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The History of Spaceflight

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4 Introduction 1.2

the exploration of space itself, have just begun. These are

truly exciting activities for a new generation of space
mission engineers who can see further and do more. It’s
an exciting adventure.

1.2 The History of Spaceflight

Mike Gruntman,
University of Southern California

1.2.1 Humble Beginnings

The heavens had been attracting the imagination of
humans for millennia. Some even argue that ancient
texts, including the Old Testament, described spaceships
in the sky. Reaching the cosmos requires powerful rock-
ets. So, the first steps of the humans toward spaceflight
were in rocketry. For centuries an essentially interna-
Fig. 1-3. Nineteenth Century Rockets: Hale (front), Congreve
tional endeavor of the pursuit of spaceflight attracted (with the centrally mounted guiding stick), and skyrocket (back).
people from various lands who advanced the enabling [Scoffern, 1859; Gruntman, 2004]
science and technology.
Ancient Greeks observed the principle of jet propul- ing, and testing of a new type of spin-stabilized war rock-
sion more than 2,000 years ago. One thousand years later ets. (These rockets became known as the Hales, after
the first primitive rockets appeared in China and perhaps their inventor William Hale.) The US Army formed the
in India, later rediscovered in many other lands. A com- first missile unit, the Rocket and Mountain Howitzer bat-
bination of charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter—black pow- tery. The mass-produced new missiles quickly reached
der—propelled the missiles. Natural abundance of salt- the rocket battery deployed in Mexico with the American
peter in China and India facilitated the emergence of the expeditionary force. Thus the two military services suc-
first war rockets in these countries. ceeded in 1840s in a joint procurement and fielding of a
Rockets had established a foothold in Europe some new technologically advanced weapon system in less
time in the 13th century. The word ‘rocket’ likely origi- than one year.
nated from the ‘rocchetta,’ a diminutive of the Italian By the end of the 19th century, war rocketry had lost
word ‘rocca’ for distaff, a staff for holding the bunch of the competition to artillery with the introduction of rifled
flux or wool from which the thread is drawn by spinning. barrels, breech loading, and the Bessemer steel process.
The early 19th century witnessed a major step in per- At this time the writers stepped in and replaced the men
fecting the rocket. A British inventor, William Congreve, of sword as keepers of the interest in rocketry and space-
turned ineffective and erratic missiles into a modern flight.
weapon system with standardized and interchangeable Nobody captured public imagination in space adven-
parts. These British war rockets, known as the Congreves tures more than the French writer Jules Verne (See Fig.
(See Fig. 1-3), debuted during the Napoleonic wars. 1-4). His novels “put on fire” and motivated many young
Then brought across the Atlantic Ocean, the Congreves men who would decades later transform a dream of
bombarded Fort McHenry near Baltimore in 1813. Fran- spaceflight into a reality. Jules Verne’s classic novel
cis Scott Keys immortalized the deadly missiles in his From the Earth to the Moon (first published in 1865)
famous line “…And the rockets’ red glare…” in the became a seminal work on spaceflight.
American National Anthem. Early science fiction writers sent main characters on
War rocketry rapidly proliferated throughout Europe space voyages to satisfy their curiosity, as a bet, or to
and reached North and South Americas and Asia. The escape debts. Then, an American author, Edward Everett
young Chilean republic was among the first to employ Hale, published a novel The Brick Moon in 1870. The
the domestically-made rockets—in 1819—in the fight story described a launch of an artificial satellite into orbit
against its former colonial ruler, Spain. Many European along a meridian to help sailors at sea in determining
countries—particularly Austria, France, and Russia— their longitude, in the same way as the Moon aids in
established large-scale manufacturing of war rockets. determining latitude. It was the first description of an
The Russian army even built in 1834 an iron-clad subma- application satellite.
rine with a crew of 10 men which fired missiles from a
submerged position. 1.2.2 Great Pioneers
The Mexican War, 1846–1848, advanced rocketry
beyond an occasional experimentation in the United The late 19th century brought the realization that until
States. In a short period of a few months, the Army and the rocket was perfected there would be no trips through
the Navy completed the purchase, evaluation, prototyp- outer space, no landing on the Moon, and no visits to

Table 1-0, Fig. 1-3, Eq. 1-0

1.2 The History of Spaceflight 5

in rocketry. One of his rockets reached a 9,000 ft

(2,700 m) altitude in 1937. Many results of Goddard’s
work remained largely unknown to contemporary scien-
tists and engineers because of self-imposed secrecy,
caused in part by ridicule by the ignorant and arrogant
mainstream media.
Hermann Oberth, 1894–1989, published a detailed
design of a sophisticated rocket in his book The Rocket
into Interplanetary Space [Oberth, 1923]. He introduced
numerous ideas including staging, film cooling of engine
walls, and pressurization of propellant tanks. Oberth
played an important role in early practical development
of rocketry in Germany and provided inspiration for a
generation of European space enthusiasts.

