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

78 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1962
they are prepared to moderate their views accordingly.” When
dealing with the Soviet Union on space issues, McCloy stated:
“Questions of international prestige quickly emerge and we are
still plagued with the almost frenetic antipathy of the Soviet
Union to inspection.”
May 13: MSFC Ad Hoc Evaluation Team was established for design
review of tho Centaur vehicle.
May 1.4: In NAS broadcast for Voice of America, Dr. Colin S. Pitten-
drigh, Professor of Biology, Princeton University, said that bio-
logical engineering for manned space flight will have an influence
on theoretical physiology, but that “space technology holds far
less promise of any revolution in biology than in physics.” The
possibility of extraterrestrial life, he described as (‘the most ex-
citing scientific question of the day.”
Optimum conditions for a manned spacecraft with regard to
temperature, moisture, oxygen, and carbon dioxide can be speci-
fied. But “we have difficulty in bein precise about anything
else.” He pointed to the possible exc k usion of heavy radiation
by means of an intense magnetic field, but “can man perform
normally in such intense magnetic fields?” Little is known about
the reliability of algae, and new studies of photosynthesis and
techniques of algoculture are needed. Rhythmic innate oscillations,
previously considered superficial to t8he physiological architecture
of organisms, are (( a highly significant parameter of physiological
organization.” And the possible effect of the earth’s gravitational
field on normal physiological function is not fully known.
Dr. Pittendrigh concluded : “Clean questions and clean answers
are going to be difficult for some time. When we put organisms
into space at present and detect deleterious effects, we are simply
unable to disentangle the many variables that exist there and
decide which has been responsible.”
U.S. delegate to the 17-nation disarmament conference, Charles
C. Stelle, urged early action to ban outer space for nuclear armaments:
“This conference could lead to measures designed to
insure that outer space can become an impetus to man’s peaceful
progress and not a battle ound in the future.”
I Testimony of Peb. 27 by ProTJames A. Van Allen before the Houso
Committee on Appropriations on the relative worth of instru-
I mented unmanned stitellites versus manned satellites was released.
Van Allen was misquoted on the wire news services to
the effect that manned space flight wits of limited scientific
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value in the future.
FRIENDSHIP 7 capsule went on exhibit at the Science Museum in
London in beginning of its tour of European cities.
I Cosmonaut Titov wrote in Pravda on his arrival in MOSCOW: “I
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returned home, heaved in a breathful of clear spring air, and
told the comrades welcoming me: Despite all the comforts of
America, there is no land on earth better than our dear, wonderful
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Soviet homeland.” He indicated that American astronauts
Alan Shepard and John Glenn have been invited to visit the
Soviet Union.
~ Drew Pearson referred to Cosmonaut Titov’s recent denial of
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Pearson’s report of February 23, 1962, that five Russian cosmonauts
had been lost in previous manned space flight attempts.