1960-Contin ued

17 November At the request of the threatened

countries, President Eisenhower ordered a naval patrol

of Central American waters to intercept and prevent

any Communist-led invasion of Guatemala and

Nicaragua from the sea. The patrol was carried out by

a carrier and destroyer force which remained in the

area until recalled on 7 December.

13 December An A3J Vigilante piloted by

Commander Leroy A. Heath, with Lieutenant Henry L.

Monroe as bombardier-navigator, climbed to 91,450.8

feet over Edwards AFB, Calif., while carrying a pay-

load of 1,000 kilograms. This performance established

a new world altitude record with payload and sur-

passed the existing record by over four miles.

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

239

1961

31 January A Marine Corps helicopter of HMR(L)-

262 made an at sea recovery of a Mercury capsule,

bearing the chimpanzee Ham, after it had completed a

IS-minute flight reaching 155 miles high and 420 miles

down range. The capsule was launched by a Redstone

rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in a preliminary test

for manned space flight.

1 February The Space Surveillance System, with

headquarters at the Naval Weapons Laboratory,

Dahlgren, Va., was established, Captain David G.

Woosley commanding. By this action, the system which

had been functioning as an experimental research proj-

ect since 1959, became an operational command.

21 February The navigation satellite Transit 3B, car-

rying Lofti (low frequency transionospheric satellite)

pickaback, was put into orbit by a Thor-Able-Star rock-

et, fired from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Improper burning of

the second stage and its failure to separate from the

payload prevented achievement of the planned orbital

path. Despite this, during the Transit's 39 days in

orbit, prototype navigational messages containing

ephemerides and time signals were inputted into

its memory and reported back thereby providing

the first complete demonstration of all features

of the navigation satellite system.

Cdr. L. A. Heath and Lt. H. L. Monroe flew A3J to above 9l ,000 feet

NH 69962

19 December Fire broke out on the hangar deck of

Constellation in the last stages of construction at the

New York Naval Shipyard. Fifty civilian workers died

in the blaze.

22 December Helicopters of HS-3 and HU-2 from

Valley Forge rescued 27 men from the oiler SS Pine

Ridge as she was breaking up in heavy seas 100 miles

off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

6 March The Secretary of Defense estab-

lished Defense policies and responsibilities for

development of satellites, antisatellites, space

probes and supporting systems. Each Military

Department was authorized "to conduct prelimi-

nary research to develop new ways of using

space technology to perform its assigned function."

Although research, development, test and engineer-

ing of Department of Defense space development pro-

grams and projects were to be the responsibility of the

Air Force, provisions were made for granting exceptions

thereby leaving the door ajar to the possibility of the

Navy developing a unique space capability.

10 April C-130BL Hercules of VX-6, piloted by

Commander Loyd E. Newcomer and carrying a double

crew of 16 and a special crew of five, landed at

Christchurch, New Zealand, completing the emergency

evacuation from Byrd Station, Antarctica, of Leonid

Kuperov, a Soviet exchange scientist who was suffer-

ing from an acute abdominal condition. The round trip

flight out of Christchurch was the first to pierce the

winter isolation of the Antarctic Continent.

21 April The Office of the Pacific Missile Range

Representative, Kaneohe, Hawaii, was redesignated