Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XXV, Organization of Foreign Policy; Information Policy; United Nations; Scientific Matters

402. Letter From the Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Dryden) to the Chairman of the Commission on Exploration and Utilization of Outer Space, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Blagonravov)¹

Washington, August 23, 1963.

Dear Academician Blagonravov:

I am glad to have your letter of August 1 conveying the consent of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR to the Memorandum of Understanding completed by us on May 24 in Geneva.² With the Memorandum in force, we can now proceed to implement the program set forth in the bilateral agreement of June 8, 1962.³

The following matters require the earliest possible action if the program is to proceed according to the agreed time schedule:

(1) Section II.D of the Memorandum provides that NASA and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR are to agree upon a suitable mechanism for equal sharing of the costs of the meteorological communications link, and are to designate representatives to carry out continued technical coordination of details concerning this link. In my letter of April 15, I proposed an arrangement whereby the General Post Office of the United Kingdom would be asked to act as the collection and disbursing agent for all charges relating to the Washington-Moscow link.⁴ If my proposal as set forth in that letter is acceptable, agreement on this matter should be reached as soon as possible and consultations begun immediately with U.K. authorities.

(2) We hope to receive your designation of a Soviet counterpart to Mr. Laverne R. Stelter, Head of the NASA Communications Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center, whom I designated in my letter of April 18 as the NASA technical representative for coordination of details concerning the link.⁵ An early meeting between the two representatives must be arranged. It should be borne in mind that the common carriers involved between Washington and Berlin require 30 days advance notice before the establishment of an operational link.

(3) Aside from the technical details of the communications link itself, there will be details relating to the data and information to be transmitted which will require coordination. I suggest you designate a central point of contact in the USSR with whom Dr. Morris Topper, Chairman of the US Working Group on Meteorology, may correspond concerning such matters.

(4) Mr. Leonard Jaffe, whom I designated in my April 18 letter as the NASA representative for technical coordination of the planned communications experiments with Echo II, has reported that his meeting in the United Kingdom with Dr. Chetmantshev and Zhulin in late May left several questions unresolved. Those were set forth, I understand, in a memorandum prepared on May 28 by Dr. Chetmantshev and the UK representatives, Mr. Taylor and Dr. Davies.⁶ In order to permit adequate preparation and planning for the experiments, it is necessary to schedule a meeting as soon as possible between Mr. Jaffe and Soviet technical representatives knowledgeable about the communications aspects of the proposed experiments to decide on details, particularly with regard to questions of frequency and plans for transmissions from Gorki. In this case also, we hope to receive your designation of a Soviet counterpart to Mr. Jaffe.

(5) Section III.C of the Memorandum of Understanding raises the possibility of extending the tests with Echo II into the microwave region of the frequency spectrum and also of arranging radar and optical observations by the USSR of the Echo II satellite during the period of its inflation and thereafter. Please advise us of the results of your consideration of these two possibilities, both of which appear highly desirable to NASA.

(6) With regard to the magnetic field survey, the Memorandum of Understanding foresees the exchange of ground observations from various observatories in the US and the USSR, as well as of data from ground, sea, and aerial surveys. Would it not be most practical for the experimenters in each country to correspond directly concerning such matters? If this appears to be a suitable arrangement, please designate a central point of contact in the USSR for such correspondence.

Possibly, we shall meet again in New York in September during the meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Meanwhile, I shall look forward to hearing from you concerning the immediate questions raised above.

Sincerely yours,

Hugh L. Dryden⁷

1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, SCI Files: Lot 65 D 473, SP 1–1, International Cooperation, USSR. No classification marking. Drafted by D.R. Morris (AI) on August 23, and concurred in by Morris, Dillery (D/S), Homer E. Newell (S), Townsend (G), Morris Tepper (FM), and Leonard Jaffe (FC).
2. See Document 400.
3. See footnote 3, Document 392.
4. The April 15 letter was not found.
5. The April 18 letter was not found.
6. The May 28 memorandum was not found.
7. Printed from a copy that indicates Dryden signed the original.