when spaceships circle the moon men will
peer into its craters we'll get our
first look at the Dark Side of the Moon
and someday it will be as familiar as
the side we see now spaceships will move
in closer to the Sun to study the source
of all the Earth's energy the first step
into space was planned by the scientists
conducting the International Geophysical
Year to carry out Space Studies the
scientific community called for an
unmanned satellite in an orbit above the
earth during the igy an 18-month period
of intense solar activity from July the
1st 1957 to December 31st 1958 - this
call to nations responded one was Russia
the other nation to launch an earth
satellite program for the igy was the
United States the American satellite
program was made the responsibility of
the naval research laboratory research
programs at NRL extend into many
scientific fields among them or
electronic miniaturization missile
tracking radio communications and radio
astronomy name to direct project
Vanguard was a man with wide experience
in radio astronomy dr. John P Hagen of
NRL NRL and the Martin company had
worked together on Viking a single stage
research rocket which had sent important
records for altitude and velocity on
September 23rd 1955 the Office of Naval
Research awarded Martin a contract to
design and build the rocket for a far
more complex mission a veteran of the
Viking program shoulders responsibility
for all phases of Martin's effort he
must get the job done and must get it
done during the IG wide
this is a tight schedule for all the
technical people on Vanguard men like
these assistant project engineers they
have ahead of them a difficult
assignment for the rocket must lift a
satellite to injection altitude point it
in the correct direction and impart to
it the velocity to keep it in orbit this
engineer heads the group that designs
the Vanguard rocket airframe it's many
parts small and large and it's ground
support equipment aerodynamics and
propulsion these problems lie in this
man's field the specialists and
structures must tackle the weight
problem he determines what materials are
light enough yet strong enough for the
job at hand the guidance and controls
engineer develops a guidance system to
tell the rocket if it is following
correct flight path and a control system
to carry out the commands of the
guidance system the engineer in charge
of testing has a double responsibility
he first sets up the test program at the
plant then he moves on to Cape Canaveral
and tackles the job of getting the
rocket ready for launching these are
young men in a young science to weld
these men and their groups into an
engineering team this is the job of the
project engineer the man in charge of
the technical phase of the rocket
program studies move ahead on the orbit
the environment in which the satellite
must live the lifetime of an orbit
depends on its perigee the point where
the satellite is closest to the earth
where the friction from the atmosphere
is greatest this was the goal set by NRL
in the contract an elliptical orbit with
a minimum perigee of 200 miles to ensure
this higher perigee the satellite should
be injected into orbit at an altitude of
300 miles at a velocity of 25,000 feet
per second
twenty-five thousand feet a second
that's a lot of velocity time four times
as much as Viking how many pounds of
thrust that we have in Viking twenty-one
thousand pound pound vanguard twenty
seven thousand pounds for the first
stage engine that's not much for this
mission Don enough we can do the job
with twenty seven thousand pounds
why use fifty or a hundred thousand well
because it's easier with fifty or a
hundred thousand Jack let's not lose
sight of the ground rules on this
project we're to make use of the best
engine available as of now it'll do the
job provided we come up with an
efficient design all right Don I'll buy
that learn to get the maximum energy out
of your thrust no matter what it is
alright and you're set whenever the high
thrust engines become available we'll
take the future when we come to it Jack
we have an immediate problem we have to
put a satellite up in time to help the
igy people there's two-and-a-half years
to do the job now here's what we're
going to do with Viking we had one of
the highest mass ratios ever produced
that rocket was eighty percent fuel with
Vanguard we're going for an even higher
mass ratio if it carries a higher
percentage of fuel than Viking we'll be
designing a fuel truck a fuel tank that
can fly this in effect is what we had to
design to produce the energy needed to
orbit a satellite we must build a rocket
that is by weight at least 90 percent
fuel
even with the best fuels available a
single stage rocket cannot give us all
the energy we must have but it can lift
us past the densest part of the
atmosphere and give us a vehicle already
moving at a high velocity when a second
stage takes over but though the second
stage can lift the vehicle to the
injection altitude of 300 miles it falls
far short of the orbital velocity needed
for this we must build a three-stage
rocket add a nose cone to protect the
satellite from aerodynamic heating
