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Jupiter-C IRBM

Jupiter-C IRBM

The Jupiter-C Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) was designed by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). The vehicle consists of a modified Redstone ballistic missile with three solid-propellant upper stages. The tankage of the Redstone was lengthened by 8 ft (2.4 m) to provide additional propellant. The instrument compartment is also smaller and lighter than the Redstone's. The second and third stages are clustered in a "tub" atop the vehicle, while the fourth stage is atop the tub itself. The second stage is an outer ring of eleven scaled-down Sergeant rocket engines; the third stage is a cluster of three scaled-down Sergeant rockets grouped within. These are held in position by bulkheads and rings and are surrounded by a cylindrical outer shell. The webbed base plate of the shell rests on a ball-bearing shaft mounted on the first-stage instrument section. Two electric motors spin in the tub at a rate varying from 450 to 750 rpm to compensate for thrust imbalance when the clustered motors fire. The rate of spin is varied by a programmer so that it does not couple with the changing resonant frequency of the first stage during flight. The upper-stage tub was spun-up before launch. During first-stage flight, the vehicle was guided by a gyro-controleld autopilot controlling both air-vanes and jet vanes on the first stage by means of servos. Following a vertical launch from a simple steel table, the vehicle was programmed so that it was travelling at an angle of 40 degrees from the horizontal at burnout of the first stage, which occurred 157 seconds after launch. At first-stage burnout, explosive bolts fired and springs separated the instrument section from the first-stage tankage. The instrument section and the spinning tub were slowly tipped to a horizontal position by means of four air jets located at the base of the instrument section. When the apex of the vertical flight occurred after a coasting flight of about 247 seconds, a radio signal from the ground ignited the eleven-rocket cluster of the second stage, separating the tub from the instrument section. The third and fourth stages were fired in turn to boost the satellite and fourth stage to an orbital velocity of 18,000 mph (8 km/s). This method of orbiting a payload obviated the need for a guidance system in the upper stages, and was invented by Wernher von Braun in 1956 for his proposed Project Orbiter, which would have been just like the Jupiter-C but using the even smaller solid-fuel upper stages which were the only ones available at that time. His method was the simplest and most immediate method for putting a payload into orbit, but as it had no upper-stage guidance, it was not put into a precisely specified orbit. When used as a satellite launch vehicle, von Braun referred to the Jupiter-C as the Juno or Juno-I, to make it appear as peaceable as the Vanguard rocket, which was not a missile, that is, a weapon of war, but was developed from a weather study rocket. Sometimes the Jupiter-C is still so referred. Americans cheered on the orbiting of these early Explorer satellites, not realizing that it was by a means inferior to that of the Russians - or of the U.S. Navy's Project Vanguard. Von Braun had the method used again in the Juno II, which used a real Jupiter first stage rather than a Redstone. No other nation has since used this method. The Jupiter-C was used as a testbed for testing re-entry nosecones that were later to be deployed on the more advanced Jupiter IRBM mobile missile.

General characteristics

- Weight as configured for Explorer 1 launch, loaded/empty
- Overall, takeoff: 64,000 lb (29,000 kg)/10,260 lb (4650 kg)
- Stage 1 62,700 lb (28,400 kg)/9,600 lb (4,400 kg)
- Stage 2 1,020 lb (460 kg)/490 lb (220 kg)
- Stage 3 280 lb (130 kg)/140 lb (64 kg)
- Stage 4 80 lb (36 kg)/31.5 lb (14 kg)
- Propulsion
- Stage 1: Rocketdyne A-7 engine
- Thrust, 83,000 lbf (370 kN)
- burning time, 155 s
- specific impulse, 235 lbf·s/lb (2.30 kN·s/kg)
- propellants, liquid oxygen, as oxidizer, and "Hydyne" (60% unsymmetrical, dimethylhydrazine and 40% diethylenetriamine), as fuel
- propellant feed, turbopump type
- turbopump drive, 90% hydrogen peroxide decomposed by catalyst bed to produce steam
- Stage 2: Eleven JPL scaled-down Sergeant rockets
- Thrust, 16,500 lbf (73 kN)
- burning time, 6.5 s
- specific impulse, 220 lbf·s/lb (2.16 kN·s/kg)
- propellant, polysulfide-aluminum and ammonium perchlorate (solid propellant)
- Stage 3: Three JPL scaled-down Sergeant rockets
- Thrust, 5,400 lbf (24 kN)
- burning time, 6.5 s
- specific impulse, 235 lbf·s/lb (2.30 kN·s/kg)
- propellant, same as for Stage 2
- Stage 4: One JPL scaled-down Sergeant rocket
- Thrust, 1,500 lbf (8 kN)
- burning time, 6.5 s
- specific impulse, 235 lbf·s/lb (2.30 kN·s/kg)
- propellant, same as for Stage 2 Rocketdyne

Flight history

September 20, 1956: Lifted an 86.5-lb (39.2 kg) payload (including a 30-lb (14 kg) dummy satellite) to an altitude of 680 mi (1,100 km), a speed of 16,000 mph (7 km/s), and a range of 3,300 mi (5,300 km) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. May 15, 1957: Lifted an 300 lb (140 kg) scale Jupiter ablative nose cone to an altitude of 350 mi (560 km) and a range of 710 mi (1,100 km). August 8, 1957: Lifted a 1/3-scale Jupiter nose cone to an altitude of 285 mi (460 km) and a range of 1,330 mi (2,140 km). Juno-I (four-stage configuration). January 31, 1958: Orbited Explorer I satellite weighing 30.66 lb (13.91 kg) with 18.35 lb (8.32 kg) of payload, perigee 224 mi (360 km), apogee 1,575 mi (2,535 km). Explorer I ceased transmission of data on May 23, 1958, when its batteries died, but remained in orbit for more than 12 years. It made a fiery reentry over the Pacific Ocean on March 31, 1970. March 5, 1958: Attempted orbit of Explorer II weighing 31.36 lb (14.22 kg) with 18.83 lb (8.54 kg) of payload failed because fourth stage did not ignite. March 26, 1958: Orbited Explorer III satellite weighing 31.0 lb (14.0 kg) with 18.53 lb (8.41 kg) of payload, perigee 119 mi (192 km), apogee 1,740 mi (2,800 km). Down June 28, 1958. July 26, 1958: Orbited Explorer IV satellite weighing 37.16 lb (16.86 kg) with 25.76 lb (11.68 kg) of payload, perigee 163 mi, apogee 1,373 mi (2,210 km). Down October 23, 1959. August 24, 1958: Attempted orbit of Explorer V satellite 37.16 lb (16.86 kg) with 25.76 lb (11.68 kg) of payload. It failed because booster collided with second stage after separation, causing upper stage firing angle to be off. October 23, 1958: Attempted orbit of 12 ft (3.7 m) inflatable Beacon satellite 31.5 lb (14.3 kg) with 18.3 lb (8.3 kg) of payload. It failed when second stage separated prematurely from booster. Source: Data Sheet, Department of Astronautics, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Category:Space launch vehicles

Army Ballistic Missile Agency

. Left to right: Ernst Stuhlinger (seated); Major General H. N. Toftoy, Wernher von Braun, and Eberhard Rees.
Source: NASA]] The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) is the part of the US Army which, in the 1950s, designed the Jupiter-C IRBM and Jupiter IRBM. The Saturn I was also conceived by the ABMA. At this time the ABMA was headed by Doctor Wernher von Braun.

