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Show Space Cinders to Fly SALT LAKE TRIBUNE 2 February 1964 New Athena to Win Letter on Utah Missile Track By Harold R. Williams Associated Press Writer WHITE SANDS MISSILE ;RANGE, N.M. - The Air Force (hopes to bolster its missile muscle with the Athena firings from Green River, Utah, starting this month. THE ATHENA, A spare-parts missile put together with existing rocket motors for economy, is a four-stage, solid-fuel rocket developed to simulate almost every U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile. To achieve re-entry characteristics of an ICBM, the Athena fires two stages up, and then two stages drive the missile back to earth. IMPACT WILL be 470 miles south in the White Sands Missile Range. To achieve this exact turnabout, Honey well of Minneapolis developed a 4% million dollar attitude controller using a pair of free gyros that are expected to aim the missile to within one degree of a predetermined flight path. The 82-pound package will be mounted behind the third stage. mum height after second stage burnout, the attitude controller using a nitrogen gas reaction system turns the missile around to the exact re-entry angle. THE THIRD stage won't fire until computers have determined that the first and second stages have functioned perfectly in placing the missile in the desired altitude and position. The controller can accept ground commands and adjust for offsets incurred by launching. After selecting the re-entry path, the controller's package is jettisoned and the third stage fires. MOST OF THE 77 tests scheduled in the 18-month $40 million Athena program deal with improving weapons systems for ICBMs. With the Atomic Energy Commission's development of smaller and more powerful warheads, additioal space is available for devices such as decoys, radar jammers and penetration aids. ALL THESE ARE scheduled for tests in the Athena. Other tests will be new re- entry designs and materials, maneuverable warheads, and study of the ionized sheath as the payload blazes back into the atmosphere. ' Also, new powerful radars have been built at Green River and White Sands to track the payloads, which will weigh from 50 to 300 pounds, to provide "signatures" for reference purposes. TO HELP GATHER the radar characteristics of different types of warheads, an Air Force KC135, loaded with instrumentation, will fly along the pay-load trajectory. ; The payloads will not have explosive or nuclear warheads. The first stage will have a de-struct package if trouble develops in the early stages of the launch, THE TESTS ARE a continuation of overland flights started with the Sergeant firing last May from Datil, N.M.,.and fol-| lowed by . the Pershing from Blanding, Utah, and Ft. Win-gate, N.M. ,; The flight paths will follow al-f most the same line as the Per»| shing. The area is sparsely popu- "• lated. : |