the result is a Vanguard configuration
that is if it holds up after the
aerodynamics group studies it and tests
it as a model in the wind tunnel only 20
inches long but it is the first Vanguard
model ready for Windtunnel tests at the
Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground the last
week of October 1955 wind tunnel data
tell the engineer where the structure
has to be extra strong where it can be
lightened with safety since the rocket
by weight must be 90 percent fuel the
structures engineer has about 10 percent
left for actual structure and he must
share this 10 percent with guidance
controls instrumentation engines and
with the satellite itself a 21 and a
half pound ball he must strike a
delicate balance he must find materials
strong enough for the hypersonic
vanguard mission yet light enough to
permit the highest percentage of fuel
ever carried in a large rocket the
thrust of the first stage engine
determines the Rockets weight unless the
fueled rocket weighs a safe figure below
27,000 pounds it will never get off the
ground the safe figure for Vanguard is
22,000 pounds on Viking the fins weighed
185 pounds
we saved weight right at the start with
a decision not to use fins on Vanguard
for the Viking program convinced us that
the gimballed engines made fins
unnecessary even though no large rocket
had ever been flown without fins to
stabilize its flight we save weight but
we make the job of the controls engineer
more exacting with fins Viking is a
stable rocket just as an arrow with
feathers is a stable arrow
Vanguard without fins is theoretically
unstable like an arrow without feathers
but vanguards flight must not be wobbly
its controls must keep its fight stable
on the way to the target but target for
vanguard is not a bull's-eye but rather
an altitude attitude and velocity that
we can hit only by following a flight
path worked out in detail in advance
this trajectory is different from that
of Viking but from Vikings journey
straight upward we learned the basic
principles we learn to control a rocket
in pitch and yaw by directing its thrust
vector and enroll by roll Jets the means
of sensing any deviation from the flight
path is the gyroscope but one gyro won't
do the job we must have one for pitch
one for you and one for roll each
spinning in a pre-arranged reference to
the rocket
if the rocket goes off course its
reference to the gyros changes and they
in turn send this information to the
electronic brains of the rocket the
autopilot housed in the top of the
second state the auto pilots job to
evaluate the message of the gyros and to
translate it into commands for
correction set out to roll jets under
the actuators which control the
direction of the Rockets thrust here is
a rocket engine designed to Martin's
specifications the propulsion engineer
must work always with chemicals in which
are locked explosive reserves of energy
in the first stage engine we work with
simple familiar chemicals for the fuel
pump concentrated hydrogen peroxide for
the oxidizer liquid oxygen and for the
fuel kerosene a refined version of the
common household coal oil the kind and
earlier generation bought at the general
store at the same time the best fuel
available for this type of engine in the
second stage there is nothing simple or
ordinary about the propellant quite
inhibited fuming nitric acid is the
oxidizer the fuel is unsymmetrical
dimethyl hydrazine the chemical is
complex as its named for the second
stage this combination is made to order
the second stage engine must fire from
high in the air where failure to ignite
leaves us with no second chance so for
the oxidizer fuel combination we use two
chemicals that permit no misfire because
they ignite on contact in the third
stage we turn from liquid fuels to a
solid propellant rocket similar in many
ways to those which boost missiles into
the air in the early days of the
contract work moves forward on many
levels aerodynamics propulsion
structures controls design all in a
constantly changing give-and-take kind
of interdependence all working toward
the day when ideas on paper become
hardware for testing and when that day
comes test facilities under construction
will have to be ready we build a
structural test tower and a block house
from which we conduct pressurization and
controls tests we build a tower for the
final vertical checkouts before shipping
the rocket to Florida for
from Cape Canaveral this bolt has a big
job to do for Vanguard explosive volts
separate the first stage from the rest
of the rocket once its propellant is
exhausted the first stage is dead weight
a luxury this exacting program cannot
afford important this weight saving is
just as important is the way we save
this weight unless we get a good clean
separation Vanguard will be knocked off
course for a clean job
all six explosive bolts must fire at the
same instant with the second stage the
separation procedure is different and
even more critical the second stage
houses the guidance and controls package
if the third stage is knocked off course
during separation no further Corrections
can be made with a clean separation the
third stage can continue on the correct