The ABMA and the Jupiter-C

After the US Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard was chosen by the DOD Committee on Special Capabilities, over the ABMA's proposal to use a modified Redstone ballistic missile as a satellite launch vehicle, the ABMA was ordered to stop work on satellites and focus, instead, on intermediate missiles. Von Braun, disobeying orders, continued work on the design for what became the Jupiter-C IRBM. This was a 3 stage rocket, which, by coincidence, could be used to launch a satellite (in the Juno I configuration). In September 1956, the Jupiter-C was launched with a 30 lb (14 kg) dummy satellite. It is generally believed that, at this time, the ABMA could have put a satellite into orbit had the US government allowed ABMA to do so. A year later, the Soviets launched Sputnik I. Ballistic Missile Agency

Redstone (rocket)

Redstone
Redstone launching Freedom 7.
Stages		1
1	Engines	1 × A-6
Thrust		78,000 lbf (347 kN)
Burn time		~155 s
ISP		265 s
Fuels		Alcohol/LOX
Payload to 185 km 115 mi		1,300 kg 2,850 lb

First launched in 1953, the American Redstone rocket was a direct descendant of the German V-2. It was used for the first live nuclear missile tests by the United States. It was also known as the Redstone MRBM (medium range ballistic missile). A product of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, under the leadership of Wernher von Braun, it was designed as a surface-to-surface missile for the U.S. Army and was first deployed in 1958. A total of four mobile launchers and equipment, with one reload each, (A total of 8 Redstone MRBM missiles) were deployed in West Germany until 1963. The Redstone was capable of flights up to 200 miles (300 km). It burned alcohol and liquid oxygen. Redstone could be armed with a 1 Mt or 3.75 Mt of TNT (4 PJ or 16 PJ) thermonuclear warhead. The Redstone was used to launch two live nuclear tests that were detonated during the nuclear test series Operation Hardtack in August, 1958, from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. On August, 1, 1958, Redstone #CC50 launched nuclear test Teak that detonated at an altitude of 77.8 km. On August 12, 1958, Redstone #CC51 launched nuclear test Orange to a detonation altitude of 43 km. Both thermonuclear devices were 3.75 Mt of TNT (16 PJ) weapons. These were the first live nuclear missile tests by the United States. The Jupiter IRBM (intermediate range ballistic missile) was a direct descendant of the Redstone. Modified Redstone missiles, with solid upper stages added, were used in a series of nosecone development tests for the Jupiter IRBM. These modified Redstone missiles were called Jupiter-C rockets. Many believe the U.S. could have beaten the Soviet Union into space if the ABMA had been allowed to attempt a satellite launch with the Jupiter-C rocket. A satellite could have been launched by a Jupiter-C in August 1956 if given the go ahead by U.S. government officials. The Eisenhower administration, however, wanted the first U.S. satellite to be launched by a civilian developed rocket instead of a military missile. The Vanguard rocket was being developed for this purpose. They ordered Von Braun not to attempt any satellite launches. The Vanguard rocket failed to launch its Vanguard satellite in December 1957. The Eisenhower administration then turned to the U.S. Army. The ABMA and von Braun were asked to launch a backup satellite as soon as possible. When the Jupiter-C was finally used to launch the Explorer I satellite in January 1958, its Jupiter-C launch vehicle was renamed the Juno I. Redstone MRBM and Jupiter IRBM propellant tanks were clustered together along with eight Jupiter IRBM engines to form the first stage of the Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets. First developed by the ABMA, the Saturn rocket was later adopted by NASA. These were America's first large launch vehicles. The first of these was launched in 1961. Redstone was also responsible for the following suborbital launches in the United States Mercury program:
- Mercury-Redstone 1, Launched 4 inches (100 mm)
- Mercury-Redstone 1A, Successful unmanned flight
- Mercury-Redstone 2 (Carrying Ham the chimpanzee)
- Mercury-Redstone BD Booster Development - final test before manned flight
- Freedom 7 (Mercury-Redstone 3), America's first human in space, Alan Shepard.
- Liberty Bell 7 (Mercury-Redstone 4), America's second human in space, Gus Grissom. Redstone production was halted in late 1964 and the Redstone missile was replaced by the Pershing missile in the U.S. Army arsenal. In the late 1960's as series of surplus modified Redstone MRBM missiles were launched in Australia as part of a military test program of reentry vehicles. These Redstone missiles had solid fuel upper stages added to them. One of thse Redstone missiles was used to launch Australia's first satellite, Wresat, in 1967. These series of Australian modified Redstone missiles were called Sparta rockets.

Mercury Redstone Sub-Orbital Flight Events

External link

- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670028606_1967028606.pdf The Mercury Redstone Project (PDF) December 1964]
- [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/redstone.htm Redstone] from Encyclopedia Astronautica
- [http://www.geocities.com/redstone_mrbm/index.html Redstone MRBM] History Website
- http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/systems/redstone/welcome.html

Redstone family of missiles and launch vehicles

Sparta rockets See also: List of missiles ja:レッドストーン Category:Medium-range ballistic missiles Category:Space launch vehicles Category:Mercury program

Wernher von Braun

in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress.]] Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (March 23 1912 – June 16 1977) was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States. Originally a German scientist leading Nazi Germany's rocket program before and during the Second World War, he entered the United States at the end of the war through the then-secret Operation Paperclip. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen and worked on the American ICBM program before joining NASA. Still a controversial figure, thanks to his involvement in the Nazi war effort, he is generally regarded as the father of the United States space program.

Early life

United States space program Wernher von Braun was born in Wirsitz, Prussia (now Wyrzysk, Poland). Upon his Lutheran confirmation his mother gave him a telescope and he discovered a passion for astronomy and the realm of space. When, as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, Wirsitz became part of Poland in 1920, his family, like many other German families, moved. They settled in Berlin where at first von Braun did not do well in physics and mathematics until he acquired a copy of the book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Space) by rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth. From then on he applied himself at school in order to understand physics and mathematics. One anecdote from this period is the time the 16 year old von Braun caused a major disruption by firing off a toy wagon to which he had attached a number of firecrackers. The young von Braun was taken into custody by the local police until his father came to collect him. In 1930 von Braun attended the Berlin Institute of Technology where he joined the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR, the "Spaceflight Society") and assisted Hermann Oberth in liquid-fuelled rocket motor tests. After receiving his degree he commenced postgraduate studies at Berlin University, earning a doctorate in physics in 1934.

