100 Space Flights In 1964 Possible

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30338, 14 January 1964, Page 7

100 Space Flights In 1964 Possible

President Johnson, in his State-of-the-Union message, has affirmed his support for the exploration of space and the moon. Space-travel enthusiasts, who have been apprehensive after the half billion dollar space-budget cut by Congress, are breathing freely again bcause it looks as if the Americans may reach the moon by 1970 after all.

Between now and then there is an immense space flight programme to be completed and although in 1964 tnere will not be any American manned space missions there are plenty of other space, shots to keep the launch pads busy. There are also several firIngs held over from last year including the first flight of tr.e giant Saturn I with both stages active. It will orbit a 19-ton satellite later this month and put the United States ahead of the Russians for the first time in the cosmic weight-lifting contest. The year 1963 was rather notable for the excellent ratio of success versus failure m American satellite launchOnly last week the administrator, James Webb, reported “In the last j ® N.AS.A has placed 25 satellites in earth orbit without a single launch vehicle failure.”

This has been achieved by postponing launches at the slightest indication of trouble. Repeated postponements have played havoc with launch timetables and blocked the use of launch pads by other satellite missions. For example the S-66 Polar lonosphere Beacon Satellite, originally due for launching in the fourth quarter of 1962 wasn’t mated to its Scout booster until the third quarter of 1963 and since then its launching has slipped until this month. Technical problems have enforced delays with other satellites, such as Echo H. Nimbus and the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory. The current philosophy is that it is much better to delay a launching until everything possible has been done to ensure success, rather than firing failures, wasting money and gaining nothing but ridicule. The schedule of N.A.S.A. space shots for 1962 is quite a long one so it will be best to divide it into quarters followed by comments. The first four launchings of the first quarter (marked with an asterisk) should have been fired Lafore the end of 1963. The booster rocket is named and the abbreviation after it refers to the launch site: CK is Cape Kennedy, PA is Point Arguello in California, and WI is Wallops Island in Virginia.

First Quarter Relay 2», Delta, CK. 0.5.0. 2‘, Delta, CK. sth Test*, Saturn I, CK SERT I», Scout, WI. Echo 2, Thor-Agena. PA S-66 Beacon, Scout, PA U.K. 2, Scout, WI. IJHJP. 2, Delta, CK. Ranger 7, Atlas-Agena, CK Nimbus 1, Thor-Agena, PA 3rd Test, Centaur, CK. Gemini I, Titan 11, CK. It is almost two years since the first 05.0. (Orbiting Solar Observatory) was launched but it has provided 2000 hours of solar X-ray and ultraviolet radiation data quite unobtainable from the surface of the earth. It is almost as long since the first United Kingdom Satellite JU.K.I) Ariel was launched: it, too, sent back excellent data until it was knocked out

by the high-altitude bomb tests. A test of a SERT (Space Electric Rocket Test) electric motor—using propulsion by electrically charged particles known as ions—is now well overdue, and the same might also be said for Echo 2, which should now be orbited before the end of this month. The successful launching last November of the first Interplanetary Monitoring Probe 'I.M.P.i, now known as Explorer 18, may cause the second one to be delayed until later this year. The Ranger series of lunar probes, which has been held up for more than a year because of a thorough investigation of the high failure rate, will resume with Ranger 7, which is intended to relay close-up television pictures of the lunar surface before it impacts on the moon.

Second Quarter O. 1 Atlas-Ag. CK. Syncom 3 Delta CK. Explorer S-3 Delta CK. Relay 3 Delta CK. Ranger 8 Atlas-Ag. C.K. IJH.P. 3 Delta CK. Fourth Test Centaur CK. Apollo Test Saturn I CK. Explorer Scout PA. P. 1 Thor-Ag. PA. Transit Scout PA. The first Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (0.G.0.) will do the work of half a dozen smaller scientific satellites since it can carry as many as 50 different experiments on board. Later another 0.G.0. will be placed in a polar orbit (P.0.G.). The third Syncom communications satellite will be sent into a stationary position over the Pacific where it will link America with the Far East. A boilerplate model of an Apollo command module will be launched atop the sixth Saturn I for a re-entry test and the fourth Centaur test will carry, for dynamic testing, a model of the Surveyor lunar-landing vehicle.

Third Quarter Tiros 9, Delta. CK. 0.5.0. 3. Delta, CK. Ranger 9, Atlas-Ag, CK. Explorer, Scout, WI. 0.G.0. 2, Atlas-Ag, CK. 4th Test, Centaur, CK. Explorer, Saturn I, CK. Gemini 2, Titan 11, CK. Nimbus 2, Thor-Ag, PA. The most interesting launches during the third quarter should be ttie second unmanned Gemini flight with a "mechanical astronaut” on board and orbiting of a huge 100 ft-wide meteoroid detection satellite by the seventh Saturn I.

Fourth Quarter Anna 2, Delta, CK. Explorer, Scout, PA Apollo Test, Saturn I, CK. Mariner 3, Atlas-Ag., CK. Mariner 4, Atlas-Ag.. C.K. sth Test, Centaur, CK. Gemini 3, Titan U, CK. Tiros 10, Delta, CK. Transit, Scout, PA During November there will be a favourable opportunity to send payloads to Mare and the Americans plan to despatch two Mariner spacecraft on the 200-million mile journey. It will be a somewhat riskier venture than the succesful Mariner 2 Venus probe and there will probably be one or two Soviet Mars-probes making the trip as well The race may lead to an extremely close and exciting finish. The 41 launches listed above may be shifted around

from quarter to quarter, mainly because of delays, but the majority should fly in 1964. The list is not complete and the launch schedule is flexible enough to allow a few additional missions, if necessary. Furthermore, the list does not include any of the secret satellites to be sent into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defence: these may number as many again if the last two years are anything to go by. As for the 1964 crop of Soviet satellites and spaceprobes we can only guess. Say a dozen Cosmos satellites, three Polyots, two Mars probes, two lunar probes, four more Vostock flights with maybe a rendezvous in space and for good measure a manned trip to the vicinity of the moon. Adding everything together it appears likely that 1964 may have the record number of 100 space flights in one year.