Evening star., 1960-11-15

cutmthuteo toSf nt9ne On the recovery
Of Diseoversr XVII.
stirred far from the control
center. Ees-- -.a q t,&
Col. Moore. 43. from Queen
Anne. Md, had at his finger
tips the best that money could
buy in command post equip
ment. plus something that
money could not buy--the CUTS
and teamwork Of dedicated
men.
At Kaena Point on the
northwestern tip of Honolulu's
island of Oahu and at Kodiak
Island in Alaska, dozens Of
men moved calmly and pre-
cisely among radar screens and
oscillographs to track the elu-
sive bird. \ futuristic dish"
so feet in diameter received at
Kaena the unimaginably feeble
signals Of the orbiter, and kept
Coils. Moore and Newton con-
tinually informed Of its prog
ress.
Even before the rocket was
launched Saturday, two Victory
ships had moved out Of Homo
lulu to take station in what
would probably be the recovery
area. These ships of the Mill
tary Sea. Transport Service,
were regarded as a last-ditch
force in the Discoverer recov-
cry effort, but. it was one of
these ships, the Haiti Victory,
that brought back the first
Discoverera capsule, Number
XIII.
Plane Dispatcher
Coolly, yet tensely. 1t. Col.
Tuevo Ahola sat in a control
room Of his own at Hickam
Field, watching the progress Of
the exercise. Col. Ahola, rank
ing Discoverer project officer
in Hawaii, occupied a seat
hardly less hot than Col.
Moore's; it was he who would
send out the planes to catch
the returning instrument pack
fage. y
The planes in question were
slow, lowsfiying C-119S, obso-
lete cargo ships which Capt.
Gene Jones called 1.-TWO en-
gine C-l30 turbo prop planes
four . engine ocean," Capt.
Jones, operations officer for the
aircraft squadron of the Dis
coverer team, will have bigger,
faster, highersf1ying, four-en-
gine C-l30s turbo prop planes
to dispatch next year, but for
Discoverer XVII, he had to
send out nine Of the twin-tailed
lbs, including his own, which
successfully shared the capsule.
Purely by happenstance just
a week ago, I rode as a passen-
ger with Capt. Jones on q prac-
tice flight over the ocean north
Of Hawaii.s He and his nine
man crew caught one practice
capsule (actually a concrete
block dangling from a para
chute) and failed to catch an
other.
Enthusiastically Capt. Jones
shared credit for the successful
attempt with the words, I'VE
made it." The second time.
when the plane failed in five
passes to .snag the falling tar
get. the pilot took all the blame:
I just couldn't. latch onto IT,"
= Contrary to much published
information, the C-fi9s are
not "jampacked with electronic
gear." The essential equipment
Tor these planes are their un-
wieldly harnesses Of steel poles
and nylon rope in which (when
either skillful or lucky their
crews snare the returning or.
bitter.
Acquired Know. How
Though there is no single
part OF the satellite test wings
jig saw puzzle effort which is
the most important. certainly
its flight element is the most
dramatic. 1t is in the flight
phase. too, that the wing has
accumulated the greatest de-
monstrative ability of knowhow.
More than 1900 practice re,
covery missions have been
flown by the nine crews of the
flight squadron, and their re-
covery record on these missions
is better than 95 per cent.
Nothing in the world but
hard, constant practice has
brought these crews to their
present level of proficiency.
The glamor Of snatching para
chuting objects from midair
vanished first. Then followed
the fun Of it.
After scores Of recovery ex-
ercises by each team, it be-
came just q job, and after
scores more, simply routine.
But when the chips are down,
as they were yesterday, the
C-1l9 crews share the tension
Of the men in the hot seats at
Sunnyvale.
This-the tension-is some
4 u