Two-in-One Shot

The U.S. began last week to toss up satellites by the bundle.

Cape Canaveral fired a Thor missile with a second-stage Able-Star rocket. Inside a cone atop the Able-Star snuggled the Navy's 223-lb. Transit II-A navigation satellite, a sphere 36 in. in diameter. Transit was the rocket's principal passenger. But with it went a satellite hitchhiker: a 42-lb., 20-in. globe stuffed with instruments to measure solar radiation.

The two satellites went aloft attached firmly together. The first-stage Thor fired for about 160 seconds, then fell away while the Able-Star took over, firing for five minutes. Then it shut off its engine and coasted upward and around the earth for 18 more minutes. Over South America the engine blasted again for a few seconds, giving the final push needed to attain an orbit with an apogee of 570 miles and a perigee of 341 miles.

Soon after reaching their orbit, the two satellites detached themselves from the second-stage rocket. A small explosion separated the satellites themselves, and a spring pushed them apart at about one mile per hour. Their radio transmitters kept sounding loud and clear.

One-Quarter Mile. The Transit satellite, the second of its series to go into or bit, is a long step toward perfecting the Navy's all-weather navigation system, scheduled for fully effective operation in 1962, which will benefit all nations on earth. The Transit navigation system is built on the fact that radio waves received from a satellite change their frequency as the satellite passes a ship or ground station. From that change, the instant when the satellite is closest can easily be determined. And since the satellite's orbit can be calculated far in advance, the almost-precise position of the ship receiving its signals can thereby be fixed. Last week a test of the system worked with extraordinary accuracy. Although the latest Transit lacked parts that will be ultimately carried, the Navy's tracking vessel, Observation Island, used the satellite's signals to determine its own position off Florida within less than a quarter of a mile.

This is more accurate than any other navigation system, and the Navy believes that Transit is capable of doing even better. Tucked into last week's Transit satellite was a Canadian "guest" instrument for studying background cosmic noise, and the satellite was allowed to spin for its convenience. When the spin is stopped by releasing small weights, the accuracy of navigation by means of Transit is expected to improve.

The satellite hitchhiker was a space Cinderella. Originally intended to be taken aloft by the U.S.'s ill-fated Vanguard, it was left forlornly on earth when the Vanguard program was discontinued. Rescued by Transit, it is now on a beautiful orbit that will probably keep it up for 50 years. Its instruments are sending information about solar ultraviolet and X rays, which do not pass through the earth's atmosphere but have effects on its upper layers. Data from the Cinderella satellite may explain radio blackouts and some kinds of weather.

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