Scrapbook 2: May 1962 — Deke Slayton, Thor, Centaur, sea launch, Kosmos 5

Vandenberg NCO Gets SAC Honor

OMAHA, Neb. (Special)—S M Sgt Robert A. Gillham of the 1st Strategic Aerospace Div, Vandenberg AFB, Calif., has been named the Strategic Air Comd’s outstanding airman of the year. He will represent SAC at the Air Force Association convention at Las Vegas in September.

His selection, made here by a committee of officers, followed a review of the eight nominees from SAC’s major subcommands. In announcing the winner, the board also stated that the competition was “very close,” and that “any one of the nominees would have made an outstanding representative of the command.”

Gillham, who is NCOIC of 1st Strat AD’s missile safety operations division, has actively participated in more than 300 hazardous missile test operations and 53 launches of ballistic missiles at Vandenberg, officials said.

41% of U.S. Space Funds To Be Spent in South

WASHINGTON (UPI) — Forty-one cents of every dollar the United States spends next year in its effort to beat Russia in the space race will be spent in the South.

No other section of the country will benefit more on a dollar and cents basis from the multibillion dollar space program.

And only one state — California — ranks ahead of the South’s three space giants — Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama — in the amount of money to be spent on construction, research and development, and salaries.

Only South Carolina among the southern states will not share in the bounty.

The estimated distribution of National Aeronautics and Space Administration funds for fiscal 1963 shows a blank for South Carolina as well as Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

NASA expects to spend $3.78 billion during fiscal 1963, of which $1.56 billion will be spent in nine southern states. During the fiscal year now coming to a close, NASA spent $1.82 billion.

California with the test site at Vandenberg Air Force Base and its numerous space-age industries will be the recipient of an estimated $947.76 million next year.

Next on the list is Florida, jotted down for $543.26 million, which includes construction funds for launching sites for the moonbound Saturn rockets.

For the third straight year Florida will receive the biggest amount for construction, a record $361.96 million.

Slayton Role Called ‘Vital’

WASHINGTON (UPI) — Space chief James E. Webb said that astronaut Donald K. (Deke) Slayton is playing “a very vital role” regardless of whether he ever goes into orbit.

Webb denied a reporter’s suggestion at a news conference that “Deke’s future seems pretty gloomy.” But he left unaswered the question of whether Slayton will ever make a space trip.

Slayton had been picked for the three-orbit flight which was made by Malcolm Scott Carpenter May 24. Deke was grounded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in March because of a fibrillation, an intermittent irregularity of heartbeat which the agency had known about since 1959.

Last week the 38-year-old Air Force major went to Boston for an examination by Dr. Paul Dudley White, the famous heart specialist who attended President Eisenhower.

No Report Yet

Webb said White had not made his report “so far as I know.” He said NASA had asked the doctor to contribute his skill and wisdom “in behalf of the United States” to help the agency decide “what we should do about this fine astronaut.”

Webb said the work done by astronauts on the ground during an orbital flight by one of their fellows was vital to the space program.

He said “Slayton’s judgment (on the ground) may be just as important” as the work of the man in the spacecraft.

A reporter asked whether a favorable report by White would automatically mean Slayton would get a trip into space. Webb returned an emphatic “no.”

He said White’s recommendations would affect but not dictate the decision.

Cosmonauts’ Pupils May Orbit Next

MOSCOW (AP)—Maj. Yuri Gagarin said here he and Maj. Gherman Titov, the Soviet Union’s first cosmonauts, would probably be grounded until all their pupils have had rides in space.

He did not indicate how long he and Titov might have to wait for their next flight.

But the Soviet Union is believed to be training about 10 space pilot candidates.

Gagarin made the remark in an interview he and Titov held with Soviet newsmen. Most of the press conference, as reported by the Soviet news agency Tass, appeared to have been devoted to denunciations of planned American nuclear tests in space.

Tells of Disargreement

Titov told the newsmen about his disagreement with American astronauts John Glenn and M. Scott Carpenter over what he called “luminous flies” they had seen during their flights.

The Soviet cosmonaut said he thought the glowing spots seen through the spaceships’ portholes were weightless drops of gas and fluid used to clean the rocket engines before takeoff that reflected the rays of the sun.

Titov recently returned from a visit to the United States where he met American space pilots.

