THE SPACE RACE:EARLY HISTORY 1903 - 1958

Advance HistoryUnit:

Kitty Hawk North Carolina The Wright Brothers Had poor drag and lift on their gliders (1901-1902) Realized the caculus they were using was wrong – figured it out

themselves by building a wind tunnel Besides flying, had to invent how to fly – Three –axis – control

Roll – turning (wing warping) Elevator – up and down Yaw – side to side to prevent slipping (ruder)

First flight Dec 1903 – 120 ft – 12 secs Longest on that day was 852 feet 59 secs

Moved back to Ohio (cheaper) but less wind Had to make modifications to the Flyer II and III

Did not trust press so 1905-1906 stayed hidden and perfected everything – faced disbelief while hidden. “FLYERS or LIARS”

October 1905 flew for 38 min – did circles and figure eights and landed smoothly

Did not fly in 06 and 07 – worked on selling aircraft 1908 split up with Wilbur in France and Orville in US. Blew the French

away. Orville broke the 1 hour record with 62 min flight in Sept of 08. Wilbur died in 1912 of fever and Orville in 1948. In Orville’s lifetime he

saw the main mode of transportation go from horse and buggy to powered airliners.

Robert Goddard Was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and

inventor who is credited with creating and building the world’s first liquid fueled rocket. 1.6 miles high and 550 mph

214 patents Never got major funding like Braun

Ridiculed for fantasy – 1969, 41 years after he was ridiculed in the New York times, they published a 3 paragraph correction. Day after moon landing.

German and Russian spied on him (opened mail) Perfected gyroscopes, three axis control, and

steerable thrust When debriefed, Von Braun said, “Don't you know

about your own rocket pioneer? Dr. Goddard was ahead of us all.”

The Nazi’s Werner von Braun – German and American

rocket and space pioneer. Joined the Nazi’s and the SS. Built the A-4/V-2 Arrested by the Gestapo for having a

“defeatist” attitude. Saved by Albert Speer. SS given orders to kill him and his

colleagues if about to be captured. Escaped to Austria and captured by Americans.

Operation Paperclip OSS program to capture and interrogate

German scientists to the US. Later had their records rewritten to

expunge Nazi memberships and records. Then allowed to imigrate to US.

Von Braun did nothing until 1950 when started work on the Redstone ballistic missile

Redstone Rocket White Sands Proving Grounds – then

transferred to Huntsville Alabama Used a modified Redstone to launch our

first satellite into space (Explorer 1, 1958)

After Sputnik in 1957, NASA decided to utilize von Braun

Mercury – Redstone used to put first US men into space.

Sputnik Soviets take an early lead in the space race

successfully putting a satellite into orbit October 1957 Beeped for 21 days and lasted 3 months in

orbit Started the missile gap Eisenhower passed the National Defense

Education Act – a new emphasis on science, math and technology in school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sputnik_beep.ogg

Vanguard Failure Did not want von Braun involved in

because of his past He believed he could do it in 60 days Went with the Navy Vanguard instead Blew up – called kaputnik Successful on 4th try – Vanguard One still

in orbit today First successful three stage rocket (high)

Explorer I After Vanguard’s failure – von Braun

given permission to go ahead. Redstone Rocket called Juno 87 days to build 1/31/1958 – discovered the Van Allen

radiation belt Batteries lasted 4 months – re-entered in

1970.

NASA Started in 10/1/58 – National Aeronautics

Space Act Absorbed most military projects including

von Braun Eisenhower wanted civilian to promote

peaceful exploration of space Responsible for the Space Race

Questions ?