Although somewhat of a genesis of modern rocketry research had been established in the United States prior to the end of World War II, certainly the greatest impact in modern U.S. rocketry occurred when the bulk of German rocket scientists surrendered to U.S. forces. As early as January, 1945 Wernher von Braun met secretly with his senior staff members to decide whether or not to remain at Peenemunde and most certainly eventually surrender to Soviet forces or head southward to meet and surrender to U.S. forces.
With the German war effort crumbling and German military leadership showing a state of confusion, official orders for von Braun remained vague. Different orders reached him from Berlin, local army and navy commanders, the SS as well as Nazi party bosses. Some ordered von Braun to stay and defend Peenemunde, while others ordered him to retreat to a more secure site. In general, von Braun decided to ignore the orders to stay while considering the best of the orders to abandon the site. Since escape to U.S. forces was his goal, he needed an official plan that best aided this objective.
An official order was eventually given to von Braun which involved a relocation of the Peenemunde operation to the town of Bleicherode in the Harz Mountains. This plan was obeyed to an extent. Although the relocation order was obeyed, von Braun arranged for tons of sensitive documents to be moved, as well as the families of his associates. Arrangements were made for Wernher von Braun and his team to cross German lines and stay with U.S. troops.
By the close of World War II, the U.S. military had already begun rocketry research that would aid in the development of future rocket and missile programs. Although U.S. rocketry research paled in comparison to developments made in Germany, a test bed was established that would prove fruitful in the development of long-range rockets after the war. The Private rocket program was initiated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an Army-sponsored research arm of the California Institute of Technology. The Private A rocket was 8 feet long and had a diameter of 2.8 feet. The Private A was powered by an Aerojet solid-propellant sustainer engine, with liftoff thrust provided by four modified 4.5-inch barrage rockets attached by a steel casing. The Private A had four guiding fins at the rear and sported a tapered nose. The rocket was launched from a rectangular steel boom employing four guide rails. A total of 24 Private A rockets were tested. The maximum altitude achieved by a Private A rocket during these tests was 11.3 miles.
Wac Corporal:
Perhaps the most significant World War II research rocket was the Wac Corporal. The Wac designation stood for "Without Any Control", with Corporal being the next rank above Private. Wac Corporal development began in 1944 when the Army Signal Corps requested a rocket capable of carrying a 25-pound scientific payload to altitudes approaching 100,000 feet. The full-scale Wac Corporal was 21 feet long, had a diameter of 12 inches and sported three tailfins. The Wac Corporal employed a solid-propellant first stage nicknamed "Tiny Tim" which could produce a liftoff thrust of 50,000 pounds. A solid-fueled Aerojet second stage could produce a thrust of 1,500 pounds. Wac Corporal rockets were launched from a launch tower similar to those used for tests conducted by Dr. Robert Goddard. Test launches of the Wac Corporal were conducted at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, although tests of the rocket did not occur there until September, 1945 after World War II had ended.
Results from the Wac Corporal program were significant, with one of the rockets reaching a maximum altitude of 43.5 miles. The Wac Corporal program also yielded a second stage for captured German V-2 rockets, with the two-stage V-2 called Bumper-Wac. A Bumper-Wac became the first rocket to carry an object into space and also became the first type of rocket to be launched from Cape Canaveral.
The V-2 research program moved fairly quickly, with flights scheduled at the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. The first static engine test firing of a German V-2 on U.S. soil occurred on March 14, 1946. The missile used for this engine test became the first German V-2 launched in the U.S. on April 16, 1946. The U.S. V-2 series of launches concluded in 1952. Some of the launches employed V-2 missiles equipped with scientific instrumentation designed to study the upper atmosphere. These types of V-2 launches were managed by the V-2 Upper Atmosphere Research Panel, which was established in January, 1947 and evolved into the Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel in March, 1948.
A number of scientific objectives were met, including measurement of the ionosphere, solar radiation, cosmic radiation, micrometeorites and sky brightness. Biological research and Earth photography were also conducted. Early V-2 research employed missiles entirely of German design, but U.S. performance enhancements were introduced as early as 1947. These included the lengthening of the V-2 by about five feet, resulting in an increase in available payload space from 16 cubic feet to 80 cubic feet.