1.2.3 Building the Foundation

Powerful rockets belonged to a category of inherently
Fig. 1-4. Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon—The future complex advanced technologies where a lonely creative
express. “Yes, gentleman,” continued the orator,” in spite of the
opinion of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the and gifted inventor could not succeed. Only concerted
human race upon this globe…we shall one day travel to the Moon, efforts of numerous well-organized professional scien-
the planets, and the stars…” [Horne, 1911; Gruntman, 2004] tists and engineers supported by significant resources
could lead to practical systems. The totalitarian states
other planets to meet possible inhabitants. A long period were first to marshal the necessary resources and orga-
followed when isolated visionaries and thinkers, includ- nize a large-scale development of ballistic missiles. In
ing amateurs, began practical work and sketched out the the Soviet Union, the military-sponsored Jet Propulsion
sinews of the spaceflight concept. Many “intellectuals” Scientific Research Institute (RNII) employed 400 engi-
of the day and assorted “competent authorities” dis- neers and technicians in a sprawling complex in Moscow
missed the idea of space travel as ridiculous. in the early 1930s. Later in the decade the Soviet pro-
A number of outstanding individuals at the end of the gram suffered from political purges and resumed its
19th century and the beginning of the 20th century laid growth after 1944.
the foundations of practical rocketry and spaceflight. The German Army stepped up its rocket effort in 1932
Four visionaries in 4 countries working under very by establishing a dedicated group that included Wernher
different conditions became the great pioneers of the von Braun. The German program grew immensely and
space age: the Russian Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky; the by 1942 produced the first truly modern ballistic missile
French Robert Esnault-Pelterie; the American Robert H. the A-4, better known as the V-2. The fueled A-4
Goddard; and the German Hermann Oberth. They con- weighed more than 12.5 metric tons and delivered a
tributed in unique ways to advancing the concept of 1,000 kg warhead to distances up to 300 km. The Ger-
spaceflight. man accomplishments also included mass production of
The writings of Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky (1857– the missiles. In a short period, under tremendous difficul-
1935) combined development of scientific and techno- ties of wartime, the industry built 5,800 A-4’s, with
logical ideas with the vision of space applications. While 2,000 fired operationally against England and liberated
he never built rockets, Tsiolkovsky inspired a generation parts of Europe. The rocket manufacturing widely used
of Soviet rocket enthusiasts, including Sergei P. Korolev slave labor from concentration camps, accompanied by
and Valentin P. Glushko, who achieved the first satellite. atrocities especially during the construction of the under-
An engineering graduate of the Sorbonne University, ground facilities.
Robert Esnault-Pelterie, 1881–1957, first gained fame as In the United States during WWII, rocketry concen-
an aviation pioneer who had introduced among other trated on jet assisted take off (JATO) of the airplanes and
things an enclosed fuselage, aileron, joystick for plane on barrage solid-propellant missiles. The first American
control, four-bladed propeller, and safety belt. His pres- private rocket enterprises Reaction Motors and Aerojet
tige brought the much-needed credibility to the emerging Engineering Corp. were formed in December 1941 and
space effort. It was Esnault-Pelterie who first published in March 1942, respectively. After the war, several cen-
a spaceflight-related article in a mainstream archival ters of rocketry emerged in the industry and government
physics journal in 1913; he also introduced the word under sponsorship of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
“astronautics” in the language of science. The US Army brought a number of captured German
With a Ph.D. degree in what we would call today V-2 missiles to the United States. Military personnel and
solid-state physics, Robert H. Goddard, 1882–1945, industrial contractors launched more than 60 V-2’s from
actually demonstrated the first liquid-propellant rocket the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico by 1951.
engine in 1926. Goddard achieved numerous other firsts Many missiles carried science payloads studying the
Table 1-0, Fig. 1-4, Eq. 1-0
6 Introduction 1.2

