Defining Moments

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=169 style=" border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC;" BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="017a0ad1dyxtip.jpg"> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="698" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 111 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="00d69690.jpg" border=0 width="105" height="105" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> Waxahachie Independant School District    <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#00FF00" FACE="Comic Sans MS" >               Waxahachie, Texas</FONT></div> <div> <B>Waxahachie High School Alumni 1962</B></div> <div> <B>WHS Seniors '62</B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=268 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="01f9b9c3.jpg"> <div>                                                   </div> <div> <B><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">  </SCRIPT> </B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="703" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 6032 WIDTH="693"><div> <I><B>A SELECTIVE CHRONOLOGY OF DEFINING</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>EVENTS IN NASA HISTORY, 1958-1962</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I>by Roger Launius and Colin Fries</I></div> <bR> <div> During our years in Waxahachie High School we were able to follow our nation's first feeble steps toward freeing mankind from the restraints of the world and begin the explorations of our universe. In an achievment that surpasses the greatest of historical exploration of our world, a new quest, spanning the gap between science fiction and reality, a few brave men opened a whole new universe. From the shock and facination of hearing a basketball sized object going into orbit around the earth to experiencing the  thrill and pride while listening to Americas first manned flight into space, we were part of a whole new era for mankind. </div> <div>    </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I> <TABLE BORDER="4" CELLPADDING="17" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="622" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 312 ><NOBR><div> <I>1 Oct. 1958</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>On this date the National Aeronautics and Space Administration began operation. At the time it consisted of only about 8,000 employees and an annual budget of $100 million. In addition to a small headquarters staff in Washington that directed operations, NASA had at the time three major research laboratories inherited from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory established in 1918, the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory activated near San Francisco in 1940, and the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory built at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1941—and two small test facilities, one for high-speed flight research at Muroc Dry Lake in the high desert of California and one for sounding rockets at Wallops Island, Virginia. It soon added several other government research organizations.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 44 ><NOBR><div> <I>11 Oct. 1958</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I> Pioneer I: First NASA launch.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 370 ><NOBR><div> <I>7 Nov. 1958</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>NASA research pilot John McKay made the last flight in the X-1E, the final model flown of the X-1 series. The various models of the X-1, together with the D-558-I and -II, the X-2, X-3, X-4, X-5, and XF-92A, provided data to correlate test results from the slotted throat wind tunnel at the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center) with actual flight values. Together, results of flight research and wind tunnel testing enabled the U.S. aeronautical community to solve many of the problems that occur in the transonic speed range (0.7 to 1.3 times the speed of sound). The flight research investigated flight loads, buffeting, aeroelastic effects, pitch-up, instability, longitudinal control, and the effects of wing sweep, contributing to design principles that enabled reliable and routine flight of such aircraft as the century series of fighters (F-100, F-102, F-104, etc.). It contributed equally to the development of all commercial transport aircraft from the mid-1950s to the present.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 63 ><NOBR><div> <I>6 Dec. 1958</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The United States launched Pioneer 3, the first U.S. satellite to ascend to an altitude of 63,580 miles.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 159 ><NOBR><div> <I>18 Dec. 1958 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>An Air Force Atlas booster placed into orbit a communications relay satellite, PROJECT SCORE or the "talking atlas." A total of 8,750 pounds was placed in orbit, of which 150 pounds was the payload. On 19 Dec. President Eisenhower's Christmas message was beamed from the PROJECT SCORE satellite in orbit, the first voice sent from space.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 63 ><NOBR><div> <I>17 Feb. 1959 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The United States launched Vanguard 2, the first successful launch of this principal IGY scientific satellite.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 102 ><NOBR><div> <I>28 Feb. 1959</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The liquid-hydrogen Thor first stage, and an Agena upper stage, both originally developed by the U.S. Air Force, were used by NASA to launch Discoverer 1, a reconnaissance satellite for the Air Force on 28 Feb.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 63 ><NOBR><div> <I>3 Mar. 1959 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The United States sent Pioneer 4 to the Moon, successfully making the first U.S. lunar flyby.