Evening star., 1960-10-02
SPACE


weather prediction and navi-
CATION" Mr.. Glennan said
"The payoff is already begin
ming"
Space Nears "Jet Age"
DR.. Jastrow compared the
progress made since the Space
Age began with that which fol-
lowed the Wright Brothers
first fight.
aWe're much further along
after three years." he said. I'm
10 years we will be in what
would correspond to aviation's
Jet age"
Looking only two years
ahead, Mr.. Glennan said the
United States will surely
have successfully orbited a man
and will be making detailed
studies of the space environ
lnent to learn whether radia-
ton levels will permit men to
travel the void.
The space administrator as
serted that Americas civilian
space effort to date sis no Sec
ond-rate attempt" He said that
q great deal more money than
was available in the first two
years of NASA probably would
not have enhanced the effort
greatly.
Blessed With Achievements
Struggling off "second-guess-
ing" as futile, Mr.. Glennan said
he did not know what he would
have done differently if he had
known at the start what he
Knows now.
IF we had known how COM
plex and expensive this thing
is we might not have attempted
it, but I'm damned glad we did
attempt it," he said.
: Probably the biggest single
problem facing NASA now is
reliability of rockets, the NASA
chief said.
1--WE have remarkable relia-
hility in the spacecraft dnstru-
ment loads) themselves" he
said, "but we are far from hav-
ing a satisfactory mechanism
for getting them out into
space"
Standardization will help, Mr..
Glennan predicted. Instead of
10 rocket types which have been
used to date. space work will
ne done in the next few years
hy five. Two of these-Saturn
ana Scout-are being designed
from the ground up as space We
hicles. not as missiles.
Projects Being Readied
The double anniversary sees
9 number of significant space
shots in the works. Included
are a Courier military-com-
lnunications orbiter, a Samos
Spy in the sky" satellite, and
possibly a Soviet attempt to
orbit a man.
How swiftly the space age
has developed is seen in the
Chart that accompanies this
article. 1t includes all the
orbiters and space probes of
both Russia and America that
nave performed well enough to
pc remembered with satisfac-
uon by their builders.
It shows SO launchings. All
ere substantial achievements
But % Of them are especially
memorable.
{ Keyed to the numbers on the
ehart, here are the stand-out
performers:
Sputnik I. This was the
3 first object ever to 60 into
orbit. Launched by the Russians
October 4, 1857, it remained
up for three months. It was
spherical, 22.8 inches in diam
eter, and weighed 1874 pounds,
according to Soviet claims. |
which are generally accepted
as valid.
Sputnik ii. The second
earth-orbiter is memor-
able as the first vehicle to carry
q living organism-the dog,
Laika--into orbit. Launched |
November 3, 1857, 1t remained
aloft until April IA, 1858.
2. Explorer 1. Launched jan
~ uary 81, 1858. the first
American space entry discov-
cred the region of trapped ra-
diation named for DR.. James
A. Van Allen, who instrumented
the slim, 31-pound satellite.
A Vanguard /. This will not
' only be remembered in
space history, but will be in the
heavens for hundreds or even
thousands of years. 1t was
launched March II, 1858, and
may still be working in the
year 5000. The 6-inch, 3H-
pound ball is still broadcasting,
using sun power. Vanguard
led to the discovery that the
earth is slightly "pear-shaped."
z Sputnik III. This orbiter
-. took spacemanship out Of
the toy category. With nearly
5000 pounds Of instruments
aboard, it justified claims by
the Russians when it was
launched May IS, 1858, that it
was a flying laboratory"
K Pioneer I. Smallish (39
y. pounds Of instruments)
and not entirely successful,
this United States Air Force
space probe set an altitude rec
ord of about 71,0O0 miles on
October IL, 1858. It added to
knowledge of the Van Allen
belts.
7 Score. The talking Atlas"
4. of Christmas, 1858, was
the first rudimentary attempt |
to use spacecraft for commune
cations nurpoSeS. It was also |