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Home , Arthur Rudolph, Hermann Oberth, Walter Dornberger

IAC-03-IAA.2.1.02

ARTHUR RUDOLPH AND THE THAT TOOK US TO THE

Marsha Freeman Associate Editor 21st Century Science & Technology Washington, DC USA [email protected]

ABSTRACT came to the , working For hundreds of years, writers for the U.S. Army on the earliest imaginatively transported us to the intermediate range intercontinental Moon by angels, dreams, and cannon ballistic missiles, including as fire. Space pioneer manager of the Pershing I project. managed the rocket program that Following President allowed man, for the first time, to set Kennedy’s 1961 commitment to land foot upon the lunar surface. a man on the Moon, Arthur Rudolph Rudolph’s management of the was given the responsibility of rocket program was the managing the rocket program to carry culmination of a 40-year career in out Kennedy’s mandate. The Saturn V space technology development, that rocket program was the most complex he began at the age of 24, working , manufacturing, and along side rocket enthusiast Max management task in history. Valier. After Valier’s death, Rudolph While most people with such a designed his own, improved liquid lifetime of accomplishment are able rocket engine. He was one of the first to retire and enjoy their later years, men hired by the German Army to Arthur Rudolph was subjected, in the work on rocket experiments, based on early 1980s, to a ``Nazi-hunting’‘ the innovations he had made. witch-hunt by the Justice Department. Following his work on the World War Driven from the U.S., Rudolph, was II A-4 rocket, Rudolph later exonerated by the German government, but was never able to return to his adopted country. But Arthur Rudolph will be remembered in the history of for his early contributions, and for the success of the rocket that took men to the Moon.

1 MODEST BEGINNINGS ’s 1929 book, Wege Arthur Rudolph was born on zur Raumschiffahrt as soon as it was , 1906 in the small village published. (3) And, being in , of Stepfershausen. (Figure 1) His gave him the opportunity that same parents were farmers–something he year, to see Frau im Mond, the decided he would not be, at a young popular movie that convinced young age. From childhood, Arthur Rudolph men, such as Arthur Rudolph and expressed an interest in and passion Krafft Ehricke, that making space for things mechanical, and used every travel a reality was what they wanted opportunity to examine how the to do with the rest of their lives. agricultural implements and other On May 1, 1930, Arthur equipment in his small world Rudolph started a new job, at the functioned. (1) manufacturing plant owned by Dr. Arthur Rudolph’s father died Paul Heylandt, which produced in 1915 during the First World War, compressed liquid gases, including leaving Arthur and his younger liquid oxygen, for German industry. brother Walter the responsibility, and During a tour of the plant on his first the chores, of the farm. After day, “we walked through the halls and attending his village school, he also the machine shop, and I was not attended the equivalent of a high very impressed with that, because I school for three years, and then left had seen better ones before,” Arthur for this city––where he Rudolph recalled in an interview in worked in the silver-working industry, 1992. (4) and underwent training in metal “But finally we went into the working and forging. backyard, and there I saw a strange But he longed to be in a big contraption. “What is that?” Rudolph city, with new opportunities. In 1926, asked. “That is the test stand of Max he had read in a newspaper, an article Valier,’ ‘’ the fellow giving the tour with a picture of the Moon, replied. “And when he said, `Max advertising a novel by Otto Gail, Valier,’ my ears picked up,” Rudolph about a flight to Venus. He was reports. intrigued. After quitting time on the Arriving in Berlin in 1928, he second day of his job at Heylandt, was a toolmaker at the R. Stock & Arthur Rudolph, “heard this loud Company machine tool factory, and noise, and I ran outside to see what it later continued his studies, graduating was.” and his assistant in 1930 with an equivalent bachelors Walter Riedel were testing a small, degree in mechanical engineering. (2) liquid-fueled rocket engine. Arthur Arthur Rudolph reports that he Rudolph asked Valier if he could use was a heavy smoker, and one day, a another assistant to conduct his pack of cigarettes he bought had a experiments. He replied that “he picture of Robert Goddard and his could use all the help he could get,” rocket on it! When a student, he read Rudolph recalls. (Franklin, p 17)

