FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0604.PDF
580 FLIGHT International, 18 April 19f>3 ttr Artist's impression of Dyna-Soar approaching to land (see "New Dyna- Soar Contract") Missiles and Spaceflight LUNAR MYSTERY-TRIP At the time of going to press very few details had been officially announced of the design and performance of the "Moon-4" space craft launched by the Soviet Union on April 2, although there had been reasoned speculation by Western scientists and writers that the probe had probably failed in its primary mission. On April 4 Tass stated that the Moon-4 station would pass close to the lunar surface, and on April 6 the same agency announced that the craft had passed the Moon at a distance of 8,500km, and that its experiments had been completed. The sequence of official announcements included the following:— Tass, April 4. The automatic Moon-4 station continues its flight approaching the Moon and will pass close to the lunar surface. Experiments and observations which are being carried out aboard the station are necessary for the realization of further flights under the programme worked out for the exploration of the Moon. According to the telemeasurement received on April 3, the working regimes of the station are normal. Radio communications with the station are good. At 8 p.m. Moscow time on April 4 the station will be 314,000km away from the Earth over a point on the Earth's surface with the co-ordinates 70° 54' East longitude and 13° 12' North latitude . . . Tass, April 4. (A Tass correspondent reporting from the Moon-4 tracking station.) One of the Earth's "conversations" with Moon-4 continued for 72min. During this period the Soviet automatic station covered a distance of 10,000-12,000km. The data received as a result of the "conversation" show that the instrumentation functions normally. Much valuable information has been obtained. The tracking station works faultlessly, just like a chronometer movement. Leading specialists and scientists are on its staff. According to one of the vice-chairmen of the State Commission, all the Moon probes were carried out with the active participation of these people. They are also tracking the interplanetary-Mars 1. The plans for communication periods with Moon-4 are thought out in advance in all possible variants and outlined concretely. The data obtained from outer space are processed without delay by a special group and transmitted to a Government Commission. Simultaneously the information from Moon-4 goes to the scientific institutes of the country and is studied there in detail. The gigantic aerial at the observation point can "encompass" everything that happens within the boundaries of the solar system. On being tuned to Moon-4, it received its signals from outer space and transmits them to the receiving devices, where they are trans formed and then recorded graphically, audibly and visually. Tass, April 5. The Moon-4 space probe continues on its way to the Moon. At 6 p.m. today it was 365,000km away from the Earth. The radio link with the probe is good. Telemetric information shows that the probe's instruments and systems are working normally. The automatic station is proceediim with experiments envisaged in the programme. The co-ordinates of the probe at 6 p.m. Moscow time on April 5 were: right ascension, lOhr 56min; declination, 10° 48'. . . Tass, April 6 (Final report). At 04.24 a.m. on April 6 the Moon-4 automatic station passed over the surface of the Moon at a distance of 8,500km. Experiments and measurements carried out by means of the Moon-4 station have been completed. Radio communications with the station will continue for several days. Extensive experimental data have been obtained; these will be of great importance for the solution of a number of technical problems connected with conquering the Moon. The measurement data are being processed and studied at scientific centres conducting cosmic space research. In the further course of its flight Moon-4 will circle the Earth on an elongated orbit in 1963. The station's maximum distance from the Earth on the first circuit will be 700,000km and the minimum distance 90,000km. As a result of attraction by the Sun and Moon the orbit of the Moon-4 station will gradually suffer considerable disturbance. As a result, the station will leave the sphere of the Earth's gravitation and become an artificial satellite of the Sun. This concludes the Tass reports on the movements of the Moon-4 station. On April 7 a report from a Tass correspondent at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory gave details of the observatory's photography of Moon-4. It said that a group of scientists led by Andrei Severny had succeeded in tracking the probe optically for a distance of 140,000km, i.e., about half the distance to the Moon. "Europe's largest telescope," using a mirror 2.6 metres in diameter, was used to take the photographs. Movement of the telescope, weighing 62 tons, was controlled automatically by electronic devices working to a predetermined programme. An "electronic- optical modifier" was stated to have permitted a reduction in exposure time to only a few seconds. The report added; "Only six of the 300 photographs taken at the observatory showed the probe, and they were precisely the ones calculated to do so." NEW DYNA-SOAR CONTRACT "Reports of the Dyna-Soar programme being cancelled are grossly exaggerated" according to George Snyder, Boeing vice-president and manager of the X-20 (Dyna-Soar) programme, following the signing of a new contract worth $383,142,308 with the US Air Force. Snyder states that the new contract does not mean that Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara has concluded his review of the winged spacecraft. "The programme, like all major research programmes, will be reviewed frequently during its lifetime, by both the Air Force and Department of Defense. The contract is a good indication, however, that there is strong backing for the programme." Manufacture of X-20 craft has already begun at Boeing's Aero space Division in Seattle. First phase of the flight-test programme is scheduled to begin in 1965, with air drops of powered and unpowered X-20s from a B-52 parent aircraft to check stability and control at low speeds and to give pilots opportunities to perfect landing techniques. Later, unmanned and piloted orbital flight? will be launched by Titan III-C from Cape Canaveral. "Com bining the controlled and accurate flight of an airplane with the high speed of a ballistic missile"—say Boeing—"the delta-winged X-20 will look and behave more like an airplane than any spacecraft now built. When its pilot is ready to return to Earth, he will be able to fly his own craft back into the atmosphere and land at an airfield of his choice." As was outlined in our issue dated March 28 (page 445), the whole field of manned Earth orbital vehicles in the United States is being reviewed. In particular it is desired to ascertain to what extent the X-20 and Gemini programmes overlap, and how they both fit into possible future military space mission requirements. After visiting both Boeing and the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center responsible for Gemini, Mr McNamara told the House Armed Services Com mittee that there was "no clear military requirement" for either Gemini or X-20. Nevertheless he expressed the opinion that, despite its lower payload, Gemini had "greater military potential." Gemini was originally a purely civil programme, although in January
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
