Successful Pictures From Moon Satellite

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 15

Successful Pictures From Moon Satellite

GV Z.P A. Reuter—Copyright)

GAPE KENNEDY, August 19. Lunar Orbiter I flashed round the moon today returning new pic■urcs of the landscape below and now faces only one more hurdle before Kt begins its major mission—finding safe landing sites for American ■astronauts. fhe windmill-shaped spacecraft, which became a satellite of the ■moon on Sunday after a four-day voyage from Gape Kennedy, took 20 ■ test frames yesterday and successfully sent two of them back to earth—- ■ the first from a lunar orbit.

More are being transmitted today, ■ and new test shots may be taken of the ■ dark side of the moon. I lowever, before the spacecraft can I begin its reconnaissance assignment, it I must fire its braking rocket to dip the I low point of its path down to 28 miles I above the surface.

This is planned for I Sunday. The lowest point of its present orbit is 129 miles. On Monday, the spacecraft will begin a series of 1/6 shots of nine selected targets as its orbit brings them successively into view. One target is the area near the western edge of .he equator on the side of the moon which can be seen from the earth. There, Surveyor I, which sent thousands of surfacelevel pictures back to earth in June, lies dormant, and pictures of the bug-like space craft are expected. The pictures taken yesterday covered an area of the eastern edge of the moon’s equator—a side-on view as seen from earth. It is named Smyth's Sea after the 18th-century British admiral and astronomer, William Henry Smyth. Millions Watched Millions watched on television across North America as the first picture came down in segments. They were dim and without contrast, but officials attributed this to difficulty converting Lunar Orbiter’s video signals into home television signals. Engineers processing the pictures reported that they had excellent clarity, though they were not expected to be as sharp as the views taken once the spacecraft is down to its lower orbit. Each transmission returned actually consisted of two pictures—one wide-angle and one close-up—superimposed on each other, giving a “stereo" effect. One of the later pictures showed the edge of a huge crater, possibly one mile across Another contained long straight grooves, possibly a crack on the lunar surface

partially filled with rubble. The strangest sight of all was a grouping of craters which resembled a huge pawlike print—the pad of the foot and three toes. “It demonstrates the capability to do precisely what we asked it to do,” Mr Lee Scherer, the Lunar Orbiter programme manager, told a press conference after the first picture was received. “We’re all delighted,” he said. “We’re ready for the real payoff—photography of areas of greatest potential as landing sites for manned and unmanned spacecraft.” In Madrid the United States-Spanish space tracking centre at Robledo de Chavela today received a picture from the satellite showing a unique part of the moon’s landscape. A spokesman said the photograph showed craters, long narrow valleys and indentations on the lunar surface. He added that the two photographs received at the centre were of good quality.

It was the first time that, this type of photograph was released outside the United States

. Officials said the area i photographed measured about . 1 82 miles by 31 miles near the I equator.