Scrapbook 2: Sep 1962 — J-2, astronauts

THE Foreign Office has now confirmed that British policy on selling missiles in the Middle East is to be re-examined. During recent years our official policy has been, in their own words, “to do nothing which would contribute to an arms race in the area”.

This policy, although it was often more honoured in the breach than the observance by our arms manufacturers, was eminently sensible. Having taken a major part in producing the original Israel question, we were bound to attempt to keep it within bounds.

Both Israel and Egypt, however, have recently tested missiles made by their own scientists, the former for allegedly peaceful purposes, the latter for the purpose of ‘defence’.

There are also believed to be Russian missiles in the area, probably in either Iraq or Egypt. For this reason the Americans are now allowing their manufacturers to sell missiles to Israel, a step as ill-advised as it is shortsighted. Not only does this introduce a new factor into the precarious balance of power in the area — it also lays upon the West the stigma of being the first overtly to encourage this new arms race.

Eager not to be left out of the pickings, therefore, our own Foreign Office is to re-examine our own sales in the area in the height of this “misunderstanding”. Naturally enough our missile manufacturers would welcome this new outlet, which might help to ease the chronic troubles now affecting their factories.

To sell missiles in this area would only accelerate the deterioration of a situation which is already frightening. If and when there is a war between Israel and the Arab states surrounding her, we should make sure that British missiles are not available for use. We may not be able to restrain either the Americans or the Russians in their folly, but sheer economic expediency should not tempt us to compound their error.

Edwards Air Force Base, California, Saturday.

EIGHT United States astronauts training at America’s first “school for astronauts” will visit Britain next month as guests of the Empire Test Pilots’ School, Farnborough. This will be another step toward the eventual training of Royal Air Force pilots as astronauts at America’s mid-desert “space port.”

Earlier this year 88 senior R.A.F. test pilots and the Farnborough commandant visited the “school,” officially called the Aerospace Research Pilots’ School. They watched techniques for piloting future space planes such as Dynasoar X20, the 1,800 m.p.h. orbital plane to be flight-tested by a team including an R.A.F. pilot next year, and for Moon and Mars voyages.

Informal talks to obtain facilities for R.A.F. pilots to train in American astronautical sciences have already taken place here and in Washington.

Sqdn. Ldr. Harry Archer, 35, of Edinburgh, senior R.A.F. test pilot at Edwards on the exchange scheme existing between British and American schools, is already involved in launches of high altitude flight missions of the X15 rocket plane.

“Mother ship” pilot

Later this year he will be at the controls of the B52G intercontinental bomber which is the X15’s “mother ship” when the aircraft makes its maximum altitude flight to 95 miles, or 500,000 ft.

Sqdn. Ldr. Archer’s involvement in some of America’s most secret aerospace projects is regarded here as being the start of a process which could well lead eventually to British-American astronaut crews voyaging together into space.

Furthermore, the Empire Test Pilots’ School is the only foreign establishment from which graduates, provided they have the requisite 2,000 hours test pilot experience and a test pilot engineering degree, can train in American astronautical sciences.

Although the Air Ministry has not yet taken advantage of the opportunity, I understand at least one Briton will be included in the seven-month courses within the next 18 months.

First Briton in space

This officer, who will almost certainly be selected from the 22 men who came here earlier this year, will be Britain’s first astronaut. His identity has not been revealed here.

Another factor which is leading the United States Air Force to consider recruiting Britons for astronautical training is that the reservoir of pilots with the requisite experience within the United States “is not inexhaustible.”

An Air Force officer said to me: “With all their experience, their rigorous training, their experience of bad weather flying, all invaluable experience for the astronaut, the recruitment of Britons to co-operate in the United States space programme would seem to be a sensible movement.

“At present we have as many men as we want, but as our space programmes expand we shall require more, and at this stage and at this level we would be delighted to have the English along.”

With the eight trainee astronauts on the visit will be seven instructors and their test pilot commandant, Col. Charles Yeager.