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 255 ><NOBR><div> <I>9 Apr. 1959  </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>After a two month selection process, on this date NASA unveiled the Mercury astronaut corps. NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan publicly introduced the astronauts in a press conference in Washington. The seven men—from the Marine Corps, Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. (1921- ); from the Navy, Lt. Cdr. Walter M. Schirra, Jr. (1923- ), Lt. Cdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (1923- ), and Lt. M. Scott Carpenter (1925- ); and from the Air Force, Capt. L. Gordon Cooper (1927- ), Capt. Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (1926-1967), and Capt. Donald K. Slayton (1924-1993)—became heroes in the eyes of the American public almost immediately.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 140 ><NOBR><div> <I>28 May 1959 </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Comic Sans MS" ><I>  </I></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The United States launches and recovers two monkeys, Able and Baker, after launch in Jupiter nosecone during a suborbital flight. The flight is successful, testing the capability to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and to recover spacecraft in the Atlantic Ocean, but Able later died.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 446 ><NOBR><div> <I>Jun. 1959 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>North American Aviation, Inc. research pilot Scott Crossfield made the first unpowered glide flight in the joint X-15 hypersonic research program NASA conducted with the Air Force, the Navy, and North American. The program completed its 199th and final flight on 24 October 1968 in what many consider to have been the most successful flight research effort in history. It resulted in more than 765 research reports and provided significant data in a variety of hypersonic disciplines ranging from aircraft performance, stability and control, aerodynamic heating, the use of heat-resistant materials, shock interaction, and use of reaction controls. This data led to improved design tools for future hypersonic vehicles and contributed in important ways to the development of the Space Shuttle, including information from flights to the edge of space and back in 1961-1963. Data from these flights were important in designing the Shuttle’s reentry flight profile. Also involved in the X-15 research was the development of energy management techniques for the return of the vehicle to its landing site that were essential for the future reentry and horizontal landing of the Shuttle and all future reusable launch vehicles.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 63 ><NOBR><div> <I>1 Apr. 1960</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The United States launched TIROS 1, the first successful meteorological satellite, observing Earth's weather.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 63 ><NOBR><div> <I>13 Apr. 1960 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The United States launched Transit 1B, the first experimental orbital navigation system.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 102 ><NOBR><div> <I>1 Jul. 1960  </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The first launch of the Scout launch vehicle took place on this date. The Scout's four-stage booster could place a 330 pound satellite into orbit, and it quickly became a workhorse in orbiting scientific payloads during the 1960s.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 178 ><NOBR><div> <I>1 Jul. 1960 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>On this date the Army Ballistic Missile Agency of the Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, formally became a part of NASA and was renamed the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. This organization included the German "rocket team" led by Wernher von Braun that came to the United States at the conclusion of World War II. This group had been instrumental in building the V-2 rocket, the world's first operational long-range ballistic missile.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 140 ><NOBR><div> <I>12 Aug. 1960 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>NASA successfully orbited Echo 1, a 100-foot inflatable, aluminized balloon passive communications satellite. The objective was to bounce radio beams off the satellite as a means of long-distance communications. This effort, though successful, was quickly superseded by active-repeater communications satellites such as Telstar.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 83 ><NOBR><div> <I>19 Dec. 1960 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>NASA launched Mercury 1, the first Mercury-Redstone capsule-launch vehicle combination. This was an unoccupied test flight.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 121 ><NOBR><div> <I>31 Jan. 1961   </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I> NASA launched Mercury 2, a test mission of the Mercury-Redstone capsule-launch vehicle combination with the chimpanzee Ham aboard during a 16 1/2 minute flight in suborbital space. Ham and his capsule is successfully recovered.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 274 ><NOBR><div> <I>5 May 1961 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>Freedom 7, the first piloted Mercury spacecraft (No. 7) carrying Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., was launched from Cape Canaveral by Mercury-Redstone (MR-3) launch vehicle, to an altitude of 115 nautical miles and a range of 302 miles. It was the first American space flight involving human beings, and during his 15-minute suborbital flight, Shepard rode a Redstone booster to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Shepard demonstrated that individuals can control a vehicle during weightlessness and high G stresses, and significant scientific biomedical data were acquired. He reached a speed of 5,100 miles per hour and his flight lasted 14.8 minutes. Shepard was the second human and the first American to fly in space.