CEILING UNLIMITED

[Music] Good evening. I'm Walter Kronite. Early this year, in a CBS News special report called Where We Stand, the 20th Century pictured the challenge of Russia's Sputnik and the age of space they introduced. In the three months since then, three American satellites have followed the Sputnik into orbit. A fourth is due to be launched this week. We've joined the race into space. And during these months, as a CBS News correspondent, I've been traveling around this country with film camera crews to the scenes of our own effort to conquer space. Today, in another special program, we bring you our report on that effort. How far we've come, where we're headed, how we propose to get there. As the Credential Insurance Company of America presents Ceiling Unlimited, a special edition of the 20th century. [Music] [Music] You know, I do a lot of talking about your retirement and how credential can help make those years more enjoyable. Well, I've got a credential retirement plan myself, and just looking at it makes me give some serious thought to what lies ahead for me. What will the world be like? What will I be like 20 years from now? Well, for one thing, I'll be 20 years older. The kids will probably be raising their own families. My wife and I will have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. How about a trip? 1 hour to Turkey. Spend a few days there. Rio's only a half hour away. That might be nice for a weekend. the Orient, Mexico, Italy. Why not? There'll be rocket flights to the moon. Or we can go deep sea fishing in one of those little atomic reaubs. [Music] Or if I'm feeling lazy, I might just stay at home and have a game of chess with Henry Walters. He's a friend of mine who lives in Japan. >> Your move, Henry. That's checkmate, Bill. Better luck next time. Well, I can't beat Henry today. No reason to expect to beat him 20 years from now. No matter how you choose to spend your retirement years, whether you pass your leisure time flying to the moon, taking long walks through the woods, or just having the children and their kids over for an old-fashioned get together, a happy future is something pleasant to look forward to. And a credential two-way protection plan can help secure that future for you and your family. It provides protection for your family as it grows. And once the children are on their own, it can help provide for your own retirement. But the future belongs to those who prepare for it. And the man who can help you best is your credential agent. Since those first days of the Splutnick's unchallenged triumph and our own early satellite failures, the mood of this country has changed. Apprehension has been tempered. Humiliation has given way to self-searching criticism, to curiosity about space as a horizon not necessarily cloudy, to eagerness to discover its possibilities as well as its threats. Yet many of the questions that exploded into our consciousness with the Sputnik still arise with each new satellite launching from the busiest scene on our own space age landscape, Cape Canaveral, Florida. [Music] The Vanguard. Another bird springing into flight under the eyes of the rocket age bird watchers. Crowds brought out to the Florida beach by the spectacle and the puzzle of space. What information does the Army and Navy get from the satellites? That's what I'd like to know. >> After we conquer space, what will we do with it? You can't live out there, can you? Do you think the satellites orbiting around the Earth will change our weather? >> What makes a satellite stay up in space? Why doesn't it fall down? >> To find the answers, we went to the State University of Iowa and a professor of physics, Dr. James A. Van Allen, the man who plans the satellite experiments. All right. How does a satellite stay up? Well, I think Isaac Newton gave the simplest and best explanation about 280 years ago. And perhaps I might try to reproduce that explanation he gave. Uh let's say that that sketch represents the earth. Uh now Newton says supposing there's a very high mountain on this earth which I'll represent like this and a man standing on the top of this mountain is throwing off stones with various speeds. Let's say he throws a stone and it falls there. Then he throws a stone somewhat greater speed and it falls out here. Then he he tries still greater speed and this time it describes a path something like this. Now this is what we would call a satellite orbit. Then it's simply a matter of starting at a high enough altitude and throwing with a great enough speed. And in that case, although it is always falling toward the earth, the earth is receding away from it so that it never in fact strikes the earth. Dr. Van Allen, could we put a satellite over some given spot on the globe? For instance, could we put one over Moscow and leave it right there? >> Well, not over Moscow, Mr. Crockite. We can put one over any point on the equator of the Earth in principle. Now, it must be out about 22,000 mi. And in that case, it will rotate around the Earth at the same rate that the Earth is rotating. So, it will appear to stay over one spot on the Earth. The satellite program, of course, is only the beginning, the first step into outer space. What do you think the future holds for these satellites? What will they be telling us in the future? Well, we have a very vast field of geohysical and astronomical work to do with satellites all with uh automatic instruments. Now, uh in addition to that, there will likely develop as our fundamental knowledge develops from these observations. Uh there will likely develop many practical applications as well for human benefit >> such as what? >> Well, one most commonly mentioned and perhaps the soundest possibility has to do with weather prediction. reliable weather prediction. In other words, we propose to