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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1660.PDF
RIGHT International, 28 May 1964 911 ZONO 1 CHANGES COURSE News of a midcourse correction to the trajectory of the Soviet space probe Zond 1 was given by Tass on May 18 in the following communique:— "In conformity with the programme of the Zond 1 automatic station, a second astro-correction session was held on May 14 when the station was at a distance of 13,000,000km from the Earth. During this session the system of astro-orientation at a signal from the Earth brought the station into a preset position and a special guidance-engine system gave it a supplementary speed of some 50m/sec. "An analysis of the results of the measurements has shown that the systems of astro-orientation and correction of movement fulfilled the preset programme of work in conditions of outer space, and make it possible to solve problems connected with accurate correction of the trajectory of the movement of automatic cosrnic vehicles. "At 6 p.m. Moscow time on May 18, the Zond 1 station had the following co-ordinates: right ascension, 5hr 28min; declination, minus 2° 40'. Tracking of the automatic station and the reception of information from it continues." COSMOS 30 LAUNCHED The launch of the Cosmos 30 satellite by the Soviet Union was announced on May 18. The annoinlcement continued: "The satel- lite contains scientific aparatus intended for the continuation of research into cosmic space in accordance with the programme announced by Tass on May 16,1962. "The satellite was placed into an orbit with the following para- meters: initial period of revolution, 90.24min; maximum distance from the Earth's surface, 383.1km; minimum distance, 206.6km; angle of inclination of the orbit to the equatorial plane, 64° 56'. "In addition to the scientific apparatus, the satellite carries a radio transmitter working on a frequency of 19.996Mc/s; a radio system for the accurate measurement of elements of the orbit; a radio- telemetric system for transmitting to the Earth information about the work of the instruments and scientific apparatus. All systems are working normally. The co-ordinating-computer centre is processing the incoming information." SATELLITE SNIPPETS Late on April 21, the USAF launched a Thor-AbleStar from Vandenberg AFB, Calif, carrying an undisclosed number of satellites. Although no further details were officially released, it is believed lift-off was scheduled for a few minutes before midnight GMT and the intended 90° orbit would have orbited the payload in 107Jmin at between 1,105 and 1,140km. The booster apparently malfunctioned on this attempt, and no orbit was achieved. The payloads were probably small radiation or Transit satellites resembling those launched by the USAF into similar orbits last September 28 and December 5. The Soviet spacecraft Zond 1, launched to an undisclosed destination from a heavy Earth satellite on April 2, is apparently one-third of the way towards the planet Venus. The initial celestial co-ordinates given by the Russians suggest the probe's solar orbit of about 274 days would take it between 150 and 98 million km of the Sun. The orbit may be inclined by as much as 4.7° to the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit). Radio contact is still being maintained, and Zond's speed was increased for a second time on May 14 by only 102 miles per hour. It is expected to cross Venus' orbit during June or July but its intended miss distance is unknown. Although US tracking networks detected the three Earth satellite components during their first few orbits, they apparently did not confirm Zond's existence until between 10 and 20 days after launching (see first news-item above). Satellite tracking stations in Britain detected visually USAF Agena satellites 1964-20A and 24A launched by Atlases from the Western Test Range (former Pacific Missile Range) on April 23 and May 19 respectively. Such satellites, being in highly retrogrades »min orbits (20A had a record inclination of 103°) are rarelyse en, since they remain aloft less than a week. The former Agena split into five fragments, two of which were visible to the naked eye. •nese satellites are believed to be connected with the Samos Programme. On May 18 a Berkshire station successfully tracked both Cosmos 30 and its rocket body on their eighth orbit. The satellite, a steady second-magnitude object, preceded the fluctuating rocket by about lmin, and by revolution 24 the following day the separation had increased to about 2|min. Cosmos 30 will probably be recovered from orbit after about a week. The same station, which recently tracked 30 passages of 23 satellites during a 6hr interval, has followed over 47 spacecraft during May. Russian Missile Carrier In our report on the Soviet missile first seen in the May Day parade (May 7 and May 14 issues) we remarked that the tracked vehicle used to carry it was new. This is confirmed by R. M. Ogorkiewicz, an authority on fighting vehicles, who writes: "The tracked armoured vehicle carrying the new Soviet missiles is new, and neither its hull, suspension nor even track bears any resemblance to earlier Soviet tanks or other armoured or unar- moured tracked vehicles: not even to the ASU-85 assault gun which appeared for the first time in number at the same May Day parade but which is mechanically related to the PT-76 amphibious light tank family. Knowing the Russians, it is most unlikely that the missile launcher is the only version they have built: in all probability the vehicle is the first to be revealed of a new tracked armoured- vehicle family, and, judging by the layout of the hull, it might well be a modified version of a new tracked armoured personnel carrier. Its weight, without the launching gear, is probably in the region of 18 to 22 tons." First "Boilerplate" Apollo After two postponements, the first launch of a mock-up Apollo spacecraft was finally scheduled for May 26 as we closed for press. The firing was due to take place from Cape Kennedy using a Saturn 1 as booster (S-l first stage, S-IV second stage), and the payload takes the form of a ballasted dummy Apollo service and command-module assembly. The vehicle at launch stood 190ft tall, 26ft more than SA-6 launched last January 29; but the total weight in orbit (Apollo plus spent S-IV) was 4001b less at 37,3001b. It was expected that the orbiting assembly in sunlight would be "about as bright as Venus" to an observer in the Earth's shadow. Lifetime at 110/140 miles is expected to be about a week. Imp Survives Cold NASA's Explorer 18 satellite, known as IMP (interplanetary monitoring platform), survived an 8hr period at sub-zero temperatures in the Earth's shadow at the beginning of this month. Stated by NASA to be the longest flight in the Earth's shadow ever experienced by a satellite, this was the result of the craft's extremely eccentric orbit. When it entered the shadow, on May 6, the satellite was near its apogee of 122,000 miles; outer-skin temperature was reported to have dropped to less than 400°F below zero. No deterioration in the scientific equipment aboard the satellite was apparent; signals were received after the long cold spell which indicated that IMP's experiments were still functioning. Redhead/Roadrunner Contract North American Aviation's Col- umbus Division announce a $1.9m award by the US Army Missile Command to initiate production of the MQM-42A Redhead/ Roadrunner guided target system. Congressional sources suggest this covers the first 43 units of this ramjet-propelled vehicle, which is designed primarily to exercise Hawk batteries at Mach 2 at from 300 to 60,000ft (and has been proposed for use in this role at the NATO range in Crete). Missile Mishaps An Atlas F undergoing modification caught fire and exploded in its silo at Altus AFB, Okla, on the afternoon of May 14, without causing casualties. Four days later three men were killed and eight injured at Tyndall AFB, Fla, when "a small missile" exploded as it was being prepared for a firing from an aircraft. Skylark Propane Test A Skylark sounding rocket was fired to a height of 113 miles from the Woomera range on May 14 in an experiment to investigate the properties of liquid propane under conditions of zero gravity. The test, sponsored by the Royal Aircraft Establishment, was part of a study of the suitability of liquid propane in satellite guidance systems. Name for CF-299 Hawker Siddeley Dynamics announce that the CF-299 ship-to-air guided weapon has been officially named Sea Dart. It is designed to have the operational effectiveness of much larger weapons—such as Seaslug—while occupying no more space than existing gunnery systems in small ships.
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