U.S. Space Antenna May Be Installed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31323, 20 March 1967, Page 11

U.S. Space Antenna May Be Installed

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) CANBERRA, March 17. The United States may build a space tracking antenna 210 ft in diameter and ancillary facilities in Australia, the deputy administrator of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dr. Robert Seamans.

Dr. Seamans said that the United States at present had only one 210 ft antenna for use in its deep space probe programmes. That was located in California. N.A.S.A. was now at the stage of deciding whether or not to proceed with the Voyager project, designed to land unmanned space satellites on Mars in 1973 and 1975.

N.A.S.A.’s request for 70 million dollars for the first stages of the project was now before Congress and the administration was studying the

facilities necessary to successfully carry out Voyager. One proposal was that three 210 ft antennae should be used to track Voyager spacecraft, giving world-wide and continuous reception of spacecraft data. If it were decided that three were needed, the United States would ask the Australian Government for permission to build one in Australia, Dr. Seamans said. The third antenna would probably be located in Spain.