U.S. SPACE RESEARCH

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29010, 26 September 1959, Page 19

U.S. SPACE RESEARCH

Work Given To Air Force l N.Z Press Association—Copyright • Th WASHINGTON. Sept. 23. The United States Defence Department. in a sweeping shakeup of the military rocket programme. today designated the Air Force as the nation’s official space force of the future. Jolting the Army and Navy, it handed the Air Force sole responsibility for all “space transportation’’ and ultimately for the development. production and launching of all space vehicle rocket boosters.

The order raised questions about the future of Dr. Wehrner von Braun and his German team of rocket experts at the Army’s ballistic missile agency, Huntsville, Alabama. It was possible the Government’s civilian space agency might bid anew for their services. Dr. Herbert York, the Defence Department’s Director of Research and Engineering, said projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars—including the Army's 1.500.0001 b Saturn rocket booster, would be turned over to the Air Force. The Army and Navy would continue to develop specialised satellites for such purposes as navigation and communications, he said, but they would have to rely on the Air Force to put their space vehicles into orbit. Dr. York said the Defence Department and the Air Force agreed that the spectacular Saturn rocket booster should continue to be developed at Huntsville. The Army has been combining eight rockets of the Jupiter missile type to produce the powerful Saturn. Dr. von Braun said recently that the first Saturn shot might be as much as three years away. When it was ready, he said, it should be able to hurl a 25-ton payload to the moon. In overhauling the rocket programme, the Defence Department took a big step towards taking ’its Advanced Research Projects Agency out of the space business. It was set up in the hue and cry after Russia launched its first Sputnik. A.R.P.A. will continue research in such fields as defence against ballistic missiles and solid rocket fuels. But the department specifically transferred four major satellite programmes from A.R.P.A. control.