hello i'm lynn bondurant your host for
our series 25 years of progress
during this 13 part series we see some
of the highlights of nasa the national
aeronautics and space administration
since its official founding on october 1
1958.
what is happening in other american
science and medicine the year before
nasa is born
well
1957 is the year the american cancer
society reports a high correlation
between cigarette smoking and lung
cancer
and new element nubellium 102 is
disclosed by the argonne national
laboratory in lamont illinois
and overseas on october 4 1957
the soviet union launches sputnik 1 the
first artificial satellite
the soviets launch is for the
international geophysical year or igy
the geophysical year is 18 months from
july 1957 to december 1958
more than 70 nations and as many as 30
000 scientists cooperate to investigate
the world and its environment
sputnik one concerns americans because
of far-reaching military and technical
implications of the launch
less than a month after the first
sputnik the russians launch a second
sputnik which weighs about a half a ton
and carries a dog as a passenger
the second sputnik causes even more
concern in america because of the large
size of the satellite
during igy the united states plans to
launch a vanguard satellite which weighs
just a little over three pounds
the attempt to launch the vanguard on
december 6 1957
ends in failure and a ball of flame and
wreckage
t keith glennon is the first
administrator of nasa
he is asked why nasa was formed
that's a
fairly
easy question to answer
sputnik
on october 4th 1957 as i recall
the russians
launched a
fairly heavy object
into orbit
and that caught us really by surprise
the vanguard project had gotten underway
in 1955 as i recall it uh part of the
igy program international geophysical
year program but it wasn't anywhere near
uh ready
they had
i think scheduled some launches late
that year
that is in 1958
but it wasn't clear that they were going
to be able to fly them
there was another
competitor which had really never been
recognized that was the army
with their
jupiter
which together with some
upper stage
solid rockets developed by the jet
propulsion laboratory in
california
finally was the
vehicle which was which launched a
satellite for the us
early in 1959
and the satellite was called explorer
one
let's go back to after sputnik success
and vanguard spectacular failure
when major general john medeiros and dr
verner von braun and their team at the
army redstone arsenal are given their
long sought chance
a go-ahead to launch an american
satellite
they will use their flight proven
jupiter c rocket launcher
we are at cape canaveral in late january
1958
as the covered satellite is placed atop
the jupiter c poised on pad 26 for
firing
explorer one is to be about 30 pounds in
orbit
severe winds and law force a two-day
postponement
then on january 31st 1958 the united
states answers the soviet challenge in
space
explorer makes a major discovery a
radiation belt around the earth
dr james van allen of the university of
iowa identifies the region
the discovery of the van allen belt is
an important finding of the
international geophysical year
during a satellite television program
broadcast in 1978
dr ernst stewlinger director of science
for dr verner von braun
makes this statement about the launch of
explorer one
it was a gate
that opened into a new land
we hoped at that time
that we will make progress
and
achieve many more things in space
beyond launching a small satellite
i
want to be honest though and say that at
that time we did even not
think it possible that 20 years later
there may have been 12 men
walking on the moon and coming back to
earth
in good shape
many of the dreams which we had at that
time
were fulfilled
but many other dreams
which
meant many many achievements were
accomplished which we even did not dare
to dream at that time
however when we look forward now
toward the next 20 years i have the
feeling that the best is yet to come
the united states space effort before
the launch of explorer 1 is fragmented
navy army air force national science
academy and naca
president eisenhower appoints james
killian to be science advisor just after
the first sputnik launch
keith glennon recollects the writing of
the space act which forms nasa my
recollection would be that mr killian
who was the president's science advisor
had been appointed almost immediately
following the
launch of sputnik
and psac the president's science
advisory committee and i suspect
mr lyndon johnson on the hill
did a sort of a
cooperative job in putting together the
space act
they had
as a model
the atomic energy act
and indeed if you compare the two you
find
a good deal of similarity in many of the
clauses in the two acts
well what were the major implications of
the space act
they simply said that we were to
pursue
the development of
activities in space
for the benefit of all mankind
we were to
do it as a civilian agency
we were to be uh responsive to the
military in the sense that
if we found in our developments
some
gadgets some uh information that would
be of value to the military
we are bound to give it to them and that
that was really the
the thrust of this
act
we were also uh
told that we should
pursue international activities and this
is i think an extension of this for the
benefit of all mankind
the space act is signed into law by
president eisenhower on july 29 1958 and
on october 1 1958
nasa comes into being
