U.S. Bid To Put Man In Space Next Year

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28992, 5 September 1959, Page 13

U.S. Bid To Put Man In Space Next Year

(Rec. 10 p.m.) STUTTGART, West Germany, Sept. 4.

The United States planned to attempt its first manned space flight next year, the German-bora American rocket expert, Dr. Wernher von Braun, said in Stuttgart yesterday.

Dr. von Braun, lecturing to the Stuttgart Internationa] Round Table Society, said the attempt would entail a man being sent on a ballistic flight of about 185 miles in a Redstone rocket. He would re-enter the earth’s atmosphere after six minutes in space. This would *est a man's physical and emotional reaction to the return from an orbit flight. He would be given the opportunity “in case of emergency” to release iis capsule, and parachute back to earth. Dr. von Braun said it was planned later to send a man into orbit with a 5000 mile range Atlas rocket.

He said that immediately after his return to the United States, the United States Army planned to put into orbit a new satellite weighing 91b. This would have measuring devices to ascertain what percentage of the sun’s energy reached the earth and what percentage was reflected back into space by clouds. Dr. von Braun also spoke of another project, the Saturn

rockct, which he called “the biggest and most ambitious project in the United States or even in the whole world.” Work had already begun on the Saturn, which would be a three or four stage rocket 230 ft long and 26ft broad. The first stage alone would have eight motors of 30 times the thrust of a V2 rocket. He hoped to have the 85ft long nose of the rocket on the test stand next year. The aim of the Saturn project was to create a world news transmission service by means of three satellites. Telephone calls, telegraph messages and television would be transmitted- by way of the satellites. Dr. von Braun said the time was not far away when an expedition could be sent to the moon.

Experts were now considering the possibility of reaching the moon with a rocket with a thrust of 6000 tons, but he added that he preferred the use of a smaller three stage rocket—a development of the Saturn.