SPACEMAN PROJECT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29469, 22 March 1961, Page 20

SPACEMAN PROJECT

Test Damages Vehicle (N.Z P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 20. Uni:rd States space scientists hope to determine within a week whether the results of the latest test launching will mean a delay in the Project Mercury man-in-space programme, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman said last night. The spokesman told reporters it was premature to make any judgment about the results of the test, since experts had not yet had time to evaluate them. The shot, fired from Wallops Island, Virginia, on Saturday to test the escape system attached to the Mercury capsule, resulted in slight damage to the outer casing of the vehicle, similar to the one in which a man eventually will ride into space. However, Dr. Robert Gilruth, head of Project Mercury said that had an astronaut been aboard the capsule, he would have survived the flight. N.A.S.A. officials said last night that no exact date ever had been established for the first manned space flight, so it was impossible to say that the results of yesterday's flight might cause a postponement. Moreover, since scientists had not yet evaluated the results of the shot, it would be a week before any assessment could be made as to whether additional, hitherto unplanned, shots would be required before a man rode into space.

I reckon being ill is one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.—Samuel Butler.