Self-Sufficiency For Space Flight Proved

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30406, 3 April 1964, Page 11

Self-Sufficiency For Space Flight Proved

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SEATTLE, April 2. Five men emerged happily last night from 30 days of isolation in a sealed chamber, where they proved that life can be supported for at least a month in space or on the moon.

Their water was reclaimed from wastes after the first small supply was used. All food was dehydrated and freeze-dried into small light-weight packets, then reconstituted with water. The same air, purified with chemicals, was breathed over-and-over. Life was under conditions they would have encountered in space, except for weightlessness. The experiment, conducted by the Boeing company for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was the first in the United States integrating all systems for support of life away, from earth. PEACE GRANT The Japanese Government has decided to provide 100,000 dollars towards the cost of the United Nations peace force in Cyprus.—Tokyo, April 2. SUNDAY WORK The Lord’s Day Observance Society claims Britain might have failed in her negotiations with the European Common Market because the Government worked on Sundays. The society said it rejoiced over the failure because Continental influence would have made inroads on the British Sunday. Its 1963 report comments: “These negotiations, their failure, and the ultimate fall of Mr Harold Macmillan as Premier might never have occurred if the leaders of the nation had paid heed to God’s word and sought his ways instead of holding political conferences and making journeys upon His day.”—Rondon, April 2. BLIND FLYING Britain’s three-jets-at-the-tail airliner, the Hawker Siddeley Trident, soared into regular scheduled service yesterday. The 80-seater, 610 miles an hour airliner, took off in service with British European Airways for Zurich,

Switzerland. The Trident is the first airliner in the world to be engineered from the start for the British-developed blind-landing system which is planned to become fully operational by 1969. It will then be able to land in conditions at present considered impossible—London, April 2. FEW CHEERS Banners and flags, but few cheers, greeted Mr Khrushchev on his second visit to Hungary since the 1956 uprising. The Soviet Premier, looking fit and sun-tanned, arrived by train in Budapest for an “official, friendly” stay expected to last 10 days. —Budapest, April 2, TV TAKE The Government will draw more than £75 million from commercial television in Britain over the next three years as a result of increased taxation, according to the Earl of Derby, chairman of Television Wales and West, in his annual report to shareholders. This calculation does not include licence fees. —London, April 2. PEAR SALES Louise Bonne de Jersey pears from Hastings, which arrived in the lonic and were auctioned yesterday in London, Hull and Liverpool, met a good demand. They averaged 30s to 34s a case. William Bon Chretien pears from Nelson will be auctioned in London today. The shipment of both varieties totalled 38,322 cases.—London, April 2. COMPLAINT The U.N. Security Council was yesterday summoned into urgent session today to consider a Yemeni complaint of British aggression stemming from an attack on a Yemeni fort by Royal Air Force fighters last Saturday. The complaint charged more than 40

acts of British aggression since the republic was established in 1962. It said 25 Yemenis were killed and others injured in the attack last Saturday.—New York, April 2. OIL SEARCH The discovery of natural gas in the far north of South Australia has encouraged the Government to step up its oil search programme in the Murray Basin, the Premier, Sir Thomas Playford, said yesterday.—Adelaide, April 2. TEST CASE The Freedom to Read Association has decided to test the restrictive sale ban in Victoria and New South Wales on Mary McCarthy’s latest novel “The Group.”—Melbourne, April 2. NO SMOKING

The Manchester City Council has banned smoking on its 1300 buses. The proposer, Cr. Bernard Conlan, a non-smoker, says smoking is a health hazard.—London, April 2.