T ECHNOLOGY The Pioneer Rocket

by Gideon Marcus ing, vacuum-tube circuited IBM 701 to pre- Thor is fired with a control system but no dict the performance of the Atlas, Titan, and guidance, and when the nose cone is On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union Minuteman missiles. Eventually, his group replaced by the second and third stage orbited the first artificial satellite. Within became known as the Systems Vanguard . . . the total velocity at just one year, the United States designed, Development Department. It was a sort of burnout for the three stage missile would built, and launched the first lunar probes. brain trust whose job was to develop a pro- be 36,200 ft/sec. When fired eastward This early series of missions is scarcely doc- liferation of innovative ideas. Degarabedian from Cape Canaveral this missile would umented today, but those first months of the was associate manager of the department achieve a velocity of 37,500 ft/sec. and space race showed the world what could be and de facto head when, in October 1957, this is about 1000 ft/sec. more than is done in an incredibly short time when the Sputnik made its beeping path across the required to get to Mars or Venus. stakes were high enough. This article is Part sky. Without external prompting, he ran a I of a series on the United States’s first lunar few calculations and came up with an excit- This new launch system was too probe—the story of the inception, creation, ing proposition. attractive to be ignored. While the original and flight of the rocket that would ultimate- At the time, two-stage, orbital, liq- proposal suggested that the vehicle be used ly propel not just lunar spacecraft, but uid-fuel rockets were still a thing of the to loft probes to the planets, the Thor- dozens of other space probes. future. Coordinating a midair ignition was Vanguard was to prove more immediately considered too finicky an operation to useful in resolving a pressing military Space Technology Laboratories depend on. This is why Atlas, the first U.S. conundrum. It is a fitting start to begin with the ICBM, was designed as an ingenious stage- corporation that would ultimately oversee and-a-half missile with all three engines fir- A New Type of Nose Cone the construction and launch of the new rock- ing at liftoff, two being jettisoned after their In the beginning of 1956, the USAF et. The Ramo-Wooldridge (R-W) corpora- fuel was exhausted. The first booster to began high speed reentry tests using the tion was founded in 1953 by Simon Ramo employ two liquid stages was the Vanguard, Lockheed X-17, a rocket that consisted of and Dean Wooldridge for the express pur- then being developed as a civilian space three solid-fuel stages. Ramo-Wooldridge pose of designing specialized electronic booster with considerable assistance from was responsible for the technical manage- components for the U.S. military.1 They the Navy. As of October, the Vanguard had ment of the X-17 reentry program, and pre- scoured the universities for talent on the not even flown yet, but it was the only liq- vailing wisdom at the time suggested that assumption that anyone with a PhD must be uid-fuel second stage then in existence. the most promising way to avoid the prohib- reasonably intelligent and therefore a poten- Just for the sake of spinning ideas, itive problem of nose cone overheat on tial asset. Additionally, R-W recruited a Degarabedian ran some numbers on the reentry was to achieve as close to laminar number of Hughes Aircraft expatriates. In hypothetical combination of the Thor inter- (nonturbulent) flow of air over the nose of this manner, R-W accumulated one of the mediate range ballistic missile (IRBM), the missile. To this end, the X-17 nose cone most impressive pools of talent in the then currently in testing, and the Vanguard was designed as a nickel-plated, copper, nation. Within one year of incorporation, R- second stage, coupled with a solid-fuel third spherical shape with a 2 micro-inch finish to W became the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) stage. He distributed his findings in a memo prevent transition to turbulence4. However, contractor for systems engineering and to Simon Ramo but not before he solicited the X-solid nose cone was heavy, and even technical direction for the Atlas interconti- the signature of his coworker, Jack Irving, the super-smooth nickel plating could not nental ballistic missile (ICBM)2. In who enjoyed close relations with the com- achieve nonturbulent flow. Ultimately, the November 1957, seizing the opportunity pany president. The relevant portions of the idea of using ablative materials instead of afforded by the Soviet launch of Sputnik, Si memo, written in a typically understated solid construction was conceived, apparent- Ramo changed the name of R-W’s Guided manner, are as follows3: ly in many agencies simultaneously. Missile Research Division to Space Ablation works much like the burning of a Technology Laboratories (STL), heralding a Escape Vehicles Using Thor and book. Essentially, each page burns individu- new direction for the company. Vanguard Components. 