(pg. 22 of Sunday Edition, 29 Sept. 1963, of The New York Times)

SOVIET AIDE BACKS JOINT MOON PLAN

Special to The New York Times

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 Kamanin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the
Soviet Air Force, cautioned:  "It will take time before such a
cooperation could take any concrete form."
     General Kamanin'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, Anatoly A. Blagonravov, a leading Soviet
space scientist, said in Belgrade that such cooperation would be
desirable.
     General Kamanin was quoted as saying:  "A Soviet-American
cooperation to explore the moon jointly would permit more rapid
progress and reduce for both countries the immense expense of such
an expedition."
     General Kamanin is in Paris with Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin, the
first man to orbit the earth.
     Major Gagarin spoke tonight before the world scientists
gathered for the International Astronautical Congress at the
headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization.
     "Space flights of the future will need the 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 United States-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 United States is working on developing this,
and 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 still
serious.