M Ike G Runtm An, B Lazing the T Rail. T He E Arly H Istory of Spacecraft And

4 Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry 3 2 - The Teapot Committee noted 1

3 that “while existing [intelligence] 2 . evidence does not justify a conclu- Soviet p sion that the Russians are ahead of

p Missile , us, it is also felt by the Committee 4 Program

0 that this possibility certainly cannot 0

2 be ruled out.” The Committee stated

, that “important aspects of the present A long-range missile program [of the A I Air Force] consisting of three A

projects, Snark, Navaho, and Atlas, ,

y “Long-

r are believed to be unsatisfactory” t Range e (Neufeld 1990, 255). k Missile c The Teapot Committee recom- o mended a radical reorganization of Program ... R the ballistic missile effort. The At- d Unsatisfac- n las, with the projected range of 5500 tory” a

t n miles (10,200 km), would now rank f a a top priority of the Air Force and r c the actual development would begin. Fig. 12.26. Commander of Air Force's West- e ern Development Division General Bernard c Setting up a special development- a A. Schriever, 1910–2005, supervised de- p management agency for the entire

S velopment of the first American ICBM At-

Atlas program was deemed most f las, the highest research and development

o urgent. The complexity of the ICBM priority of the Air Force. Schriever also System y r was thus demanding emergence of a played an important role in the early mili- Engineer- o t new technical area, system engineer- tary space program. In 1961, he assumed ing and s i ing and technical direction, that command of the newly established Air Force Technical H

would become prominent in the Systems Command. Photo (ca. 1956) cour- y Direction l future. The Committee stated that tesy of 45th Space Wing History Office Ar- r a “the nature of the task for this new chives, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida.

E agency requires that over-all techni- e h cal direction be in the hands of T

. unusually competent group of scientists and engineers capable of making system l i analyses, supervising the research phase, and completely controlling the experi- a r mental and research phases of the program.” T Two days before the Teapot Committee issued its report, another indepen- Atlas e h dent study confirmed the feasibility of the Atlas ICBM. The assessment by RAND's Could t Achieve g Bruno W. Augenstein stated that the Atlas could achieve the operational status in n i the early 1960s providing the stringent performance characteristics were some- Opera- z

a what relaxed and the program priority and funding increased. In an assuring tional l

B development on 1 March 1954, the Bravo test demonstrated the feasibility of Status in

, high-yield, compact, and low-weight nuclear warheads: the Atlas program was n the Early a now possible within the state of the art. 1960s m t The report of the Teapot Committee triggered a set of events that signifi- n

u cantly accelerated the American ICBM program. First, the reorganization of the r Air Force development effort followed. To manage the Atlas program, the special G

e Western Development Division (WDD) was activated under command of Gen- k

i eral Schriever at 409 East Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, California, in July 1954. M

231 12. Building the Foundation

Fig. 12.27. From humble beginnings to a Fortune 500 company: Simon Ramo (left) and Dean Wooldridge outside the original location of their Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in Westchester, California. Several years later the company would merge with Thomp- son Products forming TRW, Inc. Photo courtesy of TRW, Inc.

Second, the role of the system engineering and technical direction was substan- tially expanded. The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation (R-W), the predecessor of TRW, Inc., was founded by Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge to provide such services for the Air Force. (In contrast, the Army relied on its in-house expertise WDD, of the von Braun's group at the Redstone Arsenal for technical direction of the TRW, Army ballistic missile programs.) R-W's Space Technology Laboratory (STL) STL, would thus become the main participant in the Atlas and other ICBM, IRBM, and and the space programs. The STL's role generated controversy, however, and, in several Aerospace years, many functions in system engineering and technical direction would be Corpora- taken over by the newly formed nonprofit Aerospace Corporation. Development and deployment of such complex systems as the ICBM and tion future spacecraft required new management approaches. Concurrency, broadly understood as the parallel development and simultaneous completion of all of the tasks necessary for system development and deployment, became critically important. Bernard Schriever was among the pioneers of this emerging management concept when he advocated concurrency in a special Air Staff study in 1950. Schriever's WDD grew, assuming later the responsibility for the Titan, Thor, and Minuteman missile systems as well as for the early military space programs, including the photoreconnaissance Corona satellite system. General Osmond J. Ritland became WDD's vice commander in April 1956. In June 1957, WDD was Mike Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry , AIAA, 2004, pp. 231-234 232 Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry

TRW AND THE AEROSPACE CORPORATION

Hughes Aircraft Company had emerged as a guided missile powerhouse and major defense contractor in the early 1950s. Disagreements with Howard Hughes led to resignation of two leading specialists Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge, who formed in September 1953, with the financial help of Thompson Products Company, a new company, the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation (R-W). R-W started with four employees, including the founders, and was located at first in a former barbershop on 92nd Street in Westchester near the Los Angeles airport. Thompson Products and R-W merged in 1958 to form Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc., the name officially short- ened to TRW, Inc., in 1965. R-W became the main provider of system engineering and technical direction for the Air Force's Atlas ICBM. R-W's Guided Missile Research Division (GMRD) later expanded to provide system engineering for the Titan ICBM and Thor IRBM programs. After launch of Sputnik, GMRD was reorganized as a separate subsidiary corporation, the Space Technology Laboratory (STL), with Simon Ramo as president, Louis Dunn as executive vice president and general manager, and James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle as chairman of board of directors. The propriety of a for-profit company performing so exclusively services for the government was questioned by Congress. STL was in “an intimate and privileged position” for an Air Force contractor, being involved in evaluation of the bids from other companies. Internal barriers between STL and the parent company, TRW, did not prevent charges that such an arrangement gave TRW unfair competitive advan- tage. TRW was also not entirely happy because of the imposed limitations on the scope of hardware contracts the company could bid on. STL's rapid expansion, al- though being profit oriented, was perceived by many as inherently inappropriate for the technical direction of government programs. Consequently the solution to the problem was found in the formation of a nonprofit institution, the Aerospace Corporation, in June 1960 with Ivan Getting as the first Aerospace's president. Getting served in this position until 1977. The mission of Aerospace, according to the letter of contract, was “to aid the U.S. Air Force in apply- ing the full resources of modern science and technology to the problem of achieving those continuing advances in ballistic missile and military space systems which are basic to national security.” By the end of 1960, the Aerospace Corporation had bought the recently finished STL's research and development center on El Segundo Boulevard and hired more than 1700 employees, one-third being scientists and engineers. Many specialists came to Aerospace from TRW's STL. Technical functions of Aerospace concentrated on general system engineering and technical direction (GSE/TD) of the Air Force's ballistic missile and space systems. Today, Aerospace operates as Federally Funded Re- search and Development Center (FFRDC) for the Department of Defense. TRW has evolved into a Fortune 500 company, a major defense contractor special- izing in missile and space systems and defense electronics. The company continues to this day its original work on maintaining readiness of the nation's ICBMs. TRW had become the first industrial company to build an exploratory spacecraft, Pioneer 1, for NASA. TRW designed and built numerous military and civilian space systems, including Defense Support Program (DSP), Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, deep space Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, and astrophysical space observatories Comp- ton (γ-rays) and Chandra (X-rays). Northrop–Grumman acquired TRW in 2002, which became Northrop–Grumman Space Technology.

Mike Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry , AIAA, 2004, pp. 231-234 233 12. Building the Foundation

reorganized into the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division (AFBMD). Schriever built a unique military organization with a high level of education where “more

than one third of the hand-picked officers held Ph.D.'s and Master's degrees.” 231-234 Unique The Air Force assigned the highest priority to the Atlas program on 14 May 1954 and gave the full go-ahead in Military January 1955, with Convair's Astro- Organiza- nautics Division in San Diego, Cali- tion

fornia, as the prime contractor. Con- , 2004, pp. vair that had led the Atlas development was not entirely happy with the new arrangement that significantly downgraded its role in systems engineering and technical direction.