1 November ally and sloughs off, removing the fire from 1957 the rest of the volume. In a similar fashion, The Memo The last two stages of Vanguard are heated outer layers of an ablative nose cone Paul Degarabedian was a young PhD responsible for adding about 21,500 combust and come off before the rest of the who went to work for R-W in late 1954. His ft/sec to the total Vanguard velocity nose can become superheated. This method job was to crunch numbers on the room-fill- [with] a 21.5 [lbs] payload . . . When the of heat management was later used in proj-

Q U E S T 13:4 2006 26 ects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. flight path that would propel the missile Electronics Laboratory and a PhD from The U.S. Army demonstrated an 5,500 nautical miles from the coast of Ohio State, was officially made project ablative nose cone on the Jupiter IRBM in Florida to the vicinity of Ascension Island, manager early in the month. Dick Morrison August 1957, and the Navy intended to test propelling its ablative nose cone through the was then put in charge of booster develop- one on its Polaris ship-launched missile. At atmosphere at ICBM velocity. In this role, ment, and Solomon went to the Cape to han- the time, however, no one knew whether or the Thor Able was dubbed the Able Reentry dle data and support requirements at the not an ablative cone could survive the rigors Test Vehicle or ARTV. On 26-November, launch site, the Air Force Missile Test of an ICBM range reentry. As the first full STL sent a delegation, including propulsion Center (AFMTC) at Patrick Air Force Base range Atlas flight was not scheduled until experts George Gleghorn and George in Florida. All the subcontractors were late 1958, the USAF needed an alternative Solomon, to the Martin assembly plant in in the interim to test the concept5. Middle River, Maryland, to procure several Aerojet stages. Gleghorn, a Korean War vet- Project Able eran and R-W’s hundredth employee, was On 1 November 1957, Degarabedian the most knowledgeable Thor integrations submitted his two-stage Thor-Vanguard pro- and test person there was. Solomon was his posal, which he called the Thor A or Able. superior. They placed a special order with The Douglas Thor IRBM was a USAF proj- Aerojet purchasing several Vanguard sec- ect with similar characteristics to its com- ond stages. The rocket company was to ship petitor, the Jupiter, and represented the cur- a set of tanks and an engine but strip the rent state of the art in booster technology. boosters of all guidance and control mecha- Therefore, it was the natural selection for nisms. The STL team wasn’t interested in the first stage of the nose-cone test vehicle. putting a payload into a particular orbit. Although there was some suggestion that Rather, they aimed to slam the nose cone the solid propelled X-17, a proven stage that into the ocean as fast as possible. Thus, the would later see service incorporated into the Thor Able’s second stage would fly open- Scout booster, might be used, in the end, the loop, or based on a preplanned trajectory Aerojet second stage on the Vanguard won with no in-flight course correction. This out6. Though a flight test of the stage had configuration saved a good deal of weight, never been conducted, this stage’s weight and weight was always a paramount con- and performance characteristics recom- cern. mended it for the job. The X-17 simply was Gleghorn immediately began work not powerful enough7. on constructing actuators and a new forward There was no question at the time but compartment for fitting with a payload. that STL, which was already working on the Douglas provided the standard autopilot, Thor and had a symbiotic relationship with amplifiers, and gyros8. Gleghorn was also Paul Degarabedian in the late 1960s. Photo: Gideon Marcus the USAF, would be chosen to develop the responsible for ballasting the vehicle— reentry vehicle. Phase 1 in a long series of essentially weighing the rocket down such projected roles for the Thor Able involved a that even after all the fuel had been burned, signed off on 20 December. Control the missile would not hit the coast of Africa. Systems Division was responsible for the He eventually settled on a weight of 185 accelerometer. A Vanguard type was pre- pounds as sufficient to prevent the Thor ferred for the mission but took an