New Space Shot Rumour

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31000, 4 March 1966, Page 13

New Space Shot Rumour

| (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) MOSCOW, March 3. A Soviet astronomer has predicted that direct and regular study of the planet Venus might soon become possible after the landing of a Soviet rocket on the planet on Tuesday. But the astronomer. Professor Alexander A. Mikhailov, said future cosmonauts were unlikely to find a flourishing world on the cloud-shrouded planet. The Venusian surface could be “a scorching desert.” but it was also possible that mea-

surement which indicated a high temperature on the planet only applied to its upper atmosphere. If this were so. the heat on the planet might not be so terrible, he wrote in the youth newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda.” After the Venus success and the launching of two dogs on an eight-day-old mission providing scientists with information on the effect of radiation belts on a living organism. Rumours that a new manned space shot was planned very soon continued to circulate in Moscow. The Soviet Union never gives notice of its new steps in space exploration, and rumours of new launchings are frequent. They often prove 'to be false. But some sources think a spectacular space feat is very likely to precede the 23rd congress of the Communist Party, due to begin at the end of the month.

One persistent rumour says a launching is planned possibly involving up to six cos-

monauts and a rendezvous with a second space ship. The last Soviet manned space shot came almost a year ago on March 18, 1965, when Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov went up in Voskhod 11, and Colonel Leonov made his epoch-making walk in space.