German career

Rocket science and politics

Whilst von Braun was working on his doctorate, a young artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for him and von Braun then worked next to Dornberger's existing solid-fuel rocket test site at Kummersdorf. He received his doctorate two years later and by the end of 1934 his group had successfully launched two rockets that rose to heights of 2.2 and 3.5 kilometres. At that time, however, there was no German rocket society as the VfR had collapsed and civilian rocket tests had been forbidden by the new Nazi régime. Only military development was possible and to this end a larger facility was erected at the village of Peenemünde in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea. This location was chosen partly on the recommendation of von Braun's mother, who recalled her father's duck-hunting expeditions there. Dornberger became military commander at Peenemünde and von Braun was technical director. In collaboration with the Luftwaffe, the Peenemünde group developed liquid-fuel rocket engines for aircraft and jet-assisted takeoffs. They also developed the long-range A-4 ballistic missile (later renamed the V-2) and the supersonic Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile. In November 1937 von Braun joined the Nazi party, the NSDAP. An OMGUS (Office of the Military Governor, United States) document dated April 23, 1947 states that von Braun joined the SS (Schutzstaffel) horseback riding school in fall 1933, then the Nazi party on May 1, 1937 and became an officer in the SS from May 1940 to the end of the war. Amongst his comments about his Nazi membership von Braun has said:

"I was officially demanded to join the National Socialist Party. At this time (1937) I was already technical director of the Army Rocket Center at Peenemünde ... My refusal to join the party would have meant that I would have to abandon the work of my life. Therefore, I decided to join. My membership in the party did not involve any political activities ... in Spring 1940, one SS-Standartenführer (SS Colonel) Müller ... looked me up in my office at Peenemünde and told me that Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had sent him with the order to urge me to join the SS. I called immediately on my military superior ... Major-General W. Dornberger. He informed me that ... if I wanted to continue our mutual work, I had no alternative but to join."

After the war, von Braun claimed he was asked to join the party and pressured to join the SS. In May 1940 he was personally awarded an honorary SS rank by Himmler only after conferring with colleagues who agreed that to turn it down would infuriate Himmler and incur his wrath. He began as an Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant) and was promoted three times by Himmler, the last time in June 1943 to SS-Sturmbannführer (SS Major). In November 1942 Adolf Hitler approved the production of the A-4 as a "vengeance weapon" and the group found themselves developing the A-4 to rain explosives on London. Twenty-two months after Hitler ordered it into production, the first combat A-4 — now renamed the V-2 ("Vergeltungswaffe 2", "Retaliation/Vengeance Weapon 2") — was launched toward England, on September 7 1944. SS General Hans Kammler, who as an engineer had constructed several concentration camps including Auschwitz, had a reputation for brutality and had originated the idea of using concentration camp prisoners as slave labourers in the rocket program. Arthur Rudolph, chief engineer of the V-2 rocket factory at Peenemünde, endorsed this idea in April 1943 when a labour shortage developed. More people died building the V-2 rockets than were killed by it as a weapon. To increase his power-base within the Nazi régime, Heinrich Himmler conspired to use Kammler to wrest control of all German armament programs, including the V-2 program at Peenemünde. Kammler, highly dedicated to Himmler, was also instrumental in von Braun's arrest by the Gestapo after they learned in March 1944 that von Braun had expressed a defeatist attitude toward Germany's chances of victory and a desire to design a rocket for space rather than for weapons use. Combined with Himmler's false charges that von Braun was a Communist sympathizer and had attempted to sabotage the V-2 program, he was imprisoned for two weeks at a Gestapo cell in Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland). Dornberger and Albert Speer, Reichsminister for Munitions and War Production, convinced Hitler to release von Braun so that the V-2 program could continue. It is otherwise likely that von Braun would have been executed.

Arrest by the Nazi regime

There are three different versions of von Braun's arrest. André Sellier, a French historian and survivor of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, offers as good an explanation as any. Himmler called von Braun, an SS officer, to come to his Hochwald HQ in East Prussia sometime in February 1944. He recommended that von Braun work more closely with Krammer to solve the problems of the V-2, but von Braun claimed to have replied that the problems were merely technical and he was confident that they would be solved with Dornberger's assistance. Apparently von Braun had been under SD surveillance since October 1943 and a report on him and his colleagues Riedel and Grotrupp was being prepared. In it von Braun and his colleagues were said to have expressed regret at an engineer's house one evening that they were not working on a spaceship and that they felt the war was not going well. A young female dentist later denounced them for their comments. The unsuspecting von Braun was arrested and on February 22 was taken to Stettin, where he was imprisoned for two weeks without knowing the charges levelled against him. It was only through the Abwehr in Berlin that Dornberger was able to obtain von Braun's conditional release and Speer apparently intervened on his behalf as well.

Surrender to the Americans

The Soviet army was about 160 km from Peenemünde in the spring of 1945 when von Braun assembled his planning staff and asked them to decide how and to whom they should surrender. Afraid of the rumoured Soviet cruelty to prisoners of war, von Braun and his staff decided to try to surrender to the Americans. After using forged papers to steal a train, von Braun led 500 people through war-torn Germany toward the American lines. The SS had meanwhile been issued with orders to kill the German engineers and destroy their records. The engineers, however, had hidden these in a mineshaft and continued to evade their own army. After they had finally managed to surrender to an American private, the American command realized the importance of the engineers and immediately went to Peenemünde and Nordhausen to capture the remaining V-2s and their parts before destroying both sites with explosives. Over 300 train-car loads of spare V-2 parts ultimately found their way to America. Much of von Braun's production team, however, was captured by the Russians. The V-2 rocket plans that had been hidden near Bad Sachs in Germany were later recovered by members of the 332nd Engineer General Service Regiment.

American career

US Army career

On June 20 1945 US Secretary of State Cordell Hull approved the transfer of von Braun and his specialists to America. Since the paperwork of those Germans selected for transfer to the United States was indicated by paperclips, von Braun and his colleagues became part of the mission known as Operation Paperclip. Operation Paperclip The first seven technicians arrived in the United States at New Castle Army Air Base, just south of Wilmington, Delaware, on September 20, 1945. They were then flown to Boston, Massachusetts, and taken by boat to the Army Intelligence Service post at Fort Strong in Boston Harbor. Later, with the exception of von Braun, the men were transferred to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to sort out the Peenemünde documents. These would be the documents that would enable the scientists to continue their rocketry experiments. Finally, von Braun and his remaining Peenemünde staff were transferred to their new home at Fort Bliss, Texas, a large Army installation just north of El Paso. Whilst there they trained military, industrial and university personnel in the intricacies of rockets and guided missiles and helped to refurbish, assemble and launch a number of V-2s that had been shipped from Germany to the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico. They also continued to study the future potential of rockets for military and research applications. Since they were not permitted to leave Fort Bliss without military escort, von Braun and his colleagues began to refer to themselves only half-jokingly as "PoPs", "Prisoners of Peace". During his stay at Fort Bliss von Braun mailed a marriage proposal to his first cousin, 18-year-old Maria von Quistorp and on March 1, 1947. Having received permission to go back to Germany, marry and return with his bride, he married her in a Lutheran church in Landshut, Germany. In December 1948, the von Brauns' first daughter, Iris, was born at Fort Bliss Army Hospital. In total, the von Brauns had three children: Iris, Magrit and Peter. In 1950, von Braun and his team were transferred to Huntsville, Alabama, his home for the next twenty years. Between 1950 and 1956, von Braun led the Army's rocket development team at Redstone Arsenal, resulting in the Redstone rocket. In 1955 von Braun became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Still dreaming of a world in which rockets would be used for space exploration and for US military domination over the Soviet Union, in 1952 von Braun published his concept of a space-station in a Collier's Weekly magazine series of articles entitled Man Will Conquer Space Soon. These articles were illustrated by the space artist Chesley Bonestell and were influential in spreading his ideas. The space-station would have a diameter of 250 feet (76 m), orbit at a height of 1075 miles (1730 km), spin to provide artificial gravity and provide a platform for lunar expeditions. In the hope that its involvement would bring about greater public interest in the future of the space program, von Braun also began working with the Disney studios as a technical director, initially for three television films about space exploration. technical director in 1963.]] As Director of the Development Operations Division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), von Braun's team then developed the Jupiter-C, a modified Redstone rocket. The Jupiter-C successfully launched the West's first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958. This event signalled the birth of America's space program. Despite the work on the Redstone rocket, the twelve years from 1945 to 1957 were probably some of the most frustrating for von Braun and his colleagues. In the Soviet Union Sergei Korolev and his team ploughed ahead with several new rocket designs and the Sputnik program, whilst the American government were not very interested in von Braun's work and views and only embarked on a very modest rocket-building program. In the meantime the press tended to dwell on von Braun's past as a member of the SS and the slave labour needed to build his V-2 rockets. It was not until 1957 and the launch of Sputnik 1 that America realised how far it lagged behind the Soviet Union in the emerging Space Race. After the US Navy's attempt at building a rocket to lift satellites into orbit resulted in the grossly-unreliable Vanguard, American authorities recognised they needed von Braun and his team's experience, so quickly had them transferred to NASA.