flight path but to stabilize it in
flight it must be spun like a rifle
bullet here is the sequence when the
rocket coasts up to peak altitude the
coasting time computer sends the fire
command to two tiny rocket motors which
spin the turntable then retro rockets
fire in reverse and slow down the second
stage at this point the third stage
spins right at the top of the second
stage and is ignited for its final
thrust
the wobble here is a predicted test
condition and will not be a factor in
actual flight firings
in Florida two testing goes on for
project Vanguard at the Air Force
missile test center from Cape Canaveral
the Air Force the Army and the Navy fire
missiles and rockets out over downrange
tracking stations stretching 5,000 miles
into the South Atlantic
the field crew makes ready to launch
Viking number 13 designated tv0
in the vanguard test program the purpose
of the test chiefly to evaluate NRL
tracking and telemeter equipment to be
used later in the programme preparations
start in daylight for a large set to go
on the night of December 7th 1956
when the returns are in the launch is a
success tracking and telemetry both
check out in satisfactory fashion the
altitude 110 miles impact point 170
miles downrange at the designated point
near the Grand Bahama Island in January
of 1957 with the start of the
International Geophysical Year only six
months away the wait situation was under
control less than 4% of the total
weightless structure and even better
mass ratio than Viking by using
magnesium alloy where possible instead
of aluminum alloy we saved 39 pounds in
the first stage and 14 in the second we
had a rocket that was light and strong
there is a difficult assignment ahead
for the first stage engine designed by
General Electric and static tested at
Malta test station in upstate New York
this engine must lift an 11 ton vehicle
off the launch pad and propel it some 36
miles upward at burnout the vehicle
should be traveling at least 5,500 feet
per second to do its job this engine
must burn for close to 150 seconds twice
as long as the old v2 rockets from tanks
above the engine fuel is pumped into the
thrust chamber which will encounter some
of the conditions it will face in flight
fuel flow mixture pressure and
temperature these are all things that
must be checked out from within the
blockhouse here's the crash here comes
the cow coming up on X minus 35 seconds
thanks - 35 seconds mark coming up fine
X - 30 seconds X - 30 seconds
mark secondary emergency water is iron
coming up fine X - 25 seconds mark
emergency shutdown power check coming up
on X minus 20 seconds mark Black's
winners clothes
pressurizing life's tank X - 15 seconds
mark 14:38 Levin 10 gas verges on 8 7 6
5 4 3 2
one fire igniter spring first fire main
stage was one plus two plus three plus
four plus five but six but seven plus
eight plus nine plus ten
but 15
but 20
about 25
plus 30
about 35
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 allah
the second-stage engine and tanks are
built by the Aerojet general corporation
at Azusa California the tanks contain
white inhibited fuming nitric acid an
unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine this
engine will take over after the vehicle
is about 36 miles up it must produce
7,500 pounds of thrust and burn for
approximately 120 seconds it must carry
Vanguard to peak altitude at the same
time increase the Rockets velocity to
13,000 feet per second
test areas for rocket power plants must
be isolated spots at Redlands California
the grand central rocket company bills
and tests a solid propellant rocket
which comprises the entire third stage
this stage is small compared to the
other two only five feet long less than
one-tenth the length of the overall
rocket since it must spin in flight the
third stage motor is rotated at flight
speed to test it for balance the flag
goes up
data reduction tells whether or not the
third stage engine is ready to be
shipped to Florida there will be placed
on top of Viking number 14 and fired as
part of an actual launch the combination
will become TV one a rocket to test
Vanguard third stage propulsion unit
under flight conditions
the tape recording brought back from the
blockhouse draws groups of engineers who
listened in on the launch of TV one and
the successful separation 120 miles up
but there's a divide
they have reason to be pleased data on
third stage performance was so complete
that NRL permitted a change in the test
program instrumentation could be taken
out of the nose cone and in its place
could be substituted a small test
satellite more tests crowd a busy
program pressurization systems must be
checked out and to keep on schedule
testing goes on by day and by night
control testing continues pitch and your
jets must be checked out thoroughly
after second stage burnout when the
rocket is in the critical coasting
flight phase these Jets will control the
vehicle in pitch and yaw we tip the test
ring to simulate the vehicle veering off
course and then we see if the Jets can
return it to the flight path and
stabilize it first stage roll jets keep
the heavily loaded rocket from rotating
