Preludes to U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology: Goddard Rockets to Minuteman III

489 Pages·2008·3.711 MB·English

by  J. D. Hunley

Preludes to U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology
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Preludes to
U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology
Goddard Rockets to Minuteman III
J. D. Hunley
Copyright 2008 by J. D. Hunley
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
All rights reserved
13 12 11 10 09 08 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hunley, J. D., 1941–
Preludes to U.S. space-launch vehicle technology :
Goddard rockets to Minuteman III / J. D. Hunley.
v. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8130-3177-4 (alk. paper); ISBN 978-0-8130-3855-1 (e-book)
1. Launch vehicles (Astronautics)—United States—History—20th century.
2. Rocketry—United States—History—20th century.
3. Minuteman (Missile)—History—20th century. I. Title.
TL785.8.L3H86 2008
629.470973—dc22 2007042543
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency
for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M
University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University,
Florida International University, Florida State University, New College
of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida,
University of North Florida, University of South Florida,
and University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
This book is dedicated to Barnet R. Adelman, Wilbur Andrepont,
Charles Bartley, Robert C. Corley, Daniel Dembrow, Ross Felix,
Robert L. Geisler, Edward N. Hall, Charles Henderson, Kenneth W. Iliff,
Karl Klager, Franklin H. Knemeyer, Grayson Merrill, Ray Miller,
Edward W. Price, Milton W. Rosen, Ed Saltzman, Ronald L. Simmons,
Ernst Stuhlinger, H. L. Thackwell, and Robert C. Truax.

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
ix
Introduction
1
1. The Beginnings: Goddard and Oberth, 1926–1945
10
2. Peenemünde and the A-4 (V-2), 1932–1945
42
3. JPL: From JATO to the Corporal, 1936–1957
93
4. From Pompton Lakes to White Sands: Other Liquid-Propellant
Rocket Developments, 1930–1954
126
5. From Eaton Canyon to the Sergeant Missile:
Solid-Propellant Rocket Developments, 1940–1962
151
6. Redstone, Jupiter C, and Juno I, 1946–1961
165
7. The Atlas, Thor, and Jupiter Missiles, 1954–1959
203
8. The Titan I and II, 1955–1966
249
9. Polaris and Minuteman: The Solid-Propellant Breakthrough, 1955–1970
291
Conclusion
333
Appendix: Chronology
339
Notes
347
Glossary of Terms, Acronyms, and Abbreviations
407
Sources
417
Index
447
Preface and Acknowledgments
This book and its sequel, U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology: Viking to
Space Shuttle,1 address a significant gap in the literature about access to
space. There are numerous and quite excellent works covering various as-
pects of missile and space-launch-vehicle development and some general
accounts. But there is no study that traces in a detailed and systematic way
how the technology evolved from its beginnings with Robert Goddard and
with the German V-2 missile to the end of the cold war.
Another problem with the existing literature is the lack of agreement
among sources about specifics. From measurements of length and diameter
to those of thrust and accuracy, sources differ. These two books cannot claim
to resolve the differences, but they acknowledge them in endnotes and indi-
cate which sources seem most credible.
I first began working on these histories in 1992 when I undertook a much
more modest, monographic study comparing the contributions to U.S.
launch vehicle technology of the Wernher von Braun group that developed
the V-2 in Germany and then immigrated to America after World War II
with those of the group around Theodore von Kármán and Frank Malina
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California. I quickly found
that the literature would not permit such a comparison without a much
broader assessment of rocket technology. As a result I wrote the account
that follows.
Because the material to be covered is so broad as well as technical, what I
had originally conceived as a single volume had to be divided into two. The
present book covers primarily missile development, because many of the
launch vehicles borrowed technology and whole rocket stages from mis-
siles, most of which developed before the launch vehicles. In a couple of
cases, to provide continuity of coverage, early uses of missiles as compo-
nents of launch vehicles are discussed in this book. Then Viking to Space
Shuttle steps back in time to pick up development of Viking and Vanguard,
which preceded most of early missile production. The second book then
continues with the Thor-Delta, Delta, Atlas, Scout, Saturn, and Titan space
launch vehicles, concluding with treatment of the space shuttle. Both books
are written in such a way that they can be understood by a general audience,