United States Senate Report 'Soviet Space Programs: 1976-80 Part 1'

United States Senate Report 'Soviet Space Programs: 1976-80 Part 1'

Report prepared for the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for the United States Senate. It was produced in 1982 at the request of Bob Packwood by the Congressional Research Service.

The report was designed to update the U.S. Senate on Soviet space activities during the period 1976-80, entitled ‘Supporting Vehicles and Launch Vehicles, Political Goals and Purposes, International Cooperation in Space, Administration, Re-Source Burden, Future Outlook’.

The report follows on from several earlier ones produced under the direction of Dr Charles S. Sheldon II. Sheldon died in 1981, whist this report was still being compiled and ex-Apollo astronaut, Harrison Schmitt, subsequently took over supervising the report. Geoffrey Perry completed chapter 1 with the assistance of material prepared by the late Dr Sheldon.

Perry had worked with Derek Slater tracking Soviet space activity with basic equipment 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 used 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.

Despite this fact, when the CIA vetted Sheldon’s 1967 U.S. Government report they asked him to remove references to Plesetsk due to its classification as ‘Secret’. In response to this Sheldon tipped off the Washington Post about the existence of Perry’s letters to Flight International, which lead to Perry and the Kettering Grammar School becoming a global news story. This allowed Sheldon to publish the details of Plesetsk in his 1967 report.

Perry’s increased involvement as a consultant and contributor for U.S. Government reports highlights his growing status as an international expert.