2 Just two weeks later, on May oxygen through ring slots, which 17th, Max Valier would die in Arthur could be more easily manufactured. Rudolph’s arms. During the test of the (Figure 2) rocket engine on a Saturday at the With his new design, Rudolph Heylandt works, as the pressure was was able to obtain a smooth, turned higher in the engine, which controlled burn. The propellant was about a foot long and four or five distribution was very even, and the inches in diameter, it exploded, inlets were adjustable. (6) Now, he shooting metal shrapnel in all was ready for some real experiments. directions. Valier died within Arthur Rudolph, Walter minutes, and Walter Riedel and Riedel, and their boss as Heylandt, Arthur Rudolph were lucky to escape Alfons Pietsch, continued in Valier’s with their lives. (5) footsteps, and even got so far as a Happily, neither amateur public demonstration of a rocket car rocket experimenter was about to give at Tempel up, and Arthur Rudolph took on the hof Airport, in the Spring of 1931. challenge of moving rocket With Pietsch behind the technology forward, by improving wheel, the crew tried to start the Valier’s rocket engine design. engine. No ignition. Arthur Rudolph reports: “I took a cigarette and threw THE LAMPSHADE ENGINE it into the combustion chamber Max Valier’s rocket engine through the nozzle, and yelled, `Full used a “sprinkling can” type of power. Ignition.’ and Pietsch started injection system, where the fuel was the engine.” delivered through small holes, and in The automobile began to all directions. The holes were difficult move at good speed, and the to drill, according to Rudolph, which demonstration was a success. Arthur led to an uneven distribution of Rudolph remembered years later, that propellant, and uneven combustion. “the applause was good, but the net The liquid oxygen flowed along the income was equal to zero,” walls of the combustion chamber, but considering what they had spent to the inlet areas were not well prepare it. The money from the few controlled. paying observers did not even pay for The rocket was prone to the cost of the fuel. (7) overheat, and glowing red spots and Meanwhile, Wernher von burn-throughs developed on the wall Braun and a band of unemployed of the combustion chamber. This machinists, engineers, and rocket caused spikes in pressure, which in enthusiasts, under the auspices of the turn, created severe explosive jolts in German Society for Space Travel, the engine. were carrying out their own amateur Arthur Rudolph replaced the experiments in the Berlin suburb of “sprinkling can” with a lampshade- Reinickendorf, and Arthur Rudolph type injection system for the fuel and decided to see if they were faring any

3 better than he. his engine design. (10) The observation Arthur Von Braun reports that Rudolph made about these early Rudolph was hired by the Army as a efforts was similar to that of Walter civilian, like himself , when he Dornberger, then directing the showed up with the “complete research for the German Army on alcohol-oxygen rocket power-plant” rocket technology. There were no that he had designed, “which made instruments to measure the thrust of two wholly successful static runs at the rocket engine, and von Braun first trial.” (11) explained that instead, they were By 1934, the Army had doing theoretical calculations! Arthur established the experimental rocket Rudolph went back to his own research and test station at experiments. , and after the In May1932, deep into the successful tests of the Rudolph rocket Depression, both Arthur Rudolph and engine, it was finally time to design Alfons Pietsch became unemployed. also the rocket. The entire assembly Determined to continue their rocket was to be called an Aggregate. engine development work, Pietsch The Aggregate-1, or A-1 approached various industrial firms rocket was built but never flight for support, but “nobody had a penny tested, due to a lack of available for our ideas,” Rudolph reports. (8) methods for guiding and controlling Finally, the German Army, . Arthur Rudolph’s engine, the under the guidance of (later) Gen. heart of the A-1, worked fine, but , did provide the there was no ability to stabilize the intrepid team with 100 marks for the assembly in flight. (Figure 4) construction and testing for their new Finally, two successful tests of engine, and the establishment of a the A-2, outfitted with a gyroscope for small laboratory. But it was far from stability, brought the German rocket smooth sailing. program into its own. (12) When Rudolph and Pietsch To move on to the larger A-3, were half finished, the money had run Arthur Rudolph was given the task of out. Arthur’s future wife, Martha, completing the test stand, which had contributed the funds she had been designed by Walter Riedel, squirreled away, which helped, but ordering the equipment, and hiring was not enough. Finally, Dornberger more people for the project. (13) This threw in an additional 300 marks, and early management experience would the project was completed in August, serve him well in later years. 1934. (9) On December 4, 1937, the A-3 During this time, Arthur performed its first flight, and while Rudolph made trips each day to the the propulsion system performed to patent office, and “read all he could specification, again the lack of find about rockets and space travel.” adequate guidance and control (Figure 3) He also entered a patent for plagued the system.

