) t /- I SOVIET SPACE TECHNOLOGY HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS AND SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON LUNIK PROBE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES EIGHTY-SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION MAY 11, 12, 13, 14, 28, 29, AND EXECUTIVE SESSIONS OF MAY 12 AND 14, 1959 [No. 46] Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Astronautics UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 48438 WASHINGTON : 1959 COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS OVERTON BROOKS, Louisiana, Chairman JOHN W. McCORMACK, Massachusetts JOSEPH W. IARTIN, JR., Massachusetts GEOR(IE I'. MILLER, California JANIES 0. FULTON, Pennsylvania OLIN F. TEAOUE, Texas GORI)ON I,. McI)ONOUGII, California VICTOR I,. ANFU80, New York J. EI)OAR CIIENOWETII, Colorado B. F. SISK, California FRANK C. OSMERS, JR., New Jersey ERWIN .MITCiIEI, Oeorgla WILLIAM K. VAN PELT, Wisconsin JANIES M. QUTI(I,EY, Pennsylvania A. D. BAUMIlARTr, JR., Ohio DAVID M. iAI,I,, North (Carolina PERKINS BASS, New lampshire LEONARI) 0. WOLF, Iowa It. WALTER RIElILMAN, New York JOSEP1l E. KARTII, Minnesota KEN IlECIiIER, West Virginia EMIILIO Q. I)AI)DARIO, Connecticut WAITERt ii. MOELLIt Ohio DAVID S. KING, Utah J. EI)WARI) tOUSlH, Indiana CHARLES F. I)rTCANDER, Fecutire Directcr nd Chief Counsel Dr. CUARL:S S. SHELDON 11, Technical Director SPE:NCER M. BERESFORD, -Special Counsel PiLI.P B. YFA'wn, Special Consultant ]IARNEY S. Ii(C.AN, Staff Consultant Jon.N A. CARSTARPiIEN, Jr., Counsel RICHARD P. HINES, Staff Consutltant Lt. Col. PAIUL B. SCtI'IPFNER, Staff Consultaut RAYMOND WILCOVE, staff Coaaultaal SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON LUNIK PROBE VICTOR L. ANFUSO, New York, Chairmans LEONARD 0. WOLF, Iowa FRANK C. OSMERS, JR., New Jersey JOSEPH E. KARTH, Minnesota WILLIAM K. VAN PELT, Wisconsin DAVID S. KING, Utah SPZNCER M. BERESFORD, Special Counsel CONTENTS Executive sessions- Page May 12, 1959 -------------------------------------------------- 77 May 14, 1959 ------------------------------------------------- 131 Statement of- Benham, Thomas A., professor of physics, Haverford Cn'lege, Haver- ford, Pa---------------------------------------------------- 47 Curtis, Dr. Harold 0., Associate Director, Project Space Track, Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Bedford, Mass -------------- 197 Daigh, Ralph, editorial director and vice president, Fawcett Publica- tions ------------------------------------------------------- 137 Dryden Dr. Hugh, Deputy Administrator, National Aeronautical and Space Administration -.-------------------------------- 59, 77 Fox, Lt. Col. ,James A., Chief, Space Systems Branch, Air Technical Intelligence Center, l)ayton, Ohio ------------------------------ 99 Godel, William, Advancted Research Projects Administration, Depart- ment of the ArmN -------------------------------------------- 109 Hall, Col. Linscott A., Deputy Director of Estimate, Office, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF ----------------------------- 99 Malian, Lloyd, author of "The Big Red Lie," accompanied by Ralph Daigh vice president, Fawcett Publications ----------------- 5, 137, 193 Newell, br. Homer E., Jr., Assistant Director, Space Sciences, Office of Space Flight Development --------------------------------- 59,77 Pickering, Dr. William I., Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Insti- tute of Technology ------------------------------------------ 59,77 Shapley, Dr. Alan 1l., Assistant Chief, Radio Propagation Physics Division, National Bureau of Standards, Boulder Laboratories, Boulder, Col ------------------------------------------------ 177 Singer, Dr. S. Fred, associate professor of physics, University of Mary- land ------------------------------------------------------- 85 Slain, R. M., Director, Project Space Track, Air Force, Cambridge Research Center, Bedford, Mass ------------------------------- 197 Stewart., Dr. Homer Joseph, Director, Office of Program Planning and Evaluation National Aeronautics and Space Administration ------ 209 Ziegler, Dr. Htanz, Department of the Army -------------------- 109, 131 SOVIET SPACE TECHNOLOGY MONDAY, MAY 11, 1959 HousE or REPRESENTATmS, Cox 1Tr oN1SCIENCE AND ASTRO NAUTICS, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 10 a.m. in the caucus room, Old House Office Building, Washington, D.C., iHon. Overton Brooks (chairman) pre- siding. The CHAIEMAN. The committee will please come to order. This morning the committee opens a new hearing. We will meet long as the attendance at the hearings justifies meeting in the \caucus,here as room, provided we get permission to meet here. The purpose of the hearing noi establish the authenticity of Soviet claims as to the s and lunikiwrd also to dig into the status of scientific adyAncement in other countie3f the world, espe- cially in the Soviet on. We have a nui*,or of witnesses se~edilled. The hear are selied- uled to last a k. If we cai moe eitesses up,h wever, and hear them faI r than we pow e pect\to be abl' to