Mr. Frank Borman talking; Chris Kraft talking.




Initials lg



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: United States astronaut Frank Borman said Friday (18 July) that he had telephoned the Soviet Union and received assurance from Soviet Space officials that their Luna 15 satellite would not interfere with Apollo 11's flight to land men on the moon.

Mr. Borman told a televised news conference at the Manned Space Centre in Houston, Texas that Soviet space officials told him "the orbit of Luna 15 would not intersect published trajectories of Apollo 11 at any point and that he would be informed if any change developed." Mr. Borman recently completed a 10-day visit to the Soviet Union and some of its space installations.

Mr. Christopher Kraft, Apollo Flight Operations Director, who also appeared at the news conference, said that United States space officials could only guess at what the Soviet Union was doing. He did say that he assumed Luna 15 would leave lunar orbit eventually and come to back to earth.

The Soviet space officials told Mr. Norman that Luna 15 was travelling at a 53-degree angle to the path which Apollo 11 will follow. Luna 15 is travelling around the moon once every 2 hours 30 seconds.