Third Balloon Project In U.S. Space Programme

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29714, 6 January 1962, Page 15

Third Balloon Project In U.S. Space Programme

Balloons, formally, expandable structures—are on their way up in American space programmes, according to a newly published report to the Congressional Committee on Science and Astronautics. With Echo I still circling the globe, and Echo . II in preparation, the report reveals that a third “balloon” project, Rebound, is now under development. Rebound is described as entailing “multiple launching of several such balloons to positions around the with a single launch vehicle.” The launching vehicle to which Rebound will be entrusted has been named by' the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as the big Agena-B satellite, made by the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. The Agenas earned fame with the Discoverer series, including the re-entry-and-catch space capsules. Like Echo I and 11, Rebound entails passive communications satellites. This means that radio and other signals can be bounced off their surfaces to chosen earth areas. All three are light in weight. They can be folded in relatively small containers, then inflated out in space. The report said this was “little more complicated than blowing up a toy balloon.” Echo 11, according to the

report, could be packed into a pair of hemispheres “of modest size.” It is to be 35 feet greater in girth than the 100-foot Echo I. The multiple satellites of Project Rebound will be designed to provide more efficient communications than any single passive satellite. An aluminium covering put down on its smooth plastic hide in a polka dot design will, the report says, reduce Rebound's weight without cutting down its efficiency. Also under development is a plan for communications reflectors with multi-faceted prisms to be contained within the main structure. The Agena-B satellite carrier is also involved in development by the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company of the active satellite project Advent, for the Army. In a recent speech, Mr H. L. Hibbard, senior vice-presi-dent of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, defined active satellites as “having their

own storage and transmitter units, that can accumulate thousands of messages and rebroadcast them anywhere in the world.” Mr Hibbard said his company was also interested in commercial communications satellites under private ownership. “It won’t be too long,” he said, “before private industry will be operating a complete communications satellite network. Such a system could relay huge volumes of telephone, telegraph and teletype communications and even carry television programmes around the world." In its report on expandable structures, N.A.S.A. outlined the possibility of future inflatable space stations containing inflatable tables, chairs and bunks; inflatable structures to cushion landings on earth or moon; and structures expanded and made rigid with foaming agents which harden into a lightweight, bubble-filled plastic.