April 1962

April 1: Beginning of third year of successful weather satellite operation by Tiros 1, launched on April 1, 1960, performed beyond all expectations, operated for 78 days, transmitted almost 23,000 cloud photos, of which some 19,000 were useful to meteorologists. Tiros 2, launched November 23, 1960, transmitted more than 33,000 photos and one year after launch was still occasionally taking useful photos. Tiros 3, launched July 12, 1961, took 24,000 cloud photos and was most spectacular as a “hurricane hunter.” The fourth Tiros, launched February 8,1962,has averaged 250 operationally useful photos per day.

April 2: OSO, launched March 7, 1962, was reported by NASA to be performing well. As of this date, 360 telemetry data tapes had been recorded from 403 orbits. Tapes would require about one year for complete analysis of data.

Dr. John A. Simpson, of the University of Chicago’s Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies, said in a Voice of America broadcast that space probes and satellites have offered the scientist the first tools for direct measurement and study of electrodynamics in the interplanetary medium. Explorer 10,for example, had recorded a density of protons in space substantially below predicted values and “almost one million billion times less than the best vacuum that man creates in the laboratory.”

April 3: USAF said it would procure twelve additional Thor space boosters to meet future requirements. Since January 1957 there have been 142 launches of Thor with 111 successes,thirteen partial successes, and eighteen failures.

April 4: Soviet cosmonauts have had changes introduced into their training, including special gymnastics, in an attempt to offset nausea induced by prolonged weightlessness, according to Trud, newspaper of the Central Labor Union.

April 5: X-15 No. 3 flown to speed of 2,830 mph (mach 4.06) and to altitude of 179,000 ft. in a test of new adaptive control system to be used in Dyna-Soar and Apollo vehicles. NASA’Nseil A. Armstrong was pilot. Whereas the previous control system was automatic only while the X-15 was within the atmosphere and the pilot had to control flight with reaction jets while in space, the new system would be automatic in both regimes.

April 6: 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 Mercury reviewed the findings of the Feb. 20 flight and stressed the conclusion that the presence of the astronaut had been indispensable to successful completion of the three-orbit mission.

Soviet Union announced launching of Cosmos 2satellite (975-mile apogee, 133-mile perigee, 49’ inclination, 102.5-minute period). Cosmos 2 reportedly had the same instrumentation as Cosmos 1 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.

Test flight of first Atlas-Centaur rocket canceled because of heavy cloud cover at Cape Canaveral.

April 7: 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.

Atlas-Centaur launching from AMR was again postponed, this time because of high-altitude winds.

April 8: Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in a Tass interview, said: “It is now necessary to determine how long a man can operate in outer space without prejudice to his health-five days, ten days, or more. This is one of the main tasks before proceeding to more complex flights to the moon, for example, or to the establishment of orbital or interplanetary stations.” He criticized the U.S. for being “reluctant” to file details of the Glenn flight with the U.N. “The best information about outer space has been obtained in the U.S.S.R. The Americans can benefit more by our experience than we by theirs. Some people in America are not interested in exchanges of scientific information.” The US. had submitted information concerning the Glenn flight to the U.N. on April 3.

April 9: 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.

U.S.S.R. Presidium of the Supreme Soviet declared April 12, anniversary of the fist Soviet space flight, to be a national annual holiday in Russia. In announcing ceremonies for Cosmonautics Day In the Soviet Union, Leonid Korneyev reviewed the U.S.S.R.’s space program from its beginnin in April 1932, with the formation of a group to study jet propulsion. Between 1932 and 1941, Korneyev pointed out, the U.S.S.R. had developed 118 different liquid-fuel rocket engines.

April 10: First stage for Saturn vehicle SA-3 had its fist flight qualification test at MSFC, alleight engines firing for 30 sec.

April 11: Atlas-Centaur initial launch from AMR was again postponed by NASA, this time because of fueling problems.

April 12: USAF Blue Scout launched from Cape Canaveral but second stage did not fire.

NASA would begin an education program in the fall of 1962 to provide financial support for 10 doctoral candidates in science and engineering at each of 10 U.S. universities, NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced to the Institute of Environmental Sciences in Chicago. Students would receive a stipend of $2,400 per year, expenses up to $1,000 per year, and the university would be reimbursed for tuition, fees, and other expenses. Grants would be for one year, renewable to a maximum of three years. Mr. Webb said NASA expected the program “will increase considerably in years to come.”

