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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1126.PDF
228 FLIGHT, 17 August 1961 AMERICA AIMS AT THE MOON . . . Above, modular Nova concept, based on clustering Saturn C-3 boosters, which could land three-man spacecraft (above right) on Moon. Left, possible Apollo configurations for three missions. Far left, triple payload launched on June 29 into Earth orbit: from the bottom. Transit 4A, Injun and Greb (see table, pages 232-3) more recently with oil and other interests in the midwest. Last year serious consideration was being given in Congress toturning over several of NASA's new-found space projects to the Air Force. Now that Mr Webb is in the chair vacated by Dr Glennan,the Air Force has found it expedient to retreat to previously pre- pared positions, and most of the country's space research is un-questionably in the hands of the civilian agency. Best evidence of NASA's new standing in Congress came lastmonth when the space agency's appropriation bill for $1.7 billion was passed by the lawmakers without changing so much as a wordor a comma. It was a bi-partisan vote of confidence for Mr Kennedy's programme to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.This is the programme the Kennedy Administration is betting on to win the space race. It is recognized that the USA no longer cancatch up to the USSR on orbital flights around the Earth, but perhaps by dint of an all-out effort it can beat the Soviets in thenewer, vaster phase of the race represented by placing a man on the Moon. Major space concepts take a long time from conception toworking hardware, and man-to-the-Moon is the first major space project the Kennedy Administration has been able to direct rightfrom the start. Even so, Mr Kennedy is in effect placing his bets on a project that will not be completed before he must again face thevoters in 1964. Contractors and scientists, and in recent weeks the general public,are coming to realize how much is at stake in the race to the Moon. Trevor Gardner, one-time Under-Secretary of Defense for Researchand Development during the Eisenhower Administration, expressed the feeling of many when he told an audience of space engineers inLos Angeles recently: "The President's proposal [to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade] is a dramatic, necessaryand timely reversal of a trend. He now offers us the leadership and the opportunity to erase the familiar phrase 'we are behind' fromthe blackboard of time." Mr Gardner's comment is echoed throughout the US space science community, where the generalfeeling is that a full-fledged American space programme at long last is on its way. Though the President has said that America wants to get to theMoon before the end of the decade, NASA officials now talk about making it no later than 1967—and perhaps in 1966 if "we havejust a little luck and no more foul-ups than usual." Project Mercury, already well down the road and into hardwarewhen Mr Kennedy came to office, will be continued more-or-less as the Eisenhower Administration conceived it, with unmannedorbital flights around the Earth later this year and a manned orbital flight perhaps early next year. To get to the Moon will require sizeable improvements in thestate of the art in rocket propulsion, space communications and operations, and the development of landing and operating tech-niques for use on the Moon, as well as special knowledge and technology for the return flight. The lack of large rocket boosters has long been a bugaboo toUS space research. NASA's answer to the problem has been to speed development of the F-l liquid rocket engine, capable of1.5 million pounds of thrust. Whilst NASA spokesmen and engineers from North American Aviation's Rocketdyne Division,developers of the F-l, said as recently as December that the F-l would not be ready until 1965, the date now being talked about is1963. Already the engine has gone through a static firing at Edwards Air Force Base in California and has exceeded expectations. With F-l development speeded up, it seems likely that the hugeNova booster vehicle, employing ten F-l engines and four liquid hydrogen/oxygen engines in various configurations and stages,will be ready to succeed Saturn as the big US space booster earlier than anticipated. In the SI.7 billion voted by Congress in July isSI44.5m to begin work on the Nova vehicle, the design of which will get underway soon at the Marshall Space Flight Center atHuntsville, Alabama. Nova will be used to launch the Apollo vehicle that will carry three astronauts to the Moon. As back-up for the F-l, the US Air Force has been authorizedto study the feasibility of large solid-propellant boosters that could substitute for the F-l in case the latter does not come up to expec-tations. Quite likely solid boosters of 1.5 million pounds or larger will be developed in any event because they lend themselves tospecific military applications. Another propulsion contract, also important to NASA's long-range space programme, was let in June. This was for NERVA, a project to develop a nuclear rocket for use as an upper-stage boosterfor unspecified space missions. Two companies, Aerojet-General and Westinghouse, will make proposals by the end of the year. Work is already underway on the capsule to take an Americanspace team to the Moon and bring them back. As Astronaut Virgil Grissom was preparing for his ballistic shot down the AtlanticMissile Range last month, representatives of 900 potential con- tractors were meeting behind closed doors in Washington to heardetails of Project Apollo, which, until lately, has been little more than a gleam in the eyes of NASA scientists. The timetable presented to the contractors, 300 of whom willwin awards before the end of this year, caused a low whistle to run through the space industry. It calls for an all-out effort, with thethree-man capsule to be ready for an orbital flight around the
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