.. born unto you W~t 'rintt of 'turt SPACEPORT NEWS Vol. 1, No.2 NASA Launch Operations Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida December 20, 1962 Bidders Meet To Discuss 1962 has been NASA's most 39 Crawler active and productive year at Cape Canaveral. NASA's Launch Operations Globe - girdling astronauts Center has asked for propos­ John Glenn, Scott Carpenter als on a huge machine called a crawler-transporter which and Wally Schirra shared the "l"':'.~.. spotlight with the mighty Sa­ will be used to move the Ad­ vanced Saturn rocket and a turn rocket and a dozen or .1 I major part of its ground sup­ Photos Pages 4 and 5 q port equipment in a package , i to the launch site. so important spacecraft, from I Some 22 companies were Echo to Explorer and Tiros represented at a pre-proposal to Telstar. conference yesterday called by On July 1st, the Launch LOC's Procurement and Con­ Operations Center was acti­ tracts Office. vated, with Dr. Kurt H. De­ The representatives have bus as Director. until January 15 to submit Following is a month-by­ their proposal for the unique month report of significant machine. NASA _ Canaveral activities. AN ARTIST'S CONCEPT shows a No Estimate JANUARY crawler-transporter ca.rrying an M. E. Haworth, Jr., chief of An Echo ball 0 0 n was Advanced Saturn rocket a.nd its the Contracts Branch of P&C, launched at the Cape on Jan­ launcher-umbilical-tower. Amer­ said, "A definite contract will uary 15th on a vertical flight ican industry has bee,n asked by be executed on or before test, but the sphere ripped NASA's Launch Operations Cen­ March 1, 1963." apart during the inflation ter to submit proposals for the Haworth, answering an in­ process. unique piece of equipment by quiry from a company repre­ On January 26th a lunar­ January 15. A definite· contract sentative, declined to disclose aimed Ranger III spacecraft for the crawler-transporter is t'o the government's cost esti­ missed its mark by 23,000 be awarded by March 1. mate for the crawler-trans­ miles due to excessive accel­ porter. "This is a noncon­ eration, and went into a solar Orbiting Pigski.ns struction project," he explain­ orbit. ed, "and the policy is not to Tangerine Bowl fans may release estimates on such pro_ FEBRUARY be in for a wide-open game, jects." Two weeks later, Tiros IV, full of launched footballs New The transporter-crawler will launched by a three _ stage Year's Day, as a result of a look something like a huge Delta into a near-circular or­ Cape tour yesterday. square platform supported at bit, used a new type wide The Houston Cougars and each corner by a military angle lens to transmit "strik­ IVliami of Ohio's Redskins tank. It measures 131 feet ·ing weather pictures of ex­ meet Saturday afternoon in long and 114 feet wide. cellent quality." Orlando's 17th annual TangeL It must be capable of mov­ Boosted by Atlas 109-D, ine Bowl. ing an erected Advanced Sa­ Friendship 7, wit h John Both squads may still have turn and its launcher-umbili­ Glenn aboard, successfully or­ space on their minds after he­ cal-tower (LUT) a distance of bited earth three times on ceiving a tour of NASA-Cape some three miles at a speed (See A BIG, Page 3) facilities Wednesday. (See BIDDERS, Page 7) Page 2 SPACEPORT NEWS December 20, 1962 SPOTL1[; ." .. .:(. CALCULATED RISK lt has been said that man is the only creature brought into this world who realizes that he must leave it. lt follows then that he should be concerned with the manner and time of his going. As a reaRoning creature, he is also aware that all endeavor involves an element of risk, and that the timeliness of his demise depends to a considerable degree upon his ability to calculate the risks involved in his actions and to formulate effective plans to circumvent them. Nowhere is this more clearly demon3trated than at the Cape. The fact that we have conducted our operations in an environment of extreme risk, with an almost incredible record of safety, is a tribute to the care and thought given by all NASA personnel to each minute detail. Ironic, isn't it, that in our "off duty" activities we appear to disregard or ignore a much greater risk? Experience has shown that we are ap­ proximately four times safer at work than at home or enroute. Safety experts have stated that travel in heavy traffic requires an average of 200 decisions, either conscious or sub­ conscious, per mile of travel. Although we can make these decisions with the cold efficiency of the computer which dis­ gorges our pay checks, how about the others with whom we must share these decisions? Can we trust them to evaluate the calculated risk involved, and come