upper atmosphere, ionosphere, solar radiation, and cos- In 1946, the Air Force initiated development of a new
mic rays. These first rocket experiments gave birth to a test missile, the MX-774. The Convair (Consolidated
vibrant experimental space science. Subsequently, many Vultee Aircraft Corp.) team led by Karel J. (Charlie)
government and university scientists became energetic Bossart introduced many innovations in the MX-774
advocates of space exploration. missiles that reached an altitude of 30 miles. Based on
The US Army followed its century-long tradition of this early experience, Convair later developed the first
the arsenal system with significant in-house engineering American ICBM, the Atlas. The Atlas program, includ-
capabilities. By the early 1950s, it had concentrated the ing missile deployment became a truly national effort
development of ballistic missiles and emerging space that dwarfed the Manhattan Project of World War II.
activities at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. The Other major ballistic missile programs initiated in
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) managed 1950s included ICBMs Titan and Minuteman and Inter-
another important Army rocket center, the Jet Propulsion mediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Thor. The
Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, CA. The JPL grew out of Glenn L. Martin Company, Boeing Company, and Doug-
pioneering research and development programs from the las Aircraft Company led the development, as prime con-
group of Theodore von Kármán at Caltech. tractors, of these missiles, respectively. Aerojet and the
The Redstone Arsenal became the home to more than Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation
100 “imported” German rocketeers, headed by Wernher emerged as leading developers of liquid-propellant
von Braun. The Germans had come to work in the United rocket engines. The Navy selected the Lockheed Aircraft
States under contracts through Operation Paperclip. Corporation as the prime contractor for its submarine-
While von Braun’s rocketeers got the most publicity, the launched solid-propellant IRBM Polaris.
Paperclip program brought to the United States in total The Soviet government made rocket development a
more than 600 German specialists in various areas of sci- top national priority in 1946. The rocketeers first repro-
ence and technology. In contrast to the compact von duced the German V-2 and then proceeded with building
Braun’s group, the other scientists and engineers were larger and more capable ballistic missiles. Soviet rocket
dispersed among various American industrial and pioneers from the early 1930s Korolev and Glushko
research organizations. emerged as the chief designer of ballistic missile systems
The Army, the Air Force, and the Navy were carrying and the main developer of the enabling liquid-propellant
out essentially independent development programs in engines.
guided missiles, with some overlap, occasional coopera- Both the Soviet Union and United States pursued
tion, and determined rivalry. In 1956, Secretary of development of the ICBMs, R-7, and Atlas. These large
Defense Charles E. Wilson attempted to resolve the ballistic missiles called for new testing sites —the exist-
problem of duplication by defining the “roles and mis- ing American White Sands and the Soviet Kapustin Yar
sions” of the services. Consequently, the Air Force did not meet the requirements of safety and security.
asserted control over intercontinental warfare, with the Consequently, the United States established a new mis-
Army’s role reduced to shorter range missiles. sile test range at Cape Canaveral in Florida in 1949 and
The fateful roles-and-missions decision did not stop a later another site at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in
most active leader of the Army’s missile program, Gen- California in 1958. Cape Canaveral would subsequently
eral John B. Medaris, and von Braun from finding ways support space launches into low-inclination orbit while
to advance their visionary space agenda. In addition to Vandenberg would send satellites into polar orbit, espe-
such Army achievements as the development of the oper- cially important for reconnaissance payloads. The Soviet
ationally-deployed ballistic missiles Redstone and Jupi- Union initiated the construction of a new missile test site
ter in 1950s, they would succeed in launching the first at Tyuratam (now commonly known as Baikonur) in
American artificial satellite, Explorer I, to space. Only Kazakhstan in 1955 and another site later in Plesetsk.
by the end of 1950s, the Army had finally lost its pro-
grams in long-range ballistic missiles and space when the 1.2.4 The Breakthrough to Space
newly formed civilian space agency, the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration (NASA), took over In the 1950s, spaceflight advocates scattered among
and absorbed the JPL and von Braun’s team at Redstone. various parts of the US government, industry, and aca-
In contrast to the Army, the Navy and especially the demia pressed for the American satellite. The national
new service Air Force (formed in 1947) relied primarily security policies would shape the path to space.
on the contractors from the aircraft industry in their bal- Rapidly progressing development of long-range bal-
listic missile programs. In late 1940s and early 1950s, the listic missiles and nuclear weapons threatened devastat-
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with Glenn L. Martin ing consequences should the Cold War turn into a full-
Co. developed the Viking sounding rocket as a replace- scale military conflict. New technologies allowed no
ment of the dwindling supply of the captured V-2’s. This time for preparation for hostilities and mobilization and
program laid the foundation for Martin’s future contribu- made an intelligence failure such as Pearl Harbor abso-
tions to ballistic missiles that would include the Titan lutely unacceptable. Therefore, monitoring military
family of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, (ICBM) and developments of the adversary, with accurate knowledge
space launchers. of its offensive potential and deployment of forces,