Another important modification was the addition of a second stage. Eight V-2 missiles were outfitted with Without Any Control (WAC) Corporal rockets as a second stage, with the resulting vehicle called Bumper-Wac. These were used to test stage separation under a variety of operational conditions. The first five Bumper-Wac rockets were launched from White Sands, New Mexico where achieving the highest altitude possible was the goal. On February 24, 1949 the second stage of Bumper #5, the fifth rocket launched in the Bumper-Wac series, became the first man-made object placed in space.
Bumper-Wac tests moved to the virgin Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral in 1950, where the rockets were intended to test rocket staging at a near horizontal flight. These tests required a greater flight range than was available at White Sands. Bumper #8 became the first rocket launched from Cape Canaveral on July 24, 1950. This was followed by the launch of Bumper #7 on July 29, 1950 which became the second rocket launched from the Cape.
Hermes:
The Army knew its supply of V-2 rockets would eventually run out, so a number of other ballistic missiles were designed to augment or replace the V-2 for the purpose of carrying our certain research objectives. Some were designed as a part of Project Hermes, a joint venture of the Army and General Electric. A number of V-2 scientific launches, including the entire Bumper-Wac series, were conducted under Project Hermes.
The first of the new vehicles was called the Hermes A1, a small rocket similar in design to the German Wasserfall surface-to-air missile. The Hermes A1 was powered by an engine that burned a combination of liquid oxygen and alcohol, and was capable of a maximum altitude of 15 miles, maximum range of 40 miles and maximum speed of 1,850 m.p.h.
Project Hermes gave the von Braun team the resources it needed to design more advanced weapons, like the Hermes II. This was a ramjet-powered second stage designed to be mated to a V-2 first stage. It employed a complex engine design, and a full-scale version of the ramjet stage was actually test fired from a V-2. General Electric designed the Hermes C, a large three-stage rocket powered by a six-booster first stage, a one-booster second stage and a glider-type third stage. The Hermes C had a desired range of 2,000 miles but was never built.
Redstone ICBM:
Army ballistic missile research activities outgrew the facilities at Fort Bliss, Texas by the late 1940's. A search was made to select a more suitable site. The Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama was selected. It featured ample electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority and convenient transportation access to the new Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral. The transfer from Fort Bliss to the Redstone Arsenal was approved on October 28, 1949 and the move, which included the entire von Braun design team, was completed between April and November, 1950. About 500 military personnel, 130 Germans, 120 civil servants and several hundred employees of General Electric made the move to Huntsville.
Upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June, 1950 the Army design team at the Redstone Arsenal was given the responsibility of designing a ballistic missile capable of achieving a range of 500 miles. After unofficially being called Ursa, then Major, the missile was named Redstone in honor of the Redstone Arsenal on April 8, 1952. Development of the Redstone ushered in the most important period of rocket development in U.S. history, with Redstone-based rockets ultimately assuming the duty of carrying both the first U.S. satellite and first U.S. astronaut into space.
Although great scientific accomplishments were associated with the Redstone missile, development of vehicles at the Redstone arsenal were driven by military concerns, especially a fear that the Soviet Union had succeeded in the development of advanced, long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Jupiter
The joint Army-Navy missile was named Jupiter. Although Army-Navy cooperation on the Jupiter missile would not last, the Jupiter program led directly to the launch of the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I, on January 31, 1958. The resulting Jupiter missile itself became the free world's first intermediate-range ballistic missile. Jupiter missiles were also employed as the first stage of the Juno II rocket. ABMA designed follow-up rocket concepts through Juno V. The Juno V concept closely resembled the Saturn I, a vital vehicle in the NASA Apollo program.
