from BAMA to von Braun Team to NASA

In September 1958 I completed my final Co-Op secession with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) and returned to Tuscaloosa for my senior year.  If all goes well with my studies, I will receive a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physic and Mathematics in May of 1959.  It was a hard two semesters for I was taking a heavier load than normal to have enough hours to graduate.

In the spring semester of 1959 I began job interviews, including an interview with ABMA.   Co-Op students were not guaranteed a job with ABMA after graduation but were given preference when jobs were available.  By the first of May, I had in hand offers from RCA for their military electronics facility in Camden New Jersey and from Hughes Aircraft Corporation to work with electronic hardware in military jet aircraft in southern California.  Both of these offers were for exciting jobs with good pay and benefits, but the job I really wanted was in Huntsville Alabama with ABMA where I could be working with the Army's von Braun rocket team.

After my last class of the day, I headed to the post office.  On the way I was thinking that if I did not hear from ABMA this week, I would need to accept one of the offers.  I opened my mail box and extracted a letter from the U. S. Army that was post-marked “Redstone Arsenal”.  I ripped the letter open and---Hurrah!---I was going to be a part of the von Braun team.

When I returned to ABMA, there was still some debate in Washington as to whether the von Braun team would be part of the civilian space program known as NASA or remain with the Army and just provide rocketry support to NASA.  In a little more than a year the decision was made and in September 1960 we gathered in the parking lot of ABMA Headquarters to listen to  President Eisenhower conduct a ceremony which transferred the von Braun group and its facilities to the newly created George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.  At that time we were already working on the next generation of space vehicles.   The very successful REDSTONE and JUPITER military missile systems were to be combined into a multi-stage rocket called SATURN.  We were also preparing a REDSTONE Rocket to carry the first USA astronaut into space during the coming year.

Copyright 2012© Willie E. Weaver 

Early Space Explorer

    In the summer of 1958 after a semester of study at the University of Alabama, I was again working as a Co-op student at Redstone  Arsenal.  During this work session I was assigned to work as part of a team manning a telemeter trailer in support of tests on another Explorer Satellite which was to be launched soon atop of another Redstone rocket.

I remember watching various meters as the data from a vibration test of the satellite was recorded on long rolls of photographic paper enclosed in canisters.  When the tests ended, we took the canisters from the recorders and rushed them to the dark-room for developing.  

    As we spread the rolls of developed data (still not quite dry from the developing process) on the viewing table, Dr. van Allen, puffing a cloud of smoke from his pipe, would intently examine the various squiggles to determine how his satellite and its radiation detectors had survived the vibration test.  Later we would go through the same process as the operation of the satellite was verified in extremes of temperature.

    When we had short breaks from our hectic test schedule, Dr. James Van Allen enjoyed explaining the mechanisms and purpose of his experiments.  He was also very concerned that the radiation belt above the earth might mean that man would never be able to go into space.  The measurements to be made by instruments on this satellite would attempt to map that radiation belt.  If it could be determined that the radiation was limited to only certain areas, then there might still be a place in space for man and even for satellites that will make true global communication possible.

Two Van Allen Probes were flown and shed light on the radiation belts surrounding Earth.  This information allowed for the implementing of proper protection from the radiation for man and machine as further space exploration proceeded.

Copyright 2013© Willie E. Weaver