The Charlotte News

Saturday, October 11, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Cape Canaveral, Fla., that the world's first lunar probe had been launched this date, reaching the highest altitude ever attained by a man-made vehicle, but had taken off slightly slower than had been planned, though having little effect on its mission to come within 50,000 miles of the moon and possibly orbit around it. The rocket had an 85-pound instrumented satellite atop it and it was planned that its rendezvous with the moon would occur in about 2 1/2 days along a 221,000-mile trajectory. Six hours after the launch, Government scientists estimated that the rocket, dubbed "Pioneer", was about 45,000 miles into space. The Pentagon announcement said, however, that it appeared data received from the satellite indicated that it might be departing from its intended trajectory, which could mean that it might miss the intended point in space at which it would intercept the moon. It was never anticipated that the rocket would actually hit the moon, though that remained a possibility. The Pentagon said that the experiments with instruments aboard Pioneer were proceeding satisfactorily. The launch had taken place a little more than a year after the Russians had launched the first Sputnik into orbit on October 4, 1957. The U.S. had launched since that time four satellites. There was no indication that the Soviets had attempted to launch a rocket into space headed for the moon. The U.S. had first tried on August 17 to launch such a rocket, but it had exploded 77 seconds after leaving the launchpad. This date's attempt had been completed on schedule with precision. An hour after the launch, it was announced that the lunar probe had escaped the earth's heavy gravitational field and two hours later, as the satellite sped onward, those who had directed the launch said that data was still too limited to permit accurate estimates of its altitude and speed, but indicated that the probe was apparently speeding through space at around 25,000 mph. In Washington, the Defense Department announced that if the lunar probe would achieve a desired orbit around the moon, which would not be known for some time, the satellite would remain within 40,000 miles of the moon for at least seven days. The Department also said that it was theoretically possible that the satellite might actually strike the surface of the moon or pass beyond the influence of the moon's gravity and go into outer space beyond the range of earth tracking stations. It was disclosed for the first time that instruments carried by the satellite included one for measuring the intensity of radiation during flight from the earth to the moon. Inclusion of those instruments had been prompted partly by the recent discovery of a potentially dangerous band of radiation beginning about 600 miles above the earth and continuing out to an as yet undetermined altitude—the Van Allen Belts. At a news conference, Dr. Louis Dunn, president of Space Technology Laboratories in Los Angeles, which had developed the lunar probe, said that there were some indications that the launch speeds had been slightly lower than were scheduled and that the first stage appeared to have "programmed" higher than it should have, that is having begun to curve on its trajectory to the northeast. The launch, however, was considered a great success because the stages had all fired in proper sequence at full thrust and the payload of instruments in the nosecone had soared into space. If all went well, the missile would approach within 50,000 miles of the moon sometime on Monday afternoon. The nosecone was described by the Defense Department in a statement as "the most sophisticated man-made fact-finding device ever thrust into the heavens." Within its fiberglass shell were 30 pounds of instruments designed to collect and relay information on the magnetic fields of the earth and the moon, to record the number of micrometeorites it would encounter, to measure radiation intensity during flight from the earth to the moon, to determine internal temperature inside the satellite during flight, and to obtain a crude electronic picture of the surface of the moon. It also carried television scanning equipment to gather data on the hidden far side of the moon. Dr. Robert Bennett, director of electronics for the program, said that if the lunar probe were to orbit or pass the moon, it might take around five days to gather the scanning data sufficiently to provide a crude picture of the moon.

There had been no celebrations in the blockhouse when Pioneer had been launched. Ted Gordon, 28, the test conductor whose word was law during the missile countdown, said, "A few seconds after liftoff, I told them to keep quiet and they did." He praised the 55 members of the team who had helped him launch the 88-foot rocket toward the moon, saying, "We were really keyed up, but I had a great deal of confidence in this group." The Douglas team wanted to cheer when they saw their missile perform so well, but discipline was a top priority during the launch of missiles and so they remained mum. As with Mr. Gordon, most of the technicians had spent more than 12 hours inside the concrete blockhouse preparing the rocket for the launch, which had occurred at 3:42 a.m. Mr. Gordon told the press afterward: "Because of the preliminary reports we felt pretty good when we finished the job and left the blockhouse, but we were still a little wary because of disappointments in the past. It was a tough countdown, much tougher than the first moon rocket on August 17. We had three or four minor mechanical failures during the long count, but we managed to absorb them and get the bird right off on time. It's rough when you run into trouble while working within such a precise time limit." To take advantage of the moon's optimum position in relation to the earth, the rocket had to be fired within a 15-minute window of the appointed time for launch. If the Douglas Aircraft crew failed to launch within that window, the launch would have been postponed until the following morning. There was a brief delay when the countdown reached ten seconds, but Mr. Gordon said that it was the result of a misunderstanding on procedure rather than any technical trouble.

