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

ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962 33
Murch IO: In address at fund-raising dinner at Miami Beach, Presi-
dent Kennedy pointed out that NASA would spend five times as
much in Florida during next fiscal year as last, and that “research,
development and production expenditures will also increase at
the Cape, in this state’s private industry, and in your great
universities. ”
The Astronautics Committee of the 51-nation Fadration Aero-
nautique Internationale , meeting in Paris, certified Soviet
Cosmonaut Gherman Titov as holder of two new world records
for space flight: duration of flight, 25 hrs. 11 min.; and length of
flight, 436,911 mi. In certifying Titov’s records, the committee
relaxed its rule that the pilot must land with his vehicle (Titov
parachuted to earth). The heaviest payload in orbital flight
still belongs to the other Soviet cosmoqaut, Yuri Gagarin (10,419
lbs.).
March 11: Second anniversary of the launching of the unsurpassed
PIONEER v space probe. PIONEER v produced first data on the
nature of interplanetary space, including solar flare effects in
interplanetary space which were compared with earth-orbiting-
satellite readings, and sent back telemetry 22.5 million miles
from earth on June 26,1960, a communications record unmatched
until the flight of MARINER 11.
0 Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences an-
nounced that improvements had been made in the second Project
West Ford ackage soon to be launched into orbit: (1) weight
had been re a uced from 75 to 50 lbs., thus reducing the number of
dipoles in the package from 350 million to 250 million; (2) the
container had been redesigned to ensure that it would be im-
parted with the proper spin by the rifle-like barrel from which it
is ejected (this caused failure of the first experiment to disperse) ;
(3) VHF beacon and telemetry were included to ensure tracking
capability; and (4) a fail-safe device would prevent the capsule
from ejecting at any other than the proper orbit. Report sent to
International Astronomical Union to assure astronomers that
every care was being taken that the fdaments not interfere with
astronomical observations.
0 NASA announced that ECHO I, the 100-ft. balloon-type assive com-
munications satellite launched on August 12, 1960, gad recently
become increasingly difficult for observers to see. The sphere
now presented only >4 to >i its original size, due either to shrinkage
or distortion during its year and a half in orbit.
0 Reported in London that U.S.S.R. has nearly completed negotia-
tions with the United Arab Republic and Iraq for supply of
Soviet guided missiles.
March 16: U.S.S.R. had shown a “change in attitude in recent weeks”
on cooperating with the U.S. on development and use of a weather
satellite system, Dr. Francis W. Reichelderfer, Chief of the US.
Weather Bureau, testified before a subcommittee of the House
Committee on Science and Astronautics.
Orbital data from satellites have suggested that scientists do not
really know the shape of the earth, Dr. George P. Woollard,
Director of the Geophysics and Polar Research Center of the
University of Wisconsin, said in a Voice of America broadcast.
Such studies have indicated that the earth may have not only