The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1961. British Satellite Debate

Press, Volume C, Issue 29403, 4 January 1961, Page 10

The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1961. British Satellite Debate

Should Britain and the Commonwealth take all the risks and secure all the profits and advantages that may accrue from a system of radio, television, and telephone satellites girdling the earth? Or should the costs be cut by inviting Continental or American cooperation? Those are the questions agitating Conservative back-benchers. The proposition that these communications satellites should be launched by Someone is taken for granted. The general idea is to have eight satellites in orbit serving 24 widely separated ground stations According to the * Daily Telegraph ”, within four years of launching, a satellite telephone system would be competitive with the ocean cable and ultimately would handle calls at a twentieth of the cost. The initial capital outlay would possibly be £65 million, with an annual cost as high as £2O million. The expensive item is the rocket to put each satellite into orbit; and the project would cost much less if Britain was prepared to rely on the American undertaking to provide rocket service. If full control by Britain is desired the Blue Streak might be developed as a first-stage rocket Even so, it might still be efficient and economic to use Continental help in producing the second-stage rocket The main arguments for the Commonwealth developing its own

satellite programme are not based on economic calculations, most of which are probably only informed guesswork. The really valid reasons are the nature of the Commonwealth and the conviction of many British scientists that they are being shut out of an important and exciting field of knowledge. No other country is so dependent on overseas communications as Britain and the Commonwealth. These communications, now circling the surface of the earth) are vital commercially as well as politically. Yet the United States, with its interests concentrated substantially in one land mass, has already made a good start in satellite communication. If it is good business for Americans it should be good business for Britain and the Commonwealth. As to the scientific side, the British scientific community is split in two. On one side are those who would deplore the expenditure of more millions on a single branch than is spent on all the rest of research work. On the other side are those who contend that they are deprived of knowledge of space and related fields such as electronics, metallurgy, physics, and meteorology. The “Daily Tele- “ graph ”, which has consistently advocated a British satellite programme, has said: “ We can “ ill afford from the industrial “ point of view to be left behind “in any of these fields”. •