HUGE BRITISH ROCKET

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27989, 8 June 1956, Page 6

HUGE BRITISH ROCKET

USE BY BRITISH SCIENTISTS ’

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, June 6. Scientists of the Ministry of Supply rocket propulsion department at Westcott (Buckinghamshire) are working on the Raven, a rocket weighing just over a ton, which will climb 100 miles high in two-and-a-half minutes. It is to go to the Woomera rocket range later this year after static tests in Britain.

The Raven will be used to further research in the International Geophysical year. The engine is being prepared at Westcott, but the instruments are being prepared by several British universities.

The rocket will take with it a transmission assembly to record temperatures, the glow of the earth’s night air, and other outer-atmosphere data. Scientists at the Westcott experimental rocket station plan to use some of the Ravens, which cost £2500 each, to creat artificial moonlight over the Welsh coast, the “Daily Express” reported.

Packed with sodium and other chemicals, these rockets are expected to produce at 100-mile-high glow which should be visible over most of Britain and which will assist’scientific experiments. Astronomers are opposing the project, believing that the chemicals will persist in the upper atmosphere for many years and interfere with observations.