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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0467.PDF
WJ-1GHT International, 28 March 1963 445 %n March 16, 1962. The satellite has been placed into an orbit with §he following parameters: initial orbital period, 89.77min; apogee, :837km; perigee, 205km; inclination to the Equator, 64deg 58min. I "In addition to scientific apparatus the satellite carries a radio transmitter working on 19.995Mc/s; a radio system for the accu rate measurements of orbital elements; and a telemetric system to broadcast to Earth data on the work of the instruments and scien tific apparatus. I 'The equipment on board the satellite is working normally. The co-ordinating and computing centre is processing information Irtiich is coming in." "SPACE POLICY NEEDED" In a lecture on Space Technology in Western Europe in London on JMarch 20, Mr K. W. Gatland, a vice-president of the British Inter planetary Society, complained that there was no co-ordination or direction at present in the British space effort. "While France has set up its National Centre for Space Studies," he continued, "Britain is still without a comprehensive space policy and is content to divide her interests between five branches of government—the jvlinisteries of Defence, Air, Aviation, Science and the GPO." I The British rocket industry, Mr Gatland suggested, urgently jeeded to be given the chance of working with new propulsion systems. "Years ago the idea was put forward of providing the Saunders-Roe Black Knight with a second stage employing lox/ hydrogen. As well as giving industry an economical booster for Experimenting with small satellites, it would also have served to initiate research into the high-energy propulsion systems which certainly will be needed in the years ahead. The project was never taken up." TITAN lll-C SOLID TESTS Static testing of the world's largest solid-propellant rocket motors will get under way early next year at Edwards AFB, Calif. The motors will be the five-segment 120in-dia boosters which United Technology Center, of Sunnyvale, Calif, is developing to give fie Titan III-C a liftoff thrust of more than 2,000,0001b. To support pre-flight development and test of the Titan III-C solids, UTC is «stablishing a field operations office at Edwards to operate an $8m ^ir Force-funded test facility now under construction. Maj-Gen 3^en I. Funk, Air Force Space Systems Division commander, des cribes the test facility as "the most sophisticated and highly instru mented in the world." I Consisting of a test area, an administration and assembly area Mnd a storage area, the facility will be staffed by about 125 UTC Engineers, technicians, and administrative and maintenance workers by the time it becomes fully operational early next year. There will be two test stands, where the 75ft motors will be lashed down for 3ertical or horizontal firing, and jan instrumentation and control building. The stands will be able to handle motors generating up to 4,000,0001b thrust. An unusual feature will be the large-scale use of constant-bandwidth FM techniques to relay data. The system will provide for 600 channels and will be capable of measuring all phenomena of the test engines, especially in the high-frequency fange. ' More than 20 static firings of Titan III-C motors are scheduled between January 1964 and May 1966. Each motor will be shipped % segments from UTC's Development, Processing, and Test Sinter at Coyote, Calif. The segments will each be 10ft by 10ft, #id will weigh about 100,0001b. Col Joseph S. Bleymaier, Titan BI Systems Program director, states that the complex will ulti mately be used to test other motors. i-20 NOT TO BE STOPPED —YET gie US Secretary of Defense, Mr Robert S. McNamara, said on Sflarch 15 that he had no intention "at present" of terminating the *S Air Force X-20 Dyna-Soar hypersonic space glider programme, yuring the past two months the X-20 proponents have suffered ipcreasing pressure from NASA and other interested parties who Jelieve that most of its design goals will be capable of accomplish ment by the civil space agency's Gemini two-man vehicle. 3 Mr McNamara accordingly visited the Boeing Co, in Seattle, Washington (X-20 prime contractor), and NASA's Manned Space P'ght Center in Houston, Texas, in order "to see whether the Dyna-Soar programme can be combined with those of NASA so that both can benefit." He went on: "The two programmes are not entirely comparable. We want to see how Gemini and the X-20 can be fitted together to make the best programme for both military and civilian purposes. While the X-20 would be in orbit less time than Gemini, it would provide more recoverable payload because it would use a larger booster." Gemini will use a modified Titan 2; X-20 a Titan III-C. Suddenly It's Spring In the House of Commons on March 19, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aviation, Mr Neil Marten, described as a "concrete fact" the news that the first flight test firing of the Blue Streak first stage of the European Launcher Development Organization's three-stage launch vehicle "is expected to take place in Australia in the spring of 1964." New Jobs for Delta Two new US spacecraft programmes will be based on the Delta launch vehicle. They are (1) the S-6 Atmo spheric Structures Satellite, a 3751b orbiting laboratory to measure atmospheric pressures, ion densities and temperatures, and to study the composition of neutral particles; (2) the Interplanetary Monitoring Probe (IMP), a 1251b spacecraft designed to study the radiation environment of cislunar space and "develop a solar flare detection capability" for the Apollo programme. A Cold, Dark Moon Mr Frank Canning, of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp—prime contractor to NASA for the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module—has revealed that the "Bug" will spend some 20hr on the Moon during the first US manned lunar voyage. The lunar night will be chosen, since it appears easier to make life bearable in a —261°C environment than in the 1710C heat of the lunar day. Martin Awarded "Sprint" The US Army announced on March 18 that Martin-Marietta Corporation, of Baltimore, Maryland, has been chosen as prime contractor for the Sprint anti-missile programme. As outlined in our February 21 issue (page 275), this system comprises a Nike X missile together with associated radars and a very powerful rocket boost motor. It differs from Nike Zeus chiefly in being designed to intercept ICBM warheads at relatively low level. Model of Saturn V launch pad at Complex 39, to be construc ted in NASA's Merritt Island site adjoining Cape Canaveral, is studied during subcommittee hearings in Washington by D. Brainerd Holmes (left), Director of the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight, and Representative Edward J. Gurney
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