Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 1954, reports on a meeting of the Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel held in September at the Naval Research Laboratory, Anacostia. The panel, chaired by James A. Van Allen, discussed high altitude and satellite vehicles and the International Geophysical Year. It covers rockets such as the Viking and Aerobee, a phased plan for artificial satellites, and funding from the National Science Foundation. The author also records a conversation with Van Allen about the instrumentation needed for high altitude rockets. The memo contains no UFO material.
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SUBJECT: Rooting of Oppor Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel 1. At the invitation of Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, I attended a meeting of the Upper Atmosphere Nocket Research Level on 6 September at the Naval Research Laboratory, Anacostia. The two areas listed of primary concern were 1) Higher Altitude and Satellite Vehicles, 2) International Geophysical Year, and the logistics therefor. 2. This panel was formed in 1963 by representatives of various organizations which were concerned with upper atmosphere research through rocketry. It is chaired by Dr. James A. Van Allon who is chairman of the Department of Physics, State University of Iowa. The panel has representation from Aberdeen proving Ground, University of Michigan, Avon Signal Laboratory, General Electric Company, Naval Research Laboratory, Air Force Jabrido Research Center, California Institute of Technology, and Harvard Observatory. As has no official connection with any department of late or earlier but in informally supported by the Office of Naval Research. In connection with the forthcoming International Conference Year, it has been assigned the function of convening the United States program for upper atmosphere research through the use of high altitude rockets. 3. At the 8 September meeting, there were in addition to the panel itself, representatives from the chief of defence, United States Army, the Custom Arsenal, The Land Corporation, the Office of Naval Research, Aerophysics Development Corporation, Air Force Aviation, National Science Foundation, etc. In the afternoon opened the discussion of the first agenda item - all aerial and satellite vehicles - by a discussion of past underwater research with recent. He cited the extensive use of 10 which could carry 2,200 pounds payload to a 150 mile altitude but two supply of which has now been exhaustive. He mentioned the 100-maroral which was not used as a single state vehicle, primarily because it could carry only 250 pounds to an altitude of 100 miles. The 100-maroral was however, and as the second stage in combination with the Y=2 and confirmed an altitude of 250 miles. Since examination of the Y=2 model, the other rocets have been developed and used as civilian helicopters. These are the rocets which in its present form can carry 100 pounds payload to 135 miles
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 6 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.