NASA career

Vanguard first stage dwarf von Braun.]] NASA was established by law on July 29, 1958. One day later, the 50th Redstone rocket was successfully launched from Johnston Island in the south Pacific as part of Operation Hardtack. Two years later NASA opened the new Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and transferred von Braun and his development team there from the ABMA at Redstone Arsenal. Presiding from July 1960 to February 1970, von Braun became the Center's first Director. The Marshall Center's first major program was development of the Saturn rockets to carry heavy payloads into and beyond Earth orbit. Wernher von Braun's dream to help mankind set foot on the Moon became a reality on July 16, 1969 when a Marshall-developed Saturn V rocket launched the crew of Apollo 11 at the start of its historic eight-day mission. Over the course of the Apollo program Saturn V rockets enabled six teams of astronauts to reach Earth orbit and, ultimately, the surface of the Moon. At time of the first moon-landing von Braun publicly expressed his optimism that the Saturn rocket would continue to be developed, advocating manned missions to Mars in the 1980s based on the Saturn V. Mars In 1970, von Braun and his family relocated from Huntsville to Washington, DC when he was assigned the post of NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning at NASA Headquarters. However, with the truncation of the Apollo program, von Braun retired from NASA in June 1972 as it became evident that his and NASA's visions for future US spaceflight projects were different.

Career after NASA

After leaving NASA, von Braun became the vice-president of Fairchild Industries in Germantown, Maryland, where he helped establish and promote the National Space Institute, a precursor of the present-day National Space Society. In 1976 he became scientific consultant to Lutz Kayser; the CEO of OTRAG; and a member of the Daimler-Benz board of directors. In 1976 von Braun also learned he had cancer. The cancer progressed, despite surgery, forcing him to retire from Fairchild on December 31, 1976. On June 16, 1977, Wernher von Braun died in Alexandria, Virginia at the age of 65 and is interred there in the Ivy Hill Cemetery. The von Braun crater on the Moon was so named by the IAU in recognition of von Braun's contribution to space exploration and technology.

Cultural references

On film and television

Wernher von Braun has been featured in a number of movies and television shows or series about the Space Race:
- I Aim At The Stars (1960), also titled Wernher von Braun and Ich greife nach den Sternen ("I reach for the stars"): von Braun played by Curd Jürgens). Satirist Mort Sahl suggested the subtitle "(But Sometimes I Hit London)".
- The Right Stuff (1983): The Chief Scientist, played by Scott Beach, was clearly modelled on von Braun.
- From the Earth to the Moon (TV, 1998): von Braun played by Norbert Weisser.
- October Sky (1999): von Braun played by Joe Digaetano.
- Space Race (TV, BBC co-production with NDR (Germany), Channel One TV (Russia) and National Geographic TV (USA), 2005): von Braun played by Richard Dillane.
- Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965, directed by Jean-Luc Godard): Howard Vernon plays Professor Von Braun (aka Leonard Nosferatu), the inventor of the "Alpha 60" super-computer which rules Alphaville.

In music

- Wernher von Braun (1965): A song written and performed by Tom Lehrer for an episode of NBC's American version of the BBC TV show That Was The Week That Was; the song was later included in Lehrer's album That Was The Year That Was. It was a satire on what some saw as von Braun's cavalier attitude toward the consequences of his work: "'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? / That's not my department', says Wernher von Braun".
- Progress vs. Pettiness (2005): A song about the Space Race written and performed by The Phenomenauts for their CD Re-Entry. The song begins: "In 1942 there was Wernher von Braun..."

In computer games

- In the 1999 PC game System Shock 2, the main starship – a faster-than-light vehicle, no less – is named the Von Braun.

Notes

# # Regarding V-2 slave labour, see, for example, [http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/mittel.html Mittelbau Overview]

References

- Dunar, Andrew J.; Waring, Stephen P. (1999). Power to Explore: a History of Marshall Space Flight Center, 1960–1990. The NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA History Office, Office of Policy and Plans (pp. x, 713) ISBN 0-16-058992-4.
- Lasby, Clarence G. (1971). Project Paperclip: German Scientists and the Cold War. New York, NY: Atheneum. 338 pp. ISBN B0006CKBHY.
- Neufeld, Michael J. The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: Free Press, c1995. pp. 368. ISBN 0029228956
- André Sellier, Stephen Wright, Susan Taponier, Michael J. Neufeld. (2003). A History of the Dora Camp: The Untold Story of the Nazi Slave Labor Camp That Secretly Manufactured V-2 Rockets. Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, Inc. 576 pp. ISBN 156663511X.
- Ward, Bob. (2005) Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591149266.