use a satellite as a reconnaissance uh device for studying the cloud cover over the earth and the development of storms, the development of hurricanes, the way in which the world's weather works. How do you feel then about the possibilities of manned space flight as against the instrumented satellites? Well, we have a very good outlook as so far as pure geophysical and astronomical measurements with automatically instrumented satellites and I think that likely will be our main field for the next few years. Now, in due time, I think we we really will like to have a man go up in one and particularly looking forward to man travel to the moon, for example. Uh that's a very difficult subject, however, and I think for the near future uh well, we could put it this way. If we had a onepound man that could do everything we're doing in Explorer 3, that would be splendid. But we don't have such a man. And at the present time, a man would be a great uh would our work greatly and would be actually a nuisance in what we're trying to do at the present time. >> Then the problems are still great, you feel, in the human factor in space travel. >> They certainly are. We have a long ways to go to put a man up and get him back successfully. Here is the human factor in space flight. The element that will replace and supplement the instruments of the satellite in time. The time may not be far off. This is a spaceman preparing for a flight above the Earth's atmosphere. A simulated flight made without leaving the ground. This is a daily scene at the Aerome Medical Laboratory of the Wright Air Development Center, Dayton, Ohio, where men already are venturing out into a laboratory version of space to test the special unearly conditions that man will meet. Where here they're already developing the devices and equipment needed to do the real thing out there. Dr. White, just what conditions are you simulating in this part of the laboratory? >> This part of the laboratory deals with the problem of reduced pressure and more particularly with the problem of providing oxygen for the man to meet the reduced pressures in upper atmosphere. >> This is a high altitude chamber to duplicate those conditions. >> That is correct. What are those conditions in outer space exactly? For instance, what's that man going through in there right now? >> Well, he's going to experience the reduction of pressure that we mentioned before and the furthermore the exposure to an artificial oxygen atmosphere. >> He's getting an artificial oxygen supply in other words. >> That is correct. >> Well, now how much oxygen could he take along in outer space? How how great a supply? How long would it last? But is this going to be a limiting factor in space travel? >> It will be unless we can come up with a system whereby we can generate our own oxygen. >> Well, Dr. White, what about that suit our man's wearing in there? There isn't sufficient pressure at high altitude as I get it. And the body would just expand, virtually blow apart if he didn't have that suit on. Is that the problem? >> This is the problem. And I think we can show this through simple experiments here. First you can see the beaker we have uh here with water in it which we can compare to blood similar to that floating in the bloodstream of the man. Also here we can see another experiment that of the expansion of gas inside the body similar to that which occurs inside the intestine. As you see here, we started at ground level with a balloon collapsed. They take the man up to a simulated altitude near but not yet across the pressure barrier. >> Is everybody ready now? later. Are you ready? Roger. We are all ready, sir. You want me to give you a countdown? 1 2 3. Okay, Captain. Are you ready? We are. Let her go. >> 1 2 3. Now as you can see when we reduce the pressure very quickly around this beaker the blood rapidly became a gaseous mixture rather than the liquid. That small amount of air which was in the the collapsed balloon and we've arrived at this high altitude has now expanded the balloon to this large size. >> Well, just how does this suit protect the man from this decompression you're talking about? Well, actually what it happens is it senses the emergency through its controller and automatically provides the pressure and even more important the oxygen the man needs to maintain him in a fine active state. In >> other words, our man in there now is all right, is he? >> Well, you ask him yourself. >> Good. How are you? >> I feel fine. >> What altitude are you now? >> I'm about 71,000 at the present time. Do you feel any discomfort there? >> No, no discomfort. Uh about like sitting on top of the high mountain, I guess. >> Can you move around freely? Could you work instruments in an aircraft, do you think? >> Yes, I have good mobility and not be able to fly any aircraft in this equipment that I have on now. >> Well, thank you very much and good luck to you, >> Dr. White. How high can you go in this chamber? >> We have been able to attain on previous experiments uh 200,000 ft. >> Well, let's see. That's about uh 38 miles or so, about twice as high as man has ever actually gone. But it's still quite a bit short of the 200 m or so where a satellite may be orbiting. Isn't that going to create a lot of different problems? >> No. In fact, as far as the man is concerned, the problem he has here at the altitudes of 200,000 ft are about the same as he will run into in space. In space, you can supply a man with oxygen and you can clothe him against decompression. But in order to get out there, he must first endure the strain of a spaceship's takeoff. A strain reproduced in the laboratory on a device like a carnival thrill ride. They call it the centrifuge. [Music] This man is about to feel the force of acceleration like a rocket ship sudden thrust from zero