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

14 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 19 62
February 7: In regular press conference, President Kennedy was asked
for his “evaluation of our progress in space at this time” and
whether the U.S. had changed its “timetable for landing a man on
the moon?” He replied: “I have said from the beginnin we’ve
been behind. And we are running into the difficulties whic a come
from starting late. We, however, are going to proceed. We’re
making a maximum effort, as you know, and the expenditures
in our space program are enormous. And, to the best of my
ability, the time schedule, I hope, has not been changed by the
recent setbacks.”
President Kennedy requested $1 56 million supplemental appropria-
tions for NASA during FY 1962, $85 million of which was to cover
Advanced Saturn, the Centaur vehicle program, and the M-1
engine program.
AEC and NASA announced that the Catalytic Construction Co. had
been selected as construction contractor for nuclear rocket de-
velopment facilities for Project Rover at the AEC Nevada Test
Site near Las Vegas, Nev.
Army launched Nike-Zeus from underground cell, at White Sands.
Harrison E. Salisbury reported that “in the most advanced echelons
of Soviet science there is emerging a tendency to seek a nonma-
terialist concept of the universe.” According to the former
Moscow correspondent who recently toured the Soviet Union
for two months, “some of the most eminent figures in the galaxy
of Soviet hsyicists, astronomers and mathematicians are in-
volved,” a f though they are not believers in formal religion or
dogma.
February 8: NASA’s TIROS IV launched by a 3-stage Thor-Delta rocket
from Cape Canaveral into a near-circular orbit with an apogee of
525 miles and perigee of 471. TTROS IV featured the same basic
types of equipment as in previous Tiros satellites, including cam-
eras for cloud-cover photography and infrared sensors to measure
temperatures at various levels in the atmosphere. Principal
innovation was a camera with new type of wide-angle lens cover-
ing an area 450 miles on a side, which was expected to provide
minimum distortion. NASA press conference reported that qual-
ity of TIROS IV pictures was good.
0 Navy, in conjunction with Weather Bureau and Canada, launched
a major ice reconnaissance effort in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as
part of a project to develop procedures and techniques for inter-
preting satellite readouts of ice formation. Called Project Tirec,
the effort was timed to coincide with the successful launch of
TIROS IV.
Deputy NASA Administrator Dr. Hugh L. Dryden accepted invitation
to become an Honorary Fellow of the British Interplanetary
Society, an honor only accorded to eight persons who have
rendered major services to astronautics over a number of years.
Edmund F. Buryan was named consultant to NASA to develop plans,
policies, and programs for applying technological advances to
practical benefit of the U.S. economy and industry.
February 9: Weather Bureau reported that TIROG IV had taken
“striking pictures, of excellent quality, of cloud cover, and of
snow and ice distribution” during its first 24 hours in orbit.