FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1893.PDF
FLIGHT International, 6 September 1962 t POLARIS MISSILES Design range (n.m.) Dimensions Overall length Diameter First stage Propellant Case material Vector control Second stage Propellant Case material Vector control First live firing Operational Submarines Al 1,200 28ft 54in polyurethane h-tsteel jetevators PU/PBAA h-t steel jetevators May 1959 autumn I960 1 to 6 A2 1.500 31ft 54in PU/PBAA h-t steel new jetevators PU/PBAA glass-wound swivel nozzles November I960 late 1962 7 to 19 A3 2,500 3lft8in 54in glass-wound swivel nozzles glass-wound fluid-injection August 1962 mid-1964 20 to 41 control system has several advantages. It is lighter in weight, which is reflected in substantially increased range. Equally import ant is the fact that fluid injection will permit use of propellants which burn at higher temperature to give a higher jet velocity and more thrust. Limits of present materials for the deflection or vec toring of the exhaust by means of movable metal nozzles or jete vators have practically been reached, and it is not at present possible to make a deflection system to take the higher A3 temperatures. The French some 12 years ago tried to use a similar fluid injec tion system on an artillery rocket, but never perfected it. Much of the basic work for Polaris was done at the Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake, Calif. But the pioneering development of the system was done mainly at Lockheed's Santa Cruz Test Station, in the mountains south of San Francisco. Two Polaris test vehicles using fluid injection were launched last year from Cape Canaveral. The vector control systems worked perfectly and made fact of the revolutionary approach which until then had been mainly theory. Lockheed engineers predict a wide and varied use of this system. Lockheed state that they plan to set up a pilot line of A3 mis siles early next year. It will probably replace the Al and A2 393 Lift-off of Polaris A3X- 01 from a fixed land launcher at Cape Cana veral on August 7. Al though the first flight specimen of the 80-per- cent-new vehicle was the first in the world to combine the highly rat ed glass-wound motor cases and fluid-injection thrust vector control, it functioned normally un til shortly after second- stage ignition. Also on board, but not necesso- rily connected to the thrust - vector control system, was the light weight MIT Mk 2 iner- tial guidance package, described as "the size of a basketball" missiles entirely, and when it becomes operational, in the late summer of 1964, it will give the US Navy the ability to place a megaton-yield warhead anywhere on the Earth. Incidentally, the US Navy revealed at the A3 Press briefing that the present Fleet Ballistic Missile ships on station "have all their missiles (16) ready to fire 95 per cent of the time, fifteen rounds available 99-9 per cent of the time and fourteen all the time." MARINER 2 ON THE WAY A mid-course correction to the trajectory of the National Aero nautics and Space Administration's Mariner 2 Venus probe, launched from Cape Canaveral on August 27, was due to be made two days ago (Tuesday, September 4). The reason for the mid- course correction was that the Atlas Agena B launch vehicle had placed the spacecraft on an initial course which would have caused it to miss Venus by a larger margin than planned, possibly up to 600,000 miles. The scheduled trajectory would take Mariner 2 within 10,000 miles of the planet. California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena announced on August 27 that "new calculations based on tracking data from Mariner 2 show that the spacecraft is on a trajectory that can be corrected to make it fly to Venus within a distance of 10,000 miles as planned. The normal dispersions in the Atlas Agena launch vehicle put the spacecraft 250,000 miles off its course to intercept the planet. This deviation, however, is well within the correction capability of the mid-course motor on Mariner." All systems aboard the spacecraft were reported to be working normally, and the telemetry quality was described as excellent. On August 29 the craft began to transmit scientific information to the ground stations. The date of arrival in the vicinity of Venus is expected to be within the first two weeks of December. Mariner 2 is almost identical to Mariner 1, which was launched on July 22 but destroyed by the range safety officer at Cape Canaveral when it veered off course. A full description of the Mariner spacecraft was published in our issues of July 26 and August 2. RADIATION AFFECTS ARIEL A joint statement by the US Defense Department and Atomic Energy Commission on August 20 disclosed that three satellites —Transit 4, TRAAC and Ariel—had been affected by radiation following the detonation of the US high-altitude nuclear device on July 9. At the time of going to press, signals from Ariel were still being received at the Winkfield Minitrack station operated by the Radio Research Station at Ditton Park. Slough, although recep tion continued to be intermittent (Flight International, August 9). The statement said that the detected increase in the number of particles making up the inner radiation belt entailed no hazard to the Earth or its atmosphere. "The new particles, encircling the Earth at varying altitudes at and below that of the inner natural Van Allen radiation belt, are high-energy electrons generated as a result of the nuclear test. These electrons constitute an artificial temporary extension of the Van Allen belt, similar in nature but proportionately larger than that created by the Argus experiments in 1958 . . . "The new radiation lies primarily above the path of current manned flights. Though the measurements indicate that the residual electrons will not constitute a hazard to manned satellite launchings which are planned for the near future, the Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Atomic Energy Commission are making a detailed study to determine possible effects. "Immediately following the tests of July 9, the initial electron density was sufficiently high to accelerate the natural deterioration of exposed solar cells on the three high-orbit experimental satellites, Transit 4, TRAAC and Ariel, which were not designed for these increased radiation levels." Into Space Secretly Two US Air Force satellites were launched from California during the past two weeks, both subject to the current Defense Department restriction on launch details. The first was launched by Blue Scout from Point Arguello on August 23, and the second by Thor Agena B from Vandenberg AFB on August 28. Orbital details for the first satellite include: inclination, 98.6°; period. 99.6 min; apogee, 525 miles; perigee, 385 miles.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
