| Brooke Bond | PG Tips Tea Cards of Man's first 50 steps into the universe | The Race Into Space


	01 SPUTNIK The very first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched from the Soviet Union on Oct, 4, 1957in to an orbit varying between 141 and 588 miles above the Earth. Carried by an early intercontinental ballistic missile, the satellite was spherical with a diameter of 22.8in, weighed 184 lb, and had four long aerials. Its carrier rocket, clearly visible as it travelled slowly across the sky, and the 'bleep-bleep' from the satellite's transmitter, were evidence that the space age had arrived. The satellite transmitted for 21 days, and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 4,1958.
	02 EXPLORER America's first satellite Explorer 1 was launched on Feb. 1, 1958, four months after Russia's first satellite Sputnik 1, and following two disheartening failures of the US Vanguard project. Explorer 1 was a cylinder with a conical nose, 80in . long and 6in . in dia. At 31 lb, it was only one sixth the weight of Sputnik 1, and was placed in a 224 by 1,584 mile Earth orbit by a US Army Jupiter C rocket. During a four-month active life, this satellite discovered the radiation field surrounding the Earth (named the Van Allen Belt). It re-entered the atmosphere after making 58,376 orbits.
	03 DISCOVERER The US Air Force gained its 'space wings' with this series of unmanned spacecraft launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Discoverer 1 was launched on Feb. 28, 1959. The programme had the object of developing a stabilized spacecraft from the orbiting stage of the Thor-Agena launch vehicle, capable of returning a re-entry capsule from orbit. After several failures, Discoverer capsules ejected from the spacecraft over Alaska were caught in mid-air as they parachuted down near Hawaii by the 'trapeze' snares of patrolling C-130 aircraft. The same technique was later used for the USAF's Samos reconnaissance satellites.
	04 trANSIT The United States Navy instituted a navigation satellite programme as long ago as 1958 to provide accurate, all-weather positional data for its ships around the world. Ballistic-missile submarines, in particular, need to know their position to a few hundred yards for launching their missiles. The first of a series of Transit satellites was launched from Cape Canaveral on Apr. 13, 1960, into a 232 by 463 mile Earth orbit The satellites continuously transmit their positions, so that any vessel receiving these signals can locate itself. Some commercial shipping also uses the system.
	05 ECHO 1 was the first American experimental passive communication satellite. After launch from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 12, 1960, into Earth orbit, it was inflated to form a 100ft diameter balloon. The plastic surface was metal-covered so as to reflect radio waves from a ground-based transmitter to a receiving Earth station thousands of miles away. Many successful link-ups were made across the world before leakage of gas caused it to deform and lose its reflecting power. A spectacular sight, it was seen by many people and it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on Apr. 24, 1968.
	06 VOSTOK First man to go into space was Russia's Yuri Gagarin. On Apr.12, 1961, his 10,418 lb Vostok spacecraft made a single orbit of the Earth inclined at 65° to the Equator and ranging between 109 and 188 miles altitude. The spacecraft comprised a ball-like reentry capsule, containing the cosmonaut on an ejection seat, and a service module with retro-rocket, air supply and gas-jet stabilization. The entire flight from lift-off to touchdown lasted 108 min. Five more cosmonauts later flew in Vostok spacecraft, including the first space woman Valentina Tereshkova. Gagarin was killed in a flying accident on Mar. 27, 1968.
	07 VOSTOK ON LAUNCH PAD The multistage rocket that lifted Yuri Gagarin into orbit had a two-stage central core plus four tapered strap-on boosters. Total thrust of all stages was 1,323,000 lb. Assembled horizontally on a transporter-erector, the combined rocket and spacecraft was taken out of the preparation building to the launch pad on a railed track. At the pad, the empty launcher was lifted into a vertical position and cradled by four hinged 'steady' arms. Servicing platforms also hinged into position around the rocket ready for final checkout and fuelling with liquid oxygen and kerosene.
