Whipple Doubts Firing of Third Soviet Sputnik

Rumor-mongering, almost as popular a sport as saucer-spotting, has given birth to a whisper that the Russians have launched a third satellite. Dr. Fred L. Whipple, however, said late last night that he had received no word of such a move and doubted the authenticity of the story.

Whipple also tried to calm the nerves of jittery moonwatchers who, he warned, would probably be unable to see any rocket hit the moon, even if such a missile had been sent up. Without accurate information on the trajectory, he said, even the biggest telescopes would be unable to track a moon-rocket.

Whipple maintained, moreover, that Russia's inability to prove to the world that it had hit the moon is "a good argument against their trying to do it." He predicted that within a "very few years--five, at the most" man would be able to get a rocket to hit the moon or to go into an orbit around it.

The latter, he said, would be his favorite experiment, as it would result in more accurate measurement of the mass, density, and distribution of mass of the moon.

Whipple reported 11 new sightings of Sputnik II yesterday morning and announced that an improved orbit had been calculated for the rocket, giving its apogee at 1013 miles and its perigee at 140. He added that there was no indication to date that it was speeding up or moving into a smaller orbit.

New Englanders will get their last glimpse before early December of the second Russian satellite this morning at about 5:10.