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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0137.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 January 1960 137 Missiles and Spaceflight THE FIRST BRITISH SATELLITE Details of the scientific equipment to be carried in the first Britishsatellite, to be launched by means of a US Scout solid-fuel rocket in some eighteen months' time, were expected to be announcedfollowing the return of Prof H. S. W. Massey from the USA on Wednesday of this week. In addition to the news of the experi-ments, it was believed that an exhibition of actual hardware, similar to that organized by Britain at the recent COSPARmeeting in Nice, was to be staged by the Royal Society. It will come as no surprise that the sponsors of the chosenexperiments are among those who have acquired previous experi- ence in the Skylark sounding-rocket programme. Of the investiga-tions proposed by the British National Committee on Space Research, four were approved for this first satellite by the Govern-ment's advisory steering group. It is unofficially reported that these comprise one radiation, one cosmic-ray and twoionospheric experiments, in which case one would expect the groups involved to be University College, London (radiation andionospheric), Imperial College, London (cosmic rays), and Birmingham University (ionospheric). In the time between now and the planned date at which Scoutwill be available for the satellite launch, from either Wallops Island or Vandenberg, the British equipment will be subjected to a com-prehensive testing programme. This will include firings in Skylark and (on a space-available basis) Black Knight rockets. MISS SAM RIDES MERCURY CAPSULE In a test of the Project Mercury emergency escape system onJanuary 21 from Wallops Island, Virginia, a 7ilb female monkey successfully survived a highly accelerated flight to 48,900ft and aparachute descent into the Atlantic. The monkey was carried in a 1251b instrumented "biopack" cylinder inside a fullscalereplica of a Mercury capsule (photographs overleaf). The capsule was launched by a Little Joe booster to a heightof 36,500ft, when the escape rocket fired, separating the capsule from the booster and accelerating the former to 2,100ft/sec anda height of 48,900ft. A number of parachutes were used to retard the capsule on the way down, with the main parachute openingat 10,000ft. Air pressure on the capsule at the instant of firing the escape rocket was said to be 1,0001b/sq in, and the monkey(named Miss Sam) was said to have been subjected to 20g. As noted on this page, a BMEWS installation is to be constructed in England. This sketch (based on the BMEWS at Thule) depicts: A, detection-radar aerials, each 165ft high and 400ft long; B, buildings housing organ-pipe scanners; C, tracking radars; D, trajectory com- puters installed in central transmitter building; E, living quarters and workshop; F, covered road for maintenance vehicles After coming down in the Atlantic some 12 miles offshorethe one-ton capsule was recovered by helicopter. The monkey was reported to be in good physical condition. THOR: REVISED VERSION Improvements are currently being made to the effectiveness ofthe Thor IRBM, a weapon which resulted from a crash programme to produce a workable system at the earliest possible date.Although Douglas Aircraft have been undertaking research into hard emplacements and two-stage Thors, most of the work iscentred upon less fundamental modifications. Missile 256 (see photograph below) incorporated an improved powerplant andnew nosecone. No details of the former are available but it appears to have been merely a minor modification of the MB-3,raising the thrust at sea level from 150,000 to 165,0001b. The ablative nosecone is lighter, and impacts much faster, than theheavy heat-sink pattern originally used. BALLISTIC MISSILE WARNING IN ENGLAND During the past three years the USA has greatly accelerated herefforts aimed at increasing the minimum warning-time of impending ballistic-missile attack on the United States. Underthe general direction of the US Air Force, a ballistic-missile early- warning system (BMEWS) has been designed and two installa-tions are in hand. Approval has now come for a third station, to be located in England. Prime contractor for BMEWS is RCA; theassociated surveillance radars are the responsibility of General Electric, who have sub-contracted design and construction of theenormous aerials to D. S. Kennedy & Co. The heading sketch on this page gives an approximate indica-tion of the layout of a BMEWS installation. Dominating the site are the detection radars, each of which consists essentially of anorgan-pipe scanner and a parabolic reflector. Operating in the UHF region, these radars are many times more powerful thanany previously seen, having a mean power of around 1MW and a peak power ten times as great. Each radar will employ splitbeams, each one degree in width and offset slightly in azimuth, which will be rapidly swept horizontally. The return signal sentback from an incoming nosecone may then give all the information needed by a computer for the rough deter-mination of the target's trajectory. These aiant radars will each have a range of some2,800 miles, and will scan a fixed segment of airspace in the direction of the SovietUnion. From the detection radars signals will bepassed to the tracking radars, which will be trained on the incoming nosecone as aresult of the already approximately com- puted trajectory. They will thereafterfollow the target precisely, in order to ascertain its identity beyond doubt and toestablish its impact point with a high order of accuracy. These tracking radars willeach have an advanced scanning system, protected against violent weather by aslightly pressurized spherical radome 140ft in diameter. Overall cost of a BMEWS installationnaturally varies greatly according to the location of the site, its remoteness and theadversity of the terrain. At one time it was feared that costs could amount to $720mper site, but the latest estimates from Washington suggests that the aggregatecosts of the first two installations will be approximately $400m. These installationsare on the island of Shemya, Alaska, and at Thule, Greenland. Both these installationsare nearing the operational stage, and their cost has been inflated by the necessity ofproviding living quarters which are virtu- ally environment-free, and in providing Thor No. 256 was fired down the Atlantic Missile Range on January 14. Distinguished by its Jupiter-like ablative nosecone, it also incorporated a more powerful engine, which will be used in future Thor-Able and Thor- Delta space boosters (see news item above)I
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