SATELLITE “CO-OP”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29398, 28 December 1960, Page 12

SATELLITE “CO-OP”

Communications Plan (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 25. The British Government is planning a chain of satellites in outer space for international communications, according to the “Sunday Dispatch.” Exciting prospects to be gained from the satellites wrfe television programmes from Australia to Britain and 6d-a-minute telephone calls to New York. The programme was much more advanced than Ministers would admit, but “Britain ’is going all out for a ‘space co-op’,” said the newspaper. Under the scheme, France and other countries would be invited to co-operate with Britain. The Blue Streak rocket would send the satellite on the first part of its journey and a French booster would speed it on its second stage. Another nation might help complete the journey. Once in space the satellite would work as a “relay” for mes sages and impulses sent from the earth’s surface. Britain and France had invited other countries interested in a "space co-op” to a conference within the next few weeks, said the “Sunday Dispatch.”