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 On this day in engineering history, the U.S. Army
successfully tested a PGM-19 Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile
(IRBM). The launch was the fifth in a series of tests that began on March 1,
1957, and the first from Pad 26B at Cape
Canaveral, Florida. Before
their military deployment to Europe in 1961,
Jupiter rockets were used in several suborbital biological test flights with
live animals. "Gordo", a trained squirrel-monkey, survived eight minutes of
weightlessness and re-entry at 10,000 mph, but died after his nose-cone
recovery parachute failed to open. Two other primates, "Able" and "Baker", rode
in a Jupiter nosecone to an altitude of 59 miles and a distance of 1,500 miles before
returning to Earth in a successful splashdown and recovery. Later, Jupiter missiles were deployed to Turkey, where they served as a bargaining chip during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Launch
Jupiter AM-3 was launched into the night skies above Florida at 20:07 EST on
October 22, 1957. Test Launch Five featured the first Jupiter IRBM with a
heat-protected nose cone, a prerequisite for future space travelers such as
"Gordo", "Able", and "Baker". For inertial guidance, the Jupiter missile used a
stabilized platform with partially-closed circuits. The rocket's single engine
burned a liquid-fuel mixture of liquid oxygen (LOX) and rocket propellant-1
(RP-1) to produce 667 kN of thrust. Because all of the fuel was not depleted at
cutoff, the flight time lasted an extra 9.5 seconds, enabling the missile to
reach an apogee of 500 miles and a distance of 1260 miles. The heat-protected
nose cone survived re-entry and struck the general vicinity of the predicted
impact point.
The Legacy
Though relatively short-lived, the Jupiter rocket was an
important part of American aerospace history. The missile's short, squat body
was designed for ease of handling aboard ships, but proved suitable for other projects
of national interest. NASA's Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B rockets combined a Jupiter
IRBM propellant tank with Redstone rocket propellant tanks to form a powerful
first-stage launch vehicle. By adding upper stages to the Jupiter IRBM, NASA
also built the MGM-29 Sergeant rocket, a short-range missile that was used in
the Juno II launch vehicle. Used for 10 satellite launches, the Juno II sent
Pioneer 3, Pioneer 4, Explorer 7, Explorer 8 and Explorer 11 into outer space.
Resources:
http://www.astronautix.com/sites/capllc26.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_in_spaceflight
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Timeline/1955-57.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_missile
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