific Missile Range.

---: NASA announced that Ranger I spacecraft had reentered the Earth's
atmosphere. Launched on August 23, Ranger I made 111 orbits, traveled
almost 3 million miles, and its orientation, communications, and electronic
systems performed satisfactorily.

---: USAF Minuteman ICBM exploded seconds after firing in silo at Cape
Canaveral due to guidance malfunction.

August 31: U.S.S.R. announced policy of resumption of nuclear weapon
testing which had been suspended March 31, 1958, and that bombs can be
delivered anywhere in the world by "powerful rockets like those Majs. Yuri
Gagarin and Gherman Titov rode to begin their unrivaled space flights
around the Earth."

During August: NASA site selection team headed by John F. Parsons,
Associate Director of Ames Research Center, toured possible sites for a
manned spacecraft center.

---: New wind tunnel became operational at Ames Research Center, capable of
research on reentry problems at speeds of mach 7.5, 10, and 15.

---: With successful launch of Explorer XII on August 15, NASA Delta launch
vehicles had successfully launched five satellites out of six attempts, the
only failure being the first attempt. Deta's high reliability record began
with Echo I on August 12, 1960, and includes Tiros II and III, and
Explorers X and XII. Built by prime contrator Douglas Aircraft, the NASA
Delta launch vehicle consists of a Thor first stage (Rocketdyne MB-3 liquid
engine), Aerojet-General second stage (AJ-10-118, an improved Vanguard
second stage), and an ABL third stage (X-248 spin-stabilized version of
Vanguard third stage).

---: New 210-foot diameter radiotelescope began operations at Parkes, New
South Wales, operated by a group of scientists headed by Dr. E. G. Bowen,
radar poineer.

---: NASA-DOD Large Launch Vehicle Planning Group in session since August 1
to study the policy, management structures, and requirements of launch
vehicles beyond the size of Saturn. Meeting in NASA headquarters, the group
was headed by Dr. Nicholas E. Golovin, technical assistant to the Associate
Administrator of NASA.

---: Announced that RCA scientists determined the distance between Earth
and Venus to an accuracy of 200 miles using 84-foot tracking antenna.

                               SEPTEMBER 1961

September 1: White House announced that the U.S.S.R. had resumed testing of
nuclear weapons early this morning, the first known nuclear test by
U.S.S.R., United States, or Britain since the fall of 1958.

---: Per NASA management instructions, all space vehicles and spacecraft
under cognizance of NASA were to be equipped with fail-safe devices for
terminating electromagnetic transmissions at the completion of their
planned useful life.

---: Three parachuting skindivers recovered capsule of Discoverer XXIX, the
seventh recovery of an object from orbit in the USAF Discoverer program.
Capsule had made 33 orbits and contained human, animal, and soil life
samples.

---: NASA Administrator Webb, appearing before the Senate Commitee on
Aeronautical and Space Sciences, requested $60 million additional for
fiscal year 1962 for the acquisition of 80,000 acres adjoining Cape
Canaveral for launching facilities for the expanded space program.

---: NASA issued its "Program Evaluation and Review Technique Handbook,"
its adaptation of the Navy PERT program management system.

September 2: Scientists at Nagoya University, Japan, were reported to be
training monkey for space flight next year, hopefully in conjunction with
Japanese Government-financed rocket program carried out by Tokyo
University's Institute of Industrial Science.

September 3: Thirty days exposure to simulated vacuum of space killed
bacteria by causing them to disintegrate molecule by molecule, was finding
of studies reported by the Materials Testing Laboratory of Hughes Aircraft
Co. Dr. Charles G. Walence reported that sterilization of space vehicles
probably could be eliminated from current planning.

September 5: Authorization for NASA to acquire necessary land for
additional launch facilities at Cape Canaveral was approved by the Senate.

---: In an interview with C. L. Sulzberger, Premier Khrushchev reviewed the
world crisis in detail. "In a strange Darwinian interpretation of the
advance of nations," Sulzberger reported, "Mr. Khrushchev jokingly
considers that the United States is still in the stage of 'jumping while
the Soviet Union has learned how to 'fly.' This refers to the
Earth-orbiting successes of the Soviet spacemen, Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin and
S. Titov."

September 5-7: International Conference on Science and World Affairs held
at Stowe, Vt., at which nonofficial proposals for a joint United
States-U.S.S.R. space program were considered by delegates of 12 nations
including the United States and the Soviet Union.

September 6: USAF Titan successfully launched from Atlantic Missile Range,
making 6,100-mile flight.

---: AEC announced that U.S.S.R. had detonated a fourth nuclear device in
the atmosphere, at a site east of Stalingrad.

---: After a series of six static firings, the Saturn SA-T2 booster was
removed from the static test tower at Marshall Space Flight Center.

September 7: NASA announced that Government-owned Michoud Ordnance Plant
near New Orleans would be the site for fabrication and assembly of the
first stage of Saturn as well as for making stages for larger booster.

---: Balloon flights to measure loss of radiation from the Van Allen
radiation belts-the "dumping profile" experiment-was announced by National
Science Foundation. Flights are part of joint project by University of
Minnesota and University of California, taking place along line from Flin
Flon, Manitoba, to Waterloo, Iowa.

---: USAF Titan with inertial guidance system successfully launched from
Atlantic Missile Range, the second in as many days, impacting into target
area over 5,000 miles down range.

---: The Agena B vehicle 6002 was delivered to Atlantic Missile Range, in
preparation for the Ranger 2 launch.

September 8: Deep space tracking antenna dedicated by United States and
South African officials. Located 40 miles from Johannesburg, the antenna
has operated since July in collaboration with Goldstone and Woomera, and
tracked Ranger I.

---: Reported from Stowe, Vt., that unofficial American-Soviet discussions
on cooperative space exploration were near agreement, and that
internationalized status for space similar to that achieved by treaty for
the continent of Antarctica was under consideration. Delegations included
seven members of President Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee and six
members of the ruling body of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The Stowe
Conference was sponsored by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences of
Boston, with costs defrayed by the Ford Foundation.

September 10: Tiros III photographed Hurricane Esther in process of
formation, 2 days before hurricane-hunter aircraft verified winds of
hurricane force. Quality of Tiros III pictures processed in 8 hours through
the National Meteorological Center, Suitland, Md., was not alone sufficient
for identification of a hurricane.

---: On the same day, Tiros III also observed one-eighth of the Earth,
providing data on two other hurricanes (Carla and Debbie), one dissipating
hurricane (Betsy), two typhoons (Nancy and Pamela), and at least one other
vortex storm.

---: White House released "Project Horizon" report of task force created in
March to establish goals to maintain America's primacy in aeronautics. The
report made a strong recommendation for the development of a supersonic
transport, among other recommendations.

---: U.S.S.R. announced that it would launch a series of "more powerful and
improved rockets" into the Central Pacific in tests between September 13
and October 15.

September 11: NASA selected North American Aviation to develop an upper
stage (S-II) for an Advanced Saturn launch vehicle to be used on both
manned and unmanned missions.

September 12: In a speech before the National Press Club, NASA
Administrator Webb reviewed NASA's program and outlined the interest in the
rendezvous-in-space technique for staging flights to the Moon and nearby
planets.

---: X-15 flown to record 3,614 miles per hour by NASA's Joseph A. Walker
at Edwards Air Force Base.

---: USAF Discoverer XXX launched into polar orbit from Pacific Missile
Range.

September 13: Unmanned Mercury spacecraft orbited by Mercury-Atlas launch
vehicle from Atlantic Missile Range and recovered 1 hour and 22 minutes
after landing by destroyer U.S.S. Decatur. This MA-4 (capsule 8) flight
demonstrated, said NASA Space Task Group Director Robert Gilruth, that
"Atlas has the capability to fly a man in orbit; it brought in for the
first time the Mercury worldwide tracking network; and demonstrated the
ability of the capsule and its systems to operate completely unattended.

---: Two experiments to measure atmospheric winds, temperature, and density
in relatively high altitudes conducted from Wallops Island in two
four-stage Argo D-4 rocket launches. Sodium clouds were released at nearly
120 statue miles and again at 228 miles in first launch, and at 118 and 230
miles in the second launch. French scientists participated by using special
optical instruments to observe the brilliant orange and yellow clouds which
stirred a rash of public inquiries to newspapers from hundreds of miles
around.

---: U.S.S.R. announced that it has fired new, powerful carrier rocket more
than 7,400 miles to within less than five-eights of a mile from its Central
Pacific target.

---: Soviet Marshal Kiril S. Moskalenko, chief of rocket forces, declared
that 95 percent of all Soviet rockets fired reached their targets. (Article
in Red Star timed to coincide with first firing of new rocket series in the
Pacific.)

September 14: USAF C-130B cargo plane snagged the parachuting capsule of
Discoverer XXX north of Hawaii, Capt. W. C. Schmensted as pilot.

---: White House released its reply to letter of August 27 signed by 35
members of Congress which expressed concern over the private ownership of
an operational communications satellite system. The White House memorandum
stated that "any decisions as to control should preserve as much
flexibility as possible," and reemphasized the administration policies
including "maximum competition" in any system of private ownership.

---: Resolution calling for the creation of an international space year
program and an international space agency, both under the auspices of the
United Nations, introduced in the Senate by Senator Hubert Humphrey.

September 14: AEC announced that the Soviet Union had fired its 10th
nuclear blast in the current test series begun 2 weeks ago.

September 15: White House announced that AEC-DOD had conducted first U.S.
nuclear weapons test since October 1958, and underground weapons
development test at the Nevada testing site, one of low yield and which
produced no fallout.

---: Army Nike-Zeus fired from White Sands Proving Ground met all test
objectives, including controlled high-velocity in the atmosphere and
evaluation of solid-fuel rocket motors and guidance system.

---: Marshall Space Flight Center's Procurement and Contracts Office
reported that a contract was let to the Noble Co. for disassembling the
Redstone gantry at Atlantic Missile Range and reassembling and erecting on
pad 75-1-1 at Vandenberg Air Force Base for use with Thor-Agena B launches
after January 1962.

September 16: Congressman Overton Brooks, of Louisiana, chairman of the
House Committee on Science and Astronautics since its creation in January
1959, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

September 17: USAF Discoverer XXXI placed into polar orbit from Pacific
Missile Range by Thor-Agena.

---: Soviet Union announced that 12 altitude and speed records had been
broken by its twin-jet M-10 antisubmarine seaplane.

September 18: First of four scheduled Skylark rocket firings was launched
from Woomera in the joint United States-Australian ultraviolet survey of
the southern skies.

September 19: NASA Administrator Webb announced that location of the new
Manned Spacecraft Center would be in Houston, Tex., the conclusion of an
intensive nationwide study by a site selection team. The Manned Spacecraft
Center would be the command center for the manned lunar landing mission and
all follow-on manned space flight missions. This announcement was the third
basic decision on major facilities required for the expanded U.S. Range and
the establishment of the spacecraft fabrication center at the Michoud
Ordnance Plant near New Orleans, La.

---: Recovery of capsule of Discoverer XXXI was called off as capsule and
satellite (launched Sept. 17, 1961) failed to separate and both remained in
orbit.

---: USAF Bomarc B launched from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on command
from SAGE Center at Montgomery, Ala., destroyed supersonic Regulus launched
from Venice, Fla.

---: Air Force Systems Command formed a Bioastronautics Division, effective
October 1, to consolidate all USAF applied research in this area into a
single organization. School of Aerospace Medicine, now under Air Training
Command, becomes a part of Air Force Systems Command.

September 19: In a speech to the USAF Worldwide Information Conference at
Philadelphia, Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Hooks, Commander of the Office of
Aerospace Research, reported that predictions of OAR's Solar Laboratory at
Sacramento Peak, N. Mex., were borne out by the flights of the U.S.S.R.'s
Vostok I and II. High proton shower activity associated with solar flares
had been predicted for April 1961, except from April 11 through 14 (Major
Gagarin's flight in Vostok I was on April 12). August 6, the day of the
launching of Major Titov's 17-orbit flight, was the "safest day" for low
solar activity on record since 1955.

September 20: Robert Gilruth and other officials of the Space Task Group
made survey of the new site of the Manned Spacecraft Center near Houston,
Tex., to seek temporary operational quarters as soon as possible. Permanent
quarters will be constructed under the supervision of the Army Corps of
Engineers.

September 21: D. Brainerd Holmes was appointed NASA's Director of Manned
Space Flight Programs. As general manager of RCA's Major Defense Systems
Division, Holmes was project manager for the Ballistic missile early
warning system(BMEWS).

---: Representative George P. Miller, Democrat, of California, was named
chairman of the House Science and Astronautics Committee.

---: Soviet Union protested to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences that
Project West Ford might endanger Soviet cosmonauts, protest contained in a
letter to Detlev W. Bronk, president of the NAS, signed by Matislav
Keldysh, president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

September 22: Announced at Space Task Group that a 30-cubic-foot balloon
would be installed in Mercury spacecraft to allow for ship recovery should
helicopter be forced to drop it as happened during the MR-4 recovery.

September 23: U.S.S.R. announced that third flight of current series of
Pacific tests of new multistage carrier rocket was successful.

---: NASA planned to spend $6 million on expansion of its Langley
facilities in this fiscal year, according to Representative Thomas N.
Downing after a conversation with NASA Administrator James E. Webb.
Representative Downing said he was satisfied that the lower peninsula area
of Virginia would not suffer financially when the Space Task Group moved to
Houston, Tex.

September 24: Administrator Webb announced major organizational changes and
top-level appointments in NASA. Keyed to the Nation's accelerated civilian
space program, changes provided clearer focus on major programs, and
provided center directors with a louder voice in policymaking and program
decisions. Effective November 1, major headquarters program offices would
be headed as follows: Ira H. Abbott, Director of the Office of Advanced
Research and Technology; Homer E. Newell, Director of the Office of Space
Sciences; D. Brainerd Holmes; Director of the Office of Manned Space
Flight; and an Office of Applications Programs with no director yet named.
Thomas F. Dixon was appointed Deputy of the Lewis Research Center and
Robert R. Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center.

September 24: Speaking at the Air Force Association convention in
Philadelphia, Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of the Air Force Systems
Command, said that "the United States has been notably slow to recognize
the military application of new inventions. Two of the most significant
inventions of this century-the airplane and the liquid-fuel rocket-are
American inventions. Yet in each case their first application was made by
other nations." Gen. Schriever also stated: "We should recognize that there
is no inherent difference between basic military and non-military space
technology. What really matters is not the technology but the intent . . .
space power must become a vital part of our national strength and
security."

---: NASA made a grant to Stanford University's School of Medicine for
development of design of payload instrumentation to determine existence of
life forms on nearby planets, a project under the direction of Dr. Joshua
Lederberg and Dr. Elliott C. Leventhal.

September 25: In a stirring address to the Assembly of the United Nations
meeting in New York, President John F. Kennedy called for "world law in the
age of self determination" rather than proposals for waging effective
peace, he urged "keeping nuclear weapons from seeding new battlegrounds in
outer space." In projecting the theme that "the events and decisions of the
next 10 months may well decide the fate of man of the next 10,000 years,"
President Kennedy spoke of the impact of space exploration as follows:

"As we extend the rule of law on Earth, so must we also extend it to man's
new domain-outer space."

"All of us salute the brave cosmonauts of the Soviet Union. The new
horizons of outer space must not be driven by the old bitter concepts of
imperialism and sovereign claims. The cold reaches of the universe must not
become the new arena of an even colder war."

"To this end, we shall urge proposals extending the United Nations Charter
to the limits of man's exploration in the universe, reserving outer space
for peaceful use, prohibiting weapons of mass destruction in space or on
celestial bodies, and opening the mysteries and benefits of space to every
nation. . . ."

September 25: Dr. George N. Constan of Marshall Space Flight Center named
as acting manager of the new NASA Saturn fabrication plant near New Orleans
by Director von Braun of Marshall Space Flight Center.

September 26: NASA bidders conference on a contract to produce the booster
(S-I) stage of the Saturn vehicle was held at the Municipal Auditorium, New
Orleans.

---: Meeting to examine the modification of C-133 aircraft for carrying
Saturn S-IV stages was held at NASA Langley Research Center.

September 27: Ion engine developed on NASA contract demonstrated at Hughes
Aircraft Laboratories.

September 28: NASA announced that instrumented Venus probe to be launched
next year would be launched by an Atlas-Agena B rather than a Centaur
rocket as originally planned.

---: Solar flare studied by Explorer XII and Injun I, readings within a few
hours indicated energetic protons with velocities of near 10,000 kilometers
per second, while 2 days after the solar flare both satellites saw a sudden
increase in the intensity of low-energy protons (c. 10 mev) concurrently
with a magnetic storm on Earth and bright aurora at low altitude. It was
concluded that low-energy protons traveled slowly from the Sun with the
magnetic stormcloud.

---: X-15 (No. 2) flown to 100,800 feet and 3,600 miles per hour by Comdr.
Forrest S. Petersen, U.S. Navy, at Edwards, Calif.

September 28-29: Pair of spinup rockets on Tiros II successfully fired
after more than 10 months in orbit.

September 29: USAF awarded three contracts for speeding development of the
Dyna-Soar, a manned orbital space glider. Receiving contracts were Boeing
Co. for development of the glider and related systems, Radio Corp. of
America for communications and tracking devices, and Minneapolis-Honeywell
Regulator Co. for the guidance system.

---: Dr. Charles M. Herzfeld, of the National Bureau of Standards, joined
DOD's Advanced Research Projects Agency to coordinate the Project Defender
program.

---: Navy Polaris (A-3) with modified second stage testing freon gas
regulator launched from pad at Atlantic Missile Range.

September 30: NASA Office for the United Nations Conference headed by Dr.
John P. Hagen was closed, effective this date. Continued uncertainty of
arrangements for a conference on the peaceful uses of outer space within
the United Nations made such a move necessary. Sustained NASA
responsibility in this regard was assigned to the Office of International
Programs.

---: Air Force Systems Command announced consolidation of all USAF research
and development in bioastronautics under single management. The new
Bioastronautics Division, Air Force Systems Command, would have its
headquarters at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Tex.

---: Two X-15 test pilots, USAF's Maj. Robert M. White and NASA's Joseph A.
Walker, were jointly awarded the 1960 Iven C. Kincheloe Memorial Award as
the Nation's outstanding test pilots; award of the Society of Experimental
Test Pilots.

September 30: NASA received an additional $10 million for salaries in a
supplemental appropriations bill approved by Congress, enough to hire an
additional 1,250 persons.

During September: National Bureau of Standards and the Institut Geofisico
de Huancago of Peru initiated construction of the Jucamarca Observatory, a
6-million-watt pulse transmitter and a 22-acre antenna with 9,216 crossed
dipoles mounted above a reflecting screen. Located 17 miles east of Lima,
Peru, the Observatory will be used for ground-based exploration of the
upper atmosphere and space.

---: USAF established a Council of Scientists to be comprised of senior
civilian scientists of major Air Force organizations, Dr. Leonard S.
Sheingold as Chairman.

---: Congress appropriated funds to the U.S. Weather Bureau for
implementation of the National Operational Meteorological Satellite System.
To phase in as early as technology warrants and to continue expanding the
operational capability through the early Nimbus launchings by NASA, the
system planned to be fully operational by 1966 as Nimbus system became
operational. The system would include data acquisition stations in northern
latitudes, communications for transmitting the data, and a National
Meteorological Center to receive, process, analyze, and disseminate the
derived information over domestic and international weather circuits.



For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of October-December 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 52-78.

                                OCTOBER 1961

October 2-7: Twelfth Congress of the Internal Astronautical Federation held
in Washington, D.C.

October 2: NASA Deputy Administrator Dryden and Soviet Academy of Sciences
official Dr. Leonid I. Sedov both appealed for greater international
cooperation and exchange of information in the peaceful exploration of
space in their speeches at the opening of the 12th World Congress of the
International Astronautical Federation.

---: NASA conducted a press conference for foreign correspondents attending
the IAF Congress, pointing out that some 40 nations are now participating
in NASA programs or are obtaining NASA help for their respective space
programs. Director of the Office of International Programs, Arnold Frutkin,
pointed out that growing space research cooperation would soon include a
university training program in which 100 foreign students would work at
American universities on peaceful space experiments.

---: USAF Atlas E missile made successful 5,000-mile flight at Atlantic
Missile Range. The payload included the guidance equipment for the Centaur
rocket, radiation sensors, and a nose cone intended for the Minuteman. Data
capsule was recovered.

October 3: House Science and Astronautics Committee released interim report
on "Research and Development in Aeronautics," which concluded that "the
welfare of the Nation, in both its economic and security aspects, is
dependent in no small degree on continuing aeronautical research of high
caliber."

---: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson began tour of west coast missile and
space installations.

---: Inhouse procurement policies and practices of NASA reviewed by
headquarters and field personnel in conference at Lewis Research Center.

---: First regular meeting of the International Academy of Astronautics
held in conjunction with the 12th Annual Congress of the International
Astronautical Federation in Washington.

---: Dr. Vladimir A. Kotelnikov, of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, told
the IAF that Russian radar returns from Venus indicated a value of
149,599,500 kilometers obtained by Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the figure
of 149,597,850 kilometers obtained by Lincoln Laboratory. Disagreement
remains on whether Venus day is a 9-to-11-earth-day period or 225-earth-day
period.

October 3-5: PERT (program evaluation and review technique) symposium held
at Huntsville, Ala., sponsored by the American Institute of Industrial
Engineering and the University of Alabama.

October 4: Beginning of the fifth year of the "space age," being the
anniversary of the launching of Sputnik I (1957).

---: Project West Ford given final approval by the White House.

---: Maj. Robert Rushworth, U.S. Air Force, flew X-15 to 2,820 miles per
hour, with bottom tailfin missing in programed malfunctions for test of
stability and control.

---: State Department ruled that Soviet space scientists would not be
allowed to visit the American Rocket Society's Space Flight Report to the
Nation in New York on October 9-14, a reciprocal action prompted by Soviet
restrictions on American scientists in the U.S.S.R.

---: Soviet scientists in Washington for 12th IAF Congress revealed that
Maj. Gherman Titov was ill during his 17 orbits in Vostok II on August 6.
Disorientation, nausea, and irregular heartbeat resulted from prolonged
weightlessness, according to O. G. Gazenko and V.J. Yazdovsky of the Soviet
Academy of Sciences.

October 5: USAF Atlas fired 9,000 miles for Atlantic Missile Range into
Indian Ocean, carrying dummy nuclear warhead and a data capsule which was
recovered.

October 5-6: Atomic Energy Commission announced that the Tory II-A-1
nuclear test reactor underwent tests on September 28 and October 5-6. Power
levels of the test were not disclosed but advanced plans called for tests
at full power. The test was for "about 1 minute" at temperatures "in excess
of 2,000F." and emission of radiation was "negligible."

October 6: USAF Titan I launched from Cape Canaveral carrying Titan II
guidance system.

October 7: Soviet E-166 jet fighter flown to 1,482.039 miles per hour in
closed 100-kilometer course, according to Moscow claim.

---: Second stage of Nike-Zeus exploded at 2-miles altitude in test launch.

---: U.S.S.R. launched fourth multistage rocket 7,500 miles into the
Pacific.

October 8: Plans for a worldwide scientific study of the Sun, to begin in
1964 and continue for 18 months, were approved by scientists from 51
nations gathered in London for the triennial meeting of the International
Council of Scientific Unions. Final plans to be drawn in Paris in April
1962 at a meeting of the International Committee on Geophysics, successor
to the IGY.

---: In article in New York Times, Dr. Edward C. Welsh, Executive
Secretary, National Aeronautics and Space Council, said: "In my view, we
[the United States] do not have a division between peaceful and nonpeaceful
objectives for space. Rather, we have space missions to help keep the peace
and space missions to enable use to live better in peace."

---: In article in New York Times, Mr. George J. Feldman, consultant to the
House Committee on Science and Astronautics, outlined several areas of
international space law that urgently require solution, including
sovereignty in space, liability for damage from spacecraft, conflicts of
interest arising from space experiments, sovereignty claims on celestial
bodies, and the international allocation of satellite radio frequencies.
Communications satellites make latter point particularly critical, as well
as posing an unprecedented problem in American contract and antitrust law.

October 9-15: American Rocket Society's 16th annual meeting and Space
Flight Report to the Nation held in New York City.

October 10: NASA Argo D-4 rocket was launched from Wallops, reaching an
altitude of 585 miles and landing 817 miles out in the Atlantic, to gather
data on the density of electrically charged helium atoms in the upper
atmosphere.

October 11: X-15 flown more than 40 miles into space-217,000 feet-and
reached a speed of 3,647 miles per hour, Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force,
as pilot. This was above 99.9 percent of Earth's atmosphere; pilot's
heartbeat and respiration rose to twice above normal; and outside skin
temperature of the X-15 rose to 900F on reentry.

---: NASA Administrator Webb, speaking to the American Rocket Society, said
NASA scientists "are going to consider the rendezvous technique with great
care before going ahead with Nova." Decision on whether to give priority to
the rendezvous technique would probably be made by the end of 1961, he
said.

---: Final report of House Committee on Science and Astronautics relating
to their hearings on "Commercial Applications of Space Communications
Systems" released, having among its conclusions:

(1) Because of worldwide interest and potential usefulness of a space
communications system, the U.S. Government must "retain maximum flexibility
regarding the central question of ownership and operation of the system."

(2) NASA will not only evaluate the various commercial proposals but will
"conduct all space launches and retain direct control over all launching
equipment, facilities, and personnel."

(3) Research and development of military space communications systems
should continue to be conducted by DOD but all research and development in
space communications "should be conducted under the general supervision of
NASA in accordance with its statutory mandate to 'plan, direct, and conduct
aeronautical and space activities'" as well as evaluate the technical
merits of proposed systems.

---: In a luncheon address to the American Rocket Society, Gen. Bernard A.
Schriever said: "I have been, am being, and, if the situation is not
changed, will continue to be inhibited if our space efforts continue to be
carried out under an unnecessary, self-imposed national restriction;
namely, the artificial division between space for peaceful purposes and
space for military purposes." Asserting USAF management experience in space
systems, General Schriever added: "There is no short cut to the creation of
a team of dedicated and experienced men with a tradition of
accomplishment."

---: Jacqueline Cochran set woman's altitude record of 56,071.3 feet, in
Northrop T-38 jet trainer at Edwards Air Force Base.

October 13: In speech at the American Rocket Society, Vice President Lyndon
B. Johnson stated: "If I could get one message to you it would be this: The
future of this country and the welfare of the free world depend upon our
success in space. There is no room in this country for any but a fully
cooperative, urgently motivated all-out effort toward space leadership. No
one person, no one company, no one Government agency, has a monopoly on the
competence, the missions, or the requirements for the space program. It is
and it must continue to be national job."

October 13: Discoverer XXXII was placed into polar orbit; its capsule
contained components of USAF satellite systems. This marked the 100th
successful firing of the Thor booster rocket.

---: The Ad Hoc Carrier Committee established by the FCC to make an
industry proposal on the development and operation of commercial
communications satellites recommended a nonprofit corporation be formed, to
be owned by companies engaged in international communications, with the
U.S. Government having one more representative on the board of directors
than any one company. Western Union filed a minority statement proposing a
public stock company arrangement to prevent dominance of the corporation by
any one company.

---: The American Rocket Society presented its major annual awards as
follows: Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Medal to Dr. Wernher von Braun,
Director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; Astronautics Medal to Comdr.
Alan B. Shepard, Mercury astronaut, for his MR-3 flight of May 5; James H.
Wylk Memorial Medal to Harrison A. Storms, Jr., of North American Aviation;
Propulsion Medal to Robert B. Young of Aerojet-General Corp. for his role
in development of Titan II engine; G. Edward Pendray Award to Kraft Ehricke
for his contribution to astronautical literature; and Research Medal to Dr.
James Van Allen of State University of Iowa for basic research.

---: On its second birthday in space, Explorer VII was still transmitting
although it had been scheduled to stop a year ago.

---: The Soviet Union announced it had fired fifth multistage rocket 7,500
miles into the Central Pacific, with all stages functioning perfectly and
with the nose cone landing in the target area with a high degree of
accuracy.

October 14: Capsule of Discoverer XXXII recovered by C-130 piloted by Capt.
Warren Schensted, U.S. Air Force, the sixth aerial recovery of an ejected
satellite capsule and Schensted's second catch. Capsule contained test
objects including seed corn.

---: NASA Argo D-4 launched from Wallops Station carried United
States;Canadian topside sounding satellite payload to 560-mile altitude.

---: U.S.S.R.'s Tass announced that the "Air Force Herald" would be
retitled "Aviation and Cosmonautics" (Aviatsiga I Kosmonavtika), beginning
in January 1962.

---: U.S.S.R. claimed a new world speed record for vertiplanes on a closed
62-mile circuit at 209 miles per hour. Tass said this exceeded the previous
record of 191 miles per hour held by a New Zealander, G. Ellith, flying a
British Rotordyne. The following day, Tass claimed a horizontal speed of
228 miles per hour for the Kamov vertiplane.

October 14-15: Sky Shield II provided aerospace control exercise for NORAD
and SAC, including grounding of all commercial aircraft for 12 hours.

October 17: USAF-USN-NASA X-15 flown to 108,600 feet and a record speed of
3,900 miles per hour, piloted by Joseph Walker at Edwards, Calif.

October 18: NASA Scout fired payload to 4,261-mile altitude, obtaining data
on the ionosphere.

October 18: First U.S. showing of films of Vostok II space flight by
Gherman Titov, before the Maryland Academy of Sciences in Baltimore, was
canceled at the last minute by a Soviet Embassy official. Film had been
shown to press correspondents in Moscow on October 9.

---: James A. Van Allen was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of the
Franklin Institute, Philadephia, for "his many contributions and poineering
achievements in the filed of space science."

October 18-22: The 20th American Assembly sponsored by Columbia University
met to study the problems of space exploration and, in its report,
recommended a proper balance with it and other programs in the national
interest.

October 19: In a speech at Naval Research Laboratory, Harold Brown,
Director of Defense Research and Engineering, said Government labs would
hereafter be the "primary means" for carrying out military weapons
programs; that DOD would seek an increase in the number of supergrade
scientific positions and would ask for the same top pay for scientists as
NASA has; that labs would be given increased status in the chain of
command; and that lab directors will be given funds they can spend for
research without prior approval.

---: NASA Administrator Webb, speaking at the 20th American Assembly, said
the accelerated space program was necessary or else "we would see the
Russians, with the advantage of their advance position in booster thrust,
stay continuously ahead. . . . The cost over the 10 years of the
accelerated program will very probably be less than if it were stretched
out over 15 years."

---: NASA Scout launched from Wallops Island, Va., and placed 94-pound P-21
payload to 4,261-mile altitude in a study of the ionosphere.

October 20: Ranger test postponed at Atlantic Missile Range.

October 21: USAF Midas IV launched into polar orbit from Pacific Missile
Range, and also carried Project West Ford payload.

October 22: NASA announced that Dr. Hiden T. Cox, executive director of the
American Institute of Biological Sciences, would become Assistant
Administrator for Public Affairs, and "charged with developing NASA
policies to insure that the character, the intent, and the results of
America's space effort are correctly and adequately interpreted to the
people of this country and the world."

---: Assistant Secretary of State of International Organization Affairs,
Harlan Cleveland, outlined in a speech at St. Louis University the
seven-point program that the United States will propose to the United
Nations General Assembly for guaranteeing peace and world cooperation in
space: (1) Explicit confirmation that the U.N. Charter applies to the
limits of space exploration; (2) a declaration that space and heavenly
bodies are not subject to claim of national sovereignty; (3) an
international system for registering all objects launched into space; (4) a
specialized space unit in the United Nations Secretariat; (5) a world
weather watch using satellites; (6) a cooperative search for ways toward
weather modification; and (7) a global system of communications to link the
world by telegraph, telephone, radio, and television.

October 22: National Science Foundation announced the establishment of a
science resources planning office to study U.S. long-range scientific
needs, to be headed by NSF Associate Director for Planning, Richard H.
Bolt.

October 23: The Freedom 7 Mercury capsule in which Alan B. Shepard, Jr.,
made the first suborbital space flight, was presented to the National Air
Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. In his presentation, NASA
Administrator Webb said: "To Americans seeking answers, proof that man can
survive in the hostile realm of space is not enough. A solid and meaningful
foundation for public support and the basis for our Apollo man-in-space
effort is that U.S. astronauts are going into space to do useful work in
the cause of all their fellow men."

"Such flights as those of Freedom 7 are not stunts. They are not
antithetical to sober scientific and technological research. Interpreted
properly, these dramatic events can add much to public understanding and
excite creative interest in extending the base on which public support must
rest."

---: NASA announced that it had ordered 14 additional Delta launch vehicles
(Douglas Thor first stage, Aeroject-General AJ10-118 second stage, and
Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory third stage) for Relay, Syncom, Telstar,
and Tiros satellites. Five of the first six of the twelve Deltas
successfully launched Echo I, Tiros II and III, and Explorers X and XII.

---: Ranger launching again postponed at Atlantic Missile Range because of
technical difficulties.

---: Cleveland extension (SNPO-C) of the joint AEC-NASA Space Nuclear
Propulsion Office (SNPO) activated, located on Lewis Research Center and
headed by John L. Wilson.

---: USAF Discoverer XXXIII failed to achieve polar orbit.

---: First underwater launching of Navy Polaris A-2, and first firing from
submarine, U.S.S. Ethan Allen.

---: AEC announced that the Soviet Union had detonated a thermonuclear bomb
with a 30-megaton yield as well as a small underwater nuclear device. These
were the 22d and 23d Soviet nuclear tests reported by AEC.

---: Marshal R. Y. Malinovsky, Soviet Defense Minister, announced that the
U.S.S.R. had solved the problem of antimissile defense (a statement later
qualified in retranslation).

October 24: Studies of "unconventional" rockets using liquid fuels in the
thrust range from 2 to 24 million pounds announced by NASA; 2 contracts
being carried out by Aerojet-General and Rocketdyne Division of North
American Aviation.

---: USAF Titan fired from Cape Canaveral to coincide with over head
passage of Midas IV.

---: The first Centaur liquid-oxygen/liquid-nitrogen tanking tests were
successfully completed at Sycamore Canyon.

---: Long duration static test of the S-I stage (SA-2 vehicle) occurred at
Marshall Space Flight Center, for a period of 120 seconds.

---: Small liquid-fuel rocket was fueled and fired while floating in ocean
off Point Mugu in Aerojet-General demonstration of this launching
technique.

October 25: NASA selected Pearl River site in southwestern Mississippi, 35
miles from Michoud plant in New Orleans, for static test facility for
Saturn and Nova-class vehicles, completed facility to operate under
direction of Marshall Space Flight Center.

---: Ranger 2 shot postponed indefinitely as the 8-day "window" (i.e., when
the Moon, Sun, and Earth were in favorable positions) had ended before
technical difficulties could be corrected.

---: Reported from Cape Canaveral that launch of Titan the previous evening
had been detected by Midas IV.

---: USAF announced that Project West Ford's 350 million depoles launched
with Midas IV had not yet been found by radar contact.

---: Full Tass text of Marshal R. V. Malinovsky's speech on October 23 as
it appeared in Soviet dailies, showed no statement to the effect that the
Soviets had perfected an antimissile missile, as had been reported by
Moscow correspondents of the American press.

October 26: National Aeronautic Association appointed committee headed by
Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd, U.S. Air Force (retired), to program U.S. efforts to
break world aircraft records now held by other nations.

---: Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory successfully flight-tested
largest plastic balloon (318 feet in diameter and 434 feet long).

---: U.S.S. Blandy demonstrated capability of a destroyer to recover MR-2
Mercury capsule, with Virgil Grissom aboard, from water in series of
pickups in lower Chesapeake Bay.

October 27: Largest known rocket launch to date, the Saturn 1st stage
booster, successful on first test flight from Atlantic Missile Range. With
its eight clustered engines developing almost 1.3 million pounds of thrust
at launch, the Saturn (SA-1) hurled waterfilled dummy upper stages to an
altitude of 84.8 miles and 214.7 miles down range. In a postlaunch
statement, Administrator Webb said: "The flight today was a splendid
demonstration of the strength of our national space program and an
important milestone in the buildup of our national capacity to launch heavy
payloads necessary to carry out the program projected by President Kennedy
on May 25. We in NASA deeply appreciate the contribution by the military
services and American industry in achieving this important milestone."
Development of Saturn had begun under Advanced Research Projects Agency
auspices in 1958.

---: Goddard Space Flight Center and Geophysics Corp. launched Nike-Cajun
rocket from Wallops Station with 60-pound payload that reached 90-mile
altitude in a study of electron density and temperature in the upper level
of the atmosphere.

---: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory scientists reported that
Discoverer XVII nose cone (launched November 12, 1960, from Pacific Missile
Range) had picked up tritium-product of a solar flare in which hydrogen and
helium combine at high energies. While recovered satellite capsules often
pick up some tritium, capsule of Discoverer XVII had 100 times the normal
amount.

October 27: Secretary of Defense McNamara announced that progress of the
Administration's accelerated defense buildup made unnecessary the use of
additional defense funds appropriate by the Congress above the amount
requested by the administration. The Congress had voted $514.5 million for
additional long-range bombers; $180 million additional for the B-70; and
$85.8 million additional for Dyna-Soar.

---: Second NASA honor awards ceremony in Washington: Dr. Abe Silverstein,
new Director of the Lewis Research Center, received NASA's Outstanding
Leadership Medal; William O'Sullivan of Project Echo received the NASA
Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award; and George D. McCauley received
the Sustained Superior Performance Award. Other NASA personnel who had
received NASA or non-Federal awards during NASA's third year were also
recognized.

---: Comdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr., awarded the Theodore Roosevelt
Distinguished Service Award in New York City.

---: All-out speed trial of X-15 postponed because of heavy cloud cover, a
flight aimed at 4,100 miles per hour.

October 29: NASA announced that first Mercury-Scout launch to verify the
readiness of the worldwide Mercury tracking network would take place at
Atlantic Missile Range.

---: U.S.S.R. announced completion of its series of Pacific rocket tests
with a successful shot of 7,500 miles. Since series began on September 13,
Tass had announced a total of eight shots, emphasizing the accuracy of what
was described as a "fundamentally new type of guidance system."

October 30: U.S.S.R. exploded 55- to 60-megaton nuclear device as per
Khrushchev's promise to the 22nd Communist Party Congress. White House
release later in the day pointed out that this Soviet explosion would
"produce more radioactive fallout than any previous explosion. The Soviet
explosion was a political rather than a military act."

October 31: NASA has assembled an outstanding management team for its
stepped-up assault on space, NASA Administrator Webb added: "These mean,
and many others associated with them, know the technical side of
aeronautics and space and are all experienced in the management of large
activities. Each has demonstrated a personal earning capacity for beyond
what the Government is able to pay for their services. Each is thoroughly
familiar with the opportunities and problems associated with our most
important technical military weapon system development efforts. It is
fortunate for this Nation that men with these high qualifications and such
experience are willing to forego large earnings in industry and a more
normal personal and family life to supply the leadership needed in our
national space effort."

---: Launch of Mercury-Scout canceled at T minus 10 seconds at Atlantic
Missile Range because of mechanical difficulties, while record speed flight
of X-15 was again prevented by cloud cover restricting instrumentation.

October 31: At autumn meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in Los
Angeles, Dr. Hilde Kallmann-Biji reported on Committee on Space Research
report by an international studies group on data discovered by Soviet and
American satellites as well as sounding rocket observations including those
of Britain and West Germany. Findings indicated that 500 miles in space,
temperatures may fluctuate 1,000F., and that the Earth's upper atmosphere
has distinct day and night variations in density and pressure.

During October: A series of some 50 supersonic flights to analyze the
characteristics, intensity, and air and ground effects of supersonic booms
began at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., under joint sponsorship of the
USAF, FAA, and NASA.

                               NOVEMBER 1961

November 1: New organization of NASA headquarters became effective, which
established four major program offices (Manned Space Flight, Space
Sciences, Advanced Research and Technological, and Applications), and
provided center directors with direct line to the Office of the Associate
Administrator.

---: Reported that the DOD-NASA Golovin Committee was near agreement on
hybrid solid-and-liquid fuel rockets for Dyna-Soar. Golovin Committee had
been meeting for 3 months to work out families of large rockets for overall
national space program.

---: Mercury-Scout, testing global tracking network, was destroyed by range
safety officer after lift-off.

---: Radiocarbon from nuclear tests had been useful in tracing movements of
the atmosphere, reported Prof. Gordon S. Fergusson to the National Academy
of Sciences. Studies since 1955 showed that it took 1 year for carbon 14 to
move from one hemisphere to the other, once it gets into the lower
atmosphere.

---: Scientists and engineers of Langley Research Center and the Space Task
Group were guests of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce honoring the 46
years of NACA and NASA on the Virginia Peninsula.

---: Ballute (balloon braking system) reentry test of 500-pound Cree
vehicle, launched by three-stage Nike rocket, reaching an altitude of 28
miles and a speed of near 1,900 miles per hour, at Eglin Air Force Base,
Fla.

---: USAF Hound Dog missile launched successfully from B-52 over Atlantic
Missile Range and hit target area.

November 2: Lewis Research Center scientists, G. B. Brown and E. E.
Callighan, reported at 1961 International Conference on High Magnetic
Fields at MIT, that NASA was constructing a magnetic shield of
superconducting alloys for future manned spacecraft.

---: British Skylark reached an altitude of more than 100 miles in third of
four NASA firings to study ultraviolet radiation in the Southern
Hemisphere.

---: Navy Aerobee 100, which had been launched from water on October 24,
recovered and overhauled, made its second successful launch at Point Mugu,
Calif. This was the second successful launch of liquid-fuel rocket from the
open sea, having been towed to sea, fueled horizontally, ballasted to float
vertically, and ignited by remote control.

---: Reported unnamed NASA spokesman stated that two inspections of
Gurtler-Herbert & Co's renovation of the Michoud Ordnance Plant for NASA
revealed no racial discrimination.

November 3: NASA announced start of a nationwide recruiting drive for 2,000
talented scientists and engineers.

November 3: Nine-nation Western European Conference in London announced
decision to launch a satellite in mid-1965, using a British Blue Streak
first stage, a French Veronique second stage, and a West German third
stage, from the Woomera range in Australia.

---: Lincoln Laboratory of MIT reported that examination of telemetry from
Midas IV indicated that Project West Ford package of dipoles had been
ejected at the expected time and the proper speed. No evidence was
available as to whether the dipoles had been released, and no radar reading
had been obtained.

---: Three Polaris A-2 missiles successfully fired within 3-hour period
from submarine Ethan Allen.

November 4: USAF Office of Aerospace Research symposium at MIT, at which
Dr. Otto Schmitt, of Northwestern University, reported that snails, worms,
and one-celled paramecia had the ability to detect magnetic fields
encountered on the surface of the Earth.

November 5: USAF Discoverer XXXIV launched into polar orbit with
recoverable capsule. Launch represented 22d successful in the Discoverer
series.

November 6: NASA informed Marshall Space Flight Center that management of
the Agena B vehicle system would be retained at Marshall Space Flight
Center.

---: Department of Commerce issued a proposal by MIT researchers on a
science information network, entitled "An Experimental Communications
Center for Scientific and Technical Information" (OTS, AD-255626). Proposed
network included newspapers as well as radio and TV and recommended further
research of a specific network to process, identify and retrieve scientific
documents and information for dissemination.

---: N. Varvarov, in Soviet newspaper, Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, denounced
the U.S. space program as using outer space for military purposes and
cluttering the cosmos with an unnecessarily large number of satellites.
Especially critical of the Discoverer series, the article said: "the United
States, pursuing an intensive arms race, is setting up an elaborate system
of cosmic military intelligence communications and navigation. . . .
Actually, this is banditry on an international scale."

November 7: Explosion in hydrogen system canceled full-power run of AEC
Kiwi B-1A reactor at Jackson Flats, Nev. Five men were injured, and the
reactor was not damaged.

---: NASA announced award of a contract to North American Aviation Co. to
study the feasibility of a large erectable manned space station based on
Langley Research Center concept.

November 8: Industry proposal to FCC for organizing a commercial
communications satellite system critically reviewed in hearings of the
Monopoly Subcommittee of the Senate Small Business Committee.

November 9: X-15 flown to announced record 4,070 miles per hour (later
revised to 4,093) by Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force, in top-speed test
flight, making safe landing with outer right windshield cracked.

November 9: Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in speech at Case
Institute of Technology in Cleveland, said: "I for one do not fully
understand why, in the midst of a plethora of necessary and costly
activities, our Nation should be required, urgently, to develop a capacity
to put men on the Moon and challenge our principal opponent in doing so."

---: Senate Small Business Committee concluded critical hearings on the
FCC's handling of the communications satellite project.

November 10: USAF Atlas with capsule containing squirrel monkey destroyed
by range safety officer at Atlantic Missile Range when main sustainer
engine failed 15 seconds after launch.

---: Reported that ONR-supported radio observatory at Cal Tech's Owens
Valley, Calif., had expanded the radius of the observable universe 27 times
(36 sextillion miles, the distance traveled by light at a speed of about
186,000 miles a second in 6 billion years).

---: In reviewing NASA's communications satellite programs, Administrator
Webb pointed out that it had been speculated that the satellite system "may
have progressed enough by 1964 that we shall be able to watch the Tokyo
Olympic Games on television at home."

November 11: NASA announced that top speed of X-15 on Major White's record
flight was revised to 4,093 miles per hour (mach 6.04), reached at 95,800
feet. (White also held altitude record of 217,000 feet (41 miles), flown on
October 11).

November 12: Mercury-Atlas 5, scheduled for launch no earlier than November
14, ran into technical difficulties, postponing launch for several days.

---: Bell Aerosystems Co. announced design of a "practical zero gravity
belt" to propel a man a short distance in space.

November 13: USAF announced that amateur radio communications satellite,
assembled by Project Oscar Association, would be flown piggyback on future
Discoverer vehicle.

November 13-22: International Meteorological Satellite Workshop held in
Washington, D.C., attended by weathermen from 28 nations, sponsored by NASA
and the U.S. Weather Bureau to apply Tiros-acquired data to practical
day-to-day weather prognosis.

November 14: United Arab Republic neither confirmed nor denied reports of
November 8 that it had successfully launched its first rocket. Dr. Eugen
Saenger of the Stuttgart Jet Propulsion Institute in Germany denied any
connection with the United Arab Republic program as charged by Israel.

---: Soviet and bloc delegates from Czechoslovakia and Poland, who had
previously accepted invitations, did not attend the NASA-Weather Bureau
International Meteorological Satellite Workshop held in Washington;
telegram from Andre Zolotukhin received by Dr. Reichelderfer stated that
"our representatives unable to participate," but requested "dispatch of
relevant papers if possible."

November 15: Navy Transit IV-B and Traac (Transit Research Attitude
Control) satellites launched into orbit by Thor-Able-Star at Atlantic
Missile Range.

---: USAF Discoverer XXXV launched into polar orbit with 300-pound
recoverable capsule.

November 15: NASA Bios (biological investigation of space) payload launched
by Argo D-8 booster rocket from Pacific Missile Range, but veered sharply
off course 57 seconds after launch.

---: Anniversary of the first flight of the USAF-USN-NASA X-15 powered with
the XLR-99 engine (15 flights total to date). A $225 million research
program under NASA management, test data indicated that X-15 would exceed
its design limits by 100 percent in altitude and 17 percent in speed. The
X-15 had already pushed near its design altitude limit of 250,000 feet
(reached 217,000 feet October 11, 1961) and passed its maximum design speed
of mach 6 (reached mach 6.04 November 9, 1961).

---: NASA Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight, D. Brainerd
Holmes, said, in an interview, that at least 10 Apollo spacecraft would be
ordered in the manned lunar vehicle prime systems contract to be awarded in
December 1961.

---: Army launched Speedball rocket successfully from the island of
Roi-Namur on Kwajalein atoll in the Southwest Pacific, the first target
rocket to be used in Nike-Zeus development.

November 16: Gold-plated capsule of Discoverer XXXV recovered after 18
orbits in midair over Fern Island by C-130 aircraft, Capt. James F.
McCullough, U.S. Air Force, as pilot. It was the 10th recovery from orbit
in the Discoverer series and the 1st recovery observed from the ground.

