In 1952, several branches of the United States' military, often in partnership with civilian organizations, continued their programs of
sounding rocket
A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...
research beyond the boundary of
space
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...
(as defined by the
World Air Sports Federation
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
)
using the
Aerobee
The Aerobee rocket was one of the United States' most produced and productive sounding rockets. Developed by the Aerojet Corporation, the Aerobee was designed to combine the altitude and launching capability of the V-2 with the cost effectiven ...
rocket. The
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
launched its first series of
rockoon
A rockoon (from ''rocket'' and ''balloon'') is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and ign ...
flights, demonstrating the validity of the balloon-launched rocket, a comparatively inexpensive way to explore the upper atmosphere. The launch of Viking 9 at the end of the year to an altitude of , by the
Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...
team under the management of
Milton Rosen
Milton William Rosen (July 25, 1915 – December 30, 2014) was a United States Navy engineer and project manager in the US space program between the end of World War II and the early days of the Apollo Program. He led development of the Viking a ...
, represented the pinnacle of contemporary operational rocket design.
The same year, groundwork was laid for the launch of the first artificial satellite when, in October, the General Assembly of the
International Council of Scientific Unions
The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members ...
(ICSU) scheduled the
International Geophysical Year
The International Geophysical Year (IGY; french: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific ...
for 1957–58. This scientific endeavor would involve 67 nations in a global investigation of physical phenomena, on the ground and in space.
No new models of
ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...
were added to the arsenals of either the United States or the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1952. However, work continued on large rocket development, particularly the US Army's
Redstone and the Soviet
R-5 missile. Both the
R-1 and
R-2 missiles had operational test runs during the year.
Space exploration highlights
US Navy
In the late spring of 1952, the
Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...
team, under the management of
Milton Rosen
Milton William Rosen (July 25, 1915 – December 30, 2014) was a United States Navy engineer and project manager in the US space program between the end of World War II and the early days of the Apollo Program. He led development of the Viking a ...
, prepared to launch the first second-generation
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
rocket, Viking 8, from the
White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
. The new Viking design was nearly one-and-a-half times as wide as its precursor, with the highest fuel-to-weight ratio of any rocket yet developed. The tail fins no longer supported the weight of the rocket, which had been the case with the first-generation design. Now, the Viking rocket rested on the base of its
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
. This allowed the tail fins to be made much lighter, allowing the rocket to carry a heavier tank without weighing more than the first Viking design.
On 6 June 1952, Viking 8 broke loose of its moorings during a static firing test. After it was allowed to fly for 55 seconds in the hope that it would clear the immediate area and thus pose no danger to ground crew, Nat Wagner, head of the "Cutoff group", delivered a command to the rocket to cease its thrust. 65 seconds later, the rocket crashed downrange to the southeast.
[
With lessons learned from the Viking 8 failure, the successful 9 December static firing of Viking 9 was followed on 15 December by a successful launch from White Sands. The rocket reached an altitude of , roughly the same as that of the first-generation Viking 7 in 1950. In addition to cameras that photographed the Earth during flight, Viking 9 carried a full suite of ]cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
, ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
, and X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
detectors, including sixteen plates of emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althoug ...
gel for tracking the path of individual high energy particles. The experiment package was recovered intact after it had secured measurements high above the Earth's atmosphere.[
]
US Army
The final flight of the V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
rocket occurred on 19 September 1952 with an unsuccessful aeronomy
Aeronomy is the scientific study of the upper atmosphere of the Earth and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets. It is a branch of both atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics. Scientists specializing in aeronomy, known a ...
mission conducted jointly by the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories and University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
from White Sands Launch Complex 33. The rocket reached an apogee
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion.
General description
There are two apsides in any ellip ...
of before its tail exploded 27 seconds into the flight.
American civilian efforts
1952 saw the first rockoon
A rockoon (from ''rocket'' and ''balloon'') is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and ign ...
flights. These balloon-mounted rockets were significantly cheaper than sounding rocket flights: $1800 per launch versus $25,000 for each Aerobee launch and $450,000 for each Viking launch. A series of seven ship-launched tests conducted by a University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
team under James Van Allen
James Alfred Van Allen (September 7, 1914August 9, 2006) was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa. He was instrumental in establishing the field of magnetospheric research in space.
The Van Allen radiation belts were named afte ...
achieved considerable success, with one flight grazing the edge of space with an apogee of .
Spacecraft development
US Air Force
Progress remained slow throughout 1952 on the Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
, the nation's first intercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
(ICBM), the contract for which had been awarded to Consolidated Vultee
Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. In 1953, it ...
in January 1951 by the US Air Force's Air Research and Development Command
The Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) is an inactive United States Air Force Major Command. It was established in April 1951, being split off from Air Materiel Command. The mission of AFSC was Research and Development for new weapons systems.
Ove ...
