GGETl
' . X ; ;' ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_i
62nd Year No. 109 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1961 _Per Copy 15^
Mercury Space Capsule Recovered
After One Sweep Around the Earth
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. MV
The United States took a long
stride toward manned orbital
flight to day by rocketing a Mer
cury space capsule into orbit and
recovering it after one sweep
around the earth.
The two-ton capsule, which car
ried an “artificial astronaut,” was
fished from the Atlantic Ocean
161 miles east of Bermuda by the
destroyer USS Decatur at 12:14
p.m. — just over three hours after
it roared away from Cape Cana
veral on the nose of an Atlas
missile.
The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration' said the
capsule will be returned to Cape
Canaveral as soon as possible for
study.
The single orbit of the earth
had taken one hour and 46
minutes.
Its course ranged from a high
altitude of 144 niiles over Aus
tralia to a low .point of 99 miles
over Bermuda. v
Except for a landing 39 miles
short of the planned impact point
200 miles from Bermuda it, was
a precision performance through
out.
The success signaled the be
ginning of a concentrated U. S.
drive to send a human astronaut
into orbit soon. A source close to
the project said the manned orbit
try could be made within two
months if officials decide to eli
minate a preliminary chimpan
zee shot.
Present plans call for the chimp
to be sent into triple orbit about
the earth in a Mercury capsule
within a few weeks, with a man
to follow over the same course
soon afterward.
If this two-shot schedule is fol
lowed, NASA admittedly faces a
tough row if it hopes to orbit a
Navy to Call Up
I, 957 Reservists
For Active Duty
WASHINGTON </R — The Navy
moved today to call another 1,957
reservists to active duty next
month to bring 18 reserve air
squadrons to full strength.
This brings to nearly 8,400 the
number of Naval reservists sum
moned to active duty in October.
Reservists who are recalled in
voluntarily will be given at least
30 days notice and will be told
to report at various times through
i out October.
The Navy set up a scedule of
priority order in which reservists
will be called, insofar as military
requirements permit.
The order:
1. Those who did not serve on
active duty from June 25, 1950, to
Jan. 3il, 1955, or between Dec.
7, 1941, and Sept. 2, 1945, in any
of tjie military services or the
Public Health Service. Credit also
is given for service in World War
II in the armed forres of any al
lied nations. i
2. Veterans of the Korean War
who had not served in World War
II.
3. World War II veterans who
"%• did not serve in the Korean War.
4. Veterans of both wars.
There was no geographical
breakdown on where the addi
tional reservists would be drawn
from. j
man before the end of 1961.
The informed sources reported
there is a very good chance a
man will ride the next Atlas
boosted capsule if a study of the
space craft and telemetry records
indicate the life support and en
vironmental control system work
ed perfectly. This study may re
quire several days, he said.
To test these systems, today’s
space craft carried a gray box
of instruments called a crewman
simulator which consumed oxy
gen, expelled carbon dioxide
and filled the space cabin with
heat and moisture much as an
astronaut would. Using pre
recorded messages it even talked
back to earth in a successful com
munications test.
“By Guess and
By Gosh” X15
Hits 3,645 mph
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE,
Calif. UFi — Fuel pressure failure,
smoke in the caibin and an in
flated pressure suit don’t stop test
pilot Joe Walker.
He ignored them all yesterday
and piloted his X15 rocket plane
to a “by guess and by gosh” world
speed mark for a winged craft
of 3,645 miles an hour.
He broke Air Force Maj. Bob
White’s record by 42 mph despite:
1. Fuel pressure failure in the
XI5 moments after its drop, from
a B52 mother ship. Walker
throttled the 57,000-pound thrust
engine to half power until fuel
pressure was restored.
2. A cloud of smoke in the cock
pit which Walker said he thought
came from paint scorching in the
nose.
I 3. Inflation of his pressure suit,
explained as a test of the suit’s
ability to compensate for loss of
cabin pressure.
4. Air friction that shot the fuel
temperature to almost 900 de
grees and set the X15’s steel skin
“popping like a hot stove,” in
Walker’s words.
The flight plan called for a
3,700 mph burst to 120,000 feet,
then a dive (back into the earth’s
thicker atmosphere to test the
craft’s ability to withstand re
entry heat and stress.
Walker soared 'to 112,000 feet,
but cut the flight from a sched
uled 12 minutes to nine.
On subsequent missions the
rocket plane is expected to be
scheduled for speeds up to 4,000
mph and heights up to 250,000
feet.