---: In speech on "Scientists and Engineers in the Space Program," Albert
F. Siepert, NASA Director of Administration, outlined NASA's basic policies
on personnel. He pointed out that of NASA's some 20,000 employees, only
4,000 had come to NASA through individual appointments, the remainder on
transfer of organizations intact to NASA. NASA's personnel utilization
practices, Siepert said, were as follows: (1) Don't use a scientist or
engineer when another skill will do as well; (2) classify a man's skills by
what he actually does, rather than how he was formally trained; (3) provide
professional entrance into the Federal civil service through an examination
which is work centered rather than academically oriented; (4) take
on-the-job training and education seriously; (5) encourage professional
recognition outside the agency; and (6) recognize that job satisfaction
depends upon the man's continued interest in his work as well as his
take-home pay."

---: William J. O'Sullivan, Jr., of Langley Research Center awarded the
Second NASA Invention and Contribution Award for conception and development
of the inflatable space vehicle. Proposed in January 1956 to the U.S. IGY
Committee, O'Sullivan's invention led to two successful NASA experiments,
Echo I and Explorer IX, and U.S. Patent No. 2,996.212, entitled
"Self-Supporting Space Vehicle" issued to the NASA Administrator on behalf
of the United States on August 15, 1961.

---: Army Nike-Zeus antimissile rocket with active second stage
successfully fired at Point Mugu, Calif.

November 17: NASA announced selection of the Chrysler Corp. for
construction, test, and launch of 20 first-stage Saturn boosters at its
Michoud, La., fabrication plant.

---: First USAF Minuteman successfully fired from silo at Atlantic Missile
Range, making 3,000-mile flight.

November 18: Ranger II placed into low orbit from Atlantic Missile Range by
Atlas, but Agena second stage did not restart, leaving deep-space probe
Ranger in parking orbit. Results reported to delay lunar-landing Ranger
shot in early 1962.

---: NASA announced that record Argo D-8 vehicle was launched with Bios
payload from Point Arguello, but reentry capsule beacon signal had not been
acquired by down-range recovery forces.

---: Evidence of traces of living things in meteorites from space reaching
Earth, reported in Nature magazine by George Claus of NYU and Bartholomew
Nagy of Fordham, based upon discovery of five types of "organized
structures" in the Orgueil meteorite found in southern France in 1864, and
the Ivuna meteorite that fell in central Africa in 1938.

---: Reported from Moscow that U.S.S.R. was planning to orbit a man around
the Moon in 1962, and that the U.S.S.R. had ICBM's in being with
100-megaton warheads.

November 19: NASA announced the completion of the preliminary flight rating
test of the Nation's first liquid-hydrogen rocket engine. The engine, the
RL-10, was designed and developed by Pratt and Whitney, of United Aircraft,
for the Marshall Space Flight Center, and 20 captive firings were competed
within 5 days under simulated space conditions, consistently producing
15,000 pounds of thrust. RL-10, previously known as XLR-115, was initiated
in October 1958 and over 700 firings were conducted in its development.

---: Navy Skylark balloon began coast-to-coast flight carrying University
of Chicago cosmic ray experiment, launched at Brawley, Calif., and landing
near Asheville, N.C., on November 21.

November 20: NASA announced consolidation of nuclear-electric propulsion
program at Lewis Research Center by transfer of the Marshall Space Flight
Center Research Projects Division under Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger to Lewis
within 3 months.

---: Executive order of the President suspended the 8-hour limitation on
construction workers in NASA. It stated that "a clearly leading role in
aeronautical and space achievement has become a vital national objective,"
and that it was essential to conduct the space program "with a major
national commitment of manpower, material, and facilities," and "with all
possible speed and efficiency."

---: In news conference, Dr. Albert R. Hibbs, Jet Propulsion Laboratory's
Chief of Space Sciences, stated that it would be a "major accomplishment"
if the United States were to overtake the Russians in the race to the Moon,
a "less than 50-50 chance." He pointed to the rumors that the Soviet Union
had already attempted to launch a probe to Mars.

---: NASA Launch Operations Directorate announced establishment of Offices
of Financial Management and of Procurement and Contracts to support NASA
activities at Cape Canaveral, previously done by Marshall Space Flight
Center.

November 20-21: Technical conference on the progress of X-15 research held
at Edwards Air Force Base, sponsored jointly by NASA, USAF, and USN; the
third in a series, previously held in 1956 and 1958.

November 21: In a speech on "Our National Program in Space," NASA
Administrator Webb said:

"In carrying out its responsibilities, NASA cooperates with and depends
upon private industry, universities, and many other Government
agencies--not only the Department of Defense, the Atomic Energy Commission,
and the Bureau of Standards, but the Weather Bureau, the Federal
Communications Commission, the Federal Aviation Agency, the National
Science Foundation, and others.

"It has been only 4 years since the first manmade satellite orbited the
Earth. Since then, progress in this new field of space has been tremendous.
I believe that in the years ahead the rate of progress will trace a steeply
ascending curve. I believe also that the many problems we will solve to
achieve manned exploration of space will create a wealth of new materials,
consumer goods, processes, and techniques, thus opening a host of new jobs,
careers, opportunities for investment, and a general national growth.

"We can be first in space if we advance our scientific and technical
knowledge at the most rapid rate possible, and if we go forward with the
sustained effort that it requires. That is the basis of our national space
effort."

---: Titan ICBM launched from Cape Canaveral carrying target nose cone to
be used in Nike-Zeus antimissile-missile tests. This was first Titan ICBM
to be fired from Cape Canaveral by a military crew, AFBSD's 6555th
Aerospace Test Wing.

November 22: USAF launched an unnamed satellite with an Atlas-Agena booster
from Point Arguello, Calif., in first unannounced U.S. satellite launching.

---: An F4H Phantom II piloted by Lt. Col. Robert B. Robinson (USMC),
claimed a new world speed record at Edwards Air Force Base, averaging
1,606.324 miles per hour.

November 23: Tiros II completed first year in orbit, still transmitting
cloud-cover photographs of usable quality, although it has been expected to
have a useful lifetime of only 3 months. Tiros II had completed 5,354
orbits, and had transmitted over 36,000 photographs.

---: National Aeronautic Association notified Mrs. Constance Wolf, of Blue
Bell, Pa., that her Texas-to-Oklahoma balloon flight of 40 hours 13
minutes, 363.99 miles and 13,000-foot altitude established 15 women's world
records.

November 24: First four U.S. Nike-Cajun rockets arrived in Norway for use
in research program off Andoeya Island early next year.

---: DOD announced that the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) had
selected Space Technology Laboratory (STL) to develop satellite system
under Project Vela for detection of clandestine nuclear weapons in outer
space.

---: Official Soviet films on the flight of Vostok II shown on nationwide
TV in NBC program, "Crossing the Threshold-Part I."

November 25: Announced that the largest quartz lens ever ground had been
completed by Bausch & Lomb for use in NASA's optical solar simulation
system at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lens is 36 inches in diameter,
6 inches thick at the center, and weighs 350 pounds.

November 26: Russian scientist, K. Florensky, reported in Komsomol Pravda
that a comet's head, not a meteorite or an interplanetary atomic weapon,
caused the big explosion that jarred Siberia on June 30, 1908. The blast
near the Hunguska River killed 1,500 reindeer, felled trees over an area of
700 square miles, and was recorded on seismographs around the world.

November 27: The United States presented an outline for a program for
cooperation and control in outer space to the U.N. Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space meeting in New York. This was the first
committee meeting held since its membership was expanded from 18 to 24
nations by the General Assembly 2 years ago, the 7 Communist members
refusing to attend until today. U.N. Delegate Charles W. Yost urged
consideration of the U.S. proposals before the life of this Committee
expired at the end of the year. The U.S. proposals were: acknowledge that
international law and U.N. Charter extend to outer space; establish central
registry for all space launchings and satellites; and share all information
from weather satellites.

---: USAF reported that Lincoln Laboratory's Millstone Hill radar at West
Ford, Mass., had made three sightings on November 3, 13, and 15, which
might be the missing package of 350 million copper needles launched into
orbit on October 21.

---: Senator Robert Kerr announced that he would introduce legislation to
authorize private ownership of the U.S. portion of the proposed worldwide
communications satellite system. His bill would create the "Satellite
Communications Corp." which the participating firms would buy.

---: The Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation announced openings for
18 young scientists and engineers for graduate study in rockets, jet
propulsion, space flight and space structures at Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Aerospace Laboratory at Princeton, and the Institute of Flight
Structures at Columbia. Established in 1949, Guggenheim fellowship program
in the aerospace sciences has provided financial aid to 142 students to
date.

---: General Curtis E. LeMay, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, said in an
interview with U.S. News & World Report:

"I think we're at the period of space technology that we were in
aeronautical technology along about 1914. At that time no one could predict
the type of weapon systems that the airplane was going to produce, or the
transportation system that it would eventually produce. As a matter of
fact, it was pretty much a laughing stock--a very expensive toy."

"We, of course, initially did a very poor job in our development program to
advance the science of aeronautics in this country. I hope we do a better
job in space. At the present time we can't predict what will eventually
come out of research in space in the way of weapon systems or commercial
vehicles or any other use that we might put space to. I am sure that men
are going out into space. I'm sure that they'll find useful things to do
out there, and I'm sure that, unless something is done to preclude it,
they'll find things to fight over out there, too."

November 28: President Kennedy awarded the Harmon International Aviator's
Trophy jointly to the three X-15 test pilots. The first joint award in the
history of the trophy went to A. Scott Crossfield of North American, Joseph
A. Walker of NASA, and Maj. Robert M. White, U.S. Air Force.

---: NASA selected North American Aviation to design and build a three-man
Apollo spacecraft leading toward eventual lunar landings and exploration of
the Moon. Each proposal was evaluated by a team of nearly 200 NASA and DOD
specialists.

November 29: Mercury-Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral placed Mercury
spacecraft carrying chimpanzee "Enos" into orbit; retro-rockets were fired
on second rather than planned third orbit because of developing malfunction
of altitude control system. Mercury capsule was recovered 1 hour and 25
minutes after water landing by the destroyer Stormes, and well-performing
"Enos" recovered in excellent condition. Project Mercury officials named
John H. Glenn as prime astronaut for the first manned orbital mission with
M. Scott Carpenter as backup, and Donald Slayton as prime astronaut for
second manned orbital mission with Walter Schirra as backup.

---: President Kennedy, after giving lengthy answer to a question at his
regular press conference, was handed a note by his press secretary, which
he read and then said: "chimpanzee who is flying in space took off at
10:08. He reports that everything is perfect and working well."

---: Thomas F. Dixon, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator, in speech before
the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, reviewed west coast space projects and
said:

"All of these projects are part of a unified national program, which was
accelerated earlier this year. I want to emphasize that this is a national
program. It is not just a NASA program. It is not just a government
program. It is a program to mobilize America's manpower and resources to
meet the goals we have set for ourselves in space."

---: Soviet Cosmonaut Gagarin in New Delhi said that "we will not have to
wait long" for the first manned flight to the Moon. Garagin was making a
9-day visit to India.

---: Air Force Office of Aerospace Research (OAR) announced that its Office
of Scientific Research had awarded 139 basic research grants and contracts
worth almost $8 million so far this fiscal year.

November 30: Army fired its Pershing solid-fuel tactical missile from Cape
Canaveral on a 200-mile flight, testing accuracy, warhead components, and
blast and heat factors at launch in relation to operational crew
protection. This was the seventh straight successful firing of the
Pershing.

---: Army successfully fired a Nike-Zeus antimissile from White Sands
Missile Range in the first flight test of all three rocket motors.

During November: Studies by General Electric's Space Sciences Laboratory,
under NASA contract, disclosed that the heat barrier encountered by
vehicles returning from deep space will be at least 2 1/2 times more severe
than previously estimated.

During November: Textron's Bell Aerospace Corp. completed 81 flight tests
with cold gas one-man propulsion system in USAF C-131 aircraft flying
"Keplerian trajectories."

---: National Bureau of Standards established the Radio Refractive Index
Data Center at its Boulder, Colo., laboratories, to correlate data from 300
reporting points on the variable refraction of radio waves at specific
times, heights, and locations.

---: DOD revised its patent policy on space research and development
contracts in accordance with present NASA patent provisions, such
provisions already having been written into space communications contracts
(i.e., Government retains royalty-free exclusive title to patents developed
under contract).

---: USAF announced expansion of gaseous physics research activities with
the construction of a $636,000 laboratory at L. G. Hanscom Field, Bedford,
Mass., as a part of the Cambridge Research Laboratory.

---: Project Rover, Project Pluto, and the U.S. underground nuclear test
program were halted in Nevada by a jurisdictional strike between the
Operating Engineers and the Plumbers and Pipefitters Unions.

---: Representatives of 30 American aerospace firms in Europe formed an
informal organization known as U.S. Aerospace Industries in Europe.

---: Douglas Aircraft reported successful drop and recovery of a data
capsule and camera that will be used to film inflation of Echo-type spheres
as a part of Project Big Shot (the first phase in the NASA program leading
to a global communication system using rigidized inflatable spheres
equidistant and in orbit around the Earth).

---: Two-hundred-foot radiotelescope of the Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization was commissioned at Parkes, 200 miles west
of Sydney, Australia. Slightly smaller than the British radiotelescope at
Jodrell Bank, the Parkes telescope is considered superior in surface
accuracy and tracking control. It cost $1.8 million of which the
Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corp. donated $500,000.

---: USAF aircraft produced sonic booms on routine training missions over
major airplane intersections, in support of FAA studies of supersonic air
transportation problems.

                               DECEMBER 1961

December 1: Three new world helicopter speed records were claimed by Capt.
Bruce K. Lloyd, U.S. Navy, and Comdr. E. J. Roulstone, U.S. Navy, who flew
an HSS-2 helicopter at 182.8, 179.5, and 175.3 miles per hour for 100, 500,
and 1,000 kilometers, respectively, over a course along Long Island Sound
between Milford and Westbrook, Conn.

---: Nike-Zeus guidance system successfully passed initial flight test at
White Sands Missile Range.

---: Navy-sponsored Hypersonic Propulsion Research Laboratory, for
simulating flights at speeds up to mach 10, was opened at Applied Physics
Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University.

December 1-2: Two Roksonde meteorological sounding rockets were
successfully fired from Cape Canaveral, telemetered measurements of winds
and temperatures at altitudes above 180,000 feet. Produced by Marquardt for
the Army, Roksondes had already completed a series of tests at White Sands
Missile Range and Pacific Missile Range.

December 2: Twelve Canadian Black Brant rockets for upper-atmosphere
research were to be launched from NASA's Wallops Station, Virginia, as the
Canadian Defence Research Board shifted the firing site from Fort Churchill
because a fire largely destroyed the Canadian facilities. Capable of
carrying a 150-pound payload to an altitude of 150 miles, Black Brants were
to be fired from Wallops at the rate of two in December 1961, two in
February 1962, six in April 1962, and two in May 1962.

December 4: Ambassador Adlai Stevenson introduced a resolution before the
U.N.'s Political Committee for a U.N. space program guided by four
considerations: (1) Application of the principles of international law to
outer space and celestial bodies to ensure against sovereignty claims in
space; (2) making the U.N. a clearinghouse for use of outer space,
including information on satellite launchings and cooperation for peaceful
use of outer space; (3) international cooperation on weather satellite
information; and (4) international cooperation on communications
satellites.

Ambassador Stevenson said: "There is a right way and a wrong way to get on
with the business of space exploration. In our judgment, the wrong way is
to allow the march of science to become a runaway race into the unknown.
The right way is to make it an ordered, peaceful and cooperative and
constructive forward march under the aegis of the United Nations."

---: Reported from Cape Canaveral that Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., had
moved into "ready room" quarters. NASA had made no announcement whether a
man would ride in the next Mercury capsule.

---: USAF fired a Blue Scout rocket from Point Arguello, Calif., aimed at a
point some 27,600 miles out in space and over the South Pole, to measure
low-energy protons originating from the Sun.

December 5: A new world aircraft altitude record for sustained horizontal
flight was claimed by Comdr. George W. Ellis, U.S. Navy, who flew an F4H
Phantom II at 66,443.8 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

---: AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) selected the proposal
of the Aetron Division of Aerojet-General Corp. as the basis for
negotiating an architect and engineering contract for an $8 million
downward-firing test stand for the Nerva engine. The Nerva would be used in
nuclear rockets with a reactor derived from the Kiwi B test series.

---: Reported by Drew Pearson that CIA had warned that Russia "is preparing
to launch a man around the moon in 60 days."

December 6: The first Project Mercury manned orbital flight, MA-6, was
scheduled by NASA for early in 1962 after analysis of the data from the
MA-5 chimpanzee orbital flight indicated that the Mercury-Atlas system and
the tracking network were ready for manned orbital flight.

---: Astronauts Alan B. Shepard, Jr., commander, U.S. Navy, and Virgil I.
Grissom, captain, U.S. Air Force, were awarded the first astronaut wings
(almost identical design of a shooting star imposed on the traditional
pilot's badge) in a joint ceremony by their respective services.

---: U.S.S.R. raised its expenditure on science by 12 percent in its 1962
budget. The Minister of Finance, Vasily Garbuzov, announced that the 1962
expenditure on science would be 4,300 million rubles ($4,773 million). Also
announced was a 44-percent increase in the defense budget to 13,400 million
rubles ($14,874 million).

---: Italian Air Force crew fired Jupiter IRBM from Atlantic Missile Range,
the third such launching.

December 7: NASA postponed its projected manned orbital flight from
December 1961 until early in 1962 because of minor problems with the
cooling system and positioning devices in the Mercury capsule, Dr. Hugh
Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, said in a Baltimore interview. "You
like to have a man go with everything just as near perfect as possible.
This business is risky. You can't avoid this, but you can take all the
precautions you know about."

---: Plans for the development of a two-man Mercury capsule were announced
by Robert Gilruth, Director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center. The two-man
capsule, to be built by McDonnell Aircraft Corp., would be similar in shape
to the Mercury capsule but slightly larger and two to three times heavier.
Its booster rocket was announced to be the USAF Titan II, scheduled for
flight test early in 1962. One of the major objectives in the two-man
capsule program would be a test of orbital rendezvous, in which the two-man
capsule would be put into orbit by the Titan II and would attempt to
rendezvous with an Agena stage put into orbit by an Atlas rocket. Total
cost for a dozen two-man capsules plus boosters and other equipment was
estimated at $500,000,000. Program name later announced as Gemini.

December 7: Power run completed the test series on the Kiwi B-1A reactor
system being conducted at the Nevada Test Site by AEC's Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory. Fourth in a series of test reactors in the joint
AEC-NASA nuclear rocket propulsion program, Kiwi B-1A was disassembled for
examination at the conclusion of the test runs.

---: Second Atlas ICBM launched by SAC crew, from Vandenberg Air Force
Base.

---: Preproposal conference on the contract for design, research,
development, fabrication, and testing of the reactor-in-flight-test (Rift)
vehicle was held at Marshall Space Flight Center. This vehicle would
test-fly the Nerva nuclear engine now under development. Twenty-nine firms
were invited to attend this preliminary conference at which they were
furnished general information on the project. Interested firms would then
have 30 days to file information on their capabilities and experience. Then
a smaller number of firms would be invited to submit detailed bids. Purpose
of the two-step evaluation was to enable firms not in a competitive
position to avoid the expense of entering detailed proposals.

---: United States and Soviet delegates to the United Nations informally
discussed the question of the political makeup of the U.N. Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and on a possible joint resolution in that
Committee.

December 8: NASA selected Mason-Rust as the contractor to provide support
services at NASA's Michoud plant near New Orleans, providing housekeeping
services through June 30, 1962 for the three contractors who would produce
the Saturn S-I and S-IB boosters and the Rift nuclear upper-stage vehicle.

---: USAF fired an Aerobee sounding rocket from Point Arguello, Calif., out
over the Pacific 1,300 miles high and 900 miles toward Hawaii, at which
point the rocket released three sets of flares to be photographed from
California, Hawaii, and Alaska. Purpose was to provide a more precise
knowledge of the location of Hawaii with respect to the North American
mainland by means of photogrammetric triangulation of the flare photos.

December 9: Solid-propellent rocket motor generating nearly 500,000 pounds
of thrust was fired in a static test of 80-second duration by United
Technology Corp. at Sunnyvale, Calif., under USAF contract.

---: Nike-Zeus antimissile missile was fired from Point Mugu in its first
low-altitude flight, going up to 40,000 feet and then out over the Pacific
Missile Range at that altitude.

December 10: The Carnegie Institution issued annual report containing
several findings from its space scientists: Philip Abelson contended that
it was a waste of time and money to sterilize vehicles going to the Moon or
planets because any life there would be so unlike terrestrial life that it
could not be contaminated by Earth organisms; Horace Babcock offered a
theory on alternating spiral magnetic fields of the Sun that might explain
sunspots, flares, and the 22-year magnetic cycle; other scientists noted
growing evidence of major differences in chemical composition of distant
stars, indicating a need to revise methods of computing distances to those
stars.

December 11: The U.N.'s Political Committee unanimously approved a
resolution calling on the Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to meet
on March 31, 1962, to begin discussions of world cooperation in space. The
resolution essentially incorporated the four-point U.S. program on the
peaceful uses of outer space. The U.S.S.R. supported the resolution
although it had previously rendered the Committee inoperative by boycotting
its meetings.

---: The national space program portends a major technological advance for
mankind, NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., told the
New Orleans Chamber of Commerce. Comparing its potential to that of the
invention of the steam engine, Dr. Seamans noted:

"Two aspects of such major advances are characteristic. First, the
practical results are largely unforeseeable, primarily because they develop
on broad fronts and, frequently, in unsuspected directions. Second, the
concentration of effort required does not diminish effort expended on other
frontiers of knowledge, but rather spurs such activities. For example,
despite fears that space technology would monopolize the scientific effort
of this country, such fields of activity as oceanography, geophysics, and
the physics of high-energy particles have greatly increased since the
national space effort has become a serious one."

---: Contract awarded by Army Engineers to Brown & Root, Inc., for design
of major portion of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston, Tex.

---: Survey of leading space experts on U.S. space goals from 1970-75 by
the North American Newspaper Alliance produced a consensus that the United
States would establish a Moon base from which to thoroughly explore the
Moon and to launch interplanetary manned probes. Those interviewed included
important figures in space industry, USAF, NASA, and space research.

December 12: Discoverer XXXVI was launched by the USAF into orbit from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with a piggyback 10-pound Oscar
(orbiting satellite carrying amateur radio) satellite aboard in addition to
the Discoverer payload. Oscar was the first satellite built by private
citizens to be put in orbit, transmitted Morse signal to world amateur
radio operators.

---: The National Center for Atmospheric Research was inaugurated at
Boulder, Colo. To include the facilities of the High Altitude Observatory
of the University of Colorado, to be governed by the University Corporation
for Atmospheric Research, a corporation of 14 universities from coast to
coast, and to be financed by the National Science Foundation, the center
would provide a national attack on weather research, including the use of
tools such as rockets, balloons, and computers too expensive for any one
university to finance.

---: USAF Atlas launched from Atlantic Missile Range carried piggyback
package of 28 dummy fuel cells in a study of how metals evaporate on
reentry.

---: Army announced that track radar for Nike-Zeus antimissile missile had
successfully tracked an Atlas ICBM on November 22 from Ascension Island as
well as Echo I 1,500 miles from Earth.

December 13: NASA Administrator James E. Webb said in a speech in Cleveland
that the United States would follow its first manned orbital flight in
January 1962 with similar manned orbital flights every 60 days. These would
gather data on effects of weightlessness, needed to determine the pacing of
the two-man flight program later on. Mr. Webb also forecast the launching
of 200 sounding rockets, 20 scientific satellites, and 2 deep-space probes
in 1962.

---: USAF completed Titan I research and development test flight program of
40 launches at the Atlantic Missile Range; of the 40 launches 4 had been
failures.

December 14: NASA fired a four-stage solid-fuel Trailblazer rocket from
Wallops Station, Virginia, in the first of a series of reentry tests. Two
stages boosted the rocket to 167 miles; then the other two drove the nose
cone down through the atmosphere at 14,000 miles per hour.

---: Nike-Zeus firing in extended range from Point Mugu attained all test
objectives.

December 15: NASA's Explorer XII satellite returned voluminous data
revising previous information on the Van Allen radiation belts and showing
them to be no substantial problem to manned space flight. Launched on
August 15, 1961, and transmitting until December 6, 1961, Explorer XII
returned information amounting to 5,636 telemetry tapes (2,400 feet each).
Of principal interest was its finding that the Van Allen belts consist of a
preponderance of protons over electrons in a ratio of 1,000 to 1. Since the
protons are of less than 1 million electron volts energy, they do not
themselves offer a serious radiation problem and serve to slow the velocity
of other radiation.

---: S-IB stage of the Advanced Saturn launch vehicle would be built by the
Boeing Co., NASA announced. The $300 million contract, to run through 1966,
called for development, construction, and test of 24 flight stages, plus
several for ground tests. Assembly would take place at the NASA Michoud
Operations Plant, New Orleans, La. The S-1B would be the first stage of the
vehicle that would launch the three-man Apollo spacecraft for direct
circumlunar flight or, with rendezvous, for lunar landing.

---: In a ceremony at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the USAF graduated
its first class of five pilot-engineers from its school for space pilots.
Graduates were awarded advanced technical degrees.

December 18: Dr. Robert Jastrow, Chief of Theoretical Division and Director
of the Institute for Space Studies, Goddard Space Flight Center, making the
25th annual Wright Brothers' Lecture before the Institute of Aerospace
Sciences, reviewed progress in the space sciences, said the most exciting
and fruitful area thus far had been investigation of "solar control over
the atmosphere of the Earth, causes of weather activity in the lower
atmosphere, and the structure of the upper atmosphere."

---: NASA announced that the first station in a network of data-gathering
stations for use with second-generation satellites had been completed near
Fairbanks, Alaska. Site for the second of the $5 million installations,
each with a high-gain antenna 85 feet in diameter, was announced to be
Rosman, N.C., 40 miles south-west of Asheville.

December 18: USAF awarded an additional $52 million contract to North
American Aviation for development of a prototype B-70 bomber, bringing to
$267 million the amount allocated for the B-70.

---: Capsule from Discoverer XXXVI was ejected from orbit after 6 days and
a record of 64 orbits, landed in the Pacific near Hawaii, was kept afloat
by 3 USAF pararescue men until arrival of Navy destroyer.

---: USAF Minuteman ICBM successfully fired from a silo and traveled 3,600
miles down the Atlantic Missile Range, the second consecutive successful
silo launching.

---: Successful test of a new way to steer large-size rockets was announced
by United Technology Corp., an experimental method called liquid thrust
vector control (TVC), in which a gas or liquid is sprayed into the exhaust
path of a rocket engine, deflecting the exhaust and thereby turning the
vehicle. The test was made with a 450,000-pound-thrust solid-fuel engine.

---: DOD summary statement on the X-15 program stated that to that date
there had been 45 flights of the X-15, with planned performance achieved on
42 and the prime research objectives achieved on 40. The 98-percent launch
success record of the X-15 was attributed to (1) use of alternate modes for
subsystems and (2) the presence of a pilot to detect malfunctions in
subsystems. This compared to a 43-percent launch record for an unmanned
missile with no alternate modes in subsystems.

December 19: NASA announced that Ira H. Abbott, Director of Advanced
Research and Technology, would retire in January after 32 years service
with NACA and NASA. Beginning with the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in
1929, Abbott became internationally known for his aerodynamic research, in
more recent years as supervisor of X-15, supersonic transport, nuclear
rocket, and advanced reentry development programs.

December 19-20: A technical conference on problems of runway slush in
winter jet operations was held in Washington under joint sponsorship of the
Federal Aviation Agency and NASA. The conference, open to aviation
representatives, reviewed the extensive research flight tests conducted at
FAA's National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center and other
experimental and theoretical work done at NASA's Langley Research Center.
Interest in all experiments centered on the adverse effects of runway slush
on takeoff and landing characteristics of jet aircraft. Research findings
were that on both takeoff and landing in heavy slush jetliners tend to act
like "a sailboat without a keel," that at takeoff speeds heavy slush causes
jetliners to lose the effect of nose wheel steering and most of their
braking power. Recommendations included the devising of a quick and
accurate means of measuring runway slush and suspension of jet operations
when slush reached a depth of 1 inch.

December 20: X-15 No. 3 made first flight, a successful test of new
automated control system, NASA's Neil A. Armstrong as pilot in his first
flight of XLR-99-engined X-15. At half throttle, X-15 reached speed of
2,502 miles per hour and an altitude of 81,000 feet.

December 20: NASA announced that Douglas Aircraft had been selected for
negotiation of a contract to modify the Saturn S-IV stage by installing a
single 200,000-pound-thrust, Rocketdyne J-2 liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen
engine instead of six 15,000-pound-thrust P. & W. hydrogen/oxygen engines.
Known as S-IVB, this modified stage will be used in advanced Saturn
configurations for manned circumlunar Apollo missions.

---: Two new radiotelescopes, one at Cambridge University and the other at
Jodrell Bank, would be constructed with grants from Britain's Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research totaling $3,360,000. The Cambridge
telescope would consist of three 52-foot paraboloidal aerials, two fixed
and one rail-mounted, designed to examine a limited area of the sky with
greater precision than present equipment. The Jodrell addition would be a
125-foot telescope to be used in conjunction with the present 250-foot
telescope.

---: USAF launched Atlas ICBM from Cape Canaveral with a rhesus monkey in a
side-mounted pod on a flight 5,000 miles long and 600 miles in altitude.
The flight was intended to produce information on reactions to launch and
reentry conditions much more severe than in human flights. The monkey
survived the flight but recovery attempts failed.

---: In San Bernardino news conference, Gen. Bernard Schriever, U.S. Air
Force, said: "I have never felt we were behind Russia in missile
development."

December 21: Army Nike-Zeus antimissile missile successfully intercepted a
Nike-Hercules missile flying at over 3,000 miles per hour over White Sands
Missile Range, while another Nike-Zeus made highest flight to date from
Point Mugu and another Nike-Zeus was launched from Kwajalein Island in the
South Pacific.

December 22: Unnamed USAF satellite launched from Point Arguello, Calif.
The announcement said it was powered by an Atlas-Agena B combination and
that the satellite was "carrying a number of classified test components."

---: NASA selected Air Products & Chemicals to supply additional liquid
hydrogen for west coast development projects, a $35 million contract to be
negotiated for a 5-year period.

December 26: Development time schedule for Dyna-Soar was reduced when DOD
authorized the USAF to move directly from B-52 drop tests to unmanned and
then manned orbital flights. This eliminated the previous interim stage of
suborbital flights to be powered by the Titan II development contract held
by the Martin Co. and negotiating a new contract for a larger booster.

---: Ten scientific organizations recommended that the American Association
for the Advancement of Science create a new section to deal with scientific
information and communication. The problem was seen to be one of an
overabundance of information not accessible for the scientist, particularly
in interdisciplinary science. Only three other new sections have been
created in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in this
century.

December 27: The "race in space" between the United States and U.S.S.R. was
the top news story of 1961, with the Berlin crisis running second,
according to a poll of Associated Press member newspapers and radio
stations.

---: Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission,
speaking before the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
said that although science had become a determining factor in national and
international events, its effectiveness was hampered because educated men
did not understand science. Yet, he said, science was truly a part of the
humanities; "Who in our times can make an adequate criticism of life
without knowledge of the ideals, the methods, the dynamics of science?"

---: DOD and USAF revealed that the B-70 bomber may be redesignated RSB-70
(reconnaissance-strike-bomber) and its mission changed from tracking known,
fixed targets to seeking out and destroying unknown, hidden, or uncertain
targets.

---: Dr. Carl Sagan, of University of California (Berkeley), disputed the
"space seed" life theory in American Association for the Advancement of
Science paper. "Panspermic" theory did not seem plausible in the light of
the fierce environment of space and the vastness of the universe, he said.

December 28: Titan II, an advanced ICBM and the booster designated for
NASA's two-man orbital flights, was successfully captive-fired for the
first time at the Martin Co.'s Denver facilities. The test not only tested
the flight vehicle but the checkout and launch equipment intended for
operational use.

December 29: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, speaking in
Denver before the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
said: "The sheer magnitude of the manned lunar exploration program,
amounting as it will to $3 billion or more [in fiscal year 1963],
represents a significant application of the Nation's resources. These
billions of dollars will be spent in the laboratories, workshops, and
factories of the Nation and thus constitute a significant factor in the
Nation's employment and economy generally. The personnel in the space
program are not all scientists and engineers but come from every walk of
life."

"The ultimate and practical purpose of these large expenditures is twofold:
(1) Insurance of the Nation against scientific and technological
obsolescence in a time of explosive advances in science and technology; and
(2) insurance against the hazard of military surprise in space."

---: Dr. Joseph F. Shea was appointed Deputy Director for Systems
Engineering, Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA headquarters, reporting to
D. Brainerd Holmes, NASA's Director of Manned Space Flight. Dr. Shea came
to NASA from Space Technology Laboratories.

---: Dr. Arthur Rudolph was appointed Assistant Director of Systems
Engineering in NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight. Operating out of the
Marshall Space Flight Center, Dr. Rudolph would serve as liaison between
vehicle development at Marshall and the manned space flight program at the
Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.

December 30: Navy HSS-2 Sea King helicopter flown at 199 miles per hour for
3-kilometer distance claimed world record at Windsor Locks, Conn., by
Commander P. L. Sullivan, U.S. Navy, and Capt. D. A. Spurlock, U.S. Marine
Corps.

December 31: NASA established a Management Council to ensure the orderly
and timely progress in the manned space flight programs. The Council,
composed of senior officials from NASA headquarters, Marshall Space Flight
Center, and the Manned Spacecraft Center, and chaired by D. Brainerd
Holmes, Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight, would meet at least
once a month to identify and resolve problems as early as possible and to
coordinate the interface problems.

---: Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., NASA Associate Administrator, said in a
radio interview that a second Venus probe had been added to NASA's 1962
program as insurance for the first probe scheduled in August. Both probes
would be the Mariner R, the reduced-weight version resorted to because of
time slippage in the Centaur booster program. Dr. Seamans also said the
United States plans three attempts to land instrumented packages on the
Moon in 1962.

During December: General Electric announced operation of the largest solar
thermionic power system at GE's solar test facility near Phoenix, Ariz.
Early tests generated an output of 12.18 watts and unit has potential
efficiency of 15 to 20 percent of the total solar energy input.

---: West German Post Office indicated that it would construct near Munich
a ground station capable of handling up to 600 phone calls simultaneously
for operations in late 1963 or early 1964 with Telstar and Relay type
satellites.

---: Japan's launch facilities for its rocket research program would be
moved from Akita on the northwest coast of Honshu to Kagoshima on the
southern tip of Kiushu, according to an announcement by Hideo Itokawa at
the Thul International Symposium on Rocket and Astronautics in Tokyo.

---: USIA reported that U.S. space achievements were a leading item in
their overseas information program and covered all media. USIA concluded:
"The policy of 'openness' observed in both U.S. manned space flights during
the year dramatized the basic difference between the American open society
and the Soviet closed society, and drew widespread approval from
commentators throughout the free world. The availability of full
information about the events through all news media, together with the
presence of foreign correspondents--who gave firsthand, on-the-spot
coverage--enabled oversea audiences to achieve a high degree of
self-identification with one of the greatest adventures of our times."

For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov

               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1958

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American
Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915-1960
(Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1961), pp.
94-105.

1958

January 1: Strategic Air Command assigned responsibility for U.S.
operational ICBM capability; while the 672nd Strategic Missile Squadron,
first to be equipped with USAF Douglas Thor IRBM, was activated.

January 4: SPUTNIK I reentered the atmosphere and disintegrated.

---: American Rocket Society and the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel
issued a summary of their proposals for a National Space Establishment.
Preferably independent of the Department of Defense, but in any event not
under one of the military services, this establishment would be responsible
for the "broad cultural, scientific, and commercial objectives" of outer
space development.

January 9: In his state-of-the-Union message, President Eisenhower
reported: "In recognition of the need for single control in some of our
most advanced development projects, the Secretary of Defense has already
decided to concentrate into one organization all antimissile and satellite
technology undertaken within the Department of Defense."

January 11: James H. Doolittle, Chairman of the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics, announced that a special committee on space technology was
formed on November 21, 1957.

January 12: President Eisenhower, in answering the December 10, 1957,
letter of Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin regarding a summit conference
and disarmament proposed that the Soviet Union and the United States "agree
that outer space should be used only for peaceful purposes." This proposal
was compared with the 1946 offer of the United States to cease production
of nuclear weapons and dedicate atomic energy to peaceful uses, an offer
which was not accepted by the Soviet Union.

January 13: Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy testified before the House
Armed Services Committee: "Such long-range programs as the antimissile
missile and the military satellite programs are in the research and
exploratory development stages. They are important and must be pursued, but
they must not distract us from the speedy development of our other missile
systems. To handle them, I am establishing within the Department of Defense
an Advanced Research Projects Agency, which will be responsible to the
Secretary of Defense for the unified direction and management of the
antimissile missile program and for outer space projects."

---: In his budget message to Congress, President Eisenhower stated: "Funds
are provided for an expanded research and development effort on military
satellites and other outer space vehicles and on antimissile-missile
systems, to be carried out directly under the Secretary of Defense." The
budget for fiscal year 1959 showed that $340 million in new obligational
authority was being asked for the Advanced Research Projects Agency. No new
authorizations were sought for the International Geophysical Year, but
estimated obligations for earth satellite exploration of the upper
atmosphere under this program were $8,139,834 for fiscal year 1958 and $21
million for fiscal year 1959.

January 14: NACA issued a staff study entitled "A National Research Program
for Space Technology."

---: Senator Lyndon B. Johnson in a CBS radio address urged the United
States "to demonstrate its initiative before the United Nations by inviting
all member nations to join in this adventure into outer space together."

January 15: 4751st Air Defense Missile Wing to develop and conduct training
program for Bomarc units, and the 864th Strategic Missile Squadron to be
equipped with Jupiter IRBM, were both activated.

January 16: The NACA adopted resolution recommending that national space
program can be most effectively implemented by the cooperative effort of
the Department of Defense, the NACA, the National Academy of Sciences, and
the National Science Foundation, together with universities, research
institutions, and industrial companies of the Nation, with military
development and operation of space vehicles a responsibility of the
Department of Defense, and research and scientific space operations the
responsibility of the NACA.

---: Special Subcommittee on Outer Space Propulsion created by the Joint
Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, Senator Clinton P. Anderson as
chairman.

---: Secretary of State Dulles proposed the formation of an international
commission to insure the use of outer space exclusively for peaceful
purposes.

January 17: First launch of Navy Polaris test vehicle at Cape Canaveral.

January 27: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Director of the NACA, in a speech to the
Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, stressed the importance of a
well-planned and logical space program embracing both civilian and military
uses. He stated that the national space program should be under the joint
control of the Department of Defense, the NACA, the National Academy of
Sciences, and the National Science Foundation; in addition to research
flights, the NACA would "coordinate and conduct research in space
technology in its own laboratories and by contract in support of both
military and nonmilitary projects."

January 28: Thor IRBM successfully fired from Cape Canaveral, flew
prescribed course, and impacted in preselected area.

January 29: The DOD announced plans to establish the National Pacific
Missile Range (PMR) as part of the Naval Air Missile Test Center at Point
Mugu, Calif., the range to be designed for long-range guided missile and
ICBM testing.

January 31: EXPLORER I, first U.S. earth satellite, launched by modified
ABMA-JPL Jupiter-C, with U.S.-IGY scientific experiment of James A. Van
Allen, which discovered the radiation belt around the earth.

February 3: Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin in a letter to President
Eisenhower stated that the Soviet Union "is ready to examine also the
question of the intercontinental rockets if the Western powers are willing
to reach agreement to ban atomic and hydrogen weapons, to end tests
thereof, and to liquidate foreign military bases in other nations'
territories. In that case, an agreement on the use of outer space for
peaceful purposes only would unquestionably meet no difficulties."

---: Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California
Institute of Technology reported that initial data from EXPLORER I showed
that cosmic radiation on its orbit did not exceed 12 times the amount on
earth.

February 4: President Eisenhower directed James R. Killian, Jr., to head a
committee to study and make recommendations on the governmental
organization of the Nation's space and missile program.

February 5: Trial firing of IGY Vanguard (TV-3Bu) satellite failed at Cape
Canaveral, Fla., 57 seconds after launch.

February 6: The Senate passed S. Res. 256, creating a Special Committee on
Space and Astronautics to frame legislation for a national program of space
exploration and development.

February 7: The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was established by
the DOD, and Roy W. Johnson, a vice president of General Electric Co., was
appointed by Secretary of Defense McElroy as its Director. ARPA was placed
in charge of the Nation's outer space program.

February 10: First successful radar returns from Venus (27,530,000 miles
away) detected by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory Millstone Hill. It took 1 year
to process confirmation of this event.

---: Airman 1/C Donald G. Farrell spent the week of February 10-16 in a
space-cabin simulator at SAM, Randolph AFB, Tex.

February 14: "Basic Objectives of a Continuing Program of Scientific
Research in Outer Space," a report by the Technical Panel on the Earth
Satellite Program of the National Academy of Sciences IGY Committee, was
published. It proposed a program of space research extending beyond the
International Geophysical Year.

February 17: In a letter to Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin, President
Eisenhower repeated his plea for the dedication of outer space to peaceful
uses. Denying that this proposal was intended "to gain strategic advantages
for the United States," he stressed the urgency of dealing with outer space
before its use for military purposes had, like nuclear weapons, advanced to
the point where complete international control was almost impossible.

February 18: USAF revealed that an airflow speed of 32,400 mph had been
attained for one-tenth of a second in a wind tunnel test at the Arnold
Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tenn., on an undisclosed date.

February 21: U.S.S.R. fired a single-stage rocket to 294-mile altitude with
3,340 pounds of experiments for measuring ion composition of the
atmosphere, pressure, temperature, micrometeorites, etc., according to the
Soviet IGY Committee.

February 26: James H. Doolittle, Chairman of the NACA, testified before
Senate Committee on Appropriations for "four years ago, about 10 percent of
our activities were associated with space; two years ago, about 25 percent;
and in 1959 we will be devoting almost half of our time on missiles,
antimissiles, and satellites and other space objectives."

February 28: Department of Defense assigned responsibility for land-based
ICBM/IRBM development to the USAF, and directed it to develop Minuteman
solid-propellant ICBM capable of being launched from underground sites.

During February: NACA Langley's PARD conceived and placed in operation the
"opposed gun" technique for studying projectile impacts.

March 5: EXPLORER II launched by Army Jupiter-C failed to orbit due to
failure of last stage to ignite, a joint JPL-ABMA project.

---: H. Res. 496, passed by the House of Representatives, established a
Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration to investigate the
problems of outer space and to submit recommendations for the control and
development of astronautical resources.

March 15: U.S.S.R. Foreign Ministry statement proposed that ban on use of
outer space for military purposes, as suggested by President Eisenhower, be
coupled with the liquidation of foreign military bases in Europe, the
Middle East, and North Africa.

---: Contract awarded for inertial guidance system for the Titan ICBM to
American Bosch Arma by the USAF.

March 17: Second U.S.-IGY satellite, VANGUARD I, launched into orbit with
life expectancy of perhaps a 1,000 years, a highly successful scientific
satellite which proved that the earth is slightly pear shaped. Operating on
solar-powered batteries, it was still transmitting after 3 years in orbit.

---: An experiment testing the behavior of crews under conditions of long
confinement was concluded at Wright Air Development Center, as five Air
Force officers ended a 5-day simulated space flight.

March 18: Dr. Herbert F. York was appointed as Chief Scientist for DOD's
Advanced Research Projects Agency.

March 19: Space program for the United States proposed by the U.S.-IGY
Satellite Panel.

March 21: Two-stage monorail rocket-propelled sled exceeded 2,700 mph at
Holloman AFB.

March 23: Navy demonstrated first dummy test of Polaris missile from
"popup" launcher off San Clemente Island, from submerged launching
platform.

March 26: Third U.S.-IGY Satellite, EXPLORER III, a joint ABMA-JPL project,
successfully launched by Army Juno II, yielded valuable data on radiation
belt, micrometeorite impacts, and temperature before returning to earth on
June 27.

---: President Eisenhower in a brief statement released the President's
Science Advisory Committee's report, "Introduction to Outer Space: an
Explanatory Statement." This report set forth the basic factors making the
advancement of space technology a national necessity and explained to the
nontechnical reader the principles and potentialities of space travel. The
many uses of space technology for scientific and military purposes were
summarized, and a timetable for carrying out these objectives was included.

---: Military telephone and telegraph system using the troposphere to
bounce radio signals over long distances, called "White Alice," was
activated.

March 27: President Eisenhower gave his approval to the plans for outer
space exploration announced by Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy. The
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was to undertake several space
projects including the launching of certain earth satellites and five space
probes as a part of this country's contribution to the IGY program. The Air
Force Ballistic Missile Division was authorized by ARPA to carry out three
lunar probes with a Thor-Vanguard system, and lunar probes utilizing the
Jupiter-C rocket were assigned to the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.

April 2: In a message to Congress, President Eisenhower proposed the
establishment of a National Aeronautics and Space Agency into which the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics would be absorbed. This agency
was to have responsibility for civilian space science and aeronautical
research. It would conduct research in these fields in its own facilities
or by contract and would also perform military research required by the
military departments. Interim projects pertaining to the civilian program
which were under the direction of the Advanced Research Projects Agency
would be transferred to the civilian space agency. A National Aeronautics
and Space Board, appointed by the President and composed of eminent persons
outside the Government and representatives of interested Government
agencies (with at least one member from the Department of Defense), was to
assist the President and the Director of the National Aeronautics and Space
Agency.

---: Original budget request of $340 million in new obligational authority
for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for fiscal year 1959 was raised
to $520 million for advanced research projects in a letter from the
Director of the Bureau of the Budget, Maurice H. Stans, which was
transmitted to Congress by President Eisenhower.

April 3: In a message to Congress on the organization of the Nation's
Defense Establishment, President Eisenhower recommended creation of the
position of Director of Defense Research and Engineering, which would have
a higher rank and replace the present Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Research and Engineering.

April 5: USAF Atlas ICBM was successfully flown from Cape Canaveral, Fla.,
to the impact area some 600 miles away.

April 8: USAF KC-135 Stratotanker ended a nonstop, nonrefueled record
distance jet flight of 10,228 miles, from Tokyo to Lajes Field, Azores.

April 13: SPUTNIK II reentered earth's atmosphere.

April 14: Proposal for a National Aeronautics and Space Agency drafted by
the Bureau of the Budget was submitted to the Congress by the President,
and was contained by the following congressional bills:

S. 3609, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and Senator Styles Bridges

H.R. 11881, Representative John W. McCormack

H.R. 11882, Representative Leslie C. Arends

H.R. 11887, Representative Harry G. Haskell, Jr.

H.R. 11888, Representative Kenneth Keating

H.R. 11946, Representative William H. Natcher

H.R. 11961, Representative Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr.

H.R. 11964, Representative James G. Fulton

H.R. 11996, Representative Gordon L. McDonough

April 15: Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration of the
House of Representatives opened hearings on outer space leading toward
formulation of a national space program.

April 16: Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger flown to world altitude record of
76,828 feet for ground-launched planes, piloted by Cdr. George C. Watkins,
at Edwards AFB.

April 17: Simulated 7-day trip to the moon made by six Navy men in chamber
at Philadelphia Naval Base.

---: British Skylark reached an altitude of 90 miles at Woomera, Australia.

April 23: USAF Thor-Able missile was launched from Cape Canaveral in a
reentry test; flew short of its goal and the nose cone was not recovered.
The nose cone carried a mouse as a biomedical experiment.

April 24: Navy rocket sled attained speed of 2,827.5 mph at China Lake,
Calif.

April 25: First successful launching and erection in space of a 12-foot
inflatable sphere for air density measurements, using a Nike-Cajun booster
system, by NACA Langley's PARD at Wallops Island, Va.

April 27: Pravda reported on Soviet satellite findings that Laika's
heartbeat had taken three times as long as expected to return to normal.
Weightlessness affecting the nerve centers was suggested as the cause. The
Soviet report disclosed that the density and temperature of the atmosphere
at a given altitude were not uniform, and that cosmic ray intensity was 40
percent greater at 400 miles than at 135 miles.

