Evening star., 1962-08-12

N~ASSNSENf
might be the start of a week.
long space flight the Russians
are expected to undertake.
This would represent a rap
i'd stride in the Russian at
tempt to get a man on the
moon," he said.
TaSs and Moscow radio made
clear the flight is another step
in Soviet preparations for leaps
deeper into space.
The official announcement
said the flight was aimed at
studying mans capacity to
work in the condition of
weightlesSneSs found on space
flights, to get space data need
ed for such flights, and to
improve communications and
control systems of the space
ship.
THE flight of Soviet CoSmo-
naut III is one more step in
mans conquest Of the universe,
in solving the all-important
problems Of the effects of the
space flight on the human or
ganism," said TaSs.
Mai. Titov told Tass in an
interview that Maj. Nikolayev
had an excellent knowledge of
space ship operations and
added:
MY friend is a man of iron
endurance and courageous de-
termination. There is no doubt
that during his flight he will
add much to what Yuri Ga
garin and I have DONE"
Greetings to Africa
Mai. Nikolayev was quoted as
saying shortly before blastoff
from the Soviet launching pad
somewhere east of Moscow:
quite recently I saw off Yuri
Gagarin and Gherman Titov
on the first space flights. To-
day I have the honor of going
into a flight through space my
self"
Tass said Maj. Nikolayev sent
greetings to the people of Africa
and Latin America as he passed
over those countries and re-
ported he could see mountains
and rivers clearly from his
space ship portfolio.
With the first announcement
at the lunch hour that q new
Cosmonaut was in the air,
hundreds of people huddled
around loudspeakers in the
street. The first extras were
eagerly bought by MuScovites.
But shortly afterward the
people were drifting around
the city as usual on Saturday
afternoon, shopping or gos-
siping in Red Square. Televi-
sion cameras put up in Red
Square seemed to find only
thin crowds to show on the
screen.
Shown on TelevisiOn
Maj. Nikolayev was shown
repeatedly on television. The
first pictures showed him very
quiet, with his eyes shut, his
hands motionless. Later pic
lures showed him more active,
and very much alive and
awake.
The flight indicated the Rus
slams were not ready yet to try
for a moon orbit or landing.
But if this flight goes on for
three to six days it will be a
long step toward proving that
a man could take the trip to
the moon and back. Maj. tt
tov's mileage in Is hours about
equalled the moon roundtrip,
although an actual flight would
cover much more space and
encounter radiation perils not
found in the vicinity Of the
earth where man is orbiting.
Statistically the flight was
somewhat similar to the others.
Its maximum reach from the
earth on the first orbit was
251 kilometers (156 niles COM
pared to 244 (152 niles for
Maj. Titov. Tass said the low
est reach was 1873 kilometers
Ola miles, for both. The time
for completing the orbit was
about the same, 88.46 minutes
for Maj. Titov, 88.5 for Maj.
Nikolayey. .-
But a later announcement in
the evening indicated the size
and period of the orbit had
diminished under the pull of
the earth's gravitation.
Tass said at 7 pm. the Vos-
tok was circling the earth In
1882 minutes. It's peak orbit
was given as 234 kilometers
GAG miles, and its nearest ap-
proach to earth as 180 kilo-