Schoolboys reveal Soviet super-rocket efforts

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 10

Schoolboys reveal Soviet super-rocket efforts

NZPA-AP London The Soviet Union is pushing ahead with preparations to launch a big new heavylift rocket more powerful than the American SaturnS to ferry material into space for an orbital station, a team of amateur British space watchers says. The space monitoring group from Kettering Boys’ School, in Hertfordshire, north of London, has earned an international reputation by frequently beating the Americans and Russians in announcing space news. A schoolboy, Grant Thomson, wrote in “Nature” magazine that analysis of high-resolution colour photographs of the complex taken in December by the crew of the space shuttle Columbia showed what appeared to be a new launching pad at Baikonur, east of the Aral Sea. The photos showed “three

very large new buildings which, because of their size, are probably vehicle assembly buildings. The shadow of what is possibly the new heavy-lift vehicle can be seen.” He estimated that the rocket was 90 metres high.

Grant Thomson said that the photos showed a “V--shaped feature ... strongly suggestive of a large new launch pad and associated flame-pit. Its size and probable recent construction suggest it could be the launch facilities for the new heavy-lift vehicle.” A five-kilometre runway was under construction north of the space flight centre, the Soviet equivalent of Cape Canaveral. This is believed to be for returning space shuttles Western analysts say that the Soviets hope to launch. Western defence sources have believed for some time

that the Soviets have built two new big launching complexes at the’Cosmodrome for a giant SLX booster rocket, known in the West by the code-letter G.

It is believed to be more powerful than the American Saturn rocket that powered the Apollo moon missions. The United States Defence Department noted in its latest assessment of Soviet military power that "significant new launch and support facilities ... are nearing completion” at Baikonur for heavy-lift vehicles to carry a Soviet space shuttle. Grant Thomson noted that the Columbia photos “clearly show the extensive activity now in progress at Baikonur and provide a good guide for the West to the Soviet authorities’ intention of continuing with their investment in space programmes.”

The photos had pinpointed the sprawling Baikonur Cosmodrome in the steppes of Khazakstan at 63.3 deg. E., 46 deg. N. The Soviets have been deliberately vague about the Y-shaped Cosmodrome’s exact location since it became operational in the 19505. They said that it lay near the town of Baikonur, giving its co-ordinates variously at 65.5 deg. E., 47.7 deg. N„ and 66 deg. E., 46 deg. N. But the Kettering group says that the complex lies 370 km to the south-west, near the old town of Tyuratam, east of the Aral Sea. The Kettering group has used rudimentary radio receivers and computers, to monitor Soviet, United States, and Chinese space traffic since 1960, earning a reputation for spotting launching sites, errant space vehicles, and new space missions.