Program is Proposed for Outer‐Planet Trips in 70's

A “grand tour” of several of the outer planets, possible in the late 1970's because of their unusual relative positions, has been recommended by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences. In a report called The Outer Solar System: A Program for Exploration, the group, headed by James A. Van Allen and Gordon J. F. MacDonald, notes that a similar juxtaposition will not recur for 200 years and that taking advantage of it would substantially reduce the time and money spent in exploring the outer solar system. A series of specific missions would start with a trip to Jupiter in 1974.