4 A year before that, it had “retaliation,” for the carpet bombing become clear to Dornberger that a that was underway of German cities. larger, more remote rocket test station (Freeman, p124) was needed, and at von Braun’s The underground rocket suggestion, the site chosen was at manufacturing facility, , in Peenemuende along the Pomeranian the Harz Mountains, was run by the coast. In May 1937, Arthur and SS. Arthur Rudolph recalled: “I had Martha Rudolph moved to the near-by the overpowering, awful feeling that I town of Zinnowitz, and their daughter was trapped in a cage like an animal, Marianne was born there on the 26th and that I was caught in the claws of of November. (Figure 5) the SS system.” (15) Those among the forced ROCKETS AND RETALIATION laborers who raised questions or Gen. Dornberger may have objections to the hideous conditions convinced the military brass to in the tunnels were hanged. Those finance the establishment of the among the German workers or premier rocket research and technical managers, like Arthur development facility in the world, but Rudolph, were threatened with being in return, the Army wanted results. sent to concentration camps, and The design specifications for the next some were. When Arthur Rudolph rocket in the series, the A-4, was to be began work in the tunnels he weighed the first designed to carry a warhead. 180 pounds. By the time the war was Following the decision to nearing its end, and production move forward, Arthur Rudolph was stopped in the tunnels, he weighed responsible for outfitting the new 126 pounds. His wife, Martha, research center at Peenemuende, and believed that if he had continued in started ordering the machinery. “I those conditions for six more months, wrote out my requirements, wrote it he would he died there. (16) myself,” he reports, “for hundreds of Finally, the war was over. machine tools. Then I went to [the Some members of the von Braun Luftwaffe] and they ordered what I team, including Arthur Rudolph, wanted without any question. It was were, in August of 1945, deployed to fantastic; fantastic. And that made it Cuxhaven to participate in Operation possible to establish that marvelous Backfire, firing V-2s for the British. place, Peenemuende.” (14) And then, finally, they were off to But Arthur Rudolph’s life America. would take a turn for the much worse after the August 17-18, 1943 British air raid on the Peenemuende center. BUILDING AMERICA’S ARSENAL The SS was now running the A-4 In November 1945, Arthur production program, which had been Rudolph left for Paris, and then by propagandistically been renamed the ship, to the United States. The von V-2, for “Vergeltung,” or Braun team worked in El Paso at Fort