External links

- [http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun Marshall Space Flight Center History Office - Dr. Wernher von Braun]
- [http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/vonbraun/welcome.html Redstone Arsenal History Office - Dr. Wernher von Braun]
- [http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/special/disney.html Marshall Space Flight Center History Office - The Disney-Von Braun Collaboration and Its Influence on Space Exploration]
- [http://peaceinspace.com The Institute for Cooperation in Space]
- [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4323&pt=Werner%20Von%20Braun Photographs of Wernher von Braun's gravesite]
- [http://efour4ever.com/44thdivision/vonbrauncapture.html The capture of von Braun and his men, May 1945] – Flume Creek Company LLC website Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher Von Braun, Wernher ja:ヴェルナー・フォン・ブラウン

Vanguard

Vanguard can mean:
- A vanguard is the forward division in an army.
- HMS Vanguard the lead of the Vanguard class submarines, the UK's SSBN nuclear deterrent fleet.
- HMS Vanguard may also refer to any of nine other Royal Navy ships.
- Nighthawk Vanguard is the official marching band for Ironwood Ridge High School in Oro Valley, AZ.
- Project Vanguard was an early U.S. satellite program.
- Vanguard rocket was used in Project Vanguard.
- The Vanguard Group is a large American investment management company.
- The Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party was a hardline unionist political party in Northern Ireland during the 1970s.
- The Vickers Vanguard is a a short/medium-range turboprop airliner introduced in 1959 by Vickers-Armstrong, seating 139 passengers.
- Vanguard (newspaper) is a daily newspaper in Nigeria
- The Daily Vanguard is a student-run newspaper at Portland State University.
- Computer and video games named Vanguard:
- the shooter game Vanguard (1981) and its sequel Vanguard II (1984)
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a massively multiplayer role-playing game
- Vanguard Records is an independent record label, featuring mostly folk and blues, founded by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in 1950.
- Santa Clara Vanguard is a Division I modern drum and bugle corps based in Santa Clara, California.
- Vanguard is a superhero character in Image Comics. A humanoid alien assigned the job of protecting earth from invasion. See avant-garde for a metaphorical use of this term, meaning new or experimental cultural and artistic movements.

Jupiter IRBM

The Jupiter Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, first tested in 1957, was the United States' second Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). Given the designation PGM-19, it was a liquid-fueled (LOX and RP-1) rocket, with one engine producing 66 kN of thrust. The U.S. Air Force Thor was Americas' first IRBM. In September 1955, Dr. Wernher von Braun, briefing the Secretary of Defense on long range missiles pointed out that a 1,500 mi (2,400 km) missile was a logical extension of the Redstone. In December 1955, the U.S. Secretaries of the Army and Navy announced a dual Army and Navy program to create a land and sea based IRBM. Because of naval basing, the Jupiter IRBM was designed as a short squat missile to ease handling aboard ships. The Navy withdrew from the project in November 1956 in favor of the solid fuel Polaris missile. Despite the withdrawal of the Navy from the project, the Jupiter IRBM retained its short squat dimensions. As a result, the Jupiter was too wide to be carried aboard contemporary cargo aircraft. Later in November 1956, the Department of Defense assigned all land based long range missiles to the U. S. Air Force. The U. S. Army retained battlefield missiles with a range of 200 miles (320 km) or less. The Jupiter IRBM program was transferred to the U. S. Air Force. The Air Force already had its own IRBM, the Thor. The Air Force always looked on the Jupiter IRBM as "not invented here". There is some name confusion with another U.S. Army rocket was called the Jupiter-C. The Jupiter-C is a modified Redstone missile. Redstone missiles were modified by lengthing the fuel tanks and placing small solid fueled upper stages on them. These Jupiter-C rockets were used to perform reentry nose cone test flights and to launch the Americas' early Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 satellites. Jupiter-C rockets were also called Juno or Juno I rockets. See diagram at lower right showing a Redstone, Jupiter-C, Mercury-Redstone and Jupiter IRBM missile. The Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets were manufactured by using a single Jupiter IRBM rocket propellant tank, in combination with eight Redstone rocket propellant tanks clustered around it, to form a powerful first stage launch vehicle. The Jupiter IRBM was also modified by adding upper stages, in the form of clustered Sergent rockets, to create a satellite/space probe launch vehicle. This modified Jupiter IRBM was called the Juno-II.

Biological Flights

__NOTOC__ Redstone Jupiter IRBM missiles were used in a series of suborbital biological test fights. On December 13, 1958, Jupiter IRBM AM-13 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a U.S. Navy trained South American squirrel monkey named "Gordo" onboard. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and "Gordo" did not survive the flight. Telemetry data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10 g (10 m/s²) of launch, 8 minutes of weightlessness and 40 g (390 m/s²) of reentry at 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s). The nose cone sank 1,302 nautical miles (2,411 km) downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered. Another biological flight was launched on May 28, 1959. Aboard Jupiter IRBM AM-18, were a 7 pound (3.2 kg) American born rhesus monkey, "Able" and an 11 ounce (310 g) South American squirrel monkey, "Baker". The monkeys rode in the nose cone of the missile to an altitude of 360 miles (579 km) and a distance of 1,700 miles (2,700 km) down the Atlantic Missile Range from Cape Canaveral, Florida. They withstood accelerations 38 times the normal pull of gravity and were weightless for about 9 minutes. A top speed of 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s) was reached during their 16 minute flight. After Splashdown the Jupiter nosecone carrying Able and Baker was recovered by the sea going tug, USS Kiowa ATF-72. The monkeys survived the flight in good condition. "Able" died four days after the flight, from a reaction to the anesthesia, while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. "Baker" died on November 29, 1984 at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Gordo, Able and Baker were just three of many monkeys sent into space.

Military Deployment

monkeys sent into space In April, 1958, the U.S. Department of Defense notified the U.S. Air Force it had tentatively planned to deploy the first three Jupiter squadrons (45 missiles) in France. Negotiations between France and the U.S. fell through in June, 1958. Charles De Gaulle, the new French President, refused to accept the basing of any Jupiter IRBM missiles in France. This prompted United States to explore the possibility of deploying the missiles in Italy and Turkey. The U. S. Air Force was already implementing plans to base four squadrons (60 missiles) of Thor IRBM's in Britain around Nottingham. In April 1959, The Secretary of the Air Force issued implementing instructions to U. S. Air Force to deploy two Jupiter IRBM squadrons to Italy. The two squadrons totaling 30 missiles were deployed at 10 sites in Italy from 1961 to 1963. They were operated by Italian Air Force crews, but U.S. Air Force personnel controlled arming of the nuclear warheads. These missiles were deployed around the Italian countryside and operated by the 36^Aerobrigata Interdizione Strategica (36th Strategic Interdiction Air Squadron, Italian Air Force), stationed out of the Gioia Del Colle Air Base, Italy. In 1962, a Bulgarian MiG-17 reconnaissance airplane is reported to have crashed into an olive grove near one of the US Jupiter missile launch sites in Italy, after overflying the site. October 1959, the location of the third and final Jupiter IRBM squadron was settled when the Government to Government agreement was signed with Turkey. United States and Turkey concluded an agreement to deploy one Jupiter squadron on NATO's southern flank. One squadron totaling 15 missiles was deployed at 5 sites near Izmir, Turkey from 1961 to 1963. They were operated by U.S. Air Force personnel. The first flight of three Jupiter missiles were turned over to the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force) in late October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. U.S. Air Force personnel controlled arming of the nuclear warheads. The actual deployment locations of the Jupiter IRBM missiles within Turkey are still secret more than 40 years later. According to some that took part in the Turkish missile deployment in 1961, one of the five sites was in the mountains near Manisa, and another site was in the mountains near Akhisar. The central deployment base was Cigli Air Force Base. On four occasions between mid-October 1961 and August 1962, Jupiter IRBM mobile missiles carrying 1.4 megaton of TNT (5.9 PJ) nuclear warheads were struck by lightning at their bases in Italy. In each case, thermal batteries were activated, and on two occasions, tritium-deuterium "boost" gas was injected into the warhead pits, partially arming them. After the fourth lightning strike on a Jupiter IRBM, the U.S. Air Force placed protective lightning strike-diversion tower arrays at all of the Italian and Turkish Jupiter IRBM missiles sites. By the time that the Turkish Jupiters had been installed, the missiles were already largely obsolete and increasingly vulnerable to Soviet attacks. President John F. Kennedy ordered the removal of all Jupiter IRBMs upon taking office in 1961. The Air Force, however, delayed removal and the President was infuriated to learn that they had not yet been removed more than a year later. All Jupiter IRBM's were removed from service by April 1963.

