Evening star., 1958-04-29

VIA AAhAAaANa AANN" $S~fN N'
malfunction.
The third OF the rockets
II splashed into the Atlantic
$500 miles away.
The slim, 72-foot missile rose
from It's launching pad at 1888
pm. As far as observers on the
Florida sandspit could see. II
was a successful takeoff-the
peer OF three earlier shots. one
Navy and two Army.
About 2la minutes later,
technicians in the control
blockhouse saw through their
instruments that the spent hrst
stage had dropped OF and the
rockets In the second stage had
ignited.
Rises for Rendezvous
At IL o'clock the dead second
stage, with the fully fueled
third stage and satellite still
attached. was coasting upward
and southwark.
The first hint OF trouble same
q few seconds after ll:02 pm.
That was the time when the
third stage should have fired.
giving the rocket its final i'm
petus to put the gold-plated
20-inch ball into orbit. Some
thing happened; exactly what,
no one will ever know. The
third stage did not fire.
BY l1:l0. the men at the con-
trolls on Cape Canaveral knew
they had launched a dud.
Vanguard never came close
to the $4,000 m.p.h. necessary
to boost q satellite into orbit.
AS newsmen in Washington
converged on the National
Academy Of Sciences to hear the
official word Of the successful
orbiting Of a fully instrument
ed International Geophysical
Year satellite. publicists in the
Pentagon gnawed their pencils
for an offcial explanation Of
the misfire. They came up with
this:
"A three-stage rocket from
the Vanguard project was
launched at 1858 Eastern Day
light Time today from the Mis-
sile Test Center at Cape Canav-
eral, Fla.
TEST range instruments in
dicated successful operation OF
the rockets first two stages,
However, the third stage did
not fire and the vehicle did not
attain the speed required tc
send an object into orbit
around the earth.
Information gained from
the flight will be used in the
launching of additional scien-
tific earth satellite rockets dur
ing the remainder of the Inter-
national GeophySical Year.
THE impact area for the
second stage to which the third
stage was still evidently at
tached was about l,500 nauti-
cal miles down the test range
from Cape Canaveral. range
instruments indicated"
Loaded With instruments
The Defense Department
data appeared to show that
the remnants Of "Vanguard-5"
hot but probably not incan.
descent-splashed a few hum
dred miles east Of Puerto Rico
something less than half an
hour after takeoff. Oficials
said there was no hope OF re-
covering the second and third
stages.
The Navy had loaded the
Vanguard with delicate instru-
ments. hoping to shed some
light on the reason solar flares
interrupt short-wave communi-
cations and possibly cause vio-
lent storms on earth.
In future Vanguard attempts
now scheduled on a one-a-
month basis. the potential
moons complex instruments
will be different in each case.
The Navy says this will pro-
vide the opportunity for gath
ering a greater amount Of USE
full data from outer space.
The slim rocket was the
seventh in a series which ha:
been building up gradually tC
a full-scale launching, and tht
first to fail since the Navy
placed a grapefruit-sized, 3K.
pound ball into orbit six week,
ago.
First Satellite Going Strong
Had the 20-inch sphere
reached orbit several hundred
miles above the earth, it prob.
ably would have been the
brightest Of four American sat.
elites. It had been specially
treated to enhance its visibility
LOST
RRACETET eitver syaadunkh.-s.