MAN IN SPACE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29402, 3 January 1961, Page 12

MAN IN SPACE

1961 Attempt Forecast (MX Pre** Ateoctattn. CoptzHgM) WASHINGTON, December 31. The first American manned rocket ride Is set for early this spring if a large »pe survives the' jolt of a launching from Cape Canaveral early in 1831. The House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics made this prediction in a report yesterday. In spite of setbacks in recent test, the committee's chairman (Mr Oyerton Brooks) said he saw the United States standing “on the threshold ot a major flight test programme short and long range ballistic flights, leading first to unmanned, and later on to manned orbital flight late in 1961, if an goes wen."

The report, based on information supplied by the Defence Department and the National Aeronautics aqd Space Administration, set next March or, April as the date for the first manned rocket ride. One of the Mercury astronauts then would be strapped in a capsule and shot more than 100 miles up by an Army Redstone missile. The first space ride would last a matter of minutes. Ships would be ready to fish the capsule from the Atlantic Ocean. An earlier trial, using the same kind of rocket and capsule, would have a chimpanzee as passenger.

If all went well with the first manned space probes, the first attempt would be made to put a man in a satellite into apace, and keep him there long enough to complete several orbits of the earth.