Science Studies In Space

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31009, 15 March 1966, Page 17

Science Studies In Space

(N Z.P.A .-Reuter —Copyright) CAPE KENNEDY, March 14. America’s Gemini VIII space flight scheduled to be launched tomorrow will help determine if there is any life form in outer space. Major David Scott, during a planned two hours and a half space walk, will slap a sterile patch—a kind of stellar flypaper—on the nose of the unmanned Agena target rocket with which Gemini i plans to rendezvous. The idea is that any microorganisms or fragments of space material finer than grains of sand will be trapped on the patch as it spins along. After the Gemini VIII returns to earth at the end of its three-day mission the Agena will go on orbiting until another rendezvous attempt by Gemini X planned for the summer. Gemini X will try to re-

trieve the patch and its catch of stardust for laboratory inspection. In a parallel experiment Scott, whirling round at the end of his golden lifeline and

propelling himself by a gasgun, will stick another patch on the Agena—this time covered with virtu and micro-organisms. Scientific tests later will reveal the effects of weightlessness and exposure to the vacuum of outer space. The highlight of tomorrow’s mission will be the attempt to achieve the first “rendezvous and docking” of two spacecraft in orbit—a technique that must be perfected before astronauts can attempt the journey to the moon. Pakistan Visit.—President Liu Shao-chi of China will visit Pakistan at the invitation of President Mohammed Ayub Khan, the New China News Agency said today.—(Tokyo, March 14.)