Volume 19, Number 1 2012
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Volume 19, Number 1 OUEST 2012 THE HISTORY OF SPACEFLIGHT QUARTERLY Congratulations and Earthbound Pioneer Good Luck from the (Explorer 6) Prime Launch Team Rockets and the Bumper 8: Red Scare First Launch on Cape Canaveral How General Dynamics Integrated Gemini Memories the Cape Contents Volume 19 • Number 1 2012 3 Letter from the Editor Book Reviews Features 54 Falling Back to Earth: A First Hand Account of the Great Space Race 4 Congratulations and Good Luck from the and the End of the Cold War Prime Launch Team: Book by Mark Albrecht Review by Howard E. McCurdy Astronauts, Technologies, Bureaucrats, and the Grumman Crew at Kennedy Space Center 55 Soviet Robots in the Solar System: By David Clow Mission Technologies and Discoveries Book by Wesley Huntress Jr. and Mikhail Ya. Marov 30 Rockets and the Red Scare: Review by Roger D. Launius Frank Malina and American Missile Development 1936—1954 56 Apollo 12: On the Oceans of Storms By James L. Johnson Book by David M. Harland Review by David West Reynolds 38 Earthbound Pioneer (Explorer 6) By Gideon Marcus 58 Defence and Discovery: Canada’s Military Space Program 1945—1974 49 How General Dynamics Integrated the Cape Book by Andrew B. Godefroy By Tom Leech Review by David Christopher Arnold 59 Psychology of Space Exploration Oral Histories Edited by Douglas A. Vakoch Review by Hunter Hollins 18 Bumper 8: First Launch on Cape Canaveral 60 The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight By Roger Launius and Lori Walters and the Soviet Imagination 1857—1967 36 Thoughts on the Space Shuttle’s Final Flight Book by Asif A. Siddiqi Review by Roshanna P. Sylvester Archives & Museums 62 Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo Book by Nicholas de Monchaux 52 Gemini Memories Review by Doug;as N. Lantry 63 Archives and Museums Sacred Space Cover Photo Credit 64 Left. Apollo 5 on the launch pad—Frame ap5-onpad-noID Book by Douglas E. Cowan Credit: The Project Apollo Image Gallery Review by Roger D. Launius Right. Apollo 5 launch—Frame apmisc-S68-19459HR Credit: The Project Apollo Image Gallery Q U E S T 19:1 2012 1 EARTHBOUND PIONEER (EXPLORER 6) By Gideon Marcus 1958.2 3 was essentially conceived in one STL’s next big project involved an marathon meeting in late 1958. STL On 4 October 1957, the Soviet ambitious program of two flights to engineer John Taber recalled his role in Union made history with the launch of Venus—into orbit as permanent satel- that pivotal moment: Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. lites, if possible. One was a 36-kg craft Less than a month later, the Soviets launched by the already-proven Thor- When we were trying to get that trounced their own accomplishment by Able. The second, to be launched by the first Explorer 6 together, they hadn't launching a 500-kg capsule, complete new Atlas Able, combined the Able developed a project management with a canine cosmonaut. The free upper stages and the then-unreliable group. There was a big meeting, and world was already two steps behind in Atlas ICBM. These spacecraft were one of the guys, Bill Russell, a fellow the newly-minted “space race.” completely unprecedented. No one had in high middle management, said, Shortly after the launch of Sputnik ever tried communicating with a space- “John, why don't you get this thing 2, engineers at Ramo-Wooldridge (RW), craft over the 40 million-km trek such a going?” I hadn't realized that I could America’s premier ICBM developer, mission would entail. Only the Soviets do that. I didn't know I was supposed conceived a booster system that could had ever launched as massive a satellite to be in charge! So I said, “Okay— beat the Soviets to the next goalpost in as the one that would fly on the Atlas let’s look at this. What kind of the space competition. By mating the Able, at the time expected to weigh over weight can we get into orbit with the Thor IRBM with the second and third 130 kg. By comparison, Pioneer 0-2’s rocket?” and the orbital people stages of the Navy’s Vanguard rocket weight was less than 40 kg. The devel- replied. I asked, “Power people— (together known as, “Able”), STL engi- opment schedule was aggressive. The how much power can you generate?” neers believed the United States could smaller craft was slated to launch on 3 ‘Depends on the weight,’ was the launch a small probe toward, and even June 1959. Its larger sister would blast reply. The experimenters wanted to into orbit, around the Moon. RW spun off on an Atlas Able just four days later. know what