glennon recalls eisenhower's feelings
about space
he was not a space cadet he used to say
as he looked over his shoulder and said
you know keith that moon's been there a
long time it's going to be there are
great many eons yet and we'll get there
one day but it isn't necessary we break
our necks and break the budget to get
there now okay what about congressional
support at the time
congressional support was really very
good as a matter of fact they were
pushing us
i don't think in my 20 months there that
i ever had a budget proposed to them
that they didn't want to add something
to
my
stock answer was i have
studied this we've presented you with a
budget which is what we think we can
usefully use
if we need any more
you may be certain i'll come right back
to you
that seemed to satisfy them
before nasa is born keith glennon is
president of case institute of
technology and former commissioner of
the atomic energy commission
then eisenhower nominates him to be
first nasa administrator in august 1958
with dr hugh dryden as deputy and nasa
is formed from the national advisory
committee for aeronautics glennon
explains
and we did inherit uh the
national advisory committee for
aeronautics
operation
uh
naca as it was then called of which
lewis
laboratories would won
there were uh
four or five such laboratories three big
ones ames langley and lewis
and one at wallops island in virginia
and one out in edwards air force base in
california
but
we had 8 000
well-trained loyal dedicated
people
in naca
and they formed
the base on which we erected
nasa so we were very well endowed
naca was formed in 1915 to supervise and
direct the scientific study of the
problems of flight with a view to their
practical solution
naca was required to direct and conduct
research and experiments in aeronautics
the committee was responsible for many
of the advances in u.s aviation through
1958
some space type research is done in
later years but emphasis was on airplane
research
again glennon tells us what happened in
naca space research naca had
been doing development work largely at
langley as i recall it
on the shape of the capsule that might
be used
in a an up and down flight like
actually mercury started out to be and
finally into an orbit
the
problems of
trying to get
adequately
capable people in a variety of fields
meant that we had to look
other than in naca
and
it became apparent very early on that
our real limitations in the launch
vehicle business the booster rocket as
we then called
we really didn't have any
we had been using sounding rockets small
things that went up and
accumulated information
and
telemetered it back to the united to the
ground but we didn't have anything it
really would lift very much
with any degree of of surety
so
i guess it was in probably in november
might have been late october of
1958
that i made a trip to um
to
huntsville with
hugh dryden my deputy and one of the
very very great men in this
space program his name
cannot and will not ever be forgotten
we
came back
it's clear that von braun
had
a real
strong team there very capable we did
try to get that
laboratory or part of it i didn't want
the whole thing
they had work going on for the army the
pershing missile wasn't in
development at the time
and they were they had as their
really scientific support the jet
propulsion laboratory managed by the
caltech out on the west coast
near pasadena
dr glennon is successful in his effort
to continue the job of building the new
nasa organization
officials transfer jpl the jet
propulsion laboratory in pasadena to
nasa and the role of the california
institute of technology as jpl manager
continues about a year later officials
transfer a large segment of the army
operation at huntsville to nasa and
workers build it into the marshall space
flight center
only a week after nasa comes to life dr
glennon approves the first u.s manned
space flight program
project mercury
scientists developed the mercury capsule
shape through tests
workers do wind tunnel tests as small
and large scale models covering speeds
from zero to eighteen thousand miles per
hour
researchers fired small models of the
capsule in the supersonic pre-flight
ballistic gun range
the gun sends the one-inch model down a
30-foot instrumented range of recording
stations
the model goes 10 000 miles per hour
as a model speeds down the gun range
barrel photographs and shadow graphs are
taken
this shadow graph shows airflow around
the model
workers develop boilerplate versions of
the mercury capsules for tests
this first test is a parachute drop test
from an air force c-130
the capsule slides out of the plane's
cargo door on a sled
the sled releases
a charge ejects a drogue parachute
not only is nasa working on manned space
travel but from early on scientists
launched space science probes
workers launched the pioneer 1 probe
toward the moon about a week after nasa
comes into being
a lunar tv scanner is a board
because of an error in burnout velocity
the probe does not reach the moon but
reaches an altitude of almost 71 000
miles and the craft re-enters the
earth's atmosphere over the south
pacific on october 12 1958
glennon remembers that first pioneer
i guess
we
sort of broke our pick on some of those
i recall
those were the pioneers as i recall it
and
i recall how how
overjoyed we were
when we could talk to that
little bit of a thing it's about this
big
so passion
uh 200 000 miles out in space and get
the information back