	08 MERCURY First American to orbit the Earth was Colonel John Glenn. Launched from Cape Canaveral by Mercury-Atlas MA-6 on Feb. 20, 1962, his Mercury capsule Friendship 7 completed three orbits in 4 hr 55 min. Two earlier manned Mercury flight sub-orbital were launched by Redstone rockets. Alan Shepard made a 15 min 22 sec ballistic lob over the Atlantic on May 5, 1961 and Virgil Grissom (later killed in the Apollo launch pad fire) made a similar flight on July 21, 1961. Both were successful but Grissom's capsule sank after the hatch blew out and it filled with water .
	09 COSMOS Large quantities of these satellites have been launched. Some are used for scientific research into the space environment, and others to test new spacecraft systems with civil and military applications. Cosmos 1, a non-recoverable scientific satellite, was launched on Mar. 16, 1962 from Kapustin Yar. Many of the larger spacecraft launched from Baikonur and Plesetsk apparently have reconnaissance duties; they eject capsules for recovery over Soviet territory usually within 8 to 12 days. Illustrated is one of the smaller non-recoverable scientific satellites.
	10 ARIEL 1 Britain's Ariel 1, built in America, was fitted with British scientific experiments, and was launched into a 754 by 242 mile orbit by an American Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral on Apr. 26, 1962. The 132 lb satellite carried seven experiments, from three British universities, designed to provide purely scientific information about the ionosphere, the complicated region of particle and magnetic fields which surrounds the Earth at an altitude of about 100 miles. Ariel 1 continued to transmit data until Nov. 1964, when it fell silent, but it was still in orbit at the beginning of 1970.
	11 TELSTAR I pioneered many of the techniques now universally employed in commercial relay satellites. The 34.5in . dia., 170 lb Telstar 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962. Thirteen days later the first, historic, direct, full-scale television exchange, lasting 20 min, took place between Europe and America. In a second television link-up there were no less than 50 cameras taking part in nine European countries, and the programme was relayed to North America. Telstar 1 was used for extensive tests before becoming unserviceable during Feb.1963.
	12 ZOND Several unmanned Russian Zond spacecraft have been launched to the Moon and planets. Zond 3, sent into orbit round the Sun on July 18, 1965, took pictures of the Moon's far side as it passed. Between Sept. 15-21, 1968, Zond 5 made the first unmanned flight around the Moon and back to Earth, landing its capsule by parachute in the Indian Ocean. Its 'passengers' included turtles, wine flies, meal worms, lysogenic bacteria and various plants and seeds. Zond 6 and 7in Nov. 1968 and Aug. 1969 made similar circumlunar flights but were recovered in the Soviet Union.
	13 RANGER 3 Ranger was the name of a series of nine basically similar American spacecraft designed to hard-land scientific instrument capsules on the Moon and photograph its surface. Ranger 3, the first US attempt to photograph the Moon from close range, was launched by Atlas Agena rocket from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 26, 1962. The 727 lb spacecraft with its 24in . dia., 92 lb capsule, was given too high a velocity and passed by the Moon at 22,862 miles instead of 5,000 miles. The capsule was not released and efforts to photograph the Moon failed.
	14 NIMBUS 1 launched from Cape Kennedy on Aug. 28, 1964, was the first of America's second-generation experimental weather satellites, superseding the earlier series of Tiros satellites. Unlike the latter, which were spin-stabilised, Nimbus 1 was stabilised so that its experiments remained pointed at the Earth. It was placed in an elliptical, 263 by 579 mile path around the Earth instead of the circular 575 mile orbit planned. 27,000 pictures of excellent quality, covering the entire Earth, were synthesised at a large number of picture receiving stations during 26 days of active life before power failure terminated its career.
