Redstone (rocket family)

Comparison of Redstone, Juno I, Mercury-Redstone and Jupiter (Juno V).

The Redstone family of rockets consisted of a number of American ballistic missiles, sounding rockets and expendable launch vehicles operational during the 1950s and 1960s. The first member of the family was the PGM-11 Redstone missile, from which all other members were derived. The first large U.S. rocket, modified Redstones launched America's first Earth satellite and first two astronauts. They were named for the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama where it was developed.[1]

PGM-11 Redstone

First launched in 1953, the PGM-11 Redstone was a short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile in active service with the U.S. Army from June 1958 to June 1964; and was used for the first U.S. live nuclear missile tests. It was built by Chrysler for the United States Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) and was deployed in West Germany. George Huebner was the executive engineer in charge of Chrysler's Missile Branch.[2]

Jupiter-A

Jupiter-A was the first variant of Redstone, used to test components later used in the PGM-19 Jupiter medium-range ballistic missile.

Jupiter-C

Jupiter-C was a sounding rocket used for three sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957. It was used as a testbed for re-entry vehicles later deployed on the PGM-19 Jupiter.

Juno I

Juno I was a derivative of the Jupiter-C, used to launch the first American satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958. Although the U.S. possibly could have put a satellite into orbit before the Soviet Union had the ABMA been allowed to attempt a satellite launch in August 1956, the Eisenhower administration wanted the first U.S. satellite to be launched by a civilian-developed rocket instead of a military missile derivative.

The Vanguard rocket was being developed for this purpose, so the administration ordered ABMA's research director, Wernher von Braun, not to attempt any satellite launches. The Vanguard rocket failed on the first attempt to launch the Vanguard satellite in December 1957, crashing back to the pad and exploding. The administration then turned to the Army, and the ABMA and von Braun were asked to launch a backup satellite as soon as possible.

Mercury-Redstone

The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle (MRLV), also known as Mercury-Redstone, used the stretched Redstone configuration from the Jupiter-C for six suborbital launches for Project Mercury in 1960 and 61, including America's first two manned spaceflights:

Saturn

Two members of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn I and IB, were derived from the Redstone. They used Redstone and Jupiter propellant tanks clustered together with eight Jupiter engines to form the first stage of the rockets. First developed by the ABMA, the Saturn rocket was adopted by NASA for its Apollo program. America's first heavy-lift launch vehicles, the first of these was launched in 1961.

The Saturn first stage used eight Rocketdyne H-1 engines.

Sparta

Sparta was the name given to a series of surplus Redstone missiles with two solid-fuel upper stages launched as part of a joint US-UK research project with Australia from 1966–67. Sparta launched Australia's first Earth satellite, WRESAT.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Wells, Helen T.; Whiteley, Susan H.; Karegeannes, Carrie E. Origin of NASA Names. NASA Science and Technical Information Office. p. 16.
  2. ↑ Cardenas, Edward L. (October 8, 1996). "George Huebner, ex-Chrysler executive engineer". Detroit News, p. 2C. Detroit, Michigan.

Bibliography


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