April 28: Vanguard (TV-5) failed to orbit due to malfunction of minor
components in the firing circuit of third stage.

May 1: Scientific findings from the two Explorer satellites disclosed an
unexpected band of high-intensity radiation extending from 600 miles above
earth to possibly an 8,000-mile altitude. The radiation was described by
Dr. James A. Van Allen as "1,000 times as intense as could be attributed to
cosmic rays."

---: Responsibility for the Project Vanguard portion of the U.S.-IGY
scientific satellite program was transferred from Navy to Advanced Research
Project Agency monitorship by the Department of Defense.

May 6-7: Lt. Comdr. M. Ross (USNR) and A Mikesell (Naval Observatory) used
open gondola STRATO-LAB balloon to reach 40,000-feet altitude from Crosby,
Minn.; Mikesell becoming the first astronomer to observe stratosphere, and
it was first flight in which crew remained in stratosphere in open basket
after sunset.

May 7: Flying a Lockheed F-104A Starfighter at Edwards AFB, Calif., Maj.
Howard C. Johnson (USAF) set a 91,249-foot world altitude record for
ground-launched planes.

May 11: Lt. Comdr. Jack Neiman completed 44-hour simulated high altitude
flight at between 80,000 and 100,000 feet in pressure chamber at NAS
Norfolk.

May 14-17: Symposium on "Possible Uses of Earth Satellites for Life
Sciences Experiments" held in Washington, D.C., under sponsorship of
National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, and American
Institute of Biological Science.

May 15: SPUTNIK III placed into orbit by the U.S.S.R. with a total payload
weight of about 7,000 pounds, and called "flying laboratory." (Satellite
almost 3,000 pounds.)

May 16: In level flight over a 10-mile course at Edwards AFB, Calif., Capt.
Walter W. Irwin (USAF), flying a F-104A Starfighter, set a world speed
record of 1,404.19 mph.

May 18: First U.S. full-size tactical nose cone was recovered from the
Atlantic Ocean 4 hours after launching from Cape Canaveral on a Jupiter
missile.

May 20: NACA-USAF Memorandum of Understanding signed, "Principles for
Participation of NACA in Development and Testing of the Air Force System
464L Hypersonic Boost Glide Vehicle (Dyna-Soar I)."

May 24: Gravity load of 83 g's for a fraction of a second withstood by Capt
E. L. Breeding in deceleration of a rocket sled at Holloman AFB.

May 27: First USAF Republic F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber delivered to
the USAF.

---: First launching of production Vanguard satellite vehicle (SLV-1)
generally successful with exception of second-stage burnout which prevented
achievement of satisfactory orbit.

During May: Four-stage rocket launched a 9-pound inflatable sphere to
50-mile altitude at NACA Wallops Island.

---: Dr. Abe Silverstein, Associate Director of Lewis Flight Propulsion
Laboratory, was transferred to NACA headquarters to help plan the
organization and programs of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, subsequently becoming Director of the Office of Space
Flight Programs.

June 3: USAF and NACA jointly announce details on the inertial guidance
system to be used on the X-15 research aircraft, a flight instrument system
to allow the pilot to prevent the aircraft from reentering dense atmosphere
too steeply or too shallow.

June 4: USAF Thor flight tested for the first time from a tactical-type
launcher at Cape Canaveral.

June 8: Test firing of a full-scale upper stage rocket under simulated
altitude conditions was made in an engine test cell at the USAF's Arnold
Engineering Development Center at Tullahoma, Tenn.

June 16: Phase I development contract for Dyna-Soar boost-glide orbital
spacecraft awarded by USAF to two teams of contractors headed by Martin Co.
(Bell, American Machine & Foundry, Bendix, Goodyear, and
Minneapolis-Honeywell) and the Boeing Co. (Aerojet, General Electric,
Ramo-Wooldridge, North American, and Chance Vought).

---: Pacific Missile Range, Point Mugu, Calif., officially established
under Navy management to provide range support to the Department of Defense
and other governmental agencies engaged in missile, satellite, and space
vehicle research, development, evaluation and training.

June 26: Production Vanguard satellite (SLV-2) failed to orbit due to
failure of second stage, but demonstrated structural integrity of tankage
which withstood pressure exceeding design values.

June 27: First successful launching by NACA Langley's Aircraft Research
Division of a Mach 18 five-stage rocket vehicle at Wallops Island, Va.

---: USAF strategic missile squadron successfully completed first military
launch of a Snark intercontinental missile at Cape Canaveral.

June 28: EXPLORER III reentered the earth's atmosphere.

June 30: The NACA reported that 50 percent of its research effort was being
devoted to problems associated with missiles and space vehicles.

During June: Space Science Board of 16 members established by National
Academy of Sciences, with Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner as Chairman, to advise and
assist in formulation of U.S. post-IGY space research program and to foster
cooperation with space scientists in other nations.

---: NACA-USAF meetings concerning applicability of all solid-propellant
launch vehicle (later named Scout) to meet USAF requirements.

---: Recovery of first data capsule at AMR after successful separation from
a Thor IRBM at reentry.

July 1: Japanese Kappa-6tw two-stage rocket flown to 30-mile altitude over
Michikawa Rocket Center, Japan.

July 8: First launching of a 10-inch-diameter spherical rocket motor with
spin stabilization, at NACA Wallops Island.

July 9: Second AF Thor-Able reentry test vehicle was launched, traveling
6,000 miles (no nose cone recovery).

July 17: Nose cone of Jupiter missile successfully recovered after
intermediate range flight.

July 21: Standing Committee on Science and Astronautics established by
House of Representatives.

July 23: Thor-Able reentry test vehicle made another successful 6,000-mile
flight; the nose cone and mouse passenger were not recovered.

July 23-31: Feasibility of creating or destroying cloud formations by
release of carbon black was established in tests conducted off Florida
coast by Navy Weather Service's Comdr. N. Brango and Dr. Florence Van
Straten.

July 24: Senate established Standing Committee on Aeronautical and Space
Sciences.

July 26: EXPLORER IV, fourth U.S.-IGY satellite, successfully launched by
Army Jupiter-C.

---: Capt. Ivan C. Kincheloe (USAF) killed when F-104 crashed at Edwards
AFB. He had been scheduled to test-fly the X-15.

July 26-27: Comdrs. M. Ross and L. Lewis (USN) reached maximum altitude of
82,000 feet in STRATO-LAB HIGH III flight from Crosby, Minn., which set new
unofficial record for strato-spheric flight of 34.7 hours.

July 29: President Eisenhower signed H.R. 12575, making it the National
Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-568). In his statement, he
said: "The present National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) with
its large and competent staff and well-equipped laboratories will provide
the nucleus for NASA. The NACA has an established record of research
performance and of cooperation with the armed services. The coordination of
space exploration responsibilities with NACA's traditional aeronautical
research functions is a natural evolution . . . [one which] should have an
even greater impact on our future."

July 30: President Eisenhower requested $125 million to initiate the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

---: Successful proof tests subjecting humans to over 20 times the force of
gravity were conducted, with NACA's Maxime Faget conceiving concept of the
contour couch on centrifuge at Navy AMAL, Johnsville, Pa. This couch became
integral part of the Project Mercury concept.

July 31: Army Redstone No. 50 successfully fired off Johnson Island in the
South Pacific as part of Project Hardtack.

---: First comprehensive Sputnik data was released by U.S.S.R. to foreign
scientists.

August 1: AFBMD announced development of a complete inertial guidance
system to replace radio inertial system now in use.

August 2: First full-powered flight of USAF Atlas ICBM using both the
sustainer and booster engines.

August 6: Rocketdyne Division of North American announced an Air Force
contract for a 1-million-pound thrust engine.

August 7: First launching of USAF Bomarc interceptor missile from Cape
Canaveral on a signal sent by the SAGE Control Center at Kingston, N.Y.

August 8: President nominated Dr. T. Keith Glennan to be Administrator of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden
as Deputy Administrator.

August 11: Army Redstone No. 51 successfully fired off Johnson Island in
the South Pacific as part of Project Hardtack.

---: After program review and discussions, NACA drafted specifications of
the Scout launch vehicle based upon preliminary designs for a hypervelocity
research vehicle and orbiting system.

August 14: Nominations of Dr. T. K. Glennan and Dr. H. L. Dryden were
approved by the Senate Special Committee on Space and Astronautics.

August 15: Saturn Project initiated by ARPA order to Army Ordnance Missile
Command, and it was assigned to Redstone Arsenal.

---: Dr. T. Keith Glennan confirmed by the Senate as Administrator of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

---: Federal Aviation Agency created with passage by Congress of the
Federal Aviation Act.

August 17: USAF Thor-Able-1 launch vehicle with first U.S.-IGY lunar
payload exploded 77 seconds after launch because of a failure of
first-stage engine.

August 19: Dr. T. Keith Glennan sworn in as Administrator, and Dr. Hugh L.
Dryden as Deputy Administrator, of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration; 40 days later, as of October 1, 1958, NASA was declared to
be ready to function.

---: Navy Tartar surface-to-air missile made successful first flight and
interception at NOTS China Lake, Calif.

August 21: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics held its final
meeting, and invited Dr. T. Keith Glennan, newly appointed Administrator of
NASA, to receive best wishes for the future.

August 24: EXPLORER V successfully launched by ABMA-JPL Jupiter-C and all
stages fired, but orbit not achieved because of collision between parts of
booster and instrument compartment.

August 25: Ninth IAF meeting began at The Hague, which witnessed the first
colloquium on space law.

August 26: Gen. Thomas D. White, USAF, wrote James Doolittle, Chairman,
NACA: "There was regret at the passing of an agency that for 43 years has
set the world's standard in aeronautical research. . . . There has always
been for us in the Air Force, the knowledge that NACA was ready to help in
any aerodynamic trouble."

---: Two mice lived 36 days sealed in a chamber and dependent upon oxygen
production of algae in an experiment at the University of Texas.

August 27: The first Argus experiment (ARPA) was conducted (based upon
October 1957 proposal of N. C. Christofilos of the University of
California, Livermore), in which a small A-bomb was detonated beyond the
atmosphere over the South Atlantic. Launched from the rocketship Norton
Sound, the initial flash was followed by an auroral luminescence extending
upward and downward along the magnetic lines where the burst occurred.

---: Soviet Union reportedly sent two dogs to an altitude of 281 miles and
safely returned them to earth, single-stage rocket boosting a total payload
of 3,726 pounds.

---: President Eisenhower signed Public Law 85-766 which included $80
million for NASA, including $50 million for research and development, $25
million for construction and expenses, and $5 million for salaries and
expenses.

August 29: Second full-powered flight of USAF Atlas ICBM traveled 3,000
miles with radio-inertial guidance.

August 30: The second Argus small A-bomb detonation beyond the atmosphere
was conducted in the South Atlantic.

During August: In 3-week period, 19 five-stage Argo E5 sounding rockets
were launched in USAF-NACA program to measure radiation caused by Project
Argus, rockets reaching 500-mile altitude and were launched from Wallops
Island, AMR, and Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico.

---: Experimental "weightlessness" flights in C-131B aircraft begun at
Wright Air Development Center.

September 2: U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge announced that United States
would propose a plan for international cooperation in the exploration of
outer space to the United Nations.

September 4: President Eisenhower appointed Detlev W. Bronk, president of
the National Academy of Sciences; William A. M. Burden; James H. Doolittle;
and Alan T. Waterman, Director of the NSF, to the National Aeronautics and
Space Council. Additionally, the Space Council including the Administrator
of NASA, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and the Chairman
of the AEC as statutory members.

September 6: The third of the Argus small A-bomb detonations beyond the
atmosphere was conducted over the South Atlantic. Instruments of EXPLORER
IV satellite recorded and reported to ground stations resultant electron
densities, subsequently reported by James Van Allen.

September 7: Black Knight missile of the United Kingdom was launched from
the Australian range at Woomera to an altitude of over 300 miles.

September 8: Unmanned ONR balloon carried telescope and camera to an
altitude of 104,600 feet.

---: Wearing a Goodrich lightweight full-pressure suit, Lt. R. H. Tabor
(USN) completed a 72-hour simulated flight in pressure chamber at NAS
Norfolk, in which he was subjected to altitude conditions as high as
139,000 feet.

September 17: Joint NASA-ARPA Manned Satellite Panel established to make
final recommendation for manned space flight program.

September 24: First senior staff meeting of the newly created National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) held, with Dr. T. Keith Glennan
as Administrator, and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden as Deputy Administrator.

---: KC-135 jet Stratotanker lifted 77,350-pound payload to an altitude of
1.25 miles.

---: First use of Sidewinder aircraft rocket with heatseeker nose, by
Chinese Nationalist F-86's over the Formosa Straits. Chinese Nationalists
claimed 10 Communist planes.

---: General Electric delivered first prototype of MIT-developed Polaris
guidance system.

September 25: Dr. T. Keith Glennan signed proclamation declaring that "as
of the close of business September 30, 1958, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration has been organized and is prepared to discharge the
duties and exercise the powers conferred on it." Entered upon the Federal
Register, this proclamation instituted the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration as of October 1, 1958.

---: First launching of an Exos sounding rocket in USAF-NASA joint effort
from Wallops Island, Va.

September 26: Vanguard (SLV-3) reached 265 miles' altitude and was
destroyed 9,200 miles downrange over Central Africa on reentry into the
atmosphere.

---: Boeing B-52D set a world distance in a closed-circuit record of
6,233.981 miles, with Lt. Col. V. L. Sandacz at the controls.

September 28: Nike-Asp test flight from Navy LSD Point Defiance near Puka
Island reached 800,000 feet, the highest altitude ever reached by
ship-launched rocket, in preliminary test of Nike-Asp for use in IGY solar
eclipse studies.

September 29: United States announced as policy that all measures to
prevent contamination of the moon would be taken in all lunar probes.

During September: Saturn design studies authorized to proceed at Redstone
Arsenal for development of 1.5-million-pound-thrust cluster first stage.

---: Dr. W. Albert Noyes was appointed chairman of U.S. committee to draft
proposals for international cooperation in the space sciences for the
consideration of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).

October 1: First official day of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). Existing NACA facilities, personnel, policies, and
advisory committees were transferred to NASA, and the NACA laboratories
were renamed Research Centers.

---: By Executive order of the President, DOD responsibilities for the
remaining U.S.-IGY satellite and space probe projects were transferred to
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; included were Project
Vanguard, and the four lunar probes and three satellite IGY projects
remaining, which had previously been assigned by ARPA to AFBMD and ABMA.
Also transferred were a number of engine development research programs.

October 2: Executive Board of the International Council of Scientific
Unions (ICSU) proposed a plan to establish a Committee on Space Research,
which became known as COSPAR.

October 4: Vandenberg AFB, first operational ICBM base in free world, was
dedicated.

---: Jet transatlantic passenger service inaugurated by British Overseas
Airways.

October 7: NASA formally organized Project Mercury to: (1) place manned
space capsule in orbital flight around the earth; (2) investigate man's
reactions to and capabilities in this environment; and (3) recover capsule
and pilot safely. A NASA Space Task Group organized at Langley Research
Center drew up specifications for the Mercury capsule, based on studies by
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics during the preceding 12
months, and on discussions with the Air Force which had been conducting
related studies.

October 8: U.S.S.R. supplied telemetry code of SPUTNIK III to other IGY
members, covering only radiation measurements.

--: In MAN HIGH III balloon launched from Holloman AFB, Lt. Clifton M.
McClure attained a near-record altitude of 99,900 feet.

October 11: PIONEER I, U.S.-IGY space probe under direction of NASA and
with the AFBMD as executive agent, launched from AMR, Cape Canaveral, Fla.,
by a Thor-Able-I booster. It raveled 70,700 miles before returning to
earth, determined radial extent of great radiation belt, first observations
of earth's and interplanetary magnetic field, and first measurements of
micrometeorite density in interplanetary space.

October 12: Naval Research Laboratory rocket firings in Danger Island
region of the South Pacific from U.S.S. Point Defiance, reached 139, 148,
152, and 150 miles altitude to chart solar spectrum in the utraviolet and
X-ray portion.

October 14: NASA requested transfer of Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the
space activities of Army Redstone Arsenal to NASA.

October 15: First of a series of three X-15 experimental rocket-powered
manned research aircraft was rolled out at the Los Angeles plant of North
American Aviation, Inc., in the joint USAF-USN-NASA program.

October 21: Three weeks after NASA officially began operating, prospective
contractors were invited to a briefing at NASA headquarters on development
of 11/2-million-pound-thrust engine.

---: First launching of two USAF Bomarc missiles within less than 10
seconds of each other at Cape Canaveral; launches signaled from SAGE at
Kingston, N.Y., and both missiles scored successful intercepts against
different target aircraft.

October 23: NASAwith the Army as executive agentattempted to launch a
12-foot-diameter inflatable satellite of micro-thin plastic covered with
aluminum foil known as BEACON. Launched from AMR by a Juno Ia modified
Redstone, the payload prematurely separated prior to booster burnout.

October 26: Pan American World Airways began regular daily jet service
between New York and Paris using Boeing 707's.

October 30: William M. Holaday appointed by the President to be Chairman of
the NASA-DOD Civilian-Military Liaison Committee (CMLC).

During October: Air Force awarded contract Pratt & Whitney for Centaur
vehicle with hydrogen-burning chamber based on research of Lewis Research
Center between 1953 and 1957. Centaur project later transferred to NASA.

November 6: Army completed Redstone flight testing with a perfect 250-mile
shot.

November 7: Bidders conference held by NASA on manned-satellite capsule for
Project Mercury.

November 8: Second U.S.-IGY space probe under direction of NASA with Air
Force as executive agent, PIONEER II, was launched from AMR. Unseparated
third and fourth stages reached an altitude of about 1,000 miles and flew
some 7,500 miles before burning out.

November 14: First launch of a 3,750,000-cubic-foot plastic balloon at
Holloman AFB; payload was parachute test vehicle for development of
high-Mach parachute systems.

November 15: First meeting of COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) proposed
bylaws and rules for the approval of the ICSU, at London.

November 19: United States and 19 other nations jointly introduced
resolution in U.N. General Assembly calling for creation of ad hoc
committee to bring about full international cooperation in the peaceful
uses of outer space.

November 21: NASA formed new Special Committee on Life Sciences to provide
advice on human factors, medical, and allied problems on NASA's manned
space vehicle program.

November 26: Project Mercury, U.S. manned-satellite program, was officially
named by NASA.

November 28: USAF Atlas made its first successful operational test flight
in a 6325 statute-mile flight, landed close to its target.

During November: NASA requested DX priority for 1.5-million-pound-thrust
F-1 engine project and Project Mercury.

---: Second International Symposium on Physics and Medicine of the
Atmosphere and Space was held at San Antonio, Texas.

December 3: President transferred the functions and facilities of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
Calif., from the Army to NASA. JPL built, designed, and tested upper
stages, payloads, and tracking systems for the first IGY Explorer
satellites.

---: NASA and the Army reached an agreement whereby ABMA and its
subordinate organizations at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., would be
responsive to NASA requirements.

---: DOD announced details of Project Discoverer, series of polar orbiting
satellites.

December 5: Modified Navy Terrier rocket with camera launched to an
altitude of 86 miles from Wallops Island, providing a 1,000-mile composite
photograph of a frontal cloud formation.

December 6: The third U.S.-IGY space probethe second under direction of
NASA and with the Army as executive agentwas launched at 12:45 a.m., from
AMR by Juno II rocket. The primary mission of PIONEER III, to place the
scientific payload in the vicinity of the moon, was not accomplished
although an altitude of 63,580 miles was achieved and it discovered that
radiation belt was comprised of at least two bands.

December 9: The first meeting of the new NASA Inventions and Contributions
Board was held to evaluate scientific or technical contributions and to
recommend monetary awards.

December 10: First domestic jet airline passenger service, by National
Airlines between New York and Miami.

December 12-16: SMALL WORLD balloon with four passengers failed in
transatlantic attempt, lifting from Canary Islands and landing at sea
northeast of Barbados.

December 13: U.N. General Assembly adopted resolution bringing into being
an 18-member Ad Hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

---: Squirrel monkey Gordo made 1,500-mile flight in nose cone of Army
Jupiter with no known adverse effect, but float mechanism failed and nose
cone was not recovered.

December 16: Two Thor shots, one from Cape Canaveral and one from
Vandenberg AFB, were successful. Intermediate range ballistic missile
portion of PMR was inaugurated with successful firing of USAF Thor from
Vandenberg AFB.

---: MATS C-133 Cargomaster lifted 117,900 pounds of cargo to 10,000 feet,
a weight-lifting record, at Dover AFB, Del.

December 17: NASA awarded contract to Rocketdyne of North American to build
single-chamber 1.5-million-pound-thrust rocket engine.

---: Project Mercury announced as name of U.S. man-in-space program by
NASA.

December 18: Plastic balloon flight No. 1,000 launched by the Balloon
Branch of the Missile Development Center at Holloman AFB, a series
beginning in July 1950.

---: Entire USAF Atlas boosted into orbit communications relay satellite,
PROJECT SCORE or the "talking atlas." A total of 8,750 pounds were placed
in orbit, of which 150 pounds was payload.

December 19: President Eisenhower's Christmas message beamed from PROJECT
SCORE satellite in orbit, the first voice beamed in from space.

---: BOLD ORION (WS-199) launched from B-58 Hustler traveling at about
1,100 mph over Cape Canaveral, Fla.

December 20: White Sands Proving Ground announced missile range firing
record: 2,000 "hot" firings in 1 year.

---: First Titan test launch exploded on the pad at Cape Canaveral.

---: New voice and teletype messages were received and rebroadcast on
command by PROJECT SCORE satellite, and a series of experiments were
continued in subsequent days.

December 23: First Atlas-C fired successfully at AMR.

December 24: Dr. Herbert F. York, Chief Scientist of ARPA, was named as
Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the Department of Defense
by President Eisenhower.

December 27: Federal Council for Science and Technology to be headed by Dr.
James R. Killian, Jr., was approved by President Eisenhower.

---: PIONEER III data indicated that the earth is surrounded by two bands
of radiation.

December 31: PROJECT SCORE ceased transmissions, concluding 12 days of
operations and 97 successful contacts.

---: IGY scheduled to close, but in October 1958 the International Council
of Scientific Unions, meeting in Washington, approved extension of IGY
through December 1959 under name of International Geophysical
Cooperation1959 (IGC-59) and also approved establishment of Committee on
Space Research (COSPAR) to continue international cooperation in the
scientific exploration of space. National Academy of Sciences is U.S.
adhering body to COSPAR.

During December: National booster program developed by NASA and DOD to
provide basis for long-range planning.

---: First vacuum tank for use in ion and plasma electric propulsion
research received at NASA Lewis Research Center, three more of which were
later put to research, and two large models to be completed by 1962.

During 1958: NASA Langley research scientists, Paul Purser and Maxime
Faget, conceived Little Joe research rocket; the Scout vehicle system was
conceived from PARD's multistage hypersonic solid-propellant rocket
program.

---: Twistor and other thin-film semiconductors were developed suitable as
memory elements.

---: NASA Lewis Research Center completed 14 years of extensive research on
all U.S. turbojet engines.

---: NASA Lewis Center successfully demonstrated first use of fluorine gas
to provide reliable ignition for practical hydrogen-oxygen engine (20K
thrust); same year first throttling of hydrogen-fluorine thrust chamber
demonstrated over wide range.

---: First year that the total number of transatlantic air passengers
exceeded the number of sea passengers.

---: Experimental tests for launching satellites via rocket fired from
fighter aircraft conducted by Navy Project Pilot.

For further information contact Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1959


SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American
Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915-1960
(Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1961), pp.
106-17.

1959

January 2: U.S.S.R. launched LUNIK I into a solar orbit, with a total
weight of a reported 3,245 pounds, the first man-made object placed in
orbit around the sun. It was called MECHTA ("dream") by the Russians

---: Defense officials indicated fiscal year 1960 budget would begin major
integration of long-range missiles into weapons arsenal and replacement of
manned aircraft on a large scale.

January 4: Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Pacific Missile Range declared
officially operational for firings.

January 5: LUNIK I transmissions ceased 373,125 miles from earth.

January 8: NASA requested eight Redstone-type launch vehicles from the Army
to be used in Project Mercury development flights.

January 9: NASA-DOD agreement signed for a "National Program To Meet
Satellite and Space Vehicle Tracking and Surveillance Requirements" for
fiscal year 1959 and fiscal year 1960.

January 12: NASA announced selection of McDonnell Aircraft Corp., as source
for design, development,and construction of Mercury capsule.

January 15: First successful castings of molybdenum made at U.S. Bureau of
Mines Laboratory at Albany, Oreg.

January 19: The AEC demonstrated a 5-watt radioisotope thermoelectric
generator (designated SNAP 3) to President Eisenhower as an example of the
potential use of radioisotopes and static thermoelectric conversion for
providing long-lived electric power for space.

January 23: Dr. T. Keith Glennan, NASA Administrator, announced appointment
of chairmen of 13 new research advisory committees to provide technical
counsel from industry, universities, and government organizations.

January 28: Nike-Cajun successfully launched 12-foot-diameter test
inflatable sphere to a height of 75 miles over NASA Wallops Island, the
sphere inflating satisfactorily.

---: One hundred ten candidates were selected by NASA in the first
screening for Project Mercury astronauts from Air Force, Navy, and Marine
Corps test-pilot schools.

January 29: First jet passenger service across the United States begun by
American Airlines with Boeing 707's.

During January: Rocketdyne demonstrated 1-million-pound-thrust
liquid-propellant rocket combustion chamber at full power.

February 2: First annual report on Aeronautical and Space Activities,
covering all U.S. activities during the year 1958, was forwarded to the
Congress by the President.

February 6: First test launch of USAF Titan ICBM (A-3) from Cape Canaveral.

February 11: Army announced that a weather balloon, launched at the Signal
Research and Development Laboratory, Fort Monmouth, N.J., had established a
world altitude record of 146,000 feet.

February 17: VANGUARD II (SLV-4), the fifth U.S.-IGY satellite,
successfully launched payload containing photocells designed to produce
cloud cover images for 2 weeks; processing or wobbling prevented
significant interpretation of data.

---: USAF Committee presided over by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Associate Director
of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Cambridge, Mass.,
recommended that the USAF continue to take a positive approach to UFO's,
investigate reported sightings by all scientific means, and keep the public
fully informed of existing policy. Of the unknown objects sighted, it
reported, no scientific evidence supports the conclusion that the objects
were spacecraft.

February 19: Monorail two-stage rocket-research sled attained 3,090 mph, or
roughly Mach 4.1, at Holloman AFB.

February 20: NASA awarded $105 million in contracts for 1959 projects (15
satellites).

February 23: Navy revealed development of steerable molybdenum nozzle used
in the solid-propellant Polaris missile.

February 28: DISCOVERER I, ARPA satellite weighing 1,450 pounds,
successfully launched into polar orbit by USAF Thor-Agena A booster from
Pacific Missile Range; stabilization difficulties hampered tracking
acquisition.

March 1: "Poor man's rocket," Scout, was jointly announced by NASA and AF.
The concept of Scout originated at Langley Research Center in 1958, based
upon extensive experience with staged solid-propellant rockets.

March 3: PIONEER IV, fourth U.S.-IGY space probe, a joint ABMA-JPL project
under direction of NASA, was launched by a Juno II rocket from AMR and
achieved earth-moon trajectory, passing within 37,000 miles of the moon
before going into permanent solar orbit. Radio contact was maintained to a
record distance of 406, 620 miles. It was the first U.S. sun-orbiter.

---: NASA's Langley Research Center launched first in a series of six-stage
solid fuel rocket research vehicles, the world's first, from Wallops
Island, Va., to a speed of Mach 26 in a reentry physics program.

March 4: British National Committee on Space Research, H. S. W. Massey as
chairman, held its first meeting.

March 6: Radio signals received from PIONEER IV from a distance of 406, 620
miles from earth, a new communications record.

March 7: First French Veronique sounding rocket launched from Columb Bechar
to an altitude of 104 km (64.6 mi.).

March 10: First captive flight of X-15 (No. 1) under modified B-52 with A.
Scott Crossfield in the cockpit; additional captive flights were made on
April 1, April 10, and May 21.

March 11: NASA granted $350,000 to National Academy of Sciences-National
Research Council for program of research appointments in theoretical and
experimental physics to stimulate basic research appointments in
theoretical and experimental physics to stimulate basic research in the
space sciences.

March 12: Second British Black Knight rocket reached 350-mile altitude at
Woomera, Australia.

March 12-14: Second meeting of COSPAR held at The Hague, the Netherlands.

March 13: The President announced the establishment of the Federal Council
for Science and Technology to promote closer cooperation among Federal
agencies in planning their respective research and development programs.

---: From an altitude of 123 miles boosted by an NRL Aerobee-Hi rocket,
fired from White Sands, N. Mex., the first ultraviolet photos of the sun
were taken and recorded.

March 14: National Academy of Sciences delegate to COSPAR transmitted to
COSPAR President the offer of NASA to carry experiments by scientists of
other nations in U.S. space vehicles.

March 15: Army Redstone ejected miniature TV camera which transmitted
pictures of its target impact area.

March 17: First flight launching of a spin-stabilized 20-inch-diameter
spherical rocket, by NASA Langley's PARD at Wallops Station, Va.

---: ARPA announced that DISCOVERER I was no longer in orbit.

March 18: Army Signal Corps and RCA announced development of micromodules
for electronic devices which ultimately could permit 500,000 components to
be packed into a cubic inch of space.

March 19: Deputy Secretary of Defense Quarles announced that three atomic
blasts were fired in space (Project Argus) in 1958, using modified X-17
rockets.

March 20: MIT announced successful radar signal returns from Venus had been
performed on February 10 and 12, 1958, return signals being one
ten-millionth as strong as transmission signals.

March 24: NASA announced that Wallops Station had made over 3,300 rocket
firings since 1945.

April 2: Seven astronauts were selected for Project Mercury after a series
of the most rigorous physical and mental tests ever given to U.S. test
pilots. Chosen from a field of 110 candidates, the finalists were all
qualified test pilots: Capts. Leroy G. Cooper, Jr., Virgil I. Grissom, and
Donald K. Slayton, (USAF); Lt. Malcolm S. Carpenter, Lt. Comdr. Alan B.
Shepard, Jr., and Lt. Comdr. Watler M. Schirra, Jr. (USN); and Lt. Col.
John H. Glenn (USMC).

---: Lt. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander AFBMD, was named Commander of
Air Research and Development Command.

---: USAF Bold Orion ballistic missile test launched from B-47 jet bomber.

April 7: AEC Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory announced development of
plasma thermocouple for direct conversion of energy from a nuclear reactor
into electricity, offering potential auxiliary power source for space
applications.

---: First operational flight of USAF Snark to target on AMR.

April 8: Reentry body of USAF Thor-Able recovered at the far end of the
Atlantic Missile Range: first recovery after an ICBM range flight by AFMTC
task force.

April 13: DISCOVERER II satellite successfully placed into polar orbit by
Thor-Agena A booster, but capsule ejection malfunctioned causing it to
impact in vicinity of Spitsbergen on April 14 instead of vicinity of
Hawaii. It was first vehicle known to have been placed in a polar orbit and
was the first attempt to recover an object from orbit.

---: VANGUARD (SLV-5) failed to achieve payload orbit because of loss of
second-stage pitch attitude control.

April 16: First Thor IRBM launched by British crew at Vandenberg AFB.

April 17: United States formally requested that the United Nations
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space convene in New York on May 6.

April 20: NASA announced acceptance of proposals by the Canadian Defense
Research Telecommunications Establishment for continuing joint rocket and
satellite ionospheric experiments of a nonmilitary nature.

April 23: Fourth recovery of a data capsule at AMR, USAF Thor 1,500-mile
accuracy test flight.

---: President announced the resignation of Richard E. Horner, Assistant
Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development, to become
Associate Administrator of NASA effective July 1st.

---: First test flight of USAF GAM-77 Hound Dog at AMR.

April 24: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden and Loftus E. Becker appointed to assist
Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in the forthcoming meetings at the United
Nations of the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

April 27: Meeting of DOD working group on Project Mercury search and
recovery operations was held at Patrick Air Force Base, with major emphasis
placed on the first two ballistic Atlas shots, and command relationships.

---: The 1958 Annual Report of the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics, the 44th and final report of NACA established in 1915, was
submitted to Congress by the President. It contained historical sections by
Jerome C. Hunsaker and James H. Doolittle.

---: DX priority (highest national priority) assigned to Project Mercury.

April 28: NASA announced the signing of a $24 million contract with Douglas
Aircraft Co., Inc., for a three-stage Thor-Vanguard launching rocket called
Delta.

April 29-30: Symposium sponsored by the Space Science Board of the National
Academy of Sciences, NASA, and the American Physical Society, held in
Washington to review space research findings and the objectives of future
research programs in the space sciences.

During April: The Tiros meteorological satellite program was transferred
from the Department of Defense to the responsibility of NASA for the
national meteorological satellite program. At the same time, a Joint
Meteorological Satellite Advisory Committee was established.

May 1: NASA's Administrator announced the naming of Goddard Space Flight
Center under construction near Greenbelt, Md., in commemoration of Robert
H. Goddard, American pioneer in rocket research. Dr. Harry J. Goett was
appointed Director in September.

---: Smithsonian Optical Tracking Station at Woomera, Australia,
successfully photographed VANGUARD I earth satellite at the apogee of its
orbit, nearly 2,500 miles from earth. Compared to taking picture of golf
ball 600 miles away, this feat was repeated on May 3 and 4.

May 3: Dr. Otto Struve of the University of California was appointed
Director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, to be located at
Green Bank, W. Va.

May 4: National Bureau of Standards released details on the effect on the
ionosphere of the high-altitude nuclear shots called Teak and Orange on
August 1 and 12, 1958, over Johnston Island.

May 6: NASA created a committee to study problems of long-range lunar
exploration to be headed by Dr. Robert Jastrow.

---: ABMA Jupiter IRBM made successful 1,500-mile flight at Cape Canaveral
and was declared operational by the USAF.

---: NASA awarded contract to Convair for development of Vega launch
vehicle for deep space probes and satellites.

May 6-June 25: Ad Hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space of U.N.
met in session at U.N. headquarters in New York.

May 12: NASA announced training program for seven Project Mercury
astronauts to provide them with technical knowledge and skills required to
pilot the Nation's manned orbital capsule.

---: University of Minnesota scientist under ONR contract launched unmanned
balloon to 100,000 feet, where first positive measurement of intense solar
protons associated with a solar flare was made.

---: USAF Thor launched GE Mark 2 nose cone 1,500 miles down AMF, recovered
data capsule contained photograph of the earth from 300-mile altitude.

May 13: British plan for launching an earth satellite was revealed by Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan before the House of Commons.

May 14: Use of moon as relay station for intercontinental transmission made
from Jodrell Bank, England, to the USAF Cambridge Research Center at
Bedford, Mass.

May 15: Lt. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of ARDC, unveiled first
reentry vehicle ever to be recovered a full intercontinental range flight.

May 18: NASA announced formation of Committee on Long-Range Studies headed
by John A. Johnson to fulfill charge of National Aeronautics and Space Act
of 1958 (sec. 102), calling for "establishment of long-range studies of the
potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the
problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities
for peaceful and scientific purposes."

May 26: ABMA static fired a single H-1 Saturn engine at Redstone Arsenal,
Ala.

May 27: First flight test of USAF Bomarc B long-range interceptor missile.

May 28: Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky of Harvard University named special
assistant to the President for science and technology, replacing Dr. James
R. Killian, Jr.

---: Army Jupiter IRBM launched a nose cone carrying two living
passengersAble, an American-born rhesus monkey, and Baker, a South
American squirrel monkey, to a 300-mile altitude, and both were recovered
alive. The medical portions of the experiment were carried out by the Army
Medical Service and Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Army Ordnance Missile
Command, with the cooperation of the USN School of Aviation Medicine and
the USAF School of Aviation Medicine.

June 1: Rhesus monkey Able died from effects of anesthesia given for
removal of electrode instrumentation, autopsy revealing no effects from
flight on May 28, at Army Research Labortory, Fort Knox, Ky.

June 3: Moon relay transmission of President Eisenhower's voice by
recording was made from Millstone Hill Radar Observatory, Westford, Mass.,
to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.

---: DISCOVERER III failed to achieve orbit.

June 5: Construction at Cape Canaveral for the Saturn begun.

June 6: Army announced that sea urchin eggs fertilized before Jupiter nose
cone flight continued to grow normally.

June 8: X-15 (No. 1) research airplane made its first glide flight with A.
Scott Crossfield as pilot, after being carried by the B-52 mother ship to
an altitude of 38,000 feet.

---: Mail carried by missile as 3,000 letters were delivered by a Regulus I
from the submarine Barbero to NAS Mayport, Fla.

June 9: First Polaris-carrier nuclear submarine launched at Groton, Conn.,
the George Washington.

June 12: Scientific subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of
Outer Space proposed creation of a center to promote international
cooperation in outer space research.

June 17: First USAF test firing of an experimental escape capsule.

June 18: Six U.S. Navy enlisted men began an 8-day experiment in a
simulated space cabin at the Air Crew Equipment Laboratory of the Naval Air
Material Center at the Philadelphia Naval Base.

June 22: VANGUARD (SLV-6) satellite designed to measure the radiation
balance of the earth, its atmosphere, and the solar energy flux, failed to
go into orbit.

June 23: USAF Arnold Engineering Development Center was directed by ARDC to
prepare operating and design requirements for a "Large Space Environments
Test Facility" for testing and developing military space weapons.

June 25: DISCOVERER IV failed to achieve orbit.

June 29: NASA welcomed announcement of United Kingdom approval of proposals
for cooperative scientific research in space with the United States pending
formal arrangements.

During June: NASA issued Research Memo (4-17-59L) entitled "Airplane
Measurements of Atmospheric Turbulence at Altitudes between 20,000 and
55,000 feet for Four Geographic Areas," analyzing data acquired by Lockheed
U-2 aircraft over western United States, England and Western Europe,
Turkey, and Japan.

---: Deployment of first USAF operational Thor IRBM squadron to the United
Kingdom.

---: Operating velocity of Mach 6 was achieved in AEDC wind tunnel with a
40- by 40-inch test section at Tullahoma, Tenn.

July 1: The first experimental reactor (Kiwi-A) in the nuclear space rocket
program operated successfully at full temperature and duration at Jackass
Flats, Nev.

July 6: Comdr. M. Lee Lewis (USN) killed in accident shortly before
scheduled launching of high-altitude balloon at St. Paul, Minn. He is
credited with originating the Rockoon concept.

July 7: Four-stage Argo D4 rocket with an ARDC Javelin payload fired from
Wallops Island to an altitude of 750 miles, first in a series of USAF-NASA
launchings to measure natural radiation surrounding the earth.

July 8: As developmental planning for Project Mercury evolved, NASA
notified the Army that to reduce the variety of launching vehicles to
Jupiter missile would not be used for Project Mercury tests.

July 9: NASA Lewis Research Center operated a research model of an ion
rocket in a newly completed electric-rocket test facility designed for
basic investigations into the problems associated with a reliable ion
rocket with a minimum life of 1 year.

July 10: A 10-page report of Soviet, British, and United States scientists
recommended that satellites be used to detect nuclear explosions in space.

July 11: ONR STRATOSCOPE I balloon with camera to photograph the sun was
launched from St. Paul, Minn., to an altitude of 81,250 feet.

July 13: Largest plastic balloon to date (6 million cubic feet) launched by
Office of Naval Research with 173 pounds of instruments, at Fort Churchill,
Canada.

July 14: U.N. Assembly Document No. A/4141, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee
on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, was released.

July 16: NASA, with Army as executive agent of a joint ABMA-JPL project,
attempted Explorer satellite launch with Juno II booster, but it was
destroyed 51/2 seconds after launch by range safety officer.

---: Second largest reflector telescope in the world, the 120-inch
telescope at the Lick Observatory, was dedicated.

July 20: NASA selected Western Electric Co. to build worldwide network of
tracking and ground instrument stations to be used in Project Mercury.

July 21: A full-scale USAF Atlas ICBM nose cone recovered for the first
time after flight down the AMR.

July 24: USAF Thor data capsule recovered near Antigua which contained
movie film showing nose cone separation.

July 29: Two-stage Nike-Asp fired from Naval Missile Facility, Point
Arguello, the first of 12 designed to record radiation 150 miles up and
also the first ballistic missile fired from this new facility.

During July: Project Mercury astronauts completed disorientation flights on
three-axis space-flight simulator, the MASTIF (Multiple Axis Space Test
Inertia Facility), at NASA Lewis Research Center.

---: Portion of Chincoteague (Va.) Naval Air Station transferred to NASA
for use in connection with Wallops Station rocket range.

August-December: Conference of the International Telecommunications Union
which was held at Geneva, Switzerland, allocated radio frequency bands for
space and earth-space use.

During summer: Under joint sponsorship of National Science Foundation and
the Office of Naval Research, Princeton University scientists successfully
photographed sunspots with unprecedented clarity by means of 12-inch solar
telescope, STRATOSCOPE I, mounted on a balloon platform at an altitude of
near 80,000 feet. (See July 11 and 13.)

August 3: First flight test of Navy Subroc antisub missile from NOTS, China
Lake, Calif.

August 7: EXPLORER VI, popularly called the "Paddlewheel Satellite,"
launched by NASA Thor-Able 3, contained 14 experiments, and a photocell
scanner which transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud
cover from a distance of 17,000 miles. Placed in highly elliptical orbit
(26,000 miles out, 156 miles in), it gave a broad sample of readings.

---: Comdr. M. Ross (USNR) and R. Cooper (High Altitude Observatory) flew
STRATO-LAB open gondola balloon to 38,000 feet for solar studies with a
coronagraph.

---: USAF launched 39-inch weather balloon with radar reflector (Robin)
from rocket at 50-mile altitude.

August 10: USAF canceled research program to develop exotic chemicals fuels
for proposed Mach 3 B-70 bomber and F-108 interceptor.

August 13: DISCOVERER V placed into polar orbit by AF Thor-Agena A, but
reentry capsule not recovered due to postejection malfunctions.

August 14: With Army as executive agent of ABMA-JPL Project, Beacon
satellite launched by Juno II failed to go into orbit.

---: While EXPLORER VI satellite was passing over Mexico at an altitude of
about 17,000 miles, it successfully transmitted a crude picture of a
sunlit, crescent-shaped portion of the North Central Pacific Ocean. The
area of earth photographed was 20,000 square miles.

August 17: First of NIKE-ASP sounding rockets to provide geophysical
information on wind activity between 50 and 150 miles high was launched
successfully from NASA Wallops Station.

August 19: DISCOVERER VI satellite orbited successfully, but reentry
capsule not recovered.

August 21: Launching of Mercury capsule mockup from Wallops Station to test
the escape and recovery systems; emergency escape rocket accidentally fired
30 minutes before scheduled firing of the Little Joe booster.

---: NASA established Bioscience Advisory Committee, headed by Dr. Seymour
S. Kety, to study U.S. capability in space-oriented life science research
and development and to recommend future NASA role in this area in terms of
a national space program.

August 24: USAF fired Atlas-C 5,000 miles and recovered nose cone camera
with photographs of one-sixth of earth's surface taken from 700 miles up,
near Ascension Island.

August 25: NASA Western Operations Office, Santa Monica, Calif., made
responsible for liaison, administrative, and management support west of
Denver, Colo., for rapidly expanding NASA research and development
activities.

---: Reflected signals off the moon successfully received at the University
of Texas from the Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern, England.

August 27: Satellite tracking station at Woomera, Australia, successfully
photographed EXPLORER VI at a distance of 14,000 miles.

---: First British Commonwealth Symposium on Space Flight began in London.

August 29: Navy technician withstood record 31 g's in centrifuge at AMAL,
Johnsville, Pa.

August 31: Tenth IAF meeting opened in London.

September 1: USAF Atlas ICBM officially declared operational and taken over
by the Strategic Air Command, at Vandenberg AFB.

September 2: Dr. Theodore van Krmn named chairman of a committee to
establish an International Academy on Astronautics.

September 4: ONR SKYHOOK unmanned balloon launched from Sioux Falls, S.
Dak., by Raven Industries, establishing new unofficial altitude record of
148,000 feet for unmanned balloon.

September 9: NASA boilerplate model of Mercury capsule successfully
launched on an Atlas (Big Joe) missile from AMR and recovered in South
Atlantic after surviving reentry heat of more than 10,000F.

---: First launch of operational AF Atlas ICBM from Vandenberg AFB was
successful, and second Atlas ICBM fired from Cape Canaveral the same day.

September 12: Russia's LUNIK II launched with a total payload weight of
858.4 pounds, became the first manmade object to hit the moon on the
following day. Its launching coincided with the departure of Premier Nikita
Khrushchev for the United States in turboprop Tu-114.

September 15: First static test firing of USAF Minuteman, a second
generation solid-fuel ICBM.

---: Premier Khrushchev presented President Eisenhower with a replica of
the Soviet coat of arms impacted on the moon on September 13.

September 16: Army Jupiter launched with NASA biomedical experiment from
Cape Canaveral, destroyed by a range officer after fishtailing.

---: Full-sized USAF Minuteman ICBM model launched from underground silo.

September 17: ARPA-Navy TRANSIT IA navigation satellite was successfully
launched by Thor-Able booster, but did not orbit due to third-stage
malfunction.

---: First powered flight of X-15 (No. 2) research airplane, released from
its B-52 mother ship approximately 36 minutes after takeoff (Interim
Thiokol-RMD XLR-11 engines), A. Scott Crossfield as pilot.

September 18: VANGUARD III, sixth U.S.-IGY satellite, successfully injected
into orbit, marking the end of Vanguard launching activities. VANGUARD III
provided comprehensive survey of magnetic field, lower edge of radiation
belts, and accurate micrometeorite impacts.

---: Secretary of Defense McElroy issued order entitled "Satellite and
Space Vehicle Operations," assigning basic responsibilities.

September 22: Nuclear submarine Patrick Henry launched at Groton, Conn.

---: NASA renamed High Speed Flight Station at Edwards, Calif., to be NASA
Flight Research Center, consistent with mission responsibility for all but
STOL and VTOL flight research at low-speed ranges conducted at NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

September 23: Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Dr. Herbert F.
York, announced reorganization of military space and missile program, with
major role going to Air Force. Four ARPA space projects were to be
transferred to the services.

September 24: NASA Atlas-Able-4 launch vehicle, minus its payload,
undergoing static tests at AMR, exploded while being prepared for the
launch of a 375-pound satellite into a lunar orbit in October.

September 28: Pictures taken from satellite EXPLORER VI over Mexico at
19,500 miles altitude on August 14, were released by NASA. Picture showed
crescent shape of the sunlit portion of the earth and crude cloud-cover
image.

During September: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, took
part in a number of discussions with European scientific community to
assess space interest there and to indicate NASA's desire to work out
possible cooperative space research programs.

October 1: NASA personnel total reached 9,347.

October 2: AFMTC Commander Maj. Gen. Donald N. Yates, appointed Department
of Defense representative for Project Mercury support operations.

October 4: NASA LITTLE JOE launch vehicle carrying a boilerplate Mercury
capsule with a dummy escape system successfully launched from Wallops
Station, Va.

---: LUNIK III, Russia's translunar earth satellite began photographing
trip around the moon, while Premier Khrushchev was visiting Peiping.

October 6: EXPLORER VI ceased transmissions.

---: USAF launched an Atlas ICBM and a Thor IRBM at their full range from
Cape Canaveral.

October 8: PIONEER IV reached first aphelion (estimated 107,951,000 miles)
in its orbit around the sun at 8 p.m., e.s.t. Since launch on March 3,
PIONEER IV was tracked by JPL's Goldstone tracking station to 407,000 miles
from earth.

October 13: EXPLORER VII, the seventh and last U.S.-IGY earth satellite,
and now under direction of NASA with the Army as executive agent, launched
into an earth orbit by modified Army Juno II. By late December, data from
the satellite indicated possible relationships between solar events and
geomagnetic storms, and revealed information about trapped radiation and
cosmic rays near the earth. With launching of this ABMA-JPL project, all
experiments for the U.S.-IGY space program had been successfully placed
into orbit.

---: USAF Bold Orion launched from B-47 near Patrick AFB passed within 4
miles of EXPLORER VI at an altitude of 160 miles in test firings.

