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HT This Day: October 12, 1958 -- U.S. moon rocket overcomes gravitational pull
The U.S. Air Force today successfully launched a rocket towards the moon 221,000 miles away and radio stations broke into their programmes to tell jubilant Americans the news.
The U.S. Air Force today successfully launched a rocket towards the moon 221,000 miles away and radio stations broke into their programmes to tell jubilant Americans the news.
Government scientists estimated officially that the rocket, named ‘ Pioneer,’ was approximately 45,000 miles into space at 1-47 p.m. G M.T. (19-17 LS.T.).
They also announced that from the data being received it appeared that the rocket might be departing from the intended trajectory.
It has an 82-1b payload.
The State Department announced that the Thor-able rocket had started its flight at a slightly higher trajectory than was planned.
All the three stages ignited at full thrust and the 88-foot-high rocket reached the speed of 25000 miles an hour needed to enable it to escape the clutches of the earth’s gravity.
As tracking and telemetry data poured into the computing centre in California from Jodrel Bank. England, Millstone Hill, New Hampshire, and several International Geophysical Year tracing stations, the scientists announced that the next critical stage in the rocket’s 221,000-mile journey would come on Monday.
The payload should then be about 20,000 miles from the moon and a signal from the earth will are a 3,000-1b. thrust terminal rocket which will put the payload into the proper angle and speed to girdle the moon.
If this rocket functions as planned and the payload is following a suitable course, it will either go into the orbit around the moon and become a satellite’s satellite, circle round behind the moon and return to the vicinity of the earth, or crash into the moon’s surface.
Scientists hope it will not crash into the moon because this might contaminate the surface with earth germs before scientists have a chance to discover whether molecules bearing life properties have drifted there from outer space.
If the payload goes into orbit, the scientists expect it to stay in the vicinity of the moon for at least a week. This will enable the television-type cameras to radio back pictures of the far side of the moon which man has never seen.
But even if the top-shaped payload is far off the course and it drifts on indefinitely in space, its Instruments will start transmit valuable information back to the earth for as long as radio-contact can be maintained.
Chemical batteries within the payload are designed to last a fortnight.
Signals from the moon rocket were heard by engineers of the International Telephone add Telegraph Corporation at Southampton. New York State, three minutes after it was launched. The engineers said the signals indicated that the rocket was “tumbling, over” In flight. The rocket is transmitting signals on 10803 megacycles.
