Israeli scientists will fire a second sounding rocket within two weeks which will contain an instrument package capable of transmitting data to ground stations, reliable sources reported here today.
They said the instrument package would contain measuring devices to transmit to ground stations findings on radiation, temperature and pressures in the ionosphere. Such a space probe would be a substantial advance over the relatively simple device fired 52 miles up yesterday in Israel’s first rocket launching.
The latest development in Israel’s technological abilities, which made it one of the world’s few nations in the space club, was attracting speculation as to its military possibilities. These were denied last night by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who was one of the top Israeli officials who watched the first rocket firing at a secret base on the Mediterranean shore.
The Prime Minister, who appeared at a Mapai election meeting, rejected any idea that the rocket project had anything to do with Israel’s military preparedness or with arms production in Israel. In reply to questions from reporters, he said “this is purely a scient achievement and device.”
When he was asked whether the Shavit II (Comet II) could be modified for military use, he declined comment, saying only “first we shall have to see if and what the scientists will do.”
Scientific sources said that the major achievement in the successful initial firing yesterday was the development by Israeli scientists of an effective solid fuel, which was indicated as having important strategic implications. The same sources stressed that Israeli space experts, having licked the propellant problem, should have no difficulties in launching more rockets for a study of the Middle Easts atmospheric conditions.
(In New York, the National Broadcasting Company radio network today broadcast a report from its Jerusalem correspondent, Alvin Rosenfeld, who quoted Shimon Peres, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defense, answering assertions made by a State Department source in Washington yesterday. The State Department source had said Israel was “presumptuous” in spending money and time on rocket projects instead of concentrating on seeking regional peace. NBC quoted Mr. Peres as saying:
(“Each nation must be master of its own priorities and decide for itself what is vital for its well-being. Israel must take defensive measures, and things would be different if other countries such as Egypt abandoned aggressive tendencies.”)
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