October 14: First successful flight test of Nike-Zeus at WSPG.

October 17: A second powered free flight of the X-15 (No. 2) research
airplane accomplished most planned objectives.

October 18: LUNIK III provided man's first look at 70 percent of the
backside of the moon, 2 weeks after launch, by transmitting automatically
taken pictures. Pictures were released on October 26.

October 21: The President by Executive Order indicated that the Development
Operations Division of ABMA would be transferred to NASA, subject to the
approval of Congress.

October 26: USSR released photo of the far side of the moon taken by LUNIK
III.

October 28: 100-foot-diameter inflatable sphere launched on a suborbital
test flight from NASA Wallops Station, Va., to an altitude of 250 miles by
a first Sergeant-Delta rocket; aluminum-coated Mylar-plastic sphere to be
used as passive electronic reflector in Echo was developed by NASA
Langley's Space Vehicle Group under the direction of William J. O'Sullivan.

October 29: USAF Atlas successfully launched from Cape Canaveral carrying a
nose-cone camera which took a series of photographs of the earth's cloud
cover from a 300-mile altitude.

November 2: President Eisenhower announced his intention of transferring
the Saturn project to NASA, which became effective on March 15, 1960.

November 4: NASA launched a second LITTLE JOE from Wallops Station, to test
the Mercury escape system under severe dynamic pressure; launch vehicle
functioned perfectly, but the escape rocket ignited several seconds too
late.

November 5: Third powered flight of the X-15 (No. 2).

November 7: USAF DISCOVERER VII satellite placed into polar orbit, but
capsule recovery not achieved.

November 9: Entire outer Van Allen radiation belt broke up and disappeared
for several days, according to data analysis from EXPLORER VII reported at
AAAS meeting in New York, December 29, 1960.

November 10: Five-stage sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops Island
to an altitude of 1,050 miles to measure density of electrons in upper
atmosphere.

---: The AEC's SNAP 2 Experimental Reactor (SER) achieved initial design
power of 50 thermal kilowatts in developmental tests at the Atomics
International, Santa Susana, Calif., test site. SER, the first reactor
designed for use in space, was being developed for Air Force surveillance
satellite systems.

---: Air Force placed contracts for Dyna-Soar project with Boeing and
Martin.

November 11-22: Under sponsorship of COSPAR, an internationally coordinated
program of scientific rocket soundings of the upper atmosphere was
conducted. The U.S. contribution included 10 rocket firings.

November 13: National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research
released select photographs from the more than 1,000 taken of the sun on
Stratoscope balloon flights over Minnesota on July 11, August 17, and
September 4.

November 14: World's largest balloon (107 cubic feet) launched from
Stratobowl near Rapid City, S. Dak., by Winzen Research, reaching maximum
altitude of near 118,000 feet with a 1-ton payload suspended.

---: New Aerospace Medical Center dedicated at Brooks AFB, Tex.

November 16: Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (USAF), made record parachute
jump from open balloon gondola at an altitude of 76,400 feet (EXCELSIOR I).

November 17: Based on September decision that all department of Defense
satellite and space vehicle programs would be assigned to the military
service of primary interest, various projects were assigned. Discoverer,
Midas, and Samos were transferred from ARPA to the Air Force.

---: Pending formal transfer of the Saturn project, the Associate
Administrator of NASA requested the Director of Space Flight Development to
form a study group with membership from NASA, the Directorate of Defense
Research and Engineering, ARPA, ABMA, and the Air Force to prepare
recommendations for the development, and selection of upper stage
configurations.

November 18: Nike-Asp sounding rocket fired from NASA Wallops Station
emitted sodium vapor at 50-mile altitude to 150 miles, revealing powerful
windshear effects.

---: NASA-DOD memorandum of understanding signed providing for interim
management of Project Saturn pending its formal transfer to NASA.

November 19: Second sodium-vapor-trail experiment in Nike-Asp launch from
Wallops Island was not successful.

November 20: DISCOVERER VIII satellite successfully placed into polar
orbit, but capsule was not recovered.

---: Polaris test missiles successfully launched from launching ship,
Observation Island, off Cape Canaveral.

November 26: Pioneer lunar probe was lifted normally by Atlas-Able 4 launch
vehicle, but failure of plastic fairing covering payload (at 45 seconds
after launch) caused payload to break away.

November 27: Hiller X-18 tilt-wing research transport made first flight at
Edwards AFB.

November 28: During severe geomagnetic storm, two Geiger tubes on EXPLORER
VII found anomalies in the outer radiation zone at about 1,000-km altitude,
which appeared to be correlated in space and time with optical emissions
from the atmosphere below. Very intense narrow zones of radiation were
detected over a visible aurora during one orbit.

November 28-29: Comdr. M. Ross and Dr. C. B. Moore flew ONR STRATO-LAB HIGH
IV balloon to an altitude of 81,000 feet, using a 16-inch telescope and
spectrograph, and observing water vapor in the atmosphere of the planet
Venus.

During November: Prototype Goodrich full-pressure Mercury astronaut suits
(modified Navy Mark IV) were delivered to NASA. Navy Air Crew Equipment
Laboratory (NACEL) of Philadelphia fitted suits and indoctrinated the
astronauts on their use.

---: Cooperative space efforts were discussed with Soviet scientists
attending the American Rocket Society meeting in Washington, D.C.

December 1: 12 nations (including United States and U.S.S.R.) assigned
Antarctic Treaty promoting scientific research and barring any military
activity in the area.

---: New Bureau of Naval Weapons, consolidating the Bureau of Ordnance and
the Bureau of Aeronautics, began functioning.

---: USAF reduced order for the B-70 bomber to only two prototypes.

December 2: Construction of a missile tracking station on Roi Namur Island
near Kwajalein in the Central Pacific was announced by DOD.

December 4: Third LITTLE JOE (II), successfully launched at NASA Wallops
Station as part of Project Mercury development program, carried a monkey
named "Sam" 55 miles into space which was recovered safely.

December 7: Unofficial altitude record of 98,560 feet set by Navy McDonnell
F4H carrier jet at Edwards AFB, Comdr. L. E. Flint as pilot.

---: Administrator of NASA, Dr. T. Keith Glennan, offered services of U.S.
worldwide tracking network in support of any manned space flight the
U.S.S.R. might plan to undertake, in a speech before the Institute of World
Affairs in Pasadena, Calif.

---: Nine nations including the Soviet Union approved a new charter for
COSPAR at The Hague, which opened membership in COSPAR to all national
academies of science engaged in space research, and created a
nine-representative executive board. The U.S.S.R. had not participated in
COSPAR deliberations since November 1958.

December 8: Maj. Gen. Don R. Ostrander (USAF) named Director of NASA's
Office of Launch Vehicle Programs and responsible for launch vehicle
development and operations.

---: Brig. Gen. Austin W. Betts (USA) was named Director of ARPA to replace
Acting Director, Gen. D. Ostrander (USAF).

December 9: USAF Goodyear unmanned balloon launched from Akron, Ohio, to an
altitude of 100,000 feet, where radar photographs of the earth's surface
were taken.

---: Kaman H-43B established new helicopter altitude record of 30,100 feet.

December 10: U.S. Ambassador Lodge presented a resolution to the Assembly
of the United Nations recommending that an international conference on the
peaceful uses of outer space be convened in 1960 or 1961.

December 11: Capt. J. Kittinger (USAF) flew EXCELSIOR II balloon from
Holloman AFB to an altitude of 74,700 feet and bailed out, establishing
stable free fall for 55,000 feet.

---: New world speed record for 100-km closed course set by Brig. Gen. J.
H. Moore (USAF) in F-105B, at 1,216.48 mph.

---: NASA discontinued multistage Vega vehicle program to reduce number of
rocket vehicles and to exploit reliability factor in future satellite and
space projects.

---: Transmitters of VANGUARD III, launched on September 18, became silent
after providing tracking signals and scientific data for 85 days. Satellite
was expected to remain in orbit 40 years.

December 12: First Titan ICBM launching testing second stage was
unsuccessful at AMR.

---: United Nations created permanent 24-nation committee to study Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space and to arrange for an international conference.

December 14: Lockheed F-104C piloted by Capt. J. B. Jordan (USAF) climbed
to new world's record for jet aircraft of 103,389 feet.

December 15: Convair F-106A broke straightaway course record at 1,525.95
mph, piloted by Maj. J. W. Rogers (USAF).

---: NASA released detailed comparison of United States and U.S.S.R. space
sciences programs prepared by Dr. Homer E. Newell, which pointed up the
importance of leadtime in vehicle technology.

Mid-December: NASA team completed study design of upper stages of Saturn
launch vehicle.

December 17: Launching of NASA-AFBMD Thor-Able space probe designed to
boost 90-pound payload to explore space between Earth and Venus was
postponed.

December 18: Atlas ICBM made second successful 6,325-mile flight at AMR.

December 19: The Chairman, AEC, in a letter to the Administrator of NASA,
proposed a flight test objective be established for the nuclear rocket
program and proposed a technical program and division of agency
responsibilities to achieve those objectives.

December 20: Dr. Melvin Calvin reported that molecules in meteorites
resembled basic constituents of genetic material found on earth.

December 22: In a United States-Canadian cooperative project, NASA launched
the first four-stage Javelin sounding rocket from Wallops Station to an
altitude of 560 miles to measure the intensity of galactic radio noise.

December 27: NASA proposed joint space efforts with other nations to
promote international cooperation in space research.

December 30: U.S.S. George Washington, the first fleet Polaris submarine,
was commissioned.

---: Scientists associated with EXPLORER VII experiments reported their
preliminary findings in a press conference at NASA Headquarters, which
indicated sporadic burst of radiation from the sun could influence manned
space flight.

December 31: Mercury astronauts completed basic and theoretical studies in
their training program and started practical engineering studies.

---: More than 100 drop tests of boilerplate Mercury capsules had been
completed from aircraft to test and develop the parachute system.

---: Approximately 300 U.S. research rockets were launched during the
30-month IGY/IGC-59 period: 221 of these were launched during the IGY. This
compared with the some 400 U.S. research rockets fired during the entire
preceding 12-year period from the beginning of high-altitude rocket
research circa 1945 to July 1, 1957.

---: The IGY/IGC-59 program ended, but international cooperation in
geophysics was to continue without a formal name under the sponsorship of
International Council of Scientific Unions. NASA continued to make data
from scientific satellites and space probes available to the world
scientific community utilizing COSPAR and World Data Centers established
during the IGY.

During December: National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W.
Va., placed its 85-foot equatorially mounted radio telescope in full
operation and continued construction of its 140-foot telescope which was
planned for operation in 1961. All qualified U.S. astronomers have access
to these facilities sponsored by the National Science Foundation, with
priorities determined by the scientific merit of their respective projects.

---: USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB proposed curriculum for Space
Research Pilot Course in defining training needs for 1960-65.

---: Briefing on the orbiting Astronomical Observatory Satellite (AOS)
program was given for interested members of industry at NASA headquarters.

During 1959: Lewis Research Center developed general method for automatic
computation of theoretical rocket performance for propellant combinations
involving up to 10 chemical elements; method permitting rapid performance
calculation for virtually any conceivable fuel-oxidant combination.

---: Pratt & Whitney conducted thrust chamber tests of high-energy upper
stage rocket engine using liquid hydrogen (RCIO).

---: Previous experience led NASA Lewis Research Center to design and
construct experimental high-temperature jet engine which demonstrated
feasibility of gas turbine operation at inlet gas temperatures up to
2,500F, almost 1,000 above conventional gas-turbine engine. This test
engine had a cooled turbine.

---: Aeromedical Laboratory completed development and testing of the
full-pressure pilot suit for use by pilots of the X-15.

---: The National Science Foundation sited a national observatory on Kitt
Peak, Ariz., 40 miles southwest of Tucson, for construction of a 36-inch
reflector and an 80-inch telescope, and a 60-inch solar telescope. The
solar telescope is scheduled for completion in 1961 and will be several
times larger than the largest instrument of its kind in existence.

---: NASA Lewis Research Center first operated hydrogen fluorine thrust
chambers at simulated high-altitude conditions obtaining unusually high
performance.

---: Aeromedical Field Laboratory at Holloman AFB began training of
chimpanzees for flights in ballistic and orbital flights for Project
Mercury.

---: School of Aviation Medicine undertook to evolve a system for
maintaining animals in sealed, self-contained ecological systems under a
variety of physical conditions, such as weightlessness, acceleration,
vibration, and spinning.

---: Transatlantic air passengers totaled 1,367,000 persons on scheduled
flights and 173,000 on charter and special flights for the year, as
compared to 884,000 sea passengers.

For further information contact Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1960

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American
Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915-1960
(Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1961), pp.
118-35.

1960

February 25: First test launch of Army's Pershing tactical missile from
Cape Canaveral.

February 26: First USAF Midas test launch with Atlas-Agena from AMR failed
when a malfunction at staging damaged Agena.

---: Establishment of Project Mercury tracking networks in Australia was
sanctioned by joint agreement.

February 27: 100-foot-diameter inflatable sphere successfully launched on
third suborbital test to an altitude of 225 miles, from NASA Wallops
Station, Va. Radio transmissions were reflected via the sphere from
Holmdel, N.J., to Round Hill, Mass.

---: Atmosphere entry simulator at NASA Ames Research Center completed
first successful launch and recovery of test model launched at satellite
speed of 17,000 mph. First proposed by A. Eggers in 1955, it had previously
provided important information at ballistic speeds. Throughout 1959-60,
Ames scientists contributed to understanding of flight characteristics at
altitudes over 100 miles, using low density research apparatus.

During early 1960: NASA Lewis Research Center completed flight safety
research program involving over 30 full-scale experimental crashes and
laboratory studies leading to improved criteria for survivability.

March 1: NASA announced establishment of the Office of Life Sciences to
provide focal point for broad-based scientific study of life processes
provided by the space exploration program, not to duplicate existing effort
in military laboratories. Dr. Clark T. Randt was named as Director.

---: House Science and Astronautics Committee voted $915 million for NASA
in fiscal year 1961.

March 8: First USAF Atlas flight using inertial guidance system.

March 9: Navy fired Polaris 900 miles in successful test of flight control
equipment.

March 10: Office of Reliability and Systems Analysis was established in
NASA Headquarters to conduct program design to evaluate and improve
operational reliability of launch vehicles and payloads. Landis S. Gephardt
was named as Director.

March 11: PIONEER V, NASA space probe, successfully launched by
Thor-Able-4, the start of a historic flight to measure radiation and
magnetic fields between Earth and Venus, and to communicate over great
distances. Managed by AFBMD and Space Technology Laboratories for NASA,
PIONEER V carried experiments designed by various civilian and governmental
scientists.

March 13: PIONEER V transmitted radio signals from a distance of more than
409,000 miles, a new communications record.

---: Lunar atlas published by the USAF, representing a comprehensive
collection of high-quality photographs of the visible surface of the moon
prepared by G. P. Kuiper.

March 15: Saturn project officially transferred to NASA and ABMA.

---: George C. Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala., named by
Executive Order of the President.

March 16: Ban on nuclear weapons being placed in orbit around the earth in
the future proposed by the representatives of the Western nations at the
Geneva Disarmament Conference.

March 17: VANGUARD I still in orbit and transmitting on its second
anniversary after traveling 131,318,211 miles. NASA reported that VANGUARD
I orbit was being altered by solar pressure.

---: X-15 (No. 2) passed stress flight test.

March 18: PIONEER V reported on command to NASA Headquarters at 2 a.m. from
1,002,700 miles away and transmitting seven kinds of scientific readings.

---: Princess Margaret of England commanded PIONEER V 1,040,000 miles away
and received answer 25 seconds later.

March 19: United States-Spanish agreement on Project Mercury tracking
station in Canary Islands was announced (1 of 16 similar agreements with
other nations).

March 22: USAF Titan fired 5,000 statute miles and data capsule recovered.

March 23: Explorer satellite launched by Juno II but did not orbit.

---: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories disclosed controlled thermonuclear
fusion was achieved by Scylla II device for less than a millionth of a
second at about 13 million degrees centigrade.

March 25: Aerobee 150-A, a new type, fired from new launch tower at Wallops
Station, reached an altitude of 150 miles and achieved rocket performance
objectives as well as micrometeorite impact counts.

---: First flight and first powered flight of the X-15 (No. 1) in the
NASA/USAF research program, NASA's Joseph A. Walker as pilot.

---: First launch of missile from a nuclear submarine when a Regulus I was
fired from the Halibut off Oahu, Hawaii.

---: DOD formally announced high priority for Midas project.

---: Signals received from a distance of 2 million miles from PIONEER V.

March 28: Two of Saturn's first-stage engines passed initial static firing
test of 7.83 seconds duration at Huntsville, Ala.

---: NASA announced selection of Aero-jet-General to build the power
conversion equipment for the SNAP-8 (System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power),
and to integrate the reactor into an operational system. SNAP-8 is a joint
NASA-AEC project.

March 29: Naval Weapons Annex, Charleston, S.C., was opened, providing
capability for missile final assembly and loading of submarines.

---: First fully guided flight of Polaris from Observation Island.

During March: NASA let contract with Naval Ordnance Test Station, Inyokern,
Calif., to study the feasibility of controlling the direction of thrust
from a nozzle by injecting gas or liquid into the nozzle expansion cone.

April 1: First known weather observation satellite, TIROS I (Television
Infra-Red Observation Satellite), launched into orbit by Thor-Able, and
took pictures of earth's cloud cover on a global scale from 450 miles above
until June 29. TIROS I was hailed as ushering in "a new era of
meteorological observing."

---: Fourth suborbital Shotput test of the 100-foot-diameter sphere later
known as Echo was launched from NASA Wallops Station to an altitude of 235
miles and inflated successfully.

April 2: LUNIK I completed first orbit around the sun.

April 4: Project Ozma initiated to listen for possible signal patterns from
outer space other than natural "noise," at the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory at Green Bank, W. Va.

April 6: Four Saturn's first-stage engines successfully tested at
Huntsville, Ala.

---: SPUTNIK III reentered the earth's atmosphere.

April 7: Maj. Gen. Donald N. Yates (USAF) named Deputy Director of Defense
Research and Engineering for Ranges and Space Ground Support.

April 12: First production model of McDonnell-built Mercury capsule was
delivered to NASA.

April 13: Navy TRANSIT I-B launched into orbit by Thor-Able-Star with
navigation payload experiment at Cape Canaveral. Flight demonstrated the
first engine restart in space and the feasibility of using satellites as
navigational aids.

---: Cancellation of U.K. Blue Streak as IRBM project.

April 14: First underwater launch of Polaris missile, from an underwater
tube off San Clemente Island, Calif.

---: William M. Holaday's resignation as Chairman of the Civil-Military
Liaison Committee accepted by the President.

---: One week in self-sustained simulated space capsule environment
concluded by C. A. Metzgen at USAF Aerospace Medical Laboratory.

April 15: DISCOVERER XI launched from Vandenberg AFB and stayed in orbit,
reentry capsule was not recovered.

April 17: PIONEER V transmitted telemetry a distance of 5 million miles
from earth.

April 18: Scout test vehicle, with live first and third stages, fired from
Wallops Station, but vehicle broke up after first-stage burnout.

---: NASA selected Avco Manufacturing and General Electric to conduct
engineering and development studies on an electric rocket engine.

April 19: NASA announced negotiation of a contract for development of a
spacecraft solar powerplant, Sunflower I, with Thompson-Ramo-Woolridge.

---: ONR Aerobee-Hi made series of X-ray photographs of the sun from an
altitude of 130 miles.

April 20: Spin of TRANSIT I-B was reduced from 170 to 4 rpm by ground
control.

April 22: Radar beam transmitted along electron lines of the earth's
magnetic field extending into the exosphere, first confirmation of theory
and work of Roger M. Gallet of the National Bureau of Standards and Henry
G. Booker of Cornell University. Echo reflected from the earth successfully
received 0.2 of a second later after traveling 37,000 miles, perhaps
offering a new tool to study the effect of solar eruptions on the earth's
magnetic field and a new long-range surveillance method using radar.

April 23: NASA fired first of five Aerobee-Hi sounding rockets from Wallops
Station in program to measure ultraviolet radiation.

---: NASA announced that Robert E. Gottfried of GSFC had successfully
"repaired" faulty diode in PIONEER V (5.5 million miles from earth) by
reworking of telemetry.

April 26: IRAC Table of Frequency Allocations (official allocation of
frequency table for United States and possessions) was approved, related to
frequency assignments for space research based on 1959 ITU Conference in
Geneva, Switzerland.

---: NASA announced selection of Douglas Aircraft for construction of
second (S-4) stage of initial C-1 Saturn launch vehicle.

April 27: Completion of technical review of Dyna-Soar program announced by
the Air Force.

---: NASA signed contract with Aeronutronic, a division of Ford Motor Co.,
for development and production of the first survivable capsule for landing
instruments on the moon.

April 29: Milestone achieved in completion of interim or formal agreements
concluded for all oversea Mercury tracking stations.

---: NASA press conference with participating scientists reporting on the
correlation of data received from EXPLORERS VI and VII, and PIONEER V
during the solar storm on March 21.

---: All eight engines of the Saturn engine were fired for the first time
at Huntsville, Ala.

During April: Seven Mercury astronauts completed training session at the
Navy Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory, Johnsville, Pa.

May 4: Lewis Research Center began testing of high-energy hydrogen-oxygen
engines in an altitude test facility capable of subjecting an entire
propulsion system to a space environment. On June 17, LRC began similar
testing of hydrogen-fluorine engines.

May 5: NASA held a press conference on high-altitude weather research using
Lockheed U-2 aircraft, one of which was reportedly lost on May 1 over
Turkey.

May 8: 150-watt transmitter on PIONEER V interplanetary spacecraft was
commanded at 5:04 a.m. e.d.t., and operated satisfactorily while it was
8,001,000 miles from earth, another communications record.

May 9: First production model of Project Mercury spacecraft was
successfully launched from NASA Wallops Station to test escape, landing,
and recovery systems. Known as the "beach abort" shot, the Mercury capsule
reached 2,540 feet before parachute landing and pickup by Marine helicopter
returned it to Wallops' hangar 17 minutes after launch.

May 10: Submarine U.S.S. Triton completed 41,519-mile submerged cruise
around the world.

May 12: Speed of Mach 3.2 and 78,000-foot altitude attained in X-15 (No. 1)
with interim engines by NASA's Joseph A. Walker. This was the first
remote-launch operation (100 miles from release from "mother" aircraft to
landing site at Edwards AFB).

May 13: Echo satellite, a 100-foot passive reflector sphere, failed to
orbit with first complete three-stage Thor-Delta launch vehicle.

May 14: Founding of the International Academy of Astronautics announced by
the IAF and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation.

May 15: SPACECRAFT I weighing 10,000 pounds launched into orbit by the
U.S.S.R., the first successful effort to orbit a vehicle large enough to
contain a human passenger, although efforts to recover the space capsule
failed.

May 19: TIROS I weather satellite spotted a tornado storm system in the
vicinity of Wichita Falls, Tex.

---: X-15 (No. 1) flown to 107,000 feet, its highest altitude to date, by
Maj. Robert M. White (USAF), at Edwards AFB.

May 20: Atlas ICBM fired 9,040 statute miles from AMR to Indian Ocean,
longest known flight of an ICBM to date. Missile attained an apogee of
about 1,000 miles.

May 21: First public showing of F-1 engine mockup.

May 24: MIDAS II test satellite successfully launched into orbit from AMR
by an Atlas-Agena launch vehicle, a test of an USAF surveillance system
designed to provide warning of long-range missile launching, the first
anti-missile early-warning satellite.

May 27: Rate of spin of TIROS I satellite was increased by ground command.

---: ONR Aerobee-Hi launched to 135-mile altitude carrying eight telescopes
to map sky by means of ultraviolet light, from WSPG.

May 30: NASA established Office of Technical Information and Educational
Programs (OTIEP) in Headquarters to carry out pertinent requirements of the
National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and related functions. Shelby
Thompson of AEC was named as Director.

May 31: 100-foot inflatable sphere launched from NASA Wallops Station to an
altitude of 210 miles to test payload configuration carrying two beacon
transmitters, a development flight of Project Echo.

---: NASA disseminated telemetry calibration for EXPLORER VII to members of
the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR).

---: NASA selected Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation to
develop a 200,000-pound-thrust engine utilizing hydrogen and oxygen
propellants. This engine is second only to the F-1 in single-thrust chamber
level.

June 1: Navy assumed operational responsibility PMR.

June 2-3: Panel on Science and Technology of the House Committee on Science
and Astronautics held its second meeting in Washington.

June 5: Winzen Research launched 107-cubic-foot balloon from NAS Glynco,
Ga., for cosmic ray studies; after 10 days of flight the balloon
disappeared over the Pacific on a westerly heading.

June 7: Contract for ion engine development was awarded by NASA to Hughes
Aircraft.

June 8: Complete eight-engine static firing of Saturn successfully
conducted for 110 seconds at MSFC, the longest firing to date.

---: XLR-99 engine mounted in X-15 (No. 3) during test-stand runs by the
contractor exploded, which damaged aircraft but did not injure contractor's
test pilot in the cockpit.

June 14: AEC's SNAP-2 Experimental Reactor (SER) reached 147,300
kilowatt-hours of operation at design temperatures and power during which
1,000 hours of continuous operation was attained.

---: NASA announced creation of Launch Operations Directorate (LOD) to
become operational on July 1, to be headed by Dr. Kurt Debus of Marshall
Space Flight Center, who headed the Army launch operations of EXPLORER I
and the first American payload to orbit the sun, PIONEER IV.

---: Small explosive charge ignited flare package on side of Titan ICBM at
AMR, causing first missile fatality (J. G. Sibole) in 10 years of missile
launchings at Cape Canaveral.

June 15: Saturn static test firing of 121 seconds successful at MSFC.

June 22: Navy TRANSIT II-A, an experimental navigation satellite with two
payloads (navigation and radiation measurement), successfully launched into
orbit by Thor-Able-Star vehicle. This was the first time that two
instrumented satellites have been placed into orbit at the same time.

June 24: 500-w SNAP mercury-Rankin cycle-turbine alternator package
endurance test was successfully terminated at 2,500 hours of operation at
design conditions, by AEC.

June 25: Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit civilian organization to manage
engineering, research, and development aspects of missile and military
space programs, was established by the USAF.

June 26: Six-minute message received by Jodrell Bank, England, was last
communication received from PIONEER V, then 22.5 million miles from earth
moving at a relative velocity of 21,000 mph. Since March 11 when launched,
PIONEER V traveled some 180 million miles, and it would fly 18 million
miles closer to the sun than any manmade object.

June 28: The Smithsonian Institution awarded its highest honor, the Langley
Medal, to Robert H. Goddard posthumously.

---: U.S.S.R. announced that it would conduct new series of long-range
missile shots into the Pacific, July 5-31, 1960.

June 29: DISCOVERER XII failed to go into polar orbit.

---: TIROS I ended its operational life time, transmitting a total of
22,952 picture frames of the earth's cloud cover and completing 1,302
orbits since launch on April 1.

July 1: NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, with Dr. Wernher von
Braun as its Director, officially opened with formal transfer to NASA from
ABMA, at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala.

---: First complete Scout launch vehicle fired from NASA Wallops Station,
but fourth stage separation and firing was not accomplished.

---: Pacific Missile Range (PMR) Facility established at Eniwetock,
Marshall Islands.

---: First operational version of Titan ICBM failed to launch at Cape
Canaveral.

July 4: Soviet Tass announced that Russia last month successfully launched
a new 4,400-pound-thrust rocket carrying a rabbit and two dogs to a
reported altitude of 124.8 miles.

---: Piper Comanche set a world distance record in a closed circuit of
6,921.28 miles, Max Conrad as pilot.

July 8: Second experimental reactor (Kiwi-A Prime) in the Project Rover
nuclear rocket program was successfully tested at full power and duration
at Jackass Flats, Nev.

July 11: NASA selected Hughes, North American, Space Technology Laboratory,
and McDonnell to study designs for the first lunar soft-landing spacecraft.

---: Dr. Ivan A. Getting of Raytheon was named first president of the
Aerospace Corp.

---: Bell Telephone outlined to FCC a plan for worldwide service based upon
a network of 50 satellites in polar orbit at 3,000-mile altitude.

July 12: Mistran (Missile trajectory measurement system) for AFMTC
initiated by USAF contract with General Electric.

July 17: First of three NASA experiments carried by USAF balloons, carrying
a NASA capsule containing 12 mice to 130,000-foot altitude for 11 1/2
hours, in support of study of effects of heavy primary cosmic ray
particles.

July 18: Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., formerly chief engineer of RCA Missile
Electronics and Control Division, was named Associate Administrator of NASA
to replace Richard E. Horner.

July 20: Two Polaris (A-1X) test missiles successfully launched from
submerged submarine, the George Washington, marking a major milestone in
the Navy ballistic missile program.

July 21: NASA fired a Nike-Cajun sounding rocket from Fort Churchill,
Manitoba, Canada, containing an instrumented payload to measure data on
energetic particles during a period of low solar activity.

July 22: First flight of NASA's Iris sounding rocket successful, designed
for 100-pound payloads to altitudes of about 200 miles, from Wallops
Station.

July 23: Second of USAF-NASA balloon flights carrying NASA life science
experiment to an altitude of over 130,000 feet for 11 1/2 hours.

July 24: Donald Piccard established Class I world altitude record of 3,740
feet in plastic balloon HOLIDAY, from Minneapolis, Minn.

July 26: End of series of Army Bell HU-1 Iroquois helicopter flights which
established four new world records.

July 28-29: First NASA-Industry Program Plans Conference held in
Washington, D.C.

July 29: Project Apollo, advanced manned spacecraft program, was first
announced at NASA's Industry Conference.

---: Atlas launch vehicle carrying unmanned Mercury capsule exploded 65
seconds after launch from AMR.

---: The 300-kw(e) static reactor electric power system attained first
criticality. SNAP 10, utilizing thermoelectric conversion with no moving
parts, was being developed for satellite application.

July 31: Dr. John F. Victory, the first employee of NACA hired in 1915 and
recently assistant to the Administrator of NASA, retired after 52 years of
continuous Government service, including many important contributions in
formulating national air policies and in establishing aeronautical research
facilities and programs.

August 2: NRL Aerobee reached 90-mile altitude from WSPG with instruments
to measure ultraviolet spectrum of the sun.

---: Army Ordnance five-stage Strong-arm sounding rocket launched from
Wallops Station, reaching an altitude of 300 miles, although fifth stage
did not function.

August 3: First Sparrowbee sounding rocket launched from Wallops Station,
lifting 56-pound University of Michigan payload to 260-mile altitude.

August 4: X-15 (No. 1) rocket airplane with interim engines established new
unofficial world speed record of 2,196 mph, with Joseph Walker, NASA test
pilot, at the controls. This topped Captain Apt's speed of 2,094 mph
attained in the X-2 on September 27, 1956.

August 5: NASA and the Department of Defense announced the settlement of
patent infringement claim by the estate of the late Robert H. Goddard,
which had been pending since 1951, for $1 million $765,000 by USAF,
$125,000 by USA, $100,000 by NASA, and $10,000 by USN).

---: IGY data released indicated that upper atmosphere's density becomes
twice as great in December as in June.

August 6: While over Blossom Point, Md., simultaneously with a Class 1
solar flare, TRANSIT II-A satellite transmitted 6 minutes of clear
reception showing history of development of ultraviolet and X-ray emission
in relation to ionospheric behavior and to solar-radio noise.

August 10: DISCOVERER XIII launched successfully into polar orbit.

August 11: First manmade object recovered from an orbiting satellite, the
85-pound instrumented capsule of DISCOVERER XIII recovered from the ocean
off Hawaii after 16 orbits. Silken 50-star American flag it carried was
presented to the President on August 15.

August 12: X-15 (No. 1) with interim engines and with Maj. Robert M. White
(USAF) at the controls, established a new altitude record for a manned
vehicle of 136,500 feet. This topped Captain Kincheloe's record altitude of
126,200 feet attained on September 7, 1956, in the X-2 rocket research
aircraft.

---: NASA's ECHO I, the first passive communications satellite,
successfully launched into orbit by a Thor-Delta. It reflected a radio
message from the President across the Nation, thus, demonstrating the
feasibility of global radio communications via satellites. The
100-foot-diameter aluminized Mylar-plastic sphere was the most visible and
largest satellite launched to date.

---: USAF Atlas carrying radiation experiments in nose cone was fired 5,000
miles from Cape Canaveral, but nose cone was not recovered.

---: Navy Polaris missile fired 1,000 miles down AMR.

August 13: Army announced completion of a project for mapping lunar landing
sites.

August 15: NASA announced selection of Plasmadyne Corp. for contract
negotiations on a 1-kilowatt electric arc jet rocket engine.

---: Two pilots sealed in "space cabin" for 17-day simulated flight to the
moon, at SAM, Brooks AFB, Tex.

August 16: Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (USAF), parachuted from EXCELSIOR
III balloon at 103,000 feet, falling 17 miles before chute was employed at
17,500 feet, a new parachute record.

---: 11th Congress of the IAF opened in Stockholm.

August 17: ECHO I visible to sky-watchers and provided reflection for
numerous long-range radio transmissions by private and governmental
research agencies in the United States.

August 18: ECHO I utilized for transatlantic communications when carrier
signal was received by the French Telecommunications Establishment (CNET).
Subsequently, voice and music transmissions were received by the University
of Manchester at Jodrell Bank and other British Installations.

---: USAF DISCOVERER XIV launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB,
Calif.

---: USAF-Army COURIER IA communications satellite failed to orbit due to
premature shutdown of first stage of Thor-Able-Star.

August 19: SPACECRAFT II launched into orbit by the U.S.S.R. weighing 5
tons and carrying a biological payload including two dogs.

---: Second time a manmade object was recovered intact from earth orbit and
the first midair recovery of an object from space, when USAF C-119
transport snared the 300-pound capsule of DISCOVERER XIV at 10,000 feet,
Capt. H. F. Mitchell (USAF) as pilot of the C-119.

---: Wirephoto of President Eisenhower transmitted from Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
to Dallas, Tex., via ECHO I satellite.

August 21: U.S.S.R. announced safe recovery of biologic payloads of
SPACECRAFT II after 17 orbits, and reported that 2 dog passengers were in
excellent physical condition. This was the first successful recovery of
life forms from orbit.

August 22: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory reported that solar
pressure was pushing ECHO I's perigee 1 1/2 miles closer to the earth every
24 hours.

August 23: Bell Laboratory technicians successfully transmitted a voice and
music message from New Jersey to Jodrell Bank, England, via ECHO I.

---: Aerobee-Hi with 208-pound payload launched from NASA Wallops Station
118-mile altitude.

August 24: ECHO I first went into earth's shadow with its two tracking
beacons still operating. Since going into orbit on August 12, it had
relayed hundreds of telephonic experiments and transmissions.

August 26: Construction begun on the world's largest radar at Arecibo,
P.R., capable of bouncing signals off Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, with
Cornell University as the prime contractor under direction of ARPA and
USAF.

August 30: First Industry Conference conducted by NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center.

August 31: Joint NASA-AEC Nuclear Propulsion Office (NPO) created at
Germantown, Md., with Harold B. Finger as Manager.

During August: NASA suspended work on geodetic satellite program pending
determination of whether it was to be a civilian or military program.

---: USAF Atlas squadrons became operational at Warren AFB, Wyo.

September 5: McDonnell F4H-1, Phantom II Navy fighter flown 1,216.78 mph on
500-km closed course for a new record, Lt. Col. T. H. Miller (USMC) as
pilot.

September 8: ONR announced that radio signals had been received from the
planet Saturn and a star 3,000 light-years away by the University of
Michigan's 85-foot radio telescope.

---: President Eisenhower formally dedicated the NASA George C. Marshall
Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala.

September 10: X-15 flown at more than 2,100 mph and to 80,000 feet.

September 13: NASA and DOD announced the creation of the Aeronautics and
Astronautics Coordinating Board "to review planning, avoid duplication,
coordinate activities of common interest, identify problems requiring
solution either by NASA or the Department of Defense and insure a steady
exchange of information." Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA,
and Dr. Herbert F. York, Director of Research and Engineering of DOD, were
named co-chairmen of the Board.

---: DISCOVERER XV placed into polar orbit.

---: NASA gave bidders briefing to industry representatives on Project
Apollo study contract at Space Task Group, Langley AFB, Va.

---: Bilateral agreement with South Africa ratified providing for
construction of new tracking station in South Africa.

September 13-14: First meeting of the NASA Advisory Committee on Space
Biology, chaired by Dr. Melvin Calvin.

September 14: Recovery capsule of DISCOVERER XV located from aircraft, but
bad weather prevented surface pickup before it sank.

September 15: Two USAF pilots, Capt. W. D. Habluetzel and Lt. J. S.
Hargreaves, completed a 30-day, 8-hour, and 24-minute simulated round trip
to the moon in the space cabin simulator at the School of Aviation
Medicine, Brooks AFB, Tex.

September 16-22: 27 research rockets were launched by U.S. scientists as a
part of the COSPAR International Rocket Interval for 1960.

September 19: Atlas ICBM fired 9,000 miles from Cape Canaveral to the
Indian Ocean in 50 minutes, the second record distance flight.

---: NERV (Nuclear Emulsion Recovery Vehicle) experiment successfully
launched from Point Arguello, Calif., by an Argo D-8 rocket, the first NASA
launching at PMR. NERV instrumented capsule reached an altitude of 1,260
miles before landing 1,300 miles downrange where it was picked up by Navy
ships 3 hours later. It reached the highest known altitude that any manmade
object had attained to be recovered successfully from space.

September 20: Aero Commander 680F set a world class altitude record of
36,932 feet for light aircraft, Jerrie Cobb as pilot.

September 21: USAF Blue Scout rocket fired from Cape Canaveral placed
instrumented payload 16,600 miles above the earth, the first of 11 such
tests, but no data were received due to radio malfunction.

September 22: President Eisenhower's address to the General Assembly of the
United Nations pointed to the importance of international agreement on
measures to "enable future generations to find peaceful and scientific
progress not another fearful dimension in the arms race, as they explore
the universe."

September 25: Atlas-Able 3 lunar orbital probe of NASA failed to achieve
trajectory because of malfunction in one of the upper stages.

---: McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II Navy fighter flown record 1,390.21 mph over
100-km closed course at Edwards AFB, Comdr. J. F. Davis as pilot.

September 26: NASA and Weather Bureau issued joint invitation to scientists
of 21 nations to participate in meteorological research connected with
future Tiros satellite.

---: Heat balance between atmospheric pressure areas near the earth's
surface and temperature readings in space, reported as a result of
experiments in EXPLORER VII launched October 13, 1959, by Dr. Verner E.
Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

---: Formal meeting of the DOD-NASA Aeronautics and Astronautics
Coordinating Board (AACB).

September 27: Parachute designed to slow reentry speed of space capsules
successfully tested at a speed of 2,000 mph after rocket boost to 30-mile
altitude, over Eglin AFB, Fla.

---: Massive Soviet news buildup for this as "a day in the history of the
world," while Premier Khrushchev was at the U.N. General Assembly meeting
in New York. Rumored space spectacular did not apparently take place.

September 30: To date, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory had
photographed approximately 17,200 satellite passages with the Baker-Nunn
Optical Network, and had recorded 17,000 visual observations by Moonwatch.

---: Soviet test pilot K. K. Kokkinaki established world speed record of
2,148.3 km/hr in delta-wing E-66 jet aircraft over 100-km closed course.

---: Formal agreements for all NASA tracking stations, planned at present,
were either concluded or near conclusion.

October 1: First BMEWS (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) station
went into operation, at Thule, Greenland.

October 2: JPL announced that 85-foot receiving antenna for space tracking
at Woomera, southwestern Australia, would be operational by November 1.

October 3: ONR STRATOSCOPE balloon carrying equipment to photograph the
halo around the sun was launched at 80,000 feet in a series of
high-altitude coronascope flights.

October 4: COURIER I-B active communications satellite successfully placed
into orbit by Thor-Able-Star launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral. After
completing one orbit it received and recorded a transcribed message to the
United Nations by President Eisenhower transmitted from Fort Monmouth,
N.J., and retransmitted it to another earth station in Puerto Rico. This
marked the 100th launch of the Douglas Thor, military and scientific
combined, and a Thor record of 60 percent of the U.S. satellites boosted
into orbit.

---: Second complete NASA Scout vehicle fired successfully to its predicted
3,500-mile altitude and 5,800-mile impact range, from Wallops Station.

October 7: AEC briefing held at the Nevada Test Site at Jackass Flats,
Nev., for representatives of 26 companies for proposals to study the
requirements for a National Nuclear Rocket Engine Development Facility.
Existing test facilities are fully committed to the development of nuclear
reactors.

---: Fdration Aronautique Internationale meeting at Barcelona, Spain,
accepted first rules to govern establishment of official records for manned
spacecraft. The first record to be recognized must be at least 100 km, and
later records must exceed existing record by 10 percent. Four categories
for records are duration of flight, altitude without orbiting earth,
altitude in orbit, and mass lifted above 100 km.

October 10: Interagency meeting on the establishment of an operational
meteorological satellite system was held at NASA Headquarters.

October 11: USAF SAMOS I launched from Vandenberg AFB, but failed to orbit.

October 12: Dr. T. Keith Glennan, NASA Administrator, announced that
communications satellites developed by private companies on a commercial
basis would be launched by NASA at cost to assist private industry in
developing a communications network.

---: Heavy-equipment parachute drop record of 41,740 pounds, from Lockheed
C-130 Hercules transport to ground at El Centro, Calif.

October 13: USAF Atlas launched at AMR placed nose cone containing three
black mice 650 miles up and 5,000 miles downrange at 17,000 mph. Nose cone
was recovered in target area near Ascension Island, the three mice
surviving the flight in "good condition."

---: Transmitter of EXPLORER VII failed to stop as programmed.

---: Camera mounted in nose of Atlas photographed stars at 700-mile
altitude, providing first color picture of the earth from 600-mile
altitude.

October 15-18: Four operational-type Polaris missiles successfully launched
from submerged Patrick Henry off the Florida coast.

October 17: Project Mercury weather support group established at NASA's
request in the Office of Meteorological Research of the Weather Bureau.

October 18: Second Iris rocket rose to 140 miles with a payload of 125
pounds from Walloops Station.

October 19: Kiwi-A No. 3 static test of nuclear rocket propulsion was
successfully conducted at AEC Nevada test site, resulting in NASA-AEC call
for bids for industrial development phase of Project Rover on November 1,
1960.

---: NASA announced award of preliminary design contracts for solid-fuel
rockets with thrusts between 2 and 15 million pounds to Aerojet-General,
Grand Central, and Thiokol.

---: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden received the Elliot Cresson Medal of the Franklin
Institute.

October 21: FCC received formal application of American Telephone &
Telegraph for authority to operate a communications satellite.

October 23: COURIER I-B stopped transmitting, but radio tracking beacon
continued to function. In 18 days it had transmitted 118 million words.

October 24: Titan ICBM fired 6,100 miles, 100 miles longer than any
previous shot, with tactical-type nose cone.

October 25: NASA selected Convair, General Electric, and Martin to conduct
individual feasibility studies of an advanced manned spacecraft as part of
Project Apollo.

October 26: USAF DISCOVERER XVI successfully launched with new payload, but
failed to go into polar orbit.

October 27: Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) changed its name
to the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences.

October 31: DOD ordered a stepup in development of the mach 3 B-70
supersonic bomber.

---: USAF announced consideration of proposals for "aerospace plane"
capable of scooping up tons of oxygen in upper atmosphere before space
flight, then reentering for landing as an airplane.

During October: Construction of space simulator began at Rye Canyon
Research Center of Lockheed for study of disintegration of materials at
simulated 800,000 feet at temperature of -320o F.

---: Structures Research Division of NASA Langley continued ablation
studies begun in 1956 with electric arc-powered jet, achieving 9,000o F for
105 seconds on an illustrative test.

November 2: Lunar atlas prepared for USAF by group under technical
direction of G. P. Kuiper was released, an "Orthographic Atlas of the Moon"
charted 5,000 base points combined with best available photos and grids.

November 3: EXPLORER VIII launched into an elliptical orbit from AMR by
four-stage Juno II, containing instrumentation for detailed measurements of
the ionosphere. This was the 10th time that JPL-developed upper stage
rocket clusters had successfully placed satellites or deep space probes
into orbit.

November 4: New results in sustaining hydrogen fusion for 1 millisecond at
60o F reported by University of California scientists.

November 5: Operational date of first Minuteman squadron advanced a full
year to July 1962 by USAF.

November 6: U.S.S.R. published atlas on the far side of the moon based on
LUNIK III photographs.

---: Japanese Space Development Council recommended initiation of basic
studies for launching an earth satellite.

November 8: USAF Blue Scout Junior with radiation-study payload reached
24,500-mile altitude, but second stage did not burn full program.

---: NASA LITTLE JOE test flight of Mercury capsule, capsule did not
separate from booster.

November 9: NRL Aerobee-Hi collected data on ultraviolet radiation in the
night sky 131 miles above WSPG.

---: Post Office Department transmitted a "speed mail" letter from
Washington to Newark, N.J., by bouncing microwave transmission off ECHO I.

Early November: NASA-DOD Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating Board
(AACB) and cognizant members agreed that NASA could drop the tracking light
geodetic satellite and utilize other space projects to obtain geodetic data
for the scientific community.

November 10: Advanced Polaris (A-2) successfully launched on record
1,600-mile flight at AMR.

---: Department of Defense placed Navy's SPASUR (Space Surveillance
Detection Net) and the Air Force's SPACETRACK (National Space Surveillance
Control Center) under the North American Air Defense Command for military
functions. NASA would assume SPACETRACK's function of passing on
information on space vehicles to the world's scientific community.

November 12: DISCOVERER XVII placed into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB,
restartable Agenda B second stage successfully flown for the first time.

---: Navy announced development of techniques for low-cost
satellite-launching facilities from airplanes, barges, ships, or from
underwater.

November 14: Capsule DISCOVERER XVII ejected after 31 orbits and
successfully snared at 9,000 feet by USAF C-119 aircraft, the second such
recovery in midair of a space object.

---: IGY Warning Center reported that solar flares were causing "extremely
severe" magnetic disturbance of the earth's atmosphere, an event detected
by EXPLORER VII and later analyzed as greatest burst of solar radiation in
the satellite's 13 months of operation.

---: DOD announced that NASA, USAF, USA, and USN were jointly building a
geodetic satellite to map the earth accurately.

---: USAF reported that printed messages and weather maps had been sent up
to 900 miles by bouncing radio signals off meteor trails.

---: First letter carried by satellite mail (31 orbits and a distance of
about a million miles), a letter from USAF Chief of Staff to the Secretary
of Defense carried in capsule recovered from DISCOVERER XVII.

November 15: X-15 (No. 2) with new XLR-99 engine (57,000-pound thrust)
flown to nearly 80,000 feet and 2,000 mph on first test flight by A. Scott
Crossfield at Edwards AFB, Calif. Earlier interim engine, XLR-11 with
one-quarter of the thrust of the XLR-99, had pushed the X-15 to new world
speed and altitude records of 2,196 mph and 136,500 feet.

---: Prof. A. Gib DuBusk, geneticist at Florida State University, reported
that bread mold specimens, rocketed to 1,200-mile altitude on Argo D-8
capsule on September 19, had shown 30 times as many changes as control
cells.

---: USAF Mace-B flight tested 1,000 miles.

---: Data capsule fired 5,000 miles downrange from AMR by Atlas ICBM, which
was recovered 1 hour later.

---: Aerobee-Hi launched to 145-mile altitude from NASA Wallops Station,
Va.

November 17: NASA established Test Support Office at the Pacific Missile
Range (PMR), to function under Launch Operations Directorate, Marshall
Space Flight Center.

---: Last test of Polaris (A-1, 1,300-mile series) from AMR unsuccessful.

---: U.S. proposed upper atmosphere rocket probes from Woomera Rocket Range
in Australia.

November 19: Albert Hibbs of JPL reported that EXPLORER I had also
discovered clouds of cosmic dust in its orbit, information found by
continued examination of data obtained during 4 months of payload
transmission after launch on January 31, 1958. EXPLORER I remained orbit.

