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

ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962 245
would be used to complement the existing Ames hypersonic freeflight
facility, which used gun-launched models to obtain 50
times speed of sound.
November 16: Nike-Cajun sounding rocket launched from Ft. Churchill,
Can., under direction of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Second stage failed to ignite, so rocket reached altitude of only
about 9.5 mi.
0 S-IV stage for Saturn space vehicle arrived at NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., after 23-day journey
from Douglas Missiles and Space Systems Div., Santa Monica,
Calif. First Saturn stage to be shipped by water from West
Coast manufacturing site, the S-IV would be mated with other
Saturn stages in dynamic test tower at Marshall, for series
of bending and vibration tests. Its external configuration,
weight, and other characteristics were same as S-IV flight units.
Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, Director of NASA Manned Spacecraft Center,
told newsmen: “The first unmanned capsule launch [in Project
Gemini] has slipped from the third quarter to the fourth quarter
of 1963. There is virtually no possibility of a manned flight
before 1964 . . . . [Slippage was] simply because of the time
it takes to do this very complicated job.”
Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, NASA Deputy Administrator, said in first
annual Theodore von K&rm&n Lecture of the American Rocket
Society: “The costs of the presently approved [space] program
increase next year to about six billion dollars if current time
schedules are maintained. It would not be possible to include
the development of a [manned] space station now without still
larger resources assigned to the space program. I personally
believe that the next large manned space flight project [after
Project Apollo manned lunar landing] will be this one rather than
extensive exploitation of the moon or manned expeditions to the
planets. This might change if the early lunar exploration
returned surprises in the form of natural resources of use on earth.
“I think it will now be appreciated that the present rather
arbitrary subdivisions of our program wil coalesce, for the
manned space station will be useful for both manned and unmanned
scientific exploration and could be the site of observation
of weather or of communications relay stations . . . . ,,
Relationship between very low frequency (VLF) hiss and aurora
australis (Southern lights) was conbed after six months of
research by two scientists, it was reported. Ward Helms and
John Turtle, working at Byrd Station, Antarctica, believe they
have confirmed the theory of Henry Morozumi, Stanford Univ.
scientist, when they found peaks of auroral display and VLF hiss
were identical in intensity and coincided repeatedly. Helms said
he was “not certain that VLF hiss is part of the aurora, per se,
but I’m sure that since the aurora and hiss peaks are simultaneous
there is reason to think the same particles generating the aurora
also generate the hiss.”
0 Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert announced signing
of contract with United Technology Corp. for solid-propulsion
rocket motors to be strapped to sides of Titan I1 rocket in Titan
I11 configuration. He said contract with Martin-Marietta Corp.
for airframe assembly and test of the rocket, as well as for
structure of transitional upper stage, would be signed soon.