REDSTONE 
-The Rocket With The Right Stuff

On January 31, 1958, as Clark, another co-operative training student, and I rode through the hills of North Alabama, we strained to listen to the static filled radio newscasts for some hint of news about the launch of a REDSTONE Rocket carrying a satellite.  

After the launch of Sputnik-I and the failure of the Navy’s VANGUARD rocket, Dr. von Braun assured President Eisenhower that our team had the hardware available and could put up a satellite in short order.  That day, a launch attempt was under way at Cape Canaveral, Florida.  

It was with reluctance and regret that Clark and I had turned in our badges at 4:00 pm, checked out of Redstone Arsenal and headed back to Tuscaloosa for the new semester at the University of Alabama, but the University’s registration process waited for no one.  I had spent my last work day in the telemetry checkout station where I had worked many long shifts during the preceding months helping to prepare a REDSTONE rocket for this attempt to bring the U.S. space program even with the Russians.  

What newscasts we could hear, make no mention of a rocket launch.  We went by to see Clark’s mother in Birmingham.  She met us at he door, appearing very excited.  She quickly herded us to the  living room urging us to come see what they were showing on the television.  The REDSTONE Rocket launch had been successful and the EXPLORER-1  satellite was in orbit and sending back data.  The U. S. Army's Rocket Team had entered  the Space Age!

Copyright 2007© Willie E. Weaver 

All rights reserved. 

The Vanguard Rocket's Failure

On December 6, 1957, I was seated at the dinning table in Ma Miller’s Boarding House situated on West Clinton Avenue, Huntsville, Alabama, on the current site of the von Braun Civic Center. Mealtime was usually a rather noisy time with many different conversations among the 30-odd men seated at the two large tables, but that day everyone’s attention was on the scene being played out on the small black-and-white television set in the corner of the room.  

The Navy was making its attempt to launch a VANGUARD rocket with the USA’s IGY satellite.  It would not be the first into space but at least the USA could join the Russians in space exploration.  The final countdown continued and at “Zero” we saw the smoke and flame and then the liftoff.  Suddenly the screen was filled with the bright flash of a violent explosion and what was left of  VANGUARD fell back to the launch pad.  

Surprisingly, instead of sighs and moans of despair, a spontaneous cheer of elation arose in the room.  Everyone there realized that the Navy’s failure meant that the local missile team would now get its chance to redeem the honor of the USA.

Into Orbit

On October 4, 1957, as student member of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency's rocket checkout team, I was inside the tail section of a Redstone Rocket heating temperature sensors with a hand-held hair dryer.  This process was to verify the proper installation and operation of the many temperature sensors that were flown on the military rockets.  We used various other methods to check the operation of the other sensors, such as pressure, vibration and position, that were required to track the performance of the rockets once they were delivered to be used to either carry bombs or, hopefully, to place satellites into earth orbit.  I was getting into position to heat another sensor when I heard a commotion outside the rocket and was instructed come out and listen to an important announcement.

In the Spring of 1957, we had finished tests on a Redstone Rocket specifically outfitted to deliver a satellite into earth orbit for the “International Geophysical Year Program” (IGY).  That rocket and its cargo were then placed into storage because “Washington” had made the decision that the Navy and its missile program would have the privilege of being the first to place a USA satellite into orbit.

Everyone knew that the Russians had a fledgling missile program and had announced that they planned to participate in the IGY with a satellite of their own, but it had been assumed by all that the USA would be the first nation to successfully place an artificial satellite into earth orbit.   That assumption had just been shattered.  The news had quickly spread throughout Redstone Arsenal and the nation that the Russians had placed the world's first artificial satellite into orbit.  Now every 90 minutes we were reminded that the USA had lost the Race to Space, as we listened to the beeping from Sputnik-I bragging to the world about the Communist triumph.

SCHOOL DAZE

In the fall of 1953, Mr. Sims, our high school physics teacher, showed us how the mathematics that we had studied could be used to describe the orbits of the planets and even how  rockets will some day carry men to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.   Maybe those dreams of the Martian landscape are not so far fetched after all.

-----------------------------------------------------

In the spring of 1955, I stood beside Dr. Ferdinand Mitchell’s “Gravity-Well”.  I was there attending the University of Alabama’s  Open house for high school seniors.  The Gravity-Well was a large round wooden table whose top sloped from the edge to a hole in the center along an exponential curve.    He invited me to roll a cue ball with a slight velocity along the top of the table.  Instead of immediately rolling through the hole in the middle of the table, the cue ball began to orbit the hole with an elliptical curve that took it from deep within the hole and back near the edge of the table.  Dr. Mitchell explained that this apparatus was to demonstrate and study the movement of a satellite around another body in a gravitational field.  It was built as part of a government project.  When questioned, his only answer was that, we were entering a new era and that today’s students would see men exploring space.  Could it be possible for me to be a part of that exploration!

-----------------------------------------------------

In January of 1956, I was in the Physics 102 class at the University of Alabama trying to keep my mind on the lecture,   but I kept worrying that this might be my last semester in college.  My Dad was very sick and all of our meager family income was needed for household and medical expenses.  The professor ended the lecture early as Dr. Eric Rodgers, the head of the Physics Department, entered the  room.   Dr. Rodgers told us about a co-op program that the University had with the U. S. Army.  Under this program, physics students could alternate semesters of study with semesters of work with the von Braun rocket team at Redstone Arsenal.  Well, I  was not sure what a co-op was and I didn’t know where Redstone Arsenal was , but I did know who Werner von Braun was and I needed a job.  I signed up for the cooperative training program and was scheduled to began my first work period with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency on June 5th 1956.