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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0138.PDF
138 FLIGHT, 29 January 196) A quick trip from Wallops; departure and return of rhesus monkey Miss Sam from Wallops Island, Vh- ginia, on January 21 (see news item on previous page). Launch was by Little Joe rocket; return by Marine Corps HUS-2 helicopter after capsule recovery 12 miles offshore. Below, Miss Sam is extracted from her "bio- pack" container by USAF School of Aviation Medicine personnel after the flight Missiles and Space flight . . . power supplies from scratch (at Thule a permanently moored USNavy ship provides 34,500kW). As originally conceived, the third installation was to have beenlocated either in Iceland or near Prestwick, Ayrshire. Last year rumours suggested north-eastern Scotland, but the latest hearsayis that the most detailed survey favours a site on Fylingdale Moor, Yorks. The Ministry of Defence confirmed last week that thetechnical feasibility of an English BMEWS installation had been agreed, but suggested "it is as yet far too early to say what is thechoice of site or to give any indication of costs, or of cost-sharing, if any." Undoubtedly the weakest link in the present BMEWS set-upis that each station is predicated on the assumption that Russian missiles will arrive from a previously known point of the compass(within about 30 deg). The implications of the addition of a third stage to the Soviet rocket fired on January 20 (see following newsitem) make this assumption no longer valid. A missile with a range of about 12,200 miles could hit any point on Earth from anyother point and could arrive from any direction. To guard against such a contingency each BMEWS installation would have to beextended by a factor of about three. RUSSIA SPLASHES No 1 ' On January 21 Tass, the Soviet Union's official news agency,announced: "A ballistic multi-stage rocket was launched in the Soviet Union to the Pacific on Wednesday, January 20. It wasthe first in the series of planned launchings under the programme of producing a more powerful ballistic multi-stage rocket fororbiting heavy Earth satellites and for realizing spaceflight towards the planets of the solar system." The statement said that themissile reached a speed greater than 26,000km/hr (16,156 m.pJi.), that the nosecone was tracked by radar, optical and acoustic instal-lations until it reached the sea, that the flight of the rocket and the functioning of all its stages corresponded with the programmelaid down, that the second stage burnt up during re-entry and that the impact took place about 12,500km (7,767 miles) fromthe launching point, within 2km (1.24 miles) of the target point. Apogee was about 764 miles. Undoubtedly this mission was flown by a large ballistic systemwhich, although probably primarily produced for military pur- poses, should prove well suited to space research (especiallymanned space research). In the latter roles the two existing stages would carry a third, powered, stage; on the January 20 flight thethird stage was not powered, but probably contained a simulated warhead. Tass stated that the nosecone was "observed in flight"and that Russian naval vessels made "valuable measurements of the lower part of the trajectory." Re-entry velocity was greaterthan that for any previous missile. The Russians did not indicate whether or not the nosecone was recovered; at least one ship issaid to have carried recovery gear. Bearing in mind the number of variables involved in mis-sions of this nature—imperfect geodesic knowledge, mechanical inaccuracies in the launch, guidance, control and propulsionsystems, inaccurate mapping, errors in navigation by the observers near the impact point and random variation introduced duringthe climb through the atmosphere and re-entry—it is most unlikely that accuracy of a higher order than "2km" will ever be achievedover such a range, except by sheer luck. For military purposes such accuracy is more than sufficient; and for spaceflight itimplies that the Soviet Union can achieve repeatable performance, and that Lunik 2 (which actually demonstrated rather loweraccuracy) was no chance shot. For comparison the USAF Atlas has since September been consistently impacting withinabout 2 miles of the designated point over ranges of around 6,300 miles (still using the original radio-inertial system on most flights).The demonstrated range of this Russian vehicle would undoubtedly be increased to something like 12,000 miles by theaddition of even a small amount of propulsion in the third stage. The implications of this are noted in the discussion on BMEWS inthe preceding news item. , , ~,. AUSTRALIAN SPACE EFFORT At least one satellite due to be launched by Scout rocket in about18 months' time will carry scientific equipment designed and built in Australia. This was stated recently by Dr A. F. Martyn, chair-man of the Australian National Committee for Space Research, who added that this launching would be from a site in the USA.Subject to Australian Government approval, he said, a series of sounding-rocket launches from Woomera could be inaugurated inthe near future. For the initial stages of this proposed programme Skylark and/or Long Tom rockets might be used, followed bymore powerful rockets "by arrangement with other Commonwealth countries. As an interim project pending the development of the nuclear-ramjetSLAM (supersonic low-altitude missile), the USAF is investigating CLAM (chemical low-altitude missile). While not rivalling SLAMin ultimate range, CLAM will cruise at comparable speed over "inter- continental" range at below 1,000ft altitude. The XGAM-87A ALBM being developed for USAF Strategic AitCommand by Douglas Aircraft has been named Skybolt. The USAF Chief of Staff, Gen Thomas D. White, said last week that the missilewill give America an essentially invulnerable weapon against surprise attack, and that it would offer "the most mobile striking power everachieved." Lt-Gen Bernard Schriever, commanding general of the USAF AirResearch and Development Command, said in Washington recently that he did not believe present warning networks for North America were"quite good enough to meet the threat of a possibly decisive surprise attack." It was his belief that the system would be adequate only whenit included an operational communications satellite.
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