Preparations For Chimpanzee Orbit

Press, Volume C, Issue 29684, 30 November 1961, Page 19

Preparations For Chimpanzee Orbit

(N-Z Preu Association—Copyright) CAPE CANAVERAL, November 29. TheJ on | countdown proceeded on time early today for a planned attempt to rocket a chimpanzee named Enos three times around the earth shortly after dawn.

The shot was planned as a final rehearsal flight in a programme to send an astronaut on America’s first manned orbital voyage within a few weeks. The chimpanzee was scheduled to be launched aooard a 93ft rocket at 130 a m local time. The skies above Cape Canaveral and over the planned recovery area in the Atlantic Ocean were clear. The weather forecast was “good." The chimpanzee, a 5 ■£ -year old male, is expected to provide the most complete data yet obtained by United States scientists on whether mental faculties and reflexes are disturbed by a prolonged period of floating in space in a state of weightlessness. How the chimpanzee reacts will determine whether a human will be sent on a similar space journey within a few weeks. Officials at Cape Canaveral said that if ail went well, the United Slates would push at full speed to send a man into orbit before the end of the year. The capsule should land in the Atlantic Ocean about 1000 miles south-east of Cape Canaveral off Puerto Rico after a 4‘z-hour flight. It will be plucked from the water by a helicopter and taken to the nearest ship. An armada of 18 ships is c a: toned in the Atlantic from the Cape to the coast of Africa to recover the capsule if anything goes wrong. This fleet is backed up by more than 50 aircraft whose pilots have divided the ocean into search squares. Men at 17 stations round the world will track the flight and provide a constant stream of data on the animal's well-being and the performance of the capsule. The 93ft-long Atlas rocket will use its 360,0001 b of thrust to lift the capsule into orbit ranging from 100 miles to 150 miles above the earth. The capsule will zoom round the earth at 17.500 miles an hour, with the ape “.rapped in an airtight container inside the capsule. The United States launched a chimpanzee named Ham on a 15-minute. sub-orbital flight last January. He successfully performed a number of lever-pushing chores and proved that such a trip was safe for astronauts. The orbiting chimpanzee will have more demanding

tasks. He will be in a weightless state for nearly the entire trip and will be subjected to higher blast-off and re-entry forces. The chimpanzee will work at a waist-high shelf equipped with three levers below three display panels. He is supposted to react to a coloured light by touching the correct level. He also will indicate which of three symbols is different from the other two when they flash on before him. In tests during the last few weeks, the chimpanzee has reacted perfectly. Should the chimpanzee fail to perform his appointed tasks properly. he will receive a small electrical shock in the foot. Cameras and electrodes will measure the animal's reaction time, alertness, heartbeat. respiration, and temperature. A chimpanzee on ground will perform simultaneously the same tasks for comparison. Scientists are greatly interested in finding out if the chimpanzee experiences the same vertigo sickness, dizziness or giddiness, which affected the Soviet cosmonaut. Major Gherman Titov, during his 25-hour orbital flight in August. That is a factor which could alter the manned space flight programmes of both the United States and the Soviet Union. Spaceships travelling to other planets will be in a state of weightlessness for weeks or months.