	15 VOSKHOD This manned spacecraft filled the gap between Vostok and Soyuz. With cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov in Voskhod 1 on Oct. 12, 1964 were a doctor Boris Yegorov and a scientist Konstantin Feoktistov. They completed 16 orbits in a flight lasting 24hr 17min 3sec. Spacesuits were not worn and the capsule's parachute landing was cushioned by retro-rockets ignited just before ground contact. Voskhod 2, launched on Mar. 18, 1965, carried Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov. Both wore spacesuits a!lowing Leonov to make history's first 'space walk' of about 10 minutes' duration from an extensible airlock. Their flight lasted 26 hr 02 min 17 sec. Cosmonaut Belyaev, aged 44, died in Moscow on Jan. 10, 1970, following an operation for a stomach ulcer, from peritonitis.
	16 PEGASUS Three of these huge satellites were sent into Earth orbit in 1965 to test mock-ups of the Apollo command and service modules and study the size and frequency of micro-meteoroids. Each craft had concertina 'wings' spanning 100 ft-a sandwich of aluminum, Mylar and copper, carrying a mild electric current; when struck by a small particle a short-circuit was created for a fraction of a second, and the results telemetered to Earth. By mid 1966 the satellites had recorded more than 1,100 impacts, but none sufficiently damaging to deter the Apollo Moon flights.
	17 GEMINI 3 was the first of ten highly successful operational flights with the two-man American spacecraft. Flown by Virgil Grissom and John Young, it was launched by a Titan 2 rocket from Cape Kennedy on Mar. 23, 1965. It was placed in an initial orbit inclined at 33° to the Equator and varying in height between 100 and 139 miles. After a 3 orbit flight lasting 4hr. 53min., the spacecraft was recovered successfully in the Atlantic. The illustration depicts Gemini 4, with. crew member Ed White making the first American space walk, which was of 21 minutes duration.
	18 EARLY BIRD Following successful trials, the world's first commercial communications satellite was launched from Cape Kennedy on Apr. 6, 1965. On June 28 of that year, from its position 22,300 miles above the Atlantic, it began relaying telephone calls and live television programmes between Europe and North America. Note worthy events included coverage of the two-man Gemini spacecraft launches and recoveries, the interchange of stock-exchange prices, and information leading to the arrest of a Canadian criminal. The satellite was switched out of service in 1969.
	19 MOLNIYA These Soviet satellites relay television, telegraph and multi-channel radio services across the USSR. Orbits are highly elliptical extending to nearly 25,000 miles in the northern hemisphere and dipping below 310 miles in the southern hemisphere. A network of 'Orbita' ground stations allows people in Siberia, the Far East and the Far North, to receive Moscow television. A particularly interesting function of Molniya is the transmission of weather charts and newspaper facsimiles. France has participated in Molniya experiments Moscow to Paris.
	20 LUNA Russia's triumphant Moon probes began in 1959 when her unmanned spacecraft passed, hit and looped behind the Moon. Luna 3, launched on Oct. 4, 1959, took the first photographs of the Moon's hidden side, sending film images to Earth by television. Luna 9 the first spacecraft to soft-land on Feb. 3, 1966 sent TV pictures and cosmic ray data from within a shallow crater in the Ocean of Storms. Luna 15, a manoeuverable moon craft, was in lunar orbit at the time that America's Apollo astronauts were attempting man's first lunar landing in July 1969,
	21 METEOR These Soviet satellites photograph Earth's changing cloud cover by day and night, observe the distribution of snow and ice, and give advance warning of hurricanes and typhoons. Experiments began within the Cosmos programme, including temperature measurements of the Earth's surface and cloud tops. Meteor 1 was launched on Mar. 26,1969in to a 393-427 mile orbit inclined at 81.2° to the Equator. Pictures can be sent direct to ground stations or stored in the satellite for transmission later. Moscow, Leningrad and other centres broadcast periodic warnings of abrupt weather changes, combining data from meteorological radar and satellites.
	22 SURVEYOR 3 Launched from Cape Kennedy on Apr. 17, 1967, Surveyor 3 made a successful soft landing on the Moon after a 65hr flight. Its task was to develop soft-landing techniques and to provide scientific and engineering information in support of the Apollo manned Moon-landings. Surveyor 3 was fitted with a mechanical sampler and was commanded to dig a number of trenches in the soil to assess its texture, while a TV camera on the spacecraft viewed the operation. On Nov. 20, 1969, Surveyor 3 was visited by Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean.