5 Bliss and at White Sands, testing the the contractors, and try to keep the rockets they already knew how to fly. program on schedule. He relates that In 1950, Arthur Rudolph and he went to visit the Chrysler plant in the von Braun team were transferred Detroit, to find out why their work on to the in Huntsville, the Redstone had been delayed. He Alabama, to finally start some real was told that there was a part missing, work. The Army established the which turned out to be a detergent! Ordnance Guided Missile Center at “That a rocket, on account of a the Arsenal, under Major James piece of washing soap could not be Hamill, with von Braun as technical completed, was the absolute negative director, and Arthur Rudolph was height in the breakdown-rich history made technical director of the A-4- of the U.S. rocket work,” he reported. derived Redstone rocket. (17) Eventually, the design of the During his work on the Redstone was standardized, which Redstone rocket, Arthur Rudolph took required that Arthur Rudolph a top management course, to hone his “untangle various functions and still skills for guiding large projects. have them all work.” (19) He commented later on his In 1958, the Redstones were observations on what needed to be deployed as mobile missiles, backing changed in the management of system up NATO forces in Europe, and were of military procurement. “According replaced by the first multi-state to my experience, all of the U.S. rocket, the Jupiter, developed in weapons systems were accompanied Huntsville, by 1960. by guidance and control failures. I The Jupiter missiles were proposed that they only order designed for an intermediate range of [components] from such firms that 1,500 miles, and were developed in had shown themselves to be facilities at the newly-established superior.” Army Ballistic Missile Agency This proposal was rejected, (ABMA), under Gen. John Medaris. on the basis of money, as the military The Jupiter rocket obtained its looked for a cheaper variant, “which place in history, when, at the end of would undoubtedly show the same January 1958, it lofted America’s first series of failures.” (18) satellite, Explorer 1, into Earth orbit. The German space pioneers in In 1956, the decision was Huntsville knew that for both military made that the U.S. Army needed a requirements and to ever get into “shoot and scoot” mobile missile, space, larger, more capable rockets which meant it had to be solid-fueled. than the war-time V-2 were required. This was the Pershing program. In March 1956, Arthur Arthur Rudolph was made the Rudolph put together a plan for the project director, with $500 million for mass production of the Redstone its development. He assembled a missile by industry. team, and took bids. He visited the His job was to crack down on potential contractors in person, and,

6 knowing the guidance system was Rudolph did so, when he transferred critical, chose the Bendix plant in to NASA. President Kennedy had New Jersey for the job. After challenged the U.S. to land a man on inspecting their facilities, he noted the Moon. that it had the best precision machine tools for the job, which were made in THE MOON ROCKET ! “That was the firm for us!” Providing the transportation to he decided. (20) take astronauts to the Moon would The creed that Arthur Rudolph require the greatest mobilization of developed to manage the Pershing engineering manpower, and technical rocket was that “nothing could fall and manufacturing capability in this through the cracks.” Research and nation’s history. Arthur Rudolph’s development laboratories were jobs was to manage the Saturn V expanded for testing vibration, rocket program to make sure they got hearing, and other conditions that there safely, and on the President’s would face the rocket in flight. (21) time table. Following the uproar after the In 1962, at a meeting at NASA Soviet launch of Sputnik in headquarters in Washington, Arthur November 1957, the National Rudolph put forward his list of basic Aeronautics and Space requirements for the Apollo rocket, Administration (NASA) was and a mission plan that was based on established. The heart of the new his experience managing the Pershing civilian space program would be program. In 1963, he was named the rockets, and the von Braun team was program manager for the Saturn V. transferred from the Army–all but He quickly examined the Arthur Rudolph. He was considered problems that NASA’s Jet Propulsion irreplaceable on the Pershing Laboratory (JPL) was having with the program. (Figure 6) unmanned Ranger lunar program, to In 1960, Arthur Rudolph, for see what lessons could be learned. his management of the Pershing He reported later that JPL had missile program, received the complained that the design, Exceptional Civilian Service award, engineering, and testing demands at the highest civilian award in the NASA’s Marshall Space flight Center Army. in Huntsville, were “too strict,” in During 1960, the Pershing comparison to the way they were project director made trips for the carrying out their effort. Army to Italy, France, and West Arthur Rudolph responded: “I Germany, to promote the purchase of was so angry that I jumped up and the missiles for air defense in Europe. said, `you still don’t seem to have But his goal was to rejoin his friends understood that if there is the slightest and colleagues to get the U.S. into doubt about the ability of the system space. (22) to function, you must, through long Finally, in 1961, Arthur and repeated improvements and tests,

