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

ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962 143
Augm.t 7: Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara told the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee that the Department of Defense
“stxongly su ports the objective of establishing a civil communications
satdte system as expeditiously as practicable.”
0 Dr. Wernher von Braun, Director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight
Center, said in an interview in General Electric Forum that the
U.S. space program would be paying for itself within another 10
ears.
“The real payoff does not lie in mining the Moon or in
tnnging gold back from the Moon, but in enriching our economy
and our science in new methods, new procedures, new knowledge,
and advanced technology in general.”
General Electric announced that control system for first Orbiting
Astronomical Observatory ( OAO) had successfully completed its
first simulated space flight test.
USN launched ht flight model of advanced Polaris missile (A-3)
ca able of 2,880-mi. range. Among innovations in A-3 were
b3et-shaped nose (rather than rounded shape of earlier models),
and guidance system about one third the size and weight of the
ones in earlier Polaris models and the smallest and lightest yet
developed for U.S. ballistic missiles. Launched from land pad
at Cape Canaveral, the missile fell short of its planned range
(“in excess of 1,975 miles”) because of second stage malfunction.
Test was termed ‘‘partially successful.”
0 Announced that Georga Nuclear Laboratories’ nuclear reactor
had been licensed by AEC to operate at one megawatt. Labora-
tories would participate with Lockheed Missiles and Space Co.
in development of NASA’s Rift rocket stage.
0 Testifying before the Senate Forei Relations Committee on the
ending communications sate R ’te bill, Washington lawyer
foseph L. Rauh, Jr., stated that the bill would “give away not
only billions of taxpayers’ money already s ent to develop both
space and space communications, but also t B e vast unknown discoveries
of the future.” Another Washington lawyer, Benjamin
V. Cohen, testified that the bill was “filled with pitfalls” and advised
that its enactment now would be “premature.”
Augwt 8: NASA launched Aerobee 1508 sounding rocket from Wallops
Station, ita 256-1b. payload lofted to 92-m. altitude and 60-mi.
distance. Efforts to recover the payload were not successful,
but scientists were able to analyze data telemetered durin
flight about performance of an attitude control system as we fi
as four scientific eyeriments: to measure solar flux in two ultraviolet
s ectral reglons; to measure radiation emerging from the
top of t !I e earth’s atmosphere; to obtain ultraviolet photo aphs
of Venus from outside the earth’s atmosphere; and to stu y dis-
tribution of atmospheric atomic hydrogen and Lyman Alpha
radiation. Also flight-tested was an experimental, transistonzed
telemetry system.
0 Maj. Robert Rushworth (USAF) piloted X-15 No. 2 in flight to
record attern of aerodynamic heating at moderately low speeds,
relative s y low altitudes, and moderate angle of attack, the steel-
skin craft withstanding temperatures up to 900’ F. Maximum
altitude was about 90,000 ft., maximum speed about 2,898 mph
(mach 4.39) in series of maneuvers near Hidden Hills, CaM.,
to build up heat on airplane’s surface. After successful 8-min.
r