CANOGA PARK, Calif. (AP) — The J2 rocket engine, which will be used to power the United States’ first space craft to the moon, successfully passed its first prolonged static test, builders have said.

The J2, the most powerful hydrogen-oxygen engine now being tested in this country, ran at full thrust for 4 minutes at a field laboratory near Canoga Park the other day. It was designed and built by the Rocket-Dyne Division of North American Aviation Inc.

Leland F. Belew, head of the Marshall Space Flight Center of Huntsville, Ala., said “It appears to have been a complete success. This is a major milestone in the J2 development program.”

Cluster of Five

The J2 will be used in a cluster of five to propel the second stage of the Saturn C5 Apollo Moon Rocket. A single J2 engine will power the Saturn S4B, the top stage of the moon rocket.

First flights of the Apollo moon craft are expected in the mid-1960s. The United States hopes to put the Apollo on the moon by the end of the decade.

The J2 will have a thrust of 200,000 pounds at its operating altitude.

Rocket engines now in use, like the one that boosted Walter Schirra into orbit, are hydrocarbon engines which usually burn kerosene.

Engines of the J2 type provide more than 30 per cent more thrust than the hydrocarbon engines, according to Rocket-Dyne officials.

Booster Recovery Kits

Washington—All American Engineering Co. has received an $81,400 Army contract to design and test two recovery kits for Sikorsky H-37 helicopters to be used at White Sands Missile Range, N. M., for booster, drone and instrument package recovery.

The new recovery systems will be capable of snatching packages weighing up to several thousand pounds, since rocket boosters launched at White Sands reach this weight. The contract calls for the system to be operational this fall.

All American initially developed the system for the USAF Discoverer satellite program. It was later made a part of the recovery procedure for the camera pod carried on board the ballistic payload for the Echo 2 satellite launch.

NEW YORK, Monday.

THE United States announced the names to-day of nine new astronauts who will take part in the Appollo flights to the moon. All are married with children.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the men were chosen from 253 candidates. They are:

Mr. NEIL A. ARMSTRONG, 32, a civilian formerly with the Navy; Major FRANK BORMAN, 34, Air Force; Lieut. CHARLES CONRAD, 32, Navy; Lt.-Cdr. JAMES A. LOVELL, 34, Navy; Capt. JAMES A. MCDIVITT, 33, Air Force; Mr. ELLIOT M. SEE, 35, civilian; Capt. THOMAS P. STAFFORD, 32, Air Force; Capt. EDWARD H. WHITE, 32, Air Force; Lt.-Cdr. JOHN W YOUNG, 31, Navy.

TWO MEN IN ORBIT

The new astronauts have an average flying time of 2,800 hours including 1,900 in jets. They are expected to be prime considerations for the Gemini project to put two men into orbit in a single capsule.

This programme calls for a rendezvous in space by two vehicles, an important step before the Apollo moon project is put into operation. In the Apollo programme a three-man space capsule will be put into orbit round the moon.

From this a two-man “bug” will leave for the moon’s surface.

The next American space flight will be made by Cdr. Walter Schirra on Sept. 28.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (UPI) — The Army Air Defense Comd said the first Army National Guard units in North America to be armed with Nike Hercules missiles have moved to defense sites in the Washington-Baltimore defense area.

Lt Gen William W. Dick Jr. of Colorado Springs, commander of the Army unit, said four National Guard batteries soon to become operational in the area represent the beginning of the Guard’s on-site Hercules program.

By 1965, he said, Army National Guard units will man more than one-third of the Army Air Defense Comd’s nationwide force of combat-ready Nike Hercules units.

The Army command provides surface-to-air missile units which are used by the North American Air Defense Comd (NORAD), headquartered here, for air defense of specified areas.

Past Practice Followed

Dick said active Army units, as in the past, will continue to man the bulk of the tactical Army Nike Hercules sites engaged in continental air defense.

Until now, they have manned all such sites on the American continent, although Guard units had charge of six Nike Hercules installations defending Hawaii.

The Hawaiian units are not part of the Army command’s task organization.

