Scrapbook 2: Jul 1962 — Big Shot 2, Apollo
U.S. BALLOON GOES 922 MILES INTO SPACE
INFLATED AFTER ROCKET LAUNCH
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM TEST
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT NEW YORK, Wednesday.
THE largest man-made object to be sent into space, a balloon 135ft in diameter, as tall as a 13-storey building, went 922 miles high after being launched to-day by a Thor rocket from Cape Canaveral.
The balloon, known as “Big Shot” is the forerunner of a similar sphere which will be put into orbit as a communications satellite in the autumn.
Big Shot’s task to-day was to prove to American scientists that the gigantic balloon would inflate at the prescribed height and hold its shape. At Cape Canaveral technicians watched the brief life of Big Shot through a television camera mounted in the nose of the Thor rocket.
AUTOMATIC RELEASE
Puff of smoke
After being released from its canister, the deflated plastic bundle took 20 seconds to become a huge ball 135 feet in diameter. It went into a suborbital flight, which ended 23 minutes later in a puff of smoke, as intended.
Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the flight was a complete success. Big Shot’s successor will be Echo Two, which will be put into orbit, joining Echo One, the communications satellite launched by the United States two years ago.
American scientists are experimenting with various types of satellites to determine which would be the most feasible
CLEARLY VISIBLE
1960 Launching
OUR SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT writes: Echo One was fired into orbit in August, 1960, and is still reasonably spherical and clearly visible. It was originally 100ft in diameter, although buffetings by the particles in space must have shrunk this diameter to a certain extent.
The satellite has had many signals bounced off it, for it is a passive reflector and contains no radio equipment.
A 13-storey balloon soars into space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, Wednesday. — “Big Shot” rocketed into space from here today as a forerunner of an advanced communications satellite.
“Big Shot,” the largest object to go aloft, is a balloon and it inflated to the height of a 13-storey building.
Successfully it soared 950 miles above the Atlantic, providing a spectacular show for ground observers as it separated from a Thor booster and expanded to its 135ft. diameter.
After rising to 950 miles, 510lb. “Big Shot” plunged back to the earth’s atmosphere and burned up—as intended.
A television camera mounted in the head of the Thor Rocket sent “live” pictures of the balloon inflation to a monitor on the Sape. Officials reported they were of excellent quality.
Recovery craft waited about 250 miles northeast of San Salvador to try to pick them up.—AP.
MIDDLE EAST “RACE”
From Our Own Correspondent JERUSALEM, Israel, Sunday.
Israeli newspapers, saying that a rocket race in the Middle East has now started, urge the Government to proceed with the development of Israel’s solid fuel rocket launched last year. They stress that Egypt’s rockets, even without nuclear warheads, could seriously affect Israelis’ morale in time of war.
Egypt’s Russian Tupolev bombers are considered for the moment more dangerous than the rockets. They could stage near-saturation raids over Israeli cities.
The newspapers say that President Nasser leaves Israel no choice but to press forward with the development of means of defence.
WASHINGTON (UPI)—The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has disclosed it expects to ask Congress next January for money to build a three-man spaceship for voyages around the moon in the next 10 years.
NASA also told about an unmanned “mobile laboratory” it hoped to dispatch to the moon aboard a Saturn rocket. This robot vehicle, a forerunner of human explorers, would creep over as much as 8,000 square miles of lunar terrain and report to earth what it found out.
The vision of the 1960 was unfolded to 1,300 government, industry and university officials in the final day of a two-day meeting behind closed doors. Censored reports were made public.
Astronaut Next Year
The “advance manned spacecraft” to be proposed would be the next step after Project Mercury. NASA plans to boost a Mercury Astronaut into a 120-mile orbit some time next year and bring him back to earth after three circuits.
The more spacious new three-man ship, boosted by the 1.5 million pound thrust Saturn, would be for flights around the moon and would double as an earth-orbiting laboratory.
George M. Low, chief of NASA’s space flight programs, said tentative plans called for putting the new ship under contract in the fiscal year starting next July 1.
