Aug. 15, 1962 - Soviet scientists, exultant over the prolonged orbital flights and safe return to earth of Vostoks III and IV, looked ahead today with confidence to early manned trips to the moon, Venus, and Mars. A Russian rocket scientist declared that there was no doubt that manned Soviet spaceships would land on the moon in the 1960s and on Mars, Venus, and other planets in the 1970s. Citing the strides of Soviet rocket technology in the last 30 years, Prof. G.V. Petrovich, a rocket specialist, said that the technological gap between the Soviet Union and the U.S. had widened since the first Sputnik was launched in October 1957. “I do not wish to belittle the achievements of American scientists,” said Professor Petrovich, “but I am sure that Soviet scientists are outstripping the Americans in scientific progress.” The solar system looks immense to man now, Professor Petrovich said, but within the next few decades it will seem no more forbidding than the once-formidable Antarctica is today.
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