up with an answer which '{ALL NIGHiIROLL, PiTCH AND YAW/" will be acceptable to us? Should we settle for a level of safety less than that which we accept at work? At this time of year, when even the most case-hardened of us feel that glow which only good will, (and good eggnog) TECH INFO ARTIST can bring, wouldn't it be a nice gesture to be a little more considerate of the other fellow? Universal Message DESIGNS NEWS LOGO Wouldn't it be nice to extend to him those little traffic Four years ago yester­ In the inevitable eleventh~ courtesies we have just about despaired of receiving? Most day a special Christmas hour shuffling at the printers of all, wouldn't it help us all to have a Merry Christmas? message by President Ei­ last week, a few paragraphs senhower was sent into an P. V. King of copy were "scrubbed." One earth orbit along with its of these gave credit to the Chief, Safety Office Atlas 10-B booster. artist who designed Space­ Although the satellite ­ port News' logo - Cece Bibby Project Score - has out­ of Technical Information's lived its usefulness, the Graphics section. message it beamed, "Peace PEACE ON EARTH - AND IN SPACE on earth, good will toward Cece, of course, is well­ Timing on the announcement to the U.N. of a coopera­ men," has transcended cen­ known for her designs on Pro_ tive United States-Russian space exploration program fits per­ turies. ject Mercury's spacecraft, the fectly into the Christmas spirit of things. most recent being the Sigma The program calls for peaceful scientific exploration of 7 that adorned Astronaut outer space via a global weather satellite system, a world No Paper Next Week Wally Schirra's capsule. She explains the logo's fu­ geomagnetic survey and a passive communications satellite, Spaceport News will not be ·Echo II. turistic arrow shape as sym­ published next week because bolic of NASA's ever-deepen­ The idea for the program was born when Soviet Chair­ of the long Christmas Holi­ ing penetration of space. To man Nikita Khrushchev cabled congratulations to President day. Our next issue will be prove her versatility, Cece Kennedy last February following Astronaut John Glenn's suc­ on January 3, 1963. also designed the more-down­ cessful earth orbital flight. The staff extends seasons to-earth Christmas art on our In the note, Khrushchev suggested the U. S. and his greetings to all NASA-AMR cover this week. country get together on outer space programs. The President employees. She's a talented girl. responded affirmatively, and in late March, Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA and Soviet Aca­ demician A. A. Blagonravov began preliminary talks. Once these areas of cooperation were determined, they were submitted and approved by the respective governments. SPACEPORT ~ A date to put the working groups together to implement the programs will soon be set. ~NEWS America and Russia working cooperatively in space ----.... surely will be a solid step toward the overriding goal of ever­ Published every Thursday by the National Aeronautic~ anti Spat'. lasting peace on earth. Administration's Launch Operations Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. December 20, 1962 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 3 A Big, Busy Year For NASA (Continued from Page 1) generated 1.3 million pounds February 20th, and re-en­ of t h l' U s t to successfully tered east of Grand Turk boost water - filled upper Island. stage 65 miles out. The up­ The oft - postponed flight, per stages were purposely de­ viewed on TV by an estimat­ tonated for a high - altitude ed 60 million Americans, cov­ water experiment (Project ered 81,000 miles in just un­ High Water). der five hours. The next day Ariel I, the Three days later, President world's firs t international Kennedy greeted Glenn at satellite, was launched into Canaveral's skid strip, after orbit by a Delta. the spaceman's motorcade The 132-pound spacecraft from Patrick Air Force Base. carried six British experi­ At Hanger S. ceremonies, ments to make integrated Kennedy awarded NASA Dis­ measurements in the iono­ PRESIDENT KENNEDY and his party were given a Saturn briefing tinguished Service Medals to sphere. in September by Major Rocco Petrone (left), Chief, Heavy Space Ve­ Glenn and Robert R. Gilruth, MAY hicles Systems Office. Left to right are NASA Administrator James Director of Project Mercury. On the 8th, NASA's first E. Webb, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, LOC Director Dr. Kurt H. MARCH Atlas-Centaur shot, aimed for Debus, President Kennedy and AFMTC Commander, Major General On the 7th OSO I (Orbiting a 300-mile altitude, exploded L.