Nov 6 1971
From The Space Library
AEC detonated five-megaton hydrogen bomb on Amchitka Island, Alaska, at 11 am local time (5 pm EsT). Supreme Court had refused to order delay in controversial $200-million Cannikin project to test prototype warhead for Spartan missiles of Safeguard ABM system. No earthquake followed detonation, but shock waves reverberating from deep earth strata rocked island severely. Dr. James R. Schlesinger, AEC Chairman, broadcast from control room on Amchitka immediately following blast: "We had fairly significant ground motion . . . but sensation was just about what we had expected." Tentative indications were that blast effects were "well within the range of projections." Dr. Schlesinger said test had permitted introducing of Spartan warhead into inventory "while minimizing the likelihood of a defective warhead. I believe the final results of Cannikin will permit the AEC to certify the Spartan warhead for introduction into the stockpile within the appropriate deployment schedule." Report from Palmer Observatory had indicated Richter scale reading of 7.0. "So it is indicated that we had a full yield test." Control board indicated "all of our radiation activity monitoring stations are reporting .. not even a trace of radioactive release to this point. We are past the 12-minute mark." (AEC Release 0-204; Turner, NYT, 11/7/71, 1)
Award by Communist Party Central Committee and Council of Minis- ters of U.S.S.R. of 1971 state prizes for achievements in science and technology was announced by Tass. State prize for celestial mechanics had been awarded to unidentified scientists "who have developed new methods of plotting the movement of natural and artificial space objects" Research provided "a theoretical basis for the solution of engineering problems . . . in the flight of space objects and their orientation in orbit." Later, Pravda published article by Soviet Academy of Sciences President Mstislav V. Keldysh describing prize-winning research. "A cycle of works by Ye. P. Aksenov, G. N. Duboshin, and others is devoted to research into the various astronomical, mechanical and mathematical aspects of formulating high precision theories of the strongly perturbed motion of artificial and natural satellites of the planets and also of asteroids." (FBIS-Sov-71-217, 11/10/71, Ll; 218, 11/11/71, Ll)
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