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Show Bennett Reviews New Contract At Green River Missile Base Soiutor U'.ill.uv V. Thmi-nett, Thmi-nett, K I'l.ih, ;uiiunnu'od to Tht Times Independent Tuesday Tues-day wluil ho termed ns nn I'-oviliiij; now pluse" In missile testing at Croon vor ,;is a result of a roeejjt 52.000,000 cent met for developing de-veloping and testing a larger :uiv:ineo-type Athena missile. The program was outlined in last week's Times-Independent. The Air Foree lias been testing the Athena since 14 at Creen Kiver. Tho missiles ;re launched fixnn the Eastern Eas-tern I'tah base and impacts are felt at the IT. S. missile range in New Mexico some -470 miles away. Senator Pennott said "as a result of the new contract with Atlantic Research Cor-poraion Cor-poraion the Air Force will begin launching 30 new missiles mis-siles at Green River in l!7l). " The improved performance missiles will have four times tim-es as large a payload, from 50 to 200 pounds. The new Athena will also be 61 feet long and weigh 32,000 lbf. as compared with the present pres-ent Athenas which jre 51 feet long and weigh only 16,-000 16,-000 lbs. The Utah lawmaker continued, con-tinued, "These missiles will permit more complete testing test-ing by simulating a continuous contin-uous range of re-entry conditions. con-ditions. To date, the Athena tests have contributed to major discoveries in sofMiif ticated warheads, how to elude el-ude missile defenses and how to defend against enemy en-emy missiles. Senator Bennett, a member mem-ber of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, said: 'the first flight of the new Athena is scheduled for mid-1970. mid-1970. The $32 million contract con-tract calls for the launching of 30 missiles to run through mid 1971." Approximately $12.8 million mil-lion of the contract will be spent at Green River. The Utahn praised the work being done at Green River as "one of our nation's na-tion's most important pro-grams pro-grams in helping safeguard America through maintaining maintain-ing a strong defense." He noted "the Athena program pro-gram continues to compile an outstanding launch and reliability record. To date, JC3 missiles have been launched laun-ched from the Green River facility. .' Launching of the 149 original or-iginal Athenas already contracted con-tracted for will continue until un-til mid-1970 with the addition addi-tion of 30 missiles being initiated in-itiated at that time. The Athena program is the only overland interstate firing fir-ing of rockets that takes place in the United States. A total of 77 rockets were originally approved for launching laun-ching when the program began be-gan four years ago. Sines then 36 were added, then another an-other 36 and now the 30 advanced ad-vanced larger missiles. |