National holiday in the Soviet Union, the anniversary of orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin. In ceremony in the Kremlin’s Congress Hall, Cosmonaut Gagarin declared: “We are on the threshold of more new space launchings. When these space ships return to earth, the Soviet people will have more holidays to celebrate.” Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev and Cosmonaut Titov also made short speeches, while Matislav Keldysh, President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, made the major address.

April 14: USAF selected pro osals submitted by United Technology Corp. for the 120-incKsolid motor and STL-ARMA for the guidance efforts to be placed in Titan III which will serve as a large space booster. Contracts were contingent upon final program approval.

April 15: Technical planning and review of the NASA lunar program held with 60 key officials, at MSFC.

April 16: Representatives of Australia, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy the Netherlands, and Britain signed an agreement for the estabbshment of the European Satellite Launcher Development Organization in London.

April 18: X-15 made its 50th successful flight from Edwards AFB, Calif., with NASAJ’osseph A. Walker as pilot. The X-15 No. 1, testing an emergency flight control system, reached a speed of 3,920 mph (Mach 5.84) and an altitude of 150,000 ft.

April 19: State Department received a visa application from Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, who would be a part of the Soviet delegation to the COSPAR International Space Science Symposium to be held in Washington April 30-May 9. U.S. officials indicated that the request would be approved.

April 20: X-15 No.3 flew to 207,000 feet and 3,818 mph (Mach 5.33)  in a test of a special adaptive control system. Flight was made from Edwards AFB, Calif., NASA’s Neil Armstrong as pilot.

USAF announced selection of seven USAF officers and one USN officer for the second class in the USAF’S space pilot school. The class, to begin on June 18 at Edwards AFB, Calif., would include LCdr. Lloyd N. Hoover (USN), Majs. Donald M. Sorlie and Byron F. Knole (USAF), and Capts. Albert H. Crews, Jr., Charles C. Bock, Jr., William T. Twinting, Robert W. Smith, and Robert H. McIntosh (USAF).

Attempt at first flight test of Centaur was canceled because of troubles in the ground-handling equipment used to pump liquid oxygen into the vehicle.

April 21: Fifth attempt to launch Centaur space booster was canceled at the last second at AMR. Engines on the Atlas first stage had been ignited when an automatic detection device spotted a malfunction and shut off the engines.

April 23: Ranger 4 was launched by Atlas-Agena from AMR, went into parking orbit, and was put into proper trajectory to the moon by restart of the Agena B booster. Failure of a timer caused loss of both internal and ground control over the vehicle. Analysis of the trajectory indicated that the payload would probably skim the leading edge of the moon on April 25 and be pulled by the moon’s gravity to a crash- landing on the far side of the moon.

US. and U.S.S.R. scientists have agreed on a proposal to establish a “world weather watch” for improved collection, analysis, and dissemination of world weather information by means of conventional weather techniques and weather satellites. Dr. Harry Wexler, Director of Research, U.S. Meatlier Bureau, and Dr. Viktor A. Bugaev, Assistant Director of the Hydrometeorological Service, U.S.S.R., drafted the plan at the World Meteorological Organization headquarters in Genera. Plan would call for expanded and improved weather observation by both conventional and satellite means, the establislment of world and regional weather centers to collect, analyze, and disseminate weather information, including participation by underdeveloped countries through pooling of their resources to develop regional weather forecasting centers. Soviet participation was indicated by Dr. Konstantin T. Logvinov, Deputy Director of U.S.S.R.’s Hydrometeorological Service. He indicated possibility of Soviet weather satellites, although he said U.S.S.R. was not as advanced as U.S. in this area--“We are just Iearniiig from American experience”-and establishment in U.S.S.R. of a ground station to receive cloud-cover photos from satellites. The proposed global weather plan was to be submitted to the World Meteorological Organization May 22 and then to the U.N.

April 24:  U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 3, identified by Tass as another of the scientific satellites in a series to study weather, communications, and radiation. Orbital data: apogee, 448 mi. (720 km.); perigee, 142 (229 lua.); period, 93.8; inclination, 48’59’.