Thus, the Teapot Committee led to a ketry , AIAA Top fundamental reorganization of the Air Force entire American strategic missile pro- Priority gram. The Committee, in the words of General Schriever, “really pulled

the cork and got the ICBM program ft and Roc underway” (Schriever 1972, 58). Another high-level government committee headed by James R. Kil- lian, Jr. issued its findings on 14 Feb- ruary 1955. (Killian was President of Fig. 12.28. Simon Ramo, b.1913, began his MIT in 1948–1959 and served as the of Spacecra research career at the General Electric Re- first special assistant to the President search Laboratories where he accumulated 25 patents before the age of 30. Ramo ini- for science and technology when tially focused on the emerging microwave President Eisenhower established Killian technology. His book (with John Whinnery) this office in 1957.) The Killian Re- on electromagnetic fields and waves, first port warned about America's vulner- Report arly History published in 1944, remains to this day a stan- ability to a surprise Soviet attack and dard textbook in electronics. Ramo's work urged the elevation of the priority of at Hughes Aircraft and later cofounding the ICBM. Consequently, President (with Dean Wooldridge) TRW significantly Eisenhower approved on 13 Septem- advanced electronics, missiles, and space ber 1955 the recommendation of the technology. In 1950s he played a critical role in technical direction and system engineer- National Security Council to desig- Trail. The E ing in achieving the American ICBM. Photo nate the ICBM a national program (ca. 1986) courtesy of Simon Ramo. of the highest priority. Incessant bu- reaucratic maneuvering and pres- sures, however, soon diluted this top

priority status of the ICBM by assigning top priorities to other programs of the lazing the Air Force, Army, and Navy. The development of long-range ballistic missiles would eventually lead to major families of space launchers. Technical To achieve the Atlas, the performance of several key rocket subsystems had Challenges to be improved dramatically. The challenges included achieving low structural weight, high thrust and high-specific-impulse engines, efficient propellant utili-

zation, precise engine cutoff, rocket staging, inertial guidance, and warhead at- Gruntman, B mospheric reentry with extraordinarily high velocities. Mike 234 Winner of the Luigi Napolitano Book Award (2006) from the International Academy of Astronautics Blazing the Trail The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry Mike Gruntman AIAA, Reston, Va., 2004 ISBN 156347705X; 978-1563477058 505 pages with 340 figures Index: 2750+ entries, including 650 individuals This book presents the fascinating story of the events that paved the way to space. It introduces the reader to the history of early rocketry and the subsequent developments which led into the space age. People of various nations and from various lands contributed to the breakthrough to space, and the book takes the reader to far away places on five continents. This world-encompassing view of the realization of the space age reflects the author's truly unique personal experience, a life journey from a child growing on the Tyuratam launch base in the 1950s and early 1960s, to an accomplished space physicist and engineer to the founding director of a major U.S. nationally recognized program in space engineering in the heart of the American space industry. Most publications on the topic either target narrow aspects of rocket and spacecraft history or are popular books that scratch the surface, with minimal and sometimes inaccurate technical details. This book bridges the gap. It is a one-stop source of numerous technical details usually unavaila- ble in popular publications. The details are not overbearing and anyone interested in rocketry and space exploration will navigate through the book without difficulty. The book also includes many quotes to give readers a flavor of how the participants viewed the developments. There are 340 figures and photographs, many appearing for the first time. Table of contents  Preface  Great Pioneers  Foreword  The First Modern Rocket  Humble Beginnings  JATO and Beyond  Rocket Proliferation – The First Wave  Building the Foundation  Under Rocket Fire in India  Road to Sputnik  The Congreve Rocket  Gateways to Heaven  Rockets Come to America  The Breakthrough  First American Rockets  Opening the Skies  Rocket Proliferation – The Second Wave  Joining the Club  Public Imagination on Fire  The First Thousand Years

Book details (including index and reviews) at: http://astronauticsnow.com/blazingthetrail/

About the author. Dr. Mike Gruntman is professor of astronautics at the University of Southern California. Accomplished physicist, Mike is actively involved in research and development programs in space science and space technology. He has authored and co-authored 300 scholarly publications, including 4 books.

Mike Gruntman http://astronauticsnow.com/blazingthetrail/ [email protected]