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

226 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1 9 0 2
before possible. The light beacons were to be activated by
ground command within three days, after orbital data were
precisely analysed. ANNA (Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force) was
developed and launched by military services, with Johns Hopkins’
Applied Physics Laboratory as prime contractor; NASA cooperated
in tracking and in dissemination of orbital data to the inter-
national scientific community for worldwide use of the man-made
star for geodetic purposes.
October SI: Dr. Thomas L. K. Smull, NASA director of grants and
research contracts, told press conference in Chicago that by 1970
one out of every four technically trained persons in U.S. will be
engaged in some phase of the space program. Press conference
preceded first national conference between NASA and representa-
tives of 300 universities, colleges, and technical schools, Nov. 1-3.
EXPLORER XIV had transmitted 589 hours of data to NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center, which had released about 240 hours of data
to the various experimenters.
Soviet scientist N. Varvarov was reported to have stated U.S.S.R.
program to orbit one-man spacecraft had been completed with
flights of VOSTOK 111 and VOSTOK IV.
During October: In letter report to House Committee on Science and
Astronautics, NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. Hugh L. Dryden
disclosed problems in the Centaur launch vehicle program:
Atlas-Centaur capability to carry heavy payloads under severe
wind conditions must be studied in greater detail; quality of
fabrication must be improved to reach desired level of quality
control; guidance system requires further development to achieve
necessary accuracy and reliability; tank fabrication requires
better welding techniques; Atlas-Centaur inflight separation
requires further analysis; nose cone and insulation panels must
be further tested to prove their aerodynamic-load resistance.
Report said about $100 million would be spent on Centaur in
FY 1963 to accelerate development. NASA Lewis Research Center
would study use of Centaur in combination with Titan 11,
Saturn C-1, and Saturn C-1B boosters.
Program testing astronaut tolerance to space flight conditions was
initiated with order of motion-simulator platform from Textron
Electronics, Inc., MB Electronics Div. The platform, to be
installed at Wright-Patterson AFB, will move in six directions-
pitch, roll, yaw, up-and-down, side-to-side, and back-to-forward.
NASA acquired from the Army a shi basin adjacent to Michoud
Operations facility for loading an i unloading space vehicles at
the Saturn fabrication plant. Plans called for construction of
ship dock at the basin and dredging of vessel-turning area.
Senator Hubert Humphrey, in hearings of the Subcommittee on
Reorganization and International Organizations of the Senate
Committee on Government Operations, told Melvin S. Day,
Director of NASA Office of Scientific and Technical Information:
“Mr. Day, I want to commend you for blueprinting one of the
finest intra-agency systems in the Federal government today in
the information field and, of course, I speak of NASA. While the
work is being done by private contractor, it is you who have
set the high standards for performance. . . . We feel what