	23 LUNAR ORBITER Five Lunar Orbiters were built to map the Moon's surface and enable suitable sites to be selected for the American manned Moon-landings planned for Apollo. The first was launched from Cape Kennedy on Aug. 10, 1966. From its lunar orbit, the 853 lb. Orbiter returned pictures of the Moon for 19 days. The other Orbiters, launched on 6 Nov.1966, 4 Feb. 1967, 4 May 1967 and 1 Aug. 1967, were all successful. Each was commanded (or allowed) to crash on the Moon after its work was done, to prevent it interfering with the Apollo flights.
	24 INTELSAT 3 Following the outstanding success of the Early Bird and Intelsat 2 satellites, the first of a global series of eight communication satellites built for the 70 nation International Communication Satellite Consortium was launched from Cape Kennedy on Dec. 19, 1968. The 322 lb drum-shaped satellite was placed in a stationary orbit 22,300 miles above the Equator just off the coast of Brazil, from where it can relay 1,200 telephone conversations or four television channels between America and Europe. It began work on Dec. 24, 1968 with a TV broadcast by Pope Paul.
	25 VENERA Russia's enormous triumph of parachuting instrument capsules into the dense atmosphere of Venus was first achieved on Oct.18, 1967. After a journey of 217 million miles, a 3¼ ft dia. 844 lb capsule detached itself from the 1,595 lb spacecraft and started its descent. Following a period of aerodynamic braking, it released a high-temperature parachute and simultaneously radio signals streamed back to Earth. Similar Venera 5 and 6 spacecraft arrived on May 16 and 17, 1969 respectively. According to data received, the atmosphere consists of 97% carbon dioxide with small amounts of water vapour, oxygen and nitrogen; when signals ceased several miles above the surface, pressure was 27 atmospheres and temperature 320°C.
	26 ATS-3 Third in the series of American applications technology satellites, A TS-3 was launched by an Atlas-Agena rocket from Cape Kennedy on Nov. 5, 1967in to a stationary orbit 22,300 miles over the Atlantic, off the coast of Brazil. The 805 lb satellite, with a diameter of 57.6in and a length of 60in, was designed to investigate ways of using satellites for improving weather forecasting and long-range communications. It was noteworthy for returning a large number of excellent colour pictures of the Earth, and for its participation in televising the Pope's visit to Bogota, and the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968; also the first Moon landing in 1969. A TS-3 was the only NASA comsat which could handle high quality colour television from the 16 ft dia. mobile ground stations.
	27 MARINER 4 The flight of the American Mariner 4 spacecraft was the first successful mission to Mars. Launched from Cape Kennedy on Nov. 28, 1964 the 575lb spacecraft flew past the planet at a range of 6,116 miles on the following July 15. The 21 TV pictures revealed for the first time the existence of craters similar to those of the Moon. It was the first time that a member of the solar system, other than the Moon, had been photographed by a spacecraft Each picture took over eight hours to transmit, due to the weakness of the signal received on Earth.
	28 THE GOLDSTONE MARS STATION The 210ft dia. aerial and its tracking station was built by NASA as the main element of its deep-space tracking network. The Mars station is located at Goldstone in the lonely Mojave Desert in California. Man-made electrical interference, which would swamp extremely weak signals from unmanned spacecraft at the boundary of the Solar System, is here almost absent. In August 1969 commands were sent 60 million miles to Mariners 6 and 7, to photograph Mars from a range of 2,000 miles and transmit television pictures of it back to Goldstone.