Jupiter IRBM Specifications

Cigli Air Force Base
- Length: 60 ft (18.3 m)
- Diameter: 8 ft 9 in (2.67 m)
- Total Fueled Weight: 108,804 lb (49,353 kg)
- Empty Weight: 13,715 lb (6,221 kg)
- Oxygen (LOX) Weight: 68,760 lb (31,189 kg)
- RP-1 (kerosene) Weight: 30,415 lb (13,796 kg)
- Thrust: 150,000 lbf (667 kN)
- Engine: Rocketdyne LR70-NA (Model S-3D)
- ISP: 247.5 lbf·s/lb (2.43 kN·s/kg)
- Burning time: 157.8 s
- Propellant consumption rate: 627.7 lb/s (284.7 kg/s)
- Range: 1,500 mi (2,410 km)
- Flight time: 1,016.9 s
- Cutoff velocity: 8,984 mph (14,458 km/h) - Mach 13.04
- Reenty velocity: 10,645 mph (17,131 km/h) - Mach 15.45
- Acceleration: 13.69 g (134 m/s²)
- Peak deceleration: 44.0 g (431 m/s²)
- Peak altitude: 390 mi (628 km)
- CEP 4,925 ft (1,500 m)
- Warhead: 1.45 Mt Thermonuclear W-49 - 1,650 lb (750 kg)
- Fusing: Proximity and Impact
- Guidance: Inertial

Juno II Launch Vehicle Specifications

Cigli Air Force Base The Juno II was a satellite launch vehicle derived from the Jupiter IRBM. It was used for 10 satellite launches. Six of those launches failed. Juno II was a 4-stage rocket. Launched Pioneer 3, Pioneer 4, Explorer 7, Explorer 8, Explorer 11.
- Juno II Total length: 24.0 m
- Orbit payload to 200 km: 41 kg
- Escape velocity payload: 6 kg
- First launch date: December 6, 1958
- Last launch date: May 24, 1961

Jupiter IRBM and Juno II Launches

All test launches were from Cape Canaveral, Florida. There were 46 test launches. More to be listed later.

External links

- [http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/systems/jupiter/chapter1.html U.S. Army - Redstone Arsenal - Jupiter IRBM History]
- [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/jupiter.htm/ Encyclopedia Astronautica - Jupiter IRBM]
- [http://www.geocities.com/jupiter_irbm/ Jupiter IRBM History Website]

Explorer 1

Explorer-I, officially known as Satellite 1958 Alpha, was the first United States Earth satellite and was sent aloft as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958. It was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology under the direction of Dr. William H. Pickering. The satellite instrumentation of Explorer-I was designed and built by Dr. James Van Allen of the State University of Iowa.

Mission description

The satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral (now Kennedy Space Center) in Florida at 10:48pm EST on January 31, 1958, by the Jupiter-C vehicle. The Jupiter-C has its origins in the United States Army's Project Orbiter in 1954. The project was canceled in 1955, however, when the decision was made to proceed with Project Vanguard. Following the launch of the Soviet Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, ABMA was directed to proceed with the launching of a satellite using the Jupiter-C, which had already been flight-tested in nose-cone re-entry tests for the Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile). Working closely together, ABMA and JPL completed the job of modifying the Jupiter-C and building the Explorer-I in 84 days.

Spacecraft design

Explorer I was equipped with a geiger counter for the purposes of detecting cosmic rays. Sometimes the instrumentation would report the expected cosmic-ray count (~30 counts per second) but sometimes it would show a peculiar 0 counts per second. The Iowa group (under Van Allen) noted that all of the 0 counts per second reports were from an altitude of 2000+ km over South America, while passes at 500 km would show the expected level of cosmic rays. After Explorer III, it was decided that the original geiger counter had been overwhelmed by strong radiation coming from a belt of charged particles trapped in space by the Earth's magnetic field. (see: Van Allen radiation belt)

Mission results

Van Allen radiation belt] The discovery of the Van Allen Belts by the Explorer satellites was considered to be one of the outstanding discoveries of the International Geophysical Year. Explorer-I was placed in an orbit with a perigee of 360 kilometers (224 miles) and an apogee of 2520 kilometers (1575 miles) having a period of 114.9 minutes. The total weight was 13.97 kilograms (30.8 lb), of which 8.3 kilograms (18.3 lb) were instrumentation. The instrument section at the front end of the satellite and the empty scaled-down fourth-stage rocket casing orbited as a single unit, spinning around its long axis at 750 revolutions per minute. Instrumentation consisted of a cosmic-ray detection package, an internal temperature sensor, three external temperature sensors, a nose-cone temperature sensor, a micrometeorite impact microphone, and a ring of micrometeorite erosion gauges. Data from these instruments were transmitted to the ground by a 60-milliwatt transmitter operating on 108.03 megahertz and a 10 milliwatt transmitter operating on 108.00 MHz. Transmitting antennas consisted of two fibreglass slot antennas in the body of the satellite itself and four flexible whips forming a turnstile antenna. The rotation of the satellite about its long axis kept the flexible whips extended. The external skin of the instrument section was painted in alternate strips of white and dark green to provide passive temperature control of the satellite. The proportions of the light and dark strips were determined by studies of shadow-sunlight intervals based on firing time, trajectory, orbit, and inclination. Electrical power was provided by nickel-cadmium chemical batteries that made up approximately 40 percent of the payload weight. These provided power that operated the high power transmitter for 31 days and the low-power transmitter for 105 days. Because of the limited space available and the requirements for low weight, the Explorer-I instrumentation was designed and built with simplicity and high reliability in mind. It was completely successful. Explorer I stopped transmission of data on May 23, 1958, when its batteries died, but remained in orbit for more than 12 years. It made a fiery reentry over the Pacific Ocean on March 31, 1970. Explorer I was the first of the long-running Explorer program, which as of November 2004 has launched 83 Explorer probes. The identically-constructed flight backup of Explorer I is currently located in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Milestones of Flight Gallery.

