Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-06-16
BOY MEETS GIRL?
ny WILLIAM HINES
star staff Writer

Whatever the immediate in
tensions Of the Russians mayI'
be - boy-meets-girl In space,
formation flight Of two inde-
pendent spacecraft, or simply
a new time-in-orbi record,
1t Is clear they have stolen an
other march in the space race.
Senator Anderson. Democrat
Of New Mexico. gave voice yes
terday to the impotent anger
that Is widely felt here on the
heels Of the most recent Rus
sian space feat.
This Is going to be the gen.
eral pattern from here on out
constant stories of Russians
In the air." the Senate Space
Committee chairman said.
They are In shape TO do real
work Gin space and I'll be
surprised II they don't do it,
Even II the Russians do MOTH
ing more than keep Cosmonaut
Valery Bykovsky In orbit for
five days. they viii have DEM
onstrated once again their su.
periority In manned space
Fight. Even the officials Of
Houston's Manned Spacecraft
Center were urging no more
than 100 hours Of flight in
their final. unsuccessful appeal
for another Mercury shot.
II the Russians go ahead--as
Is being widely predicted--and
put q girl into orbit alongside
the man, they will be demon
strating anew what they
showed ten months ago: A
highly advanced capability for
split-second launch timing.
Az they showed last August,
the Russians have developed
the ability TO set rockets off
the pad on time. which Is es-
sential to the rendezvous mis-
sion. This issa capahllity the
United States will not have for
another two years-not because
Of rocket availability. but be-
caues of a lack Of adequate
launching facilities 10 -liassa
The quickly, consecutive
launchings last year Of Cosmo-
nauts Andrian Nikolayev and
Pavel Popovich were carried
out with the same, pre-lalinoh
secrecy a. had surrounded all
earlier sputTaik, Lunik ana Vcs-
tok flights, The launching Of
Col. Bykovsky. BY contrast. was
preceded by IN unofficial but
nonetheless effective telegraph
ing Of punches. A similar build
up IL surrounding. the still
unaccomplished launching of
'Ludmila," the reputed girl
cosnonaut.
Even II the United States had
decided TO continue Project
Mercury, and even had Miss
Jerrie Cobb been selected for
astronaut training, this coun-
try could not now match either
the Nikolayev Popovich mis-
sion Of the more intriguing
Valery Ludmila event. Russia
has ct least two launch pads
for manned spacecraft, and
probably three. The United
States. at present, has only one.
This sharply restricts Ameri-
can space activities. and will
continue to crimp them until
the eaturn-I Is fully man-rated
and its three-pad launching
complex Is ready. This IA at
beast two years off.
Space Agency officials. en-
barrased BY the 24.hour sue
cession Of Nikolayev and Pcpo-
vich, tried to make the point
last August that American as
tronauts have done Is well. The
tautly-stretched line Of their
reasoning was that the orbits
achieved by Astronauts J o h n
Glenn and scott Carpenter
matched each other as closely
as did the orbits Of the two
Russians.
One big difference ID that Nj
kilayev and Popovich went up
on August IL and II. while
Glenn and Carpenter flew on
February 20 and May "a. This
may be . trivial detail from