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

144 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 19 62
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flight, Maj. Rushworth reported observing particles of insulation
floating between twin panes of X-15’s windshield, while climbing
at 70,000-ft. altitude.
August 8: Special subcommittee of the House Committee on Science
and Astronautics conducted hearings on solid propellants. Chairman
David King of Utah was quoted as saying he wanted the
hearings to be detailed enough to commit DOD and NASA to a
definite plan for solid-propellant rockets.
Testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on
Science and Astronautics, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator
Thomas F. Dixon said that NASA was “giving solid rockets equal
consideration with liquid rockets in decisions on future launch
vehicle designs. . . . We have provided the Air Force with our
requirements for an advanced technology or feasibility demonstration
program on large solid rocket motors pertinent to the
development of solid rocket-powered launch vehicles.
“To make an informed choice of propulsion between liquid
propellant engines (where the technology is fairly well in hand)
and solid propellant motors (where it is not), it is necessary to
advance the technology of large solid motors to the point of
actual demonstration firings. The demonstration program we
have proposed will allow us to make a wise choice between the
two types of propulsions because a better understanding of costs
and schedules as well as developmental problems will be
available.”
0 US. Senate passed S. 2771 to establish a Commission on Science
and Technology, which would coordinate Government research
and development programs with those of business and industry
and would establish coordinated systems of information storage
and retrieval.
NASA Flight Research Center released photographs of a mysterious
floating object taken during Maj. Robert M. White’s July 17
record-breaking flight of the X-15. Pictures, extracted from
film taken by movie camera in tail of x-15, showed gray-white
object of undetermined size tumbling above and behind the
aircraft. NASA officials reported that it was “impossible to
identify or explain the object’s presence at this time.”
0 National Geographic Society and Lowell Observatory announced
preparation of an atlas, “A Photographic Study of the Brighter
Planets,” containing “the most detailed and revealing pictures
obtained since telescopes were perfected especially for observing
the planets rather than the distant stars.”
Bidders’ conference held at NASA Hq.
NASA requested proposals
from field centers and industry for two lunar logistics studies-
one of a spacecraft bus concept which could be adapted for initial
use on the Saturn C-1B and later use on Saturn C-5 launch ve-
hicles; and one of a variety of payloads which could be soft-
landed near manned Apollo missions, the latter study to deter-
mine how man’s stay on the moon might be extended, how man’s
capability for scientific investigation of the moon might be in-
creased, and how man’s mobility on the moon might be increased.
Contract proposals were requested by August 20.
NASA had awarded $141.1 million contract to Douglas Aircraft Co.
for design, development, fabrication, and test of Saturn S-IVB