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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0555.PDF
FLIGHT, 22 April 1960 555 yjew from a satellite: a picture transmitted by Tiros 1 on its 43rd orbit of the Earth at a height of 450 miles, on April 4, showing (1) the Red Sea, (2) Gulf of Aqaba, (3) River Nile, and (4) Mediterranean Sea. Clouds cover Saudi Arabia (5) Missiles and Spaceflight SPUTNIK 3 DEAD—OFFICIAL Confirmation that Sputnik 3 entered the dense layers of the atmo- sphere and "ceased to exist" on April 6 was given officially in Moscow on April 10. The satellite had been in orbit for 691 days and had covered a distance of over 278.5 million miles during this time. The last radio signals to be received in the Soviet Union were picked up during the 10,035th orbit, on the morning of April 6, and "according to calculations and the data of the last observations made in the western hemisphere, the sputnik ceased its existence on the 10,037th circuit when its orbiting time was about 87min." Launched on May 15,1958, Sputnik 3 had an initial apogee and perigee of 1,168 and 140 miles respectively, and an orbital period of 105.95rnin. On May 8, 1959, it completed its 5,000th orbit, at which time its apogee had been reduced to 792 miles and its orbital period to 99min. The final decelerative period as the sputnik entered the denser layers of the atmosphere began on March 27-28, and at the time of its 10,000th circuit, on April 4, apogee, perigee and orbital period were estimated as 143 miles, 103 miles and 88.6min. The last visual observation of Sputnik 3 was reported from Finland on the 10,033rd orbit at 1.45 a.m. on April 6, when the satellite was in a roughly circular orbit at a height of 70 miles. In Britain, two final sightings were made at 4.24 a.m. on March 24 (circuit 9,825, height 170 miles) by R. D. Everest of the Radio Research Station, Slough, and H. E. Butler of the Royal Observa- tory, Edinburgh. As reported last week, Slough's final radio observation of the sputnik was made at 7.43 a.m. on April 6 during its 10,037th circuit—now stated by Pravda to have been the last. . . . TIROS 1 DETAILS ' Speaking of the first week's results from the experimental meteoro- logical satellite Tiros 1, NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan said on April 8: "To date this meteorological experiment in space has performed exceedingly well. We have in fact been embarrassed Familiarization with the effects of weight- lessness continues to be an important part of the training of the Project Mercury astro- nauts. Here five of the astronauts are seen during a zero- gravity manoeuvre in a Convair C-131B operating from Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico by the wealth of photographic material which has been received." During this period the satellite had completed 101 circuits at an altitude of approximately 450 miles, and "hundreds of pictures" had been received by ground stations at the Research and Develop- ment Laboratory of the US Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and at the Kaena Point station in Hawaii operated by Lockheed for the Air Force (see heading picture on this page). Giving details of the equipment and operation of the satellite, Dr Glennan continued: — "The two Tiros TV cameras differ in coverage and resolution. Thewide-angle camera, at 400 miles altitude, is designed to cover an area of cloud cover roughly 800 miles on a side. The narrow-angle camerawill photograph a smaller area located within a wide-angle camera's view. The narrow-angle camera pictures cover 80 miles on a side. "Identical except for lens equipment, the cameras are both the sizeof a water glass and use a Jin Vidicon tube especially designed for satellite use. Each camera consists of two parts: a Vidicon and a focalplane shutter which permits still pictures to be stored on the tube screen. An electron beam converts this stored picture into a TV-type electronicsignal which can be transmitted to ground receivers. "These are some of the characteristics of the cameras—lens speed(wide angle) f/1.5, (narrow angle) f/1.8; shutter speed 1.5 millisec; lines per frame 500; frames per second 0.5; video bandwidth 62.5kc/s. Howard J. Childs of NASA's Electric-Pro- pulsion Laboratory in Cleveland is here seen with the experimental ion engine referred to in these pages re- cently. It operates on liquid cesium from tungsten electrodes "Connected to each camera is a magnetic tape recorder. Out ofground-station range, Tiros can record up to 32 photographs on the storage tape for later relay. Or, picture data frpm the cameras canbypass the tape and be transmitted directly to the ground when the satellite is within range of a station. The Mylar-base tape is 400ftlong and moves 50in per second during recording and playback. The two TV systems and their associated equipment operate independently ° "Photo data are transmitted from one camera at a time. Tape read-out from both cameras will take 3*min. The satellite will be within transmission range of ground stations up to 12min This means thatthe satellite can transmit directly up to 4min of photo data collected while within range of the acquisition station. Connected to each photo systemis a 2-wattFM transmitter operated at a nominal frequency of 235.00Mc/s which will relay picture information on command to ground stations . ."One final point. NASA has repeatedly said that the Tiros 1 experi- ment is working successfully and well. That statement stands. How-ler since Saturday evening [April 2] the clock timer which commands
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