Mammoth Typhoon
Heads for Ryukyu Islands.
TOKYO UPi — A mammoth ty
phoon packing winds up to 230
miles per hour raged across the
Pacific today, shrieking a des
tructive course toward the Ryu
kyu Islands south of Japan.
The awesome storm, dubbed
typhoon Nancy and measuring
more than 230 miles across, moved
at a 16 mph clip in a northwest
direction. The U.S. Air Force pre
dicted the storm would be 21
miles southeast of Okinawa, a
major American military base, at
noon Thursday. _ f?'
At present strength Nancy
would be the most powerful ty
phoon — the Pacific version of
a hurricane — to hit Okinawa this
year.
... ~
FAA to Install
Direction Finders
At Alaska Airports
WASHINGTON UP) —1 The Fed
eral Aviation Agency said today
it will install 100 new direction
finders at selected flight service
stations and at airport control
towers not now equipped with
radar.
Most of the installations will be
in Alaska, in the western states,
and in some northeastern states.
The new equipment uses the
“Doppler” system to provide fast
er, more accurate navigational
information.
It is being purchased' for $1,
733,092 from Servo Corp. of Amer
ica, Hicksville, N. Y.
The equipment uses a cathode
ray type, with a display screen,
somewhat like a television tube.
When a pilot calls into the FAA
station or control tower, a bright
line shows on the direction find
er equipment in a fraction of a
second, to indicate the bearing of
the aircraft.
“This is not only much faster
than the older DF, but it also
more accurate," FAA said.
“When a button is pushed at
the FAA ground station, a line
shows on the DF equipment with
the magentic heading to the sta
tion. This heading can be trans
mitted to the pilot for his guid
ance.”
By means of pushbuttons the
equipment can quickly select any
of 20 different frequencies cover
ing virtually all aviation bands,
for civil transports, general avia
tion and military.
Tentative plans are to install
the new equipment at Anchorage,
| Aniak, Annette, Bethel, Betties,
I Big Delta, Cold Bay, Cordova,
Galena, Guikana, Gustavus,
Homer, Kenai, King Salmon, Ko
diak, Kotzebue, McGrath, Min
chumina, Nenana, Nome, North
way, Sitka, Summit, Talkeetna,
Tanana, Unalakleet and Yakutat,
STORK OUTRUNS
HURRICANE CARLA
HOUSTON, Tex. UP) — Hurri
cane winds didn’t howl alone near
the Texas coast.
A son was born to Mrs. Ray
Rubino in an elementary school
shelter at Angleton Monday night.
The delivery was made under the
beam of a flashlight by three
nurses without a doctor’s help.
At Lamarque, two 'babies were
born in the Galveston County
Hospital while the city was iso
lated.
Mrs. Stephen Dupius, 20, of
Port Arthur, gave birth to a boy
after she was taken from a refu
gee shelter to a hospital at Hunts
ville.
Alaska io Receive $44,300
For Civil Defense Programs
WASHINGTON UP) — Alaska
will receive $44,300 as its share
of a $12 million federal allotment
to strengthen state and local civil
defense programs.
The money, for personnel and
administrative costs, is on a 50
50 matching basis. The Pentagon
announced the allocations Mon
day.
RIGHT ON SCHEDULE
SEATTLE UP) — The Post Of
fice Department here said today
the first mail truck from Seattle
to Alaska was "right on schedule”
when it passed through Ft. Nel
son, B. C. this morning. It is
due in Fairbanks at 2 p.m. Fri
day. The truck left here Monday
night.
Seattle Firm Submits |
Low Bid for Construction!
Of Alaska’s Three Ferries
JUNEAU UP! — The Puget
Sound Bridge and Drydock Co.
of Seattle today submitted a low
bid of $10,445,000 for construction
of the three ferries the state will
operate in Southeast Alaska.
Puget Sound Bridge and Dry
dock’s low bid covered an alter
nate calling for delivery of the
first vessel 12 months after the
contract is signed and delivery
of the remaining two vessels at
four-month intervals.
If the first vessel is delivered
10 months after execution of the
contract and the others at four
month intervals, Puget Sound
Bridge and Drydock asked $10,
495,000.
‘The three 352-foot vessels will
be operated by the state between
Prince Rupert, B. C., and Skag
! way, with stops at Ketchikan,
Petersburg, Wrangell, Sitka, Ju
neau and Haines.
I Each boat will be designed to
carry a maximum load of 108
vehicles and 500 passengers.