. Conservative development policies and daunting technical problems were the official causes, but the Air Force's apparent lack of enthusiasm for the project, along with a limited budget and resources, were factors as well. It was not until the first successful H-bomb test at Elugelab in November 1952 that development of the Atlas, potentially capable of delivering such a weapon, garnered more support.
US Army
On 8 April 1952, Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal (RSA) is a United States Army post and a census-designated place (CDP) adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a garrison f ...
in Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
officially gave the name of " Redstone" to the surface-to-surface missile, capable of delivering nuclear or conventional warheads to a range of , which they had started developing on 10 July 1951. The office of the Chief of Ordnance of the Army (OCO) tasked Chrysler Corporation
Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
to proceed with active work as the prime contractor on the missile by a letter order contract in October 1952; this contract definitized on 19 June 1953.
Soviet military
In 1952, the Soviet Union focused its strategic rocket development on the R-5 missile, which superseded the overambitious range R-3, previously canceled on 20 October 1951. OKB-1
PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...
under Sergei Korolev
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...
completed the conceptual design for the R-5, able to carry the same payload as the R-1 and R-2 but over a distance of ,[ by 30 October 1951.]
This dramatic increase in performance of the R-5 over its predecessors was made possible through development of the RD-103 engine, an evolution of the RD-101 used in the R-2 missile, and by reducing the weight of the rocket through use of integrated tankage (while at the same time increasing propellant load by 60% over the R-2). The military had much more confidence in this incremental design than the radical leap forward that was the R-3, and work proceeded apace. Other innovations over the R-1 and R-2 included small aerodynamic rudders run by servomotors to replace the big fins of the R-1/R-2, and longitudinal acceleration integrators to improve the precision of engine cutoff and thus accuracy.[ Two of the first ten R-5s produced underwent stand tests through February 1952,] and the sleek, cylindrical R-5, "the first Soviet strategic rocket", would be ready for its first launch March 1953.[
Also in 1952, the design bureau OKB-486, under ]Valentin Glushko
Valentin Petrovich Glushko (russian: Валенти́н Петро́вич Глушко́; uk, Валентин Петрович Глушко, Valentyn Petrovych Hlushko; born 2 September 1908 – 10 January 1989) was a Soviet engineer and the m ...
, began developing the RD-105 and RD-106 engines for an even more powerful rocket: the five engine R-6 ICBM. Using an integrated solder-welded configuration, developed by engineer Aleksei Isaev
Aleksei Mikhailovich Isaev (also Isayev; Russian: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Иса́ев; October 24, 1908, in Saint Petersburg – June 10, 1971, in Moscow) was a Russian rocket engineer.
Aleksei Isaev began work under Leonid Dus ...
, these LOX
Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...
/kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
engines would be more powerful single chamber engines than those used in earlier rockets. Four RD-105 would power the R-6's four strap-on engines while a RD-106 would power the central booster.[
That same year, there was also a series of fourteen test launches of the mass-produced version of R-2 missile, with a range of .][ Twelve of the missiles reached their targets.][ The R-1 also was test-launched seven times.]
Civilian efforts
In October 1952, the General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions
The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members ...
(ICSU) adopted a proposal to undertake a third International Polar Year
The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred i ...
. This endeavor would involve both a wider scope, encompassing simultaneous observations of geophysical phenomena over the entire surface of the Earth including the Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
and Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
, as well as a longer period, lasting 18 months. The International Geophysical Year
The International Geophysical Year (IGY; french: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific ...
(IGY), set for 1957–58, ultimately would involve the participation of 67 countries. To coordinate this massive effort, the ICSU formed the , which would hold four major meetings with representation from all participating countries over the next four years.
In 1951, the University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
's Fred Singer
Siegfried Fred Singer (September 27, 1924 – April 6, 2020) was an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, trained as an atmospheric physicist. He was known for rejecti ...
gave a series of lectures to the British Interplanetary Society
The British Interplanetary Society (BIS), founded in Liverpool in 1933 by Philip E. Cleator, is the oldest existing space advocacy organisation in the world. Its aim is exclusively to support and promote astronautics and space exploration.
Stru ...
in London espousing the use of small artificial satellites to conduct scientific observations. In 1952 Singer expanded his audience through publications and public presentations on his proposals for "MOUSE" (Minimum Orbiting Unmanned Satellite of the Earth). Though dismissed by many as too radical and/or in conflict with human exploration of space, the proposal catalyzed serious discussion of the use of satellites for scientific research.[
]
Launches
January
February
April
May
June
August
September
October
November
December
Suborbital launch summary
By country
By rocket
See also
*Timeline of spaceflight
This is the timeline of known spaceflights, both crewed and uncrewed, sorted chronologically by launch date. Owing to its large size, the timeline is split into smaller articles, one for each year since 1951. There is a separate list for all ...
References
{{TLS-L, year=1952, nav=on
1952 in spaceflight
Spaceflight by year