1960s Timeline

Jan. 22, 1962 - An attempt to rocket John H. Glenn Jr. into orbit was postponed today from Wednesday to Saturday at the earliest. The delay was caused by trouble in the system supplying oxygen to the astronaut’s space suit and to the compact cabin of the Project Mercury capsule. The Glenn flight, the nation’s first attempt to send a human being on a satellite journey, had originally been scheduled for just before Christmas. Then it was set for Jan. 16. Technical difficulties

Jan. 4, 1962 - Lieut. Col. John H. Glenn Jr., who is scheduled to attempt an orbital flight later this month, was the subject of an ABC telecast last night. The program, entitled “Profile of an Astronaut,” included interviews with relatives, friends, teachers, and other associates of the Marine officer. Near the end of the half-hour telecast, Colonel Glenn appeared and made a cogent observation. After having discussed his intensive preparations for the flight, he said: “You f

Nov. 29, 1961 - A male chimpanzee named Enos flew two 17,500-mile-an-hour orbits around the earth today. The flight, in a Project Mercury space capsule, was cut short one orbit ahead of schedule because of mechanical trouble. After the flight, however, it was announced that the first human astronaut to make the orbital trip would be Marine Lieut. Col. John H. Glenn Jr. The system for bringing the capsule down from orbit worked perfectly today, and the 5-year-old chimp was rec

Nov. 28, 1961 - President Kennedy awarded the Harmon International Trophy for Aviators today to three test pilots of the X-15 rocket plane. The trophy, presented jointly for the first time, went to Maj. Robert M. White of the Air Force and to Joseph A. Waalker and A. Scott Crossfield for “outstanding and extraordinary feats of individual piloting.” In his office after the ceremony, the three pilots gave Mr. Kennedy a model of the X-15 on a silver base, engraved wth their sign

Nov. 28, 1961 - A 37-pound chimpanzee named Enos was chosen today to make a 3-orbit trip around the eaerth tomorrow. It is to be the last test before a human astronaut makes a similar try. The 5-year-old animal will be loaded aboard a bell-shaped Mercury capsule and will ride into space aboard an Atlas rocket. If all goes as planned, Enos will circle the earth three times in four and a half hours and be brought back for a parachute landing in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 mi

Nov. 12, 1961 - United States hopes for sending a man into orbit this year apparently ended today when a flight with a chimpanzee was postponed. The chimpanzee flight was delayed because of troubles in the space capsule. Scientists plan to send the chimpanzee three times around the earth as the last test before one of the seven astronauts gets a chance to follow the trails of Majs. Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov, Soviet astronauts. But the chance of putting an astronaut

Oct. 27, 1961 - The United States space program took a large leap forward today when an eight-engine Saturn rocket was successfully fired on its first test flight. It was a spectacular debut for a booster whose main task will be to lift three-man capsules on orbital missions around the earth prior to an attempt to land a man on the moon. NASA said the rocket’s eight engines had generated a total thrust of 1,300,000 pounds. This was half a million pounds more than the 800,000

Oct. 7, 1961 - Space scientists forecast today that the cost of a round trip to Mars in 1980 would be $1 million. The cost for a person for the same trip in 1970, they said, will be about $100 million. The estimates were presented to the 12th annual congress of the International Astronautical Federation by three NASA officials. They based their forecast of the drop in cost from $100 million to $1 million on the assumption that nuclear rockets will be traveling regularly on in

Aug. 21, 1961 - News of a gigantic explosion in space has just reached earth. A star, perhaps about the size of our sun, suddenly exploded 800 million years ago. But the news has just arrived in the form of brilliant light from the explosion. It took the light that long to get to the earth traveling at 186,000 miles a second. Dr. Fritz Zwicky of Mount Palomar Observatory in California said it was the most distant known supernova, or star explosion, yet observed. #space #stars

Aug. 19, 1961 - A Mercury capsule called Mercury-Atlas 4 (pictured) carrying robot devices that breathe, perspire, and talk is scheduled to be launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Fla., this week. Plans call for bringing it back to earth after just one orbit and recovering it from the Atlantic east of Bermuda. If the flight should be successful, it would greatly increase the nation's chances of achieving its first manned orbital flight by the year's end. There is one addi