	29 DEFENCE SATELLITES The need for a system to provide strategic or tactical communication to her armed forces throughout the world gave rise to the American project known as IDCSP, the Interim Defence Communication Satellite Programme. A network of 26 satellites was established between 1967 and 1968, and this has provided a temporary capability, pending the introduction of a fully operational system. It has also provided a basis for research and development. The 100lb satellites were launched into near synchronous orbits, up to eight at a time, by Titan 3 rockets. At least one satellite is always in view of any given ground station. Future military comsats will be of the geo-stationary type, where the main advantage is the need for fewer satellites.
	30 SOVIET SPACE trACKING Stations in the Soviet Union are backed up by a fleet of tracking ships in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. One, the 'Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov', is named after the spaceman who lost his life in the Soyuz 1 landing accident. It was built at the Baltisky shipyards in Leningrad for the USSR Academy of Sciences. Land-based tracking stations are located in various parts of the Soviet Union. The main deep space tracking centre, which maintains contact with space probes en-route to Venus and Mars, is Yevpatoria in the Crimea.
	31 SOYUZ The three-part Soyuz spacecraft - used to develop space station techniques - comprise a spherical experiment compartment, a re-entry module and a rocket-powered service module. The experiment compartment, as well as allowing men to perform scientific and technological experiments (e.g. vacuum welding under weightlessness in Soyuz 6), can be separately de-pressurized to form an airlock allowing cosmonauts to emerge into space. After docking two men transferred from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4in orbit returning to Earth in a different craft.
	32 SOYUZ RECOVERY Russia has from the beginning recovered her cosmonauts on land rather than the ocean. An ejection seat in Vostok spacecraft let the cosmonaut and re-entry capsule parachute to Earth separately; only Gagarin remained inside the capsule for what must have been a 'heavy' landing. The 3 man Voskhod and Soyuz spacecraft had no ejection seats. After reentering the atmosphere from space, their capsules were brought to Earth by a single large parachute and when only 3 to 4 feet from the ground touch down was cushioned by retro-rockets.
	33 SATURN VAT CAPE KENNEDY The complex task of assembling and testing the 3,000 ton, 363ft high Saturn V Moon-rocket, and the time involved, has made it necessary to conduct this operation away from the launch pad in a special Vehicle Assembly Building. The complete rocket, mounted on a special mobile launch tower, is transported bodily from the VAB to the launch pad three miles away on a huge tracked crawler vehicle. The rocket and its launch tower are deposited at the launch pad, the crawler withdraws, and final tests are made, preparatory to fuelling and launching.
	34 APOLLO COMMAND AND SERVICE MODULES After preliminary unmanned and manned experiments in Earth-orbit, Apollo 8 carried Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders on man's first flight around the Moon and back at Christmas 1968. The two-part spacecraft comprises a 13,000 lb command module containing the crew, and a 53,000 lb service module with oxygen, power supply and a rocket engine for in flight propulsion and braking. During lunar landing missions, the craft waits in lunar orbit with one astronaut while two others descend in the Lunar Module.
	35 APOLLO LUNAR MODULE Specially designed to land on the Moon, the 32,500 lb Lunar Module operates in conjunction with the Apollo Command and Service Modules from which two of three astronauts transfer in lunar orbit. After separating from the parent, speed is reduced by the descent engine and the craft falls on a curved path towards the lunar surface. Arriving near the landing site the astronauts override the automatic control system to achieve a vertical soft landing 'on the hover'. Leaving the Moon the astronauts blast-off in the ascent stage of the LM using the four-legged descent stage as a launch platform. They must rejoin the orbiting parent spacecraft to return home. The first lunar landing was made by Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on July 20, 1969.
	36 APOLLO PARACHUTE RECOVERY The recovery of the Apollo command module appears crude. But the main problem is to dissipate safely the enormous energy which the spacecraft acquires during its return to Earth, and this can only be done by using the atmosphere as a brake. To prevent the vehicle being destroyed by excessive heating, it is formed like a cone. Such shapes cannot, of course be manoeuvred to a conventional kind of landing like an aeroplane. The three main parachutes open at about 10,000ft, lowering the spacecraft gently to the water
	37 HEOS (HIGHLY ECCENtrIC ORBIT SATELLITE) The third spacecraft built by the European Space Research Organisation, and the first deep space probe built outside America and Russia. The 238 lb. spacecraft was launched by a Delta rocket from Cape Kennedy on Dec. 5, 1968. Its very elliptical orbit takes it as far as 138,749 miles from the Earth, and as near as 263 miles. HEOS was designed to investigate interplanetary space during the Sun's period of maximum activity, which occurs every eleven .years. Of the eight experiments on board, three were provided by British universities.
