Gagarin Flight Anniversary

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31032, 12 April 1966, Page 15

Gagarin Flight Anniversary

Z. Press Assn. — Copyright) MOSCOW, April 11 The Soviet Union is preparing to celebrate the fifth anniversary tomorrow of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight, with optimistic talk about putting a man on the moon, the Associated Press reported. Soviet cosmonauts have been giving indications that their Government will attempt man’s great hviar adventive sooner than had been expected. Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space on March IS If 65. said in Budapest that

a Russian will land on the moon as early as 1968. Gagarin told the Czechoslovak news agency that Soviet space research has advanced more rapidly than planned. He said he was convinced there will be a man on the moon within the next five years. Gherman Titov, the second Soviet cosmonaut, predicted yesterday that the moon will become a giant space centre where ships will be built for flights “into the depths of the universe.” He talked of complicated operations being undertaken in space by men ’soon.”

The cosmonauts, all speaking in connexion with the Gagarin anniversary, made no mention of President Johnson’s claim that the United

States will beat the Soviet Union putting a man on the moon. The President gave 1970 as the target for the United States programme. The cosmonauts’ optimism is backed by two big successes the Soviet space programme has already achieved this year. First came the soft landing on the moon on February 3 by the unmanned Luna IX spaceship. And on April 3, Luna X was put into orbit around the moon, another essential move for getting a man there. One possible next step in the Soviet programme is a manned flight to explore the vicinity of the moon without attempting a landing. A current rumour is that another space spectacular will

be launched tomorrow on the anniversary of Gagarin’s flight.

Since the last Soviet manned flight on March 18, 1965, the United States has sent up 12 astronauts in six ships. But when it comes to preparations for getting a manned spaceship to the moon, the Soviet Union has held on to its advantages. The United States Surveyor is not expected to attempt its first soft lunar landing until May, and that is being treated in advance as a possible failure. The United States lunar Orbiter is not to be launched until the middle of the year, with the limited purpose of orbiting the moon and sending back photographs.