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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1931.PDF
736 FLIGHT International, 31 October 1963 Missiles and Spaceflight For left, a US Army Pershing lifts off from its mobile launcher located near Fort Wingate, New Mexico. In order to conduct extended- range (250 miles) firings, Pershings are being launched from this location to impact bmin later on the White Sands Missile Range. Left, NASA's Aerobee I SO A departs Wallops Island on October 11, carrying the 1971b French pay- load in the VLF experiment reported on page 729. A height of 116 miles was reached (Continued from page 729) ally feasible, CNES and NASA will undertake studies of VLF characteristics in the ionosphere by means of a scientific satellite. This satellite would be launched by a Scout vehicle provided by NASA. An earlier attempt to launch the French payload failed on October 15, when the igniter in the Aerobee's solid-fuel booster fired but the booster failed to ignite. RECENT ORBITS The following list covers all artificial Earth satellites known to have been launched between August 7 and October 19. It follows on from the "satellite scoreboard" feature in our August 15 issue; the previous "recent orbits" list appeared in our June 27 issue. Orbital elements quoted refer to the initial orbit. August 25 1963-34. USAF satellite launched by Thor Agena from Vandenberg at about 00.30 GMT. Orbit 225-320km (140-199 miles), 75.01°, 90.0min. Decayed September 12, lifetime 18 days. Components 34A, Agena; 34B, fragment. August 29 1963-35. USAF satellite launched by Thor Agena from Vandenberg at about 19.12 GMT. Orbit 292-325km (181-202 miles), 81.89°, 90.82min. Estimated lifetime three months. Com ponents 35A, Agena; 35B, C and D, fragments. September 6 1963-36. USAF satellite launched by Atlas Agena from Pt Arguello at about 19.25 GMT. Orbit 168-265km (104-165 miles), 94.37°, 89.1min. Decayed September 13, lifetime seven days. Components 36A, Agena; 36B, C, D, E and F, fragments. September 23 1963-37. USAF satellite launched by Thor Agena from Vandenberg at 23.06 GMT. Orbit 165-445km (103-277 miles), 74.84°, 90.64min. Decayed October 12, lifetime 18 days. Only component 37A, Agena. September 28 1963-38. DoD triple launch using Thor AbleStar from Vandenberg at 20.22 GMT. Orbit 1,098-1,115km (682-693 miles), 89.86°, 107.13min. Estimated lifetime several thousand years. Components 38A, possible USN Transit; 38B, small satellite (transmitting on 50Mc/s); 38C, APL radiation satellite (1351b, transmitting on 136.65, 162, 324Mc/s); 38DK AbleStar rocket body. October 17 1963-39. DoD triple launch by Atlas Agena from Cape Canaveral at 02.32 GMT. Intended orbit 200-101,000km (125-62,800 miles), 36°, 38Jhr. Estimated lifetime several years. Components 39B, possible Tetrahedral Research Satellite (weight 41b, transmitting on 136.53Mc/s); 39A and C, two Vela Hotel nuclear detection satellites (4851b each) and Agena rocket body. October 18 1963-40. Cosmos 20, launched from the Soviet Union at about 09.45 GMT. Orbit 200-305km (124-190 miles), 64.89°, 89.55min. Components 40A, satellite (transmitting on 19.995Mc/s); 40B, rocket body. Three major Soviet satellites have decayed in the Earth's atmos phere in recent months: they are Cosmos 2 on August 20 (lifetime 499 days), Cosmos 8 on August 17 (lifetime 364 days), and Cosmos 14 on August 29 (lifetime 137 days). Twenty more fragments of the AbleStar rocket body have been discovered in the orbit of Transit 4A and Injun/SR3, launched on June 29, 1961. This brings the total number of fragments to no fewer than 204, which are designated 1961 Omicron 3-206. MAN ON MOON—THE KHRUSHCHEV VIEW In an interview printed in Izvestia on October 26, Mr Khrushchev was reported as saying "At the present time we do not plan flights of cosmonauts to the Moon. I have read a report that the Ameri cans wish to land a man on the Moon by 1970. Well, let's wish them success. We will see how they will fly there, and how they will land there—or, to be more correct, 'moon' there. And, most important, how they will get up and come back. "We shall take their experience into account. We do not wish to compete in sending people to the Moon without thorough preparation. It is obvious there would be no benefit from such competition. On the contrary, it would do harm since it would lead to the destruction of people." Although Mr Khrushchev's statement may be read to imply a contradiction to recent assertions by Yuri Gagarin, and to the Soviet paper at the ITU space radiocommunication conference in Geneva (page 729), this is not necessarily the case. The important points made in the statement are that the Soviet Union does not plan manned flights to the Moon at the present time; that it does not wish to compete in sending people to the Moon without thor oughpreparation; and that, to complete a successful manned flight to the Moon, "we will have to work a lot and prepare well." None of these points is new or remarkable. The intention behind Mr Khrushchev's remarks was presumably to embarrass the United States, where President Kennedy, Congress, NASA, the industry and the public are in a state of uncertainty concerning the future o the Apollo manned lunar programme. If this in fact was the inten tion, Mr Khrushchev may well be highly successful: his remaps will certainly increase the existing confusion over US motivations.
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