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

ASTRONATJTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962 267
December 18: Two tandem 600-f t.-tall research balloons launched
from Palestine, Texas, with dummy payload of 6,300 lb., a
development test for February 1963 launch of 36-in. telescope
with germanium eye to obtain undistorted look at the Martian
atmosphere. Scientists from Princeton University, Univ. of Cali-
fornia, Vitro Corp., and Schjeldahl Corp. conducted test flight.
0 DOD announced Nike-Zeus antimissile missile successfully inter-
cepted Atlas ICBM over the Pacific Ocean. Target Atlas was
launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and two Nike-Zeus
missiles were fired from Kwajalein Island, the first Nike-Zeus
making the successful intercept. This was second successful
intercept-test by Army’s Nike-Zeus.
0 NASA A ena B vehicle program would be transferred from NASA
Mars % all Space Flight Center to NASA Lewis Research Center,
Associate Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., announced.
Transfer included Atlas and Thor boosters used with Agena B
upper stage. Dr. Seamans said the transfer, which would be
completed within three months, would allow “Marshall to wholly
concentrate its work on the vital Saturn vehicle development for
the manned lunar landing rogram and for the Iarge unmanned
scientific payloads of the P uture. . . . In addition, it concentrates
at Lewis the two Atlas-based vehicles, Agena and Centaur,
which are essential to NASA’s program of space sciences.” Centaur
was transferred to Lewis in September.
“At least 15 per cent of the original synchrotron radiation” created
by US. high-altitude nuclear blast last July could persist for
more than a year, American and Peruvian scientists reported.
Measurements made at National Bureau of Standards radio
astronomy observatory in Jicamarca, Peru, showed that about
one half the radiation had decayed within two months of the
explosion, . ._ but that the rate of decay was “thought to be de-
creasing.”
0 USAF SAC .. crew launched Atlas ICBM from Vandenberg AFB in routine
training exercise.
December 13: REGAY communications satellite launched into orbit by
Thor-Delta vehicle from Cape Canaveral (about 800-mi. perigee;
4,600-mi. apogee; 3 hr., 5 min. period). Built by RCA for NASA,
RELAY was designed to be first active repeater satellite linking
three continents-North America, South America, and Euro e.
Efforts to turn on RELAY’S communications equipment ( t
NASA test station at Nutley, N.J.) were unsuccessful, the satel
lite’s onboard battery power being too low to operate the transponders.
NASA said telemetry data indicated “abnormal drain
upon the power supply” was probable cause of low volta e;
RELAY communications experiments were postponed indehite K y.
Objectives of NASA Project Relay were to test intercontinental
microwave communications by low-altitude active repeater
satellites, measure energy levels of space radiation in its orbital
path, and determine extent of radiation damage to solar cells and
electronic com onents.
ian Government launched two Black Brant I11
0 NASA and Cana Cf sounding rockets from NASA Wallops Station, in oint US.-
Canadian experimental test series to determine ve h icle flight
performance characteristics and to obtain engineering data on