1.
GV Observation platform off-shore
0.13

2.
GV Press boat pulls up at platform and newsmen greeted by Luigi Broglio
0.32

3.
SV Cameraman
0.37

4.
SV Cameraman
0.53

5.
GV Rocket takes off
1.05

6.
GV Jubilant crew on platform watching rocket
1.15

7.
GV Map showing lunch site
1.23



Initials OS/1928 OS/1937



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A British scientific satellite -- "U.K.5" -- made a perfect launch into orbit from Italy's San Marco platform off the Kenyan coast on Tuesday (16 October).

The rocket -- re-named "Ariel 5" when it went into orbit -- is the fifty scientific satellite to be launched under an Anglo-American space research programme, but the first to be controlled directly from Britain.

"Ariel 5" was launched 500 kilometres (300 miles) above the Earth's surface by an American "Scout" rocket from a converted oil rig at Ngwana Bay 20 miles (32 kilometres) north of the Kenya resort of Malindi.

The satellite will study "black holes" in space and other scientific mysteries. It carries six experiments -- five British and one American -- for studying X-ray sources in space.

British launch officials at the Appleton laboratory near Slough in England took over the control of the satellite as soon as it had settled into orbit around the earth. The laboratory is operated by the British Science Research Council.

SYNOPSIS: The project had cost about four and a half million pounds and taken months of careful preparation. For the launching crew, the pressure was off for a while.