Table 1-0, Fig. 1-4W, Eq. 1-0

1.2 The History of Spaceflight 7

became a key to national survival and (avoiding a fatal tion for the future NASA’s Spaceflight Tracking and
miscalculation,) reduced the risk of war. Data Network (STDN). Many optical stations around the
Obtaining accurate information about closed societies world would also observe the satellites by the specially
of the communist world presented a major challenge. designed Baker-Nunn telescope tracking cameras.
The perceived “bomber gap” and later the “missile gap” The Soviet Union focused its resources on demon-
clearly demonstrated the importance of such information strating the first ICBM. After the R-7 had successfully
for the national policies. Consequently, President flown for the full range, Korolev launched the world’s
Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized development of over- first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit on October 4,
head reconnaissance programs to be conducted in peace- 1957. Ironically, this Soviet success had finally resolved
time. The U-2 aircraft first overflew the Soviet Union in the lingering issue of the space overflight rights that so
1956, resolving the uncertainties of the bomber gap. concerned President Eisenhower: no country protested
Reconnaissance from space became a top priority for the overflight by the Soviet satellite, thus establishing the
President Eisenhower who considered rare and sporadic principle of freedom of space (see Fig. 1-5).
U-2 overflights only a temporary measure because of The second, much larger Soviet satellite with the dog
improving Soviet air defenses. In 1956, the Air Force Laika aboard successfully reached orbit on November 3,
selected Lockheed’s Missile Systems Division to build 1957. The Vanguard program had been steadily pro-
reconnaissance satellites. gressing but was not ready for launch yet. On November
The international legality and acceptability of over- 8, the Secretary of Defense gave the permission to the
flights of other countries by Earth-circling satellites— eager Army team led by Medaris and von Braun to also
freedom of space—was uncertain in the 1950s. The attempt launching satellites. On January 31, 1958, the
Eisenhower administration considered testing the princi- Army’s modified Jupiter C missile successfully placed
ple of freedom of space by launching a purely scientific the first American satellite Explorer I into orbit.
satellite critically important for establishing a precedent
enabling future space reconnaissance.
This was the time when scientists in many countries
were preparing for the International Geophysical Year
(IGY) to be conducted from July 1957–December 1958.
They planned comprehensive world-wide measurements
of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, geomagnetic field,
cosmic rays, and auroras. Space advocates emphasized
that artificial satellites could greatly advance such stud-
ies. Consequently, both the United States and the Soviet
Union announced their plans of placing into orbit artifi-
cial satellites for scientific purposes during the IGY.
Both countries succeeded.
President Eisenhower insisted on clear decoupling of
American scientific satellites from military applications
in order to first assert freedom of space. This national
security imperative determined the publicly visible path
to the satellite. In 1955, the US government selected the Fig. 1-5. Comparative Sizes and Masses of the Earth Satel-
NRL proposal to develop a new space launch vehicle and lites Sputnik 1, Explorer I, and Vanguard I [Gruntman, 2004].
a scientific satellite, both known as the Vanguard. The
choice of the new system was made over a more mature Subsequently the Vanguard launch vehicle deployed
technology of the Project Orbiter advocated by Army’s the Vanguard I satellite into orbit on March 17, 1958.
Medaris and von Braun. The Army proposed to use the Popular sentiments in the United States have sometimes
Jupiter C, an augmented Redstone ballistic missile. In blamed the Vanguard program for losing the competition
fact, a test launch of the Jupiter C on September 20, to the Soviet Union. It is grossly unfair. The Vanguard
1956, could have put a simple satellite into orbit had the program demonstrated a record fast development of a
Army been permitted to use a solid-propellant missile — new space launcher, with only 30 months from the vehi-
as it would later do launching the Explorer I—instead of cle authorization in August 1955 to the first successful
an inactive fourth stage. launch in March 1958. The Vanguard spacecraft remains
John P. Hagen led the Vanguard program with Glenn today the oldest man-made object in orbit, and it will
L. Martin Co. as the prime contractor of the launch vehi- reenter the atmosphere in a couple hundred years. We
cle and with NRL providing technical direction. The have time to find funding to bring the satellite back to the
Vanguard program also built scientific satellites and planet Earth for a place of honor in a museum.
established a process of calling for proposals and select- There was no technological gap between the Soviet
ing space science experiments. In addition, it deployed a Union and the United States in the beginning of the space
network of the Minitrack ground stations to detect and age. Being the first in launching the satellite was a matter
communicate with the satellites which laid the founda- of focus and national commitment. Fourteen months
Table 1-0, Fig. 1-5, Eq. 1-0
8 Introduction 1.2

