[meteorite-list] NPA 12-19-1946 Army-CIT Artificial Meteorites Test

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: The Port Arthur News
City: Port Arthur, Texas
Date: Thursday, December 19, 1946
Page: 3 (of 26)

Scientists Study 'Meteorites' Shot From V-2 Rocket

     WHITE SANDS, N. M., Dec, 19 (UP). - A group of excited scientists 
studied the results today of hurling metal slugs from a rocket traveling 
3647.72 miles an hour, 113 miles above the ground - hoping some of them may 
have been thrown outside the earth's gravity and open the secrets of travel 
between the planets.
     The captured German rocket was launched from the U.S. Army's White 
Sands proving ground at 10:13 p. m. Tuesday.  Five minutes and five seconds 
later it reach a speed of 5350 feet per second and an altitude of 111 miles, 
higher than any of the previous 16 rockets fired by the U. S. Army.
     A joint announcement issued this morning by the War and Navy 
departments and scientists of the applied physics laboratory at Johns 
Hopkins university said the fate of the artificial meteorites was still 
unknown.

To Study Photographs

     Photographs taken during the rocket's upward course and after the metal 
particles had been exploded into the ionosphere were to be studied by upper 
altitude research men.  This pictures would be compared with those taken of 
the star patterns in the sky for the past few nights to discover if any new 
bodies were visible.
     Results of the photograph studies might be known late today or 
Thursday, a White Sands official said.
     Although only one man at the launching site said he saw the meteor 
shower, directors of the experiment said they believed the mechanism for 
firing the metal slugs "functioned perfectly."
     An observer at Bisbee, Ariz., reported he saw three sets of meteorites 
appear in the sky over southern New Mexico at intervals which coincided with 
those of the firing mechanism in the rocket.

Up to 300,000 Feet

     A device perfected by the New Mexico School of Mines fired shaped 
charges from either side of the rocket warhead 10, 80 and 90 seconds after 
the launching, or at altitudes of between 120,000 and 200,000 feet.  Two 
seconds after the ejection, the charges exploded into bits of metal which 
were to become meteorites due to their speed.
     Also in the warhead were instruments to measure cosmic ray activity at 
the high altitude.  The warhead was detached from the rocket and allowed to 
fall by itself to minimize damage to the instruments.  To help locate the 
warhead on the desert, a smoke puff was set to go off 12 hours from the 
launching time.

(end)


Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

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PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my 
website), is available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list 
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is 
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.