SPACE TEST CHAMBER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28793, 14 January 1959, Page 11

SPACE TEST CHAMBER

Woman Stayed Longest

(N.Z. Press • Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) OAKLAND (California.' Jan. 13. r Colonel John Stapp, director of the United States Aero-Medical Laboratory at Wright Field, tn Ohio, said yesterday that a woman had stayed in a simulated space chamber more than twice as long

as any man who volunteered tor the experiment Colonel Stapp told the AlmedaContra Costa Medical Association that the longest a man had been able to stay in a test chamber he uses to simulate conditions in a space vehicle was 42 hours.

But a woman volunteer had Stayed in five days and had emerged only when her food supply ran out.

Colonel Stapp said most of the volunteers “start worrying about their families and become aggres-

sive and irrational.” ' - “This particular woman was a passive personality and she had no family or close friends to bind her to vital, earthly concerns,” he said.

Colonel Stapp said science had solved the problem of getting man into space, but had yet to solve a bigger problem of fetching him back to earth.

“So our first manned satellite is still pretty far off.” he said. “We aren't insisting on a guaranteed round trip, but we're certainly not going to try it unless we can give a man at least as good a chance as he has testing a new jet.” Space Capsule

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N-A.S.A.) announced yesterday that the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis had been selected to build a space capsule to put a human being into orbit and bring him back to earth. The space agency’s announcement seemed to indicate that it was not thinking of the capsule’s passengers being females. Its’ announcement said: “The satellite system will provide a means of studying the psychological and physiological effects of space flight on men. . “The research will Include man's . reaction to weightlessness during orbital flight, high acceleration during launching and high deceleration during re-entry into the atmosphere.” The satellite capsule and its connected equipment would cost more than 15 million dollars, N.A.S.A. said.

In St. Louis, a spokesman for McDonnell said it had begun engineering work .on the space capsule more than a year ago. He declined to say how long it would take his firm to build one but said 600 people would work on the project “This is our first entry into space business,” said the spokesman, whose firm makes planes, helicopter and missiles. N.A.S.A. previously awarded a contract to the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation, to develop a rocket engine of 1,500,0001 b .thrust to launch the manned satellite. N.A.S.A. has estimated that this phase of the programme will-cost more than 200 million dollars. First attempts to launch a man into space, however, are expected to use the Atlas missile, of the type which became the socalled “talking” satellite put into orbit on December 19.