Sovietooster Difficulties Continue
Soviet apace program suffered another setback oneptember when anaunch vehicle failed in flight. Thehich the Soviets probably intend to use as thebooster for their earthlunar, and interplanetary programs through, has fully performed its mission only six out of fifteen times.
The latest failure occurred during an attempt to send an_probe to the moon.
Soviets announced,arth..designed for carrying The realof the probe probablyland on the moon and
The last two previousnd 2ondwere successful and may have led the Soviets to believo that they had solved the earlier problems with the booster. The recent failure will further delayplansanned circum-lunar mission using the
By comparison, tho US Saturn I, which has about tho same pay-lead capability as theas performed successfullyimes in as many launches.
Tn addition to thethat this pooras generated among Soviet space officials, the program isto maintain. Oneooster probably costsillion when measured interns not counting the pay-load, and over-all development costs have already reached some S2 billion.
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Original document.
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