Outposts on the Frontier: A Fifty-Year History of Space Stations (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight) Read online

  The problem, at least in the United States, isn’t just with the public perception of space stations; it has also been with the policy makers who decide on the space agency’s budget. While the public likes to follow high-profile missions, politicians need to secure a quick return on their investment, preferably before the next election year. New space hardware and missions can take a long time to develop, and there is reluctance to provide funding for the time required. Tangible success has to be shown early, or a program risks cancellation before hardware is ready to fly. And, of course, there are always the budget fights between those in favor of more space funding and those who push for the money to be distributed elsewhere.

  The station and laboratory programs of the first half century of space exploration embrace a vast number of stories—episodes filled with excitement, danger, humor, sadness, success, and failure to rival any of those experienced on other manned missions, even ones that flew to the moon. At the heart of these tales are people, both of greatness and of modesty. Some of these people are already well known to many, while others are not quite as well known, except to a select few.

  Naturally, the people who have flown in space tend to draw most of the attention. But for every astronaut and cosmonaut who has reached space, there are thousands of behind-the-scenes support people doing work in every imaginable capacity to get them there, to assist them on orbit, and to bring them home safe. Yet while all have a story to tell, only a few can be told within these pages. So come along for what promises to be a most informative, enlightening, and hopefully enjoyable ride as we push the veil back on the dynamic history of mankind’s first outposts on the frontier of space.

  1

  Humble Beginnings

  To fully appreciate the story of manned space outposts, one has to look back through history to a time before people even left the ground. Since the dawn of time, mankind has looked up into the heavens and wondered just what was up there. As our knowledge of the physical world increased over the centuries, dreamers and writers began to speculate about trips to the heavens, writing stories about fictional journeys to other planets and stars.

  By the mid-1800s, astronomers had a pretty good understanding of the movement of planets. At the same time, Isaac Newton’s laws concerning gravity, objects in motion, and objects at rest had some wondering if an object might be propelled at a velocity so fast that it could fall around Earth and not be pulled back to its surface by gravity. Down low, air friction causes an object to slow down. From barometers first invented in the 1600s by various individuals, including Galileo Galilei, there came a scientific understanding that air gets less dense the higher up one gets. With this knowledge, others began to wonder if it were possible to get something to orbit Earth in a manner similar to the way in which planets orbit the sun, at a height where there is virtually no air resistance.

  One of the greatest creators of science fiction, Jules Verne, in the writing of his 1865 story From the Earth to the Moon, managed to inspire a lot of people. His fanciful story featured a group of intrepid explorers being shot out of a cannon in a projectile to visit Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, many theoreticians were studying what it might take to achieve such a feat, and several concluded that accomplishing a trip to the moon would not be possible in a single, direct shot. But if some sort of nearer orbiting base camp could be set up, an outpost as it were, then a craft heading to the moon would only have to visit it first to refuel and then continue its journey.

  Russian space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was one who derived inspiration from Verne’s works. Many credit Tsiolkovsky as being the father of modern spaceflight, as he laid the foundations for what problems and challenges needed to be overcome and potentially how to do so. One concept included a space station with a rotating section to generate artificial gravity. Such a station could be used to investigate Earth and refuel ships proceeding to other destinations, such as the moon.

  In Germany, a rocketry pioneer named Hermann Oberth, who was born just before the turn of the century, formed similar conclusions to Tsiolkovsky. Oberth wrote a dissertation for his physics doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, where he tackled the challenges of spaceflight, starting with getting a rocket off the ground, thrusting it into space, and having it stay there. He also wrote about the need to have a space station in orbit to use as a refueling base for a craft to go elsewhere. His dissertation was rejected, as it was considered to be too speculative. But rather than give up on the years of work, Oberth raised some money on his own and had the dissertation published as a ninety-page book in 1923 titled The Rocket into Planetary Space. Eventually, this book gained him a professorship at a different university. It wasn’t the same as a doctorate, but it would do.

  The book sold slowly, but eventually it gained acceptance in science circles. The work of American rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard helped to prove many of Oberth’s theories about rocketry in practical applications. Oberth expanded on the concepts in later pressings of his book and also introduced concepts from other early rocketry pioneers such as Austrian-born Max Valier and German American space historian and advocate Willy Ley in his own writings. In his later publications, Oberth expanded on the role of space stations as he theorized that stations placed in higher orbit could be used for observation of the stars. Others could be used as space-based platforms for spying on distant countries or perhaps be fitted with weapons to use against an aggressor nation.