do, we ca finish the hearings ear ier than thl. It ill deend o?4he number of question and the n ber of f cts that e ea3ti4.o develop in the c urse of the hearin,. m.. C I want o first ask the me the they ca hear me. To s art with we have bloyd Mall , ho is Ahe author f the story ent ed "Th RBig Red "WIlic w pwblish in True aga- I want to reco ze Mr.nfuso a short statement this Mr. AChairman, so. Thak I yod like r _l L ear"a at th outset these hearings th t the representatives. of-rue 9.azine which published this story ' he Big Red ie;"" Mr\ Ra lp ai, and i author, Lloyd Mallan, a very repu~ble repo r, bot for thi investiga- tion, and you re gdo t it order to the record straight once an rail. interests othAmerican _ believe in the t of the A a ple, this story should be lully invest d and I am glad tat(you -tcauiesced in that. I can assure you, r. i Mir an, t a I cannot be here for all of the hearings, this committee will be mely fair in the interrogation of the witnesses and you will be given every oppor- tunity to state your case. I am confident that you are motivated by the best interest of the country in printing and circulating thi$ article. SOVIET SPACE TECHNOLOGY I am equally confident that the same spirit of patriotism will lead you to retract your story and to give as much publicity to the retrac- tion, should it develop in these hearings that the story was unwar- ranted. Am I correct in stating that, Mr. Daigh and Mr. Mallan? Mr. MALLAN. Yes, you are. Mr. ANFUSO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CI InA,,N. Thank you, Mr. Anfuso. Before proceeding with the testimony of Mr. Mallan, I wish to say that we have two important telegrams that the committee has received and I am going to ask Mr. Beresford, special counsel for the commit- tee, to read those two telegrams. Mr'. BEIRESFORD. The first is a telegram friom the Stanford Research Institute Station at Menlo Park, Calif. The telegram is dated May 5. Stanford Research Institute was notified on January 2, 1959, of the launch of a Russian moon probe. A telephone check with Project Space Track, Air Force Cambridge Research Center revealed that the official frequencies used were 19.993, 19.995, and 19.997 megacycles. Furthermore, it wis suspected that a frequency of 71.2 megacycles might be used. Preparations were made at the Stanford Research Institute field site to monitor these four frequencies. This monitoring began at approximately 0030 universal time on January 3. The receiving equipment consisted of the following: Antennas, two 2-element yagles were used at 20 me. One antenna wias vertically polarized, the other horizontally polarized. Each antenna uses a gamma match to 50 ohm RG 8U, equal length of cable feed a hybrid loop. Add and subtract output of loop, are connected through equal lengths of cables to receivers. The yagies were movable, 360 degrees in azinuth. The 71.2 me. antenna is a size element yagi connected directly to a NEMS-Clark receiver. The 20-megacycle receivers were two Collins 51 J-4's tuned to approximately 19.993 megacycles. B.F.O. was normally on, AVC off, Limiter off, BFO filter on 1 kc., crystal filter on positions 2 to 4. Signal was recorded on an ampex F.R. 1102 converted to F.R. 1104, four-channel record reproduce machine on half inch tape at 15 IPSW was used. WWV was re- corded on first channel. The 20 me. signals from the vertically and horizontally polarized channel were recorded on channels 2 and 3. The 71.2 megacycle signal was recorded on channel 4. The following are notes and comments: The signal was expected around moonrise January 3 which occurred approxi- mately at 0915 universal time. Signal was not picked up until 1045 universal time and was recorded on magnetic type until 1128 n.t. Monitoring continued until approximately 1300 u.t. The signal was very weak at the beginning and at no time was it stronger than weak. It appeared to be CW and appeared to follow the moon by about an hour and a half. There were two types of fading on the signal. One was generally deep fades in both channels, the other was polarization fading. The signal shift from vertical to horizontal polarization and back. etc. It was noted after about 2 hours that the apparent Doppler shift had reached a value of 1.5 ke. Comments by trained observers were made to the effect that this shift was too light for satellite on the way to the moon. It was attempted to obtain contact with the moon probe on January 4 without success. Footnote the two Collins receivers had been turned on a minimum of 15 hours. The signal required almost continuous tuning for peaking. It was too weak to obtain any factual Doppler shift. Antennas were rotated frequently to maxi- mize signals. One-minute polarization fades. Longer periods for deep fades. Nineteen hundred and fifty-eight Delta-2 recorded intermittently on 20.004 me. between 1110 and 1120 u.t. The other telegram is from Dr. Lovell, the director of the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope Laboratory in England dated May 8, 1959: We did not succeed in detecting any signals from lunik.