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

ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962 239
November 12.- Tave (Thor-Agena Vibration Experiment), flown with
Thor-Agena launching ALOUETTE satellite on Sept. 29, measured
low-frequency vibrations to Agena stage and spacecraft interfaces
during Thor boost phase, it was reported. Tave provided ii. . .
data verifying the techniques used by Goddard and Lockheed in
predicting the launch vibration environment of the Thor-Agena B
rocket. Demonstration that these techniques were sound is most
important in designing future experiments and structures for the
Thor Agena vehicles,” Goddard project experimenter James
Nagy said. Goddard Space Flight Center had designed, built,
tested, and shipped 200-lb. Tave in on1 20 days.
November 13: USAF announced it had place B in orbit 1.47-lb. Tetrahedral
Research Satellite (TRS) , launched piggyback aboard unidentified
satellite using Thor-Agena vehicle. TRS was orbited
to map radiation in space and radio its findings back to earth.
NASA communications and telemetry stations were supporting
this USAF project.
Tass reported interplanetary probe MARS I began broadcasting
scientific data on command from earth. The Mars probe, about
two million mi. away from earth, was reported functioning
normally.
Rocket- owered instruments will be traveling as far as Jupiter by
1975,Sobert J. Parks, director of JPL Planetary Programs, said in
interview. Parks said by 1975 the planets Mars and Venus
probably would have been studied “quite closely” by instruments.
Congressman Joseph E. Karth (Minn.), chairman of space sciences
subcommittee, said in press interview that planned mission
schedule for Saturn launch vehicle “doesn’t appear to be the
best way to use a vehicle on which we have spent so much money.”
Mr. Karth said the powerful vehicle might prove useful in
“speeding up the interplanetary research program, which may not
be ambitious enough.”
0 Albert J. Evans, NASA Deputy Director of Aeronautical Research,
told IATA Public Relations Conference in Washington: “Our
understanding of aerodynamics has reached the point where it
appears certam that in time an efficient supersonic transport can
be developed. . . . There is no question as to whether there
will be a supersonic transport; the only question is whose. Right
now part of my job is to see that the United States is the first
to develop a commercially competitive supersonic transport. . . .
“In the hypersonic region, the x-15 has given tremendous
focus to our efforts. The X-15 has such capability that it will
be used in furthering certain space research programs. Already
we am making radiation measurements-piggy-back experiments
alon with the hypersonic research program. Our results mth
the 5-15 have been so encouraging that I think we must soon
look beyond the transport that goes to Mach 2 or 3, and begin
layin the groundwork for the generation to follow. . . .”
Signals f rom Venus-bound MARINER 11 interplanetary probe opened
17th annual meeting of American Rocket Society in Los hgeles.