Half-Ton Satellite Circling Earth
Dog Inside Reported In "Good Condition"
ORBIT 900 MILES IN OUTER SPACE

    The second Soviet artificial satellite, which carries a dog in a pressurized container, has been circling the earth every hour and 42 minutes since it was launched early yesterday morning-to the surprise of western scientists.

    It weighs half a ton, more than six times as much as the first Soviet satellite which was launched just a month earlier. United States Army scientists estimate that a rocket weighing about 500 tons must have been used to launch it. The dog, which is supplied with artificial food, had previously made training flights in rockets.

    Moscow radio said that by 5 p.m. yesterday the satellite had completed seven circuits of the earth. The dog had been behaving quietly, and its general condition was satisfactory.

RETURN JOURNEY

    According to Professor Blagonravov, one of the designers of the first satellite, its life is not in danger, and an unnamed Soviet scientist was reported in Germany to have said that it was hoped that it would return to earth.

    A Reuter report from Hamburg said that the scientist had said to a reporter of the western German news agency D.P.A. that the dog's departure from the satellite on its return journey to earth would be announced by a wireless signal. From two to three hours would elapse between this signal and the dog's expected landing. During this period it would be possible to calculate where the landing-place would be.

    "Braking equipment" built into the dog-container would prevent the latter from becoming a miniature satellite which would itself circle the earth. The dog would be pushed out of the container a few thousand yards above the earth, because it would not survive a "jump" from a greater height. It would then float down by parachute.

930 MILES HIGH

    Moscow radio said last night that the dog was a Husky (laika in Russian).

    This satellite is dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the October revolution, which falls on Thursday, and is part of the Soviet programme for the International Geophysical Year. According to Professor Blagonravov, it is likely to stay up "for a long time." The greatest height of its orbit is 930 miles, more than 300 miles higher than that of the first satellite. The speed of the second satellite is given as about 18,000 miles an hour.

PROCEEDING NORMALLY

    The total weight of this apparatus, the experimental animal, and the power sources amounted to 508.3 kilograms, and the satellite, according to observations, had been given an orbital velocity of about 8,000 metres a second.

    The agency added that, according to calculations which were being verified by observation, the maximum distance of the satellite from the surface of the earth exceeded 1,500 kilometres; a complete circuit took about one hour 42 minutes; and the angle of inclination of the orbit to the plane of the equator was about 65 deg.

    According to information received from the satellite, the scientific instruments and control of the life processes in the animal were proceeding normally. Signals from the satellite on 20.005 kilocycles were in the form of telegraph beats lasting about 0.3 sec. with a pause of similar duration. The transmission on 40.002 kilocycles was continual.

UNFATHOMED PROCESSES

    The news of the launching of the second satellite was broadcast from Moscow at 6 a.m. and 10 minutes later the first recording of its transit was made at the Mullard Radio Observatory, Cambridge, where the apparatus had been left running in case the first satellite resumed transmission.

    It was heard again at 7.54 a.m., 9.36 a.m., and 11.26 a.m. It was expected, however, to take at least 24 hours before they would be able to get a clear indication of the orbit.

OPPOSITE DIRECTION

    A spokesman said that findings so far were consistent with the satellite's having been launched in the opposite direction from the first-south rather than north.

    Professor A.C.B. Lovell, in charge of the Radio Astronomy station at Jodrell Bank, said: "The problem is now one of numbers. We have two rockets and two satellites, but only one radio telescope. The difficulty is that we are still rather heavily engaged on tracing the old satellite and rocket."

    Of the second satellite he said: "I can only say it is a very dramatic and spectacular demonstration of Russian achievement in science and technology."

    While British scientists were applauding Russian scientific prowess, animal-lovers were up in arms at the fate of the dog hurtling round the earth in a hermetically sealed container. Not even the statement that the animal had been provided with food and water allayed their alarm, or that arrangement had been made for getting it back to earth.

    Almost before the B.B.C. announcer had finished the Sunday morning news bulletin the London headquarters of the R.S.P.C.A. was receiving telephone calls of protest from the public. A spokesman said that the society had protested to the Soviet Embassy in London when the idea of using an animal for this purpose was first put forward.

    Officers of the National Canine Defence League are calling at the Russian Embassy this morning to lodge a protest. The league calls for a minute's silence daily on behalf of the dog in the satellite.

U.S. TALK OF NEW "PEARL HARBOUR"

WAVE OF ALARM

    WASHINGTON, NOV. 3.-This time there is no mistaking the wave of alarm created in America by the launching of Russia's second sputnik, which has exploded any lingering disposition to scoff at the first satellite, still circling in its orbit, as a "celestial bauble"-the words of Mr. Sherman Adams of the White House.

    All the implications of size, height and propulsion, no less than the fact that the first living creature has been projected into outer space, must surely serve to destroy the last shreds of complacency that seemed to settle over the country again.

COMPELLING TRUTH

    The compelling truth is that in scope and conception-and there is certainly now no tendency to question Russian claims-this second venture into space far exceeds any known American satellite project for the International Geophysical Year.

    President Eisenhower, who plans to embark on a personal crusade against doubt and scepticism, may now be at a loss for convincing evidence in exhorting the country to renewed confidence in its scientific prowess.

    The announcement that the second sputnik was launched and circling in an orbit almost twice as high as that of the first satellite flared from the later editions of the Sunday newspapers, and all day there has been a stream of comment and speculation, mostly of a scientific nature, from the wireless networks.

    Initial political reaction was confined to the view of one or two senators that the country has had something like a new "Pearl Harbour"; this, they urged, was the time to "get going."

    There is less surprise at the launching of a second sputnik than amazement at its size and weight-and the weight of the first had already been met with a good deal of incredulity.

    One expert sees no reason to doubt that the Russians could send a rocket to the moon within the next week, and he and others concede that they have indeed demonstrated their ability to launch an inter-continental ballistic missile. In the opinion of Dr. Whipple, head of the Smithsonian Observatory at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the new sputnik is "six times as great a scientific achievement as the first," being six times heavier, and he suggested that a new type of fuel might have been used to lift such a huge body.

GAIN TO KNOWLEDGE

    A vast gain to scientific knowledge is seen in Russian assurances that all the data received will be made available to other countries.

    Technicians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed that they could hear the dog breathing in the background of the signals they monitored, but much less feeling than in Britain seems to have been roused here over this use of an animal; American commentators have even observed that British opinion would be less concerned had a human being thus been sent into outer space.

    It is known that a dog was selected because of its aptitude for training; a dog can be induced to feed itself or even to transmit signals in response to audible devices; and it is noted that Professor Blagonravov said here that he had fired his own dog about 100 miles inside a rocket, and that it was afterwards recovered alive.