SOVIET MOVIE SHOWS REACH FOR THE MOON

EVEN before Sputnik, Soviet scientists were freely predicting successful space flights to the moon by the early 1960s. Since the launching of their satellite, the timetable has been confidently pushed up. HOC IE CIIVTHHKA -I VHA (After Sputnik, the moon), the Russians proclaim, hinting that an unmanned rocket try at the moon might be planned from a Soviet launching site in the near future, perhaps to coincide with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on Nov.7.

A fanciful version of how the first flight might be attempted without passengers is portrayed in a cartoon film being shown in all seriousness to newsreel audiences in Russia, and seen for the first time in the U.S. this week. Produced under the direction of Yurie Khlebtsevich, chairman of a Soviet technical committee working on radio and television guidance of rockets, the movie depicts the use of an unmanned baby tank, crammed with scientific instruments, for the exploration of the moon's surface. The robot tank, as shown in these pictures from the film, would be carried through space inside a three-stage "cosmic" rocket, launched beyond the earth's atmosphere by a winged, rocket-driven "spaceship." Once in an orbit similar to Sputnik's, the rocket would be refueled by another guided rocket, and then, accelerating fast enough to escape the earth's gravitational pull, would head for the moon. After the rocket landed, the tank would emerge and by radio control would roll across the moon's surface, televising the lunar scene and radioing back instrument recordings to scientists watching and listening on earth.

Smacking of Disneyfied science fiction, a scheme such as this one might have been dismissed entirely a few weeks ago -but not since Sputnik. While many scientists will scoff at the details of the Soviet film, they know that some measure of this fantasy might soon become reality.

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