Scrapbook 2: Aug 1962 — Telstar

13 satellites for GPO

PROPOSAL FROM FARNBOROUGH

By an Air Correspondent

The Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough has proposed a system of satellites in circular orbits over the equator to meet future communication requirements specified by the GPO.

Although the ideal orbital height would be 9,000 nautical miles, a height of 6,000 nautical miles would be acceptable initially and would enable the forthcoming European space launching vehicle based on Blue Streak to be used. Before such a system could be operational, however, a new launching site would need to be built near the equator.

These are among the details of British Communication satellite plans which are disclosed in an article in today’s issue of “Flight” magazine. The heart of the RAE plan is its design for an extremely simple satellite, weighing some 400lb. and looking rather like a spiky, four-bladed paddle-wheel. Solar cells cover the four paddles, two of which carry electronics equipment at their ends.

Initial cost

To develop this satellite to a usable form would cost about £20 millions, including nine launchings. The initial capital cost for an operational system would total about £84 millions, of which £20 millions would be for the construction of a launching site, £4.5 millions for three guidance stations, £24 millions for 16 communication ground stations, £200,000 each for 21 satellites, and £31.5 millions for 21 launchings.

Thirteen satellites in orbit at 6,000 miles, it is calculated, would provide an acceptable operational system for worldwide communication. The difference between 13 and the 21 satellites assumed in the cost estimates represents an allowance to cover unsuccessful launching attempts.

At least five years would be needed to complete the development programme and reach the stage of launching the first operational satellite. The European launching vehicle, however, is not likely to be available before 1967 to begin development launches, and a total time of seven years to an operational system is more likely.

Satellites in orbits around the poles were considered, but rejected because of the technical difficulty of “station-keeping” while in orbit. Station-keeping for the equatorial system chosen would be simpler. Another alternative, employing a large number of satellites in random orbits, was rejected because of complexity and cost.

Ideally, the GPO wanted each satellite to be capable of handling about 1,000 telephone circuits plus two television channels. But the RAE conclude that this requirement cannot be met, using the first version of the European launching vehicle. Improved versions of the rocket might make this possible later, however.

THREE MORE “TELSTARS” BY JULY PLANNED

JAPAN OLYMPICS TV RELAY TO EUROPE POSSIBLE

From L. MARSLAND GANDER, Daily Telegraph Television and Radio Correspondent NEW YORK, Sunday.

TELSTAR and three more communications satellites, called Relay, will be in orbit by next July if the present plans materialise. They will make possible, theoretically, four or five hours of transatlantic television relaying in every 24 hours.

Relays to Europe of the Olympic Games from Japan in 1964 may be achieved. This is the main subject to be considered by 54 delegates from 19 European countries who assemble in New York to-morrow. It is the first meeting of the European Broadcasting Union to be held in the United States.

The delegates were invited by the American associate members of the Union, chiefly the three big networks, the American Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting System, and the National Broadcasting Company.

The Mayor, Mr. Wagner, will welcome the delegates at their opening meeting in the Waldorf Astoria. The chairman will be Mr. Olaf Rydbeck, president of the Union and Director-General of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation.

DECEMBER LAUNCHING

Complicated problems

The projected firing of the first of the new Relay satellites, of the Radio Corporation of America due in the first week of December, has greatly increased the importance of the meeting.

It is hoped to thrash out during the week some of the complicated legal, technical, financial, programme and copyright problems arising from these potential extensions of transatlantic live television. So far European television organisations have not paid for Telstar transmissions which have been regarded as experimental.

Relay will be four times as powerful as Telstar using 10 watts and each satellite will make eight orbits daily. But Telstar’s orbits will be unfavourable for transatlantic programming from late this month till early January.

BRITISH DELEGATE

Secret meetings

The BBC is strongly represented at the meeting. Mr. Edward Pawley, who is head of the Engineering Services Group, is chairman of the Union’s Technical Committee. Mrs. Joanna Spicer, head of BBC television programme planning, is chairman of the Union’s Programme Planning Group. Mr. E. C. Robbins, BBC legal adviser, is also attending.