to thousands of miles an hour. A force measured in units of G. The pull of gravity. Gravity pulls at his flesh, pins his arms, drains the blood from his head toward his feet. The eyes deprived of blood begin to blur. Finally, blackout. No vision at all until the G stress is relieved when the centrifuge slows down. [Music] On this trip, the passenger blacked out at 4G, an acceleration creating a force four times the pole of gravity. but much less than a rocket's takeoff. The answer to this problem, doctors used to think, might be another kind of space suit, a G suit. Now they're finding a simpler answer. Change the man's position, the way he sits, or lies as the rocket blasts off. Well, now this man is uh sitting in a position that looks to me about like that we saw over there. I had an idea that you were speaking of the man being prone instead of sitting up. >> Essentially, he is prone with reference to the direction of the force acting on his body. Where in the run we just saw, the force acted in a direction from head to foot. In this situation, the force will be acting in this direction or from chest to back as he now sits. This is analogous to the situation as we lie in bed and the force of gravity acts from chest to back on us. so that the force will be spread over his entire body and not be pushing the blood down to the bottom of his feet so to speak. >> This is exactly the reason that we encounter a greater tolerance to forces of acceleration in this position. >> How fast is he going to go now or how many G's are you going to duplicate? >> This will be a 12g run and you will recall that Captain Clark was able to tolerate only 10 only 4G in the previous run when the force was directed from head to foot. >> In other words, Dr. Clark's going to be under the same force here as you think he'd be in a rocket takeoff. >> That's right. And now, if we could step aside, the run will begin. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] [Music] A short ride, but enough to create a potent force pressing down on a man like a weight 12 times as heavy as his own body. Still this time, no blackout. No sign of trouble for the passenger, Dr. Clark. I went over to check for myself. All right, Dr. Clark, how do you feel? >> Feel all right now. >> Little dizzy. >> There's a little bit of dizziness as the centrifuge stops, although there's not too much as the ride is going on. >> Did you get up to the full 12gs there? >> Yes, we peaked at 12g. >> What is the sensation as you get up to that force? >> I think the main sensation is the difficulty that you have with respiration. As the centrifuge uh approaches 12G, there's enough force pushing on the chest and and abdomen to make it quite difficult to breathe when you finally do reach peak G. >> Could you have moved your arms up there at all? >> No, you're just about completely immobilized at 12G. You're pretty well fixed in position. Probably wrist movements might be uh possible, but no major movements of the arms at all. Would you say then that uh as far as acceleration goes, you're ready to uh go to outer space? >> I think probably the acceleration problem is getting uh pretty close to in shape, but I'm not so sure about me going to outer space yet. Uh I think I'll stay here on the ground and uh and take these kind of rides and leave that for someone else. >> For the men who do go out into space, there will be other problems. vibration. The pounding of rocket engines against a man's senses during the thrust through the atmosphere. Man, they found in the lab can take plenty of punishment. Temperatures, the blazing heat of the sun's direct rays from one side, freezing cold on the other. Insulation in the pressure suit and on satellite casings is solving this problem. But there are some conditions of space flight that have to be guessed at. Like cosmic radiation, the threat of those tiny, mysterious particles, invisible, possibly dangerous, that will bombard a man above the atmosphere. And like zero gravity, the weightless condition that occurs when man and his ship are falling together around the Earth. The closest they can come to it in the lab is underwater. Okay, get in the water, Frank. This is the way they test that weightless feeling and the problems it creates. Problems of getting around when your feet don't touch ground. Of sitting down when down isn't much different from up. From a viewing chamber alongside this diving tank, I watched the struggle. It's a strange feeling, but they told me it's one that a man can get used to with just a little practice. This is space flight being simulated under conditions something like zero gravity. But in real space flight, zero gravity would present other problems which no laboratory can come close to. Not even right field with its space chambers, its centrifuge or diving tank. This is one of the problems. This is a man in actual flight trying to swallow a drink of water under zero gravity conditions. An effect achieved for just seconds at a time by putting plane and pilot through a high-speed maneuver in the air. A few pilots have made tests like this. Other tests far more crucial, far more demanding, will be made next year when a flying laboratory goes into the air. This is the X-15, a rocket powered aircraft, half missile, half airplane. In it, man will make his longest leap yet toward space. It will leave the Earth under another plane's power, slung from the underside of a jet bomber to be launched in flight up through the atmosphere at 3600 mph on a course like the path of a ballistic missile. The pilot will have little control and pinned down by that G force, he must work instruments with wrist movement only. Its fuel exhausted, its engine off, it dives back into the atmosphere. Then, as the ship slows down, the pilot takes full control, leveling off in a series