‘Russia Determined To Win Moon Race'

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30980, 9 February 1966, Page 13

‘Russia Determined To Win Moon Race'

LV.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, February 8. Russia is making an albout drive to be the first on the moon, Sir Bernard Lovell, the director of the Jodrell Bank observatory , said today. He told a press conference that Russia would send a manned spacecraft to the moon “possibly later this year or early next year.’’

The craft might even attempt a lunar landing or may only circumnavigate the moon, he said.

Sir Bernard Lovell said that before this he expected the Russians would land a robot tractor and animals on the moon within the next few months, possibly as early as the next full moon on March 7.

He said it was clear that the Russians were driving hard towards a manned landing on the moon, and that “their concentration on a manned landing is far greater than I had previously imagined.”

His assessment made clear that he believes the Russians have now put aside any doubts about the value of a moon programme doubts which once gripped Moscow and Washington—and are intent on going it alone. Calling for Soviet-Ameri-can co-operation in space exploration generally, he said’ “I want to emphasise the

absolute stupidity of the wayin which this is being done in a spirit of competition instead of co-operation between the Americans and Russians. ‘•Human Stupidity’ 1 “From every conceivable point of view this is the depth of human stupidity. “It is a great failing of human nature that this enterprise is being tackled not only separately and at tremendous individual cost, but also with a negligible exchange of information between the two sets of people doing it,” he said. The 250 ft diameter radiotelescope at Jodrell Bank spent three and a half hours searching for new signals

from Lunar IX last night but heard nothing. Sir Bernard Lovell said: “My own feeling is that we

have heard the last of Luna IX. “We feel confident that it landed on the moon to continue working for a long time. One is now forced to

the conclusion that something is not quite right. “It is only possible to speculate, and the most reasonable explanation is that there was some failure of the power supply.” The Russian news agency Tass said last night that Luna IX had “succesfully completed” its mission on the moon. U.S. Photographs In Washington, an American space official revealed today that the United States had picked up photographs transmitted from Luna IX. The disclosure, by Dr. Edward C. Welsh, the executive director of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, was the first word that American technicians, as well as those of Britain and Russia, had obtained the first radio data transmitted from the moon. Dr. Welsh said no decision had been reached on whether the United States pictures would be made public. He said he did not know whether they showed the same landscapes as those published by the British and Russians. The photographs picked up by the United States receiving equipment were being analysed and evaluated, he said. “I think it is fairly important for the public to know,” Dr. Welsh said, “that we don’t have to rely completely on Russian statements or British pronouncements in order to find out something about what is going on.”