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Show Warning Points to 'Reentry Gap Athena Chief Says Missile to Earn ^Confidence' HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE [essential to the national seeuri- The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake Gity, Utah 18 December 196U "We have never faced up to all the problems of reentry," he said. "We know there are unknowns in that area and.that the1 other guy is working on them just as hard as we are, if not BASE, N.M. (AP)-The test tii-l rector fro the Air Force Athena missile predicts the missile, be*-set by embarrassing problems. during its first year of overland flights, will earn public confidence in time. Lt. Col. Tuevo Ahola further belieVes the United States could find itself at the short end of what might be termed a missile reentry gap. should the Athena tests not continue successfully. The Athena is being fired over sparsely populated areas from Green River, Utah, into White Sands Missile Range in a study i of how : ballistic missile warheads behave as they reehter the earth's atmosphere. Since the first firing in February the military has reported only three1 missiles making the full trip. Three others missed the target-one landing in Colorado and two in New Mexico. Col. Ahola said in an interview that the Athena program is ty; as it will give the United States better defensive and offensive capabilities in the field of intercontinental ballistic missiles. harder." " He noted that news media have referred to Athena as a junk .missile because barious; components were taken from' other programs . and assembled! to' provide an economical test vehicle for the program. Col. Ahola said, however, such a term is a misnomer. He said all of Athena's/components are] proven parts and that, although, not flight-tested prior to February, Athena underwent wind tunnel and other tests brior to the first firing. The colonel said Athena tests will continue for quite awhile and that the program "has mor jin it for this area (Green River) I and White Sands) than any oth- |er program I know of." JUNCTION SENT tion, Successfully At GREEN RIVER, Utah - A successful night firing of the experimental Athena : missile here Friday is expected to get the rocketry program moving again after months of delays. The launch at 8:15 p.m. Friday sent an Athena missile streaking like a Roman candle over a 417-mile course between the launch pad here and, White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. / The miniature ICBM left a fiery path in the night sky, broken momentarily as each of its four stages ignited. The Air Force officials who announced the show to some 100 spectators pronounced the shot a success. The missile arcs to an altitude of 162 miles in its curving path to the White Sands target area. The flight takes nine minutes. In effect, however, it has taken two years. Work on the missile complex here began early in 1963. A year later the first firing came. The bird went wild and was crashed near 'Du-rango, Colo. Subsequent tries resulted in more bugs - cancellations or mid-air destruction of wayward Athenas. The program fell behind schedule. By spring of this year, when successful shots were made, the program was estimated to be six months behind. It calls for "77 shots over a period of two years. Cost of the operation has been pegged at $340 million. With the Friday night success, J. T. Luther of Atlantic Research Corp., the builders and handlers of the solid-fueled rockets, said the firing schedule will be stepped up to four a week - two each Monday and two each Friday. Object of the joint research program is study of re-entry characteristics of rockets through use of the scale model i Athena. , |