of glides and coasting back to Earth for a glider landing. The pilot of this space plane has been chosen. He's Captain Ivan C. Kinchow, who has already flown higher than any other man in a smaller rocket ship called X2. at Edwards Air Force Base in California. I asked him how much farther into space he would reach as pilot of the new X-15. [Laughter] Well, the X-15 actual performance details are classified. However, Secretary of the Air Force Douglas has stated that the aircraft is capable of 100 miles or more. This is about four times that of the X2. What do you expect to find at 100 miles that you didn't find at 25 miles? >> Well, actually, most of the conditions are very similar at 100 miles as they are at 25 mi. As a matter of fact, as far as the human is concerned, there are no differences. The same protection is required both places. >> Then you pretty well know what to expect out there. What do you think will be your biggest problem? >> Well, at these heights, usually control problems of the aircraft exist. problems with a power plant, general problems along the line of do you know exactly where you're going? Are you sure that you can reenter properly and so forth and the human factors problems have generally been taken care of as far as this flight is concerned in that the pressure suit that we will be wearing is quite adequate. It has been designed and we're wearing it now actually. >> Will you find out all you need to know on this flight of the X15 to put a space ship into orbit? We feel that the X-15 will contribute very valuable information on the exit phases, the actual conditions at the very top at the altitude and all the re-entry problems. We feel that once this aircraft has completed its mission, we'll have adequate and the necessary data supplied to us to have a successful orbit. >> What are the advantages of sending a man into space as opposed to sending an unmanned satellite with instruments that can send back much the same sort of information? The normal sequence of events would be to send the manless missile the orbit as we have it now and then man would follow on when the machine was reliable and things were the way we wanted them. As far as the actual man requirements in space, nothing can replace the man's flexibility and his intelligence of being able to change the situation or to counteract any emergencies that might arise and successfully bring this vehicle back the way we want it. And with that information, the man tied into this loop is an invaluable tool. >> Why do you want to go personally? >> Well, I've been in this field for some time. I enjoy the work very much, and it's something I believe that will be done in time, and I would like to be a member of the team that does it. >> Do you have any qualms? >> Well, if I didn't think I had 100% chance of recovery and return, I wouldn't go. We will not attempt man into the space until we are positively assured our methods and procedures are the correct ones. Even space enthusiasts concede that man doesn't yet have the asurances he needs. Men like the rocket engineer Verer von Brown, whom I visited in an army laboratory electronically plotting flights to the moon. His mind is on satellites but his heart is set on spaceships. Well, I think we should uh realize that this is the first time that we are poking our nose into outer space and there's really a lot to be learned out there about cosmic radiation and radiation coming from the sun and the stars and uh temperatures, the heat equilibrium that an orbiter will uh finally attain. And there are cosmic dust particles flying around there that may erode the surface of a rocket ship. Now this is what we want to learn first before we send a man up there. >> Couldn't we learn more from man satellites actually? >> Well, I think ultimately uh man's curiosity will simply drive him out there and he wants to take a look see for himself. >> Dr. von Brown. Do you feel that we are making adequate progress in our space program? >> Well, I'm never satisfied. Of course, I think uh we could spend more money, we could work faster, but there's a limitation somewhere. That limitation, I think the taxpayers, you and me. But uh things have surely speeded up since the Sputnik. To speed our progress still more, Von Brown has proposed fitting a cockpit onto a redstone rocket, shooting a man up 150 mi within a year. The customuilt space plane, the X-15, should be ready to do the same thing and probably much more sometime next spring. man himself say the experts we saw and heard at Wright Patterson the Air Force Space Laboratory is already ahead of that schedule, ready to go not just up to high altitudes but even into orbit at least for a limited flight, a trip of perhaps a single day. What is not ready right now is the vehicle, an engine powerful enough to lift a man and his equipment into orbit. A frame strong enough and safe enough to take him out there around the Earth and back. But engineers insist there's no reason that such a vehicle could not be built starting right now. We'll see the engineers side of the story and the Russian side after this message from Credential. This is the California Institute of Technology, one of the world's leading research centers. Here in an atmosphere of technical skill, our future scientists and engineers receive their schooling. Here, young men are being prepared to take up the challenge of the space age. But who are the students of Caltech? What are they studying? And more important, how do they get here? This is Bernard Malowski. He will go either into teaching or into scientific research. How did he come to Caltech? Let's visit his parents in Rosedale, New York. >> I can remember the time when Bernie was 3 weeks old when we had the representative, our credential, come in. We hurried with the dishes and we had him