uneasy Able from becoming the first ICBM to hit a three weeks to procure. Radio Corporation foreign nation9. of America (RCA) was contracted to pro- In December, work on the Thor Able vide the autopilot. Though contingency began in earnest. STL’s role in the project plans were drawn up to develop the autopi- became a subject of controversy requiring lot in house to save money and weight, in clarification. At the time, Douglas was quite the end the schedule was too tight to allow proprietary about its booster business and it. Hallamore provided the Ground Support did not relish the idea of creating its own Equipment (GSE) trailers. All told, the orig- competition. This friction was one of the inal cost for the program was estimated at main reasons R-W (and later Thompson $1,550,000. This number naturally Ramo Wooldridge—TRW) segued away increased as development proceeded, per- from boosters and into the space probe busi- haps to around $2 million—still a bargain ness. On 13 December, R-W and Douglas by 2006 standards, though it was considered reached the agreement that STL would be in profligate at the time. On 2 January 1958, charge of all propulsion operations, includ- all material pertaining to RCA and ing the starting and stopping of the count- Hallamore was unclassified. The rest would down, and on 24-December, R-W took on remain classified for more than a year. By the responsibility of all cabling, except for the end of December, a preliminary teleme- inside the propulsion unit10. try scheme had been set up and a projected Paul Degarabedian at his home in April 2006 George Mueller, director of the STL first flight was expected no later than mid Photo: Gideon Marcus

Q U E S T 13:4 2006 27 May with a late April launch a reasonable his range,” but had been overruled in the where he could, screwdriver always in hand. possibility11. end. Louis Dunn, president of STL, rejected He would even plug in a soldering iron on A Busy New Year the suggestion the next day, probably for the the launch stand, even though such activi- January was marked by intense dis- same reason the Vanguard people had ties were forbidden due to the danger of cussions between STL and the USAF on rejected it—Azusa required a heavy air- static discharge. their roles in the development and launch of borne transmitter. Thus Thor Able either According to Gleghorn, things went the new booster. On 6-January, Mueller met used homegrown tracking, no tracking, or pretty smoothly, but partway through the with Colonel Henry H. (Hank) Eichel, assis- the Army-Navy Fixed, Radar, Search first covers off test, the sequencer, responsi- tant commander of the Office for Missile (AN/FPS)-16 high precision radar devel- ble for the timing of engine, shut down and Tests, to discuss telemetry requirements. In oped for Vanguard. Dick Booton was given other booster functions, broke down. particular, Mueller insisted that means for the task of coordinating all tracking and George Hatches had built the sequencer box telemetry to be gathered from launch to sep- communications concerns. His role like people used to build hi-fi sets—with all aration and from 15,000 feet to impact be enlarged greatly in scope in subsequent the current running through 18-gauge wire. provided. He also considered a search-and- stages of the project, beyond the scope of Inevitably, the wire fused under such a load. recovery beacon essential. STL wanted to this first article. The crew had to do a complete reanalysis of use S-Band (2-4 GHz) frequencies for the February began with the inauspicious the power system to ensure that such an telemetry, but AFMTC favored C-band (4-6 TV-3BU all-up Vanguard launch. Fifty- event didn’t happen again16. GHz). C-band was ruled out on 17-January seven seconds after liftoff on 5 February, the Just two days behind schedule, on as its tracking range was only 200 nautical rocket lost attitude control capability and 28-February, the covers-on test of the Able miles. Still, the USAF continued to advo- broke up. Along with the 6 December 1957 was successfully conducted at 5:30 p.m. cate its use in the weeks to come12. Major failed TV-3 launch, this meant that Able The rocket was closed up as if for flight, General Donald Yates, commander of second stage still had not been tested in accessible only through the command AFMTC, suggested that the Thor Able use flight14. It was beginning to look as if the receiver and telemetry—and a switch to turn the Azusa electronic guidance system, first successful Able flight might be begun it off if things got out of hand! This test which had performed satisfactorily at White from the shoulders of a Thor first stage. The marked the end of the week of testing for Sands and elsewhere. Yates had also argued