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Show Volume 74 THE SUN ADVOCATE Price, Carbon County, Utah, Thursday, February 11,1965 Number 6 Athena Testing Program Slated to Continue; Pershing Moving into Green River Comple; Missile Launches Scheduled Through Next Year Senator Wallace F. Bennett (R-Utah) has announced that the Air Force plans to continue its Athena missile testing program near Green River through all of 1965 and through most of 1966. The Utah Republican reported that the 1965 schedule calls for at least three Athena launchings each month. The Air Force and Atlantic Research of Alexandria, Virginia, are testing re-entry and solid fuel missiles at Green River where the pencil-like Athena is launched to the White Sands testing ground in New Mexico. Since the first Athena launch a year ago the Air Force has launched eight more missiles, including the most recent on January 16, 1965. The first launch triggered an exhaustive safety investigation when the missile malfunctioned and impacted near Durango, Colorado. "All of the iSubsequent launches have been at least partially successful with two exceptions," Senator Bennett reported. ' 'On these two occasions, the range safety officer destructed the missiles early in their flight to avoid a recurrance of the first incident." The assistant secretary of the j Air Force for research and development, Alexander H. Flax, told Senator Bennett "In general, the"'Athena program has been proceeding slowly because of a number of technical growing pains in the missile and range support system." Senator-Bennett said that last year some 530 employees worked on the launch system at Green River. The total includes Air Force, Army and contractor personnel. According to the original contract schedule at Green River the Air Force would have completed the final launch in December 1964 and would be in the process of deactivating the Green River site now, Mr. Flax told Senator Bennett. However, because o!f unscheduled delays there are a total 68 missiles remaining which will extend the test program through most of 1966. "'Further use of the Green River site beyond the test program, will depend on the Air Force review of data obtained from test programs under way and the future needs of new missile development programs," Senator Bennett said. Times Independent, lyiotb,* Utlih, 16 Sep 65 Two Athena Missiles were fired successfully from the ' (Green River Missile Complex Monday. Successive launches fwere made at 11:45 p.m. and 1:45 a.m Two more are slated (for this coming Monday. __ ___ _ Missile Still Missing After Overshot An Athena missile is still missing this week, after it overshot the designated point of impact at White Sands Missile Range Saturday evening. The missile was one of a pair fired from the Green River Missile Base in a duel firing Saturday evening; the second missile s landed on the range, officers .confirmed. , Spokesmen said White Sands iradar tracked the missile to a point 50 miles south of the range, and southeast of Fa-bens, near El Paso, Texas. Army helicopters and a ground search crew have failed to find any trace of the strayed missile, which officers say may have disintegrated. They said there had been no reports from anyone in the area who saw or heard the missile during its flight. |
