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

ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962 281
munications, radar, nuclear energy, and now space. In such
periods, the number of free scientists supported to work on
problems of their o m selection is greater than in the absence of
social pressures, although admittedly there is a still greater
expansion of team effort.
Dr Dryden said: “. . . It is our aim in NASA to administer
the [space] program in such a way as to strengthen science and
engineering broadly, to strengthen our universities and our
industrial base, in fact to add to our national strength in every
gossible as undertaken way
. As regards the problem under discussion, NASA
as a goal the support of about 4,000 graduate
students per year in 150 qualified universities to do our part in
increasing the supply . ”
December 90: Dr. Robert M. Petrie, Director of Dominion Astro-
physical Observatory in Victoria, B.C., told AAAS in Philadelphia
that the Milky Way Galaxy appenss to be expanding. Dr.
Petrie’s PO-year study of 600 “B” stars (hottest and brightest
stars in the galaxy) produced evidence that our sun and all other
stars are moving away from the galactic center.
Dr. James A. Van Allen, State University of Iowa physicist,
criticized Government report on atmospheric radiation resulting
from US. high-altitude nuclear explosion in July, which stated
radiation levels were much higher than had been predicted and
would last longer than had been predicted. Dr. Van Allen
charged the Government report was a “hasty and ill-considered”
interpretation of the facts; he predicted the bulk of artificially
formed radiation would no longer be detectable by summer of
1963. Dr. Van Allen said Presiden.t’s Science Advisory Com-
mittee ignored findings from INJUN satellite (which he used to
study effects of the explosion) and relied instead on data from
TELSTAR satellite, launched after the nuclear test. Scientist
James W. Warwick of University of Colorado, basing his con-
clusions on radio measurements from ground stations in Hawaii
and the Philippines, said his studies were in general agreement
with those of Van Allen and his coworkers and were “inconsistent)’
with Government estimates .*based on TELSTAR data. The two
scientists were in Philadelphia for session of American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Joseph A. Conner, Jr., of NASA, said in AAAS paper that there
will be an arbitrary retirement age for astronauts, not in terms of
years but in exposure to penetrating radiation in space.
Soviet Cosmonaut Pave1 Popovich arrived in Havana to participate
in fourth anniversary celebration of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolu-
tion, Havana Radio announced.
December 31: DOD formally canceled Skybolt missile program, an-
nouncing that “the Air Force is taking immediate action to termi-
nate all production in connection with the Skybolt program.”
Announcement was first public DOD notice since President
Kennedy’s press conference statement of December 12 on the
high cost of Skybolt.
Chaiman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy,
Rep. Chet Holifield, stated that he saw a narrowing of the
Nation’s objectives in space:
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