the communications data off a division for the project and called it The accelerated timeline was designed rate would be. All of this information Space Technology Laboratories (STL). to take advantage of the favorable was traded off, and we developed a Motivated by the desire to beat the Earth/Venus alignments, which only best guess of what the spacecraft Soviets at their own game, and over- occurred every 19 months. Both space- design would look like. This tradeoff flowing with Air Force funds, within 12 craft would arrive at Venus in November all happened at one meeting, a few months STL had launched three mis- 1959. hours long.4 sions on its Thor-Able booster. None of The Venus probes were so ambi- them made it to the Moon, but the sec- tious that STL decided there was a need The design that came out of the ond of them soared to an altitude of to walk before running. An Earth-orbit- meeting was half revolutionary, half 113,800 km on its 11 October 1958 ing test bed probe was conceived, which evolutionary. Able-3 used the same flight, and the third returned some valu- would carry essentially the same experi- booster as its predecessors. Its experi- able scientific data about the newly dis- ment load-out as Pioneers 0-2, but test mental payload was almost identical to covered belts of ionized particles sur- the Venus probe telemetry and power that of Pioneer 2. In fact, Able-3 was rounding the Earth. systems. The Thor-Able Venus probe viewed as an opportunity to properly Even as the three-mission project would be adapted from the test bed satel- showcase all of the technology that had known as Able-2 (Able-1 was a series of lite.3 This bridge design was called Able- not been fully utilized in the Pioneer pro- Thor-Able nosecone tests launched in 3, and the Venus probe project was gram.5 By November 1958, STL had early 1958) came to an end in November called Able-4. There was no time to accumulated an impressive armory of 1958, plans were already underway for waste, however; Able-3 would be devel- experiments, but none had flown for an even more ambitious successor pro- oped concurrently with Able-4. more than a day. With its long-term, gram, one that would keep the Air Force Able-3, conceived as a bridge, highly eccentric orbit, Able-3 offered the in the civilian satellite launching and became a star in its own right. This arti- perfect opportunity to map the still large- development business.1 Without such a cle is about that inadvertent robotic hero ly unmapped Van Allen Belts of trapped program, it was feared that the military of the early space race. high-energy particles, discovered in would be shut out entirely with the for- January 1958 by Explorer 1. mation of the new National Aeronautics Paddlewheel Probe It was there that the similarities and Space Administration in October The fundamental design for Able- between Able-3 and Able-2 ended. Their Q U E S T 19:1 2012 38 shapes were fundamentally different: Pioneer had been a gem-shaped, battery- powered spacecraft. The 26-inch diame- ter, 29-inch deep Able-3 looked like a windmill or desk fan, with power pro- vided by four paddlewheels, which extended in flight to capture the Sun’s rays and convert them into energy. The paddles were covered with silicon solar energy converter cells manufactured by Hoffman Electronics Corporation, simi- lar to those that had been proven the pre- vious year by Vanguard 1, which was still active at the time Able-3 was being developed. There were 210 modules, each with 100 photoelectric cells, con- verting the Sun’s rays with about 10 per- cent efficiency (far lower than what is achievable today). Each module provid- ed 3/4 watt of power.6 Each photocell was fitted with a glass filter to shield it 7 from UV. STL engineers work testing and integrating Explorer 6 components. To convert the power generated by Courtesy of John Taber. the solar cells into something usable by the spacecraft’s systems, Able-3 used tion. between Able-3 and its predecessors was three static converter power supplies Instead, Able-3 employed a new the way it talked to the world. Every manufactured by the Engineered kind of system: it was studded with satellite has a myriad of data to commu- Magnetics Division of Gulton Industries, dozens of little propeller-shaped devices nicate back to Earth. In addition to based in Metuchen, New Jersey. The painted in alternating black-and-white. results from the suite of experiments, first provided a total of 5.2 watts for 10 Their action was strictly mechanical. As they broadcast data on the voltage and outputs delivered on eight channels.