November 21: Mercury Redstone flight test (MR-I) at AMR terminated prior to
liftoff because of faulty ground-support circuitry which had not been noted
on some 60 previous Redstone firings.

---: 500-pound capsule of USAF launched to 32-mile altitude and recovered
intact by means of drag balloon and parachute known as the "Ballute"
system.

November 22: India and United States announced joint program of some 40
high-altitude balloon flights from India, starting in December.

---: Aerobee-Hi fired to 105-mile altitude from NASA Wallops Station with
four stellar spectrometers developed for an experiment by the University of
Rochester's Institution of Optics.

---: National Science Foundation announced that the National Center for
Atmospheric Research, operated by a group of universities, would be sited
at Table Mountain, near Boulder, Colo. Walter Orr Roberts was named as
Director of this NSF Center which will do fundamental research and serve as
a coordinating center for a network of atmospheric investigations.

---: ARPA technical advisory group established to facilitate exchange of
information between technical management and research personnel on Project
Defender.

November 23: X-15 (No. 2) flown on second test flight with XLR-99 engine by
A. Scott Crossfield, restarting the engine in flight for the first time.

---: TIROS II weather satellite launched by Thor-Delta at AMR, the 14th
successful U.S. satellite launched to date in 1960.

---: In a letter to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical
and Space Sciences, NASA Administrator Glennan defined low-altitude (orbits
of 2,000 to 6,000 miles) active communications satellite development to
"stimulate those developments which promise early benefits to our
citizens."

---: Plastic balloon launched from Sioux Falls, S. Dak., with University of
Michigan instrument package designed to take cloud pictures to compare with
those taken by cameras in TIROS II.

November 25: NASA scientists increased the speed of spin of TIROS II by
means of ground radio command.

November 27: Report of the President's Commission on National Goals was
released, which stated that the United States "should be highly selective
in our space objectives and unexcelled in their pursuit. Prestige arises
from sound accomplishment, not from the merely spectacular, and we must not
be driven by nationalistic competition into programs so extravagant as to
divert funds and talents from programs of equal or greater importance...."

November 28: Discussions on creation of an European space research
organization undertaken by scientific representatives of Belgium, Denmark,
France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland,
and the United Kingdom, with an observer from Spain.

---: TIROS II had successfully transmitted 998 pictures to receiving
stations at Fort Monmouth, N.J., and San Nicholas Island, Calif., 85
percent of narrow angle and 5 to 10 percent of the wideangle pictures
having some value.

November 28-December 3: Space Research Symposium sponsored by Argentina in
which Dr. Hugh Dryden and other U.S. scientists participated.

November 30: TRANSIT III-A navigation satellite, with two instrumented
payloads, was destroyed 40 minutes after launch from AMR by Thor-Able-Star
booster.

During November: Under arrangements of the AACB (Aeronautics and
Astronautics Coordinating Board), NASA will utilize existing NASA tracking
stations for initial Centaur development vehicles and switch to the Advent
network (which is to be planned, funded, and constructed by DOD) when
Centaur is operational, perhaps as early as the fourth of 10 development
launchings of Centaur.

December 1: SPACECRAFT III launched by U.S.S.R., weighing over 5 tons and
carrying a biological payload in its "space cabin."

---: USAF delivered to JPL the first 1:1,000,000 scale map of the lunar
landing site selected by NASA, the second in a continuing series of
1:1,000,000 charts prepared on USAF contract in response to NASA
requirements.

---: Army Nike-Zeus A-ICBM missile with guidance successfully test fired
from WSPG.

---: Delegates of 11 Western European nations approved an agreement aimed
at establishing an organization for space research. Proposed
intergovernmental agency would concentrate on satellites rather than
rockets for launch vehicles.

December 2: First of new series of static firings of Saturn considered only
50 percent successful in 2-second test at MSFC.

---: Human tissues exposed to heavy radiation during 50-hour flight of
recovered DISCOVERER XVII capsule according to USAF.

December 3: Moscow Radio reported that SPACECRAFT III descended along an
"uncalculated trajectory" and burned up in the dense atmosphere.

---: Titan ICBM exploded in its silo at Vandenberg AFB during night fueling
operations.

---: Senate Committee on Science and Astronautics issued staff study
entitled "Policy Planning for Space Communications," which stated that the
United States "must have a unified policy which effectively coordinates all
our diverse and extensive resources in this area."

December 4: American Bar Association's "Report to NASA on the Law of Outer
Space" was released, which contained collation of legal opinion on the
broad spectrum of space activities.

---: Attempt to launch a Beacon satellite with a four-stage
solid-propellant Scout from Wallops Station did not succeed due to failure
of second stage.

December 5: Polaris A-2 successfully test fired 1,400 nautical miles down
AMR.

---: USAF completed Snark R&D program with a 5,000-mile flight from Cape
Canaveral.

December 6: Civil Service Commission approved new examination for career
professional positions in aerospace technology, part A covering work in the
physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics, and part B covering work
in the life sciences and related systems.

December 7: DISCOVERER XVIII launched into polar orbit by new Thor-Agena B
from Vandenberg AFB, carrying surveillance-system equipment and human
tissue in recovery capsule.

---: X-15 (No. 2) flown on final contractor's test flight by a Scott
Crossfield, making two midair engine shutdowns and restarts.

December 7-10: Series of upper atmosphere sounding rockets from NASA
Wallops Station, sodium vapor being ejected at about 212 miles altitude and
a lithium flare released near peak altitude of about 450 miles to measure
wind velocities and temperatures.

December 9: X-15 made first flight with ball-shaped "hot nose," reaching
50,000 feet and 1,254 mph, NASA's Neil Armstrong making his second
familiarization flight.

---: Tory IIA reactor, part of AEC-USAF Pluto program to demonstrate
feasibility of nuclear ramjet propulsion, achieved criticality of 1-watt
nominal power, and later in day was run up to 200 watts.

December 10: 300-pound capsule of DISCOVERER XVIII caught at 14,000 feet by
USAF C-119 crew, after making 48 polar orbits. Capsule contained human
eye-lid tissue and blood and bone marrow to study effect of radiation in
space. This was the second DISCOVERER capsule catch by C-119 crew headed by
Capt. Gene Jones, while precision of the entire operation beginning with
launch 3 days previous was considered the most successful to date.

December 11: SAM scientists reported that human tissue recovered from the
capsule of DISCOVERER XVII after about 50 hours on 31 orbits (November 14),
survived radiation in space, including that generated by one of the largest
solar storms ever observed.

December 12: SAM scientists at Brooks AFB reported that biological
specimens including human tissue recovered from the capsule of DISCOVERER
XVIII two days ago, showed far less radiation effects than specimens
recovered from DISCOVERER XVII in November.

---: Initial flight test of new guidance system of Army Pershing missile
successful.

December 13: North American A3-J Vigilante set a world altitude record with
1,000 kilogram payload of 91,450.8 feet, Comdr. Leroy Heath (USN) as pilot.

---: Palaemon, a 180-foot barge built to transport the Saturn launch
vehicle from MSFC to Cape Canaveral by water, was formally accepted by MSFC
Director from Maj. Gen. Frank S. Besson, Chief of Army Transportation.

December 14: USAF B-52G completed 10,000-mile nonstop flight without
refueling in 19 hours and 45 minutes, at Edwards AFB, which broke world and
jet distance records over a closed course without refueling.

December 15: Atlas-Able launch vehicle with NASA cislunar spacecraft
exploded 70 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral.

December 16: Scientists from Great Britain and NASA completed a series of
meetings leading to planning for British scientific satellite to be flown
on a Scout vehicle.

---: Atlas-D with Mark 3 nose cone fired 4,384 nautical miles into Eniwetok
Atoll in first SAC launching from Vandenberg AFB.

---: AEC-NASA Nuclear Propulsion Office announced selection of TALANT
industrial team proposal to conduct study of the requirements for a
National Nuclear Rocket Engine Development Facility.

December 17: National Science Foundation announced grants totaling $22.7
million to support summer institutes for 20,000 teachers of science,
mathematics, and engineering in high schools and colleges.

December 19: Unmanned Project Mercury spacecraft launched by modified
Redstone booster (MR-1) in a suborbital trajectory, impacting 235 miles
downrange after reaching an altitude of 135 miles and a speed of near 4,200
mph. Capsule was recovered about 50 minutes after firing.

---: Secretariat of COSPAR released official Soviet data on 27 U.S.S.R.
rockets launched in a series of high-altitude experiments from a research
ship in the Pacific, and a total of 73 rocket launchings in the first half
of the year 1960.

December 20: USAF DISCOVERER XIX successfully launched into polar orbit
from PMR carrying Project Midas test payload.

---: President-elect Kennedy announced that Vice President-elect Lyndon B.
Johnson would chair the National Aeronautics and Space Council.

---: Founded in 1912 by Glenn. L. Martin, the Martin Co. delivered its last
airplane, a P5M-2, to the Navy, having produced more than 12,000 aircraft
and entering the missile-space business with the NRL Viking research rocket
in 1948.

---: Second stage of near-operational Titan ICBM failed to ignite over Cape
Canaveral.

December 21: Space Technology Laboratories was selected by NASA for
contract negotiations for an orbiting geophysical observatory (OGO)
satellite program. To be managed by GSFC, OGO will be NASA's first
standardized satellite, often referred to as the "streetcar" satellite,
capable of placing 50 different geophysical experiments on any one flight.

---: Eight-engine cluster of Saturn successfully static fired for 65
seconds at MSFC, the firing generating 1,300,000 pounds of thrust.

December 22: Nuclear submarine Robert E. Lee fired Polaris A-1 IRBM 1,300
miles in an Atlantic shot.

December 23: Goddard Space Flight Center scientists, Robert Jastrow and
Robert Bryant, reported that atmospheric drag acting on ECHO I during the
severe solar storm of November 12, was increased by about a factor of two.
Scientists had previously noted the rise and fall of the density of the
upper atmosphere, and the heating effect of a solar flare had been noted on
the orbit of SPUTNIK III in 1959.

December 25: Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced selection of Blaw-Knox
Equipment, Hughes Aircraft, North American Aviation, and Westinghouse
Electric to study feasibility of a large space-tracking antenna.

December 26: Successful firing of a solid-propellant rocket motor using
"building block" method was announced by NASA.

December 27: EXPLORER VIII ceased transmitting ionospheric measurement data
acquired in 20,866,706 miles and 694.3 orbits, which produced more than 700
miles of magnetic tape since launch on November 3.

December 28: U.S. Weather Bureau sent TIROS II cloud-cover picture to
Australia, which was taken over the Indian and South Pacific Oceans and
served as a basis for forecasting a break in severe heat wave.

December 29: Dr. T. Keith Glennan offered his resignation as Administrator
of NASA, to be effective January 20, 1961.

December 31: To date, the United States had successfully launched 31 earth
satellites (9 of 16 still in orbit were still transmitting) and 2 deep
space probes into orbit around the sun. The U.S.S.R. had launched seven
satellites (one of which remained in orbit) and one deep space probe. The
U.S.S.R. had also launched one lunar impact mission (LUNIK II), while LUNIK
III had passed once around the moon and then went into earth orbit before
decaying.

During 1960: World Data Center A, Rockets and Satellites, of the National
Academy of Sciences, continued to provide a means for international
exchange of scientific data.

---: JPL turned the Army Sergeant missile over to Sperry Gyroscope Co. as
production contractor.

---: Through a contract with the University of Chicago, the USAF's
Aeromedical Field Laboratory and Missile Test Center developed a system for
ascertaining the types and intensities of primary cosmic particles in
space.

---: NASA launching record for the year: 22 major space flight attempts,
over two-thirds of which were fully successful.

---: World's scheduled airlines (excluding U.S.S.R. and Communist China)
carried 108 million passengers during the year according to ICAO, the first
year air passenger traffic exceeded 100 million persons.

For further information contact Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov



               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of January-March 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 1-13.

                                JANUARY 1961

January 1: White House statement of President Eisenhower issued, stating
that "the early establishment of a communication satellite system which can
be used on a commercial basis is a national objective."

---: Project Ice Way was established near Thule by the Geophysics Research
Directorate of the Cambridge Research Laboratories to test the feasibility
of landing heavy aircraft on ice runways. The tests, completed in June
1961, demonstrated the strength and other engineering qualities of the ice
runways constructed of natural sea water or reinforced with strands of
Fiberglas.

Early January: Because of the danger of a power drain in connection with
remote (tape recorder) operation, the wide-angle camera of Tiros II was
turned on only for direct readout, while satellite passed over Fort
Monmouth and Point Arguello.

January 3: NASA's Space Task Group, charged with carrying out Project
Mercury and other manned space flight programs, officially became a
separate NASA field element.

---: NASA awarded contract to General Electric for an investigation of
means of storing solar heat energy in satellites.

January 4: Ablation model test with electric arc attained 4,000 F for 105
seconds at Langley Research Center, one of a series of tests begun in
September 1960.

January 5: Turbofan-powered B-52H Boeing bomber, with two prototype Douglas
Skybolt air-launched 1,000-mile-range ballistic missiles under each wing,
was rolled out of the factory at Wichita, Kans.

January 7: USAF Blue Scout I reached near 1,000-mile altitude with 90-pound
data capsule from Atlantic Missile Range.

January 9: Jet Propulsion Laboratory awarded contract to Beckman
Instruments for design studies on equipment to analyze the surface of the
Moon.

---: Japanese scientist associated with Radio Research Laboratories of the
Japanese Ministry of Communications began studies of space communications
at NASA's Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Tracking Station.

January 10: President-elect Kennedy received report of special nine-man
committee on the national space program. Chairman of the committee was Dr.
Jerome B. Wiesner of MIT.

---: A Polaris missile of the advanced A-2 design was fired from Cape
Canaveral 1,600 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. It was the third
success in as many firings for the new Polaris designed to operate at a
range over 1,700 miles.

January 11: President-elect Kennedy announced that Jerome B. Wiesner of MIT
would be special assistant to the President for science and technology.

January 12: President Eisenhower in his state of the Union address to
Congress reviewed U.S. progress in space exploration, stating, "These
achievements unquestionably make us pre-eminent in space exploration for
the betterment of mankind."

---: Joint DOD-NASA release outlined actions of the Aeronautics and
Astronautics Coordinating Board (AACB) since its creation in September
1960.

---: First Italian launching of scientific sounding rocket in cooperative
program with United States, a Nike-Cajun launched from a range in Sardinia
to a height of over 100 miles, and released a cloud of sodium vapor visible
for many miles.

January 13: Convair B-58 Hustler, jet bomber powered by four GE J-79
engines, broke six world speed records, Maj. H. J. Deutschendorf, U.S. Air
Force, as pilot. On first closed-course run, the Hustler averaged 1,200.194
miles per hour, and it averaged 1,061.808 miles per hour on both runs
carrying a payload of 4,408 pounds and a crew of three.

---: NASA announced that a Life Sciences Research Laboratory would be
established on February 1 at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,
Calif.

January 15: NASA began negotiations with French Commission for Spatial and
Scientific Research for conducting a cooperative Franco-American space
program.

January 16: FCC first allocated radio frequencies to private industry (ITT)
for experiments in bouncing signals off the Moon and artificial satellites.

---: In the message of President Eisenhower accompanying his budget for
fiscal year 1962, it was said: "In the program of manned space flight, the
reliability of complex booster capsule escape and life support components
of the Mercury system is now being tested to assure a safe manned ballistic
flight into space, and hopefully a manned orbital flight in calendar year
1961. Further test and experimentation will be necessary to establish if
there are any valid scientific reasons for extending manned space flight
beyond the Mercury program."

---: Final assembly of first Saturn flight vehicle (SA-1) was completed.

January 17: First invention award under the authority of the National
Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 given to Dr. Frank T. McClure of the
Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins for his satellite Doppler
navigation system, the $3,000 award being presented by NASA Administrator
Glennan at NASA headquarters.

January 19: Report of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of
Sciences stated that life in some form on other planets of the solar system
may possibly exist, but that evidence of this is not available today.

---: Iris rocket, new solid-propellent single-stage sounding rocket, failed
to attin programmed flight from Wallops Island, reaching only 86 miles'
altitude instead of 160 miles.

January 19: NASA selected Hughes Aircraft Co. for placing of a major
subcontract by Jet Propulsion Laboratory to build seven Surveyor spacecraft
designed for soft landings on the Moon.

---: Marshall Space Flight Center awarded contract to Douglas and Chance
Vought to study launching manned exploratory expedition into lunar and
interplanetary space from Earth orbits.

---: Federal Communications Commission allocated a radio frequency to the
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. to establish the first space satellite
communications link between Europe and the United States on an experimental
basis, a program calling for NASA launching of a series of experimental
communication satellites capable of relaying telephone calls, television
programs, and other messages across the Atlantic.

---: NASA announced indefinite suspension of the programming of the
wide-angle camera in Tiros II, the experimental weather observation
satellite launched on November 23, 1960.

January 20: United States and United Kingdom signed formal agreement
covering minitrack station at Winkfield, England.

---: Under NASA contract, United Technology Corp. successfully completed
ground tests of three 15,000-pound thrust segmented solid-propellent
rockets. Each was made up of three 1,000-pound sections which were joined
prior to firing.

---: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) awarded contracts to North
American Aviation and Ryan Aeronautical to develop paraglider recovery
system for the Saturn booster, based upon concept developed by Francis M.
Rogallo of NASA's Langley Research Center.

---: Headline news in Moscow was detailed Tass announcement that Strelka,
one of two female dogs recovered from orbiting Spacecraft II in August
1960, had given birth to six puppies in good health. Pravda had announced 3
weeks earlier that one of the satellite-passenger dogs had given birth.

January 23: Final test flight of USAF Atlas D traveled 5,000 miles to
target down Atlantic Missile Range, representing 35 successes, 8 partials,
and 6 failures in 49 test launchings for D model.

---: NASA selected United Aircraft to make feasibility study of ion rocket
application for long space flights.

January 24: NASA outlined specifications for a low-altitude active
communications satellite Project Relay at Goddard Space Flight Center.

January 25: NASA awarded contract to Lockheed for a spaceship refueling
study.

---: NASA distributed to the world scientific community, through COSPAR, a
detailed description of the next planned Beacon satellite experiment.

---: NASA revealed it had selected 12 women airplane pilots to undergo
tests to determine space flight research capability.

---: Assembly of Ranger I was completed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

---: Titan II selected as launch vehicle for Dyna-Soar I by USAF.

January 29: NASA announced establishment of Goddard Institute for Space
Studies (GISS) in New York City, which would be an extension of the
Theoretical Division of Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. It will
be headed by Dr. Robert Jastrow.

January 30: President Kennedy stated in his state of the Union address to
Congress: "This administration intends to explore promptly all possible
areas of cooperation with the Soviet Union and other nations to invoke the
wonders of science instead of its terrors. Specifically, I now invite all
nationsincluding the Soviet Unionto join with us in developing a weather
prediction program, in a new communication satellite program, and in
preparation for probing the distant planets of Mars and Venus, probes which
may some day unlock the deepest secrets of the universe."

---: James E. Webb nominated as Administrator of NASA by President Kennedy.

January 30-February 2: Conference of 12 European nations held at Strasbourg
to discuss a British and French proposal for a European satellite launcher
development program.

January 31: USAF Samos II, a 4,100-pound test satellite containing
photographic equipment, placed in orbit by Atlas-Agena A from Point
Arguello, Calif.

---: Mercury-Redstone (MR-2) flight from Atlantic Missile Range shot
Mercury capsule containing chimpanzee named Ham to 157 miles altitude and
418 miles down range. Capsule with life-support equipment functioned well
but flight was 42 miles higher and 125 miles farther than programmed. Ham
was recovered in good health.

---: An eight-engine static test firing of the Saturn test booster (Sa-T1)
for 113 seconds was completed at Marshall Space Flight Center.

During January: International Committee on Geophysics, successor
organization to the IGY, meeting in Paris, endorsed proposal for Quiet Sun
Year during 1964-65. (IGY had been selected for its intense sunspot
activity.)

---: NASA internal studies of a manned lunar landing program were
completed. Studies considered both the direct ascent based on a large
Nova-type launch vehicle and the rendezvous method of earth orbit using a
number of Saturn C-2's.

---: Experiments with Echo I were discontinued except for occasional
checks, having provided for innumerous communications since launch on
August 12, 1960.

---: Wind tunnel testing of model of the first Saturn (SA-1) began at
Arnold Engineering Development Center at Tullahoma, Tenn.

---: Explosions of Centaur engines at Pratt & Whitney led to suspension of
testing.

                               FEBRUARY 1961

February 1: Life Sciences Laboratory established by NASA at Ames Research
Center to augment, lead, direct, encourage, and coordinate biomedical
research related to the space program.

---: X-15 (No. 1) flown to 49,780 feet by John B. McKay, NASA test pilot,
at Edwards, Calif.

---: USAF Minuteman successful on first test launch from AFMTC, a
three-stage solid-propellent ICBM with full guidance, all tested on its
first launching.

---: The space surveillance system (Spasur) was formally commissioned at
the Naval Weapons Laboratory, Dahlgren, Va., under the operational control
of the North American Defense Command.

February 2: NASA-AEC Space Nuclear Propulsion Office invited industry to
submit proposals for participation in development of Nerva (nuclear engine
for rocket vehicle application), a part of Project Rover initiated in 1955
by USAF-AEC.

---: Nomination of James E. Webb to be Administrator of NASA reported
favorably by the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

---: Dr. T. Keith Glennan was named consultant to the Senate Committee on
Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

---: NASA announced that it would negotiate with Boeing Co., Chance Vought
Corp., and Martin Co., for tanks for five first-stage Saturn launch
vehicles. It later announced additional selection of Chrysler Corp.

February 4: Sputnik IV launched into orbit by U.S.S.R., a 7.1-ton payload,
but mission of flight was not announced.

---: Plans to launch a Japanese Kappa 6 sounding rocket within a year
announced by Yugoslavia.

February 5: Orientation of Tiros II made it impossible to obtain Northern
Hemisphere pictures and malfunctions made remote picture taking
undesirable, so that use of satellite's cameras was suspended until orbit
precession again made Northern Hemisphere pictures possible.

February 6: NASA Aerobee-Hi successfully reached 96 miles above Wallops
Station in test of behavior of liquid hydrogen in zero gravity for Lewis
Research Center hydrogen propulsion development.

February 7: X-15 flown to unofficial record 2,275 miles per hour by Maj.
Robert White, U.S. Air Force.

February 7-8: Meeting of NASA and contractor personnel held at NASA
headquarters to review Centaur development program.

February 8: When asked at press conference about U.S. man-in-space plans,
President Kennedy stated: "We are very concerned that we do not put a man
in space in order to gain some prestige and have the man take a
disproportionate risk . . . even if we should come in second in putting a
man in space, I will still be satisfied if when we finally put a man in
space his chances of survival are as high as I think they must be."

February 8: NAA delivered X-15 No. 2 with XLR-99 engine to NASA for the
initiation of the NASA flight research program.

February 9: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory reported that Earth is a
slightly irregular ellipsoid according to new calculations.

---: James E. Webb confirmed by the Senate as Administrator of NASA.

---: Gen. Thomas D. White, USAF Chief of Staff, ordered space surveillance
functions transferred from Air Research and Development Command to the Air
Defense Command at Ent Air Force Base, Colo., as technology in this field
moved from research and development to an operational stage. The ADC
established Spadats (space detection and tracking system).

February 10: Voice message sent from Washington to Woomera, Australia, by
way of the Moon. NASA Deputy Administrator Dryden spoke on telephone to
Goldstone, Calif., which "bounced" it to the deep space instrumentation
station at Woomera. The operation was held as part of the official opening
ceremony of the deep space instrumentation facility site in Australia.

---: First static test of prototype thrust chamber of F-1 engine achieved a
thrust of 1,550,000 pounds for a few seconds, at Edwards, Calif.

---: Three-day meeting of Satellite Panel of the World Meteorological
Organization concluded at Washington, D.C., minus participation by the
Soviet member.

February 10-11: Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences
worked out recommendation that "scientific exploration of the Moon and
planets should be clearly stated as the ultimate objective of the U.S.
space program for the foreseeable future." This report was submitted to the
President on March 31 and was released publicly on August 6.

February 12: Sputnik VIII launched into Earth orbit by U.S.S.R., from which
it placed 1,419-pound Venus probe on its course.

February 13: USAF Gam-83B, modification of Navy Bullpup, a solid-propellent
air-to-surface missile, was successfully launched at supersonic speed by an
F-100 Supersabre.

February 14: NASA Nike-Cajun rocket launched from Wallops Station, carrying
60-pound payload ejecting explosive charges, which fired at intervals from
20- to 80-mile altitude to provide data on density of the atmosphere.

---: Last of second series of static firings of Saturn completed at
Marshall Space Flight Center for 110 seconds, approximately full duration.

---: President Kennedy congratulated Premier Khrushchev on the Soviet
Union's "impressive scientific achievement" in launching a space probe
toward the planet Venus.

---: NASA selected Flight Propulsion Department, General Electric, for
negotiation of 18-month contract to study heatflow characteristics of
fluids in nuclear powerplants.

---: NASA and United Kingdom agreed to establish joint program to test
communications satellites to be launched by NASA in 1962 and 1963 in
Projects Relay and Rebound.

February 15: U.S.S.R. reportedly made first photos of solar eclipse from a
vehicle in space, in report later released on May 28.

---: James E. Webb was sworn in as NASA Administrator.

February 16: NASA Explorer IX placed in orbit by four-stage Scout booster
from Wallops Station, the first satellite launching from Wallops, and the
first satellite boosted by a solid-fuel rocket. Explorer IX was a 12-foot
diameter sphere after inflation at orbital altitude.

---: NASA and France agreed to establish joint program to test
communications satellites to be launched by NASA in 1962 and 1963 in
Projects Relay and Rebound.

February 17: "Polka dot" Explorer IX found in orbit by visual and
photographic means after failure of radio beacon delayed confirmation of
orbit.

---: USAF Discoverer XX placed in polar orbit with 300-pound recovery
capsule from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

---: NASA negotiated $400,000 contract with G. T. Schjeldahl Co. to design,
develop, fabricate, and test rigidized inflatable spheres for Project Echo,
the passive communications satellite program.

---: The last successful communication with the U.S.S.R. Venus probe was
made.

February 18: USAF Discoverer XXI fired into polar orbit, and Agena B
restarted in flight after first orbit.

February 20: Navy told the House Committee on Science and Astronautics that
Polaris could be used as a mobile satellite launch vehicle.

February 21: NASA Space Task Group selected John H. Glenn, Jr., Virgil I.
Grissom, and Alan B. Shepard, Jr., to begin special training for first
manned Mercury space flight.

---: Navy Transit III-B with Lofti piggyback satellite placed into orbit by
Thor-Able-Star launch vehicle, but satellites did not separate.

---: USAF canceled recovery operations of Discoverer XX capsule due to
technical difficulties.

---: NASA awarded contract to G. T. Schjeldahl Co. for nine inflatable
spheres for Echo program.

---: Titan ICBM completed 5,000-mile flight, the 20th success in 29 tests.

---: MA-2 launch from Cape Canaveral, trajectory providing rugged test of
the Mercury capsule.

February 22: French Veronique launched capsule containing rat (Hector) to
95-mile altitude, recovered successfully.

February 23: NASA Administrator James E. Webb and Deputy Secretary of
Defense Roswell Gilpatric signed letter of understanding confirming the
national launch vehicle program, the integrated development and procurement
of space boosters by NASA and DOD. It was agreed that neither DOD nor NASA
would initiate the development of a launch vehicle or booster for use in
space without written acknowledgement of the other agency.

---: Proposed DOD Directive entitled "Development of Space Systems" was
submitted to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military services for
comment by March 2.

---: Tiros II completed 3 months in orbit, continuing useful observations
beyond original estimate of useful life.

February 24: NASA Juno II launched S-45 I ionosphere beacon satellite which
did not achieve orbit due to malfunction shortly after booster separation.

February 25: Paul F. Bikle set world glider altitude record of 46,267 feet
in Schweizer 1-23-E sailplane, beating record of 42,100 feet set by W. S.
Ivans in 1950. Bikle is Director of NASA Flight Research Center, Edwards,
Calif., which is conducting the X-15 flight research program.

February 26: Sputnik IV, launched on February 4, reentered the Earth's
atmosphere.

February 27: FCC-NASA memorandum of understanding for delineating and
coordinating civil communication space activities signed. It stated that
"earliest practicable realization of a commercially operable communication
satellite system is a national objective."

---: NASA released "Evaluation of U.S.S.R. versus U.S. Output in Space
Science," a study prepared for the House Committee on Science and
Astronautics.

February 28: NASA Administrator James E. Webb stated that President Kennedy
had ordered a thorough review of the Nation's space programs.

During February: Acoustic test chamber for recording sound of rocket
operations and to study human stress limits completed at Environmental
Simulation Laboratory, Naval Missile Center, at Pacific Missile Range.

---: Japanese space science survey team toured NASA facilities.

---: Bell Telephone Laboratories and General Electric conducted a "phase
stability" experiment on Echo I, the results indicating that the sphere was
keeping its "roundness" much longer than anticipated.

---: NASA-USAF returned X-15 No. 1 to contractor (NAA) for installation of
final engine of 57,000-pound thrust.

                                 MARCH 1961

March 2: Tass announced that radio contact with the Soviet Venus probe
could not be established on February 27.

---: The fourth firing of an advanced Polaris A-2, and the first from a
ship, was made by the U.S.S. Observation Island as she cruised at 8 knots,
10 miles offshore from Cape Canaveral.

---: The President's Scientific Advisory Committee on Project Mercury
visited Atlantic Missile Range for a briefing.

March 3: USAF Blue Scout II carried 172-pound payload to 1,580 miles
altitude from Atlantic Missile Range.

March 6: First NASA Agena B vehicle entered checkout of systems and
subsystems at Lockheed, Sunnyvale, Calif.; vehicle scheduled to launch
Ranger I.

---: Department of Defense decision indicated that perfected military space
vehicles would be assigned to each service which demonstrated an
operational need for them, thus giving USAF major responsibility for
military space development.

---: Direct-mode pictures by Tiros II camera were resumed after a month of
inoperation. The quality of the pictures showed some slight improvement,
supporting the theory that foreign matter may have been deposited on the
lens and was gradually evaporating.

---: Equipped with turbofan engines, B-52H made its first flight at
Wichita, Kans.

March 7: First flight model of Saturn booster (SA-1) installed on static
test stand for preflight checkout, Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville.

---: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center selected Chance Vought Corp. to
build 42 fuel and liquid oxygen tanks for the Saturn booster program.

---: Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force, flew X-15 a record speed of 2,905
miles per hour, topping his mark of 2,275 miles per hour set on February 7
with interim engine.

March 9: U.S.S.R. launched 5-ton Sputnik IV into orbit and recovered dog
passenger, the second time this feat was performed.

---: Harold B. Finger was appointed Assistant Director for Nuclear
Applications in NASA's Office of Launch Vehicle Programs, and continued as
Manager of the AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO).

---: Dr. Harold Brown, of University of California's Lawrence Radiation
Laboratories, was named Director of Research and Engineering for the
Department of Defense, to succeed Dr. Herbert F. York.

March 10: NASA announced first success in immediate detection in real time
of radar signals off planet Venus by Jet Propulsion Laboratory Goldstone,
as part of 2-month research program.

---: NASA and Navy jointly established development program to increase
payload capability of Scout vehicle by 40 percent by improved performance
of third- and fourth-stage engines.

---: NASA awarded contracts to Convair, Lockheed, and North American for
studies of space vehicles beyond the Saturn class, having first-stage
thrust of 6 to 12 million pounds.

---: National Meteorite Symposium held at Arizona State University, Tempe,
Ariz.

March 13: Soviet astronomers claimed to have discovered the presence of
oxygen in the atmosphere of Venus. Dr. Brian Warner of the London
Observatory correlated and reinterpreted spectrographic data gathered
earlier by Soviet Astronomer Nikolai Kozyrev.

---: An Atlas intended for 9,000-mile flight into the Indian Ocean plunged
into the Atlantic only 200 miles from Cape Canaveral.

March 14-15: United States and United Kingdom signed formal agreement
covering Mercury tracking stations on Bermuda.

Mid-March: Up to this time, approximately 78 percent of the wide-angle
photographs relayed from Tiros II (weather satellite) were considered
usable for current weather analysis.

March 15: NASA and United Kingdom's Space Sciences Committee agreed on
experiments to be included in the second United Kingdom satellite (launched
by NASA's Scout), the experiments being galactic noise, atmospheric ozone,
and micrometeoroids.

March 16: Scientists from Fordham University and Esso Research announced
that they had discovered waxy compounds inside a fragment of a meteorite
found near Orgueil, France, in 1864.

---: NASA Robert H. Goddard Space Flight Center officially dedicated at
Greenbelt, Md., dedication address delivered by Dr. Detlev Bronk, President
of the National Academy of Sciences. It was the 35th anniversary of Dr.
Goddard's successful launching of the world's first liquid fuel rocket.
Mrs. Robert H. Goddard accepted the congressional medal honoring her
husband.

March 17: Vanguard I completed third year in orbit and was still
transmitting. Vanguard I provided much useful data on orbits, including the
slight pear-shape of the Earth and the effect of solar pressure. Vanguard
also provided the second stage for the Able, Delta, and Able-Star, as well
as the third stage of Scout, pioneering solid-propellant stages used in
Polaris and Minuteman.

---: First Northrop T-38 supersonic jet trainer was delivered to USAF Air
Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base, Tex.

March 18: Little Joe 6 fired Mercury spacecraft from Wallops, resulted in
limited test of escape system because of unprogrammed sequence.

March 19: Problems with the shutter of the wind-angle camera of the Tiros
II were noted, but later disappeared and did not significantly affect data
from this camera.

---: Tiny particle of matter from another galaxy hit upper atmosphere of
the Earth over New Mexico at a speed close to that of light and split with
great force. Resultant particle shower numbered between 20 and 40 billion
pieces, according to scintillation counters at the Volcano Ranch Cosmic Ray
Research Center near Albuquerque, N. Mex.

March 20: Charles J. Dolan named Associate Director of NASA's Langley
Research Center. He had been associated with the NASA Space Task Group
since its formation at Langley in November 1958.

March 20-21: Representatives of NASA and the French Committee for Space
Research agreed on cooperative space science program in meeting at
Washington, D.C.

March 22: National Academy of Sciences' Geophysics Research Board announced
preliminary plans for an International Year of the Quiet Sun (IQSY) during
1964-65.

---: Dr. Edward C. Welsh, a former aid to Senator Symington, was nominated
by the President to be the Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics
and Space Council.

March 23: Responding to inquiry by the chairman of the House Science and
Astronautics Committee, President Kennedy stated in a letter: "It is not
now nor has it ever been my intention to subordinate the activities of
[NASA] to those of the Department of Defense . . . there are legitimate
missions in space for which the military services should assume
responsibility . . . [and there are] major missions, such as the scientific
unmanned and manned exploration of space and the application of space
technology to the conduct of peaceful activities, which should be carried
forward by the civilian space agency."

---: The first World Meteorological Day was observed by 50 nations under
sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization.

March 24: Mercury-Redstone successfully flew capsule in 115-mile flight
test at Atlantic Missile Range.

---: Tiros II completed 4 months in orbit and continued to provide useful
cloud picture and radiation data. Signal from Tiros II was used on 1,763d
orbit to trigger dynamite to break ground for new RCA Space Environment
Center at Princeton, N.J.

---: NASA and United Kingdom's Department of Science and Industrial
Research signed agreement covering data acquisition unit in Falkland
Islands for "topside sounder," a joint United States-Canada project.

March 25: NASA Thor-Delta fired Explorer X (P-14) into highly elliptical
orbit (apogee of 148,000 miles, perigee of 100 miles) with instruments to
transmit data on the nature of the magnetic fields and charged particles in
this region of space where the Earth's magnetic field merges with that in
interplanetary space.

---: Prof. Martin Schwarzschild, of Princeton University, named by the
National Academy of Sciences to receive the Henry Draper Medal for his work
as director of ONR's Project Stratoscope (produced clear photos of the
structure of the surface of the Sun).

---: U.S.S.R. launched Spacecraft V, a more than 5-ton payload, and
recovered capsule containing a dog named Little Star. This was apparently a
repeat of the March 9 shot.

March 26: NASA Aerobee research rocket with University of Michigan payload
shot to 252-mile altitude from Wallops Station.

---: Pravda article stated that the day was "not far distant when a Soviet
human being will rocket into space."

March 27: Budget Director David E. Bell made known to Joint Economic
Committee of Congress that the new administration would request for fiscal
year 1962 $125.67 million more for NASA (in addition to previous $1,110
million) and $65 million more for the National Science Foundation
(additional to $210 million).

March 27: President Kennedy initiated actions to speed up the development
of large boosters.

---: Dr. Carl Sagan, of the University of California, suggested that the
seeding of the atmosphere of Venus with algae might alter its atmosphere to
support human life.

---: Its instruments recording a magnetic impulse, Explorer X became the
first satellite to measure the shock wave generated by a solar flare.

March 28: USAF Dyna-Soar System Project Office personnel visited NASA
headquarters for review of technical and management programs.

---: President Kennedy requested Congress for $2 million so that NASA could
aid FAA in development of supersonic transport aircraft. President also
asked for $12 million increase in FAA budget.

---: NASA Goddard scientists reported that Explorer X had encountered
magnetic fields considerably stronger than expected in its elongated orbit
which carried it 112,500 miles from Earth (almost halfway to the Moon),
although it would take several weeks to analyze acquired data.

---: Soviet press conference at Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, at
which Biochemist N.M. Sisakian announced that all six of Strelka's pups, on
exhibit, were developing normally: "Our research on these animals, just
completed, has proved that no dangerous consequences to the functioning of
the organs have stemmed from the space flight. This problem has an
important bearing on our preparations for man's orbiting."

---: Alexander Topchiev, Vice Chairman of the Soviet Academy of Science,
stated in Moscow that Western reports that some Soviet astronauts had
perished in space flight attempt were "a complete fabrication . . .
entirely and absolutely unfounded." Occasion was press conference at the
Academy of Science on the subject of the imminent flight of man into space,
at which four space dogs and six offspring were televised.

---: Draft DOD directive on "Reconnaissance, Mapping, and Geodetic
Programs" (5160.34), relative to development of military space systems, was
sent to the services for comment.

March 29: At 280th session of disarmament conference at Geneva, Arthur H.
Dean presented U.S. proposal that a system of space satellites for
patrolling a ban on nuclear testing be fully operational 6 years after
ratification of such a ban. Such a space patrol could "open up a new
frontier of knowledge for the benefit of mankind."

March 30: Reactor-in-flight-test system (Rift) study, a part of the
NASA-AEC program on nuclear rockets, was briefed by contractors at NASA
headquarters.

---: USAF Discoverer XXII failed to achieve orbit.

---: NASA-USAF-USN rocket research X-15 flown to 169,600 feet by Joseph A.
Walker, NASA pilot, the highest altitude ever reached by man and which
included 2 minutes of weightlessness at the top of his climb. The X-15,
powered by XLR-99 rocket engine designed to thrust it to 50 miles altitude
and speeds of up to 4,000 miles per hour, was only run at three-quarters
throttle.

March 30: USAF announced reduction of the B-70 program contract commitments
to North American, Westinghouse, and other firms. Five major subcontracts
were canceled and four others sharply reduced.

March 31: NASA selected GE's Space Sciences Laboratory and Avco Corp. for
negotiation of contracts to study feasibility of magneto gas dynamic
electric rocket or thermal arc jet rocket engines.

---: By this date, all stations of NASA's worldwide Mercury tracking
network were operational.

---: Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences submitted its
recommendation of February 10-11 that "scientific exploration of the Moon
and planets should clearly be stated as the ultimate objective of the U.S.
space program for the foreseeable future."

During March: Announced that National Institutes of Health scientists were
growing organisms found inside of a meteorite that fell at Murray, Ky.,
around 1950; first reported instance of living material, perhaps
extraterrestrial, grown in a laboratory.

---: In an experiment at Boeing, biologist J.D. McClure spent 26 hours in a
sealed environment with atmosphere recycled through algae to retain 21
percent oxygen content.

---: Marine helicopter crews conducted extensive tests to perfect water
recovery of Mercury capsule at Langley Air Force Base.

---: Personnel of NASA's technical and international programs participated
in task force study of methods for increasing effectiveness of U.S.
international scientific activities.

---: It was reported that the Institute of Space Technology at Stuttgart,
Germany, had developed inexpensive static test stand and fired steam motors
producing 30 tons of thrust.

For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of April-June 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 14-30.

                                 APRIL 1961

April 1: Dr. Charles A. Roadman named as Acting Director of the NASA Office
of Life Sciences to succeed Dr. Clark Randt, who resigned effective this
date.

---: Secretary of Defense McNamara issued directive (5160.34) assigning
research, development, and operational responsibilities for DOD
reconnaissance, mapping, and geodetic programs. The USAF was assigned
responsibility for reconnaissance satellite systems as well as research and
development of instrumentation and data processing associated with these
satellite systems. The U.S. Army was assigned responsibility for
establishment and management of a worldwide master geodetic control system,
and necessary R. & D. and library support, while the USAF was made
responsible for launch and recovery of geodetic payloads. The U.S. Navy was
assigned responsibility for R. & D. and operation of all oceanographic and
geodetic programs at sea.

---: USAF reorganized its research and development activities, creating the
Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) to replace parts of the Air Research and
Development Command and the Air Materiel Command, to be commanded by Lt.
Gen. Bernard Schriever. Also separately created was the Office of Aerospace
Research (OAR) to function as a separate air command reporting directly to
Chief of Staff, USAF.

April 3: Naval Research Laboratory reported that Lofti, small piggyback
satellite on Transit III-B launched on February 21, demonstrated that very
low frequency radio signals pass through the ionosphere into space, thus
opening new area for communications development.

April 4: Three astronauts selected for Mercury-Redstone flight (MR-3) were
ordered to take refresher course in Navy centrifuge at Johnsville, Pa.

April 6: Six hundred mice placed in altitude chamber for 6-week
environmental exposure at Armour Research Foundation.

---: Marshall Space Flight Center announced that 1,640,000 pounds thrust
was achieved in test of F-1 rocket engine thrust chamber static firing at
Edward, Calif., a record thrust for a single chamber.

---: United States and United Kingdom signed formal agreement covering
tracking station on Canton Island.

April 7-14: NASA participated in Committee on Space Research symposium held
in Florence, Italy.

April 8: USAF Discoverer XXIII placed into polar orbit from Pacific Missile
Range but reentry capsule stayed in orbit.

April 10: President Kennedy requested Congress to approve legislation
making the Vice President Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space
Council.

April 10: Radar tracking of planet Venus for 7 weeks by Jet Propulsion
Laboratory scientists had proved "astronomical yardstick" of 93,498,125
miles as the distance between the Earth and Sun (within 1,000 miles of
error).

---: Attempt to recover capsule from Discoverer XXIII unsuccessful.

---: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory reported that Echo I satellite
may remain in orbit another 3 years.

---: Rumors swept Moscow that U.S.S.R. had placed a man into space.

April 12: U.S.S.R. announced that Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin had successfully
orbited the Earth in a 108-minute flight in a 5-ton Vostok (East), the
first man to make a successful orbital flight through space.

---: President Kennedy, in his regular press conference, stated that "no
one is more tired than I am" in seeing the United States second to Russia
in the space field. "They secured large boosters which have led to their
being first in Sputnik, and led to their first putting their men in space.
We are, I hope, going to be able to carry out our efforts, with due regard
to the problem of the life of the men involved, this year. But we are
behind . . . the news will be worse before it is better, and it will be
some time before we catch up."

---: USAF Blue Scout II was fired with test equipment for detection of
high-altitude nuclear tests.

---: Announced in Moscow that a new State Committee for Coordinating
Research Work was created, to be headed by Lt. Gen. Mikhail V. Khrunichev.

April 13: A.T. & T. stated that it hoped to orbit experimental
communications satellite by May 1962, and would share use or ownership of a
satellite system with other common carriers.

April 14: In response to questioning by the House Science and Astronautics
Committee, Associate NASA Administrator Seamans repeated the general
estimate of $20 to $40 billion as the cost for the total effort required to
achieve a lunar landing, that an all-out program might cost more, and that
1967 could be considered only as a possible planning date at this stage of
such a complex task.

---: Gigantic ceremony in Red Square in Moscow honoring Maj. Y. A. Gagarin,
the first cosmonaut.

April 17: Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Government Operations,
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey as chairman, submitted report on "Coordination
of Information on Current Research and Development Supported by the U.S.
Government." It recommended innovations be developed to aid the management
and conduct of research.

---: Construction of dynamic test stand for Saturn completed at Marshall
Space Flight Center.

---: USAF Cambridge Research Laboratories' balloon was launched from
Vernalis, Calif., maintained constant altitude of 70,000 feet for 9 days
with payload of 40 pounds.

April 19: Preliminary data from Explorer X disclosed at NASA indicated that
solar winds blow the Sun's magnetic field out past the orbit of the Earth.

---: Dr. Thomas Gold, of Cornell University, submitted that water exists on
the Moon, perhaps shielded from evaporation by a layer of ice below the
surface, in a paper given at American Physical Society.

---: Lincoln Laboratory's radar system near El Campo, Tex., began 32-day
radar contact with the Sun, ending on July 7. Variations in solar activity
were determined to have a corresponding effect upon the reflectivity of
radio waves transmitted to the Sun from Earth.

---: Scientists from the United Kingdom and NASA announced agreement on the
scientific instrumentation of a second United Kingdom satellite to be
launched by NASA with a Scout vehicle.

---: Polaris fired more than 1,100 miles from submerged U.S.S. Robert E.
Lee.

April 20: National Academy of Sciences issued report by its Space Science
Board which stated that "the history of geographic exploration on Earth
tells over and over again of the deaths of bold explorers. . . . To ignore
this in the far more difficult and hazardous areas of man in space is
foolish. Men will perish in space as they have on the high seas, in the
Antarctica, in the heart of Africa, and wherever they have ventured into
unknown regions."

---: House and Senate approved bill to permit Vice President of the United
States to serve as Chairman of the National Space Council.

---: Dr. John R. Winckler, of the University of Minnesota, reported at the
American Geophysical Union, that the first direct sampling of a cross
section of solar material had revealed that particles of heavier elements
of the sun ejected by solar flares have been captured in the vicinity of
the Earth in study of emulsions flown by balloons and rockets during the
solar activity of the fall of 1960. Tracks of helium, carbon, nitrogen, and
oxygen had been detected.

April 21: USAF-USN-NASA X-15 flown to controlled-flight record speed of
3,074 miles per hour by Maj. Robert White (USAF) at Edwards, Calif. This
was the first flight of X-15 with full throttle.

---: NASA fired Nike-Asp rocket carrying aluminum thermite and sodium
pellets to an altitude of 34-miles, one of a series of sodium cloud firings
in connection with similar launchings in Italy.

---: Dr. W. O. Roberts, Director of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research (NCAR), announced that a national balloon flights facility would
be established to encourage upper atmospheric research.

April 22: NASA fired first seven-stage Trailblazer rocket from Wallops
Station, first three stages firing meteorite to 175-mile altitude and next
four stages back through the atmosphere in a high-speed reentry experiment.

---: Italian Air Force personnel fired Jupiter IRBM in training launch at
Cape Canaveral.

April 23: Tiros II completed 5 months in orbit. Useful radiation
observations ceased due to detector malfunctions, but radiation electronics
and tape recorder continued to function, and TV cameras continued to
operate as well as on day of launch.

April 24: Dr. Leonard S. Sheingold, director of applied research at
Sylvania Electronic Systems, was named by the President to be Chief
Scientist, USAF.

April 25: Mercury-Atlas (MA-3) launched unmanned Mercury spacecraft in
orbital test from Atlantic Missile Range, which was destroyed at 16,000
feet by range safety officer, while Mercury capsule was boosted by escape
tower rockets above Atlas and subsequently recovered intact.

---: President Kennedy signed legislation making the Vice President
Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council.

---: Official Soviet report described preliminary weightlessness training
of the Soviet cosmonauts as follows: "It was established that all selected
cosmonauts possess a good ability to endure weightlessness up to 40
seconds, the cosmonaut can eat food liquid, semiliquid, and solid; can
perform delicate coordinated acts, such as writing or purposeful hand
motions; can maintain communication by radio; can read; and, besides, can
orient himself visually."

