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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 2134.PDF
FLIGHT International, 5 December 1963 935 Missiles and Spaceflight MORE SOVIET ROCKET TESTS "In view of the expansion of the Soviet programme of scientific research in the further exploration of outer space," the Soviet news agency Tass announced on November 28, "in the period between December 2, 1963 and January 25, 1964, the Soviet Union will launch new improved versions of booster rockets for space vehicles into two areas of the Pacific Ocean:— First area: 10° 25'N 170° 31' 9" 14'N 166° 42' Second area: 35° 20'N 173° 40' 32° 02' N 173° 52' W w E E I1°42'N167°52'W 8° 00'N 169° 21'W 33° 02' N 175° 40' E 34°28'N 171° 52'E "In order to ensure safe shipping and flying during the launching of booster rockets into the Pacific," the statement continued, "the Soviet Government has addressed the governments of the countries whose ships and planes may find themselves during the specified period of time in the vicinity of the landing of the penultimate stages of the booster rockets, with the request that the appropriate authorities instruct the captains of ships and planes, chief pilots, not to enter the areas and airspace of the Pacific Ocean delineated by the aforementioned co-ordinates ..." IMP IN ORBIT The first launch of an Interplanetary Monitoring Platform satellite was made by NASA from Cape Canaveral on November 27. The first of a series of seven planned IMP spacecraft, the satellite was placed in a highly eccentric orbit by a Delta—the 20th consecutive successful orbital launch by this vehicle. Using for the first time a higher-thrust third-stage motor developing 5,7001b, the Delta placed the satellite, designated Explorer 18, into orbit at 33°, with a perigree of 125 miles and an apogee of no less than 173,000 miles. The launch had been timed so that the gravitational influence of the Moon, Sun and Earth might eventually increase the satellite's perigee to approximately 20,000 miles. The main objective of the IMP launching was to measure mag netic fields, cosmic rays and solar winds in the region of inter planetary space beyond the influence of the Earth's magnetic field. Nine experiments were carried, contributed by scientists from California and Chicago Universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center. One of the overall purposes behind the IMP series of satellites is to study charged-particle radiation emanating from the Sun, and sources beyond the Sun, over an extended period of the solar cycle, thus providing important information connected with the Apollo manned lunar landing programme. CENTAUR SUCCESS The second test flight *>f the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Centaur launch vehicle was successfully carried out from Cape Canaveral on November 27. In this flight the vehicle did not carry a scientific payload, but the burnt-out Centaur second stage weighing about 5 tons was injected into orbit. This represents the first success in the Centaur flight test programme. In the first attempt, on May 8, 1962, an explosion occurred when a weather shield came off the second stage 55sec after lift-off. A total of eight Centaur vehicle test flights are planned. In the November 27 firing, following burn-out and separation of the Atlas booster and sustainer engines, the two second-stage engines were ignited and continued to burn for 380sec. The orbit into which the 10,2001b empty stage was scheduled to be placed had an apogee of 1,035 miles, perigee of 345 miles, orbital period of just under 2hr and launch azimuth 100.5°. The Centaur stage is powered by two Pratt & Whitney RL10 engines using liquid hyd'ogen and liquid oxygen propellants and Providing a thrust of 15,0001b each. In the operational version of Centaur the RL10 engines will be capable of being started, shut down and restarted in space to accomplish changes of direction and velocity. In the November 27 flight, however, there was only the single ignition of the engines. Following the unsuccessful launch on May 8, 1962, the entire Centaur development programme was critically reappraised. According to NASA, "Both Government and industry Centaur Programme management was tightened and responsibilities were more specifically defined." Management of the project was transferred from the Marshall Space Flight Center to the Lewis Research Center, extensive design changes were made in the vehicle, a nd en intensive ground test programme was begun. The major test objectives of the second flight were (1) to demon strate the structural integrity of the Atlas Centaur vehicle; (2) to verify the vehicle's separation system; (3) to demonstrate the ability of the Centaur propulsion system to be ignited in space and to burn for 380sec; and (4) evaluate the accuracy of the guidance Wem of the vehicle. In addition, vibration, elastic behaviour and structural adequacy were to be evaluated, trajectory and orbit Parameters verified, and performance of major subsystems studied. A number of changes in the RL10 engines and in the Centaur stage Wer e incorporated, and a total of 480 measurements of data (320 <j°ncerning the upper stage) were to be transmitted from the vehicle. M °st of the upper-stage instrumentation was designed to investigate en gine sequencing, autopilot operation and structural behaviour. Thumba Launch First rocket launching from the Indian base of Thumba, near Trivandrum, took place on November 21, when a joint US/Indian sodium-vapour experiment was carried by a Nike-Apache in a study of upper-atmosphere winds. Fylingdales Tracks Polyot? It was unofficially reported and officially confirmed on November 28 that the Ballistic Missile Early Warning station at Fylingdales, Yorkshire, had detected "the change in orbit of a satellite." The Air Ministry declined to identify the satellite (generally presumed to be the Soviet Polyot 1 launched on November 1) or to specify the date on which it had been detected. This mobile "cherry-picker" is used to provide maintenance and instal lation access to the 8Sft diameKr parabolic aerial at NASA's deep space station at Island Lagoon, near Woomera, Final instalment of Kenneth Owen's report on Woomera begins overleaf •-S'1' '••;'••: :•/',.•% \.i\ T L • - •-• % d 5gQ t m m m, % a '?*£ $*j. "**" • —$*-**; •**' -- • ' fe^£i-,.. ^^^J •' WW!****' * 0 ?Q-**$£ *J x K JJB&flL -Jr mm . • r
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