7 make sure that no flight failure will program was over, MSFC still occur. If you don’t introduce this received many requests from principle in the Ranger project, it will businesses and managers asking, `how remain a failure.’ ” (23) did you do it?’ “ (25) Arthur Rudolph’s The proof of the pudding was management of the massive Saturn V in the results: A total of 32 Saturn rocket program involved his personal launches, including nine manned tracking of all of the aspects of the lunar mission; the first men to orbit system. He had a chart in his office the Moon; and the first men to land showing all of the components, large there. and small, to be able to immediately For Arthur Rudolph see their progress. This made the personally, the successful test flights entire program transparent, and of the Saturn V were proof that his provided an overview of the massive program was a success. On his 61st coordination. Every problem was birthday, in November 1967, he dealt with, in excruciating detail, by informed NASA he would retire the the program manager and his staff. following year. When Apollo 8 (24). orbited the Moon during Christmas of The goal of the Saturn V 1968, Arthur Rudolph knew he had program was a rocket system with done his job. (26) 99% reliability. This required a For his management of the meticulous attention to detail, Saturn V program, Arthur Rudolph extensive testing, stringent quality received both the Exceptional Service control, and management techniques Medal and the Distinguished Medal to coordinate and supervise more than from NASA. 20,000 industrial contractors and His job of developing and 7,000 civil service NASA employees. producing the rocket to take men to (Figure 7) the Moon completed, Arthur Rudolph NASA’s official history of the retired from the space agency, and Saturn V program reports that even rocket research, on January 1, 1969. NASA Administrator, James Webb, On July 20, 1969, Neil who “prided himself on managerial Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took techniques and skills,” was impressed mankind’s first steps on the Moon. with the Marshall Center’s They could not have done it without organization of the Moon rocket Arthur Rudolph’s Saturn V. effort. “Given the diversity of the When Arthur Rudolph retired prime contractors and their armies of from federal service, his subcontractors and vendors...the Congressman, Rep. Robert Jones, clockwork efficiency and the entered a tribute to him into the reliability of the Saturn vehicles were Congressional Record. He concluded remarkable.” with: “I commend him on his The NASA history also outstanding achievements in our reports that “even after the Saturn V Nation’s missile and space programs,

8 and I wish Dr. Rudolph and his family Germany on March 27, 1984. When every happiness in their future years.” the news of his having left for (27) Germany became public late that year, Unfortunately, not many of a political mobilization began on the Arthur Rudolph’s remaining years part of not mainly his former would be happy ones. colleagues in the German rocket team, who were, themselves, under A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE surveillance and possible threat, but While living quietly in by his American military and civilian retirement in California, Arthur colleagues. (28) (Figure 8) Rudolph received a letter in Arthur Rudolph applied for September 1982 from the Office of German citizenship after he arrived, Special Investigations (OSI), of the and on July 19, 1984, the German U.S. Department of Justice. The letter government formally asked the OSI asked if he would meet with them and for the evidence it had against him.. answer some questions about his Nearly one year later, the OSI activities during the Second World finally responded to the request. The War. German government, after an Knowing he had nothing to extensive investigation, determined in hide, and foolishly trusting the March 1987, that there was no basis honesty and integrity of for prosecuting him, and Arthur representatives of the U.S. Rudolph was granted West German government, he agreed to the meeting, citizenship. without a lawyer present. Arthur Rudolph passed away Thus began a battle between on January 1, 1996, without being the “Nazi-hunting” OSI and the exonerated by the U.S. government in Rudolph family to counter charges this travesty of justice. But on that Arthur Rudolph was guilty of war September 5, 2003, some justice was crimes. The tactics used by the OSI, served in this case that is a stain on of threats, intimation, and charges the American democratic principle of without evidence, would be repeated fairness. more than a decade later, in the effort The newspaper Forward to frame computer scientist Dr. Wen reported that Neal Sher, the former Ho Lee, on equally bogus charges of chief of staff in the Washington office nuclear spying for the People’s of the International Commission on Republic of China. Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, had In secret, Arthur Rudolph, been disbarred. Sher had been then ill and 77 years old, signed an investigated for misappropriating agreement with the Justice funds for personal use. Department on November 28, 1983 to Neal Sher was one of the leave the United States, to avoid officials of the Office of Special prosecution for war crimes. Arthur Investigations who interrogated and Martha Rudolph left for West Arthur Rudolph in a California hotel

