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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0545.PDF
Missiles and Spaceflight. . . FLIGHT, 27 April1961 555 Absorbing the news at the reception in honour of" Maj Yuri Gagarin in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow on April 14: from the left, Mrs Gagarin, Maj Gagarin, Mr Khrushchev and Mrs Khrushchev Associated Television Ltd, British Insulated Calender's CablesLtd, Decca Radar Ltd, Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd, the Plessey Co Ltd, Pye Ltd, Rank Television and General Trust Ltd, andRolls-Royce Ltd. Plessey is a newcomer to the BSDC since its formation earlier this year, and de Havilland has been replaced bythe parent Hawker Siddeley Aviation. Board members of BSDC are Sir Robert Renwick (chairman),Mr J. R. Brinkley of Pye, Gp Capt E. Fennessy of Decca, Mr G. C. I. Gardiner of Hawker Siddeley, Mr A. A. Rubbra of Rolls-Royce, and Gp Capt D. Saward of Bush, a Rank company. Members of the technical committee are Messrs G. K. C. Pardoe(de Havilland, chairman), D. E. Burchett (AEI), A. V. Cleaver (Rolls-Royce), J. M. C. Dukes (Plessey), W. F. Hilton (HawkerSiddeley), W. M. Lloyd (Rank), L. F. Mathews (ATV), K. Milne (Decca), T. P. Blott (Pye), and G. A. Dodd (BICC). APRIL 12 AND AFTER At the time of going to press, few further details had been officiallydivulged concerning the first manned orbital flight by Maj Yuri Gagarin on April 12. Official reports in the days following thelaunch announced that the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers had promulgated a decree for theaward of decorations to scientists, workers, technicians and engineers who had worked on the Vostok spaceship; Ministries andDepartments concerned had been instructed to make recommenda- tions for awards. Chief Marshal of the Air Force Vershinin was stated to haveawarded the title of Military Flier First Class to Gagarin and to have received from him as a gift the watch worn by Gagarin during hisflight. The Tsiolkovsky Commemoration Medal was also reported to have been awarded to Gagarin. Decrees of the Supreme SovietPraesidium awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union "with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal" toGagarin; instituted the new title "'Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR"; and awarded the new title also to the major. UK SCOUT 2: CONTENTS DECLARED Britain and the United States have agreed on the contents of thesecond joint Anglo-American satellite, which should be launched by Scout rocket in some two years' time. The scientific instrumentswill be designed and provided by British scientists, and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration will be responsiblefor the satellite in which they are carried and for the launch vehicle and its firing. The experiments chosen are: Galactic Noise. Measurement of radio emissions from thegalaxy in the frequency range 0.75-3 Mc/s which do not normally penetrate the Earth's atmosphere, and investigation of electrondensity in the upper regions of the ionosphere, by Dr F. Graham Smith, Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, CavendishLaboratory, University of Cambridge. Atmospheric Ozone. The measurement of the vertical distribu-;ion of atmospheric ozone by (a) a spectrum scanning method and i b) a method in which a broad band of the spectrum is observed,by Dr R. Frith and Dr K. H. Stewart of the Air Ministry Meteoro- logical Office. Micrometeorite Flux. Detection and measurement of micro-meteorites using a technique in which the holes formed in a thin metallic film by the impact of micrometeorites will be detectedoptically, by Dr R. C. Jennison, Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank. SPACE COMPANY GETS ORGANIZED A revised list of founder members, names of Board members, andinitial plans for action have been announced by the British Space Development Company. A technical committee has been set upunder the chairmanship of Mr G. K. C. Pardoe of de Havilland to examine and prepare plans designed to achieve British participa-tion in space with the minimum of delay" and, as a first step, to submit proposals for communications satellites. The company-tales that its directors intend to examine ways and means by vhich this country shall assume a significant role in space technology.The founder members are Associated Electrical Industries Ltd, Recovering from the news at a House Space Committee hearing in Washington on April 13: from the left, Rep Overton Brooks, NASA Administrator James £. Webb and Mr George M. Low, chief of NASA's nanned spacefiight programme, examine a model of a Project Apollo apsule. It was stated that NASA expected to place a man in orbit next December or January UNMANNED MERCURY ORBIT PLANNED The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration an-nounced on April 23 that the first attempt to place a Project Mercury spacecraft in orbit would be made "during the nextseveral days." The launch would be made by means of an Atlas booster, and an attempt to recover the capsule would be made atthe end of one orbit. Two special instrumentation items were to be carried aboard thespacecraft: a "crewman simulator" to place the same loads on the environmental control systems as would a man; and two playbacktape recorders, each with a pre-recorded 45min voice message, to test the communication system. It was intended that the spacecraftshould be recovered in an area about 300 miles east of Bermuda, after a HOmin flight. Mercury tracking stations in Bermuda, theCanary Isles, Africa, Australia, Canton Island, Mexico, the USA and on a ship in the Atlantic were to monitor the flight. An X-15 research aircraft flown by Maj Robert White achieved aspeed of 3,140 m.p.h. over California on April 21. The LR99 engine was stated to have been at full throttle. Neutron-density measurements were made by instruments carriedby a Blue Scout rocket launched from Cape Canaveral on April 12. An attempt on April 11 to recover the capsule of the Discoverer 22 satellite, launched by the USAF from Vandenberg AFB on April 8, was unsuccessful. Joint technical talks on possible West German participation in theEuropean space launch-vehicle programme proposed by Britain and France at Strasbourg are to begin in Bonn tomorrow (April 28). SirSteuart Mitchell, Controller of Guided Weapons and Electronics, Ministry of Aviation, will lead the British delegation. By order of the US Defense Secretary the USAF has been givencontrol of the operation as well as the development of military satellites for reconnaissance and geographic survey. Responsibility for high-performance manned aircraft with similar functions has also been allocated to the Air Force. The US Army will be responsible forprocessing the photographic and electronic data obtained by satellites and aircraft and for preparing maps for use by any of the three Services. *M
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