Preparations For Satellite Rocket

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 13

Preparations For Satellite Rocket

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WOOMERA (South Australia), May 15. Britain’s Blue Streak rocket is on its launching pad at Lake Hart, near Woomera, ready to be fired into space on May 25 subject to weather.

A former military rocket, it is now the first stage of the European Launcher Development Organisation satellite programme. Mr C. R. Hume, who has been responsible for the Blue Streak trials over the last seven years, said today: “I’ve never had a vehicle in such good condition.” The 63-foot silvery aluminium rocket is standing in a protective tower 200 feet above the hard salt surface of Lake Hart.

Final checking will start on Monday with instrumentation and power tests. More instrumentation checks will follow on Tuesday, and the next day the auto pilot will be tested.

Engine and safety checks will be made on Thursday. They will be followed by sequence firing runs. The 48-hour final countdown is due to start on May 24.

The British Minister of Aviation, Mr Julian Amery, and senior officials of E.L.D.0., will watch the firing. Patrol officers in light aircraft and trucks are searching for aborigines and pros-

pectors in rough desert country in Australia’s northwest—the rocket impact area. The Blue Streak is scheduled to cover 1000 miles in 10 minutes, reaching a maximum height of 170 miles.

It will be broken up during re-entry into the atmosphere by explosive charges inside. Safety shelters have been built for the families living at the six remote cattle stations within the flight corridor boundaries.

They will be in constant radio communication with Woomera.