From The New York Times, 29 Sept 1963, pg. L22: SOVIET AIDE BACKS JOINT MOON PLAN But Astronaut Chief Says It Would 'Take Time' Special to the NYT PARIS, Sept. 28---The head of the Soviet astronaut group was quoted as saying today that President Kennedy's idea of a joint Soviet-American expedition to the moon would be a good idea. But General Nicolas Kamanine, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Soviet Air Force, cautioned: "It will take time before such a cooperation could take any concrete form." General Kamanine's statement, made to the French press agency, was the second response by a high Soviet official to the proposal Mr. Kennedy made before the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 20. Earlier in the week, Anotoly A. Blagonravov, a leading Soviet space scientist, said in Belgrade that such cooperation would be desirable. General Kamanine was quoted as saying: "A Soviet-American cooperation to explore the moon jointly would permit more rapid progress and reduce both countries the immense expense of such an expedition." General Kamanine is in Paris with Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth. Major Gagarin spoke tonight before world scientists gathered for the International Astronautical Congress at the headquarters of UNESCO. "Space flights of the future will need cooperation of all men of science," Major Gagarin said. "Each country has its favorite fields for research, but the more contacts there are between countries, the more information is exchanged, the swifter and the fuller will be our knowledge of the cosmos." He said he particularly welcomed the Moscow Treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests. "Now there will be no contamination, no additional threats," he said. "From now on space travel will be safer." Referring to the US-Soviet cooperation, Major Gagarin said: "It is no secret that neither country yet has the rocketry powerful enough to launch a space vehicle of several score tons, which would be required for a journey to the moon." "I know that the US is working on developing this, as so is the Soviet Union. It might well be that the components of a moon rocket would be launched into orbit around the earth separately, then the heavy craft would be assembled in space for the long journey." He said the Soviet had made great progress toward learning to couple space vehicles in orbit but that the problem was serious. - - -