Evening star., 1959-12-06
Money and More Aliases
Called Only Space Race Hope
By WILLIAM HINES
Star Science Writer

to the No. 2 position in the
space race for the next several
years. still has one chance to
minimize the beating it is tax
ing In the cosmic propaganda
contest.
But to avail itself of this one
ehance. experts agree, the Ma
ton must abandon its business
as usual" attitude about space
: We seem to have a policy
: that the country must have the
: pest space program money can
/, ouy-as long as it doesn't cost
more than $500 million a year /"
an authoritative Senate source
said last week. This has to
change, and quickly, or we're
sunk"
The only hope for the United
Estates to stay in the running
now and the mid-'60s appears
TO be a stepped-up production
program for the Atlas. This is
the only spaceworthy big rocket
IN the arsenal-and when a
moon shot failed THANKSGIVING
morning the last Atlas available
Tor space work was used up.
Cupboard Bare
mo money" DR.. John Lind
say Of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration said
sadly at Cape Canaveral, Fla,
an hour after the moon rocket
was launched. He was replying
70 a question as to why the
country's space rocket cup
board was suddenly bare.
On Capitol Hill last week,
: impetus semed to be building
behind a drive to get some
money to refill the cupboard.
downtown. T. Keith Glennan,
sspace administrator, said the
possibility of getting more At
lases is under study" but
NASA gave no indication of
how seriously the matter is be-
ing considered.
And restudy of the space sit
uation necessarily revolves
around the question of getting
more Aliases. Even the Titan,
Atlas rival for primacy in the
intercontinental ballistic mis-
sile field, is not far enough
along to be considered as an
immediate hiatuS-f filler.
: Oddly. it turns out that given
one small flicker Of the green
light, the problem of getting
more Aliases is not a difficult
one. The green light would
!. amount to an authorization for
overtime work at Convair-As-
nonautics' big plant on the out
. skirts of San Diego, Calf. This
lis the only place where Aliases
are made. At present, it is
working on a one-shift, 40
= hour-a-week basis.
Below Capacity
/. Although military security
gets in the way of any real
study of production capacities,
:. 1t is clear that the Atlas plant
!. is working well below capacity
certainly no more than so
per cent. A nod from the right
quarter in Washington - the
Budget Bureau, to be specific
could bring about a doubling
.of Atlas output.
= 1t would cost money and take
time. Exactly how much money
and how much time are mill
tary secrets, but again they can
be guessed with reasonable ac-
curacy.
To put Conyair-Astronautics|
on an overtime basis might
raise the cost of individual
Aliases by 25 per cent. In
. dollars-and-cents terms, this
means a 100000 surcharge on
: the present $2.8 million price
tag for an Atlas-or about $3.5
million per rocket.
. AS far as time goes, it takes
about two years from the word
go" to produce an Atlas on
a business-as-usual basis. Over
time work could compress this
somewhat, and partial funding
the Government equivalent
OF installment plan buying
could squeeze it a little more.
There IS a limit to how much
time COMPRISING can be done,
but some authorities think a IS
month lead time is perfectly
feasible.
Rescheduling Possible
1t might not appear that this
would help much; IS months
from today means the spring |
Of 1861. But if the space SCI
entists could be assured of a |
stepped-up, steady flow of |
Aliases by early 1861, some re-
scheduling could be done.
At least a few Aliases could |
be made available almost i'm
mediately. A 372-pound instru-
ment package, identical to the
one lost Thanksgiving Day, is
in existence. That an Atlas
can be adapted to space work
and fired in less than two
months was proved by the
Thanksgiving shot itself. So
the hiatus does not have to be
as sterile as it now seems likely
to be.
There are probably about five
dozen ALIASES in various places
throughout the country and
more on the way. The con-
trolling factor now is their
availability. All of those in
existence, under construction
and on order at present are
marked for specific uses.
The Air Forces Atlas needs
are UNDERSTANDABLE cloaked in
secrecy. Some will be used for
strategic deployment, some for
tests and a few for the evolving
Discoverer program.
NASA's plans and require
mentS for 1862 can be spelled
nut nara rn,.nni cn1rr.