Orbiter Nearer The Moon

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 15

Orbiter Nearer The Moon

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

NEW YORK, August 15.

A 10-minute blast from a 1001 b thrust rocket has pushed America’s Lunar Orbiter into orbit around the moon and into a perfect vantage position from which to take close-up photographs of the lunar surface.

Scientists at the jet propulsion laboratory at Pasadena, California, said the blast slowed the 8501 b spacecraft, carrying cameras and other equipment, by 1510 miles an hour, allowing lunar gravity to trap the orbiter and swing it into orbit. Spokesmen for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the spacecraft is swinging in an orbit ranging from 119 miles to 1160 miles above the moon, every three hours, 37 minutes and 36 seconds. Its mission is to take 350

photographs of a 3000-mile-long strip of the lunar equator, where nine potential landing spots for American astronauts have been selected. Completing the mission will require the spacecraft to fire us rocKet briefly once again to bring it closer to the lunar surface. The first photographs—those taken before Orbiter descends to its low orbit — will probably be televised to the public as they come in from the spacecraft, the scientists said.