after the launch of Sputnik, the United States had placed tant programs, such as space based navigation. The
spacecraft into orbit by 3 entirely different launchers Army preserved the responsibility for major elements of
developed by 3 different teams of government agencies missile defense.
and industrial contractors. (The Air Force’s Atlas Another national security program dealt with space
deployed the first communications satellite SCORE in reconnaissance and was directed jointly by the intelli-
December 1958.) gence community and the military. In 1960, President
The last years of the Eisenhower administration Eisenhower established a special office in the Depart-
shaped the structure of the American space program. The ment of Defense (DoD), staffed by military officers and
president established a new Advanced Research Projects government civilians, to direct space reconnaissance,
Agency (ARPA, the predecessor of DARPA), to fund separated from military procurement and hidden by an
and direct the growing national space effort. The secu- extra protective layer of secrecy. This organization
rity-conscious president resisted expansion of the gov- would become the National Reconnaissance Office
ernment programs but always supported advancement of (NRO) overseen by the Air Force and the CIA. The
spaceflight in the interests of national security. image intelligence satellite Corona achieved the first
Bending to powerful political forces Eisenhower successful overflight of the Soviet Union in August
reluctantly agreed to establish a new government agency 1960, returning images that effectively resolved the
responsible for a civilian effort in space. The president uncertainties of the perceived missile gap.
signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law President Eisenhower handed over to his successor in
which formed NASA on October 1, 1958. Within a short the White House a structure of the national space pro-
period of time, NASA subsumed the National Advisory gram that has essentially survived in its main features
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), Army’s Jet Pro- until the present day. NASA leads the civilian space
pulsion Laboratory and major elements of the ballistic effort. National security space consists of two main com-
missile program in Huntsville, and NRL’s Vanguard ponents. The services are responsible for military space
group. while the intelligence community and military directs
NASA vigorously embarked on scientific exploration gathering and processing of the intelligence information
of space, launching increasingly capable spacecraft to from space. While these 3 programs are sometimes
study the space environment and the Sun and creating viewed as separate, they all had originated from the early
space astronomy. The missions to flyby the Moon and, military space effort and they all have been interacting to
later, nearby planets followed. These first space missions varying degrees during the years.
began a new era of discovery that laid the foundation for
the flourishing American space science and planetary 1.2.5 Spacefaring Civilization
exploration of today. At the same time, NASA embarked The heating up competition in space with the Soviet
on preparation for human spaceflight. Union erupted into the public focus when the first man,
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, orbited the Earth on
April 12, 1961. President Kennedy responded by chal-
Rocketry Industry “Namescape” lenging the nation to land “a man on the Moon and
returning him safely [back] to the Earth.” The resulting
Merges and acquisition have significantly changed the
Apollo program culminated with astronauts Neil Arm-
“namescape” of rocket industry. Titan’s prime contractor,
strong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin making man’s first steps
the Martin Company, merged with Marietta in 1961,
on the Moon in July 1969.
forming Martin Marietta. Convair became Space System
The late 1950s and early 1960s witnessed emerging
Division of General Dynamics in 1954, known as General
commercial applications in space. The first transatlantic
Dynamics—Astronautics. Martin Marietta acquired
telephone cable had connected Europe and North Amer-
General Dynamics’ Space System Division in 1995 and
ica in 1956 to meet the increasing demand in communi-
then merged in the same year with Lockheed, forming
cations. Space offered a cost-competitive alternative, and
The Lockheed Martin Corporation. Thus both, the Atlas
industrial companies showed much interest and enthusi-
and the Titan families of space launchers ended up under
asm for it, especially AT&T, RCA, General Electric, and
the same corporate roof. Another important component of
Hughes Aircraft. The DoD supported the development of
Lockheed Martin’s rocket assets is the submarine-
space communications on the government side. It was
launched solid-propellant Tridents. Boeing added to its
not clear at the time whether satellites in low, medium, or
Minuteman missiles the Delta family of space launchers
geostationary orbits would offer the best solution. While
after acquiring McDonnell-Douglas in 1997.
geostationary satellites provided excellent coverage, the
Gruntman [2004], p. 253 technical challenges of building and deploying such sat-
ellites and their control had not yet been met.
Initially, the industry invested significant resources in
At the same time the military space program focused the development of space communications. The situation
on communications, early warning, command and con- drastically changed when President Kennedy signed the
trol, and support of military operations. The Air Force Communications Satellite Act in 1962. Now govern-
led this effort with the Navy engaged in selected impor- ment, including NASA, became a major player in