it never did reach the moon or go into
orbit around the moon it failed and fell
back to earth
but at the same time the soviets could
never talk to their birds more than 10
000 miles up
so we were beginning to get a little
sense that we were doing things right
that we were getting better all the time
and that was indeed the the objective of
nasa in those days
push the state of the art as hard as you
could
but don't waste your muscle
the united states tries 37 satellite
launches by december 1959
less than a third are successful
as a result nasa begins to instill a new
sense of rigid quality control
to check
and check and check again rocket
components wells
valves pumps materials and so on over
time the quality control program works
in other areas of science and
engineering the first domestic jet
airline service begins between new york
and miami on december 10 1958
and in august 1959 plans to explore
antarctica in 1959 and 1960 are
announced in september 1959 severo
ochawa and arthur kornberg received the
nobel prize in medicine for chemical
heredity work
meanwhile the first seven u.s astronauts
are chosen
early in 1959 nasa selects a team of
seven engineer pilots for project
mercury
m scott carpenter l gordon cooper
john glenn
virgil grissom
walter sharrar
alan shepard
and donald slayton
the astronauts prepare for flight
after two hours the astronaut comes out
of a mold used to make a flight couch to
fit his body shape
early on veteran test pilots look down
on the role of the pilot in project
mercury but the mercury pilot plays an
active role
he controls the capsule's attitude and
pitch roll and yaw as well as operating
navigation and communication systems in
all mercury flights the pilot proves to
be essential to the success of the
mission he operates all primary flight
controls and initiates retro rockets to
fire beginning the descent to a landing
whirling in a centrifuge cab astronauts
learn important lessons about how they
react to the g-loads of emergency aborts
meanwhile workers test an escape system
for the early mercury capsule
the pilot must be able to escape from
the mercury launch site in case of an
emergency
in this unmanned test a 16-foot tower
with a solid rocket sends the capsule
safely away
during this test a rhesus monkey is
aboard
at more than 300 miles per hour pressure
sensing devices start the escape
extensive mercury program research and
development continues
workers launch a big joe mercury test
capsule nearly into orbit to test
re-entry into the earth's atmosphere
an atlas booster carries the capsule to
an altitude of 100 miles and nearly to
orbital speed
from the recovery ships the capsule
appears as a flaming fireball as it
streaks back into the atmosphere
patrol aircraft fly to the impact area
and pick up the capsule's recovery
signals
two destroyers race to the area
the navy ship strong makes the pickup
the capsule survives its reentry in
excellent condition
other areas of the space program are
successful in 1959
by august 10 of the 17 launches are good
please clear the launching area
also in august nasa launches an explorer
6 which functions well in all respects
explorer 6 detects a large ring of
electrical current circulating the earth
during this first program of our 13 part
series we've seen how the launch of
sputnik in late 1957
encouraged the birth of nasa in october
1958.
early nasa projects continue through
1959
lessons learned from early difficulties
lead us to ever more successful
performance
me
please clear the launching area
next program we pick up the nasa saga in
1960 when goals are still being set
i'm lynn bondurant
lights are correct the ready light is on
he checked mercury umbilical
oil evacuated
hmm
good
columbia houston your go at 40.
whew
um
hello i'm lynn bondurant your host of
our series 25 years of progress
during this second program we cover 1960
and 1961
national aeronautics and space
administration projects
to set the perspective against other
scientific and medical us history in
1960 the navy submerges a bathyscaf to a
record 24 000 feet in the pacific ocean
and in may the us atomic submarine
triton travels submerged around the
world in 84 days
a nasa highlight is the launch of the
first u.s weather satellite on april 1
1960.
call tyrus 1
it produces almost 23 000 pictures of
earth's weather
this tyros-1 experimental weather
satellite provides dramatic pictures of
cloud formations including spiral
formations associated with large area
storms
tyros-1 works in a useful manner for 78
days it's the world's first successful
weather satellite
and ever since then weather satellites
help in weather prediction
save lives and property through storm
detection
meanwhile in the mann program astronauts
continue training for their space
flights in the mercury capsule
astronauts practice with a space flight
simulator at lewis research center in
cleveland
strapped firmly the astronaut spins
around first one and then all three axes
they do exercises in bringing spacecraft
under control
a spacecraft in orbit travels at a speed
which balances very delicately the pull
of earth's gravity
to simulate weightlessness in space a
pilot flies an airplane
the plane descends
begins a steep climb
as the aircraft decelerates it eases
over the top in a parabolic arc
for short periods its occupants are
weightless
another first for nasa is the launch of
echo1 the first passive communications
satellite
workers launched it into orbit on august
12 1960.
