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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0004.PDF
4 FLIGHT, 6 January 1961 Missiles and Spaceflight The US Air Force is now perfecting the "sea snatch" technique of recovering satellite capsules. The capsule is allowed to fall into the ocean, and is then marked by a smoke bomb dropped by an SC-54 Rescuemaster of the 76th Air Rescue Squadron, from which frogmen then parachute to erect a hooked pole on the capsule which can be "snatched" by the C-119 as illustrated BRITAIN'S COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE On December 21 the House of Commons was able to devote justunder an hour to debating the subject of a British communications satellite programme. In the course of the debate the Parlia-mentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aviation, Mr Geoffrey Rippon, announced that the British and French Governments are[jointly?] inviting "interested countries" to a conference in the near future, and that it had been established as technically feasiblethat a satellite launcher could be developed using Blue Streak as a first stage and "a second propulsion stage based on Frenchdevelopment work." The following are extracts from the debate: MR AIREY NEAVE "We have studied proposals for using Britishsatellites and British launchers and most of us are convinced that it is an attractive economic proposition for this country. On thisbasis the cost of the further development of Blue Streak and Black Knight is justified . . . "At the moment the British Commonwealth handles half theworld's international traffic through our successful investment in the past in long-distance submarine cables and radio-telephonesystems. I should mention the proposal for a new round-the- world cable, which, I understand, is to cost about £88m . . ."Mr Neave went on to outline the broad financial details of a 20-year programme involving 70 launchings. Aggregate outlaywould be £243m, and cost rate per channel about £1 per min for the first three years and 10s for the next three. A gross profitof £90m should be made in the third year. In the 17th year the charge should be down to 6d per min, with an annual gross profitof £50m to £60m. MR WOODROW WYATT "In October the American Telephoneand Telegraph Co and the Bell Telephone Co officially put forward a comprehensive scheme . . . which initially would cost £60m.but they estimated the revenue from the operations at something like £ 1,000m a year. As the operating costs are very low, nearlyall of this would be profit. This may be exaggerated. On the other hand, I think that the British estimate is very much too low.Anyway, somewhere between the two estimates lies the probable profit to be made out of this, and it may be between £500m and£ 1,000m a year . . ." MR DAVID PRICE "The costings show that it would be possible,as my hon. Friend the Member for Abingdon said, to reduce transatlantic telephone calls from the present £1 a minute to 6da minute in about the fifteenth or sixteenth year. As a result of this study we believe that it is possible, on the basis of marketsurvey so far carried out, to increase the telephone communica- tions round the world by a factor of ten. "The profit figures . . . show a return of over £450m over20 years on an outlay of about £300m. That is good profit in any terms, even for a Government . . ." MR GEOFFREY RIPPON "I am sure it is right, as my hon. Friendthe Member for Abingdon has done, to consider, first, the possibilities of a communications satellite. This is no astronomicboondoggle. Both British and American experts are confident that the purely technical problems can be solved within the nextfew years. To this end Post Office and Ministry of Aviation scientists and engineers are already making a joint study of thedesign of ground stations and satellites, as well as the imoortant question of overall system design. These studies are concernedboth with the technical and with the economic aspects of satellites. Naturally, we shall at the appropriate stage seek the co-operationof Drivate industry. We are well aware of the thought that private industrv is devoting to this matter." Mr Rippon went on to emphasize the "immense importance"of the whole matter; the Cabinet itself was involved, and he did not believe that problems could be solved by having anotherjoint committee. He went on to discuss the basic characteristics of passive and active satellites, together with the number employedand their orbits and then continued: — "The most promising area for the tests is in the North Atlantic.We have had preliminary talks with our friends in Canada and in the United States, and my right hon. Friend the Postmaster-General hopes to be able to take pan in very valuable tests within the next year or so. We envisage putting two or three satellitesinto polar orbit. We would share the information resulting from the tests, but, of course, that does not necessarily imply a jointcommunications programme. "Much has been said about the potentially large communicationscapacity of a satellite system, and we may certainly expect a growing demand. Some experts believe that the growing demandfor communications will force the world to use satellites within the next decade. Undoubtedly when they are fully developedthey can be expected to carry several hundred simultaneous tele- phone conversations and to act as television relay stations. Weare aiming at about 1,000 channels for an active satellite. There is no limit to the number of channels for a passive satellite. "The extent to which the new system will prove to be aneconomic proposition must depend, first, on the results of the tests which we hope will commence as soon as the technicaldevelopments permit, and, secondly, the availability of a launcher, about which I will say more in a moment. In the meantime, wewill continue with the construction of the submarine cables to provide for the communication needs of the Commonwealth. Myhon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh referred to a figure of between £80m and £100m. The only part of that programme whichis approved would cost between £35m and £40m. The United Kingdom's share would be less. That relates to the cable betweenCanada and the United States in 1961 and between Canada and Australia in 1964. I cannot accept what my hon. Friend theMember for Eastleigh said about submarine cables necessarily being a waste of money. "I now wish to say a word or two about Blue Streak and itspotentialities . . . When the Government decided not to proceed with the development of Blue Streak as a military weapon, wealso decided to keen in being those aspects of the project which could be of use in developing a satellite launcher, while full con-sideration was given to the problems involved. This has permitted the preservation of scientific and technological skills and theretention of teams necessary to develop a satellite launcher. We have not run down the work below the level needed to maintaina satellite launcher programme. "Reference has been made to the delay. Should such a launcherbe developed, the work that we have done and are doing will enable us to formulate a programme which will enable us or anyother participating country to out satellites into orbit in the course of the next five or six years. There is no fear that the developmentof a launching vehicle such as we have in mind would be too late to produce valuable results."We have kept the work on Blue Streak going and we can develop it if we choose. In the meantime, we have reached theconclusion that if a heavy satellite launcher is to be developed outside the United States or Russia, there are substantial advan-tages for all concerned in doing it in co-operation with our friends in the Commonwealth and Europe. My right hon. Friend hashad talks in Australia and Canada, and we are keeping in close touch with those countries and other members of the Com-monwealth . . . Australia, in particular, has been our partner throughout and has a direct interest. If we carry the Blue Streakproposals to completion, the facilities at Woomera would be used ... We have taken an initiative both with the Commonwealthand with Europe . . . We have also had lengthy discussions with
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