  Oberth’s book would have quite an impact on impressionable, young people, as many rocketry clubs were founded all over Germany thanks to his work. Max Valier along with nine other men helped to found a rocketry club known as the Verein für Raumschiffarht (German for “Society for Space Travel”), or the VfR. Oberth was asked to join the VfR, as his presence would give their group legitimacy. For his part, Oberth saw it as an opportunity to gain publicity for his ideas and to locate funding to help develop them. He joined up and served as the group’s first president. Another person who joined the group early on was an eager eighteen-year-old named Wernher von Braun from Wirsitz in the Province of Posen, then part of the German Empire.

  Anyone who has a passing interest in the history of rocketry knows that von Braun would eventually help to develop rocketry in the VfR to a point where it was directly funded by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi-led German government. Germany’s leaders understood the untapped weapons potential of rockets. Eventually, von Braun and a team of German engineers and scientists would develop their A-4 rocket into a practical weapon known as the V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2), which made its presence known to those fighting against Germany in the Second World War. Any possibility for space exploration and space stations would take a backseat for a number of years as the rocket simply became something that could deliver a bomb beyond the range of the most powerful artillery cannons of the day.

  Toward the end of the war, von Braun and his team knew that Hitler’s days as Germany’s leader were numbered, and they made efforts to surrender to advancing U.S. military forces fighting Germany in the west, figuring it was preferable to surrendering to the Soviet Union forces fighting in the east. Von Braun succeeded as his team and their families were later brought to the United States to continue their work after the war. The Germans started their work for the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, Texas, and test fired captured V-2s at White Sands, New Mexico, before settling down in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal. After a few years, they became naturalized American citizens. Oberth and Willy Ley immigrated to the United States themselves and, in the following years, lent their expertise to various engineering projects. Oberth lived a long and fruitful life before he passed away in December 1989, at age ninety-five; yet he only acted as a consultant to one postwar rocketry project, the U.S. Air Force’s Atlas missile in the 1950s.

  While von Braun’s job for the U.S. Army was to design rockets as weapons delivery systems, his true desire was in the more peaceful endeavor of space
exploration. Like Oberth, von Braun also saw the need to increase public awareness. In 1951 he wrote a visionary article for the National Defense Transportation Journal titled “Next Stop Mars,” detailing a project to send men to the Red Planet using available technology. A principle component of this mission was ferrying parts of an interplanetary spacecraft into Earth orbit and assembling it at an orbiting space station. When assembly was finished, the crew would launch from Earth to the space station and transfer over to the craft before heading to Mars.

  Excerpts from von Braun’s writings also appeared in article form in Collier’s magazine. With the help of illustrations from artist Chesley Bonestell, von Braun’s ideas struck a chord with the American public. The public perception was reinforced further in 1954 when entertainment icon Walt Disney showed a three-part series about spaceflight on his new Disneyland television show, with von Braun introducing the segments.

  As shown in von Braun’s book, the Collier’s articles, and the Disney programs, space exploration would proceed along a logical progression. First, an unmanned satellite would be launched into orbit atop a massive rocket. This satellite, and others like it, would collect data on the space environment. Next, astronauts would launch into orbit aboard a spacecraft, preferably one with wings so that on its return the vehicle could glide down to land back at its base of origin. After each mission, the shuttle spacecraft could be refurbished and loaded on another rocket to fly again.

  After these first steps into space, with the duration of each visit lasting progressively longer in order to determine its affect on health and equipment, the next step would be to construct and occupy an orbiting space station. To achieve this, cargo rockets and winged shuttles would ferry men and material into orbit to build a rotating space station capable of generating artificial gravity for its occupants via centrifugal force. At the station, preparations would be made to launch spacecraft (manned and unmanned) to the moon and to Mars. This effort would take years to accomplish, with each step being a small one. If a setback were to occur at one stage, it wouldn’t derail the entire program. Even if a trip to the moon or Mars proved unsuccessful, there would still be a station in Earth orbit to help prepare the next attempt.

  While von Braun publicly proposed ideas for a space station to be used in peaceful exploration and support of planetary missions, he also knew that the U.S. military would likely be the primary backer for such an expensive endeavor. In the 1950s the ideological differences between former World War II allies the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in a rift as each country used its influence to show the rest of the world that their system of government and way of life was superior to the other.

  1. Wernher von Braun’s wheeled space station concept from 1952 as illustrated by artist Chesley Bonestell. Courtesy NASA.

  At first the United States had the upper hand, as it was the only country to possess the atomic bomb. But the stakes changed dramatically in 1949 when the Soviet Union detonated its own atomic bomb. This incident, coupled with the Berlin blockade of 1948, and the Korean War led to the Soviet Union and its allies being considered serious adversaries by the United States. A cold war had begun, and one of the mandates of the U.S. government and the military was to keep things from flaring up, becoming a shooting match. A hot war with nuclear weapons was guaranteed to be a very brutal conflict with massive casualties on both sides. As a consequence, the war of wills would take place in other ways.

