Q. News-Conference Remarks by President Kennedy, [Extract] Mr. President, there seems to be some doubt in the country as to whether the Russians really did put two men in orbit around the earth, as they have claimed.2 Are you satisfied from the evidence available to you that they did do what they said they did? THE PRESIDENT. Yes. Q.... Mr. President, after this latest Soviet space effort, Senator Long of Missouri, among others, said that the real problem was not our present space effort but the lack of young Americans going into science. He pointed out that the Soviets are still graduating three times as many scientists as we are. Can you, sir, see anything that the Government can and is doing to step up this problem? THE PRESIDENT. Well, we are hopeful that we can secure the passage of the Aid to Education Act as well as the NDEA,* both of which offer scholarships to talented young men and women, and that we can increase the number of scientists who may be graduated. In addition, of course, we have a good many very talented scientists, but we did not make a major effort in this area for many years, and we are now behind and paying the price of having the Soviet Union exploit a great propaganda advantage now on three separate occasions, with the flight of the Sputnik, the flight of Mr. Gagarin, and the most recent one. They are still, as I've said before, many months ahead of us. And therefore, we can look for other evidences of their superiority in this area. We are making a major effort which will cost billions of dollars. But we cannot possibly permit any country whose intentions toward us may be hostile to dominate space. What I would like to see at the United Nations and elsewhere is an effort made to have space insured for peaceful purposes. And the United States delegation to the General Assembly is going to make a major effort in that regard this year. News Release by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the International Meteorological Satellite Workshop, August 17, 1961 5 The Department of Commerce Weather Bureau and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced today that more than 100 nations of the world have been invited to send representatives to an International Meteorological Satellite Workshop to be held in Washington, D.C., November 13 to 22, 1961. 1 Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1961, pp. 559-560. 2 On Aug. 6, 1961, Maj. Gherman Titov made 171⁄2 orbits of the earth in the Soviet space ship Vostok II. The vehicle reportedly attained a speed of 17,750 miles an hour, an apogee of 115.3 miles, and a perigee of 110.3 miles. Edward V. Long. On Oct. 3, 1961, President Kennedy "with extreme reluctance" signed S. 2393, which extended for two years (1) the National Defense Education Act of 1958 and (2) the expired provisions of Public Laws 815 and 874 of the 81st Congress, which provide Federal assistance to "Federally impacted" schools (75 Stat. 759). National Aeronautics and Space Administration news release 61-180, Aug. 17, 1961. Dr. F. W. Reichelderfer, Chief of the Weather Bureau, and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, extended the invitation in letters to the Directors of foreign meteorological services. The workshop, the first of its kind ever held, is being arranged by Weather Bureau and NASA scientists with the cooperation of scientific and international groups. Through lectures and laboratory work, meteorologists from all over the world will gain increased understanding of the usefulness of meteorological satellite data. The three TIROS satellite systems have demonstrated the potential of the weather satellite as an important source of information for operational use by weather services. However, the introduction of this new type of data into daily weather operations has presented problems which are only partially solved. Many new techniques have been developed and are sufficiently advanced to permit demonstration and discussions among meteorologists of the world. The countries invited have been asked to send one or two meteorologists to the ten-day workshop. These representatives will hear a series of short lectures on the engineering aspects of the TIROS satellites, significant research results, the data acquisition system, and the program plans for future meteorological satellite systems. In laboratory-type meetings, the participants will use real satellite photographs to prepare weather analyses. In this way, they will gain practical experience in the use of the satellite data distributed by the United States through international meteorological channels. If a weather satellite is functioning during the period of the workshop, participants will also be shown the principal ground elements of the system in actual operation. Statement by the United States Delegate (Dean) to the Geneva Conference on the Discontinuance of Nuclear-Weapon Tests, August 28, 1961 1 [Extract] Surely the Soviet Union can now have no basis whatsoever for not being ready to accept the plan which I have just outlined, which is a clear guarantee that the moratorium will not "automatically" expire at the end of the proposed three-year term from the date of signing the treaty. However, we must take note of the statement in the Soviet aide-mémoire of 4 June 1961,2 that There can be no exceptions to the treaty: all kinds of nuclear weapons tests must be prohibited; in the air, under water, under ground, and in outer space. That is precisely our objective too, and it has been from the beginning. 1 Geneva Conference on the Discontinuance of Nuclear Weapon Tests (Department of State publication 7258; 1961), p. 574. 2 Ante, p. 205, extract. Address by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Webb) on International Relations and Space, September 6, 19611 I EMERGING ROLE OF SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Space exploration is bringing a new dimension to international affairs. In so doing, it is also providing a new instrumentality, knowledge, that will be more and more persuasive in the battle for men's minds. Early ventures into space are already influencing world opinion and international policy. As the pace and extent of exploration of the solar system increases, the manner in which knowledge derived from space is put to use could well become an important political factor in the struggle between the Free Nations and the Communist bloc. U.S. Policy The United States is conducting its space experiments in the open. We are sharing our discoveries with the world scientific community. We are cooperating wtih a growing number of nations in a variety of projects to increase knowledge of the earth's environment and of the universe. The concept of wide dissemination of knowledge is characteristic of democracy and of science. Moreover, in today's interlinked world such a policy must eventually prove as sound a one in the practical sense as it is morally. In its very essence, science is international; its sources and its reach are as widespread as human intelligence and human needs for its benefits. No way has yet been devised to padlock