Feb 15 1975

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The Indonesian government concluded a $120.6-million (4.6 billion Belgian francs) agreement with the General Bank of Belgium to finance construction of two communications satellites, a satellite control station in Jakarta, and 39 comsat network stations throughout the Indonesian islands. (Jakarta Domestic Service, FBIS-Indonesia, 19 Feb 75, NI)

The U.S. could land men on Mars in 10 yr if a commitment similar to President Kennedy's pledge in 1961 to make a moon landing were made, Dr. Wernher von Braun, former NASA Deputy Associate Administrator, said in a speech at the Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. von Braun, vice president for engineering and development at Fairchild Industries, Inc., said that nuclear powered command ships could be sent to orbit the planet while a lander traveled to the Martian surface. The cost of the program would approximate the near-$25 billion cost of the Apollo program. (B Sun, 16 Feb 75, B16)

Soviet and American fraternizing at Cape Canaveral and Florida's Disney World in recent weeks were evidence of how much the world had changed since the 1950s, a New York Times editorial said. "What was once a ferociously pursued race in space has given way to détente in space," with the preparations for the joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in July. Skeptics, complaining that Moscow would be the "big net gainer" in the project, were correct only from a narrow intelligence point of view. They missed the main point for détente in space. Neither the U.S. nor the Soviet Union had resources sufficient for fruitful human activity in space for decades ahead. "It is simply enlightened selfishness for Washington and Moscow to work together in space." And this was only a start. What was needed even more was "broadly based cooperation in space efforts embracing the personnel and talents of all nations for the benefit of all humanity. "(NYT, 15 Feb 75. 28)

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