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Aviation History
1968
1968 - 0099.PDF
y International, 18 January 1968 101 UNCO-SOVIET COLLABORATION 'French scientific satelliate is to be launched by Soviet Let between 1971 and early 1972. This was stated by France's mister for Scientific Research, M Maurice Schumann, in hscow last week at the end of the second day of a French- jyj Commission meeting. According to a Paris Radio report 'January 10, the Minister said that the experiment would be •portant since the Russian vehicle could reach an altitude of 0- or 200,000km (62,137 or 124,270 miles). Cost of launching, jierto the main obstacle to the project, had now been settled INF60 million. At the end of this year, French equipment uld be installed in a Soviet spacecraft to orbit the Moon. Schumann said also that he had been invited to visit entific installations in the USSR and would be able to see the *Soviet launch sites. This was the first time such an invitation i J,8<J been extended to a Western Minister, and was proof of the excellent relationship between France and the USSR. -SOVIET COMSAT SYSTEM I The Soviet Union has been quick to appreciate the use of communication satellites as a means of broadcasting TV pro- grammes and other types of national information over her vast ; territories, and recently the USSR Deputy Minister of Com- fcnunications, Mr Konstantin Sergeichuk, indicated that the flolniya satellites could ensure an exchange of television pro- pmmes with nearly all countries in the Northern Hemisphere, told a Trud correspondent that questions of exchanging broadcasts would form a substantial part of the activities international systems of satellite communications—those "between socialist countries and Intelsat. •The Soviet Orbita system, the first national TV system Jying primarily on Earth satellite relay, went into operation 1st November. Its main elements are a central ground trans- mitting station, which beams a programme to the Molniya 1 ^satellite, which in turn receives, amplifies and relays it (by a |4f)W transmitter) to about 23 ground stations in all parts of the [Soviet Union. I The first Molniya 1 was launched on April 23, 1965, and i are now three more, one of which (IB) provides the USSR- fance Comsat. The Molniya orbit is highly elliptical, with an ogee of 40,000km (over 24,800 miles) and a perigee of 500km (0.7 miles). Its period of revolution is 12hr and orbital clination 65°. This makes it possible for the whole of the Union to receive signals for about 8hr during each bit. Iln addition to transmitting TV programmes, the Molniya pellites ("molniya" means lightning and can also mean "news ish") can also be used for transmitting newspaper matrices, ather charts, digital data, telephone conversations and |otographs. heir highly elliptical orbit was chosen so as to give maxi- transmitting time (about 8hr) and to minimise power quirements. Molniya's apogee occurs once daily over the Molniya I communications satellite (see "Soviet Comsat System," this page) on show in the Cosmos Pavilion at the Russian Exhibition of Economic Achievement in Moscow last year Soviet Union, enabling broadcasts to be made over a territory extending from Murmansk in the north-west to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast. While it would not be possible for the USSR to use a synchronous-orbiting satellite like Syncom because it is too far from Soviet ground stations, or a low-altitude one like Telstar because its useful period per orbit and its range would both be too short to reach Siberian areas, Molniya (as Russians like Mr Sergeichuk have suggested) could be used by Western Hemisphere countries. Each day Molniya 1 swings high over the Americas, remaining unused during the 8hr or so during which it is at or near its apogee. The USSR claims that its 40W transmitter, more powerful than that in other communica- tions satellites, makes it superior to the Telstar or Syncom systems because the sensitivity required of ground receiving stations is reduced, making the Russian system less expensive. GEODETIC SATELLITE LAUNCHING First of the scientific satellite launches scheduled for 1968 from the Western Test Range (Flight last week, page 67), NASA's second geodetic Earth-orbiting satellite, GEOS-B, was to be put into orbit as Explorer 36 by Delta launch vehicle last week. This satellite, overall responsibility for which belongs to NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications, was designed and built by the Applied Physics Laboratory, John Hopkins University, Howard County, Ind. It weighs 4601b and is 48in in diameter; its purpose is to contribute to development of a more precise model of the Earth's gravitational field, and to improve knowledge of the size and shape of the Earth by establishing the location of a set of worldwide tracking stations whose positions are known with an accuracy of 36ft or better in a unified geocentric co-ordinate system. Purpose of the One of the two 60ft parabolic antennae, seen in an artist's impression, being built for the USAF Satellite Control Facility by Radiation Inc. who (as recorded in last week's issue, page 67) have been awarded a contract for the UK Skynet military communications satellite command and control station
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