Astronauts’ Tasks In Next Flight

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30809, 22 July 1965, Page 9

Astronauts’ Tasks In Next Flight

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) HOUSTON, July 20. The astronauts, Major Gordon Cooper and Major Charles Conrad, may try to spot United States rocket launchings as they pass over America, and also communicate with another astronaut in a diving bell in the Pacific during their space flight next month.

Outlining plans for their eight-day flight due to start on August 10, the two astronauts said the rockets were due to be launched from Cape Kennedy and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, during the flight. Major Cooper said a Polaris would be fired from Cape Kennedy, but declined to discuss the Vandenberg Air Base firing. However, reliable sources said it would be a Minuteman (inter-continental) rocket. Major Cooper said the major purpose of the firing was scientific and not military. Major Conrad said it was possible they would try to communicate with the astronaut, Major Scott Carpenter, in a diving bell off the Californian coast. One of the main missions during the flight will be to try to meet a satellite to be ejected from Gemini V during its second orbit. There is no “space walk” scheduled for the flight. Cooper will be making his second trip into space—he orbited the earth 34 times in the Mercury programme.