Evening star., 1961-04-17
On Space and War

There are certain curious aspects
about the way the men of the Kremlin
nave been handling the news of Cos
monaut" Yuri Gagarin'S epochal orbitaI
flight around the earth. Understand
ably enough, Of course, even If with
generous interlardings of boastfulnesS,
their propagandiSts have pulled out all
the stops. They have done So obviously,
to.exploit the event as something that
adds greatly to Soviet prestige in key
areas of the world.
Even so, there remain unanswered
numerous pointed. questions Exactly
where, for example, is the place that
should have monument built on it as
the site of the launching of Major
Gagarin into orbit? And precisely where
did he land in the USSR after his single
celestial circumnavigatio of the globe?
AS for the spaceship that carried him
on his history making voyage, what
does 1t look like? Why are there no
clear photographs or verbal descriptions
OF 1t? When will outsiders be vouch-
safed the opportunity to inspect it, or
at least to read detailed accounts of it?
And how explain the fact that the
Kremlin's spokesman even the "Cosmo-
naut" himself, have been almost oSten-
tatiouSly evasive in responding to these
and similar queries? Is, there some
thing to hide? Does the furtiveneSS
cover up facts that the world ought to
know? Is fraud involved here-or a
military advance-that the SovietS are
determined to keep. under wraps?
AS far as answers are concerned,
one mans guess is as good as another's,
but nothing could seem more wiShful
than to suspect that the Russians have
hoaxed us in claiming to have sent a
man into orbit. Clearly, given the firm
evidence Of our own tracking operations,
there is little reasonable ground for
doubt about Yuri Gagarin'S triumph. AS
for the possible military implications of
his feat, perhaps they account for the
seemingly furtive lack of Soviet detail,
but the Russians have always been
Secretive, under the Czars as well as
under the Reds, and that is point that
must be reckoned with. Further, as
emphasized in March of 1858, in the
excellent report submitted to President
Eisenhower by his Science Advisory
Committee, it is only too easy to exag-
gerate the potentialS of outer space in
terms OF Weaponry, even though there
can be no question about the martial
value of satellites for such things as
communications, reconnaissance and
weather forecaSting. The 1858 report
makes this additional observation:
Much has been written about space
as future theater of war; raising such
suggestions as satellite bombers, military
bases on the moon and so on. For the
most part, even the more sober proposals
do not hold up well on close examination
or appear to be achievable at an early
date. Granted that they will become
technologcally possible, most Of these
schemes, nevertheless, appear to be clumsy
and ineffective ways of doing Job. .
A satellite cannot simply drop bomb.
.. Indeed, the only way to drop" a
bomb directly down from a satellite is
to carry out aboard the satellite rocket
launching Of the magnitude required for
an intercontinental missile. =. But that
means launching it from moving plat
form E. with every disadvantage COM
pared to missile base on the ground.
In short, the earth would appear to be,
after all. the best weapons carrier.
These are words that strike us as a
good text for America at this time-a
text that places the problem in perspec
tive and serves as sound caveat against
impulses to rush off in all directions
simultaneously, like a QuiXote on his
horse, in an effort to catch up" with
the Russians, who actually-apart from
the thrust power of their rocketS-prob-
ably lag behind us in the pure science
of space.