Recently fired into orbit, America's
first camera-equipped Samos
has one aim, that of keeping enemy
territories under close watch.
Its name is SAMOS which is the name of a
Greek island, but also stands for Satellite Mis
sile Observation System. Formerly known as
Sentry, it also is being called the "spy in the sky."
It's a U. S. camera-carrying satellite, and its pur
pose is exactly the same as that of the ill-fated
U-2 airplane flights: to take pictures of what goes
on behind the Iron Curtain.
The first Samoa satellite successfully launched
took off from Point Arguello, Calif., on Jan. 31.
Others will follow. ' : - ; ' . -
Remembering Nikita Khrushchev's summit
busting tantrum over the U-2 affair, you may won
der why a satellite system that will eventually do
everything the U-2 could do, and do it better, can
possibly be described as a "satellite of peace."
There may well be another. Khrushchev tantrum
over Samoa maybe before these words are in
print yet in the end Samos may turn out to be
more of a peacemaker than a provocation. To un
derstand why, let's take a closer look at Samos.
All the Samos satellites will be fired into polar
orbits; they will circle the earth from pole to pole
while our planet revolves beneath them. Each sat
ellite will complete a full circuit of the earth every
95 minutes (about 16 times each 24 hours) at
heights varying from 300 to 350 miles.
, Since the Soviet Union and Soviet-occupied ter
ritory sireicnes aunosi nauway arouiiu use giuue
in the Northern Hemisphere, each Samos will pass
over the Soviet area on about 50 percent of its cir
cuits. By late 1962 or early 1963, it is expected
A
1 J! (
V
SAMOS
Satellite ol Peace ?
there will be enough of these space-flying cameras
to keep the whole Soviet expanse under continu
ous and comprehensive scrutiny.
While details of the Samos photographic equip
ment are closely guarded, it is expected that tele
vision or still photographs can be radioed back to
earth (or ejected in a recoverable capsule) with
sharpness equal to what the human eye can see at
' a distance of 100 feet! The cameras are so sensitive
that good pictures can be taken even by starlight
The reason we need Samos is the same reason
we needed the U-2: because Russia is building
long-range missile bases from which nuclear war
heads could be launched against targets in U. S.
territory. In order to take necessary defensive
measures, . we need to know how many such
; launching sites the Soviets have and where.
The Soviets, of course, have counted on having
the' great advantage of being able to keep the loca
tion of their missile sites secret. They expected to
be able, at will, to attack our missile sites by surprise,-
since in free America such massive con
structions cannot be hidden, while we could not
hope to knock out their missile bases because we
couldn't pinpoint the targets.
That, of course, was why the U-2 bothered
Khrushchev so much. The uproar he created about
it had just one basic purpose: to make sure we
stopped the ' U-2 flights and kept them stopped.
But now comes Samos to replace U-2. And now,
too, we are rapidly building up our force of
Polaris-armed submarineswhich give-us missile
sites whose location cannot be pinpointed. So the
hardheaded Soviet bosses may soon be asking
themselves whether it makes sense for them to go
on spending vast sums on weapons they can use
only at the cost of certain self-destruction.
From such reflections it is only a step to the
" question: why not agree to the control of nuclear
weapons by international agreement, with the in
spection which the West has always demanded and
the Soviets consistently refused? ',
With Samos, we will have inspection anyway.
The Soviets are realists. Perhaps they will say to
themselves: "By agreeing to inspection on West
ern terms, we're not giving away much more than
these people can get by their own means. Why not
take credit for being peacemakers?" . '
It's called a
"spy in the shy" and a
missile-age U-2 but it
could help end the cold war
By GEORGE
FIELDING ELIOT
Don't start throwing up your hats and cheering
just yet There doubtless will be hard words and
hard bargaining before the Russians agree to any
disarmament controls. They may even experiment
with an antisatellite satellite and try to shoot down
Samos as they claim to have shot down the U-2.
They've already hinted they have such a weapons
system,, or soon will have.
But our own progress along these lines doesn't
indicate that a successful satellite-interception sys
tem is likely to be ready for some years; and Samos
is an orbiting, tangible fact now.
The result may be a war of satellites in outer
space. But it just could be a long step toward
nuclear arms control right here on earth, and a
step toward peace and security for everybody.
COVER:
Jack Lemmon, photographed by Gene
' Trindl, is a top movie star, a generous
friend, a devoted father yet few people
know Mm. To find out why, turn to page 6.
April IS, JM1
LEONARD S. DAVIDOW I'rnidetlt and Ptblithrr
WAITER C DREYFUS Viet Prnident
PATRICK E. O'ROURKi Adrerli.mg Director
MORTON FRANK Director of PMUher Relation!
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