1957 (Cont.)
June 11
The first launch attempt of the Atlas was made at Cape Canaveral, Florida, but the missile exploded shortly after takeoff at an altitude of about 10,000 feet.[1]
June 20
Two NACA groups focused their efforts on the problems involved in manned space flight. One group concerned themselves with performance of aircraft at high speeds and altitudes and with rocket research; the other group, with problems associated with hypersonic flight and reentry.[2]
During the Month of July
A study was initiated by the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory on the use of solid-fuel upper stages to achieve a payload orbit with as simple a launch vehicle as possible. This was the beginning of the Scout test-vehicle concept.[3]
July-August
Alfred J. Eggers, Jr., of the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, worked out a semiballistic design for a manned reentry spacecraft.[4]
August 7
A Jupiter-C (test vehicle in the Jupiter missile development program), with a scale-model nose cone, was fired 1,200 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. The nose cone, an ablative type, reached a peak altitude of over 600 miles, and its recovery was one of the proving steps of the ablative reentry principle. The nose cone was displayed by President Eisenhower to a nation-wide television audience on November 7, 1957.[5][6][7]
September
The second Atlas launch vehicle was destroyed in a launching attempt at Cape Canaveral, Florida.[8]
October 4
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics launched Sputnik I, the first artificial earth satellite. This event galvanized interest and action on the part of the American public to support an active role in space research, technology, and exploration.[9][10]
- ↑ George Alexander, "Atlas Accuracy Improves as Test Program is Completed," Aviation Week and Space Technology, Feb. 25, 1963, p. 54.
- ↑ Study, NACA Research into Space, Dec. 1957.
- ↑ Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics: 1915-1960, p. 87.
- ↑ Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics: 1915-1960, p. 87.
- ↑ Army Capabilities in the Space Age, p. 26
- ↑ Grimwood, History of the Jupiter Missile System
- ↑ Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics: 1915-1960, p. 87.
- ↑ House Rpt. 67, 87th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 32.
- ↑ Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics: 1915-1960, p. 91
- ↑ Senate Hearings, 86th Congress, 2d Session, Missiles, Space, and Other Major Defense Matters, Feb. 2-4, 8-9, March 16, 1960, p. 331. Also at this time, many leaders, Dr. Wernher von Braun, for example, made speeches on the “Impact of Sputnik” to American audiences anxious to learn the meaning and to act to meet the requirement. For a concise statement on the subject see Appendix C, “The Public Impact of Early Satellite Launching” in Senate Rpt. 1014, Project Mercury: Man-in-Space Program of the NASA, p. 71.
