Green File Containing Kettering Group Press Cuttings and Correspondence

Green File Containing Kettering Group Press Cuttings and Correspondence

Selection of press cuttings, correspondence and pictures connected to the Kettering Satellite Tracking Group.

The press cuttings highlight the media interest in the Kettering Group formed by Geoff Perry and Derek Slater. Perry and Slater tracked Soviet space activity with basic equipment whilst teaching at the Kettering Grammar School, using students to assist them. During the course of tracking Cosmos 112 and Cosmos 129, Perry discovered that these two satellites must have been launched somewhere other than the previously known Baikonur Cosmodrome. He managed to pinpoint the location to the south of Archangel at Plesetsk and revealed this information through two letters he sent to the UK magazine Flight International in 1966. Despite this fact, when the CIA vetted a U.S. Government report by Dr Charles Sheldon in 1967 they asked him to remove references to the new launch site at Plesetsk due to its classification as ‘Secret’. In response to this, and so that he could include the information in his report, Sheldon tipped off the Washington Post about the existence of Perry’s letters to Flight International. This led to Perry and the Kettering Group's discovery becoming a global news story.

Correspondence includes a copy of a section of the letter sent by Perry to the editor of Flight International, which appeared on 21 April 1966 on page 670. It documents the discovery of the previously unknown Russian launch site that would catapult the achievements of the Kettering Group and Perry into the spotlight of the world’s media.