next day, on 6-February, STL was informed booster 1 17. for Azusa to be used for the Vanguard13 by the USAF that the Navy would take no project in 1956, not happy at the prospect of part in the recovery of the nose cone15. This Home Stretch additional tracking hardware “clobbering up would prove to be a fateful decision. On 4 March, the first Thor stage was The first in a shipped from Douglas just one day behind series of covers- schedule. Development proceeded at a off tests of the breakneck pace and Mueller moved the Able stage was launch date up several times based on scheduled for 21- Douglas’s accelerated readiness expecta- February. Covers tions. More encouraging news came on 16- off was a term March, when TV-4 successfully orbited the coined by first civilian satellite, Vanguard 1. At last, Douglas refer- the Vanguard second stage had been proved ring to the test in flight. firing of a rocket Covers-off and covers-on tests were with all its equip- conducted on booster 2, during which a ment accessible faulty yaw gyro was discovered and inter- for modification ference from the beacon was noted. One test and plugging in failed because an operator had neglected to diagnostic move a switch into the on position. Still, volt/ammeters. booster 2 was declared sound on 26-March, George Mueller and booster 1’s first flight was scheduled for went to the mid-April18. hangar, specially Also on 26-March, STL employee built at Los Herb Latham, whom Gleghorn had worked Angeles Airport with at Hughes, arrived at Mueller’s office (LAX) for the with two men from Lockheed. He was inter- assembly of the ested in attaching an instrument package to Able, to person- boosters 2 and 3 to investigate some sort of ally supervise the atmospheric effect. It might seem strange effort. He did that such a straightforward military test more than just vehicle might be used for science, but at the supervise. time, few satellites had been launched. The The original 2-stage ARTV configuration. (Reconstructed from existing data) Mueller loved to flight plan of the ARTV, arcing out and back Image: Gideon Marcus get his hands into the atmosphere at high speeds, made it dirty and assisted a sort of high-powered sounding rocket, and

Q U E S T 13:4 2006 28 a preliminary designer like Latham found replace the recovery package with a spare, this flight that finally explained the gremlin the prospect of adding an experiment to the which caused some delay in countdown22.” responsible. As it turned out, the main bear- rocket irresistible. The next day, however, America’s first rodent in space would fly ing of the turbopump simply could not han- the proposal was vetoed by Dunn who was dry. dle the terrific 21,000 rpm speed of its shaft. advised by Mueller that the effect would not The bearing walked itself right out of its be significant, and Dunn didn’t want to The Able Flies housing, destroying the turbopump and the worry about the balancing and frequency The first Thor Able was erected on Thor rocket24. The problem was fixed and coordination of a superfluous device the firing stand in the beginning of April. the delays incurred did not unduly affect attached to the untried Able stage19. The On 3-April, preparations were made for the this or subsequent phases of the program. first Thor Able flights would fly strictly for mock firing exercise the next day. On 4- Less than two months later, Thor military purposes. Well, mostly . . . April, it was discovered that there was still Able took off on 9-July at 9:30 p.m. EST, some interference from the beacon, but the reaching an altitude of almost 1,000 miles, The Special Payload problem was either fixed or was not prob- and flying 6,063 miles to land, half an hour For various reasons, it was deemed lematic enough to be fixed. Countdown later, in the vicinity of its target in the south desirable to have a biomedical payload on revisions and procedures were completed Atlantic Ocean near Ascension Island. Its the Thor Able. As early as 7 February, the on 6-April. On 10-April, the STL crew non-parabolic course was specially plan was to install a small compartment in reviewed the TV-4 launch and concluded designed to ram the nose cone into the the nose cone big enough to accommodate a that the performance of the second stage ocean at ICBM speeds, and telemetry sug- small white mouse. The rodent was called was within expectations and the recovery gested it had done just that25. Two ships and MIA, or Mouse in Able, and telemetry fleet deployment did not need to be modi- two aircraft were involved in the recovery developed by the Navy would monitor her fied. On Saturday, 12-April, the flight readi- effort, but the nose cone’s dye marker could heartbeat throughout the flight to determine