come in and we sat down and he presented this credential education plan to us. Now we are so grateful because we never felt the premiums. It was like paying a gas or electric bill. And as Bernie was growing each year, we could see that he had a tendency for engineering, science, and whether it would have been doctor, science, dentist, anything. The money was there and that's what we were happy about. >> And when the time came for his tuition, we are thankful we had it for him because he was very anxious to go to school. I I feel that that was the best thing we could have done for him. >> And the best thing that all parents can do is to prepare for the future now while the family is still young. A credential education plan for your children can help make certain that they receive the same chance that Bernardine Molowski's parents gave to him. >> I think I'm very fortunate in being able to receive my education here at Caltech. The work is hard, but hard work pays off in the long run. I only hope that I'll be able to live up to this opportunity that my folks have given me. Man's first real space flight may be as much as a decade away. It may come within a couple of years. One man circling the Earth at an altitude of no more than a couple of hundred miles for no more than a single day. But when we talk about permanent satellites, about space stations and flights to other planets, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of miles, even millions, trips that may run into months. And for the engineers who must design the vehicles, times translated into weight. The amount of drinking water alone that a fiveman crew consumes in a month would weigh a few tons, an impossible weight for present- day engines to lift. Probably we will have to devise some way to manufacture water and air on route. Meanwhile, the experts say we should be getting to work on the vehicles themselves. Some say we could be building them now, developing them out of hardware that already exists. Now, this is our most powerful piece of existing space hardware. This is an Atlas missile, the shell of it, the tank that carries its fuel. In this tower at the Conveyor plant of General Dynamics, San Diego, California, the tanks are tested for soundness before they're fitted out with the inner works of a missile. As a missile, the Atlas is a weapon of war. As a vehicle, it could be the basis for an American venture into space. Or so Conveyor's experts believe. Men like James Dempsey, manager of the astronautics division, and Craft Eric, astronautical engineer. Mr. Dempsey, Mr. Eric, I gathered that you believe that this Atlas can do the job of getting into outer space now with man vehicles or some other intermediate step. >> This is true. It can carry several thousand lbs of payload into an orbit with proper modification of its upper portion. >> Could it send an animal, for instance, out right away? Not right away. No. As we complete the development of the vehicle as such, we can go ahead and make provisions for modifications of the top section of the Atlas and within a year approximately we could do firings of this type. >> Well, now do you mean when you talk about using the Atlas that you put a cabin of some nature on this vehicle right here and send it to outer space? >> Well, what you would have to do is you have to put something on top of this booster vehicle. It will contain a propulsion system and the capsule which contains a man all the instrumentation. >> I gather then Mr. Eric that this atlas is just the basic component, the basic tool of your entire space program. >> Yes, this is correct. There is a family of space vehicles that can be based on the Atlas as a booster. But of course, this is again only the beginning of a larger space program as we develop our space capability. And if you're interested in talking a little bit about the future, I have a number of models in my office which I'm glad to show you. [Music] This is Craft Eric's view of the future, a family of space vehicles, all designed around an improved Atlas, a hopped up version of our present intercontinental rocket. This is the workhorse of the fleet. An automatic supply ship. Big as an airliner. It's built in three stages. No men in it, just materials and equipment to establish the first permanent station in outer space. This Eric told me is how it could be done. The supply ship blasts off, lifted by a new and more powerful Atlas engine. At 25 mi altitude, the first engine drops off, floating back to Earth by parachute to be recovered and used again. Another possibility, Eric says, wings to return that engine to Earth as a glider. The second stage is not recovered. It burns up by friction as it falls through the Earth's dense atmosphere. From this height, it's cheaper to discard them than to recover them. The third stage travels on alone. That's an atlas tank like the one in the test tower carrying fuel with a nose cone carrying supplies. A final burst from the engine to even out the course. And a huge satellite is in orbit in a perfect circle 500 miles out. A permanent orbit because it's entirely outside the drag of the atmosphere. Now this is the cornerstone of the first space platform below on the Earth. Now another ship is ready to go. Also in three stages. The final stage is a new kind of payload, a space glider with a compartment carrying a pilot plus four passengers. Again, a journey by stages. And now it's stripped down to the space glider, the size of a present-day fighter plane. A rendevous in outer space. The man glider meets the original satellite. Its Atlas tank is empty now, its fuel expended. Meanwhile, other unmanned tanks have been set up to join it, and a huge construction job begins. 