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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1427.PDF
FLIGHT, 5 October 1961 531 Missiles and Spaceflight . . . University. The land adjoins Clear Lake and the Houston Light ' and Power Co salt-water canal. NASA administrator James E. Webb said that the location of the three centres in Cape Canaveral, New Orleans and Houston would "facilitate the establishment of an integrated facility system, connected by deep-water transportation and capable of handling the large spacecraft and launch vehicles in the Apollo manned lunar-landing project." In the region chosen, out-of-doors work is possible for most of the year, providing flexibility and the ability to expand to meet the needs of the even larger vehicles which will be required for deeper penetration into space beyond the Moon. SOVIET OBJECTION TO WEST FORD PROJECT The Soviet Academy of Sciences has objected to the proposedUnited States scheme to place a belt of metallic dipoles in orbit around the Earth (the West Ford project, described in Flight ofAugust 24). On behalf of Soviet scientists, the President of the Academy, Academician Mstislav Keldysh, has written to thePresident of the US National Academy of Sciences, Prof Detlev W. Bronk, stating: "From the point of view of Soviet radiophy-sicists and astronomers the West Ford project, if carried out, may have consequences dangerous to artificial satellites, and especiallyto those with a man on board." Academician Keldysh points out that Soviet scientists agree withthe view of the International Astronomical Union that the ejected needles might interfere to some extent with astronomical andradio-astronomical observations in the near future, in view of the progress of observation techniques. "Soviet scientists believe," he writes, "that such an experiment,if carried out, could become a precedent for more extensive experi- ments of a similar kind which will result in serious contaminationof near-terrestrial space and greatly hamper both manned space flights and astronomical observations. "In view of these considerations, the USSR Academy of Sciencesobjects to the realization of the West Ford project and looks forward to your support in this connection." ARTIST'S VIEW OF VOSTOK In the caption to the picture above, an artist's impression of Vostok 1, which appeared in Pravda on September 17, Maj Yuri Gagarin writes: "After the completion of the first flight of man in space, my friend and artist cosmonaut thought to portray the spaceship in flight. He did much work on this picture, frequently came to me and took my advice. And here at last is the picture; although the spaceship portrayed by my comrade is somewhat provisional it still seems to me that everything else closely resembles what I saw in space. The picture closely resembles the photographs which G. S. Titov brought back from his spaceflight. I should like this picture to be seen by readers of Pravda." This cosmonaut-artist's impression of "Vostok /" appeared recently in ''Pravda." As indicated in a news item on this page, Maj Yuri Gagarin endorses the work of his anonymous colleague—with the qualification that, the spacecraft depicted is "somewhat provisional" Rep George P. Miller, a Democrat from California, is the new chair-man of the House of Representatives' space committee. He replaces Rep Overton Brooks, who died on September 16. The instrument capsule from the 31st Discoverer satellite, put intoorbit from Vandenberg AFB, Cal, on September 17, failed to separate. So far, eight of the capsules have been recovered, the latest on September14. The Australian Supply Minister, Mr Alan Hulme, announced inCanberra on September 19 that a British-built Skylark rocket, fired for NASA, had made a successful hundred-mile probe into the upper atmos-phere above the Woomera range. A subcontract to provide the ejection seat and survival system for theUSAF's Dyna-Soar manned spacecraft has been awarded by the Boeing Company to Weber Aircraft Corporation of Burbank, California, whowill be responsible for the design, development, fabrication, qualifica- tion testing and the delivery of prototype and production hardware.The survival system will include a parachute and an emergency oxygen supply. Far left, the two-stage sounding rocket launched by members of the West German Rocket Society near Cuxhaven on Sep- tember 16 reported in our September 21 issue), seen at the site prior to assembly and firing Left, demonstrot/on firing of US Army Lacrosse missile from Grafenwohr, West Germany, last month. This was stated to be the first Lacrosse launching in Europe
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