  In late 1952, not long after his first Collier’s article was published, von Braun was a guest at a public speaking engagement in Washington DC before an audience that included leaders of various corporations and government agencies. Von Braun’s presentation was called “Space Superiority as a Means for Achieving World Peace.” The presentation was similar to the views he expressed in his Collier’s articles but slanted a bit more toward military applications. In his talk, von Braun proposed that his space station concept could be used as a platform to perform the reconnaissance of threat countries. It would also be equipped with missiles for either attack or defense. The station would operate in a polar orbit at about one thousand miles above the earth and be capable of photographing every square mile on the planet. As von Braun stated in his speech, “An orbital reconnaissance station can pull up any Iron Curtain, no matter where they lower it!”

  If an enemy nation should perhaps try to launch an attack against the United States or its allies, the station or a pair of stations, with one acting as the bomb aimer, could launch a missile at a target on the ground. Rocket thrust would be used to counteract the missile’s orbital velocity, and it would theoretically drop on its target with an accuracy greater than that which could be achieved by a ballistic missile fired from halfway around the world. Von Braun conceded that the greatest threat to such a station might come from a missile interceptor on the ground releasing a cloud of shrapnel in front of the station to puncture it with high velocity debris. But he felt that the challenges of developing such a system would make it too easy to detect from space before it could be launched and that a station could be armor plated against such a threat.

  Von Braun urged those with the capability to fund what he was proposing, as he knew the Soviets would likely be pursuing similar projects themselves. But while the speech did help to generate interest from private companies to look into space technology applications, not much else came of it.

  For the next few years, rocketry development in the United States continued at a steady pace. Von Braun’s team in Huntsville, Alabama, developed the Redstone tactical missile and began work on the Jupiter ballistic missile—both based on lessons learned from the captured V-2 rockets. Elsewhere, work was progressing on more-powerful ballistic missiles, such as the Thor and the Atlas ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile). Sounding rockets, including converted V-2 missiles, had also been gathering scientific data at the boundaries of space, and some of them carried biological payloads in the form of insects and mice. But the game changed considerably on 4 October 1957 when a Soviet R-7 ICBM placed the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit.

  With the launch of Sputnik, the world realized that the Soviets indeed had their sights set on space. The public believed a “missile gap” existed. If the Soviets had a rocket capable of reaching orbit with a satellite, they could also reach the United States with a nuclear warhead. The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower knew that the missile gap perception was false, but plans were accelerated to equal Sputnik’s achievement.

  After a major launch failure of the U.S. Navy’s Project Vanguard on its first attempt, von Braun and his team were given permission to use their Redstone booster in the form of the Jupiter-C rocket to launch a satellite. They succeeded in January 1958 by placing Explorer 1, a far more sophisticated satellite than Sputnik, into orbit. Ultimately, von Braun’s group left the U.S. Army to join the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the early 1960s to develop rockets for the peaceful exploration of space. But it wouldn’t be von Braun or NASA who would be responsible for the creation of America’s first space station program. Instead, that task would go to another government agency, one that likely listened to von Braun’s September 1952 speech with great interest.

  The Road to the MOL

  On 29 July 1958, six months after the United States orbited its first satellite, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA, which was charged with exploring space publicly and peacefully. As a result, several civilian and military research facilities around the country fell under the administration of the newly formed agency. NASA was also given priority to embark on a man in space program, which eventually became known as Project Mercury.

  In military circles, the creation of NASA and Project Mercury struck many as being a waste of resources and a politically driven decision. Many felt the U.S. Air Force already had the capability to send people into space. A logical choice for spaceflight was the X-15 rocket p
lane, created in partnership with NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics. The X-15 was a research aircraft designed to examine speeds above Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound), and it could potentially reach altitudes above fifty miles, which the U.S. Air Force considered space. However, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale set their own boundary of space at 100 kilometers (62.1 miles altitude), and the X-15 did not carry sufficient fuel to reach orbit.

  The U.S. Air Force also proposed a program known as Man in Space Soonest (MISS), which they drew up one month before NASA was created. The proposal was to launch a single astronaut into orbit in a capsule atop a Thor or Atlas missile, hopefully beating the Soviets to that goal. Ultimately, the Man in Space Soonest proposal was canceled, as the task was given to NASA. The X-15 would spend the next decade providing invaluable research data, and several military test pilots were awarded air force astronaut wings, flying the winged craft to the edge of space and back. Project Mercury ultimately achieved its goal of flying Americans into space and then into orbit, although not before the Soviets did so on 12 April 1961 with Yuri Gagarin’s single-orbit flight aboard the first Vostok spacecraft.