Although the Air Force had chosen specifically not to pursue the development of ballistic missiles following World War II, the advent of small, high-yield nuclear weapons and an ever-increasing Soviet threat facilitated the most massive peacetime weapons development program in U.S. history. The MX-774 ballistic missile research program funded by the Army Air Corps and canceled in 1947 did provide technical information that would prove fruitful later. In December, 1952 the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board set up a committee to review the Air Force position on the delivery of nuclear weapons.
The ARDC Western Development Division was redesignated the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division (AFBMD) in June, 1957. By this time, the foundation was securely laid for long-range ballistic missile programs like the Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) and ICBM programs like Atlas, Titan I, Titan II and Minuteman. As was the case with missiles designed by the Army, Air Force missiles also became instrumental in the U.S. space program. The Thor-based Delta rocket family remains in use today, as do space launch variants of the Atlas, Titan and Minuteman.
Jupiter-C, a direct descendant of the German A-4 (V-2) rocket, was designed, built, and launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) under the direction of Dr. Wernher Von Braun. 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. The Jupiter-C rocket was originally developed to test the ablative re-entry nose cone of the Jupiter IRBM, although its satellite-launching capabilities were recognized at the time it was designed.
The vehicle consists of a modified Redstone ballistic missile topped by three solid-propellant upper stages. The tankage of the Redstone was lengthened by eight feet 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.
Soviet Secret Missile Program
While the Soviet Union suffered somewhat of an embarrassment as U.S. forces removed the lion's share of German V-2 hardware from the Mittelwerk plant literally under their noses, the Soviets did not conclude World War II empty handed. While most of the German scientists and hardware were gone, the Soviets were able to secure tons of equipment and key German scientists Helmut Grottrup, Erich Putze and Werner Baum. These scientists were experts in guidance, production and propulsion, respectively. The Soviets also secured hundreds of lower echelon workers. Most importantly, the Soviet Union already possessed its own experts in rocketry, an equation that was lacking in the U.S. These scientists included A.G. Kostikov, inventor of the World War II Katyusha rocket, and Sergei P. Korolev, considered to be the father of modern Soviet rocketry.
Following World War II, the Soviets supervised renewed V-2 production at the Mittelwerk plant, which continued well into 1946. The Soviets also used V-2 rockets for initial post-war rocketry research. On October 22, 1946 all of the German scientists working for the Soviets were transported without warning by truck and train to Russia. A German Rocket Collective was soon established outside Moscow. There, the Germans went to work refining and improving the V-2 to create a similar, yet new, rocket. On March 15, 1947 a State Commission was formed to study the feasibility of producing long-range ballistic missiles. The State Commission recommended that the first logical step was an improved version of the V-2, which was already under development at the German Rocket Collective. The improved V-2 was first launched from Kapustin Yar on October 30, 1947 and achieved a range of 200 miles. The improved V-2 was followed by the Pobeda, a mobile ballistic missile with an impressive range of 500 miles. From that point on, German participation in the Soviet missile program declined rapidly. Most of the German scientists and workers were repatriated to Germany by the early 1950's. The last to be repatriated was lead scientist Helmut Grottrup, who returned to West Germany in November, 1953.
Many of the Germans were interrogated by U.S. intelligence, but the Soviets were very careful to restrict access of the Germans to only the missile programs they were directly involved in. In fact, next to no insight was given to the U.S. by the repatriated Germans into the state of Soviet rocketry. It was not well known in the U.S. exactly how advanced the Soviet missile threat actually was. Soviet ballistic missile research progressed quickly after World War II, and was in fact by the late 1950's dangerously ahead of the U.S.
The Soviet advantage over the U.S. was based on two major factors. First, the Soviet military settled on the development of ballistic missiles from the early days after World War II, and wasted no effort designing guided winged missiles which ultimately proved for the U.S. to be ineffective in light of advances in improved interceptor aircraft and anti-aircraft defenses. Simply stated, the Soviets had about a decade's head-start over the U.S. in the development of ballistic missile weapons. In addition, the Soviets were undeterred by the fact that nuclear weapons payloads were heavy and bulky. They simply developed huge rockets that could carry these heavy payloads.