	38 ASTERIX-DIADEME France became the third nation after Russia and America to launch a satellite on Nov. 26, 1965. Having lifted-off from a launch pad at Hammaguir in the Sahara, the three-stage Diamant A injected an 86 lb test-satellite Asterix 1in to a 327-1123 mile orbit inclined at 34.24° to the Equator. This experiment qualified the launcher for further missions. Three more satellites followed from Hammaguir-Diapason 1 on Feb. 17, 1966; Diademe 1 on Feb. 8, 1967 and Diademe 2 on Feb. 15, 1967. Then France had to vacate the Sahara range under the terms of the Evian treaty with Algeria. It was more than three years before France resumed satellite launching-with Diamant B from a new equatorial launch centre at Kourou in French Guiana.
	39 ORBITING AStrONOMICal OBSERVATORY 2 One of the most complex unmanned satellites to be developed by the West, OAO-2 was launched by Atlas-Centaur from Cape Kennedy on Dec. 7, 1968. It contains two experiments, designed by American universities, for the examination of stars and galaxies by means of their ultraviolet radiation. From 480 miles above the Earth, it can measure radiation which never reaches the Earth's surface. Its importance has been equated with that of the optical telescope, invented over 350 years ago. OAO-2 weighs 4,446 lb, spans 80in . and is 118in long
	40 SMalL SPACE LAUNCHERS Space programmes are no longer restricted to the major powers. France got into orbit with her Diamant A rocket from the Sahara in Nov.1965, and Japan with Lambda 4-S from the Uchinoura Space Centre in Feb. 1970, following with the larger Mu satellite launcher (illustrated). China's first satellite, 381 lb, was launched in Apr. 1970. Britain's Black Arrow programme is launched from Woomera in South Australia. France has now opened a new equatorial launch centre in French Guiana for her second-generation Diament B rocket which can place a 220 lb satellite into a 370 mile circular orbit. The smaller countries have also found it expedient to have satellites and instruments launched as part of international programmes by the United States and the Soviet Union.
	41 EUROPA Europe's bid to gain independence in space began with the formation of the European Launcher Development Organisation in 1962. The object was to produce a rocket that would place a 1,760 lb satellite into polar orbit at 300 miles altitude. Britain contributed Blue Streak-the abandoned ballistic missile-while France and West Germany built new 2nd and 3rd stages, Coralie and Astris. Italy provided test satellites and Holland and Belgium telemetry and tracking equipment. Australia made available the Woomera rocket range. Of 10 launchings only three were meant to orbit test-satellites. Blue Streak was successful on each occasion-with a last launching still to take place at this writing-but Coralie and Astris failed twice.
	42 LUNAR ROVING VEHICLE Increased astronaut mobility on the Moon is possible with a Lunar Roving Vehicle (lrv) intended to be carried by Apollo 16, 17, 18 and 19. After being deployed from the Lunar Module, the electric-powered 'mooncar' will carry two astronauts and their equipment for a total of 75 miles, though for safety, operations will be kept to a radius of 3 miles from the spacecraft. The LRV has woven-wire wheels driven independently by separate electric motors, and can cross 28in . crevasses and climb slopes of up to 25° with a full load.
	43 SKYLAB This orbiting workshop is an extension of the Apollo Moon-Landing techniques in which the third (S-IVB) stage of the Saturn V rocket is pre-equipped as a workshop / laboratory. It will be placed in Earth orbit by the first two Saturn V stages during 1972. Shortly after its launch, a crew of three in an Apollo command module will be launched by a Saturn IB to rendezvous with the workshop and begin a 28 day mission to gather scientific, technological and biological data. Two more 3 man crews will be flown up later to continue experiments for up to 56 days each.
