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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0454.PDF
462 FLIGHT, 13 April 1961 Missiles and Spaceflight X-15 FLIES HIGH An altitude of 169,600ft (over 32 miles) was reached by a NorthAmerican X-15 research aircraft flown by NASA test pilot Joseph Walker on March 30, following release from the parent B-52 at45,OO0ft. After landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Walker re- ported that he had used approximately two-thirds of the aircraft'savailable power (57,OOOlb thrust) for 79sec, after which the aircraft had zoomed with power off from 110,000ft to the peak of 169,600ft.He was under zero-g conditions for about 90secof the ten-minutefiight. After release from the B-52 there was an unscheduled delay of afew seconds in starting the LR99 engine of the X-15, and during the descent Walker reported severe buffeting between 80,000 and70,000ft. At maximum altitude Walker used the HTP jets in the nose and wings of the aircraft for attitude control, since the aero-dynamic controls were inoperative in the rarefied atmosphere. MORE DOLLARS FOR SPACE On March 28 President Kennedy asked Congress for an increase of$125,670,000 for the National Aeronautics and Space Administra- tion in the 1962 budget, bringing the total estimate to $1,235,300,000.The additional funds give a definite go-ahead to the development of the Saturn C-2 launch vehicle, which will be capable of placing45,0001b payloads in orbit, compared with 19,0001b for the Saturn C-l now under development. The effect of the extra funds will beto accelerate the completion date of the Saturn C-2 project by one year, with the first test flight now planned for 1964. The President'srequest also provides money for the Centaur liquid-hydrogen rocket launcher programme. The sum allocated to the Saturn C-2 in the additional estimatesis $71m, most of which will go into the development of an 800,0001b thrust second-stage vehicle (consisting of four 200,0001b thrustengines) and for ground test and launch facilities. A further $7m would be used for supporting costs for the C-2 programme and forstrengthening general NASA technical management and execution of the entire vehicle-development programme. A total of $26m isprovided for Centaur, to be used as a second stage with Atlas in many applications including NASA satellites and space probes andthe Defense Department's Project Advent programme. In the field of advanced propulsion S4m is included for accelerat-ing work on the Project Rover nuclear rocket. With this money, and the S5m requested for the Atomic Energy Commission for itswork on reactor development, an intensified ground testing pro- gramme will be conducted. A further 59m is proposed to expanddevelopment work on the F-l 1.5m lb thrust single-chamber rocket engine. In the communications field the January budget presented byPresident Eisenhower had included the provision that SlOm of the cost of the NASA experimental programme with active communica-tions satellites would be contributed by private organizations which might be interested later in commercial operation of a satellitecommunication system. President Kennedy's request reverses this action and includes $10m to be provided by direct appropriations.This proposal ensures that the US Government would retain full control of the development stages of this programme withoutprejudice to future arrangements for commercial operations. TRANSATLANTIC COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE PLAN A co-operative programme for the transatlantic testing of experi-mental communications satellites was announced jointly by the USA, France and Britain on April 4. The GPO and the FrenchCentre for Telecommunications Studies are to provide European ground stations for the transmission of multi-channel telephone,telegraph and television signals using satellites to be launched by NASA during 1962 and 1963 in Projects Relay and Rebound. The ground stations, it is stated, will be equipped with "advancedradio facilities having extremely accurate tracking and antenna- pointing qualities and capable of conducting tests with active andpassive satellites at high frequencies and low power." Project Relay involves a low-altitude active repeater satelliteweighing less than 1001b which will contain instruments to detect radiation damage and other environmental effects on criticalcomponents in addition to the communications equipment. Pro- ject Rebound is based on a passive reflector satellite system whichfollows-on from Echo, the space administration's first such experi- ment. Several "rigidized" inflated spheres will be launched intoorbit by a single launch vehicle, the initial 1963 launch employing three satellites. The official announcement of the joint programme ss* ->i This mode/ of on RAFSkybolt air-launched ballistic missile was presented to the Secretory of State for Air, Mr Julian Amery, by a representative of the Douglas Aircraft Co, makers of the missile, in London on March 29 emphasized that both Relay and Rebound are research and develop-ment projects, intended to demonstrate the feasibility of basic concepts and technological approaches and to evaluate varioussystems which might be employed in communications satellites. A reference to the joint scheme in Post Office Prospects 1961-62, aGovernment White Paper published the previous week, stated: "Research on the design of the special transmitters, receivers, andvery large steerable aerials is very well advanced, and the Post Office expects to place orders with industry within the next fewmonths for the equipment required at the ground station. Opera- tional and technical requirements of satellite communicationsystems, and their economics, are being studied in detail." A GPO spokesman added on April 4 that the ground station would probablybe located in south-west England. EXPLORER 10 SUCCESSFUL National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists at theGoddard Space Flight Center reported on March 28 that they were "very pleased with the quantity of information" obtained from theexperiments aboard the Explorer 10 satellite launched on March 25 from Cape Canaveral. A preliminary inspection of data indicatedthat magnetic fields encountered at great distances from the Earth —between 60,000 miles and the 112,500-mile apogee—were con-siderably stronger than expected. This information came from data received at the Minitrack station at Blossom Point, Maryland. Signals from the satellite's transmitter became very weak afteralmost 60hr of continuous operation, and finally ceased on March 28. Valuable information had been transmitted from the rubidiumvapour magnetometer, two fluxgate magnetometers and the plasma probe. Reduction and analysis of this data was expected to takeseveral weeks at the Goddard Center. Preliminary tracking informa- tion indicated that Explorer 10 reached its apogee at about 3.40a.m. on March 27, and a perigee of 110 miles (at a point over the Pacific Ocean south of Japan) at 10 p.m. on March 28. FRENCH/AMERICAN CO-OPERATION A "Memorandum of Understanding" between the National Aero-nautics and Space Administration and the French Committee for Space Research was signed in Washington at the end of last month.The agreement specified four steps to be taken as part of a continu- ing programme for co-operation in space-science research: (1) The French committee will make detailed proposals for experi-ments in the VLF, auroral and airglow, and biological fields. These experiments will be prepared by the committee and flown inappropriate sounding rockets by NASA. (2) It is envisaged that the same experiments will be incorporatedin satellites to be launched by NASA, assuming favourable results from the earlier rocket firings. (3) The two organizations will exchange information on thedesign, equipment and operation of a sounding-rocket launch site. (4) Exchanges of personnel will include the accommodation ofFrench technicians in NASA space-science centres. RADIO TELESCOPES IN SPACE Details of some of the civilian scientific equipment carried by theUSAF Blue Scout rocket launched from Cape Canaveral on Janu- ary 7 have been given by Prof Donald H. Menzel, director ofHarvard College Observatory. This occasion, he states, was the first in which radio telescopes were carried and used above theEarth's ionosphere. Four small radio telescopes were included in the Blue Scout payload, and they were used to transmit back toEarth measurements of low-frequency cosmic radio noise. It was reported that all four units had operated successfully. Each radio telescope consisted of a small transistorized receiverand a collapsed antenna which extended on command to a length of 10ft. The total weight of the four radio telescopes was under101b and they operated at frequencies between 700kc/s and 13Mc/s. In addition to the measurement of cosmic radio noise, new ionos-pheric measurements were made by the radio telescopes aboard the rocket in conjunction with ground transmitters operated byHarvard scientists at San Salvador Island.
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