April 27: Javelin launched 70.6-pound payload to altitude of 475 miles in
beginning of Goddard Space Flight Center program to measure the density of
eletrons in the ionosphere.

---: Explorer XI, a gamma-ray satellite, was successfully launched into
orbit by NASA Juno II from Cape Canaveral.

---: NASA Ames Research Center measured the intensity of radiation from the
hot gas over the nose of a model flying through the air at 42,300 feet per
second. This speed was in excess of parabolic atmospheric entry speed and
the data are significant in relation to development of lunar spacecraft.
The speed, 11,100 feet per second higher than maximum air speed obtained
previously, was achieved by firing the model from a light-gas gun into a
highspeed jet of air flowing in the opposite direction from a shock-driven
wind tunnel.

---: F. W. Reichelderfer, Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau, testified
before the House Appropriations Committee that getting the same information
contained in the cloud structure photographs taken by the Tiros I weather
satellite would have required thousands of weather ships over the Pacific.
With Tiros I, he said, "for the first time man had a complete look at the
weather over a large segment of the Earth's surface."

April 28: Little Joe 5-B launched Mercury spacecraft from Wallops Station,
which provided abort test under severe atmospheric flight conditions.

---: Simulated countdown of Mercury-Redstone 3 was completed successfully.

---: First manned balloon launched from and landed back aboard a naval
vessel, a Stratolab High test flight over U.S.S. Antietam in the Gulf of
Mexico (6,000 feet).

April 28: Final NASA report on the study proposed for Saturn for use as
Dyna-Soar booster was presented to the Air Force.

---: World altitude record for aircraft of 113,891 feet (34,714 meters)
flown by G. Mussolov in Soviet E-66A.

April 29: Saturn booster firing of 30 seconds using timer at predetermined
setting was successful in flight qualification test.

During April: The Navy reactivated the former NACA hydrodynamic research
facilities at Langley Research Center, to conduct R. & D. on hydrofoils,
air-cushion vehicles, hydroskis, catamarans, STOL seaplanes, torpedoes, and
underwater rockets. NASA continued investigations at other facilities of
Langley of ditching and water landing of space vehicles.

                                  MAY 1961

May 1: NASA Administrator Webb issued a statement concerning the 2-year
Mercury manned space flight program, which said, in part: "NASA has not
attempted to encourage press coverage of the first Mercury-Redstone manned
flight. It has responded to press and television requests, with the result
that over 100 representatives of the press, radio, and TV are now at Cape
Canaveral. . . . We must keep the perspective that each flight is but one
of the many milestones we must pass. Some will completely succeed in every
respect, some partially, and some will fail. From all of them will come
mastery of the vast new space environment on which so much of our future
depends."

---: May Day parade in Red Square, Moscow, reviewed by Maj. Yuri Gagarin
beside Premier Khrushchev.

---: Tiros operations at Belmar, N.J., terminated to begin move of
equipment to Wallops Station, Virginia.

May 2: Manned Mercury-Redstone (MR-3) launch postponed because of rain
squalls in the recovery area.

---: USAF Bomarc B area defense missile destroyed Regulus II target missile
flying at mach 2, in test at Eglin Gulf Test Range.

May 3: First silo launching of an ICBM, a USAF Titan at Vandenberg Air
Force Base.

May 4: ONR Stratolab High V balloon launched from carrier Antietam in Gulf
of Mexico reached world altitude balloon record of 113,600 feet, remaining
above 104,000 feet for 2 hours 11 minutes, Comdr. Malcolm D. Ross, U.S.
Naval Reserve, as pilot, and Lt. Comdr. Victor G. Prather, Medical Corps,
U.S. Navy, as observer.

---: House Science and Astronautics Committee approved $126.6 million
additional to the President's space budget, marking most of the increase
for the Apollo program.

---: First part of MR-3 firing countdown began at T-640 minutes (7:30 a.m.
eastern standard time) and held at T-390 minutes until final countdown
began at 11:30 p.m. eastern standard time.

May 5: Freedom 7, manned Mercury spacecraft (No. 7) carrying Astronaut Alan
B. Shepard, Jr., as pilot, was launched from Cape Canaveral by
Mercury-Redstone (MR-3) launch vehicle, to an altitude of 115.696 miles and
a range of 302 miles. It was the first American manned space flight.
Shepard demonstrated that man can control a vehicle during weightlessness
and high G stresses, and significant scientific biomedical data were
acquired. He reached a speed of 5,100 miles per hour and flight lasted 14.8
minutes.

---: Saturn static firing of 44.17 seconds duration to test-fire detection
system at engine position No. 2 was successful, the second SA-1 flight
qualification test at Marshall Space Flight Center.

May 5: In-house testing of Ranger I spacecraft completed at Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.

May 8: Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Mercury astronaut, was awarded NASA's
Distinguished Service Medal by President Kennedy in a special White House
ceremony. It was followed by an informal parade to the Capitol by the seven
astronauts for lunch, and a press conference at the State Department
auditorium.

May 9: Senator Robert S. Kerr, chairman of the Senate Aeronautical and
Space Sciences Committee, told a group at the National Radio and Television
Convention that President Kennedy accepted the views of NASA and
congressional leaders in approving the manned Mercury-Redstone flight of
May 5.

May 9-10: Twenty-four Arcas-Robin weather sounding rockets fired within 24
hours by AFPGC at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

May 11: Jet Propulsion Laboratory briefed NASA headquarters on the Venus
radar tracking experiment, after 2 months of intensive study begun on March
10.

---: U.S.S.R's Izvestia headlined the result of Soviet radar probes of
planet Venus, a report which said that the Venusian day was from 9 to 11
Earth days, and that the astronomical unit (mean distance from the Earth to
the Sun) was computed at 149,457,000 kilometers (92,812,797 miles). These
figures were at variance with detailed study by scientists of JPL and MIT.

---: Static test of 111 seconds duration of Saturn booster was successful,
the final SA-1 flight qualification test of the S-I stage.

May 12: USAF announced plans to institute special course for the
instruction of space pilots at Edwards Air Force Base, and it was activated
in June.

May 13: NASA legislative program for the 87th Congress was submitted (S.
1857 and H.R. 7115), asking for authority to lease property, authority to
acquire patent releases, elimination of the CMLC, replacement of semiannual
reports to Congress with an annual one, and authority to indemnify
contractors against unusally hazardous risks.

May 14: AEC's Tory II-A-1 experimental powerplant for atmospheric ramjet
vehicles underwent first power tests, a part of USAF Project Pluto.

May 15: In testimony before House Appropriations Committee, Hugh L. Dryden
revealed that simulated free-flight speeds just under 30,000 miles per hour
had been achieved at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

---: National Aeronautic Association announced selection of Vice Adm.
William F. Raborn, Jr., to receive the Robert J. Collier trophy for his
direction of the Polaris missile program.

---: Test firing of GE plug-nozzle engine developed 50,000 pounds of
thrust.

May 15-17: Final reports of study contracts on Project Apollo presented by
the three contractors at Langley Research Center and Space Task Group.

May 17: An HSS-2 helicopter, flown by Comdr. Patrick L. Sullivan and Lt.
Beverly W. Witherspoon, set a new world class speed record of 192.9 miles
per hour for 3 kilometers at Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Conn.

May 18: First test inflation of 135-foot rigidized inflatable balloon
satellite in dirigible hangar, conducted by NASA Langley Research Center
and G. T. Schjeldahl Co. at Weeksville, N.C.

---: NASA selected RCA to construct the Relay experimental communications
satellite to test the feasibility of transoceanic telephone, telegraph, and
television communications using an active repeater satellite.

---: Announced by NASA Institute of Space Studies in New York that first
major project, a 2-month seminar on the origin of the solar system, would
be held in fall 1961.

May 19: Soviet Academy of Sciences revealed that the pulse rate of Maj.
Yuri A. Gagarin had risen to 158 beats a minute in his Vostok flight,
according to a report circulated by Tass.

---: Second Minuteman test launch was destroyed by range safety officer 90
seconds after lift.

May 19-20: Cape Canaveral opened to the general public for the first time
in its history.

May 20: Unconfirmed signals were received on the frequency used by Soviet
Venus probe launched February 12, according to Sir Bernard Lovell, of the
Jodrell Bank Experimental Station.

May 22: Gen. Curtis E. LeMay nominated by the President to be Chief of
Staff, USAF.

May 23: Tiros II completed 6 months in orbit, transmitting over 31,000
photographs of which over 75 percent have been classified as fair to good
for meteorological analysis.

---: In a brief ceremony, a bust of Samuel P. Langley was presented by Paul
Garber, Curator of the National Air Museum, to the NASA Langley Research
Center, during which Dr. Langley's first demonstration of mechanical flight
with his "Aerodrome" model in 1896 and his scientific contributions to
astrophysics (i.e., the thermopile and the bolometer) were reviewed by
Garber and Deputy NASA Administrator Dryden.

---: "Workshop: Telemetry in Europe" at National Telemetering Conference in
Chicago brought seven European representatives together with American
scientists in working out unofficial preliminary standardization planning
on bands, means, and frequencies.

---: New 20-inch wind tunnel at the Aeronatical Research Laboratory at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base announced as capable of testing at mach 14,
at 200,000-foot altitude, and at 2,500 F.

May 24: FCC endorsed the ultimate creation of a commercial satellite system
to be owned jointly by international telephone and telegraph companies and
announced that it was calling a meeting on June 5 to explore "plans and
procedures looking toward early establishment of an operable commercial
communication satellite system."

---: Launching of NASA ionosphere beacon satellite (S-45 II) at Atlantic
Missile Range unsuccessful when Juno II power supply failed and prevented
ignition of second stage.

---: Operational Atlas raised from emplacement and fired in an operational
test exercise at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

May 24: Three Navy F4H Phantom II fighters, competing for the Bendix
Trophy, bettered the existing record for transcontinental flight from Los
Angeles to New York. The winning team of Lt. R. F. Gordon, pilot, and Lt.
(jg.) B. R. Young, RIO, averaged 870 miles per hour on the 2,421.4-mile
flight and established a new record with a time of 2 hours 47 minutes.

---: Comdr. P. L. Sullivan, U.S. Navy, and Lt. B. W. Witherspoon, flying an
HSS-2 helicopter, set another new world class speed record with a mark of
174.9 miles per hour over a 100-kilometer course between Milford and
Westbrook, Conn.

---: National Rocket Club President H. A. Timken announced proposal to
Secretary of the Treasury Dillon to consider a special series of savings
bonds and savings stamps to finance the U.S. space program, to be known as
series S bonds for space.

May 25: In his second State of the Union Message President Kennedy reported
to Congress regarding the space program: "With the advice of the Vice
President, who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined
where we [United States] are strong and where we are not, where we may
succeed and where we may not. . . . Now is the time to take longer
strides-time for a great new American enterprise-time for this Nation to
take a clearly leading role in space achievement which in many ways may
hold the key to our future on Earth." President Kennedy set forth an
accelerated space program based upon the long-range national goals of
landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth; early
development of the Rover nuclear rocket; speed up the use of Earth
satellites for worldwide communications; and provide "at the earliest
possible time a satellite system for worldwide weather observation." An
additional $549 million was requested for NASA over the new administration
March budget requests; $62 million was requested for DOD for starting
development of a solid-propellant booster of the Nova class.

May 25: At NASA press conference following President Kennedy's call to
Congress for an accelerated space program, NASA Administrator Webb pointed
out that the long-range and difficult task of landing a man on the Moon and
returning him safely to Earth before the end of the decade offered a chance
to beat Russia.

---: X-15 flown to record speed of 3,300 miles per hour by NASA test pilot,
Joseph Walker, at Edwards Air Force Base.

---: Kaman H-43-B Huskie helicopter flown to claimed altitude record of
25,814 feet by Capt. W.C. McMeen (USAF), bettering Russian record of 24,491
feet established on March 26, 1960.

---: Prerecorded voice message successfully transmitted from NRL to BTL via
Echo I, the quality of the transmission being virtually as good as previous
experiments.

May 26: USAF B-58 Hustler flown from Carswell Air Force Base, Tex., to Le
Bourget, Paris, in record 6 hours 15 minutes, covering distance from New
York to Paris in 3 hours 20 minutes. This flight commemorated the 34th
anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing on May 20-21,
1927, and the opening of the 24th Paris International Air Show.

---: Atlas E fired successfully from Atlantic Missile Range.

May 26-27: First National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space, held at
Tulsa, Okla., at which leading American space scientists and technologists
appraised the current and future applications of space science and
technology for human welfare. It was sponsored by NASA and the Tulsa
Chamber of Commerce, with the Aerospace Industries Association, Aerospace
Medical Association, American Astronautical Society, American Institute of
Biological Sciences, the American Rocket Society, the Electronic Industries
Association, Frontiers of Science Foundation (Oklahoma), and the Institute
of the Aerospace Sciences as cosponsors.

May 26-June 4: Freedom 7, Mercury spacecraft in which Alan B. Shepard, Jr.,
made his space flight on May 5, was a major drawing card at the Paris
International Air Show. Details of the spacecraft and of Shepard's flight
were related to about 650,000 visitors.

May 27: Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, Chairman of the Space Science Board of the
NAS, stated: "Since, as space activity becomes more difficult and advanced,
the space effort will be limited by our knowledge of space at any time,
leadership in space science must soon become one of the controlling factors
in acquiring space leadership generally." Berkner spoke at the first
National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space held at Tulsa, Okla.

May 29: Atlas booster 111-D, to be used for Ranger I, was erected on the
launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

May 30: U.S.S.R. revealed first details concerning Cosmonaut Gagarin's
orbital space flight on April 12, when application was made to the
International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) to have flight made an official
world record: Duration, 108 minutes; maximum altitude, 203 miles; launch
site, cosmodrome at Baikonur (near Lake Aral); landing site, near village
of Smelovka in Seratov region; launch booster, six-engine rocket with total
boost of 20 million horsepower.

May 31: Three-week meeting of the executive council of the U.N. World
Meteorological Organization in Geneva concluded, at which 18 national
representatives (including A. A. Zolotoukhin of the U.S.S.R.) discussed
general basis for international use of weather satellites. Dr. Francis W.
Reichelderfer, Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau, was a U.S. representative.

During May: Army Chemical Corps Biological Laboratories completed
preliminary tests of microorganisms in a simulated space vacuum at the
National Research Corp.

---: Complete system studies of the Apollo spacecraft system that were
begun in November 1960 were completed by three industrial contractors.

                                 JUNE 1961

June 1: NASA awarded contract for developing means of sterilizing space
vehicles to Wilmont Castle Co.

---: AEC and NASA jointly announced plans for Kiwi B reactor test at
Jackass Flats test site in Nevada.

---: NASA announced that a two-stage Saturn C-1 will be used for the first
10 research and development flights.

June 2: Collapse of a lock in the Wheeler Dam below Huntsville on the
Tennessee River interdicted the planned water route of the first Saturn
space booster from Marshall Space Flight Center to Cape Canaveral on the
barge Palaemon.

---: Deputy Premier Mikhail Khrunichev, chief coordinator of the Soviet
Union's man-in-space program, died in Moscow.

June 3: Dr. Edward R. Sharp, former Director of Lewis Research Laboratory
(1942-61), was presented NASA's first Outstanding Leadership Medal by Dr.
Hugh L. Dryden.

---: USAF B-58 which established Atlantic crossing record to Paris of 3
hours 19 minutes crashed after takeoff from Le Bourget Airport, killing its
three-man crew. Maj. Elmer E. Murphy, pilot, had recently been awarded the
Louis Bleriot Speed Trophy for record speed flight of 1,302 miles per hour
in January.

---: Aerojet-General test-fired large solid-propellent rocket motor which
generated a half million pounds' thrust, at Sacramento, Calif.

---: A leading Istanbul newspaper, Milliyet, reported Turkish newsmen's
reactions after seeing movies of both the Shepard and Gagarin space
flights: "When the film was over the journalists asked the Soviet consul
general: "In the Shepard film we followed all phases of his space flight,
but in yours we followed only Khrushchev. . . . Why don't you show your
space flight too?' The Tass correspondent on behalf of the consul general
answered: '. . . We are mainly interested in people's excitement and
reaction. This is what we wanted you to see.' Gagarin may have gone into
space, but this is not the impression of the journalists who saw both
films: Shepard really went into space, not Gagarin, and in front of the
whole world, too."

June 4: Nationwide Gallup poll released which showed that 38 percent of
those questioned thought the United States led in space research, while 38
percent thought the U.S.S.R. led. The same balance also was tabulated on
which Nation will be the first to place a man on the Moon.

---: Northrop disclosed "porous wing" plane under development for USAF,
modified version of WB-66D based on inhalation concept (eliminating up to
80 percent of the frictional drag) proposed by Werner Pfenninger. Work on
drag reduction by means of increasing the laminar flow by boundary layer
suction had been performed at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in the late
1930's by Albert E. Doenhoff and Ira H. Abbott.

June 5: Huge Saturn launch complex at Cape Canaveral dedicated in brief
ceremony by NASA, construction of which was supervised by the Army Corps of
Engineers. Giant gantry, weighing 2,800 tons and being 310 feet high, is
largest movable land structure in North America.

---: Two pilots sealed in 8- by 12-foot simulated space cabin for 17-day
round trip to the Moon, at the School of Aerospace Medicine, San Antonio,
Tex.

June 6: Biomedical results of Mercury-Redstone space flight of Alan B.
Shepard, Jr., publicly reported at a special conference in Washington
sponsored by NASA, National Institutes of Health, and the National Academy
of Sciences. Shepard's heart reached a maximum of 138 beats per minute
during the flight.

---: NASA Agena B management meeting was held at Marshall Space Flight
Center with representatives from MSFC, NASA headquarters, AFSSD, LMSD, JPL,
and GSFC.

---: USAF Aerobee-Hi with Cambridge Research Laboratory payload designed to
trap space dust, reached 101 miles over White Sands Missile Range.

June 7: In address at George Washington University, NASA Administrator Webb
stated that the exploration of space was an important part of man's
"driving, restless, insatiable search for new knowledge."

---: Research Analysis Corporation established by U.S. Army as a nonprofit
advanced research organization to replace ORO of Johns Hopkins University.

---: AEC-NASA jointly announced plans to negotiate with an industrial team
for a first-phase contract for the development of the Nerva nuclear rocket
engine. Team selected for the Nerva part of Project Rover consisted of
Aerojet-General Corp. and Westinghouse Electric Corp.

---: NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced creation of a new Office of
Programs to be headed by D. D. Wyatt, and the renaming of the Office of
Administration under Albert F. Siepert.

June 8: Small rocket lift device demonstrated publicly for the first time
at Fort Eustis, Va., a rocket belt developed by Bell Aerosystems, which
lifted Harold M. Graham in a controlled free flight to an altitude of 15
feet and a standup landing 150 feet from his starting point.

---: USAF Discoverer XXIV failed to achieve orbit.

---: NASA announced accelerated recruiting of qualified scientists and
engineers at its field centers to fill anticipated manpower requirements in
the expanded space exploration program. During 1960 NASA interviewed 3,000
persons on 100 college campuses.

---: Astronomers of Lick Observatory positioned 36-inch refractor telescope
so as to intersect the path of Echo I at its predicted point of maximum
elevation. Prediction of Goddard Space Flight Center was confirmed at exact
time and within 10 minutes of arc.

June 9: NASA press conference revealed that data from Vanguard III (during
November 15-17, 1960) and Explorer VIII (also during November 1960)
indicated that high-velocity clouds of micrometeorites moved near the
Earth, perhaps in a meteor stream around the Sun. This new data was just
revealed from completed analysis.

---: Echo I completed its 3,697th orbit after 9 months. When this first
passive communications "balloon satellite" was launched on August 12, 1960,
it was not expected to have a long life span.

June 10: National Bureau of Standards broke ground for new research
facility at Gaithersburg, Md., which will include a mega-pound deadweight
testing machine to provide measurement standards for multimillion rocket
thrust requirements.

---: NASA Ad Hoc Task Group, created on May 25 to survey launch vehicles
and their development schedules pertinent to the manned lunar landing
program, reported its findings.

June 12: British and Soviet scientists were still unable to identify
signals received since May 17 as being transmitted from the Soviet Venus
probe launched on February 12.

---: Reuters reported that the United States pays about $140 per hour for
use of the Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, while the U.S.S.R. pays
nothing. Sir Bernard Lovell explained that "the Americans occupy the
telescope for long periods, where the Russians scarcely use it."

---: NASA's Incentive Awards Committee determined that Dr. Henry J. E.
Reid, Director Emeritus of the Langley Research Center, would receive
NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal.

June 13: NASA Engineer Test Pilot Joseph A. Walker, who hit record altitude
of 169,600 feet on March 30 and record speed of 3,300 miles per hour on May
25 in the X-15, received the 1961 Octave Chanute Award at IAS meeting in
Los Angeles.

June 13-25: Freedom 7 Mercury capsule displayed to approximately 750,000
visitors at the Rassegna International Electronic and Nuclear Fair at Rome,
Italy.

June 14: NASA's Plum Brook nuclear test reactor at Sandusky, Ohio, went
critical for the first time. This reactor was begun in September 1956, and
the facility presently has a staff of 100 persons, headed by Dr. Theodore
M. Hallman.

---: NASA and the Argentine Comision Nacional de Investigaciones Espaciales
signed a memorandum of understanding for a cooperative space science
research program using sounding rockets.

---: Four-stage Javelin fired to 560-mile altitude from Wallops Island,
testing extension of two 75-foot antenna arms on radio command at altitude,
a test flight in the United States-Canadian Alouette satellite development.

June 15: Search for U.S.S.R. Venus probe "lost" since February was ended at
Jodrell Bank radiotelescope, as visiting Soviet space scientists, Alla
Masevitch and Jouli Khodarev, prepared to leave. The U.S.S.R. Venue probe
was last commanded on February 12.

---: President Kennedy presented the Robert J. Collier Trophy to Vice Adm.
William F. Raborn, Jr., who had directed the development to the Polaris
IRBM.

June 15: President Kennedy directed the National Aeronautics and Space
Council to undertake a full study of the Nation's communications satellite
policy, stated that leadership in science and technology should be
exercised to achieve worldwide communications through the use of satellites
at the earliest practicable date. While no commitments as to an operational
system should be made, the President stated that the Government would
"conduct and encourage research and development to advance the state of the
art and to give maximum assurance of rapid and continuing scientific and
technological progress."

June 16: USAF Discoverer XXV placed into polar orbit by Thor-Agena B, at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

---: NASA Ad Hoc Task Group, established to determine the main problems,
the pacing items, and the major decisions required to accomplish the manned
lunar landing mission, reported its findings. The direct ascent mission was
used in this intensive study with less detailed consideration of the
rendezvous method.

June 18: Senate Government Operations Subcommittee on National Policy
Machinery released report on "Science Organization and the President's
Office." This study recommended that a new Office of Science and Technology
be created in the Executive Office of the President.

---: Skindivers parachuted north of Hawaii to recover the capsule of
Discoverer XXV, which carried samples of common and rare metals.

---: Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet awarded 7,026 honors to those
associated with the flight of the spaceship satellite Vostok I: Nikita S.
Khrushchev received the Order of Lenin and a third Gold Hammer and Sickle
Medal for "guiding the creation and development of the rocket industry,
science, and technology" which "opened up a new era in the conquest of
space;" 7 outstanding scientists and designers received a second Gold
Hammer and Sickle Medal; 95 designers, officials, and technicians received
the title of Hero of Socialist Labor; and 6,924 workers, designers,
scientists, and technicians received various orders and medals (Order of
Lenin, 478 persons; Order of the Red Banner of Labor, 1,218; Order of the
Red Star, 256; Order of the Badge of Honor, 1,789; and medals to 3,183
other persons).

June 19: Harmon International Aviator's Trophy for 1961 announced as going
to three winners for the first time-X-15 rocket research airplane pilots:
A. Scott Crossfield, of North American; Joseph A. Walker, of NASA, and Maj.
Robert A. White, U.S. Air Force.

---: NASA announced contract with the National Research Corp. to determine
whether six types of microbes can sustain simulated exposure to the space
environment including ultrahigh vacuum, ultraviolet radiation, and
fluctuating temperatures.

---: Yuri Gagarin reported in Pravda that "I was in the center of a whirl
of flames" when his Vostok spacecraft reentered the atmosphere on April 12.
His book, "Road to Outer Space," was being serialized in Pravda.

---: Legislature of the State of Alabama considered investment of $3
million in establishing a Space Research Institute at Huntsville as a joint
University of Alabama and Auburn University center.

June 20: Nuclear Vehicles Project Office established at Marshall Space
Flight Center, Col. Scott Fellows, U.S. Air Force, named as Chief.

June 21: Five-year agreement on scientific cooperation signed in Moscow by
representatives of the academics of science of the U.S.S.R. and Red China,
according to Tass.

---: NASA Administrator Webb accepted one of the three President's Safety
Awards for accident prevention during 1960. He pointed out that NASA's
activities involved test flying of experimental aircraft, untried highly
explosive fuels, high-voltage electricity, and highly pressurized air and
superheated temperatures, in addition to rocket and spacecraft tests and
launching and the operation of two nuclear reactors and a cyclotron.

---: Hypersonic wind tunnel at Douglas Aircraft became operational at El
Segundo, reportedly the largest industry-owned tunnel in the United States
(36 inches long, 6-inch diameter, capable of mach 10).

---: USAF Mace B made 1,100-mile guided flight, ending its R. & D. phase.

June 22: Deputy NASA Administrator Dryden sent an explanatory letter to
Chairman Robert S. Kerr, of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space
Sciences, on the broad scientific and technological gains to be achieved in
landing a man on the Moon and returning him to Earth. Dr. Dryden pointed
out that this difficult goal "has the highly important role of accelerating
the development of space science and technology, motivating the scientists
and engineers who are engaged in this effort to move forward with urgency,
and integrating their efforts in a way that cannot be accomplished by a
disconnected series of research investigations in several fields. It is
important to realize, however, that the real values and purposes are not in
the mere accomplishment of man setting foot on the Moon but rather in the
great cooperative national effort in the development of science and
technology which is stimulated by this goal." Dr. Dryden pointed out that
"the billions of dollars required in this effort are not spent on the Moon;
they are spent in the factories, workshops, and laboratories of our people
for salaries, for new materials, and supplies, which in turn represent
income for others. . . . The national enterprise involved in the goal of
manned lunar landing and return within this decade is an activity of
critical impact on the future of this Nation as an industrial and military
power, and as a leader of a free world."

---: Mercury-Redstone booster for MR-4 flight was erected on pad 5 at
Atlantic Missile Range.

---: K. Kordylewski, of the Cracow Observatory in Poland, was reported to
have photographed two cloudlike objects, possibly natural satellites of the
Earth.

June 23: NASA-DOD Executive Committee for Joint Lunar Study and a Joint
Lunar Study Program Office established by letter directive to work out and
define support requirements for the U.S. manned lunar landing program.

June 23: NASA-USAF-USN X-15 flown to 3,603 miles per hour (mach 5.3),
record for manned aircraft by Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force, which was
faster than a mile per second. Losing cabin pressure at 100,000 feet, White
was able to pilot the X-15 safely because of full-pressure suit. This was
the fifth powered NASA flight with the XLR-99 engine.

---: Joint study was undertaken by NASA and DOD to make recommendations on
the launch site to be used for the manned lunar exploration missions. A
report of this study was completed in July.

---: Nike-Cajun sounding rocket fired from Eglin Gulf Test Range by
Cambridge Research Laboratory with micrometeorite counting payload.

---: Director of Marshall Space Flight Center directed that further
engineering work on Saturn C-2 configuration would be discontinued, and
that efforts would be applied to clarification of the Saturn C-3 and Nova
concepts.

---: Tiros II completed 7 months in orbit, still providing useful data.

June 24: President Kennedy assigned Vice President Johnson the task of
unifying the Nation's communications satellite programs, in a letter which
stressed urgency and "highest priority" for the public interest.

---: Mercury capsule was modified for MR-4 flight, with observation window
replacing two viewports and with improved manual control system.

June 26: In an interview in U.S. News & World Report, NASA Administrator
Webb stated that "the kind of overall space effort that President Kennedy
has recommended . . . will put us there [on the Moon] first." This
achievement, costing between $20 and $40 billion, "probably toward the $20
billion level . . . will be most valuable in other parts of our economy."
Mr. Webb said that the U.S.S.R. did have an advantage in being able first
to orbit a multimanned spacecraft around the Earth and also around the
Moon.

---: A Navy YFNB barge was obtained by NASA to serve as a replacement for
the Palaemon in transporting of the Saturn booster to Cape Canaveral.

June 27: Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee unanimously
approved the administration's $1,782,300,000 budget for NASA in fiscal year
1962.

---: Eberhardt Rechtin, of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, questioned the Soviet
calculations on the rotation speed of the planet Venus and the astronomical
unit, and suggested that the Soviet scientists may have been influenced by
earlier MIT studies (1958). Completion of extensive radar studies of Venus
by Jet Propulsion Laboratory Goldstone, he submitted, provided more
accurate information. The differing figures as reported are-U.S.S.R.
(1961): 9 to 11 days' rotation-A.U. 92,812,797 miles Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (1961): About 225 days' rotation-A.U. 92,956,000 miles.

---: Eight-engine static test of Saturn SA-T2 of 29.9 seconds' duration
successful at Marshall Space Flight Center.

June 28: First showing of new Soviet aircraft in flight rehearsal for an
air show on July 9 in Moscow (first major air show since 1956), one a large
delta-wing jet bomber perhaps comparable to the B-58, as well as a
turboprop Bear Tu-114 carrying missiles.

June 28-July 21: A Planning Task Force of the National Academy of Sciences
Committee on the Atmospheric Sciences met in a series of six separate
conferences in Boston to lay out a 10-year plan to guide long-range use of
Government research funds.

June 29: First launching of three active satellites in one shot, and the
first launching of a satellite with nuclear power, when a Thor-Able-Star
launched Transit IV-A (equipped with an atomic radioisotope-powered battery
of the Snap series), and two accompanying satellites, Injun and Greb III,
from Atlantic Missile Range. Transit IV is forerunner of a navigation
satellite system, while Injun gathers data on the radiation belts, and Greb
III gathers data on X-ray radiation from the Sun.

---: NASA awarded contract to Pratt & Whitney for development of space
radiators and condensors for the Lewis Research Center.

June 30: In Scout launching of micrometeorite counter satellite (S-55) from
Wallops Station, third stage did not ignite, and the vehicle was destroyed.

---: Dr. Henry J. E. Reid, senior staff associate and former Director of
the Langley Research Center, retired after over four decades of Government
service. He began as a junior engineer at Langley in April 1921, became
Director in 1926, in which capacity he served for 34 years.

---: Navy announced that Injun and Greb satellites placed in orbit with
Transit IV-A had not separated and were thus not functioning at full
efficiency.

During June: National Academy of Sciences established the Geophysics
Research Board (GRB) in 1960 in response to a request from the
International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). By June 1961, it had
four active panels to consider specific international Year of the Quiet Sun
(IQSY); International Exchange of Scientific Data; and Solid Earth
Problems.

---: Dr. von Karman and some of his associates organized the Astronautics
Foundation, Inc., in Washington, D.C., to enable U.S. individuals and
corporations to support through this non-profit foundation various
cooperative international activities.

---: Boeing began modification of B-52 to carry aloft and release the
Dyna-Soar manned space glider.

---: Army Redstone missile completed its 8-year military test program (41
successes in 45 launchings).

---: NASA entered letter contract with RCA for four additional Tiros
weather satellites to extend the program.

For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of July-September 1961
                                 JULY 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 31-51.

July 1: Weather Bureau announced that cloud cover pictures taken by Tiros I
went on public sale at the National Weather Records Center, Asheville, N.C.

---: The space detection and tracking systems (Spadats) began NORAD
operations as scheduled, a system which "detects, tracks, and identifies
manmade objects in space and consolidates and displays information
regarding such objects."

---: First anniversary of Marshall Space Flight Center as a NASA center,
and NASA Administrator Webb visited the Huntsville facility.

---: U.S. Air Force reorganized its headquarters staff to reflect creation
of Air Force Systems Command (AFSC), which made the Deputy Chief of Staff
for Development, Lt. Gen. Roscoe C. Wilson, Deputy Chief of Staff for
Research and Technology.

July 5: NASA announced awarding of study contract of Douglas Aircraft Co.
for the development of orbital placement techniques and engineering design
for Project Rebound inflatable spheres.

---: NASA awarded contract with Boeing to investigate the development of
large Saturn-Nova class rockets employing different combinations of liquid
or solid types of fuel.

---: Israel fired a multistage solid-propellant Shavit (Meteor) II rocket
to an altitude of 80 kilometers, releasing a sodium-cloud meteorogical
payload.

---: Major Gagarin, speaking in Helsinki, Finland, stated that the
U.S.S.R.would launch another manned space vehicle sometime before the end
of the year.

---: French Foreign Ministry announced that West German Government had
agreed in principle to participate in 12-nation program to construct launch
satellites.

July 7: USAF Discoverer XXVI orbited from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
carrying instrument capsule to be recovered after 32 polar orbits and 4
days. Of the 25 previous Discoverers, 17 had gone into orbit and 15 carried
recovery capsules, of which 5 had been recovered.

---: The second static firing of the Saturn SA-T2 test booster was
successfully completed at Marshall Space Flight Center in an eight engine
test of 119 seconds' duration.

---: Atlas E, launched from Cape Canaveral, established distance flight
record of 9,050 miles, its nose cone landing 1,000 miles southeast of Cape
Town, South Africa.

July 9: Massive Soviet air show over Tushino Airport in Moscow, on Soviet
Air Force Day, which demonstrated that U.S.S.R. had continued development
of all classes of military aircraft.

---: Capsule of Discoverer XXVI snatched at 15,000 feet during final
descent after 32 polar orbits. Midair recovery by C-119, Capt. Jack Wilson,
U.S. Air Force, as pilot, was fourth so performed. Capsule carried
undisclosed payload.

July 9: National Science Foundation released forecast of the Nation's
science needs for the next decade, which predicted that United States would
need nearly twice as many scientists in 1970 (168,000) as today (87,000).

---: Reported that Navy had been launching telephone poles with rocket
boost in test of floating launching requirements.

July 10: National Science Foundation policy document entitled "Investing in
Scientific Progress" was released, which showed dollar and manpower
investments needed by United States in decade 1960-70 to ensure fulfillment
of the Nation's research capabilities.

July 11: NASA announced that a complete F-1 engine had begun a series of
static test firings at Edwards Rocket Test Center, Calif.

July 11-12: Cosmonaut Gagarin visited England.

July 12: NASA Tiros III weather satellite successfully launched into
near-circular orbit by Thor-Delta from Cape Canaveral.

---: Midas III (missile defense alarm system) launched into polar orbit
from Pacific Missile Range, with record 1,850-mile-high orbit and was
heaviest U.S. satellite launched to date. Second-stage Agena B was
restarted at apogee of first orbit.

---: Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that construction was underway on
the first large space simulator in the United States capable of testing
full-scale spacecraft of the Ranger and Mariner classes with the three
primary space effects-solar radiation, cold space heat sink, and a high
vacuum equivalent to about one part in a billion (1:1,000,000,000) of the
atmospheric pressure on the Earth.

July 13: Mercury-Redstone 6 was static tested for 30 seconds at Marshall
Space Flight Center to ensure satisfactory operation of the turbopump
assembly.

July 13-14: Two Nike-Cajun rockets launched University of New
Hamsphire-Goddard Space Flight Center payloads from NASA Wallops Station.

July 14: Advanced Polaris fired 1,600 miles down Atlantic Missile Range
with all-inertial guidance system.

---: Simulated Mercury-Redstone 4 flight test held at Atlantic Missile
Range.

July 16: Vice President Johnson announced that the National Aeronautics and
Space Council had reached unanimous agreement on the national
communications satellite policy, and unspecified recommendations
transmitted to President Kennedy.

July 17: NASA announced selection of RCA Astro-Electronics Division to
build seven capsules for experimental ion propulsion engines.

---: A joint tenancy agreement for NASA and DOD use of the Atlantic Missile
Range was signed by Commander, Atlantic Missile Range, and the Director of
Launch Operations, NASA.

July 18: FAI (Federal Aeronautique Internationale) officially recognized
the first space flight records claimed by U.S.S.R. and the United States:

Yuri Gagarin (April 12, 1961): Duration in orbital flight, 108 minutes;
greatest altitude in Earth orbital flight, 203 miles; greatest mass lifted
in Earth orbital flight, 10,395 pounds.

Alan Shepard (May 15 1961: Altitude without orbit, 115.696 miles; greatest
mass lifted without Earth orbit, 4,031.7 pounds.

---: United States-U.S.S.R. talks began on bilateral agreement on
commercial air flights between New York and Moscow.

---: Saturn SA-T2 booster successfully static tested for 111 seconds at
Marshall Space Flight Center.

July 18-20: NASA-Industry Apollo Technical Conference held in Washington,
D.C., which assembled Apollo requirements with participation of Space Task
Group, representatives of other NASA Centers, and the three Apollo study
contractors-General Dynamics/Astronautics, General Electric, and Martin.

July 19: Mercury-Redstone (MR-4) with manned Liberty Bell 7 capsule
canceled within minutes of launch because of adverse weather.

---: NASA and Weather Bureau invited over 100 of the world's weather
services to participate in the Tiros III satellite experiment by conducting
special ground-based observations synchronized with passes of the
satellite.

---: Tiros III photographed tropical storm Liza in the Pacific Ocean,
pinpointing its location for meteorologists.

July 20: NASA and DOD, following an exchange of letters between the
Administrator of NASA and the Secretary of Defense, established a joint
study to determine the national large launch vehicle needs for the next
decade, considering the requirements of both NASA and DOD.

July 21: MR-4 Liberty Bell 7, manned by Mercury Astronaut Virgil I.
Grissom, made successful 15-minute, 118-mile-high and 303-mile-long flight
down Atlantic Missile Range, premature blowout of escape hatch flooding
capsule and making helicopter pickup of Grissom difficult. Capsule sank in
18,000 feet of water after warning light indicated helicopter engine was
overheating and the capsule was cast loose. This was the second successful
manned suborbital space flight.

---: President Kennedy signed NASA's fiscal year 1962 authorization bill
providing for a total of $1,784,300,000.

---: USAF Discoverer XXVII destroyed by range safety officer 60 seconds
after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

---: At the request of Senator Paul H. Douglas, the membership of the
American Astronautical Society was polled by the University of Illinois
Observatory as to their opinion regarding the "scientific value" of the
U.S. space program to land on and return one or more men from the Moon.

---: USAF processed 44 test pilots through the Dyna-Soar selection program,
and reportedly both USAF and NASA test pilots would participate in the step
I suborbital flight program.

July 22: Astronaut Virgil Grissom was awarded the NASA Distinguished
Service Medal by Administrator Webb at conclusion of MR-4 press conference
at Cape Canaveral.

July 23: Red Star (Krasnaya Zvezda) of the U.S.S.R. stated Tiros III and
Midas III launched on July 12 were comparable to the U-2: "A spy is a spy,
no matter what height it flies."

July 23: NASA Administrator Webb, in congressional testimony, pointed out
that the Tiros cloud-cover program was known to the entire world, involved
no surveillance, and promised great benefit to all nations. He pointed out
that data from Tiros satellites had been made available to all, including
the Soviet Union.

---: Central Aero Club of the U.S.S.R., in seeking to place Gagarin's
flight in the record books, revealed to FAI Astronautics Documentation
Subcommittee, meeting in Paris, that Gagarin rode his spacecraft to Earth
rather than parachuting.

July 24: White House issued statement by President Kennedy on
"Communication Satellite Policy," which outlined governmental
responsibilities for research and development "to give maximum assurance of
rapid and continuous scientific and technological progress," and which
affirmed that "private ownership and operation of the U.S. portion of the
system is favored" within eight policy requirements. The President's
statement said that through this country's leadership, communications
through the use of space satellites should be developed "for global benefit
at the earliest practicable date." He invited "all nations to participate
in a communication satellite system in the interest of world peace and
closer brotherhood among peoples throughout the world." And, during present
phase of research and development, "no arrangements between the Government
and private industry [should] contain any commitments as to an operational
system." In conclusion, the President said that "I am anxious that
development of this new technology to bring the farthest corner of the
globe within reach by voice and visual communication, fairly and equitable
available for use, proceed with all possible promptness."

---: Dr. Edward R. Sharp, Director Emeritus of the NASA Lewis Research
Center since his retirement in January, died. Joining NASA in 1922, Dr.
Sharp was the first Manager of the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in
1941, and became its Director in 1947. He had received the U.S. Medal for
Merit from President Truman in 1947.

---: Joint FAA-DOD-NASA "Commercial Supersonic Transport Aircraft Report,"
prepared by a joint task force, said that the development of a commercial
transport airplane to fly three times the speed of sound (mach 3) was
feasible and could be developed by 1970-71.

July 25: NASA reported that one of the Tiros III cameras was inoperative,
but that a duplicate camera was producing high quality pictures. Over 3,500
cloud cover pictures had been transmitted since the launching of Tiros III
on July 12.

---: Titan ICBM with self-contained inertial guidance fired 5,000 miles
down Atlantic Missile Range.

July 26: Cosmonaut Gagarin participated in anniversary celebration in
Havana of July 26 revolutionary movement of Fidel Castro.

July 27: Third USAF Minuteman missile successfully flown on 4,000-mile
flight down Atlantic Missile Range.

---: France announced plans to launch its first satellite by the end of
1964.

July 28: NASA and the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. signed a
cooperative agreement for the development and testing of two, possibly
four, active communication satellites during 1962. A.T. & T. would design
and build the TSX satellites at its own expense, and would reimburse NASA
for the cost of the launchings by Thor-Delta vehicles at Cape Canaveral.
Relationship between this contract and the overall NASA communications
satellite program aimed at early development of an operational system was
explained at a NASA press conference.

---: NASA invited 12 companies to submit prime contractor proposals for the
manned lunar Apollo spacecraft by October 9.

---: NASA representatives meeting with Arnold Engineering Development
Center (AEDC) fixed the guidelines for the Centaur propulsion system
testing program.

---: Interviewed in the Netherlands West Indies, en route Brazil, Maj. Yuri
Gagarin said that his next assignment would be a flight to the Moon. Asked
about U.S. efforts, he reportedly stated that "there is a place on the Moon
for everybody."

July 29: Chief of Japanese Weather Bureau, Kiyoo Wadachi, reported that 30
observations from Tiros III had been received from the United States.

---: World press reported opposition of astronomers to proposed USAF
placement of 350 million needles into a 2,000-mile-high Earth orbit to test
their feasibility as reflectors for global communications.

July 30: Draft text of program of the Soviet Communist Party to be
presented to its 22nd Congress in October was released in English by Tass,
official Soviet press agency. This new program, the first proposed since
the one submitted by Lenin and adopted in 1919, made no direct or indirect
reference to space exploration. On the role of science, it stated: "The
Party will do everything to enhance the role of science in the building of
Communist society, it will encourage research to discover new possibilities
for the development of the productive forces, and the rapid and extensive
application of the latest scientific and technical achievements, a decisive
advancement in experimental work, including research directly at
enterprises, and the efficient organization of scientific and technical
information and of the whole system of studying and disseminating
progressive Soviet and foreign methods. Science will itself in full measure
become a productive force . . . ."

July 31: NASA's Tiros II transmitted photograph of a major storm off the
south tip of Africa. Launched on November 23, 1960, Tiros II was expected
to only have a useful lifetime of about 3 months.

---: NASA awarded contract to the University of Michigan to continue to
provide research instrumentation for measurement of temperatures and winds
at altitudes up to 150 kilometers with Nike-Cajun and other sounding
rockets.

---: NASA provided for transfer of funds to ONR for balloons, launching
services, and related expenses in connection with high-altitude
measurements of electron, low-energy proton, and alpha-particle spectrum of
primary cosmic radiation to be conducted by the University of Chicago from
Uranium City, Saskatchewan, Canada.

July 31: At Cape Canaveral with the President's Missile Sites Labor
Commission, Secretary of Labor Goldberg made public President Kennedy's
message praising the voluntary, no-strike, no-lockout pledges covering
labor-management relations at missile and space sites. The President's
message stated that "the Nation cannot afford the luxury of avoidable delay
in our missile and space program. Neither can we tolerate wasteful and
expensive practices which add to the great financial burden our defense
effort already places on us."

---: Atlas E fired from Atlantic Missile Range with simulated atomic fuel
cores to demonstrate dispersal on reentry into the atmosphere of the
radioactive material in an atomic space generator.

---: Vice Adm. T. G. W. Settle (Ret.) stated in Washington that Navy blimps
should have been used in recovery of Mercury capsule, a proposal submitted
to Navy 2 years ago, and which would have avoided recovery difficulties of
Liberty Bell 7 and Astronaut Grissom. Settle pointed out that Navy had
announced the end of its lighter-than-air program in June 1961.

During July: Langley Research Center simulated spacecraft flights at speeds
of 8,200 to 8,700 feet per second in approaching the Moon's surface. With
instruments preset to miss the Moon's surface by 40 to 80 miles, pilots
with control of thrust and torques about all three axes of the craft were
able to learn to establish orbits 10 to 90 miles above the surface, using a
graph of vehicle rate of descent and circumferential velocity, an
altimeter, and vehicle attitude and rate meters, as reported by M. J.
Queijo and Donald R. Riley of Langley Research Center.

---: "Celestial simulator" at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in final checkout,
an "instant universe" chamber which can duplicate white light and infrared
point sources of solar system bodies likely to be used for navigation and
attitude control of spacecraft.

---: U.S.S.R. has scheduled "at least two more manned space flights this
year, one to circle the Earth, the other perhaps the Moon," according to
Dr. Grigori A. Tokaty, head of Northhampton College of Advanced Technology,
London, England. Former director of Russia's long-range rocket group,
Tokaty also stated that the U.S.S.R. was planning to establish "one or two"
unmanned lunar stations in 1962.

---: U.S.S.R. claimed three new world aircraft weight-lifting records for
the Tu-114, in a flight from Vnukovo Airfield in which a 30,035-kilogram
load was carried to an altitude of 41,125 feet, I. Sukhomlin as pilot.

                                AUGUST 1961

August 1: NASA directed Marshall Space Flight Center to enter contract
negotiations with contractors for procurement of five operational
Atlas-Centaur vehicles. These launchings were planned to begin in second
quarter of 1964.

---: NASA Ranger I launch from Atlantic Missile Range postponed at T minus
15 minutes because of failure of ground-support equipment.

---: NASA Apollo briefing held at Space Task Group for all prime
contractors interested in submitting bids.

August 2: NASA headquarters announced that it was making a world-wide study
of possible launching sites for Moon vehicles; the size, power, noise, and
possible hazards of Saturn-Nova type rockets requiring greater isolation
for public safety than presently available.

---: Dr. Sydney Chapman of the British Royal Observatory reported at
Langley Research Center-National Research Foundation-Virginia Polytechnic
Institute conference that evidence suggested existence of a third radiation
belt surrounding the Earth-except for areas above the poles-at altitudes
between 20,000 and 28,000 miles.

---: USAF announced that two Lockheed U-2 aircraft would begin series of
air-sampling flights from Okinawa.

August 3: USAF Discoverer XXVIII (total payload weight of 2,100 pounds)
launched but did not attain orbit.

---: Tiros II transmitted photograph of a major storm in the Northwest
Pacific Ocean.

August 5: Segmented solid-propellent rocket engine fired by United
Technology Corp. at Sunnyvale, generating over 200,000 pounds of thrust in
80-second firing. Developed under NASA contract, center section of engine
contained over 55,000 pounds of propellant, the largest single piece yet
manufactured in the United States.

---: First Saturn (SA-1) booster began water trip to Cape Canaveral on Navy
barge Compromise after overland detour around Wheeler Dam.

August 6: U.S.S.R. launched Vostok II into orbit carrying Maj. Gherman S.
Titov. Spacecraft weighed 13 pounds more than Vostok I (April 12) and
progress of Cosmonaut Titov's flight was reported continuously of Radio
Moscow.