ness firing, essentially a covers-on test in not be found and the beacon’s signals were her reaction to g-forces and weightlessness. launch position with only restraints prevent- too sporadic and weak to be triangulated. Called the Cook Recovery Package after its ing the rocket from flying away, was suc- The ablated nose cone was designed to assembler, the nose cone payload was top cessfully conducted. There was some trou- float, but only for a limited time as a precau- secret. When J. Rittersbacher of the Thor ble noted with the Radiation Inc. RF tion against seizure by foreign parties. After program office included reference to MIA in Amplifier (again, either fixed or compensat- 36 hours, the first U.S. nose cone to travel at the circulated memo, “Revisions to DTO ed for by launch time)23. intercontinental range sank beneath the [Development Test Objectives] for 116, ARTV 1 was, at last, ready to fly. At waves taking with it its occupant, the mouse 118, 119 [the Thor booster numbers],” there 7:10 p.m. EST on 23 April 1958, the slim MIA II. However, telemetry data seemed to were heated discussions as to the propriety two-stage rocket ascended into the night confirm the concept of nose cone ablation26. of such an action. Though he claimed he had sky. However, 146 seconds into the flight, On 23 July 1958, the Thor Able flew the permission of Dunn and Dolph Thiel, shortly before the first stage would have for a third time from the Missile Test Center. director of the Thor Weapon System exhausted its fuel and sent the Able stage Onboard was another little white mouse. Program Office, neither seem to have toward the coast of Africa, Thor 116 explod- The press refused to call her MIA III, so she approved the action. While the issue has ed spectacularly in the darkness. This catas- was named Wickie, after a local female become clouded with the passage of time, trophe proved a blessing in disguise. Many journalist who had covered the project for the concern at the time was probably that other Thors had met similar ends, and it was some time. Sadly for the test mouse, she the inclusion of the Cook Recovery Package might in some way compromise the primary mission, and widespread circulation of the inclusion of package might unduly compro- mise Douglas or the Air Force. Mueller reassured the upset parties that the modified nose cone would most likely not affect the overall flight test objectives20. Things didn’t quite work out that way. MIA had a secret companion stowed away in her compartment. The STL team had included a 2-ounce bottle of Old Granddad bourbon with the label “aged in space” affixed to it. An irate USAF project manager discovered the liquor during the countdown and ordered it removed21. George Mueller makes terse reference to the incident in his log: “Inadvertent arming of the Cook Recovery Package during installa- tion in the nose cone resulted in having to

Budd Cohen with ARTV prototype/back-up nosecone. Taken at Northrop Grumman in July 2006 Photo: Gideon Marcus

Q U E S T 13:4 2006 29 George Gleghorn taken in March 2006 at his home 3 Paul Degarabedian, Interview by Gideon Marcus, 10 Photo: Gideon Marcus May 2006.

4 M. Richard Denison, “My Experiences with Reentry Technology,” 2005. http://www.aerowebspace.com/ metrical hunk of copper, which he could use Reentry-Story.shtml. Accessed 11 March 2006. as a crucible for home metallurgy projects. 5 Dyer, TRW Pioneering Technology, 199. Instead, he got a worthless hunk of fiber- glass. Angrily, the man demanded his $10 6 Aviation Week (20 October 1958):26. back. Budd was only too happy to comply. 7 George Gleghorn, Interview by Gideon Marcus, In this manner, he became the proud owner 8 March 2006. of an ARTV nose cone. Eventually the item 8 George Gleghorn, Interview by Gideon Marcus, 8 worked its way from his lab to its current March 2006. resting place in the building’s lobby, nestled 9 between models of TRW spacecraft.31 George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” from STL archives, 1-18-58; 2-3-58. really did end up missing in action after the recovery team failed again to locate the nose Able-1 10 George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” cone and package27. However, the nose The Thor Able proved a dramatic from STL archives, 12-13, 24-57. cone telemetry successfully transmitted success and a testament to the resourceful- 11 George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” Wickie’s heartbeat from launch to splash- ness of engineers. Only six months elapsed from STL archives, 12-10, 14, 17, 19, 31-57; 1-2-58. between conception and first flight for the down. Her heartbeat served as a living 12 George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” accelerometer, matching the rocket’s two-stage vehicle, an amazing accomplish- from STL archives, 1-6, 17, 26, 27-58. 