Nov 7 1976
From The Space Library
Instruments left on the moon's surface during the Apollo program were continuing to transmit information from 13 experiments, JSC announced. The Apollo 12 mission (Nov. 1969) accounted for 2 of the experiments; Apollo 15 (July-Aug. 1971), for 3; Apollo 16 (April 1972), for 3; and Apollo 17 (Dec. 1972), for S. Findings included the discovery that the moon did in fact possess an atmosphere, only about a millimeter thick and composed of ions of light minerals, and that the first two layers below the moon's surface consisted largely of basaltic rock and silicon. Data transmitted by 5 of the nuclear transmitters still operating were sent to stations at JPL, Pasadena, Calif., and GSFC, Green- belt, Md., where they were analyzed by 10 scientists. (NYT, 7 Nov 76,45)
Atomic reactor waste buried in the Ural Mountains had exploded in 1958, killing hundreds and affecting thousands with radiation sickness, according to an exiled Soviet scientist whose article in the British New Scientist was reported by Associated Press. Zhores Medvedev, a biochemist and geneticist who had been a well known dissident in the Soviet Union, had been allowed to go to Britain in Jan. 1973 but became an exile when Soviet authorities refused to allow him to return. His article said that reactor waste buried for many years in a deserted area had overheated and erupted "like a violent volcano," and that strong winds had blown the resulting radioactive clouds for a long distance; however, no one had been evacuated from the area until after symptoms of radiation sickness appeared. Many Ural towns with medium to high levels of radiation had never been evacuated, he said, adding that the area was among several that were off limits to Western correspondents. Medvedev said several biology research stations had been built in what was "the largest area of gamma radiation in the world" to study the damage to plant and animal life. In 1974, a Soviet official denied reports of explosions at the Shavchenko nuclear power station on the Caspian Sea, at the same time that Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, was assuring the public that radioactive wastes had been stored safely.
Another Soviet disaster had occurred in Oct. 1960, Medvedev said, when then-Premier Nikita Krushchev ordered the launch of a moon rocket to be timed with his arrival in New York City for a session of the UN General Assembly. When the ignition button was pushed, nothing happened; under normal procedures, Medvedev said, workers would drain the fuel from the rocket before inspecting to find the cause of the failure. However, Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, then head of Soviet rocket forces, felt himself "under an obligation to fulfill the ambitious order" issued by Krushchev and decided to investigate immediately. While dozens of engineers and other experts were examining the rocket and its support systems, the ignition suddenly started to work, but the rocket could not take off because of "the forest of inspection ladders." The rocket toppled over and turned the Soviet cosmodrome into a holocaust, killing many persons in the area, including "some of the best representatives of Soviet space technology," Medvedev said. AP noted that the Soviet media routinely ignore all disasters, whether natural or manmade. (W Post, 7 Nov 76, A-1; W Star, 7 Nov 76, B-8; Av Wk, 15 Nov 76, 20)
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