1958 (Cont.)
November
spacecraft. NASA set the deadline for proposal submission as December 11, 1958.[1]
November 20
The three military services were invited to send one man each to the Space Task Group to perform liaison duties for the manned spacecraft project. These posts were filled in January 1959 by Lt. Colonel Martin Raines, Army; Lt. Colonel Keith Lindell, Air Force; and Commander Paul Havens, Navy.[2]
November 24
The Space Task Group placed an order for one Atlas launch vehicle with the Air Force Missile Division, Inglewood, California, as a part of a preliminary research program leading to manned space flight. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters required that the Air Force construct and launch one Atlas I launch vehicle to check the aerodynamics of the spacecraft. It was the intention to launch this missile about May 1959 in a ballistic trajectory. This was to be the launch vehicle for the Big Joe reentry test shot, but plans were later changed and an Atlas Model D launch vehicle was used instead.[3]
November 26
The manned satellite program was officially designated Project Mercury.[4]
November 28
Less than 18 months after the first flight, an Atlas launch vehicle was launched 6,300 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral, Florida.[5]
During the Month of November
A scale model of the Mercury spacecraft (without escape tower), oriented for the reentry phase, was tested at transonic Mach numbers in a 1-foot transonic test tunnel at the Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tennessee.[6]
- ↑ Memo, George M. Low to NASA Administrator, subject: Status Report No. 1, Manned Satellite Project, Dec. 9, 1958; Memo, Robert R. Gilruth to all Space Task Group Personnel, subject: Prime Bidders for Manned Satellite Capsule, Nov. 19, 1958.
- ↑ Memo, George M. Low to NASA Administrator, subject: Status Report No. 2, Manned Satellite Project, Dec. 17, 1958.
- ↑ Message, NASA NDA, Ralph Cushman, Contracting Officer, NASA, to Commanding General, Air Force Ballistic Missile Division, Nov. 24, 1958.
- ↑ Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics: 1915-1960, p. 104.
- ↑ House Rpt. 67, 87th Cong., 1st Sess., March 8, 1961.
- ↑ Notes supplied by Marvin E. Hintz, Historical Office, Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tenn.