Table 1-0, Fig. 1-5W, Eq. 1-0

1.2 The History of Spaceflight 9

Fig. 1-6. Spectacular Growth of Communication Satellite Capabilities. Example of satellites developed by Hughes/Boeing
[Gruntman, 2008].

commercial space communications, with the authority to ules and costs further up. The government-regulated
regulate and to a significant extent dictate the develop- commercial space, dominated by the same industrial con-
ment. Consequently, the Communications Satellite tractors, could not develop a different culture.
(Comsat) Corporation was formed in 1963 to manage After landing twelve astronauts on the Moon, NASA
procurement of satellites for the international communi- brought to us spectacular achievements in space science
cations consortium Intelsat. and in exploration of the Solar system. Numerous space
The Hughes Aircraft Company demonstrated a prac- missions advanced our understanding of the Sun’s activ-
tical geostationary communication satellite with ity and the near-Earth environment. NASA spacecraft
launches of 3 test spin-stabilized Syncom satellites in visited all planets of the Solar system with the exception
1963–1964. As the technology progressed, several com- of Pluto*—the New Horizons mission is presently
panies introduced 3-axis stabilized geostationary satel- enroute to the latter.
lites. Since the beginning of the space age, satellite com- The Soviet Union established a permanent space sta-
munications have been dominating commercial space, tion, Mir, in low-Earth orbit. The American human space
with most of activities today concentrated in the direct- flight concentrated on the development of the Space
to-home TV broadcasting and fixed satellite services. Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). The
Figure 1-6 demonstrates the astounding increase in capa-
Space Shuttle carried astronauts to low-Earth orbit from
bilities of geostationary communication satellites with
1981 to 2011. The ISS, with a mass of about 400 metric
the example of one family of satellites built by Hughes,
tons, has the opportunity to demonstrate what humans
now part of the Boeing Company.
can do in space.
Military and reconnaissance satellites provided criti-
cally important capabilities essential for national sur- Today, space affects government, business, and cul-
vival. NASA missions, especially manned missions, were ture. Many countries project military power, commercial
highly visible and reflected on the nation’s international interests, and national image though space missions. It is
prestige, so important in the Cold War battles. As a result, a truly high-technology frontier, expensive and govern-
National Security Space (NSS) and NASA missions had ment-controlled or government-regulated. Space has
one feature in common: failure was not an option which become an integral part of everyday lives of people. We
inevitably led to a culture of building highly-reliable sys- are accustomed to weather forecasts based on space-
tems. Space missions were thus performance driven, with based sensors. Satellites deliver TV broadcasts to indi-
cost being of secondary importance. The consequent vidual homes. The Global Positioning System (GPS)
high-cost of the space undertaking led, in turn, to
increased government oversight which drove the sched- * Pluto is now officially a dwarf planet. See App. B.
Table 1-0, Fig. 1-6, Eq. 1-0
 10 Introduction 1.3

