Missile Failures, Successes In U.S.
(Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 15. After a busy day in outer space experiments, the United States yesterday counted three successes and three failures.
Three missiles rocketed into the sky successfully. A fourth, carrying a 12ft aluminium and plastic balloon satellite, apparently functioned perfectly at the start. But three hours later the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington said the controls had failed, and it was presumed the satellite burned up in the atmosphere.
A giant Titan missile exploded in flames a few feet above its launching pad and an attempt to recover a capsule ejected from the Discoverer V satellite near the Hawaiian Islands apparently failed.
In successful missile ventures a Polaris submarine missile made its first flight from an underground ship motion simulator and an intermediate range Thor missile went up with movie cameras to photograph the earth from space.
In the third successful launching, a Juno II booster rocket carrying the balloon satellite streaked rapidly into the sky above Cape Canaveral. It was announced that all three stages fired on schedule.
The intended job of the satellite was to measure the density of the atmosphere about 1460 miles out in space. Scientists wanted this information to know just how much rocket power would be needed to put up a space platform and how much shielding from harmful radiation in outer space might be needed to protect any space passengers.
In yet another successful—but routine—firing a British Air Force training crew at Vandenberg Air Force base. California, successfully launched a 1500-mile Thor missile.
Off Hawaii, Air Force planes
equipped with dangling trapeze devices tried to snare the Discoverer capsule returning to earth from the satellite, which was fired into orbit on Thursday from the West Coast base. They failed to get any sight of the capsule. Surface vessels also combed the sea north of the Hawaiian Islands looking for the floating capsule, but the Defence Department said there was little hope they would find it. The device’s signal equipment apparently failed to work. If the Cape Canaveral balloon moon had gone into orbit, it would have been the third United States satellite to circle the earth in a week. Last Friday, a ThorAble rocket boosted a 1421 b “paddlewheel” satellite into orbit. It is still radioing back important space information. The balloon was designed to show just how much drag the thin atmosphere up to an altitude of 1000 miles or so would have on such a large, light object. This moon would have been the first launched by the United States which would have been visible to the naked eye. The success of the Polaris elated missile men. The bottle-shaped rocket, scheduled to be operational with a 1200-mile range by 1960, was launched from its underground nest by compressed air.
The Polaris sat on a ship motion simulator, which was held in a fixed position for this first test, but which will imitate the rolling of a ship at sea in later firings. The launcher works on the same principle as a child’s popgun.
The Polaris was supposed to streak 700 miles from the Cape, but the Navy was mainly concerned with the process of igniting its solid fuel propellant after the missile leaves its “shaker” launching site, United Press International said. No results were announced.
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Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28975, 17 August 1959, Page 11
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555Missile Failures, Successes In U.S. Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28975, 17 August 1959, Page 11
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