Page:Project Mercury - A Chronology.pdf/36

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basic working paper for the Project Mercury development program, and was reissued as NASA Technical Note D-1254, March 1962.

An "NACA Conference on High-Speed Aerodynamics" was held at the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett Field, California, to acquaint the military services and industrial contractors interested in aerospace projects with the results of recent research conducted by the NACA laboratories on the subject of space flight. The conference was attended by more than 500 representatives from the NACA, industry, the military services, and other appropriate government agencies. Some 46 technical papers were presented by NACA personnel, and included specific proposals for manned space-flight vehicle projects. One of these was presented by Maxime A. Faget. (See March 18, 1958, entry.) Other papers within the category of manned orbital satellites included: “Preliminary Studies of Manned Satellites, Wingless Configuration, Lifting Body” by Thomas J. Wong and others; "Preliminary Studies of Manned Satellites, Winged Configurations" by John V. Becker; "Preliminary Aerodynamic Data Pertinent to Manned Satellite Reentry Configurations” by Jim A. Penland and William O. Armstrong; and "Structural Design Considerations for Boost-Glide and Orbital Reentry Vehicles" by William A. Brooks and others.

At the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, a working committee studied various manned satellite development plans and concluded that a ballistic-entry vehicle launched with an existing intercontinental ballistic missile propulsion system could be utilized for the first manned satellite project.

Robert R. Gilruth, Clotaire Wood, and Hartley A. Soulé of NACA transmitted a document to the Air Research and Development Command, which listed the design concepts NACA believed should be followed to achieve manned orbital flights at the earliest possible date. These were: (1) design and develop a simple ballistic vehicle, (2) use existing intercontinental ballistic missile propulsion systems, and (3) use the heat sink method for reentry from orbital conditions.

President Eisenhower submitted to Congress a special message calling for the creation of a special civilian space agency, with NACA serving as a nucleus, to conduct federal aeronautic and space activities.