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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0304.PDF
Official Organ ol the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6, 1964 Number 2865 Volume 85 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. r. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GU NSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAM8DEN Production Editor ROY CA8EY Managing Director H. N.PRIAULX MBE In this issue r -vS World News 188 Air Commerce 191 A Standard for Instruction 199 Letter* 200 Straight and Level 203 The Five'isthe Thunderchief 204 Sport and Business 213 Two New Rotoreraft 214 Missiles and Spacer]igrht 215 8ervlce Aviation 223 Industry International 225 IliBe Transport Publications Ltd, DorsetHouse, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo S33S (Telex 25137).Telegrams Fllghtpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15B.Oversea* £5. Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorizedat New York, NY. Branch Offices: Coventry, 8-10 Corpora-tion Btreet: telephone Coventry 25210. Birmincnam, King Edward House, NewStreet, Birmingham 2; telephone Mid- land 7191. Manchester, 260 Deansgate,Manchester 3 ; telephone Blackftlars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow, 62 Bucha-nan Street, Glasgow Cl ; telephone Central 1265-6. Bristol, 11 Marsh Street,Bristol 1; telephone Bristol 21491/2. New York, NY : Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Dlgby 9-1197.© IUffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1964. Permission to reproduce illustra-tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extractsor comments may be made with do* acknowledgement. The Ranger's Marksmanship American Ranger 6 spacecraft hit the Moon this morning but failed to send back any pictures." Thus was the agonizing result of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's ambitious Ranger 6 flight condensed into a five-second item in a news broadcast last Sunday. Four days earlier had occurred the near-perfect flight test of the first two-stage Saturn rocket, its second stage powered by a cluster of six liquid-hydrogen engines. For the US space programme it was a week of triumph as well as agony. The main objective of the Ranger 6 flight was to obtain pictures of the lunar surface, and although this objective was not achieved a number of other significant space objectives were achieved by NASA as the month of January drew to a close. Both the Saturn firing and the Ranger flight were examples of good shooting. Huntsville's singleminded thoroughness paid off for the fifth consecutive time in the mighty Saturn project, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory team steered Ranger 6 to its lunar destination in the Sea of Tranquillity with a keen accuracy, accomplishing various complicated manoeuvres including a change of course en route. Undoubted successes, these, for vehicle technology and for guidance and control. And only the previous week two contrasting advances in communication satellites were demonstrated, with the launching into orbit of Relay 2 and of Echo 2, a passive-reflector balloon 135ft in diameter. In these four projects, as in all NASA's activities, the fullest information was given in advance, and the results were disseminated widely and rapidly. In particular, the comprehensive "Ranger improvement programme," in which the causes of previous Ranger failures were analysed and modifica- tions to the spacecraft were specified, was described: the world was told in detail of changes in components, system design and construction. Two Russian spacecraft, also, were launched last week. A Tass announcement listed the orbital data (which western tracking stations would themselves have ascertained within a few hours of launch), gave a number of radio frequencies, and stated that the two satellites had been launched by one rocket. It will be some time before we know the size and appearance of the two Elektrons and, for that matter, of six Vostoks, 24 Cosmos craft, six unannounced sputniks and Luna 4. For details of the "Luna 4 improvement programme" we may have to wait even longer. Vri'-r First Lady of Space A more immediate space prospect, as we go to press, is the arrival in London this week of Valentina Tereshkova, pilot of Vostok 6, first woman cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union and wife of fellow-cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev. This husband-and-wife team, be it noted, have over 165 orbital hours in their logbooks. Mrs Nikolayeva-Tereshkova will be welcomed warmly in Britain, and not only by members of the British In- terplanetary Society, whose Gold Medal she is receiving. Two-and-a-half years ago, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin visited Britain to receive his BIS Gold Medal—and a tumultuous public welcome. By such visits, and the sight of an Echo satellite steadily crossing the night sky, the implications of the space age are being brought home to the world at large. The world at large would certainly agree that it is time the two major powers worked together in their explorations of space.
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