9 room in 1982. (14) Franklin, p. 48 Arthur Clarke recently (15) Ibid. p. 76 observed that the 20th century will be (16) Freeman, p. 133 remembered, not for the world wars, (17) Ibid. P. 185 or other horrible events, but for the (18) Kurowski, p. 145 first manned landing on the Moon. (19) Ibid. p. 148 Arthur Rudolph will be (20 Ibid. p. 150 remembered by history as the man (21) Ibid. p. 151 who managed the Saturn V rocket (22) Ibid. p. 158 program, that took men to the Moon. (23) Ibid. p. 161-162 (24) Ibid. p. 168 (25) Roger Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, Acknowledgments (Washington, DC: NASA, SP-4206, 1980), p. 399 The author would like to thank (26) Kurowski, p. 174 the Rudolph family--Arthur, Martha, (27) Franklin, p. 123 and Marianne–for their participation (28) William E. Winterstein, Gestapo in preparing this paper, and their USA, (San Francisco: Robert D. Reed, encouragement and support. 2002), and Freeman.

Notes (1) Thomas Franklin, An American in Exile (Huntsville, AL; Christopher Kaylor Company, 1987), p.7 (2) Franz Kurowski, Raketenpionier Arthur Rudolph (Inning, Germany: Vowinckel Verlag, 2001), p. 18 (3) Ibid. p. 18 (4) Interview with by the author with Arthur Rudolph, 1992 (5) Franklin, p. 17-18 (6) Rudolph interview (7) Kurowski, p. 22 (8) Ibid. p. 24 (9) Ibid. p. 24 (10) Ibid. P. 26 (11) Marsha Freeman, How We Got to the Moon: The Story of the Germany Space Pioneers, (Washington, DC: 21st Century Science Associates, 1993) p. ?? (12) Ibid, p. 91 (13) Kurowski, p. 27

10 Figure 1 Figure 3

Arthur Rudolph (1906-1996), the man who managed the Saturn V Moon In 1932, when this photograph was rocket. This 1960 photograph was taken, Arthur Rudolph was living in taken before his transfer to NASA. Berlin, working as an amateur rocket Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph experimenter. Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph Figure 2

Arthur Rudolph’s 1930 rocket engine design, as compared Max Valier’s.

Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

11 Figure 4

The rocket engine designed by Arthur Rudolph was the heart of the A-1 rocket, built by the Army at its experimental station in Kummersdorf. This photograph of the engine on a test stand was taken in 1934. Deutsches Museum

Figure 5

In May 1937, Arthur and Martha Rudolph moved to the town of Zinnowitz, near the experimental rocket station at Peenemuende. In November of that year, Marianne was born. Here, the family in 1938. Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

12 Figure 6

Key members of the rocket team under Gen. John Medaris at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville posed for this photograph, shortly before the General retired from the Army, in the Fall of 1959. Arthur Rudolph is in the light-colored jacket. NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center

Figure 7

As manager of the Saturn V rocket program, Arthur Rudolph was responsible for supervising the work of more than 20,000 industrial contractors, and more than 7,000 civil service employees. For his accomplishments, he received the Exceptional Service Medal, and Distinguished Service Medal by NASA. Courtesy of Arthur Rudolph

13 Figure 8

The author with Arthur Rudolph at his home in , Germany, during an interview in 1992. Although he was not exonerated during his lifetime, his place in history is secure, as the man who built the rockets that took men to the Moon. William Jones

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