reaches hundreds of millions of users worldwide, guid- 1. Getting to space is really hard
ing drivers on the road, aircraft in the air, and hikers in
2. Rockets are a lousy way to get anywhere, but bet-
the mountains.
ter than any alternative we have available
After the end of the Cold War, the transformation of
space from a primarily strategic asset into increasingly 3. Space parts are nearly all unique
integrated tactical applications, supporting the war-
fighter, accelerated. NSS provides critically important This section addresses each of these and introduces
capabilities in command and control, communications, the idea of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) that are
reconnaissance, monitoring of international treaties, and often used to help manage the space development and
guiding precision munitions to targets. Missile defense acquisition process, but may, in some respects, contrib-
heavily relies on space sensors and communications for ute to the problem as well as the solution.
early warning and intercept guidance. NSS spends annu-
ally twice as much as NASA. 1.3.1 Getting to Space is Really Hard
The space enterprise has become a true international
endeavor. Seven countries joined the Soviet Union and The easiest place to get to in space, and the closest, is
United States in the elite club of nations that launched low Earth orbit (LEO), which is the space between the
their own satellites on their own space launchers: France top of the atmosphere at roughly 100 km and the begin-
(1965), Japan (1970), People’s Republic of China ning of the Van Allen radiation belts at about 1,000 km.
(1970), United Kingdom (1971), India (1980), Israel To get there, and stay there rather than fall back to Earth,
(1988), and Iran (2009). The European countries have we need to go up about 200 km, turn left, and accelerate
combined their efforts and launch their satellites today to 7.8 km/s. Taking into account the losses along the way
through the European Space Agency (ESA). Canada also caused primarily by gravity and atmospheric drag, we
conducts an active space program. Brazil has an active realistically need to provide a change in velocity, called
space program and it is only a question of time until it delta V,* of over 9 km/s. This is an extremely high veloc-
successfully launches its satellite. South Korea also pur- ity relative to any moving objects we have experience
sues development of space launch capabilities, with Rus- with. Commercial jet aircraft travel at about Mach 0.8
sia initially providing important parts of launch technol- (= 610 mph = 0.34 km/s). The muzzle velocity of a mod-
ogy. The secretive North Korea tries to launch a satellite. ern rifle with a high speed cartridge is quite a bit higher
In addition, numerous other countries bought and operate at around 4,000 fps (= 1.22 km/s), but still far short of the
various satellite systems. velocity we need of 9 km/s.
Very few countries presently match the American Modern launch vehicles have multiple stages, such
commitment to space exploration and space applications. that the first stage is dropped off after its fuel is used to
“Only France (and the old Soviet Union in the past) reduce the mass that is being accelerated, then the second
approaches the US space expenditures in terms of the stage is dropped off when it’s done, and so on. Consider
fraction of the gross domestic product (GDP). Most other this in the context of our high-speed rifle bullet at 4,000
industrialized countries (Europe and Japan) spend in fps. To increase the final speed, we’ll make our first
space, as fraction of GDP, 4 to 6 times less than the bullet large enough to hold another gun inside the first
United States.” [Gruntman, 2004, p. 462] People’s bullet, such that after you fire the first bullet, a gun pops
Republic of China and India are expanding their space out of that bullet and fires again, so that the second bullet
programs. The highly space-capable Russia is also is now going at 8,000 fps. This is basically what staging
increasing its space activities after the decline of the does for us. However, our rifle is so inefficient relative to
1990s. launch vehicles that we would have to add 6 larger rifles,
For many years, the United States has led the world in for a total of 8 consecutive rifles each contained in a bul-
space. The health and the future of the American space let fired from a larger rifle in order to get to the velocity
enterprise depend on the national commitment—there is we need. That very first rifle is going to have to be pretty
no limit to what we can do. President Kennedy observed big. (See Fig. 1-7.)
that “for while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day Another way to get a feel for the high velocities
be first [in space], we can guarantee that any failure to involved is to consider someone in a vacuum falling
make this effort [in space] will make us last…” Grunt- freely toward the Earth at 1 g (9.8 m/s2). It would take
man [2004, p.383]. 13 min of continuous falling to reach orbital velocity,
without any drag, gravity losses, or whatever.
1.3 Spaceflight Technology
* ΔV, using the Greek Δ (delta) is the standard math symbol for
Space is exceptionally expensive and nearly all a change in V, the velocity. Given the propensity of modern
spaceflight hardware is uniquely built for use in space or word processors and E-mail programs to mess up Greek let-
launch systems. This section addresses the question of ters, many people have found it easier to simply write out the
why this is the case and how space technology differs Greek, so a change in velocity in astronautics is often written
from non-space technology. There are several key ideas delta V. In this book we will usually write “delta V” in the
that are involved: text and ΔV in equations.

Table 1-0, Fig. 1-6W, Eq. 1-0

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