JFK’s SCHOOL AID BILL
TAKES A LICKING IN
SENATE AND HOUSE !
WASHINGTON W — President I
Kennedy took a prestige-denting
political licking when the Senate
sided with the House in voting
to continue two school aid pro
grams until 19u3.
For all practical purposes this
action, accomplished yesterday on
j a 45-40 Senate vote, probably
j means Kennedy will not get the
full-fledged aid to education pro
gram he is certain to propose
again next year.
Congress may enact some fringe
benefits for colleges in 1962, but
the classroom construction and
teacher salary assistance he has
plugged for seems to have little
chance for enactment. The House
pigeonholed a measure of this
nature after it had been passed
toy the Senate.
The theory is that these contro
versial proposals need to be sugar
coated with extension of the popu
lar impacted areas and national
defense act programs. The first
of these gives federal aid to
school districts crowded with
children of federal workers. The
second provides scholarship grants
as well as loans for scientific
equipment.
RCA Awarded Contract
For Operation Of
White Alice System
JUNEAU UPI — The Air Force
renewed the RCA Service Co.’s
contract for operation and main
tenance of the White Alice Com
munications System, the Alaska
congressional delegation ^advised
the Associated Press by wire from
Washington, D. C. The amount
of the contract is $14,650,000.
TYPHOON RAVAGES
CAPITAL CITY OF FORMOSA
TAIPEI, Formosa (/P>—Typhoon
Pamela smashed across northern
Formosa yesterday killing perhaps
as many as 46 persons, leaving
thousands homeless, and ravaging
this capital of Nationalist China.
The great storm, with maximum
winds of 135 miles an hour, was
the worst in the memory of long
time residents of Formosa.
None of the Americans in this
city of 320,000 was injured, hut
some were isolated by flash floods.
Authorities estimated damage
throughout the storm area in the
millions of dollars.
Fallout May Have
Blown Back Over
Soviet Cities
WASHINGTON (f> — It is pos
sible that some fallout from the
two latest Soviet nuclear weapons
tests — the one involving big
H-Bomb type devices — has
blown back over Soviet populated
areas like Leningrad and pos
sibly even Moscow, Weather Bu
reau scientists said today.
Dr. Lester Machta and some of
his associates told a reporter that
world weather charts show that
a “low pressure area” prevailed
in the atmosphere above Novaya
Zemlya, the big Soviet island in
the Arctic region, at the time fee
two latest Soviet shots were fired
from that point.
And, unless the shots were
detonated at very high altitudes,
Machta said, this would mean that
radioactivity debris at lower levels
could have been blown over So
viet territory instead of heading
generally eastward and away.
As to the United States, the
Public Health Service said today
its fallout detection station in
Phoenix, Ariz., has reported an
“abrupt increase” in atmospheric
radiation.
But the service said the increase
is “not considered significant
from a health standpoint.” Fur
thermore, it added, the rise may
be due to factors other than fall
t out.
L . .
r I AEC Reports Two More
| Blasts Set Off by Russia
WASHINGTON UP) — The
Atomic Energy Commission re
ported; Russia fired two more nu
clear blasts today —■’ the 8th and
9th in the new series of Soviet
tests.
Like the earlier ones, these de
tonations were in the atmosphere.
The AEC described them as in
the low to intermediate range.
The Soviets resumed testing 13
days ago, and yesterday fired
a nuclear blast with the force of
several million tons of TNT.
I U.S. Accuses Russia of
Secret Plans for Tests
During Geneva Conference
WASHINGTON UTt — The Unit
ed States accused Russia today of'
conducting extensive secret pre
parations for atomic explosions
while the Geneva test-ban con
ference was underway this year.
It said an effective treaty out
lawing nuclear tests remains “a
matter of the greatest urgency.”
The U. S. statement was con
tained in a reply to a Japanese
note of Sept. 6 regretting the
U. S. resumption of atomic weap
ons tests and asking America to
reconsider.
The U. S. reply said President
Kennedy was “inevitably forced’*
to announce a resuhption of
American tests because of the
threat to U. S. and free world,
security posed by the Soviet re
sumption.
The U. S. reply to Japan was
contained in a note handed to the
Japanese ambassador yesterday
and made public by the State De
partment today.
The response was given to the
Japanese about the time word
reached Washington of Russia’s
seventh atomic explosion since
the Soviets ended the three-year
moratorium on nuclear testing
two weeks ago.