echo1 is really a big balloon
from it radio signals are bounced
relaying signals between distant
locations on earth
millions on earth see echo as a moving
pinpoint of light in the night sky
t keith glennon nasa's first
administrator recalls echo was a 100
foot in diameter inflatable balloon
which
was encased perhaps in a
an aluminum casing of about
i suppose
30 inches in diameter perhaps
and it was
that case was exploded open when it
reached a particular height
and then the the balloon inflated
and it stayed up there just circling the
earth
as a matter of the uh what we call
injection velocity when it was injected
into orbit
and uh i i can recall going up to homes
in old new jersey where they had a new
type of antenna a horn antenna you can
now see them on a
towers around the country
and
we talked to the satellite and we set
pictures over that satellite and i still
have one on my desk echo is just the
first of many communications satellites
later communications satellites are much
more complicated they are active not
passive carry antennas receivers
transmitters and other equipment
modern satellites receive signals
transmitted up from earth and
re-transmit an amplified signal to
distant locations
news sports entertainment television
telephone facsimile and other
communications are now routinely
transmitted via satellite
began a communications revolution
and 1961 is a year of other scientific
advances as well
the national geographic society
announces that the fossilized skull of
an early humanoid discovered by dr louis
leakey is 1.7 million years old
jack kirby of texas instruments invents
the integrated circuit
on april 12 1961 soviet cosmonaut yuri
gagarin becomes the first human being to
orbit the earth
his vostok 1 spacecraft makes one orbit
gagarin lands safely
again the soviet union accomplishes a
first while the u.s is preparing for a
suborbital mercury manned space flight
the mercury ground tracking network
includes 18 stations
bermuda station continues undergoing
inter-systems checkout bermuda
duplicates the control center on the
mainland workers complete and ready the
station for operation during april 1961.
other workers complete the final two
stations
cano nigeria
and zanzibar
scientists simulate orbital flights for
training
during 1961 this unmanned test shot is
ready for blast off
the launch fails
but the escape system works raising
confidence for later manned flights
i think the one thing that strikes me as
i look back on the training program
is that i have really developed a
feeling of confidence
a confidence in the people with whom i
work
a confidence in the systems with which i
am dealing and will have to deal in
flight
and of course a confidence in myself
in may 1961 astronaut alan shepard
prepares for the first u.s manned space
flight with a mercury capsule the craft
is to rise over 100 miles into space in
this suborbital flight
officials scheduled the launch for the
early morning of may 2 1961.
weather postpones the launch
roger ready to resume the account
on may 5 shepard goes to the launch
complex
it is just two years and seven months
after the start of project mercury
all right three
seven trips
as countless millions watch and listen
the astronaut manually controls his
craft and has almost continuous
communications with earth i'm a
periscope what a beautiful view
out cover over florida
three to four tenths near the eastern
coast the mercury redstone 3 travels 300
miles and reaches an altitude of 115
miles
shepard enjoys about five minutes of
weightlessness
my condition is still good i'm getting
ready for impact about 16 minutes after
liftoff the spacecraft is found
a helicopter picks up shepard and then
his freedom 7 spacecraft
the mercury suborbital flight is a
success
but the russian gagarin has orbited the
earth and in a heavier spacecraft
president kennedy says quote
we are behind
the news will be worse before it is
better
and it will be some time before we catch
up
president kennedy asked vice president
lyndon johnson to head a study of what
is needed to beat the soviets in the
space race
nasa's 10-year plan calls for a manned
orbital flight around the moon
the question is
can the u.s be the first nation to orbit
a man around the moon
the technical answer is maybe not
so the proposal is made that the goal be
extended to the surface of the moon
on may 25 1961
president kennedy speaks before a joint
station of congress to define a new
national goal
now it is time to take longer strides
time for a great new american enterprise
time for this nation to take a clearly
leading role
in space achievement
which in many ways
may hold the key to our future on earth
i believe that this nation should commit
itself
to achieving the goal
before this decade is out
of landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to the earth
no single space project in this period
will be more impressive to mankind or
more important for the long range
exploration of space
as one author writes
nasa is exhilarated but odd
to land a man on the moon and return him
to earth is perhaps the hardest
technical project in the nation's
history
the mercury project to orbit a manned
spacecraft around the earth is by itself
a demanding program but facing the
challenge nasa begins to work towards