the dynamism of science and technology permanently. Thus, a closed-door policy on purely scientific knowledge is in the long run much more apt to exclude valuable contributions from outside than to pen worthwhile discoveries inside. Such a policy could result, at some crucial point, in a surplus of yesterday's hardware and a scarcity of tomorrow's ideas. The United States stands to gain contributions from gifted minds in scores of countries through its mutual-aid space programs and interchange of ideas with scientists and scientific organizations of other nations. These considerations, based on long American practice as well as on recognition of the character of modern science, guided the 85th Congress when it charted the mission of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. In setting forth NASA objectives, Congress also bore in mind a then-current, highly successful example of research cooperation on a global scale the International Geophysical Year, an 18-month period (1957-1958) during which 60,000 scientists of 66 nations participated in the most intensive study ever undertaken of the make-up of the earth and its environment. 1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration news release 61-197, Sept. 6-9, 1961, pp. 1-2, 5-13. The address was delivered at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, St. Louis, Mo. 91298-63--15 III SATELLITE APPLICATIONS Space itself, when instrumented by man, will feed back large returns to the world economy. Early dividends from NASA experiments are already within reach in the fields of weather and communications satellites. Project Echo In 1960, NASA's Echo I passive communications satellite appealed to the world's imagination. The huge aluminized plastic sphere has been seen sparkling like a moving star by people in practically every country. Echo proved that it is possible to communicate between distant areas on the earth by reflecting radio signals from a satellite. Private companies have shown great interest in the Echo concept, and in "repeater" satellites-which the Government is developing that can receive and store messages at one point over the earth's_surface and re-transmit them to ground receiving stations thousands of miles apart. Satellite communications will make worldwide telephone and television service realities, and will relieve the overload on present global communications systems. This enhanced communication could well be a bond drawing people of the world closer together. Gen. David Sarnoff, chairman of the Radio Corporation of America predicts: "Ten years hence there will be TV stations in virtually every nation on the earth. An audience of a billion might then be watching the same program at the same time. The instrument which will give television's second epoch this distinctive global character is satellite relay transmission.” According to Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, chairman of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences, satellites can increase present world communications capacity by a factor of 10,000. Project TIROS NASA is developing meteorological satellites to provide worldwide observation of atmospheric elements-the data meteorologists must have to understand atmospheric processes and to predict the weather. TIROS I, launched April 1, 1960, was the first step toward an operational meteorological satellite system. The highly successful satellite, orbiting at altitudes averaging 450 miles, transmitted 22,952 television pictures of the earth's cloud patterns. This afforded meteorologists unprecedented opportunities to relate the earth's cloud cover to weather observations from the ground. Within 60 hours after the first TIROS was in orbit, its reports were being applied to day-to-day weather forecasting. In Hawaii, TIROS pictures helped trace the monsoons. Data on storms in the Indian Ocean were used by Australian meteorologists. TIROS II, launched last November, reported important information about the atmosphere and the radiation of solar heat back from the earth into space. NASA is receiving excellent cloud pictures and infrared data from the weather satellite TIROS III, launched July 12. Orbited to coincide with the hurricane season, the satellite has been gathering informa tion on the origin, development, and movement of these massive tropical storms. The Weather Bureau has employed TIROS III pictures to help analyze and track Storm Eliza in the Pacific and Hurricane Anna in the Atlantic. Japanese weathermen have made good use of TIROS III data supplied by the U.S. Weather Bureau. According to the chief of Japan's weather bureau, the information was valuable in plotting tropical storms. He stated that weather satellites would open a new era in forecasting typhoons, from which Japan has suffered so heavily in the past. NASA used TIROS III for weather support of Astronaut Grissom's July 21 Mercury suborbital flight. Twice a day as the satellite passed over the Caribbean, one of its two TV cameras was triggered to report weather conditions in the area of the flight. According to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics: An improvement of only 10 percent in accuracy (of weather forecasting) could result in savings totaling hundreds of millions of dollars annually to farmers, builders, airlines, shipping, the tourist trade, and many other enterprises. IV INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES NASA's international activities began shortly after the agency was organized. In November 1958, an Office of International Programs was established to plan programs and oversee their accomplishment. International Satellite Projects In March 1959, the United States pledged that it would support projects for orbiting individual experiments or complete satellite payloads, of mutual interest, prepared by scientists of other nations. Subsequently, NASA has repeated its readiness to make available launching vehicles, spacecraft, technical guidance, and laboratory support for valid scientific experiments or payloads developed by scientists abroad. Launching vehicles provided by NASA may be one of several types, including Scout, a versatile solid-propellant, fourstage rocket capable of earth-orbiting payloads of from 50 to 150 pounds. The first satellites under this program are being prepared by the United Kingdom and Canada. The U.K. satellite will carry devices to study electron temperatures and concentrations in the ionosphere, and instruments to determine electron densities in the vicinity of the satellite, to measure solar radiation and correlate it with ionospheric phenomena, and to observe primary cosmic rays and study their interactions with the earth's magnetic field. The payload will weigh about 170 pounds; a Scout vehicle will launch it. Experiments were selected by scientists of the United Kingdom in consultation with NASA scientists. U.K. scientists are building the experiments. They will also be responsible for data analysis. NASA will design, fabricate, and test the prototype and flight models. Work on a second U.S.-U.K. satellite began recently. |