Reference

- Data Sheet, Department of Astronautics, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Previous mission:
First U.S satellite

Explorer program

Next mission:
Explorer 2

Category:Satellites Category:Explorer program

Rocketdyne

Rocketdyne is the premier rocket engine design and production company in the United States. The company was related to North American Aviation for most of its history. NAA merged with Rockwell International, which was then bought by Boeing in December, 1996. In February, 2005, Boeing reached an agreement to sell Rocketdyne to Pratt & Whitney, and this transaction was completed on August 2, 2005. Rocketdyne was formed by NAA in the immediate post-WWII era to study the German V-2 missile and adapt its engine to SAE measurements and US construction details. They also used the same general concept of separate burner/injectors from the V-2 engine design to build a much larger engine for the Navaho missile project. This work was considered unimportant in the 1940s and funded at a very low level, but the opening of the Korean War in 1950 changed priorities. Navaho ran into continual difficulties and was cancelled in the late 1950s when Redstone missile design (essentially a much larger V-2) had caught up in development. However the Rocketdyne engine, known as the A-5 or NAA75-110 proved to be considerably more reliable than the one developed for Redstone, so the missile was redesigned with the A-5 even though the resulting missile had much shorter range. As the missile entered production NAA spun off Rocketdyne in 1955 as a separate division. Rocketdyne's next major development was their first all-new design, the S-3D, which had been developed in parallel to the V-2 derived A series. The S-3 was used on the Jupiter missile design, essentially a development of the Redstone, and was later selected for the considerably more capable Thor missile. An even larger design, the LR89/LR105, was used on the Atlas missile. Both Thor and Atlas had a short miliary careers, but were used as satellite launchers through the 1950s and 60s in a number of different versions. One, Thor Delta, became the baseline for the current Delta series of space launchers, although since the late 1960s the Delta has had almost nothing in common with the Thor. Although the original S-3 engine was used on some Delta versions, most use their updated RS-27 design, originally developed as a single engine to replace the three-engine cluster on the Atlas. Rocketdyne also became the major supplier for NASA's development efforts, supplying all of their major engines for the Saturn (and potentially, Nova) designs. Rocketdyne's H-1 engine was used by the Saturn I booster main stage, which consisted essentially of a cluster of eight Jupiter's. The F-1 powered the Saturn V's, S-IC, first stage, while the J-II powered its S-II second, and third stages, S-IVB. By 1965 they built the vast majority of US rocket engines, and their payroll had expanded to 65,000. This sort of growth appeared to be destined to continue in the 1970s when they won the contract for the Space Shuttle Main Engine, but the rapid downturn in both military and civilian contracts led to a similar downsizing of the company as well. North American, now largely a spacecraft provider and also tied almost entirely to the Space Shuttle, merged with Rockwell in 1966 to form North American Rockwell (soon to become Rockwell International), with Rocketdyne as a major division. During continued downsizing in the 1980's and 90's, Rockwell shed several parts of the former NAA empire. First to go was their General Aviation division in 1980, followed by the venerable Saberliner bizjet division in 1983. The rest of NAA, along with Rocketdyne, was sold to Boeing in 1996. Rocketdyne served as part of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems until its sale to Pratt & Whitney on August 2, 2005. [http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2005/q3/nr_050803t.html] Some of the engines developed by Rocketdyne are:
- H-1 (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Saturn I, Ib, Jupiter, and some Delta rockets
- F-1 (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Saturn V.
- J-2(LH2/LOX) Used by both the Saturn V and Saturn IB.
- SSME (LH2/LOX) The Space Shuttle Main Engine
- RS-68 (LH2/LOX) Used by the Delta IV first stage
- RS-27A (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Delta II/III and Atlas ICBM Many Rocketdyne engines were tested at Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory, (SSFL), located in the Santa Susana Mountain Range and Simi Hills, (northwest of Los Angeles, and Chatsworth, California). Rocketdyne, now known as Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, is headquartered in Canoga Park, California and has additional operations in West Palm Beach, Florida, Huntsville, Alabama, Kennedy Space Center, Florida and Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. Rocketdyne produced many projects and programs concurrently with Edwards Air Force Base located in the Antelope Valley within the high desert area of California at Rosamond, as did the aerospace industry corporation, Lockheed, now known as Lockheed Martin.

External links

- [http://www.boeing.com/space/rdyne/flash.html Official website] Category:Rocketry

September 20

September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). There are 102 days remaining.

Events

- 451- According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
- 1187 - Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.
- 1377 - Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the Butcher of Cesena, is elected as Avignon Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.
- 1596 - Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Monterrey in New Spain.
- 1737 - Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
- 1854 - Battle of Alma: British and French troops defeat Russians in the Crimea.
- 1860 - The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) visits the United States.
- 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga ends.
- 1870 - Bersaglieri corps enters Rome through Porta Pia and completes the unification of Italy
- 1881 - Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States.
- 1891 - The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.
- 1917 - Paraguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1920 - Foundation of the Spanish Legion
- 1946 - The first Cannes Film Festival is held.
- 1954 - The first program compiled from FORTRAN runs.
- 1954 - New Zealand's Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents reports just ten days after concluding hearings.
- 1962 - James Meredith, an African-American, is barred from entering the University of Mississippi.
- 1973 - Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match.
- 1977 - TV character, Fonzie jumps a shark on water skis in an episode of Happy Days.
- 1979 - Lee Iacocca is elected president of the Chrysler Corporation.
- 1979 - A coup d'état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokasa I
- 1979 - The Punjab wing of the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) formally splits and constitutes a parallel UCCRI(ML).
- 1981 - A coup d'état in the Central African Republic overthrows President David Dacko.
- 1984 - A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twelve people
- 1998 - Baseball: After playing 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken, Jr takes a day off.
- 2003 - A referendum is held in Latvia to decide the country's accession to the European Union
- 2003 - 2003 Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé.
- 2005 - The Opera Web Browser is rereleased as freeware.
- 2005 - Echo and the Bunnymen release Siberia as their latest Studio Album.

Births

- 1599 - Christian, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German protestant military leader (d. 1623)
- 1778 - Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian naval officer and explorer (d. 1852)
- 1833 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1918)
- 1842 - Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist (d. 1923)
- 1853 - Chulalongkorn, King of Thailand (d. 1910)
- 1861 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress (d. 1955)
- 1873 - Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (d. 1949)
- 1873 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (d. 1944)
- 1878 - Upton Sinclair, American writer and politician (d. 1968)
- 1889 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete (d. 1975)
- 1917 - Red Auerbach, American basketball coach and executive
- 1917 - Fernando Rey, Spanish-born actor (d. 1992)
- 1922 - William Kapell, American pianist (d. 1953)
- 1923 - Geraldine Clinton Little, Irish-born poet (d. 1997)
- 1924 - Gogi Grant, American singer
- 1927 - Johnny Dankworth, English musician and composer
- 1927 - Rachel Roberts, English actress (d. 1980)
- 1928 - Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and advice columnist
- 1929 - Anne Meara, American comic and actress
- 1934 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress
- 1937 - Monica Zetterlund, Swedish actress and singer (d. 2005)
- 1947 - Chuck Panozzo, American musician (Styx)
- 1948 - George R. R. Martin, American writer
- 1951 - Guy Lafleur, Canadian hockey player
- 1956 - Gary Cole, American actor
- 1965 - Robert Rusler, American actor
- 1967 - Kristen Johnston, American actress
- 1968 - Leah Pinsent, Canadian actress
- 1968 - Darrell Russell, American race car driver (d. 2004)
- 1971 - Henrik Larsson, Swedish footballer
- 1975 - Asia Argento, Italian actress
- 1975 - Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombian race car driver
- 1975 - Rikki Lee Travolta, Italian-American actor
- 1976 - Yui Horie, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1977 - Namie Amuro, Japanese singer
- 1978 - Jason Bay, Canadian Major League Baseball player
- 1978 - Sarit Hadad, Israeli singer
- 1981 - Feliciano López, Spanish tennis player
- 1987 - Quentin Anderson, Musician, producer, actor, public speaker
- 1992 - Avi Lewis, Actor, producer, writer, voice over
- 1940 - Genevieve Grotjan completed the decryption of the Japanese Purple code