the assigned national goal
nasa decides that a two-man earth
orbital spacecraft called gemini must be
developed as a step between the one-man
mercury capsule and the apollo craft
which is destined to fly men to the moon
and back project germany is to learn of
man's capabilities during longer periods
of weightlessness
and germany is to help train astronauts
to maneuver and rendezvous spacecraft
during flight the two-man spacecraft
continues under design
acquisition of the titan ii rocket for
gemini from the air force begins
gemini is the intermediate project
between earth orbital and manned lunar
space flights
by october 1961 nasa is already
receiving proposals for a three-man
spacecraft for moon missions
officials evaluate proposals engineers
and scientists of project apollo meet
with industry people to discuss design
and building of the apollo craft
companies present their models
on november 29th officials select the
north american aviation corporation of
downey california to be the prime
contractor to produce apollo spacecraft
during 1961 nasa puts four successful
unmanned scientific satellites in orbit
other nasa satellites are only partly
successful
there are two good orbital tests of the
mercury capsule without a man on board
one of the flights carries a chimpanzee
and there are two manned suborbital
missions including shepard's flight
workers launch explorer 10 march 25 1961
the 79 pound satellite gathers facts
about solar wind earth's magnetic field
and its reaction to solar flares
in april 1961 nasa launches the 82 pound
explorer 11 it detects gamma rays from
cosmic sources and maps their locations
in the sky
this is the first try of that kind of
satellite space astronomy
scientists and engineers put another
successful tyros weather satellite in
orbit
and in august 1961 nasa launches the
explorer 12 satellite into a highly
elliptical earth orbit
explorer 12 investigates solar wind
interplanetary magnetic fields energetic
particles and the van allen belt the
second manned suborbital u.s space
flight with astronaut virgil grissom
aboard is a success
but the spacecraft is to sink in the
ocean
grissom experiences one and a half g's
the flight surgeon closely watches the
test pilot's condition during flight
grissom's vital signs are okay
at engine cut off the spacecraft makes
its turn around and the astronaut is
weightless
the retrieval helicopters are within two
miles of the landing point grissom says
he's ready for pickup as the lead
helicopter moves in to hook the capsule
the side hatch is blown off grissom
leaves the rapidly filling spacecraft
the recovery helicopter struggles with
the almost submerged craft
the helicopter is over taxed by a
thousand pounds a second recovery
helicopter moves in to pick up the
astronaut grissom has trouble staying
afloat
after four anxious minutes grissom
struggles into the horse collar
the lead helicopter's motor apparently
malfunctions the spacecraft drops
project mercury continues in high gear
pointing toward a manned orbital mission
on september 13 nasa puts an unmanned
mercury into orbit
one test objective is met early in
flight
the atlas releases the spacecraft into
proper orbit
one hour and 49 minutes after launch the
spacecraft lands 200 miles east of
bermuda
enis the chimpanzee makes a mercury
flight in november 1961.
the chimpanzee arrives at cape canaveral
from holloman air force base
workers put the chimp in a special couch
with testers in a pallet and water
feeder
he is 39 pounds
during pre-launch testing enos is
connected to the spacecraft's
environmental system
fitted with numerous biosensors the
primate does tests
later nasa launches mercury with enos
aboard
about an hour into the flight the
spacecraft passes over mushay australia
then five minutes later the wumera
australia tracking station confirms that
all systems are green
a 16 millimeter camera gives a periscope
eye view of the cloud formations and the
island dotted pacific on a condensed
time film
going into the second orbit tracking
stations report steadily rising
spacecraft temperatures
midway through the first leg of the
second orbit cano nigeria reports the
spacecraft is reporting intermittent
roll and ignore signals
a slight rise in the chimps temperature
concerns flight surgeons
officials decide not to fly the
spacecraft into a third orbit and they
order retrofire
the descent landing and recovery are all
normal
that afternoon at a press conference
held at cape canaveral nasa officials
say that they are pleased with the
flight
astronaut john glenn is test pilot for
the upcoming first manned orbital
mercury mission
astronaut carpenter is back up
1961 is coming to a close and enos the
space-faring champ returns triumphantly
in december to the cape
meanwhile the mercury capsule undergoes
further tests
there are two water landing tests in
december 1961
and so 1961 ends and in that year nasa
begins to work on the big job of sending
men to the moon and back
roger zero g and i feel fine capsule is
turning during our next episode we see
film of john glenn making the first u.s
space flight around the world in
and 1962 continue the saga of nasa
during 25 years of progress
i'm lynn bondurant
oh
so
um
so
roger clubby on the roll
columbia houston your go at 40.
you