U.S. SATELLITE LAUNCHING

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28434, 14 November 1957, Page 15

U.S. SATELLITE LAUNCHING

First Predicted This Week

NEW YORK. November 12. The first United States satellite would be launched next Friday if all went well with preparations being rushed by scientists and officials directing Operation Vanguard. the "New York Post ’ reported today. The newspaper, in a report from a special correspondent in Washington. said that if this target date was not realised, the satellite would be shot into outer space as soon afterwards as possible. The “New York Post” said that in any case the greatly-accelerated launching by the United States Navy, which commanded Operation Vanguard, would take place before Thanksgiving Day—November 28. Navy authorities had laid this down as a “must.’ The Vanguard satellite would be 6.4 in in diameter, and would weight about 41b. the newspaper reported. It would be orbited at about 300 miles by a threestage missile. In Cambridge today, Dr. John P.inehart. associate director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. said the United States must put up something as big and spectacular as a space platform before it could regain international prestige. “We can never catch up in the sense that Russia has already done what we set out to do,” said Dr. Rinehart. “But we could go ahead of the Russians by performing a bigger and better scientific experiment,” he said.