500 m above the Earth, men from the glider climb out and begin to weld and bolt the tanks together with tools taken from the nose cone, the man glider leaves its passengers on the job and returns to Earth on wings designed to slow down its descent, spread the heat of friction over the ship's broad, flat surface. This keeps it from burning up as it re-enters the atmosphere. More trips into the orbit. More tanks put together like the pieces of an erector set. More construction workers fed out to do the job. Gradually, the assembled tanks emerge into the shape of a new kind of vehicle, a permanent satellite. Huge. The whole device longer than the distance from goost on a college football field. Clusters of tanks at either end have become living quarters, housing the crew and a staff of researchers. From this vantage point, man will have a clear view of outer space and a commanding view of Earth through telescopes and cameras. This designer, Eric said, is what could be done with the Atlas, but with a newer kind of engine. We could go direct from Earth to other planets. We could do it, Eric explained, with a giant Atlas plus a nuclearpowered rocket. This is a model which indic which shows a basic design of such a vehicle. It uh consists of a chemical first stage and of a nuclear upper stage. Let me uh show you some pictures that might be of interest. The vehicle takes off vertically like a chemical rocket. You can see this on that picture over here. The overall size of the vehicle is it is 200 ft tall and 20 ft in diameter and it has a gross weight at takeoff of 1,800,000 lbs. That's about four to five large bombers. >> About the size of a 20story building almost. >> That is almost the size of 20s story building. Now the vehicle ascends like a normal rocket and then tilts over and delivers eventually the booster delivers eventually the upper stage at an altitude of about 150,000 ft. Then the propellant supply of this stage is exhausted and it is released now from the upper stage. It separates it breaks away and becomes as you can see here a bluntnosed airplane. As such it glides down back to the surface of the earth. Now you have the vehicle in the process for space flight. The crew itself sits in the rear end here uh in a container in a Taurus type gondola which is wrapped around the nuclear pile and the nuclear the expansion nozzle of the nuclear engine. We can therefore not ignite the nuclear pile before we have not removed the crew from the vicinity of the pile for safety reasons foration protection. Now this is in this particular case done by design which provides a separation of this uh of this gondola from the main vehicle in the fashion as it is shown here. This separation is done by means of reverse thrust. The cables are tungsten cables which can sustain considerable heat. Now after the little uh uh counter rocket engines have pushed this to a distance of about 1,000 ft from the pile. The pile is being ignited, started by remote control. The vehicle is now continuing its flight into space pulling the gondola behind it. You the crew is absolutely safe because it is at a sufficient distance from the power plant itself. Now you can go on uh with your propulsion in this fashion until you have reached the proper velocity that you want to have in order to fly to Mars or to Venus or over to the moon. The vehicle coming from the surface of the earth approaches the moon, slows down to a vertical descent and then sets the gondula down first in a non-contaminated area very gradually and then by remote control is directed sidewards and downwards and lands in a separate area about 1,000 ft away so that there's a minimum interaction or in fact no interaction at all by radiation or radioactive dust that is in this general area here that might bother or endanger the crew. How far off do you think it would be if we had a go-ahead for this program? >> I believe we could have a vehicle of the Helios class in the second half of the next decade. >> Mr. Dempsey Craft Eric's been telling us that some of his proposals for outer space vehicles, but I understand you actually submitted some plan to the government. Yes, Walter. We have submitted a proposal for an integrated space development program to the government. >> How long will this plan take to the point where you reach the final point of the platform? >> Well, it would that would occur in the period 5 to 10 years from now. >> Then we can actually look forward to this thing. Say this is 58 and 63 to 68. >> Yes. Some something like that. Have you actually started on this program? Has the government given you a go-ahehead? No, they haven't. The only work so far has been done uh uh in in terms of initial studies in uh in our own uh company funds. >> Well, how much will this project cost? >> From about half a billion to about $2 billion a year depending on the nature and the magnitude of the programs that have been proposed. >> How many other such proposals are being offered to the government? Uh I have heard that there are something like 60 have been submitted within the past 6 months. >> Well, now let me ask you this question. Do you have any idea, Mr. Dempsey, where the Russians are in their program? >> No, I don't really have any uh any intelligence information concerning the Russians except uh what I read in the papers. The impression one gets is that they are working on a man satellite and would uh have an initial flight in the next year or two. Do you mean that the information available in Washington is not given out to you people working actually in the field on these projects? >> No, it is not. Uh, Walter, the need to know has not been extended to contractors generally who are working on our ballistic missile programs. >> Doesn't that handicap your work? >> Well, it might. I just don't know. Uh, it might be an advantage to know what the Russians have done or it might not. But without knowing, uh, it certainly leaves a doubt