in flight for this test we work with the
same chemical the field crews will use
later and with a chemical as corrosive
as concentrated hydrogen peroxide we
take the same safety precautions the
principle of the roll Jets is a simple
one if the rocket starts to roll in one
direction from a roll jet in the
opposite direction we exhaust high
temperature steam from decomposing
hydrogen peroxide when these forces are
in balance again the roll is arrested
the test is completed
to save still more weight the nosecone
must be discarded as soon as its work is
done the two halves of the cone are held
together by an explosive bolt housed in
a fitting which acts as a blast shield
and contains a coil spring the small
satellite for the test launches and the
larger satellites to be used later
both of these are protected from
aerodynamic heating by the nose cone the
tip of the nose cone is solid titanium
the rest phenolic asbestos molded at low
pressure to keep the volatile zin the
phenolic from blistering the skin
between 44 and 60 miles up the nose of
the rocket will encounter the highest
temperature any external part of the
rocket will have to withstand 2,750
degrees Fahrenheit but past sixty miles
the atmosphere thins out aerodynamic
heating ceases to be a problem the
antennas and the delicate
instrumentation of the satellite no
longer need a protecting cone separation
must be clean so that antennas are not
damaged and it must be quick so that the
cone halves clear the onrushing rocket
scientists at NRL also face a weight
problem in designing a satellite that
can weigh no more than 21 and a half
pounds all electronic equipment in the
satellite is subminiature eyes the radio
transmitter weighs only thirteen ounces
yet it must send back a signal the
tracking stations can follow as the
satellite orbits around the earth there
will be several types of satellites
equipped with instrumentation for many
scientific investigations they will
study atmospheric density temperature
and pressure at high altitudes cosmic
ray intensity the total magnetic field
the changing patterns of the clouds over
the earth the lyman-alpha satellite can
study the effect of solar activity on
radio communications a large solar flare
erupts with the power of a million
h-bombs it's flash spreads over hundreds
of millions of square miles
simultaneously on the earth 93 million
miles away
shortwave reception fades out sometimes
for hours to gather data on how solar
activity can disrupt radio
communications so promptly is the job of
the lyman-alpha satellite
we interrupt this program to bring you a
special bulletin from The Associated
Press London a Moscow radio said tonight
that Russia had launched an earth
satellite the broadcast was heard in
London the announcement was made in an
English language broadcast we return you
now to the scheduled program as
developments occur we will pass on to
you the latest news book the effect in
this country is immediate families
gather in their backyards to watch the
skies at phylite and at sunrise and for
vanguard the pressure begins to mount
next on the schedule is tv2 set to go on
a cloudy overcast October day this is
the full vanguard configuration but the
internal components are not complete
there is no satellite and the second and
third stages are dummies
this is a limited area test to check out
the Rockets aerodynamic characteristics
and the performance of the first-stage
propulsion system a successful flight
the third in the vanguard program three
for three but not one of the three tests
combined enough of the functions of the
full three-stage rocket to permit even
an attempt at putting a satellite into
space
dawn December 4th 1957 this is the time
set to fire TV 3 the first full dress
Vanguard complete with three and a
quarter pound satellite but the winds
blew hard 20 miles an hour a little
higher than the 17 mile an hour limit
the rocket moves slowly as it first
lifts off the ground
a dangerous interval if a sudden wind
hits
till the crew were hoping for a break in
the weather but there are other troubles
particularly a leak in the liquid oxygen
disconnect valve with the temperature of
270 degrees below zero liquid oxygen is
treacherous to handle test 1 988 holding
at t-minus 50 minutes has been scrubbed
repeat test 1 988 has been scrubbed the
next guy comes the second of December
flight analysis studies pinpoint the
cause of failure insufficient pressure
in the first stage fuel system on
January 22nd Vanguard is scheduled to
try again but a multitude of technical
problems combined with the weather to
block the launch of tv3 back up after
the gray clouds and rain
the brilliant Florida Sun shone again on
Cape Canaveral and it shone - on
America's hopes for sending up a
satellite to join Sputnik on January
31st the Army's Jupiter sea took off
from the Cape and we had our satellite
the first order of business
congratulations to the army the night of
February the 5th TV 3 back up makes
another tribe
at 20,000 feet the control system fails
in the rocket tumbles and breaks apart
the launch date for TV for st. Patrick's
Day maybe that's all we need a little
Irish luck
tv4 is scheduled to go at 7:00 a.m.