---: In press conference at Hyannis Port, Mass., U.S. Ambassador to the
U.N. Adlai Stevenson, said: "Russia's scientific contribution to the
conquest of outer space commands our admiration. Orbiting a new astronaut
for a longer period of time is another step forward . . . this event
[Vostok II] sharpens the need for some international action to regulate the
use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and to keep the arms race from
spreading to that field. The President has recently announced his proposal
for cooperative sharing of communications and weather satellites. We hope
the Russians won't delay longer in joining us in cooperation."

August 6: February report of the Space Science Board of the National
Academy of Sciences was released recommending exploration of the Moon and
planets "as the official goal of the U.S. space program and clearly
announced, discussed, and supported."

August 7: Reported from Moscow that Major Titov has successfully landed in
Vostok II after 17 orbits and 25 hours, 18 minutes, the first test of man's
reaction to prolonged weightlessness. This was the second manned orbital
flight, the first manned flight of more than one orbit.

---: A joint message issued by Tass for the Soviet Party's Central
Committee, the Cabinet, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet said: "Our
achievements in the exploration of outer space are placed at the service of
peace and scientific progress, for the benefit of all people on our
planet."

---: Two U.S. Air Force officers were sealed in space simulator for 17-day
test of man's reaction to almost pure oxygen at 350,000 feet altitude, at
School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, Tex. Emerging on
August 25, Lts. B. Appel and J. Slider had eaten dehydrated food, drunk
water processed from the atmosphere and their own body wastes, and were
pronounced in good physical condition.

August 8: Over 100 foreign weather services were invited jointly by NASA
and the U.S. Weather Bureau to participate in the Tiros III experiment for
a 9-week period beginning today. The program provides cooperating services
with an opportunity to conduct special meteorological observations
synchronized with passes of the satellite.

---: Atlas F successfully fired 5,000 miles from Atlantic Missile Range.

August 9: NASA selected MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory to develop the
guidance-navigation system for Project Apollo spacecraft. This first major
Apollo contract was required since guidance-navigation system is basic to
overall Apollo mission. The Instrumentation Laboratory of MIT, a nonprofit
organization headed by C. Stark Draper, has been involved in a variety of
guidance and navigation systems developments for 20 years.

---: Enormous reception for Cosmonaut Gherman S. Titov in Red Square,
Moscow. That evening at a Kremlin reception, Premier Nikita Khrushchev made
an impromptu speech in which he asserted that the Soviet Union could
construct a rocket with an explosive warhead equivalent to 100 million tons
of TNT.

---: Dr. Clifford C. Furnas, chancellor of the University of Buffalo, was
appointed Chairman of the Defense Science Board by Secretary McNamara.

August 10: X-15 (No. 1) on its first flight with new XLR-99 engine was
flown to 2,735 miles per hour by Comdr. Forrest S. Petersen, U.S. Navy, at
Edwards Air Force Base.

---: In regular press conference, President Kennedy stated that "we are
spending as much money and devoting as large a percentage of scientific
personnel, engineering, and all the rest as we possibly can to the space
program. We are constantly concerned with speeding it up. We are making
what I consider to be a maximum effort."

---: In passing NASA fiscal year 1962 appropriations, Congress cut
$226,686,000 requested for salaries and expenses to $206,750,000.

August 11: Thomas F. Dixon of North American Aviation was appointed
Director of NASA's Office of Launch Vehicle Programs (OLVP), effective
September 18, 1961. He replaced Maj. Gen. Don R. Ostrander, U.S. Air Force,
who returned to military duty as Vice Commander of AFBSD (AFSC), having
served as first Director of OLVP since December 16, 1959.

---: Project West Ford received approval in National Aeronautics and Space
Council policy statement released at the National Academy of Sciences by
Presidential Scientific Adviser Jerome B. Wiesner. Conceived at MIT's
Lincoln Laboratory, project proposed placement of 350-million copper
threads (0.7-inch long and 0.001-inch diameter) into a 5-mile wide and
24-mile long belt around the Earth from a satellite, which would serve as
reflector antennas for extremely short wave lengths (8,000 megacycles),
perhaps expanding usable frequency channels.

---: Vostok II press conference held in Moscow, featuring President of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences, Matislav Keldysh, and Cosmonaut Maj. Gherman S.
Titov.

---: NASA announced negotiation of a contract with Hughes Aircraft for
construction of three experimental synchronous communications satellites.

---: Aerojet-General Corp. announced first successful underwater launching
of a liquid-fueled rocket, an Aerobee fired from a water test basin at
Azuza, Calif.

---: NASA Langley Research Center awarded contract to Marquardt Corp. to
increase structural wind tunnel testing temperature from 600 to 2,000F.

August 12: Echo I completed first year in orbit, still clearly visible to
the naked eye, after 4,480 orbits and traveling 138 million miles. Echo I
provided basis for over 150 communications experiments, recent ones
indicating only a 40-percent reduction in transmission reflection caused by
the changed shape. Echo I provided significant data on atmospheric drag and
solar pressure.

---: Aerobee 150-A fired with liquid hydrogen experiment from Wallops
Island.

---: Record six Polaris missiles fired underwater in 1 day by U.S.S.
Abraham Lincoln.

August 14: Navy barge Compromise, carrying first Saturn booster, stuck in
the mud in the Indian River just south of Cape Canaveral. Released several
hours later, the Saturn was delayed only 24 hours in its 2,200-mile journey
from Huntsville.

---: Swedish scientists fired a U.S. Arcas rocket to 55.8-mile altitude
from Arctic Circle test range at Vidsel.

August 15: Explorer XII (S-3) placed into highly eccentric orbit by
Thor-Delta from Atlantic Missile Range, which would provide detailed
evaluation of behavior of energetic particles between 170- and 50-000-mile
altitude. Under Goddard Space Flight Center, this "windmill" satellite
carried six experiments developed by Ames Research Center, State University
of Iowa, University of New Hampshire, and Goddard Space Flight Center.
Several days were required to confirm orbit.

August 15: Sir Bernard Lovell, director of the radiotelescope at Jodrell
Bank, England, expressed concern in an interview about the USAF Project
West Ford, to place 350 million small pieces of wire into an orbital band
encircling the Earth at a height of 500 to 1,000 miles. Sir Bernard stated
that "the published intention of the plan is to provide a reflector for
radio communications from one side of the Earth to the other. Those of us
who have studied this notice it is being carried out under the auspices of
the USAF and not the NASA. . . ."

---: Dr. Frank B. Voris, captain, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy, Navy liaison
officer to Project Mercury since 1958, reported aboard as Assistant
Director for Aerospace Medicine in NASA's Office of Life Science Programs.

August 16: F-1 rocket engine tested in first of firing series of the
complete flight system.

---: The International Academy of Astronautics, meeting in Paris, named Sir
Bernard Lovell, Director of Jodrell Bank radio-telescope, as the first
winner of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim International Astronautics
Award.

---: Centaur vehicle C-1 was tested and accepted by Marshall Space Flight
Center.

August 16-18: General meeting of the International Astronomical Union at
the University of California, Berkley.

---: International Hypersonics Conference held at MIT.

August 17: NASA announced that Explorer XII had successfully completed
first orbit, radioing data on magnetic fields and solar radiation from an
apogee of nearly 54,000 miles and perigee within 170 miles of the Earth.

---: Tiros III spotted two storm cells about 500 miles south and southwest
of Hawaii, reports which alerted Honolulu and Guam of these previously
unknown potential typhoons.

---: President Kennedy signed into law the bill providing NASA
appropriations for fiscal year 1962 of $1,671,750,000.

---: USAF Blue Scout launched from Atlantic Missile Range, radio contact
lost during the fourth stage with payload intended to reach 140,000 miles
into space.

August 18: NASA announced that analysis of Project Mercury suborbital data
indicated that all objectives of that phase of the program had been
achieved, and that no further Mercury-Redstone flights were planned.

---: Announced that NASA had decided to add 15 Agena B vehicles to the
original Agena B program.

August 19: Controversy over Project West Ford aired at International
Astronomical Union meeting at Berkeley, Calif.

August 21: NASA held a news conference on Explorer XII, at which the great
amount of continuous coverage on interrelated data in its eccentric orbit
was pointed out.

---: DC-8 jet airline flown beyond mach 1 in experimental flight by Douglas
Aircraft.

August 22: University of Michigan astronomers reported reception of natural
radio signals from the planet Mercury.

---: Republic of China announced plans to initiate a rocket research
program.

August 23: Ranger I test satellite of unmanned lunar spacecraft, launched
from Atlantic Missile Range by Atlas D-Agena B into low parking orbit, but
did not attain its programed eccentric orbit.

---: Maj. Gherman S. Titov, in his serialized account of his orbital flight
in Pravda, described the state of weightlessness.

---: Saturn H-1 engine drop-tested into salt water at Cape Canaveral, then
returned to Marshall Space Flight Center for inspecting, cleaning, and
static firing.

August 24: NASA announced decision to launch manned lunar flights and other
missions requiring Saturn and Nova class vehicles from expanded Cape
Canaveral facilities. Based upon national space goals announced by the
President in May, NASA plans called for acquisition of 80,000 acres north
and west of AFMTC, to be administered by the USAF as agent for NASA and as
a part of the Atlantic Missile Range. Decision followed intensive NASA-DOD
survey for launching facilities, including trajectory advantages,
overflight or booster impact hazards, air and water transportation,
instrumentation support, and cost, time, and land availability advantages.
Expansion of Cape Canaveral was noted as first of three major steps in
accelerating the U.S. space program, the remaining two steps being a manned
space flight research center, and a booster fabrication and test facility.

---: Mercury-Atlas 4 launch postponed.

---: NORAD charts showed that flight of Vostok II was tracked continuously.

August 25: Explorer XIII (S-55A) placed into orbit by NASA Scout from
Wallops, a micrometeorite counting satellite developed by Langley Research
Center and Goddard Space Flight Center.

---: NASA announced selection of Blaw Knox Co. to conduct second-phase
feasibility study for a 240-foot diameter deep space tracking antenna for
Jet Propulsion Laboratory's deep space instrumentation facility at
Goldstone, Calif.

August 26: Explorer XIII, popularly referred to as the "beer can satellite"
because of its micrometeorite counting structure, completed its 15th orbit.

---: Aerojet-General fired largest solid-fuel-rocket motor to date, over
one-half million pounds of thrust, at Sacramento, Calif. The motor weighed
over 70 tons and was made in several segments which were joined together at
the static test site.

---: Northrop T-38 (Talon) jet flown 842.6 miles per hour to claim world
speed record for women, by Jacquelin Cochran at Edwards Air Force Base,
Calif.

August 27: In a letter to the President, 35 members of Congress urged that
a decision on the Nation's satellite communication system be delayed to
determine "whether such a system should be publicly or privately owned and
under what circumstances."

---: The Soviet Communist Party organ, Pravda, explained why Russian space
techniques and the names of spaceship designers were kept secret as
follows: "A corrupt capitalist society, by it very nature, is extremely
capable of turning the greatest peaceful achievements of mankind into the
total means of destruction of mankind. This is why it is risky to open even
the smallest loopholes in the world of Soviet rocket technique for the
gentlemen who are lagging considerably behind as far as their technique is
concerned, but who become militarily agitated and distracted from an honest
program of general and complete disarmament and who mumble something about
the right of inspection of neighbors' orchards and storerooms. That is why
the wonderful group of heroes who insured the mastering of the cosmos
remain nameless until now."

August 28: NASA selected Vitro Engineering Co. for negotiation of a design
contract for an engine maintenance and disassembly building, one of the
facilities to be a part of the National Nuclear Rocket Development Center.

---: Lt. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of Air Force Systems Command,
said that plans to orbit a monkey in Discoverer XXII (March 30) were
canceled at the last minute, and that such plans had not been rescheduled.

---: Reported that Martin Co. originally required 75,000 man-hours to
produce the first Titan I's, which had now been reduced to 19,000 man-hours
per Titan. Man-hour rate for the first five Titan II's averaged 35,000
man-hours on each one.

---: Lt. Hunt Hardisty, U.S. Navy, pilot, and Lt. Earl H. DeEsch flew an
F4H Phantom II over the 3-kilometer course of Holloman Air Force Base, N.
Mex., and averaged 902.769 miles per hour for a new world's record for
speed at low altitude.

August 29: NASA announced that Explorer XIII launched on August 25 had
reentered the atmosphere. Transmitting considerable data on
micrometeoroids, spacecraft was last heard on August 27 by the Minitrack
facility at Antofagasta, Chile.

---: NASA Associate Administrator Seamans announced the addition of four
additional Ranger spacecraft, bringing the total to nine, the number of
Rangers to be launched in this phase of the lunar exploration program.
"This new third phase of the Ranger program is a part of the general
acceleration of the program to land an American on the Moon by 1970," said
Dr. Seamans.

---: Ranger I completed 100 orbits, transmitting data on all engineering
devices and eight scientific experiments. It was expected to come down
soon.

August 30: USAF Discoverer XXIX launched into polar orbit with 300-pound
data capsule, from Pacific Missile Range.

---: NASA announced that Ranger I spacecraft had reentered the Earth's
atmosphere. Launched on August 23, Ranger I made 111 orbits, traveled
almost 3 million miles, and its orientation, communications, and electronic
systems performed satisfactorily.

---: USAF Minuteman ICBM exploded seconds after firing in silo at Cape
Canaveral due to guidance malfunction.

August 31: U.S.S.R. announced policy of resumption of nuclear weapon
testing which had been suspended March 31, 1958, and that bombs can be
delivered anywhere in the world by "powerful rockets like those Majs. Yuri
Gagarin and Gherman Titov rode to begin their unrivaled space flights
around the Earth."

During August: NASA site selection team headed by John F. Parsons,
Associate Director of Ames Research Center, toured possible sites for a
manned spacecraft center.

---: New wind tunnel became operational at Ames Research Center, capable of
research on reentry problems at speeds of mach 7.5, 10, and 15.

---: With successful launch of Explorer XII on August 15, NASA Delta launch
vehicles had successfully launched five satellites out of six attempts, the
only failure being the first attempt. Deta's high reliability record began
with Echo I on August 12, 1960, and includes Tiros II and III, and
Explorers X and XII. Built by prime contrator Douglas Aircraft, the NASA
Delta launch vehicle consists of a Thor first stage (Rocketdyne MB-3 liquid
engine), Aerojet-General second stage (AJ-10-118, an improved Vanguard
second stage), and an ABL third stage (X-248 spin-stabilized version of
Vanguard third stage).

---: New 210-foot diameter radiotelescope began operations at Parkes, New
South Wales, operated by a group of scientists headed by Dr. E. G. Bowen,
radar poineer.

---: NASA-DOD Large Launch Vehicle Planning Group in session since August 1
to study the policy, management structures, and requirements of launch
vehicles beyond the size of Saturn. Meeting in NASA headquarters, the group
was headed by Dr. Nicholas E. Golovin, technical assistant to the Associate
Administrator of NASA.

---: Announced that RCA scientists determined the distance between Earth
and Venus to an accuracy of 200 miles using 84-foot tracking antenna.

                               SEPTEMBER 1961

September 1: White House announced that the U.S.S.R. had resumed testing of
nuclear weapons early this morning, the first known nuclear test by
U.S.S.R., United States, or Britain since the fall of 1958.

---: Per NASA management instructions, all space vehicles and spacecraft
under cognizance of NASA were to be equipped with fail-safe devices for
terminating electromagnetic transmissions at the completion of their
planned useful life.

---: Three parachuting skindivers recovered capsule of Discoverer XXIX, the
seventh recovery of an object from orbit in the USAF Discoverer program.
Capsule had made 33 orbits and contained human, animal, and soil life
samples.

---: NASA Administrator Webb, appearing before the Senate Commitee on
Aeronautical and Space Sciences, requested $60 million additional for
fiscal year 1962 for the acquisition of 80,000 acres adjoining Cape
Canaveral for launching facilities for the expanded space program.

---: NASA issued its "Program Evaluation and Review Technique Handbook,"
its adaptation of the Navy PERT program management system.

September 2: Scientists at Nagoya University, Japan, were reported to be
training monkey for space flight next year, hopefully in conjunction with
Japanese Government-financed rocket program carried out by Tokyo
University's Institute of Industrial Science.

September 3: Thirty days exposure to simulated vacuum of space killed
bacteria by causing them to disintegrate molecule by molecule, was finding
of studies reported by the Materials Testing Laboratory of Hughes Aircraft
Co. Dr. Charles G. Walence reported that sterilization of space vehicles
probably could be eliminated from current planning.

September 5: Authorization for NASA to acquire necessary land for
additional launch facilities at Cape Canaveral was approved by the Senate.

---: In an interview with C. L. Sulzberger, Premier Khrushchev reviewed the
world crisis in detail. "In a strange Darwinian interpretation of the
advance of nations," Sulzberger reported, "Mr. Khrushchev jokingly
considers that the United States is still in the stage of 'jumping while
the Soviet Union has learned how to 'fly.' This refers to the
Earth-orbiting successes of the Soviet spacemen, Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin and
S. Titov."

September 5-7: International Conference on Science and World Affairs held
at Stowe, Vt., at which nonofficial proposals for a joint United
States-U.S.S.R. space program were considered by delegates of 12 nations
including the United States and the Soviet Union.

September 6: USAF Titan successfully launched from Atlantic Missile Range,
making 6,100-mile flight.

---: AEC announced that U.S.S.R. had detonated a fourth nuclear device in
the atmosphere, at a site east of Stalingrad.

---: After a series of six static firings, the Saturn SA-T2 booster was
removed from the static test tower at Marshall Space Flight Center.

September 7: NASA announced that Government-owned Michoud Ordnance Plant
near New Orleans would be the site for fabrication and assembly of the
first stage of Saturn as well as for making stages for larger booster.

---: Balloon flights to measure loss of radiation from the Van Allen
radiation belts-the "dumping profile" experiment-was announced by National
Science Foundation. Flights are part of joint project by University of
Minnesota and University of California, taking place along line from Flin
Flon, Manitoba, to Waterloo, Iowa.

---: USAF Titan with inertial guidance system successfully launched from
Atlantic Missile Range, the second in as many days, impacting into target
area over 5,000 miles down range.

---: The Agena B vehicle 6002 was delivered to Atlantic Missile Range, in
preparation for the Ranger 2 launch.

September 8: Deep space tracking antenna dedicated by United States and
South African officials. Located 40 miles from Johannesburg, the antenna
has operated since July in collaboration with Goldstone and Woomera, and
tracked Ranger I.

---: Reported from Stowe, Vt., that unofficial American-Soviet discussions
on cooperative space exploration were near agreement, and that
internationalized status for space similar to that achieved by treaty for
the continent of Antarctica was under consideration. Delegations included
seven members of President Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee and six
members of the ruling body of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The Stowe
Conference was sponsored by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences of
Boston, with costs defrayed by the Ford Foundation.

September 10: Tiros III photographed Hurricane Esther in process of
formation, 2 days before hurricane-hunter aircraft verified winds of
hurricane force. Quality of Tiros III pictures processed in 8 hours through
the National Meteorological Center, Suitland, Md., was not alone sufficient
for identification of a hurricane.

---: On the same day, Tiros III also observed one-eighth of the Earth,
providing data on two other hurricanes (Carla and Debbie), one dissipating
hurricane (Betsy), two typhoons (Nancy and Pamela), and at least one other
vortex storm.

---: White House released "Project Horizon" report of task force created in
March to establish goals to maintain America's primacy in aeronautics. The
report made a strong recommendation for the development of a supersonic
transport, among other recommendations.

---: U.S.S.R. announced that it would launch a series of "more powerful and
improved rockets" into the Central Pacific in tests between September 13
and October 15.

September 11: NASA selected North American Aviation to develop an upper
stage (S-II) for an Advanced Saturn launch vehicle to be used on both
manned and unmanned missions.

September 12: In a speech before the National Press Club, NASA
Administrator Webb reviewed NASA's program and outlined the interest in the
rendezvous-in-space technique for staging flights to the Moon and nearby
planets.

---: X-15 flown to record 3,614 miles per hour by NASA's Joseph A. Walker
at Edwards Air Force Base.

---: USAF Discoverer XXX launched into polar orbit from Pacific Missile
Range.

September 13: Unmanned Mercury spacecraft orbited by Mercury-Atlas launch
vehicle from Atlantic Missile Range and recovered 1 hour and 22 minutes
after landing by destroyer U.S.S. Decatur. This MA-4 (capsule 8) flight
demonstrated, said NASA Space Task Group Director Robert Gilruth, that
"Atlas has the capability to fly a man in orbit; it brought in for the
first time the Mercury worldwide tracking network; and demonstrated the
ability of the capsule and its systems to operate completely unattended.

---: Two experiments to measure atmospheric winds, temperature, and density
in relatively high altitudes conducted from Wallops Island in two
four-stage Argo D-4 rocket launches. Sodium clouds were released at nearly
120 statue miles and again at 228 miles in first launch, and at 118 and 230
miles in the second launch. French scientists participated by using special
optical instruments to observe the brilliant orange and yellow clouds which
stirred a rash of public inquiries to newspapers from hundreds of miles
around.

---: U.S.S.R. announced that it has fired new, powerful carrier rocket more
than 7,400 miles to within less than five-eights of a mile from its Central
Pacific target.

---: Soviet Marshal Kiril S. Moskalenko, chief of rocket forces, declared
that 95 percent of all Soviet rockets fired reached their targets. (Article
in Red Star timed to coincide with first firing of new rocket series in the
Pacific.)

September 14: USAF C-130B cargo plane snagged the parachuting capsule of
Discoverer XXX north of Hawaii, Capt. W. C. Schmensted as pilot.

---: White House released its reply to letter of August 27 signed by 35
members of Congress which expressed concern over the private ownership of
an operational communications satellite system. The White House memorandum
stated that "any decisions as to control should preserve as much
flexibility as possible," and reemphasized the administration policies
including "maximum competition" in any system of private ownership.

---: Resolution calling for the creation of an international space year
program and an international space agency, both under the auspices of the
United Nations, introduced in the Senate by Senator Hubert Humphrey.

September 14: AEC announced that the Soviet Union had fired its 10th
nuclear blast in the current test series begun 2 weeks ago.

September 15: White House announced that AEC-DOD had conducted first U.S.
nuclear weapons test since October 1958, and underground weapons
development test at the Nevada testing site, one of low yield and which
produced no fallout.

---: Army Nike-Zeus fired from White Sands Proving Ground met all test
objectives, including controlled high-velocity in the atmosphere and
evaluation of solid-fuel rocket motors and guidance system.

---: Marshall Space Flight Center's Procurement and Contracts Office
reported that a contract was let to the Noble Co. for disassembling the
Redstone gantry at Atlantic Missile Range and reassembling and erecting on
pad 75-1-1 at Vandenberg Air Force Base for use with Thor-Agena B launches
after January 1962.

September 16: Congressman Overton Brooks, of Louisiana, chairman of the
House Committee on Science and Astronautics since its creation in January
1959, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

September 17: USAF Discoverer XXXI placed into polar orbit from Pacific
Missile Range by Thor-Agena.

---: Soviet Union announced that 12 altitude and speed records had been
broken by its twin-jet M-10 antisubmarine seaplane.

September 18: First of four scheduled Skylark rocket firings was launched
from Woomera in the joint United States-Australian ultraviolet survey of
the southern skies.

September 19: NASA Administrator Webb announced that location of the new
Manned Spacecraft Center would be in Houston, Tex., the conclusion of an
intensive nationwide study by a site selection team. The Manned Spacecraft
Center would be the command center for the manned lunar landing mission and
all follow-on manned space flight missions. This announcement was the third
basic decision on major facilities required for the expanded U.S. Range and
the establishment of the spacecraft fabrication center at the Michoud
Ordnance Plant near New Orleans, La.

---: Recovery of capsule of Discoverer XXXI was called off as capsule and
satellite (launched Sept. 17, 1961) failed to separate and both remained in
orbit.

---: USAF Bomarc B launched from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on command
from SAGE Center at Montgomery, Ala., destroyed supersonic Regulus launched
from Venice, Fla.

---: Air Force Systems Command formed a Bioastronautics Division, effective
October 1, to consolidate all USAF applied research in this area into a
single organization. School of Aerospace Medicine, now under Air Training
Command, becomes a part of Air Force Systems Command.

September 19: In a speech to the USAF Worldwide Information Conference at
Philadelphia, Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Hooks, Commander of the Office of
Aerospace Research, reported that predictions of OAR's Solar Laboratory at
Sacramento Peak, N. Mex., were borne out by the flights of the U.S.S.R.'s
Vostok I and II. High proton shower activity associated with solar flares
had been predicted for April 1961, except from April 11 through 14 (Major
Gagarin's flight in Vostok I was on April 12). August 6, the day of the
launching of Major Titov's 17-orbit flight, was the "safest day" for low
solar activity on record since 1955.

September 20: Robert Gilruth and other officials of the Space Task Group
made survey of the new site of the Manned Spacecraft Center near Houston,
Tex., to seek temporary operational quarters as soon as possible. Permanent
quarters will be constructed under the supervision of the Army Corps of
Engineers.

September 21: D. Brainerd Holmes was appointed NASA's Director of Manned
Space Flight Programs. As general manager of RCA's Major Defense Systems
Division, Holmes was project manager for the Ballistic missile early
warning system(BMEWS).

---: Representative George P. Miller, Democrat, of California, was named
chairman of the House Science and Astronautics Committee.

---: Soviet Union protested to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences that
Project West Ford might endanger Soviet cosmonauts, protest contained in a
letter to Detlev W. Bronk, president of the NAS, signed by Matislav
Keldysh, president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

September 22: Announced at Space Task Group that a 30-cubic-foot balloon
would be installed in Mercury spacecraft to allow for ship recovery should
helicopter be forced to drop it as happened during the MR-4 recovery.

September 23: U.S.S.R. announced that third flight of current series of
Pacific tests of new multistage carrier rocket was successful.

---: NASA planned to spend $6 million on expansion of its Langley
facilities in this fiscal year, according to Representative Thomas N.
Downing after a conversation with NASA Administrator James E. Webb.
Representative Downing said he was satisfied that the lower peninsula area
of Virginia would not suffer financially when the Space Task Group moved to
Houston, Tex.

September 24: Administrator Webb announced major organizational changes and
top-level appointments in NASA. Keyed to the Nation's accelerated civilian
space program, changes provided clearer focus on major programs, and
provided center directors with a louder voice in policymaking and program
decisions. Effective November 1, major headquarters program offices would
be headed as follows: Ira H. Abbott, Director of the Office of Advanced
Research and Technology; Homer E. Newell, Director of the Office of Space
Sciences; D. Brainerd Holmes; Director of the Office of Manned Space
Flight; and an Office of Applications Programs with no director yet named.
Thomas F. Dixon was appointed Deputy of the Lewis Research Center and
Robert R. Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center.

September 24: Speaking at the Air Force Association convention in
Philadelphia, Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of the Air Force Systems
Command, said that "the United States has been notably slow to recognize
the military application of new inventions. Two of the most significant
inventions of this century-the airplane and the liquid-fuel rocket-are
American inventions. Yet in each case their first application was made by
other nations." Gen. Schriever also stated: "We should recognize that there
is no inherent difference between basic military and non-military space
technology. What really matters is not the technology but the intent . . .
space power must become a vital part of our national strength and
security."

---: NASA made a grant to Stanford University's School of Medicine for
development of design of payload instrumentation to determine existence of
life forms on nearby planets, a project under the direction of Dr. Joshua
Lederberg and Dr. Elliott C. Leventhal.

September 25: In a stirring address to the Assembly of the United Nations
meeting in New York, President John F. Kennedy called for "world law in the
age of self determination" rather than proposals for waging effective
peace, he urged "keeping nuclear weapons from seeding new battlegrounds in
outer space." In projecting the theme that "the events and decisions of the
next 10 months may well decide the fate of man of the next 10,000 years,"
President Kennedy spoke of the impact of space exploration as follows:

"As we extend the rule of law on Earth, so must we also extend it to man's
new domain-outer space."

"All of us salute the brave cosmonauts of the Soviet Union. The new
horizons of outer space must not be driven by the old bitter concepts of
imperialism and sovereign claims. The cold reaches of the universe must not
become the new arena of an even colder war."

"To this end, we shall urge proposals extending the United Nations Charter
to the limits of man's exploration in the universe, reserving outer space
for peaceful use, prohibiting weapons of mass destruction in space or on
celestial bodies, and opening the mysteries and benefits of space to every
nation. . . ."

September 25: Dr. George N. Constan of Marshall Space Flight Center named
as acting manager of the new NASA Saturn fabrication plant near New Orleans
by Director von Braun of Marshall Space Flight Center.

September 26: NASA bidders conference on a contract to produce the booster
(S-I) stage of the Saturn vehicle was held at the Municipal Auditorium, New
Orleans.

---: Meeting to examine the modification of C-133 aircraft for carrying
Saturn S-IV stages was held at NASA Langley Research Center.

September 27: Ion engine developed on NASA contract demonstrated at Hughes
Aircraft Laboratories.

September 28: NASA announced that instrumented Venus probe to be launched
next year would be launched by an Atlas-Agena B rather than a Centaur
rocket as originally planned.

---: Solar flare studied by Explorer XII and Injun I, readings within a few
hours indicated energetic protons with velocities of near 10,000 kilometers
per second, while 2 days after the solar flare both satellites saw a sudden
increase in the intensity of low-energy protons (c. 10 mev) concurrently
with a magnetic storm on Earth and bright aurora at low altitude. It was
concluded that low-energy protons traveled slowly from the Sun with the
magnetic stormcloud.

---: X-15 (No. 2) flown to 100,800 feet and 3,600 miles per hour by Comdr.
Forrest S. Petersen, U.S. Navy, at Edwards, Calif.

September 28-29: Pair of spinup rockets on Tiros II successfully fired
after more than 10 months in orbit.

September 29: USAF awarded three contracts for speeding development of the
Dyna-Soar, a manned orbital space glider. Receiving contracts were Boeing
Co. for development of the glider and related systems, Radio Corp. of
America for communications and tracking devices, and Minneapolis-Honeywell
Regulator Co. for the guidance system.

---: Dr. Charles M. Herzfeld, of the National Bureau of Standards, joined
DOD's Advanced Research Projects Agency to coordinate the Project Defender
program.

---: Navy Polaris (A-3) with modified second stage testing freon gas
regulator launched from pad at Atlantic Missile Range.

September 30: NASA Office for the United Nations Conference headed by Dr.
John P. Hagen was closed, effective this date. Continued uncertainty of
arrangements for a conference on the peaceful uses of outer space within
the United Nations made such a move necessary. Sustained NASA
responsibility in this regard was assigned to the Office of International
Programs.

---: Air Force Systems Command announced consolidation of all USAF research
and development in bioastronautics under single management. The new
Bioastronautics Division, Air Force Systems Command, would have its
headquarters at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Tex.

---: Two X-15 test pilots, USAF's Maj. Robert M. White and NASA's Joseph A.
Walker, were jointly awarded the 1960 Iven C. Kincheloe Memorial Award as
the Nation's outstanding test pilots; award of the Society of Experimental
Test Pilots.

September 30: NASA received an additional $10 million for salaries in a
supplemental appropriations bill approved by Congress, enough to hire an
additional 1,250 persons.

During September: National Bureau of Standards and the Institut Geofisico
de Huancago of Peru initiated construction of the Jucamarca Observatory, a
6-million-watt pulse transmitter and a 22-acre antenna with 9,216 crossed
dipoles mounted above a reflecting screen. Located 17 miles east of Lima,
Peru, the Observatory will be used for ground-based exploration of the
upper atmosphere and space.

---: USAF established a Council of Scientists to be comprised of senior
civilian scientists of major Air Force organizations, Dr. Leonard S.
Sheingold as Chairman.

---: Congress appropriated funds to the U.S. Weather Bureau for
implementation of the National Operational Meteorological Satellite System.
To phase in as early as technology warrants and to continue expanding the
operational capability through the early Nimbus launchings by NASA, the
system planned to be fully operational by 1966 as Nimbus system became
operational. The system would include data acquisition stations in northern
latitudes, communications for transmitting the data, and a National
Meteorological Center to receive, process, analyze, and disseminate the
derived information over domestic and international weather circuits.



For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov


               National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Aeronautical and Astronautical Events
of October-December 1961

SOURCE: Eugene M. Emme, comp., Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of
1961, Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the
Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th
Cong., 2d. Sess. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962),
pp. 52-78.

                                OCTOBER 1961

October 2-7: Twelfth Congress of the Internal Astronautical Federation held
in Washington, D.C.

October 2: NASA Deputy Administrator Dryden and Soviet Academy of Sciences
official Dr. Leonid I. Sedov both appealed for greater international
cooperation and exchange of information in the peaceful exploration of
space in their speeches at the opening of the 12th World Congress of the
International Astronautical Federation.

---: NASA conducted a press conference for foreign correspondents attending
the IAF Congress, pointing out that some 40 nations are now participating
in NASA programs or are obtaining NASA help for their respective space
programs. Director of the Office of International Programs, Arnold Frutkin,
pointed out that growing space research cooperation would soon include a
university training program in which 100 foreign students would work at
American universities on peaceful space experiments.

---: USAF Atlas E missile made successful 5,000-mile flight at Atlantic
Missile Range. The payload included the guidance equipment for the Centaur
rocket, radiation sensors, and a nose cone intended for the Minuteman. Data
capsule was recovered.

October 3: House Science and Astronautics Committee released interim report
on "Research and Development in Aeronautics," which concluded that "the
welfare of the Nation, in both its economic and security aspects, is
dependent in no small degree on continuing aeronautical research of high
caliber."

---: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson began tour of west coast missile and
space installations.

---: Inhouse procurement policies and practices of NASA reviewed by
headquarters and field personnel in conference at Lewis Research Center.

---: First regular meeting of the International Academy of Astronautics
held in conjunction with the 12th Annual Congress of the International
Astronautical Federation in Washington.

---: Dr. Vladimir A. Kotelnikov, of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, told
the IAF that Russian radar returns from Venus indicated a value of
149,599,500 kilometers obtained by Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the figure
of 149,597,850 kilometers obtained by Lincoln Laboratory. Disagreement
remains on whether Venus day is a 9-to-11-earth-day period or 225-earth-day
period.

October 3-5: PERT (program evaluation and review technique) symposium held
at Huntsville, Ala., sponsored by the American Institute of Industrial
Engineering and the University of Alabama.

October 4: Beginning of the fifth year of the "space age," being the
anniversary of the launching of Sputnik I (1957).

---: Project West Ford given final approval by the White House.

---: Maj. Robert Rushworth, U.S. Air Force, flew X-15 to 2,820 miles per
hour, with bottom tailfin missing in programed malfunctions for test of
stability and control.

---: State Department ruled that Soviet space scientists would not be
allowed to visit the American Rocket Society's Space Flight Report to the
Nation in New York on October 9-14, a reciprocal action prompted by Soviet
restrictions on American scientists in the U.S.S.R.

---: Soviet scientists in Washington for 12th IAF Congress revealed that
Maj. Gherman Titov was ill during his 17 orbits in Vostok II on August 6.
Disorientation, nausea, and irregular heartbeat resulted from prolonged
weightlessness, according to O. G. Gazenko and V.J. Yazdovsky of the Soviet
Academy of Sciences.

October 5: USAF Atlas fired 9,000 miles for Atlantic Missile Range into
Indian Ocean, carrying dummy nuclear warhead and a data capsule which was
recovered.

October 5-6: Atomic Energy Commission announced that the Tory II-A-1
nuclear test reactor underwent tests on September 28 and October 5-6. Power
levels of the test were not disclosed but advanced plans called for tests
at full power. The test was for "about 1 minute" at temperatures "in excess
of 2,000F." and emission of radiation was "negligible."

October 6: USAF Titan I launched from Cape Canaveral carrying Titan II
guidance system.

October 7: Soviet E-166 jet fighter flown to 1,482.039 miles per hour in
closed 100-kilometer course, according to Moscow claim.

---: Second stage of Nike-Zeus exploded at 2-miles altitude in test launch.

---: U.S.S.R. launched fourth multistage rocket 7,500 miles into the
Pacific.

October 8: Plans for a worldwide scientific study of the Sun, to begin in
1964 and continue for 18 months, were approved by scientists from 51
nations gathered in London for the triennial meeting of the International
Council of Scientific Unions. Final plans to be drawn in Paris in April
1962 at a meeting of the International Committee on Geophysics, successor
to the IGY.

---: In article in New York Times, Dr. Edward C. Welsh, Executive
Secretary, National Aeronautics and Space Council, said: "In my view, we
[the United States] do not have a division between peaceful and nonpeaceful
objectives for space. Rather, we have space missions to help keep the peace
and space missions to enable use to live better in peace."

---: In article in New York Times, Mr. George J. Feldman, consultant to the
House Committee on Science and Astronautics, outlined several areas of
international space law that urgently require solution, including
sovereignty in space, liability for damage from spacecraft, conflicts of
interest arising from space experiments, sovereignty claims on celestial
bodies, and the international allocation of satellite radio frequencies.
Communications satellites make latter point particularly critical, as well
as posing an unprecedented problem in American contract and antitrust law.

October 9-15: American Rocket Society's 16th annual meeting and Space
Flight Report to the Nation held in New York City.

October 10: NASA Argo D-4 rocket was launched from Wallops, reaching an
altitude of 585 miles and landing 817 miles out in the Atlantic, to gather
data on the density of electrically charged helium atoms in the upper
atmosphere.

October 11: X-15 flown more than 40 miles into space-217,000 feet-and
reached a speed of 3,647 miles per hour, Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force,
as pilot. This was above 99.9 percent of Earth's atmosphere; pilot's
heartbeat and respiration rose to twice above normal; and outside skin
temperature of the X-15 rose to 900F on reentry.

---: NASA Administrator Webb, speaking to the American Rocket Society, said
NASA scientists "are going to consider the rendezvous technique with great
care before going ahead with Nova." Decision on whether to give priority to
the rendezvous technique would probably be made by the end of 1961, he
said.

---: Final report of House Committee on Science and Astronautics relating
to their hearings on "Commercial Applications of Space Communications
Systems" released, having among its conclusions:

(1) Because of worldwide interest and potential usefulness of a space
communications system, the U.S. Government must "retain maximum flexibility
regarding the central question of ownership and operation of the system."

(2) NASA will not only evaluate the various commercial proposals but will
"conduct all space launches and retain direct control over all launching
equipment, facilities, and personnel."

(3) Research and development of military space communications systems
should continue to be conducted by DOD but all research and development in
space communications "should be conducted under the general supervision of
NASA in accordance with its statutory mandate to 'plan, direct, and conduct
aeronautical and space activities'" as well as evaluate the technical
merits of proposed systems.

---: In a luncheon address to the American Rocket Society, Gen. Bernard A.
Schriever said: "I have been, am being, and, if the situation is not
changed, will continue to be inhibited if our space efforts continue to be
carried out under an unnecessary, self-imposed national restriction;
namely, the artificial division between space for peaceful purposes and
space for military purposes." Asserting USAF management experience in space
systems, General Schriever added: "There is no short cut to the creation of
a team of dedicated and experienced men with a tradition of
accomplishment."

---: Jacqueline Cochran set woman's altitude record of 56,071.3 feet, in
Northrop T-38 jet trainer at Edwards Air Force Base.

October 13: In speech at the American Rocket Society, Vice President Lyndon
B. Johnson stated: "If I could get one message to you it would be this: The
future of this country and the welfare of the free world depend upon our
success in space. There is no room in this country for any but a fully
cooperative, urgently motivated all-out effort toward space leadership. No
one person, no one company, no one Government agency, has a monopoly on the
competence, the missions, or the requirements for the space program. It is
and it must continue to be national job."

October 13: Discoverer XXXII was placed into polar orbit; its capsule
contained components of USAF satellite systems. This marked the 100th
successful firing of the Thor booster rocket.

---: The Ad Hoc Carrier Committee established by the FCC to make an
industry proposal on the development and operation of commercial
communications satellites recommended a nonprofit corporation be formed, to
be owned by companies engaged in international communications, with the
U.S. Government having one more representative on the board of directors
than any one company. Western Union filed a minority statement proposing a
public stock company arrangement to prevent dominance of the corporation by
any one company.

---: The American Rocket Society presented its major annual awards as
follows: Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Medal to Dr. Wernher von Braun,
Director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; Astronautics Medal to Comdr.
Alan B. Shepard, Mercury astronaut, for his MR-3 flight of May 5; James H.
Wylk Memorial Medal to Harrison A. Storms, Jr., of North American Aviation;
Propulsion Medal to Robert B. Young of Aerojet-General Corp. for his role
in development of Titan II engine; G. Edward Pendray Award to Kraft Ehricke
for his contribution to astronautical literature; and Research Medal to Dr.
James Van Allen of State University of Iowa for basic research.

---: On its second birthday in space, Explorer VII was still transmitting
although it had been scheduled to stop a year ago.

---: The Soviet Union announced it had fired fifth multistage rocket 7,500
miles into the Central Pacific, with all stages functioning perfectly and
with the nose cone landing in the target area with a high degree of
accuracy.

October 14: Capsule of Discoverer XXXII recovered by C-130 piloted by Capt.
Warren Schensted, U.S. Air Force, the sixth aerial recovery of an ejected
satellite capsule and Schensted's second catch. Capsule contained test
objects including seed corn.

---: NASA Argo D-4 launched from Wallops Station carried United
States;Canadian topside sounding satellite payload to 560-mile altitude.

---: U.S.S.R.'s Tass announced that the "Air Force Herald" would be
retitled "Aviation and Cosmonautics" (Aviatsiga I Kosmonavtika), beginning
in January 1962.

---: U.S.S.R. claimed a new world speed record for vertiplanes on a closed
62-mile circuit at 209 miles per hour. Tass said this exceeded the previous
record of 191 miles per hour held by a New Zealander, G. Ellith, flying a
British Rotordyne. The following day, Tass claimed a horizontal speed of
228 miles per hour for the Kamov vertiplane.

October 14-15: Sky Shield II provided aerospace control exercise for NORAD
and SAC, including grounding of all commercial aircraft for 12 hours.

October 17: USAF-USN-NASA X-15 flown to 108,600 feet and a record speed of
3,900 miles per hour, piloted by Joseph Walker at Edwards, Calif.

October 18: NASA Scout fired payload to 4,261-mile altitude, obtaining data
on the ionosphere.

October 18: First U.S. showing of films of Vostok II space flight by
Gherman Titov, before the Maryland Academy of Sciences in Baltimore, was
canceled at the last minute by a Soviet Embassy official. Film had been
shown to press correspondents in Moscow on October 9.

---: James A. Van Allen was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of the
Franklin Institute, Philadephia, for "his many contributions and poineering
achievements in the filed of space science."

October 18-22: The 20th American Assembly sponsored by Columbia University
met to study the problems of space exploration and, in its report,
recommended a proper balance with it and other programs in the national
interest.

October 19: In a speech at Naval Research Laboratory, Harold Brown,
Director of Defense Research and Engineering, said Government labs would
hereafter be the "primary means" for carrying out military weapons
programs; that DOD would seek an increase in the number of supergrade
scientific positions and would ask for the same top pay for scientists as
NASA has; that labs would be given increased status in the chain of
command; and that lab directors will be given funds they can spend for
research without prior approval.

---: NASA Administrator Webb, speaking at the 20th American Assembly, said
the accelerated space program was necessary or else "we would see the
Russians, with the advantage of their advance position in booster thrust,
stay continuously ahead. . . . The cost over the 10 years of the
accelerated program will very probably be less than if it were stretched
out over 15 years."

---: NASA Scout launched from Wallops Island, Va., and placed 94-pound P-21
payload to 4,261-mile altitude in a study of the ionosphere.

October 20: Ranger test postponed at Atlantic Missile Range.

October 21: USAF Midas IV launched into polar orbit from Pacific Missile
Range, and also carried Project West Ford payload.

October 22: NASA announced that Dr. Hiden T. Cox, executive director of the
American Institute of Biological Sciences, would become Assistant
Administrator for Public Affairs, and "charged with developing NASA
policies to insure that the character, the intent, and the results of
America's space effort are correctly and adequately interpreted to the
people of this country and the world."

---: Assistant Secretary of State of International Organization Affairs,
Harlan Cleveland, outlined in a speech at St. Louis University the
seven-point program that the United States will propose to the United
Nations General Assembly for guaranteeing peace and world cooperation in
space: (1) Explicit confirmation that the U.N. Charter applies to the
limits of space exploration; (2) a declaration that space and heavenly
bodies are not subject to claim of national sovereignty; (3) an
international system for registering all objects launched into space; (4) a
specialized space unit in the United Nations Secretariat; (5) a world
weather watch using satellites; (6) a cooperative search for ways toward
weather modification; and (7) a global system of communications to link the
world by telegraph, telephone, radio, and television.

October 22: National Science Foundation announced the establishment of a
science resources planning office to study U.S. long-range scientific
needs, to be headed by NSF Associate Director for Planning, Richard H.
Bolt.

October 23: The Freedom 7 Mercury capsule in which Alan B. Shepard, Jr.,
made the first suborbital space flight, was presented to the National Air
Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. In his presentation, NASA
Administrator Webb said: "To Americans seeking answers, proof that man can
survive in the hostile realm of space is not enough. A solid and meaningful
foundation for public support and the basis for our Apollo man-in-space
effort is that U.S. astronauts are going into space to do useful work in
the cause of all their fellow men."

"Such flights as those of Freedom 7 are not stunts. They are not
antithetical to sober scientific and technological research. Interpreted
properly, these dramatic events can add much to public understanding and
excite creative interest in extending the base on which public support must
rest."

---: NASA announced that it had ordered 14 additional Delta launch vehicles
(Douglas Thor first stage, Aeroject-General AJ10-118 second stage, and
Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory third stage) for Relay, Syncom, Telstar,
and Tiros satellites. Five of the first six of the twelve Deltas
successfully launched Echo I, Tiros II and III, and Explorers X and XII.

---: Ranger launching again postponed at Atlantic Missile Range because of
technical difficulties.

---: Cleveland extension (SNPO-C) of the joint AEC-NASA Space Nuclear
Propulsion Office (SNPO) activated, located on Lewis Research Center and
headed by John L. Wilson.

---: USAF Discoverer XXXIII failed to achieve polar orbit.

---: First underwater launching of Navy Polaris A-2, and first firing from
submarine, U.S.S. Ethan Allen.

---: AEC announced that the Soviet Union had detonated a thermonuclear bomb
with a 30-megaton yield as well as a small underwater nuclear device. These
were the 22d and 23d Soviet nuclear tests reported by AEC.

---: Marshal R. Y. Malinovsky, Soviet Defense Minister, announced that the
U.S.S.R. had solved the problem of antimissile defense (a statement later
qualified in retranslation).

October 24: Studies of "unconventional" rockets using liquid fuels in the
thrust range from 2 to 24 million pounds announced by NASA; 2 contracts
being carried out by Aerojet-General and Rocketdyne Division of North
American Aviation.

---: USAF Titan fired from Cape Canaveral to coincide with over head
passage of Midas IV.

---: The first Centaur liquid-oxygen/liquid-nitrogen tanking tests were
successfully completed at Sycamore Canyon.

---: Long duration static test of the S-I stage (SA-2 vehicle) occurred at
Marshall Space Flight Center, for a period of 120 seconds.

---: Small liquid-fuel rocket was fueled and fired while floating in ocean
off Point Mugu in Aerojet-General demonstration of this launching
technique.

October 25: NASA selected Pearl River site in southwestern Mississippi, 35
miles from Michoud plant in New Orleans, for static test facility for
Saturn and Nova-class vehicles, completed facility to operate under
direction of Marshall Space Flight Center.

---: Ranger 2 shot postponed indefinitely as the 8-day "window" (i.e., when
the Moon, Sun, and Earth were in favorable positions) had ended before
technical difficulties could be corrected.

---: Reported from Cape Canaveral that launch of Titan the previous evening
had been detected by Midas IV.

---: USAF announced that Project West Ford's 350 million depoles launched
with Midas IV had not yet been found by radar contact.

---: Full Tass text of Marshal R. V. Malinovsky's speech on October 23 as
it appeared in Soviet dailies, showed no statement to the effect that the
Soviets had perfected an antimissile missile, as had been reported by
Moscow correspondents of the American press.

October 26: National Aeronautic Association appointed committee headed by
Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd, U.S. Air Force (retired), to program U.S. efforts to
break world aircraft records now held by other nations.

