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Show 10 May 1964 Salt Lake Tribune A.F. Returns Athena for Test By James Bapis : United Press International "GREEN RIViER, Emery County - The.'Air Force's trouble-plagued Athefta missile test program, thrown .behind schedule last February when the initial overland flight malfunctioned, returns from the drawing board to the launch pad this week. THE SECOND firing of the four - stage, solid propellant 'rocket has been set tentatively •fo'r May 14 from a launch complex near here. _ -The initial test of the eight-ton research vehicle, dubbed the "flying junkpile," failed when the uose cone ejected prematurely, sending the rocket components crashing to the earth 150 miles short of the target area and 40 miles off course. CREWS AT THE Utah launch site, where three launch pads have been constructed to handle the more than 70 Athena firings scheduled in the 60 million dollar program, were making final preparations for Thursday's launch. However, Air Force officials emphasized that May 14 was not a fixed date for the second test They emphasized the chance of "slippage''; ia the event tech- •nical .difficulties developed. •-..-"!£ LOOKS, good right now, but X setback on these tests could- come without much ad-vanCe notice," an Air Force spokesman said. White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, about 450 miles southeast of Green River, again is the programmed impact point for the solid-fueled Athena. THE MAIDEN voyage of the pencil-shaped rocket, which had been billed as the longest overland flight in the United States, ended in failure in sagebrush near Durango, Colorado. The malfunction was- attributed to a short circuit which occurred five seconds after the .first stage ignited. .;_. Salt Lake Tribune Rocket Zips 9 Feb 64 • Monday : /• FOF Target Utah to Open Athena Test An Athena rocket will climb skyward from a launching pad near Green River Monday. In a matter of minutes it will be zeroing in on an impact point in ,,the Army's White Sands Missile Range, 450 miles to the sduth in New Mexico. THE FIRING will be the.first of more than 70 to be conducted by the Ballistic Systems Division of the Air Force Systems Command. In essence, the program is designed to provide information on intercontinental ballistic missite reentry, radar and tracking systems and nose cone reentry problems. THE ATHENA affords the means of getting the job done at relatively little expense. A versatile bird, the Athena principally is a four - stage, solid propellant vehicle built of predominantly off - the - shelf» parts By Atlantic Re s e a r c hj Corp. :...;••-. ;.;• WITH THAT configuration it I can put a 50-pound payl^ad into;: a reentry velocity of a' minimum of 22,000 feet a second at an altitude of 250,000 feet. A two-stage version c a n be; used in a program which requires "long residence" above the atmosphere - for example, up to 400 seconds. FOR LIGHTWEIGHT p a y- loads or payloads requiring low reentry velocities, the three-stage Athena can be used. On launch Monday, the Athena will fly a modified ballistic trajectory. On reentry, the third and fourth stages-will fire in sequence to drive the p a y-1 o a d downward, thus simulating ICBM reentry speeds. THE 40-MILLION dollar test series will be conducted over a period of 18 months. Green River was chosen for the launching area because it is directly in line with previous overland missile flights of the Pershing missile tests from Blanding, San Juan County, and Ft. Wingate, N.M. Monday's firing is expected to be a high-altitude, .steep-angle reentry tesit. ; -•: ',1V - |
