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Show HIGH VIEW - Photograph of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and the Four Corners taken with high speed carera 160 miles up on an Air Force ATHENA rocket fired from Green River, verified correctness of rocket control system. Operating from the Athena's final stage, the camera photographed 12,996 square miles. Atlantic Research MSD is integrating contractor for the program. THE TIMES IDElMPEIDEKTj Moa,b5 I? Athena Photographs of Four Corners Released Photographs taken by a high speed camera mounted in the ATHENA test vehicle are being used by Atlantic Research Missile Systems Division and Aerospace Corp. to verify functioning of the rocket's important altitude control system. The Honeywell attitude controller points Athena's velocity package, third and fourth stages and re-entry vehicle, in the desired reentry direction following second stage separation. The cameras have been used in the three developmental flights of Athena and will be discarded when the vehicle is launched with powered third and fourth stages. In the first three launches, only first and second stages were powered. For the most recent flight, a modified Fairchild 70 mm camera, which shoots six frames a second, was placed in the vehicle's fourth stage. After second stage separation, the attitude controlled performed velocity package pitch-over maneuver and aimed it at the WSMR impact area. The camera operated at an altitude of 160 miles and took pictures covering 12,996 square miles, an area greal;-er than that of most New England States. |