reason enough to be in early that Monday
morning to await word from the Cape at a
time like this where are the thoughts of
an engineer who's worked on this project
right from the start
does he remember how he studied
instrumentation data to try to find
white ev3 back up went out of control or
does he think back to TV 3 does he
remember the tests that worked perfectly
only to be reminded of all the things
that must work perfectly for a
successful flight or does he remember
the nose cone separation test that
didn't work and realize again that any
flight can fail from a phony wire a
leaky valve or an explosive bolt that
fires too late or too soon at a time
like this what does an engineer think of
he thinks the design of this rocket is
sound
he knows it's been designed to do its
job more efficiently more economically
than any other rocket ever built he
knows we learned a great deal from the
two failures we've increased the fuel
pressure we've beefed up the controls
can area we've utilized parallel wiring
from the controls to the actuators
but until the first satellite is up he
worries
at the Cape the rocket countdown moves
along without delay 25 pages long the
countdown spells out each step in the
vanguard launch spells out when a task
must be started when it must be
completed
with TV for it is in effect two
countdowns the first is seven hours of
servicing and checkouts the day before
launch then after an eight-hour rest
period the crew goes back into action
for the final six hours
whether checks occur throughout the
countdown these are the responsibilities
of the air force missile test center the
range must also maintain close
coordination between central control and
tracking stations on the downrange
island
at t-minus 70 minutes
all major fueling is complete the crew
gets ready for the gantry to pull back
from the rocket
another weather check the wind
satisfactory the range intensifies its
warnings to any boats that may be in the
danger area either near the Cape or one
of the impact areas down rain
that's number 438 time is running
t-minus 35 minutes
this is the danger period the igniter is
being armed and the last man to leave
the rocket heads for the blockhouse from
this point on all aspects of the firing
must be conducted from within the
blockhouse
this is the time for roadblocks at all
telemetry ground stations and for
silence in the blockhouse
and I marked the time will be t minus
120 seconds
March - one to zero seconds tella
metering is ready radar stations are set
for the launch optical tracking is ready
1513
20 seconds 25 seconds lost 30 seconds
about 35 seconds
one for you
about 45 seconds
that's 50 seconds
as the rocket climbs farther and farther
away from the earthbound tracking
instruments let us look at Vanguard now
from an imaginary spot out in space the
TV for first stage engine burns for 145
seconds it lifts the vehicle to 41 miles
and to a velocity of 5,000 836 feet per
second and burnout
at 172 seconds as planned in the Rockets
program the nose cone pops off the
satellites transmitter exposed to light
and air starts sending its signal back
altitude
74 miles TV 4 second stage delivers its
thrust for 122 seconds at burnout the
rocket is 175 miles up traveling at
12,000 675 feet per second
Vanguard coasts up to peak altitude and
then 405 miles up the third stage is
ignited
the satellite is sprung clear
now comes a period of waiting up to this
moment Vanguard is a rocket that has
done its job
instrumentation tells us it has produced
the velocity for an orbit
instrumentation has not told us if it
has produced the direction for an orbit
at NRL the Vanguard Control Centre
awaits word from the tracking Center at
San Diego
134 minutes this was the time it took
for vanguards first trip around the
earth satellites highest speed 26,000
and 80 feet per second its Apogee two
thousand four hundred and sixty two
miles out in space its perigee four
hundred and five miles above the earth
its life expectancy two hundred years
the first Vanguard satellite will be
orbiting the earth when the Space Age it
helped foretell becomes reality
