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

ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962 41
celestial bodies and to receive echoes of a radar signal reflected
from the planet Venus.
March 26: U.S.S.R. submitted information on 16 Soviet s ace fights
for inclusion in the U.N. public registry on space Y aunchings.
Included were the manned orbital flights by Majs. Yuri A.
Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov. U.S. submitted a similar list to
the U.N. on March 5, covering U.S. space launchings to Feb. 15,
1962, that were still in orbit.
Coordination of international arrangements for exchange and dis-
semination of weather data, including weather satellite informa-
tion,. was on the agenda of the third session of the U.N.’s Com-
mission for Synoptic Meteorology as it opened a 26-day session
in Washington. Technical experts from more than 100 nations
had been invited.
Dr. James A. Van Allen, Chairman of the Department of Physics
and Astronomy at the State University of Iowa, summarized the
satellite and space probe findings about the structure of the
geomagnetic field surrounding the earth. Describing the inner
zone as relatively stable in intensity of charged particles and
caused by a combination of internal and external forces, he said
the outer zone showed fluctuations in intensity “by factors of
100 to as much as 1,000,” said these were complexly related to
solar flares and geomagnetic storms. The only convincing expla-
nation for the origin of the outer zone yet made is “the capture
of ionized solar gas which sweeps by the earth in Feat clouds
from time to time. . . . But the detailed mechanism for pro-
ducing the observed energy spectrum remains obscure and the
nature of this mechanism is perhaps the most interesting unre-
solved problem in the subject of trapped radiation:”
John A. Johnson, General Counsel of NASA, testifylng before the
Senate Subcommittee on Monopoly, stated that as of Feb. 28,
1962, a total of 297 inventions had been reported by NASA con-
tractors under the patent provisions of the National Aeronautics
and Space Act of 1958. Of these, 268 had been determined to
be Government property, 29 had been or are being considered
for waivers.
March 27: U.S. and U.S.S.R. technical representatives held the fist
of a series of talks on-the possibility of joint cooperation in space
research and exploration. Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Admin-
istrator of NASA, represented the U.S.; Dr. Anatoli A. Blagon-
ravov, of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, represented the
U.S.S.R.
NASA fired a Nike-Cajun rocket from Wallops Station, Va., which
released a sodium vapor cloud between 25 and 74 miles altitude.
Rays of the setting sun colored the sodium cloud red, instead of
sodium vapor’s normal yellow.
In address to the Institute of Radio Engineers in New York, NASA
Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden stated: “The costs of
satellites and space probes are so great that every possible step
must be taken to assure success. In our scientific experiments we
insist that the bench prototype developed by the physicist be
redesi ed by engineers to meet the environmental requirements,
that t %Il e engineered prototype be tested on vibrators, in vacuum
and temperature chambers and other ground equipment simu-
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