The four Hercules batteries of the National Guard now a part of Washington-Baltimore defense are the first of 16 on-site National Guard Hercules batteries planned for use by the end of the current fiscal year next June.

Dick said 20 more would be on sites by the end of the 1964 fiscal year. The program to convert Guard units from the older Nike Ajax missiles to the new Hercules will be completed by 1965.

THE United States will lead the world into Space, said President Kennedy yesterday.

Only if they occupied that position “can we help to decide whether this great new ocean will be a sea of blessed peace or a theatre of terrifying war,” he went on.

Speaking at Houston, Texas, he called for bold and daring efforts to land a man on the moon—a target he has set to be reached by 1970.

Vowed

He said: “We have vowed that Space shall not be governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of peace.

“Yet the vows of this nation can only be fulfilled if we are first—and we intend to be first.”

The President, who has been touring US rocket bases, was accompanied by Mr. Peter Thorneycroft, Britain’s Defence Minister, when he visited Huntsville, Alabama, and Cape Canaveral, Florida.

SPARROW SUCCESS

By Our Defence Correspondent

A Sparrow 3 guided missile fired by an American naval plane has scored a head-on hit on a Regulus 2 missile launched from the surface. The interception, according to the U.S. Navy, was carried out above the Pacific missile range off Point Mugu, California.

Sparrow 3 is an air-to-air missile, and in this case was fired from an F-4H Phantom 2 jet fighter at supersonic speed. The Regulus missile, which it hit, was also flying above the speed of sound.

According to the Bureau of Naval Weapons the head-on hit “destroyed the target missile”. Details of the speeds and altitude have not been divulged.

The F-4H can carry up to six Sparrow missiles, which are produced by the Raytheon Corporation.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (UPI) — Eight of America’s nine new astronauts have completed a four-day nationwide tour of space plants with an inspection of the Agena-D rocket that will play an important role in the U.S effort to reach the moon.

Before they toured the Lockheed Space and Missiles Division plant where the Agena-D is assembled, the astronauts received a full briefing on the rocket from company and space agency officials.

Included in the party were Maj Frank Borman, Lt Charles Conrad, Lt Cmdr James Lovell, Capt James A. McDevitt, Elliott M. See, Capt Thomas P. Stafford, Maj Edward H. White and Lt Cmdr John W. Young. The ninth astronaut, Neil Armstrong, did not take part in the tour.

Elmer P. Wheaton, vice-president of Lockheed’s space program division, explained that the Agena-D will “lock on” with the two-man Gemini capsule in space and will provide the power to put the capsule into orbit for an ultimate goal of 14 days.

WASHINGTON (UPI) — The Army’s director of aviation said he was “mad as hell” that there was no Army aviator among the U.S. astronauts.

Brig Gen Delk M. Oden smiled when he said it and did not elaborate.

But other sources indicated two Army candidates had been proposed for the manned space flight program but were not considered to have enough jet-flying hours to qualify as astronauts.

Newsmen asked Oden about the astronauts at the annual meeting of the Army Aviation Association of America, which is comprised of Army fliers and industrial concerns which produce aviation equipment for the Army.

At the meeting, Gen Earle G. Wheeler, new Army chief of staff, presented Distinguished Flying Crosses to three Army helicopter pilots who set new flight records.

They were: Lt Col Leland F. Wilhelm, a Dunbar, Neb., native now assigned to Ft. Rucker, Ala., who on April 14, set a record by flying his turbine powered Iroquois helicopter to a height of 9,843 feet in two minutes, 17.3 seconds.

Maj Boyce B. Buckner, Pike View, Ky., also assigned to Ft. Rucker, who on April 13 set a climb record of five minutes, 51 seconds in reaching 19,686 feet.

Maj William F. Gurley, a Washington, D.C. native assigned to Ft. Rucker, who set a speed record of 134.9 miles an hour over a 621.4-mile closed course April 20. The record was previously held by a Russian helicopter.

Nuclear-tipped Minuteman rockets (range, 6,500 miles) are stationed in Montana and will be officially declared “combat-ready” soon—bringing the US long-range striking force up to at least 280 missiles.