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

50 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962
April 9: Astronaut John H. Glenn was awarded the Hubbard Medal
of the National Geographic Society “for extraordinary contributions
to scientific knowledge of the world and beyond as a pioneer
in exploring the ocean of space.” Awarded only 20 times since it
was struck in 1906, the Hubbard Medal honorees have included
Adm. Robert E. Peary, Charles A. Lindbergh, Roald Amundsen,
and Adm. Richard E. Byrd.
Aerospace Medical Association, meeting in Atlantic City, heard
research papers indicatin new findings about space radiation.
Dr. Sol M. Michaelson, o B the University of Rochester School of
Medicine and Dentistry, said preliminary evidence from animal
tests indicates the possibility that one type of radiation expo-
sure-mild amounts of microwave-might enhance recovery from
x-ray damage because it generated increased activity in the bone
marrow. Maj. Robert W. Zellmer (USAF), of the School of
Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, Texas, said tests on rats indicated
the possibility that seriously excessive G forces, such as experi-
enced during launch and re-entry of a spacecraft, might also give
some protection against radiation.
USAF launched its fifth unidentified satellite employing an Atlas-
Agena B booster, from Point Arguello, Calif. In Washington,
the State Department said the satellite would be registered with
the U.N. if it went into orbit and stayed in sustained orbit.
President Kennedy nominated Dr. J. Herbert Holloman to the new
post of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Science a.nd Tech-
nology. Dr. Holloman was general mana er of the General
Engineering Laboratory of GE in Schenecta 8 y, N.Y.
An Atlas ICBM blew up on the pad during launching at AMR. The
missile had been heavily instrumented in an effort to determine
causes of diaculties on recent flights.
Joint AEC-DOD announcement designated a second nuclear test
area in the Pacific, this one centering on Johnston Island and
enclosing an area with a radius of 470 mi. on the surface, ex-
panding to an area with a radius of 700 mi. at 30,000 ft. and
above. Ban on entering the area would become effective
April 30.
U.S. space experiments with regard to the moon may well give
scientists new information on “how the Earth and the planets and
the Sun were formed,” Dr. Gordon J. F. MacDonald, Associate
Director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
of the University of California, said in a Voice of America broad-
cast. The seismometer to be landed on the moon by NASA’s
Ranger, for example, would help determine whether there are
“moonquakes” some eight times more frequent than earthquakes,
as there should be if the moon contains the same concentration
of radioactive elements as the earth.
European Broadcasting Union ended a 20-nation conference in
Seville, Spain, with an announcement that preliminary arrange-
ments had been made for an international television service
by use of communications satellites. Three U.S. television
networks-css, NBC, and ABc-would join with USIA to operate
the system from the US., transmittin from Andover, Maine,
and the European receiving station wou Fi d be the British General
Post Office Facilities in Cornwall, which would relay the signals
to other members of the European Broadcasting Union.