in our mind. what we and the Russians are trying to do and its military implications. On that subject, I visited the Army's ballistic missile agency at Huntsville, Alabama, and as Chief, General John B. Madaras. Yeah. What's What's that one, General? Well, that's one concept of what a man vehicle for landing on the moon might look like. Very reasonable one. General, the Russians have done an awful awful lot of talking here of late about their satellites and missiles and so forth, but they don't seem to stress. In fact, they hardly mention the military implications. Do you have any feeling that they're not involved or interested in the military applications of outer space? >> Not at all. In fact, quite the contrary. We know that their scientific and military effort is completely integrated and they're able to close out from the outer world any intentions that they may have. >> What are the military applications? Well, they fall roughly into two categories. There are some that are rather clearly defined right now and that we know are feasible and useful and there are others about which there's considerable discussion further in the future. And uh in the first category there are things like uh communications relay and u reconnaissance the ability to keep the whole earth under surveillance photographically over a long period of time that we know can be done immediately. In the other areas there's some difference of opinion. As I say, some of the scientists feel that maybe we in the military uh are overstating our case. But uh the question of combat between space vehicles when they are manned is to my mind only a logical psychological development in line with man's past history. General, you mentioned a moment ago this matter of the case being perhaps overstated as far as military use of outer space. that indeed some people have said it's been overstated. Do you feel that way yourself? >> Uh I think perhaps it has been in some quarters. On the other hand, there has been considerable understatement of the case and this always depends on the point of use. Now the hard-headed military man knows by military history that every instrument that man has developed for his use has eventually turned up with a military application. and uh recognizing that is quite sure that this will be no exception. >> It seems safe to say that as of now the Russians are closer to space travel with its military and scientific implications than we are. Their satellites have been closer to spaceships in size, weight, and engine power than any of ours. Now that the second and last of the Sputnik has come down, the stage is cleared for some new Soviet move. Just what we don't know, but it's a long range plans. We do know that for some time now the Kremlin has been giving high priority to the development of nuclearpowered rockets. The kind of engines that, as the men at Convair say, we will eventually need for the exploration of space. Recently, Russian leaders have been preparing and educating the public for great adventures in space with a film called Blazing a Trail to the Stars. Now, here for the first time in this country is an excerpt from that film, Moscow's prediction of how space will be conquered by Russian scientists, Russian spaceships, and Russian spacemen. The hour for which people have been waiting for centuries, man's first flight into cosmic space. Here are the pioneers seen off by some of the thousands who contributed to the maiden voyage. people from hundreds of factories, academies, research and designing organizations, laboratories. Man is stepping into the unknown world with caution. This is a test flight. Today, the space navigators will spend only a few hours in space orbiting the Earth. Physical reactions during flight have to be checked. Equipment tested. Automatic devices will start the motors and steer the ship in the early phase of its flight. The signal ready. Only moments left before the start. Go. acceleration. It's hard on the astronauts. The first booster has used up all its fuel. It will be returned to Earth by radio control. Another burst of momentum. Acceleration creates pressure. A lead and heaviness presses the men against their CS, leaving them motionless. The second booster falls off. The ship goes up by inertia. It reaches orbital speed. Now it is in free flight, hurtling around the Earth at an altitude of 600 miles. But look at this. The man seems to be floating. So he is because weight as such has vanished. The spaceship has become a freely falling body falling around the earth at tremendous velocity dropping under its passengers so fast they cannot catch up with its floor. And so they remain suspended. They become weightless. And now the astronators get down to their routine. They make various observations and report to Earth. They watch for meteorites and record cloud drifts. They can distinctly see the boundaries of cloud formations and thereby make accurate weather forecasts for different parts of the world. The cosmic ship will now enter the Earth's shadow. The Earth is between the ship and the sun during this part of the 2-hour course around the planet. It's time to test the airtight space suit. The inside of the spaceship has carried its own earthlike air, its own oxygen sealed in. But to go out into this frightful abyss, man must take with him inside the suit a quantity of his earthly climate. As he steps into the void where there is no atmosphere, no pressure, the suit automatically tightens around him, creating an artificial pressure. Out here, emptiness, not a trace of atmosphere, no air to disturb and therefore no sound, a stillness absolute and eternal. [Music] Out here there may be strange hazards, cosmic rays, meteorites. The Earth, meanwhile, has not forgotten its suns and keeps them in constant view as they complete their venture