Evening star., 1961-05-07

, continued. There will be othel
milestones. We do expect Il
have an orbital flight, as yol
know, and we are prepared fol
1t and feel that we are ready
to go. We expect to go beyond
the three-manned orbital flight
into flights Of longer duration
and with more people, and ir
time We expect to go to the
moon and back"
DR.. Dryden's words, as re.
Elected in an official transcript
caused considerable confusion
here because of reference tx
"the three-manned orbita
flight" DR.. Dryden apparently
intended to say three -orbita.
flight.
Next Phase Slated
The three-orbital flight of 6
Mercury capsule boosted by ar
Atlas is the next phase in the
spaceman program. A shot cur.
rently designated MAT anc
scheduled for the last quarter
Of this year will take a mar
aloft, swing him three time.
around the earth and bring hin
back to a parachute landing al
sea. The total exercise woulc
take about four and a hall
hours as compared with II
minutes for yesterdays sub
orbital Redstone mission.
Beyond that there is the pos
Sibility of flights of q hours
duration. in which the mar
would remain in his capsule
while it circled the globe Is
times. Further on still, a num-
Der Of years from now, is Prof.
ect Apollo. in which three men
would be orbited for three OF
four weeks at time in the pre-
liminary stages and later would
be sent to and around the moon
and back to earth.
There is no firm program at
present for a man on the moon
The performance Of the Mer-
cury-Redstone system-a Nc
Donnell-built capsule atop a
Chrysler-built missile - was
such that space agency officials
here tended to regard the cur
rent sub-orbital phase of the
Mercury program as virtually
a settled matter. They tended
to leapfrog in their thinking to
the orbital Atlas phase.
Margin Of Safety
The Atlas, while it is offic-
tally backed as an excellent in
strument for space work, is
privately regarded by many
space experts as an excellent
weapon where rs per cent reli-
ability is sufficient, but only
an extremely marginal compro-
mise as a space booster, where
even a daring astronaut wants
a 80 per cent chance of getting
through unscathed.
The performance Of the space
capsule itself has greatly re-
duced concern over the per-
sonal safety Of the astronaut
While it cannot be said that
Astronaut Shepard was as safe
during his flight as he would
have been had he stayed in
bed, the interlocking safety de-
vices of the system were such
that his peril was minimized.
NASA officials who witnessed
the massive news coverage OF
Yesterdays event have ex-
pressed concern over a possible
failure in a manned Atlas mis-
sion. Their concern is not
based on the danger to the
man. which they believe is not
great, but on danger to Ameri-
can prestige if anything short
of total success is achieved.
This spaceport is preparing
but is not quite ready-for
things far beyond Mercury. AT
the north end of the missile
base. an area as big as Man.
hatten Island, stands a tower
as tall as a 30-story building
where Saturn will soon be
tested. Saturn is a huge cluster
of eight rocket engines which
if it works-will be able to lift
several tons into orbit or even
to the moon.
At present, the Saturn gantry
tower is hardly more than a
landmark. But dummy COM
ponents of the Saturn system
arrived here last Sunday morn
ing by barge from Huntsville
Ala, via the Tennessee, Ohio
and Mississippi Rivers, the Gull
of Mexico and the intercoastal
waterway.
FiringS Of the Saturn first
stage are anticipated this year
and orbital exercises not in
l = 4