In Clover, S.C., it was reported that a six-year old boy had a problem in common with rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun, that being how to conquer the technical difficulties in moon-bound spaceships. The boy's mother had described the boy's test flight by saying, "I had really rather forget it." It had been a routine day for her as her babysitter had put the 18-month old baby of the family in the stroller and gone out, as the mother of the boy left for a meeting, and his older sister, 10, was at Girl Scouts. The boy was host to his pal, a first grader and son of the local police chief. The two boys eyed the clothes dryer as an imaginary space vehicle and the younger boy opened its door, saying, "When I get in, I'll take off in space." He then entered the spaceship and the other boy turned on the dryer controls. The younger boy, knowing better how automatic dryers worked than his older companion, asked the other boy to shut the door, which he then did, causing the dryer to begin to tumble, at which point the young passenger screamed for his companion to open the door, which he did, but the boy continued to swirl in orbit and the older boy was now helpless. Next door, the neighbor's maid heard the boy's screams and came over and tried to pull him from the dryer, but it would not stop and inside the boy was becoming redder and warmer. The babysitter then arrived on the scene with the infant and joined in the effort to try to extricate him from the dryer, as did another seven-year old sister, who finally suggested that they unplug the machine, which finally worked to bring the boy back to earth. The dryer had burned out every connection as the boy's weight apparently had thrown the timer off, as it would run and revolve but no longer heat. Check first the internal thermal fuse and temporarily bypass it and if it then heats again, buy a new fuse. The heat develops from the 220 volts at the two-hot-poled wall plug, at least in an electric dryer—and if you got inside a gas-powerd one, you're more insane than an average astronaut—, and continuing electrical operation otherwise means that you have lost one pole of the electricity, such that you are now developing only 110 volts. You must restore your bipolar operation.

In Vatican City, the Conclave of the College of Cardinals, which would elect the 262nd supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, would begin on Saturday, October 25.

Meanwhile at the Vatican, a silent, endless stream of people flowed through St. Peter's Basilica to view the body of Pope Pius XII, who had died early on Thursday morning following two strokes on Monday and Wednesday. His body lay in state directly under the great cupola and above the tomb of his predecessor, St. Peter. The side doors of the Basilica had opened at dawn and the long procession had begun, with men, women and children entering the doors at the right and moving across slowly, held within certain boundaries by wooden stands. As they viewed the Pope's body, some wept and many crossed themselves. Twenty-four candles cast a golden glow on the Pope's countenance, slightly inclined on a six-foot high catafalque such that his lean face was higher and clearly visible. By noon, hundreds of thousands, moving in a 20-foot wide solid stream, had already passed by his remains. The body had been brought to the Vatican on Friday night from the papal summer palace at Castel Gandolfo, where the Pope had died, 18 miles from the Vatican. The Vatican announced that his remains would be buried beneath the Basilica in funeral services starting in the late afternoon on Monday with the services to last for about 90 minutes.

John Kilgo of The News, in the last of his series of reports on juvenile delinquency in Charlotte, indicates that evangelist Billy Graham, hungry and tired after four speaking engagements, had sat in his Coliseum office in Charlotte eating a hot dog and drinking creamed buttermilk, taking the time to talk with a News reporter about teenage crime in the city, a subject on which the evangelist was quite interested, devoting at least two nights per week during the three weeks thus far of his four-week crusade talking to Charlotte's youth. He did not point an accusing finger at the teenagers, finding them no worse at present than they had been when he was growing up in Mecklenburg County. But he indicated that present teenagers faced temptations at nearly every turn, finding: "Today, our teenagers have too much leisure time on their hands. They'll come home from school in the afternoon, and with no job to do, they'll go to a drugstore or somewhere and hang around. They might pick up a sex magazine or something and read it while passing the time of day. When I was a teenager here during the depression days, I didn't have any leisure time. I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning to milk cows and I came home from school to other jobs. When night came, I was too tired to go anywhere. I wanted to stay home." He said that teenagers at present were seeking a challenge, wanting something to follow. "They want a leader to follow and I believe Christ can be the leader. Youngsters today have a lot of surplus energy and they have to have outlets for it." He had also taken issue with the church and their programs for teenagers, saying: "Our ministers are not preaching enough sermons today for teenagers. Many times the preachers speak over their heads and they don't get much out of it. And I think the sermons to the youngsters should be centered on the Bible. The teenagers don't come to church to hear a book review. I sincerely believe they want to hear the Bible preached more." He said that he thought it was why Westerns were so popular at present, because they were tough. "Teenagers can be a Matt Dillon in their own neighborhood. Instead of carrying a gun, they can carry a Bible and their job of cleaning up their neighborhood can be just as tough as Dillon cleaning up Dodge City. When preaching to teenagers, you should talk straight from the shoulder. Don't water it down. They don't like it that way and they can tell when you're doing it." He also found fault with parents who told their children to do one thing and then turned right around and did something else. "A child is not going to listen very closely to a parent who tells them not to waste his time and do his homework, when he sees him sitting in an easy chair watching TV and sipping beer. I think children pick up more with their eyes than they do with their ears." Regarding the small number of teenagers who got into trouble in Charlotte, he said: "I hope we can get them out for some of the meetings. I think the Lord can do something for them."

They will, however, first have to watch the start of the new season of "Zorro" on Thursday night and then "Maverick" on Sunday evening. That way, they can obtain vicarious release of their pent-up aggressive tendencies and angst regarding growing old with the commensurate need constantly to prove themselves anew each day to demonstrate their continued youthful vigor, thus avoiding knife and gunfights at the O.K. Corral as a means to manifest the sustained possession of frontier rugged individualism to impress the ladies, while also remaining too busy to bother their prying eyes with the sex magazines to pass the time of day with Mr. Ed, for inquiring minds want to know.

As we have fallen behind, there will be no further notes on the front page or editorial page for this date, as the notes will be sporadic until we catch up.

Framed Edition

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