Representing the Independent Television Authority and network are Mr. Bernard Sendall, the Deputy Director-General, and Mr. Howard Thomas, the chairman of the Independent Television Contractors’ Association.

After the first open plenary session to-morrow there will be a series of private committee meetings. They will be as secret as a summit conference.

On Wednesday the delegates will be guests of the United States Information Agency in Washington and will probably attend the President’s Press conference. Their last meeting will be on Friday. On Saturday they will visit the satellites tracking station at Andover, Maine.

VENUS STUDY IN OCTOBER

JODRELL BANK

Jodrell Bank is to make another experiment on Venus starting in October and lasting until about Christmas. Equipment was being transported up the 300ft-high telescope yesterday.

It is proposed to study the rate of rotation of the planet and to make a measurement of the solar system. Venus is 26 million miles away at it closest to the earth.

In the last experiment in April last year echoes were bounced off Venus. It takes two and a half minutes for an echo to reach the planet.

Dr. J. Thompson, head of the experiment, said the surfaces of the planet would be investigated. These were believed to be smoother than has been thought.

SATELLITE SENT UP

Missile launching

THE American Air Force launced a satellite with a Thor-Agena D booster from Vandenberg air base, California, to-day. As in previous launchings of Samos and Midas “spy-in-the-sky” reconnaissance satellites, no details were released.

A Titan 2 missile was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral to-day on a 5,000-mile flight. It is being developed as America’s most powerful military rocket and as booster for the Gemini and Dyna-Soar manned spacecraft.

AF Secret Satellite Launched From Calif.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (UPI)—The Air Force has announced the launching of a secret satellite, believed to be another in the Discoverer series.

The Air Force, in keeping with its policy of blacking out details of such firings, merely said in a terse statement that a satellite employing a Thor-Agena B combination had been launched.

POLARIS “NEAR DISASTER”

OUT OF CONTROL

From Our Own Correspondent NEW YORK, Friday.

A United States Air Force spokesman admitted to-day that there could have been a disaster yesterday when a large section of a Polaris missile from Cape Canaveral escaped destruction and went out of control.

Orders to destroy the Polaris, which was without a nuclear device, were given by the range safety officer when it began twisting wildly during a test flight. The section escaped and dropped into the Atlantic.

The safety officer said that the Command Destruct system had worked properly. One report stated that the missile was not wired properly for complete detonation.

At least three Soviet cosmonauts are going to be sent together to land on the moon according to Lieut.-Colonel Yuri Gagarin in a statement released through the Soviet News Service in London today.

Forecasting the way Russia will assault the moon the pioneer spaceman—now commander of Russia’s Cosmonaut Squadron—says that after robot sputniks have explored the lunar face big transport rockets will dump stocks of food, fuel and tools there.

Pre-fabricated parts from which huts can be built—made of lightweight foam metal—are also likely to be sent ahead of men.

“Only a well-prepared team will be able to fulfil the task of making the initial study of this ‘difficult’ planet which is heated to 120 degrees Centigrade in daytime and cooled to minus 150 degrees at night,” adds Gagarin.

“Men will need, of course, special insulated clothing to be able to appear on the surface.”

Maths in orbit

Fresh detail about Russia’s double space flight, also released today, reveals that Major Nikolayev spent nearly a week inside a Vostok space ship on the ground before he was passed fit for the 1,500,000 mile trip. Doctors watched him throughout for signs of a mental breakdown.

To test the effects of weightlessness the cosmonauts had to do complicated mathematics, recognise geometrical figures, tot up horizontal and vertical columns of numbers and enter their answers in a log book while they orbited the world.

Comment from their doctors today on the spacemen’s appetites: “The only thing that makes them eat during a three or four day flight is—nervousness.”