Aug. 18, 1961 - NASA has decided to omit further suborbital flights. Instead, it will concentrate on an orbit of the earth with a manned vehicle, hopefully by November. The agency said that the two suborbital flights made by American astronauts this year were sufficient in providing necessary data. After a manned vehicle has been orbited, the agency will proceed from Project Mercury, the current program, to Project Apollo. In that program, more than one man, possibly three, w

Aug. 12, 1961 - Nearly three months after President Kennedy called for an all-out race to the moon, there is no one in direct charge of the expedition. NASA has yet to start building the capsule that is supposed to carry a three-man expedition to the moon before the end of the decade. Also, no decision has been made on the rocket that is to be built to launch the Apollo capsule on a round trip to the moon. There is concern in many quarters - Congress, the Pentagon, the execut

Aug. 6, 1961 - The earliest the U.S. can now figure on putting a man in orbit is toward the end of the year, according to Project Mercury officials. They say they hope to make it, in any case, by early 1962. The timing will depend on how quickly the spaceflight team can accomplish two prior objectives: an unmanned one-orbit flight and a three-orbit flight with a chimpanzee aboard the capsule. The second orbiting of a Soviet astronaut caused little surprise among officials in

Aug. 6, 1961 - A Soviet spaceship that carried the second Russian astronaut landed safely today after orbiting the earth more than 17 times in 25 hours and 18 minutes. The five-ton satellite piloted by Maj. Gherman S. Titov (pictured with Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin) was returned to earth on command from the Soviet space center during its 18th revolution of the earth. The 26-year-old Soviet astronaut covered more than 700,000 kilometers, or approximately the distance to the moon and

Aug. 5, 1961 - The Soviet Union put its second manned spaceship into round-the-earth orbit today, Tass press agency said. Tass said the spaceship was manned by Maj. Gherman Stepanovich Titov. Named "Vostok 2," it weighs about 10,000 pounds. The latest Soviet space feat came less than four months after Maj. Yuri Gagarin made his epochal flight April 12. Gagarin orbited the earth for 108 minutes at a peak altitude of 187 miles. Pilot Titov is maintaining two-way radio communica

July 25, 1961 - NBC-TV made known today its plans to avoid the confusion that led to criticism of the telecast of the astronaut launching last Friday. At that time, NBC and CBS both used rehearsal shots on the screen while the live audio portion of the telecast gave details of the flight of Air Force Capt. Virgil I. Grissom as it was taking place. NBC said that the integration of simulated or prepared tape and live TV would be avoided in the future except in rare instances wh

July 22, 1961 - Capt. Virgil I. Grissom (center) disclosed today he had been "scared" during much of his flight into space yesterday. But then the seasoned veteran of 100 fighter combat missions in Korea said: "I have been scared a few times before." He recommended a space trip for everyone because the view is so "fascinating." After the flight, Captain Grissom was forced to plunge hurriedly into the water when the escape hatch suddenly blew off the side of the capsule, letti

July 21, 1961 - The nation's capital, from President Kennedy to the man in the street, joined today in praise for Capt. Virgil I. Grissom moments after he had made this country's second man-in-space flight. Captain Grissom's friend and fellow jet pilot, Senator Barry Goldwater, Arizona Republican, described the astronaut as "a great little fighter pilot." Mr. Goldwater's description seemed to summarize the reaction of others in Washington. "This demonstrates," the Senator sai

July 21, 1961 - President Kennedy watched the space flight of Capt. Virgil I. Grissom (pictured center) on television this morning. Then he congratulated the astronaut on a personal telephone call. This nation's policy, the President said, will continue to be one "to use space for the advancement of all mankind." There will be "free release" of the information obtained, he said. President Kennedy made a similar call last May after the successful flight of the country's first

🚨July 21, 1961 - Virgil I. Grissom became the nation's second space explorer today. The Air Force captain rocketed aboard a Mercury capsule on a flight that took him 118 miles into the sky and 303 miles out into the Atlantic. From the take-off at 8:20 a.m., until the capsule landed in the ocean 16 minutes later, the mission appeared as successful as the nearly perfect journey of the nation's first space traveler, Navy Comdr. Alan B. Shepard Jr., on May 5. Minutes later, for