SPACE SHIPS Pacific Landing Tests By Russia

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30936, 17 December 1965, Page 21

SPACE SHIPS Pacific Landing Tests By Russia

(N.Z PA. Reuter—Copyright s MOSCOW, Dec. 15. Russia will try out landing equipment for space ships in a series of tests in the Pacific during the next six months, it was announced in Moscow last night.

The news agency, Tass, warned foreign aircraft and shipping to keep out of the test area from Thursday, December 16, until June 1, next year. The systems to be tested were thought likely to be soft-landing techniques for manned spacecraft. Soviet-manned craft already come back to earth softly with their crews inside, using retro-rockets to steady them as they approach the surface. Parachutes Used But they still use huge pink and white parachutes to slow them down sufficiently to ensure that ship and crew are unharmed. The new experiments may be designed to test equipment which can soft-land a capsule on earth without the aid of parachutes. The announcement came only a week after the Soviet moon shot Luna VIII failed to soft-land on the moon, the third Russian attempt this year to come fairly close to success. Complex Task Tests on earth cannot perfect a soft-landing technique for the airless moon, a complex task which can only be

properly tested on the lunar surface. Even so, the new series of tests may contribute to future successes on the moon. The announcement warned ships and planes to stay out of the area, in the North Pacific half way between the United States and the Soviet Union, between midnight and midday local time.