1957 Beta

Kudryavka (Little Curly), the first living creature to travel around the earth through space, first barked over the Moscow radio on Oct. 27. Dressed in a custom space suit, she had already ridden a short while before that in a rocket, and had suffered no ill effects. This week she made history as the passenger in Sputnik II--also called Muttnik.

The second Soviet satellite, officially named 1957 Beta by International Geophysical Year authorities, is much more ambitious than 1957 Alpha (Sputnik I). According to Moscow, it weighs more than six times as much (1,120.8 Ibs.), and it circles on a higher orbit, reaching more than 1,000 miles above the earth at its highest point, and taking slightly longer (1 hr. 43.7 min.) to complete a circuit. The instrumented section is not designed to separate from the casing of the final-stage rocket, as Sputnik I did. This suggests that the rocket can be deliberately turned tail forward. If it burns fuel in this position, its speed will be reduced, bringing it back to earth.

Safe Circuit. 1957 Beta is stuffed with instruments and equipment. It has air conditioning and feeding devices to keep Little Curly alive and to report her life processes. Russian scientists say that she has been given conditioned reflexes that make her take food and water when a bell rings. Other instruments observe cosmic rays, solar ultraviolet and X rays, temperature and air pressure. A radio transmitter sends coded data back to earth on the same frequencies (40.002 and 20.005 megacycles) that were used by Sputnik I before its batteries died. Professor Boris V. Ukarkin of the Soviet Academy of Sciences promised that the large size of Sputnik II would make it easier to see than Sputnik I, and, even though it travels higher, it should stay in sight considerably longer.

Little Curly survived the shock of launching; the Russians reported that she was still alive and apparently well after many times round the earth. One Russian scientist, Professor A. A. Blagonravov, said in Moscow that Little Curly is safe, hinting that means had been provided to bring her back to earth for a second appearance on the Moscow radio. Although not impossible, this would be exceedingly difficult, and official Russian sources have made no such promise. But even if she lives for only a short time, her experiences may help keep the first human space voyagers alive.

1,500,000 Lbs. of Thrust. The greatly increased size of the second Soviet satellite means that it probably was not launched by the same rocket system that launched the first one. It takes roughly 1,000 Ibs. of fuel to put 1 Ib. of satellite on an orbit. So more than 1,000,000 Ibs. of fuel must have been burned to give Little Curly her ride. The loaded rocket, with its fuel, structure, instrumentation and payload, must have weighed considerably more than 1,000,000 Ibs. To lift it off the ground at reasonable speed must have required a rocket motor (or a cluster of them) with something like 1,500,000 Ibs. of thrust.

U.S. scientists have figured that if nine-tenths of the weight of Sputnik I were invested in additional fuel, the remainder (18.3 Ibs.) would reach the moon. By the same reasoning, the launching rockets of the second Soviet satellite could put 112 Ibs. on the moon. This is enough weight allowance for a powerful atom bomb, which would make brilliant fireworks if it exploded on the darkened face of the moon, and might stir up a conspicuous storm in the dust that covers its surface.

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