---: Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory successfully flight-tested
largest plastic balloon (318 feet in diameter and 434 feet long).

---: U.S.S. Blandy demonstrated capability of a destroyer to recover MR-2
Mercury capsule, with Virgil Grissom aboard, from water in series of
pickups in lower Chesapeake Bay.

October 27: Largest known rocket launch to date, the Saturn 1st stage
booster, successful on first test flight from Atlantic Missile Range. With
its eight clustered engines developing almost 1.3 million pounds of thrust
at launch, the Saturn (SA-1) hurled waterfilled dummy upper stages to an
altitude of 84.8 miles and 214.7 miles down range. In a postlaunch
statement, Administrator Webb said: "The flight today was a splendid
demonstration of the strength of our national space program and an
important milestone in the buildup of our national capacity to launch heavy
payloads necessary to carry out the program projected by President Kennedy
on May 25. We in NASA deeply appreciate the contribution by the military
services and American industry in achieving this important milestone."
Development of Saturn had begun under Advanced Research Projects Agency
auspices in 1958.

---: Goddard Space Flight Center and Geophysics Corp. launched Nike-Cajun
rocket from Wallops Station with 60-pound payload that reached 90-mile
altitude in a study of electron density and temperature in the upper level
of the atmosphere.

---: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory scientists reported that
Discoverer XVII nose cone (launched November 12, 1960, from Pacific Missile
Range) had picked up tritium-product of a solar flare in which hydrogen and
helium combine at high energies. While recovered satellite capsules often
pick up some tritium, capsule of Discoverer XVII had 100 times the normal
amount.

October 27: Secretary of Defense McNamara announced that progress of the
Administration's accelerated defense buildup made unnecessary the use of
additional defense funds appropriate by the Congress above the amount
requested by the administration. The Congress had voted $514.5 million for
additional long-range bombers; $180 million additional for the B-70; and
$85.8 million additional for Dyna-Soar.

---: Second NASA honor awards ceremony in Washington: Dr. Abe Silverstein,
new Director of the Lewis Research Center, received NASA's Outstanding
Leadership Medal; William O'Sullivan of Project Echo received the NASA
Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award; and George D. McCauley received
the Sustained Superior Performance Award. Other NASA personnel who had
received NASA or non-Federal awards during NASA's third year were also
recognized.

---: Comdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr., awarded the Theodore Roosevelt
Distinguished Service Award in New York City.

---: All-out speed trial of X-15 postponed because of heavy cloud cover, a
flight aimed at 4,100 miles per hour.

October 29: NASA announced that first Mercury-Scout launch to verify the
readiness of the worldwide Mercury tracking network would take place at
Atlantic Missile Range.

---: U.S.S.R. announced completion of its series of Pacific rocket tests
with a successful shot of 7,500 miles. Since series began on September 13,
Tass had announced a total of eight shots, emphasizing the accuracy of what
was described as a "fundamentally new type of guidance system."

October 30: U.S.S.R. exploded 55- to 60-megaton nuclear device as per
Khrushchev's promise to the 22nd Communist Party Congress. White House
release later in the day pointed out that this Soviet explosion would
"produce more radioactive fallout than any previous explosion. The Soviet
explosion was a political rather than a military act."

October 31: NASA has assembled an outstanding management team for its
stepped-up assault on space, NASA Administrator Webb added: "These mean,
and many others associated with them, know the technical side of
aeronautics and space and are all experienced in the management of large
activities. Each has demonstrated a personal earning capacity for beyond
what the Government is able to pay for their services. Each is thoroughly
familiar with the opportunities and problems associated with our most
important technical military weapon system development efforts. It is
fortunate for this Nation that men with these high qualifications and such
experience are willing to forego large earnings in industry and a more
normal personal and family life to supply the leadership needed in our
national space effort."

---: Launch of Mercury-Scout canceled at T minus 10 seconds at Atlantic
Missile Range because of mechanical difficulties, while record speed flight
of X-15 was again prevented by cloud cover restricting instrumentation.

October 31: At autumn meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in Los
Angeles, Dr. Hilde Kallmann-Biji reported on Committee on Space Research
report by an international studies group on data discovered by Soviet and
American satellites as well as sounding rocket observations including those
of Britain and West Germany. Findings indicated that 500 miles in space,
temperatures may fluctuate 1,000F., and that the Earth's upper atmosphere
has distinct day and night variations in density and pressure.

During October: A series of some 50 supersonic flights to analyze the
characteristics, intensity, and air and ground effects of supersonic booms
began at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., under joint sponsorship of the
USAF, FAA, and NASA.

                               NOVEMBER 1961

November 1: New organization of NASA headquarters became effective, which
established four major program offices (Manned Space Flight, Space
Sciences, Advanced Research and Technological, and Applications), and
provided center directors with direct line to the Office of the Associate
Administrator.

---: Reported that the DOD-NASA Golovin Committee was near agreement on
hybrid solid-and-liquid fuel rockets for Dyna-Soar. Golovin Committee had
been meeting for 3 months to work out families of large rockets for overall
national space program.

---: Mercury-Scout, testing global tracking network, was destroyed by range
safety officer after lift-off.

---: Radiocarbon from nuclear tests had been useful in tracing movements of
the atmosphere, reported Prof. Gordon S. Fergusson to the National Academy
of Sciences. Studies since 1955 showed that it took 1 year for carbon 14 to
move from one hemisphere to the other, once it gets into the lower
atmosphere.

---: Scientists and engineers of Langley Research Center and the Space Task
Group were guests of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce honoring the 46
years of NACA and NASA on the Virginia Peninsula.

---: Ballute (balloon braking system) reentry test of 500-pound Cree
vehicle, launched by three-stage Nike rocket, reaching an altitude of 28
miles and a speed of near 1,900 miles per hour, at Eglin Air Force Base,
Fla.

---: USAF Hound Dog missile launched successfully from B-52 over Atlantic
Missile Range and hit target area.

November 2: Lewis Research Center scientists, G. B. Brown and E. E.
Callighan, reported at 1961 International Conference on High Magnetic
Fields at MIT, that NASA was constructing a magnetic shield of
superconducting alloys for future manned spacecraft.

---: British Skylark reached an altitude of more than 100 miles in third of
four NASA firings to study ultraviolet radiation in the Southern
Hemisphere.

---: Navy Aerobee 100, which had been launched from water on October 24,
recovered and overhauled, made its second successful launch at Point Mugu,
Calif. This was the second successful launch of liquid-fuel rocket from the
open sea, having been towed to sea, fueled horizontally, ballasted to float
vertically, and ignited by remote control.

---: Reported unnamed NASA spokesman stated that two inspections of
Gurtler-Herbert & Co's renovation of the Michoud Ordnance Plant for NASA
revealed no racial discrimination.

November 3: NASA announced start of a nationwide recruiting drive for 2,000
talented scientists and engineers.

November 3: Nine-nation Western European Conference in London announced
decision to launch a satellite in mid-1965, using a British Blue Streak
first stage, a French Veronique second stage, and a West German third
stage, from the Woomera range in Australia.

---: Lincoln Laboratory of MIT reported that examination of telemetry from
Midas IV indicated that Project West Ford package of dipoles had been
ejected at the expected time and the proper speed. No evidence was
available as to whether the dipoles had been released, and no radar reading
had been obtained.

---: Three Polaris A-2 missiles successfully fired within 3-hour period
from submarine Ethan Allen.

November 4: USAF Office of Aerospace Research symposium at MIT, at which
Dr. Otto Schmitt, of Northwestern University, reported that snails, worms,
and one-celled paramecia had the ability to detect magnetic fields
encountered on the surface of the Earth.

November 5: USAF Discoverer XXXIV launched into polar orbit with
recoverable capsule. Launch represented 22d successful in the Discoverer
series.

November 6: NASA informed Marshall Space Flight Center that management of
the Agena B vehicle system would be retained at Marshall Space Flight
Center.

---: Department of Commerce issued a proposal by MIT researchers on a
science information network, entitled "An Experimental Communications
Center for Scientific and Technical Information" (OTS, AD-255626). Proposed
network included newspapers as well as radio and TV and recommended further
research of a specific network to process, identify and retrieve scientific
documents and information for dissemination.

---: N. Varvarov, in Soviet newspaper, Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, denounced
the U.S. space program as using outer space for military purposes and
cluttering the cosmos with an unnecessarily large number of satellites.
Especially critical of the Discoverer series, the article said: "the United
States, pursuing an intensive arms race, is setting up an elaborate system
of cosmic military intelligence communications and navigation. . . .
Actually, this is banditry on an international scale."

November 7: Explosion in hydrogen system canceled full-power run of AEC
Kiwi B-1A reactor at Jackson Flats, Nev. Five men were injured, and the
reactor was not damaged.

---: NASA announced award of a contract to North American Aviation Co. to
study the feasibility of a large erectable manned space station based on
Langley Research Center concept.

November 8: Industry proposal to FCC for organizing a commercial
communications satellite system critically reviewed in hearings of the
Monopoly Subcommittee of the Senate Small Business Committee.

November 9: X-15 flown to announced record 4,070 miles per hour (later
revised to 4,093) by Maj. Robert White, U.S. Air Force, in top-speed test
flight, making safe landing with outer right windshield cracked.

November 9: Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in speech at Case
Institute of Technology in Cleveland, said: "I for one do not fully
understand why, in the midst of a plethora of necessary and costly
activities, our Nation should be required, urgently, to develop a capacity
to put men on the Moon and challenge our principal opponent in doing so."

---: Senate Small Business Committee concluded critical hearings on the
FCC's handling of the communications satellite project.

November 10: USAF Atlas with capsule containing squirrel monkey destroyed
by range safety officer at Atlantic Missile Range when main sustainer
engine failed 15 seconds after launch.

---: Reported that ONR-supported radio observatory at Cal Tech's Owens
Valley, Calif., had expanded the radius of the observable universe 27 times
(36 sextillion miles, the distance traveled by light at a speed of about
186,000 miles a second in 6 billion years).

---: In reviewing NASA's communications satellite programs, Administrator
Webb pointed out that it had been speculated that the satellite system "may
have progressed enough by 1964 that we shall be able to watch the Tokyo
Olympic Games on television at home."

November 11: NASA announced that top speed of X-15 on Major White's record
flight was revised to 4,093 miles per hour (mach 6.04), reached at 95,800
feet. (White also held altitude record of 217,000 feet (41 miles), flown on
October 11).

November 12: Mercury-Atlas 5, scheduled for launch no earlier than November
14, ran into technical difficulties, postponing launch for several days.

---: Bell Aerosystems Co. announced design of a "practical zero gravity
belt" to propel a man a short distance in space.

November 13: USAF announced that amateur radio communications satellite,
assembled by Project Oscar Association, would be flown piggyback on future
Discoverer vehicle.

November 13-22: International Meteorological Satellite Workshop held in
Washington, D.C., attended by weathermen from 28 nations, sponsored by NASA
and the U.S. Weather Bureau to apply Tiros-acquired data to practical
day-to-day weather prognosis.

November 14: United Arab Republic neither confirmed nor denied reports of
November 8 that it had successfully launched its first rocket. Dr. Eugen
Saenger of the Stuttgart Jet Propulsion Institute in Germany denied any
connection with the United Arab Republic program as charged by Israel.

---: Soviet and bloc delegates from Czechoslovakia and Poland, who had
previously accepted invitations, did not attend the NASA-Weather Bureau
International Meteorological Satellite Workshop held in Washington;
telegram from Andre Zolotukhin received by Dr. Reichelderfer stated that
"our representatives unable to participate," but requested "dispatch of
relevant papers if possible."

November 15: Navy Transit IV-B and Traac (Transit Research Attitude
Control) satellites launched into orbit by Thor-Able-Star at Atlantic
Missile Range.

---: USAF Discoverer XXXV launched into polar orbit with 300-pound
recoverable capsule.

November 15: NASA Bios (biological investigation of space) payload launched
by Argo D-8 booster rocket from Pacific Missile Range, but veered sharply
off course 57 seconds after launch.

---: Anniversary of the first flight of the USAF-USN-NASA X-15 powered with
the XLR-99 engine (15 flights total to date). A $225 million research
program under NASA management, test data indicated that X-15 would exceed
its design limits by 100 percent in altitude and 17 percent in speed. The
X-15 had already pushed near its design altitude limit of 250,000 feet
(reached 217,000 feet October 11, 1961) and passed its maximum design speed
of mach 6 (reached mach 6.04 November 9, 1961).

---: NASA Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight, D. Brainerd
Holmes, said, in an interview, that at least 10 Apollo spacecraft would be
ordered in the manned lunar vehicle prime systems contract to be awarded in
December 1961.

---: Army launched Speedball rocket successfully from the island of
Roi-Namur on Kwajalein atoll in the Southwest Pacific, the first target
rocket to be used in Nike-Zeus development.

November 16: Gold-plated capsule of Discoverer XXXV recovered after 18
orbits in midair over Fern Island by C-130 aircraft, Capt. James F.
McCullough, U.S. Air Force, as pilot. It was the 10th recovery from orbit
in the Discoverer series and the 1st recovery observed from the ground.

---: In speech on "Scientists and Engineers in the Space Program," Albert
F. Siepert, NASA Director of Administration, outlined NASA's basic policies
on personnel. He pointed out that of NASA's some 20,000 employees, only
4,000 had come to NASA through individual appointments, the remainder on
transfer of organizations intact to NASA. NASA's personnel utilization
practices, Siepert said, were as follows: (1) Don't use a scientist or
engineer when another skill will do as well; (2) classify a man's skills by
what he actually does, rather than how he was formally trained; (3) provide
professional entrance into the Federal civil service through an examination
which is work centered rather than academically oriented; (4) take
on-the-job training and education seriously; (5) encourage professional
recognition outside the agency; and (6) recognize that job satisfaction
depends upon the man's continued interest in his work as well as his
take-home pay."

---: William J. O'Sullivan, Jr., of Langley Research Center awarded the
Second NASA Invention and Contribution Award for conception and development
of the inflatable space vehicle. Proposed in January 1956 to the U.S. IGY
Committee, O'Sullivan's invention led to two successful NASA experiments,
Echo I and Explorer IX, and U.S. Patent No. 2,996.212, entitled
"Self-Supporting Space Vehicle" issued to the NASA Administrator on behalf
of the United States on August 15, 1961.

---: Army Nike-Zeus antimissile rocket with active second stage
successfully fired at Point Mugu, Calif.

November 17: NASA announced selection of the Chrysler Corp. for
construction, test, and launch of 20 first-stage Saturn boosters at its
Michoud, La., fabrication plant.

---: First USAF Minuteman successfully fired from silo at Atlantic Missile
Range, making 3,000-mile flight.

November 18: Ranger II placed into low orbit from Atlantic Missile Range by
Atlas, but Agena second stage did not restart, leaving deep-space probe
Ranger in parking orbit. Results reported to delay lunar-landing Ranger
shot in early 1962.

---: NASA announced that record Argo D-8 vehicle was launched with Bios
payload from Point Arguello, but reentry capsule beacon signal had not been
acquired by down-range recovery forces.

---: Evidence of traces of living things in meteorites from space reaching
Earth, reported in Nature magazine by George Claus of NYU and Bartholomew
Nagy of Fordham, based upon discovery of five types of "organized
structures" in the Orgueil meteorite found in southern France in 1864, and
the Ivuna meteorite that fell in central Africa in 1938.

---: Reported from Moscow that U.S.S.R. was planning to orbit a man around
the Moon in 1962, and that the U.S.S.R. had ICBM's in being with
100-megaton warheads.

November 19: NASA announced the completion of the preliminary flight rating
test of the Nation's first liquid-hydrogen rocket engine. The engine, the
RL-10, was designed and developed by Pratt and Whitney, of United Aircraft,
for the Marshall Space Flight Center, and 20 captive firings were competed
within 5 days under simulated space conditions, consistently producing
15,000 pounds of thrust. RL-10, previously known as XLR-115, was initiated
in October 1958 and over 700 firings were conducted in its development.

---: Navy Skylark balloon began coast-to-coast flight carrying University
of Chicago cosmic ray experiment, launched at Brawley, Calif., and landing
near Asheville, N.C., on November 21.

November 20: NASA announced consolidation of nuclear-electric propulsion
program at Lewis Research Center by transfer of the Marshall Space Flight
Center Research Projects Division under Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger to Lewis
within 3 months.

---: Executive order of the President suspended the 8-hour limitation on
construction workers in NASA. It stated that "a clearly leading role in
aeronautical and space achievement has become a vital national objective,"
and that it was essential to conduct the space program "with a major
national commitment of manpower, material, and facilities," and "with all
possible speed and efficiency."

---: In news conference, Dr. Albert R. Hibbs, Jet Propulsion Laboratory's
Chief of Space Sciences, stated that it would be a "major accomplishment"
if the United States were to overtake the Russians in the race to the Moon,
a "less than 50-50 chance." He pointed to the rumors that the Soviet Union
had already attempted to launch a probe to Mars.

---: NASA Launch Operations Directorate announced establishment of Offices
of Financial Management and of Procurement and Contracts to support NASA
activities at Cape Canaveral, previously done by Marshall Space Flight
Center.

November 20-21: Technical conference on the progress of X-15 research held
at Edwards Air Force Base, sponsored jointly by NASA, USAF, and USN; the
third in a series, previously held in 1956 and 1958.

November 21: In a speech on "Our National Program in Space," NASA
Administrator Webb said:

"In carrying out its responsibilities, NASA cooperates with and depends
upon private industry, universities, and many other Government
agencies--not only the Department of Defense, the Atomic Energy Commission,
and the Bureau of Standards, but the Weather Bureau, the Federal
Communications Commission, the Federal Aviation Agency, the National
Science Foundation, and others.

"It has been only 4 years since the first manmade satellite orbited the
Earth. Since then, progress in this new field of space has been tremendous.
I believe that in the years ahead the rate of progress will trace a steeply
ascending curve. I believe also that the many problems we will solve to
achieve manned exploration of space will create a wealth of new materials,
consumer goods, processes, and techniques, thus opening a host of new jobs,
careers, opportunities for investment, and a general national growth.

"We can be first in space if we advance our scientific and technical
knowledge at the most rapid rate possible, and if we go forward with the
sustained effort that it requires. That is the basis of our national space
effort."

---: Titan ICBM launched from Cape Canaveral carrying target nose cone to
be used in Nike-Zeus antimissile-missile tests. This was first Titan ICBM
to be fired from Cape Canaveral by a military crew, AFBSD's 6555th
Aerospace Test Wing.

November 22: USAF launched an unnamed satellite with an Atlas-Agena booster
from Point Arguello, Calif., in first unannounced U.S. satellite launching.

---: An F4H Phantom II piloted by Lt. Col. Robert B. Robinson (USMC),
claimed a new world speed record at Edwards Air Force Base, averaging
1,606.324 miles per hour.

November 23: Tiros II completed first year in orbit, still transmitting
cloud-cover photographs of usable quality, although it has been expected to
have a useful lifetime of only 3 months. Tiros II had completed 5,354
orbits, and had transmitted over 36,000 photographs.

---: National Aeronautic Association notified Mrs. Constance Wolf, of Blue
Bell, Pa., that her Texas-to-Oklahoma balloon flight of 40 hours 13
minutes, 363.99 miles and 13,000-foot altitude established 15 women's world
records.

November 24: First four U.S. Nike-Cajun rockets arrived in Norway for use
in research program off Andoeya Island early next year.

---: DOD announced that the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) had
selected Space Technology Laboratory (STL) to develop satellite system
under Project Vela for detection of clandestine nuclear weapons in outer
space.

---: Official Soviet films on the flight of Vostok II shown on nationwide
TV in NBC program, "Crossing the Threshold-Part I."

November 25: Announced that the largest quartz lens ever ground had been
completed by Bausch & Lomb for use in NASA's optical solar simulation
system at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lens is 36 inches in diameter,
6 inches thick at the center, and weighs 350 pounds.

November 26: Russian scientist, K. Florensky, reported in Komsomol Pravda
that a comet's head, not a meteorite or an interplanetary atomic weapon,
caused the big explosion that jarred Siberia on June 30, 1908. The blast
near the Hunguska River killed 1,500 reindeer, felled trees over an area of
700 square miles, and was recorded on seismographs around the world.

November 27: The United States presented an outline for a program for
cooperation and control in outer space to the U.N. Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space meeting in New York. This was the first
committee meeting held since its membership was expanded from 18 to 24
nations by the General Assembly 2 years ago, the 7 Communist members
refusing to attend until today. U.N. Delegate Charles W. Yost urged
consideration of the U.S. proposals before the life of this Committee
expired at the end of the year. The U.S. proposals were: acknowledge that
international law and U.N. Charter extend to outer space; establish central
registry for all space launchings and satellites; and share all information
from weather satellites.

---: USAF reported that Lincoln Laboratory's Millstone Hill radar at West
Ford, Mass., had made three sightings on November 3, 13, and 15, which
might be the missing package of 350 million copper needles launched into
orbit on October 21.

---: Senator Robert Kerr announced that he would introduce legislation to
authorize private ownership of the U.S. portion of the proposed worldwide
communications satellite system. His bill would create the "Satellite
Communications Corp." which the participating firms would buy.

---: The Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation announced openings for
18 young scientists and engineers for graduate study in rockets, jet
propulsion, space flight and space structures at Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Aerospace Laboratory at Princeton, and the Institute of Flight
Structures at Columbia. Established in 1949, Guggenheim fellowship program
in the aerospace sciences has provided financial aid to 142 students to
date.

---: General Curtis E. LeMay, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, said in an
interview with U.S. News & World Report:

"I think we're at the period of space technology that we were in
aeronautical technology along about 1914. At that time no one could predict
the type of weapon systems that the airplane was going to produce, or the
transportation system that it would eventually produce. As a matter of
fact, it was pretty much a laughing stock--a very expensive toy."

"We, of course, initially did a very poor job in our development program to
advance the science of aeronautics in this country. I hope we do a better
job in space. At the present time we can't predict what will eventually
come out of research in space in the way of weapon systems or commercial
vehicles or any other use that we might put space to. I am sure that men
are going out into space. I'm sure that they'll find useful things to do
out there, and I'm sure that, unless something is done to preclude it,
they'll find things to fight over out there, too."

November 28: President Kennedy awarded the Harmon International Aviator's
Trophy jointly to the three X-15 test pilots. The first joint award in the
history of the trophy went to A. Scott Crossfield of North American, Joseph
A. Walker of NASA, and Maj. Robert M. White, U.S. Air Force.

---: NASA selected North American Aviation to design and build a three-man
Apollo spacecraft leading toward eventual lunar landings and exploration of
the Moon. Each proposal was evaluated by a team of nearly 200 NASA and DOD
specialists.

November 29: Mercury-Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral placed Mercury
spacecraft carrying chimpanzee "Enos" into orbit; retro-rockets were fired
on second rather than planned third orbit because of developing malfunction
of altitude control system. Mercury capsule was recovered 1 hour and 25
minutes after water landing by the destroyer Stormes, and well-performing
"Enos" recovered in excellent condition. Project Mercury officials named
John H. Glenn as prime astronaut for the first manned orbital mission with
M. Scott Carpenter as backup, and Donald Slayton as prime astronaut for
second manned orbital mission with Walter Schirra as backup.

---: President Kennedy, after giving lengthy answer to a question at his
regular press conference, was handed a note by his press secretary, which
he read and then said: "chimpanzee who is flying in space took off at
10:08. He reports that everything is perfect and working well."

---: Thomas F. Dixon, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator, in speech before
the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, reviewed west coast space projects and
said:

"All of these projects are part of a unified national program, which was
accelerated earlier this year. I want to emphasize that this is a national
program. It is not just a NASA program. It is not just a government
program. It is a program to mobilize America's manpower and resources to
meet the goals we have set for ourselves in space."

---: Soviet Cosmonaut Gagarin in New Delhi said that "we will not have to
wait long" for the first manned flight to the Moon. Garagin was making a
9-day visit to India.

---: Air Force Office of Aerospace Research (OAR) announced that its Office
of Scientific Research had awarded 139 basic research grants and contracts
worth almost $8 million so far this fiscal year.

November 30: Army fired its Pershing solid-fuel tactical missile from Cape
Canaveral on a 200-mile flight, testing accuracy, warhead components, and
blast and heat factors at launch in relation to operational crew
protection. This was the seventh straight successful firing of the
Pershing.

---: Army successfully fired a Nike-Zeus antimissile from White Sands
Missile Range in the first flight test of all three rocket motors.

During November: Studies by General Electric's Space Sciences Laboratory,
under NASA contract, disclosed that the heat barrier encountered by
vehicles returning from deep space will be at least 2 1/2 times more severe
than previously estimated.

During November: Textron's Bell Aerospace Corp. completed 81 flight tests
with cold gas one-man propulsion system in USAF C-131 aircraft flying
"Keplerian trajectories."

---: National Bureau of Standards established the Radio Refractive Index
Data Center at its Boulder, Colo., laboratories, to correlate data from 300
reporting points on the variable refraction of radio waves at specific
times, heights, and locations.

---: DOD revised its patent policy on space research and development
contracts in accordance with present NASA patent provisions, such
provisions already having been written into space communications contracts
(i.e., Government retains royalty-free exclusive title to patents developed
under contract).

---: USAF announced expansion of gaseous physics research activities with
the construction of a $636,000 laboratory at L. G. Hanscom Field, Bedford,
Mass., as a part of the Cambridge Research Laboratory.

---: Project Rover, Project Pluto, and the U.S. underground nuclear test
program were halted in Nevada by a jurisdictional strike between the
Operating Engineers and the Plumbers and Pipefitters Unions.

---: Representatives of 30 American aerospace firms in Europe formed an
informal organization known as U.S. Aerospace Industries in Europe.

---: Douglas Aircraft reported successful drop and recovery of a data
capsule and camera that will be used to film inflation of Echo-type spheres
as a part of Project Big Shot (the first phase in the NASA program leading
to a global communication system using rigidized inflatable spheres
equidistant and in orbit around the Earth).

---: Two-hundred-foot radiotelescope of the Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization was commissioned at Parkes, 200 miles west
of Sydney, Australia. Slightly smaller than the British radiotelescope at
Jodrell Bank, the Parkes telescope is considered superior in surface
accuracy and tracking control. It cost $1.8 million of which the
Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corp. donated $500,000.

---: USAF aircraft produced sonic booms on routine training missions over
major airplane intersections, in support of FAA studies of supersonic air
transportation problems.

                               DECEMBER 1961

December 1: Three new world helicopter speed records were claimed by Capt.
Bruce K. Lloyd, U.S. Navy, and Comdr. E. J. Roulstone, U.S. Navy, who flew
an HSS-2 helicopter at 182.8, 179.5, and 175.3 miles per hour for 100, 500,
and 1,000 kilometers, respectively, over a course along Long Island Sound
between Milford and Westbrook, Conn.

---: Nike-Zeus guidance system successfully passed initial flight test at
White Sands Missile Range.

---: Navy-sponsored Hypersonic Propulsion Research Laboratory, for
simulating flights at speeds up to mach 10, was opened at Applied Physics
Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University.

December 1-2: Two Roksonde meteorological sounding rockets were
successfully fired from Cape Canaveral, telemetered measurements of winds
and temperatures at altitudes above 180,000 feet. Produced by Marquardt for
the Army, Roksondes had already completed a series of tests at White Sands
Missile Range and Pacific Missile Range.

December 2: Twelve Canadian Black Brant rockets for upper-atmosphere
research were to be launched from NASA's Wallops Station, Virginia, as the
Canadian Defence Research Board shifted the firing site from Fort Churchill
because a fire largely destroyed the Canadian facilities. Capable of
carrying a 150-pound payload to an altitude of 150 miles, Black Brants were
to be fired from Wallops at the rate of two in December 1961, two in
February 1962, six in April 1962, and two in May 1962.

December 4: Ambassador Adlai Stevenson introduced a resolution before the
U.N.'s Political Committee for a U.N. space program guided by four
considerations: (1) Application of the principles of international law to
outer space and celestial bodies to ensure against sovereignty claims in
space; (2) making the U.N. a clearinghouse for use of outer space,
including information on satellite launchings and cooperation for peaceful
use of outer space; (3) international cooperation on weather satellite
information; and (4) international cooperation on communications
satellites.

Ambassador Stevenson said: "There is a right way and a wrong way to get on
with the business of space exploration. In our judgment, the wrong way is
to allow the march of science to become a runaway race into the unknown.
The right way is to make it an ordered, peaceful and cooperative and
constructive forward march under the aegis of the United Nations."

---: Reported from Cape Canaveral that Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., had
moved into "ready room" quarters. NASA had made no announcement whether a
man would ride in the next Mercury capsule.

---: USAF fired a Blue Scout rocket from Point Arguello, Calif., aimed at a
point some 27,600 miles out in space and over the South Pole, to measure
low-energy protons originating from the Sun.

December 5: A new world aircraft altitude record for sustained horizontal
flight was claimed by Comdr. George W. Ellis, U.S. Navy, who flew an F4H
Phantom II at 66,443.8 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

---: AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) selected the proposal
of the Aetron Division of Aerojet-General Corp. as the basis for
negotiating an architect and engineering contract for an $8 million
downward-firing test stand for the Nerva engine. The Nerva would be used in
nuclear rockets with a reactor derived from the Kiwi B test series.

---: Reported by Drew Pearson that CIA had warned that Russia "is preparing
to launch a man around the moon in 60 days."

December 6: The first Project Mercury manned orbital flight, MA-6, was
scheduled by NASA for early in 1962 after analysis of the data from the
MA-5 chimpanzee orbital flight indicated that the Mercury-Atlas system and
the tracking network were ready for manned orbital flight.

---: Astronauts Alan B. Shepard, Jr., commander, U.S. Navy, and Virgil I.
Grissom, captain, U.S. Air Force, were awarded the first astronaut wings
(almost identical design of a shooting star imposed on the traditional
pilot's badge) in a joint ceremony by their respective services.

---: U.S.S.R. raised its expenditure on science by 12 percent in its 1962
budget. The Minister of Finance, Vasily Garbuzov, announced that the 1962
expenditure on science would be 4,300 million rubles ($4,773 million). Also
announced was a 44-percent increase in the defense budget to 13,400 million
rubles ($14,874 million).

---: Italian Air Force crew fired Jupiter IRBM from Atlantic Missile Range,
the third such launching.

December 7: NASA postponed its projected manned orbital flight from
December 1961 until early in 1962 because of minor problems with the
cooling system and positioning devices in the Mercury capsule, Dr. Hugh
Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, said in a Baltimore interview. "You
like to have a man go with everything just as near perfect as possible.
This business is risky. You can't avoid this, but you can take all the
precautions you know about."

---: Plans for the development of a two-man Mercury capsule were announced
by Robert Gilruth, Director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center. The two-man
capsule, to be built by McDonnell Aircraft Corp., would be similar in shape
to the Mercury capsule but slightly larger and two to three times heavier.
Its booster rocket was announced to be the USAF Titan II, scheduled for
flight test early in 1962. One of the major objectives in the two-man
capsule program would be a test of orbital rendezvous, in which the two-man
capsule would be put into orbit by the Titan II and would attempt to
rendezvous with an Agena stage put into orbit by an Atlas rocket. Total
cost for a dozen two-man capsules plus boosters and other equipment was
estimated at $500,000,000. Program name later announced as Gemini.

December 7: Power run completed the test series on the Kiwi B-1A reactor
system being conducted at the Nevada Test Site by AEC's Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory. Fourth in a series of test reactors in the joint
AEC-NASA nuclear rocket propulsion program, Kiwi B-1A was disassembled for
examination at the conclusion of the test runs.

---: Second Atlas ICBM launched by SAC crew, from Vandenberg Air Force
Base.

---: Preproposal conference on the contract for design, research,
development, fabrication, and testing of the reactor-in-flight-test (Rift)
vehicle was held at Marshall Space Flight Center. This vehicle would
test-fly the Nerva nuclear engine now under development. Twenty-nine firms
were invited to attend this preliminary conference at which they were
furnished general information on the project. Interested firms would then
have 30 days to file information on their capabilities and experience. Then
a smaller number of firms would be invited to submit detailed bids. Purpose
of the two-step evaluation was to enable firms not in a competitive
position to avoid the expense of entering detailed proposals.

---: United States and Soviet delegates to the United Nations informally
discussed the question of the political makeup of the U.N. Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and on a possible joint resolution in that
Committee.

December 8: NASA selected Mason-Rust as the contractor to provide support
services at NASA's Michoud plant near New Orleans, providing housekeeping
services through June 30, 1962 for the three contractors who would produce
the Saturn S-I and S-IB boosters and the Rift nuclear upper-stage vehicle.

---: USAF fired an Aerobee sounding rocket from Point Arguello, Calif., out
over the Pacific 1,300 miles high and 900 miles toward Hawaii, at which
point the rocket released three sets of flares to be photographed from
California, Hawaii, and Alaska. Purpose was to provide a more precise
knowledge of the location of Hawaii with respect to the North American
mainland by means of photogrammetric triangulation of the flare photos.

December 9: Solid-propellent rocket motor generating nearly 500,000 pounds
of thrust was fired in a static test of 80-second duration by United
Technology Corp. at Sunnyvale, Calif., under USAF contract.

---: Nike-Zeus antimissile missile was fired from Point Mugu in its first
low-altitude flight, going up to 40,000 feet and then out over the Pacific
Missile Range at that altitude.

December 10: The Carnegie Institution issued annual report containing
several findings from its space scientists: Philip Abelson contended that
it was a waste of time and money to sterilize vehicles going to the Moon or
planets because any life there would be so unlike terrestrial life that it
could not be contaminated by Earth organisms; Horace Babcock offered a
theory on alternating spiral magnetic fields of the Sun that might explain
sunspots, flares, and the 22-year magnetic cycle; other scientists noted
growing evidence of major differences in chemical composition of distant
stars, indicating a need to revise methods of computing distances to those
stars.

December 11: The U.N.'s Political Committee unanimously approved a
resolution calling on the Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to meet
on March 31, 1962, to begin discussions of world cooperation in space. The
resolution essentially incorporated the four-point U.S. program on the
peaceful uses of outer space. The U.S.S.R. supported the resolution
although it had previously rendered the Committee inoperative by boycotting
its meetings.

---: The national space program portends a major technological advance for
mankind, NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., told the
New Orleans Chamber of Commerce. Comparing its potential to that of the
invention of the steam engine, Dr. Seamans noted:

"Two aspects of such major advances are characteristic. First, the
practical results are largely unforeseeable, primarily because they develop
on broad fronts and, frequently, in unsuspected directions. Second, the
concentration of effort required does not diminish effort expended on other
frontiers of knowledge, but rather spurs such activities. For example,
despite fears that space technology would monopolize the scientific effort
of this country, such fields of activity as oceanography, geophysics, and
the physics of high-energy particles have greatly increased since the
national space effort has become a serious one."

---: Contract awarded by Army Engineers to Brown & Root, Inc., for design
of major portion of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston, Tex.

---: Survey of leading space experts on U.S. space goals from 1970-75 by
the North American Newspaper Alliance produced a consensus that the United
States would establish a Moon base from which to thoroughly explore the
Moon and to launch interplanetary manned probes. Those interviewed included
important figures in space industry, USAF, NASA, and space research.

December 12: Discoverer XXXVI was launched by the USAF into orbit from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with a piggyback 10-pound Oscar
(orbiting satellite carrying amateur radio) satellite aboard in addition to
the Discoverer payload. Oscar was the first satellite built by private
citizens to be put in orbit, transmitted Morse signal to world amateur
radio operators.

---: The National Center for Atmospheric Research was inaugurated at
Boulder, Colo. To include the facilities of the High Altitude Observatory
of the University of Colorado, to be governed by the University Corporation
for Atmospheric Research, a corporation of 14 universities from coast to
coast, and to be financed by the National Science Foundation, the center
would provide a national attack on weather research, including the use of
tools such as rockets, balloons, and computers too expensive for any one
university to finance.

---: USAF Atlas launched from Atlantic Missile Range carried piggyback
package of 28 dummy fuel cells in a study of how metals evaporate on
reentry.

---: Army announced that track radar for Nike-Zeus antimissile missile had
successfully tracked an Atlas ICBM on November 22 from Ascension Island as
well as Echo I 1,500 miles from Earth.

December 13: NASA Administrator James E. Webb said in a speech in Cleveland
that the United States would follow its first manned orbital flight in
January 1962 with similar manned orbital flights every 60 days. These would
gather data on effects of weightlessness, needed to determine the pacing of
the two-man flight program later on. Mr. Webb also forecast the launching
of 200 sounding rockets, 20 scientific satellites, and 2 deep-space probes
in 1962.

---: USAF completed Titan I research and development test flight program of
40 launches at the Atlantic Missile Range; of the 40 launches 4 had been
failures.

December 14: NASA fired a four-stage solid-fuel Trailblazer rocket from
Wallops Station, Virginia, in the first of a series of reentry tests. Two
stages boosted the rocket to 167 miles; then the other two drove the nose
cone down through the atmosphere at 14,000 miles per hour.

---: Nike-Zeus firing in extended range from Point Mugu attained all test
objectives.

December 15: NASA's Explorer XII satellite returned voluminous data
revising previous information on the Van Allen radiation belts and showing
them to be no substantial problem to manned space flight. Launched on
August 15, 1961, and transmitting until December 6, 1961, Explorer XII
returned information amounting to 5,636 telemetry tapes (2,400 feet each).
Of principal interest was its finding that the Van Allen belts consist of a
preponderance of protons over electrons in a ratio of 1,000 to 1. Since the
protons are of less than 1 million electron volts energy, they do not
themselves offer a serious radiation problem and serve to slow the velocity
of other radiation.

---: S-IB stage of the Advanced Saturn launch vehicle would be built by the
Boeing Co., NASA announced. The $300 million contract, to run through 1966,
called for development, construction, and test of 24 flight stages, plus
several for ground tests. Assembly would take place at the NASA Michoud
Operations Plant, New Orleans, La. The S-1B would be the first stage of the
vehicle that would launch the three-man Apollo spacecraft for direct
circumlunar flight or, with rendezvous, for lunar landing.

---: In a ceremony at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the USAF graduated
its first class of five pilot-engineers from its school for space pilots.
Graduates were awarded advanced technical degrees.

December 18: Dr. Robert Jastrow, Chief of Theoretical Division and Director
of the Institute for Space Studies, Goddard Space Flight Center, making the
25th annual Wright Brothers' Lecture before the Institute of Aerospace
Sciences, reviewed progress in the space sciences, said the most exciting
and fruitful area thus far had been investigation of "solar control over
the atmosphere of the Earth, causes of weather activity in the lower
atmosphere, and the structure of the upper atmosphere."

---: NASA announced that the first station in a network of data-gathering
stations for use with second-generation satellites had been completed near
Fairbanks, Alaska. Site for the second of the $5 million installations,
each with a high-gain antenna 85 feet in diameter, was announced to be
Rosman, N.C., 40 miles south-west of Asheville.

December 18: USAF awarded an additional $52 million contract to North
American Aviation for development of a prototype B-70 bomber, bringing to
$267 million the amount allocated for the B-70.

---: Capsule from Discoverer XXXVI was ejected from orbit after 6 days and
a record of 64 orbits, landed in the Pacific near Hawaii, was kept afloat
by 3 USAF pararescue men until arrival of Navy destroyer.

---: USAF Minuteman ICBM successfully fired from a silo and traveled 3,600
miles down the Atlantic Missile Range, the second consecutive successful
silo launching.

---: Successful test of a new way to steer large-size rockets was announced
by United Technology Corp., an experimental method called liquid thrust
vector control (TVC), in which a gas or liquid is sprayed into the exhaust
path of a rocket engine, deflecting the exhaust and thereby turning the
vehicle. The test was made with a 450,000-pound-thrust solid-fuel engine.

---: DOD summary statement on the X-15 program stated that to that date
there had been 45 flights of the X-15, with planned performance achieved on
42 and the prime research objectives achieved on 40. The 98-percent launch
success record of the X-15 was attributed to (1) use of alternate modes for
subsystems and (2) the presence of a pilot to detect malfunctions in
subsystems. This compared to a 43-percent launch record for an unmanned
missile with no alternate modes in subsystems.

December 19: NASA announced that Ira H. Abbott, Director of Advanced
Research and Technology, would retire in January after 32 years service
with NACA and NASA. Beginning with the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in
1929, Abbott became internationally known for his aerodynamic research, in
more recent years as supervisor of X-15, supersonic transport, nuclear
rocket, and advanced reentry development programs.

December 19-20: A technical conference on problems of runway slush in
winter jet operations was held in Washington under joint sponsorship of the
Federal Aviation Agency and NASA. The conference, open to aviation
representatives, reviewed the extensive research flight tests conducted at
FAA's National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center and other
experimental and theoretical work done at NASA's Langley Research Center.
Interest in all experiments centered on the adverse effects of runway slush
on takeoff and landing characteristics of jet aircraft. Research findings
were that on both takeoff and landing in heavy slush jetliners tend to act
like "a sailboat without a keel," that at takeoff speeds heavy slush causes
jetliners to lose the effect of nose wheel steering and most of their
braking power. Recommendations included the devising of a quick and
accurate means of measuring runway slush and suspension of jet operations
when slush reached a depth of 1 inch.

December 20: X-15 No. 3 made first flight, a successful test of new
automated control system, NASA's Neil A. Armstrong as pilot in his first
flight of XLR-99-engined X-15. At half throttle, X-15 reached speed of
2,502 miles per hour and an altitude of 81,000 feet.

December 20: NASA announced that Douglas Aircraft had been selected for
negotiation of a contract to modify the Saturn S-IV stage by installing a
single 200,000-pound-thrust, Rocketdyne J-2 liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen
engine instead of six 15,000-pound-thrust P. & W. hydrogen/oxygen engines.
Known as S-IVB, this modified stage will be used in advanced Saturn
configurations for manned circumlunar Apollo missions.

---: Two new radiotelescopes, one at Cambridge University and the other at
Jodrell Bank, would be constructed with grants from Britain's Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research totaling $3,360,000. The Cambridge
telescope would consist of three 52-foot paraboloidal aerials, two fixed
and one rail-mounted, designed to examine a limited area of the sky with
greater precision than present equipment. The Jodrell addition would be a
125-foot telescope to be used in conjunction with the present 250-foot
telescope.

---: USAF launched Atlas ICBM from Cape Canaveral with a rhesus monkey in a
side-mounted pod on a flight 5,000 miles long and 600 miles in altitude.
The flight was intended to produce information on reactions to launch and
reentry conditions much more severe than in human flights. The monkey
survived the flight but recovery attempts failed.

---: In San Bernardino news conference, Gen. Bernard Schriever, U.S. Air
Force, said: "I have never felt we were behind Russia in missile
development."

December 21: Army Nike-Zeus antimissile missile successfully intercepted a
Nike-Hercules missile flying at over 3,000 miles per hour over White Sands
Missile Range, while another Nike-Zeus made highest flight to date from
Point Mugu and another Nike-Zeus was launched from Kwajalein Island in the
South Pacific.

December 22: Unnamed USAF satellite launched from Point Arguello, Calif.
The announcement said it was powered by an Atlas-Agena B combination and
that the satellite was "carrying a number of classified test components."

---: NASA selected Air Products & Chemicals to supply additional liquid
hydrogen for west coast development projects, a $35 million contract to be
negotiated for a 5-year period.

December 26: Development time schedule for Dyna-Soar was reduced when DOD
authorized the USAF to move directly from B-52 drop tests to unmanned and
then manned orbital flights. This eliminated the previous interim stage of
suborbital flights to be powered by the Titan II development contract held
by the Martin Co. and negotiating a new contract for a larger booster.

---: Ten scientific organizations recommended that the American Association
for the Advancement of Science create a new section to deal with scientific
information and communication. The problem was seen to be one of an
overabundance of information not accessible for the scientist, particularly
in interdisciplinary science. Only three other new sections have been
created in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in this
century.

December 27: The "race in space" between the United States and U.S.S.R. was
the top news story of 1961, with the Berlin crisis running second,
according to a poll of Associated Press member newspapers and radio
stations.

---: Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission,
speaking before the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
said that although science had become a determining factor in national and
international events, its effectiveness was hampered because educated men
did not understand science. Yet, he said, science was truly a part of the
humanities; "Who in our times can make an adequate criticism of life
without knowledge of the ideals, the methods, the dynamics of science?"

---: DOD and USAF revealed that the B-70 bomber may be redesignated RSB-70
(reconnaissance-strike-bomber) and its mission changed from tracking known,
fixed targets to seeking out and destroying unknown, hidden, or uncertain
targets.

---: Dr. Carl Sagan, of University of California (Berkeley), disputed the
"space seed" life theory in American Association for the Advancement of
Science paper. "Panspermic" theory did not seem plausible in the light of
the fierce environment of space and the vastness of the universe, he said.

December 28: Titan II, an advanced ICBM and the booster designated for
NASA's two-man orbital flights, was successfully captive-fired for the
first time at the Martin Co.'s Denver facilities. The test not only tested
the flight vehicle but the checkout and launch equipment intended for
operational use.

December 29: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, speaking in
Denver before the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
said: "The sheer magnitude of the manned lunar exploration program,
amounting as it will to $3 billion or more [in fiscal year 1963],
represents a significant application of the Nation's resources. These
billions of dollars will be spent in the laboratories, workshops, and
factories of the Nation and thus constitute a significant factor in the
Nation's employment and economy generally. The personnel in the space
program are not all scientists and engineers but come from every walk of
life."

"The ultimate and practical purpose of these large expenditures is twofold:
(1) Insurance of the Nation against scientific and technological
obsolescence in a time of explosive advances in science and technology; and
(2) insurance against the hazard of military surprise in space."

---: Dr. Joseph F. Shea was appointed Deputy Director for Systems
Engineering, Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA headquarters, reporting to
D. Brainerd Holmes, NASA's Director of Manned Space Flight. Dr. Shea came
to NASA from Space Technology Laboratories.

---: Dr. Arthur Rudolph was appointed Assistant Director of Systems
Engineering in NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight. Operating out of the
Marshall Space Flight Center, Dr. Rudolph would serve as liaison between
vehicle development at Marshall and the manned space flight program at the
Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.

December 30: Navy HSS-2 Sea King helicopter flown at 199 miles per hour for
3-kilometer distance claimed world record at Windsor Locks, Conn., by
Commander P. L. Sullivan, U.S. Navy, and Capt. D. A. Spurlock, U.S. Marine
Corps.

December 31: NASA established a Management Council to ensure the orderly
and timely progress in the manned space flight programs. The Council,
composed of senior officials from NASA headquarters, Marshall Space Flight
Center, and the Manned Spacecraft Center, and chaired by D. Brainerd
Holmes, Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight, would meet at least
once a month to identify and resolve problems as early as possible and to
coordinate the interface problems.

---: Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., NASA Associate Administrator, said in a
radio interview that a second Venus probe had been added to NASA's 1962
program as insurance for the first probe scheduled in August. Both probes
would be the Mariner R, the reduced-weight version resorted to because of
time slippage in the Centaur booster program. Dr. Seamans also said the
United States plans three attempts to land instrumented packages on the
Moon in 1962.

During December: General Electric announced operation of the largest solar
thermionic power system at GE's solar test facility near Phoenix, Ariz.
Early tests generated an output of 12.18 watts and unit has potential
efficiency of 15 to 20 percent of the total solar energy input.

---: West German Post Office indicated that it would construct near Munich
a ground station capable of handling up to 600 phone calls simultaneously
for operations in late 1963 or early 1964 with Telstar and Relay type
satellites.

---: Japan's launch facilities for its rocket research program would be
moved from Akita on the northwest coast of Honshu to Kagoshima on the
southern tip of Kiushu, according to an announcement by Hideo Itokawa at
the Thul International Symposium on Rocket and Astronautics in Tokyo.

---: USIA reported that U.S. space achievements were a leading item in
their overseas information program and covered all media. USIA concluded:
"The policy of 'openness' observed in both U.S. manned space flights during
the year dramatized the basic difference between the American open society
and the Soviet closed society, and drew widespread approval from
commentators throughout the free world. The availability of full
information about the events through all news media, together with the
presence of foreign correspondents--who gave firsthand, on-the-spot
coverage--enabled oversea audiences to achieve a high degree of
self-identification with one of the greatest adventures of our times."

For further information contact, Roger D. Launius, NASA Chief Historian,
rlaunius@codei.hq.nasa.gov