and begin the homeward flight. Rockets fired in reverse act as brakes. By slowing down its movement, the ship begins to fall, settling into the atmosphere along a gradual course so as not to burn up like a meteor. The spaceship can make a landing only after its speed has been gradually reduced to that of an airplane. The first flight into the cosmos ends successfully. The route is cleared for the second step into space. For this venture, not just one spaceship, but whole squadrons are sent up from their launching pads into interplanetary space. Their mission is to carry people and material into the cosmos to construct a permanent space station. [Music] [Music] Men at work far out in the void. Weightless they cannot fall. They and their building materials are floating together in orbit. Materials brought up by freight ships leaving the Earth in relays. Small rocket motors are enough to push huge elements into place. Welding is done with heat from solar arrays. Plentiful up here. Whole construction crews building in space. The job is completed. A gigantic structure powered by atomic energy racing around the Earth at orbital speed. The vehicle rotates by centrifugal force that creates the feeling of gravity for the dozens of people inside. Materiologists predicting a Pacific storm following the movements of polar ice flows. Here is the staff's living quarters with some earthly comforts. Human beings adapt themselves to the new environment very easily, but everything has been done to lessen the strain of isolation from Earth. New conditions enable biologists to carry out interesting experiments. How plant life reacts to this artificial controlled climate. The dream of physicists. A laboratory in space. Field labs reporting back cosmic ray data. Here is an astronomical observatory above the atmospheric haz that has always separated the astrometer on Earth from the universe. Two photographs of Mars, one taken from Earth, the other from out here. For the first time, a clear picture of Martian geography. Besides serving as a research center, the space station is also a landing stage for a new vehicle. The first passenger ship to the moon. Since the route lies through airless space, it need not be streamlined. A giant step into space is about to be taken. Gigantic in distance, but perhaps not in difficulty. The problems of space flight have already been mastered. Days later, the surface of the moon lies below. [Music] [Applause] Empty. Yet, it may yield mineral resources, may even produce fuel for spaceships. And it will become a bridge head for the conquest of the entire solar system. [Music] Here all is still. No blue sky, no dusk. A world of silence, waiting for man, prodded on by his unquenchable thirst for knowledge, asleep for billions of years until man should arrive to waken it. And now man has come. [Music] Those are some Russian ideas about space and how they propose to conquer it. Not much different, you may have noticed from what our own experts have been telling us. We have no monopoly and to say the least, no head start. When the Russians expect to make that landing on the moon, they don't say. As for our own timetable, well, here's what the experts think we could do. Put a man into orbit anywhere from a year to 5 years from now. Build a permanent satellite or space station between 1963 and 1965. make a landing on the moon. Well, we could do it in seven or eight years. That's what experts believe we could do. But they say it's apt to take us twice as long as this because they say we have not yet made any of the big decisions. The United States has made no long range plans for space, has fixed no target dates, provided no funds. Our space program is still just some peacemeal projects and a number of proposals. And these decisions require others. Who will operate our space program? when and if a civilian agency or the military. Should science be turned loose to explore its own directions or should it be steered toward military aims? Finally, there are decisions that we cannot make by ourselves. Can we and the Russians enter space without extending the Cold War to other worlds. Unofficially, we've been told American and Russian scientific leaders have discussed the idea of making that first trip to the moon a joint venture. But science, while it already knows how to send a man into space, doesn't know how to lift him above his earthly quarrels. Now, let's take a glimpse into the life of a very important man. Very important indeed. This is the laboratory of that eminent scientist, W. Barry Thompson. >> 5 4 3 2 1 zero. [Music] Not as far-fetched as it may seem, for by the time this boy has reached adulthood, he may very well be playing a part in the exploration of the universe. Of course, a lot of growing up will have to be done first, and a lot of serious study completed along the way, but eventually he'll get there. The one best way you parents can contribute to the development of your child is to encourage him in his interests and see to it that no matter what happens to you, your youngster will receive the education he wants. A credential education plan taken out for your children can guarantee the funds for their education. And someday upon completion of their studies, they will fulfill the hopes you have for them by playing important roles in our nation's future. But the time to prepare for tomorrow is today. And the man to see about a credential education plan is your credential agent. Next week, the 20th century will bring you another program on the air age. The story of the busy traffic highways of the sky. The title, the crowded air. This is Walter Kronite reporting for the 20th century. [Music] [Music] Ceiling Unlimited was produced by Lesie Mitchley. [Music] [Music] This program is produced under the supervision and control of CBS News.