Page:Project Mercury - A Chronology.pdf/19

2

The Army Air Forces established Project RAND, which in part included the study of satellite applications.

The Chief of Naval Operations directed the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics to make preliminary investigations in the field of earth satellite vehicles.

Project RAND filed a report entitled "Preliminary Design of an Experimental World Circling Space Ship," which indicated the technical feasibility of building and launching an artificial satellite.

The XS-1 rocket plane made the first supersonic manned flight by traveling 700 miles per hour (mach 1.06 at 48,000 feet altitude) over Muroc Dry Lake, California, with Captain Charles E. Yeager at the controls. The sound barrier was broken.

Due to the number of competing study contracts on satellites that were being submitted, the Department of Defense assigned responsibility to coordinate this work to the Committee on Guided Missiles of the Research and Development Board.

General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, approved a policy calling for the development of earth satellites at the proper time.

A V-2 designated "Albert" in honor of its passenger was launched at White Sands, New Mexico. Albert, the first American primate in space, died of suffocation. On June 6, 1949, Albert II was launched into space but died on impact. During 1949 two other flights of this type were con