	44 VIKING The most advanced American unmanned spacecraft for which firm plans exist is Viking, designed to soft-land instruments on Mars to test whether life exists there. Two 8,000 lb Vikings will be launched on the seven-month journey in 1975. Near Mars each will detach a 1,200 lb capsule which will be commanded to enter the Martian atmosphere. Slowed by atmospheric braking and retro-rockets, they will soft-land and extend aerials and mechanical scoops. Soil samples will be examined for biological traces and the data transmitted to Earth.
	45 12 MAN SPACE STATION After experimenting with 'Skylab', America expects to build a fully-fledged space station in Earth-orbit where men can live and work for long periods. Launched separately and assembled in orbit by astronauts, cylindrical modules contain rooms for sleeping, personal hygiene and recreation as well as laboratories for science and technology, as shown in the cutaway illustration. Tasks include astronomy, observation of land and sea, Earth resources survey, meteorology and advance warning of storms, floods and air and water pollution; also envisaged are unique factory processes benefiting from weightlessness and vacuum. Re-usable space shuttles keep the station supplied with air, food and other expendables.
	46 SPACE SHUTTLE Two-stage piloted space planes which takeoff vertically like rockets but land on a runway like jet-transports are planned in America to replace the present throwaway space rockets. The illustration shows a winged orbiter about to separate from a winged booster 200,000 feet above the Earth. While the orbiter continues into orbit-where it may remain for up to two weeks-the booster flies back to base. The orbiter carries 25,000 to 50,000 lb payloads, a large communications satellite or interplanetary space probe, or space station supplies in its cargo hold.
	47 THE GRAND TOUR is a proposal by NASA for a reconnaissance mission in 1977-1978 to the outer planets of the solar system Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. It is the most ambitious unmanned space project known at the present time. In 1977 the relative positions of the five planets will be such that a 2,000 lb. spacecraft, launched by a relatively small rocket, may be accelerated by gravity, as it passes each planet in turn, to such a speed that the journey to Neptune, which normally would take eighteen years, could be achieved in only nine years.
	48 LUNAR SHUTTLE Once manned space-stations have been established in Earth-orbit, it will be possible to assemble spaceships from separate modules carried aloft by re-usable space shuttles or expendable rockets. In prospect is a nuclear-powered Nerva rocket which shuttles back and forth between Earth-orbit and lunar orbit, being continuously refuelled with liquid hydrogen brought to the space station by winged shuttles. It ferries pre-fabricated parts for a Moon-base into lunar orbit for transfer to a chemically-powered landing craft (illustrated), similar to the Apollo lunar module. The type of nuclear engine used in the lunar shuttle could also power ships of the manned Mars Expedition.
	49 MOON BASE Once the transportation problem is solved, prefabricated parts ferried to the Moon can be used to build the equivalent of 'Scott Base' on the lunar surface. As the Moon has no air, pressurized buildings must have airlocks to preserve vital oxygen while astronauts leave and enter. Once inside, cumbersome spacesuits can be removed. Airconditioning must cater for wide temperature extremes, up to 243°F during the lunar day and down to -279°F at night. Buildings, double walled for protection against meteoroids, may possibly be buried in natural caves.
	50 THE MANNED FLIGHT TO MARS America's plan for a manned expedition to Mars involves two nuclear-powered spaceships, each carrying six astronauts, launched (according to one plan), on Nov. 12, 1981. Reaching Mars on Aug. 9, 1982, each vehicle would orbit the planet for 80 days while unmanned probes, followed by three men from each ship, would descend to carry out scientific research and collect samples. During the return to Earth (landing on Aug. 141 1983) the expedition would fly past Venus to observe the planet and use its gravity to reduce speed.
Writers Kenneth Gatland - Michael Wilson Artist - David Lawson	*Source material provided by Wudge*

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