MANY NATIONS IN SPACE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 8

MANY NATIONS IN SPACE

President de Gaulle’s visit to the Soviet Union, in which he witnessed the launching of Cosmos 122 and obtained promises of assistance with the launching of payloads into space, places France in a unique saltation. She might find herself able to send payloads into space upon the rockets of as many as five different space nations. The first French satellite was launched last November by a Diamant rocket from the Sahara Desert, followed two

weeks later by another which < the Americans launched on J top of a Scout booster. If the 1 E.L.D.O. space partnership i survives, there will be French 1 payloads fired on a multi- ; nation rocket employing a i British first stage and a Ger- 1 man third stage. Therefore a 1 French satellite launched by a J Russian rocket will clearly ' place France as the top hitch- 1 hiking nation in the space < race. i Other nations with their 1 eyes on Space include Japan : and Italy, possibly the United ’ Arab Republic and probably i

China. As yet China has no large rocket capable of carrying a satellite into orbit but it would be foolish to suppose that she will not develop one, just as she has painstakingly developed an atomic bomb. In the meantime her experimental satellites could perhaps be launched by Soviet rockets. Without doubt the Chinese will make the most of any opportunities that offer in the field of space. This is in contrast to the British who let slip the chance to be the world’s third most important space nation.