The project is called Apollo.
Earth Orbits in 1966
Research and development and prototype flights would take until 1965. Earth orbiting with three-man crews conceivably could start in 1966 and moon orbits would follow as soon as technical and medical knowledge permitted, Low said.
The Apollo would be the first civilian vehicle permitting man to “perform useful functions in space.”
Low said circumlunar flight was the “ultimate manned mission” foreseen in this decade with presently planned rocket boosters. But the Apollo vehicle will lead the way to landings on the moon and planets after 1970.
Planetary Probings
In its briefings NASA laid heavy emphasis on moon exploration but also told of ambitious plans to probe into the vicinity of Mars and Venus, and even Mercury and Jupiter.
Edgar M. Cortright, head of lunar and planetary programs, said two attempts will be made this year to put unmanned vehicles in orbit around the moon.
In the middle of the decade, NASA plans to land research instruments gently on the moon—first stationary types, then a mobile “creeping” laboratory, called Prospector, which will make remotely controlled explorations.
Toward 1970, the agency hopes to send an ingenious device to the moon that can scoop up a surface sample and bring it home.
SECRET SATELLITE LAUNCHED
Point Arguello, California, Wednesday.—U.S. Air Force to-day launched secret satellite here, possibly a Samos “sky spy” or Midas. Announcement said only that a satellite employing an Atlas-Agena B Booster combination was launched.—BUP.
U.S. DILEMMA: 18 ORBITS?
By PETER FAIRLEY
America’s manned space flight programme will now take a short breather while her space chiefs take the difficult decision: Should they try next for another three, seven or 18 orbits?
The next astronaut is unlikely to go up before August because the Atlas rocket pads at Cape Canaveral are booked fully for jobs which include sending a spacecraft to Venus.
Anything over three orbits will call for modification to the Mercury spaceship. Room must be found for a larger air conditioning unit and extra fuel for the hydrogen peroxide jets.
More ambitious
As a major overhaul must now be carried out on the capsule’s attitude conrtol system—it went wrong on both orbital flights—this would seem a good moment to plump for a more ambitious shot next time.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials are anxious to “blood” all seven astronauts as soon as possible and to give Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom a second “go.”
These two—who made “sub-orbital” flights—are in danger of being written off in the publice image as the “not-quite spacemen,” despite the fact that they took the same risks.
Scott Carpenter’s flight yesterday has proved two things clearly and confirmed some more.
The armada
The first is the wisdom of maintaining a massive and costly armada of recovery ships and airplanes. Even the 15,000 men used yesterday proved barely adequate: the astronaut might have been lying severely injured during his 52 “lost” minutes.
It showed that for the recovery of Moonships—which are likely to miss their planned landing areas not by hundreds but thousands of miles—a truly world-wide force will be needed. This is obviously one of the most promising areas for co-operation between Russia and the United States.
Secondly, Carpenter’s dramatic re-entry exposed the need for improved radio systems for spaceships. Something which will work during the fierce heat of re-entry is urgently required, particularly for Moonships which will come in at speeds up to 25,000 m.p.h.
Man is best
The 37-year-old navy test pilot confirmed what was felt after the Glenn flight—that Man is infinitely better than a robot in space. Once again, it was only the ability of the pilot to take over manual control of his “ship” that enabled the full mission to be achieved.
Reams of magnetic tape and recordings of Carpenter’s physical and mental behaviour are now being analysed.
These should indicate how the next astronauts are likely to stand up to the strain of longer flights.
Both Glenn and Carpenter were tired out after four and three-quarter hours. But this was chiefly because they got too warm and had to take the controls for long stretches.
Things should be better for men who can stay up long enough to take a catnap.
Secret Satellite Launched by Air Force
VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. (UPI) — The Air Force has launched another secret satellite—probably one of the Discoverer series—but declined to say whether it had gone into orbit.
The Air Force followed a pattern adopted two months ago of releasing a brief announcement describing the booster and second stage. The United State has recently refused to release any details on military satellities, including the reconnaissance type—Midas and Samos—or the Discoverers.