Deaths

- 1246 - Mikhail of Chernigov, ruler of Kiev
- 1384 - King Louis I of Naples (b. 1339)
- 1460 - Gilles Binchois, Flemish composer
- 1586 - Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (executed) (b. 1558)
- 1590 - Lodovico Agostini, Italian composer (b. 1534)
- 1625 - Heinrich Meibom, German historian and critic (b. 1555)
- 1627 - Jan Gruter, Dutch critic (b. 1560)
- 1630 - Claudio Saracini, Italian composer (b. 1586)
- 1639 - Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1579)
- 1643 - Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, English politician and writer
- 1721 - Thomas Doggett, Irish actor
- 1803 - Robert Emmet, Irish patriot (b. 1780)
- 1815 - Nicolas Desmarest, French geologist (b. 1725)
- 1852 - Philander Chase, American university founder (b. 1775)
- 1863 - Jacob Grimm, German folklorist (b. 1785)
- 1884 - Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist (b.[1802]])
- 1898 - Theodor Fontane, German writer (b. 1819)
- 1908 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)
- 1932 - Wovoka, Paiute visionary
- 1947 - Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of New York City (b. 1882)
- 1957 - Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (b. 1865)
- 1971 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
- 1973 - Jim Croce, American singer and songwriter (b. 1943)
- 1975 - Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
- 1979 - Ludvík Svoboda, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1895)
- 1993 - Erich Hartmann, German pilot (b. 1922)
- 1996 - Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1913)
- 2000 - Gherman Titov, cosmonaut (b. 1935)
- 2003 - Lord Williams of Mostyn, British politician (b. 1941)
- 2003 - Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwe politician (b. 1922)
- 2004 - Brian Clough, English footballer and football manager (b. 1935)
- 2004 - Townsend Hoopes, American politician (b. 1922)
- 2005 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi hunter (b. 1908)

Holidays

- In ancient Greece, the seventh day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion began.
- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- The Korean Martyrs
- Eustace
- Vincent Madelgaire
- Yves Mayeuc
- Francis de Posadas
- Thomas Johnson, John Davy, and companions (martyrs).
- Feast day of the following saint(s) in the Anglican Church:
- John Coleridge Patteson Also see September 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/20 BBC: On This Day] ---- September 19 · September 21 · August 20 · October 20 · more historical anniversaries ko:9월 20일 ms:20 September ja:9月20日 simple:September 20 th:20 กันยายน

Satellite

A satellite is any object that orbits another object (which is known as its primary). All masses that are part of the solar system, including the Earth, are satellites either of the Sun, or satellites of those objects, such as the Moon. It is not always a simple matter to decide which is the 'satellite' in a pair of bodies. Because all objects exert gravity, the motion of the primary object is also affected by the satellite. If two objects are sufficiently similar in mass, they are generally referred to as a binary system rather than a primary object and satellite; an extreme example is the 'double asteroid' 90 Antiope. The general criterion for an object to be a satellite is that the center of mass of the two objects is inside the primary object. In popular usage, the term 'satellite' normally refers to an artificial satellite (a man-made object that orbits the Earth or another body). However, scientists may also use the term to refer to natural satellites, or moons. This article is primarily concerned with artificial satellites. See natural satellite for information on moons.

Artificial satellites

History of artificial satellites

natural satellite In May, 1946, the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship stated, "A satellite vehicle with appropriate instrumentation can be expected to be one of the most potent scientific tools of the Twentieth Century. The achievement of a satellite craft would produce repercussions comparable to the explosion of the atomic bomb..." (see: Project RAND) The space age began in 1946, as scientists began using captured German V-2 rockets to make measurements in the upper atmosphere. Before this period, scientists used balloons that went up to 30 km and radio waves to study the ionosphere. From 1946 to 1952, upper-atmosphere research was conducted using V-2s and Aerobee rockets. This allowed measurements of atmospheric pressure, density, and temperature up to 200 km. (see also: magnetosphere, Van Allen radiation belt) The U.S. had been considering launching orbital satellites since 1945 under the Bureau of Aeronautics of the United States Navy. The Air Force's Project RAND eventually released the above report, but did not believe that the satellite was a potential military weapon; rather they considered it to be a tool for science, politics, and propaganda. In 1954, the Secretary of Defense stated, "I know of no American satellite program." Following pressure by the American Rocket Society, the National Science Foundation, and the International Geophysical Year, military interest picked up and in early 1955 the Air Force and Navy were working on Project Orbiter, which involved using a Jupiter C rocket to launch a small satellite called Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. On July 29, 1955, the White House announced that the U.S. intended to launch satellites by the spring of 1958. This became known as Project Vanguard. On July 31, the Soviets announced that they intended to launch a satellite by the fall of 1957 and on October 4, 1957 Sputnik I was launched into orbit, which triggered the Space Race between the two nations. The largest artificial satellite currently orbiting the earth is the International Space Station, which can sometimes be seen with the unaided human eye.

Types of satellites

Astronomical satellites are satellites used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects. Communications satellites are artificial satellites stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications using radio at microwave frequencies. Most communications satellites use geosynchronous orbits or near-geostationary orbits, although some recent systems use low Earth-orbiting satellites. Earth observation satellites are satellites specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit, similar to reconnaissance satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc. (See especially Earth Observing System.) Navigation satellites are satellites which use radio time signals transmitted to enable mobile receivers on the ground to determine their exact location. The relatively clear line of sight between the satellites and receivers on the ground, combined with ever-improving electronics, allows satellite navigation systems to measure location to accuracies on the order of a few metres in real time. Reconnaissance satellites are Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. Little is known about the full power of these satellites, as governments who operate them usually keep information pertaining to their reconnaissance satellites classified. Solar power satellites are proposed satellites built in high Earth orbit that use microwave power transmission to beam solar power to very large antenna on Earth where it can be used in place of conventional power sources. Space stations are man-made structures that are designed for human beings to live on in out

Jupiter-C IRBM

General characteristics

Flight history

Army Ballistic Missile Agency

The ABMA and the Jupiter-C

Redstone (rocket)

Mercury Redstone Sub-Orbital Flight Events

External link

Redstone family of missiles and launch vehicles

Wernher von Braun

Early life

German career

Rocket science and politics

Arrest by the Nazi regime

Surrender to the Americans

American career

US Army career

NASA career

Career after NASA

Cultural references

On film and television

In music

In computer games

Notes

See also

References

External links

Vanguard

Jupiter IRBM

Biological Flights

Military Deployment

Jupiter IRBM Specifications

Juno II Launch Vehicle Specifications

Jupiter IRBM and Juno II Launches

External links

Related content

Explorer 1

Mission description

Spacecraft design

Mission results

See also

Reference

Rocketdyne

See also

External links

September 20

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays

External links

Satellite

Artificial satellites

History of artificial satellites

Types of satellites