FOUR SATELLITES UP

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30940, 22 December 1965, Page 13

FOUR SATELLITES UP

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter —Copt/right? CAPE KENNEDY, December 21. The United States today launches four unmanned satellites to 20,000 miles above the earth. The complex six-hour manoeuvre, during which the satellites will be carried aloft in a triple-barrelled Air Force Titan 111 rocket, is scheduled to begin at 2 a.m. on December 22, New Zealand time. The satellites, including two which will pave the way for a world-wide military communications system, are expected to orbit above the Galapagos Islands, off the Pacific coast of South America.

The third satellite is a ham radio operators’ venture and the fourth will carry out experiments to measure solar radiation. The four satellites will

jcircle the earth slowly every 12 days. Devices which may be used in future military defence communications will be tested in two communications satellites, Les 111 and Les IV, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The launching will be the first test of the Titan Hl since October 15, when the last stage of the three-stage rocket disintegrated in space. Oscar IV, the amateur radio satellite, was built by a group of space engineers who are members of the American Radio Relay League.