The Space Age Turns 50 - Ideas of Space Flight from the Early 20th Century

The U.S. Rocket Program and Explorer 1

After World War II, the U.S. military took a deep interest in rocketry. Unfortunately, this lead to several isolated rocket programs within the various branches of the armed forces - the Army, the Navy and the Army Air Force (later, simply the "Air Force").

The first proposal for a U.S. satellite was made by the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics in 1945. The so-called "Earth Satellite Test Vehicle" would ride on a single-stage "High Altitude Test Vehicle" which burned liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Funding problems, combined with objections by the Army Air Force, which claimed that space was its domain, lead to cancellation of the project in 1948.


(from: http://www.wsmr.army.mil/)
Postwar testing of rockets in the U.S. started at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. The Army set this area aside as a rocket test center in July 1945 (a month before the end of the second world war in the Pacific). The first-ever liquid fueled rocket to be funded by the U.S. government was the WAC Corporal.

(from: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4401/ch2.htm)
WAC stands for "without attitude control." The project began in November 1944 and the first launch at White Sands was on October 11, 1945. The rocket reached an altitude of 44.5 miles - a U.S. record, but less than half the altitude attainable by the V-2. The WAC Corporal was 16 feet tall, one foot in diameter, and weighed 660 pounds when totally fueled.

(from: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4202/chapter1.html)
In Project Bumper, a WAC Corporal was mounted on top of a V-2 as a second stage. On February 24, 1949 such a configuration reached an altitude of 244 miles and a speed of 5,510 miles per hour - at the time, both an altitude and speed record. In fact, there can be no argument that the second stage actually went into space! However, this launch is not considered the beginning of the space age.

(from: http://www.spaceline.org/galleries/rockets/001b.jpg.html)
Project Bumper plays one other noteworthy role in U.S. space history - on July 24, 1950 a WAC/V-2 Bumper combination was the first rocket launched at the Air Force's new rocket testing facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida.


(from: http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/29.html)
In all, between 1946 and 1952 the U.S. launched 63 captured V-2s. Some carried cameras, weather instruments, and cosmic ray detectors. Four launches carried monkeys (none survived their flights). These rockets routinely reached altitudes of around 100 miles. With the limited supply of German V-2s, a new rocket was needed with similar capabilities.


(from: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/this_month_june.html)

(from: http://www.nrl.navy.mil/content.php?P=AEROBEE)
One such U.S. rocket was the Aerobee. This Navy funded rocket was first launched in November 1947 and more than a thousand were eventually launched. These were the main rockets used in high-altitude research in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s.


(from: http://www.postwarv2.com/viking/viking.html)

(from: http://www.postwarv2.com/viking/viking.html)
A larger rocket which was rather similar to the V-2 was the Viking. This rocket incorporated knowledge learned from the V-2 experiments, but also included some advancements (in particular, a sophisticated steering system and the use of rocket motors which could be swiveled). The Viking was 45 feet tall and about three feet in diameter. In 12 launch attempts between 1949 and 1955, there were 11 successes. The maximum altitude reached by a Viking was 158 miles.

Another Army project which was a key stepping-stone in the U.S. rocketry program was the Hermes rocket. Its engine was the immediate predecessor of the A-6 engine used in the Redstone rocket.


(from: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ united_states/alabama_90.jpg)
In 1948, the Army set up a new facility at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1950, Redstone engineers started work on plans for a ballistic missle with a range of 300 miles. They named the rocket in honor of the arsenal.

(from: http://www.capcomespace.net/dossiers/espace_US/lanceurs_US/jupiter_redstone/redstone.jpg)
The first Redstone rocket was launched on August 20, 1953. The Redstone weighed 62,750 pounds at liftoff, was 69 feet tall, and 6 feet in diameter. It was fueled with liquid oxygen and ethyl alcohol. Von Braun was the head of the Redstone project.

(from: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/p3a.htm)
The Redstone rocket would play a key role in the launching of the first U.S. satellite and astronaut.


(from: http://www.nas.edu/history/igy/)
The International Geophysical Year ran from July 1957 to December 1958. It's purpose was to promote the study of the Earth, including the upper atmosphere. An organizing committee for the year resolved in 1954 to encourage participating countries to "the launching of small satellite vehicles." The Eisenhower administration created a committee to study various options for putting up a U.S.\ satellite.

(from: http://www.spaceline.org/galleries/rockets/013.jpg.html)
The committee chose to go with a Navy proposal which became known as Project Vanguard. The first runner-up was an Army/Navy collaborative project, consisting of the Army's Redstone rocket and the Navy's instrumentation.
Some space historians have speculated that the Vanguard project was chosen because of the fact that it was a more civilian-based and less military-based proposal, with much of the work contracted out to private companies. Others have observed that the commitee's objective was not necessarily to find the fastest way to get a satellite up - afterall, this first space race was hardly ever publically discussed!


(from: http://code8100.nrl.navy.mil/about/NCST/index.htm)

(from: http://www.geocities.com/duppim/VB04.html)
The Vanguard rocket consisted of three stages. The Vanguard satellite was about the size of a grapefruit. Following the shock in the U.S. of the launch of Sputnik, the rush was on to put up an American satellite. On December 6, 1957 the first attempt was made.

(from: http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/artifacts/SS-vanguard.htm)
The rocket rose a few feet into the air and then burst into flames. The small satellite was recovered from the wreckage and today is on display at the Air and Space Museum.

(from: http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/artifacts/SS-vanguard.htm)
Following this spectacular public failure (in the press, called "Flopnik" and "Kaputnik"), the Von Braun Army team was given the OK to attempt a launch in January 1958. The successful Redstone rockets had been enlarged and modified into a new rocket called the Jupiter C. Launch tests were made of the Jupiter C in 1956 and 1957.

http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/medaris/welcome.html)
In April of 1956, Army General Bruce Medaris claimed that the Jupiter C could put a satellite in orbit by early 1957 - a goal that would have easily predated the Sputnik launch. With the public outcry following the success of Sputnik and the failure of Vanguard, the Von Braun Army team got their chance.

(from Wikipedia)
At 10:48 p.m. on January 31, 1958 the firing command was given and the United States entered the space age as the Jupiter C successfully pushed the Explorer 1 satellite into orbit!
The launch panel used to put the United States first satellite is on display at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Explorer 1 weighed 13.9 pounds by itself, or 30.8 pounds when attached to the fourth stage of the launch vehicle (from which it never separated). It was in an orbit that ranged from an altitude of 225 miles to 1,594 miles.

(from: http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/expinfo.html)
It carried a Geiger counter to measure radiation, two thermometers, a microphone to detect micrometeorite impacts, and two radio transmitters to report the results.

(from: http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/photo/explor.html)
The Gieger counter detected high-radiation zones which were named after one of the Explorer 1 designers James Van Allen.

From Wikipedia.
By the way, another influence on popular culture of this research is present in one of the first Marvel comicbooks - the Fantastic 4 were given their superpowers when they were irradiated in the Van Allen radiation belts.

(from: http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/EXPLOR.GIF)
Explorer 1 revealed that near-Earth space was relatively free of debris and hence satellites would face a minimal threat from impacts. Explorer 1 functioned for about 4 months until May 23, 1958 when its batteries died. It was in orbit until 1970 when atmospheric drag caused it to burn up on re-entry.

Go to Consequences of Sputnik section.