Superior Rocket Power

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29900, 14 August 1962, Page 15

Superior Rocket Power

(NJZ. Press Assn.—Copyright) CAPE CANAVERAL (Florida), August 12. The twin Russian space shots once again demonstrated their superior rocket power, the Associated Press said.

The Soviet boosters have thrust of more than 1.000.0001 b. compared with 360.0001 b for the Atlas used on the American Project Mercury flights. The Russian boosters can lift roomy space ships equipped with sufficient gear to maintain life for long periods. The cosmonauts can move about in their ships while the cramped Mercury capsule confines American p lots to couches

The larger Russian vehicles can carry television cameras to return pictures of the cosmonauts in flight. The United States has the cameras but they are too heavy for

the Mercury capsules. Officials were surprised by the Russian ability to launch two manned space craft within 24 hours, A.P. said. It was generally felt that the Soviet Union had only one launching pad for this type of flight. There is only one pad at Cape Canaveral capable of handling the Project Mercury flights. At least seven weeks is required between launchings.

Reuter's chief Washington correspondent reported today that concern as well as admiration were evident in Washington in the wake of the announcements that Lieutenant-Colonel Popovich and Major Nikolayev had been launched in virtually identical orbits on two successive days. The Soviet feat brought applause for the courage and endurance of the Soviet "space twins." Credit was also given for the advanced state of the Soviet rocketry and guidance systems. But the main impact on

officials and the man-in-the-street was realisation that the cosmonauts, by chalking up another "first” for the Soviet Union—the first country to launch a sputnik and then a manned satellite —had given evidence of a giant Russian leap towards a landing on the moon.

Neither the State Department nor the civilian National Aeronautics and Space Agency issued immediate comment today on the launching of Vostok IV. But, privately, space experts stressed the fact that the cosmonauts were communicating with each other by radio and were in visual contact as they whirled around the earth.

This meant, they said, that the Soviet Union was making progress, not only in developing man's ability to work in a condition of weightlessness, but in outer space communications between orbiting bodies and the vital technique of contact and rendezvous between space ships themselves.