Year: 1961

Categories
Crewed Spaceflight Mercury

Mercury 3: first American in space

  • May 5, 1961

Alan ShepardAlan B. Shepard, aboard the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule, becomes the first American in space when he is launched on a fifteen-minute suborbital flight from Cape Canaveral, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. The Mercury spacecraft offers its pilot more maneuverability than the Soviet Vostok vehicle, which is almost entirely controlled from the ground.

Categories
Science & Technology

Time to take longer strides

  • May 25, 1961

John F. KennedyAt a special joint session of Congress called to discuss “urgent national needs,” President John F. Kennedy sets a new goal for NASA (which has only just put a single American astronaut into space): “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the 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.” Kennedy requests that Congress pass space-related budgets totaling half a billion dollars for 1962 alone (encompassing not only the Apollo program, but nuclear rocket development, weather satellite development, and communication satellites).

Categories
Television

‘Way Out: False Face

  • May 26, 1961

'Way OutCBS broadcasts the seventh episode of the anthology series ‘Way Out, hosted by author Roald Dahl. Martin E. Brooks (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman) and Dana Elcar (MacGyver, 2010: The Year We Make Contact) star.

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Categories
Television

‘Way Out: Side Show

  • June 30, 1961

'Way OutCBS broadcasts the 12th episode of the anthology series ‘Way Out, hosted by author Roald Dahl. Murray Hamilton (Jaws) and Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) star.

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Categories
Television

One Step Beyond: Eyewitness

  • July 4, 1961

One Step BeyondABC airs the 97th and final episode of the supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland. John Meillon and Anton Rodgers guest star. Though this is the last episode of the venerable series, the name and format – and even some episode scripts – will be revived for a follow-up series, The Next Step Beyond, in the 1970s, also hosted by Newland.

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Categories
Television

‘Way Out: Soft Focus

  • July 7, 1961

'Way OutCBS broadcasts the 13th episode of the anthology series ‘Way Out, hosted by author Roald Dahl. Barry Morse (Space: 1999, The Martian Chronicles) and Mitchell Ryan star.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight Voyager

Gravitational assist

  • July 11, 1961

Mike MinovitchRecent Jet Propulsion Laboratory hire Michael Minovitch submits the first of a series of papers and technical memorandums on the possibility of using carefully-calculated gravitational assist maneuvers to speed transit time between celestial bodies while requiring minimal engine/fuel use. Where most previous scientific thought concentrated on using engine burns (and a lot of fuel) to cancel the effects of a planet’s gravity, Minovitch demonstrated that gravity could be a big help with a carefully calculated trajectory. Though nearly every planetary mission since then has capitalized on Minovitch’s research, it was initially rejected by JPL. Minovitch’s calculations are later revisited by Caltech grad student Gary Flandro, who flags down a particular combination of Minovitch’s pre-computed trajectories for a “grand tour” of the outer solar system, a mission which will eventually be known – in a somewhat scaled-down, less grand form – as Voyager.

Categories
Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight Weather & Climate

TIROS-3

  • July 12, 1961

TIROSNASA and the United States Weather Bureau launch the third experimental TIROS weather satellite, TIROS-3. Further refinements to the basic TIROS satellite system are made, but one of the satellite’s two television cameras fails within days of going into service. TIROS-3 proves the future life-saving potential of weather satellites by giving Earthbound meteorologists advance warning of the formation and strengthening of Hurricane Esther well before it makes landfall on the east coast of the United States. TIROS-3 is operational for less than a year.