The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

142 frequency coordination
held) receivers on the ground but suffer severe attenuation
from rain. The X-band is used heavily for military applications.
(See table, “Some IEEE Radio Band Designations.”)
Some IEEE Radio Band Designations
Band Frequency (GHz) Wavelength (cm)
L 1–2 30–15
S 2–4 15–7.5
C 4–8 7.5–3.75
X 8–12 3.75–2.5
Ku 12–18 2.5–1.67
K 18–27 1.67–1.11
Ka 27–40 1.11–0.75
frequency coordination
A process to eliminate frequency interference between different
satellite systems or between terrestrial microwave
systems and satellites.
Froissart, Jean (c. 1337–c. 1410)
A French historian and poet whose Chronicles, published
in 1410, outlined the design of tube-launched military
rockets. He is therefore credited as being the inventor of
the bazooka. See Giovanni da Fontana.
From the Earth to the Moon
The famous novel by Jules Verne in which a capsule containing
three men and two dogs is blasted out of an
immense cannon, the Columbiad, toward the Moon. From
the Earth to the Moon (1865) 299 and its sequel Around the
Moon (1870) 300 are packed with technical details, some of
which, it was realized at the time of the Apollo 8 and 11
missions, were curiously prescient. In the story, as in real-
General Radio Band Designations
Name Wavelength Frequency
Extremely low frequency (ELF) 10,000–100 km 30 Hz–3 kHz
Very low frequency (VLF) 100–10 km 3–30 kHz
Low frequency (LF) 10–1 km 30–300 kHz
Medium frequency (MF) 1 km–100 m 300 kHz–3 MHz
High frequency (HF) 100–10 m 3–30 MHz
Very high frequency (VHF) 10–1 m 30–300 MHz
Ultra high frequency (UHF) 1 m–10 cm 300 MHz–3 GHz
Super high frequency (SHF) 10–1 cm 3–30 GHz
Extremely high frequency (EHF) 1 cm–1 mm 30–300 GHz
ity, the United States launched the first manned vehicle to
circumnavigate the Moon. Verne gave the cost of his
project as $5,446,675—equivalent to $12.1 billion in 1969
and close to Apollo 8’s tab of $14.4 billion. Both fictional
and real spacecraft had a crew of three: Ardan, Barbicane,
and Nicholl in the novel; Anders, Borman, and
Lovell on Apollo 8; and Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins
on Apollo 11. Both spacecraft were built mainly of aluminum
and had similar dry masses—8,730 kg in the case of
Verne’s capsule, 11,920 kg in the case of Apollo 8. The
cannon used to launch the spacecraft was the Columbiad;
Apollo 11’s Command Module was named Columbia.
After considering 12 sites in Texas and Florida, Stone Hill
(south of Tampa, Florida) is selected in Verne’s novel.
One hundred years later, NASA considered seven launch
sites and chose Merritt Island, Florida. In both cases
Brownsville, Texas, was rejected as a site, politics played a
major role in the site selection, and site criteria included a
latitude below 28° N and good access to the sea. Verne’s
spacecraft was launched in December from latitude 27°7'
N, longitude 82°9' W. After a journey of 242 hours 31
minutes, including 48 hours in lunar orbit, the spacecraft
splashed down in the Pacific at 20°7' N, 118°39' W, and
was recovered by the U.S. Navy vessel Susquehanna. The
crew of Apollo 8 was launched in December one hundred
years later, from latitude 28°27' N, longitude 80°36' W,
213 km from Verne’s site. After a journey of 147 hours 1
minute, including 20 hours 10 minutes in lunar orbit, the
spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific (8°10' N, 165°00'
W) and was recovered by the U.S. Navy vessel Hornet.
Although space cannons are still considered a viable
means of launching small satellites, Verne was wildly
optimistic in supposing that men and dogs (not to mention
some chickens that Arden smuggled aboard with the
idea of releasing them on the Moon to astonish his
friends) could survive the horrendous g-forces associated