28 ment. But even as the STL team feverishly telemetry to 1/1000 of a second . General 13 labored to complete the nose cone test vehi- George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” Yates, the test center commander, felt that from STL archives. Constance Green and Milton despite the failed recovery, the telemetry cle, work began on an ambitious new proj- Lomask, Vanguard: A History (Washington, DC: NASA, results were sufficient to answer most bio- ect. Much as the Thor Able depended on the 1970), 141, 146. 29 untested Vanguard second stage, so would medical questions regarding the flight . 14 Green and Lomask, Vanguard, 283. With the flight of Thor 119, the offi- this new project depend on an untested Thor 15 cial round of nose cone tests was complete. Able. This new phase was given the name George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” As early as February, there had been sugges- Baker as it was a logical successor to Able. from STL archives, 2-6-58. tion of a possible upgrade for higher veloc- The project’s ambitious goal was to launch 16 George Gleghorn, Interview by Gideon Marcus, 8 ity tests. There was even a plan to convert the first lunar probe. Part II of this article March 2006. the ARTV into an ICBM. The latter option will detail the story of the first program 17 George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” was dubbed Thoric, the “ic” standing for under the nominal control of the civilian from STL archives, 2-28-58. space agency, NASA. The reader may be intercontinental. While there is little doubt 18 more familiar with it by the name NASA George Mueller, “Daily log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” that the Thor Able was up to the task, the from STL archives, 3-4, 11, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26-58. progress on the Titan and Atlas missiles gave it: Pioneer. 19 made the idea a moot one. The Thor would George Mueller, “Daily log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” About the Author from STL archives, 3-26, 27, 31-58. George Gleghorn, never serve as the first stage on an intercon- Interview by Gideon Marcus, 8 March 2006. tinental missile30. Gideon Marcus is a graduate of the University of California San Diego history 20 George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” from STL archives, 2-7; 3-25-58. Epilogue for a Nose Cone department. Until last year, his interest in A surviving example of the fiberglass space history was largely recreational. A 21 Dyer, TRW Pioneering Technology, 199. short sting in post-graduate work reinforced nose cone, a backup and probably the proto- 22 George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” type, is on display at the 13-story Northrop- his desire to pursue active research. He cur- from STL archives, 4-23-58. rently is working on a comprehensive Grumman building at Space Park in 23 Redondo Beach, California. Painted white recounting of the almost forgotten first days George Mueller, “Daily Log, 12-10-57 to 4-23-58,” from STL archives, 4-3, 4, 6, 10, 12-58. with an old-style STL logo on its side, the of the American unmanned space program, hollow fiberglass chassis ranges from 2 particularly the Space Technology Lab mis- 24 George Gleghorn, Interview by Gideon Marcus, 8 inches in thickness at the sides to 6 inches at sions. This work has the advantage that March 2006. the front. The story of how the nose cone many of the key players are still alive, but 25 Budd Cohen, Interview by Gideon Marcus, 1 ended up back at TRW is comical. Some the time sensitivity of the materials and February 2006. interviewees lends a somber urgency to the years back, Budd Cohen, an STL employee 26 Julian Hartt, The Mighty Thor (New York. Van Rees since 1957 and later manager of the project. The opportunity to do this valuable Press, 1961), 192–193. Dyer, TRW Pioneering Aerodynamics Department, received a research at such a critical time is truly a Technology, 199–200. blessing. phone call at his office from an irate fellow 27 Hartt, Thor, 195. who had purchased the item at a surplus sale 28 and was highly dissatisfied. The purchaser Notes Aviation Week (25 August 1958):15. 1 Davis Dyer, TRW Pioneering Technology and had been assured that he was buying a mis- 29 Hartt, Thor, 195. Innovation Since 1900 (Boston: Harvard Business sile nose cone, which was guaranteed to School Press, 1998), 170. 30 Hartt, Thor, 195. withstand 3,000 degree temperatures. 2 Naturally, he assumed he was buying a sym- Dyer, TRW Pioneering Technology, 184. 31 Budd Cohen, Interview by Gideon Marcus, 1 February 2006.

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