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 274 ><NOBR><div> <I>25 May 1961 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>President John F. Kennedy unveiled the commitment to execute Project Apollo on this date in a speech on "Urgent National Needs," billed as a second State of the Union message. He told Congress that the U.S. faced extraordinary challenges and needed to respond extraordinarily. In announcing the lunar landing commitment he said: "I believe this Nation should commitment itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 217 ><NOBR><div> <I>21 Jul. 1961  </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>The second piloted flight of a Mercury spacecraft took place on this date when astronaut "Gus" Grissom undertook a sub-orbital mission. The flight had problems. The hatch blew off prematurely from the Mercury capsule, Liberty Bell 7, and it sank into the Atlantic Ocean before it could be recovered. In the process the astronaut nearly drowned before being hoisted to safety in a helicopter. These suborbital flights, however, proved valuable for NASA technicians who found ways to solve or work around literally thousands of obstacles to successful space flight.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 83 ><NOBR><div> <I>23 Aug. 1961 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>NASA launched Ranger 1 on this date, with the mission of photographing and mapping part of the Moon's surface, but it failed to achieve its planned orbit.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 121 ><NOBR><div> <I>19 Sep. 1961  </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced on this date that the site of the NASA center dedicated to human space flight would be Houston, Texas. This became the Manned Spacecraft Center, renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 121 ><NOBR><div> <I>25 Oct. 1961  </I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Comic Sans MS" ><I> </I></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>On this date NASA announced the establishment on a deep south bayou the Mississippi Test Facility, renamed the John C. Stennis Space Center in 1988. This installation became the test site for the large Saturn boosters developed for Project Apollo.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 63 ><NOBR><div> <I>27 Oct. 1961  </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>NASA accomplished the first successful test of the Saturn I rocket.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 178 ><NOBR><div> <I>21 Nov. 1961 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>On this date the Air Force launched a Titan ICBM from Cape Canaveral carrying target nose cone to be used in Nike-Zeus antimissile-missile tests. This was first Titan ICBM to be fired from Cape Canaveral by a military crew, the 6555th Aerospace Test Wing. The Titan rocket became a standard launch vehicle for the United States in the years that followed, going through several modifications to make it more reliable and capable.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 233 ><NOBR><div> <I>20 Feb. 1962 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I> John Glenn became the first American to circle the Earth, making three orbits in his Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. Despite some problems with spacecraft—Glenn flew parts of the last two orbits manually because of an autopilot failure and left his normally jettisoned retrorocket pack attached to his capsule during reentry because of a loose heat shield—this flight was enormously successful. The public, more than celebrating the technological success, embraced Glenn as a personification of heroism and dignity. Among other engagements, Glenn addressed a joint session of Congress and participated in several ticker-tape parades around the country.</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 255 ><NOBR><div> <I>7 Jun. 1962 </I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="433"><div> <I>At an all-day meeting at the Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA leaders met to hash out differences over the method of going to the Moon with Project Apollo, with the debate getting heated at times. The contention was essentially between Earth-orbit versus lunar-orbit rendezvous. After more than six hours of discussion those in favor of Earth-orbit rendezvous finally gave in to the lunar-orbit rendezvous mode, saying that its advocates had demonstrated adequately its feasibility and that any further contention would jeopardize the president's timetable. This cleared the path for the development of the hardware necessary to accomplish the president's goal.</I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></I></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our 50s"><B>Our 50's </B></A><B>      </B><A HREF="brave_new_world.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Brave new world"><B>Brave New W</B></A><A HREF="brave_new_world.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Brave new world"><B>orld</B></A><B>       </B>                   </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=42 style=" border-top: 1px solid #CCCCCC;" BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="0182a2f1dyxtip.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="http://whs62.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net">Home</A>     <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Roll" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Roll">Roll Call</A>    <A HREF="http://whs62.net/In_Memory" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/In_Memory">In Memory</A>   <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Long_Ago" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Long_Ago">Long Ago</A>    <A HREF="http://www.whs62.net/Our_50s/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.whs62.net/Our_50s/">Our 50's</A>   <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Reunions" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Reunions">Reunions</A>   <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Today" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Today">Today</A>    <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Contacts" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Contacts">Contacts</A>    <A HREF="http://whs62.net/Links" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://whs62.net/Links">Links</A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>