Soviet ICBM's, R-1 through R-5
The R-1 was the Soviet production copy of the German V-2. Despite the threatening supervision of the program by Stalin's secret police chief, Beria, and the assistance of German rocket engineers, it took eight years for the Geman technology to be absorbed and the missile to be put into service. A resolution to put into production a Soviet-built copy of the V-2, the R-1, was issued on 14 April 1948. Aleksander Shcherbakov was responsible for seeing that a fifteen year technology gap was bridged. To accomplish this the resources of 13 research institutes and 35 factories were tapped. Glushko was tasked with producing the RD-100 copy of the V-2 engine. Prototypes had already begun factory tests at the end of 1947, with stand tests beginning in May 1948. R-1 test flight trials were accomplished swiftly - ten in 1948 and 20 in 1949. On 25 November 1950 the missile was accepted for service, with the first operational unit the 92nd brigade (BON RVGK) at Kapustin Yar. Things seemed to be going well, but getting the missile in production would be another matter.
Aside from the service version of the missile, variants were used for technology and scientific tests. From the fifth flight of the R-1A these were equipped with ejectable lateral containers
In field service the rocket required twenty vehicles and four kinds of liquid propellants for the main engine, turbines, and starter (liquid oxygen, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, permanganate catalyst). Six hours were required to prepare the rocket for launch, and CEP was only 1500 m. Another major objection of Red Army Generals - they didn't dare let the troops work with a rocket using alcohol for a propellant.
Nevertheless in December 1950 the first field R-1 unit was formed - the 23th brigade (BON RUGK). Each brigade was equipped with six launchers. In January 1951 the 23rd deployed to Kamishin in Volgograd oblast. Further deployments of this pathfinder unit were to Belokovorovich, Ukraine; Shyalyay, Lithuania; Dzhambul, Kazakhstan, and Ordzhonikidze, the Far East, the Primorsk area. The 77th and 90th brigades were formed at Lvov, Khmelnitskiy, and Zhitomir, Ukraine. In August 1958 they were transferred to the Land Forces. The number of units fielded were small, reflecting the long delay in getting the R-1 into production. The field equipment was designed to also be used for R-2 missiles, which quickly replaced the R-1 in the field units.
1951 The first launch of the "geophysical" rocket carrying live animals onboard.
The R-2 doubled the range of the R-1 and was equipped with a deadly radiological warhead. The ethyl alcohol used in the V-2 and R-1 was replaced by methyl alcohol in the R-2, eliminating the problem of the launch troops drinking up the rocket fuel. Aside from the basic military service version of the R-2, specialised variants included:
Versions of the R-2 for suborbital manned flights were studied by Korolev in 1956-1958, but it was decided instead to move directly to orbital flights of the Vostok. However some equipment tested on the R-2 found its way onto canine flights of Sputnik and Vostok.
The G-2 design objective was to create the first IRBM - to deliver a 1000 kg payload over a 2500 km range. The missile would use three V-2 derived engines with a total thrust of 100 tonnes. A variety of alternate configurations (R-12A through R-12K) were considered by the German team in Russia. These included parallel and consecutive staging, gimballed motors, and other innovations. The R-12K was particularly interesting because it represented a concept later used on the US Atlas missile - jettisoning of the two outboard engines at altitude to significantly improve range. The G-2 was given the secret designation R-6 and overt designation R-12 by the Russians.
Development of the long-range R-3 missile was authorised at the same time as the V-2-derived R-1 and R-2 rockets in April 1947. Supplemental authorisation was contained in a government decree of 14 April 1948.The specification was an order of magnitude leap from the other vehicles - to deliver a 3 tonne atomic bomb to any point in Europe from Soviet territory - a required range of 3000 km. To achieve this objective innovative technology was needed in every area of the missile design. Korolev was again in direct competition with the design to the same specification of the captured Germans (Groettrup's G-4).
In 1956, the Soviet of Ministers of the USSR approved the development of the scientific satellite. This project, Sputnik will use an R-7 ICBM to enter the space age by lifting a 50 lb payload into orbit.
