Astronautical and Aeronautical Events of 1962 - NASA's History Office

110 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 19 6 2
In announcing the appointment, Associate Administrator
Seamans said: “Our success and progress in manned space flight
in the next 10-20 years depend on the human research we do
today. The human, man-machine and man-system requirements
must be determined through research prior to the design of any
manned system. The human capabilities and limitations will
directly influence various subsystems of the space vehicle. It is
therefore important that work in Biotechnology and Human
Research be conducted at an accelerated rate, in order to have
the necessary answers for the design of future aero-space vehicles.”
The Life Sciences Research Group at Ames Research Center
will have a major role in carrying out the programs of Dr.
Konecci’s office, along with the other NASA centers and full
utilization of the Nation’s military, research, and industrial
resources and personnel.
Dr. Iionecci was Chief of the Life Sciences Section of the
Missiles and Space Systems Division of Douglas Aircraft Co.
and had previously served as a research scientist at the USAF
School of Aviation Medicine and as Chief of Physiology and
Technology in the USAF Directtorate of Flight Safety before 1957.
June 98: DOD announced successful static firing of the Thiokol-
developed acceleration rocket for USAF’S X-20 manned space
glider. X-20 previously known as Dyna Soar.
June 29: X-15 No. 2 was flown by NASA pilot John B. McKay in a
relatively low-level flight to obtain information on aerodynamic
heating. Maximum speed was 3,204 mph (mach 4.85) at 73,000
ft.; maximum altitude was 82,000 ft.
First USAP Minuteman ICBM launched by military crew from Cape
Canaveral, successfully reaching intended target area downrange.
Navy fired a Polaris missile from AMR and sent it 1,400 miles downrange.
The missile featured a new nose cone in shape and
substances of construction as well as parts that would be used
in more advanced models.
Two Aerobee 150A sounding rockets with Johns Hopkins spectrophotometric
instrumentation for measurement of day and
night airglow successfully launched from NASA Wallops Station,
reaching 129- and 131-mile altitudes.
USAF awarded a contract for two high-speed X-19 VTOL aircraft
which would be used to explore VTOL characteristics on behalf of
the triservice V/STOL Transport Development Program. The
X-19 is a twin-engine, tandem, high-wing aircraft with four
tilting propellers mounted in nacelles at the wingtips, and is
designed to cover a range of speed from 0 (hovering) to 400 knots
in conventional flight.
June SO: University of California’s sixty-inch cyclotron, basic research
tool that led to construction of the first atomic and hydrogen
bombs in the U.S., was closed down and dismantled to make
room for more modern equipment. Invented and first operated
by Ernest 0. Lawrence in 1939, this cyclotron was instrumental
in the discovery of neptunium, plutonium, astatine, curium,
berklium, californium, nnd mendeleevium. In addition to these
seven transuranium elements, the machine also contributed to
the discovery of carbon-14 and produced radioisotopes for a
variety of medical experiments.