Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-08-15
AIuminum-PIostic Sphere
Apparently Destroyed
Continued From First Page

nred Tnof. A Navy P0larlS
intermediate range submarine
launched missile was fired from
an underground site at Cape
Canaveral. And finally the
Beacon experiment was lofted
atop a modified Jupiter at the
cape.
Cause Undetermined
With the exception of the Ii
tan. all the basic rockets in
volved apparently performed
perfectly. Exact cause of the
Beacon failure was not imme-
diately known, but fault seemed
TO center in a guidance system
that is not used in the Jupi-
ter'S military version. Similarly,
the failure of the Discoverer
mission was not due in any way
to the Thor missile which pro-
vided the initial thrust.
Air Force planes took off from
Hickam Field, Hawaii, at mid
afternoon Washington time and
flew to a rendezvous southwest
of the newest American State.
1t was into this watery region.
200 miles north and south by
so miles east and west that the
DiScoverer recovery capsule was
supposed to be dropped. The
planes planned to home in on
the capsules radio signals as
it parachuted down. and then
expected to try to Snach it out
of the air with special trapeze-
like attachments trailing behind
and beneath the planes.
Faced Heavy Odds
Pentagon Spokesman said in
advance that the odds were 999
to against the missions sue
cess. When the capsule radio
failed to work at the start OF
the re-entry at 5:42 pm.
(EDT), the odds heightened
considerably. The problem
then became one of finding
something no bigger than q
wash tub in an area the size
of the State of Maryland.
The recovery force received
no signals from the capsule
and no visual sighting has been
reported, apparently because
of a malfunction of the Sc
quencing Of telemetry signals
before or after separation, the
Pentagon said at 1880 pm.
An hour after the Discoverer
announcement, the Beacon shot a
was fired. Eighteen minutes
later. at 8:48 pm, space agency
headquarters mere announced I
that all three stages - the |
Jupiter and two upper stages s
made of clusters of miniature I
Sergeant solid rockets - had ;
been fired. :
Setback Conceded
Seasoned followers of rocket
firingS prepared themselves for {
a letdown when half an hour, :
and then an hour dragged on
without further word from
tracking stations. 1t was not
until 1l:30 pm, however, that
NASA said the sphere APP
parently had failed to go into
orbit.
Cause of the failure is I'M
der study" a NASA statement
said. Preliminary data avail
able indicates that the first
Jupiter stage worked okay, but
after separation of the Jupiter .
guidance department, the atti- .
tude control system erred,
pointing the cluster downward !.
and to the left. Thus, although =
the second and third stages !,
fired, it is presumed that the a
satellite burned up in the at =
mosphere. The location of final +
destruction is not yet deter )
mined"
Flimsy Material Used r
! If the Beacon shot had been v
a success, its satellite would /
have been one of the largest +
and by all odds the most I'M Il
substantial ever placed in or
bit. Although the sphere, when c
inflated, had a diameter of IL I
feet, it weighed only slightly I
more than 10 pounds. 1t was l
made Of two sheets of alumni a
mum foil bonded to a sheet of I
Mylor plastic. The resulting Y
sandwich" was only $1,000
inch thick-just two-thirds the
thickness of the sheet of paper
on which these words are c
printed. I
The Beacon sphere, devel-
oped by William j. O'Sullivan,
jr., of the NASA Langley Re-
search Center in Hampton, Va,
is understood to have cost ,
about $4,000. The whole =
launching experiment probably /,
cost about 81 million.
Purpose of the Beacon ex- $
pertinent was to gauge the drag
effect of the extremely tenu- !
oue atmosphere" - almost a {
vs.cuum-at attitudes between {
400 and 1,400 miles. BY COM {
pairing the observed movement
in orbit of the Beacon satellite 1
with the calculatable theor- ,
etical performance of a sphere /
moving in a perfect vacuum
density of the atmosphere
could be determined. A much |;
larger sphere, a 100-footer, is
understood to be on the sched-
ule for late this year. Another