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

48 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1 9 6 2
Aprili6: NASA sponsored a day-long technical symposium in Washing-
ton on results of the MA-6 three-orbit space flight. Astronaut
John H. Glenn, Jr., and officials of Project Mercur reviewed the
findings of the Feb. 20 flight and stressed the concLsion that the
presence of the astronaut had been indispensable to successful
completion of the three-orbit mission. On the Glenn effect-the
firefly-like particles Glenn reported seeing outside his capsule
during each of the three sunrises-Dr. John A. O’Keefe, Assistant
Chief, Theoretical Division, Goddard Space Flight Center, re-
ported that study had shown them to be flakes of paint from the
spacecraft.
0 NASA research pilot Glenn W. Stinnett and Stanford physiologist
Dr. Terence A. Rogers emerged from 7-day confinement in a
simulated lunar spacecraft. Unique study by Ames Research
Center involved performance of continuous and realistic profes-
sional tasks while under confined space flight conditions.
Soviet Union announced launching of COSMOS II satellite (975-mile
apogee, 133-mile perigee, 49’ inclination, 102.5-minute period).
COSMOS 11 reportedly had the same instrumentation as COSMOS I
launched on March 16 : investigation of radio transmission,
radiation belts, magnetic field of the earth, distribution and for-
mation of cloud cover, and to test (‘elements of space vehicle
construction.JJ
Test flight of first Atlas-Centaur rocket canceled because of heavy
cloud-cover at Cape Canaveral.
In ejection capsule test, brown bear “Big John” rode in capsule
ejected from B-58 at 1,060 mph and 45,000 ft. and parachuted to
earth near Edwards AFB, Calif.
0 In testimony before Senate subcommittee, Federal Communications
Commissioner T.A.M. Craven reported that talks with Russian
and other representatives had been encouraging on establishment
of a global communications satellite s stem. FCC Chairman
ive with” the proposed
Newton N. Minow said that FCC (‘could 9
U.S. corporation with stock to be owned by the public and b
communications companies. The FCC was, Minow stated, 3
e uipped to handle a Government-owned system.
0 Dr. %omer E. Newell, NASA’s Director of Space Sciences, speaking to
a sectional meeting of the American Society for Engineering
Education at Texas Technological College, Lubbock, Texas,
said: “. . . accomplishing the space mission absolutely requires
the strong and vigorous participation of our colleges and universities,
which in turn requires that NASA bear its fair share of the
support required to make it possible for the universities and colleges
to participate. The universities must bear their share of
responsibility to the space program and allocate an appropriate
fraction of their material, as well as human, resources to the effort.
In such a partnership, NASA stands ready to invest an appreciable
fraction of its resources.”
Soviet Academician Leonid Sedov denied in interview with Trud
that U.S.S.R. had launched other men into orbit besides Majs.
Gagarin and Titov. U.S. press had speculated that as many as
five Russian cosmonauts had been killed in unsuccessful flights.
Space-age religion must be an “open undogmatic religion which
itself reaches out for undiscovered truth,” Rabbi Sheldon H.