U.S. LAUNCHING PAD REPAIRS

THOR DELAYS

From Our Own Correspondent WASHINGTON, Friday.

United States Defence Department and Atomic Energy Commission officials are discussing the technical necessity for another one or two high altitude bursts following yesterday’s unsuccessful fourth test. The decision will be made by President Kennedy, balancing the technical and political considerations.

The repair of the launching pad on which a Thor missile was blown up yesterday at Johnston Island in the Pacific will take two weeks to a month. It was the only one in the island.

FIRMS COLLABORATE

The British Aircraft Corporation announced yesterday that an agreement had been signed with the French firm of Nord Aviation to collaborate in guided weapons. The French and British Governments support the move.

Both companies will work together on design studies and weapon development. Development cost sharing will substantially reduce expenditure.

Together the companies have much experience of tactical weapons requiring high mobility and rapid deployment. These include the S.S. 10 and S.S. 11, developed by Nord, and the Blue Water, Bloodhound, Vigilant and Thunderbird systems by British Aircraft.

Explosion Ruins First Centaur Try

CAPE CANAVERAL (AP)—The maiden flight of the long-suffering Centaur space rocket ended abruptly Wednesday in a shattering explosion nearly 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.

The blazing blowup of the $9 million vehicle 55 seconds after it was launched was a severe setback to this nation’s plan of developing Centaur as a workhorse booster to triple present U.S. space payload capability.

It also could delay the forthcoming orbital flight of astronaut M. Scott Carpenter, set for May 17, if the trouble can be linked to the first-stage Atlas. Another Atlas of the same model is to be the booster for Carpenter.

Officials indicated they thought the trouble was in the Atlas, but they said a thorough study must be made of radio and camera coverage of the flight to determine if the Atlas or the second stage broke apart.

Navy Studies Floating Pad For Missiles

WASHINGTON (UPI)—The U.S. Navy, which recently established its first space satellite command, is considering a plan for an astronautic ship that could carry out sea launchings of the world’s largest rockets, including America’s 20-story-high Saturn.

The Bureau of Ships Journal said that such a ship, displacing about 10,000 tons and accompanied when necessary by a floating drydock, would meet many if not all of the requirements for mobility in space operations.

“What has never been done and what needs to be done in the Navy’s astronautic program,” it said, “is the design and construction of an integrated astronautics ship, combining a capability of all astronautics operations in a single seagoing, tactically useful platform.”

The article was first prepared for a tactical engineering journal by Lt Cmdr Burton I. Edelson of the bureau’s Command Support Branch.

Curtiss Recommended

He said a seaplane tender such as the 508-foot-long Curtiss, which displaces 8,671 tons light and 13,475 tons fully loaded, would be “ideally suited for an astronautics ship.”

The Curtiss, already modified for observation and research use by the Atomic Energy Commission, is in mothballs at San Diego, Calif. Its full complement is 1,195 men.

Edelson said the astronautic ship could launch from her deck all of the present solid-fueled rockets, including the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile.

For liquid-fueled vehicles such as the Saturn, described by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as the world’s largest known rocket, he recommended floating drydocks.

“A floating drydock can provide an excellent launch pad, reasonably mobile, and large enough to accommodate the very biggest boosters, even including Saturn,” he said.

“The ship, anchored in the vicinity, would provide needed support in terms of hotel accommodations, special power, shops, laboratories, range safety and tracking.”

Orbiting Earth

MOSCOW (UPI)—The Soviet Union has launched another unmanned earth satellite in its current series of tests leading toward putting a man on the moon, the news agency Tass announced.

Tass said the new satellite, called Cosmos V, is circling the earth every 102.75 minutes between 120 and 1,000 miles above the earth with “all systems functioning normally.”

Cosmos V’s maximum distance from the earth is greater by some 21 miles than any of the previous shots.

Describing Cosmos V as “a routine artificial earth satellite,” Tass said the new sputnik’s orbit of inclination to the equator is 49 degrees, 4 minutes.

“MOONPORT” PROJECT

480ft high building

AMERICA’S “Moonport” at Cape Canaveral will include a building 480ft high in which six 250-ton Saturn rockets could be assembled at one time.

Astronauts will board each Saturn at the launching pad. Work on “Moonport” will start next month and the first manned orbit of the moon is planned for 1966 or 1967.